Falling For My Ex's Uncle - Chapter 371: Chapter 371

After lunch, Marvin Adams and I visited Wilhelm Joetze's place.
From there, we found something. The middle-aged couple lunching in the same place earlier happened to live in the same block as Wilhelm Joetze. Although they were not staying directly opposite the victim's place, the couple often saw Wilhelm bringing different women home from time to time as they were always feeding the stray cats downstairs.
We also learned from different people that after Wilhelm graduated from university, he followed in his father's footsteps to run a small business selling pets.
At one stage, he rented a shop near the neighborhood entrance for some time for his pet shop.
Wilhelm and his wife were university schoolmates. After graduation, they got together through a blind date.
They hit it off well. The first three years of their married life were not bad.
At that point, Wilhelm was still a responsible husband. However, an accident occurred later on. It was said that when Wilhelm returned after sending a dog back to a client, he accidentally knocked down someone fatally.
Although he was covered by insurance, the small sum of money was not enough to compensate.
The family of the deceased came to Wilhelm's pet shop every other day to cause trouble.
The pet shop's business was not very good to begin with. After numerous harassment incidents, his business plummeted. Wilhelm had no choice but to sell the shop.
That year, Meryl Lindner got pregnant.
Wilhelm's parents had divorced when he was young, and he had always stayed with his father.
Meryl was aware of her in-laws' situation before she married Wilhelm.
However, she did not think much about it. She only knew that he had a younger half-brother from a different father.
Wilhelm's biological mother also had her own family and had never interfered in Meryl and Wilhelm's life.
His biological father did not love him, and his biological mother did not care about him.
Thus, Meryl took Wilhelm in out of sympathy.
When the young couple got married, they did not have a house or receive any wedding gifts.
Meryl didn't mind. She was an only child and was of marriageable age.
In the minds of the older generation, when girls grew up, they should get married and have children.
As long as the prospective husband was a responsible guy, Meryl's family didn't ask for anything more.
Whenever Wilhelm went to Meryl's place, he helped to wash the dishes and cook. He was very diligent.
Meryl's parents were simple folks. When they saw that their future son-in-law was so hardworking, they thought that their daughter would not suffer when she married him in the future, so they agreed to their marriage.
Little did the old couple know that Wilhelm's diligence and gentleness were just an act.
What made Meryl even more helpless was her future mother-in-law, who had never shown herself in the past. After Meryl and Wilhelm got married, Wilhelm's mother kept going to their apartment from time to time to cause trouble.
The young couple's relationship was not exactly on very firm ground to begin with. When the mother-in-law kept bad-mouthing Meryl in front of her son, the couple ended up quarreling often.
After Wilhelm closed the pet shop, he did not have a proper job. He only engaged in the online sale of some pets and pet products to his past customers.
This avenue did not earn them much money in a year. The couple was still staying in the apartment Meryl's mother bought for her.
It was not until Meryl decided to get a divorce that Wilhelm was chased out of the apartment.
However, he refused to get a divorce and even went to the Lindner family's place to cause trouble.
He also loitered around downstairs in Meryl's neighborhood to pester her. He simply refused to divorce her.
Therefore, Meryl was forced to file for divorce in court.
However, before the divorce was finalized by the court, Wilhelm died.
"You two have been separated for two years?" Marvin asked as he looked at Meryl sitting opposite him.
"That's right. He didn't want to divorce me, so I had no choice but to kick him out."
Meryl took a deep breath. Her eyes were slightly red-rimmed, and her voice was very soft. She came across as very gentle-natured.
"Is your mother-in-law the main reason for your divorce, or is it because of your relationship problems?" Marvin asked further.
Meryl gave a bitter smile. After thinking for a while, she raised her head to look at Marvin with a gentle and calm expression. "Actually, I didn't want to marry him back then."
I was taken aback. Puzzled, I frowned and looked at Meryl. "Weren't you two schoolmates? Surely you two got married because you had feelings for each other? Your mother said..."
Meryl interrupted me. "We were married less than three months after we went on a blind date. My parents thought he was not bad and arranged for us to get engaged. But after the engagement, he revealed his bad temper, and his attitude towards me swung wildly. At that juncture, I was already regretting it. I didn't want to get married, but my family said that the wedding date was already set and insisted that I get married."
After listening to Meryl, I couldn't help feeling surprised.
This was because at the funeral parlor, I could see that her mother cared a lot about her daughter and granddaughter.
"After getting married, did he hit you?" Marvin asked outright.
Meryl nodded. "In the beginning, whenever he was just angry, he would just give me the silent treatment. Then, he started throwing things. After that, he realized that he couldn't intimidate me with this method, so he started to hit me physically. He even threatened me with a knife. He warned that if I were to divorce him, he would kill me and my child."
After saying that, she hugged herself tightly, and there was a trace of fear in her eyes.
Marvin raised his eyebrows slightly. "Why didn't you tell your parents?"
"My parents?" Meryl gave a bitter laugh with a pained expression. "They said that I chose him myself."
She paused for a moment before raising her haggard face. She asked suspiciously, "Are you guys suspecting that I killed him?"
Before Marvin could reply, Meryl continued, "If I had the ability to kill him, I would have killed him long ago. Unfortunately, my right hand is crippled."
At this point, a rueful expression crept across Meryl's face. "If I had steadfastly refused to get married back then, perhaps everything would have turned out differently."
"Then are you aware that Wilhelm Joetze has other women?" Marvin asked again.
Meryl nodded and said casually, "I know that he often chatted with different women and even seduced married women. Otherwise, how do you think he supported himself?"
At this point, a wan smile appeared on her face. She said with slow deliberation, "Actually, the thought that he would be killed sooner or later did cross my mind, but I didn't expect retribution to come so quickly."
Marvin did not continue to probe. Based on the current clues, although Meryl Lindner had a valid motive to kill Wilhelm Joetze, she did not have the opportunity or sufficient time to do so, and she most certainly did not have the capability to kill him.
"If the police find the murderer, please let me know." Meryl looked at Marvin with a burning gaze and added slowly, "I want to thank the officer in person."
Back in the car, I didn't say a word.
After Marvin finished a cigarette outside the car, he said, "I'll send you back."
I nodded dumbly, feeling somewhat empty inside.
At that moment, I seemed to see my former self in Meryl Lindner.
At this moment, Marvin suddenly reached out and tugged at my arm.
As I followed his gaze, we saw a familiar figure walking into the neighborhood.