November 2015
Mr. Jeffries had been investigating the disappearance of his client's daughter, Jessica Kinsford for several weeks making almost no headway. The mother had proven to be uncooperative by refusing the man access to her daughter's bedroom, phone or computer. This, coupled with the fact that she had lost custody of the girl and was supposed to return her to the father the very day she disappeared, of course made him suspect her involvement.
Interviews with Jessica's friends also proved fruitless as the testimonies conflicted so completely, it was hard to decipher which of them were actually being truthful. His gut told him to follow up with the last friend Jessica was supposedly in the company of, Amy Hughes. But he knew he couldn't close to her again. The interview he had with her had been abruptly interrupted and ended by her stepfather with a stern warning to steer clear.
It was time he enlisted the help of his long-time friend and nemesis, Lin Ming. He has known her since her early childhood because he was associated with her father Lin Qiang. Like her father, Lin Ming was trained to infiltrate the enemy and take them down from within. Her proficiency in the trade earned her the name Chameleon among her associates. This was the skill he needed from her.
"What do you want?" the woman demanded without saying 'hello'.
"I missed you too," he quipped. When she didn't respond to his teasing he said, "Are you busy these days? I need a favor. Off the books of course."
"You can't afford me, Cricket."
He smiled hearing the nickname she had given him. "You never know. Hear me out first?"
He heard her suck a deep breath. "I'm listening." She said in a low voice.
"Missing teen."
"Runaway. Goodbye."
"No! Don't hang up! Finish listening, please."
"Fine!" He could almost hear her eyes roll.
He figured he better ramble off the key points to gain her interest, knowing that no amount of money could get her to take a job that didn't interest her. "Not a runaway. Suspicious mother, tight lipped friends, many conflicting stories, zero investigations performed by the police, no trace. I was hired by the father who was granted custody. The girl disappeared the night before she was to go back to him."
"So, the mother killed her so she wouldn't have to give her up. Why bother me with such a simple thing. I thought you were better than this."
"That's what I thought at first, but my gut tells me there's more to this. I mean, I have little doubt the mom is involved but I think this is deeper than a simple custody issue."
"What makes you think that."
"When has my gut ever been wrong?" He heard the sigh of surrender telling him he had finally gained her interest. "One, the mom wouldn't allow me to access the girl's room or belongings to look for clues. So, yes, I believe she knows more than she's saying. Two, the best friend contradicted herself no less than six times when I interviewed her and her stepfather ended the interview abruptly, threatening me with legal action if I were to approach her again. Three, all efforts to work with law enforcement in the area has been like fishing in a dry lake."
"And four?"
"Four? What do you mean four? Isn't that enough?"
"I know you, Cricket. What's four?"
"Oh, you're good."
"Suck up later. What's your four?"
"Dad is the one who hired me. First visit he paid with a check then fired me a week later. Now he has requested that I continue under cover and to keep our alliance to remain a secret and pays in cash using drop spots."
"Fine. What do you want me to do?"
*
Lin Ming walked into the high school which Jessica Kinsford was once a student along with female associate. Armed with the girl's previous class schedule and the doctored papers supplied by Mr. Jeffries, so enrolled herself as a foreign exchange student be hosted by the woman who had accompanied her. As she was reviewing the school handbook with the secretary a female student walked into the office like she owned the place.
"Good morning, Mrs. Jackson. Can I see my dad?"
"Yes, of course Amy. He's in his office. I'm sure he's expecting you."
"Thanks." She beamed. Her eyes glanced over Lin Ming from head to toe. She stopped her feet and put her full attention on the new girl. "You're new here?"
Ming looked up from her reading to see the face of the voice. "Yes. I am exchange student. I am from China." She responded in a thick Asian accent. Ming recognized the bubbly student named Amy as the missing girl's friend, Amy. This is what Cricket wanted her to do. Enroll as a student and get close to Jessica's friends in the hope that they may let some information slip about her disappearance. Ming looked much younger than her twenty-eight years making it easy for her to pass as a seventeen-year-old student.
"Oh? Wonderful! Welcome to America." She offered her hand in greeting.
Ming ignored the hand that was offered by bowing slightly. "Thank you. I am most happy to be here."
"Mrs. Jackson, how about I walk our new student to her first class? What's your name?
"That would be great!" the secretary answered.
"I am Lan Yuyan. You may call me just Yuyan."
"Hmm. Okay. Mrs. Jackson, Will you tell my dad that I'll be back later?"
"Of course, Amy. Thank you."
Amy hooked her arm around Ming's elbow as she spoke to the woman beside her. "Are you her host mom? Don't worry, I will take care of her here." She offered a toothy grin.
"Okay. I'll leave you to it then. Yuyan, I will be here to pick you up after. Call me if you have any trouble at all, okay?"
"Okay, Mom Brenda. Thank you."
"Okay then. Goodbye."
"Come Yuyan. I will show you around. You're going to love it here." Amy said as she Ming out of the office. "You won't have any trouble making friends or getting a boyfriend either. Boys around here love Asians. What are you? Like sixteen? Seventeen? Doesn't matter, you're gorgeous either way. You'll be hella popular. Stick with me though and I'll keep the riff raff away from you. Like Josh. Josh is the epitamy of riff raff. Don't waste your time on the likes of him. Dean is cool though. He's the captain of the football team. Even my dad likes him. Oh! And there's a chick named Becka. Avoid that chick at all costs. Something happened to her last year that made her a little crazy so now she just rambles on and on about things that don't make sense…"
'Cricket's gonna have to pay me a whole lot more for this nonsense.' Ming grumbled inwardly to Amy's endless babbling. When she was finally free of the chatterbox, she sent a text to Cricket to check on the girl Amy had mentioned. She wanted to know if what happened to Becka had any relationship with what happened to Jessica.
*
Today…
"Are you going to the studio today?" Sarah asked Jason as she placed his breakfast on the table in front of him.
"I should but…"
"You don't know how to explain the violin thing?"
"Yea. Kinda nervous, if I'm being honest."
"You'll think of something. You're going to have to face it eventually. No point in hiding from it."
"Yea, but…"
"But nothing. Look…" she took his face in her hands to force eye contact. "Jessica? Don't be scared. Just let Jason handle it, okay?"
"You're seriously talking to her right now?" Jason asked sarcastically.
"Of course. She's currently freaking out in your head right now, isn't she?"
'How does she know I'm freaking out?' Jessica demanded.
"Sorta." He shyly admitted.
"I figured as much. Because you've never been afraid of anything. This little girl in your head is turning you into a bit of pansy pants."
'Am not!'
'Ha! Told you so!' he chided Jessica.
'Bite me!'
"Better?" Sarah asked.
"Yes," Jason smiled. "I'm okay."
"Good. I love you. I'll use the info you gave me to do some digging while you're gone."
"Cool. I'll bring home dinner. Mexican?"
'Cuban is better.'
"Or Cuban?" he asked hesitantly.
Sarah blinked. "I've actually been craving some fried bananas."
'Oh! I love fried bananas!' Jessica hummed. 'My mom made the best fried bananas.'
'Never had it.' Jason admitted. "When have you ever had fried bananas? I don't recall ever eating such a thing with you."
Sarah grinned mischievously. "I actually had them for the first time last week when I had lunch with Mom. She took me to this little Cuban place downtown that just opened. They're really good. So is there meat. Get the fish."
"But you hate fish."
"Blame it on the baby. I crave fish."
"And bananas apparently." He added with a chuckle. He kissed her cheek, wishing her good luck in her search and left to face his bandmates at the studio.
Once he was out of the house, Sarah pulled up Jessica social media accounts. "Okay, Lord. Help me find the answer to what happened to this girl." She scrolled through the girl's friends list, photos and posts leading up to the day of disappearance. Although nothing seemed out of the ordinary, there was a notification of an unread message from a girl named Becka Roberts dated two weeks ago. She texted her hacker friend to break into the account and retrieve the message.
While waiting for a replay she clicked on Becka's profile and discovered the girl was being harassed openly on the site for her mental instability. Sarah scrolled through two years' worth of posts and pictures and concluded that whatever bad thing happened, must have happened to her about eight months ago because prior to that, her page and posts were that of a normal teenager. Beginning eight months ago, the girl started posting cryptic messages alluding to sex abuse and trafficking. She had used underworld slang and back door phrases to explain her experiences. Each of these posts had several comments calling her crazy, or stupid. Some suggested suicide while others told her to enjoy the money she made. Sarah took note of the profile names in the comment section and how many of them were on Jessica's friends list. The last post on Becka's page was date four days ago. One of the comments on that post caught her interest. 'You derserved it, b!tch! About time you shut up.'
A text alert on her phone jarred her from her thoughts. Her hacker friend had sent her a copy of the message Becka had sent to Jessica. It read:
"I know what happened to you because it happened to me. But no one believes me. They say I'm crazy. Maybe I am. I miss you, Jessie. I really hope you're dead. It would be mercy if you were. If you are dead, I really wish they would have done the same to me because then I wouldn't have to live with the nightmares. Anyway. I know you won't get to read this, but if your account ever gets hacked and this message is read, I hope it's read by the good guys, and they find the arseholes that did this to you.
And to the one reading this, if you're the good guys, start with Amy Hughes' stepdad. He's the principal of our school. If you're the bad guys, God is watching… I pray you get caught and burn in Hell."
'And down the rabbit hole we go.' She commented to herself.
A second text came in from her friend. 'Becka Hughes' body was found in the woods two days ago. News says it was an animal attack, but it sounds suspicious. What kind of BS did you get yourself into?' –'Oh, snap. This isn't good.'
Before she could respond to her friend's text, an error message popped up on the computer. Becka's profile had been deleted right before her eyes. She clicked back over to Jessica's page only to discover, it too had been deleted. Shit!
'Apparently the kind that is going to require me to take an extended vacation. I thought it was a simple missing person. Clearly that's not the case here. Thanks for your help cuz. I'll call when it's over.' She pressed send and then dialed the number of the only person she could think of that could help her with something this evil. This was clearly not a case of custodial abduction, nor was it cut and dry trafficking. There had to be deep corruption involved for the police to miss the red flags she was able to find in a matter of minutes. Also, the Becka girl mentioned the high school principal in her message and turns up dead two days later?
Her call was picked up on the second ring. "Hello, Uncle George? Yes, it's me Sarah. I think I need some help."