Chapter 183: Snow Mountain: Everly: “There’s Only One Truth!”

Chapter 183 Snow Mountain: Everly: "There is only one truth!"

Since it involved personal privacy, Lucas had originally wanted to pull Ella aside and question her privately for more details.

But Ella, perhaps having suffered a series of blows—the professor's death, witnessing the corpse, being accused—had thrown caution to the wind. Amidst her tears, she blurted everything out with a "screw it" attitude.

"Boo-hoo... I didn't want to either, but the professor... he threatened me. If I didn't obey him, not only would I lose my scholarship, but I wouldn't even get my degree certificate. My family isn't rich like everyone else's. The professor said it would only happen once, so I agreed, but he... he secretly recorded it. He used the video to threaten me, and I had no choice but to listen to him..."

"Oh, you poor thing."

Hilda, the blonde woman sitting beside Ella, let out a sympathetic sigh, reached out to wrap an arm around the girl's shoulder, and gently patted Ella's head.

She'd been holding this in for way too long, so at the slightest bit of kindness, Ella burst into tears the second she felt a little kindness, sobbing uncontrollably in Hilda's arms.

"Tsk, just as I thought. That professor was a fat, greasy pig—clearly a piece of trash."

"What a monster. A bastard like him deserved what he got!"

Seeing that Ella wouldn't stop crying long enough to answer questions, Lucas had no choice but to turn his attention to the other three students.

"Did you all know about this?"

Under his sharp gaze, the three students either stammered or looked away, saying nothing. Though no one said it outright, it was clear they all knew what the professor had done to Ella.

Seeing the three students' reactions, the others didn't know what to say for a moment.

After waiting quietly for Ella's sobs to die down a bit, Lucas asked again: "So, Ella, is that why you held a grudge against the professor? Did you sneak into his bedroom late at night and kill him?"

"No! I didn't kill the professor! Boo-hoo... no, it wasn't me!"

"Don't be so stubborn. Among all of us, you're the only one with both a motive and a room key card. When the professor saw you walk in, he wouldn't have been on guard. Maybe you even told him to get into that position..."

"Slap!"

Before Fatima could finish her nasty remark, Ella, eyes red from crying, hauled off and slapped her hard across the face.

"Shut up!" Ella, who'd always seemed so timid and meek, turned bright red and shot up from the sofa like an enraged lioness, her voice trembling with emotion. "Yeah, you're so high and mighty with your rich family and connections. Even the professor was willing to cater to you. But you're not so squeaky clean yourself. Don't think I don't know about what happened with Hannah all those years ago..."

Fatima had clearly never been slapped before. She stared wide-eyed, clutching her cheek in shock for a second. When she came to her senses, she let out a shriek and lunged at Ella's throat with both hands: "You bitch! How dare you slap me!"

Just as the two were about to go at each other, the people around quickly jumped in and pulled them apart.

"Alright, alright. Let's focus on cracking the case first."

"Yeah, let's find the killer first..."

Though they said this, judging by the way they kept glancing at each other, it was clear that everyone now saw Ella as the real killer.

"It really wasn't me! I've put up with it for so long. The professor finally agreed to let me work on research with him. Why would I kill him right when things were finally looking up?! And I'd never have the guts to kill anyone, boo-hoo..."

"Who knows? Maybe you were blinded by hate and snapped in a moment of rage."

"No, no, no, no, I didn't do it!!!"

"Enough, stop arguing." Lucas's head was pounding from all the noise. "So far, Ella is definitely the prime suspect, but that doesn't mean everyone else is off the hook. Besides, there's one question I still can't figure out: having your stomach cut open and your organs ripped out while you're still alive is agonizing. Why didn't any of us hear the professor screaming last night?"

"Did someone stuff something in his mouth?"

"No. If someone had stuffed something in his mouth, in that kind of agony, he would've tried to bite down, gag, or swallow, which would've left marks around his lips and mouth. But I checked carefully—his mouth was completely clean, and his hands showed no signs of struggle or scratching. That's practically impossible..."

At this point, Lucas turned his head and looked at Everly.

From start to finish, she'd been sitting there like nothing was wrong, totally detached, off in her own world, as if digging up more dirt on this group wouldn't affect her solving the case one bit.

Honestly, it was a little deflating, but more than that, it sparked his intense curiosity and hunger for answers.

This murder case was extremely difficult to solve.

On one hand, they were stuck deep in the mountains with limited resources—no forensic experts, no proper equipment, couldn't even determine an accurate time of death, let alone lift fingerprints or collect bodily fluids from the body and crime scene for testing.

On the other hand, as a novelist, Lucas couldn't run thorough background checks on the guests the way a cop would, nor could he force-search suspects or go through their luggage. That meant a ton of critical information was missing.

Furthermore, due to the lack of authority, even if he could tell someone was holding something back during questioning, as long as they clammed up and refused to talk, he couldn't get the key information out of them.

For a detective who needed tons of information to make solid logical deductions, these conditions were an absolute nightmare.

Of course, given enough time to investigate, Lucas believed he was fully capable of peeling back the layers and finding the true culprit. After all, the case itself wasn't that complicated, and the pool of suspects was limited.

But Lucas had no intention of continuing his investigation.

Compared to this murder case, Old John and his group of four interested him far more.

Each of those four people was somewhat mysterious, shrouded in a layer of fog. They sat in the lobby, chatting harmoniously with everyone, yet carried a faint air of detachment, out of place with everything around them.

Especially that girl named Everly. While he was still completely in the dark about the case, she claimed she had already found the killer?!

How was that possible? How did she manage it?!

"Miss Everly, I've shared all the information I've gathered. Now it's your turn... You claimed you'd already solved this murder case the moment the body was discovered. I'm looking forward to your deduction." He spoke with a seemingly polite demeanor, but his words carried a hint of mockery.

The people in the lobby clearly hadn't expected Lucas to actually believe a young girl's nonsense and listen to her seriously analyze the case. A stir of commotion rippled through the crowd.

Everly paid no attention to their reactions.

She nodded, stood up, and said with complete composure: "Yes, I do know who the killer is... If you want to know, follow me."

"Seriously? Is she for real?"

"Who knows? Even the famous Noah Pipe couldn't find the killer. How would a little girl like her know? She's probably used to being praised too much and has gotten carried away, thinking people will believe anything she says." Daniel was the loudest, his tone sour with envy.

"So, where are we going?"

The buzzing murmurs didn't affect Everly's actions. Over the next while, with her back straight and her steps steady, she led the large group on a tour around every corner of the inn.

Every few steps, she would pause briefly, carefully searching inconspicuous spots like the hooks of corridor paintings, decorative lamps, and flowerpots, pulling out one small black object after another.

Some of these objects were fist-sized, like cigarette cases. Others were as small as buttons, cunningly stuck to the iron hooks of paintings, blending seamlessly with the decorative patterns—invisible unless you looked closely. Some were plugged in and required electricity, while others ran on batteries and were extremely tiny...

Lucas, being well-traveled, quickly realized what they were.

"You've been planting micro-cameras in the inn?!" He stared at Everly, unable to suppress an exclamation.

As a family-run inn, considering guest privacy, the vacation house hadn't installed surveillance cameras in hallways or corridors like most hotels. Presumably, the killer had counted on this when daring to commit murder at night.

But who would have thought that among these twelve guests—a gathering of talents, young and old alike—there wasn't just a victim, a killer, a part-time detective mystery novelist, but also an oddity like Everly? She had gone and installed micro-cameras throughout the hallways on the first and second floors, and even outside the hotel windows!

Honestly, if she had done this anywhere else, someone would have called the police on her by now. It was only because everyone was trapped on the snowy mountain and desperately needed to solve this murder case that they grudgingly held their tongues.

"Alright, that's all of them. Now all we need to do is take out the memory cards, upload the videos to a computer, and the killer will be revealed at a glance..."

After peeling off the last camera stuck to the outside of the window, Everly turned around and was about to call everyone back when a bloodcurdling scream suddenly erupted from the back of the line.

"Ahhhh!"

"K-kill! Someone's been killed!"

Hearing the scream, everyone turned around in unison, looking toward the direction of the sound.

There, at the end of the line, Hilda had pulled out a sharp knife from who-knows-where. Just moments ago, while everyone's attention was drawn to Everly's miniature cameras, she swung the blade in one clean arc, slashing it right across Daniel's neck.

The blade sank into Daniel's neck, burying itself nearly four inches deep. When it was pulled out, blood sprayed out, splattering all over Fatima, who was standing nearby. The girl had never seen such a bloody scene; she froze up for a second, then let out a piercing scream. But Hilda, as if bloodlust had taken over, yanked out the boning knife and swung it back toward the screaming girl.

Seeing what was coming, Lucas shoved Fatima, and she just barely dodged the swing aimed at her neck.

But Fatima was clearly rattled by everything happening back-to-back. Once she steadied herself, she didn't seek help from the crowd around her. Instead, dragging her legs, which felt like noodles, she stumbled and took off down the corridor, screaming the whole way.

"Stop!" Hilda bellowed, giving Lucas a hard kick. Before anyone around could react, she grabbed her knife and chased after Fatima. Daniel was left standing there, clutching his neck in shocked terror, blood frothing from his mouth as he made strange gurgling sounds.

That one blow had clearly cut through both his carotid artery and his windpipe. No matter how hard Daniel pressed on the wound, blood kept gushing out like a fountain, spraying everywhere.

Within moments, he swayed and crashed to the ground with a thud, succumbing to suffocation and blood loss.

"Help... someone help, who knows first aid!"

"Hilda's attacking Fatima, someone stop her!"

The chaos in the corridor dragged on for a good while. By the time Everly, Old John, and Lucas finally pushed through the crowd and rushed to Hilda's side, she had already caught up to Fatima. She was straddling the girl, maniacally stabbing at her head and neck with the knife.

"Thunk! Thunk! Thunk..."

The boning knife had a sharp tip and a heavy spine; each strike produced a crisp sound of metal meeting bone. Occasionally, when the angle was just right, the tip would plunge deep through soft spots like the mouth or eye sockets and be yanked out viciously, sending blood flying. Fatima's body would twitch slightly, like a dying fish.

A large pool of blood flowed from the girl's torn throat, forming a wide puddle beneath her.

With wounds like that, deep in the mountains, unless a miracle occurred, Fatima was clearly beyond saving.