CHAPTER 278: CHAPTER 278: LEO IS MISSING

"Rona, take me to his office first, the teacher called and said Leo is missing, I need to find out if he took him home."

"Leo is missing? What’s going on?" Erin Bishop turned around and headed towards the parking lot as she spoke.

Shannon Quinn felt a wave of panic. If Landon Sutton had indeed taken Leo home, it would be fine. But if it was for other reasons, Shannon Quinn didn’t dare to think further.

The memory of the last time at the school entrance, when she thought she saw Claire Yardley, flashed through her mind. She had been very careful and had warned the child not to go with strangers, and Leo was quite clever. She hoped it was just a false alarm.

When Shannon Quinn arrived at Landon Sutton’s office, she opened the door to find no one inside. A passing assistant saw this and helpfully said, "Madam, are you looking for the boss? He should still be in a meeting room. Why don’t you go in and wait for a while?"

"Where is the meeting room?"

The assistant was startled for a moment and said, "On the eleventh floor, do you need me to take you there?"

"No, thank you." Shannon Quinn turned and got into the elevator.

The assistant added, "Get off the elevator, go right, and then right at the end of the hallway and you’ll see it."

Shannon Quinn reached the entrance to the meeting room smoothly, but the door was tightly closed. She hesitated at the door for two seconds, not wanting to interrupt the meeting, but was really worried about the child. Reluctantly, she reached out and gently pushed the door open.

She opened it just a crack and peered inside.

The long conference table was surrounded by people, all focused on the projection screen at the front. Landon Sutton was initially looking at documents, but since he was facing the door, he noticed the anomaly instantly when he looked up and saw the head peeking through the door.

He initially thought Shannon Quinn was looking for him for nothing significant and smiled at her, but then saw Shannon Quinn gesture for him to come over.

Landon Sutton showed a puzzled expression, Shannon Quinn gestured again, and noticing others noticing her, she withdrew and stepped back out.

Landon Sutton whispered a few words to Ronan Rhodes beside him, then stood up silently and walked towards the door. The others gave Landon Sutton a curious glance and then focused again on the meeting content.

"What’s wrong?" Landon Sutton asked once outside the meeting room, seeing Shannon Quinn looking anxious.

"Have you been at the office the entire time?"

"Yes, the entire time."

"The teacher just called saying Leo is missing, did you ask someone to pick him up?"

Landon Sutton, evidently unaware of the situation: "Leo is missing? Are you sure?"

"I don’t know, could Grandpa have taken him home?"

"It’s neither the end of school nor a holiday, the old man shouldn’t have done that, let’s head to the school first."

Landon Sutton immediately grabbed his car keys and took Shannon Quinn to the kindergarten.

The teacher was also searching for Leo’s whereabouts, having pulled up the school’s surveillance tapes, and had found some clues.

The teacher pointed to the image on the monitor, speaking to Landon Sutton and Shannon Quinn, "This is the school gate surveillance, showing the child being taken out after two o’clock. The person who took him out was Mr. Marshall, but we currently can’t reach her. The principal said Mr. Marshall asked for leave due to family matters in the afternoon, but no one expected her to secretly take Leo away. We’ve already called the police, we hope the child is safe."

Landon Sutton frowned, watching Leo obediently follow the teacher in the footage, having no guard against the teacher at all, and nobody knew what her intentions were.

Checked his phone, no messages of that nature or strange calls received.

The police soon arrived at the school to retrieve the school’s surveillance footage along with the surveillance footage along the way.

They only saw Leo getting into the car with the teacher, and tracing the car’s license plate found it appeared at a toll station dozens of kilometers away less than half an hour ago.

Vincent Irving, upon hearing it was Landon Sutton’s son who was missing, didn’t dare delay and actively joined the investigation.

Then analyzed the terrain around the toll station: "This area is mainly an industrial park with warehouses, docks, and villages. The terrain is quite complex, and the monitoring equipment there may not be complete. If the suspect is hiding in this area, it might be hard to find."

"Then check this person’s identity, and her call records."

"Alright, we’ve also notified the police over there to scrutinize this car."

Shannon Quinn’s face turned pale, she didn’t dare to imagine what she would do if anything really happened to Leo.

Landon Sutton turned to look at her, embraced her, and consoled, "It’ll be okay, don’t be so tense."

"I’ve dealt with Mr. Marshall quite a few times, she seemed very gentle, why would she do such a thing? What exactly does she intend to do to Leo?"

"I’ll bring Leo back, you stay here, I’ll take a few people over."

"I’ll go with you."

"Listen, we haven’t figured out her motive yet, you stay here and cooperate with the police investigation, contact me if there’s any news immediately."

Shannon Quinn pursed her dry lips and nodded.

Landon Sutton gave Vincent Irving some instructions to take care of Shannon Quinn, and then took off with others towards where the suspect’s trail broke off.

Shannon Quinn didn’t dare to stay idle either, she joined the staff to screen suspicious traces from the video.

The results from Vincent Irving’s investigation came out too. He announced, "We’ve found that Cheryl Marsh is a single mother with a six-year-old son who attends a nearby elementary school. We’ve already sent someone to inquire."

Shannon Quinn nodded, her mind was a mess, too jumbled to think straight.

Shortly after, the officer who went to the school returned, saying, "I asked the child’s homeroom teacher, and she said the kid hasn’t attended school for a month, having been diagnosed with leukemia, and has been receiving treatment at the hospital. I swung by the hospital, and the doctor said the child’s mother completed discharge procedures yesterday, saying she was transferring hospitals for treatment."

After hearing this news, Shannon Quinn tried to calm down and rationalize why Cheryl Marsh took Leo.

Logically, Cheryl Marsh would need money the most at this time to treat her son, but she’d taken Leo without demanding a ransom.

Furthermore, from Shannon Quinn’s interactions with Cheryl Marsh, she had always come across as kind and optimistic, always smiling when they met. She had the teacher’s WeChat, but had never learned about her son having leukemia from her feed or any chat groups.

No ransom after taking the child, Shannon Quinn suddenly thought of a possibility—Cheryl Marsh wasn’t the mastermind behind this.

So she asked Vincent Irving, "What about her call records, anything noteworthy?"

Vincent Irving shook his head, "No, her calls are mostly with the school and the hospital, or parents of students, nothing suspicious."