The Curator: SG Trilogy Book 2 (Abby Kane FBI Thriller 8)

by Ty Hutchinson

  While Lucy talked to one of the scoutmasters, another woman arrived with her daughter. The woman looked a little frazzled.

  “Let me guess,” I said. “You raced over here, thinking you were late only to find out the school is the one running late.”

  “Yes—how did you know?” she responded.

  “Same thing happened to me. So now I’m killing time. Is your daughter interested in the Girl Scouts?”

  “Apparently, though this is the first I’ve heard of her interest in it. We were at another booth earlier for the Boy Scouts.”

  “Well, you’re at the right one now. These uniformed ladies represent the Girl Scouts.”

  “Oh, okay. Do you have a daughter?”

  “Yes, she’s eight, which would make her a Brownie.”

  “Mine is eight as well, so she’ll also be a Brownie. She’s in the bathroom. I swear she has to go once every hour. Oh, there she is.”

  The woman waved her hand and caught her daughter’s attention. “These are the women who represent the Girl Scouts. Check them out, and I’ll join you later,” she told her daughter.

  “I’m surprised I haven’t seen you here before, considering our daughters are the same age,” I said.

  “Oh, it’s because Hailey recently transferred here.”

  “That explains it.”

  “Has your daughter attended this school very long?” she asked.

  I nodded. “She and her brother have been enrolled here since we moved to San Francisco.”

  “Where from?”

  “Believe it or not, Hong Kong.”

  I watched her draw a deep breath as she placed a hand over her chest. “I love Hong Kong. My husband has family living there.”

  “We had a family trip there not too long ago, our first since we left a number of years ago.”

  “And do you miss it?”

  “Yes and no. It was great being back. I have a lot of fond memories of growing up there, and a close friend of mine is still there, but it doesn’t feel like home to me anymore. San Francisco is home now. Are you from the Bay Area?”

  “I am. Redwood City. My husband is from Hong Kong, Sai Kung peninsula area.”

  “Yup, I know it.”

  “He was an only child, so his family scrimped and saved to send him here to attend university. That’s where we met… been together ever since.”

  “What a nice story.”

  “And you?”

  “My husband passed while I was still living in Hong Kong.”

  “I’m so sorry to hear that,” she said with a frown.

  “It was a tough time for all of us. The kids are both his from a previous marriage.”

  “I can only imagine what that was like. It must have felt overwhelming.”

  “That’s exactly how it felt. Add in the pressures of work, and it wasn’t the happiest time in my life. His death was really what prompted the move here—a fresh start. I wanted to put the past behind me and focus on building a new life.”

  “Has it worked?”

  “It has,” I said, smiling. “I’m happy here. I’ve made some good friends, and the kids love it. My mother-in-law still prefers Hong Kong, but she’s acclimated.”

  “Well, I’m glad to hear that…”

  I stuck my hand out. “I’m sorry, all this gabbing. The name’s Abby Kane.”

  She shook my hand. “I’m Connie Shi. It’s really nice to meet you.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  During our walk home from school, Lucy and I talked about the Brownies. She was surprised to discover that a large part of their program involved the girls participating in outdoorsy types of stuff. The only interaction she’d ever had with the Girl Scouts in the past involved us buying cookies from them—which is probably where her interest stemmed from.

  “I don’t think that’s all they do,” I said, as I flipped through a pamphlet. “It looks like you also take field trips in the city and perform science projects.”

  “But I’m not that good in science,” she said with a frown.

  “Well, this can be a way for you to become better. I think the purpose of the Brownies is really to contribute to society in positive ways by taking action on things you care about. Remember when we were at the beach and there were cigarette butts everywhere?”

  “Yeah, it was gross. It’s littering, and we aren’t supposed to do that.”

  “It says here that Brownies are encouraged to identify problems and do something about them. So you could organize a cleanup day with your troop.”

  “Ohhh, I see. I like that.”

  “Also, you don’t have to join a troop right away if you don’t want to. You can just participate in events hosted by them. That could be a great way to get your feet wet and see if you like it.”

  When we reached home, Po Po was just beginning to prepare dinner. Lucy eagerly ran into the kitchen to help.

  “Lucy, don’t you have homework?”

  “I do, but I can do it later.”

  “No, I think you need to sit down and do it now.” One critical feedback I received from Lucy’s teacher was that she often turned in work that looked rushed. In the past, I would let Lucy do her homework after dinner. I figured food comas were the culprit. I briefly considered that it might be due to the Walter Chan incident, but it wasn’t. Her teacher said it had been going on since the beginning of the school year.

  “But I always do my homework after dinner,” she whined.

  “We’re trying something new. Now, scoot.” I gave her a pat on her butt.

  She stomped her feet on the stairs as she headed up to her room.

  I already knew the answer, but I asked Po Po anyway. “Can I help?”

  She said no, that everything was under control. I glanced at my watch and noted Ryan would be home any time. He was my workhorse—killing it in school and in his after-school activities. I really couldn’t ask more of him. In fact, I didn’t even have to ask. The boy just did it.

  Later, as I watched my family eat like it was their last meal on Earth, I couldn’t help but look at the empty chair next to Lucy, where Xiaolian used to sit. Even though there was a decent argument for her possibly being a spy, I still found it hard to believe. Of course, it seemed like I was the only one who felt that way. Kang seemed to think it was worth investigating, and Reilly wanted me to do my job, which meant he was inclined to believe it as well. Again, I found myself on the outside of an investigation—the only one who wasn’t fully buying the theory that everyone else was.

  It wasn’t unfamiliar territory. Some of the biggest cases I’d solved were because I hadn’t agreed with the rest of the gang. It was lonely being the odd man out, but my gut had never steered me wrong. Do what you do best. Dig and dig and dig. I would keep telling myself that whenever I started to have doubts about my instincts.

  Of course, the one thing that bothered me the most about this spy angle—and I hated to admit it because it seemed petty and personal—was this: I never saw it coming.

  It was an attack on my ability to read people correctly, a trait I had always prided myself on. I had allowed Xiaolian to eat, sleep, and interact with my family. If she truly was relaying information to some unknown person or entity, what was she saying? Was she reporting on what Ryan and Lucy did? Did she mention to her handlers what Po Po had cooked for dinner? Or was it just about me?

  I rarely discussed work with the family, and the only time I had talked about work with Xiaolian was when I’d questioned her about who she was. It had resulted in our human-trafficking investigation, but again, I’d only questioned her. She wasn’t aware of all the details of the investigation. I failed to see anything about the old investigation that would be of current interest to China. I tabled those thoughts for the remainder of dinner and focused on my family. The best I could do was to investigate the spy angle and let the facts speak for themselves.

  It must have been about eleven. The kids and Po Po were already asleep, and I was watching television in be
d. The late news was reporting on the tech guru found running around naked. Why is this still news?

  It just seemed like all the station wanted was to make more out of it than what it was. Heck, someone ran around the city naked every day. Big deal. However, this guy was a known party-boy bachelor with millions in the bank—so it was newsworthy. It was about ratings.

  The news station continued to air the same cell-phone footage I remembered seeing a few days ago, the one that showed him being hauled off by SFPD while he shouted about being abducted and experimented on. He sounded like another crazy person spouting off about an alien abduction.

  Why on earth would an alien want to abduct you? Because you made an app and sold it for millions? Would that make an alien think, “Hey, we gotta take this guy. He’s the real deal.”

  I picked up the remote and shut the television off. As I lay there in the dark, I couldn’t help but think of the naked tech guy’s claims. Buddy, you really have no idea what it’s like to be abducted. Trust me.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The following morning at the office, I bumped into Kang in the breakroom. He was standing patiently in front of the coffee machine watching brewed coffee drip into the glass decanter.

  “Hey, partner,” I said. “It’s like boiling water—staring doesn’t speed up the process.”

  “Someone finished the coffee and didn’t brew a fresh pot. One of these days, I’ll catch this person.”

  “And what, press charges?” I filled a travel mug with hot water and then added a pinch of tieguanyin tea leaves from my stash.

  “I’ll give him or her a piece of my mind. I’m willing to bet this person is also guilty of swiping other people’s food from the fridge.”

  “Maybe that’s the person Xiaolian is after. Ever think of that?” Kang failed to find the humor in my joke. “Come on. There’s enough coffee in that pot to fill your cup. Get it to go.”

  Kang met me back at our desks with his personal travel mug filled. “If I’d known we were seeing Xiaolian first thing, I would have picked you up so we didn’t both have to come in to the office.”

  “It was a joke. I’m sorry.”

  “It irritates me. The rule is so simple. You drain the joe, you make some mo’.”

  I looked away as I struggled to contain my laughter. Kang’s comment was about the funniest thing I’d heard in a while.

  “Abby, I’m serious.” He looked at me deadpan.

  “I know you are.” The chuckling stopped, but the grin wasn’t disappearing anytime soon.

  As we drove out of the building, Kang made a detour from the normal route we took to the 101 Highway. “I know this great place where we can pick up a couple of breakfast burritos.”

  “Yay! The Kang I know and love is back,” I cheered.

  Kang smiled at me. “Sorry. I don’t know why I got so bent out of shape earlier. And over something so trivial.”

  “It’s not. That’s probably the hundredth time you’ve walked into the breakroom and seen an empty pot.”

  “Exactly! That’s totally it.” He banged a palm against the steering wheel.

  “But we’ll have to hold off on that burrito for a bit longer.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “We have some other place we need to go. Hang another right up here. We’re going to Pacific Heights.”

  “What’s there?”

  “Remember the naked tech guy?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Well, that’s where he lives.”

  “I’m confused. What do we want with him?”

  “While I was watching the news last night, they had yet another segment on him and played the cell-phone footage again.”

  “The one where he claimed he was abducted?”

  “Yes, that’s the one. Doesn’t it seem strange to you that a brilliant guy, albeit a partier, suddenly starts spouting off tabloid headlines?”

  Kang made a face. “I don’t know. I guess so.”

  “Humor me for ten minutes. After that, we’re all over that burrito place. We should pick one up for Xiaolian too.”

  Geoffrey Barnes lived on Broadway in Pacific Heights, otherwise known by locals as Billionaires Row. Once an enclave for elitist old money like the Gettys, it’s now overrun with high-tech moguls like Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga, and Jonathan Ive, head designer at Apple.

  “I Googled the guy. Apparently, Barnes dropped out of Princeton after a year—to pursue a hunch. One that turned into a company in two years with a hot app that he then sold fourteen months later for a cool eight hundred million dollars.”

  “Sheesh.” Kang shook his head in disbelief.

  “I think this is it,” I said as I pointed at a white three-story mansion at the corner of Broadway and Divisadero.

  I was wrong. It was the next house over, hidden behind tall hedges. We buzzed the gate, and after introducing ourselves, we entered the property.

  Barnes met us at the door dressed in a plain terry-cloth robe.

  “What do you want?” he asked rather abruptly.

  With a bright smile on my face, I said, “We want to talk to you about your abduction.”

  “You believe me? Really?” His eyes scanned the entrance gate behind us. “This isn’t some prank TV show, is it?”

  “May we come inside?”

  Barnes waved us in. “Quickly, before anyone sees you. Last thing I need is the media seeing you here and turning this into something more than it really is.”

  We stood in the foyer; it was apparent that we would venture no farther into his home when Barnes crossed his arms over his chest and asked us what we wanted to know.

  “Tell us your story. Everything that happened the way you saw it.”

  “I had some friends over. We were drinking, smoking cigars, and having a good time. Nothing crazy—no beer bongs or snorting coke off of hookers like the media wants you to believe. Anyway, I walked them out to the gate and said goodbye. They drove off, and I headed back inside.”

  “You remember this, or you were told this?”

  “I remembered. I’m still trying to piece together that night. It’s like I’m starring in my own Hangover movie, only it’s not funny.”

  “So you walked them out. Was it to their cars or just to the front gate?”

  “The front gate. Maybe I took a few steps outside the property, but I definitely didn’t walk them to their cars. I would never do that.”

  “So then what?”

  “Next thing I know, I’m opening my eyes, and I’m in the middle of the woods.”

  “Just like that. From the gate to the woods. Everything is one big blank?”

  “Are you mocking me?”

  “No, I’m just trying to make sure we completely understand. Okay, so you’re in the woods. What were you doing?”

  “Nothing. When I opened my eyes, I was sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree. I was probably passed out or something. Anyway, I get up and start walking around. I can’t remember shit. I’m wracking my brain, but nothing is coming. I don’t even know I’m in San Francisco or even who I am. It really freaked me out. Thinking back, I can see how people thought I was a nut.”

  “Well, it didn’t help that you were completely naked.”

  “But I wasn’t when I woke. I had on one of those gowns they give you in a hospital. I tore it off… for reasons I don’t really understand right now.”

  I glanced over at Kang.

  “What? You two keep looking over at each other every time I say something.”

  “Mr. Barnes, are you on any medication at the moment?”

  “I’m not high, if that’s what you’re asking. I’m telling you everything as I remember it. If you don’t believe me, you can stop wasting my time and get the hell out of my house.”

  “Calm down, buddy,” Kang said. “We’re not here to waste your time. We’re busy people too, believe it or not.”

  “Mr. Barnes, when you were being led to the squad car
by the officers, you kept shouting about being abducted. Why did you think that?”

  “Because by the time I got off the mountain, I’d had brief memories of people surrounding me.”

  “Who?”

  “I don’t know. A bunch of men I’d never seen before.”

  “Can you describe them? Anything would be helpful.”

  Barnes shook his head. “That’s the whole problem. I saw enough of the flashback, or whatever you want to call it, to know they were standing over me but not enough to tell you what they looked like.”

  “When they’re standing over you, are you lying down, sitting? Outdoors or indoors?”

  “I’m definitely inside somewhere, and I want to say I’m lying on my back, probably a bed, and they’re standing over me. Two on one side, two on the other.”

  I removed my card from my purse and handed it to Barnes. “If your memory starts to clear and you recall more details, please call.”

  He took the card from me. “Why is the FBI interested? I’m not in any sort of trouble, am I?”

  “No, you’re not. We have reason to believe that your allegations of being abducted might be connected to another investigation.”

  “What? Like this has happened to someone else?”

  “I’m sorry, but we can’t discuss that with you. Like I said, if your memory comes back, give me a call.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “You care to tell me why we wasted our morning with that fruit loop?” Kang asked as we walked back to our vehicle. “I mean, who cares about this guy?”

  “There’s something about his story that doesn’t sit right with me. It’s a gut thing, so I can’t quite verbalize it.”

  Kang stopped next to the SUV and looked across the hood at me. “You know, Abby, I’m pretty easy going, and I usually don’t mind seeing where your hunches lead, but this one today, I gotta say, I don’t get it. Clearly, he left with his friends or, after they left, he took off. The guy was probably high as a kite and ended up in the ER of a local hospital and later walked out wearing a gown.” Kang got into the vehicle. “Am I right or not?” he asked as I slid into the passenger seat.