Chapter 459: This Is Premeditated Murder

Chapter 459: Chapter 459: This Is Premeditated Murder

Soon, Zoe Sawyer heard an excited voice.

Before she could even get up, Heath Hale and Captain Crowe had already rushed over.

"Based on the information Captain Sawyer and her team provided, I found a perfect match!

A man named Zhang, 26, divorced, two kids—he and his ex-wife are each raising one. He’s currently living with his girlfriend on the fifteenth floor of the building." The officer in charge of the investigation relayed all the details they had found to Heath Hale and the others.

"Contact Zhang’s ex-wife and have her come down to the station. We need to get her side of the story." Captain Crowe made a quick decision and had an officer contact her.

Zoe Sawyer thought for a moment, then whispered to Evan Keller beside her, "When I was by the door, I saw Zhang’s girlfriend holding her phone when she came down. I suspect they might be deleting chat logs or search histories.

We need to find a way to let Captain Crowe know, see if he can pursue that angle."

Evan Keller nodded, showing he understood. "I’ll go tell him in a bit. If they were communicating through a social app like WhatsApp, it’ll actually be much easier!"

With that, Evan Keller walked over to Captain Crowe and shared their idea.

Captain Crowe glanced at Zoe Sawyer, then back at Evan Keller, and nodded. "I understand. I’ll have someone look into it right now."

Anything searched for online is bound to leave a trace on the backend.

Even if you use incognito mode, that only means there’s no record on your phone.

Soon, Zhang’s ex-wife, Ms. Crawford, arrived at the police station.

Ms. Crawford was led into an interview room at the station, her face a mixture of confusion and anxiety.

’Why on earth would the police be calling me out of the blue?’

’Did something happen?’

Before she could figure it out, Captain Crowe walked in and sat down in front of her.

Zoe Sawyer and the others stood a short distance away, ready to listen in.

"Officer, did something happen? Why was I suddenly asked to come here?" Ms. Crawford asked anxiously as soon as Captain Crowe sat down, too panicked to think about anything else.

Captain Crowe spoke reassuringly. "Don’t worry. We just need to ask you about a few things."

Ms. Crawford was still a bit confused, but the intense panic she felt before had subsided. "What do you want to know?"

"You divorced your ex-husband at the beginning of the year. Why? And who got custody of the children?" Captain Crowe asked.

Although she didn’t quite understand, Ms. Crawford answered, "He had an affair last year. He’d been seeing the other person for almost a year before he finally confessed to me. We divorced at the beginning of this year.

I’m raising our older child, and he has the younger one, though the younger one is supposed to come live with me once they turn six."

After explaining the situation, Ms. Crawford stared intently at Captain Crowe and asked, "Did they do something? Don’t tell me something happened to my children?"

Before Captain Crowe could answer, there was a knock on the interview room door.

The officer who had been tasked with investigating Zhang’s online records walked in holding a thick stack of paper. "Captain Crowe, this is what we found. There’s a lot more on the computer—it was too much—so we only printed out the most important parts."

As he spoke, he divided the papers into two stacks, handing one to Zoe Sawyer’s group and the other to Captain Crowe.

Zoe Sawyer took the documents, and her eyes were immediately drawn to the information on the first page.

Today and the two days prior, Zhang had searched on his phone for "two kids fall from building at same time".

His previous search history also included extreme topics like "how to stage an accident" and "sentencing for two murders".

"A colleague over at the Cyber Security Division noticed these extremely dangerous search keywords, but they received our request for help before they could investigate further," the officer who brought the files explained.

Zoe Sawyer understood. ’The system flagged these high-risk keywords, but before they could investigate, the kids were already in danger.’

"I see. Good work. Organize those chat logs and be ready for orders." Captain Crowe briefly scanned the documents, gaining a better understanding of the case.

If he had any doubts when Captain Sawyer and her team first arrived, seeing this information made Captain Crowe one hundred percent convinced.

’Once I’m done with Ms. Crawford, I can take the team and bring them in!’

"What on earth happened? Tell me!" Ms. Crawford’s panic intensified as she vaguely recognized a familiar WhatsApp profile picture on the papers.

’Did something really happen to the children?’

’That can’t be right. I just got off the phone with both of them right before the police called!’

"Ms. Crawford, please don’t worry. The children are safe." Captain Crowe reassured her before asking his final question. "Are both children with your ex-husband right now? Why?"

"He said he wanted to take the girls out to buy clothes. I couldn’t very well stop a father from spending time with his daughters, so I agreed," Ms. Crawford said.

Even though Zhang had caused a lot of trouble during their marriage, he had always been good to their two daughters, and Ms. Crawford didn’t want to get in the way of their relationship.

Captain Crowe thought for a moment, then pushed the documents across the table to Ms. Crawford. "The cyber police detected some high-risk keywords being used frequently in our jurisdiction. Worried something might happen, they investigated and discovered these chat logs.

As the children’s mother, you have the right to know what’s going on."

A bad feeling washed over Ms. Crawford. She took the documents and quickly began to read.

As she read, the color drained from her face.

"No wonder... No wonder he told me before that he wanted to take out insurance policies for the two girls!" Ms. Crawford’s hands clenched the papers as she spat his name through gritted teeth.

Zoe Sawyer had no doubt that if Zhang were in front of Ms. Crawford right now, she would tear him to shreds without a second thought.

"He already bought the insurance?" Captain Crowe asked, his brow furrowing.

If so, this would be a case of premeditated murder for an insurance payout.

Ms. Crawford shook her head. "I don’t know. I don’t think so. He only mentioned the idea to me, but I’m not sure if he actually went through with it."

"Thank you for telling us. We’ll investigate it thoroughly." Captain Crowe jotted this down in his notebook, then looked at Ms. Crawford, his tone serious. "Ms. Crawford, the police have a favor to ask. Would you be willing to come with us?"

Based on the evidence they had, there was already enough to arrest the pair for attempted murder.

But Captain Crowe was worried that if the police showed up, it would alert the suspects, and they might do something drastic, like throwing the children out the window in a final, desperate act.

Having Ms. Crawford lead the way could lower their guard, which would be advantageous for the subsequent operation.

"No problem. I’ll go with you!"