Animal Whisperer: Take Back My Life and Love Chapter 357: The Evidence Chain

The Magic Turtle took the cue and paddled his four legs as he dove into the water.

An aquatic turtle is an elite diver and can stay submerged for over ten hours. The Cloudtopia officers watched the scene, completely transfixed.

One of the younger officers couldn't help but lean in. "Do you sell that bait? The results are incredible. You wouldn't even need to scout a spot with stuff like that!"

Nancy smiled. He was clearly a die-hard fisherman.

Less than half an hour later, the center of the lake began to churn. What happened next left everyone standing on the shore speechless.

A line of turtles broke the surface, swimming in a row. Each one had a piece of evidence clamped in its mouth, a glove or a shoe cover. Several large fish followed behind, using their heads to nudge the items toward the bank.

Before long, two pairs of gloves and two pairs of shoe covers were laid out neatly on the ground. All eight items were accounted for. This search team of fish and turtles had finished a job in thirty minutes that would have taken a professional dive crew an entire day.

Nancy scattered the rest of her bait into the lake as a sincere thank you to the little helpers.

Rudolph’s legs went weak and he nearly collapsed. The old woman’s world went dark as she let out a strangled cry. "This is impossible! How can this be happening?!"

The officers were stunned. "My god," one breathed. "Why would we ever need a dive team again?"

"Ms. Nancy, have you considered starting a professional animal recovery unit? This efficiency is unreal!"

The forensics team moved in quickly, carefully sealing the evidence in bags to be rushed to the lab for DNA testing.

Nancy looked up at Simon. "Simon, will these still be valid as evidence after being in the lake?"

Simon took the bags. "The lake water will ruin fingerprints on the surface, but it won't destroy the more critical DNA information."

He explained further. "As long as the items haven't fully rotted, we can pull skin cells and sweat from the inside of the gloves. We’ll likely find the victim’s DNA on the outside too, such as skin tissue or trace amounts of blood. Not only that," Simon added, "the fibers will have dust and mold trapped in them that are unique to the chimney. We can even find fibers from the victim’s clothes. All of this links the suspect to the gloves, the gloves to the body, and the body to the crime scene."

Simon’s professional explanation left the old woman and Rudolph ashen. Though the DNA results weren't out yet, the recovery of two sets of gear confirmed the police theory. The old woman hadn't hidden the body alone.

The identity of the accomplice was now glaringly obvious.

Faylin lunged forward and grabbed Rudolph by the collar, her voice trembling with fury. "What happened? Why did you drag Grandma into this!"

Her eyes were red and she spat out every word. "You committed a crime and let your eighty-year-old grandmother help you move a body? Do you even have a conscience?!"

Rudolph flailed his arms in a panic. "I didn't kill her! I just... I just helped hide her!"

Faylin turned to her grandmother in disbelief. "Grandma, how could you..."

"I did it," the old woman whispered, her head hanging low.

Faylin’s eyes welled up. "Even now, you're still protecting him?"

The old woman guiltily looked away and finally confessed the truth.

A month ago, a developer had reached out to her about the house. They wanted to develop the lake and mountain views into a golf club and offered a massive price. The old woman told Rudolph but not Faylin.

Faylin had a deep emotional connection to the house her parents had built, and with her own business success, she never would have agreed to sell. But Rudolph was the favored grandson, a man with no talent who constantly lost money in business and came to the old woman for help.

When he heard about the high offer, Rudolph suggested hiring the actors to make the house seem haunted. The old woman agreed to play along out of love for her grandson. They planned to sell the haunted house at a low price to a middleman, who would then flip it to the developer so Rudolph could keep all the money for himself.

They never expected Almond, the maid hired to care for the elderly woman, to overhear the plan. When the old woman moved to stop her, a panicked Almond tripped and fell down the stairs to her death.