Dojo Double

by Dave Sypher

  "How did you discover this discrepancy?”

  "Logan was doing end-of-year reports, and he accidentally emailed me the reports for all the other dojos in addition to mine. The expenses for each are itemized, including how much every Dojo manager makes.”

  Shinju felt empathy for Ms. Slater. She had experienced the same thing before getting her job at Sanchez Investigations. As much as Hollywood was pushing a feminist agenda, it hadn’t done much, if anything, to solve the core problems of society undervaluing and underpaying women who were doing the same jobs as men.

  "That sucks, Ms. Slater. I can’t tell you how much it sucks that you were underpaid for three years. I am happy to hear that you’re being more fairly compensated now. I can tell you that I’ve experienced the same thing.”

  "What did you do about it?”

  "I left the company, after telling someone at the corporate level exactly why I was doing so. Now, I’m working for a much better company, and I’m being paid fairly for my work.”

  "I wish I had that option, but there just aren’t many openings for black belt dojo managers, since we tend to stick with our dojos for a long time.”

  "I had to go into a different line of work entirely,” Shinju told her.

  "I’m too old to start over,” Jenny sighed.

  "I don’t think it’s ever too late to do something new, but I will advise you of this—you’re not likely to run into another company willing to immediately address your complaint of being underpaid like Logan did.”

  "I know,” Jenny said. "I was just really angry when I thought he’d deliberately overlooked me. I really do wish he hadn’t gone missing, and if he and his wife can be found, I hope you find them soon.”

  "Thanks. Now, about my earlier question: Is your dojo having any problems with any of its students, teachers, workers, or family members of students? I’m looking for someone who lives close to Sacramento who might be angry enough to travel to Yosemite and do something to the Thorntons.”

  "No one comes to mind,” Jenny said.

  "How about former students or employees? Do you think any of them could be capable of doing something?”

  "No. Here at Tiger Dojo, we try to make everyone feel welcome and comfortable at all times. I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t agree with our business model.”

  "What about your lawsuit? Would you care to discuss that with me?”

  "Oh, Abe? He was just a dick who thought he could force himself on me. I was only a yellow going on green belt, but I knew enough to block his punches, and when he kept coming at me, I put him down with a few well-placed kicks and punches of my own.”

  "Even though you stated you were acting in self-defense, the paperwork I read said that you settled out of court. Why did you do that?”

  "There were no witnesses to our fight. Without proof of who started it, and with me having no visible bruises because I was willing and able to defend myself, my lawyer advised me to pay for Abe’s emergency medical care plus a hundred dollars. The judge advised him to take it and count himself lucky I didn’t break his neck or his balls.”

  "The judge said that?” Shinju was incredulous.

  "Well, not in so many words. He said Abe was fortunate I didn’t land any kicks in his groin. Believe me, I considered it at the time, but knowing that I needed to stop him from raping me, I aimed higher so that I could knock the breath out of him and get away. Turns out I broke a couple of ribs, but that asshole just kept on coming, so I punched him just below the shoulder a couple of times, and when his collarbone cracked, that’s when he finally stopped, because he couldn’t lift his arm without experiencing excruciating pain. That’s when he started calling me a cunt and said he was going to sue me.”

  "That sounds terrible. Have you dated since then?”

  "Not really, no. I threw myself into my karate studies so I’d become even better at defending myself, and once I got my black belt and knew it would take another martial arts expert to take me out, I realized that I’m perfectly fine living on my own. What’s your story? I Googled your name, and I figure you’ve got to be the same Shinju Fujiwara who’s solved a couple of hairy cases, including one involving a serial killer.”

  "I was friends with one of the serial killer’s victims. His family asked me to look into the case, and my investigations brought me to the attention of the serial killer, Marie-Celeste Bouchard. She drugged and kidnapped me, and I killed her while fighting for my life.”

  "Badass,” Jenny nodded. "Why didn’t she tie you up?”

  "She did, but I managed to get free.”

  "How did you take her out? Do you study a martial art?”

  "No. I try to run away whenever I can, but when I can’t I try to find an improvised weapon, and mine was better than the knife Ms. Bouchard was trying to stab me with. If you want to know the truth, I wasn’t trying to kill her. I was just trying not to die.”

  "I understand,” Jenny said. "I wasn’t trying to break any of Abe’s bones, just trying to stop him from raping me. Was that you in Texas, too?”

  "Yes. I also helped solve a murder case in Denver.”

  "Have you ever failed?”

  "Lots of times. There are a lot of people still missing that I’ve been unable to find. The FBI solved my Las Vegas missing persons case,” Shinju hated to lie, but she’d been told to do it for her own good.

  "I mean in all your murder cases.”

  "I haven’t really been involved in many,” Shinju admitted. "My firm specializes in catching cheating spouses and finding missing people.”

  "How do you find people?”

  "A lot of the time if a younger person is missing, they’ve gone off with friends and soon regret doing so and decide to come home, so I first ask their friends if they know where the missing person is. Those that aren’t found sometimes turn up dead, and then there are those are never seen or heard from again. I hate those cases. It’s so hard on their families.”

  "I hear you there. I’ve been hearing from Seth about how the kids in Sacramento are freaked out that not only did one of their students vanish on the retreat a couple of years ago, but now Logan and his wife are missing as well. I hope you find them.”

  "Me, too. Trinity Thornton’s sister is very worried about her.”

  "Worried enough to hire you to come here from Arizona. However, I think if anyone can find them, you can.”

  "Thanks. Also, thanks for speaking so frankly with me, Ms. Slater.”

  "Thank you for letting me vent.”

  Chapter thirteen

  It was time for lunch, but seeing the tent-lined streets and the number of homeless wandering around, Shinju was hesitant to stop. Finding a place that she could get into without getting accosted, she pulled in and parked, but when she stepped out of her car, she got a strong whiff of open sewage before a man dashed out from behind the restaurant’s dumpster and began hurrying toward her.

  "Hey, give me money,” he demanded from a distance.

  Unlocking her car, Shinju slipped back in, shutting herself in and engaging the lock as the man arrived. He pulled on her door handle several times with a filthy hand, frowning and flipping her off when he couldn’t gain access to her vehicle.

  He then grinned maniacally at her before unzipping his pants and beginning to masturbate in front of her as she restarted her car and drove off.

  Her appetite had deserted her, and she drove quite a distance outside of San Francisco before finding someplace she felt safe enough to stop and eat.

  She carefully sniffed the air before locking her car and heading inside. Eating the advertised special of half a sandwich and some soup, she was quickly back on the road, considering whether Jenny Slater was her number one suspect.

  Turning on her phone’s recorder, she spoke as she drove. "After speaking with Jenny Slater regarding her verbal confrontation with Logan Thornton shortly before his disappearance, I’m not entirely convinced either way whether Ms. Slater is innocent or guilty. She had a good counterar
gument as to why it would’ve been a bad idea for her to do something to the couple, but that’s exactly the type of rationale I’d expect someone guilty to come up with, so she remains on the list.

  "Jenny stated that Logan accidentally sent her year end financial statements revealing she was being paid fifteen percent less than her male colleagues though she had worked for Tiger Dojo longer than any of the men.

  "Since Ms. Slater has been employed by Tiger Dojo for the longest, I agree that it’s logical for her to expect to be the highest paid employee in her position. However, she discovered that she was only making eighty-five percent of what the males were earning.

  "She says she immediately called Logan to complain, and he called her back, promising to immediately increase her pay, which was done. However, Ms. Slater feels that her raise should be retroactive to the the time three years ago when her wages fell below that of her male colleagues.

  "According to Grayse Ingram, Logan promised to settle things with Ms. Slater on his next visit to San Francisco, which I don’t know was actually scheduled at the time of his disappearance or not.

  "Therefore, Ms. Slater could be behind the disappearances. She was disgruntled, and though she had good cause to be, she also has a history of having been involved in at least one physical altercation in the past, where she claims her date attempted to rape her, and she broke several bones and cracked another to stop him. However, when that man sued her in court, she settled with him out of court for an amount she claims was equal to his initial medical costs plus a hundred dollars. That decision was not recorded in the paperwork I printed out, so I don’t know if this is true or not.

  "One thing that stands out in what Ms. Slater told me was that after she claims her date attempted to rape her she threw herself into studying karate even more regularly, feeling a real sense of accomplishment after obtaining her first degree black belt. She states that she felt a lot more confident, as she felt it would now take someone very experienced in martial arts to best her in a fight. I have no idea what degree belt Logan had, and my only qualm for Ms. Slater being behind the disappearance is if Ms. Slater were to have done something to the couple, I imagine she had to take them both out in a hurry, or else Trinity would’ve had time to scream, run, or call for help, or any combination thereof. Since there’s no evidence that this happened, I feel one or both of them must’ve been overcome quickly—or they had planned on walking away from their lives months before they vanished. I think it would take accessing their bank records to see if there were any large withdrawals of cash before the Thorntons went missing. If there is a lot of money missing, it points to the Thorntons being behind their own disappearance, though with everything I’ve discovered so far, it seems unlikely that they would walk away from their business, especially if they were considering selling it for a considerable sum in order to fund their retirement.

  "The lack of bodies could point to Trinity Thornton murdering her husband or vice versa, hiding the body, and then disappearing. If either of them had a lover on the side, that lover could’ve helped, or a lover could’ve gotten jealous and offed them both, as it’s apparently well known around town that Tiger Dojo goes on this retreat every summer, so it would be easy for someone to stake out their house and find out when they’d left for the park.”

  Her thoughts recorded, Shinju decided to stop at Sacramento’s Tiger Dojo for a second, impromptu, visit.

  A class was just getting out when she arrived, and she didn’t recognize the manager at the desk on sight. However, getting closer, she read Mykel Ingram’s name on his badge. Grayse was sitting in the front room, patiently waiting for her father to finish his business.

  "I’m Shinju, and I’m looking into the disappearance of the Thorntons. I wanted to ask if there are any other children who were present when the Thorntons went missing at today’s class.”

  Checking his roster, Mykel soon shook his head. "Emiliano was here, but he’s already left. That’s not unusual in the middle of summer; a lot of the kids go on other vacations as well.”

  "Is there anyone here who was present when Mitch Landry vanished?”

  "Emiliano was there,” Grayse piped up. "He talks about it sometimes.”

  "What does he say?”

  "Mostly how much he misses his best friend. He wishes he’d told Mitch to stay in their tent and not go out that night.”

  "May I have Emiliano’s phone number?”

  "We don’t usually give out that information,” Mykel said, "And with Logan missing I’ve got no one I can call and ask permission from.”

  Feeling defeated, Shinju left the dojo.

  However, one of the male students hurried up to her, saying, "His name is Emiliano Mendez, and here’s his phone number. Don’t tell him or Mykel I gave it to you.”

  The student slipped her a piece of paper before hurrying off. Shinju smiled. She didn’t know the student’s name, so there was no way she could tell Emiliano who had given her his number.

  Texting Emiliano’s number, Shinju explained who she was and that she wanted to meet with him today if at all possible.

  She received a terse reply eight minutes later. "Malt Shack in thirty minutes. Ask for Mendez’s table.”

  Snorting to herself at the boy’s brevity, Shinju looked up the Malt Shack and drove there.

  Walking up to the hostess, Shinju said, "I’m looking for the Mendez table.”

  Seconds later, Shinju found herself pressed up against a wall, her hands locked behind her.

  "You’re under arrest for soliciting a minor,” a police officer was telling her.

  "There’s been a mistake, officer,” Shinju tried to explain. "I’m a PI who was hired to investigate the disappearance of Logan and Trinity Thornton. Since someone else from Tiger Dojo went missing several years prior and Mr. Mendez was present when it happened, I just wanted to ask him a few questions about what happened that night.”

  "Save it for the judge,” the officer growled at her while securing her with handcuffs.

  She looked around the Malt Shack, finding a scared older teen staring at her from next to a nearby booth. The boy’s parents were clutching at the boy while giving her murderous looks.

  "I’m the PI investigating the disappearance of Logan and Trinity Thornton,” Shinju repeated in a louder voice. "Ask Seth or Grayse at Tiger Dojo about me.”

  "Shut up and come on,” the officer said, shoving her from the restaurant.

  Straining for one last look, Shinju saw realization dawn on the boy’s face as she was removed from the restaurant.

  Looking in the windows as she was being shoved into a patrol car, she saw the boy speaking urgently with his parents. They all turned to stare at her as the officer got into his car and drove away.

  Arriving at the station, Shinju was processed and put into a holding cell.

  She was released a while later and handed her phone.

  "You know the drill. You can make one call,” a thick female officer told her, staying in her cell to monitor her. As if there isn’t recording equipment galore in here, Shinju thought to herself.

  Dialing up Cassandra, Shinju explained her situation.

  "I was trying to talk to one of Tiger Dojo’s students about the disappearance of Mitch Landry, and he told me to meet him at the Malt Shack. When I arrived and asked for his table, I was arrested. I’m not sure, but I think you’re going to have to bail me out.”

  "I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Cassandra told her.

  "Let me have your phone,” the officer tried to grab her unlocked phone from her, but Shinju pressed the lock button, securing it once more.

  "Hey, you, unlock this.”

  "Sure, just as soon as you show me your warrant,” Shinju agreed.

  "Fuck you and your warrant demand,” the woman said, seizing her hand and bodily pressing Shinju’s fingers to the reader. Her phone remained locked.

  The officer turned her phone, waving it in front of her face.

  "I’d have to be
pretty stupid to enable fingerprint reading or facial recognition on my phone, wouldn’t I?”

  "I said unlock your fucking phone, now,” the woman menaced her.

  "My dad is a cop,” Shinju told the officer in a flat tone, "And I know my rights. Now there are two things you’re going to do: First, you’re going to stop trying to strong arm me into unlocking my phone for you without you obtaining a warrant first. Secondly, you’re going to get me my lawyer.”

  "Fine, you lying piece of shit,” the woman left with Shinju’s locked phone.

  Chapter fourteen

  Several hours crawled past, during which two more women were put into the holding cell with Shinju.

  The first was a drunk who immediately fell asleep on one of the benches. Her head tilted back, her mouth opened, and she almost instantly began snoring loudly.

  The second was a disheveled woman who began pacing the cell while muttering to herself.

  Shinju tried to ignore the drunk’s snoring as best she could and avoided making eye contact with the obviously disturbed second woman.

  The female officer who’d sworn at her went off shift, and the man who took her place glanced at them only occasionally while playing games on his phone.

  Shinju groaned inwardly when the second woman stopped directly in front of her.

  "You,” she said, "It was you did it. Get up.”

  "I’m not the person you’re looking for,” Shinju told her, then in a louder tone, she asked for help. "Officer, this woman is threatening me.”

  The officer glanced up, saying, "Shut up. She’s keeping her distance from you.”

  "You did it! Get up!” The woman yelled at her, and Shinju stood up, turning so that the bench wasn’t directly behind her, having to stop herself from raising her fists.