Mia propped her chin in her hand. Her cheek tilted slightly, and her mind was working again. She began to eliminate possibilities. “Gambling is under strict surveillance now, so no gambling dens would dare to hide people. Going to a club would cost money; if they had some, they’d probably gamble it away, so they might not afford the club’s fees. If they went to a hospital, they could be admitted and provided for before paying.”
Leo was excited. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. I initially tracked them for two days using surveillance footage, but every time it was a wild goose chase...”
He was lured by the surveillance to a container yard, where he searched hundreds of boxes one by one with the help of the police. They searched all night, but in the end, they returned empty-handed.
Following the map, he went to the surrounding villages to investigate. “Later, the dogs in the village didn’t even bark at me.”
Mia and Molly broke into laughter. “Why?”
Leo replied, “I was there so often, so the dogs started treating me as one of their own.”
The girls laughed again.
Their laughter drifted into the living room. At the same time, Andre, having finished his work, just returned home. The sound of his family’s laughter was the best remedy for any of his worries.
Hearing their laughter, Hansen also wore a smile on his face. There was nothing more joyful than hearing laughter. Seeing Andre, Hansen pointed towards the backyard. “Go on. Your wife, your sister, and your nephew are all together again.”
With a good mood, Andre headed towards the backyard.
“What happened next?” Mia asked eagerly.
Leo replied, “I couldn’t find them, and even made friends with a couple of dogs.”
Later, Leo realized that he and the police had been led by the nose. It seemed that the enemy had predicted that they would rely solely on surveillance.
Ellory and Kyle had no close relatives, so Leo was kind of their only grandson and nephew.
After some time, Leo calmed down and thought about where Ellory and Kyle might have gone, places that he had overlooked. In the end, he narrowed it down to a suspicious place—the hospital.
Because if there was one thing Ellory and Kyle were good at, it was pretending to be sick.
They would always fake illnesses to get Naomi to send them money for treatment. Without the machines showing they were fine, they could easily fool the doctors.
Leo had been in West Meadows for several days at that time, with no progress. He didn’t feel like calling home yet. With a try-and-see attitude, he roamed around the city and investigated all the hospitals, but he found no information about the two.
This time, Molly was fascinated and asked, “What happened next?”
Leo answered, “Hospitals require patient information, but there’s one place where it’s not necessary because the patients might not even know their own names.”
The sisters were puzzled. Mia asked, “Why wouldn’t they know their own names?”
“Because they’re mentally ill.”
“What?”
Leo replied, “They were found in a mental institution.”
The sisters were shocked, especially Mia. “How did this happen so suddenly?”
Molly also couldn’t believe it. “Are they pretending or are they really mentally ill?”
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