Chapter497 The Blood on the Floor Belonged to Martin and Carter
Seeing Patricia and Lassie fall silent, the old lady thought they were frightened and continued, "She wasn't from our town; she only moved in not too long ago. She kept to herself, never mingling with the neighbors. So, when she died, nobody knew what. Nobody dared to touch her, afraid they might get involved with the people who did this to her. Her body is still lying in the back hall."
Patricia forced herself to calm down, asking as steadily as she could, "Have you seen anyone else come looking for her?"
The old woman shook her head, "No idea if anyone did. It was so terrifying with all that noise. We didn't dare to go out and check. We just stayed put until it got bright outside."
Patricia could tell the old lady wasn't lying. She really didn't know anything, which made sense. In normal circumstances, who would venture out to check on commotion?
Seeing Patricia's disappointment, the grandmother spoke up unexpectedly, "But the noise last night was quite loud. I peeked through the crack in the door. It was too dark to see clearly, but I'm sure the man leading them wasn't from around here, and he was quite young."
The older woman's description began forming an image in Patricia's mind.
Hunter. Of course!
This was his territory; he had the resourced to pull off something like this, and he was hell-bent on taking Martin down.
The more she thought about it, the colder her heart grew.
Patricia raised her hand, saying, "Was the man you mentioned about this tall?"
The old woman tilted her head, considering carefully, and responded, "Should be about right. He was tall, with a high nose bridge."
Since he had passed by from her side, she had seen the man's nose most clearly. It was indeed high.
The old lady's answer only solidified the guess in Patricia's heart.
She couldn't recall how she made it back. Her mind was a void. Her heart felt empty, too. It was as if her soul had been extracted, utterly numb to everything.
Seeing her in this state, Ryan became worried. He shook her shoulders briefly, snapping her back to reality.
"Patricia, what's wrong? Don't scare us like that. What will I tell the boss if something happens to you?"
Patricia's gaze gradually focused, looking at Ryan. She uttered faintly, "Hunter."
Ryan said, "What?"
Patricia said weakly, "It's Hunter; it must be him... He has taken Martin and Carter."
Ryan's pupils slowly dilated. "Hunter again? It's like a bad penny. What's his endgame, anyway? What, did our boss steal his lunch money in high school or something for him to hold such a grudge?"
Patricia looked down at Isabella on the floor. "She's gone. Let's dig a hole and bury her."
If they didn't, Isabella would slowly decay. She had managed to save her two children after all. Although it was unclear what had happened in between, she at least saved those two. In doing this, Patricia would have repaid her debt of gratitude.
Ryan and Nathan had no objections but felt it wasn't right to have Patricia and Lassie, the two women, do the physical labor. They had them sit on stools inside the house while they found a pair of shovels and dug a hole behind the house to bury Isabella.
Patricia was anything but idle. As they dug up the earth, she took a brief rest, then found some clean bags to scoop up the bloodied mud into them. She made sure to get a sample from each bloodstained spot. She needed to be sure if any of that blood belonged to Martin or Carter.
Since they needed more means to compare the DNA on-site, they had no choice but to head back to Ivara City. Patricia collected Charles' hair, while Lassie procured some from Carter's father for DNA testing at the local lab.
While awaiting the results, Patricia sat on an outdoor bench, head bowed. Her hands clutched her knees nervously, fingers unwittingly digging in. Her palms were drenched with sweat.
Even Lassie was so tense that her breathing had slowed.
With eyes closed and head bowed, Ryan was perched with his left hand supporting his right elbow, his right hand resting against his forehead, ceaselessly praying. "Not the boss, not Carter, not the boss, not Carter..."
The three-hour wait for the results felt excruciatingly long to them. After agonizing for a while, the results were finally in.
Unable to wait, Patricia tore open the manila envelope and pulled out the laboratory findings. As she read the report, the world seemed to spin. Her vision darkened, and her strength drained away, causing her to collapse to the ground.
“Patricia!” Ryan cried out and quickly caught her.
He didn't need to see the results; Patricia's reaction told him what he had dreaded.
Although Lassie had also guessed the outcome, she couldn't bring herself to believe it until she shakily turned to the final page. Upon seeing the result, her tears spilled over.
Ryan, afraid she too might collapse from shock, grabbed her wrist and eased them both down onto the bench. "Even if... uh... even if the blood on the ground belongs to the boss, it doesn't mean they're in bad shape... People bleed from injuries too..."
Patricia closed her eyes in despair. "I marked it. The largest stain outside was Martin's."
The blood inside the house was mainly Isabella's, but outside, it belonged to Martin and Carter. Even if their lives weren't in danger, the amount of blood lost suggested severe injuries.
Patricia cupped her face in her hands, rubbing vigorously to keep her calm. 'Don't cry. Just don't cry.'
However, the sobs and tears fell, unstoppable.
'Martin, where on earth are you? What happened?'
Patricia fought to steady her nerves but calm eluded her grasp. Pulling out her phone, she removed Hunter's number from the blocked list and dialed it.
"The number you have dialed is switched off. Please try again later."
Patricia stood dumbfounded. Switched off? What did that mean?
Why would Hunter, who never turned off his phone, have it switched off?
Patricia dialed again, but the result was the same. A bitter laugh escaped her, accompanied by tears.
Ryan, worried she was cracking up under the strain, hurriedly said, "What’s so funny?"
Patricia stopped laughing. Her expression twisted into something fierce. "Hunter's doing this on purpose. He must be..."
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