Mei Ling exited the police station.
She had seen hundreds of vehicles that day, perhaps thousands, yet that particular one had stood out in the recording, parked across the road while everything around it continued moving.
It had been there before the accident, yet the footage containing the actual collision had disappeared. She remembered the rain, the glare of the headlights, the car swerving, and the force of the collision. But she had never been able to remember exactly what the vehicle that hit her looked like.
At the time, everything had happened too quickly, and she had lost consciousness before she could make sense of it.
Now she had something she hadn't had that night. A clear lead. The vehicle's plate number.
Mei Ling looked down at the screenshot saved on her phone. If the vehicle had simply been passing through, there would have been nothing unusual about it. But it had been parked there. And the footage of the exact moment of the accident was missing. That couldn't be a coincidence. Someone had removed it.
She started walking, her mind already turning to the next question. She needed to know who owned the vehicle. If she could identify the driver, she could begin to understand what had happened that day.
She hailed a taxi and gave the driver the address of the government office responsible for vehicle registration.
The ride gave her too much time to think. She stared through the window as buildings passed by, her thoughts refusing to settle.
Why remove the footage? If the driver had simply caused an accident, what was there to hide? Accidents happened every day. People were injured, vehicles were damaged, reports were filed, and investigations followed. There was nothing extraordinary about any of that. Unless the accident had never been an accident.
She had spent years investigating crimes and knew better than to build a theory around one suspicious detail. Still, the missing footage bothered her. It was too precise. The recording hadn't been damaged or interrupted. Only the portion containing the accident was missing. And now she had the vehicle that appeared to be involved.
She slipped her phone back into her bag.
"Let's see who you belong to."
The taxi stopped outside the registration office. Mei Ling paid the driver and entered the building. People moved between counters carrying documents while administrative workers checked registration papers and entered information into computers.
She approached the information desk and waited until someone acknowledged her.
"Good morning. I need information about a vehicle."
The clerk looked up. "Do you have the registration number?"
Mei Ling brought out her phone and turned the screen toward him.
"I need the name and registered details of the owner."
The clerk glanced at the number. "May I ask why?"
Mei Ling reached into her bag and placed her identification card on the counter.
"I'm a crime journalist. I was involved in a traffic accident involving this vehicle."
The clerk took the card and checked her identification.
"You were involved in an accident with this vehicle?"
"Yes. It happened a few days ago. The vehicle was present at the scene, and I have reason to believe it was involved. I went to the police station to review the CCTV footage, but the footage covering the exact moment of the accident is missing."
"Missing?"
"Someone removed it."
"I need to identify the registered owner before I can determine what happened."
He turned toward the computer.
"Hold on."
Mei Ling nodded.
He entered the registration number into the system. Mei Ling watched as the records loaded onto the screen. A few seconds later, the clerk clicked through several records before printing a document.
"This is the registered owner of the vehicle."
Mei Ling took the document. Her eyes moved down the page.
The document contained a name, an address, vehicle details, and registration information. She read everything carefully before looking at the photograph attached to the record.
The photograph showed a man she had never seen before.
"Does he have a current passport record?"
"The available identification details are attached to the registration file."
Mei Ling didn't push further than necessary. She had what she needed.
"Thank you."
She folded the document and slipped it into her bag before leaving the counter.
Mei Ling left the registration office with the document secured in her bag. The address gave her a location, but it didn't tell her where the man was now.
His occupation was listed, along with other identification details, yet none of it explained why his vehicle had been near the scene before the accident.
The missing footage remained the bigger problem. The exact moment of the accident was gone, leaving her with no way to see what had happened. Now she had the vehicle, its registered owner, and a reason to believe the two were connected. What she needed next was the man himself.
She returned to the police station.
When she entered, the officer at the front desk recognized her.
"You're back. Were you able to find anything?" he asked.
"Yes."
Mei Ling took the folded document from her bag and placed it on the counter.
"I found the registered owner of the vehicle."
The officer unfolded the document and read through it.
"Are you certain this is the vehicle you saw in the footage?"
"Yes."
He looked up. "How?"
"I saw it in the footage immediately before the recording disappeared."
"Then we need to verify the identity," the officer said.
"I agree."
He took the document and called another officer. Within minutes, they began reviewing the information Mei Ling had obtained. The man's address was checked. His registration details were confirmed, and his identification photograph was compared with the available records. Everything matched.
But there was one problem. They couldn't immediately locate him.
"So he disappeared?" Mei Ling asked.
"We have no recent location attached to the file."
His vehicle had been present at her accident. His identity was now confirmed, yet no one could tell her where he was.
The pieces were beginning to form a connection she didn't like.
"Can you circulate his photograph?"
"We can issue a notice requesting information on his whereabouts."
"And if we offer a reward for information?"
The officer met her gaze.
"If the authorities approve it, yes."
"Do whatever is legally permitted," Mei Ling said.
The officer took the document from the counter.
"We will arrange it," he said.
Mei Ling left the station.
She had come looking for the man who hit her.
She was beginning to wonder if someone else was already looking for her.