“Good question.” Zuo Yan continued, “I can tell you clearly, of course I have evidence, and it’s very solid evidence.”

As he spoke, he fiddled with his phone again and opened an audio file.

A few seconds later, a man’s voice came from the phone’s speaker—

“I’m Pat Miller, it’s six o’clock in the afternoon on October 12th, in an hour, I’ll be meeting with Sam Herbert…”

Zuo Yan only played the first few words before immediately pressing the stop button.

And Sam… just hearing the beginning, his face involuntarily changed.

“The reason you had the confidence to say what you just did is undoubtedly because you believed you hadn’t left any evidence of interacting with Miller.” Zuo Yan wasn’t surprised by the change in Sam’s expression, he just calmly continued, “Indeed… Miller was very cautious. To avoid leaving a call record, the first time he came to find you, he used the method of ‘suddenly striking up a conversation with you in a public place’; and every subsequent meeting of yours was arranged by ‘leaving coded messages on a public online bulletin board to agree on a time and place.’

“The locations you met at were mostly in crowded business centers. The surveillance equipment in those places is installed and managed by the businesses, unlike the police surveillance cameras on the street… Businesses usually don’t keep surveillance footage for long, their cycle for clearing video files is as short as a week, and at most two months; therefore, even if your meeting was captured by a camera, you don’t need to worry about the footage being kept for too long.

“I have to say, this method of ‘talking face-to-face’ is very good, greatly increasing the efficiency and security of your work… including in the crucial aspect of ‘paying,’ you also delivered cash face-to-face, without involving bank transfers.

“Everything you did… was almost untraceable.

“However… precisely because of this, the cautious Miller would inevitably leave a backup plan; after all… after the job was done, he still had to get a ‘final payment’ from you, and if you tried to cheat him or kill him to silence him, he had to be prepared. Otherwise… he would have taken the blame for you for nothing.

“So, Miller, this evening, before meeting with you… recorded such an audio recording in advance, explaining the transaction between you and him from beginning to end; if something unexpected happens later, for example… you want to renege on the final payment, then he can use this recording, ‘recorded before the time of the incident,’ to threaten you…”

“Hold on.” At this moment, Feng Bujue interjected, “Miller himself is also involved in the case, if he hands the recording over to the police… wouldn’t he be going down with Sam?”

“It’s not ‘going down together.’” Zuo Yan looked at Brother Jue and replied, “If Miller took the recording to the police to confess, considering the content of the recording and the circumstances of the confession, he would most likely be given a light sentence as an ‘accessory’; and Sam… based on the fact that he was declared a swindler in the will lawsuit that year, plus the clear motive and the fact that it was a planned crime, this ‘principal’ of his might never get out of prison in this lifetime.”

The above answer wasn’t Zuo Yan reciting Victor’s mental monologue, but what he himself was saying. Because before coming to this room, Victor had already generally gone over the entire case in Zuo Yan’s mind, so Zuo Yan could handle these impromptu questions himself, which was also a kind of tacit understanding between him and Victor.

“Similarly…” After a slight pause, Zuo Yan added, “If Miller was arrested during the crime, then this recording could also be used as evidence to reduce his sentence, just in case.”

“Hmm… I see.” Feng Bujue heard this, put on a thoughtful look, and nodded thoughtfully.

He was acting…

In fact, Brother Jue didn’t understand these things after hearing Zuo Yan’s words, he had already thought of them himself; but… to make the case last until chapter thirty-three, Feng Bujue had to ask some questions like this from time to time.

And from the perspective of Zuo Yan and Victor, Feng Bujue’s questions were also reasonable and could help them explain the case and the behavioral logic of each person involved more clearly, so they answered patiently.

“Eh?” Just after pondering, Feng Bujue seemed to suddenly remember something again, and asked in a raised tone, “Then how did you get this recording? Did Miller carry this recording with him?”

“Take a good look, Brother Jue.” Zuo Yan smiled and raised the phone in his hand, “This isn’t my phone.”

Feng Bujue had already noticed that the phone Zuo Yan was holding at the moment was different from the one he had given to Doughty earlier, he was just asking a question he already knew the answer to.

“This phone is Miller’s.” Zuo Yan continued, “Of course, he didn’t carry it with him when he committed the crime, otherwise… Mr. Herbert would definitely have discovered the recording before all of us.” As he spoke, he glanced at John, implying that the other party had searched the body before the police arrived, “About an hour ago, the police, after confirming Miller’s identity, found this phone by searching his residence on the island; and ten minutes ago, I used the thumbprint of the corpse to unlock the phone’s screen and discovered the audio recording from just now.”

“Oh… I see…” Feng Bujue said, “This is indeed a safe method, if Miller was caught by someone other than the police before or after the crime, he wouldn’t be afraid of the evidence being destroyed if the recording wasn’t on him; and once he was officially arrested by the police, he could let the police go to his residence to find the phone.”

“Unfortunately… Miller calculated everything, but he didn’t expect that he would die…” Two seconds later, Zuo Yan took over the conversation again, at this time, his tone had a subtle change, it seemed that Victor was back online, “Fortunately, he had left enough information to allow me to deduce the truth of the case.”

As he spoke, he once again cast his gaze at Sam.

At this moment, Sam’s face was pale and green, and the cold sweat on his back had already soaked his close-fitting clothes.

Faced with Zuo Yan’s gaze, Sam didn’t speak, he was very clear… at this moment, the more he said, the more mistakes he would make. Although his heart had felt despair about the situation when he heard the recording, he still grabbed a branch called “luck” on the edge of the cliff called “collapse”, barely supporting himself from sliding down.

“Hmph… you’re quite quiet now.” Zuo Yan said coldly, “After I’ve proven that you’re not ‘not understanding what I’m saying,’ and ‘you and Miller really know each other’… you look a little embarrassed behaving like this, don’t you?”

Victor was aggressive, while Sam continued to remain silent.

“Alright… in any case, we can finally start talking about your motives…” Zuo Yan paused, and then said, “As I said before, your real motive… isn’t ‘John stole the inheritance that should have belonged to you,’ but… ‘John, this bastard who has no blood relation to you, killed your father, and stole the inheritance that should have belonged to you.’”