Chapter 2

Oliver and I spent the whole morning reviewing hours' worth of CCTV footage. They all came from the establishments around the school. So far, we haven't seen anything out of the ordinary, which frustrates me even more. We wasted precious time that doesn't have to watch those videos.

"Damn, my eyes hurt," Oliver complains after watching the last CCTV footage. He buried his head in his hands and slumped on his reclining chair. Who could blame him? Even my eyes hurt a bit.

"We didn't find anything that could help us, shit!" I wanted to throw all the things around me out of frustration. As I stood up to get some coffee, one of our rookies saw the video playing on the monitor.

"Hey, I know that van." Oliver and I both looked at him immediately. "My dad used to work on the toy factory that owns that van." He said to both of us.

"Toy factory? The last time that a toy factory was opened in Burton was—"

"Twenty years ago." I cut Oliver off when I remembered the toy factory that got bankrupt. "The McCullough family owned it. But all of their vans were sold years ago. How could there be—"

"Exactly." The rookie said before leaving. My mind went on an overdrive. What does he mean? What does he—

"Play the footage, go!" I took out all the hard drives from the establishments around the school. We have to watch the footage one more time. We're missing something.

And so Oliver and I watched all the video footage again, one by one, frame by frame. We focused on everything. I noticed something that I didn't see earlier.

"Look at this, man." I pointed out to the same van going out of an alley near the back of the school. I printed that specific shot and played every footage again, trying to look for the same van. And I was right.

"Hey, look. This part of the street is the right turn to the alley where that van came from. This footage is about ten hours worth. That van is nowhere in this footage." Oliver pointed out.

"So we have this van coming out into view, but we don't have any footage of it entering the alley. It means it's been there for some time." I stated almost to myself. "This is not a random abduction. I remember that alley. There's a small passage somewhere in that alley that leads to the back gate of the school."

"Dang! You're right. Remember when we used to jump that fence because the gate was locked?" Oliver said. I stood up and walked towards the officers' area.

"I need people at the alley next to Burton's Grill. There's a small passage that leads to the back gate of Burton Primary. If that back gate was opened, then I think we have a lead." I announced before going back to the CCTV footage. "Let's see where this stupid van went."

We are both busy reviewing all the CCTV footage trying to map the route of the van. One of our officers called me to say that someone's looking for me. When I came out of the detectives' office, I saw the missing student's teacher.

"Can I help—"

"Where's my student? Have you found her yet? Or you're just sitting there at your waiting for your salary?" I didn't even have the chance to be polite when she cut me off talked to me as if she understands our job.

"We're doing the best we can—"

"What's the best you can? To be useless? To sit all day?" She's starting to shout.

"If i were you, miss. I'd watch my mouth. Why are you being acting as if we're the reason why the child was missing? Didn't you have a good night's sleep because your conscience is eating at you for being irresponsible? Or maybe—"

"Shut up and listen to me—"

"No, you shut up, miss, with all due respect, Madame teacher. Our department is working nonstop to find the kid. We are doing the best we can to bring her back home. If you don't have anything that could help us find her, I suggest you leave because you're wasting my time. You have no right to blame us or me for your mistakes. Now, Madame teacher, do you have anything that could help us find the kid that went missing because you didn't report a stranger roaming around the school?" I don't fight with ladies, but this teacher is really getting into my nerves.

She was stunned by everything I said. That's obvious with how her lips are moving like she's about to say something, but she can't. I know that she feels terrible for the mistake she did but shifting the blame to somebody who's doing everything to help is not fair.

After a few moments, I turned around and left her standing in the middle of the station. She's shaking, maybe because of anger or humiliation, I don't know. But she asked for it. I'm not going to let her belittle us, especially me, in front of my colleagues.

"Look at this. I finally mapped his route based on the CCTV footage we have. It looks like he headed to the highway out of town." Oliver announced the moment I came back.

"Headed out of town? Where was he headed?" I asked.

"South." He pointed to the map that he used.

Damn it! If the abductor is already out of town, this is going to be a lot harder. Goddamnit!

"Come on, let's retrace his route."

Oliver and I both walked out of the detectives' area and were about to leave the station when an older man came into the office. He looked like one of that homeless men I see downtown.

"I have information about the missing kid." He said to one of the officers who's standing near him.

Oliver and I looked at each other then walked towards the older man. After interviewing him, we learned that he's looking for a place to sleep that day because he was not feeling well. He said that there's this old cottage in the middle of the woods near the southern border. He used to sleep there during winters because the interior is warm. But when he arrived at the spot where the cabin is, he saw a navy blue van parked outside. Then a skinny man came out carrying a girl who happened to look like the girl in the missing posters.

We asked them to accompany us and show us where the cabin is. And he was right; it was near the southern border. There's a right turn that is eady to miss because it's almost covered by the huge trees. And there it is. The blue navy van we saw at the CCTV footage a while ago.