Willow Glen Heist

by Alec Peche

  Damian searched the Malaysian property databases to determine the scope of Mr. Lin’s holdings. The two of them discussed the difficulty of holding the older couple in nearby countries like Singapore or Brunei and so they focused on Malaysia. His parents heard large jets on occasional and the pinging sound of someone striking a golf ball. Damian was focused on estate homes on a golf course in one of the cities with an airport. As the couple didn’t always hear sounds suggested it wasn’t Kuala Lumpur’s airport. There was an airport in one of the larger northern cities near one of Mr. Lin’s properties and they guessed that it was where the couple was being held.

  John Lee’s rescue of his parents was his to plan and execute. Damian didn’t want to be involved for many reasons. He was willing to provide John and his private investigator buddies who would accompany him with weapons made in his own lab. He was also willing him to charter him back to Malaysia at the appropriate moment. He had two reasons for doing that - to make it easier for John to transport some of his pepper juice and for Hermione’s peace of mind to know that she was safe. Damian was hoping to have the drug production exposé ready to go to the U.S. authorities and the journalists within the next twenty-four hours. Of course the lab testing might come back with all medication being made appropriate to formulary, but from everything that he read, he should have a bombshell on his hands. His contact at the New York Times also had a contact at a newspaper in Beijing. A story about a Malaysian drug manufacturer charging the Chinese for weak medications would destroy Mr. Lin’s company overnight.

  A question was bothering Damian and so he asked John, “When you held Hermione’s parents captive, where did they escape from? Was it your hotel in Mill Valley or closer to their home?”

  “I knew about the family’s boat so we took them there and then went out into the bay as I didn’t want them to be able to call for help or escape.”

  “So what happened to them?”

  “I don’t know actually. One moment they were on board and the next they were gone. I watched the news for any sign of bodies turning up but never heard anything.”

  “Did they have wetsuits?”

  “No they were wearing the pajamas we took them in.”

  “How far out was the boat from shore?”

  “Maybe closer than your island is to shore, but not by much.”

  “So did you think her parents had drowned?”

  “No. They were very cunning people, I’m sure they survived somehow.”

  “Were they tied up?”

  “Yeah, we last saw them duck taped into one of the beds in the boat and that was the last I saw of them.”

  “So you were still chasing Hermione on the belief that her parents had escaped the boat and contacted her.”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re really a hapless criminal John Lee,” Damian said with a small smile.

  “I know. I never did anything like this in my own country let alone in America. It’s probably why I was so inept. In my heart of hearts I didn’t want to be successful.”

  “Why didn’t Mr. Lin hire someone else to do his dirty work?”

  “Dirty work?” John puzzled.

  “It’s an American colloquialism for a bad job.”

  “Mr. Lin had low expectations. He was for the most part pleased with my work as I had at least located where the family was.”

  “Okay,” Damian said his mind on Hermione’s parents. Had they drowned or survived?

  Chapter 47

  It was nearly noon when two Michigan State Troopers pulled into the A-1 storage facility in Traverse City, Michigan. They had a copy of a search warrant issued by a California judge for the storage facility rented to Arielle Joseph. Retired detective Natalie Severino was quietly going out of her mind by not being with the troopers. She talked one of them into using FaceTime technology of her iPhone to give Natalie immediate access to the storage room as they opened it. Natalie could see as they approached the space that it was a large space.

  The owner had gone with them to open the space, but returned to his office when he noticed the private lock on the storage room. The trooper took a pair of bolt cutters out of his trunk and cut the lock open. The door was slid up to reveal a large storage room containing boxes in front. The deputy went to move the box only to find it empty and then it was clear that a row of empty boxes were blocking the view of a parked small cargo van inside.

  The deputy used the bolt cutters again to break the lock on the cargo van and then the door was opened. Natalie had visions of stacks of dollar bills and glistening jewels. Instead there was a row of boxes along the back wall of the truck. The troopers climbed into the truck and opened the first box and Natalie got her wish.

  Her voice came from the cell phone and said, “Is that a large ugly necklace in that box?”

  “Yes,” was the amused reply from the trooper.

  Natalie had opened the spreadsheet before the trooper opened the storage door with pictures of some of the contents of the safe deposit boxes that owners supplied at the time of the original robbery. She had a smaller spreadsheet of items that hadn’t shown up yet at the major auction houses. She quickly search for a match to the ugly necklace that she was looking at via the camera.

  “Got it. Those are real gemstones according to the original owner and the necklace was insured for seventy thousand dollars nearly fifteen years ago. Good think we notified the FBI, I think we’ve found the robbery contents!” Natalie said while doing a little happy dance.

  Looking at his watch the other trooper said, “The agent left Detroit this morning and should be here with about thirty minutes to take possession of these contents.”

  “Or perhaps what’s left of them,” the trooper remarked.

  “If this truck was full when it arrived, your bank robbers have already fenced most of the stolen goods,” remarked the other trooper.

  “Yeah, I can see. I’ll have to take satisfaction in the fact the case has been solved, the robbers identified, even if most of the cash and loot and the robbers have disappeared,” Natalie said.

  “Sometimes that all you get in this business. Congratulations detective on some fine work. From California to Traverse City, a pair of twin thieves, and the remainder of the loot. Hopefully the owner of that ugly necklace is still around so she may have the pleasure of wearing it again.”

  Natalie heard another voice and determined it was the FBI agent that had arrived on the scene. Natalie wrapped up the conversation with the two troopers and agent and ended the call. She then immediately called Detective Shimoda.

  “Case solved!” Natalie said when the detective answered.

  “Really? Great work Natalie! Did they find the cash?”

  “No it was a mostly empty storage truck with just a few boxes left. I identified a necklace in one of the boxes as one that is on our inventory and the FBI is now on the scene to handle stuff on that end.”

  “And the twins have disappeared?”

  “Yeah, one of them disappeared the day before the other that our troopers lost in the Michigan wilderness. So we’ll leave a warrant out for their arrest, but I’m not expecting any arrests.”

  “No one we can charge as an accessory?”

  “No, those two kept the crime between the two of them. No evidence of anyone else being involved.”

  “We’ll have to coordinate a press conference on our end with the FBI and Michigan so stay available for that.”

  The two wrapped up the phone call and then Natalie called Damian. She could have sent him an email, but she was still on an emotional high for this final piece of the bank heist.

  “Hey,” she said once they exchanged pleasantries, “I found the loot from the bank heist!”

  “You did? Great job! Where and was there much loot left?”

  “In Michigan of course, and no there wasn’t much loot left. No cash, just boxes with stuff inside a cargo truck inside a storage facility,” Natalie said retracing her detective work for him.

&nbs
p; “Something must have made the women paranoid as they ran at the last possible moment to escape capture.”

  “At least we know who the robbers were and we have an arrest warrant in the United States and through Interpol if they ever surface again, but I think if they continue to be careful, they’ll live comfortable lives somewhere beyond our reach.”

  “You don’t seem sad about that,” Damian commented curious about Natalie’s attitude.

  “No one was physically hurt by their actions. Most of the losses were compensated for. I rather like how smart these women were and imagine what it would be like to start over in your early thirties with the cash to do whatever you wanted,” Natalie said wistfully.

  “But look what you would have given up in your case - no husband, no son, no satisfying career as a detective. I would also bet the twins never see each other again as they’ll know that might blow their cover, so you would have to give up your siblings as well. Still want to move to the end of the earth and start over?”

  “Do you have to be so practical Damian? I’d fallen in love with my romantic notice of these two bank robbers.”

  “Well get over it and go solve another cold case,” he said though she could hear the smile in his command.

  “Yeah, okay then. I’ll spend another hour or two dreaming about where I would land, then I’ll probably go do a press conference about solving the case and then it’s as you say, time to open another cold case folder and see what I can do. You know it’s depressing talking to you, I don’t why I called you.”

  Damian laughed at loud at the almost whining quality of her complaint. “Sure you do, you wanted me to tell you all the reasons you were not going to go out and plan your own bank robbery so your mind could move on to the next case.”

  Natalie laughed at his assessment knowing he was right. “Well thanks for your help. You found the robbers and I found the loot. Good teamwork!”

  Damian smiled as he ended the call with Natalie. Then he saw the email he’d been waiting for.

  Chapter 48

  It was the first of the three companies he sent specimens to for analysis. All three had said they would have results by mid-day. He opened and read the results then shook his head. Looking at these results, he knew he was doing a favor for the people of Malaysia and China and wherever else Mr. Lin’s products were sold.

  Of the four medications he’d had analyzed, the pills ranged in potency from ten percent to fifty percent. He didn’t know what some of the stuff was in these medications only that the active ingredients weren’t there in the stated amounts. The other two companies shortly followed the first one’s emails with verification. Damian wanted no public role in uncovering the pharmaceutical problem in Malaysia so he worked it out with his journalist friends so that it looked like they had been suspicious and discovered the problems with manufacturing. He gave them the data and then he faded into the background while they went to work on their investigative journalism reporting. Three days later, Mr. Lin was under investigation for his company’s manufacturing with Malaysian authorities holding him under house arrest pending their own investigation.

  John Lee and his friends had met no resistance in freeing his parents. Mr. Lin’s staff had deserted the house when word of his problems reached them. Damian sat back satisfied with his actions and that afternoon he was heading over to Hermione’s school for the last water polo match of the season. If her team won, they move on to regionals which they were expected to do.

  He’d kept the two women informed on his actions in regards to her kidnapper, but hadn’t relayed his conversation with John Lee to Hermione. He did a search of the news for any bodies that turned up anywhere in San Francisco Bay. Damian had looked at the tides and determined that at the time Hermione’s parents went overboard, the tide would likely pull them toward shore, but it was a guess as the tides changed direction every four to six hours so if his timing was off, then the tide charts weren’t meaningful.

  If they were alive had they been unable to find Hermione or were they still on the run or were they dead? He didn’t have answers.

  He pulled up to the dock at Ariana’s house and went inside.

  “Hey how’s it going,” she asked when he entered after a slight knock.

  “It’s going well. Our Mr. Lin will never again be a problem for Hermione nor will he make millions of people sick in Asia from poorly manufactured drugs. So my work is done there.”

  He was sitting at her counter sipping from a tea mug he brought with him from his island, while she was wrapping up some work on her laptop.

  “But?”

  He looked at her puzzled.

  “Something else is still puzzling you. Is it the bank robbery? I think you said that was coming to a conclusion.”

  “No that concluded this afternoon,; I spoke with Natalie about an hour ago and they found the loot in Michigan, but the robbers have very likely left the United States. You’ll hear about it on the news tonight or tomorrow.”

  “So what else is bothering you?”

  “How can you tell I’m bothered by something?” he asked with a small smile.

  “Because you’re about ninety percent in my kitchen and another ten percent of your brain is processing some program in the background.”

  Damian laughed at her explanation and said, “Are you trying to speak geek to me?”

  “Just calling it like it is. So what’s up?”

  “Before John Lee left I asked him details about Hermione’s parents escape. He and his crew took them to the boat in the marina and then sailed out onto the bay so they couldn’t call for help or otherwise walk away.”

  “Oh. That’s means that her parents had to have escaped by water or drowned in the bay.”

  “Exactly. I’m not sure what to say to Hermione about it. I’d like to believe they’re alive, but that I’ve hidden her identity so well they haven’t been able to find her.”

  “Well, she got her swimming and water polo DNA from somewhere so it would make sense that her parents are good swimmers.”

  “Yes, it would, but the bay is pretty cold and they were wearing pajamas.”

  “Did you search for unidentified bodies showing up since last spring?” Ariana asked knowing that he would have looked at that angle.

  “Yes I did but nothing fit the description of her parents from a height, age, or hair color perspective.”

  “Yuck. I’d hate to fish partially eaten human bodies out of the bay.”

  “Not my cup of tea either. So what do we say to Hermione?”

  “The truth and we’ll simply have no answers as to the question of where are her parents.”

  Nearly three hours later after Hermione’s water polo team decimated the competition, they sat alone in a Thai restaurant. Hermione was so deft with chopsticks that Damian found it mesmerizing at times to watch. She looked up at him and said, “Go ahead and tell me whatever bothering you. This is the third time in the past twenty minutes that you’ve gotten lost in watching my chopsticks. That’s a sure sign you’re avoiding talking about something to me.”

  Damian gave her a small smile for her wisdom beyond her age. He described his conversation with John Lee and then let the words lie there.

  “So,” Hermione said slowly. “My parents either drowned or they’re fine.”

  “Were they good swimmers?” Ariana asked.

  “Yes, they met in college on their respective swim teams. I figure that’s where my talent came from.”

  “So it’s possible they were able to swim ashore,” Damian said.

  “Yeah, it possible. I mean they had the skill to do it, but I’m not sure about swimming in the cold water, but people swim in the bay without wetsuits.”

  Damian and Ariana were silent thinking about the teenager’s response and waiting for her next question.

  “So if they made it alive where have they been all these months? Why didn’t they return to the house and rescue me?”

  “I don’t know,” Arian
a said. “Maybe they ended up with pneumonia after the swim and were hospitalized and by the time they were discharged you were gone from the house.”

  Hermione just stared at Ariana clearly not buying her explanation.

  Damian cleared his throat and said, “Ah, um I looked through police records for bodies that washed up and nothing matched your parents.”

  Hermione gulped at Damian’s information.

  “Do you think they ever saw your Facebook post where you used symbols to indicate you were alive and well?” Ariana asked.

  “If they did, they didn’t respond back to it.”

  They went back and forth on some other scenarios until they ran out of ideas.

  “Well Hermione, you have proof of nothing at the moment so you can choose one of two paths. You can choose to believe your parents didn’t survive and you’re now an orphan. Or you can choose to believe they are alive and searching for you. I buried your identity and your parents would need computer skills like mine to find you. Otherwise it’s going to take serendipity for them to pass you on the street and identify you.”

  “Regardless,” Ariana said, “I love being your second mother and Damian feels likewise. You can wait until you’re eighteen and begin a public search for your parents if they don’t show up in the next two and a half years and continue to make your life with the two of us. Think about it and you don’t have to answer us now.”

  “I already know my answer. I want to stay with you guys and I don’t want to start anything that might get you in trouble for taking me in instead of handing me over to foster care. I know that I’ve screwed your lives up with having to go to school events whereas you were both free as birds but I love living with you.”