by K.J. Rivera
CHAPTER 2
Sebastian and I were cautious when we discussed how to approach speaking with Bo. We agreed we would meet Bo if he was open to it and get a feel for him before committing to help search for the missing girl. Sebastian the anal one was hesitant to get back into doing this type of work. It had been two months since the events in Orlando and for me I thought it would be therapeutic to get back to work. I wanted to do something, anything, for us to move forward and put the Orlando memories behind us. For Sebastian it was the opposite he was still on edge not wanting to do anything that could be dangerous for us. One of my strengths was living in the moment. While I would never completely be able to wash away the memories of what transpired in Orlando awhile back I didn't dwell on it.
After pacing back and forth for what seemed like a long period of time Sebastian called the number listed on the flyer. I heard him talk and could tell he was being reserved. I could also sense the desire in his voice. I knew my husband wanted to do this as bad as I did.
Our life was vastly different from the life I envisioned we would have when I met Sebastian. I thought I would be an architect's wife and have a normal 9-5 job myself. The highlight of our week would be happy hour with friends then spending the weekend either curled up with one another at our house or traveling to one of our favorite getaway spots. Not long into our marriage that pretty picture faded. The architecture firm had layoffs and Sebastian was out of a job. My low paying health club job didn't pay our bills. To avoid being homeless we took all the possessions we owned that could fit in our vehicle and along with a lot of credit card debt we moved in with Sebastian's parents in Orlando.
After months of being in a stupor that included staying up late into the night watching TV shows we had missed out on I took the first job I could find. I became a part time waitress at The Cheesecake Factory in Winter Park. It was there in the parking lot one night that an older lady beckoned me to her Mercedes window. Her name was Shirley Campbell and it would be an encounter that would set our life on a different course. Meeting Shirley led us to evil men and to discovering unthinkable things. Our encounter with Shirley also brought us hope and a new life. I can't say I wish we wouldn't have met her because I find myself looking around in parking lots hoping to see another Shirley. I felt like Jack in Lost who would fly Oceanic flights hoping to crash so he could get back to the island.
Sebastian brought his phone down from his ear and smiled. "Bo was excited but reserved to hear from me."
"Tell me everything he said! Is he young, old?"
"I don't know he sounds young. He wants to meet with us but first we have to go to a FedEx store."
I frowned. "For what?"
"He wants us to send him a copy of our drivers license. He wants to check us out to make sure we are legit. Not two crazies trying to come after him for money. Once he reviews it he will send me directions to a place to meet."
"Okay I guess I don't blame him. Did he tell you info on the missing girl?"
"He didn't say a thing he will divulge all the information when or if we meet."
"Well why don't we take pictures of our license on our phone and email them?"
"Brilliant Leah."
Sebastian sent a copy of our licenses to Bo. After an hour of patiently waiting Sebastian's phone buzzed indicating he received a text message. Bo must have approved of the background check he or his people ran on us because he sent Sebastian an address. Who knows what he even did with our licenses or if he simply wanted to have our names as a security blanket. Sebastian studied the directions Bo sent to him. The meeting place was located in La Jolla. Sebastian sent me down to the beach to tell Nelly and Gwen that we might need to stay another night. Bo wanted to meet us at 7 pm. Without knowing how long it would take or if we will need to have some follow up tomorrow with Bo we decided it was best to plan on staying another night. Gwen and Nelly had gone straight to the beach when we arrived back from Mexico and had been napping on their beach towels ever since. A groggy Nelly was pissed off with the change of plans. I told her we needed to get the windshield fixed on the car and that calmed her down.
We had nearly two hours to kill until we met with Bo. Sebastian and I started driving north towards La Jolla using the directions Bo sent us. It didn't take long to find a restaurant that caught our eye. Before our food came we did a search on our laptops on everything related to Grace Yu. We were surprised to find so little information. There was a small blurb on a local paper's website the date of the article was from the previous month. The only new information it provided that we didn't already know was that Grace Yu was a 20-year-old San Diego State student. We took our time eating then walked on the beach holding hands and talking about our future.
"Leah I just think we need to be very cautious this time around and not get ahead of ourselves."
"I know, I know." I got frustrated at Sebastian's conservative ways. "This is the perfect case Seb. It is to find a missing girl. It's public. There's nothing wrong with us working on trying to find her. It's not like Orlando we're not getting duped. This is legit, a girl is missing."
"I know this," Sebastian sighed. "I just think we need to be safe and smart going forward. I still think we should look into getting a PI license if we are serious about making this our living. If not we need to look into another line of work."
I scoffed at the idea. I looked into getting registered and licensed when we moved back to Arizona. It didn't appeal to me. I didn't want to conform and be part of a system. For the past couple of months to make money Sebastian had been buying cars and flipping them. Sometimes he fixed the car up making its value rise other times he made no tweaks and used his salesman skills to make a profit. This started because we needed a way to launder the cash we made in Orlando. Sebastian was making this his passion while I kept trying to persuade him to let me put feelers out to find someone who needs our services. He kept telling me to relax and take some time to clear my head. My passion the last couple of months had been spin, yoga, and kick boxing classes at the Camel Club.
I wandered away from Sebastian and walked into the ocean water. It was cold and felt refreshing. Sebastian stayed on the sand because he hated cold water. I turned my head back toward him. "Sebastian please don't start with the getting licensed stuff. You know the system. Are hands will be tied and I don't want to do it that way. You know this and you've agreed with me."
He cleared his throat before replying. "Leah I know. You just have to understand what we went through."
"Sebastian I was there I know."
"Yeah but you are you Leah. I guess I still struggle with all that went down in Orlando, death and betrayal. I don't ever want that feeling again."
"I don't either but we can't let it paralyze us," I said confidently. "Come on we have to live again. It's okay for us to live. Our goal when we decided to start doing this kind of work was helping others live. There's a girl out there that has nobody that is helping her. If we don't help who does? Her life is over."
Sebastian walked toward me, he took a step back when he felt the chill of the water and I took a few steps to meet him. He hugged me and held me tightly kissing my hair as he ran his hands gently down my back. He put his hands around my waist and leaned his forehead against mine.
"Thanks for being my best friend."
"Always. I love you Sebastian."
"I am always thinking about keeping you protected Leah. I love you."
We drove past one beautiful house after another. The area was full of immaculate houses. It looked like a postcard of wealth complete with the ocean view and picket fences. When we got to the end of Bo's directions we were in front of what I would call a compound. Who is this guy Bo? Sebastian and I gave each other nervous glances. Sebastian rolled down his window and pressed the button on the intercom announcing our arrival. There was no reply only the opening of a large gate. Sebastian parked the '08 Camry that he'll have to fix up before selling and will likely lose money on.
Sebastian shook his head. "Th
is is kind of odd."
"Huh?"
"This guy has some serious money and he's answering our call. A flyer we found in Mexico is bringing us here? I don't know I'm just suspicious."
My stomach sunk. I was surprised by the fear I felt. We had nothing with us for protection. "Oh damn you don't think we're being kidnapped or some shit do you? Should we get out of here?"
"Gates already closed," Sebastian said. Sebastian sensed my uneasiness and adjusts his demeanor. "Leah it'll be fine we're not getting kidnapped in this compound and if we do it might be nice this place is like a castle. Come on we're just being paranoid let's go in."
A maid answered the door and led us into a large sitting room. This place had more of a feel of a library than of a home. Maybe this is a business building or an institute of some kind. After sitting down on a couch I started to say something to Sebastian when a guy in khaki shorts, a grey v-neck tee shirt and tan flip flops walked in. He carried a manila folder and a laptop. He was of Chinese decent with short dark hair and glasses. The young man introduced himself as Bo Tang.
Bo appeared nice and laid back. My first impression was positive and I liked him. I could sense he was genuine. I liked to boast to Sebastian that I had keen senses for being able to read people. He liked to dismiss this notion but I frequently proved it to be true. Bo asked us to give him our background. Sebastian did the talking and right away you could see delight in Bo's eyes. Sebastian detailed our past making it sound a lot more glamorous than it was even though he didn't fabricate it by any means. As I heard Sebastian tell our story of how we came to be investigators and our past cases I was as intrigued by it as Bo was. It was like I was hearing it for the first time. It was crazy to hear it told a loud by Sebastian. I could tell Bo was excited to have investigators show an interest in Grace. Sebastian didn't lie, he told Bo we were not licensed and after the great detail Sebastian used to outline our previous cases he didn't seem to care.
Bo was anxious for his turn to talk. He took out his laptop and placed it on the coffee table in front of us. Bo kneeled down to the side of the table and started to scroll through pictures showing us who Grace Yu was. The girl looked young, almost childlike. She was cute and I could tell by her facial expressions that she had an outgoing personality. Most of the pictures were only of Grace while there were a few of Bo and Grace together. Grace had the same bubbly smile in all of them. Only one showed a sad Grace. It was a picture of her and Bo at Alcatraz, it was raining and Bo had an umbrella over them. Grace was playfully giving Bo a look of disappointment while he smiled at the camera. I only knew she was playing because Bo went into detail telling us about that day. It rained and instead of the day being ruined they let themselves get drenched as they took in the sights of a soggy San Francisco. Hearing Bo talk about Grace with his face lit up reminded me of that initial passion Sebastian and I had when we first met.
Bo sat back in his seat and talked to us about the police having no leads. He felt like the case was at a dead end. I could hear the desperation in his voice. He said Grace had been missing nearly two months now and in the beginning there was vigils held but everything had ceased. Sebastian and I studied the photos.
"So I take it Grace is your girlfriend?" Sebastian asked.
Bo hesitated. "Yeah she's my girlfriend. But..."
Sebastian and I looked at each other with a slight frown. It was a yes or no question.
Bo laughed lightly. "Yes she's my girlfriend but it's complicated you have to know Chinese culture. My parents have no interest in hearing about my girlfriend Grace."
"They don't approve?" I asked. That was shocking to me because the pictures showed such a sweet innocent girl. How could his parents not like her?
"My family originates from Hong Kong. I was born and raised in Vancouver where my family still resides. While I was raised outside of China my father is still very much rooted in the ways of Chinese traditions. He has already picked out my wife."
"Say what?" I raised my eyebrows and shuddered at what that must be like.
"Yeah he picked out my future bride already," Bo said shyly. "They are planning a January wedding for us."
"Damn that's less than three months away!" I gasped.
"Have you met her?" Sebastian asked.
"Yes I have." Bo said unruffled. "Her name is Xiu Ming."
"Does she have an English name?" Sebastian asked. "I know most of the time you pick an English name when you come to the states."
"No the Ming's are very traditional. My father picked her out a long time ago because her family has roots to the actual Ming Dynasty. Once we marry the Tang's and Ming's will combine our multi-billion dollar industries."
I shook my head and looked at Sebastian. I love the USA I thought to myself.
"So it's a business decision," Sebastian paused. "Wow that has to be awkward for you. So do your parents know you met Grace and like her?"
"Oh yes I told them about her but they didn't want to hear it. They dismissed it. Again my dad is set in his ways there's no getting around it."
I felt for Bo and was disgusted this was how marriage worked in other cultures. Two people coming together shouldn't be a business decision. Bo changed the subject back to Grace and started to talk about the day she disappeared when an older Chinese man abruptly opened the door to the room we were in. He spoke in a loud stern voice to Bo. It was all in Chinese and Sebastian and I watched the exchange wide-eyed. Bo calmly replied with a few words when he could get them in. The man pointed to the pictures on the laptop and kept going with his rant. In the hallway watching was a gloomy looking Chinese woman and a fit Chinese man in a black suit. The man looked intimidating and I started to get worried about what was going on by everyone's demeanor.
Bo who was standing while taking in the verbal punishment from the man finally leaned toward us. "Excuse me for moment while I talk to my father."
Bo's father led him into the hallway while continuing his verbal blast in his stern tone. The woman kept her head down and the man near her had a slight grin on his face. The woman looked younger than Bo's father but I wondered if it was his mom. After a few minutes Bo returned with his dad behind him.
"Sorry I troubled you today, forgive me, your assistance will no longer be needed. If you can take the folder and thumb drive you brought with you Mr. Ho will see you out."
The gentleman in the hallway must have been Mr. Ho because he jumped up at the snap of Mr. Tang's fingers. He walked toward us and got uncomfortably close. Sebastian fidgeted as he grabbed the manila folder Bo wanted us to take. Some of the papers fell to the ground. While he picked them up I grabbed Bo's thumb drive off the table. I slid it into the computer bag and we started walking out of the room with Mr. Ho on our ass. Once in the hallway there were two more businessmen in dark suits that led us to the front door. They acted as if they were guards and escorted us all the way out to our car. With folded arms they closely watched us back out of the driveway.
"What the f!" I shouted as we passed the gate.
Sebastian tilted his head and gave me a blank stare. "Stop."
"What?"
"Nelly is rubbing off on you."
"Oh sorry. It's just she says it all the time now. That was crazy what the hell do you think is going on?"
Sebastian shook his head as he looked down at his phone to get the directions to get out of here. "Don't know. Maybe Chinese mafia or some shit."
On the trip back to our vacation rental we debated why Bo's dad was so livid. We were intrigued about the content that was on the thumb drive that Bo made sure we took. I called Nelly and told her that we were leaving tonight after all so they needed to have all their stuff packed. It was loud where she was at and I could tell she was drinking. She told me she had a 'potential' so I would have to give her an hour or so. I told her we were leaving with or without her so she sent Gwen back to the cottage to pack and said we could pick her up when we were done getting our stuff.
It didn't take long to pack up our be
longings. I didn't like ending our vacation to San Diego on a sour note. At least Nelly was closing it out with a bang. We went to pick her up at a bar called The Local. I sent Gwen in to get her but when they didn't come out Sebastian sent me in after them. Gwen was doing her best to get Nelly to leave but she was a few shots in already so it was a task that required two people. Nelly said her new boyfriend would drive her home. When Gwen and I headed for the door she sheepishly followed.
"I thought you two went to get the windshield fixed?" Nelly asked looking at the Camry. "Looks the same to me."
"Couldn't find a place to do it cheap so I'll bill you," Sebastian replied.
Nelly gave Sebastian a glare and got in the back seat just as the guy she was flirting with came out of the bar. He had on board shorts, flip-flops and a tank top. He was short with sandy blonde hair. He looked around the parking lot for Nelly.
"Nels your man's looking for you," Gwen chirped.
"Oh don't go yet! Falip! Falip over here!" Nelly waved her hand out the window to get his attention. Sebastian did not want to delay our leaving and started to go. "Stop the flipping car Sebi!"
"Falip? What the hell kind of name is that?" I asked her.
Gwen laughed. "That is so not his name."
Nelly ignored us and got out of the car. She exchanged numbers with Falip.
"Let's go!" Sebastian yelled out the window.
Nelly hugged the guy and got back in the car.
"Is his name really Falip?" Gwen asked with a laugh.
"Yes! Did I stutter? Leave his beautiful name alone."
Sebastian gave the Camry gas then stopped abruptly. "Hold on. This is going to drive me crazy." He backed the car up. "Hey! Hey man!"
The guy was nearing the bar entrance. He turned back when he heard Sebastian.
"What's up bro?"
"What's your name?" Sebastian yelled.
"Philip."
"Awesome thanks Falip!" Sebastian stepped on the gas peeling out of the parking lot while Gwen and I laughed hysterically.
"Falip, really Nelly?" I said in between laughing.
"No that's what it sounds like in my accent!"
Apparently unbeknownst to me Nelly's new thing when she got drunk was to talk with an accent. She thought it was a good way to pick up guys. Gwen filled us in on her technique and Nelly babbled on about how it worked.
"That's so lame Nelly," Sebastian said. "That's not going to work. What you need to do is stop having a guy own a Trans-Am or a IROC-Z as your prerequisite."
"I got his number didn't I?" Nelly announced. "How you like them apples bro?"
"He looks and acts just like your old boyfriend," Sebastian scoffed.
"Brandon?" Nelly yelled. "No he doesn't!"
"Hey we saw Brandon a few weekends ago didn't we Nel," Gwen said.
Nelly tossed herself back in her seat like she was trying to shake off her buzz.
"Don't remind me."
"He have man jugs yet?" I asked.
"No," Nelly answered. "He actually looked kind of tamales."
"You boink him?"
"Hell no Leah and what are you 13?"
"I am being sarcastic Nelly. That was your question to me in college every time I would mention a guy's name?"
Gwen let out one of her cackles. "Oh my gosh I remember that! She would say that line all the time for everything."
"Oh come on I needed to ask that," Nelly said with a laugh.
"Um no you never needed to ask that and you over used it like you are doing now with your acronyms. You would use it even when it wouldn't make sense."
"Yeah whatevs."
"Oh right yes it needed to be asked when I got done checking out a book at the library. This was you, 'I saw the elderly male librarian checking you out, you boink him?' Yeah that needed to be asked."
"Let's get back to what originated this, I got digits!" Nelly shrieked. "And he's a hottie!"
"Yeah I am sure a long distance relationship is going to work with the guy you just met in a bar Nelly," Gwen said. "But hey it would not surprise me one bit with you. I hope you and Falip are very happy together."
"Hey I can find a job here and would gladly move to San Diego. Plus I met a few other guys this week that were hum-a-da-hum-a-da."
"Not it on coming back here to visit your randoms with you Nelly!" Gwen mumbled sarcastically.
"Oh you are coming with me Gwen."
"Nope," Gwen replied. "Hey maybe Sebastian will drive you back."
"Hell no I am not it!" Sebastian shouted. "I love you Leah and you can go on vacation with Gwen and Nelly again sometime but I am staying home. Can you guys please, please for the love of Falip please be quiet now?"
Sebastian's tone was sarcastic and the girls laughed. I smiled and leaned over to give him a kiss on the lips. He turned the radio on and asked for silence again. It didn't take long for Nelly to crash out. Gwen fell asleep soon after. We left San Diego just before 9 pm and wouldn't be home until nearly 2 am. Sebastian was relieved there was peace and quiet in the car. I opened up the laptop and started to go through the thumb drive Bo gave us. It was basically an overview of Grace's missing person case. I found nothing eye catching or out of the ordinary. There were no leads and no clues as to where Grace could be. She was last seen at her one o'clock philosophy class on the campus of SDSU. The manila folder only contained photos, flyers, articles and vigil announcements. I put it away after sifting through it. There was no smoking gun that Bo wanted us to see, no hidden messages or findings to go with on our own. I was hoping Bo was giving us this stuff to provide us instructions on what to do to help him with the situation he was in. His dad looked like he wanted to choke him out. Bo didn't seem phased by it though. I was sure he must be used to it.
I was sound asleep when Sebastian's phone rang. I wiped off the drool that was on my cheek and switched positions leaning my head against the window. I heard Sebastian say his email address and assumed it was another interested car buyer. He was always getting calls and emails for his used car business he was running. I felt the car slow down and I opened my eyes. I saw lights up ahead for a gas station and the brightness burned my eyes. I was surprised at how hard I had been sleeping.
"Leah," Sebastian whispered. "Leah!"
"What?"
"Come outside with me I have to talk to you."
"I'm sleeping I don't want to get out."
He leaned over and whispered to me that it was Bo who called him. I slowly got out of the car and walked inside the gas station with him. Sebastian told me that Bo apologized for earlier and wanted to hire us. Sebastian told him we were game and Bo would email us flight information. He was going to book us one-way tickets to San Diego and provide the return ticket when it was needed. Bo told Sebastian we could stay at his apartment near the beach and he would stay at the compound.
"S&L is back sweetie!" Sebastian said. "We're hired."
"Awesome. Did he say anything about the fee?"
"No we will discuss it tomorrow when we meet. He's got plenty of money to pay us though so I don't think we need to worry about that. You're excited right?"
"Yes. I'm just a so tired right now and I'm a little concerned about the dad. We don't know these people Seb."
"It'll be all good Leah. Tomorrow I am going to get a list of all the names of the family members and the guards we saw tonight and give it to Pauly to check."
"Cool, good idea."
Pauly was our tech guy we met in Orlando. He's the only one that knew what type of work we did. When we started venturing into investigative work Sebastian's one rule was we would stay anonymous and not tell any family or friends what we were doing. We had kept to that rule and while we hadn't needed Pauly for anything since we left Orlando I still kept in touch with him.
"Why don't you call your brother tomorrow Leah and see if he will look over the case for us."
"I could. You want him knowing what we're doing though?" My brother Adam was a police officer in Denver, Colorado. "I don't
want him asking questions."
"This is different than what we were doing in Florida Leah. I trust him and it would be good to have him give us any inside information that we can't get on our own."
"Deal I will give him a call tomorrow."
We pulled into Nelly and Gwen's complex at 1:52 am. For a little over a month Sebastian and I slept on their living room floor. It was tight quarters but after being away from them for so long we had a blast living together. Sebastian didn't enjoy it quite as much as me and was ecstatic when three weeks earlier we moved into a small house in Central Phoenix. One of Nelly's old classmates at ASU was participating in a two year teaching stint abroad and tried to sub lease her house. She was unsuccessful in renting it out and it sat empty for nearly a year. It was a perfect home for us. Rent was cheap and we adored the old school Phoenix neighborhood with houses that had huge yards with orange trees.
I had to jab Nelly and Gwen a few times to awaken them. They both groaned and yawned continually while they slowly prepared themselves to get out of the car. They waited in silence for Sebastian to hand them their bags out of the trunk.
"Goodnight girls," I said.
Both Gwen and Nelly mumbled quiet goodbyes.
"Sweet dreams," Sebastian called out as they walked toward their apartment.
"Yeah gunshots and the aftertaste of Jack Daniels will be a part of my dreams tonight," Nelly stammered.
"And Falip," Gwen said sarcastically.
