Chapter 178: The Smile (1/2)

The hours passed slowly. For the next meal, the food was lesser than expected, but the medicine Lucy brought was enough to help Jade out. It was still within the seventy-two-hour frame for her to take the medicine and I really hoped it worked.

She had been strong for the longest time, but in the face of kindness from strangers, she broke down. She was sure it didn't make a difference.

She was resigned to the fact that they were not going to be saved.

”Why do you think that?” I found myself asking in the middle of the night. I had come to sense the change in temperature in the room after the drugs wore off.

”You are a cop, right? It's been almost two days since you got kidnapped and they still can't find us,” she told me. She was not at fault for thinking this. When I was sixteen and didn't know police procedure, I wondered how incompetent they were to not find me. And I thought they would never rescue me.

But I knew who the perpetrators were, I knew the procedure, and I knew that there was more to the situation than meets the eye. I couldn't blame her for feeling hopeless.

”I'm not a cop. I am an intern. But yes… it will take time,” I assured her. ”Ask Benny. His dad has been a cop for years.” I turned to Benny.

He looked like a deer caught in the headlight. He finally nodded. ”The cops will try to look at every other possible victim. If they have suspects, they will interview and if they have a particular name, they will hunt down all the properties and locations where we could have been kept.” He glanced at me. ”Isn't that right?”

I nodded in acknowledgment. ”The people on the case scientifically look at people and their behavior. They have worked in the industry for decades. They know what they are doing. The only reason we haven't been rescued yet is that something is stopping them from finding the exact location.”

Jade looked confused. I looked at Gene's sleeping face. After crying for a long time, she got tired and fell asleep. Which was good. She needed sleep to recuperate faster.

”I don't know what it means,” Jade exclaimed.

I hushed her. ”No need to panic. They'll have to kill me first if they want to harm any of you, understood?” I asked her.

Her eyes widened with panic. ”You said none of us would die!”

I shook my head urgently. ”None of you will die. As I said. If I don't die, you won't die either. But I am not omniscient.” I gave her a sad smile.

”Do you think you will die?” I pretended to think about it for a while.

”I don't think I will. I have a lot to go back to. I am not allowed to die.” Sebastian's face flashed in my mind and I felt tears prickle my eyes.

”Your… family?” she asked tentatively.

”I don't have a family. My grandparents and parents were killed by a serial killer. My dad was the lead investigator, you see.” Jade gulped, visibly shaken. ”I was taken from my house and kept in captivity for seven months…”

”Serial killer? You said you encountered four that threatened you. Why?”

”The two captors? They are serial killers. But they have let a lot of women go, as well, so you were kind of lucky.” I stopped short. I didn't know how to come back from that. ”That's not what I mean—”

She shook her head. ”I understand. Better physically injured than killed.”

I sighed in relief. ”Right. This way, at least you get the chance to get better.” I forced a smile.

”How did you survive?” she asked finally.

I shrugged. ”I was allowed to live because the serial killer's partner had an invested interest in me. He wanted me alive because he had a sick and twisted fantasy of turning me into his accomplice.”

I took note of Benny's dispassionate expression.

”What kind of psychopath does that? Watch someone get tortured because they want to be romantically involved with them? They need therapy.”

I threw my head back in laughter. Benny gritted his teeth. ”You're right. Imagine not having the courage to show himself while I was hurting.” I shook my head pretending to be offended.

”But you found a nice man, didn't you?” she asked.

It was for her own hope, so I nodded. ”A very nice man who stopped me from killing myself or someone else,” I admitted.

Jade blinked. ”And he's… a good detective?”