Chapter 14

Dennis, with his small eyes, couldn't help but roll them at Charles. "Man, the only thing you've got going for you is your eyesight," he sneered.

Charles just shrugged, thinking Dennis was just being a hater.

Zoey suddenly had a lightbulb moment. She grabbed her notebook and showed everyone the bus and subway routes Ella usually took, all from memory.

She thought she was onto something big, but it turned out to be a dead end.

Frustrated, she turned to Charles. "Hey, can you help me find Ella?"

"Sure thing," Charles replied.

He picked up a photo of Ella and scanned the surveillance footage. In no time, he spotted a familiar figure leaning against the door. "Check it out, is this her? The height and outfit look about right, but she seems a bit shorter from this angle."

Zoey zoomed in and squinted at the screen, scrutinizing the figure Charles pointed out.

Even though the image was blurry, she recognized Ella right away. After all, they'd interacted a few times.

Zoey gave Charles a thumbs-up. "Nice job, man."

Charles blushed a little. "It's my only talent."

Without it, he wouldn't have lasted long in the criminal investigation department.

Ella had told Zoey she was harassed just before getting off the bus. Zoey pulled up the bus schedule and rewound the footage by half an hour.

She watched the footage frame by frame, starting from when Ella was about to get off.

In the last five minutes, the bus made a stop, and a bunch of new passengers got on.

Zoey zeroed in on the guys closest to Ella. One was a chubby middle-aged dude who looked kinda sketchy. The other was a sharp-dressed guy with a briefcase, clearly an office worker. Both were glued to their phones.

Suddenly, the bus jolted for some reason.

Zoey looked at Ella's face again and saw pure panic. To be sure, she rewound the footage and watched it in slow motion.

Soon, taller people around her blocked Ella's face.

From her body language, it was clear she was trying to move away from her spot.

This reaction was a dead giveaway. She must've been harassed when the bus shook!

Zoey's attention went back to the two men next to Ella, but they were still just playing with their phones, not giving anything away.

There were too many people, and all she could see were heads. Everything below their shoulders was hidden, so she couldn't tell if their other hands were up to something.

The footage caught the chubby guy's face but missed the office worker's. Still, Zoey was sure the office worker wasn't Lawrence.

Their hairstyles and outfits were different, and even though those could be changed, their body types were too.

Zoey furrowed her brow, doubting her earlier guesses. Maybe the harassment was just a fluke?

She took a deep breath and decided to call Ella.

Ella, knowing the creep who'd been stalking her was caught the day she was hospitalized, was in a much better mood. She was enjoying her time off and sounded pretty cheerful.

When she saw Zoey's call, she put down what she was doing and answered, "Hey, Officer Brown, what's up? Need my help with something?"

"Yeah," Zoey replied. "Are you free right now?"

Ella washed her hands and said, "Yep, I'm on vacation today, just chilling at home. I was about to cook."

"Great, can I steal about ten minutes of your time?" Zoey asked.

"Of course, no problem!" Ella dried her hands and plopped down on the sofa, ready for Zoey's questions.

Zoey's voice came through the phone. "You mentioned before that you were sexually harassed. I need some more details."

Ella said, "Sure, ask away. I'll tell you everything I remember."

Zoey thought about the surveillance footage and asked, "I'm looking at the bus footage. I saw a few guys standing near you, two of them really close. Do you remember them?"

Ella thought for a moment. "Kinda. One was a middle-aged guy, and the other was around my age, maybe a bit older. I even suspected the chubby middle-aged guy. He looked like a bad guy from a TV show. Not to judge by looks, but he really seemed sketchy. I thought he was the one who touched me. I even glared at him when I got off, but he just kept staring at his phone!"

Zoey rewound the footage and watched it again.

"Do you remember what the younger guy looked like? Can you describe him?" Zoey asked.

"Um," Ella thought hard. "He looked pretty average, you know, two eyes, a nose, two ears." She was really trying to recall.

But she couldn't come up with anything better.

Zoey's head was about to explode from Ella's vague description.

She took a deep breath and said, "Wow, good description!"

Ella chuckled, "Thanks."

Zoey said seriously, "I wasn't complimenting you."

Ella went quiet.

Zoey continued, "When he harassed you, do you remember which hand he used?"

Ella hesitated, feeling a bit embarrassed. After a moment, she said, "His hand was near my thigh at first. I thought it was just because of the crowd, so I didn't say anything. But then he grabbed half of my butt."

She still felt the shame.

Zoey asked, "Left hand or right hand?"

Ella sighed, "I really don't know, Officer Brown. I've never dealt with something like this before. I don't like physical contact with others... I'm pretty insecure and think I'm not good-looking. When this happened, I didn't even dare to ask for help."