[Abby Kanem - SG 01.0] Suitcase Girl

by Ty Hutchinson

“Not just yet. It’s not safe for you right now.”

  She drew a sharp breath. “I knew it. It’s the chief. He’s angry with me, isn’t he?”

  The man didn’t answer her, and not because he was at a loss for words. In fact, he had much to tell her, but the timing wasn’t right. What he had to say would only confuse her. He felt she needed to regain all of her memory in order for her to understand what was happening.

  For the time being, his priority was keeping her out of sight. It was the only way to guarantee her safety. Until then, the motel they were hiding in would be their home.

  “How long will you stay with me?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure. Do you want me to stay?”

  “Yes. It’s nice knowing someone. Maybe we can live together.”

  “Maybe.”

  He watched her chew on her lower lip. He sensed what was coming next.

  “Can I ask you something?” Her voice was meek, a sign of uncertainty with him.

  Of course he knew what she was about to ask. It was inevitable. His only surprise was that she hadn’t asked the question sooner.

  “Why do I look like Abby?”

  Chapter Forty-Six

  “Man, I feel bad for Sokolov and Bennie,” Kang said as he stared out his window at the passing scenery. “That’s a lot of bodies they need to clear.”

  “It is, but at least they’re all connected,” I said as I shifted gears. “It would be a tougher one if they were unrelated homicides.”

  “Still…”

  “I hear you.”

  Kang flicked his thumb across the screen of his cell phone. “I’m looking at the lawyer’s address on a map. It seems he works out of his house.”

  “Really?”

  “The building for the address we have looks residential.”

  “I’m guessing he also has one client—Chow. What’s the lawyer’s name again?” I asked.

  “Wen Yu.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Name like that isn’t that common here. Most likely the guy was born in China and immigrated later.”

  “Is he in the Inner Richmond area?”

  “You would think, but he’s in fog land—Outer Sunset area.”

  I looked over at Kang. “Are you serious?”

  “This is the address Hansen texted me.”

  A lot of middle- and upper-class Chinese families lived in areas known as the Inner and Outer Richmond area. I had just assumed if his office wasn’t in Chinatown proper or the Financial District, it was in the Richmond areas.

  I drove west on Geary Boulevard until it ended at Ocean Beach and then headed south along the coast and into the Sunset neighborhood. No sooner had we passed by the western edge of the Golden Gate Park, visibility began to drop dramatically. I downshifted and switched my fog lights on.

  The Sunset neighborhood received the least amount of sun in San Francisco, but it was relatively safe and affordable. A lot of families chose to live there despite the foggy conditions year round. I couldn’t do it. Too dreary for my taste; though perfect for that vampire family from the Twilight series if they ever wanted to relocate.

  “Make a left on Sloat,” Kang said. “He’s on Crestlake Drive, near Stern Grove.”

  Stern Grove was a fairly large recreational park—lots of trees and trails. Its claim to fame was a large amphitheater, complete with stone-wall terraces for seating. It had been hosting shows for decades.

  The southwest area of the park butted right up against Yu’s property, a single-family ranch home. Even with the thick fog, I could make out the outline of the tall eucalyptus trees that dominated the flora of the park behind his house.

  I parked along the curb in front of the house. An older model Mercedes sedan was parked in the driveway. Its black paint job had long lost its sheen.

  “I hope that car is a signal that he’s home,” Kang said.

  The area was unusually quiet for the time of the day—dusk. “I don’t know how people can live out here,” I said as I exited the vehicle. “It’s totally zombie-apocalypse-like.”

  “Two words,” Kang said. “Affordable housing.”

  We made the walk up the paved driveway, the click-clacking of our shoes the only audible sound outside of the change jingling in Kang’s pants.

  He rang the doorbell. We waited. He rang it once more. At that point I began looking through the windows.

  “See anything?” he asked.

  “It’s dark inside. I don’t see any lights on. Maybe he isn’t home. Try ringing him.”

  Kang dialed Yu’s number on his phone, but nobody picked up.

  “Keep trying,” I said. I walked to the side of the house. A tall, wooden fence separated his property from the house next door, but there was no gate stopping someone from following the fence to his backyard.

  “Maybe he’s out back and can’t hear our knocking.”

  Kang followed me. He still had his cell phone pressed up against his ear when we passed a window and heard the ringing of a cell phone.

  “It’s like stereo,” Kang said, lowering his phone. “That’s his phone ringing.”

  Even though the curtain was drawn on the window, we could definitely hear the phone. I rapped my knuckles on the windowpane. “Mr. Yu. It’s the FBI. We need to ask you a few questions.”

  No one responded, and the phone inside continued to ring.

  We moved around to the rear of the house. There was a covered patio and a small patch of grass, which led to a wooden fence separating the property from the park.

  “Look,” Kang said, pointing at the sliding glass door. It was cracked open a few inches.

  “He’s not responding to our questions. We have reasonable cause to think he might be in danger,” I said.

  I drew my weapon and entered the home with Kang right behind me. Just inside was an open kitchen and small dining table. The décor looked as if it hadn’t changed since the house was built: wood-stained cabinets in the kitchen with yellow linoleum flooring and pea-green shag carpeting in the living room.

  Kang motioned to me that he was going to clear the bedrooms and then headed toward a darkened hall. I nodded and headed toward the room where the phone had been ringing. The door was closed, so I soft-checked the knob. It wasn’t locked. I pushed the door open while at the same time stepping back behind the cover of the wall.

  Silence.

  I peeked around the corner and saw Mr. Yu sitting in a leather executive chair behind a large desk. His eyes were closed and his forearms were resting on the desktop with his hands clasped together.

  Maybe he’s a heavy sleeper.

  “Mr. Yu,” I said as I carefully approached him.

  He looked peaceful as opposed to large-hole-in-the-middle-of-his-forehead dead.

  If he were dead, the MO didn’t fit.

  “Mr. Yu,” I said once more as I walked around the desk.

  I reached out with the barrel of my handgun and nudged him in the shoulder. His body fell forward, hitting the desktop with a soft thud.

  “Is he dead?” Kang stood in the doorway. “The rest of the house is empty.”

  “He’s not breathing.” I checked for a pulse and found none.

  “Doesn’t look like he was shot.” Kang walked around the desk for a closer look at the body.

  “Yeah, strange. Maybe he died of natural causes. A heart attack or something along those lines, and this is just a coincidence.”

  “That would be strange if it were.”

  I scanned the desktop for a note or anything that might reveal what he’d been working on in his office. There was nothing aside from the corner of a yellow legal pad sticking out from under his body. I lifted him up just enough to see that there was no writing on the pad.

  “You know, I find it weird that there’s nothing in his home office that conveys that he actually works here. It’s more like a den where he might sit to open his daily mail.”

  “I thought the same thing. No filing cabinets. No paperwork.
No landline.”

  Kang called Yu’s phone again. The ringing came from the man’s pants pocket.

  “Maybe forensics will be able to tell us more.”

  “I’ll call it in,” Kang said.

  With the exception of all of the doors and windows, only the sliding door was unlocked; and Yu certainly hadn’t died in the same way Chow and the others had. Our minds were boggled, to say the least.

  While we waited for CSI to arrive, Kang mentioned something that I should have considered long ago. If our thinking was that everyone who had contact with Xiaolian was potentially on the hit list, then my family should be on that list as well.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  As we raced across town, Kang called for SFPD to send a unit over to my address. This was the second time Kang had to make that call in the course of a day.

  “I can’t frickin believe I didn’t consider this. Just when I thought I had this mom crap down, I blow it in a major way.”

  Ever since my husband was murdered and I inherited sole responsibility for two young children and an elderly mother-in-law, I’d been learning how to parent on the fly. And I wasn’t always successful, especially with my profession.

  Part of the reason for moving the family from Hong Kong to the States was to leave that baggage behind and start with a clean slate. The new job with the FBI was supposed to place me on mostly white-collar crimes—financial. But there I was, back in the thick of investigating violent crimes and placing my family in danger as a result. Oh, it wasn’t the first time. That would be too perfect. And my life was anything but.

  “Hey, this isn’t a reflection on your parenting skills. You’re in the middle of a huge investigation. We’ve got nineteen dead bodies. A madman on the run. A million things are running through our heads.”

  “And yet you still thought of them before I did. Dammit!”

  “We’re a team, Abby. I can think of some stuff too, you know.”

  “I know, I know, it’s just that… well, you know how much I struggle with juggling work and family.”

  “I get it. And I for one think you’re doing a terrific job. You need to cut yourself some slack. And anyway, this is a precaution. I honestly think if this guy had the knowledge of where all these individuals were, he would have known Xiaolian was staying with you and hit your place first.”

  I wanted Kang to be right, but my gut told me the opposite. When we reached the house, a squad car was already parked in my driveway.

  “Everything’s fine. All three are accounted for,” one of the officers said.

  I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked them before heading inside.

  “Mommy! You’re home!” Lucy hopped off the couch and gave me a hug.

  “Where’s Po Po?”

  “In the kitchen.”

  “And your brother?”

  “Taking a shower. Why are the police here?”

  “We’re staying in a hotel tonight. I want you to go upstairs and pack your suitcase, the small one. While you’re up there, tell your brother to do the same and then meet me back down here.” I patted her butt, sending her off. “And don’t dilly dally.”

  Kang entered the house. “Po Po’s cooking,” he said, sniffing the air.

  “We’ll have to pack up dinner to go. I’ve got the kids getting their things. I think it’s best they stay in a hotel for a few days.”

  “I wonder if we should have a team watching your house, just in case our guy shows up,” Kang said.

  “You just said it was unlikely this guy knows about Xiaolian staying here. You trying to give me an ulcer or something?”

  He shrugged. “I know, and it’s probably nothing, but if we’re clearing your house out, why not give the impression they’re still here? Leave the lights on, the TV, and then have a team watch the place, just in case. It might be worth it for a couple of hours.”

  “What, like a squad car out front? That would just scare him off.”

  “Forget about SFPD. Hansen and Pratt can watch the place.”

  I thought about it for a second or two. “Do it.”

  Kang made the call while I went to break the news to Po Po. She didn’t seem bothered. If she was, she hid it well.

  “Let me pack up the food,” I said.

  “It’s okay. I can do.”

  “No, let me do it. You go and pack some things.”

  A little later I checked the family into a suite at the Fairmont on California Street. Kang was on the phone with Reilly, briefing him about the lawyer, and said he’d wait in the lobby.

  Once settled in the room, I helped Po Po unpack dinner. She had prepared beef and broccoli, shrimp lo mein, pork fried rice, and stir-fried veggies. Nothing too elaborate.

  “Aren’t you eating with us?” Lucy asked me.

  “Maybe later. I need to take care of something first. It does smell good though.”

  “It’s excellent,” she said. “You really should eat what Po Po cooked while it’s warm. Plus it’s even better in a hotel.” Lucy raised her fork triumphantly. “I like being on vacation.”

  “We’re not on vacation,” Ryan said. “We’re in a safe house.”

  “Ryan!” I said quickly.

  “What? It’s true. You work for the FBI, and sometimes your work spills over and it affects us. I know what’s happening. Xiaolian’s missing and you think she’s connected to the—”

  “Enough!” I cocked an eyebrow. It was the only sign Ryan needed in order to understand that uttering another word in front of Lucy would not bode well for him. The potential danger to my family wasn’t something I wanted to broadcast to Lucy in its raw format. It would only give her nightmares. I was the parent. He was the child. Therefore, I controlled the dialogue.

  “What’s happening?” Lucy asked. “I want to know. I’m older now. It’s not fair Ryan gets to know and not me.”

  “No one is keeping anything from you, sweetie. We’re staying here for a few days because there’s a bad man in town who is hurting people. Everyone is staying indoors.”

  “Did he hurt Xiaolian?”

  “We don’t think so, but we’re looking for her just in case.”

  “But where did she go?”

  “We don’t know.”

  I gave Ryan a comforting squeeze on his shoulder just to let him know I loved him. I didn’t blame the kid for the words that came out of his mouth. He was old enough to understand the nature of my job. Everything he said was true, but he had no filter. For not being my biological kid, he sure acted a lot like me.

  Still, I understood the real reason why he challenged me every now and then. He needed to know where he stood, whether or not the lines had been redrawn.

  I had done the same thing with my father. I’d challenged his word and the rules of his house even more so than Ryan. “Do as I say, not as I do.” That saying was my father’s favorite, only to be eclipsed by, “So long as I’m putting clothes on your back, food on your plate, and a roof over your head, you will obey my rules.”

  The only difference between me and my father is that he used a belt for reinforcement. I hadn’t needed to resort to the same treatment with Ryan. I hoped I would never have to, but I wouldn’t hesitate if I felt it was merited. Thus far, I had made it clear to Ryan and Lucy that there was only one law in our house. Me.

  “Will we still go to school? What about my training?” Ryan asked.

  “I think a few days off won’t hurt either of you.”

  “Yeah!” Lucy pumped a fist. “Let’s go to Disneyland!”

  “How about the pool downstairs instead?”

  “To the pool!”

  “But Master Wen is counting on my help with the others,” Ryan whined.

  “When everything calms down, then Master Wen can have you back. And anyway, I’m betting a lot of parents will have their kids take the next couple of days off. It wouldn’t surprise me if the dojo closes for a bit.”

  I left them and returned to the lobby. I was surprised to see Reilly sta
nding there with Kang.

  “Agent Kang filled me in,” Reilly said. “Do you want me to station some men here?”

  “Thanks, but I think they’ll be fine.”

  “How are they doing?” he asked.

  “They’re surviving. What are you doing here?"

  “I just got done strategizing with the police chief when Agent Kang called me. Thought I’d stop by.”

  “What’s the latest?” I asked.

  “SFPD and the sheriff’s department have the city on lockdown. The bridges and major highways have roadblocks in place. The bay is also being heavily patrolled. This guy won’t get far for much longer, especially if he’s on foot. It’s only a matter of time before he’s flushed out.”

  “Has anyone notified Agent House?” I asked. “Everyone who’s connected is a potential target, and she’s involved.”

  “She’s aware,” Reilly answered. “I sent a couple of extra agents to help secure the command center. The Port of Oakland is also on alert. Customs and Border Protection folks are handling security concerns there. What about your place?”

  “We had Hansen and Pratt head over there,” I said.

  “Any other place we should be surveying?”

  We both shook our heads.

  “The lawyer’s death is strange.” Reilly rested his hands on his waist. “It could be coincidence, but we’ll see what the medical examiner comes back with. I put a call in to have Green handle that one. I want to make sure the lawyer isn’t connected. If he is, then our guy changed up his MO.”

  “I just wish I knew where Xiaolian was,” I said. “I firmly believe she’s always had the answers to this puzzle.”

  “Forget about her for the moment. Right now our priority is finding the psycho who gunned down nineteen innocent people today. The two of you need to figure out his next move. I have a nasty feeling this guy isn’t done.”

  “I understand what you’re saying, but Xiaolian is the key to everything. She’s an integral piece of this investigation. It’s all connected.”

  “Abby, we can’t lose another person to this guy. We need to take him out. Only then can we refocus our efforts back on Suitcase Girl. Am I clear here?”