Chapter 4

The negotiation failed.

Officer Miller sighed. His colleagues were in position, and a specialized negotiator from the state police was ready. The case had exploded across the city. Reporters and social media influencers swarmed like flies to blood.

Command had issued orders: no child was to be harmed. If necessary, I could be taken out.

But Officer Miller still clung to a sliver of hope. He didn't think things had escalated to that point yet.

Based on his years of experience, the woman didn't seem like a hardened criminal, but rather a desperate mother driven to extremes by her missing daughter.

"Have they pulled up the surveillance footage? Did that child really not leave the preschool?"

A tech team colleague replied, "We've recovered the deleted footage. It shows no sign of Lily leaving the preschool."

Officer Miller fell into deep thought. Could Lily really still be in the preschool?

But where could she be hidden?

There were no hiding spots in the classrooms. Offices, the principal's room, the kitchen—they'd all been searched.

What place could they have forgotten?

His colleagues searched inside and out again, but found nothing.

Officer Stevens said exasperatedly, "Did the kid sprout wings and fly away? Otherwise, it makes no sense! Every inch here is covered by cameras, there are no blind spots!"

A light bulb went off in Officer Miller's head. "Are there cameras in the bathrooms? Search the bathrooms!"

The preschool bathrooms were indoors, and Lily was last seen in the pre-kindergarten class.

But that was exactly where Sarah was holding hostages.

At that moment, my voice rang out again. "Fifteen minutes left! Are you all incompetent idiots?! You can't even find one child!"

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