8
As Liam Reed, the so–called “knight in shining armor” for Hannah, heard my words, he immediately added fuel to the fire.
“Zach, stop trying to change the narrative!” Liam shouted, his voice cracking with desperation. “You must’ve paid a fortune to bribe not just the police here, but even Detective West!”
By now, the other officers had pinned Liam down, dragging him toward the center of the commotion.
The crowd, however, was having none of it.
“Detective West is the pride of our city! He’s known for his integrity!”
“We journalists know his character better than anyone. Stop slandering him!”
Liam thrashed and struggled as the officers restrained him. Meanwhile, Hannah did everything she could to interfere, trying to block the officers from taking him.
The onlookers, however, weren’t buying it. They could see through the mess of excuses and theatrics now, and no one moved to help Liam or Hannah.
Even the two grieving family members, who had been consumed by hatred for me just moments earlier, began shifting their furious glares
C
3:06 PM
<
Realizing she was losing control of the situation, Hannah suddenly turned her attention to me.
She stormed toward me, her face twisted with rage, and raised her hand to slap me.
“Zach Sullivan, you despicable bastard! How dare you frame Liam for something you did!”
I caught her hand mid–swing, stopping her slap cold.
“Frame him?” I said with a calm yet icy tone. “All I’ve done is reveal the truth. Or are you worried there’s something incriminating in your conversations with Liam that you didn’t delete?”
The crowd erupted in murmurs.
“This is getting sketchier by the second. If she’s innocent, why would she try to slap him?”
“Yeah, check Liam’s phone! There’s probably something shady in there.”
“Now that you mention it, didn’t Liam lead the charge earlier? The guy was acting way too aggressive. Something’s definitely off.”
Detective West wasted no time. He pulled Liam’s phone out of his pocket and used the man’s face to unlock it.
Liam began thrashing harder, yelling in a panic.
“This is my private property! You can’t just go through it! That’s a violation of my privacy!”
Not far away, Hannah froze, her face pale as she clutched her own phone tightly. Suddenly, her fear turned into action.
With a loud crash, she threw her phone to the ground, shattering it into pieces.
The crowd gasped.
“Why would she smash her own phone like that?”
“She’s definitely hiding something! There must’ve been evidence on it!”
The victim’s family’s grief turned into a renewed fury, their gazes burning with rage as they stared at Hannah and Liam.
Meanwhile, the officers quickly scrolled through Liam’s phone, their brows furrowing as they reviewed his texts.
I knew Liam would’ve deleted their conversations. But people always overlook one thing–cloud backups. Most don’t even think about clearing those.
Liam sneered, his voice dripping with fake confidence.
“There’s nothing on my phone. Not a single message. Go ahead, keep looking.”
The crowd, however, wasn’t convinced.
“He wiped everything clean. Of course, there’s nothing left.”
“Exactly! Only a guilty person would go this far to delete everything!”
“This guy’s the real scumbag!”
Liam smirked and glanced at the officers.
“Well, you’ve seen my phone. Are you done now? Hand it back already.”
I stepped forward, cutting through his arrogance with a cold smile,
“Sure, you deleted the messages. But did you remember to clear your cloud backups?”
