***
Twenty minutes later, Wayne arrived at the dessert shop . He sat in the back seat, slightly leaning toward the car door. He was expressionless as he stared out of the car window at the pedestrians coming and going.
“Got it! I told the owner’s wife that my sister had gone missing and gave her another $500. Then, she gave me the surveillance footage.” Noel entered about a moment later through the driver’s side door. He handed Wayne the black flash drive he was holding.
Wayne inserted the flash drive into the computer quickly and didn’t seem to want to say anything. He carefully watched the video, and his expression gradually became sullen.
Tammy and the two girls arrived at the dessert shop last night at 6:53 p.m. and took a seat to the left of the door. The waitress served them three cakes. Tammy ate only a few bites of the cake before stopping. She left the store alone with her backpack at 7:08.
Wayne frowned. He noticed that Tammy paused as she walked through the store’s door and then kept staring at a specific spot to her right. The surveillance, however, did not capture what Tammy was looking at.
And he became distressed and leaned against the back of the chair. He had an idea as soon as he closed his eyes and immediately replayed the video.
Two people walked by before Tammy left. They walked from the screen’s right side to the store’s entrance. They quickly left the store, and Tammy soon left.
Wayne realized something wasn’t quite right. He couldn’t tell who the person was because the image was so blurry. After some thought, he sent a screenshot of the image to Ryan and said, “Please help me look into this. I want to know who they are.”
Ryan was on a mission to investigate some data. He stopped what he was doing on his computer to refine the blurry image and then sent it to Wayne, saying, “I need time to figure out who they are, but you can see their faces now.”
Wayne frowned as he looked at the picture Ryan had sent. He tightened his grip on his phone as he remembered something complicated from a long time ago. As he regained his composure, the dampness in his palm reminded him of what he had just thought.
“Ryan, I think I know who they are,” Wayne sighed.
“I’ll give you an hour to send me surveillance videos from the time she left this store until she disappeared,” Wayne ordered Noel.
“Sure, Mr. Wright.” Noel was nervously sweating. After he sent Wayne to the office, Noel worked nonstop to get the video.
He sent the surveillance video to Wayne and ran back to his office an hour later.
“I’ve emailed the video to you, Mr. Wright. What should I do next?”
“Drive.”
Wayne was still infuriated after checking all of the surveillance videos. He quickly shut down his laptop.
About ten minutes later, Noel parked his car in the East End near the new villa area. Then a dozen strong men dressed in black suits walked to them; they were the bodyguards Wayne hired.
“Who is it?” A maid opened the door after hearing the doorbell. She was wary after seeing the people in front of her, so she only opened the door a crack.
“Hello, we’ve come to see…”
Wayne’s face was expressionless, as if he was a gang member, too. He reached out and grabbed the edge of the door through the crack, pulling it outward. Because the maid was caught off guard, the door opened wide.
“I’m here to see Shirley Gabriel.” Wayne said coldly and angrily. He had entered the house before he could finish.
“Ma’am! “As she stumbled and ran upstairs, the maid shouted.
A woman in a gray dress came down the stairs a short time later. She was about fifty years old and appeared to be in good shape. She was slim, with delicate makeup and curly brown hair that cascaded over her shoulders.
“Who is it? You know you’re trespassing, right? I’ll call the police!” Shirley shouted.
Shirley was standing at the stairs on the second floor, enraged after seeing those people downstairs. She had just dialed 911 when she noticed the man standing in front of the crowd.
“Wayne Wright?” Shirley’s eyes widened in surprise, and she set her phone down.
Shirley quickly relaxed. “I’ve always remembered the deal I made with you back then,” she said slowly as she walked down the stairs, “but how come you seem to have forgotten it yourself?”
Wayne continued to stare at her indifferently. He forced himself not to become enraged and asked hoarsely, “Where is Tammy?”
Shirley came to a halt and then laughed. Her laughter echoed throughout the living room, sounding harsh like a ghost.
“Do you mean Tammy is missing? Why do you come here after losing your child? Do you think I’d sacrifice her life for Allie’s? She doesn’t even deserve it!”
Shirley shivered slightly as she leaned against the armrest. She had felt the loneliness of losing her family for the past five years. She could still remember clearly the moment Allie fell off the building. She couldn’t forget it all, no matter how hard she tried.
Later, she thought about making Anna lose something in exchange. But she had to give up every time she remembered what Wayne had said to her at the top of the building on the day they signed the contract.
Wayne was enraged after hearing Shirley’s bold words. He snatched the stack of printed video screenshots from Noel’s hands and tossed them at Shirley’s face. The paper was scattered like snowflakes. Shirley’s face turned pale as she looked at the paper on the floor.
“How would you explain that?” Wayne asked as coldly as a demon from hell.
Shirley became terrified as she remembered what Wayne had said to her five years before. Wayne’s bodyguard had pushed her halfway over the top floor railing at the time, but he didn’t seem to mind she would die.
“You must also know whether Frank died because of his illness or not. If you don’t want to die as tragically as Allie, I will also let you spend the rest of your life in jail.”
“I’ve already agreed to hand over the group to you! What else do you want?!”
“I want you to stay away from Anna. You will die if you go anywhere near her again!”
Shirley couldn’t stand still when she remembered that horrible past. She could barely maintain her balance and felt threatened when she saw the bodyguards in the living room.
Then she wiped the sweat from her brow with her hand. She averted her gaze from Wayne’s and looked at the living room floor. She said, “Tammy had followed me the day before, and it took me a while to notice it. Later on, I simply told her to go home. I didn’t hurt her in any way.”
“You deliberately led Tammy into an alley with no surveillance, and it didn’t take long for your car to leave there. Wasn’t she in your car?” Wayne approached Shirley and snarled.
Shirley shook her head desperately, shouting, “I didn’t do anything! I simply knocked her out and drove away.”
Wayne’s eyes were cold, and he looked down at Shirley. “Search the house!” he ordered the bodyguards.
Hearing that, the group of men dashed to all four corners of the house. Shirley looked up in disbelief, seeing that her luxurious home quickly became a shambles. A porcelain vase shattered on the ground, and shards flew all over.
“Wayne, you’re breaking the law!” she cried in pain.
“Then call the police,” Wayne said indifferently. He left after confirming that Tammy was not there.
Wayne came to a halt as he was about to leave the house. He was silhouetted by the sun, making him look like a ghost. His dull voice, however, was still powerful. He said, “Tammy had better be safe. Or, you’ll be doomed.”
Shirley’s heart was slowly broken by the sound of people leaving. After they had all left,she quickly took out her cell phone.
“Did you find her? I’ve told you, we can’t mess with this girl! Are you sure she wasn’t there when you went back? You didn’t smuggle her away?”
Shirley breathed a sigh of relief as she hung up the phone. She clenched her teeth as she remembered what had happened the night before.
On their way back to the Wayne office, Noel examined Wayne’s expression in the rearview mirror. He got goosebumps all over when he remembered what had just happened.
Frowning, Wayne cast a solemn look out the window. “Gabe, remember I asked you to look into Frank’s death five years ago?” he said, pulling his phone from his pocket.
Wayne reflected on what had occurred before he hung up the phone. And his heart was broken when he recalled the scene in which Anna was mourning her father’s death.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.