"It's been a year," Clark lamented. "I can't believe it took me a year to realize she was in danger. How did you find out? I've also been to Stardust Lane, but the villagers there wouldn't say a word about Carol. Either they played dumb, or they simply walked away. How did you figure out something was off from what they said?"
"I bought a cup of hot milk from her neighbor's breakfast joint and sat down to listen to their chitchat."
Clark was in dumb silence.
Just like that?
And she managed to pick up hints from that?
"They're all from the same town. You, a stranger, suddenly asking about Carol would have made them wary, and they would hide the truth. But if they're gossiping among themselves, it's a different story."
Clark laughed at himself. "I even went to her house, asking her parents abruptly."
At that time, he was almost going insane, unable to find Carol anywhere. He had to swallow his pride and ask the villagers to visit her parents again and again.
