Chapter 26
“No!”
Hearing that, Mrs. Halliwell quickly shielded the baby in her arms and tried
to pry open his grip on the button.
Her forcible behavior hurt the baby. He cried out, and reluctantly released
his hold. Mrs. Halliwell quickly held her son in arms and backed up a few steps.
Cade also wondered if his boss had lost his mind, not even sparing a baby.
Nevertheless, he obediently fetched the scissors.
Next moment, Kendric took hold of the scissors, snipped the button off the
coat, and then… placed it on the desk.
Everyone behind him was left dumbfounded. Cade and Mary exchanged
bewildered glances.
Was their boss… a tough guy with a soft heart?
Kendric brought the suitcase upstairs. “We’ll stay over night here. And…
arrange me the same room Celeste stayed in,” he instructed.
The Halliwell couple looked at him with wide–eyed surprise, like they were
facing an unhinged guy.
Later that night, every single room in this guesthouse was lit up. Kendric
was in his room, wrestling with this suitcase, while Cade briefed him on what
he’d found so far.
“The innkeepers told me that Miss Alinsky checked out in the morning.
When she left, she mentioned she was off to Mount Canary.”
Mount Canary was quite a hike from this town, in a different city
Redeemed From Caged Love
altogether. Kendric nodded.
Cade went on, “I even checked the surveillance footage. We definitely saw
Miss Alinsky waiting for a bus to the county station at the town’s bus stop, so
she must have left this town.”
#
Kendric had been trying to crack the suitcase code the whole time, but
failed.
“Boss, should we hit the road to Mount Canary to look for her?” Cade
suggested.
Finally, Kendric gave up on the suitcase. Too many failed attempts had
temporarily locked it. He looked like he was done with any hopes of guessing
the password.
“She’s still in this town,” he was sure.
“What?” Cade showed his doubts.
“Go grab a saw and an axe.” Kendric ordered.
Cade inwardly complained about his boss’s odd behavior. Why on earth did.
he want to open that suitcase in the middle of the night? Didn’t anyone teach
him what privacy is?
As Mary brought up the tools, she noticed Kendric sitting on the balcony,
playing something through his fingers.
She gingerly offered, “Mr. Melville, maybe I can try to figure out the code.”
Kendric snapped back to reality, “you know the code?”
Mary shook her head, “not sure. But I can have a try.”
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205
After that failed attempt with the password, the suitcase remained locked for half an hour. Now, finally, it was ready for another try.
Mary punched in a four–digit code. There was a slight click, and the suitcase.
popped open.
Kendric couldn’t hide his astonishment. “How did you figure out the
password?”
+
“Nearly all passwords set by Miss Alinsky are your birthdays.”
Kendric let out a cold snort, but felt somewhat relieved. He strolled in from
the balcony.
The items left in the suitcase supported Kendric’s earlier
suspicions Celeste was still in this town, she hadn’t left. Except for
identification and cash, everything else in the suitcase hadn’t been taken away.
“Carry on searching this town tomorrow. Don’t miss any place.”
Celeste’s escape route pretty much aligned with Kendric’s speculations.
After her phone call with her father, she had a bad feeling that she had been.
exposed.
Fearing that Kendric might sniff out her location, she even left a false
message at the front desk, claiming she was heading to Mount Canary. In reality, she was still hiding out in Autumn River Town.
She started by taking a bus to the county, and from there, she hopped on a ferry to get back to a small island not far from Autumn River Town.
Kendric would never have guessed that she would be hiding out on an
Redeemed From Caged Love
island.
Celeste was deathly afraid of water. Even soaking her body in a bathtub was a no–go for her, let alone riding a ferry. This fear had its roots in a childhood accident when she fell into a river, and Kendric knew it all along.
He knew Celeste’s intense fear of water, so he wouldn’t guess out her hiding
in the island.
Celeste vomited uncontrollably on the ferry. After these tiring days, she had
lost some weight and turned gaunt.
After being on the water for over two hours, they finally made it to the
shore. Celeste got off the ferry with wobbly legs. She was hit by a wave of
nausea and dizziness.
But, just to stay out of Kendric’s radar, she had bought a ferry ticket for the
next day.
Kendric’s men searched high and low throughout Autumn River Town for a whole day but came
up empty.
In the evening, Cade tactfully suggested to his boss, “I think we should check out Mount Canary.”
But Kendric insisted, “no, keep searching this town.”
The next morning, Mayor Brain invited Kendric and his team to visit other scenic spots, and Kendric readily agreed.
“Aside from the sights here, our nearby town also has some seriously
picturesque views. Lough Eye Town, it’s nestled on a small island, surrounded
by the lake.”
Kendric suddenly had a lightbulb moment, “an island?”
Soon Cade received a call from his boss, “head to Lough Eye Town.”
