Once Bitten, Twice Shy

After a few seconds, Ernest finally said the last word of his sentence, "…herself."

At the same time, Samantha also said, "Herself."

Ernest was stunned for a moment and looked at her in surprise. "How did you know, Ms. Larsson?"

Samantha lowered her eyebrows slightly. "I guessed it from your description."

However, that answer was still beyond what she expected.

She suddenly remembered what Penelope whispered in her ear when holding her hostage. "You were the one who could not let go of me. You snatched Timmy from me, helped that b*tch Sheena seduce my father, made my mother lose her mind, and threw me in jail. What more do you want? How much more ruthless do you have to be!"

At that time, she could not understand why Penelope called her 'ruthless' as she never kicked Penelope when the latter was already down, so to speak. Samantha had finally started to understand what was going on.

A great majority of things that happened were probably in Penelope's imagination.

She inflicted self-harm despite her claims that other people had been beating, scolding and bullying her.

There had to be something wrong with her mental state for that to happen. The question was whether she had been overstimulated and suffered mental problems or whether it was caused by external factors?

There had to be some relation to her madness!

Ernest praised her, "You're very sharp, Ms. Larsson."

Samantha smiled faintly in response and asked again, "Did you let her see a doctor after you found out that she was hurting herself?"

"We arranged for a psychiatrist to give her some psychological counseling and he prescribed some medicines to her, but her condition was like a roller-coaster. She acts normally when she's fine but then inflicts self-harm again when she relapses. All we could do was try to keep an eye on her."

Samantha nodded and thought for a moment before asking, "Did anyone visit her while she was serving her sentence?"

"Yes," Ernest answered while typing on the keyboard. He searched up the records and looked at them before continuing, "It was a woman. Her name is Harmony Johnson, but she's only been here once."

Harmony!

It turned out to have something to do with Harmony!

Samantha continued asking, "When did Harmony come to visit? Was it...just before Penelope escaped from prison?"

Ernest felt nothing but amazement for the woman in front of him and nodded, "Yes. It was just before her escape. She started to self-harm again after Ms. Johnson came to visit, so we had to let her go on medical parole because of how serious her condition was. That was what gave her the opportunity to escape. She eventually...passed away."

After a pause, he clasped his hands together and seemed hesitant to speak.

When Samantha saw that, she hurriedly asked, "Mr. Norton, you seem to have something else to say. There's no harm being honest with me."

Ernest hesitated for a moment but eventually raised his eyes to look at her. He lowered his voice slightly and said, "To tell you the truth, I had my suspicions that Penelope's escape from prison was somehow related to Harmony, but they never met other than that one visit. I've also watched the surveillance video of Harmony's visit many times, and I didn't notice anything wrong with it. I suppose this will forever remain unresolved."

Surveillance footage!

What a surprise!

Samantha asked, "If you don't mind, Mr. Norton, can I request a copy of the video? I'd like to bring it home and have a good look at it. I give you my word that the video will never be shared and I'll delete it once I'm done. I won't cause you any trouble."

Any information regarding Penelope would have been destroyed after her death, and the same would have occurred for the video if Ernest was unbothered about the incident.

With Samantha expressing an interest to study the video, he could gladly give her a copy since it would be a good thing if she was able to find something.

Ernest smiled and said, "Sure, I'll pass it to you."

"Thank you."

With their conversation almost over, Samantha got up and reached out to shake hands with Ernest. She thanked him sincerely, "You've helped me a lot today. Thank you very much."

"You're welcome! I'll see you out." Ernest got up too.

…

Once Samantha drove back to the apartment, she sat on the sofa and projected her phone onto the television before clicking on the surveillance video.

The video depicted Harmony and Penelope sitting face to face across a glass window.

Penelope was visibly pale, very thin, and had a gruesome face. Her eyes were dull-looking yet they had a keen glimmer, and she looked as though she could attack anyone at any time.

Harmony was still as innocent and indifferent as ever.

There was no audio in the video, but Samantha's lipreading skills enabled her to discern what they were saying simply by looking carefully at both their lips.

Harmony's words were basically to incite discord and nothing seemed out of the ordinary with it.

Meanwhile, Penelope's emotions had indeed been stirred up. Although she looked mournful and was unwilling to speak in the beginning, she became extremely excited and angry at the end.

Harmony then comforted her slightly and Penelope's mood eased once again.

Finally, Harmony showed concern for Penelope's body and the visit thus ended.

Samantha watched it several times and, like Ernest, did not notice anything wrong with it. It merely looked like a normal visit.

For some reason, she felt that there was something off about the whole incident simply because it was too normal!

Unfortunately, she was just unable to notice what was wrong!

She could only be patient and slow the video down several times over to continue watching each frame.

The clock ticked away and several hours had passed before she knew it. Her eyes were sore and she had to close them while massaging her nose bridge.

Her phone rang all of a sudden.

Samantha opened her eyes and picked up her phone to look at it. The call was from Rochelle.

Could Rochelle have found something?

Samantha answered the call immediately, "Hello, Chelle."

Rochelle replied in a mellifluously hoarse voice, "You guessed it right, Sammy. Harmony and Penelope have known each other for a long time, even before Harmony went abroad. Do you know how they met? Harmony stumbled and fell into a body of water once, and Penelope called someone to come and save her. Don't you think it's hilarious that Penelope is Harmony's savior?"

Samantha continued to listen.

"The reason Penelope could get close to Timothy was because of Harmony, and that's why Penelope trusts her and is very grateful to her."

Samantha's eyes flickered slightly and she pursed her lower lip before asking, "Where is Penelope's mother now? Have you found her?"

"I did. It's a pity, really. The once untouchable Mrs. Schmidt now lives by begging under a sky bridge." Rochelle spoke in a tone that seemed to emphasize how people like Violet had done plenty of bad things in the past to deserve that kind of treatment.

"Are you sure?" Samantha asked in surprise. "When did it happen?"

"After Penelope attacked you the first time and went to jail, no one paid the rent in the house that Violet rented. She was eventually kicked out by the landlord and has been begging ever since then."

Samantha frowned.

According to the lipreading she did earlier, Harmony should have handled Violet's affairs and taken good care of her, but from what Rochelle said, Violet's well-being was none of Harmony's concern.

In that case, she had been deceiving Penelope who had trusted her 100% and believed everything she said.

Samantha laughed all of a sudden when she thought about that whole saving incident. She immediately understood that Harmony and Penelope only met because Harmony orchestrated it.

She thought that Penelope was just a pawn used to attack her during the final moments, but the truth was that Penelope had been a pawn that Harmony buried long ago.

When Harmony was abroad, Penelope stayed by Timothy's side and was able to help Harmony chase away other women who tried to get close to him.

At the same time, Penelope was a simple-minded person who was easy to control, and Timothy did not fancy that kind of woman either. From that, Harmony was able to kill two birds with one stone.

What an amazing plan!

However, a person's heart was the most complicated aspect of their existence and many factors could lead to a change of heart. How could Harmony be sure that Penelope will do things according to her plan?

Where did Harmony get such confidence?

Samantha subconsciously looked at the screen and had a sudden realization! The answer was right in front of her!