by Rose Nickol
Darrall went over the information she’d given to Ian that had been shared with them. When he finished recapping everything, he nodded to Nicole. “Is there anything you’d like to add or change. Something that maybe you remembered since your talk with Ian?”
“No, that’s pretty much all I know. I know it’s not a lot, considering I lived with the man for so many years, but I can’t think of anything else that might be helpful.”
“Even the tiniest fact might be something we can use—I suggest you keep a notebook, and if something comes to mind, just jot it down.” The man Brody had referred to as Neptune had been typing on a laptop, while Darrall had been speaking. He glanced up and smiled at Nicole. “Anything you think of, please let us know.”
Monty appeared to be about forty years old. He had dark-brown hair and the kindest-looking blue eyes. Darrall and the rest of the team were now focused on him.
“Monty Hardgrave is our resident computer geek. He’s been working with Egghead doing some tracking and research. I’ll let him explain what information they’ve found so far.”
Darrall sat down, and Monty typed furiously on the device in front of him. “This is the complex where we believe your husband and son are staying.”
“Ex-husband,” Nicole swiftly interjected. “Jin filed for divorce before he took Clifton out of the country. He had the divorce finalized in China, therefore, I can’t get into the country as his wife, and I cannot get a visa.”
Monty scribbled on the notepad beside him as did several of the other men. “Let me check into that. I’m not sure that it’s legal here.”
“From what I’ve been told by more than one lawyer, it is, but you may have better contacts,” Nicole said bitterly.
The black-haired man at the end of the table stood. He watched her with eyes so dark they appeared black. “I have contacts with the consulate. They’ll give me the straight story. I’m Paul Chu, also known as Brain, Ms. Swafford. I’ll do everything in my power to help you get your son back.”
“Thank you, Paul. I appreciate everything you and your team are doing.”
He smiled and resumed his seat. Nicole focused her attention back on Monty. He looked like something was frustrating him. A couple of minutes later there was a knock at the door.
“Come,” Darrall said, standing.
Brody Evans strode back into the room and straight towards Monty. “Neptune, what’s up, man?” The two whispered rapidly for a few seconds with Brody taking the laptop and typing something on it. Suddenly a screen appeared behind him with the Trident Security logo displayed.
Brody typed a few more things on the device, and a picture of a huge house with several outbuildings appeared. “Thanks, Egghead,” Monty said.
“Those codes are only good for four hours. If you need longer, I’ll give you access again,” Brody said as he left the room.
They take security seriously here, Nicole thought to herself as she stared at the screen.
Monty started explaining what each building was, and where he thought Clifton was staying within the complex. Then he closed his laptop and looked at Darrall.
Darrall continued, “We’re going to try to force them to return your son legally first. Paul here is going to work with the ambassador and his contacts within the Chinese government. If that doesn’t work, we’ll come up with another plan. I know you may think you’ve exhausted all these avenues, but we need to try this first, then we’ll see what else we need to do. While we’re waiting for the red tape to clear, we’ll be checking our other options, so that we are ready to go if more needs to be done. We will do whatever is necessary to return your son safely.”
They talked for a few minutes longer before the meeting broke up. Monty explained how he and Egghead had obtained the information and what it meant to their investigation. As a summary, Darrall confirmed he had the correct numbers to reach Nicole and promised to be in touch in a few days.
All of the men except for one filed out of the room. “Ms. Swafford?” the last man said.
“Yes,” she answered stopping where she was and waiting for the man to come to her.
“I’m Paul Shu,” he said, reintroducing himself as they stood by the door.
“Yes, Mr. Shu?” Nicole took a step towards him.
“I was wondering if you would be interested in coming to lunch with me. I have some questions I’d like to ask you.” He stopped just inside the door.
“Sure. Are the other guys…?” Nicole looked around.
“They’re off to another meeting. This would be just you and me. Is that okay?” He opened the door and they stepped into the hallway and began to move towards the exit.
When they reached the lobby, there was a woman standing there, talking to the receptionist. As she turned Nicole recognized who she was.
“Oh my! You’re her!” The receptionist stood, and the other woman looked curiously at Nicole. “I’m so sorry,” Nicole stammered. “I love your books.”
“Kristen, this is Nicole Swafford. She’s a client,” Colleen said by way of introduction.
Kristen held out her hand for Nicole to shake. “Thank you, I’m glad you enjoy them.”
As they were standing there, Devon came up behind Kristen and slid one arm around her waist, pulling her to him.
“There’s my girl,” he said in a deep rumbling voice. He turned to Nicole. “I see you’ve met my wife.”
“I was just telling her how much I like her books,” Nicole said. “I didn’t realize you’d married. Congratulations.”
“We’re just on our way out. Nicole went to high school with Nick,” Devon explained to Kristen as they moved toward the door.
“We were also. Ms. Swafford?” Paul asked.
“Yeah. Yes. That would be fine, I guess.” They all moved out of the building and stood in the morning sun.
Nicole glanced up at the man as they walked. His hand on the small of her back guiding her. She could feel the heat of his skin through her thin shirt. He was big, not as tall as Darrall, but close to a foot over her five feet five inches.
There were laugh lines at the corners of his eyes, and when he smiled at her, her heart skipped a beat.
He seemed/appeared to be a mix of Asian descent and something else, but his complexion was more of a swarthy, dark tan, whereas Jin’s had been pale and sallow.
“Would you like to ride with me or…” he asked, striding over to a large truck. “I’ll bring you back to your car anytime you want.”
Nicole thought a minute, then nodded. She was trusting these men to get her son back, so she should be able to trust them for anything.
He opened the truck door and Nicole eyed the huge step up. How the hell did people get into these things?
“May I?” Paul asked. When she nodded he placed one hand on either side of her waist and lifted her up to the sideboard. She could climb in from there.
“Thank you,” she said, settling herself in the seat and fastening her seat belt.
Paul got into the truck and guided it to the compound’s exit. At the gate, he rolled down the passenger window and waved the guard over. “Ms. Swafford will be leaving her car here for a couple of hours. Write down my cell number and the tags on my truck. If she isn’t back before dark, please call the police.” The security guard nodded after he wrote down the information Paul provided.
“Thank you. I’m sure that wasn’t necessary,” Nicole said smiling.
“I want you relaxed, not worried I’m going to drag you off somewhere.” Paul laughed and drove out of the complex.
“If you don’t mind, I saw a nice Asian Bistro not far from here. I’ve heard the food is good and authentic,” Paul said as he steered the truck onto the highway.
He guided the conversation to lighter topics until they were sitting in the restaurant and had both placed their orders.
The menu had a huge variety of traditional dishes and Dim Sum, and Paul had ordered from both menus. When the food started arriving, it smelled amazingly
good.
They were about halfway through the meal when Paul prompted, “Tell about Jin Peng. Anything you think might be useful. Every detail I get will help me get into the man’s head.”
Nicole started telling him how they’d met and what little she knew about Jin’s family.
A few moments into her story, Paul’s phone rang, and, with a nod to her, he answered, “Go for Brain, whatcha need? Hang on...” He turned to Nicole. “I’m going to step outside to take this, I’ll be right back.”
Nicole nodded and continued to nibble on the enormous amount of food he’d ordered.
Paul was back in a few minutes. “Sorry about that.”
“No worries,” Nicole said with a smile.
“Now, about Jin Peng. Would you mind telling me more about how you met him?”
Nicole launched into the story about her nursing career and how she came to be Mrs. Jin Peng. “Jin can be very charming and charismatic when he chooses. I often wonder if it wasn’t his goal all along to take Clifton and leave me behind. The first few years of our marriage, we didn’t spend a lot of time together. If I wasn’t traveling with the agency, he was in China. Then when Cliff started school and I was home more, I started noticing things. Small things at first.”
Paul nodded. “What types of things? Every detail you give me will help.”
“He had very expensive tastes. Tastes my salary didn’t cover. I knew I wasn’t making enough money to support the household, but I hadn’t realized how extravagant Jin had become. He bought things I could never afford and spent money like no one I had ever known.
“He always had to have the best of everything for himself and for Clifton. He enrolled Cliff in an expensive school, telling me it was a gift from his father. The school taught classes in Chinese, and Jin began speaking Chinese to Cliff all the time.
“At first I was convinced it was a good thing, that he was helping Clifton with his classes, but now I wonder if there wasn’t more to it than that.” Nicole smiled bitterly as she took a small drink of her water.
She told Paul how Jin never worked, or only took part-time jobs, but always seemed to have money. “It made sense while I was working and away so much. Having him home and available for Clifton allowed me to continue the job I loved.”
“You say loved, past tense. You no longer enjoy it?” Paul signaled to the waitress asking for boxes to take the uneaten food.
“I do, but after what happened, I may never leave Clifton again once I get him home. I can’t take the chance of losing him again.” Nicole felt the tears begin to well up.
“I don’t want to make things any worse, but have you thought about what will happen if we can’t get him back? We’re going to do everything we can, but, we don’t know how hard Jin and his family are willing to fight, anything can happen.
“I have my contacts checking into Jin and his family, checking for any weakness we can use against them, but, depending on how high up his father is in the hierarchy, they may have plenty of weapons they can use against us. I don’t want you to lose hope, but you have to be prepared for reality.”
“I can’t think about that now. He’s just a little boy who needs his mother and I want him home.”
Paul could tell Nicole was about to lose it, so he changed the subject. When he noticed the number of boxes the waitress had stacked up, he laughed. “I guess I went a little overboard. I don’t suppose you would like to take any of this home?”
Nicole shook her head no. Paul shrugged and stood to leave.
“Wait. You’re not taking any of it?” Nicole stared at all the waste.
Paul shook his head no. “I really didn’t plan this out very well. There’s no way to keep it fresh in the hotel room, and it wouldn’t last very long.”
“I have an idea,” Nicole said and started grabbing all the boxes.
They loaded all the boxes into Paul’s truck, and Nicole directed him to downtown Tampa. They stopped next to a tall building.
“Follow me.” Nicole led him around the building to an alley. Just inside the alley was a door leading to a large room. There sat a few men, women and children.
“This is a shelter for homeless families. One of my friends told me about this place. I’ve been coming here on the weekends to help out... Bryan,” she called to one of the boys. “This is my friend Paul. We have something for all of you.”
“Yes Ma’am.” He came running with several of the other children following.
Paul reached to take the young boy’s hand. “Call me Brain. It’s my nickname.”
They led the children out to Paul’s truck and started handing out the food boxes.
“What a great idea!” Paul said, smiling.
They followed the children back to the room carrying what boxes were left. The people couldn’t have been more appreciative.
As they got back in the car Nicole glanced at Paul. “So, tell me how you got the nickname Brain.”
Paul was silent a minute before he answered. “I’m really smart. Like off the charts smart. Mensa and all that crap.”
“Oh. So, what made you want to do this type of work? I’m sure you could have done anything,” Nicole asked watching his face.
“Family tradition. My grandfather, uncles, dad, all the males in my family were either in the service or in law enforcement of one type or another. When you grow up with a family of LEOs, you realize how important they are to society.”
“LEOs?” Nicole asked.
“Law enforcement officers. A broad term for police, sheriff, feds, wildlife and game enforcement, et cetera. Those types of careers.” He slowly pulled back into the Trident compound, nodding at the same guard he’d spoken with before.
“I wanted to give back. I did my time in the service, military police, and then came back and started working for the Canon City Police Department in Colorado.”
“How did you end up with Forrest?”
As he answered, he got the feeling Nicole wasn’t ready for their day to end, and neither was he. He wanted to spend more time with her.
“I worked with one of the guys that helped found the agency. Bruce and I had partnered on a couple of cases in Colorado, and when they were wanting to hire more investigators, he suggested me.” He pulled into an empty space and shut his truck off.
“Why move into the private sector? I can’t see the advantage of that.” Nicole moved slightly in her seat so she was facing him. Now he could gaze into her green eyes while they talked. He wondered if she felt the same attraction he was beginning to feel.
“Less rules, less red tape. We don’t work outside the law, but on the edge of it. Sometimes to accomplish something we have to tread a very thin line—a line you can’t even see through with some of the bureaucracy a LEO has to follow. At least fifty percent of my job was paperwork and answering to superiors. I still have to do that, but now it’s only ten percent of my job.
“We’re all invested in the company and pretty much equals as far as the structure goes. Darrall is officially the head of the agency, but we all vote on what assignments to accept and who works on what.
“We all have different strengths, backgrounds, and contacts. That gives us a huge advantage.”
The truck was starting to get warm sitting in the sunny Florida afternoon. Paul needed to either turn the air conditioning back on, or they needed to get out.
“I should probably head back to the hotel for the evening. I need to check in with my contacts to see if they have any information for me, and I’m sure Darrall will want to have a brief meeting with everyone to update our progress.” He exited the truck and circled around to help Nicole out.
As she moved down, her heel caught on the step of the truck, and she fell against him. He held her a second longer than necessary before he set her gently on the ground.
“Oh! I’m sorry,” Nicole said, pushing against him with one hand.
“No worries. It’s not every day I get to catch a beautiful woman,” Paul answered with a smil
e.
Nicole blushed and bit her bottom lip, not sure what to say.
“Here’s my card with my cell number. You can call that at any time. The number for the main office is there also. Even when we are out in the field that number is answered anytime, day or night, and someone will get a message to us. If you hear anything, please let us know immediately.”
Paul escorted her to her car and watched as she exited the compound. She was very attractive and just his type. He needed to watch himself around this one.
3
Nicole drove slowly back to her small apartment. She couldn’t believe how comfortable she’d been talking with Paul. Not only was he easy to talk to, but he was easy on the eyes also. Very easy.
She could tell he was a man who cared about other people. He hadn’t hesitated to play with some of the younger children at the center and had also taken the time to throw a ball with the older boys. They all seemed to adore him, with several of them asking if he would come again.
He’d promised that if he was in town he would stop by again and explained he lived far away and was only visiting.
She pulled into the parking lot in front of the doorway to the building her apartment was in. Hers was on the second floor, and she slowly climbed up the stairs, wondering about Paul and his family. He hadn’t mentioned a wife or children, but a man like him had to have someone.
He was too attractive and caring to spend his life alone. She continued to her home, paying little attention to her surroundings. She knew better. She’d not only taken safety courses but had taught a few at Clifton’s school. Working as a nurse often in emergency rooms in some of the highest crime areas in the bigger cities, she knew what the consequences could be.
She reached her apartment door and let herself in. She locked the door behind her and let out a scream when she saw a man sitting on her couch.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” she screamed backing up until her back was against the door.
“Settle down Nicole, I have a message for you from Huang Peng.”
Nicole stood terrified against the door her mind scattering with a million questions. How he’d gotten in was at the top of her list.