by Dale Mayer
At the same time, the twins really needed each other and their mother more. They wanted more silence and solitude, to enjoy their gardens and their pets, and to interact less with the outside world. Which just brought Mickie’s mind back around to Chandra. Why the hell would she have brought the twins to Asia? But then again, the twins had been modeling and had lived in this world a lot, but, for them, it was a compartmentalized time of their life that they had managed to shut down afterward.
It was just so confusing. Was it Chandra’s out-of-the-blue and deliberate act to say, Yes, you need one more experience, and then we’ll keep you at home? Why would she even push it on the twins? But lots of parents made decisions for their kids. Which, in this case, both of the twins were more susceptible to their mother’s wishes. And it was much easier to get one on board and then the other one would follow.
Even now Mickie couldn’t imagine how the twins were feeling. Such pain and torment coursed through Mickie that she desperately wanted a happy ending. Otherwise, it would haunt her for the rest of her life. When the twins were upset, their pain was so deep, and yet, so visible that everybody else around was affected by it as well. Of course it would be that much easier to keep them unconscious, so nobody around had to deal with their emotional outbursts.
But still, it wasn’t fair. If the twins were awake, they would have left Mickie some written messages. She knew that. They loved puzzles; they loved games, and they used to draw Mickie Mouse all over the place. Not the words but that simple little four-fingered hand or just the big ears, like on a headband, the two symbols of Mickie Mouse. They were universally recognized. She sat up, slowly thinking about that and then grabbed a piece of paper from her purse and drew the very simple eyes, head, and ears and held it up to the front seat. “Did you ever see this drawing, even portions of it, inside the vehicle where the twins were carried or anywhere along the route where the twins have been?”
Startled, Asher turned to look at the piece of paper. He frowned as his finger gently traced the outline. “I’m not sure that I have. Why?”
“The twins would draw that,” she said. “Anytime they were hiding, they would leave me a clue or a puzzle piece, if they were hiding.”
“They would draw that when they were hiding?” Ryker asked. “Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?”
“But it’s only for me,” she said. “That’s a Mickie Mouse.”
Enlightenment crossed both men’s faces as they connected the famous Walt Disney character to Mickie’s name.
“They must have loved your name,” Asher said.
“They did,” she said with a laugh. “They loved it, and they always thought that I had some magical connection to that world.”
“Did they ever go to Disneyland?”
She laughed and nodded. “That’s the one place we did go, and it’s definitely sensation overload,” she said with a smile. “But they loved it.”
“And how did you figure out the connection?”
“Seeing the world through their eyes, it’s like being shown a completely foreign universe,” she said as she sagged into the back seat, staring down at the small design she’d put on paper. “They have such a unique way of looking at life.”
“Do you think they would have left you messages?”
“If they could, if they were awake, and if they understood what had happened. Per the brothers’ sister, the twins were screaming for me when with her brothers,” she said quietly. “Probably when they first woke up after being drugged to get them out of the hotel.”
“But, since you and the twins were drugged from the initial kidnapping event, likely the brothers made sure the twins were drugged again, right from that moment on.”
“Sure,” she said. “But the twins are close to six foot and long and lean. You can’t exactly pick them up and stuff them in a suitcase.”
“Meaning that, somehow the twins would have been disguised to move them anywhere, correct?”
“Correct.”
“Starting at the hotel-room kidnapping, those two gunmen probably sought out the easiest way—a laundry hamper,” he said. “Down into the laundry room and out, awaiting pickup from the two brothers.”
She thought about it and nodded. “That would make more sense than trying to carry them.”
“Particularly with those famous faces,” he said.
“Their photos are out there, so you’d recognize them,” she added. “But some people are really recognizable in their photos, even if retouched. But those kind of photos are so much more than who the people are in them. In this case, the twins are so much more than their photographs. It’s one of the reasons why they were so famous because everyone was trying to capture that elusive extraspecial element to who they were in a photograph.”
“And do they have any special abilities, like memorizing dates and times from decades ago?”
“No, they’re not Mensa geniuses.” She chuckled. “They’re just beautiful young women who wanted to be left alone.”
“We’ll find them,” Asher said firmly. “We already know roughly where they are.”
“Yeah, so some idiot can come and rescue them,” Ryker said in disgust.
“You realize this all sounds like stories made up, right?” She found this whole nightmare too fantastical to believe.
“True enough,” Ryker said. “I was trying to figure that out myself.”
“But why would anybody make up a scenario like this?” she asked.
“To hide exactly what’s going on,” Asher said. “But remember how it comes down to really basic motivations—power, money, sex, and greed.”
“Unfortunately the sex part is a huge issue,” she said, “because the twins are very beautiful women. But because they aren’t quite the same as you and me, they don’t understand the same sexual innuendos and flirting, like everybody else does.”
“Meaning, they’re likely still virgins?”
“I think so, but I’m not sure,” she said.
“Huh,” Asher said, as if considering that from a different perspective.
“Think about how people like to possess beautiful things,” Ryker said. “They don’t always want to touch them. They just want to keep them.”
“Back to that pet scenario,” she said with disgust.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Asher said. “It could be anything, and yet, nothing.”
“We should be there soon, shouldn’t we?” Mickie asked.
“Soon,” he said. “Another ten minutes or so.”
“And what’s the plan then?”
“Not sure,” he said quietly.
“So either you don’t have one,” she said, flopping down onto the back seat lengthwise, “or you don’t want me to know about it.”
“Our plans are fluid,” he said cheerfully. “But don’t worry. We have some.”
She snorted at that. “As long as it means getting the twins back safe and healthy, then I’m fine with that.”
“Got it,” he said. Then he turned to look back at her. “When we get everybody back home to Switzerland, what are your plans? I understand you went home to care for your grandmother. I presume she’s passed away if you moved to caring for the twins?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what happened. As for plans–I’m not sure I have any,” she said. “I now realize that I was staying with the twins because they needed me. I wasn’t quite ready to let go of that. My grandmother and I were very close, and losing her was very debilitating. The twins filled a void that helped me to adapt to my loss, to deal with my own grief.”
“And so, are you ready to move on?”
“I am thinking about it.” She nodded. “I don’t know how the twins will handle this though.”
“That remains to be seen,” Ryker said. “They probably need their mother more than anything.”
“Maybe,” Mickie said. “The problem is, there’s just enough distance between them that I don’t know if Chandra can cross that divide any longer.”<
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“You must hold out hope for that,” Asher said. “All families and all relationships can be mended, if people are willing to put in enough time.”
As she lay here wondering, she had to consider if his words were meant on a different layer as well. Was he saying that their relationship could be mended? She didn’t think so because they were very different people. It didn’t mean that they didn’t have the opportunity to have another relationship though, something different, something based on who they were today. Because she sure as hell didn’t want to go back to that insecure young girl she had been before.
Asher studied his sideview mirror. “You see what I’m seeing?”
“Yes,” Ryker said, checking out his rearview mirror as he shifted lanes. “I’ve been watching them weaving in the traffic. They’ve been on our tail for the last five minutes or so.”
“Think it’s on purpose?”
“Hard to say,” Ryker said. “I would have thought we’d gotten away free and clear but …”
“It’s possible that we’ve been followed the whole time, and there have enough different people and cars to pass off to the next guy and the next guy and then next one. So we don’t realize we’ve got a tag team of people following us. The question is who though?”
“Exactly. Do we have a double-cross happening?”
Asher looked at him. “Okay, that’s something I hadn’t considered. In what way?”
“What if the brothers were paid to take the twins, but then somebody saw an opportunity to either remove the twins from their care and demand more money or the brothers themselves decided they needed more money to look after them?”
“So, the original person who ordered their kidnapping hired somebody else to take them away?” Asher thought about it. “And the trouble is, once again, we don’t have any answers.” He looked down at his laptop. “We are getting steady satellite feeds in and along the coast and any number of boats that we’re looking for.”
“Ask if anyone is tracking the name of the boat yet.”
Just then a message came through. “The chat box located Awan Hania, the boat owner’s family.”
“Should we start there?”
“No point,” Asher said, his voice darkening. “Apparently a house fire took them out this morning.”
“Odd coincidence,” Ryker said, his voice low and soft, deadly.
“Ugly coincidence,” Asher said. “I wonder if anybody knows yet.”
“Meaning, the guy whose boat the twins are on?”
“Yeah, because, if he isn’t dead already, he’ll go into hiding as soon as he finds out. I doubt he’ll see the fire as accidental.”
“Depends if he lives on the edge of the law or if this is his first time doing something like this,” Ryker said. “He’s also likely to dump his cargo.”
“We must stop that from happening. I suggest we head to the house fire first.”
“Instead of the dock?”
“They’re pretty close together,” Asher said.
As that first stop was only a couple miles away, they made their way to the smoking ruins of the house. It had been put out by the local fire department, but it had damaged another house on one side. Other than that though, no further damage had been done to the surrounding neighborhood.
“The fire seems to be very isolated,” Ryker said.
“Definitely arson,” Asher said in a harsh voice. “If autopsies are done, I’m sure they’ll find the bodies were dead first.” He turned and said, “I’ll ask around. Can you stay with her?”
She popped her head up from the back seat. “I’m fine here,” she said. “Just let me sleep.”
He snorted, shook his head, and said, “No, that’s one of the dangers of you coming with us. Somebody has to be with you at all times. Especially if we’re being followed now.” He ignored her glare and headed to a couple American-looking tourists, standing and watching. He identified himself using one of his fake IDs in law enforcement for Interpol and asked, “Do you know any of the details?”
Surprised, they shook their heads and said, “The fire woke us up early in the morning. We’re staying here for a month but had gotten to know the family pretty well.”
“Did the whole family perish?”
“Their son Ming took off four days ago, in the fishing boat. He’ll be devastated when he hears.”
“Four days?”
“He came back a couple nights ago, and he was pretty excited about a new deal,” they said. “And then he left to meet a buddy, and we haven’t seen him since.”
“Did the family know about the new deal?”
The two men looked at the fire behind him. “If they did, they’re not talking,” they said.
Asher could see the strain on their faces, their pinched lips, and their bleak eyes. “I’m sorry. It’s hard to lose friends, isn’t it?”
“I was just talking to them last night,” one said. “They didn’t seem to think anything was different or untoward.”
“Their son often take off on these new jobs?”
One man shook his head. “No, according to the parents, he’s always looked after the family fishing business pretty steadily. They’re not too happy about this new deal, but they didn’t say much about it.”
“Of course not,” Asher said. “Tradition is so strong in most of these areas.”
“With good reason,” the younger man said. “In the West, we forget about things like that, and we end up always embracing the newest and the best technology. But it loses something as you move forward.”
“China was built on families and traditions and rules,” Asher said quietly. “Often new ideas or a new opportunities are met with disbelief and almost disgrace.”
The men nodded, still staring at the burnt remains.
“Did the family say anything about where Ming was going?” Asher asked.
They shrugged. “The father mentioned a village up the far side.”
Immediately Asher could feel something stir inside. Finally he had found a decent lead.
“And, of course, the father didn’t give any details about what Ming was doing, did he?” he said in a light tone. He looked back at the family’s home and said, “It might have eased the parents’ minds to have known some details.”
“Supposedly Ming said he couldn’t tell them anything. It was a secret. I think that just made his parents feel all that much worse.”
“Well, let’s hope it’s all legal and aboveboard,” he said, studying the smoldering embers. “Because, if it wasn’t, it could be what caused this house to burn to the ground.”
The two males looked at him. “You think this was deliberate?”
“It’s pretty intense for having been localized to mostly one house,” Asher said quietly. “Definitely looks like arson to me.”
Both of the men nodded slowly. “We wondered about that, but we didn’t want to think it out loud. The law enforcement around here doesn’t like anybody sticking their nose into their business. We’ve already been told to back off and to stay off.”
Asher nodded. “I hear you. I’m looking for the son. I’m glad he wasn’t caught up in that fire, but I’m sorry for the rest of his family.”
“It was all of his family, as far as I know,” the taller of the two men said. “I think his sister was in there too.”
Asher winced. “And that leaves just the son to maintain the tradition.”
Then they said, “We’ll head back inside ourselves now. It’s a depressing start to the day.” And, with that, they gave him a smile and headed off. He studied their strong, young backs as they walked. Not military-bearing straight, more like college-age youthfulness, here for a new experience.
As he watched them hold hands, he considered that maybe this respite was a break from the stressful lives they lived at home, where here they could just be themselves and be together. Here, not too many people interfered in other people’s business, especially with foreigners. As a matter of fact, foreigners co
uld get away with all kinds of behaviors that other people couldn’t. Still, Asher returned to the car and quickly shared with the other two what he’d learned.
“I gather we now we have a new destination,” Ryker said.
Asher nodded.
“Well, let’s head to the village then.” Ryker quickly turned on the engine, and they pulled back out onto the main highway, while Asher looked up the location on a map.
From the back seat, Mickie asked, “Do you think his family was killed because of Ming’s involvement?”
“I think that’s exactly what happened,” Ryker said.
Asher, without lifting his gaze, said, “And now people are following us again too.”
“Good point,” Ryker said.
Mickie’s head popped forward. “You mean, we’re being followed right now?” she demanded.
“A car was parked at the top of the road when we came past,” Ryker said. “Two men sitting in it. Both with brush cuts. Both look like they had some military training. Both were Asian.”
“So hired muscle but local,” Asher said.
“Potentially, yes,” Ryker said. “But we can’t make any assumptions at this point.”
“No,” Asher said, “not about any of this. Because I don’t think it’s anywhere near as clear-cut as we thought it would be.”
“No, it never is, is it?”
Chapter 12
Mickie found it hard not to turn and stare behind them as they drove along the road. They were heading into much denser population and then coming back out of it into a much sparser population. She’d never seen so many people, and still tons of carts and people walked in the way of vehicles, as if they had the right-of-way. Hopefully the vehicles would stop for them.
And the vehicles she did see weren’t as new or as expensive as anything in the Western world. It’s not that China was poor but that the rich tended to stick to the more populated areas. As Ryker headed up the coastline, the landscape became definitely more about farming and fishing villages. And yet, the whole way, the vehicle following them stuck on their back end.
