Chapter 548
Mr. K gave the time and place, and before hanging up, asked, “Are you tight with Michaela Sanders?”
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“I’m pretty chummy with her husband’s brother,” Celeste replied.
Mr. K didn’t pry any further, simply saying, “Catch you in a bit.”
Mr. K was the notorious private eye in J City.
Mr. K didn’t have a detective agency, his whereabouts were always up in the air, and the only way to find him was through an email address he publicly posted on forums.
You want to work with him, send him an email. If he’s interested, he’ll get in touch. If he’s not, and doesn’t reply for a week, that’s your cue to move on.
Ever since Celeste found those things in the safe and realized that Caitlyn had considered divorcing Shawn Campbell seven years ago, she started suspecting that there was more to the car accident seven years ago.
After Caitlyn’s funeral, she reached out to Michaela and asked her about the case.
Michaela’s in criminal investigation, but she also has connections in the traffic accident department.
Michaela asked a friend to help her look up the case files from seven years ago. The conclusion was that the authorities handling the accident didn’t collect a blood sample from Caitlyn at the time, so there was no drug test done. Thus, it couldn’t be confirmed whether Caitlyn had taken any antidepressants.
In other words, Shawn’s claim that Caitlyn was under the influence of depression was just a guess made by the police officer who surveyed the scene at the time, there was no evidence to support it.
Michaela explained that they had good surveillance footage of the scene, so the entire incident was pretty clear. Plus, the family of the vehicle that Caitlyn crashed into wanted the case resolved as soon as possible, so it was treated as a regular traffic accident – fines were issued, compensation was arranged, and both parties settled privately.
After explaining all this, Michaela added, “The officer handling the case was a colleague of mine. According to his recollection, both parties wanted to quickly close the case, nobody likes having unresolved cases. They did suggest a blood test, but Shawn refused, citing your mother’s critical condition as the reason.”
While Michaela could help with the case files, Celeste could also have officially requested this information as a family member of the victim, though the process would have been slower.
Michaela was just helping her expedite the process. While there were things she couldn’t disclose, she did add that last bit as a personal reminder, because the case was indeed suspicious.
How much blood would a drug test require? Caitlyn’s injuries were mainly to her head, she didn’t lose a lot of blood, so how could drawing some blood for testing be inconvenient?
Furthermore, drug tests can’t be delayed for too long. The longer it’s delayed, the more difficult it would be to detect the drugs after they’re metabolized. It seemed like Shawn wasn’t concerned about whether his wife was innocent, but was rather eager to get this matter resolved.
Back then, the police handling the case also had their doubts, but the final decision was up to their superiors. If the superiors wanted the case closed quickly, they couldn’t continue investigating.
After learning about the case from Michaela, Celeste was even more convinced that there was something fishy about the accident. But after so many years, the vehicle involved in the accident had already been destroyed. Without new evidence, there was no way to reopen the case.
Michaela recommended her to this private detective and gave her his email, suggesting she give it a shot.
