Chapter 19: Someone Is in Her Home

Chapter 19: Chapter 19: Someone Is in Her Home

’We’re here?’

The captain heard this and scanned the area again, but found nothing.

’Forget it. We don’t have time to waste on this!’

He signaled for his team member to hang up the phone, then took out the handcuffs he had prepared and cuffed the two traffickers.

To prevent them from making any noise and alerting the others, the captain and another officer sacrificed their own undershirts to gag the two men.

Leaving one person to watch them, the captain led the rest of the team to search the other rooms.

Fortunately, the factory wasn’t very large. Combined with the fact that they had entered quietly, they didn’t wake the other traffickers sleeping in their rooms.

They swiftly subdued them. After confirming there were no stragglers, they began searching for the children.

Soon, they found their way to the door of the room where the children were being held.

The traffickers had deliberately blocked the entrance, making it quite difficult to find at first glance.

Hearing the commotion outside, Officer Lee shielded the panicked children behind him, positioning his entire body in front of them.

Zoe Sawyer poked her head out from the doorway and reached a hand toward them. "How about I take a few of the kids back first?"

If it’s the East Varden precinct, we can just have the chief explain things to them later. We can’t leave the children in danger!"

Behind her, Vivian Dunn and the others were ready, prepared to receive the children at any moment.

Officer Lee heard her and realized she was right.

’Besides, the chief will have our backs!’

"Let’s go, kids. The officers are here to get you out of this place." Officer Lee led a line of children to the door.

Not daring to delay, Zoe Sawyer stood in the middle of the doorway, grabbing one child with each hand and sending them back to the precinct as quickly as possible.

As the noise outside grew louder, Zoe yanked the last person, Officer Lee, through and slammed the door shut.

At that exact moment, the captain who had just opened that same door stared at the empty room, a dumbfounded look on his face.

This was the last room, but there was still no sign of the children.

’Could it be that this group has another location where they’re hiding people?’

"Go ask those guys if they gave us every address," the captain said as he scanned the surroundings. His eyes finally landed on a locator that had been kicked into a corner.

He walked over, picked it up with an evidence bag, and held it up close to his eyes.

It was definitely from the Varden West Precinct. That proved he wasn’t in the wrong place.

’But why aren’t there any people here?’

Just then, his team member’s phone rang again. After answering and listening to the person on the other end, a look of astonishment filled his eyes.

He didn’t have time to say much, simply muttering a few acknowledgments before hanging up.

"What did they say?" the captain asked, still examining the traces left in the room.

"Varden West said the children have already been rescued and are safely settled. They’re asking us to focus on apprehending the traffickers," the team member replied. Recalling the phone call, he patted his head in disbelief.

’They just said that guy Liam was here. How did he get back to the precinct so fast?’

’And how did they get the kids back?’

’We have the entire area surrounded. There’s no way anyone could have gotten in or out without us knowing.’

’How in the world did they get those people out?!’

The team member was incredibly curious about this.

"If that’s the case, we’ll find out once we take these guys back for a proper interrogation," the captain said, tossing the locator to his team member before turning to leave the room.

’Varden West definitely has some kind of secret. But that’s fine. Once this is all wrapped up, I’ll go over and have a look.’

’It’s perfectly normal for sister precincts to exchange notes, after all!’

The team member could only suppress his curiosity and hurry to catch up.

Meanwhile, after handing all the abducted children over to the specialists, Zoe Sawyer let out a sigh of relief, her legs nearly giving out from under her.

She used to think being a full-time, unsuccessful author involved too little physical activity and was bad for her health.

The amount she’d moved today was almost equivalent to a whole week’s worth of exercise for her before!

’It’s a serious overload!’

"Zoe, you worked hard today. But that case from this morning isn’t over yet. For your safety, you might need to stay here for a few days.

The chief has already arranged a dorm for you—you’ll be sharing with me. As for clothes, you can borrow mine for now.

If you don’t mind, we can have someone go back to your place and pack some things for you," Sean Hughes said as he walked over and patted Zoe Sawyer’s shoulder.

The main reason was that the two men they caught earlier had revealed some unsettling information.

For Zoe Sawyer’s safety, they really couldn’t risk letting her go back home on her own until the case was completely closed.

But based on what they were getting out of the interrogations, Zoe Sawyer might have to stay here for a considerable amount of time.

Zoe Sawyer wasn’t the type to not know what was good for her. She knew Sean Hughes and the others were looking out for her, so of course, she didn’t refuse.

She gave Sean Hughes a list of things she needed from her place, and then followed Vivian Dunn to the precinct’s dormitory building.

After a quick wash-up, she lay down on the bed and fell into a deep sleep.

Through these recent experiences, she had come to understand a key characteristic of her "golden finger."

One was that it consumed an incredible amount of energy.

Especially when she transported people.

Whether it was dragging out that first criminal or later bringing Officer Lee and all those children through, with every person that passed, she could feel herself growing more exhausted.

If Vivian Dunn hadn’t noticed something was wrong and quickly stuffed a few pieces of chocolate into her hand, she probably would have fainted long ago.

Now that she was in a safe environment, the moment her head hit the pillow, she was out like a light.

Meanwhile, Sean Hughes dragged Evan Keller along as he drove toward Zoe Sawyer’s apartment.

"You could have just gone by yourself. Why did you have to drag me along?" Evan Keller asked as he drove.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Sean Hughes rolled his eyes without hesitation. "If I hadn’t pulled you away, your fists would have landed on those guys’ faces. And then you’d be dealing with more than just writing a few incident reports.

Besides, I needed a driver."

Evan Keller fell silent. He knew Sean Hughes was just looking out for him.

The two of them soon reached the floor of Zoe Sawyer’s apartment building.

After taking just a few steps, Evan Keller put out an arm to stop Sean Hughes.

He warily scanned the area, his eyes finally locking onto her doorway.

"What’s wrong?" Sean Hughes asked in a low voice, his expression turning alert.

’Is there something wrong with the area?’

’It looks the same as before!’

’No, wait!’

Sean Hughes sniffed the air hard. ’Why do I smell gunpowder?’

’It’s faint, but it’s definitely there.’

"Someone’s in her apartment."