Chapter 50: The Death of a Female College Student
When Jake arrived at the university gate, an hour and a half had passed.
It was nearly dusk, and the warm sunlight cast an eerie, cold hue over the entire university campus.
Jake spotted Emily at the gate; her face was deathly pale, her youthful ponytail was loose and disheveled, and dark circles surrounded her usually bright eyes.
It was clear she had been living in fear for the past two days, possibly without sleep at all.
"Jake!" Emily cried out upon seeing him, tears welling in her eyes again. She hugged him tightly, much to his surprise.
Jake was startled, but his face quickly softened with tenderness. He embraced her, patting her back gently. "Don't cry, don't be afraid. The dead can't be brought back to life," he could only offer this simple way of comforting her.
The two then walked towards the coffee shop, Emily clinging tightly to Jake's arm the whole way.
This could be considered Jake's first real experience of physical closeness with a woman, but seeing Emily's haggard appearance, he couldn't bring himself to take advantage of her.
He knew Emily was terrified, and he comforted her throughout the journey.
When they arrived at the shop, they found it nearly deserted. The barista was sitting at a table scrolling on his phone, and two other employees were chatting casually.
Jake recognized them from their resumes and could identify them from their photos.
When the door opened, the group saw Jake, paused, and remained silent. They only stood up immediately when they saw Emily.
Although Emily was the assistant manager, she was in charge when the real boss wasn't around. Because Emily was usually too easygoing, these people didn't treat her with much respect.
As for Jake, whom Emily was clinging to, he was probably her boyfriend.
Ignoring their speculation, Jake greeted them, "Hello, nice to meet you. I'm Jake." He helped Emily sit down in a chair, paused, and then looked at the group, "I'm also the owner of this this shop."
"The owner?" The group was taken aback. They clearly didn't believe that someone as young as Jake could own such a large coffee shop.
A shop in such a prime location must cost hundreds of thousands in rent a year!
However, seeing Emily's lack of objection and the way she walked into the shop with Jake, they suddenly realized, "Oh, so this assistant manager has connections! No wonder a college student can become an assistant manager."
"We're temporarily closing for the day. Everyone, go out and have some fun, take a break!"
"Long live the boss!"
"Long live the boss!"
Two young employees immediately jumped up and laughed, and the barista, although a bit older, echoed their sentiments.
Finally, inside the coffee shop with the "Closed" sign, only Jake and Emily remained.
"Now tell me the whole story. You said the murderer committed the crime right in front of you, but you didn't see what happened?"
"I don't know the specifics either," Emily said, her head down, her messy bangs covering her face. Judging from her trembling shoulders, she was probably terrified.
"Yesterday morning, our whole dorm was watching Netflix. It was the final episode of this series we'd been binge-watching," she slowly recalled. "At that time, her boyfriend, Dylan, suddenly called. He seemed to be traveling out of state and wanted to FaceTime her... Then she suddenly screamed loudly, and when we turned around, we found her still in the position of taking the call."
As if she had mentioned something terrifying, Emily was trembling all over. "But there was a kitchen knife stuck in her chest."
Jake seemed to be able to imagine the scene: her roommate suddenly received a phone call right behind them and then suddenly died.
"We rushed out, only to find the entire hallway completely deserted," she continued. "In a single second, there was no chance to stab her and then escape quickly, and by then Hannah was already dead."
"We used to talk about everything, binge shows together," she seemed lost in memories. "She even joked that I became the owner of the shop because I was someone's sugar baby, and that she wanted to find a Navy SEAL as her boyfriend..."
"But now she's dead, and everything is gone." She covered her face, tears streaming through her fingers.
Jake sat opposite her and patted her shoulder. "Don't be afraid. Hannah was a cheerful girl, right?" Through psychology, Jake could tell what kind of person Hannah was from Emily's description. "She's definitely in a better place now. Don't let this affect you. I'm even planning to open another location and continue to let you be the assistant manager."
"Thank you, Jake." She wiped away her tears, sniffled, and nodded to him. "I know all that, but that eerie scene keeps replaying in my mind like a nightmare."
"Who's involved in this?" Jake naturally sensed that something was unusual. Could it be an Invisible Man who killed her? Did someone else obtain invisibility technology?
Thinking of the large bottle of invisibility serum in the cabinet, Jake felt it was unlikely.
"Besides the five of us witnesses, there's also Hannah's boyfriend, Mark, because he was on FaceTime with her at the time."
Nodding, Jake knew this made sense.
"Anything else?"
Emily shook her head. "No, but the police suspect our roommates did it, so they won't let us leave."
...
Meanwhile, on the other side, a group of people in police uniforms were holding a meeting with grave expressions.
Detective Marcus Chen sat at his desk, took off his badge, and rubbed his temples. "Those girls took polygraph tests three times. How are the results?"
Sitting across from him was a sharp detective named Sarah Mitchell.
Amanda held a stack of data reports, glanced at them, and said, "The results are in..."
"The results?" Marcus asked quickly.
"The same as the previous two times," Amanda sighed. "They didn't lie."
"Are we really going to believe these girls' story? Is there really an invisible person?!" Marcus angrily slammed his fist on the table, his knuckles turning red, but he didn't care at all.
How could they believe such a bizarre and outlandish case?
"Detective Chen, there are also security cameras in the girls' dorm on that floor," another detective stood up and said. "I checked the footage from that floor and copied the video from the day of the incident."
"Play it now!" Marcus waved his hand. There are illusionists who can deceive the eye with tricks, but they can't fool technology!
He seemed to be regaining some confidence.
However, ten minutes later, Marcus leaned back in his office chair and even lit a cigarette; the last time he smoked was six months ago.
The case made no progress.
In the video, everything was as usual.
The murder occurred around 9:00 AM, and at 9:15 AM, someone was seen running out of the dormitory, followed by a second, and then a third.
It was Emily and her roommates.
They then seemed to call 911, and soon the ambulance and police arrived.
After checking more than ten times, no one had entered the dormitory. The only suspicious instance was before 9:15 AM, when the door was opened once, but no one came out, and then it was closed again.
Seeing this, Amanda suddenly said, "Detective Chen, do you remember that incident?"
"Which incident?" Marcus asked, puzzled.
"That classified case..." Amanda lowered her voice considerably, "That file!"
Marcus was stunned, then said incredulously, "Could there really be an invisible person?"