The man oddly felt his own heart softened as he looked at the photograph of what was obviously someone else’s kids.
It took a while before he spoke up, “Go to the Ministry of Transportation and dig out all the surveillance footage from Happy Avenue. I’ll handle this personally!”
“Understood!”
…..
Michael brought Charlotte to his own villa, and he summoned a doctor each for Charlotte and Fifi.
Preoccupation with thoughts of the children and Mrs. Berry compounded the woman’s restlessness.
It was well past eight in the evening when Michael finally hit upon a breakthrough after he had mobilized his network of contacts. He eagerly brought his laptop to Charlotte. “Come take a look at this.”
“What is it? Have you found them?” she said as she drew close.
Michael pulled up surveillance footage showing the children alighting from the school bus. They stood by the side of the road for around a couple of minutes, possibly to listen to Ms. Cheney before the vehicle drove off.
The three children remained there as they talked amongst themselves before they departed in the direction of home.
“Robbie, Jamie, Ellie…”
Charlotte teared up when she saw her children.
“Let’s watch on. There’s more.”
He went on to play the next clip.
The first clip cut off halfway when the children were walking on the road.
The next one showed them walking hand in hand. They had stopped to fool around for a while when Ellie pointed towards the forested area nearby. Jamie then started to run towards it.
Ellie and Robbie followed closely behind.
As these were captured on a traffic camera, there was no audio. Charlotte reckoned that the kids had gone in there because they were playful.
The footage ended there with the frame fixed on Robbie.
Charlotte asked anxiously, “Are there others?”
“That’s all I’m able to gather,” he replied. “I’ve inspected the site but have found no tracks there. That area isn’t monitored either. There’s a road on the other side though, but it seems like someone had erased the surveillance footage from there. I wasn’t able to find any other leads.”
“How could that be?” The color fell from the woman’s face. “Unless…”
She had an ominous feeling that the children might have met an accident on that road.
Could that be why the perpetrator had erased the footage?
“Let’s not try to get ahead of ourselves,” Michael said as he held her hand. “I’ve inquired at all the hospitals in H City that I’m able to poke my nose into. There isn’t any child admission that fits their description.”
“Are there any hospitals to which you don’t have access?” she inquired anxiously. “Is it Raina’s?”
“More than that,” Michael said with a furrow. “There’s a Serene Hospital under the management of the Nacht Group. It’s an exclusive private facility. Thus, I wasn’t able to get anything out from there.”
Charlotte felt a shiver down her spine when it occurred to her that her children’s disappearance may have something to do with Zachary.
“And also…” Michael continued, “I’ve not been able to locate that missing footage despite spending a considerable sum and drawing on some strong connections, which could mean…”
“That whoever had deleted the footage had more influence than you do?” Charlotte immediately caught on.
“That’s right.” The man nodded.
“It’s really him…” Charlotte howled through gritted teeth. “Zachary, you bastard!”
“But I don’t understand why he would want to kidnap the kids?” Michael was perplexed. “Does he know about their parentage?”
“I don’t know…” The woman replied in distress. “I wouldn’t be as worried if he did.”
If he knew, he might, at worst, want them back with him. Conversely, they would be in greater danger if he did not.
