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My Early Exit Made the Junior Detective Snap Novel Cover

My Early Exit Made the Junior Detective Snap

Caleb Jennings was once a celebrated captain, but his career was ruined by Nathan Sloan, a rookie who consistently stole his credit. After dying during a botched raid, Caleb wakes up back in time on the day of his greatest failure. Choosing to retire early rather than compete, he shocks the city. However, Nathan—who claims to have a criminal's perspective—panics and publicly vows to hunt Caleb down, desperate to bring his former mentor back into the fold.
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Chapter 3

I could hardly believe my eyes. Hands trembling, I clicked on the link to Nathan's interview.

During the interview, Nathan faced the reporters' pressing questions with a calm smile, openly stating that he had a special ability to see things from the murderer's perspective.

Using that ability, he was able to identify the unique serrated knife and used that to lock down the culprit.

The reporters had a field day.

"He can actually see things from the murderer's perspective! No wonder Officer Sloan always solves cases first."

"The criminals in our city better watch out now. No one can escape Officer Sloan's eyes!"

While the other reporters were buzzing over the news, one of them stood up and asked keenly, "Since you entered the police force, Captain Jennings, who had a solid reputation before, hasn't solved a single case. What's your take on that?"

My team, who'd noticed my sudden pause, leaned in to see the interview as well, just in time to hear Nathan's response to that question.

"It's normal that Caleb is slower than I am when it comes to solving cases. After all, he doesn't have my special ability. Nevertheless, he has always guided me in the pursuit of this profession.

"Even before I graduated, he would often bring me tricky cases to discuss, and it's because of him that I've been able to improve my skills a lot."

His response caused an immediate uproar.

The comment section for the interview was flooded with outrage from the people.

"Stop thanking him, you silly guy. Caleb Jennings has been using you!"

"Poor Nate. He's been using his abilities to solve so many cases, only for someone else to steal all the credit. I pity him so much."

There was also all sorts of vitriol thrown at me.

"Do you have no shame? How can you step on others to rise up the ranks, huh?"

"I suggest conducting a full audit on this so-called genius detective's cases. Maybe he was just plagiarizing other people's work all along!"

"I've already submitted a report. How can someone like him be a police captain?"

I couldn't tear my eyes off the insults hurled my way. Even when I returned to my desk, my body was shaking, and my head was dizzy.

I forced myself to calm down, but when I looked up, I saw suspicious looks on everyone's faces.

"Is everything Nathan said true, Captain Jennings?"

My nails dug into my palms.

"Do you guys not believe me either?"

They all exchanged looks before looking away in silence.

Behind me, Tina grabbed the sheets of scrap paper I'd used to make my notes on the case last night.

"Look at this! Everything Captain Jennings wrote here is the same as what Nathan said at the interview today!"

The papers were passed around the office. Even more looks of doubt, shock, and disgust came my way.

I was just about to defend myself when a thunderous roar shook the office.

"That's enough! What's the point of arguing here, huh? Do you think things aren't bad enough as it is?"

Chief Hudson stormed up to me and yanked me toward the door by force.

"You're going to head over to Nathan's interview right now and explain things to everyone. Otherwise, not only will our department be affected, but your career will be ruined as well!"