As soon as I asked that, I regretted it a little.
It was a pointless question.
If there had been a basement, the police would surely have searched it.
Boss Xu also said there was no basement, but there was an underground parking garage. Every apartment building had direct access to it, on level B1.
I didn't bother asking whether someone had taken the girl away through the underground parking garage, either.
The only ways to reach the garage were by elevator or emergency stairwell, and both had surveillance cameras. The garage had cameras too, and the police would surely have checked them.
Finally, Boss Xu led us into the apartment building where the girl had disappeared.
There were surveillance cameras in the ground-floor lobby, the elevators, and the emergency stairwell, but none in the corridors on the other floors. Installing cameras there would have infringed on the residents' privacy.
Some residents installed cameras outside their own doors, which was their choice.
Boss Xu said that the last time the girl was seen, she had stepped out of the elevator on the thirteenth floor, then disappeared.
There were two apartments per floor here, and the police would surely have paid special "attention" to the two households on the thirteenth floor.
"After she left the elevator on the thirteenth floor, the cameras never caught her getting back in, and the stairwell cameras didn't catch her either. That means she stayed on the thirteenth floor."
Song Xiaotian questioned this. "Chen Mo said she's still alive, so she must be staying in one of those two apartments on the thirteenth floor. Did the police really search them thoroughly?"
Boss Xu sounded absolutely certain. "They definitely searched thoroughly. The officer leading the team was an experienced policeman. He said they searched everywhere a person