Page 18

Eighteen

VERA

Vera thinks it might be wise to let Aimes sleep past four thirty the following morning. Not wanting to leave Aimes alone in the house after last night’s events, Vera skips her early morning walk. She’s about to start cooking when someone knocks at the shop’s door. It’s Winifred, carrying a box of pastries.

“Aiya,” she says in Mandarin as soon as Vera unlocks the door. “What happened to your shop front?”

“Don’t make such a fuss, it’s nothing.” Vera’s voice falters as she glances up at the door. In the daylight, the vandalism looks less scary, but the mess is far worse than she’d originally thought.

“Nothing?” Winifred cries. “This is obviously not nothing. What if they came back and burned down your shop? My shop is attached to yours; I don’t want to be collateral damage in whatever shady thing you’ve got going on.”

“There is nothing shady going on. What Chinese pastries did you bring today?”

Winifred gives her a look before opening the box. “This is Korean sausage roll, Korean mochi bread, and my new invention, Korean-French cheese and kimchi croissant.”

Vera shakes her head. “What tea should I pair it with?”

“How about”—Winifred smiles slyly—“boba?”

“Aiya!” Vera spits. “Boba! Boba is the bane of my existence. People think drinking tea is healthy, therefore drinking boba is healthy. What rubbish! Terrible invention, I tell you. It’s full of sugar and additives and—”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry I brought it up.”

Vera trots behind the counter, where she studies the 188 cabinets in front of her. “Okay, I think I have the perfect tea.” She opens up the drawer containing roasted barley and scoops some out into a bowl, then adds a few goji berries, followed by a sliver of licorice to reduce phlegm.

“So, who did you piss off this time?” Winifred says as Vera fills up the kettle.

“Well.” Vera sighs. “It really could be anyone. I went viral on the TikTok, you know.”

“Ha!” Winifred slaps the table triumphantly. “I always knew one day you would bring back some virus that would kill us all, I knew it.”

Vera narrows her eyes. “First of all, that’s not what ‘going viral’ means, and second of all, you thought I meant I have a deadly virus and you’re not worried, you’re happy? Really, Winifred, I expected more from you.”

Winifred shrugs, not looking at all ashamed of herself.

“Going viral means my video was watched by everyone.”

“What video?”

“Videos about…” Vera’s voice trails off, then she abruptly stops and fishes her phone out of her pocket. She turns on the camera and hands the phone to Winifred. “Actually, help me shoot a video right now. This way, not horizontal. Aim the camera at my hands, yes, like that. But sometimes you also have to record my face, especially when I’m smiling or looking peaceful.”

“Aiya, you don’t need to lecture me on how to do this!” Winifred leaps up from the chair and holds the phone with the natural professionalism that every Chinese grandmother is somehow born with. She goes into an unnecessarily deep crouch, aiming the camera at Vera. “Okay, action. Lift your chin, Vera. Don’t hunch your back. Don’t move like that, it’s jerky and looks strange on the camera.”

Vera is starting to rethink the wisdom of making Winifred her cameraperson. But she keeps going valiantly, ignoring Winifred’s constant stream of instructions.

“Elbows out! Out, out. Smile, Vera. Big smile! Bigger! Aiya, no good.”

Turns out that all one needs to do to bring out the inner dictator in Winifred is hand her a camera. Thankfully, the tea Vera is making is relatively straightforward, and before long, she is done. She practically pounces on Winifred, snatching the phone out of her hands and shouting, “Done!” There. Hopefully Winifred gets off her power trip and returns to her normal, mildly irritating self once more.

Winifred snorts, muttering, “You need to work on your posture.” Then she sits back down and begins to serve up the pastries. “So, these videos of you making tea are going viral? People really watch anything these days, don’t they?”

“It’s not just me making tea. I also narrate them. I’m investigating a death, you know.” Vera is unable to keep the smugness out of her voice. “I am so busy these days. You’re lucky you caught me this morning.” She serves Winifred her tea, then leans back and takes a bite of the Korean-French abomination. Of course, as luck would have it, the croissant actually tastes amazing. Quite possibly the best pastry Vera has ever had. The richness of the cheese is perfectly cut through by the sour, spicy kimchi, and all of it wrapped up in buttery, flaky layers. Yes, please.

“It’s good, isn’t it?” Winifred says, watching her like a hawk.

“It’s okay,” Vera says.

Winifred sniffs. “You like it. Now, tell me, what does your investigation have to do with online videos?”

“I’ll show you.” Vera opens up the video editing app that Robin had downloaded for her and uploads the footage Winifred has just recorded. Then she clears her throat and holds her phone close to her mouth. “Now be quiet while I record the audio.” She pauses, then hits record and speaks in English. “Last night, I go to very interesting party. This party is full of people Xander Lin hang out with, but what is interesting is that when I ask people about Xander, nobody seem to have met him. Why is that? There is something fishy here. As you youngsters like to call it, the math ain’t messing. Who is Xander Lin, and why is it so hard to find people who actually know him? I know that social media is a bit of a tricky thing to use. You want to be authentic, but you also want to save face. Is easier to save face without social media. Your generation is dealing with so much. But I will promise you this: I don’t stop looking into Xander Lin’s death until I know the truth. Thank you for watching.” She finishes recording and sets the phone down before smiling smugly at Winifred.

“Is that all? Not sure I get what the big deal is,” Winifred says.

“Oh, you bitter old crone, you know I have the X factor and you can’t stand it. Now, drink your tea and help me clean up my storefront.”

“There is no saving your storefront. You’d best get a new sign. You can order one online and have it be delivered by noon.”

“And pay good money for shipping? I don’t think so. Up you get. I have a homemade cleaning solution that will get any stains out.”

As Vera scrubs her front door, her thoughts fly back to the events from the night before. Last night was probably one of the most chaotic nights that Vera has had in a while. Well, there was the night of Oliver’s surprise birthday party and the fiasco with the ketchup and the blow-up unicorn, but that’s best left forgotten. Last night, Vera learned that young people are very, very good at faking it. Maybe it has something to do with social media. This case is really shaping up to be very unexpected. She can’t even begin to make heads or tails of it.

It is becoming painfully clear that Xander Lin was a scammer of sorts. And, given Vera’s recent run-in with scammers, she isn’t too chuffed to learn this about Xander. A guy who fooled others into thinking he was in a fun, cute, and loving relationship with Aimes. Sounds like an exploitative relationship. But then Aimes said he never once touched or said anything inappropriate to her, so what was his game? Was it really something as mundane as gaining followers? That doesn’t seem right. And what was it that he’d wanted to come clean about? The fake relationship was part of it, but it sounded like there was something else. Maybe Xander wasn’t straight, and he wanted to come out?

A deep sadness settles over Vera’s heart at the possibility. She wishes she had known Xander sooner, so she could have plied him with fattening foods and nagged him off social media. Except maybe she wouldn’t have done the latter, given she herself is a rising social media starlet.

She spots movement inside the shop and stops scrubbing at the door. “Aimes, you finally awake, you sleep in quite long,” she calls into the shop.

Aimes peers out warily, blinking in the bright sunlight. “It’s barely past seven in the morning.”

“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 up with 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.”

“For now. Don’t be surprised, though, when the trolls show up.”

“Why are you talking about fairy-tale creature?”

Aimes sits down with a huge groan. “Oh man, my arms are killing me. I think we’re gonna have to get you a new sign.”

“You need to eat more, your arms so skinny, like Hong Kong egg noodle.”

“Okay, Vera,” Aimes says with a roll of her eyes. “Have you checked your DMs yet?”

“Ah, I keep forgetting.” Vera opens her DMs cheerfully and shows them to Aimes. “Look at that, so many fan mail.”

Aimes smiles. “Well, you deserve them.” They scroll through the messages for a while, most of them from people asking Vera to adopt them. Then Aimes starts. “Hey, did you miss this one?”

It’s a DM from an obviously fake account, and it says, Stay out of this, nosy bitch.

Coldness prickles in the center of Vera’s chest and spreads like melting ice across her torso.

“Vera, you okay?”

She blinks and forces a smile. “Don’t be silly, of course I am okay. Why not okay? Just because of one silly message?”

But then she scrolls down and sees another message, sent from a different account. Stop posting about Xander Lin, or I will make you stop, you old cu—

Vera slams the phone down, making Aimes jump. “Silly people,” she says.

“Vera, I really think you should take this seriously,” Aimes says.

Vera tuts at her. “At my age, if I take everything too serious, I will get nothing done.” Just then, a text comes in saying, I’m outside , and Vera smiles. “Let’s go.”

Julia and Sana are outside waiting next to Julia’s car. As soon as they see Vera, Julia starts in on her. “Have you told Selena about the vandalism?”

“Oh, not this again,” Vera groans. “You and Oliver are like naggy aunties.”

“Vera,” Sana says, “this is serious. Someone actually came here, like physically came here, and did this to your shop. You need to report this to the police.”

“The police,” Vera grumbles. “You know what they’ll say. They’ll tell me, ‘Stop looking into Xander Lin’s death, blah blah blah.’?”

“Maybe you should,” Aimes says.

“You talking crazy talk,” Vera says.

“Aimes is right. No case is worth your safety,” Julia says.

“Okay, enough of lecturing. I am your elder, you have to respect me.”

“Vera,” Julia sighs. “I love and respect you like you’re my own mom, and that is why I’m really concerned, okay? Will you promise me that you’ll at least talk to Selena about this?”

Vera grunts. “I will think.” Not a chance in hell , she thinks. Then she says, “Enough about me. Aimes, go do the hang out with Julia and Sana.”

“Uh…” Aimes says. “What does that mean, exactly?”

“Well, you say you are unlike your name, all aimless. This is something Julia and Sana very familiar with.”

“Gee, thanks,” Sana says, but she’s smiling even as she rolls her eyes. She turns to Aimes. “It’s true though. I dropped out of college and was basically, uh, stalking a guy before Vera found me.”

Aimes gapes at her. “What? But you’re a super-successful artist.”

“Aww, stop. Well, yes, I am,” Sana says, flipping her hair over her shoulder and grinning. “But that only happened because of Vera here.” She reaches over and wraps an arm around Vera’s shoulders. “Before that, I was depressed and—um, like I said, kind of doing some light stalking. To be fair, though, it wasn’t like I was stalking him because I was in love with him or something; it was because he’d stolen my art, and I wanted to find a way to get it back.”

“Aiya, stop talking,” Vera says. “You are not helping.”

“And I was a stay-at-home mom stuck in an abusive marriage,” Julia says. “So we definitely know what it’s like to feel stuck.” She gives Aimes a warm smile, and Vera spots tears glimmering in Aimes’s eyes before she turns away.

After clearing her throat, Aimes says, “But—I don’t—I don’t actually know what I want to do. I did study English Lit at Cal, but I don’t know if it is something I wanna do. Sorry.”

“Why you are sorry?” Vera says. “Don’t be sorry. You are young, there are million jobs out there, of course you don’t know what you want to do. Is okay. That is why you have me to tell you what to do. And what you should do is the hang out with these two ladies.”

Aimes’s eyes dart from Vera to Sana to Julia and back to Vera. “I mean, I don’t want to be a bother…”

“No, you’re not,” Sana says. “We hang out all the time, and we’d love for you to join us. Come on, we’ll get ant cupcakes and chill at the wharf.”

“Ant cupcakes?”

Julia rolls her eyes. “It’s Sana’s latest thing. She thinks we should be eating bugs.”

“They’re low carb, high protein, and friendly for the environment.”

Vera smiles cunningly. “Get one extra, I give to Winifred. Now off you go! Bye-bye!”

She gives Aimes a little push and waves them off.

“Call Selena,” Julia says over her shoulder.

“Stop nagging,” Vera calls back. Then, with a happy sigh, she goes back inside her tea shop and gets to work. She’s not about to let a good vandalism go to waste.