Chapter 163: Chapter 163
When she came in carrying the tray, he had already changed his clothes.
Flora Palmer placed the dishes on the coffee table; it was a double breakfast, and she partook in it too. "After breakfast, we’re going to meet someone, then we’ll return to the Presidential Mansion."
Lewis responded with a nod.
"How did we get back last night?"
"What about the car we drove over?"
"I already had someone drive it back."
Lewis nodded, "Alright."
They hadn’t finished breakfast when there was a commotion and screaming outside.
Flora just thought of getting up to check when a servant burst in, "Miss, something terrible has happened!"
"Young Master... Young Master, he..." The servant’s face was ashen with fear, trembling and unable to form a complete sentence.
"What’s happened to my brother?!"
"The Young Master has been murdered!"
On hearing this news, Flora nearly fainted, her eyes red, collapsing as she screamed, "What did you say?! Say it again!"
"Normally, the Young Master would have breakfast between six-thirty and seven, but he didn’t come down this morning. When the servant knocked on his door, there was no response. With Madam’s permission, they broke the lock, and who would have thought... upon entering, they found the Young Master gruesomely murdered on the bed, a knife stuck in his chest."
"Brother..." Tears fell like rain from Flora’s eyes as she sprinted outside.
When she arrived at Frederick Palmer’s room, she saw their mother already kneeling on the ground, crying her heart out, while their father sat on the sofa, his eyes red-rimmed, seemingly aged ten years in an instant.
"Brother—!!!" Flora threw herself at the bedside, holding Frederick’s head and wailed.
The police arrived quickly and immediately formed a special task force to investigate.
Because the Palmer Family had previously been attacked, their security had been increased by several hundred people, with many monitoring the situation around the clock, so the surveillance from last night was intact.
The Palmer Family was too shocked by the sudden murder to check the surveillance, but when the police brought it up, they discovered that the killer was none other than the family’s butler.
After Frederick entered his room, only the butler had gone in.
Police officers and the Palmer Family’s security personnel went immediately to find the butler.
Upon entering the butler’s room, they found he had hanged himself.
The note contained only a few lines.
He confessed to the murder, saying he had drugged Frederick’s tea with a sedative during the night and killed him in his sleep.
He also admitted that Frederick’s previous assault was his doing.
As for the motive for the murder, he made it clear.
It was to avenge his beloved woman, Clara Brooks.
He wanted Father Palmer and Mother Palmer to live in suffering for the rest of their lives.
The letter’s contents ended there.
Who was Clara Brooks?
She was the biological mother of the Palmer Family’s eldest son, and Father Palmer’s girlfriend before marriage.
Father Palmer abandoned Clara Brooks for family and business reasons to marry Mother Palmer.
At that time, Clara Brooks was already a few months pregnant.
Father Palmer wanted Clara Brooks to have an abortion, but Clara Brooks couldn’t bear to do it, saying she wanted nothing but to have the baby, especially since she could already feel it moving.
After fruitless negotiations, Father Palmer had to tell Mother Palmer the truth.
Mother Palmer was initially furious, but later she thought that Clara Brooks wanted to use the child to hold onto her husband; little did she know Clara Brooks had already moved on, getting to know the butler, who was attentive and didn’t mind her past, willing to be the child’s father.
Unaware of it all, Mother Palmer feared Clara Brooks might use the child as a tool to climb up the social ladder, so she had someone stage an accident that led to Clara’s death. Until Clara was about to give birth, there was an opportunity, and Clara was hit by the vehicle Mother Palmer arranged.
Sent to the hospital, the adult was gone immediately, but the child was delivered via caesarean section—the Palmer Family’s eldest son.
The butler always thought it was an accidental car accident, painful but unavoidable. Later, he joined the Palmer Family to look after the eldest son and gradually rose to the position of the butler over the years.
Unexpectedly, when the eldest son was just a few years old, he fell seriously ill, and the butler didn’t even get to see him one last time, attending only the funeral.
He never married, living like that for many years.
Until one day, he saw the Palmer Family’s eldest son again and learned the entire truth.
Discovering that the eldest son hadn’t succumbed to illness but had been sold by Mother Palmer to human traffickers as a child, he knew the truth about Clara Brooks’ death from overhearing his father and stepmother as a child, never telling anyone. He thought staying sensible would see him safely through adulthood.
Upon learning the truth, the butler was consumed by rage and vowed to take revenge.
He knew Frederick was the light of Father and Mother Palmer’s lives. If Frederick died, the eldest son wouldn’t just smoothly return to the Palmers but would also mentally torment Father and Mother Palmer for the rest of their lives.
In concert with the eldest son, he schemed meticulously to kill Frederick, but didn’t succeed.
Seeing the increased security, the butler resolved to act himself to avoid further complications.
Thus unfolded today’s tragedy.
Faced with this letter, Mother Palmer nearly went mad.
The police inquired, "Who is Clara Brooks?"
"She was my husband’s ex-girlfriend. She died in a car accident. What does that have to do with us? Why would he take revenge on us? It was an accident; do we have the gall to commit murder?"
With no specific reasons noted in the butler’s letter, and no evidence after so many years, Mother Palmer’s story was all that existed.
The killer was deceased, and fingerprint analysis on the knife confirmed the butler’s identity.
The case had to be closed at this point.
News of the Palmer Corporation chief being murdered at home spread quickly, covered extensively domestically and internationally. Googlᴇ search novelꞁire.net
Jacob Green and Lucy Eaton arrived in Northriver at nine in the morning.
They hadn’t expected Frederick to still die.
And at the hands of someone so familiar.
When Jacob himself reached the Palmers, Mother Palmer was still unable to stop crying, bemoaning, "Frederick was his charge since childhood; how could he bring himself to do it? My son!"
Flora sat there as if her soul had departed, while Arthur Bennett held her hand tightly, frowning, saying nothing.
Seeing Jacob arrive, Flora, with tears in her eyes, said, "My brother’s gone."
"I know. I’ve come to see him one last time."
He approached the Crystal Coffin, looking at the body of Frederick inside, feeling a deep sense of discomfort. Frederick wasn’t his closest friend, but he was indeed a favored business partner.
Now that he’d been harmed, Jacob felt deeply troubled.
He gazed upon him, reflecting on all those past negotiations. It all seemed familiar, just like before.
He deeply regretted Frederick’s premature passing.
But he was gone now, and no amount of regret would help.