CHAPTER 507: CHAPTER 299: ACCIDENTAL_1

"Ma’am, you wouldn’t want both your husband and son to be thrown into prison, would you?"

Dean spread his hands on the sofa, looking down at the woman crying in front of him. His entire demeanor exuded the air of a villain—a shamelessly unscrupulous one at that.

The weeping woman was Fadili’s wife, Teague’s mother.

Upon hearing from Nellie that her husband had also been jailed due to his conviction, this petite, gentle-looking woman lost her pillar of support and could only clutch Nellie’s small hand to wipe her tears.

Nellie’s heart softened.

She could only quietly comfort the helpless woman while looking pleadingly at Dean, who sat nearby, jiggling his leg.

And so, the scene at the beginning unfolded.

Nellie’s eyes widened as she looked at Dean.

Listen to him! Is that any way for a person to speak? She had originally hoped Dean would help her comfort poor Mrs. Fadili. Instead, this man, who appeared respectable enough, opened his mouth and spoke with the standard tone of a despicable villain. Is his actual profession really detective?

Dean ignored Nellie’s odd look and threw a stack of photos on the table. "Madam, you should know me—I was hired by Mr. Fadili as a detective. If you want your husband and son safely back by your side, please dry your tears and cooperate with me!"

Mrs. Fadili wiped away her tears, stole a glance at Dean, then with red, swollen eyes, looked at the photographs.

When she clearly saw the content of the photos, her expression changed slightly. Her husband was supposed to have put these photographs away! How did they end up in the hands of this detective who just arrived? She then asked, somewhat frantically, "What do you want me to cooperate with you on?"

She didn’t yet know that her husband had gone out earlier intending to dispose of these very pictures.

Dean saw the change in Mrs. Fadili’s expression. Realizing she knew something, he got straight to the point, "These photos, they were taken by Teague, weren’t they?"

Mrs. Fadili hesitated for a moment, then nodded uncertainly. "Yes, Ms. Toddy had always taken good care of Teague, which made Teague very fond of her.

I don’t know when it started.

Teague began using his father’s camera to follow and secretly photograph Ms. Toddy, but Fadili discovered this pretty quickly.

Fadili is someone who cares a lot about what others think.

He believed that since Teague was only fifteen and a student of Ms. Toddy, this was not a normal sentiment.

He was very worried Teague might do something impulsive. He was even more concerned that Teague’s behavior would one day be exposed, leading to him being labeled a stalker and a voyeur. So, he later found an excuse to quietly go to the school and complain to the principal about Ms. Toddy, hoping this would make her stop paying Teague so much attention.

After that, Fadili also had a talk with Teague.

They had an argument about this matter, but Teague was very afraid of his father, so in the end, he promised to stop doing it.

However, it wasn’t long before he became the suspect in the murder of Ms. Toddy."

Mrs. Fadili spoke slowly, pausing occasionally, but Dean and Nellie were able to hear the whole story.

Dean arched an eyebrow. "Madam, are you saying that nothing inappropriate, beyond a teacher-student relationship, ever occurred between Teague and Ms. Toddy?"

Mrs. Fadili shook her head affirmatively. "Absolutely not. Although Teague is very afraid of his father, he’s very reliant on me and wouldn’t hide his thoughts from me. If he ever did something like that, he definitely couldn’t keep it from me."

Hearing this, Dean fell into contemplation.

He could tell from her demeanor and tone that Mrs. Fadili was being sincere; she wasn’t evasive like her husband.

After thinking it over, Dean continued, "Madam, since Teague depends on you, then you should know him better than your husband does. Based on your understanding of him, do you think all of Teague’s secret photos are here?"

Murders committed indoors are seldom random; there’s usually a motive.

From what was known, Ms. Toddy was kind and responsible. She’d never had open conflicts or disputes with anyone. Her social circle was simple, and romantically, she had always been single, ruling out a crime of passion stemming from a love triangle.

In such circumstances, the photos Teague took secretly might actually provide clues to Ms. Toddy’s private life.

Dean possessed high-level psychological skills and understood the behavioral patterns of these rebellious youths.

He suspected that Teague hadn’t handed over all of the photos!

Indeed, after a moment of silence, Teague’s mother nodded. "He still hid some in the attic..."

Dean quickly gave Nellie a look, then said, "Madam, could I trouble you to take Officer Nellie to get those photos? Perhaps a clue we need is on one of them, which could save your husband and son."

Upon hearing this, Mrs. Fadili didn’t dare to delay. She promptly took Nellie upstairs.

A short while later, Nellie came back down with a backpack.

Dean looked surprised. "The backpack is filled with them?"

Nellie was also somewhat speechless. "Yes, it turns out Teague started secretly photographing Ms. Toddy a long time ago, and he only gave his father a very small portion of the photos."

After securing the backpack, Dean asked some more questions.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Fadili was one of the increasingly rare traditional women in the United States; she didn’t know much. Fadili hadn’t shared the pressure with his wife, choosing to bear it all himself.