The Bride Beneath the Roses Chapter 3

Derek said Lily's insomnia was severe and she'd developed drug resistance to Alprazolam. To fall asleep, she often took ten or eight pills at once, sometimes even more. He also said that despite this, Lily still suffered insomnia and anxiety, and had even attempted suicide by cutting her wrists at night.

The previous wrist-cutting suicide attempt was mentioned in Harris's autopsy report, noting cut scars on Lily's left wrist, so Derek's words were true.

I felt somewhat deflated. In other words, the bruises on Lily's body were from rolling down the stairs. And with Lily's drug resistance, that medication residue wouldn't necessarily cause her to be drowsy.

With the interrogation ineffective, we could only approach from other angles.

Harris conducted another autopsy. He said the bruises on Lily's body did indeed look like they were from a fall. I also asked Harris about Lily's drug resistance to Alprazolam. Harris said that for severe depression patients, developing resistance to Alprazolam was possible.

We also reviewed Derek's apartment complex surveillance. The footage showed Derek left home at 7:40 AM and returned at 2:30 PM, after seeing Lily's suicide note.

So things returned to square one. Had Lily really committed suicide?

Harris and I went to Derek's residence again. In a drawer in Derek and Lily's bedroom, we found Alprazolam. After testing, it had only Lily and Derek's fingerprints.

So after all this effort, there was no evidence proving Lily was murdered.

I dejectedly submitted my summary report to Captain Shaw. Shaw studied the report all night and, finding no suspicious points, could only classify it as suicide.

Derek had been detained overnight. With the 24-hour limit approaching, we had to let him go. As he was leaving, he asked if he could claim Lily's body. His question suddenly made me think of something.

I said: "Did you and Lily register your marriage? If not, you're not qualified to claim her body. Her family can come."

So where was Lily's family? Lily had been dead for three days—didn't her family know about this?

"Lily's father died in a car accident two years ago. Her mother couldn't handle the shock and jumped from a building to commit suicide. So in this world, I'm her only relative."

Derek looked grief-stricken as he said this. But hearing it, my heart skipped a beat. After thinking, I said: "Regarding claiming the body, without a marriage certificate, I can't make that decision. How about this—I'll ask our captain. As for the subsequent procedures, I'll notify you. Just keep your phone on."

After hearing this, Derek thanked me. I watched his departing back, lost in thought.

After considering, I pulled up all of Lily's information and specifically looked into her father's car accident.

Lily's father, Kevin Chen, 48 years old, worker at North District Jianhua Auto Parts Factory. On April 6, 2017, at 5:10 PM, he was in a car accident on North District Fuan Road while leaving work and died on the spot. Due to lack of surveillance facilities nearby, no suspicious vehicles were detected. The case remained unsolved.

To resolve my doubts, I also inquired with North District Police about the accident from two years ago. What they said was basically consistent with what I'd found. In summary, Kevin's death was a mystery.

On the surface, it was a hit-and-run incident, but murder couldn't be ruled out.

Ten days after Kevin's death, his wife—Lily's mother, Susan Liu—jumped from their apartment building to commit suicide.

Lily's family lived on the fifteenth floor. Susan Liu jumped from the fifteenth floor—the consequences were predictable.