by Peter Fang
Maria was taken aback by Elise's sudden openness. “To be honest, I really don’t know too much about you or Finley, but you seem like a good girl. I suggest that you keep your eyes open. Don’t be blinded by anything short-term. You have to take care of yourself first.”
“Thanks.” Elise was almost really moved by Maria’s advice. She could tell that Maria somehow sensed that Ansen and her had some connection, but despite that, Maria still showed genuine interest in her well-being. If it weren’t for the circumstances, Elise felt the two could be good friends. She had to let Finley know the mission was not going as planned, so they need a new strategy somehow to corner Craig. “Excuse me, Maria, I need to go to the bathroom. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be back.”
“Sure, but I’ll be over there with Ansen if you need to talk.” Maria gave Elise a final sympathetic look and saw her gingerly walk past the bar and into the dark hallway of the restrooms. “What a screwed-up relationship; I’m glad Ansen and I are not like that.” Maria shook her head.
Elise felt a sense of déjà vu when walking into the bathroom to review the mission. She went inside an empty stall, locked the door and took out her phone. Then she texted Finley: Craig didn’t take the bait. Don’t know where he is now––need to come up with a plan B.
She sat on the stool and waited, but no reply came from Finley. Minutes passed, and there was nothing. She wondered if she was targeting the right person. She was sure, with her memory, that they did not target the wrong guy, but just in case, she pulled out the borrowed phone and logged into a secure site, opened the dossier, and glanced over all of the subjects again. There it was: Craig Williams, the odd one. Elise wished that her main target could have been another guy––or anyone else––even if it were a girl, she would have had a better chance than this oddball. Their weaknesses were much more transparent, but with Craig, there was not much to go on. It was really up to her to try to get Craig to leave with her tonight. Get him drugged and then get him into a compromised situation so they could later blackmail him. Simple: easy in, easy out.
What was she going to do now? Knowing Ansen and his customers, they were not going to be very pleased if she couldn’t pull this off. Elise decided that she would try again, perhaps with a different approach, but first, she had to find Craig––an arduous task considering Craig could be anywhere.
She got out of the ladies’ room, walked through the dark hallway, and was about to enter the ballroom when someone tapped her shoulder. She turned and was surprised to see Craig standing in the hallway.
“Oh my god, you nearly scared me to death.” Elise held her hands close to her chest. She could feel her heart still pounding after the scare. “So, what are you doing here?” Elise felt funny asking Craig this, since she was just looking for him, but it was just a reactionary response.
Craig tilted his head to acknowledge his odd behavior. “Sorry, I saw you walking here, so I decided to wait for you. I thought perhaps you still want to check out some of the other eateries around this place?”
Elise could not believe her luck. The man that she thought in all likelihood was lost now stood in front of her, eager and willing. “Sure thing. This place was getting a little too stuffy for me.”
“What about Finley? Is he going to join us?”
Elise paused and then looked up to Craig. “I’ll catch a ride home later or––”
Craig put up his hand to interrupt. “I’m sorry, if you don’t mind, I really don’t want anyone to know about this. Word gets around, you know? I don’t really want people to get the wrong idea about you and me. I just want to have a cup of coffee out there.”
Elise smirked and nodded. “No worries. I understand. This is purely platonic.”
“I’ll meet you outside in about half an hour?”
“Where?”
“I’ll be waiting outside in a silver car.” Craig nodded and then backed away into the men’s room.
Weirdo. Elise wondered what kind of person Craig was in bed. Thank God I don’t have to find out later. But a mission is a mission; I have to go forward. She felt a buzzing sound from her phone. She looked at the notification and it was Finley. The text simply was a question mark. Elise typed the text back with a thumbs up sign. I’ll be meeting him outside in the front in about 15 min. Check my GPS and make sure you don’t lose us.
Roger, came the text from Finley.
Elise looked up into the crowd at where Finley was and saw him looking her way; then he said something to the girls around him and walked out of the ballroom.
Elise was impressed that despite chatting the world away with the girls around him, Finley did not lose track of her. An encouraging sign.
The live band switched to pop music now, and the dance floor was now teeming with adults who were half-drunk and having the time of their lives. The sound was too loud for Elise, and it was perfect timing. This place is now basically asking me to leave. She thought about Ansen and searched across the dance floor looking for him, but it was too crowded, and everyone appeared as a bobbing shadow. Elise texted Ansen: Got to go now. I’ll see you when I see you!
Thirty feet away, Ansen and Maria were still dancing, but now with a group of strangers in a semi-circle. The whole circle was waving and twitching like a massive organism to the rhythm of the beating music. Ansen took his time to track Elise as he was hopping and bobbing with the crowd. Just like Finley, he, too, never let Elise out of his sight.
After getting her coat and stepping out into the main lobby, she felt a cold air swirling in from the revolving door. The cool air cleared her mind with its chilly and slightly salty aroma. It reminded her of the waterfront that was not too far from the hotel. She looked around and did not see anyone familiar, so she counted her steps as she went outside the entrance.
There was a valet standing outside near a booth. The attendant looked up from his iPhone and politely nodded and greeted her. “Ma’am, do you need your car?”
“I’m okay, just waiting for someone.”
The attendant smiled and went back to his phone screen.
Elise squinted her eyes and scanned the main parking area near the main drive way for a silver car: there was a long, black limo, a yellow Maserati, and even a red Ferrari, but no silver anything. Across the street, she saw Finley in their Porsche. Good to know that Finley was on time. The cold air was muggier out here than in the lobby, and she felt a small rain drop side-sweep her face. This used to be the best time to pull out a cigarette, but she pushed that thought away since she had quit smoking six months ago. She cupped her hands near her lips and blew a shot of warm air into her hands. Should have brought my gloves. She heard a notification from her phone, so she pulled it out from her coat.
Good luck! came the text, from Anonymous.
Elise smiled with the thought of Ansen's handsome face in her mind. She typed back a heart emoji, knowing that he would inevitably erase it from his phone after seeing the message.
She then heard a car approaching the driveway, so she looked up––a gray, nondescript Toyota sedan stopped in front of her. A hand reached out from the driver’s seat and waved at her.
This car? Elise was a bit surprised to see Craig in a plain car, but this somehow fit his profile, she thought. Still, a VP at a major investment bank? You would think he would at least drive a more expensive car, like a BMW 5 series, Acura, or Lexus. Elise saw the passenger side window rolled down and when she looked in, there was Craig, smiling at her. It was a pleasant surprise to Elise because that was the first time Craig actually smiled. All things considered, Craig’s smile was––dare she say it––charming?
The valet opened the door for her, and she scooted into the passenger’s seat. Elise instantly was greeted by a new car smell. It felt so cold, distant, like the face that was smiling at her two feet away. Craig.
Elise felt like she was seeing a different man, but it was Craig, nonetheless.
“Hi Elise, nice to see you again. Shall we go?”
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��Where to?” asked Elise.
“I thought we could go check out a new Ramen shop nearby, just two blocks away.”
“Noodles? I thought you wanted coffee? Doesn’t matter, you’re on.” Elise smiled. She reached her hand into her coat and felt the reassuring small pen needle she had with the powerful tranquilizer inside. One jab with that thing and the subject would be paralyzed instantly. She also looked across the street at Finley's Porsche and saw him flash his headlamp twice, acknowledging his awareness of their imminent departure.
Before Elise got into the car, he glanced at Craig again and noticed something different about him, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was.
Craig slowly eased down the hand-brake and stepped on the gas pedal lightly to get the car rolling around the driveway. “It’s strange that you were here at the party today. You were almost here on purpose to get me out of that dreadful place.” Craig spoke in a monotone. “I rarely stay around the company party long. They used to have great gifts and even better gourmet food, but they have cut back on costs. The food was horrid.”
Elise recalled that the food at the party was quite good. She didn’t remember Craig had an expensive culinary taste in his file. It was also a bit surprising to see Craig opening up to her, while he barely spoke at the party.
“So, why were you so quiet back at the party? Was there someone you didn’t want to see?” Elise didn’t know how to approach Craig, and that was the first thing that popped into her mind. It was indeed a question that was bothering her.
Craig paused a few seconds. He waited until the traffic passed, and then he made a quick right and got into the left lane. The traffic was surprising thick, slowing everyone down to almost a crawl.
Elise waited and let the awkwardness build between them. She was about to say something else to break the ice when Craig muttered, “You.”
“Excuse me?” Elise thought she heard it wrong. “Did you say it was me?”
Craig smiled and looked over to her. “Yes, I said you.” He sighed as he looked out the windshield. “Have you ever wondered where all of your life’s time went? Like the moments we are sharing right now. You may not remember this time years from now. My dad used to be an unhappy, bitter, violent man. He treated me and my brother like punching bags whenever he got drunk. Then one day, someone stopped by our house in the middle of the night and handed over a wallet to him. It was his wallet when he was a young man in high school. They found it in his old high school gym’s construction site when they were tearing down the old building. I just remember the shock on my dad’s face and how the wallet looked. It looked like it was still new.”
“So…the old wallet made him a better person afterwards?” Elise asked, feeling an uneasiness as the story Craig was telling her reminded of her own.
“On the contrary, he left us…” Craig’s voice trailed off.
“So, why do you say I’m the reason that you were upset tonight?”
“Never mind; I spoke too much. Let’s just enjoy the night.” Craig flashed a smile at Elise and looked genuinely happy.
Several cars back, Finley was swearing at the large Cadillac SUV that just cut him off. He had lost visual of Craig’s car. He looked down at his phone to check Elise's GPS signal for the third time in the last minute just to be sure. The red blinking light beeped reassuringly. The traffic started to move and there was a slight opening to his left, so he moved to the left lane. The car behind him did not stop in time and hit Finley's car’s back bumper. The force made Finley slip his foot and he stepped on the gas pedal. Before he could hit the brake, his car hit the car in front of him. “Shit!” Finley swore. The car in front suddenly had a row of police light flashing in the back of the passenger side window.
Finley could not believe his bad luck. He felt a rage inside––this accident was going to change tonight’s plan. He pick up his phone and texted Elise: Car accident, dial the escort number when you secured him. I may be a little late. He hit send and then deleted the message. He looked up and saw an undercover cop get out of his car and start to walk over to him. “Great, this is going to be a long night,” Finley swore under his breath.
Elise's phone suddenly buzzed; she peeked.
“Was that your date? He must be wondering where you are,” Craig asked offhandedly.
“No, that was just some traffic news. Looks like there was an accident in front. They finally got it cleared up. You haven’t told me where we are going?” Elise realized that she had no idea to which restaurant they were heading. She was about to ask Craig where to, but when she looked at Craig’s face, she realized there was something missing on Craig’s face––the scar. She vividly remembered that the Craig she met at the bar had a noticeable scar. Maybe Craig didn’t have a scar––no, there was definitely a scar. Elise's face froze as she tried to recall that slice of memory at the bar. Yes, there was a scar. She sat forward and took another look at Craig’s face, and she was pretty sure that the Craig sitting next to him didn’t have a scar on his face. Something is not right.
Elise tried to act calm and slowly reached into her purse for the needle. “So, have we decided which restaurant we are going to tonight?” Her fingers searched blindly inside her purse, but she couldn’t find the needle. Shit! Elise abandoned the sneaky approach and went for brute force. She opened her purse and found the needle. She took it out, ready to inject it into his neck.
“Who said we were going to a restaurant?” Craig replied. He already had his phone out and casually slid his finger across the screen with his finger.
Elise suddenly felt a jolt under her seat, and something sharp jabbed her in the calves. She saw Craig’s face quickly shrink into a dark circle. The last thing she remembered was hearing his voice next to her ear. “You remind me of my mother.”
Back at the Four Seasons, Ansen and Maria decided to take a break from the noisy crowd, so they sauntered back to their table. The table was almost empty; the cleaning crew had taken away the unfinished dishes and left the drinks on the table. Ansen noticed someone had left their long trench coat on the chair, and it was making a buzzing sound. Ansen checked his own phone to see if there were any updates and noticed that there were no updates from either Finley or Elise for the last ten minutes. Ansen was starting to worry but remembered that Elise always said to him: You are more nervous and paranoid than a pregnant woman.
“It’s probably nothing,” Ansen whispered to himself.
“What was that, honey?” Maria leaned over to him and nudged him with her elbow. “Look at that woman over there on the dance floor. Look, you have to see this.” Maria tugged at Ansen.
“What?” Ansen responded faintly. He looked up and followed Maria’s general direction. There was an old lady, partially inebriated and holding a champagne glass in her hand. She was led by two other men, slowly cajoling her off to the side. “That woman is the wife of one of our directors. She is a completely different woman when she is sober!”
Ansen nodded absently, then looked down at his phone again. Still no message back.
Maria noticed his obsession with his phone, so she grabbed it over and looked at the screen. There was nothing there, so she looked at Ansen suspiciously. “So, why are you so distracted tonight? Are you waiting for a phone call of some sort?”
Without hesitation, Ansen kissed Maria on the cheek. “Sorry, dear, I am distracted because I’m supposed to receive a message from a dealer from Europe on a potential sale for my customer here. He is late.”
Maria cupped her hand underneath Ansen’s chin and looked at him in the eyes. “Now, can you please relax for tonight? I’m sure there is a good reason for the delay. If it bothers you that much, give him a call right now and see what’s going on. If you don’t, it’s going to ruin your entire night.”
Ansen looked at Maria with an appreciative smile. He held on to Maria’s hand and squeezed it. “Good idea. I will be in the lobby for a few minutes and be right back. It’s too loud in here.”
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nbsp; Maria nodded. “Just don’t be gone too long. Someone may hook up with me.”
Ansen kissed Maria reassuringly; then he stood up and walked out into the lobby.
Maria let her gaze follow Ansen all the way to the lobby. She was about to walk away when she heard another buzz coming from the trench coat. After several buzzes, it turned into an audible ring. The ringing did not stop, and it was starting to draw attention from the people around. Maria finally walked over to the coat, trying to discreetly figure out whose coat it belonged to. She couldn’t quite remember who was sitting here. Was it Craig Williams? It must not be Elise and that date of hers. I’m sitting where they are sitting right now.
Just when she was done going through her mental checklist of names, she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. She turned around and saw it was Craig.
“Oh, hi, Craig, is this your coat? Sorry, the phone won’t stop ringing, so I was trying to figure out who it belonged to. Is it your phone?”
Craig cringed. “I’m afraid it is mine.” He nodded with apology. “Sorry, folks, my fault.” He reached over with his long arm and hoisted his coat up and picked out his phone, pressed a button to stop the ringing. “I’m afraid I have to leave a little early today.”
Maria suddenly remembered that she hadn’t seen Finley or that fabulous Elise for a while. “Hey, did you see where Elise and Finley are? Thought I saw you talking to Elise at the bar.”
“Yes, indeed I did. Had a good chat with her, but she wanted to leave early because her date was embarrassing her. I went to the men’s room and she was gone when I came out.”
“Oh.” Maria was surprised to hear what happened.
Out in the lobby, Ansen found a private spot next to a Victorian chair to sit. He checked his phone––there was still no message from either Finley or Elise—highly unusual, he thought. He recalled the team’s agreement was to have Ansen stay silent with his phone unless there was no message from them after an hour. It had been about half an hour since they left, so they could be just working around a sensitive circumstance. Stay relaxed, man. You are too nervous. Nothing is going to go wrong. Just breathe. Ansen closed his eyes and did some breathing exercises that he picked up from several yoga lessons that Maria forced him to attend. After several deep breathing exercises, he slowly stood up, thinking what his next step should be, then decided to go back to the ballroom with Maria before she became too suspicious. He was making his way back towards the ballroom when he saw––or he thought he saw—the back of a tall man walking down the stairs towards the main entrance. The profile reminded him of Craig Williams, but Craig should not be here; he should be with Elise by now. Ansen did a double-take on the tall guy, but the man already was out of sight. Ansen hastily walked towards the lobby entrance, hoping to catch that Craig-looking man, but he stopped himself several steps out. Damn it, what are you doing? Go back to the ballroom and just stay put. He debated with himself for a few seconds and decided to trust his instinct. He quickly jotted over to the stairs and saw the tall man just reach the bottom of the stairs, so he called out to him, “Hey, Craig!”