Chapter 172 This Matter Ends Here
Although Addie looked like he had been forced to associate with a criminal, he obtained the surveillance footage of the day of the incident for Courtney anyway.
That night, Courtney inserted the USB drive into her computer and pulled up the video file. Then, she carefully observed every detail on the screen as she watched the video. The fire occurred at approximately 11.30 AM. Most of the middle and senior-level management were having a meeting in the meeting room on the second floor of the hotel. As it was close to lunchtime, many people were inside the kitchen. Moreover, many people came and went from the kitchen, so it was hard to notice any suspicious activities.
From the video, she could see the pastry chef, Mr. Gideon, baking in the kitchen, and Louie, working next to him. It seemed like Louie had been asked to replenish the ingredients. She watched as Louie walked away for a brief period and came back holding various ingredients of different shapes and sizes.
At 10.54 AM, two little figures appeared in the video. Jordan was following behind Tina as they entered the kitchen and stopped in front of Mr. Gideon.
Recalling the scene of the fire, Courtney felt a lingering fear in her heart. Then, she took a deep breath of cold air and continued watching the video. Tina and Jordan both loved to eat sweets. From how familiar they seemed to be with Mr. Gideon, it seemed like it wasn’t their first time coming into the kitchen to look for him. He pointed at the oven, then pointed at Louie. After that, the two children followed Louie somewhere else.
Following that, Louie did not appear in the video again until after the fire broke out in the kitchen.
At 11.10 AM, Mr. Gideon walked away from the oven. According to the hotel’s current investigations, that was the time Mr. Gideon had gone to the storeroom for a smoke break. He reportedly had a serious cigarette addiction. This was something everybody in the hotel knew. Therefore, not many people were suspicious of the reason given by the hotel management.
Afterward, Courtney watched the video from the start to the end again. Then, she dragged the cursor along the video’s progress bar until she reached the critical period and re-watched that portion of the video again. Even so, she couldn’t find any clues. Everything seemed natural and logical—the incident looked like nothing more than an accident.
Closing the surveillance footage inside the kitchen, she checked the surveillance footage of the storeroom. As expected, she could find nothing out of place. The surveillance camera in the storeroom was mainly to prevent people from stealing. Therefore, it mainly focused on the goods placed on the shelves. There were several blind spots outside of the surveillance camera’s range. Even if somebody were to stand there, they would not be visible in the surveillance footage.
The surveillance footage of the entrance to the kitchen was even less productive than the other two videos. Too many serving staff came and went through the entrance. Aside from watching the two children confidently swaggering into the kitchen, she gained nothing from the video.
However, she suddenly remembered something. When the fire broke out, she went to the lounge to search for the two children. A serving staff had told her that the supervisor had taken Jordan to the restroom, which led her to misunderstand that Jordan was not with Tina. Unfortunately, she could not recall which member of the serving staff had told her that, no matter how hard she tried.
Besides, she felt suspicious of Louie for some inexplicable reason. He clearly brought both children to the kitchen. However, he only reported that her daughter was inside when he came out. Everybody in the hotel knows that Jordan is Alexander’s little prince. Logically, wouldn’t he mention that Jordan was inside first?
Taking out a piece of A4 paper, she listed the three suspicious points about the incident. Firstly, it was a lie that the supervisor had taken Jordan to the restroom. Secondly, it was suspicious that Louie mentioned Tina being inside the building but did not mention whether Jordan was caught in the fire too. Thirdly, why was Jordan rescued from the cold storage room later?
Just as Courtney was mulling over these three points, the sound of a door opening came from outside the bedroom. Soon after that, the door of the study opened and a hand holding a takeaway box appeared in the gap. Then, Cameron’s voice floated in through the door. She was pretending to sound cold. “Detective, you still need to eat to solve a case, right?”
Courtney’s eyes immediately filled with warmth at those words. Later, she discussed her thoughts with Cameron during dinner. Cameron touched her chin as she pondered over it. “Why don’t you just ask them directly? For the first point, you can just ask the serving staff that told you Jordan had gone to the bathroom. For the second point, you can just question Louie about it. And for the third point, why don’t you ask Tina or Jordan themselves? What’s the point of cracking your head over this?”
“I plan to head to Eastbrook,” Courtney slowly said. Hearing those words made Cameron choke on her saliva in surprise. “Eastbrook? What’s wrong with you? Do you have to go that far just for such a trivial matter? Are you going all the way to Eastbrook to look for Mr. Gideon?”
“I want to hear it directly from him. I need to know if he was smoking in the storeroom that day.”
Not only did Courtney have a stubborn streak in her, but she was also still mad at Alexander over this incident. Thus, Cameron knew that there was no stopping Courtney. “Fine. If you really want to go, then go. I’ll find some time to investigate the rest of the suspicions that you have about this incident.”
“You?!” Courtney looked extremely doubtful.
However, Cameron flipped her hair behind her shoulder and lifted her eyebrow proudly. “I have suitors everywhere in this land. The Sunhill Hotel is no exception.”
Courtney pressed her hand against her forehead, looking like she was having a headache. “Don’t let Gale learn about this. Otherwise, you’re going to bring harm to those poor men.”
Gale and Cameron were in a relationship. Courtney originally thought that the two veteran flirts were simply flirting with each other and comparing who had the better seductive methods. To her surprise, Gale suddenly turned a new leaf. He was now the very model of a good boyfriend. However, Cameron continued to break his heart with her fickleness. If Gale discovers that Cameron will be meeting with somebody interested in her, that Sunhill Hotel employee will have to write his resignation letter.
The clouds were ever-changing outside the window of a hospital ward—there was a faint hint of the dark clouds that would bear down on the city. The lights inside the room were a little too bright and harsh on the eyes. When it reflected against the white walls of the hospital ward, it gave off the illusion that there was no place to hide inside the room.
Mikayla was wearing a pink-striped medical gown and one of her hands was covered in bandages. Meanwhile, her other hand was holding a phone as she stood by the side of the bed, talking on the phone. “You told me it was only going to be a small fire. Now that it has come to this, how am I supposed to clean up this mess? You’re deliberately trying to harm me, aren’t you?”
A delicate female voice came from the other end of the phone. “What good will harming you do? Didn’t I explain it to you? It was an accident. I didn’t mean to let the fire get out of control. Besides, didn’t I take some safety precautions beforehand? I told you Jordan would not be injured. Wasn’t he inside the cold storage room when you rushed into the fire? I gave you the chance to win over Alexander’s heart again! How can you still resent me for this?”
“Don’t give yourself so much credit. The only reason you helped me is that you can’t stand Courtney. That isn’t considered helping at all.” Her expression became gloomy. She could still remember the lingering fear from back then. “I risked my life to rescue Jordan. What if I didn’t dare to go in? What if something had happened to Jordan? You’re so reckless!”
She had been terrified when she saw the flames. It was completely different from what she had expected. The only reason she gritted her teeth and rushed into the fire was that she was worried about something happening to Jordan. Otherwise, the consequences would have been disastrous. As things stand, Britney never had the intention of letting anybody off easy. If she can take human lives so lightly… What else is she capable of?
“Britney Price, I’m warning you; this had better end here. I don’t want any more people to spread rumors about Courtney being involved in this. The cooperation between you and me ends here.” Mikayla’s voice was cold, yet it was trembling slightly. Moreover, she was practically whispering in the room.
“End?” Cold laughter rang out from the other side of the phone. “What do you think Alexander would think of you if I told him the truth?”
