Chapter 188 - The Topless Man

"Stop!" Oliver screamed out as he pointed to Trisha's laptop screen.

The taxi driver quickly stepped on the brakes in shock and everyone in the car jolted forward. Fortunately, seatbelts in Germany were compulsory, otherwise, they would have been thrown straight out the front window. "Do you want to get off here?" the taxi driver asked in surprise. They were in the middle of a highway!

Oliver quickly glanced up apologetically and shook his hand, "No no, sorry, I wasn't talking to you. Please continue."

The driver shook his head and grumbled something under his breath before he continued.

Jackson turned around curiously in the front passenger seat and asked, "Did you discover something?"

Oliver and Trisha stared at the screen as Halia leaned over to have a look as well. 

On the screen, footage from a camera that was facing the entrance of Muller was playing.

Oliver pointed to the screen and yelled, "There! There! Stop."

Trisha quickly paused the footage and looked at the man with confusion. All she could see was an empty street and the front of the club.

"Zoom in," Oliver said.

Trisha did as told.

As the footage zoomed in, Halia began to notice something on the glass doors of the club. It was a reflection!

"It's a truck," Oliver explained.

The two girls looked at Oliver and didn't quite understand the fuss. There were plenty of trucks in Germany, what made this one so special? Sure, Jaclyn was likely being smuggled in the back of a truck, but they couldn't be suspicious of every single truck, especially not one that was just passing by on the streets.

Oliver furrowed his brows in frustration. "Look at the time and the date," he said.

"7:15am, Saturday 1st June. And?" Trisha queried.

At that moment, Jackson realized what Oliver was trying to say. "Trucks are banned from the roads on Saturdays during the German Summer between the hours of 7am and 8pm. Most drivers try to get their trucks back to their companies before 7am. Why is a truck driving around the downtown at this time of the day? Unless...the truck is about to park somewhere..." Jackson said.

"Do we have any cameras that point to the loading dock of Muller?" Oliver asked.

Trisha immediately started searching and finally hacked into the security camera of a convenience store on the other side of the road. The camera pointed out onto the street and showed the driveway to Muller's loading dock. 

Trisha quickly set the footage to 7:15am and clapped her hands in surprise. At exactly 7:16am, the same truck was seen turning the corner and driving into Muller's loading dock. Oliver and Jackson were right, the truck had parked inside the loading dock of Muller!

"I'm sure Jaclyn was in there!" Halia said. 

...

It was 12pm, lunchtime.

Elias Muller returned to his club with two lunch boxes. He was holding a woman captive, but he still needed to feed her; he couldn't hand over a dead body to the Italians.

Roughly 20 minutes ago, he had asked his men to guard the entrance and back exit of the club while he popped out to buy some food, but as he walked back in and headed to the spot where he had left the little 'Sparrow', he realized she was gone.

At first, he remained calm; she probably went to the bathroom. After all, he had men guarding the place; she couldn't have possibly gotten out. Besides, he could tell that she was already addicted to the heroin shots that she had been receiving over the last few days, so he did not believe that she would leave.

But, after he practically flipped the entire club upside down and still didn't find any trace of the woman, he began to panic. He was supposed to lock her back in the truck in 2 hours time so the club could prepare to reopen in the evening and then deliver her to the Italian border at 8pm when trucks were allowed back on the road. Where did she go?

At that moment, as he stood helplessly in the women's bathroom, he glanced up and noticed a panel in the ceiling had been knocked slightly out of place. He quickly climbed up on the sink and moved the panel aside. The ceiling of the club was connected to the hotel next door. He had forgotten that it was one big building.

"No way..." he grumbled in disbelief as he realized what may have happened. Did she escape through the ceiling?

...

Mia dragged Jaclyn through the lobby of the luxurious hotel. She had discovered the secret passage when her brother was renovating the club a few years back; no one knew about it except for her (and probably the men who did the renovations). 

"Where are we going?" Jaclyn asked.

"Somewhere safe," Mia replied as they walked out the front door of the hotel and flagged down a taxi.

Soon, the two girls arrived outside an apartment block and Mia led Jaclyn to a condo on the 5th floor. "My friend lives here," she said as she rang the doorbell. "You can stay here until we figure out what to do." 

"Shouldn't we go to the police?" Jaclyn asked. The initial rush of the drugs was gone, and even though she still felt quite calm and relaxed, her logic was beginning to kick in.

"No, my brother has connections in the police. I don't know who we can trust," Mia said as the door to the condo opened.

"Hey there, beautiful," a seductive male voice resounded from the doorway.

Jaclyn glanced over and saw a topless man staring at them with his chocolate brown eyes. It was only the first day of summer, plus summer wasn't even that hot in Germany, did this man have to walk around with no shirt on?

But, then again, this was his home, he could do whatever he wanted. Jaclyn had no right to complain.

Mia leaned over and kissed the man on the cheek and the man reciprocated. Jaclyn looked at the two; they both looked gorgeous like models. Was this Mia's boyfriend?

"Jaclyn, this is John. John, this is Jaclyn. Jaclyn needs help," Mia said to the man.

John immediately hooked an arm around Jaclyn affectionately and led her inside, "Come, let's see what I can do for you..."

Jaclyn didn't know what it was, but she felt there was something odd about this man.

Just as she was thinking this, she heard a loud bang behind her. Mia had closed the front door. Jaclyn glanced around the condo, it was quite big and she could see it had a few rooms. But, there was something eerie about the place. It was midday, but the curtains were drawn shut and there were handcuffs and rope lying around. Did this guy have some kind of fetish?

Jaclyn subconsciously glanced back at the angelic-looking Mia for reassurance but noticed that her expression had changed.

Her gaze suddenly felt cold as she stared straight into Jaclyn's eyes and said, "Tie her up!"