Lucien's voice echoed sharply through the quiet corridor.
"Chief! Open the door!"
Inside the dim office, the world felt suspended.
Darian's back was pressed against the wall, his fingers gripping Aric's collar tightly. The argument they had been having moments ago had dissolved into something far more dangerous — something neither of them was ready to name.
The knock came again. Louder.
Aric exhaled slowly, frustration flickering in his dark eyes. He pulled away from Darian reluctantly. For a split second, their gazes locked — tension heavy, unfinished.
"I'll deal with you later," Aric muttered under his breath.
Darian swallowed but said nothing.
Aric opened the door.
"This better be important, Lucien."
Lucien straightened immediately. "Chief, we traced the car. We identified who was driving it."
The atmosphere shifted instantly.
"Who?" Aric asked, voice turning cold.
Before Lucien could respond, a calm voice spoke from the back.
"Do you really think you found the person that easily?"
The words lingered in the air.
Aric went still.
His mind replayed the CCTV footage — the driver's face had been visible for barely a few seconds. Yet it had been clear. Too clear. Almost deliberately exposed.
A slow realization crept into him.
"That's right…" he murmured. "No one trying to escape would make it that easy."
Lucien nodded. "The car belongs to one of the school parents."
Behind them, Darian adjusted his slightly disordered shirt, smoothing out the creases with controlled movements. His hair was still faintly messy, and there was a subtle flush on his skin.
Lucien glanced at him. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Darian replied calmly, though his glare briefly shifted toward Aric.
Aric noticed. A faint, dangerous smirk curved his lips.
"Bring the parent in," Aric ordered. "We verify everything."
That Evening
The interrogation room was suffocatingly quiet.
After two hours of questioning and evidence verification, the truth became clear.
The parent was innocent.
Outside the station, Mella's mother sat on a metal bench, her shoulders trembling as silent sobs escaped her.
Darian approached her slowly and sat beside her.
"Ma'am," he said gently, his voice losing its usual sharpness, "we will find your daughter. I promise you."
Her fingers tightened around her crochet muffler , eyes swollen with exhaustion.
"I just want her back," she whispered.
Aric watched from a distance, his jaw tightening.
"We're going back to the school," he said firmly. "The answer is still there."
Crime Scene – The School
The corridors were silent when they arrived.
The building felt colder than before — empty classrooms staring back at them like witnesses refusing to speak.
"We split up," Aric ordered. "Check everything again."
Lucien moved toward the left wing. Darian headed upstairs. Aric walked toward the entrance steps, scanning the ground carefully.
After a moment, he pulled out his phone.
"Call the forensic team. I want every possible trace collected."
Minutes later, Jacob arrived with the team.
"Aric—"
"Save it," Aric interrupted. "We need footprints documented from the entrance up to five hundred meters outside the gate."
Jacob frowned. "There are dozens of prints here."
"Then isolate the unusual ones," Aric replied coldly. "Someone walked out of here with her."
Jacob nodded.
Forensic Collection Process
The team began by photographing each visible footprint with calibrated measurement scales placed beside them.
Markers were assigned to every impression.
A casting mixture — dental stone compound — was carefully poured into the deeper prints. Once hardened, the casts were lifted and labeled individually.
High-resolution scans were taken and fed into comparative software.
Sole patterns, pressure depth, stride length, and direction alignment were analyzed.
Every detail mattered.
24 Hours Later – Forensic Lab
Jacob rushed into Aric's office without knocking.
"Chief. We found something."
Aric stood immediately.
"One footprint matched a secondary pattern beside Mella's," Jacob explained. "It only appeared once — moving toward the right-side road."
Lucien's eyes widened. "Chief… Mella's house is on the right side."
Silence filled the room.
Darian's voice came out low. "So someone walked her home… or followed her from there."
Aric's expression darkened.
"From that direction," he said, turning to Jacob, "can you estimate how long they walked together?"
Jacob nodded. "I'll reanalyze stride consistency and pressure variation."
"Do it."
Aric then turned to the others.
"Lucien — check every CCTV along that road. Traffic cameras, shops, street corners. I want timelines."
"Yes, Chief."
"Darian — airports, train stations, bus terminals. Anyone leaving the city within the last 48 hours."
Darian nodded seriously.
Aric grabbed his coat.
"And I'll check hospitals and the recent places Mella and her mother visited. This wasn't random. This was planned."
The room fell into heavy silence.
Somewhere out there, someone had left a single footprint.
And that single mistake would lead them closer to the truth.
.
.
.
.