Chapter 472: A Cold and a Fever

Jane hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she chose to trust her boyfriend.

‘He’s a police officer, after all. He wouldn’t joke about something like this.’

“Jane! You have a lead? Quick, tell me!”

Faye Hughes’s voice was trembling with excitement. She grabbed Jane’s arm, her eyes filled with anticipation.

The commotion immediately drew the attention of the people nearby. Everyone turned to look, wanting to see what was going on.

Jane’s parents looked hesitant. Of course, they wanted to help Faye Hughes find the old woman as soon as possible. But what if the lead was false? If the search party followed it and came up empty-handed, would their daughter get blamed?

An officer in charge of the search noticed the situation with Faye Hughes and strode over to see what was happening.

As he approached, he saw Faye Hughes tugging on Jane’s sleeve, her face full of pleading.

“What’s wrong?” the officer asked.

Before Faye Hughes or Jane could speak, the surrounding villagers chimed in one after another, explaining the gist of the situation.

After hearing the whole story, the officer frowned at Jane and said, “Do you really have a lead?”

Jane bit her lower lip and held out her phone, showing her chat with Cameron. “My boyfriend is a police officer too. I told him about what was happening, and he told me to wait. A little while later, he sent me this location.”

The officer looked at the location on the screen, thought for a moment, then waved over a few of his colleagues. “It’s dark now,” he said. “You all wait here. We’ll go check it out.”

Still, he hoped this was indeed the old woman’s current location.

“I’m going too! My mom is already a bit disoriented. If I’m not there, she’ll get scared easily!” Faye Hughes stepped forward, her tone firm.

The officers who were about to set off exchanged glances, but in the end, they agreed to Faye Hughes’s request.

The remaining villagers and rescue team members looked at each other. Those who still had the energy followed along, while the rest, who didn’t want to get involved, stayed behind to rest.

No one left. They all waited for the final news, eager to see if the location Jane had provided was really where the old woman was.

“You silly girl! If you had a lead, you should have told me privately, and then I could have told Mrs. Holloway!

“If they don’t find her, just you wait for the scolding you’ll get!” Jane’s mother said, poking her daughter’s head, her voice filled more with worry than anger.

Of course, she hoped the old woman would be found, but she was also worried that if the location was wrong, her daughter would be blamed.

Meanwhile, the police officers led Faye Hughes, with a large group of people trailing behind them, heading toward the specified location.

“This path up the mountain is so difficult to walk. To think the old lady climbed this far all by herself!” a villager exclaimed while struggling to keep up with the main group.

Just as he finished speaking, his legs gave out and he nearly fell, but a quick-thinking member of the rescue team next to him grabbed his arm and kept him from tumbling over.

Although Faye Hughes was also exhausted, the conviction that she would find her mother kept her going and prevented her from falling behind.

Soon, the group arrived near the location from the phone.

The lead officer shone a high-powered flashlight around, and his gaze quickly locked onto a tangle of branches a short distance away.

“Let’s check over there. Everyone be careful and watch your step,” the officer instructed, then cautiously led his team and Faye Hughes over.

The distance wasn’t far. Even moving as carefully and slowly as they were, it took them less than a minute to reach the spot.

Faye Hughes immediately spotted the elderly woman curled up under the branches, her face flushed red.

“Mom!”

With a cry, Faye Hughes lunged forward, fell to her knees, and carefully began to pull away the branches covering the old woman.

The officers standing by quickly came over to help.

“They actually found her! So that girl, Jane, wasn’t lying!” one of the women from the village exclaimed in surprise when she heard Faye Hughes’s cry.

Although she had followed them up the mountain, she hadn’t really held out much hope.

‘Even if Jane’s boyfriend is a cop, he’s not from around here. He doesn’t know the area, let alone provide a location in such a short amount of time.’

The woman had been more inclined to believe he was just trying to placate Jane.

But she never expected the location to be real!

“It’s good that they found her, so good! Now everyone else can stop worrying. We can all get a proper rest tomorrow,” said another villager, whose face was etched with fatigue.

A nearby member of the rescue team surveyed the surroundings. The trees on this mountain grew very tall, making it impossible for a drone to see anything from the sky. It would have had to fly down into the canopy to get a clear view of the ground below.

If not for this new development, they would have had to wait until daytime tomorrow to fly a drone into this area.

‘Still, this is good. The person has been found, so her family and the volunteers can finally rest easy.’

Faye Hughes quickly cleared the branches off the old woman.

She saw the old woman muttering something. Faye Hughes leaned in curiously and vaguely heard the word “mom.”

“This is bad, she has a fever! We need to get her to a hospital right away!” The lead officer noticed the old woman’s flushed face, felt her forehead, and his expression turned grim.

A fever is no small thing for an elderly person, especially after she’s been exhausted all day.

They had to get her to a hospital quickly. If they were too late and something else happened, it would be a disaster.

With no time for further discussion, the lead officer heaved the old woman onto his back and, escorted by his colleagues, hurried down the mountain.

At the same time, he didn’t forget to urge the villagers and rescue team members who had followed them to head down as well.

Back in the village, Jane felt a growing sense of unease as she waited.

She kept looking toward the mountaintop, desperate to know the outcome.

Jane’s mother wore the same worried expression.

Soon, they saw several people running hastily toward the cars.

But before they could get a clear look, a police car sped past them.

“They found her, they found her! Jane, you’re amazing! You found the old lady’s location just like that!”

The first woman to come down from the mountain saw Jane standing there and rushed over, her voice filled with excitement.

Faye Hughes had a smile on her face too. She grabbed Jane’s hands and shook them gratefully. “Jane, I really have to thank you for today! If it weren’t for that location you gave us, who knows when we would have found her.”

Jane’s mother quickly asked, “Is she okay?”

Faye Hughes shook her head and said.

“It’s nothing serious, just a cold and a fever. The police have already taken her to the hospital. I need to go over and take care of her.

Jane, I won’t forget what you did today. If you ever need any help in the future, just say the word. If there’s anything I can do, I’ll definitely do it!”