The Silent Witness Chapter 10

Mr. Reed's face went white in an instant. He stumbled backward, his voice tight. "What are you talking about? I took your phone to see if you'd filmed Lily—what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing wrong?"

I laughed coldly and stepped toward him. "If you really weren't the one who did this, why were you so desperate to delete that video from the rainy night? What are you so afraid of?"

The question hit him like a dart. His pupils shrank, his lips trembling. He couldn't get a word out.

The crowd sensed something was off. Whispers began to spread, and the looks directed at Mr. Reed were tinged with suspicion now.

The officer frowned and turned to me. "Jason, what evidence are you talking about?"

I took the phone with the shattered screen from one of the officers and held it up.

"I installed a program on this phone."

"The moment someone unlocks it, the front camera automatically starts recording. When Mr. Reed deleted that video from the rainy night, every single move he made was captured on camera."

Mr. Reed's face collapsed when he heard the word "program."

He lunged forward, trying to grab the phone. "You're lying! That's your phone—you must have faked the evidence!"

The officer held him back and nodded to his colleague.

I stood there, perfectly calm.

I'd known from the start that the moment Mr. Reed saw that video labeled "rainy night," fear would make him delete it instinctively.

Even though I'd never actually filmed what happened.

But his guilty conscience would do the work for me.

A few minutes later, the tech officer spoke to the lead detective. "Captain Lee, I found it."

"There's definitely a recording here. It shows the entire process of Mr. Reed deleting a file."

Captain Lee took the device and opened the video.

The screen clearly showed Mr. Reed's face, his fingers frantically swiping across the phone screen, locating that "rainy night" video and deleting it without hesitation.

His every movement radiated panic.

Mr. Reed's body shook harder and harder. He pointed at the screen, shouting, "I deleted the video because I didn't want footage of Lily being attacked to stay on there!"

"I was trying to protect her! You can't use this to convict me!"

"Protect her?"

I took the device from the officer and pulled up the recovered video from that rainy night, playing it for everyone to see.

"Then take a look at what this video actually shows."

The screen displayed nothing but darkness and the sound of rain. There was no violence, no assault—just an ordinary video of rainfall.

When Mr. Reed saw the content, his face went even paler.

I closed the video and looked at him. "It's just a normal video of rain, but you were so panicked you had to delete it. If you didn't have something to hide, why would you do that?"

"And those photos—you said you didn't want them saved, but you didn't delete a single one. In fact, you saved them to your own phone. Why is that?"

"Photos?"

Mr. Reed's eyes went wide with horror. His whole body convulsed as he instinctively clutched his pocket.

"You... you're talking nonsense! I don't have anything like that on my phone!"

"Whether you do or not, we'll find out soon enough."

I turned to the police. "Captain Lee, I'd like to ask you to check his phone."

Mr. Reed immediately backed away, gripping his phone tightly. "No! My phone is private property. You have no right to search it!"

"We now suspect you're connected to an assault case, which gives us the authority to examine your personal belongings," Captain Lee said, stepping forward, his tone serious. "Please cooperate. Otherwise, we'll be forced to take it by force."

Mr. Reed tried to resist, but two officers moved in and pried the phone from his hands.

He struggled and screamed, "You can't do this! I'm innocent! This is abuse of power!"

But the police ignored him. They quickly unlocked the phone.

Then, as the officer opened the photo gallery and scrolled through it, his expression turned extremely dark.