Chapter 4

Two o’clock in the morning, in the reception area of the county police station.

I sat at a desk, flipping through the latest DNA match report.

The results showed that the girl’s DNA was a close match with Rosalind Callisto, the daughter of the richest family in the city.

In my past life, this report only came out half a month later. During these two weeks, Rosalind was like a sponge, taking in and learning every single rule of modern society I taught her while quietly setting up a trap for me.

In this lifetime, I leveraged the authority of the provincial department to expedite the results of the DNA test.

The Callistos were scheduled to rush here latest by tomorrow afternoon. That left Rosalind with not much time to play tricks.

Knock, knock.

A very soft knock on the door sounded.

I didn’t move.

The knocks on the door became increasingly urgent, accompanied by a girl’s soft, suppressed sobs.

“Lawson…pain…scared…”

It was Rosalind.

She managed to escape the multiple levels of security in the hospital and find me at my dormitory!

In my past life, this exact same thing had happened.

I had thought it was negligence of duty on my part. My heart broke seeing her run miles barefoot. I had immediately opened the door to pull her in, poured her a glass of warm water, and gave her a warm towel.

She seized the chance while I walked away to retrieve the first aid kit to snap the shoulder strap of her bra.

After the incident, she told the media, “That night, Professor Lawson dragged me into his room and forcefully pressed me down on his bed…”

I stared at the door handle, my eyes cold as ice.

I picked up my phone and called the guard room at the reception area.

“There is an unidentified girl along the corridor on the third floor, trying to break into my room. Please bring security right away.”

I hung up and called Captain Jones next.

“Captain Jones, is this how your men do guard duty? The key person of interest in this case is outside my door right now. Have a policewoman here in five minutes’ time.”

Outside my door, Rosalind seemed to sense something wrong and stopped knocking.

Then, I heard the sound of cloth tearing. She was tearing her pants into shreds.

In less than three minutes, all the lights along the corridor went up. The security guard on duty and Captain Jones arrived on the third floor almost at the same time.

I heard a gasp from outside the door. That was when I finally approached the door and opened it.

The scene before me shocked everyone.

Rosalind was seated barefooted on the cold tiles, her hospital gown torn to shreds, hardly providing her body with any cover and exposing the fair, dewy skin underneath.

She looked pitifully at me with tear-filled eyes.

Any man who witnessed this scene would instinctively take off his jacket and drape it over her shoulders.

I, on the other hand, didn’t even take a step beyond my door frame. I remained in the room and raised my camera, aiming the lens at her.

“Recording has started.”

My voice was so loud, it resounded in the corridor.

“Everyone present, please take note. I'm in the room right now and more than two meters away from the target in question. We are not in physical contact whatsoever.”

Disbelief and shock flashed past Rosalind’s eyes. She couldn’t seem to believe that a normal man would react the way I did under such circumstances.

“Lawson…”

She bit her lip and made an attempt to enter my room.

I immediately grabbed a high-lumen flashlight, turned it up to the brightest, and aimed the intense glare straight on her face.

“Step back!” I barked.

Captain Jones snapped back to attention and urged two policewomen to step forward and wrap Rosalind up with a blanket.

One of the young policewomen couldn’t help but lament, “Professor Lawson, that’s way too cold of you! She ran for miles in the middle of the night to seek help from you!”

I looked coldly at the policewoman. “Ran for miles in the night? Look at her soles.”

Everyone lowered their heads to look.

Rosalind was barefoot, but aside from dust and dirt from the floor of the corridor, there were no signs of soil, blisters, or even scratches; things expected after running barefoot over a long distance.

I turned to look at Captain Jones. “Have you checked the surveillance footage in the hospital? How did she manage to escape?”

Captain Jones’ face darkened when we received a call. The news he heard made his entire body shake.

“It was David Lynch… He pretended to be sick and went to the hospital. He seized the chance during the change in shifts to pick the lock and bring her out.”

I chuckled.

This “father-daughter” pair had great chemistry indeed.

David went to great lengths to bring her out of the hospital, and she managed to accurately identify where my room was located.

The heiress of a rich family doing all these with the help of an illiterate old bachelor from the village, just to force herself on me at the risk of ruining her own reputation.

Why?

I looked at Rosalind, all wrapped up in the blanket, and turned to speak.

“Captain Jones. I have with me the first psychological profiling report. This girl is absolutely normal in intellectual development, possesses very strong counter-reconnaissance awareness, masking abilities, and traits of antisocial personality disorder.

“She’s not a prey.

“She’s a predator.”

The moment I said that, the piercing sound of brakes screeching came from downstairs.

A couple of black Maybachs screeched to a stop at the entrance of the reception lobby of the county police station. The headlights pierced through the night and shone right onto the wall of the building.

The Callistos were here.

Rosalind stopped struggling. Under the cover of the blanket, she silently mouthed a sentence that only I understood.

When I realized what she was trying to convey, my blood froze in my veins. I finally understood why she had betrayed me in my past life.

As it turned out, this was no ordinary abduction and trafficking case.