Page 57

“Like I say, you sleep in quite long. This is Winifred, she owns the Chinese bakery next door.”
“Oh, hi! I thought the bakery next door was Korean.”
Vera rolls her eyes.
“Yes, it is Korean. My grandfather was Korean,” Winifred says.
“Hah!” Vera says. “I thought you say grandmother?”
Winifred pauses, her cheeks growing red. “You must have remember wrong, Vera. Early onset dementia is very common among the old—”
“Who are you calling old?” Vera snaps.
“Um, you’ve mentioned quite a few times that you’re really old and are about to drop dead any day now?” Aimes says. Her voice falters when Vera shoots her a deadly glare.
“Haven’t you heard?” Vera says. “Sixty is new forty. And my mind is as clear and sharp as a—a sniper rifle.”
“Cool,” Aimes says quickly. “Hey, you ladies shouldn’t bother with that. I’ll clean it up, okay? It’s the least I can do.”
It’s clearly a harried attempt at changing the subject, but Vera appreciates the offer anyway. “Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Vera says, even as she dumps her scrubbing brush into the pail of soapy water. “Okay, thank you, Aimes. My back is killing me.”
“So, how you know Vera? Are you one of her suspects?”
“She was, up until last night. But now she no longer a suspect.”
Aimes smiles. “Yeah, thanks for crossing me off the suspects list.”
“Okay, you clean that up and I prepare breakfast for you. Winifred, you got more of that kimchi cheese croissant?”
“I thought you say you prepare breakfast for her?” Winifred says.
“Yes, I make tea. You provide the croissant. And get one more for me also.”
Aimes watches as Winifred ambles to her shop, muttering under her breath. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Nonsense. I am doing Winifred a favor. That kimchi cheese croissant taste so bad, she won’t be able to sell before they go off. Now, work fast. After breakfast, I take you somewhere.”
Aimes looks like she’s about to ask silly questions, like where are they going? Then she seems to think better of it and picks up the scrubbing brush. Vera smiles inwardly. Good girl, that Aimes.
It takes Aimes a surprisingly long time to scrub off the paint from the shop front. Really, she needs to get a better workout routine, she is so feeble, with noodle arms. Vera tells her this lovingly, and Aimes merely rolls her eyes.
She also takes a video of Aimes cleaning up the storefront, zooming in on the red paint and the threatening words. Then she narrates, “I think someone do something bad to Xander Lin and now they are scare because I am getting close to finding out truth. If you think you can scare me by vandalizing my teahouse, you are wrong.”
Vera takes her time editing this video, combining it with the earlier one that Winifred had shot. Then she opens up TikTok and uploads it. She has so many notifications she can barely keep upwith them. Her last video is now at over two million views. Funny how Sana and company are always complaining about how hard it is to get hits on social media. Vera will tell them that it is in fact one of the easiest things to do. She’ll give them pointers. They’ll appreciate that.
Within a minute, the notifications start piling up once more. Comments stream in.
OMG someone did that to your tea shop???!!
How dare anyone do that to you, don’t they know you are a national treasure?!
Veraaa you’re right, you must be getting close to the real killer!!
Vera smirks to herself. It’s easy to see why people find social media so addictive. She can practically feel her endorphins rising as she goes through the comments.
“You know, reading the comments is a two-edged sword,” Aimes says from behind Vera’s shoulder.
“They are all very nice.”