Snape, the Sunshine of Hogwarts.

Chapter 44 is in Surrey County

In Gloucester at dusk, Kingsley is eating a hamburger and fries.

Such fast food is rarely seen in the wizarding world, but it's a different story in Muggle society.

Office workers need this kind of cheap, high-calorie, light, and delicious food.

Although Kingsley wasn't entirely used to the food, he still ate his dinner heartily, just like the other officers around him.

"Could it be that we've chosen the wrong target?"

The Bristol Police Chief questioned Kingsley.

"The informant in Bristol provided inaccurate information. The group of five driving towards Gloucester with children is not our target at all?"

“No,” Kingsley said firmly, “it must be him.”

The police chief was somewhat puzzled by his assertive words.

Do you have other crucial evidence that we are unaware of?

Kingsley didn't speak. Sometimes a wizard's intuition can't be expressed as evidence, but it exists and is usually quite reliable.

He inquired about something else.

"What do you think the Gloucester police station will take us to investigate this afternoon?"

“Electronic eyes.” The police chief clearly didn’t have much hope for this kind of thing. “But there are only a few dozen of those things in the whole of Britain right now, and they are mainly installed in big cities like Birmingham and London. Gloucester only has two, one at the intersection of the street with the highest traffic volume, and the other is out of service because nearby residents complained that it violated their privacy.”

Kingsley asked cautiously.

"what's it for?"

The police chief was not surprised that he asked the question.

Color surveillance cameras only became somewhat common in the UK in the early 80s, but due to technical limitations, their numbers were small and few people knew about them.

Even a specialist from London wouldn't understand if they weren't in the relevant field.

"A small camera that is installed outdoors and records 24 hours a day to collect all the footage that happens in a certain place for review at critical times."

Kingsley's eyes lit up noticeably when he heard this.

As a professional Auror, he clearly and keenly realized how much this thing would help with public security if it were fully popularized!
As if sensing Kingsley's expectations, the police chief had to offer a reminder.

"Perhaps it will become a major asset to the police in solving cases in the future, but right now you'd better not have too high expectations for it. That thing can store very little video data, and the picture is very unclear; you can only see a small area clearly."

“Let’s try our luck,” Kingsley nodded. “There’s only one street; the chances of making a profit are slim to none.”

They quickly finished their dinner and, led by the Gloucester Police Chief, arrived at the police station's only monitoring room.

Professional technical officers are already here, retrieving all the video footage from last night to now, and are continuously reviewing it.

When Kingsley actually saw the giant, television-like monitor with his own eyes, he understood why the director had told him not to have too high expectations.

The images shown are indeed in color, but they are very blurry and the monitoring range is extremely limited. There is only a cross-shaped street, and the edge can at most include a newsstand. It is even impossible to record the surrounding residential buildings.

Even so, Kingsley maintained enough patience, even more so than the Bristol police chief who accompanied him.

After sitting there for more than ten minutes, the bureau chief couldn't resist going out for a smoke. Kingsley kept his eyes glued to the monitor, watching the technician watch the video at four times the speed.

He sat there for a full four hours. When he arrived, the sun had just set, but today it was completely dark. Apart from drinking three cups of tea, he did not move at all.

The surveillance footage played from night until this morning. The street was bustling with people, and the technician was already getting sleepy watching it, so he put eye drops in his eyes twice.

If he hadn't known someone was watching him, he would have fallen asleep on the table long ago.

Even if he wasn't asleep, his attention was no longer on the surveillance video.

Few people thought that a traffic camera that could only monitor one intersection could make any discoveries. They brought it up only because there were so few clues, and they were just trying their luck, even if it seemed hopeless.

An hour later, the technician kept nodding, looking like he was about to fall asleep even though someone was watching him.

A voice suddenly startled him awake.

"Rewind one minute! Adjust the time to forward!"

Kingsley's sudden shout startled the technician and jolted the accompanying officers awake from their slumber.

Soon, the technician standing in front of the monitor followed his instructions and moved the video progress bar forward by one minute, then de-fast-forwarded.

The others also gathered around at this time, wanting to see what Kingsley had discovered.

It was 11:21 a.m., and pedestrians were still crossing the intersection. Their faces could only be vaguely seen when they passed directly under the camera; otherwise, they were just a blurry human-shaped mosaic.

A minute passed quickly, and none of the officers who had seen the suspect's photo noticed anything amiss in the video.

They turned to look at Kingsley, who simply continued speaking with a furrowed brow.

"Cut back to 11:21:42."

The camera cut back to that moment, and Kingsley pointed to the location of the newsstand at the edge of the surveillance screen.

"Zoom in, zoom in on this area!"

The newsstand was magnified, and at that moment, three people were standing there.

A woman who looked like she was wearing a white dress, an elderly woman walking by with her dog, and a tall man looking down at her, seemingly holding something in her hands.

Kingsley stared intently at the man.

His face was not clearly visible in the video; at most, one could make out his figure, that he was wearing all black clothes, and that he had black hair that appeared to be tied up.

But Kingsley knew immediately upon seeing this man. It was Severus Snape!

"Get to this intersection! Take me to this intersection right now and find the caretaker of this newsstand!"

The officers were somewhat bewildered as they took action, unable to comprehend how this commissioner could identify a suspect based on a video that was so blurry it was practically nonexistent.

The two chiefs who were supposed to accompany him had already gone to rest, while Kingsley himself, along with the sheriffs, quickly arrived at the busiest intersection in a police car.

The manager in charge of the newsstand lived in a nearby apartment, and he was quickly contacted.

"He wasn't very old, looked to be around thirty at most! His hair was a bit long, tied into a short ponytail, and he looked a lot like a TV star! But he was very kind, called me 'sir,' and smiled at me!"

Listening to the newsstand manager's description, Kingsley was now completely convinced that the person was Snape!
What did he buy from you? And what did he say?

"He bought a traffic map," the administrator recalled carefully. "Before taking the map, he seemed to mutter something like, 'I've taken the wrong road.'"

Kingsley picked up a traffic map and stared at the network of roads that crisscrossed the entire island of Great Britain, his brow furrowed.

They were now certain that Snape had been there, but he clearly hadn't stayed in Gloucester; instead, after realizing he'd gone the wrong way, he went somewhere else.

Where can he go?

Kingsley looked at the administrator and asked a few more questions.

"Do you remember who was with him? Like a child or a girl who was unconscious?"

The administrator shook his head.

"No, he was alone, but I saw him get out of a car."

Where was that car parked at the time?

The administrator pointed to a spot on the west side of the intersection, near the trash can.

"It stopped there, and stayed there for about twenty minutes."

Kingsley did not continue questioning the administrator, but instead walked to the spot he indicated.

A vertical parking space has been marked here, which the traffic cameras at the intersection cannot detect.

He paced back and forth in the parking space, his mind replaying the scene he had seen on the surveillance camera and the administrator's words, trying to find further clues.

However, despite having all the information, he couldn't figure out where Snape's real destination was after he realized he had gone the wrong way!
But Kingsley felt he couldn't give up on this lead; there must be some important information hidden here, he just hadn't discovered it yet.

His anxiety affected his thinking, making it difficult for Kingsley to concentrate fully.

He reached into his pocket, where there was a small, extremely precious, golden vial—

Frucrine.

He had always carried a small vial with him since becoming an Auror, but Kingsley had never encountered a situation where he needed to drink the potion himself, not even when facing the vicious Death Eaters.

This time, he hesitated for only a few seconds before taking out Felix Felicis from his pocket, unscrewing the cap and carefully taking a sip!
An incredibly exhilarating feeling flowed through Kingsley's body, as if there were endless opportunities.

He felt he could do anything, everything...

He stopped being anxious and began to carefully observe everything around the parking space.

"Who's in charge of garbage collection here?" Kingsley asked Officer Gloucester beside him.

The police officer hurriedly pulled out a phone book.

"Yes, it's Mrs. Newman!"

"Could you please call her over here for me?"

As Kingsley spoke, he looked up at the apartment building on the side of the road. The two windows facing the parking space were lit with warm yellow nightlights, indicating that someone lived there.

He pointed to the window and said.

"Could you also invite those two families upstairs to come down?"

His invitation was quickly granted; Mrs. Newman, who was in charge of garbage collection, was called from her home, and the two households in the apartment were also brought down.

"Around 11 o'clock, were you working, madam?" Kingsley asked the old lady named Newman first.

"I work every single day!" Mrs. Newman's voice was loud and fierce. "I'm responsible for all the garbage on this street at all times! But the salary they pay me isn't even enough to support myself and my husband who can only lie in bed eating and drinking!"

"At 11:20, right next to this trash can, were you here at the time?" Kingsley was frighteningly calm, his voice carrying a strange seduction as he asked the question.

“I think… I think I was probably dealing with the dumpsters here at the time.” Mrs. Newman’s voice was not as loud as it had been at the beginning.

“Very good, your hard work will bring you the rewards you deserve. Now please continue to recall, when you were cleaning up the trash, did you see a car parked next to you? There was at least one child and one girl in the car, and the driver was a man with a short ponytail.”

"Yes! Yes!" Mrs. Newman's voice suddenly rose. "I remember now! Yes, they were sitting in a car that looked like a box, and there weren't just the three you mentioned, but a whole car full of people! There was also a tall guy in the back seat whose head was practically touching the roof, and a short, fat man wearing glasses who was writing something the whole time!"

"Did you hear them talking?" The closer they got, the calmer Kingsley became, so calm that he could even hear his own steady breathing.

"I only heard the child say one thing: 'We're going back to Surrey!'"

Under the streetlights stood Kingsley, an experienced wizard who had captured many dark wizards.

He laughed.

"It's in Surrey County."

　Please don't let it sit unread, I've updated quite a bit already. I released the book on the 5th, and it's been exactly 20 days now, and I've already reached almost 120,000 words, averaging nearly 6,000 words a day, which is a lot for a new book.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)