Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Hey, what is going on?” Liang Huan was sitting in the car, anxiously looking left and right.
They did not drive to Feng Kuo’s home, but stopped at a supermarket beside the villa. According to Zhao Yu’s inquiries, most of the residents in the villa visit the supermarket to buy vegetables every day, including Feng Lin’s caregiver.
Feng Lin’s caregiver’s name is Mei Fang. As she had been working as a nanny in Feng Lin’s family for nearly three years, neighbors were very familiar with her, and would usually address her as Aunt Mei.
Before long, Zhao Yu came out of the supermarket, with one hand carrying a plastic bag, and his other hand making a phone call. Liang Huan hurriedly opened the car door of the front passenger seat.
When Zhao Yu came into the car, he put the things down, and said into the phone, “Yes, that’s what I meant! Beini, this depends on you! Help me look this up in detail, even the smallest detail! Good, that’s it…”
“Little Zhao…” Finally, when Zhao Yu put down his mobile phone, Liang Huan asked eagerly, “Is it true… Are you suspecting Feng Lin’s caregiver?”
“Right!” Zhao Yu said frankly, “If Feng Lin did pretend to be sick to save her son, then she would have to get past the caregiver. Initially, I only thought of ways that Feng Lin could get past the caregiver, but did not consider the possibility that Feng Lin could have bribed the caregiver, thus making the caregiver her accomplice!”
“The caregiver? An accomplice?” Liang Huan said unbelievably. “Is that even possible?”
“Only in this scenario can everything be perfectly explained,” Zhao Yu affirmed. “Only with the help of the caregiver, could Feng Lin execute this plan!”
“But…” Liang Huan asked again, “Isn’t this a crime? Would the caregiver be so reckless to take such a risk?”
“This is why I want to investigate Feng Lin’s bank account,” Zhao Yu said. “Li Beini has found out that Feng Lin does have her own account, and that these accounts have been very active in the recent period, but only debit, and no credit! I have asked Beini to look into it. If Xiao Guofeng was the one using the account, it can be explained. But… If it was not Xiao Guofeng, that means… It has to be Feng Lin!”
“You mean… It was Feng Lin, who bribed the caregiver, using her own money?” Liang Huan said in surprise. “So… So what are we waiting for? Why are we not arresting them?”
“Arrest them?” Zhao Yu shook his head and said, “Where is the evidence? So what if we found out that Feng Lin did transfer money to the caregiver? They can say that the money was a reward for the caregiver!”
“That…” Liang Huan added, “Scarf! And that car…”
“There could be many counterfeit scarves,” Zhao Yu said. “What if Feng Lin insisted on denying this? Besides, her plan is so well-thought out, how can we easily locate the car?”
“So… Do we have to wait until we find the private doctor to prove that Feng Lin is pretending to be sick?”
“Old Liang, why don’t you understand? Even if Feng Lin really stood up in front of all the people,” Zhao Yu said, “as long she does not plead guilty, there is nothing we can do!”
“Oh my God… It turned out that… It was all well planned by Miss Feng?” Liang Huan suddenly realized. “She is so smart! That is to say, even if we expose her, revealing that she was pretending to be sick, we have no supporting evidence that she is a kidnapper? So… What do we do about that?”
“So!” Zhao Yu took out a drink from the plastic bag, handed it to Liang Huan, and said, “That is why I had to wait in this market! Oh… Not a market… A supermarket…”
“Why?” Liang Huan stared with his eyes opened wide, and asked, “What do we gain by waiting in this supermarket?”
“Ha ha ha…” With a sneer, Zhao Yu looked at his watch and said, “Old Liang, the best is yet to come! The time to witness a miracle is coming!”
“You…” Liang Huan was getting furious and said, “Why do you even pull out the lines of a magic show? Hurry up, young Zhao, tell me quickly…”
“Alright alright…” Zhao Yu gulped down a mouthful of Sprite and said, “When I was in the triad, I only talked about purpose, not methods. The same is true in case solving. Since we are here to solve a case, there is no need to interfere with other things. We should not get entangled in the well-designed plot by Feng Lin, so we must go straight to the subject. And… Hmm…”
Unexpectedly, as soon as Zhao Yu completed this part of his sentence, he suddenly paused. It was because the caregiver, named Aunt Mei, had appeared in his line of sight.
“She is here, she is here…” Zhao Yu hurriedly pointed out the woman, while saying to Liang Huan, “There, that’s her, Feng Lin’s caregiver…”
As the two men were talking, the caregiver Mei Fang has already entered the supermarket to buy vegetables.
Zhao Yu looked more relaxed. He said to Liang Huan, “Old Liang, I have just inquired, and found that Feng Lin would come to this supermarket to buy vegetables at 10 am everyday!”
“10 am?” Liang Huan looked at his watch and said, “But now, it is only 8:30 am.”
“Heh heh…” Zhao Yu squinted his eyes and said in a mystifying way, “Old Liang, what do you say? She came here so early to buy vegetables. Do you think she is going to cook for another person?”
“Another person?” Liang Huan urged, “Young Zhao, don’t play charades with me. What’s going on here?”
“It’s probably not for just one person!” Zhao Yu looked at the full-length glass window of the supermarket and said, “I inquired previously, and learned that Feng Lin’s caregiver, Mei Fang, sticks around Feng Lin around the clock, for 24 hours. The only time she goes out is to buy vegetables in the morning. According to the supermarket staff, she usually buys vegetables at 10 am, and goes back home to cook at 10:30 am!”
“However, the investigator on duty at Feng Kuo’s home just told me that, for the past two days, Mei Fang went out to buy vegetables at 8:30 am, but the time she returned home was still 10:30 am!”
“Old Liang, you make a guess. If Mei Fang is Feng Lin’s accomplice, what else will she do besides buying vegetables?”
“To… To deliver food to the hostage! And… ” Liang Huan shuddered and said, “Feng Kuo is also very likely to be there!”
“Yes, you got them all correct!” Zhao Yu grinned and said, “Because of her identity as a caregiver, whether it is the Interpol from the province, or the investigators of the Moyang branch, no one would ever notice her!”
“And… Though the hostage is being watched by Feng Kuo, in view of his sensitive identity after his jailbreak, he would be unable to expose himself. So that would mean that his meals had to be delivered to him!”
“Wow! You… ” Liang Huan looked at Zhao Yu with a weird expression. “You are an amazing investigator! You can even think of this possibility! So… That is to say, if we were to follow the caregiver, then… Then we would be able to solve both the kidnapping and jailbreak cases?”
“And, looking at the time…” Zhao Yu said with great confidence, “The hiding place of the hostage is not far from here! Feng Lin would not arrange them to hide in a place far away!”
“Correct!”
Liang Huan straightened up, and looked at the door of the supermarket carefully. Before long, Mei fang came out, carrying a big bag of vegetables.
The two men then drove carefully, and started following her from behind. It was what Zhao Yu had expected. When Mei Fang came out of the supermarket, she did not enter the villa where Feng Kuo’s house was located, but rather, she cut through the road and went towards another residential area that was directly opposite the villa. It was a modern high-rise residential area, with more than 20 high-rise buildings.
Seeing Mei Fang entering the main entrance of the residential area with a key, Zhao Yu and Liang Huan hastened to park their car at the roadside, and then rushed to the main entrance. However, the two of them did not have a key to enter the main entrance. They worried that, if they were to show their IDs to the security guard, they might expose who the target was.
In the face of such a difficult situation, fortunately, a tenant opened the door of the main entrance to exit, and the two of them took the opportunity to rush in at that very moment. However, when they finally managed to get into the residential area, they could not find where the caregiver had disappeared to!
“Damn it!” Liang Huan patted his thighs with frustration. “This is so embarrassing! What a shame! We are both investigators from the key case investigation unit, yet we have lost track of a common caregiver!”
“Don’t worry, don’t worry!” Zhao Yu said in a leisurely manner. “No matter where she runs to, she can never hide from me!”
