52 The confession (4)

The shock etched on their faces was a clear indication that it was the first time that they had heard of it.

"Mom, you never told us about this…" Ma Wenyan felt a sharp shudder.

Juan and kidnap…

Even its mere thought was enough to provoke a nauseating feeling in the pit of their stomachs.

"Because what was the use, Wenyan?" Ma Zhilan threw them an accusatory look. "Do you know what hurt me the most? Even when it was her own irresponsibility that she lost Juan's sight, she still blamed the little girl! That she caused the whole trouble and acted rebellious when only what she wanted was to talk to you.

And you, Wenyan…As always, you only kept supporting your wife. You never forgot defending her despite Juan being in danger. You always filled the gaps of a parent where she couldn't. I respect your sincerity in supporting her, but that doesn't mean that your loyalty towards Yanyu would jeopardize Juan's safety!"

"But Yanyu said so herself that Juan forcibly shook her hand off and ran away-"

"That was a lie! She was afraid of being pointed fingers at so it was easy to blame the child, is it not? Children are notorious, after all. Juan kept telling that Yanyu released her hand first but were you ready to believe her? No. Because for you, your wife cannot make any mistake."

Jia asked, her tone sensitive, "You said that Mrs. Meihui had helped you that day. What exactly happened?"

Ma Zhilan pressed her trembling lips, wiping her eyes. She looked at Jia and asked her own question, "You were sure that Meihui was my accomplice when you were explaining before. How did you…figure it out?"

"Because of Miss. Wu."

Jia opened the Beijing subway map on her tab.

"When it occurred to me about your possible involvement with Mrs. Dai's death, I asked to myself. What was the reason behind wanting her dead? I checked your background and there wasn't any association between you two. The only person to want her dead would be somebody who was close to her and had suffered because of her cruelty. Somebody who was tired of living with a mother-in-law who constantly looked down upon her and criticized her. Somebody who was furious over being replaced by another woman in the future, especially in her son's life."

A strange mistiness formed in Dai Meihui's eyes as she pressed her trembling palms together.

"She was my first obvious suspect. I remembered you two recognizing each other too. But was it enough? No. There had to be more meetings, conversations, familiarity to agree to such a plan. But the question remained as to how? Which brings me to the connection that I was able to see through Miss. Wu's help when we were chasing after the drug supply chain. The subway."

Jia pointed her finger at a particular location on the west side of the map. "Here is Gucheng where Mrs. Dai Meihui goes to her office everyday."

She then slid her finger backwards going eastward to the left to point at another place. "This is Muxidi where Ma Juan goes to school."

Across that same line, she pointed further right back. "This is Dongdan where the Ma family lives," and then she made a slant turn, almost at a sixty degree angle, towards the top right part of the map.

"This is Futong where the Dai family lives. Futong lies on Line 14 of the subway while the rest of the places are on Line 1. Which means that if Mrs. Meihui wants to get to Gucheng, she has to change platforms from Line 14 to Line 1 and she does so here…" Jia tapped at a location downward. "Dawanglu. A transfer station to connect Line 1 and Line 14."

She paused which brought upon an eerie silence.

"Once Mrs. Meihui gets into a train from Dawanglu every morning, the train passes across all these stations one by one - Dongdan, Muxidi and lastly Gucheng. After three stations from Dawanglu, the train stops at Dongdan - The station from where Miss. Ma catches the train Juan to drop her to the school at Muxidi everyday, right Miss. Ma?"

"...Yes."

"She, along with Juan, climbs the train at Dongdan station, and there is a brief period of fourteen minutes where there is a slim but nevertheless a possibility that Miss. Ma and Mrs. Meihui could share the same compartment in the train till the time Miss. Ma drops off at Muxidi with Juan after six stations."

Jia alternated her gaze between them. "Mrs. Meihui has to be in the office by a particular time like any other white collar worker and Juan, too, has to reach school punctually. That's why, unless there are changes of plans or an emergency, you two would always catch the same morning train at the same time and share the same ride for fourteen minutes every single day."

Yin Chin let out a gasp. "I-Impossible…"

"It seems impossible, but that's the truth of our everyday lives. Travel. Millions of people travel everyday through public transport, and when there is a consistency and commonality in the schedule, people often get acquainted with each other. That's what happened with Miss. Ma and Mrs. Dai.

They might not know each other per say, but they would have known each other well enough to recognize the other as a frequent traveler along the same route. Or they would have actually grown closer with time. I checked other public transport like buses, but I didn't get any leads of your connection. When I checked the Dawanglu and Dongdan subway stations footage though, I found it. Miss. Ma stepping into the same train and coach as Mrs. Meihui's everyday."

She shut the tab and looked at them. "When you two first met at the bureau, you recognized each other. But you both acted it out like it was the first and the only meeting between you two. You didn't want to act as complete strangers in case we somehow figured out about Juan's incident. But the truth was that you two were already acquainted since before. That's why it wasn't a coincidence that Mrs. Meihui helped you. You asked for her help because she was the one you knew you could count on."

Ma Zhilan shakily nodded.

"Meihui and I…kind of knew each other for a while. We took the same train. We never really talked to each other but one day, she was carrying a toy with her she bought for son, Yun. Juan noticed the toy in the train and was ecstatic. She hopped over to her side and I apologized for her sudden jumping at her. That's how we first met and from then on, we kept talking sometimes. She faintly mentioned the toy store in Dongdan once."

Her wet irises reddened as she thought back to the day. "Juan had been insisting on buying that toy for a while. That's why when I heard of her disappearance, I strongly felt that her first instinct would have been to go to the toy store Meihui was talking about. I didn't know Meihui's name or even her contact number. We just randomly talked at times. But thank God that luck was on my side…

Yanyu wanted to leave early for work so they were supposed to take an early train. When Yanyu broke the news of Juan's disappearance, Wenyan and I immediately rushed to the subway. I arrived at the time of the usual train we caught. I rushed inside the train and pulled Meihui out while Wenyan and Yanyu were busy searching for her on another side…"

Dai Meihui then took over, seeing it was difficult for her to continue.

"During that haste, she injured her knee. I told her to wait for me, and I immediately went off in the direction of the store. Along the way, I found Juan. But to my horror, I saw a man talking to her and trying to take her somewhere," she rubbed her arm to ease the chilliness, "I ran after her and grabbed Juan from him. I questioned who he was and where he was taking her, but he panicked and ran away. Thankfully, Juan was unharmed and I rushed to bring her to Miss. Ma'a side."