The Return Of the Invincible Heiress
Chapter 88

Chapter 88: Chapter 88

Daniel widened his eyes. He stared at Avery for several seconds before falling back and smacking the ground with his hands, laughing until his stomach hurt. "You’re Lockwood? What a joke! If you’re Lockwood, I’m Sherlock."

Avery did not argue with Daniel and said, "In the last case serialized online in ’The Case Chronicles of Detective Lockwood Holmes’, the murderer is Keith Jenson, the waiter of the soup house."

Daniel was still laughing. He did not take Avery seriously at all.

Avery continued, "When Keith cleaned up the private room, he put the poison on the chandelier above the dining table. When the victims ate the broth, the heat from the broth rose. Coupled with the heat produced when the chandelier was lit, the poison melted and dripped into the broth. The victims were poisoned after eating the broth. However, because the poison was not strong enough, it did not act up in the restaurant. Instead, it acted up on the drive back, causing a car accident. One person died, one was seriously injured, and two were slightly injured."

"The murderer, Keith, cleaned up the private room immediately after the victims left. He cleaned the remaining poison on the chandelier and didn’t leave any traces behind. Because Keith was only in charge of cleaning up the private room and was not in charge of delivering the food, he did not enter the private room during the victims’ meal. Thus, he was not listed as a suspect by the police at first.

"Keith wanted to avenge his girlfriend. His girlfriend used to be the manager of the restaurant. She was harassed and framed by the victims many times. In the end, she lost her job and tried to commit suicide."

At this moment, Daniel had stopped laughing. He looked at Avery with his mouth agape. "Y-Your deduction is quite reasonable." The writer had been despicable and did not make it clear or hint at the identity of the murderer. It drove tens of millions of readers crazy. To this day, readers still argued over who the murderer was.

Avery calmly tapped on her phone. "This is the author’s page of the website where I published ’The Case Chronicles of Detective Lockwood Holmes’. I’ll make an update now." Then, Avery clicked on "Create Chapter" and posted: [Lockwood is writing again. The real culprit will be announced in three days.]

After sending it, she showed her phone screen to Daniel. "Do you yield?"

Daniel got up and leaned over. He opened his eyes wide and went as close as he could to the screen. "Oh my god, is this really the author’s page? There’s even a new update?"

Avery put away her phone. "What else do you have to say?"

Daniel’s gaze shifted to Avery’s face. He was no longer arrogant. "If you’re really Lockwood, why don’t you continue to write online? Do you know how traumatic it is for readers to be left hanging without knowing who the murderer was?"

Avery said righteously, "I was busy and forgot."

Daniel replied, "The author said these cases are all real-life experiences but slightly modified. Is that true?"

"It’s true."

Daniel was shocked. "Who are you? Why are you involved in these strange cases?"

Avery snorted. "I’m not familiar with you. Why should I tell you?"

Daniel was speechless.

Avery said, "I’ve already revealed my identity. I’ll ask you one last time. Will you be good from now on?"

"I-I have one last question," Daniel struggled to get up. He asked carefully, "Why didn’t you publish this novel? Do you know how popular this novel is online? It was the most popular online novel back then."

"Because the author did not sign a contract with the website for this novel and did not charge any fees, the readers could only tip the author. To date, it has already accumulated over 2 million dollars in tips. The website was afraid the fans would scold them, so it did not dare to take the money for themselves. The money was just kept there, waiting for the author to come and collect it."

The more Daniel spoke, the more agitated and angrier he grew. He felt indignant for himself and the readers. "Some people asked why the publisher didn’t publish such a popular novel. The publisher said the author claimed to be under 18 years old and refused to let her guardian sign the publication agreement on her behalf. That’s why they couldn’t publish it. Isn’t that ridiculous?"

"Not only are you mean for leaving your readers hanging, but you even used such a lousy reason to deceive the readers..."

Avery took off her mask. "The publisher is right. I was only a junior high school student back then. I didn’t want my family to know about it, so I didn’t sign any contracts."

When Daniel saw Avery’s face, he was so shocked that he almost fainted. "A-Avery Carter? Y-you are Lockwood? Lockwood is a woman? She’s a high school student?"

Avery said calmly, "Why can’t I be?"

Daniel stared straight at Avery and did not speak for a long time. Avery was too lazy to talk nonsense with Daniel. She stood up and said, "It’s getting late. I’m going to—"

Daniel suddenly knelt with a loud thud and said with admiration, "Miss Carter, I yield. Please let me be your student."

Although men seldom got down on their knees, the woman standing in front of Daniel was West End’s first perfect scorer in the SAT and his only idol, Lockwood. It was not embarrassing for him to kneel before her.

Avery was speechless. Then, she waved her hand and said seriously, "It’s fine if you want me to take you in as my student, but you must swear you’d never hurt the innocent or harm anyone. Otherwise, I’ll enforce justice and deal with you myself."

Daniel solemnly swore, "I, Daniel Coast, hereby swear to Miss Avery Carter that I’ll never hurt the innocent or harm anyone."

Avery nodded. "Get up."

After that, Daniel confessed everything. However, he was not sure who his client was. After all, they had never met or spoken on the phone. They relied on encrypted emails to contact each other. Considering that everything Daniel had photographed had fallen into the hands of Zoe, Daniel thought the chances of Zoe being his client were very high.

In addition, Daniel explained that in the middle of last month, the client had asked him to pick up a letter from different locations. There were two letters in total, and he had to send them anonymously to Isaac and his wife.

When Avery heard this, she was almost certain Zoe was the anonymous sender. Zoe had discovered that Avery was not the Murphy family’s biological daughter and led Andrew and Gail to find out about it. But Avery had a lot of important things to do and was in no hurry to confirm it.

She instructed Daniel, "Continue to keep in touch with Zoe. Don’t let her know you’ve turned on her."

Daniel was experienced at this, so he understood what Avery meant. His eyes lit up as he said, "I know. I’ll be a spy."

Avery nodded and yawned. "I’m going back to rest. Rufus will handle the rest. Tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be investigating an unsolved case from five years ago. We might have to work all night. You and Rufus are coming with me. I’ll send you the specifics tomorrow morning. Have a good rest and be prepared."

"Wow, there’s a big case so soon?" Daniel was so excited that he felt very energized. "How many people died in this case? Did the murderer leave no traces again..."