43. Frustration

“Kate!” Leonardo called out and half-chased. He tugged on the woman's arm to get a good look at her face, but he was wrong.

“Yes?”

“Sorry, I got the wrong person.” Leonardo said with annoyance. He released his grip on her arm, then rubbed his face with both palms. What kind of man could he be to misrecognize the woman he loved? Perhaps it was because he missed her too much that he saw her wrong. She was obviously very different from Caterina when viewed from all sides.

The woman continued on her way, while Leonardo flung himself onto a street chair. He looked very tired looking for Caterina's whereabouts. It had been almost a month, but they hadn't found the slightest clue.

“Sir.” Alex handed Leonardo a bottle of water; he had just returned from the convenience store to buy a drink.

Leonardo accepted the bottle and downed the contents several times. He looked very thirsty. It could be because he was too upset, making his throat very dry.

“You still haven't found any clues?” Leonardo asked again because he really couldn't contain his longing. His eye bags were clearly visible, a sign that he hadn't slept well lately.

Alex shook his head slowly. He was also looking forward to meeting Caterina. The slightest information would be very useful to him. He was very good at finding information if a small trace was found.

“Sir, I found the CCTV footage that shows which direction the bus went that night.” One of Leonardo's men approached by showing street CCTV footage that captured the movement of the bus that Caterina was traveling in that night. After working like horses, they finally found a clue.

Alex and Leonardo looked very happy with the information they got.

Leonardo immediately drank all the drinking water in the bottle he was holding. He got up, threw the bottle into the trash can, and asked Alex to move quickly.

They returned to the car and then immediately drove at high speed towards the location in the CCTV. Sure enough. When they got there, the bus was gone. Naturally, the owner of the bus must have found it and brought it home. Because the incident happened a month ago. Around the place there were no buildings of any kind.

Alex and his other friends scoured every place looking for something. Until Alex found a ring lying on the ground. He picked it up and looked at it carefully. The ring looked very familiar; when he looked closer, on the inside of the ring was written the name Dante Morano. This suggested Dante and Caterina had indeed been taken there.

“Sir, I found this.” Alex showed the ring he had found. “This belonged to Dante.”

Leonardo took the ring and looked at it. It was just as Alex had said; it had Dante's name written on it. It was the wedding ring the man had been wearing for decades. Leonardo squeezed the ring very hard. His jaw hardened. They were already one step closer to Caterina.

“Search every place here; there might be a hidden room.” Leonardo gave the order.

All his men did as he asked. He also followed the location. Five hundred meters from where they parked the car, Leonardo found an old building. He grabbed the gun tucked under his coat and then sneaked into the building.

The building seemed to have been uninhabited for a long time, and no one was taking care of it. Grass had begun to crawl up the walls of the building, the roof was slightly collapsed, and cobwebs were everywhere.

Although it looks like an abandoned building, Leonardo is still careful. Because he has experience with this. Criminals often take hostages in abandoned houses to avoid police suspicion. Who would have thought that an abandoned house would be used as a hostage place?

Especially since it's far away from residential houses, even if the hostages screamed, there would be no residents to hear them.

The floor of the building looked very dirty and full of dust; the more Leonardo went inside, the more he only saw darkness. There was no sound other than his own footsteps and his own breathing. That meant there was no life there.

“Kate!” came the call from the other side of the room. “Are you here?!” It was obvious that it was Alex calling. Fortunately, Leonardo had already memorized the man's voice, so he didn't immediately open fire.

“Alex, I don't think there's anyone here. We should look elsewhere.” Leonardo made a suggestion.

“Sir, is that you?” Alex asked for confirmation.

“If I were your enemy, I would've shot you after I heard your scream. Your presence is very noticeable. If you snuck into the enemy's place, you should have hidden your presence. If there had been an enemy in this place, you would have died because of your carelessness.” Leonardo gave comments and advice. Because, Alex's mistake was quite fatal by shouting Caterina's name.

“Thank you for your input, sir.” Alex was happy every time he got a reprimand from his boss because he could always improve every time he made a mistake and got a reprimand.

Leonardo approached Alex, and they headed out together.

“We didn't find anyone here, sir.”

“We've searched every spot; there's no sign of the enemy or Kate and her father.”

“I've also searched the old well not far from here, but there's no one there.”

“Is it possible that they took Kate into the dense forest there? There could be a building hidden there.”

Leonardo's men gave a report on the results of their search.

“It's a protected forest. No private buildings can be erected there. If we go there, it will just be a waste of time.” Leonardo disagreed with his men's suggestion.

“It looks like they deliberately stopped the bus here and continued the car ride to another place. The position of the bus covers the other side of the street from CCTV coverage. I think this was planned to eliminate the trail. It turns out the enemy is smarter than I imagined. The plan is quite well thought out, and it's hard to find any loopholes.” Alex complimented.