Without proof, he said, there was nothing anyone could do even if they knew he had killed a person. He is very irritable and moody. It's always him who calls the shots, and he never listens to me."
Freddy frowned. "Then, you should know where he kept Kevin, do you?"
"Yes." Linda kept nodding, "Will I be innocent if I tell you everything?"
"No." Freddy frankly said, "But it can be used as a meritorious factor to reduce your sentence. The more merit you contribute, the lighter your sentence will be in the future."
Linda was a little disappointed. She sighed, "Well, I'll tell you. He is in Room 302, Building Six, Garden Community. It's an old neighborhood. He rented a house there. We used to... meet there in private. He has not told anyone about it."
Knowing the location, Freddy asked someone to take Linda back to the police station and then met with his police officers to discuss what to do next.
On hearing the news, Sophia also came. Freddy didn't avoid her but allowed her to listen on one side with Albert.
"I think we can just shout to him to let him let go of the hostage. He shouldn't dare to hurt the hostage after knowing the police surrounded him." Said one of the police officers.
"No." One officer contradicted him. "This man is grumpy. He's perhaps the kind of extreme person. It may provoke him to hurt the hostage."
"Then what should we do? He will kill the hostage sometime later."
"It's best to subdue him when he's not prepared. That's the safest."
"You said it easy. What should we do?"
Freddy pulled out some pictures of the Garden Community and pointed to the balcony in one picture. "This should be the apartment that Scales rented. It's old and has no windows on the balcony. I think we can jump over there from the neighbor balcony and get into the room out of the blue. If he tries to hurt somebody, we should have time to shoot him right away."
Everyone looked at the picture. One officer said, "The distance between these two balconies is quite far away. We can't jump over."
Judging from the picture, the distance between the two balconies was over two meters, so it was difficult to jump over.
Freddy said, "Use a ladder. Keep it quiet. It shouldn't disturb anyone inside."
"No." Albert suddenly said.
Freddy was surprised, "Why?"
"This guy used to work on surveillance cameras," Albert said. "Can you make sure he doesn't have a camera outside?"
As soon as he mentioned this, everyone froze.
Freddy immediately had Linda brought in and asked her about the camera.
Linda said cautiously, "Yes. There are several, which scatter in the exterior walls, doorways, and stairwells. They're infrared. He can see everything outside at any time. He is very cautious. It took him a long time to plan all these before he started."
Freddy frowned, thought about it, and said, "We can pretend to fix the air conditioner for his neighbor. The house in this neighborhood is quite old-fashioned. There is no room for a person to stand around the air conditioner, so we can naturally build a ladder…"
"No!" Sophia chimed in, "This excuse is a little far-fetched and easy to suspect. When he becomes suspicious, he will keep watching, and it's easy for him to see someone entering his balcony."
She pointed to the balcony. "I can jump over from here. I will be quick. It's just a few seconds."
As soon as she said this, everyone froze.
How could she jump such a long-distance?
Sophia said nothing, walked to the open space and jumped forward hard.
The distance was far more than two meters.
Everyone was stunned, but Freddy shook his head and said, "No. Even if you jump over there, you can't do anything. You're just a little girl. You can't subdue Scales."
Sophia frowned. "You look down on me. I've been learning to fight for years. There is no problem to subdue such a man. At least, I can hold him off to give you enough time to rush in."
Freddy still opposed. He had always believed that it was the job of the police to protect people's lives and that he couldn't let a little girl take the risk.
Freddy discussed with others and made a plan of action.
Room 302 was opposed to room 301. Freddy called the owner of the house and asked two men of the family to come downstairs to exchange their clothes with two police officers, who pretended to be members of the family and hid at home to spy the opposite by watching from the peep-hole. In this way, as long as someone could fool Scales to open the door, they could rush over to save the hostage at any time.
Although Scales set up the surveillance camera at the door, he had no contact with the opposite family, so he should not have noticed that the two people living across from his apartment weren't the same person.
"It's just the one who tricks him into opening the door…" Freddy said, unconsciously looked at Linda.
She was the only one who could do it. If it were a stranger, Scales would never open the door. Revealing a flaw would only put Kevin in danger.
Linda shook her head at once, "No way. He'll kill me if he finds it out. I'll never go. He's very scary when he's angry. He used to beat me when I was with him…"
Freddy didn't force her. After all, it was very dangerous. He just stressed, "If you can do it, it will be a great credit. Your crimes will be reduced a lot."
Adam suddenly rushed in and stood in front of Linda, "I'll go."
They didn't let him in, but when he saw Linda go in, he quietly ran over to eavesdrop. When he heard that the police needed his mother to trick Scales into opening the door, he couldn't help turning up.
Linda was stunned.
Adam shouted, "If I do my job well, will my mother get a lighter sentence? I don't want my mother to take risks. I'm a man. I will protect my mother."
Linda's eyes were suddenly wet, and the tears poured from her eyes and dropped on the body of Adam.
"I... What have I done?" Linda cried, "I was so stupid that I didn't get anything for it but put my son at risk for me."
Adam turned around and hugged Linda. "Mom, don't cry. I'll do my best. I won't let you go to jail."
Linda gritted her teeth and said word by word, as if she had made up her mind, "I'll go."
Her decision surprised everyone, but when they thought about it and felt that it was reasonable.
Although she was timid and weak, she could become strong for the sake of her son.
"No. I won't let Mom go. I'll go." Shouted Adam.
He clung to Linda, unwilling to let go of her.