Outsmarting a scumbag

Chapter 5

Maria first discovered she was being followed during her morning run.

The man in the baseball cap kept a distance of 20 meters, and she didn't lose him even after turning three corners.

When she passed a convenience store, she pretended to tie her shoelaces and saw the man talking into his headphones in the reflection of the window.

"Avril, I'm being watched," she whispered into the microphone hidden in her collar.

The sound of keyboard tapping came from the headset: "I see you, turn right at the intersection ahead, my car is waiting for you."

Maria accelerated into the corner and jumped on the back of Avril's motorcycle.

When the man in the peaked cap chased out, he only saw the exhaust gas going away.

"Take a clear picture of her face." Avril handed the phone to Maria. "Do you know her?"

After the photo was enlarged, Maria gasped: "This is the security captain of Suli Company!"

Avril slammed on the brakes and turned the car around. "That makes sense - Jarry is backed by the money launderers at Suli, and now they want to silence him."

The two decided to counter-track.

Through Avril's hacker friend, they located the mobile phone signal of the man in the peaked cap parked in an underground casino.

"I'll sneak in." Avril put on a sexy short skirt, "You'll be responsible for the outside support."

Three hours later, Avril came out pale, her phone full of secretly taken photos: "It's not just the casino, there's an underground bank in the back room. Look at this -"

She zoomed in on a blurry photo, "Jarry is doing business with this guy."

Maria took a closer look and her blood froze - the document that Jarry handed over in the photo was actually the floor plan of her house!

"They want to raid our house and kill us!" Avril immediately started the car, "All the backup evidence is in your apartment!"

They drove back and saw a suspicious van parked downstairs of the apartment building from a distance.

Avril took out two masks and said, "Put them on and go through the fire escape."

When they quietly reached the door, they found that the door lock had been broken. The sound of rummaging through the cabinets could be clearly heard.

Avril stopped Maria from rushing in, shook her head slightly, and called the fire department.

The piercing alarm rang throughout the building, and several men in black hurriedly evacuated.

After confirming that it was safe, the two entered the house to check - the computer hard drive had been removed, the USB flash drive in the drawer was missing, and even the pillow was cut open.

"Luckily, we were prepared." Avril pulled out a micro hard drive from her underwear, "All the key evidence is backed up."

But Maria discovered something even more horrifying - her closet was turned upside down and what was missing was... Jarry's favorite red dress.

"This isn't just a normal search," she said, her voice shaking. "They're looking for something specific."

Avril suddenly remembered something, rushed to the refrigerator, and took out a sealed bag from the bottom of the vegetable drawer:

"Fortunately they didn't find this." It contained the medicine bottles that Jarry had stolen from the warehouse.

The two decided that they could not be separated anymore.

That night, Avril dragged her suitcase and officially moved into Maria's house.

They installed three hidden cameras at the door, put explosion-proof film on the windows, and hid a tactical pen under each pillow.

"On the first day of living together," Avril put the pepper spray on the bedside, "I didn't expect to be defending against terrorists with a beautiful woman."

Maria was about to say something funny when her phone suddenly lit up with a text message from an unknown number:

"The game has just begun, my little butterfly. I won't fail next time. - J"

Avril grabbed the phone and was about to curse back, but Maria stopped her: "Wait...how did he know your number? I've only contacted you with this number..."

The two realized something at the same time and searched the room frantically, and finally found a micro-eavesdropping device in Avril's live broadcast device.

"Since when..." Avril's face turned pale.

Maria recalled the conversations of the past few days and suddenly grabbed Avril's hand: "Your parents! Will they..."

Avril immediately called home and learned that her parents had just "won" a free week-long trip and were being picked up that morning.

"Lure the tiger away from the mountain!" Avril was so anxious, "I have to go find them!"

"It's too obvious. This is simply..." Maria's voice was not finished yet.

The TV suddenly turned on automatically and a line of words flashed on the screen:

"If you want the hostages to be safe, meet at the dock at 8 o'clock tomorrow night. Come alone."

Avril picked up a baseball bat and smashed it against the TV: "You scumbag! How dare you touch my family!"

Maria hugged her from behind and said, "Let's find a solution together..."

Late at night, Avril curled up on the sofa and cried silently. Maria stroked her red hair and suddenly found a hideous scar at the root of her faded hair.

"This is..."

"My ex-boyfriend burned me with a cigarette butt when I was in high school."

Avril forced a smile, "So I did a live broadcast against bad guys... I didn't expect to get into trouble this time."

Maria hugged her gently. "We will win."

There were lightning and thunder outside the window, and in a dark office, Jarry was putting Maria's red skirt into a vacuum bag, next to which was the GPS location map of Avril's parents' tour bus.