Vinnie had the side of his head leaned on Tobias' shoulder and his eyes closed. He looked like he was sleeping but Tobias knew he was fully awake. Vinnie was taller than him and their position looked a little awkward, he wanted to tell him to sit properly but his heart grew soft when he looked at his peaceful state. Tobias checked the time and his eyebrows furrowed.
"She's taking too long. We should go look for her," he spoke.
Vinnie, who heard him, slowly opened his dark eyes. "That woman probably got lost. If she doesn't come here soon, let's just leave and go home."
Knowing that he didn't care about Mavis, Tobias sighed helplessly before getting up, forcing Vinnie to sit up straight. This made Vinnie roll his eyes because he could read Tobias' thoughts, but he obediently got up from the bench and followed Tobias to wherever place Mavis went to buy drinks.
The closer they got to the café, the more they heard about a commotion from the people nearby. Tobias couldn't help but pick up his pace, an ominous feeling was welling inside him.
Vinnie noticed his change and said to him, "Calm down, what could possibly happen to her?"
Tobias opened the front door of the café and said, "Calm down? You heard what they said! There were a lot of men in suits here and nobody was allowed to enter. Doesn't it sound suspicious?"
He immediately swept his eyes across the room to look for Mavis' figure and didn't find her. Instead, he took notice of the expressions of the people inside. It seemed like they had been frightened and the unsettling feeling inside him didn't fade but grew.
"Can you spot Mavis? I can't find her. It can't be that something has happened to her?"
Vinnie had his hands in his pockets and only said, "She's not here."
"Ah, if I knew this would happen, I should have gotten her phone number." Tobias' face withered. If he knew, he would have called her phone to find her whereabouts.
"What? You don't have her number yet?" Vinnie was surprised since Tobias had been with Mavis for a while so he had thought they had already exchanged their numbers.
"Idiot, if I did, I should have called her already and we wouldn't be here."
"Oh, that's fine, even if you called her, she wouldn't answer you."
"How can you know that?" Tobias wasn't in a mood for Vinnie's attitude but when he heard his next words, his eyes widened and he was beyond shocked.
"I called her already. She didn't answer."
Tobias couldn't help but raise his voice and questioned him, "You, what? When, how, why?! You actually have a female's phone number?"
Just as Vinnie was about to reply, a person came up to them and interrupted.
"Uhm… Excuse me." It was a girl who was wearing a beanie. She asked nervously, "Are you two perhaps looking for a girl?"
While Vinnie was disgusted, Tobias looked at her curiously.
"Yes, why?"
"Long brown hair, black jacket and jeans?"
Immediately, Tobias knew that she described Mavis and his face glowered in expectation. He nodded his head and affirmed. "Do you know where she is?"
Having her guess right relieved her but she was downcast and didn't know how to start explaining the situation. After all, she was the cause and if she didn't hesitate, an innocent girl wouldn't have been taken away forcefully by those men.
"I'm sorry!" she abruptly said.
Tobias was confused as to why she would apologise and wanted to ask if something had happened to Mavis. The girl gave them a brief summary about the commotion that had taken place at the café and the longer Tobias was listening, the more grave his expression became. Although Vinnie didn't say anything, his eyes betrayed his impassive face; they showed a tint of eagerness.
Right after the men had left, the manager of the café had called the police and they arrived shortly after Tobias and Vinnie. They came and questioned everyone that was there. Some of the witnesses didn't stay after what had happened and there was nothing they could do about it. Fortunately, the people they had now were enough.
At the moment, a police officer was talking to the girl with a pink beanie. The girl could no longer hide and compliantly revealed everything she knew regarding the matter.
"So, those armed men mistook another girl for you and took the girl away and you are Alvera Greene, the daughter of the famous politician, Mark Greene… This is more serious than I thought."
Alvera felt guilty and couldn't help but ask, "Officer Walter, is there anything I can do? I actually ran away from home because I had a… small disagreement with my father and who knew it already reached to the ears of others. They even knew where I was. Since it's my fault, I want to help to save the girl."
Officer Walter said, "It's not your fault, Miss Greene. Thanks to you, we are now clear about the case. You should contact someone from your family and go home safely once we are done here. Do you know the identity of the girl?"
Alvera looked down, knowing that she couldn't be more of help other than giving information, and shook her head. "No. But I know who does."
After saying that, she looked towards a direction that led to the sight of two young males. Officer Walter understood her meaning and brought the two to question. One was silent, he didn't even greet, but the other was more responsive and did the talking. He was cooperative and told the police the identity of the girl that was abducted.
"We were together with her today and she went to this café to buy drinks for us all. She's a friend from college, her name is Mavis Ying."
The moment when Officer Walter heard the name of the victim, he instantly felt the need to sigh and massage his temple to relieve the headache. However, he couldn't be sure as it could be someone else who had the same name. It didn't take long before he was proven right as the CV camera showed the appearance of the girl.
"This girl is really unbelievable… How many times does this make?" he mumbled under his breath.
The police officer had another talk with Tobias, Vinnie, and Alvera before he let them go and continued to take care of the case. The men had openly shown themselves and executed a crime in public, Officer Walter didn't know if they were just arrogant and confident or simply mindless. If it was the first one, then the case would be bound to be more complicated as the mastermind must be someone important. However, he was going to make sure to bring Mavis back safe and sound.
In the meantime the police were handling the case, Alvera couldn't sit still and went home, planning to ask help from her father. She needed to do the right thing.
As for Tobias and Vinnie, they didn't leave and sat outside of the scene.
"See, she's already making trouble." Vinnie wasn't happy.
"I hope she won't be hurt. I shouldn't have let her go alone…" Tobias said sadly.
Vinnie patted his back lightly and said, "She's probably fine, so stop worrying. It's not good for your health."
Tobias looked dejectedly at the café with police and got up. "You are right. Let's go home now. The police will contact us if there's news."
Since they weren't useful and had no control over the situation, they could only wait. Tobias couldn't stop worrying, though. Hopefully, Mavis would soon be found and be rescued.