Chapter 166 Tacit Understanding
Sophie picked up the wine glass from the table and took a sip, a flash of malice crossing her eyes. "This is just a warning for you. What comes next will be much worse."
She set down the glass and sent another message, arranging the next step of her plan. Her fingers tapping on the screen carried a calculating confidence of certain victory.
Meanwhile, Lance drove Aria and Jasper home. The car was quiet except for Jasper's occasional soft breathing. He leaned against Aria, already fast asleep, though his brow was still slightly furrowed—clearly the earlier scare hadn't completely worn off.
"Aria, don't worry too much. I've already added more people to watch your building, and we should have the investigation results soon."
Lance glanced at Aria in the rearview mirror and spoke softly.
Aria gently patted Jasper's back, her eyes full of concern. "Lance, contact me the moment you get the results."
Until this matter was resolved, she couldn't shake this uneasy feeling.
Lance nodded in agreement. "I will. I'll let you know as soon as we have answers."
As he spoke, the car slowly pulled up to their building. Lance got out first, walked around to the back seat, and opened the door for Aria. He carefully helped her carry Jasper upstairs, and only after watching them enter their apartment did he say quietly, "I'll stay downstairs for a while. Call me if you need anything."
Aria nodded, closed the door, and carried Jasper into the bedroom. She gently laid him on the bed and tucked the covers around him.
Looking at her child's sleeping face, she sat on the edge of the bed, her fingertips lightly smoothing his furrowed brow. She silently vowed that no matter who was behind this, she would never let anyone harm Jasper.
After settling Aria and Jasper upstairs, Lance took the elevator back down, his mind replaying yesterday's dangerous scene at the amusement park, his brow constantly furrowed.
He walked to his car and opened the door. Just as he sat in the driver's seat, his phone rang. It was his assistant in charge of the investigation.
"Mr. Gray, we've figured out what happened at the amusement park."
The assistant's voice carried some gravity through the phone. "The person who ran into Jasper was a homeless man from out of town with a history of intermittent mental illness. No family, no friends, not even a valid ID on him. After being caught, he's been talking nonsense. We checked all the nearby surveillance footage and the transient population registry, but we couldn't find any trace of someone controlling him or any evidence of him meeting with anyone."
Lance leaned back in his seat, his fingertips pressing against his forehead, his eyes dark with thought.
Just as he suspected—this carefully orchestrated "untraceable" situation was no accident. Someone had clearly arranged this pawn with precision.
"Keep watching him. Focus on tracking this homeless man's movements around the city recently. Don't miss even the smallest clue."
He hung up and paused with his finger on the phone screen, then pulled up Arthur's number.
Arthur was surely investigating this too. He needed to confirm what Arthur had found and ask if he'd also noticed something suspicious.
He dialed. After three rings, Arthur's cold, deep voice came through, still carrying barely contained anger—clearly he was also unsettled by this incident. "Lance."
No pleasantries. Lance got straight to the point, his tone steady but certain. "I got the results on the person from the amusement park today. Homeless man from out of town, intermittent mental illness, no trace of anyone pulling his strings."
Lance paused before continuing. "Did you get the same results?"
A few seconds of silence, then Arthur's voice grew even colder, as if he was gripping something tightly, his tone tense. "Yes. My people turned the area around the amusement park upside down. Same exact results as yours. This whole thing is too suspicious—it just happened to target Jasper, just happened to be when I was with him. There are too many coincidences."
"I also think it was arranged by someone. They clearly planned everything and cut off all the leads."
Lance's gaze swept over the pedestrians outside the car, then he cut to the heart of the matter. "Do you have any suspects?"
At those words, a familiar figure immediately flashed through Arthur's mind—eyes that couldn't hide their resentment and unwillingness, growing more obvious lately. But right now, he had no evidence.
He could only suppress the anger in his heart and say in a low voice, "I have a vague guess, but no evidence yet, so I can't say for sure. Since you also see this was deliberate, you must have your own suspicions too."
"Anyone who would target Jasper must be going after either Aria or you."
Lance's tone was calm and logical. "Aria spent five years abroad keeping to herself, made no enemies, just got back to the country not long ago, and has met very few people. There's no reason for anyone to go to this much trouble to target her. In the end, this is about your connections."
The darkness in Arthur's eyes deepened. Lance's words hit exactly what he'd been thinking.
He stood by the floor-to-ceiling window in his office, gazing outside, his voice ice-cold. "I think it's someone close to me."
He took a deep breath and continued. "This person must know I care about Jasper, knows Aria's weakness is her child, and understands how I operate. That's why they found such a homeless person with no ties to use as a pawn. Even if caught, he can't give up anything, leaving us with nowhere to direct our anger."
"Someone close to you?"
Lance raised an eyebrow, immediately understanding, his own suspicion becoming clearer. "Someone who knows all your thoughts and dares to act right under your nose—that takes guts."
"And this person definitely knows Aria and Jasper's whereabouts. Otherwise they couldn't have picked the amusement park so precisely, even timing it to when Jasper was on the carousel."
"I never disclosed Aria's whereabouts after she returned to the country." Arthur's voice was heavy with barely suppressed fury.
Lance cut him off directly. "You didn't need to disclose it. Anyone who wants to know your movements can find out. Wasn't that woman last time an example?"
Arthur's eyes darkened. That woman last time...
He meant Rachel!
"Mr. Grant, I know what you're thinking, but I still need to remind you—if you don't deal with the people and situations around you properly, incidents like today will only increase, not decrease. Can you really feel at ease constantly putting those two in this kind of danger?"
Lance's blunt words made Arthur's expression even grimmer. Of course he understood. It was precisely because he understood that he needed to stop this situation immediately.
Though neither man spelled out their suspicions over the phone, they had reached an unspoken understanding.
Anyone who simultaneously fit the criteria of "someone close to Arthur," "hostile toward Aria," "aware of what Arthur cares about," and "knows Aria and her son's whereabouts"—looking at the people around Arthur, there were only a handful of possibilities.