Chapter 211 Alone Together in a Room
Five hours later, Martin arrived at the grove. The driver parked the car in a secluded spot before walking with Martin into the woods. They passed through the grove and approached a backward little mountain village.
As they drew closer to the blue dot, the beeping sound from the app grew more frequent. Soon, Martin found the old lady's house.
‘Knock, knock, knock.’ He rapped on the door.
There was no response. Undeterred, he knocked a few more times. The door slowly opened, and the old lady peeked out her head, eyeing Martin warily.
"Who are you looking for?"
Martin softened his tone and inquired in fluent English: "I'm looking for Hunter and Patricia."
The old lady, maintaining her previous demeanor, retorted. "Don't know them. You've got the wrong place!" With that, she began to close the door.
Martin braced the door with his hand, his voice filled with unwavering certainty. "I'm Patricia's husband; I'm very worried about her, so I've come to find her. I traced her here through her phone's location; please, could you take me to see her?"
The old lady stubbornly denied knowing them, countenance unchanging, she said, "I don’t care who you are to her, I just don’t know her."
Martin's expression darkened. "You might not know Patricia, but what about Hunter? He's the heir to the Miller Group in Country M. As a fellow Country M national, how can you possibly not know him?"
The old lady was provoked by his words, her eyes gradually filled with impatience. "I've lived here all my life, everything I need is here. Forget the Miller Group; I don't even know who the president of the Country M is."
Martin had not expected the old lady's mind to be so sharp. No matter how he tried to coax information from her, she revealed nothing. Seeing that soft tactics were futile, he resorted to more forceful means.
"Are you aware that Hunter was kidnapped? There was a massive explosion at the warehouse where he was held; he escaped death. The kidnappers are searching everywhere for him. If you don't take me to him, I'll tell the kidnappers his whereabouts."
The old lady's murky eyes stared quietly at Martin. Suddenly, she laughed.
"Go ahead, tell them! It makes no difference to me; he's not here, and even if you tear this place apart, it still won't change that."
"Then please let me come in and look around. If he really isn't here, I won't disturb you any further," Martin implored, his tone tinged with resignation yet imbued with a chilling resolve, that involuntarily struck fear into the hearts of anyone present.
The old lady's stooped figure abruptly paused. Under Martin’s piercing scrutiny, her body uncontrollably began to tremble. She opened her mouth, as if to speak, but in the end, said nothing, stepping back to clear the way.
"You better keep your word. If you don't find them, leave immediately and stop disturbing an old woman's rest."
"Thank you!" After expressing his gratitude, Martin's tall figure squeezed into the narrow, old house.
The house, which barely saw sunlight over the years, was gloomy and damp. As he stepped in, the musty smell hit him in the face. Martin frowned but did not bother with these details; he switched on the flashlight on his phone and began searching for Patricia.
The house was not large—just two small rooms. The front room was the living area with a corridor beside it, and a room on each side of the corridor. He pushed open the doors. One room was filled with clutter, and it was clear there was no place for anyone to hide.
The second room belonged to an elderly lady—there was a bed and a wardrobe. Martin opened the wardrobe. Packed with cotton and clothes, there was no fear of anyone hiding inside.
After searching the entire house, Hunter and Patricia were nowhere to be found. Martin, in disbelief, took out his phone and checked the locator app, which clearly showed a red dot and a blue dot together. Yet, there was no sign of Patricia and Hunter in the house.
Just then, something came to Martin's mind. He opened the chat with Charles and found a string of mobile numbers. Charles had said that was the number that phoned Patricia.
With that in mind, Martin did not hesitate to dial the number. The call connected. A ringtone sounded from the elderly lady’s pocket. The sound filling the eerie silence. With a smirk that was not quite a smile, Martin looked at the elderly lady.
"This number made a call to my wife Patricia yesterday, and the caller was Hunter. What do you have to say?"
The elderly lady calmly took out her phone, disconnected the call, and pretended to think for a moment before acting as if she had a sudden realization.
"Oh! That person must be the one you're looking for."
Martin's eyes sharpened as he narrowed them: "That person?"
The elderly lady spoke slowly and deliberately: "Yesterday, I lent my phone, to a young man; he must be the one you're after. But, after making the call, he left."
"He left?" Martin was skeptical.
"Yes! He was quite seriously injured, why would he stay? Besides, I'm an old woman who just wants to live out my days in peace. That young man looked like trouble; I wouldn't dare keep him here."
The elderly woman spoke convincingly, as if she were telling the truth. After a moment of contemplation, Martin found no flaws in her story and temporarily believed her.
"I'm sorry for the intrusion!"
Seeing that she had fooled him successfully, a subtle smile crept over her wrinkled face. "No worries, it's all fine!"
With one final sweep of the house, finding no more suspicions, Martin left with his driver. The elderly lady saw them out the door, watching until they were gone, before slowly closing the door and locking it.
Martin stood in the street, gazing at the sequence of old houses before him, momentarily losing his sense of direction, uncertain where to search for Patricia.
Left with no alternative, he began to inquire at each house. Unfortunately, his search yielded nothing. Neither Hunter nor Patricia were anywhere to be seen.
The winter evening darkened early, and the driver glanced at the dimming sky with concern, suggesting, “Mr. Langley, it’s getting dark. Why don’t we return now and resume the search at daylight?”
Martin did not respond. How could he leave without finding Patricia? Where could she be now? Had she found Hunter?
Putting aside the fact that they were alone together, the Miller family’s influence was vast across the country. She was a woman alone in unfamiliar surroundings, with limited means—how was she to save Hunter? It was like trying to shatter a rock with an egg.
Seeing his worry, the driver spoke slowly, "Don’t lose your composure, sir. No news is good news. President Shen has instructed me to follow your orders these next few days, and I can arrange for additional personnel. Let's return tomorrow with more help to continue the search."
After some thought, Martin agreed to the driver’s suggestion. As they departed the small village and were on the way back, Charles’s call came through.
“Daddy, why did you leave mommy alone there?” His tone was very certain.
Martin’s brow furrowed in confusion. “How do you know I left? And how do you know that I am not with your mommy?”
Realizing his slip of the tongue, Charles hastily said, “I just received a message from mommy. She said she has found Hunter, and they are together now. The location APP shows her yellow dot together with Hunter's blue dot.”
‘But your red dot is moving farther away.’ Of course, Charles dared not voice this last observation. For when his father had installed the location APP that he had sent, he’d also unwittingly installed the hidden tracking system within it.
This meant that the movements of Hunter, mommy, and daddy were all under his control. The system he developed could even track the devices when turned off. When he woke earlier, his first act was to track their positions.
Noticing the growing distance from mommy, who was now with Hunter. Martin would never associate his son and the computer prodigy C together, he didn’t give it another thought, and immediately caught the loophole in his words, his eyes narrowing sharply.
“Blue dot is Hunter? Yellow dot is your mommy? And the blue dot represents the same phone number, the one that called your mommy before?”
Charles nodded, “Yes, that’s the number.”
Martin asked again, “Are the blue dot and yellow dot together now?”
“Yes!”
Instantly, Martin realized he had been tricked and urgently said to the driver, “That old lady was lying. Turn around.”
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