Animal Whisperer: Take Back My Life and Love Chapter 355: The Lake's Secret

The old woman couldn't bring herself to look Faylin in the eye. She averted her gaze, sinking into a heavy, defensive silence.

The color drained from Rudolph’s face as he stood there, looking as if the strength had been sucked right out of him. He whipped his head toward the old woman, his voice cracking with feigned shock. "Grandma... how? How could you kill Almond?"

Perched on Nancy’s shoulder, a little gecko watched Rudolph’s performance and clicked its tongue in disbelief, tapping its tiny paws together.

"This human is quite the actor! He was right there with her, helping her shove that sleeping human into the hole!"

At that moment, a forensics officer climbed down from the chimney flue.

"No usable prints found in the crawl space," he reported with a frustrated sigh. "The suspect likely used gloves and shoe covers to scrub the scene."

Because of legal limitations, animal testimony couldn't be used as direct evidence; it served only as a roadmap for the investigation. Currently, the physical evidence only proved the old woman had handled the body. Whether she had an accomplice remained a matter of speculation without a smoking gun.

"Gloves? Shoe covers?"

The gecko tilted its head, its tail flicking in confusion. "Are those those blue things they put over their hands and feet?"

The little gecko suddenly remembered something and stood tall. "That’s right! I remember now! The old lady got a call from a human named Faylin. After she hung up, she panicked and told this man that Faylin was coming back soon. She asked what to do with the gloves and covers, and he told her... to throw them in the lake. He said the lake was so deep no one would ever find them!"

Nancy’s pulse quickened. Key evidence was sitting at the bottom of the lake.

She leaned in and whispered the gecko’s intel into Simon’s ear. Simon’s lips thinned as he looked at the grandmother and grandson duo.

Rudolph was currently clutching the old woman’s arm, his voice urgent. "Grandma, what were you thinking? Almond only stole a necklace! Was that really worth killing her for?"

The old woman finally met Faylin’s gaze, her voice raspy and broken. "Faylin hired Almond to take care of me at a high salary... I confronted her. I asked her how she could betray Faylin’s trust like that. I told her I’d expose her theft so she’d never find work again, and that I was calling the police. Almond panicked and started backing away. She slipped... and she fell right down the stairs!"

She lunged forward, grabbing an officer’s sleeve as tears began to stream down her weathered face. "It was an accident, Officer! I swear, I didn't push her!"

Faylin let out a massive breath of relief. If it was an accident, the weight on her heart wasn't quite as crushing.

"Officer, my grandmother has a strong personality," Faylin pleaded. "She’s been headstrong her whole life. She hates nothing more than a betrayal of trust..."

Nancy’s clear voice cut through the chorus of excuses. "I have one question. If Almond’s death was truly an accident, why was your first instinct to hide the body rather than call for help?"

She pointed toward the corpse. "Moving an adult’s body and concealing it inside a chimney partition requires immense physical effort and a very specific coldness of mind. Wouldn't a simple phone call to the police have been much easier?"

Faylin froze, her eyes drifting back to her grandmother.

The old woman’s face went white. "I... I was scared. Faylin is a famous entrepreneur now. Her company is growing. If a death happened in her home, the scandal would be terrible. It would ruin the company’s reputation..."

Rudolph jumped in to help. "Exactly. She’s old-fashioned. Her first reaction was to cover it up to protect the family... she didn't want to drag Faylin down with her."

Simon suddenly took a half-step forward, looming over Rudolph and staring directly into his eyes. "After you finished with the body, you threw the gloves and shoe covers into the lake, didn't you?"

The question hit Rudolph like a physical blow.

His right eyebrow twitched. It was a classic micro-expression of pure shock. His eyes flickered toward the upper right, a subconscious signal that his brain was frantically constructing a lie.

It took him several seconds to find his voice. "What body? Officer, stop making things up! I didn't even know Almond was dead until today!"

He tried to force a look of indignation, but the damage was done. The split-second dilation of his pupils and the slight flare of his nostrils had already betrayed the panic screaming inside him.

Simon had caught every bit of it. When a person hears a precise accusation, they hit an uncontrollable spike of surprise before their defense mechanisms can kick in. Rudolph had followed the pattern perfectly.

Simon turned to the Cloudtopia officers. "Get a dive team to the lake near the villa immediately. His face just told me everything I need to know. Shock, calculation, and then the denial."