Chapter 323 - Useful Evidence (1/2)
”So, you're saying that you thought Avaleigh was the victim and this man was the murderer?” Officer Liang asked as she looked at the photos that Steven brought.
Steven nodded his head nervously.
”And...this photo was taken at the hotel last night?” Officer Liang confirmed as she pointed to a photo in the lobby.
Avaleigh did indeed seem like she had a stalker. But, it was unclear whether there was any link to Mimi's death.
”Did you take any other photos at the hotel?” Officer Liang asked.
Steven scratched the back of his neck and hesitated before he pulled out his camera from his backpack and handed it to the police officer.
”Yes...I followed Avaleigh up to her room and watched her door from the end of the corridor...” he sighed.
He didn't want to mention this at first, but now that the officer was asking, he had no choice but to cooperate.
Officer Liang turned on the camera and scrolled through the photos on Steven's memory card.
”You do realize that these photos put you at the scene of the crime, right?” Officer Liang asked as she raised an eyebrow and continued scrolling. The timestamp at the bottom showed that Steven was there until, at least, midnight. After that, there were no more photos, but it didn't prove that he had left either. Could he have walked into Mimi's room and killed her?
”Did you know that Mimi's room was next to Avaleigh's?” Officer Liang asked as she scrolled past a photo of Mimi entering her room.
”No,” Steven replied. ”It was just a lucky coincidence. ”My assignment was to focus on Avaleigh. She's one of my long-term artists. There are 5 of us in the Kpop department and we are each assigned 10 artists to follow on a long-term basis. So, obviously, we don't have enough resources to focus on every single artist; we only focus on the most popular ones. When I saw Mimi enter next door, I was quite surprised. Since it was a lucky coincidence, I took a few photos for extra content.”
Officer Liang nodded her head and continued clicking through the photos. The paparazzi had a habit of taking burst shots and just snapping photos of every little movement, so there were a few thousand photos on the camera. By the time she clicked through the first 200, her finger was already feeling a little tired, but she wanted to look at every single photo in detail. The hotel's cameras were under maintenance, so this was probably the only footage of the corridor from last night.
As she clicked through a few more photos, she suddenly stopped. The timestamp was 10:09pm. A man with a trolley entered Avaleigh's room with what appeared to be dinner.
Officer Liang had questioned the staff in the hotel to see if anyone entered Mimi's room between the estimated time of death, and supposedly, someone attempted to deliver dinner at 10:45pm but no one answered Mimi's or Avaleigh's door. The staff member assumed that the guests were asleep, so he slipped a note under the door telling them to call when they awoke and he would redeliver the food. But, he never got a call. The note was found under Mimi's door when they checked the crime scene so the hotel staff seemed to be telling the truth. But, why did this photo clearly show that someone delivered food to Avaleigh at 10:09pm and actually went inside her room?
Officer Liang continued to click through the photos with curiosity. Then, at 10:24pm, the man with the trolley was seen leaving Avaleigh's room. But, not only did he not go to Mimi's room at all, there was suddenly a woman in a cleaner's uniform next to him. Officer Liang zoomed into the photo and her lips curved slightly.