Chapter 668 Uploading An Arrest Warrant Online
“This isn’t the time for you to wallow in guilt, Derrick. Perhaps Tiff’s phone died or something. Let’s wait for a bit first. Who knows, she might appear in a moment,” Amelia coaxed, masking the anxiety in her eyes.
Nonetheless, Derrick remained clutching his head. He couldn’t imagine what would become of him if Tiffany had really gone missing.
Verily, he regretted not marrying her earlier and arranging for a security detail to protect her in secret. This is all my fault. Things only ended up in such a mess because I decided to be with her before dealing with my emotional entanglements. If I’d been more resolute in dealing with Crystal instead of showing her mercy for the sake of our past childhood affection, she wouldn’t have almost been violated. And now, she has even been abducted!
Amelia turned and glanced at Oscar, but they could only wait with Derrick.
There wasn’t any good news from the men Oscar sent out, and time passed as slow as molasses while they waited.
The three of them waited in the house for almost three hours, but still, there was no news. Restless, Amelia sprang to her feet and proclaimed, “That’s it. I want to go and search for Tiff. The danger to her increases with every passing minute. I can’t allow anything to happen to her!”
Likewise, Derrick got to his feet and asserted, “I’ll go, too.”
“Derrick, I think you can mobilize the influence of the Hisson family to search for her. Furthermore, she’s a freelance novelist, so her life is usually monotonous and haphazard. Apart from some necessary socializing, she almost always stays home to write her manuscripts. I don’t think she has any enemies besides the Halliwell family. I’ve already sent a group of men to Saspiuburg to monitor the Halliwell family alongside the men I stationed there. As for Tayhaven, I’ve already contacted the police and have them keep an eye out. We’ve got to remain calm. If we panic, it’ll be of no use in saving Tiffany,” Oscar urged, still as calm as ever.
Derrick walked over to the man. Raising his hand, he thumped the latter in the chest. “Thank you!” he murmured sincerely.
In return, Oscar flashed him a smile. “She’s Amelia’s best friend and also my god-sister.” Hence, I can’t possibly sit around and twiddle my thumbs.
A ghost of a smile bloomed on Derrick’s face.
Subsequently, the three of them went out in search of Tiffany, but they were like headless chickens and couldn’t find any trace of her. They then went back despondently with their heads hung low. The moment they opened the door, they saw that the lights were turned on. They all looked at each other. Derrick sprinted up the stairs as though having lost his mind, shouting, “Are you back, Tiff?”
When he swung open the bedroom door, he so happened to glimpse Tiffany hobbling out of the bathroom with a massive wound on her ankle.
“What happened, Tiff?” Dashing over, he scooped her up in a bridal carry without a second’s delay. Amelia and Oscar, who raced in after him, were also inexorably shocked to see Tiffany’s condition.
“Where’s the medical kit, Derrick? I’ll go and get it!” Amelia hastily offered.
In response, Derrick told her where the medical kit was kept.
Amelia ran off and retrieved the medical kit. Derrick initially wanted to take it from her, but she insisted, “I’ll do it.”
Derrick didn’t argue but automatically gave his place to her.
Bending at the waist, Amelia helped Tiffany clean the wound and apply some salve before bandaging it with gauze.
“Thank you, Babe,” Tiffany uttered weakly, a smile tugging at her lips.
Amelia put the gauze away before lifting her head and gazing at Tiffany’s rather pale countenance in distress. “Will you tell us what exactly happened, Tiff? We almost went out of our minds with worry in the past ten or so hours that you were missing.”
“I was kidnapped.” Tiffany proceeded to narrate the events of her kidnapping briefly.
Initially, she went downstairs to buy a ton of food after writing the most interesting part of her manuscript, planning to treat Derrick and herself to a feast that night. Unexpectedly, two burly men seized her and stuffed her into a car no sooner had she left the neighborhood. The car then sped off. They didn’t blindfold or tie her up, merely telling her that someone wanted to see her and insisting that they weren’t purposefully making life difficult for her.
True to their word, they didn’t do anything to her even after being on the road for several hours. In fact, they even gave her food. She could tell that they had no intention of hurting her, so her courage grew. When the car drove past an area with dense foliage, she clutched her stomach and clamored about a stomachache, complaining of terrible pain.
They were initially suspicious, but they then saw that she was truly in excruciating pain. What cinched their decision was when she gritted out, “Sirs, you’re also human and are well aware that there’s no delaying in the event of a stomachache. I don’t begrudge you for your concerns, but I’m worried that I’ll go in my pants once I can’t hold it in, causing all of us to suffer from the stench.”
They had probably been ordered not to restrain her too much, for they weren’t all that wary of her, telling her to alight from the car and find a place to relieve herself.
She ran to a relatively secluded place and even deliberately cried out, “Sirs, my stomach hurts very badly, so I might take longer. Please wait for a while. Don’t rush me, or I’m afraid that I wouldn’t be able to relieve myself when I tense up.”
“Hurry up if you want to do it! Why are you spouting so much nonsense?” they snapped impatiently.
Grimacing, Tiffany focused on locating someplace where she could take off. Subsequently, she discovered a corn plantation behind the undergrowth. At once, she felt that the heavens were smiling upon her. All the stars had aligned for her, so it could only be destiny if she failed to make good on her escape.
Fortunately, luck was on her side. Although she was all bloodied from the corn blades grazing her, she finally managed to shake off those men.
After fleeing, she made her way back from sheer memory. However, she still didn’t see anyone halfway back, and only vast nothingness was around her. She didn’t know where she was either. Having walked for an indeterminate time, she caught sight of a car at long last. Alas, it drove straight past her.
A few more cars drove past after that. Finally, one car stopped, perhaps because she looked truly pathetic.
She hitched a ride and got into the car. So parched that her throat was dry, she implored in a hoarse voice, “May I have some water, sir? I’m really thirsty.”
The driver handed her a bottle of water.
The woman in the passenger seat inquired, “How did you come to be in such a condition, miss?”
Taking a huge gulp of water, Tiffany answered with a bitter smile, “It’s a long story. Honestly, I was kidnapped. My boyfriend is the owner of a publishing company, while I’m a best-selling author. I was the screenwriter of many fantasy movies in the past.” While saying that, she even named a few of the movies.
“I’ve watched that, and I love that screenwriter! I didn’t know it was you!” The woman appeared exceedingly excited. She turned and said to the man who was driving, “Darling, I’m a fan of her novels. No matter what, you’ve got to drive her back. These kidnappers are too much. Just because she’s a famous screenwriter, they wanted to kidnap her for ransom!”
Smiling, the driver queried, “Miss, you live in Tayhaven, yes? We’re heading to Norwal City, and it takes at least five hours for a trip back to Tayhaven.”
“Darling, let’s drive her back first.”
At the woman’s insistence, the driver agreed to drive her back.
Only after driving for about six hours did they arrive at the gate of Tiffany’s neighborhood. “Won’t you give me your phone number, Mrs. Ziegler? I’d like to treat you both to a meal to repay you for your kind gesture.”
The woman readily left her phone number but then countered with a smile, “Forget about a meal. Just send me a copy of your newly-published book in the future. I’m a fan of your novels, and I’ve read every single work of yours. I also attended the book signing event you had at Sagacity Square, but there were too many people, so I didn’t manage to get your signature. Give me a signed copy next time, okay? All right, go and clean up quickly. My husband and I still have to rush back to Norwal City, so we’ll talk another day.”
As Tiffany watched the car drive away, she couldn’t help feeling gratified that there were still many kind people in this world. Otherwise, she would have been left stranded by the roadside and either died of exhaustion or starvation after two or three days.
After hearing her story, Amelia didn’t know whether she should say that God was looking over Tiffany or that it was sheer dumb luck.
“Babe, don’t you think I’m particularly lucky?” Tiffany crowed smugly.
“Yes, you’re really lucky. Anyhow, I think we should just change our names to reflect our bad luck. In all these years, it’s either me or you getting hurt. Neither of us can remain unscathed,” Amelia couldn’t resist griping.
At her remark, Tiffany burst out giggling.
Even Derrick and Oscar were gripped by the urge to laugh.
“Are you still hurt anywhere other than your ankle?” Amelia asked in concern after laughing.
“They’re all minor scratches, so there isn’t any need to apply the salve. I’m famished, though. Can you cook me something, please?”
Torn between laughing and crying, Amelia still went and prepared some food for her.
When Tiffany had finished eating and drinking, Amelia queried, “Tiff, do you still remember those kidnappers’ faces? I’ll make some sketches and hand them over to the police so that the police can issue an arrest warrant for them. We’ve got to know the perpetrator behind this incident.”
Tiffany pondered for a moment and tried her best to describe the men who kidnapped her.
After Amelia made the sketches based on her description, she handed them to her. “How do these look?”
In response, Tiffany flashed her a thumbs-up.
“Amelia, your drawing is incredible! You’re even better than those who attended art academies!” Tiffany lauded.
“If the sketches are accurate, let’s go to the police station right away. We can’t allow the kidnappers who abducted you to go unpunished. You were lucky this time, but you’d be dead if they were violent. You wouldn’t be sitting here, laughing!” Amelia chided, reaching out and poking her friend in the head.
Tiffany merely giggled sheepishly.
The four of them went to the police station and had the police deploy officers to arrest the kidnappers immediately.
With Oscar and Derrick both placing pressure on the police, even the police chief took the matter seriously. He dispatched almost all of the officers from the police station to hunt the kidnappers down.
The police gave chase according to the route Tiffany provided, but to no avail. They then uploaded the sketches of the kidnappers on the internet. Oscar raised the reward to two hundred thousand, asking for information on their whereabouts. If anyone turned in one of the kidnappers, they would receive two hundred thousand. That amount would double if they did so for both. The high reward had the netizens going into a frenzy.
The internet could lay someone out in the bare, and all the netizens launched a search for the kidnappers’ whereabouts. The kidnappers were infuriated to see their faces plastered all over the internet and went straight to the person who hired them.
