"I'm thinking, that day his conversation with someone else in the maintenance shop should've all been recorded, right?"
Joel froze. "You're saying that watch can record audio?"
"Yeah. What, you didn't find that?" I blinked innocently.
"Oh, right."
"Sebastian might not know about that feature."
"As long as you go check that watch, you'll get the answer you want."
Joel immediately turned and rushed out. This time, he didn't call me a lunatic again.
Two hours later, he came back with a dark face.
"SAVANNAH PRUITT! You played me?" He flung the watch onto the table. "The tech unit took it apart. There isn't any recording device inside at all!"
I looked at the watch, torn into pieces, and felt nothing.
"Is that so? That's weird. Maybe I remembered wrong. Sorry."
"How is that possible! With your personality, how could you remember wrong!" Joel scratched his head irritably. "Just how many things are you still hiding from us? If you really know who the killer is, spill it all! Stop playing hide-and-seek! More than two hundred lives! The victims' families are raising hell outside. If we don't solve this case soon, you won't be able to get away from it either!"
I knew there were a lot of people outside who hated me, even wanted to kill me, but I didn't care right now.
"I want to see Sebastian one more time," I said suddenly.
Joel froze. "You want to see him again? Why?"
"Some things are clearer if I ask him face-to-face. Also, I suspect he tampered with that watch. Since you didn't find any recording, that means after he got it, he definitely opened it up and cleaned it out."
Joel looked at me suspiciously. "You're sure?"
"Try it. Do you have a better way?"
He hesitated for a few seconds, then nodded. "Fine, I'll bring him in again. But don't play any tricks."
I spread my hands, looking innocent.
When Sebastian was brought into the interrogation room again, his expression was even worse than last time.
"What exactly are you trying to do?" The moment he sat down, he lowered his voice and roared at me. "You ruined me! Do you know what people outside are saying? They're saying I'm a murderer! That I got more than two hundred people killed for money! It's all because of you! You crazy woman!"
I smiled at his face.
"What are you in such a hurry for? If you're upright, you don't fear a crooked shadow. If you didn't do it, what are you afraid of? I just want to ask you—why did you take apart the watch I gave you?"
Sebastian's expression instantly froze. "I... I didn't take it apart!" He looked confused.
"You didn't take it apart? Then that's weird. That night I clearly heard you on the phone in the study, saying things like 'the landing gear is taken care of,' 'the oxygen valve is cut off.' What, did the watch break that perfectly, and it just happened to lose that recording?"
"Shut up!" Sebastian suddenly stood, lunging toward me.
Two officers reacted fast and pinned him down in one move.
"Sit down!" Joel slapped the table and looked at him coldly. "Looks like we need to have a good talk about your study. And that watch of yours. Since Savannah says she heard the recording, we have reason to suspect you were destroying evidence."
Sebastian shook his head frantically, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
"No! I swear, no! I never took that watch apart—how could there be a recording device inside?"
"She's framing me! She's insane!"
"I've never killed anyone! I never touched that plane!"
Joel ignored him completely. He turned to another officer. "Go. Get a search warrant."
"Tear his place apart, especially the study."
"And pull all his phone logs and chat records."
Sebastian slumped in his chair, deflated, like someone had ripped out his spine.
He looked at me, eyes burning with venom. "You're ruthless, Savannah."
"But don't think this is enough to take me down."
"Without evidence, you've got nothing."
I let out a cold laugh. "Evidence?"
"Sebastian, did you forget what I do for a living?"
"Data recovery."
"As long as it's still in the cloud somewhere, I can find it."
