For the first time in a long time, Rei chose to take an interest in Sundial Security.
Since she was twenty-one, she'd had too much stake in the company to warrant how little she cared about it. It had always been Cheng's to control and all Rei did was express her vote in major decisions every once in a while.
If she was to inherit Angelo's share, if she was to own more than Cheng, she supposed she should know what she was getting into.
There was also the matter that Rei was running out of things to do in the apartment. Her curiosity was as much about fending off boredom as it was considering taking responsibility in what was meant to be a business Rei and Cheng shared.
Her eyes glazed over reading through the marketplace data and earnings for the last few quarters. She received the reports constantly, but never investigated when they appeared in her inbox. Cheng took to business. He liked keeping his hands and his suits clean. Rei was restless without something to do with her hands. As far as Sundial was concerned, Rei's hands were only good for counting on her fingers.
The numbers looked fine. They didn't spike low out of the blue. They were actually climbing. Great. Good to know. That's all Rei was interested in.
She typed in a quick Google search, hoping for the layman's version of what her brother had been up to. Plenty of news media featured smiling, suave Cheng. Up-and-comer to watch, rising businessman. Temperance Top 30 under 30.
Well, Rei knew about the Top 30 thing. It was a point of contention between Rei and Cheng that Rei ranked higher in the magazine's list, the issue having been published shortly after her dig in Belize. Cheng simply couldn't compete against the rather exaggerated story of Rei's snake bite.
Rei skimmed a new article about the rash of local robberies. Collectibles going missing from family showcases. Security a dilemma for the rich. Sundial swoops in to save the day, recovering a few lost items before they fall into the black market.
Rei's brow furrowed. She hadn't been paying close attention to the story. On the periphery of her attention, she'd been aware of a burglary every once in a while. Always objects Rei scoffed at. A historic piece locked away in a private collection? Served them right. Cultural heritage guidelines made the exportation of antiquities illegal in most cases.
It was wrong of her to dismiss the thread. Rei scrolled, picking through the instances. Homes broken into, antiques stolen. Nothing else touched. The residence always had a security system, but never one installed by Sundial. No, in every single case, Cheng swooped in to ensure safety once again. Sundial to the rescue.
It explained the climbing numbers in the business reports. The news kept hammering down a certain narrative. A security system other than Sundial's failed. Cheng was there waiting in the wings to make things right.
One piece posed the question: who was this mysterious art thief and what was their motivation? Well, clearly it wasn't money because in the million-dollar neighborhoods listed, they had things that were much more valuable and much easier to turn over. What the hell were they going to do? Drop it off at their local pawn shop for a quick buck? Swing over to the local auction house?
No. Rei shifted uncomfortably in her chair. What would motivate someone to perform complex break-ins to a string of houses that coincidentally excluded ones guarded by Sundial? What would motivate someone to take a single thing from a home, always something old and likely ill-gotten?
An optimist might suggest some kind of archaeological Robin Hood. Take from the rich to give to a museum? Rei knew better. No reputable museum would accept anything on the list of stolen items. They couldn't. For one, it was stolen. Unless the history vigilante had the forethought to steal any paperwork citing origin, there was no way a museum would accept such a donation. Secondly, Rei very much doubted paperwork citing origin existed for any of it.
Rei knew that. Her brother didn't. The thought made her skin crawl. It was too perfect, too... personal. It felt like a secret message directed at her.
She made herself smaller, not daring to let her mind wander into darker considerations. Family was complicated. She kept scrolling through Sundial news until a bold headline caught her eye.
Ransom demanded in Rei Collingwood case.
Rei blinked. What demanded in the Rei Collingwood what?
***
Baz lingered outside Sundial Security. For a firm firmly established in surveillance and safety, no one moving in or out of the building paid much to the man in black down the block. Sitting in a bus shelter, headphones in his ears, made him nigh invisible. No one considered that he'd been there for awhile, watching a bus from every route stop and drive off without getting on. It was the kind of look that Baz had mastered rather unintentionally. He had a knack for divided attention, following along to conversations while picking up on other details. Reading and eavesdropping. Catching up on the reading ahead for one class while sitting in another. The side effect Baz never anticipated was how other people assumed he was lost in another world.
In this case, nothing came out of his headphones. The dazed, blank stare was just watching for Cheng Collingwood out of the corner of his eye, watching for movement from the police cruiser sitting in the building's parking lot.
Maybe they were waiting for the phone, stuck in limbo until Cheng was directed to an exchange point. Maybe they were awaiting a last-minute change of plans demanding more money.
Baz waited, fiddling with his ring in his growing impatience.
Finally, a black car pulled up in front of the doors. Even when leaving to pay his sister's ransom, Cheng donned a suit like it was a business transaction. Maybe it was, to rich families. Maybe people were kidnapped so often that it became as routine as any other exchange of money from one hand to another. Cheng looked too calm as far as Baz was concerned, but what did he know?
The driver of the car stepped out. Cheng wouldn't be chauffeured. He climbed into the driver's seat himself. That must've been a condition of the exchange. No personal drivers. Presumably, no cops either.
The cruiser in the lot started up anyway, leaving just behind Cheng's car.
Baz shifted, grabbing his bike from the rack nearby and hopping on. The police car whizzed past the bus shelter and Baz gave it a chance to put reasonable distance between them before following the route.
He unzipped his hoodie so it no longer obscured his chest-harnessed GoPro. He flicked it on.
The thing about Temperance was it had great bike lanes. It benefited Baz before and it surely was now. The near non-existent bike traffic made him faster. A bit of recklessness, darting through red lights when there were no cars, gave him an even greater advantage.
They were heading for the shoreline. Temperance's streets curved gradually down to meet it, gravity helping Baz zip down the roads shifting into a fanciful cobblestone texture of the harbor district.
The police car peeled off. The sedan kept going. Surely they wanted no police interference. They could conduct further investigations after a successful trade-off was made.
Baz kept to the shadows, weaving in and out of them in the quiet district. The whale-watching tours and street markets were done for the day. It was eerie to see it, trying to maintain its historical look, streets empty. It was like a seaside ghost town, one sleek modern car snaking through it.
It stopped along the street and Cheng climbed out of the car. Baz hugged the darkness of an alley, carefully leaning his bike against the brick wall.
Cheng straightened his jacket before opening the back door, swinging a duffle bag over his shoulder. The whole image of it was so alien. A duffle bag didn't belong hanging off the tight tailored shoulders of Cheng's suit. It was a briefcase that should've belonged in his hand.
Maybe if he were conducting a different kind of meeting.
His shoes tapped softly against the cobblestones, probably real leather in the soles. By comparison, Baz made no noise as he hung back, following Cheng around the curve of the block, its shape hugging the bay.
It was so quiet, Baz imagined he could hear himself parting the humidity in the air, the mist of it breaking for him to pass. The slap of leather against stone continued and Baz let it guide him until Cheng tap-tapped down a set of stairs to the true waterfront.
Blessed were the levels that existed in Temperance. From above, Baz could watch Cheng's progress. The man in the suit needed stairs to reach the lower level, but Baz didn't let such things stand in his way.
Out of sightâunless Cheng decided to look upâBaz tailed him from the upper level, creeping along next to the railing stopping most people from toppling below. Cheng's posture remained stiff and tall, no slouch in his shoulders. He moved purposefully along the waterfront, still more like a man on his way to a business meeting than to trade a duffle bag for his sister. It unsettled Baz for reasons he couldn't put a name to. There were so many little nuances that put him off around these people. Gwen wasn't dissimilar. It was like Cheng chose to approach the situation as a career move rather than from any desire to see his sister again.
The young businessman slipped into the marina, strolling down the boardwalk between yachts and sailboats silently waiting at the docks. The masts jutted up into the sky like spears.
Getting down into the marina was not an issue. It was only one good leap to the roof of the harbormaster's shack. It was only maybe a twenty foot drop to the docks. The challenge wasn't in the pure act of it, but in doing so without being detected. If it had been a different night, if the task had been sneaking onto a yacht to find some obnoxious treasure bought off shipwreck divers, the night would be half-over.
It wasn't, though. Baz wasn't testing his skills as a thief, but as a stalker.
Cheng would be on alert, awaiting whoever planned to meet him there. There was little room for error.
Baz climbed atop the railing. One step over and he dropped, catching the lip of the railing by his fingertips. Below him, the ocean lapped at the stonework. The slow, even rhythm only amplified his heartbeat in his ears, his body trying to tell him to panic.
His toes found the narrow ridges in the bricks, enough to steady him while he tried to grip the wall with a gloved hand. Little crumbling chips of mortar fell into the water below. Baz's heart tried to stop on him while he resisted the urge to twist around, see if Cheng was on the lookout for a figure all dressed in black. A movement like that would drop him right into the ocean.
It was just like repelling down Hillside. Slow and steady.
Baz dropped cat-like on his feet onto the docks. Between the towering masts of the sailboats, Cheng paced across the marina. Baz slipped onto the deck of a boat, pressing himself into the body of it where no one would see a shifting shadow. The boat rocked on the water.
He could get a little closer, if he dared. Close enough to make out faces in the night. Close enough to hear their voices.
Baz held his breath, hopping onto the next craft.
Cheng whipped around and Baz froze, pressing his body into the deck, letting the gunwale block his eye line. If he couldn't see Cheng, Cheng couldn't see him.
"Collingwood," a voice said.
Baz fumbled for his camera, freeing it from the harness so he could position it better, resting on the gunwale to capture the exchange.
Even with the camera rolling, Baz raised his head instinctively, peeking over the low rail of the little pleasure craft he found himself on. He knew that voice. That voice had scolded him so many times, like a disapproving father. Baz's stomach clenched.
"Took you long enough," Cheng growled.
Baz propped himself up, looking over the edge of the boat to watch the figure sidle up to Cheng. A cold chill shot through Baz's spine.
The figure's face was obscured by the same cowl Baz had worn to every break-in. He wore the same top-to-bottom black ensemble Baz did, but his silhouette was taller and thinner.
"No police?" the voice asked and without a doubt, Baz knew who stood opposite Cheng in the harbor.
Jasper.
_____________
A/N: As we start seeing little bits and pieces of Rei, how do you feel about the mysterious missing woman?