Chapter 8 The Empty Frame
“Where’s my sister? Did you find her too?”
I snapped my head up and snatched the phone from the Train Police’s hand.
The video feed showed a station officer.
“I’m the brother of the missing girl!”
“Calm down. First, confirm—is this the woman?”
The camera zoomed in. Her face filled the screen.
“That’s her! She pretended to be crew and took Miaomiao!”
I’d recognize her anywhere.
The officer moved to another room, out of her earshot.
“We checked her boarding records. She got on alone.”
“But when she left the station, she was still alone. No child.”
My brain froze.
Alone?
Impossible.
I saw her carrying Miaomiao off the train.
I read her lips. I know what she said.
“Where’s my sister?”
“Maybe she handed her off to someone!”
“Yes! There has to be an accomplice! Check now!”
I was screaming at a police officer. I didn’t care.
“Sir, calm down!”
“We reviewed every second from when she stepped off until we detained her.”
“Our techs confirmed—she never met anyone.”
No accomplice?
No handover?
“That’s impossible! She stole Miaomiao’s pink backpack—how could my sister just vanish?”
My mind went blank. Every theory I had just died.
“We asked her about the pink bag. She claims she took it by mistake.”
The phone slipped from my hand and clanged to the floor.
The carriage footage kept looping, but I couldn’t look anymore.
Ding.
A message from Mom.
“Are you there yet? Is Miaomiao being good?”
I almost called them right then to say she was gone.
But as I reached for the call button, something flashed across the looping footage.
I’d watched it dozens of times and missed the one thing that didn’t belong.
“I get it now!”
Everyone turned toward me, faces confused.
I called them over and played the footage again at normal speed.
I paused exactly where I needed.
“Right here!”