by Vivien Chien
I was still trying to wake up my brain to its full potential. Had Donna fled? Where would she have gone? Would she ever leave her girls?
“Miss, forgive me for saying so, but you must keep your wits about you and figure this out. She didn’t say much to me, but I know that you are helping her with this situation and she has the utmost trust in you.”
“I will,” I said, sounding unsure. Was the electrician a hit man? Was the whole thing a setup to get her alone with him? How much would it take to orchestrate that sort of thing?
“Miss Lee? Are you still there?”
“Yes, Rosemary, I’m here. Can you give me the information on the electrician that Donna was using?”
“She has it written down on this notepad. Please hold for one moment.” I heard her put the phone down and papers rustling. She picked the phone back up. “Here is the information.”
She recited the company name, the electrician’s name, and the phone number. I promised her that I would get to the bottom of this, and we hung up.
I ran into Megan’s room, Kikko waddling closely behind. I shook Megan awake, and by the expression on her face, I could tell she was not happy with me. “What … Lana … what are you doing?”
“Wake up, it’s important,” I said, shaking her. “I think that Donna’s been kidnapped!”
“What?” Megan slid herself into a sitting position and leaned herself against the wall. “Go slow. What happened?”
I told her about my conversation with Rosemary, how Donna had been missing since before I’d talked with the twins the day before, and about her supposed meeting with an electrician.
“Okay, first, you need to calm down,” Megan said, wiping the sleep from her eyes. “You call the electrician and see what happened with them. Did this person even meet with her? I’ll make coffee and then you need to call Lydia after that.”
“But Donna didn’t sign the papers.”
“At this point, Lana, just forge them. If Donna was really kidnapped, it’s not going to matter anyway.”
* * *
Megan and I sat together at the kitchen table with our coffee mugs, Kikko at my feet. Megan had brewed coffee, made bagels, and let my dog out for her morning tinkle. I’d called the electrician, who sounded like a nice elderly man; he told me that Donna had never showed to their appointment. He thought it was strange since she’d been so adamant about them meeting as quickly as possible and him not being late. But he figured that she was probably a flighty person and didn’t give it much thought after waiting for a while. He’d tried calling her cell phone, but she never answered or returned his call.
“I waited half an hour after I tried her cell. She’d call me back if she still wanted my services,” he’d said casually.
One hand was on my mug, and the other was holding my head up. The room was spinning slightly and my heart was racing. I didn’t know what to do. Either Donna had jumped ship and run away, or someone had kidnapped her before she even got to meet with the electrician. After talking with the elderly man on the phone, I highly doubted that he was a hit man sent by the Chinese mob.
“You have to call Lydia Shepard,” Megan said softly. “She’s going to be able to get a lot farther with this than we are.”
I checked the time on my cell phone. “I have to call Nancy first. I can’t go into work today. Not with this going on.”
“What are you going to say?” Megan asked. “You can’t tell Nancy that Donna is missing. She’ll tell your mom and your mom will tell Esther and the whole thing will turn into an Asian epidemic.”
“I’ll just tell her I’m sick.” I started to scroll through my phone for Nancy’s number.
“You can’t do that, either. Your mom is gonna come around asking questions.” Megan shook her head and looked down at Kikko. “Kikko is throwing up everywhere and you don’t want to leave. Your mom won’t be as worried, but it’s a good reason to stay home. You can’t just have the dog puking everywhere all day.”
I glanced down at Kikko. She grunted at me as if she knew what we were up to. “Okay, you’re right, I’ll go with that.”
I hit the CALL button, and Nancy answered after a few rings. I quickly relayed my story to her, and she seemed to take it well without asking too many questions. Though I did get the distinct feeling that she didn’t entirely believe me.
With that out of the way, I needed to decide what story I was going to tell Lydia. Did I tell her the truth—that Donna had been kidnapped and I had no signed contract papers, but I needed her help anyway? Or did I forge the contracts with Donna’s name and give them to Lydia as if nothing had happened?
Of course, the second option had some problems, aside from the obvious legal and ethical issues. Finding Donna had just become priority number one, and I wasn’t sure how Lydia could help me with that if I lied about Donna signing the papers.
“I need to get dressed,” I said, abruptly standing from the table. “It’s best if I discuss this with Lydia in person.”
“Do you want me to go with you?” Megan asked. “I’ll just throw on some clothes.”
“No, it’s okay, you have to work in a few hours. Go back to sleep,” I said, feeling bad that I had woken up my friend. “We can touch base later.”
* * *
An hour later I was out the door and making my way downtown to Price Investigations. I had called Lydia’s cell phone to make sure she would be in when I got there, and she assured me that she would.
I found some off-street parking and hustled my way to the detective agency. Meredith greeted me in the reception area. “Well, hello there, dearie,” she said when recognition set in. “It’s nice to see you again. Lydia told me you were comin’. Want any coffee? I just brewed it fresh.”
I remembered Lydia’s warning about the bad coffee and politely declined.
“She’s in her office,” Meredith said. “You can go right on in.”
I thanked her and moved to the closed door that was Lydia’s office. I found her sitting at her desk, typing away on her laptop. She appeared to be pretty alert considering that when I’d called her she sounded half asleep.
“What’s up, sunshine?” she said good-naturedly. “You look like you’ve been hit by a Mack truck.”
“Donna’s missing,” I blurted. Okay, that hadn’t gone how I’d planned. I originally intended to be a lot more smooth than that and tell her about the calls from Rosemary and my talk with the electrician, but between the three cups of coffee I sucked down and my already anxious mentality, that just wasn’t going to happen.
“Whoa, what do you mean missing?” Lydia asked. “Like, for real gone and can’t be found?”
I took a deep breath and started from the beginning, relaying the story to Lydia about how Rosemary had called me several times overnight and how previous to that I had thought she might be responsible for what was happening. I described how Donna had failed to meet with the electrician and also filled her in on my meeting with Bryce and the things that Evie had said about a potential affair between Alice and Brenda Choi’s husband.
“Okay, slow down there, chickadee,” Lydia said. “Donna didn’t sign the papers, right?”
“No, she hasn’t been seen since before I brought them over.”
Lydia leaned back in her seat, folding her hands across her stomach. “Technically, I can’t take on this case without some kind of contract.” She chose her words carefully.
I felt my insides tighten. I tried to calculate how much I had in my savings account, which in truth wasn’t enough to cover even a day’s work of a private investigator. With business being as slow as it was, I hadn’t been able to depend on tip money as much as I normally did.
“But I’ll tell ya this, kid,” she added after a few minutes of thought. “I like you. You’ve got sass, and I know you’re in a real weird position. Hell, I’ve never seen anything like it, to tell you the truth.”
“So you’ll do it?” I asked, a little too eager.
“Yes, I�
�ll do it,” she said. She held up her index finger. “Under one condition.”
“Anything,” I said.
“Free Chinese food for a month,” she said. “After all, a gal’s gotta eat.”
“Deal,” I said, extending my hand.
“That’s only half the condition.”
“What? What’s the other half of the condition?” I crossed my fingers that it wouldn’t be anything too outlandish.
“I may need assistance on something in the future. Say I need an in with the Asian community. You got my back on that?”
I thought on it and decided it was an acceptable request. “Yes.”
She stuck out her hand and gave mine a firm shake. “Then, Lana Lee, you have yourself a deal.”
CHAPTER
29
I had to admit that I felt a huge sense of relief knowing that I had a private detective backing my play. I didn’t feel quite so alone in this anymore. Not that having Megan on my side didn’t make me feel better, but the stakes felt higher this time around and it was good to have a professional involved.
Before leaving Lydia’s office, I’d told her about the notebook I kept of all the information that I collected. She told me she’d like to see it and that we should reconvene later in the day. She had a couple of things she wanted to do, and she also said I needed to calm myself. I wasn’t going to be any good to her in my hyper state.
She wanted to set up another meeting with Brenda Choi and asked me for her information. While I went to retrieve my notebook and attempt to relax, Lydia was going to do some background checks on the Choi family along with some of the other major players. She agreed that something seemed amiss about Bryce but that more likely than not it was something mundane rather than relevant to the case.
She also stuck to the theory of a hit man being involved, but assured me that it was the least plausible of all the explanations. “A hit man wouldn’t drag things out this much,” she’d said. “But we’ll keep it as an option until it’s not an option.”
I drove home and tried to keep myself in the present moment. It wasn’t an easy task. I reminded myself that getting into an accident wasn’t going to help matters. I needed to stay focused and alert. That was the best course of action.
When I got in the door, I made a point of spending time with Kikko, telling myself that I didn’t have to rush. But the thought of Donna held against her will somewhere, away from her children and her friends, made me feel otherwise. I quickly let Kikko out for a tinkle and made myself a cup of hot tea when I got back inside.
Megan was still asleep and I tried my best not to wake her even though I wanted to. If she was going to work another long shift today, the last thing she needed was me bothering her every five minutes.
I retrieved the notebook from under my mattress and decided to sit down with it and review all my notes. I still had another hour and a half before Lydia wanted to meet up again.
With all the patience I could muster, I started with the first page and read everything I’d written line by line. That’s when I saw something that caught my attention. I’d completely forgotten what the Mahjong Matrons had told me. Brenda Choi had also hired a private detective at one point.
I sent a quick text to Lydia to inform her of that fact in case there was any relevance to it.
A few minutes went by before she texted me back the following: Hot damn! She used our agency. She was one of Eddie’s clients. Getting the file now.
It couldn’t be a mere coincidence that both Brenda Choi and Thomas Feng had used Price Investigations, could it? But what did it mean?
My mind went into super speculation mode and I pictured Brenda and Alice trying to take Donna down together. Maybe Brenda knew that Thomas was using the agency and sent her a nanny-by-day, hit-man-by-night—Alice—to break into the server at Price Investigations to steal the information for her own malicious purposes. That seemed kind of far-flung and a little on the thriller-movie side of things, though. Could Alice really have been some kind of hacker for hire? I tried to picture her in that persona and couldn’t make it work. I scolded myself for even having such ludicrous thoughts.
Then again, if Alice was a plant and she was blackmailing the rich widow, that would make Donna a suspect once again. I kept putting her on the table and taking her back off. I didn’t want to believe that Donna could be capable of doing all of this. It would mean killing someone, setting her own house on fire, and then running away from her children, leaving them with no one but the maid. I couldn’t believe that. If nothing else, she would never leave her children.
I pushed the whole idea aside. Maybe the excess caffeine had corrupted my brain.
While I sat there reading through my notes and waiting for it to be time to leave again, Adam called. I filled him in on everything that had happened since last we spoke.
“Okay, that’s it. You’re definitely staying at my place tonight. Tell Megan she’s welcome, too. I know leather couches aren’t the most comfortable to sleep on, but it’s all I’ve got, and I don’t want you girls staying in your apartment in case this turns out to be something bigger than we think.”
“Do you really think this is necessary?” I asked, feeling his anxiety drip onto me.
“Well, dollface, if this person was watching Donna closely enough to grab her before she planned to meet someone alone, then it’s very possible that they may have noticed how chummy the two of you have been. They may have even noticed you talking to people from the party…”
“So you think that Donna is innocent then?” I only asked to confirm my own thoughts. I didn’t know if I was trying to turn a blind eye because I knew Donna personally or not. I needed objectivity.
“Honestly, at first I thought it might be a possibility that she was guilty. But if anything gives away that something is wrong with this picture, it’s the fact that her kids were left behind at the hotel. I don’t know much about Donna personally, but you’ve made it clear that she’s very prideful when it comes to her family. She’d never leave them to their own devices. No, if she was going to bail and run, she’d take her kids with her.”
“That’s what I’ve been thinking, too,” I said, feeling a sense of relief wash over me. Though it was immediately followed by a sick feeling, because if Donna hadn’t run off on her own, she was almost definitely being held somewhere against her will. We needed to find her, and fast.
“Pack a bag, and I’ll pick you up tonight,” he said. “We’ll leave your car there so it looks like you’re home. And then tell Megan to leave her car at the bar. We’ll pick her up from work tonight.”
“Are you sure about this?” I asked. “Two women in your house? Can you even handle that? Well, three, don’t forget Kikko.”
“On second thought … maybe you should fend for yourselves.”
* * *
With the time I had left before meeting back up with Lydia, I packed a bag and put together travel arrangements for Kikko as well. I left a note on Megan’s door telling her what the plan was and that there was no time to argue about it. I felt weird leaving her alone now that Adam had put the idea in my head; I could only hope that nothing would happen this early in the day. Besides, it was still just a theory.
Still, I left the apartment building with an overabundance of caution. I looked through the peephole before opening the door to make sure no one was standing outside waiting to kidnap me, too. Then when I got to my car, I made sure that no one was lying in the backseat. As I drove downtown, I kept checking my rearview mirror to make sure I didn’t have a tail. I felt absurd, but if Donna’s abduction had taught me anything it was that whoever was responsible for Alice’s death wasn’t done.
My mind eased when I was safely back inside Price Investigations. Meredith greeted me once again and told me to go right into Lydia’s office.
I found Lydia at her desk, almost as if she hadn’t moved since I saw her a few hours before.
“So I was skimming over the Choi file,” Lydia
said as I walked in. “And it looks like pretty standard stuff. She thought her husband was cheating on her and he was. Eddie got some great shots of Randall Choi goin’ at it with this blond-haired woman who is much too young for him.” She flipped the picture over so I could see.
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Oh yuck, I didn’t need to see that.” Though my glimpse had been brief, I was thankful it wasn’t anybody I recognized. I’d had enough awkward encounters to last me a lifetime.
When I opened my eyes again, Lydia shrugged. She put the photo back in the manila folder. “Sometimes in this job you see things. The lesson here? People need to stop investing in sheer curtains.”
“Was there any evidence of him having an affair with Alice?”
“Nope. If they were having an affair, then it wasn’t exposed. At least not by us.”
“So what are we going to do now?” I asked, eager to start the investigation.
“Well, I put some feelers out. I have a few connections throughout the city. I checked with the two major bus stations in the area, Greyhound and Lakefront Lines. I told my contacts to get back to me if they catch wind of a fancy Asian lady taking the bus outta town. So far, nothing from last night, so that’s a good sign.”
“Donna wouldn’t take a bus if her life depended on it.”
“Where’s her car?” Lydia looked up at me. “And would you sit down? You’re making me anxious.”
“Sorry.” I blushed, sitting down in the same chair I’d chosen last time. “I don’t know. No one’s mentioned anything about her car.”
“Okay, call up Rosemary and ask her to check that out at the hotel if she can. See if she has a parking slip or something. We’ll swing by the Feng residence on our way to Brenda Choi’s house since they live near each other.”