Dojo Double

by Dave Sypher

  Dojo Double

  Dave Sypher

  Text copyright © 2019 Dave Sypher. All rights reserved.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter one

  Chapter two

  Chapter three

  Chapter four

  Chapter five

  Chapter six

  Chapter seven

  Chapter eight

  Chapter nine

  Chapter ten

  Chapter eleven

  Chapter twelve

  Chapter thirteen

  Chapter fourteen

  Chapter fifteen

  Chapter sixteen

  Chapter seventeen

  Chapter eighteen

  Chapter nineteen

  Chapter twenty

  Chapter twenty-one

  Chapter twenty-two

  Chapter twenty-three

  Chapter twenty-four

  Chapter twenty-five

  Chapter twenty-six

  Chapter twenty-seven

  Chapter twenty-eight

  Chapter twenty-nine

  Chapter thirty

  Chapter thirty-one

  Appendix

  Chapter one

  "All right everyone,” Logan Thornton addressed his karate students, "We need those who have come on the Tiger Dojo retreat in prior years to answer any questions newcomers may have while we're here. We will concentrate on perfecting our katas, and I want you to also spend some time meditating. I want you to feel the energy of the Earth, and to do that, you need to practice meditating. Once your minds are clear, I want you to try reaching out and seeing if you can feel the Earth's energy. It's not easy to do, but I think this location is very helpful in producing results for my students.”

  Logan was standing just off the lower Yosemite Falls trail inside Yosemite National Park. He had started as a lowly white belt beginner twenty years prior, and had found he enjoyed learning karate so much, that it became his goal to teach it to others. After scraping together enough cash to open his own dojo, his laid-back attitude had attracted students of all ages, and his gentle but steadily advancing training techniques helped his business to flourish. In the twelve years since opening his first dojo, he had expanded by opening five more dojos in other cities around California.

  He loved his work, but now that he was older, he felt he was past his prime, and he began considering selling his business to an interested buyer. Their latest offer was almost good enough that he and his wife Trinity would be able to accept it and retire comfortably. His goal was to leave California for another state. He and Trinity had discussed it numerous times, and with this latest offer on the table, he felt that his retirement dream was very close coming true.

  Trinity stood on the other side of the trail, watching him instruct his students. She was a fit and lovely brunette, and while she had some martial arts training of her own, she wasn't absorbed in it to the extent Logan was. However, she loved coming on these retreats with him, as it gave them a week away from Sacramento every summer, and fulfilled her continuing mothering instinct to help watch after the children who attended this retreat. In recent years, Trinity had taken to borrowing her sister Cassandra's RV so that the Thorntons could camp in comfort. The students who accompanied them were usually less than the age of twenty, and they viewed camping as an adventure to be experienced in tents, so as long as there was a porta potty available, water to wash with, and plenty of food, the kids were typically content.

  Still, Logan and Trinity had learned from prior years to pack plenty of additional bug spray so that the children were not likely to go home covered with mosquito bites, or even worse tick bites.

  Despite the fact that Logan, Trinity, and the Tiger Dojo students were in better physical condition than most people who visited Yosemite Park, they always began their retreats by taking their students out on lower Yosemite Falls trail. It was rated as an easy hike, and it had proven a popular way to introduce students new to the retreat to the park. They could circumnavigate the trail, do a little off trail kata work, and enjoy the view without feeling pressured to keep up with others used to hiking the more challenging trails in the park.

  "For your first exercise here in the park, I want you all to practice taking orders from someone other than me. Emiliano, you will lead the males, and Raven, you will lead the females. You are both the most senior students at this retreat, and this week I want you to practice your dojo leadership skills. Everyone else, if you have questions or problems that the other students can’t address, but you think Emiliano or Raven can help, I would like you to go to them first. This includes if you have any conflicts with any other students in the retreat. I would like you to see if you can resolve these issues in your own. If not, you should come immediately to me or to Trinity for additional help if you feel it is necessary. As we do at home in the dojo, we consider you all to be part of our extended family, and as such you should feel confident you can bring any issue up to us whatsoever and we will do our best to help you resolve it.

  "In order for you to practice following another teacher, Trinity and I are going to finish hiking lower Yosemite Falls trail while you stay here. We will be back at this location within an hour and a half, at which time you should have finished your katas and should be ready for lunch. Remember to concentrate on your form, helping each other to perfect it, and we will see you in a while.”

  Emiliano Mendez was seventeen years old and would be a senior in high school that fall. He had begun learning karate four years prior when he felt he needed to learn how to be more confident in himself. He had begun as a slightly chubby young man, but with steady practice had improved both his physical condition and his confidence. He felt more than capable of leading the other young men from his dojo in these lessons.

  He stood respectfully waiting while Logan and Trinity hiked out of sight. They were holding hands and talking with each other, and Emiliano felt a bit of sadness while he listened to their conversation.

  "What state do you think we should move to, Trinity?”

  "I would like to live near another national park. I like our yearly trips too much to give them up now.”

  Logan was nodding to his wife, and asked her, "What do you think about the Grand Canyon? I visited Flagstaff a number of years ago with my parents, and I really loved the area. It reminded me of home, but I understand winters there are not nearly as harsh as they can be around here.”

  "We visited Arizona when I was younger too,” Trinity said, "but it was the middle of summer, and I found it too miserably hot. I'm afraid I'd melt our first summer there.”

  "Where else you think we should consider?”

  "I was thinking we could find a place not too far from Yellowstone National Park.”

  "You know they can have pretty harsh winters,” Logan's voice trailed off as the Thorntons moved out of earshot.

  "Okay,” Raven ordered the female students, "I want you to form several rows alternating so that I can see you all and let's begin.”

  "That is a great idea, Raven,” Emiliano complemented the young black woman. "I would like all of you to line up the same way, and we will get to work. If you get tired at any time, feel free to take a break and rest. This is supposed to be fun, so don't overwork yourself to the point that you strain anything. I know from experience that if you do that, it will make the rest of this week a lot less fun.”

  The two new instructors diligently supervised the dojo's students, taking them through stretching exercises before their katas, and giving everyone ample time to practice their form.

  Two hours later, Raven ended her group's session. Walking over to Emiliano, she said to him in a low voice, "I think there's something wrong. Logan and Trinity should have been ba
ck a while ago. Do you think we should call anyone?”

  "Let's give them another half an hour. Then we can try calling Logan. I'm not sure if he will have service way out here, so if we can't get hold of them, we will have to find a park ranger.”

  "That sounds like a good idea. I agree,” Raven said.

  Forty minutes later, Emiliano was certain something was wrong. Logan and Trinity had failed to come back, and his calls to Logan had gone straight to voicemail. The sun was high in the sky, but he remembered the tragedy of two years prior when his best friend Mitch Landry had come on a retreat and vanished into the Yosemite wilderness one night, never to be seen again.

  "We need to keep everyone together, so no one else gets lost,” Emiliano insisted. "So if anyone gets tired, we will rest until they are ready to continue. Do you agree, Raven?”

  "You've been to more of these retreats than I have,” Raven said, "So I will follow your lead on this.”

  "I want all the younger students to line up first. Older students I want you to surround the younger students on the outside and keep track of every one of them. If anyone gets tired, we will all stop and rest. No one is going to be left alone at any time. We are going to be hiking to the closest ranger station, but if anyone sees a ranger either walking around or in a vehicle, I want you to start trying to get their attention immediately. Are there any questions?”

  Several of the younger students look like they were on the verge of tears, but the confidence of the older students reassured them enough that they formed a fairly orderly group and began hiking out.

  An hour later, they were speaking to a ranger.

  Elijah Sutton had been a Yosemite National Park Ranger for three years. He was therefore not surprised to see the Tiger Dojo students out on a trail in a large group. However, one of them immediately began waving at him, so he immediately parked his truck and went over to see what was wrong.

  "I'm Emiliano, and this is Raven. We were put in charge of the Tiger Dojo group while Logan and Trinity went off for a solo hike. They were supposed to be back several hours ago, but we haven't seen them, and we have not been able to contact them; all our calls keep going to voicemail.”

  "Is there anyone else missing from your group?” Elijah was immediately worried.

  "No,”Raven responded. "We took steps to make sure that no one else was lost.”

  "All right, that’s good. I want you to continue staying together. I'm going to call for help, and more rangers are going to show up. Until then I want you to stay put and try to call your parents and let them know something is wrong. We are not gonna leave you without an adult present, so don't worry about that, but your parents need to know they may need to come and get you in a couple of hours if you can’t reach any of the other adults responsible for looking after you.”

  "Logan and Trinity Thornton are the only adults who came with us,” Emiliano informed Sutton. "We will start calling our parents right now.” As he spoke, Emiliano pulled out his cell phone.

  Elijah walked to his truck, getting on his radio. "This is Sutton. Were going to need a lot of assistance. I have a couple dozen Tiger Dojo retreat kids here saying that their adult supervisors went out for a hike a couple of hours ago and have not returned. The children in charge have been unable to reach them. A couple of older kids are looking after the younger ones, but I think they’re getting scared.”

  "Oh shit,” a reply came over the radio, "Not another disappearance!”

  Chapter two

  "Shinju, I need you to come to my office right away,” Alejandro Sanchez told the young Japanese-American woman who was a prominent private investigator in his firm. "I've got a prospective client on the line that you need to speak with.”

  Shinju stopped typing on her computer, quickly saving her file before following Alejandro to his office.

  Alejandro shut the door before switching his phone to conference mode, so that they both could hear and speak to the woman on the other end.

  "I'm back,” Alejandro said, "And I have Ms. Fujiwara with me.”

  "Miss Fujiwara,” the woman on the other end of the line introduced herself, "I'm Cassandra Nash, and I want you to look into the disappearance of my sister, Trinity Thornton, and her husband Logan. We heard about you on the news a few months back, and we feel you're the only person who can give us insight into the disappearance of my sister.”

  "How did you find our number?” Alejandro asked. "Have you been to our website?”

  "Yes, and I'm well aware of your fee schedule. My husband and I own Nash Distillery, so your fee will be no problem for us. Miss Fujiwara, have you heard the news regarding the disappearance of my sister and her husband?”

  "If I did, it was long enough ago, that I do not remember the details. Please go over what happened so I can decide whether or not I feel I can help you with your case.”

  "One month ago, my sister and her husband took the students from her husband's dojo on their yearly retreat to Yosemite National Park. As they usually do, they assigned their most experienced students to lead the others in exercises while they went for a hike. They were supposed return within two hours, but they never showed up. The children in charge waited almost another hour after they were overdue before hiking the group out and looking for help. After contacting a park ranger, they ended up calling their parents to come pick them up when the rangers failed to locate my sister and her husband.

  "After performing several extensive searches of the park for my sister and her husband, the authorities have given up. I can't convince either the local police or the park rangers to continue looking for them. I have suspicions that their disappearance is a result of foul play, and I would like you to come to California and see if you can generate any more leads for us to follow or if you can find out what happened to my sister and brother-in-law.”

  "Let me put you on hold for a few minutes,” Alejandro told Cassandra after Shinju heard her story, "So we can discuss your case.”

  "Thank you, yes, I will hold as long as it takes.”

  "Well, Shinny, what do you think of this case?”

  "I would say that Mrs. Nash must love her sister quite a bit to agree to pay us two hundred thousand dollars to investigate her disappearance. Either that, or she was involved in it, and is going through the motions and the expense to make herself look completely innocent.”

  "I agree,” Alejandro said. "That's a lot of money for someone to pay to have a private investigator take on a missing persons case. Given your track record investigating murders out of state, I figured you would probably, well, not really enjoy, but appreciate being able to look into a missing persons case rather than putting your neck on the line for another murder case. How about it? Do you want to visit California?”

  "Yeah, I think I do want this case. There's no guarantee that someone won't try to shoot, stab, or poison me again, but since this is not a murder investigation, at least not yet anyway, there's the possibility that I could complete this case without having major concerns for my own safety.”

  "You do have your CCW now,” Alejandro pointed out. "So you should be able to defend yourself this time around. Before I tell Mrs. Nash you’ve said yes, I need you to be certain that you want to take this case.”

  "Yes, Alejandro, I'm sure I want to take this case.”

  "Too bad we don't have someone we can send with you,” Alejandro said while reaching for the phone. "But with our increased volume of work after the FBI commended you for assisting them on your Colorado case, we just don't have the manpower to spare.”

  "I know,” Shinju said, "But someone here has to take over my active cases while I'm gone, so there’s bound to be some overtime.”

  Putting a finger to his lips, Alejandro took the phone off hold.

  "After reviewing the information you've given us, Ms. Fujiwara has agreed to investigate your case. She will need your phone number and address before she makes arrangements to travel to California.”

  "Thank you so much for doi
ng this,” Cassandra said. "Let me know if there's anything I can do on my end to help out before you get here.”

  "If you don't have a copies of the original police reports, please request them. As the missing person's next of kin, you will be able to procure it far easier than I would. Let me have your information, and I will let you know when I'll be able to get there.”

  Alejandro hung up the phone, telling Shinju, "Don't worry about your current cases. I'll divvy them up myself. You just figure out what you need to take with you to California and get out there. I'll let you know as soon as Mrs. Nash wires the money to us.”

  "Thanks, Alejandro,” Shinju said. "I doubt I'll be able to get a flight tomorrow, so the earliest I will be able to leave is probably the day after tomorrow.”

  "You go home and pack and make your travel arrangements, and we will hold down the fort while you're gone. Just let me know the date and number of your flight. You’ll also want to inform Mrs. Nash of when you expect to arrive.”

  "Thanks, Alejandro. I'll be back as soon as I can.”

  Shinju visited the women's restroom, making sure she was alone. With the increased interest in Sanchez Investigations, it become necessary to bring Faith on full time. Missy had finally recovered from her accidental overdose and was now working full-time again as well, and with investigator Rene Morgan also being a woman in the office, it was getting more problematical for Shinju to hide her second phone in Sanchez Investigations' women’s bathroom. However, she hadn't found a suitable site anywhere else to hide her secondary phone, so she made the effort to visit the restroom alone whenever she could, so her behavior wouldn't seem suddenly odd to the other women in the office.

  Laying the trashcan on its side, Shinju stepped up on it so she could reach above the light fixture where she stored her second phone. Pulling it down, she shoved it into a pocket before righting the trashcan.

  Patting her pocket, she smiled. This secret second phone was her connection to her boyfriend, Chris, who had left Phoenix several years before after a man who accosted them while they were out on a date ended up dying after fighting with Chris. Chris had explained his history of being in the Special Forces, which had led to the unfortunate death of an innocent man in a foreign country. The governor of the region was a relative of the dead man, and a mole in the Special Forces had sent the governor information regarding the death of the man. As a result, Chris's unit was discharged and its members had gone into hiding. The publicity behind the death of the man who had accosted him made Chris decide to leave town in case the governor knew his name and was searching for him. Chris had plans to return to Arizona when things quieted down, but as of yet, he wasn't confident that it was safe to return.