by Toby Neal
“I married your father for political reasons. It wasn’t my choice.”
Sophie wasn’t surprised. In the way of children, she had always known her mother didn’t love her father. But her father had tried hard to make both the cross-cultural differences and her mother’s illness work. “But Dad loved you. He really wanted us to be together.”
“Yes. Frank was very idealistic.” The word rolled off Pim Wat’s tongue like it tasted bad. “I had other priorities, the good of our family chief among them.”
Pim Wat referred to Sophie’s wealthy, royalty-related Thai relatives. Other than her aunt, Pim Wat’s younger sister, Sophie wasn’t close to any of the host of powerful uncles and scheming cousins she had left behind in Thailand.
She went on. “I was supposed to stay married to your father. Travel with him. Gather information for our government.”
Her mother had been a spy?
Sophie was reeling, but she focused on what she most needed answers for. “But I don’t remember that happening. You were always home. Separate from Dad and his job functions, except for those big social events.”
“I was not up to the task physically or emotionally. Alas.”
“So, your depression was real.”
“It was, particularly after you were born. I was not suited to be a mother.” The cold precision of Pim Wat’s words made Sophie’s heart lurch, again. “So we had to adopt a new plan. My brothers sanctioned our divorce. We allowed your father to think you were his, that he controlled what happened to you, by sending you to that boarding school in Geneva to be westernized. But I found a use for you, eventually. We needed an alliance with Hong Kong. Assan Ang was the key to increased commerce between Hong Kong and Thailand.” Pim Wat set aside the newspaper. She sighed, fiddling with her cane. Sophie sneaked a glance. Her mother’s face was smooth, her skin a glowing honey color. Her hands, holding the cane, were gloved in silk. Those hands had never worked a day of manual labor in their life. “I thought Assan would be good for you. An older man, suave and experienced. He would protect you, and show you the world. Take care of you. I did not know what he was.” For the first time, real regret colored her mother’s voice.
“Maybe I didn’t need or want to be taken care of, Mother. Maybe I wanted to grow into who I was and be loved for who I was.” Sophie’s voice sounded husky, filled with sorrow. She cleared her throat. “I have fought hard for that.”
“You have been in America too long. All of these ideas about self this and self that . . . So much pop psychology. What matters is family. Security. Belonging.”
“And you have provided none of those things for me, Mother.”
Sophie turned completely away from Pim Wat, and now faced the dogs. A long moment passed. The newspaper rustled behind Sophie as she stared blindly at the animals.
Tank and Ginger lay close, their legs entwined, licking each other’s faces.
She flashed to the men in her life, each of them so different, each of them nurturing some part of her. Alika, with his total acceptance and unconditional support, always challenging her to be her best. Jake with his intensity, energy and passion, spurring her into danger and risk, but caring for and protecting her too. And Connor. Connor, who was the most like her, as she was coming to know herself: dedicated, perfectionistic, a man whose disciplined body expressed his aesthetic, a brilliant loner who lived by his own rules and had chosen her alone to trust.
Would she ever be able to choose one of them, and settle into a quiet, contented life?
Pim Wat spoke again. “I thought to presume upon the duty of a daughter to her mother. But I see that the years have stolen our connection. So, I speak to you now on behalf of your government. You are needed by your country to help defend against criminals who are attacking us from within the cyber world.”
“I do not know what you are even talking about, Mother.” Sophie frowned. “Are you offering me a job?”
“I’m asking you to join the Yām Khûmkạn, an ancient organization that protects the royal family of Thailand. We have been in place for millennia, and we need your skills.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jake extracted a small cache of jewelry items with a gloved hand, handing each piece to Freitan. A gold key ring, a man’s diamond wedding ring, a platinum ankle bracelet, and a thin gold chain with a small cross completed the trove. He peered into the depths of the computer’s innards. “Nothing more.”
Freitan turned and hollered for her partner. “Wong! Soldier Boy found some possible evidence.”
Wong appeared. The two conferred over the small pile of loot. “Do you think it’s enough to hold Chernobiac?” Wong asked.
“No. Unless we can tie these items to a specific victim, we still have nothing. Let’s get the two uniforms in here and really tear the place apart,” Freitan said.
So that’s what the five of them did, for the next hour. Jake lifted every cushion, emptied every cupboard, dumped out every drawer of bathroom supplies. The house was a mess when it was over, and they had not uncovered anything new.
Freitan surveyed the destruction with her hands on her hips. “I hope that girlfriend of yours has come up with a little more information on the missing persons, such as an inventory of their personal items. If not, it’s going to be a bitch to comb through all of those files looking for descriptions to match these odds and ends.”
“I’m sure Sophie could filter and collect that. Are you going to release Chernobiac?” Jake asked.
Freitan gave a brief nod, her full mouth folded into a grouchy line. “Already did. Called and had him cut loose at the twenty-four-hour point. But we will be bringing him in again, and following up on that black SUV you spotted.”
They drove back to the station in glum silence. Jake spent the time typing with his laptop on his knees, tuning up his case notes and composing a detailed email to Kendall Bix, updating his superior on the situation.
Once they reached the station, Jake headed straight back to the computer lab looking for Sophie. She was nowhere to be found. Tito, the watch officer, told him she’d taken the dogs to the park. “She said she’d just be an hour or two.”
Stranded without the Jeep, Jake called Sophie’s cell, but she didn’t pick up. Stymied, he called Bix on Oahu and simultaneously uploaded his email to his boss.
Bix was all business, as usual. “The parents have some kind of lead. They seem to think it’s legit. Someone contacted them, saying they spotted Julie with another couple outside of Volcanoes Park.”
“Yeah. That’s probably the unsavory couple who robbed her and dumped her in the jungle. The police are holding them, but they are sticking to their story that they just rolled Julie for her cash and dropped her off in a remote area. We then found her hiking gear and clothing further off the road. It doesn’t look good.” Jake told him about the results of the search in the Travelers’ Rest squatter camp. “Both of them are under arrest for robbery and in jail until they make bail, but we don’t know what else if anything they had to do with her disappearance.”
“Seems like there are a lot of fish jumping but nothing biting,” Bix said.
“And I wonder if we’re even fishing the right stream.” Jake continued the metaphor. “Sophie is pulling together some data about missing persons trends on the island. Seems to be quite a problem over here. Not just our girl, but a number of others have gone missing. As I documented in my report, we came across a young man who seems like he might have been part of a secondary layer of criminal activity related to the disappearances. But he’s working with some others we don’t have a clue about. Things are not going well at the moment.”
“Let me give you this information about the possible lead. You and Sophie can decide what to do,” Bix said.
Jake took out a pen and jotted down the name and address of the possible witness the Weathersbys had found. At least it was something more to follow up on. He ended the call and tried Sophie’s cell again.
This time she answered, but
her voice was remote and chilly. “I’ll be there in an hour.”
“What am I supposed to do until then?” Jake snapped. “You have my wheels!”
“That won’t be a problem soon, as I’ve secured my own rental vehicle and a place to stay in Hilo.”
“What? That’s not necessary! We are still on the job together.” Jake tried to keep his voice even. Sophie was ditching him!
“As you are experiencing right now, it is necessary for us to both be mobile. I anticipate that this investigation will continue to take us in different directions.”
“Come back here so we can talk about this, please,” Jake said with deliberate calm, though his heart rate had spiked.
“I’ll be back when I’m finished with my business. I’m sure Freitan won’t mind your company.” Sophie ended the call.
Jake cursed.
Sophie was shutting him out and locking the door. He didn’t know why, or what to do about it.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Sophie slid the phone back into her pocket, and looked up into Dr. Wilson’s kind, intelligent blue eyes. The psychologist wore a pretty but professional wrap dress and sat in a comfortable wingback armchair in her counseling office in Hilo. Her sandal-shod foot swung back-and-forth in a gentle arc. “That last bit seemed a little unkind to Jake,” she said gently.
Sophie’s neck heated and she lowered her eyes. “I don’t know why I said that. Freitan has been sexually harassing him. It’s really unprofessional.” She had barely begun to describe the events that had brought her to Hilo when her phone rang with Jake’s call. “Kamani Freitan is a detective we are working with on the case. Anyway, I had to take his call or he would probably have sent the police looking for me.”
“Seems like you’ve got a very dedicated partner, but you are going to some effort to push him away.”
“A little more than just a partner, as of last night. Jake and I slept together.” Sophie rubbed the numb-but-tingly skin graft on her cheekbone. “I’ve never understood that American phrase. There was very little sleeping involved.”
Dr. Wilson laughed. “Well, you’ve gotten yourself into quite a pickle now, haven’t you?”
“Hopefully not a pickle. Pickles are rather sour.”
“Just a phrase.” Dr. Wilson shook her head, smiling. “Why don’t you begin at the beginning and tell me why you needed this emergency session so much. I was surprised to hear from you, but I’m glad I could rearrange a few things and get you in.”
Sophie sighed. “I was planning to talk to you in any case. That was part of the reason I came here to the Big Island. I’ve had a series of very intense experiences and changes in my life in the last year, and after the latest one, I came here to Hawaii hoping for a little vacation; some time to sort things out, figure out what I was doing next, make sure I was . . . mentally and emotionally healthy after the things that had happened. I had planned to call you and begin counseling as part of that. Instead, I seem to have uncovered another terrible crime.” She described the discovery of the body dump, and Jake contacting her about the Julie Weathersby case. “And for the rest of it, I really need your assurance that I have complete confidentiality.”
“You do. In fact, since we haven’t worked together formally before, I’d like you to sign some things to that effect.” Dr. Wilson got up and fetched an intake packet from a nearby file cabinet. She put it on a clipboard and handed it to Sophie with a pen. “You fill those out and I’ll take the dogs some biscuits.”
Sophie had left the dogs in the waiting area. She filled out the paperwork as Dr. Wilson took Ginger and Tank dog treats from a jar on top of her bookshelf. Sophie’s mind buzzed as she filled out the papers on autopilot, then paused to really read the confidentiality disclosures.
She was planning to tell Dr. Wilson about the Ghost.
Everything!
She had to have some objective place to unburden herself. Dr. Kinoshita, the psychologist she worked with at Security Solutions, while an excellent therapist, shouldn’t be put in an ethical dilemma by finding out that the company’s CEO was a multi-identity cyber vigilante.
Dr. Wilson returned and Sophie handed back the papers.
“Thank you. Now you are officially my client, I am bound by confidentiality except as it pertains to any plans you have to hurt yourself or another.”
Sophie shook her head. “No current plans. Though if you’d talked to me a month ago, the situation might have been different.”
“Perhaps we should begin there, then.”
It took a half hour for Sophie to bring Dr. Wilson up to current events. “As if all of that weren’t enough, yesterday I was contacted via text message to meet someone at the park who had information about my mother. I sent Jake to work with the detectives, and I went to the park.” She blew out a breath. “The person who found me there was my mother, herself.”
Dr. Wilson blinked. “Forgive me. I thought, from your history and things Lei has said, your mother was disabled with depression. Hospitalized, in fact.”
“Yes. That has been the fiction that she had created. I have no idea what her real life is like, or where she even lives.” Sophie’s gaze darted around the spare, comfortable room with its leather couch and armchair, desk, bookshelf, sand garden on the coffee table, and a few paintings. “My mother, by her admission today, does suffer from depression. But not nearly to the degree I’ve been led to believe. She is actually in espionage, and a member of an elite group of . . . royal guardians, I guess you could call it. The Yām Khûmkạn.”
Dr. Wilson sat back in surprise and made a note on her tablet. “No wonder you asked for an emergency session. When was the last time you saw her?”
“Nine years ago.” Sophie swallowed—her throat was so dry. “Do you have anything to drink?”
Dr. Wilson got up and went behind her desk to a small fridge. She fetched a bottle of water and gave it to Sophie. “What did she want? There must have been a reason she reached out to you.”
“Yes. She wants me to join the organization she works for.” Sophie unscrewed the bottle’s lid and drank thirstily. When she put the water down, Dr. Wilson was still gazing at her steadily. “I told her I needed time to think about it.”
“I would say. Tell me about the encounter.”
“She was . . . smaller than I remembered. But she had not aged since I saw her last. She was disguised as an old woman, and had the proper body language and clothing for that, but her face…” Pim Wat was exceptionally beautiful, with wide-set, large brown eyes, high cheekbones, and a full mouth—many of the same features Sophie looked at every morning in her mirror. “She was very cold in her demeanor. Unrepentant about her deception. The only time she showed any regret at all for her treatment of me was when she told me she had traded me in marriage to Assan. For things he could do for the Thai government and our family.” Sophie covered her trembling mouth with her hand and firmed her voice. “Pim Wat said she had not known what he was. She couldn’t help me once he took me to Hong Kong. He had too much of the power the Yām Khûmkạn needed.”
“I wonder that she had the nerve to even approach you.” Dr. Wilson’s voice vibrated with outrage. “Let alone ask you for any favors.”
“She acknowledged that. And appealed to my patriotism. Said that our family and our country was under attack from cyber terrorists, and that my skills were needed. Implied I would be petty to allow our ‘personal differences’ to keep me from doing the right thing.” Sophie tried to still the trembling of her body, but tension shimmered through her like electricity. “I told her I would not give her an answer right away, but that I would look into it. And she got up and left.”
“That’s all? No attempt to reconcile? To apologize for her neglect and . . . for using you as a bargaining chip to a monster?” Dr. Wilson’s eyes were wide with shock and rage on Sophie’s behalf.
“She implied regret, and said that everything she did was for a higher purpose. Her attitude reminded me of Connor, but Conno
r has been more emotional about it. And still he used me, lied to me, and chose his mission over me.” Sophie felt the betrayals of those closest to her sucking at her emotionally, dragging her toward that familiar dark pit.
“Connor? Who is that? Tell me about him.”
Sophie glanced at the wall clock. “I don’t know if I can, today. I have to go pick up Jake and get my rental car before the business closes. Can we meet tomorrow? I must make a decision. This is . . .” she pressed her hands against her belly. “This is eating at me, as Americans say. My depression has been better with medication and all the activity I’ve been doing, but this is a . . . setback. I just want to get to my hotel room and lie down.” She longed for quiet and darkness in which to nurse her pain.
“Of course, it’s a setback, a blow. You must always have hoped for something more with your mother. I’m sorry. Some people are simply not capable of it.” Dr. Wilson stood up. “I am livid on your behalf. Come here. You need a therapeutic hug.”
“If I must.” Sophie stood and walked around the coffee table to embrace the petite psychologist. She felt stiff and wooden. She was a robot body with a heart somewhere deep inside, still beating for some unknown reason. But as Dr. Wilson held her, the warmth of the psychologist’s firm, gentle touch seemed to penetrate, melting the disconnect surrounding her.
Sophie sagged, and an inadvertent sob erupted from somewhere deep inside.
“It’s okay. You must grieve for these things,” Dr. Wilson whispered. “Let out the pain so it doesn’t cripple you.”
“If I start to cry, I’ll never stop.” Sophie wrenched herself upright and stepped back. “Let’s meet tomorrow, please. I will work around your schedule.”
Chapter Thirty
Jake was waiting outside the Hilo Police Department for Sophie when she finally drove up in the Jeep. He’d thought long and hard about what to say, and decided to play it cool. Pretend he wasn’t pissed off and freaked out and worried as hell she was going to take off and disappear, like she’d done so many times before. Being clingy, needy, or jealous was lame and never worked with women. Jake had options. He had to remember that and act like it. Play a little hard to get.
