by K.J. Rivera
CHAPTER 4
I walked back and forced the screen door shut with a hard push. It was one of those doors that stops a foot short of closing and slowly inched its way shut. Sebastian looked at me and rolled his eyes.
"What? It bothers me!"
Sebastian shook his head. "It will eventually shut."
"I know."
Maybe I wanted to feel like I was helping. Every door to finding this missing girl was shutting. Maybe it was my way of expressing my desire for the Yu's to have closure. We had just spent nearly two hours inside Grace's parents small home in Los Angeles. They lived in a three-bedroom house a few miles from Dodger stadium. A house they had lived in since Grace was three years old. Her room was still in tact. Teddy bears on her bed and books from her childhood on her nightstand. The older Chinese couple did not like being intruded on. They were suspicious but warmed up after awhile and seemed to enjoy being able to open up about there only child.
Sebastian and I sat quietly in the BMW. We took turns drinking out of the water bottle we brought. I put my hands through Sebastian's hair and then put my head on his shoulder. "I love you Sebi-bears."
He kissed my hair. "I love you too sweetie. Where do you want to eat?"
"Wherever you want Sebi. Oh how about our spot? Our seafood place north of Santa Monica?"
"Deal."
It would take awhile to get to the beachside restaurant. Los Angeles traffic was brutal and it made me appreciate living in Phoenix. While driving through the Yu's neighborhood it was hard to imagine the beauty of the beach was even remotely close to this place.
"So what did you think of Grace's parents," I asked Sebastian.
"They're sweet. I feel awful for them. I'm not sure I buy their claim Bo's father is in the Chinese mafia."
"You never know you mentioned it when we first met him."
"I know Leah but what motive would Mr. Tang have for kidnapping Grace?"
I sighed. "Like Mrs. Yu said he wanted her out of the way."
"Mr. Tang is arrogant he doesn't see Grace as a threat. I mean really what threat did she pose?"
"Maybe he was pissed Bo kept seeing her even though he knows his bride is picked out and wanted the relationship to end."
"And he had her kidnapped or killed Leah? Mr. Tang is not a criminal. He is a traditional bastard but no criminal."
I didn't respond to Sebastian. It was Thursday and we had not uncovered any new clues in the whereabouts of Grace Yu. We had spent Tuesday and Wednesday in San Diego tracking down Grace's friends and visiting the campus of San Diego State University. It had been an exhausting week. Sebastian kept telling me we were in gathering mode right now and to be patient.
Our beachside restaurant was packed. We found a table outside and both of us got out our notebooks. I flipped to a new page and doodled while Sebastian went to use the restroom. I spent most of my time in school sketching in notebooks. I sketched out Grace Yu's name then made a design around the letters. Sebastian returned and started looking through his own notes.
"You ready to go over our notes or do you need some time to finish your project?" Sebastian said this sarcastically referring to the drawing on my page.
I scowled and flipped to the beginning of my notebook. We had not shared any of our notes with each other up to this point. We agreed to gather as much information as possible and then brainstorm.
"So what are your theories so far Leah based off what we have learned this week?"
I yawned before I replied. "I have a few different ones but nothing has jumped out at me to give me confidence to feel strongly about a particular one."
Sebastian nodded. "Okay so what are they?"
I sheepishly grinned at Sebastian. I hated when he put me on the spot like he was doing. I liked to throw out as many possibilities as I could think of when going over details even if they were far fetched. I tended to hesitate because Sebastian was much smarter than me. He liked to come back with all the reasons why I was wrong.
"Sweetie come on," he pleaded. "I'm not going to say anything give me what you got."
I took a deep breath then went for it. "Reading all the media reports everyone wants to assume her disappearance is associated with Mexico. What if it's not? There is plenty of crime right here." I paused to see if Sebastian would respond but he nodded and flailed his hands for me to continue. "Maybe there was another man in the picture. A boy in one of her classes or at work that had a thing for her. He gets jealous of her love for Bo and in a rage kills her. I found a love note in the kitchen and I am pretty sure it wasn't from Bo. Her friend Ki told us Grace was worried about his family never approving of her. Maybe her way of showing Bo she was worth it was to make him jealous with another guy."
Sebastian rocked his shoulders and head from side to side indicating he thought this might be plausible but not likely. I was talking a mile a minute and I felt like my words were all over the place.
"What?"
"Nothing Leah I am listening. Keep going!"
"Now one other possibility I have been thinking about is Bo. I get a vibe that he is genuine and I would be shocked if he was involved. If he were he would be the mastermind deceiver of the universe. But since Orlando and how we were deceived we learned never to trust anybody. What if Bo did tell Grace about his arranged marriage. She loses her shit and drops him. He sees her with another guy and he flips his shit, in a jealous rage he loses control and kills her. Now I am not sure why he would go to lengths to hire people to find her but maybe he wants some fools like us to figure out where she is and he has evidence planted along the way to pin some dude he doesn't like with the murder. He gets closure and doesn't have to be haunted by the thought that he could be found out down the road. You get me?"
Sebastian smiled and that pissed me off.
"Sebastian seriously?"
He shrugged. "What you are cute!"
"You think my theories are dumb."
"No Leah relax. You're right, at this point anything is possible. There are no leads or clues. The police didn't find shit. So we need to look into all kinds of theories. This is good."
"Well you don't have to laugh at me."
"Don't get so defensive." He stroked my cheek with his finger then flipped down my lower lip so it made a popping sound. I couldn't stand it when he did that to me. "I am not laughing I just think you are so damn adorable."
I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes. I needed a nap. Since Sunday night when we met Bo for the first time at his compound my mind had not turned off. It was been reeling with scenarios, ideas, and continued thoughts about what happened to Grace. I couldn't shut it off. Our number was called over the loud speaker and Sebastian went inside to get our food order. I kept my eyes closed until he came back. We were quiet while we ate our food. It was delicious and we had not eaten since early that morning when we made oatmeal before leaving on the road trip to Los Angeles.
"Okay Sherlock tell me what you think," I said.
Sebastian kept eating his fried oysters making me wait in suspense.
"Seb! Come on!"
He laughed. "Wait a sec let me enjoy this." He took a big gulp of his sweet ice tea and got serious. "The reason I feel strongly about the Mexico angle is because there is no reason for us to do double work." Sebastian paused to take another bite of his food. "The US police already did the work here and found nothing. It would be a duplicate effort. The case is still an open case though. This leaves Mexico open for us to look at. I did some research the last couple of nights. It seems unlikely Grace was kidnapped for money because nobody close to her has been contacted for ransom money. I think Grace was abducted, taken to Mexico and is possibly part of a prostitution ring."
"Yeah that sounds better than my theory," I admitted.
"There are brothels in Mexico that feature Asian women only. They get the women one of two ways. One way is they go to Asia to recruit poor Asian women by promising that they will bring them to the USA for a fee of like $5k. These women sell everything they hav
e to get the money. Well then they bring them to Mexico and force them to be sex slaves. They say they have to make them a certain amount of money before they will take them over the border to the USA. But usually they just keep them in Mexico never letting them go. The other way is they cross the border and kidnap young US girls making them work in the brothels."
"Damn," I said. "That is sick. And there are a lot of these brothels?"
"Leah this type of stuff is going on here in America. I remember seeing on the news about a month ago a prostitution ring was busted in Arizona. These women become a product, they're like cattle put to work or sold for meat. You've heard the stories of people finding a big container full of illegal immigrants who have died because they suffocated, right? They can't breath after being in a container on a ship for a week and die. It's really sad and it's reality unfortunately."
I started to steal some of Sebastian's fried oysters and he picked off the rest of my shrimp. If Grace was kidnapped and taken to Mexico she was hopefully still alive. I tried to think of what I would do if I was kidnapped and forced to be a prostitute. I would fight. They would have to kill me because I would not stop trying to escape.
"Damn Sebastian. Guess we're going to Mexico?"
Sebastian shook his head yes. "I want to head back to San Diego and spend a few days preparing. We still need to go to Grace's place of work and interview her co-workers. I don't want to leave any stone unturned."
We grabbed a couple of towels out of our car and walked across the street to the beach. I took off my long sleeve shirt and put it behind my head. I was wearing a red spaghetti strap tank top that barely covered my belly button. Sebastian sat down next to me on his towel and put his hand on my stomach. He leaned over and kissed my stomach. He tucked my long dark hair behind my ear and gave me a ton of kisses all over my face. He finally went back to his towel and took out his laptop. I dozed off with the sound of waves crashing onto the shore.
It was Friday afternoon and we were checking out the clothing store Grace worked at in the mall. We drove back from Los Angeles late Thursday night. Sebastian and I talked the whole way about the case. My brother Adam finally called me back when we were on the outskirts of San Diego. He said that the San Diego police were working a missing person case but it was currently at a dead end. Per the police report everything was left in tact, there were no traces of a crime and absolutely no evidence regarding the disappearance. There were no suspects or leads.
With Adam giving us that information it confirmed we were going in a direction that seemed plausible. We planned our trip to Mexico. I was anxious about going back there after our first trip with Nelly and Gwen. I didn't like the fact that we would not be able to bring any weapons for protection and we would be unfamiliar with the area.
"Hey Sebastian," I said. "Can you go over to that guy folding sweaters and see if you have better luck than me?"
Sebastian glanced at the guy then back down at his cell phone.
"Sebi!"
"What Leah?"
"Did you hear me?"
Sebastian didn't look up. "Why do you want me to talk to him?"
"He was weird when I asked him about Grace. What if he is behind her abduction?"
Sebastian kept his eyes on his cell phone. "Doubtful Leah."
"Why?"
"He's folding sweaters."
"He could be her Tigger," I sighed. "His name is Chadwick can you at least try to get his last name from another employee here so Pauly can check it out."
My phone vibrated in my pocket and it startled me. Nelly was calling.
"Sure. Give me a second I got an email back about the car on Craigslist. If that's Nelly calling tell her only she can stay with us no surprise guests allowed."
Nelly called me on Wednesday telling me she was coming up for the weekend. Phillip invited her to go with him to see a band on Saturday night.
"Hey Nels what's happening?"
"Getting ready to pack up my car. What are you guys doing?"
"At the mall. When are you going to be here?"
"I won't be there until around 8:00 or so. I am going straight to the bar to meet Gwen's old roommate Tracy. You going to be able to meet up later for a drink?"
"Maybe."
"Really Lee, maybe? Your best friend is going to be in town and maybe you want to hang with her?"
I laughed. "Aren't you going to be with Phillip doing your thing?"
"My thing?" Nelly snapped. "No he is busy tonight I am not seeing him until tomorrow. Come on Tracy said there would be cute guys there."
"Really Nelly?"
"Oh sorry I forgot. You can be my wing-bitch. Help a girl out."
I laughed again. Nelly could always make me laugh and it was nice talking to her.
"Come on you are the best wing-bitch Leah," Nelly proclaimed. "Or we could do the good slut bad slut routine."
"Oh that was funny I forgot about that night." I snapped my fingers at Sebastian and nodded my head in the direction of Chadwick.
"You see you miss me Leah come have a drink with me."
"I will try. You crashing at our pad tonight?"
"If it's not that late when I roll out I will if it's cool with you."
"We have been staying up really late so no worries," I replied. "I will text you our address."
"Awesome. Tracy said I could stay with her as well so either way I am set."
"Text me the name of the bar when you get there and I'll swing by."
"Yes! I will do that. Talk to you later Leah."
"Alright see you soon Nelly."
