Page 27

Twenty-Seven

TJ

TJ is already in his pajamas when his phone rings. Vera’s name flashes on the screen. “Hey, Vera, what’s up?” he says warily. It’s almost eleven p.m., and nobody ever calls with good news after eight p.m.

“TJ, is time to step up.”

“What?”

“You come to me right now. I will send you the address. Bring Robin too.”

“Vera, it’s eleven p.m. on a school night.”

“I will tell Mr.Bun that Robin will be absent for good reason. Tilly will write letter to him. He is a lawyer, you know.”

“You’ve mentioned that. I don’t think I should—”

“TJ, you know if it’s not important, I wouldn’t ask. I will send you picture. Hold on.” There is a lot of rustling in the background, then Vera says, “Okay, check your phone.”

TJ looks at his phone screen and utters a small gasp of surprise. It’s a selfie of Vera, and there is a bandage wrapped around her head. “Vera, what happened?”

“Major assault. Bad guy come and attack me, and I think it has to do with Xander Lin, and I think Millie is in trouble. You come here now.” With that, she hangs up the phone.

TJ stares at the phone in his hand, then he looks up and sees Robin in the doorway.

“I’ll go grab my jacket,” she says, already walking toward her bedroom.

“Wait,” TJ calls out. “I don’t know about this.”

Robin levels her gaze at him. “Really, Dad? Some guy attacked Vera and you’re thinking of not going to her?”

When she puts it that way, it does sound ridiculous. “But you’ve got school tomorrow,” he says weakly.

“Apparently I’ll get a note from an attorney, so I think it’ll be okay.” She walks off and TJ sighs in defeat. Why did he even try arguing?

Less than fifteen minutes later, they arrive at what appears to be Vera’s son’s house. It is full of people who seem very excited to meet them. Robin is engulfed in hugs, and Vera introduces her immediately to Adi, who is about her age and apparently a gifted child. Before TJ can take his jacket off, Aimes and Qiang Wen arrive, and there are yet more hugs and greetings all around. TJ is sleepy and confused—is there big trouble? But if there is, why is everyone so cheerful? He lets himself be led to the dining table, where there is a plethora of snacks. Someone places what looks like a cube of Rice Krispies treats in his hand, and he takes a bite. It’s very good and has toasted sesame seeds added in, which gives it a nutty flavor. Maybe he’s dreaming, he thinks.

“Okay, everybody,” Vera calls out. “Thank you for coming to my mystery club.”

“This is a mystery club now?” Julia says.

“I will think of better name later,” Vera says. “Unless you have better idea now? Okay, I didn’t think you would. Right. We are all here to solve mystery. As you can see, one of us is missing.”

“Millie,” Aimes says.

“Correct. We have a reason to think she is in danger.” Vera fills them in on what has happened, and TJ listens with mounting horror.

“The guy literally said that to you?” Aimes says. “Stop digging? And you’re not only continuing to dig, you’re involving us in the digging?”

“Yes,” Vera says. “I thought is very obvious. Why I have to spell it out for you?”

“Vera, I can’t be involved in anything dangerous,” TJ says. “I’ve got a kid to look after.”

“I don’t mind,” Robin says.

“This is crazy,” TJ says. “We’re going.”

“TJ,” Vera says, “we need your help.”

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here.”

“Xander come to you before he die, asking you to help him do exposé.”

“Right, and?”

“And I think we should do the exposé.”

“What are we exposing?” TJ says. “He didn’t tell me what his big secret was.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Vera says. “We do the exposé on what we know—that everything Xander do online is fake.” She turns to Aimes and Qiang Wen, both of whom look like deer in headlights. “Will you tell them?”

They look down at their laps for a second, then Aimes says, “We weren’t really dating. We pretended to be a couple online, but it was purely business.”

“I am not his real grandfather,” Qiang Wen mumbles. “And when he come to me saying he wants to do exposé, I turn him away.”

“He wanted to come clean about our fake relationship,” Aimes says. “I told him no too.”

TJ’s insides squirm. He can’t be here, around these people, spilling his secrets. He’s told Vera, but that was under very different circumstances. But then he catches sight of Robin, who is watching him. His hands ball up into fists. He can’t lie in front of her. “I turned him away too. He wanted to do a live video telling people how fake he’d been and how our working relationship wasn’t actually as close as he’d made it sound, and I flipped out on him.”

“Dad,” Robin whispers. She walks over and wraps her arms around him, and TJ feels tears pricking his eyes. He hugs her back.

“I’m sorry,” he says.

“It’s all good.” She smiles at him before going back to her seat.

TJ takes in a long, deep breath. “So, why do you want to do the exposé right now? How’s that going to help us find Millie?”

“Because of theory,” Vera says, looking around proudly. “I have one.”

“Would you care to share?” Oliver says.

“Yes, yes, I’m getting there. I am doing the dramatic pause, don’t rush me, Oliver.”

“It’s just, you know, you think Millie might be in danger…”

“Oh yes, good point. Okay, here is quick theory: I think Millie and Thomas/Xander do some bad thing, maybe caught up in a cult or something. Yes, probably a cult. My guess is maybe one of those young people cult like a music festival—”

“You’re getting off track,” Sana says.

“Right, sorry. So. They are member of cult, and Xander maybe use social media as a form of escape. He create this perfect life, a life that he want for himself but can’t have because of cult, and then maybe after a while, he feeling a bit guilty, so he want to come clean. The cult find out and they kill him, make it look like suicide. Millie wants to report to police, but she is maybe too scared, so she hang around outside the station until I find her and save the day.”

“You haven’t saved the day yet,” TJ mutters.

“Aiya! Stop interrupting, all of you.”

There are murmurs of “Sorry, Vera.”

Vera humphs, then continues. “Millie tell me about Thomas, so I start looking into it, posting viral videos, becoming pop star and all that, and the cult take notice and get scared. ‘Oh no, this Vera is a brilliant investigator and rising pop star. We must stop her.’ They try to scare me off by splashing red paint on my shop, but I am not so easy to scare. So, they send bad guy after me, to give me warning. And they lock Millie up because they are angry because she get me involved.” She gives everyone a triumphant look.

There is a pause. Then Qiang Wen says, cautiously, “Er, Vera, you are done with theory?”

“Yes. Is good theory, right?”

They all nod slowly, digesting her words. TJ scans her theory for holes, and finds about fifteen of them, but when he tries to come up with a better explanation, all his mind spits up is a blank. “So, you’re going to say all that in your video?”

“Yes. And as my talent manager—”

“You’re not technically a client.”

“—your job is to make it go viral. Use all your contact to make it go viral, that’s what a good talent manager does.”

“Actually—”

Vera turns to Aimes and Qiang Wen. “I want you two in the video also. Tell everyone what you know about Xander.”

They both look terrified at that. “I’ll be crucified!” Aimes cries.

“I don’t want any trouble,” Qiang Wen mumbles.

“Trust me,” Vera says. “Truth is always the right path to choose.”

“Wow, Grandma,” Robin says. “That almost sounded like it made sense.”

“Tch, of course it does. Now, I cannot force any of you into doing anything you don’t want to do, but we need to help Millie, and more hands helping is better than fewer hands.”

TJ leans back in his chair, his mind racing. This is exactly the kind of thing he should be staying far, far away from. Especially after getting his bad rep. It’s the kind of thing that could end his career.

Then again, his career is effectively over. He’s given notice that he wouldn’t be renewing the lease on his office space, and tomorrow he’s going to tell Kit, Lomax, and Elsie that the agency is going to shut down. So what is he so scared about? Isn’t it better to go out with one final bang? And not just on any project, but one where the safety of a friend is involved.

“I’d just like to point out,” Tilly says, “that Selena is going to be very unimpressed by all this.”

“Just refresh my memory, Selena is…” TJ says.

“My girlfriend.”

“Soon to be fiancée,” Vera says.

“Ah.” TJ swallows and goes back to panicking quietly. But again, he’s doing this for a good cause. Yes, a very good cause. And it’s not just him involved, it’s this big group of people, and they seem like a good bunch. Except for Vera, who is definitely a bad influence. He looks at Robin. Is he putting her in danger? What would a responsible parent do?

It’s the question he has so often asked himself, because even after thirteen years, he still feels like he’s playing pretend. Pretending to know what it takes to be a dad. Pretending to know what the hell to do when things get tough. Pretending to have everything under control. And he’s so tired of doing that.

Maybe the most responsible thing a parent can do is to be themselves. To show their kids who they really are. And when TJ looks back on the things he regrets most, it’s the ones where he decided to play it safe. Like when Xander asked him for help and TJ turned him away. Deep down inside, TJ knows that if he says no to Vera right now, he is going to live to regret it for years to come. And if it turns out something bad does happen to Millie, he will probably regret it for the rest of his life.

He has to will every cell in his body to let his mouth speak. “I’m in.”