Love's Change of Heart

Meanwhile, Zoe had just walked out of the bathroom, where she saw a group of people gathering

outside the operating room and having whispered discussions amongst themselves. The weariness

she felt earlier was instantly dethroned by excitement, and she eagerly forced her way through to get a

first glimpse at the hot gossip.

The elevator doors slid open slowly, and Leanna saw two policemen coming out with a man

sandwiched between them.

It was Raymond.

He looked utterly wretched as a crestfallen look was painted across his face. Although the police didn't

have any concrete proof yet, it was still a big blow to his dignity when he was taken away as a person

of interest in front of his colleagues.

When he passed by Leanna, he paused for a second as though he wanted to say something, but

nothing came from his lips.

After the detectives escorted him into the police car, the crowd slowly dispersed. However, now that the

authorities were gone, the discussions became louder than before.

"I have never imagined that it would be Mr. Ford. He doesn't look like a murderer at all."

"My thoughts exactly. He's usually such a nice and friendly guy, and I've run into him quite a few times

when I worked overtime alone, asking me if I needed a lift from him. Just the thought of this now makes

my skin crawl."

"But, why did he kill that girl? There has to be a motive, right?"

"I saw on the Internet that the girl was his girlfriend or something. So, maybe they got into a fight, and

he did it out of anger."

"Isn't Mr. Ford a divorcee with two kids? When did he get a girlfriend?"

"How am I supposed to know? I feel so sorry for the girl. She's only in her early twenties, and I heard

that she was previously an employee in Pearson Group."

"Goodness! Pearson Group? Then, Miss McKinney—"

Somebody noticed that Leanna was still around and frantically nudged the person to stop talking. Then,

they booked it as they hightailed out of the lobby.

Leanna stood rooted on the spot as her frown deepened. A Pearson Group employee? Raymond's

girlfriend?

An inexplicable feeling abruptly surged within her, and with it came an all-consuming sense of unease.

The discomfort within her even made her feel suffocated as her mind whirled with terrible after terrible

possibilities.

"Miss McKinney," Richard suddenly rang out, snapping her out of her terror. Still, she composed herself

before she spun around. "Have you heard about what happened to Raymond?"

Leanna nodded. "Let's go to the police station."

"Okay."

On the way there, Richard passed a document to her. "Miss McKinney, I found this on the desk when I

went back to the office in the afternoon."

She took the file from him, opened the kraft paper bag, and saw that it was all the information on the

wicked deeds Jimmy had done over the years. Besides corruption and bribery, there was even drug

trafficking, and every piece of information was detailed and precise.

As she reached the last pages of the document, the look on her face turned even more solemn with

every turn of the page. "Who gave this to you?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "It was already on the desk when I returned."

Leanna returned the document to the paper bag and finally understood why Aidan's reluctant behavior

when she insisted on continuing her investigations on Jimmy. He even went so far as to tell her that it

was better to stop while she still could. That was because he was the lowest of the low, so far down the

morality scale he might as well just dip it in ink.

He would do whatever illegal business as long as he could make a killing out of it.

Not only that, he even used several unknown accounts to transfer money through Crossley Group

before he finally moved the funds into his own account via proper channels. With that, the Crossley

Group had turned into his accomplice as his money launderer.

As the chairman of the company, Leroy was definitely in the know, Leanna thought as her lips curled

into a cold smirk. No wonder he was willing to leave behind the entire Crossley Group and flee abroad.

He's far more devious than I thought, utterly wicked to the core. What a scoundrel.

After that, she gave Aidan a call. Unfortunately, there was no answer. So, she called Jonathan, but he

didn't pick up her call, either.

Something's off, she thought and contemplated her options before dialing Oscar's number without any

response.

She lowered the car window and had a gut feeling that something sinister was going on behind the

scenes.

Soon, they reached the police station, where Raymond was in the interrogation room, cooperating with

the investigations.

After Richard asked around, he returned to her side and said, "Miss McKinney, according to the police,

the identity of the deceased is a little complicated, and they can't reveal anything before they are clear

of what's happening."

"Complicated?"

"Yes."

Leanna decided not to pursue it further. "Let's go, then,"

However, after she had stepped foot outside of the police station, she suddenly recalled the news she

saw today and froze in her tracks.

The deceased was named Green but had a complicated identity. Furthermore, she was an employee of

Pearson Group and was in her early twenties.

She instantly pieced everything together, spun on her heels, darted into the police station, and stopped

before the police officer who was tidying away the documents on her desk.

"Was the dead girl's name Celia?" she asked somewhat impatiently.

"Were you a friend of hers?" the police officer asked, looking at her.

Leanna's lips parted to answer, but she couldn't find the words. All of a sudden, her throat felt dry, and

the tightly wrung nerves in her mind seemed to have unwound themselves.

"If you were her friend, I could bring you to see her, and I hope that you can provide us with useful

leads for the case," the police officer added, rising to her feet.

The moment Leanna heard that, she understood what it meant—Celia was dead.

She staggered backward and accidentally bumped into a desk. She immediately grasped the edges

tightly to steady herself as the blood drained from her face.