by Toby Neal
Pono, Lei’s partner.
She called MPD and asked for Detective Kaihale. When told he was away from his desk, she got assertive. “This is regarding his partner Lei Texeira’s safety. He is going to want to speak to me.” She left the number of Assan’s cell. Contacting people was remarkably difficult without her own phone and list of saved private numbers.
She needed to find a way to access her own programs and hack the phone’s video signal while she waited for backup.
Sophie searched Assan’s work area, locating the jamming device behind his computer and deactivating it. Sitting down at his computer, she was faced with his password protection and none of her own handy software to circumvent it.
She typed in his former code, his birthdate, their address in Hong Kong—and couldn’t believe her luck when their anniversary date unlocked his screen.
Sophie hopped onto his hard drive and scanned for video programs, locating a hosting site that was downloaded. She accessed the Cloud and her store of tech, sending a backtrace to comb through the videos—and it didn’t take long to twig to the live feed of Lei.
The room was dark but for the thin green glow of some nightlight illumination set to monitor her. Sophie hit the lights app on the phone to see if Lei responded, and the screen bloomed into brightness.
Her friend was lying quietly on her side, and this time did not struggle and thrash in response to the light. Sophie zoomed in, and could see Lei’s abdomen moving as she breathed.
Her friend was still alive!
Sophie deployed backtrace software to yield a location of the origin of the video stream.
At least, she could be certain what building Lei was in! She needed to call Michael Stevens, Lei’s husband. A lieutenant at MPD, he’d have resources and be highly motivated to help.
She did a quick online search for his private cell number, and with access to her more high-tech tools, was able to find it.
Thankfully, he answered an unknown number calling, his baritone voice terse. “This is Stevens.”
“Michael, it’s Sophie. I have bad news and I need your help.”
A beat. “What is it? Is it Lei? She was supposed to be home hours ago.”
“Yes. She’s been kidnapped by Assan Ang and is…somewhere. I’m trying to locate her exact position. I called Pono, but he didn’t pick up. You should call this in to MPD and bring backup to my location. Hopefully by the time you get here, I will have found her.”
Oh, how she hoped so.
Sophie rattled off the address of Paradise Treasures and hung up before he could ask her anything more.
As she calmed from that ordeal, she considered.
What had Assan taken her down to the basement for, if none of the keys opened the doors down there?
Perhaps she’d missed something on his body. She hadn’t wanted to spend any longer touching him than strictly necessary…
The phone buzzed. Sophie recognized Jake’s number and picked up.
“Good God, woman! You scared the pants off me. I’m outside Paradise Treasures and it looks shut up tight.”
“It isn’t. Hit the back door and come up here. I’m trying to find Lei Texeira. Assan’s got her stashed somewhere, and I’m afraid she’s going to suffocate.”
“On my way.” He ended the call.
Sophie whooshed out a breath of relief. She wasn’t alone in this. She took a moment to wash the blood off her gloved hands at the apartment’s sink.
The backtrace dinged with a location just as Jake flung open the apartment’s door. “What the hell is going on?”
“I don’t have time for that now,” Sophie leaned in to pull up the data. She imported it into another search tool. “Lei’s in this building somewhere,” Sophie confirmed, and shot to her feet. “I have to go back down and search Assan’s body again.”
“His body?” Jake put a hand out to stop her. “Wait. Slow down.”
“I can’t! Lei might not have much air left. Follow me.” She handed Jake the phone with Lei showing in the video feed, pushing past him toward the elevator.
“Shit.” Jake followed, looking at the phone, as she stabbed the button. “What’s going on?”
“I killed Assan in the basement. Slit his throat.”
“Fuck me—really?” Jake’s voice was faint. Sophie glanced at him as he scrubbed a hand over his face. “You need a lawyer.”
“Indeed. But I’m the one who was almost fucked, and still might be if I can’t find Lei in time.” Sophie sketched out events briefly as the elevator hummed downward through the floors. “I don’t know how much air she has left. But at least she’s in this building, for sure. I already checked all the doors down in the basement, but I must have missed something. Assan took me down there for a reason.”
“Maybe he’s got a hidden room or something.”
“Exactly.”
The elevator dinged, and opened to the sight of Assan’s sprawled body, surrounded by a lake of congealing blood.
“Damn, Sophie.”
“Yes, I believe I’m damned. Always have been. Nothing ever works out for me.” Sophie was hardly aware of verbalizing her thoughts as she moved to the body. She patted Assan down more carefully. “I have to flip him.”
Jake took hold of Assan’s shoulder and helped roll him on his back. Blood had soaked the entire front of his shirt and down the man’s pants, deeply saturating the material. Sophie kept her eyes off the massive grinning slash in his neck, feeling around his waist. “His belt. It’s thicker than it should be.” She pulled the belt out through the belt loops and handed it to Jake without looking at it, continuing to search the body. “Here.” She fished a chain out from inside his shirt and yanked hard to break it, holding up the key dangling from it in a bloody gloved hand. She wiped the key off on her pants leg and ran forward into the hall, shoving it frantically into the sturdy deadbolt locks.
The third door opened.
Sophie sucked in a breath as she hit the lights.
Stark white walls, and a bed. A closed armoire on one wall. A screen with a sink and toilet behind it. And directly behind the bed, a massive wheel dangling with restraints, straps and irons.
“I’m guessing this is what he brought you down for.” Jake’s voice was somber.
“But where’s Lei? Why isn’t she in here?”
“Maybe he never intended to let her go. Or maybe there’s a second room.”
“Yes.” Sophie lunged across the room to grab the armoire. “Help me!”
She and Jake shoved the cabinet away. Hidden behind it, a narrow outline marked the edge of a doorway flush with the wall. No handle marred the surface. Sophie leaned in, frantic, tracing along the edge of the opening, her gloves leaving smears of blood on the stark white wall.
“It must be a pressure lock,” Jake said. “Push along the edge. He had to be able to open it somehow.”
Working in tandem, they pushed and pressed around the door. Sophie heard a click, and the panel bumped out from the frame. She grasped the door and pulled it wide.
The room beyond was pitch black. She felt along the wall inside the door. No light switch.
Sophie fumbled Assan’s phone out of her pocket and hit the lights app on the video feed.
Illumination bloomed brightly, revealing a tiny cubicle. A nightmare scene met her eyes: her friend Lei, motionless on a bed that almost filled the space. Lei was bound, blindfolded, and gagged, her tawny skin and dark, tangled hair a stark contrast to the whiteness of the sheets.
“Lei!” Sophie rushed to her friend’s side, feeling for a pulse in her friend’s neck.
Lei lashed out instantly with her legs, catching Sophie painfully in the side. Sophie leapt back as Lei continued to kick and struggle, clearly far from dead. Quick tears of relief filled Sophie’s eyes as she spotted the orange dots of earplugs in Lei’s ears, as well as the blindfold and gag—her friend didn’t know that she was being rescued!
“Keep talking to her. I’ll hold her feet,” Jake gr
asped Lei’s ankles.
Sophie leaned in to hold her friend’s shoulders. “Lei! It’s Sophie! We’re here to get you out!”
Her friend’s struggling subsided abruptly.
Sophie plucked the earplugs out of Lei’s ears and lifted the blindfold. Lei blinked red-rimmed eyes. She spat out the rubber gag ball with a curse as Sophie loosened the strap behind her head. “Where’s that son of a bitch? I’ll kill him!”
“I got him first.” Sophie sank onto the bed to draw her friend into her arms in a long hug as Lei shook and trembled with shock. Jake pulled a combat blade from a holster at his waist and slashed the duct tape holding Lei’s feet together and arms behind her back.
Lei groaned as circulation rushed back into her limbs. “He grabbed me right outside the police station. I wasn’t paying attention, just heading to my car.” She shook her head. “The boldness took me by surprise, I’m embarrassed to say. The guy was dark-haired, with a thick stocky build. Six foot or so in height. He hit me with a Taser and threw me in a van. I woke up here, totally in the dark, all my senses shut down.” She shuddered. “Gonna need some therapy after this adventure.”
Sophie searched her friend’s body for the electrodes and identified them, taped onto Lei’s nipples beneath her bra and between her legs. “Can you get those off? Or do you want help?”
“I can do it. Just give me a minute. And some privacy.” Lei shot a glance at Jake.
Jake stood up and turned away. “I’ll step outside and make sure first responders are on the way.”
“Yes, I called Lei’s husband. Hopefully he’ll be here shortly with backup,” Sophie said. “Listen out for them.”
Sophie turned back to Lei and chafed her hands and arms as Jake exited. “Leave the electrode tape where it is so the CSIs can see. Did anything else happen? Did he—rape you?” Her skin went hot and cold with horror at the thought.
“No, I’m okay,” Lei said. “And of course, I’ll leave the evidence in place.” Her hands still trembled, tracing the wires to their taped-on nodes.
“Your attacker was my ex, Assan. He was using you as leverage to control me.” Sophie bit her lip. “I’m sorry I brought this down on you. But it’s over now. Permanently.”
“Good. About time that dog was put down.” Lei plucked the wires off the taped nodes gingerly as Sophie removed the small, remote-controlled power pack that had provided the shocks from beneath Lei.
“He said he had a control to cut off your air. Did you have any trouble breathing?” Sophie asked.
“No, I was okay for air. I think.”
Sophie frowned, beginning to scan the room for any devices positioned near ventilation openings.
Michael Stevens, Lei’s husband, filled the doorway. His dark brown hair was mussed, his blue eyes blazing. Sophie stood up and moved away as the lieutenant rushed in. “Sweets! I was just getting ready to call this in when Sophie got ahold of me. Where are you hurt?”
“I’m okay.” Tears welled in Lei’s eyes as Stevens gathered her up, his long arms winding around Sophie’s friend’s body and pressing her in close, his tousled head bending to kiss her. They rocked together for a long moment, murmuring incoherently, heedless of anyone who might see their passion.
Watching their reunion stabbed Sophie with grief. With Connor gone, would she ever be loved like that? She’d only had a taste of such devotion. She moved to the doorway, re-entering the room they’d first come through.
Jake was talking to two officers and Lei’s longtime partner, Pono. They all looked up at the sight of Sophie, and the expression on Pono’s face made Sophie’s chest constrict.
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions for me,” Sophie said.
“Yes.” Pono, his big square face grave, made a gesture to the hallway. “I called the crime scene tech and Dr. Gregory at the ME’s office to examine the body. We have to take an official statement from you down at the station.”
Chapter Thirty-One
The clock on the wall read eleven p.m. when Sophie sat down with her lawyer at a steel table in the interview room at Maui Police Department’s Kahului station. Sitting on the wrong side of that table felt surreal to Sophie.
Pono, seated next to the station’s commanding officer, Captain C. J. Omura, recited the Miranda and turned on the recording equipment. The FBI was also being piped in via Skype on an open laptop.
“My client has a well-established case against Assan Ang, currently on the FBI’s most wanted list. This perpetrator has made multiple attempts on Sophie Ang’s life.” Sophie’s lawyer, Davida Fuller, was an athletic blonde with well-developed biceps.
“We are aware of the case.” Omura, immaculate in her tailored uniform and sleek hair, was all business. She was Lei and Michael’s boss and also their friend, and Sophie had met the well-groomed Japanese woman in a social context previously. “This isn’t a courtroom, Ms. Fuller. We’ll lead this interview, thank you very much. Now, Ms. Ang. Why don’t you tell us, in your own words, how events unfolded?”
Fuller turned to Sophie. “No comment. Let them make their case.”
Sophie twisted her fingers in her lap, grateful she wasn’t cuffed and under arrest for Assan’s murder—at least, not yet. Her gaze found Pono’s warm brown eyes, then Omura’s cool stare. She looked at the laptop finally, and recognized the pixelated ice-blue gaze of her former boss, Special Agent in Charge Ben Waxman. “Hello, Sophie,” he said, gently.
“Hello, Ben. My, how the mighty have fallen.” Sophie didn’t mean for her tone to sound so bitter. “I should never have left the FBI.”
“And we certainly wish you hadn’t. You are surrounded by friends here. Just tell us what happened.”
“No,” Fuller said, laying a restraining hand on Sophie’s arm. “This is all being recorded, and who knows what the DA and the Hong Kong authorities will do?”
Sophie shrugged Fuller’s hand off. “I hear your recommendation and I choose to share my version of events.”
Sophie told how she’d picked up a confidential clue to Assan’s whereabouts. “I should have shared that with Special Agent Marcella Scott, who gave me every opportunity to do so. But I suspected that Assan had killed the man I was dating, Todd Remarkian. Assan had also engineered the near-fatal beating of another man I cared about.” She looked down at her twisted fingers and straightened them deliberately. “As the records show, I turned Assan Ang over to the authorities the last time he tried to kill me, and he escaped. I considered that the ‘clue’ I had to Paradise Treasures was a trap—but I just didn’t trust anyone else to bring him in.”
“What prompted you to break into Paradise Treasures?” Omura asked. “Your entry was illegal and resulted in destruction of property.”
“I’m sorry about that, and will gladly pay any damages.” Sophie blew out a breath. “I had visited the gallery twice, as Jake Dunn can corroborate. He came with me the second time. Something was just…not right about the place, and the owner, Magda Kennedy. I couldn’t tell you exactly what. Perhaps it was just her demeanor, and the fact that she seemed to have a possible relationship with organized crime. Sergeant Texeira told me that she’d been investigated before. In any case, after the armed drone came after Jake and me and no trace of an operator was found in the area, I became convinced that Assan was hiding in the building, or at least had some connection to it. The sixth floor was labeled “storage” on the building’s specs, but looked residential from the outside. So, I surveilled the building and saw a shadow inside once darkness fell, matching Assan’s height and build. I decided it was time to go investigate more closely.” Sophie described the series of events. “Assan knew I was coming. He had lured me in, and when I got to the apartment where he was residing, he secured my ‘submission’ by showing me a live video feed confirming that he had kidnapped my friend, Lei Texeira, well known to all of us here.”
Omura inclined her head. “We’ve had time to take Sergeant Texeira’s statement.” During the hours between Lei’s dramatic rescue
and when Davida Fuller arrived at the station to represent Sophie, they’d likely also spoken to Jake.
“Good.” Sophie looked up. “Assan frisked me in the apartment, and removed my weapons, leveraging me by torturing Lei. I’m sure she described how he used electricity to shock her, and you saw the evidence of how he did it. He threatened her life.”
Pono nodded. “She said that he told you that he was going to suffocate her.”
“Yes.” Sweat burst out on Sophie’s body at the memory of her frantic search for Lei. “He had a button on the phone app that he said controlled her air supply. I hoped that if I got the phone away, I’d have time to force him to tell me where she was. When I kicked the phone out of his grasp as the elevator opened, I was then able to pull a concealed knife that he had missed in searching me, and threaten him with it, asking for Lei’s location. He refused to tell me anything, only that she would die. He would never let either of us go. So, I killed him.”
Sophie’s bald words fell like stones from her mouth to roll into the quiet, echoing room. They sounded too harsh. She expanded her reasoning. “Based on Assan’s statements to me and his previous history, this was the end for me. Assan was going to torture and kill me, and most likely, Lei, as well. He was a conscienceless sadist. He had no reason to let either of us go.”
“And yet, he had blindfolded Lei and even stopped her hearing. She had only a general description of her attacker,” Omura said. “She could have been released with no real ability to identify him.”
“But not me. Never me. The investigators saw the room he intended for me to occupy.” Sophie swallowed, suppressing panic. She hadn’t really thought she’d be under investigation for murder, when he’d so clearly planned to torture her! But only she and Assan really knew what lay between them, and only Sophie had seen the lust and deadly intent in his eyes. “And what you say may be true about Lei. Assan was very crafty. He would have wanted to have all options available to him, including releasing Lei as a bargaining chip. All I can tell you is that, in the moment that I held the knife to his throat, I knew that he despised me. He doubted my ability to follow through with my threat to his life. He had no intention of ever letting me leave that basement, except in a body bag—and he had anticipated all my moves and lured me in. I had to take advantage of my one opportunity to defend myself.”