The Countess's Body Has Disappeared - Chapter 11

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 11
He carried no identification, and everything that fell from his lips was a lie, so his true identity remained unconfirmed to the end. Liam estimated him to be in his late thirties, but to Davion, the man was plainly his own age — merely obscured by a full beard.
The Unknown Criminal hung his head, his bound legs trembling. Urine mixed with cold sweat ran down onto the floor.
Davion poured ice water over his head, then struck his cheek with his fist.
“Wake up.”
“Ugh…….”
He dragged a chair from near the door and sat across from the Unknown Criminal. When he pulled Cecilia’s Black and White Photograph from his coat pocket and thrust it forward, the man’s unfocused eyes shifted.
“Remember this woman?”
The Unknown Criminal squinted at Cecilia, then bared his blackened teeth in a sick, cackling laugh. Davion’s fist connected hard against his face once more.
“Look properly. Next time, you lose your front teeth.”
Only then did the Unknown Criminal stop laughing, stammering his words.
“A woman like this, I, I never, never saw. If, if there was a girl this, this p-pretty, I, I would’ve been the f-first to……!”
Before he could finish, his head snapped sideways. Blood seeped from between his teeth, but consumed by Withdrawal Symptoms, the Unknown Criminal seemed incapable of pain — he simply drooled and giggled like a broken thing.
‘There’s nothing for it but to wait until he regains his mind.’
Davion carefully returned Cecilia’s photograph to his inner pocket, then withdrew a small plastic bag and shook it. The moment the Unknown Criminal saw the White Powder inside, hope blazed in his eyes.
“Answer my questions properly, and I’ll give you this.”
He nodded eagerly, drool mixed with blood trailing from his mouth.
“How many women have you sold off until now?”
“I, I don’t remember exactly. Th, thirty or so?”
“Where do you sell off the ones you’ve kidnapped?”
“I, I don’t know that far. W, we just fill the quota, that’s all we, we do. But I, I heard they send them, send them abroad.”
“I’m curious about your method of kidnapping women. Do you use bait to lure them away?”
“Wh, what?”
The Unknown Criminal’s eyes widened, and he threw back his head, cackling with laughter.
“We j, just knock them out if they w, wander into our territory and d, drag them off! Those kinds of girls, wh, who’d even look for them anyway — they’re p-prostitutes or w, widows!”
…….
Davion exhaled slowly, tamping down the rage that roiled within him. There was no point losing his temper yet.
“Do you send them all abroad once you’ve filled your quota?”
“Th, that’s right. You g, get more money that way, s, see. Even if we’re just talking about our c, country’s women, they’re quite p, popular with foreign m, men, you know.”
As the Unknown Criminal spoke with grotesque pride, a sickening rage welled up inside him.
So that’s what they had meant to do with Cecilia.
If she hadn’t been carrying the snake……. He didn’t want to imagine it. He had never felt such gratitude for the fact that she was a witch.
When Davion pocketed the drug and stood, the panicked Unknown Criminal lurched forward, shouting.
“Hey, a deal’s a deal! You s, said you’d give it to me!”
Davion kicked the chair out from under him, toppling him to the ground, then drove his boot into the man’s ribs.
“My wife is neither a prostitute nor a widow.”
He lit a cigarette to dispel the sickening stench that clung to the air, then left the basement behind.
No officers were visible near the basement. Liam had executed his orders flawlessly. He crouched beside the car, stroking a gray cat that had just slipped past the fence.
The cat bolted the moment Davion approached. Upon second look, it was female.
“Did you make progress, sir?”
Liam straightened, his appearance already immaculate once more. Davion checked his own reflection in the car window and shook his head.
“I need to come back in four days. First, I have to verify what he’s told me.”
“I’ll assist however I can.”
Davion clapped his shoulder in thanks. As he headed back toward his office, he addressed the officers who saluted him.
“Make sure he drinks at least four liters of water a day. If he won’t open his mouth, force it down. Leave him with just enough ability to speak.”
“Yes, sir!”
The moment he reached his office, Davion’s first act was to remove Cecilia’s photograph from his inner pocket.
But as he examined it, his brow furrowed deeply. At some point — he couldn’t say when — the edges of the photograph had become wrinkled and worn.
He carefully inserted the photograph into a frame on his desk, lit a cigarette, and leaned back in his chair, gazing at Cecilia’s face lost in thought.
She had said there were no pretty women among them.
It was strange. Though Cecilia always denied it bashfully, she was, objectively speaking, a beautiful woman. Not a ravishing beauty, perhaps, but certainly not a face one forgot easily.
It was clear that Cecilia had been kidnapped by the Human Trafficking ring. She did escape from them, and that much was true……
‘But how on earth did she manage it?’
As Davion exhaled smoke between his teeth, the face in the frame seemed to warp slowly before him.
‘Ugh, what a stench…….’
From somewhere, he heard Cecilia’s voice, disgruntled and complaining.
A faint smile played at Davion’s lips. As he wiped the frame clean with his coat-tail, erasing the fingerprints, Liam entered and set down a coffee.
“It’s possible that madam may have already left the city, is it not?”
Davion’s smile faded as he looked at him.
Liam tensed, wetting his lips with his tongue before continuing hesitantly.
“Even if we tighten checkpoints, loopholes exist everywhere. I pray it’s not the case, but there’s a possibility she may have already passed away for some reason or another.”
Davion kept his gaze fixed on Liam even as he slowly turned the photograph face-down. He wanted the woman in the frame to hear only kind words.
“My apologies. But it’s my duty to assume the worst-case scenario and devise solutions accordingly, sir. Especially given her involvement in this incident—and considering she was never in robust health to begin with…….”
“How is the Charity Event coming along? I should have been attending to it, but I’ve been too preoccupied.”
Davion rubbed his dry eyelids and changed the subject, sensing he was on the verge of snapping at Liam if he continued listening.
The Winterhall Count’s House was preparing for a large-scale Charity Event. All proceeds would be donated to the city’s orphanages and hospitals.
It was an annual tradition that stretched back to when he’d been known as the second son of the Sistledown Duke’s House rather than the Winterhall Count. Though he had no leisure to enjoy such affairs, the hospital’s insufficient budget left him no choice but to proceed.
Because Davion had spent his days hunting for Cecilia on the streets, it was no exaggeration to say Liam had undertaken the event’s preparations entirely alone. Recognizing Davion’s intention to shift topics, Liam refrained from mentioning Cecilia further.
“The preparations are proceeding smoothly. Ah, but the Duchess of Sistledown has asked that we be sure to invite Lady Esmeralda. If that would be uncomfortable for you, sir, I can convey your wishes to the Duchess and have her removed from the guest list.”
“No, there’s no reason Lady Esmeralda shouldn’t attend. She’s so invested in that sort of thing—if we didn’t send an invitation, people would find it strange.”
He’d even heard that Esmeralda operated a welfare foundation under her own name. Last year, she’d shocked the public by donating the entire proceeds from a concert.
“Oh, and add a note to the invitations forbidding black attire. I won’t turn my wife’s Charity Event into her second funeral…….”
“Very well.”
After Liam left the office, Davion set the photograph upright and lit another cigarette. His conversation with Liam had planted seeds of anxiety that now burned through him with belated intensity.
What if Liam was right? What if he never saw Cecilia again?
‘Where on earth could she be…….’
His hands trembled as he tapped ash from the cigarette. Davion squeezed his eyes shut and turned the photograph face-down again.
At least for now, he couldn’t bear to look at her directly.
* * *
Meanwhile, at that very moment.
Cecilia had been industriously wielding scissors for a solid hour.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————