CHAPTER 4 — The Secret Hidden in the Backpack
The investigation moved quickly.
By the next morning, Sofia's story had spread throughout the neighborhood.
Parents walked their children to school.
Police officers increased patrols.
Everyone wanted the stranger caught before he could target another child.
Meanwhile, detectives carefully reviewed every second of the balcony video.
Again.
And again.
Then one investigator noticed something strange.
"Wait..."
He zoomed in.
"When did he do that?"
The room grew quiet.
For only a fraction of a second...
As the stranger passed behind Sofia while she looked toward a bakery window...
He reached out.
Not to grab her.
Not to hurt her.
Instead...
He quietly slipped something into the side pocket of her backpack.
The detectives stared at the screen in disbelief.
"What is that?"
Within minutes, officers rushed to Sofia's house.
Her father carefully opened the backpack while investigators watched.
Inside the small side pocket was a tiny black device no larger than a coin.
Nobody in the room recognized it at first.
A bomb technician was called immediately.
After examining it, he looked up with a grim expression.
"It's a GPS tracking transmitter."
Silence filled the room.
The stranger had never planned to kidnap Sofia on the street.
That would have been too risky.
His real plan was far more terrifying.
He intended to follow the tracker...
Learn where she lived...
Study her family's daily routine...
And return later, when no one expected him.
Sofia's mother collapsed into a chair, covering her mouth in horror.
Her father clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles turned white.
The detectives suddenly realized this wasn't the work of a lone criminal.
The tracker was sophisticated, expensive, and professionally modified.
Someone had supplied him.
Someone else was involved.
As officers traced the device's serial number, one detective received an urgent phone call.
He answered...
His face slowly lost all color.
"What?"
"Say that again."
He hung up and looked at everyone in the room.
"The tracker isn't registered to any civilian."
"It belongs to an evidence locker..."
"...inside the police department."
Someone on the inside had helped the predator.
May you like
And suddenly...
No one knew who could be trusted anymore.
