The Hidden Agenda

by Ajinkya Dharane

  "Young, skinny Chinese woman. Wearing a scarf all the time. I do not see her face."

  Jack did not want to push him further. He was not yet sure how to take this investigation forward. But this was critical information. Was this the daughter Dr. Chung referred to in his video? Was it really just a suicide? Maybe Emily and Neil were right about Jack putting the blame on the whole thing to find comfort about his losses? Jack decided to stop the trail of thoughts and focus on the task at hand.

  Trusting his gut, he walked over to the hotel. They approached the front desk manager. Neil pulled up his Wuhan Police ID and asked the manager to look at the available CCTV footage. Jack looked at Neil with suspicion, intending to question about the ID, which was probably fake. Neil just winked at Jack.

  Jack and Neil followed the manager back into the security room. He instructed the operator to pull the videos from last night. Jack asked explicitly for the footage between 10 PM and midnight. They were looking at the footage from the hallway leading up to Dr. Chung's room. There was a young Asian couple who entered the room two doors down from Dr. Chung at 10:20 PM. Then at 10:33 PM, a hotel staffer, probably a bell boy, entered a room down the hallway and left after five minutes. Jack scribbled on his notepad. Then at 10:45 PM, a woman wearing a long trench coat, wearing a scarf like a burqa covering most of her face, left the elevator. Jack was now watching closely. His heartbeat increasing gradually.

  The woman walked towards Dr. Chung's room. While walking, she was cautiously scanning the hallway. Jack was studying her body language. She definitely did not want anyone to notice her. The woman knocked on Dr. Chung's door about two minutes later. The door opened, and she entered quickly and closed the door. Jack assumed safely that she did not wait for Dr. Chung to invite her into the room. She entered the room forcefully. Jack took some more notes on his pad.

  After twenty minutes, at 11:07 PM, the lady exited the room. She was behaving calmer. She was not being cautious as before. Jack was sure, only if he could see through her scarf, she was smiling and happy about something. She walked towards the elevator, more confident and jollier.

  "Looks like we got the daughter," said Jack assertively.

  "Yes, or just a prostitute. The lady seemed happy leaving the room, but Chung was not happy. To be fair, he was about to die," Neil replied with a wicked smile on his face.

  Jack remembered Neil trying to find humour in any dire situation when they worked together on mock cases in the academy. He would look at a prop dead body and comment, "Looks like he took a bath with bleach, look how clean and white he is." Their supervising officer would frown upon Neil.

  Jack and Neil continued to watch the footage until about 11:35 PM when the power outage started. The power was back on at 12:20 AM. Jack asked the operator, "Do we know why the power was out?" He looked confused at first, but Neil quickly translated the question. He answered, which Neil translated back to Jack, "The electric wire from the transformer down the road broke. They had to call the city official to fix it."

  Jack said to Neil, "Deliberately done?"

  "Looking at all the things, I would say yes."

  "Let's see if we can find this woman on Chung's laptop or phone tomorrow. Let's call it a day today. You want to grab that drink you promised me?"

  "Hell, yes!"

  About an hour later, Neil, who was visibly tipsy, "Man, I miss Drunken Rick's." Neil was on his third pint.

  Drunken Rick's was a bar near the RCMP academy in Regina, Saskatoon. Jack and his classmates were frequent visitors. Through their huge billings, Jack and his friends had contributed significantly to new windows at Rick's. RCMP candidates used to get Sunday morning off. On Saturday night was the one where all the young, energetic men who had worked their asses off during the week became drinking monsters. The Saturday parties were known for candidates getting into funny accidents, cursing their supervisors and teachers. Sometimes senior officers joined in too. The general rule was that as long as you got back on your feet and focused on Sunday afternoon, you can do whatever you want on Saturday night. Young men used to sing, dance, and some used to do some stand-up comedy as well. It used to be a night to remember.

  Jack had gone through the training pretty effortlessly. He had been through more robust training in the army. Jack was having fun drinking with Neil after so long. They had been bunkmates in the academy. There were lots of memories to discuss. Jack felt like he was living his life again after a long time.

  "Listen, man, I am sorry about Grandpa Marvin. I still remember his barbecue party. You know he lived a full life, and he was proud of you and Julie."

  Jack felt like someone had put a hand down his throat and pinched his stomach. He knew Neil would bring up Grandpa Marvin but still was not prepared for discussing the topic.

  Jack had talked about his grandfather all the time in the academy. So, Neil felt like he knew Marvin very well. Even Neil had called Marvin, "grandpa" when they met a few times. Jack bottomed his beer to get over his grandfather's thoughts and the emotions that came with them.

  Neil had seen Jack's expression on the mention of Marvin. He quickly changed the subject, "So Inspector Jack, any exciting cases you solved?".

  "It's Constable Jack now. And I am becoming an expert at filing the paperwork."

  "What, how did this happen?"

  Jack narrated the incident that happened at the Huntsville grocery store. Instead of fuming, Neil started laughing loudly, almost falling out of his bar chair. "You are an ass, Jack. I do not like the aftermath, but that prick probably deserved the treatment."

  Jack was happy to land on a different topic. Even though he had not solved any compelling case for the past year, he had been doing some domestic intelligence about wealthy snobby cottage owners in Muskoka in his hometown. They chatted till about 1 AM. They had hogged on bar food and decided to skip dinner and call it a night. They both were anyway too drunk to find a decent meal.

  As he entered his room, Jack switched on the lights of his room and opened the coat closet. He was hanging his coat when he saw it, the same trench coat he had seen a few hours back in CCTV footage. The mysterious woman was wearing it when she entered Dr. Chung's room. It took him a while to realize it. But then he remembered, this beige colour trench coat belonged to none other than Dr. Emily Rogers.

  Jack fell back into this chair with a huge shock. He sat so fast and hard that his chair rolled back and hit the side table by his bed. The effects of alcohol wore off in a flash. Jack's senses were coming back to normal. He felt like his head was caught in a pair of huge tongs, and someone was shaking it rigorously. The flashes were coming back to him. He remembered Emily wearing the coat at the airport. He also remembered Emily this morning coming into his room and placing the coat in the closet before leaving his room in a rush, crying.

  As Jack came back entirely to his senses, he felt foolish. He was doing it again. Jack was desperately trying to indict someone for a tragedy. He cannot risk even asking Emily about the coat. There could be more than one beige trench coats in the world.

  But his gut was telling him it was Emily. He had seen her mood today, and it was not normal. But why would Emily see Dr. Chung late at night? What was so important that she went back to see him, right after having dinner with him. Jack was not even sure if the girl in the video was, in fact, Emily. His head was spinning now.

  He got up from the chair and put on his gloves. He carefully removed the coat from the closet and started checking the pockets. Most of the pockets were empty. Then in the right pocket, there were five receipts. The first one was from a coffee, which Emily had bought in the morning before entering Dr. Chung's hotel. The second was from dinner last night. And the other three receipts were from the cab rides. The first receipt was the cab ride was from a hotel to the restaurant. The remaining two receipts were rides from their hotel to Dr. Chung's hotel and back. Jack realized he paid for the cab when they returned from dinner. He thought he should save his receipts for getting reimbursed.
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br />   Jack checked the time of transactions on the receipts. They matched the timeframes the lady in the video entered and left Dr. Chung's hotel. Jack was now confident it was Emily in the video. Jack decided to tackle this in the morning and tried to sleep. It was another hour until he would fall asleep.

  Chapter 13

  Jack got up around 7 AM. He had woken up with a bad headache. Slowly he remembered the finding of coat and the receipts. It took him a while to realize that he had a challenging day ahead of him.

  He texted Emily, "Good morning, Sorry about yesterday. Let's meet for breakfast at 9 AM?" He got up and went to the gym to do his morning workout.

  In the last few weeks, his workout routine had become more about a frustration release than fitness. It was good for his mental health. He came back and took a shower. He was planning on how to approach Emily carefully. All his plans had failed to reach a solid conclusion.

  At 9 AM, Jack, Emily, and Neil met at the restaurant. Emily was looking like she had not slept for the last two nights. Jack's suspicion grew.

  He greeted both of his colleagues, "Good morning, hope you both slept well?"

  "Yes, sir. After a long time. I am sure I was snoring.", said Neil casually, with no clue of Jack's thoughts.

  Emily, however, did not respond with words. She just gave a weak smile and nodded. Jack sat at the table, thinking hard on how to start the awkward conversation. He decided to let everyone finish breakfast. He invited Neil and Emily to his room for a discussion on the case. After twenty minutes, all three were in Jack's room.

  Neil was sitting on the chair by the desk. Emily sat on the sofa chair on the opposite side of the bed, visibly nervous. Jack opened the coat closet, took Emily's coat out, and handed it to Emily. Neil leaned forward in his seat. He had recognized the coat from the video. Neil started staring at Jack, confused, asking for an explanation. Emily got up immediately. She walked towards Jack and took the coat from him, "I have been looking for this coat since yesterday. I must have left it in your room after our conversation," Emily did not know what Jack and Neil had seen in the CCTV footage.

  Neil was looking from Emily to Jack. He got up from the chair and walked very close to Jack. He carefully whispered to Jack, "Is this the same coat?". Jack did not look at Neil. He was looking at Emily carefully, studying her. He then loudly and clearly said, "Emily, can you tell me where you were on the night of Dr. Chung's death between 10:15 PM and midnight?"

  Emily, who was looking out the window, did not turn around. She pretended to think for a bit, "On the night of his death, uhm, the same night we had dinner with him? I was asleep in my room. Remember, we came back together."

  Jack pulled up the video footage from CCTV and showed it to Emily. Jack sat there in silence, looking at Emily's reactions. He was playing tough, but in his mind, he was praying for Emily to have a good explanation.

  Emily was keeping her eyes fixed on the screen. It was clear she was trying to avoid eye contact with Jack and Neil at any cost. After a few seconds, she said, "So this woman in the video has the same coat as me. You know this coat is made by Zara. They probably made more than one coats and sold it worldwide."

  Jack smiled at her, shaking his head, he opened the desk drawer. He took the receipts he had found in Emily's coat and placed them next to the laptop. He now looked directly into Emily's eyes. Emily was now visibly scared.

  Jack said, "Do you know what this is?" Emily did not answer. Neil was standing in the background, totally lost on the situation. But he was standing calm. Jack placed his left hand on the desk and leaned towards Emily, who was sitting on the desk chair. "If you do not remember, let me help you. The first receipt, the taxi fare when we went to the restaurant. While coming back from the restaurant, I paid for the fare. The second receipt is also a taxi fare from our hotel to Chung's hotel, paid around 10:35 PM. The third receipt is a taxi fare from Chung's hotel to our hotel, paid at 11:30 PM. The receipts, the video footage tell me a story I do not want to believe. Can you help me with that?"

  Emily was shaking in her chair now. Neil was shocked. Jack kept his eyes fixed on Emily.

  He did not want to show any empathy towards her. He was trying hard to not show any kind of desperation on his face. Emily took a few deep breaths and said, "Yes. I visited Dr. Chung after our dinner. The girl in the video is me."

  Emily had started crying. "I went to see him and discuss his return. I was not convinced that he would see us the next day. So, I went back there and had a discussion with him about all his research. I think I made him realize that his work will help save millions of lives worldwide. It has to be more important than any legal or financial commitment he has made with his employers in China." Emily was sobbing uncontrollably now.

  She weakly said, "But I had nothing to do with his death. I left in good spirits. He even said he would accompany us to Shanghai the next day. I was going to tell you after breakfast, but we got the other news."

  Jack was listening in carefully. He was partially convinced with Emily's story. But he still did not understand why she went back immediately. He was sure she was hiding something. With a heavy heart, he said, "Emily, I want to believe your story. I want to believe you have nothing to do with Dr. Chung's death. But you are the last person we know that saw Chung alive. You will be escorted to Shanghai in a few minutes. You will be placed in house arrest as you are the only..." Jack choked a little bit, but he had to say it, "suspect in this case right now. I am sorry to do this to you. Do you remember anything from your conversation with Dr. Chung that will help us and help you?"

  Emily was bawling by now. She suddenly stopped and said, "Wait, Dr. Chung did mention a lady. He mentioned her when he was talking about leaving China. He was more like talking to himself as if he was mentally taking notes about things he had to do before leaving. He said I need to tell Chen that I am leaving."

  Jack took note of the name. He was a little positive. Jack wanted to act tough with Emily. He did not want her to be the suspect. He wanted to prove her innocence as much as she wanted to.

  Chapter 14

  "Man, that was rough. Are you okay?"

  Neil was back in Jack's room after escorting Emily down to the car. The Shanghai consulate had sent a car with two security officers to escort Emily back to Shanghai. She was going to be under house arrest. Jack did not want to see her being taken, so he had stayed in his room and saw the car drive away. Jack was feeling shameful. He felt like he turned against his family. He had never expressed it to Emily, but he was attracted to her.

  Jack took a deep breath, "Let's see if we got anything from Sarah about the data from Chung's laptop."

  He video called Sarah on his laptop. Sarah was still in her office. She pulled in Ed, who was the tech guy in the department. Ed handled most of the cybercrime cases, and Sarah knew Ed was the best person for these kinds of tasks. Ed would never ask questions and would keep things as discreet as possible. Jack briefed Sarah on Emily. Sarah did not respond right away. She kept looking at Jack, hoping for him to tell this was all a mistake, and there is a better explanation for Emily's behaviour. She finally sighed, "Jack, I think we need to be careful here. Dr. Rogers is a senior member of Health Canada. Please be cautious while approaching the next steps. Coming back to Chung's laptop, Ed, why don't you start".

  Ed shifted to the center of the camera. He had a very nerdy look. He wore thick glasses and had silky, messy hair. He looked like a teenager who was just starting to grow a mustache and beard. Ed had a look of a person who had given up hope on life and stopped caring. He started, "Can you see my screen?" Jack and Neil said in unison, "Yes."

  Ed continued, "Let's start with the victim's phone. He had very few text exchanges—the majority of them with his assistant, Jingjing. Most of the texts were the timings victim would arrive in the lab. Few of them were about his appointments. The only one that stands out was the one sent a week back, where the victim was to take a personal day off from work. The transcripts of all messages should
be in your inbox now. Another text exchange is with a lady named Chen".

  Jack instantly confirmed the name, "You said, Chen?"

  "Yes. Chen seems to be his romantic partner. Or ex-partner now. Most of the exchanges are about their days. I would advise caution reading the transcripts of these messages. They might bring shame to some high school kids these days. I am told the victim was in the sixties. From the messages, he was behaving like in his early teens. The victim sent the last message at 11:50 PM on the night of his death saying, he is going back to Canada to his wife. Do not contact me. There is no response from Chen yet."

  Jack gave out a sigh of despair. He had hoped Chen to be Chung's daughter. But much to Jack's frustration, she turned out to be his late-life fantasy. He really wanted to find Chung's mysterious daughter for whom Chung had allegedly died.

  "Can we locate Chen's phone? Find out where she is?"

  "No. The phone is switched off since the night of the death." Jack was disappointed.

  Ed continued, "Now, about his laptop, I was able to determine that the program was used to wipe off the computer. In fact, the computer was programmed to do daily backups to Ziyuan Group's server."

  Jack interrupted Ed, "What is Ziyuan Group now?"

  "It is a parent company of Wuhan Pharma. Ancient and powerful organization, privately held by Lee family." Neil answered. Jack remembered reading the news article while waiting for Julie outside her hospital.

  Jack looked at Ed, indicating him to continue, "And the computer was deleted through the cloud-based software. Someone had run the program manually. The person who ran the program probably knew about the suicide video and deliberately left that video on the computer. The important thing to note is that his computer was wiped off at 12:10 AM at night. I also analyzed the video for the surroundings. The light in the video is not coming from the table lamp or ceiling light. The light is coming from a corner not visible in the video".