Two Hundred and thirty six

CHAPTER 236

Nicholas overheard Noel's conversation as Noel immediately pressed the loudspeaker icon on his cell phone. Noel placed the phone on the table and turned up the call volume when the voice on the other side came on.

[Hello, Detective Noel. Are you with Nicholas?]

Noel looked at Nicholas, then nodded his head and answered the question from the other side. "Yes, I put this call on speaker so Nicholas can hear it too. Is there anything you found, Dr. Harris?"

Nicholas rounded his mouth, knowing that it was Dr. Harris who was calling Noel. This was such an unexpected coincidence.

Dr. Harris' voice came back on the phone. [The team from the lab just gave me the news. These are the results of the nail samples you found].

Noel and Nicholas' faces both turned enthusiastic, they did not expect that Dr. Harris would give news in the midst of this very complicated atmosphere. Noel immediately replied to the doctor's words. "Yes, Doctor? What did you find?"

[The nail clippings you found at Alicia's house matched the nail clippings on Jill's clothes. And we checked the DNA sample on this nail with the saliva sample from the glass Ace Blake used in prison. Well, it was 99% accurate. They are the same person."]

Nicholas couldn't hide his enthusiasm and excitement after hearing Dr. Harris say that, he shouted. "Yes! We caught Ace! Ace is the killer of Jill and her daughter!"

Dr. Harris realized that the voice belonged to Nicholas, so the man who worked as a specialist doctor greeted Nicholas from the other side of the call. [Detective Nicholas?]

"Yes, Dr. Harris? I'm here, I'm listening to everything," Nicholas said excitedly.

It was a breath of fresh air on a complicated murder case. One mystery had just been solved. And this was because Alicia had found nail clippings under her living room table, even though she hadn't cut her nails since Ace came to her flat.

"Ace is the killer of Jill and her daughter. It's an interesting discovery. We can finally move on and not get stuck where we started," Nicholas said.

A long murmur could be heard from Dr. Harris. [You're right about that.]

Noel and Nicholas exchanged glances when Noel finally remembered something. "We're trying to match the nail clippings to some cases. Have you finished checking them all?"

[Oh, yes, we also checked this nail sample with the fabric left on Michelle's and Edward's clothes, but there was no match.]

Nicholas' brow furrowed. He moved his face forward, so that his lips could be closer to Noel's cell phone on the table. "You mean, Jill's killer didn't do the same thing to Alicia's parents?"

There was a moment's pause, before Dr. Harris finally spoke again on the phone. [It seems so. There was no match in the samples we compared in the lab."]

Nicholas looked puzzled, he could not feel the satisfaction of failing to blame Ace in the death of Alicia's parents. He couldn't help himself and continued to sigh in annoyance. Meanwhile, Noel made a decision. She pulled her phone closer and spoke to Dr. Harris.

"Well, thank you for your information, Dr. Harris. That's very helpful to us."

[Maybe if you can find other clues that we can compare, we'll look into it again.]

Noel bit her lip, she looked confused. "There's nothing left of the burnt house. But I hope we can make a difference."

After that, Dr. Harris decided to end the conversation between them. [I'm going to turn off the phone. Let me know if you find anything we can check."]

"Thank you, Dr. Harris."

Click!

The call was ended.

Noel immediately cast his eyes towards Nicholas. He nodded his head. "We finally know that Ace killed Jill and her daughter. We know they had a relationship in the past. The motive could have been revenge, Ace didn't accept that Jill confessed to everything, put Ace in jail and yeah, that's a good enough reason to put him back in jail, right?"

The words were true, but not enough to make Nicholas stop sighing. NIcholas leaned his head against the top of the chair he was sitting on, looking up at Noel, he said, "But what about Jason? Alicia's parents? We don't even know where Ace is now. He disappeared after escaping from prison. How is this case going to be solved?"

Noel could see the frustration in Nicholas' eyes, the weight of the unsolved mystery that still lingered in the room. He took a deep breath and reassured him, "We have a lead now, Nick. We know who the killer is, and that's a big step forward. The rest, we'll figure out."

Nicholas nodded, acknowledging the progress they had made but still visibly worried about the things that remained unanswered. Noel decided it was time to change the approach. "Look, Ace is on the run, but he won't hide forever. We have to think like him, anticipate his movements. If he has a motive for going after Jill, there might be a pattern we can trace. We can't let him get away with it."

"We've distributed flyers, displayed his face as the city's most wanted fugitive, but what? We haven't found any information regarding Ace's whereabouts!"

Noel let out a long sigh. "You need to calm down, Nick. Are you angry that Ace wasn't implicated in the fire and explosion at Alicia's parents' house? Are you angry about your personal affairs, hm?"

Nicholas wanted to say no, but he couldn't lie about his own feelings. What Noel said was true. He was angry, he was upset, he was disappointed. All those emotions came together as one. Leaving Nicholas speechless right there.

While Noel let out a short breath and raised one eyebrow. "You made a commitment to keep personal matters separate from work matters, have you forgotten that promise? If you're still discussing this, you'll be angry again if you know the conditions are the same as this in the future. You have to control yourself before things get messy, NIck."

"Ah, damn. This is so disgusting!"