Chapter 213: Searching for a Person

Chapter 213: Chapter 213: Searching for a Person

Throughout the entire ordeal, not a single person asked for the girl’s opinion. In their eyes, her opinion didn’t matter.

What mattered was that both parties got what they wanted.

And the girl, treated as a sacrificial pawn, was left with no power to resist.

And so, the girl worked in the sweatshop for over a year. Perhaps her situation was so miserable that her supervisor felt a sliver of compassion. He deliberately concealed her true earnings and secretly gave the surplus to her.

The girl took this opportunity to buy herself many daily necessities.

That was when she bought her very first phone, downloaded the app, and got to know Ms. Sherman.

They had pleasant chats, and the girl came to see Ms. Sherman as an elder she could confide in about anything.

No matter how busy they were, they would say goodnight to each other every day and share a few words about what had happened.

Ms. Sherman also mentioned that the girl had messaged her more than once, calling Ms. Sherman a ray of light in her life.

Until their final chat, Ms. Sherman sensed something was wrong from what the girl was saying. She grabbed her phone and took the one and only screenshot of their chat log.

Right after that, she couldn’t reach the girl anymore.

Ms. Sherman was frantic. First thing the next morning, she rushed to the police station to file a report.

And that was when Zoe Sawyer and the others were called in for a meeting.

Hearing this, Zoe Sawyer frowned, confused. ’If that’s the case, shouldn’t the cyber police be able to find her address?’

’There’d be no need to call a special meeting like this.’

The chief noticed Zoe Sawyer’s confused expression and gestured to the young officer at the door.

The officer quickly came over and escorted Ms. Sherman out.

She was reluctant at first, but after the officer’s repeated assurances, she followed him out begrudgingly.

Before speaking, Heath Hale even walked over to Ms. Sherman’s seat to inspect it. Once he confirmed nothing had been left behind that shouldn’t have been, he nodded at the chief.

"That woman who filed the report was extremely emotional. She insisted on sitting in on the meeting and wouldn’t take no for an answer.

She’s gone now, so let’s not worry about her. We’ll begin our own discussion." The chief rubbed the bridge of his nose, a bit exasperated, and steered the conversation back to the facts of the case.

A man sitting on the other side raised his hand first. "What do the cyber police have to say?"

"That’s the key issue. They were using a very niche app with fake IP addresses. Our cyber police traced the account Ms. Sherman provided, but every lead just traced back to an address in the opposite hemisphere.

Another crucial point is that the messages on this app disappear immediately after being sent.

Many people who were having affairs have used this kind of app before to minimize the evidence they leave behind.

They can flirt with their lovers without leaving a trace.

Even the phone’s native screen recording function won’t work with this chat app."

As the chief explained, everyone in the room realized something was amiss.

’Who needs a chatroom like this for a normal conversation?’

And another critical point: the missing girl was thrown into a sweatshop before she even finished middle school.

’She’d never owned a phone before this, so how would she have even known about an app like this?’

"Based on the app name Ms. Sherman gave us, we found its installation package. It’s not on any official app store; you have to specifically search for it," said Officer Lee, who was standing behind the chief. He sent the files he’d found to Zoe Sawyer and the others.

At the same time, a video played on the projector.

It showed the entire process, from download to registration.

From the download to the installation, the phone kept displaying risk warnings. Then, during registration, it required an ID card and a facial scan.

Once all that was done, a list of chatrooms appeared on the screen.

Officer Lee, controlling the phone, created a chatroom himself and sent a message.

With no other actions taken, the message slowly faded away in less than three seconds.

Now, without the chief having to say another word, everyone else in the conference room could tell something was very wrong.

Everyone began to murmur amongst themselves, sharing their thoughts back and forth.

The chief knocked on his desk. Once he had everyone’s attention, he said, "Our most urgent task right now is to identify this missing girl.

Once we confirm her identity, we can find her specific location. From there, finding her will be much easier."

Right now, their only clues were the girl’s backstory, as recounted by Ms. Sherman, and the jacket in the photograph.

"I have a question. What’s the story with this jacket?" Zoe Sawyer raised her hand.

’If we know more about it, we might be able to narrow the search.’

The chief shot Zoe Sawyer an appreciative glance. "According to Ms. Sherman, the missing girl bought that jacket for herself with three months’ worth of savings.

But the girl only sent a picture of it once, and it was the product photo from the online store. Ms. Sherman had to find that picture again from memory."

After the chief finished speaking, everyone stroked their chins thoughtfully.

"This is a heavy task with very few leads. I need everyone to give it their all and do your best to find her." The chief heaved a deep sigh. Once he was sure everyone understood, he began assigning tasks.

Zoe Sawyer’s team was tasked with tackling the various online shopping platforms. They would use the timeframe provided by Ms. Sherman to contact merchants and request purchase records.

The rest of the team had a heavier task: they had to sift through the scattered pieces of information to find potential matches.

Fortunately, they had her gender and approximate age, which would cut their workload by more than half.

Otherwise, it could take forever to find her, if ever.

Ms. Sherman had reported it quickly. The factory where the girl worked had probably only just noticed she was gone.

They probably hadn’t even filed a missing person report yet.

As the team came out of the conference room, they saw Ms. Sherman waiting for them across the hall.

No one paid her any mind, however. They all hurried off to their own workstations.

Time was of the essence; they had none to waste.

Back in the office, Zoe Sawyer stared at the jacket in the photo and shared her thoughts. "We should just start with the two largest e-commerce platforms.

If that girl’s situation is really as desperate as Ms. Sherman described, she almost certainly bought it from one of those two."

After all, they’re cheap.

After briefly discussing the division of labor, Zoe Sawyer and her team dove into their work.

The data from the merchants only included names, phone numbers, and addresses.

Once they had this information, Officer Lee used the police department’s database to quickly filter out the irrelevant entries.

"This one... something’s not right."