Chapter 176



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“How much I know, depends on how much you’re willing to admit. As for the final outcome of the lawsuit, I was only the duty officer on the day of the fire, and I also had to quit and look for a new job.”

Hayden looked at Arnold’s wife, his expression ambiguous.

Arnold’s wife had been holding a grudge for some time. After hearing this, he couldn’t help but assume the worst side and blurted out the truth.

Everyone who knew Arnold knew that he liked to smoke and could not kick his addiction. So he deliberately broke the smoke alarm in the kitchen storeroom so that it would not detect smoke and set off the alarm system. But he was also cautious by taking the cigarette butts out of the kitchen every time after smoking. That way there would be no spark from the cigarette to start a fire.

The situation that day was the same as always, except that when Arnold went to smoke, he saw Baron there and caught him starting a fire. The two argued and the cigar fell on the flammable materials, which caused things to get out of control.

Afterwards, Baron knelt before Arnold, begging for forgiveness. Arnold, soft-hearted, decided to take the consequences by enunciating and leaving the hotel.

Arnold and his wife treated Baron as their own son, hoping that he would be a person who would take care of them in their old age. But there were always ungrateful people in the world, after Baron’s conversion to the hotel, Baron feared being implicated by Arnold. So he made a call to them, breaking the hearts of the elderly couple.

“This heartless brat, threatened Arnold that he would tell the others that the fire alarm had been destroyed by him if he revealed the truth. Then all property damage losses would be on us.”

Hayden frowned, pondering. If Baron had such a bad personality, it would be no wonder that he would commit arson whenever someone gave him a generous reward for doing so.

The first thing that came to his mind was a figure he saw in the crowd as he left the fire that day, Addison.

He thought over his head that Addison was the biggest beneficiary of this affair, and that he had sufficient motive to do so.

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The next afternoon, Hayden caught a flight back to N City.

The truth of the fire was basically clear, but it would not be easy to figure out who was behind it all.

On the plane, the flight attendants were seating the passengers.

“Miss Downey?” The flight attendant’s sweet voice rang out, and Hayden came to his senses from outside the window, “Yes, it’s me.”

“I’m looking for you because we upgraded you to first class.”

Hayden was stunned for a moment. “Why?”

“I’m not quite sure, but this seat is occupied by someone else – can you follow me to your seat in first class?”

Hayden was puzzled as she followed the stewardess into the first class area.

“Miss Downey, this is your seat. Feel free to call me if you need anything.”

“Sure.” Hayden replied as he sat down. He glanced sideways at the man next to him, whose face was covered by the newspaper. He startled, “Mr. Sanchez?”

Cleveland uncovered his face from the newspaper. He wore gold-rimmed glasses and his eyes hid his emotions. “Miss Downey, we meet again.”

Hayden was alarmed as if everything was as expected of him.

“So it’s Senor Sanchez was the one who has arranged the upgrade to my ride?”

Cleveland lifted his glasses. In him were reflected the distinctive personality traits of a business elite. Even his manner of speaking was very complete: “I just found out that Miss Downey is coincidentally on the same flight as me. So I just gave them instructions and hope she has a comfortable trip. After all, I still owe you a favor. You coming to me on your own initiative is unlikely.”

“Chances don’t exist.” Hayden looked Cleveland in the eye, not hiding his doubts.

Who was to believe that Cleveland happened to know that she was on the same flight as him? It was obvious that he wasn’t even planning to conceal his purpose with such a clumsy explanation.

“Whether by chance or deliberately, it’s also our destiny, isn’t it?”

Hayden gaped, sketching a faint smile he told her, “I have a fiancé, Mr. Sanchez.”

The purpose of a man approaching a woman had always been so simple. It all depended on how the woman responded.

Cleveland didn’t seem to mind. He even smiled politely, “Congratulations.”

After saying this, the two had no further interactions.

When the flight had taken off, Hayden quickly fell asleep. Cleveland closed the newspaper, glancing sideways at her, and made an unexpected move.

He pulled out a camera and took a picture with Hayden, who was sleeping.

The assistant, who was just across the aisle watched this. His eyes were rolling and he hadn’t come to in a long time.

Cleveland acted as if nothing had happened. He motioned the stewardess over and instructed her to bring Hayden a blanket to cover her.

Hayden was sleeping soundly and, naturally, didn’t know what had happened.

She didn’t learn of the photo’s existence until much later. Although she hoped Cleveland was up to something for giving her a class promotion, she was very sleepy and fell asleep.

…

At ST Group headquarters, Magnus James had conducted a thorough investigation into the cause of the fire, following instructions from Joseph Beckham. After a week of the investigation, he brought a lot of information to Joseph.

“This matter has little to do with Arnold. The damage to the smoke alarm infers that Arnold deliberately broke it just to smoke. But the source of the fire in the warehouse was not the cigar, there were several ignition sources and there were also traces of diesel burning on the floor. It’s arson.”

Joseph stared at the monitor screen in front of him, his eyes grim, “Who did this?”

“An internal staff member.” Magnus looked certain, “It probably has something to do with Arnold’s apprentice. But there’s someone else behind him, his bank account has a large amount of money transferred.”

“Competitors?”

“I thought so at first, but I saw something suspicious in the surveillance.”

As he said, Magnus played the surveillance video the night before the fire. There was a truck loaded with fresh ingredients at the back door of the hotel, being unloaded for the next day’s use.

“Here.” Magnus framed the image, zoomed in and pointed to a man in a black coat unloading the goods, “I saw this man earlier, from the surveillance in front of Caesar’s house in Lanxi City.”

Joseph’s gaze deepened with a shivery feeling.

The man in the photo was wearing a cap, and he could vaguely see a long scar on the right side of his face, which gave them shivers.

“Identity and background.” Joseph said tersely.

Magnus replied sympathetically, “I checked. His name is Herman Lester, nicknamed Herman, the man with the scar. The police department has a lot of his criminal record for intentional injury. He was released six months ago and is now in the black market, collecting debts for others.”

How could someone who collected debts now be a janitor for the caterer? It was pretty suspicious.

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