“It’s unlike him to not answer his phone. Even if he gets a call while he’s fast asleep at two or three in the morning, he answers it within five rings. I think we should head back and have a look.”
Xavier was about to get up from the bed when Winnie pushed him back down.
“There are only a few minutes left; it won’t make a difference. If you go now, these dozens of needles I’ve inserted will have been for nothing.” The worried look on Winnie’s face was replaced by a stern expression.
Xavier felt a warm sensation in his heart when he heard that. Winnie could see her reflection in his eyes as he held her hand and looked straight at her.
“Dumbo, am I as important as your granny to you now?” Xavier asked.
Winnie stifled a sob as she looked at Xavier, who had suffered many times for her sake.
The look in her eyes slowly grew gentle as she swallowed hard to fight back her tears. “What do you think? Do you not know how much you mean to me?”
Xavier tightened his grip on her hand. “I just had to make sure I wasn’t being delusional.”
Winnie let out a chuckle. “Haha! Who’s the dumbo now? Xavier, I want you to trust me unconditionally, okay?”
“Okay, I will. Do you trust me as well?” Xavier asked with a firm look in his eyes.
Winnie nodded. “Of course.”
Those words had barely left her mouth when Josiah’s call came in.
She quickly pulled her hand out of Xavier’s grip and answered the phone.
“Josiah? Are you at Aqua Moana? Why weren’t you picking up my calls?”
Noticing the anxiety in her voice, Josiah quickly explained, “It wasn’t convenient for me to answer the phone earlier, but it’s okay now. I called you back as soon as I could. Did something happen?”
“You could say that. I tried calling my granny, but I couldn’t get through. I was wondering if you could head over to my place and help check on her,” Winnie replied.
Josiah’s response, however, shocked her deeply.
“It makes perfect sense that you weren’t able to get through to her. I was going to give you a call even if you didn’t call me.”
Winnie frowned in confusion. “What do you mean by that?”
Instead of answering her question, Josiah asked, “Is Xavier with you right now?”
“Yes, he is. What’s wrong?”
“Oh, there’s just something I need to talk to him about. Mind putting your phone on speaker for me? It’ll save me the trouble of having to call him,” Josiah replied after giving it some thought.
“Okay.” Winnie then put her phone on speaker as she continued, “What did you mean by that question earlier?”
“I got held up with something, so it was pretty late when I went home. I happened to bump into Mdm. Sumner on the way back. She was on the phone and so distracted that she nearly bumped into pedestrians a couple of times. I grew worried about her safety when I saw how anxious she looked, so I followed her using my car. That was when I saw her make her way into a bank to use the ATM. There’s nothing strange about a person withdrawing money, but she was on the phone the whole time. I was worried that she might’ve been conned into transferring her money to some stranger, so I decided to go talk to her. However, she was already leaving the bank when I parked my car by the roadside. Judging by the bulge on her handbag, I’d say she must’ve withdrawn a huge amount of cash using multiple cards. As you know, there’s a limit to how much one can withdraw from an ATM. Don’t you find that strange?”
Winnie frowned slightly. “It’s strange indeed. What happened after that? Did you follow her? Was there anyone else around her? Was she being forced or threatened?”
“It didn’t seem like she was forced. I wanted to follow her, but I got stopped by a police officer for a parking violation. I assume your granny is home by now, but I’m still stuck here at the moment. Maybe you should go home and check on her,” Josiah replied.
“All right, thanks!” Winnie said and hung up the phone.
Since the time for the acupuncture treatment was up, she removed the needles on Xavier’s head as well.
While packing the needles, she recalled something and exclaimed, “Oh, shoot! Josiah said he wanted to talk to you about something, but I hung up the phone before he could talk to you!”
“It’s fine. I bet he’s so busy dealing with the traffic police that it slipped his mind. That means it probably wasn’t something important, so he can tell me about it later,” Xavier reassured her.
He actually knew that Josiah wanted to tell him about Jacinta.
In this modern age, most people would just transfer money via internet banking, so there’s no reason for anyone to carry so much cash on them. Unless, of course, they don’t want that transaction to be traceable online. I’m guessing Mdm. Sumner either plans to make an escape or is trying to help someone else escape. Considering how she was speaking to someone on the phone for so long, I’d say the latter is a lot more likely. Of course, this is all just my hypothesis. I’ll have to confirm it myself before I tell Dumbo there’s something suspicious about her granny.
“Come on, let’s head back to Aqua Moana,” Xavier said as he got off the bed and fetched Winnie her handbag from the couch.
Winnie then hung up the phone and took her handbag over from Xavier as she said, “It looks like she’s fine. I was probably just overthinking it. I can go home on my own, so you don’t need to come with me.”
Xavier nodded. “All right. I happen to have some business to take care of anyway.”
“Make sure to get enough rest.” Winnie then gave him a kiss before leaving.
Xavier waited until she was gone before pulling out his phone and sending a text: Look up the call history for this phone number today. Get it done as soon as possible.
It had barely been two minutes before Xavier received Jacinta’s call history.
The number that she was on a call with for twenty minutes indeed belonged to Rachel’s father.
Xavier frowned in confusion when he saw that.
Am I being paranoid, or is Mdm. Sumner a lot smarter than I thought?
Winnie gave Rachel’s father a call on her way back.
“Hi, Mr. Zimmerman. Granny tells me you’re going to bring Rach back soon. Have you decided on the date yet? Do let me know when you are able to confirm it. I’ll pop over to see you guys off if I’m available. No, it’s no trouble at all!”
Meanwhile, at Aqua Moana, Jacinta pulled out another phone from under her blanket and punched in a number.
“I think they’re onto me. I can’t use the cash that I’ve prepared for you, but I’ll figure something out. Make sure to stay hidden, okay? I’ll make a trip to the docks in a few days. It’s a very shady place, so it’d be perfect for you to hide there. You must remember to keep your cool, do you understand? Someday, you’ll be able to take back what belongs to you.”
The front door made a loud click as Winnie opened it and entered the house.
As Jacinta’s bedroom door was wide open, Winnie saw her sitting on the side of her bed.
Although Winnie couldn’t tell what she was doing as Jacinta had her back facing the door, she did hear Jacinta mumbling something.
“Hi, Granny! Who are you talking to?” Winnie asked with a frown as she made her way over.
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