Miss Star, spoiled by her father and brother

Chapter 254 Tool Shop Owner

Outside, Sifos and McQueen followed the location and found Xu Weiwei's computer next to an inconspicuous trash can. There were signs of violent damage on it, and the main part was smashed beyond recognition.

If it was replaced with an ordinary optical computer on the market, it might have broken down, but how could the one Sifos used for his daughter be an ordinary one?

"It looks like he's a repeat offender. He knows there might be a location here," McQueen frowned.

Sifos squatted down and put the broken optical computer into a transparent bag, sealed it, and put it in his pocket. He stood up and looked around, but did not see any obvious surveillance equipment. But he still locked his eyes on a road to the east.

The Boguang Market was behind them. The kidnappers chose to make a brief stop here, which meant that their real base must be in this direction.

"Call your captain and ask them to come over." Sifos said to the mermaid police officer who followed him.

Soon, the two groups met in the police car and exchanged information.

The mermaid captain played the intercepted surveillance footage first. Seeing Xu Weiwei's figure, McQueen and Sifos' emotions fluctuated.

"It's her!"

The two watched helplessly as a tall man wearing a hat and a mask stood behind Xu Weiwei, completely blocking her out. A few seconds later, the man suddenly squeezed out of the line, as if he had changed his mind and didn't want to buy anymore.

But when the picture is zoomed in, golden hair can be clearly seen on his shoulders.

Sifos clenched his fists tightly, veins popped out on his arms, and his eyes were fixed on the back.

"We asked the stall owners nearby. But the kidnappers were very familiar with this place. They kept their backs to the camera the whole time and no one showed their faces. They all said they had no impression of it." Captain Mermaid said, then sighed.

"This is the third time this month."

Seaforth and McQueen looked over.

"Child kidnapping cases like this have occurred from time to time since the past few years, but not often. In the past two years, the frequency has suddenly increased, with more than 40 cases recorded."

"So many?" McQueen asked in surprise.

The mermaid was a little ashamed of what was said: "During our search, the clues always get cut off inexplicably, or there is no clue at all."

"Some deep-sea mermaids who came to ask for help couldn't even tell where their children were lost. There are no surveillance cameras in the sea, so we don't know where to start investigating."

McQueen frowned and asked curiously, "Didn't the kidnappers contact the family to ask for a ransom?"

"Never. According to our investigation, the ratio of the mermaids they kidnapped in the capital to those living in the sea was 3:7, which means they were not going for the ransom at all."

"That's human trafficking," McQueen said firmly. "Does it become difficult for you mermaids to have children? Are there many families without children? Wait, that's not right, Wei'er is a human!"

A team member said cautiously: "Excuse me, judging from the photos you provided, she looks a lot like a mermaid child. Look... there is even a gill closure line behind her ear... right here..."

The two of them fell silent as they looked at Xu Weiwei's makeup this morning. McQueen felt even more guilty and wished he could find a hole to crawl into, his face was filled with shame.

If he hadn't persuaded Wei'er to act in this play, she wouldn't have been mistaken for the wrong person, and she wouldn't have been in danger.

"Brother-in-law, I'm sorry. It's all because of me..."

Sifos raised his hand to stop him, and said calmly: "Now is not the time to talk about this. The key is to find a way to get Wei'er back."

“Are there any cameras in the area ahead?”

"No……"

The two turned to look at the mermaid captain, unable to suppress their emotions any longer.

McQueen raised his eyebrows and repeated in disbelief: "No?!"

"Didn't you say you started losing kids a few years ago?! It would have been fine if you didn't pretend before, but it's been so long and you still haven't done anything! Are you really stupid or are you doing it on purpose! It's not your own child that you lost, so it doesn't matter, right!"

The mermaids all lowered their heads and said nothing. They knew they were in the wrong and the other party's scolding was not wrong.

The captain apologized and said, "It's already being installed, but it's slow. When we reported it five years ago, Wang took it very seriously and immediately allocated money. It's just that due to the geological conditions here, the installation progress is very slow and it hasn't been popularized in this area yet. I'm sorry."

Sifos's eyes turned cold. He was experienced and knew there was something wrong. The geographical environment of the planet Mengmed was special, with a lot of water underground, but it was not that difficult. The houses were built, so what was the difficulty of installing a few cameras?

McQueen seemed to have heard something out of this world. He sighed and asked angrily, "Five years?! Your main city is so small and you still haven't finished it in five years?! It won't take even three days in our place!"

Several people were almost breaking out in cold sweats. The feeling of being nailed naked to the pillar of shame made them feel extremely ashamed.

"Who did you find to install it? Do you know the address?" asked Sifos.

"I know where one of the masters is. He opened a tool shop, but... does this really have anything to do with him?" asked a team member.

"If you have any connections, you can go and take a look. We will find out that the clues here are broken, but fortunately we know why they are broken. Take us there."

Under the guidance of the team member, the group quickly found the store.

After getting off the car, Sifos glanced at the store sign, then walked in and looked around to observe the store decoration, then wandered around inside seemingly aimlessly.

The boss is not a mermaid, but he can greet them fluently in the mermaid language. It seems that he has lived here for many years and is very integrated.

"Captain Bei, why are you here? And you brought so many people with you. Do you want to buy anything?" the boss asked enthusiastically, rubbing his hands.

The merman who brought them here pointed at Sifos and said, "This gentleman's child is missing. We came to ask you some questions. I hope you can cooperate and tell us the truth."

"Oh, this is really... I will definitely cooperate! But I don't know how I can help?"

McQueen was very disgusted with this man. He was too slick and it was obvious at first glance that he was not an honest person.

Sifos came over, picked up a pack of cigarettes from the checkout counter, took out a cigarette, lit it, took a slow puff, and then spit it in the boss's face.

The boss had been paying close attention to Sifos's every move. He was not annoyed when he saw this behavior. He just took a step back, still with a polite smile on his face.

"The cigarettes are pretty good, 'Golden Leaf', 30,000 star coins a pack."

The boss took a look at the cigarette box that was thrown back, chuckled and said, "It's a luxury once in a while. If you like it, you can take this box and smoke it."

"That's quite generous. I don't think thirty thousand is a big number for you. Would it be convenient for you to see your revenue?"

Although it was a question, Sifos was already walking back. The boss' eyelids twitched and he reached out to stop him. "Sorry, this is our privacy and will not be made public."

Sifos grabbed his wrist, twisted it, and with a scream, he pressed the boss's arm behind his back and his upper body onto the counter with one hand.

"It's not up to you whether it's convenient or not when the police are investigating a case."

“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts! Let me go! Are you a policeman? Why do you hit me? Ouch, my arm~ my arm is broken…” the man screamed miserably.

The team members couldn't bear to see this, so they stepped forward to persuade him, "Mr. Sifos, let's talk it over nicely, let him go first..."

Sifos spat out the cigarette and glanced over sharply, "Get clear about your position."

Several people hesitated and stopped obstructing. McQueen took the opportunity to go around the cash register and find out the monthly sales volume in the backstage.

"Your store only makes less than 3,000 yuan a month, and you smoke cigarettes that cost 30,000 yuan a pack?"

The boss's forehead began to sweat, and he didn't know whether it was because of the pain or nervousness. "I just like this, is that not okay?"

McQueen sneered, "You are so old, you don't have a wife and children, do you? A family needs to spend one or two thousand a month, no matter how frugal they are. That means you can only save one thousand a month, twelve thousand a year. Not to mention the rent for your store, tell me how you can afford these cigarettes."

The boss took a deep breath in pain, the smile on his face had long since disappeared, replaced by a twisted and hideous expression. He said, "I won the lottery, I don't rely on this little turnover to make a living, what's wrong?"

Seaforth's hand increased the force, and the man screamed again. But he still refused to say anything. The police officers also saw that there was something wrong with this man, so they stopped sympathizing with him and warned him sternly.

"Tell me where you got this money! Otherwise I'll take you back and lock you up for questioning!"

The man paused for two seconds, "This cigarette... This cigarette was actually given to me by someone else. I said I bought it myself to save face."

"Didn't you just say you won the lottery? How come it's a gift from someone else? Who gave it to you? Why did they give you such an expensive thing?"

The mermaid captain's series of questions confused the boss. He looked obviously flustered and stammered, not knowing how to answer.

Sifos didn't have the patience to give him any more. He raised his right leg, pressed his knee against the man's arm and lower back, and used his free right hand to grab the man's hair and lift his head up. With his other hand, he took the cigarette that had been burning on the glass and slowly moved it closer to the man's eyes.

"I always hate people playing tricks on me, especially people like you who are so despicable but think they are smart. I'm in a hurry. If you delay me for one more minute, I will burn a hole in your face."

"It's been five minutes since we entered the store. Five holes, how about starting with the eyes?"

The man's eyes widened in fear at first, but when he saw the burning cigarette butt getting closer and closer, he quickly closed his eyes again. His mouth was still hard. He didn't believe that the other party really dared to do this.

But in the next second, he paid the price for his stubbornness.

"ah--!!!!!"

"Mr. Seaforth!"

McQueen jumped out with his hands and stood in front of everyone.

"He can't do this! This is personal injury! Even for the purpose of investigation, he can't do whatever he wants!"

"That's right! This is against the rules! Let him go!"

McQueen pushed the man back and roared, "Do your rules work? I'm telling you, if anything happens to Selive Seaforth, it won't just be him who'll have a hard time! All of you mermaids will suffer!"

Several people were shocked.

"Because of your incompetence, your obstruction, and your leniency towards the criminals, the case has not made any progress! We will treat it as a diplomatic issue."

Seeing that they were no longer so impulsive and had some reservations in their eyes, McQueen slowed down his tone and said, "You have seen this man's attitude. How are you going to make him open his mouth when you take him back? Will he confess honestly without using force?"

"Instead of wasting a lot of time to do it, it is better to save the process. Remember one thing, being kind to the perpetrator is equal to being cruel to the victim. So many children of your mermaid tribe are suffering somewhere and what kind of torture they have endured. Have you ever considered them? Will the criminals be kind to them?"

The few people who had spoken the most righteously at the beginning were silent. The expression on the mermaid captain's face gradually changed from struggling to determined. Finally, he walked around behind the boss, stretched out his hand and said, "Mr. Sifos, I'll do it."

The boss was twitching in pain, with a red, round scar on his eyelid, and transparent tissue fluid oozing out. Fortunately, it didn't burn through, and there was only a thin layer away from the eyeball.

The glass table was wet, dripping with the man's sweat.

"It's out." Sifos picked it up and looked at it, then picked up the lighter. A "click" sounded like it hit the man's heart.

"This time it's the eyeballs."

"I'm telling you! I'm telling you! Stop it now--!" the man screamed loudly, tears and snot streaming down his face.

Sifos's hand paused, but he did not move away. He just stayed at a very close position, threatening the man's nerves at all times.

"Someone...someone gave me money to install the camera slowly...and not to use high-quality ones...and then tamper with them after they were installed..."

The man sniffed and continued to stammer, "I asked him why he did this, but he told me not to interfere and that I would get paid as long as I did what he said. Otherwise, he would come after me. I was scared, so I had no choice but to listen to him."

"There is indeed a problem!" The mermaid captain said loudly, "No wonder the project is progressing so slowly! Have the other people received the same request?"

"I don't know much about them, but they should be... I guess they should be the same..."

"Who is looking for you?" Sifos asked in a deep voice.

"I don't know... I haven't seen him. We have always been in touch by phone. His contact number is 0277, followed by six eights..."

"Can you let me go now? I've told you everything I know."

Sifos's hand did not move away as the man imagined, but burned him again firmly. The cornea was more sensitive than the eyelids, and the man struggled violently, and his screams made the team members present feel sick to their teeth.

A few seconds later, Sifos's hand was raised, and a cigarette had just burned to the end and was thrown away casually.