Under the Heiress' Facade novel Chapter 163

It was 2:00 pm in Nathan's office at the police station.

"Ms. Youngworth, I have good news and bad news for you."

Nathan took a deep drag from his cigarette before snuffing the butt against the ashtray.

Hera waved the smoke away, a look of disgust apparent on her face. Before she could speak up, Nathan's voice cut her off.

"The good news is, we finally found Isabella and her mother."

His words elicited a frown from Hera immediately. If Nathan chose to start with the good news instead of the bad news, that could only mean that the bad news carried more weight in this case.

"What's the bad news?" she asked.

"We found their corpses." As Nathan spoke, he pulled out a case folder from his drawer and passed it to Hera.

Hera lowered her gaze slightly, her long and thick eyelashes fanning out from her eyelids, as she gazed at the brown paper envelope.

Even though she was already mentally prepared for the bad news after receiving Nathan's call this morning, she was still saddened by the news.

Hera was only acquainted with Isabella briefly, so she didn't care about Isabella. In fact, Isabella was the daughter of the driver who had killed Daphne back then.

Still, Isabella was still a human being. To think that she'd die just like that.

Did she go missing just because she had mentioned Robin back then? Did that lead to her death?

"The authorities found the victims' bodies in a dam located near Southburrow a week ago. By the time the bodies were fished out of the water, they were already severely decomposed.

"Back then, the forensic doctor had deduced that the victims were dead for over a dozen days, so the authorities weren't able to determine the victims' identities.

"Three days ago, the local police department issued a notice for the other police departments to help investigate the victims' identities. After I received the news, I traveled to Southburrow right away. After running tests on the bodies' DNA, I was able to determine the victims as Isabella and her mother."

Nathan took a sip out of his coffee mug before continuing, "The cause of death is the sudden influx of liquid into the victims' airways, which caused asphyxiation to occur. In other words, they drowned.

"The victims' time of death had taken place far too long ago, not to mention a few storms had occurred since their deaths. This resulted in the severe destruction of the crime scene.

"Of course, the public security camera installed near the road outside the dam was down during those three days. The authorities aren't able to deduce if murder, suicide, or an accident is on the table here. But in the end, they wrapped up the case after labeling it as an accidental death."

"This is against the rules, right? You're in charge of missing people's cases. Now that they found the missing victim's body, shouldn't you be the one launching a thorough investigation before wrapping it up?"

Hera raised her head to look at Nathan calmly.

After Nathan was done speaking, he inhaled another lungful of smoke silently.

Cold wind blew through the gap at that moment. Hera felt the wind slapping her cheeks and toying with her locks.

She understood the situation right away. Isabella and her mother were just two regular people without prominent backgrounds. If the police chose to label their deaths as accidental deaths and close the case just like that, no one in this world would demand the case to be reopened.

Even if someone did do that, there were still people powerful enough to override this decision. Besides, it was hard for regular people to demand a case to be reopened anyway. That was unless the person making the demands had strong connections and an influential background that allowed them to fight back against the authorities and the government.

"Thank you, Captain Olson," Hera said while rising to her feet.

Isabella was the only clue that could lead to a breakthrough in Hera's investigation of Daphne's accident. But now, this lead was gone.

All Hera knew was that she was heading in the right direction. Daphne's death was no accident—it was a premeditated murder.

The cause of Isabella and her mother's deaths was definitely murder, too.

Hera's role as an investigator was most likely revealed to the mastermind. The bad thing was that the mastermind lurked in the dark while she remained unaware of their identity.

"If you want to keep investigating, you can start by investigating the Gaskell family," Nathan stated all of a sudden.