Silly Bride novel (Winnie and Xavier)

When James heard Winnie's question, he instinctively handed her the phone.

"Here, you can see-" As soon as those words escaped his mouth, James stopped abruptly, remembering that Winnie could no longer see.

Coughing drily to cover up his embarrassment, he quickly retracted his hand. "The texts that he had previously sent you are still kept in the phone," he explained.

Winnie furrowed her eyebrows upon hearing that. "The chat history between him and me is kept, but not the others?"

"That's right. He probably cleared the data on his phone before contacting you. Even the call history had been cleared. However..." James changed the point of focus. "There's a missed call during the day of the incident. Unfortunately, we only discover this now. It has been a few days since the incident. If the caller was Harold's ally, they would have probably gotten the news that Harold had gone into hiding." Winnie nodded in response. "Are there any clues we can obtain from the phone number?"

James shook his head no. "I don't think so. It's obvious that this is a fake number generated by the internet. We most likely wouldn't be able to find anything, but these are all just my assumptions." As he spoke, he passed the phone to David, who was standing beside him. "Take a look."

David accepted the phone from James and confirmed that it was a fake number with just one glance. "Phone numbers like this are usually a one-time random generation. There's not much value in this discovery. The number will definitely be unavailable."

The keys of the old phone were proportionately much smaller compared to David's thumb. As he was inspecting the phone number, he accidentally pressed the dial button. Startled that he had pressed the button, he quickly reassured the others, "It's ok. Everything's fine. It won't affect anything. After all, the number is unavailable."

Amused, James teased David in feigned anger. "You're almost forty years old. How are you as clumsy as a prepubescent boy?"

"Hehe." David chuckled sheepishly before handing the phone back to James. "See? Nothing happened!"

Winnie had lost her sight. Naturally, she had no clue about what had just happened.

Frowning, she tilted her head toward Xavier and whispered, "What happened? What's wrong?"

A dull pain could be felt in Xavier's heart as he saw Winnie in that state. It was as though someone had stabbed his heart repeatedly with a blunted knife.

He zoned out for a solid two seconds before explaining, "Captain Gibson accidentally dialed the number."

"Ah," Winnie replied lightly. "I see. It probably wouldn't change anything."

"That's right. Everything's okay!" When David heard the conversation between Winnie and Xavier, he turned the speaker's volume up. The automated voice of the device could be heard loud and clear. "The number you have dialed is unavailable."

"Thank goodness it's unavailable," James commented. "We have neither the tools nor the skills right now. It could have been a disaster if someone were to pick up the call. We should send this phone back to the station as soon as possible and let the tech guys try to restore the data."

When he had finished speaking, he turned to Winnie and became solemn. "Madam Winnie Garland, on behalf of the police department and the school, we would like to bestow our utmost honor unto you for your immense bravery and selfless sacrifice. Hand, salute!"

At the command of execution, Greta and David stood up straight and gave Winnie a respectful salute.

Even though she could not see, Winnie could hear the shuffling noises of all three of them standing straight before resuming their positions simultaneously.

Turning her head toward their direction, Winnie stood up and returned the salute in a similar manner.

"All right, then." Seeing that their job there was done, James sent Winnie his final greetings. "We'll be taking this phone with us now and stop disturbing your peace. Rest well. If you find any clues or are in need of our assistance, feel free to contact us any time."

"Okay." Winnie smiled. "Police are working for the sake of our country. I will contact you if I need help."

"In that case, we'll be going now." Greta approached Winnie with a smile. "Once your quarantine is over, I'll bring you out for a meal."

"All right, deal!" As she spoke, Winnie took a few steps to the front.

Upon seeing that, Greta quickly stretched out her arms and stopped Winnie in her tracks. "It's okay. We'll see ourselves out."

With that, the three of them turned around to leave.

At that precise moment, the old phone in David's hand suddenly rang.

Startled by the sudden sound, David quickly glanced down at the caller ID.

He froze, dumbstruck. It was as though he was holding a ticking time bomb in his hand.

"Who is it?" James inquired immediately.

"It's an unknown number with a similar structure as the other number. It's probably a generated online dial as well. Could it be the same ally that called Harold a few days ago? What do we do? There is no equipment here."

James thought about it for a short while before making a brisk decision. "Pick up. It's too big of a coincidence that the phone is ringing now. Perhaps they received the notification from your call just now and are calling back to probe. If we pick up now, we might be able to lure them out, but if we don't, they might never call this phone ever again."

"Okay!" David agreed with James' analysis, but there was still one concern. "But what about my voice? I sound completely different from Harold."

"Here's the plan." James gestured for David to come closer and whispered a quick command into his ear.

Cognizant of what James' plan was, David flashed the former an okay sign before answering the call.

The caller was the first to speak. It sounded like a female voice. "You're not dead yet? Where have you been in the past few days?"

David immediately lowered his voice and growled at the phone. "Did you wish that I was dead? I'm still hiding in the chemical plant. I don't know if there are police outside, so you better come up with a plan as soon as possible to rescue me."

The caller was not born yesterday. It didn't take long for her to realize that David's voice was different. She immediately raised her guard. "What happened to your voice?"

"I'm wearing a gas mask. Three out of the four bottles had been broken. I almost lost my life trying to salvage the last one, but there also seemed to be a crack on the surface of this bottle. I don't want to gamble my life trying to guess whether or not this sh*t is poisonous, so I've found myself a gas mask for protection. Where the h*ll are you? Can you come and rescue me or not?"

"Of course, I will. I'm impressed. Can't believe you're that hard to kill. You're still at the abandoned chemical plant, am I right?"

"That's right. They thought I had escaped, so they probably wouldn't expect me to still be hiding in the chemical plant."

"All right, then. Wait for me." The woman at the other end of the call chuckled suddenly. "I'll inform you once I've made the arrangements."

"Okay." David gave James another okay sign to signal that everything was settled without forgetting to grumble, "Hurry up! I'm almost starved to death!"

"Got it. Once I've bought that thing, you'll be able to feast to your heart's content. Oh, that's right. I almost forgot. There's something that I want to ask you."

David paused. His forehead creased as his eyebrows inched toward each other. "What is it?" He took a deep breath to calm himself, praying to the heavens that the caller would not ask him something he did not know. Otherwise, his cover would be blown!