The time frame was short and Xu Zhengqing had gained a decent lead. However, Luo Jian would do anything to stop him.

While Jiang Hao was already on his way to the parking garage, he had pulled his core team away from the interviews and contacted the traffic police to set up roadblocks around the wider perimeter of the parking garage. 

He was sure that Xu Zhengqing was not working alone. Most likely, he had already made the plan to kidnap Wenjie in advance. Therefore, it was probably safe to assume that he had not only changed the getaway car but also had the cameras tampered with. This made their pursuit more difficult, but not entirely impossible unless Xu Zhengqing had someone on hand to paralyze the camera surveillance of the entire city and managed to bypass the roadblocks in time.

Halfway to the parking garage, a call from Jiang Hao reached Luo Jian, Pang Dazhi, and Liao Shuang. 

"The getaway cars and Wenjie's phone are secured. The cameras in the parking house were turned off during the period in question. I gained access to the cameras on the surrounding streets and was able to pinpoint that Xu Zhengqing should be driving a silver-gray Dongfeng. After consulting with our colleagues from the traffic police, the cameras of the entire road network of Qingcheng were checked. The last sighting of the car was near the river, towards Linjiang Street."

"Then he has quite a head start," Liao Shuang replied. 

Luo Jian gave an angry sigh and slapped the steering wheel with one hand. Along the river, on Linjiang Road, there were no cameras. And as far as he knew, the road also ended in an area without camera surveillance. If Xu Zhengqing changed his car at Linjiang Road one more time, they would lose his track. 

"Inform the traffic police to close all approaches to Linjiang Road," Luo Jian replied to his colleague.

"Already forwarded it," Jiang Hao countered. 

"Are there any traces of his accomplice on the scene? Were the cameras able to capture any useful images?" inquired Luo Jian as he steered the car toward Linjiang Road. 

"No. Only Xu Zhengqing was visible in the footage. It is possible that his accomplice stayed in the area. If he is the owner of the truck, we will find out. Around the parking house, we detained several potentially suspicious pedestrians for questioning."

"Good, stay on site and report back if there is any news. We are on our way to Linjiang Road." With that, Luo Jian ended the connection and accelerated the vehicle. 

It took half an hour for them to reach Linjiang Road. Another fifteen minutes later, they spotted a silver-gray Dongfeng on the riverbank with its doors open. A traffic police car was parked not far away on the side of the road. Two colleagues were standing by the Dongfeng. One was talking animatedly on the phone. 

Nearby was a half-finished factory building. From this side, a third colleague of the traffic police was just coming back to the road. With any luck, the cameras there were already in operation, providing them with valuable clues.

Luo Jian parked his car on the side of the road and got out. He waved to his colleague, who immediately came over to him. 

"No cameras," the latter said with a shake of his head. 

"Damn." With the trail coming to nothing, Luo Jian's concern for Wenjie grew many times over. He felt the urge to kick the car door but managed to still maintain his composure, even though he was as tense as a wire. 

Not enough, at that moment he received a message from an unknown number: Congratulations if you made it to Linjiang Street. Did you think your roadblocks could stop me? Surely you arranged for the traffic police to put obstacles in our way? You won't catch up with us. Give up the boy. The message was undoubtedly from Xu Zhengqing and made the blood in Luo Jian's veins burn from anger. He would definitely not abandon Wenjie to this criminal. 

Attached was a short video. It was recorded in a sparsely furnished room that did not allow any conclusion about its location. Sitting on a chair was Wenjie. His mouth was taped shut and his wrists were tied to the armrests. Mister Xu stepped into the frame and smiled at the camera. 

"Captain Luo. Did you miss me? To make it easier for you to let him go, I have another memory video for you. Your boy is doing well, well, let's just say according to the circumstances, after learning the truth about his father’s death." Mister Xu laughed up and put a hand on Wenjie's shoulder. "I have to thank you for not taking him to the station right away. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have succeeded in kidnapping him."

Luo Jian's expression darkened when he noticed Wenjie squinting his eyes and blinking. His expression didn't seem anxious, but highly concentrated. Luo Jian frowned and replayed the video. The blinking started the moment Xu Zhengqing began to speak. Was Wenjie trying to transmit a Morse code by blinking?

"After you lost our track..."

Luo Jian only listened with half an ear and instead focused on the movement of Wenjie's eyelids. 

"I can answer your question about the third man."

Xu Zhengqing didn't even need to talk further. Luo Jian could already guess that the watchmaker was the third man, which he confirmed shortly after. Since that was the case, Xu Zhengqing was the true Monsieur. Luo Jian was seething with anger inside. 

Why hadn't he figured it out earlier? Why hadn't he shown Wenjie the video right away? It was all because he hadn't wanted to drag him back into the investigation. Wenjie was just a student. He shouldn't have had anything to do with all this. And now Wenjie was in great danger because of his mistake. It seemed all the more important to him to decode the message that Wenjie was trying to convey to him. 

Dai Mengde. Owner Jinbaozhai. That was the name he had wanted to give in the car earlier. Black. Minivan. K-98. Then the message broke off because Xu Zhengqing walked around the chair, obscuring Wenjie's view. 

"Captain Luo, I realize that Wenjie's life is more important to you than any artifacts. But there's no point in looking for us. Unless you harbor an even bigger death wish."

With that, the video ended. And this time, Luo Jian could no longer control himself. He kicked the car door with all his might, slamming it shut with a loud bang. 

Liao Shuang opened the rear car door and got out. 

Luo Jian sighed deeply and showed her the video. "This bastard is playing with us. His arrogance will get the better of him. Find out the fastest way to get to Jinbaozhai, Shuang'er. Dazhi, take the wheel." 

He then turned to his colleagues from the traffic police to put out an additional search warrant on Dai Mengde and make inquiries regarding the minivan. The license plate number was not complete, but perhaps the traffic police could still do something with it. They would follow up on any leads they got. 

Following that, he got back into his car, this time on the passenger side, and signaled Dazhi to drive off. Then Luo Jian tried to call back the number Xu Zhengqing had used. All that came up was a no connection at that number. He had probably used a disposable cell phone. And while Luo Jian was still thinking about how he could locate the cell phone's location anyway, Su Ying came forward with the latest findings from the interviews. 

The man from Undercurrent Luo Jian had fought with on the roof of the hotel had revealed that they had used a ceramic tracker in a smartwatch to communicate. Luo Jian remembered that Wenjie had also worn such a smartwatch, but he had not noticed it on the young man after he had come back to the roof. With any luck, Xu Zhengqing still had his smartwatch and they could use it to locate him or at least track down one of his recent whereabouts. At some point, the man had to make a mistake and leave traces.

to be continued...