Chapter 186: Reversing Cause and Effect
As soon as the words fell, everyone started to talk her down.
"Mrs. Leinster, you should not be impulsive. This matter is certainly not simple..."
"Yes, yes, we are all here for Mr. Leinster’s birthday, having fun is the most important, no need for any compensation!"
Even Mrs. Travens persuaded that she admired Yvonne’s boldness, but the other party dared to take on Sleeping Beauty, so there must be a tight plan, and it was more reliable to turn to Interpol.
It was natural to call the police, but Yvonne could only show everyone what she was capable of if she caught the perpetrator herself. So, she wouldn’t just lie around waiting for the results after calling the police, she would also get involved.
Zachary couldn’t bear to let her carry such great pressure.
But Yvonne insisted on doing so.
"I’m running the event, and I won’t be any less responsible for what I’m supposed to, except that when the time comes for me to find out exactly who’s planning this, I’ll be absolutely hard on them!"
After saying that, her sharp eyes looked at Julia Watkins.
That look, as if she could see through everything, immediately made Julia a little weak.
But soon, Julia calmed down again.
No, she paid a lot of money to hire the most highly trained international mercenary team, and Yvonne was just a little girl with no skills, she wouldn’t be able to catch anything!
Thinking of this, Julia, who was originally faint-hearted, was a little more relieved.
But it was getting late in the day.
In order to be able to give an account to everyone and prove to everyone that she is capable, Yvonne took a big swing and used the money she had made over the years to book the hotel rooms for all the guests attending the party today.
"Don’t worry, I didn’t book the room to keep you until tomorrow morning to delay your precious time, but just to give you a more comfortable environment to be able to wait for the results in peace. By 12 o’clock tonight at the latest, I will be able to catch the person behind this accident."
It was still a few hours before midnight, and she couldn’t have so many people standing around waiting in the ballroom.
The crowd was shocked.
Everyone thought this woman was crazy.
It was the Fairmont Hotel! A super five-star hotel!
How expensive a room was for one night! There were so many people there today, and Yvonne actually booked rooms for everyone!
The painting of Sleeping Beauty might not be found and she would be losing her face and money into it.
But people didn’t dare to say anything.
After all, Yvonne’s aura was too strong. When she said these words, none of these bigwigs actually stood out to refute her.
They only thought in their mind that this little girl was really puffing herself up at her own cost. After all, none of them believed she could get Sleeping Beauty back and more people were just waiting to see the joke.
*
Yvonne left the ballroom and walked to the fire control center.
Here, all the footage and recordings from all the cameras could be seen and every corner of the hotel was showing in the video.
As instructed, Yvonne locked on to the Sixteen cameras that were dedicated to pointing at Sleeping Beauty.
Sixteen screens with sixteen different angles monitoring Sleeping Beauty.
And in sixteen screens, almost simultaneously and in an instant, the painting on the wall was seen to be gone! The next thing they knew was that there were five panicked security guards walking around the room.
Sleeping Beauty almost disappeared in seconds.
All the people who followed Yvonne to see it, including Zachary, were shocked at the sight of this scene.
One of the hotel security guards was even scared to the point of bursting into foul language, "Geez, what the hell is this! What did I just see?"
"It’s broad daylight... This painting... As a strong man, I’m scared looking at it..." Those who saw this scene were terrified.
Everyone thought they were hallucinating and couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
Yvonne frowned tightly, fixing on the screen with a deadly stare.
...
"It’s so scary, isn’t it... How can Sleeping Beauty disappear in a second out of thin air?
Yvonne looked at that frame over and over again, repeatedly confirming that Sleeping Beauty did disappear in a second.
She immediately asked, "Where was the guard in charge of the Sleeping Beauty at the time?"
A bodyguard said, "Mrs. Leinster, there were originally five people patrolling and guarding this painting, at that time it was someone who heard a strange sound, three went out to check, and the other two guarded the painting, but when we turned around, the painting was gone."
What was certain was that the painting must have been taken from those two bodyguards when they weren’t looking.
Yvonne wanted to complain that the bodyguards under Mrs. Travens were truly useless, even though Mrs. Travens was so powerful.
They were so easily fooled by such an obvious tactic that any Angrish would know.
Since the guards had no clue, she had to put her hope on the camera.
But now the camera was like being witched.
It was really disappearing out of thin air.
"In the room where Sleeping Beauty is stored, is there any other access than the front door?" She asked a hotel staff member who stepped aside.
The hotel staff replied, "No more, there is only one door to this room and no window. Everyone coming in and out has to come in through this door."
"understood."
After Yvonne figured out the situation, she immediately called Shirley Quinn who was far away in Arcus.
"Shirl, I sent sixteen video files in your email, help me see if these video files have been edited by someone remotely monitoring them in post."
After all, the painting couldn’t have disappeared into thin air unless someone had faked the security footage.
"Okay!"
Shirley sent the identification results quickly.
"Yvonne, I’ve seen the video and there’s nothing wrong with it. Is there something you’re having trouble with?"
Yvonne’s frown tightened now, "Well, a very important thing is missing, I’ll explain it to you when I find it."
"Okay, okay, just let me know if you need any help."
"Thanks, Shirl, when you come back to Angria again, I’ll treat you well."
The last time Shirley hurried back to see her and the two kids, she said that it was too hard to eat authentic spicy food in Arcus.
"Don’t say it, I’m hungry again when you do... You hurry up and find it."
"Yes, you’re right."
The security footage also wasn’t wrong. Now even the police would be at their wits’ end.
An hour passed and it looked like it would soon be twelve o’clock.
And just as Yvonne was exhausted, the guests were waiting to laugh at her.
"Yvonne, you’ve had enough work lately, leave the rest to me."
Zachary understood her feelings, but didn’t want to see her work too hard.
Yvonne sighed, "I also have no experience in criminal investigation and crime-solving, but the matter is too important not to give an account to Mrs. Travens and so many others who came."
Although she was basically sure that this incident was Julia Watkins’ fault, she needed to take evidence in all matters.
She couldn’t just shout with empty words that it was Julia Watkins who did it.
Yvonne looked at that frame repeatedly, but there was nothing wrong with how it looked, the painting just disappeared out of thin air.
Just then, Zachary spoke up.
"In fact, criminal investigation sometimes requires reverse thinking, reversing cause to effect and effect to cause."
"It’s just that most of us tend to only see the surface of things, while the professional crime-solving brigade has more of a mindset of seeing through phenomena to the essence, so it makes sense that you don’t have a clue right now, Yvonne."
...
When Zachary said this, he was originally trying to persuade Yvonne to stop fighting.
However, Yvonne repeatedly recalled the phrase "Reverse cause and effect, reverse effect as the cause, see through the appearance to perceive the essence."
"See through the appearance to perceive the essence..."
In her previous life, she just couldn’t see the essence through the appearance, which was why she was confused by the appearance of Sarah Mooney, Zoila Mooney and Jordan Yale, those three vicious people.
She had already paid a terrible price once for always failing to see things for what they were, so in this life, she couldn’t be fooled by the appearances before her!
On the other side, the guests who were resting in the hotel room were not idle.
They were told to rest, but instead of actually resting in peace, they got together to gossip.
"Hey, look guys, it’s eleven o’clock and there’s still no movement there at all."
"Yvonne is pretending to be big this time, let’s just watch how she gets hit in the face."
A few rich ladies were gloating.
On the other hand, Julia was fanning the flames at Mrs. Travens’ place, saying all sorts of things about Yvonne being bad at.
Mrs. Travens was someone who had seen the world, so how could she not understand Julia’s mind.
She’d seen half a lifetime of wind and waves and was now long tired of these little tricks.
After making a random excuse and dismissing Julia, she went back to her room alone to rest.
*
On the other side, in the monitoring room, time was running out, but Yvonne hadn’t given up yet.
Suddenly, a light went off in her head and she stood up with a punch on the table.
"I got it!"
The security guard next to him and the crime-solving team was startled.
"You got it?"
In fact, the crime-solving squad didn’t believe that Yvonne could do anything about it.
Even, they found it ridiculous when they heard her say she had to find the killer by twelve o’clock.
Did she think solving a case and catching a perpetrator was like playing the game?
Even they were waiting to laugh at her for what she said.
But Yvonne was really getting a clue now.
She pointed at the screen and said, "Since the cameras are fine and the security footage shows no signs of intrusion, there must be something wrong with the front end of the screen!"
She had no clue, but Zachary’s words instantly opened up her mind!
The crowd wondered, "What does that mean?"
Yvonne said, "The camera didn’t make a mistake, it captured this exact image!"
A few of the officers didn’t react and sneered.
"Does Mrs. Leinster mean that the painting just disappears out of thin air? That’s really something we’re ignorant about." A man said grimly.
"That’s right, what kind of difficult cases have we not taken over the years, does Mrs. Leinster also think that there are invisible people and ghosts in this world?"
"Humph... Woman’s imagination is just unbelievable, to believe so quickly that the painting disappeared out of thin air."
How could she have a clue when they couldn’t even find out anything.
As this man’s words fell, the rest of the group roared with laughter even more.
Someone even said directly and nonchalantly, "Miss Taylor, is that computer expert friend of yours reliable? It’s not like you’re a little girl who relies on her imagination to decide cases, right?"
"Yeah, I’ve copied the video footage to the panel, so we should probably come back tomorrow when the results come in."
"Come on, let’s go to bed."
Those people made Yvonne feel uncomfortable for no reason between their words.
What did they mean, "a little girl like you?"
Woman’s imagination is just unbelievable?
So much for talking about her, she was indeed non-professional.
But they dared to say that about Shirl?
"Excuse me," Yvonne suddenly turned hostile.