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M
y mind could not stop spinning. Before, I could still avoid the reality of being stalked by blaming it on my mind. But last night, I encountered concrete evidence. I was so oblivious to my surroundings that I did not hear Detective Sofia calling my name. “Ms. Victoria? Ms. Frietz!” I looked up upon hearing my last name. An expressionless Sofia had been calling my name.
I remembered my surroundings. I was sitting on the uncomfortable plastic chairs placed there waiting at the police station. Noise filled my surroundings. Officers are bustling about; people are in detention cells, phones are ringing, people are talking, beep of a coffee machine. It all felt like a sensory overload. I rubbed my temples with my index fingers. “Ms. Victoria, how may I help you?” I stopped rubbing my temples and looked up. Detective Sofia was back to typing on her computer. “Did you find Doctor Tsunoda?” Her fingers stilled at my question, only momentarily.
She continued typing as she answered, "Nothing yet. He has no relatives he could have gone to, and his friends also do not have any clue where he might be." The momentary pause had convinced me she was lying. “What about the woman he was talking about? Or turquoise?” This time she looked up and stopped typing. "Ms. Frietz, even if I did know this stuff, we are still in the middle of the investigation. We are not authorized to reveal the details of the investigation until we have a suspect in hand. At this point, we do not yet know if we can treat this as a missing persons case. We will inform you when we have a solid lead." This time she did not wait for my answer and went back to her work. I could not shake off the feeling that they were hiding something, but right now, my mind was too preoccupied to worry about this. I thanked her and got up and left.
“Victoria?” I turned around upon hearing my name. Annette was standing outside the police station. My mind had been so busy running at a hundred miles per hour that I did not recognize her voice at first. “What are you doing here?” she asked me. Even though we met only two days ago, she felt like a new person. I did not know who to believe anymore. “I came to inquire about Doctor Tsunoda. What about you?” She pointed to a container she was holding and said, “A patient of my mother’s got detained last night. I am dropping some stuff off for her.” I nodded my head and stood there, unsure of my next move. Do I leave, or do I stay? Apparently, Annette’s a lot more decisive than me as she said, "Wait for me here. Let’s take a walk.”
We walked on the sidewalk in silence. The street was bustling with people rushing home or picking up food as office hours had ended. The LED billboard was glaring with some new skin care products. The wind was blowing in our faces as we passed a teeming food joint when Annette said, “Did he ever talk about me?” I could hear the sadness in her voice. I was not sure how I felt about this.
On the one hand, there was the betrayal of my father that had kept an entire life outside of me. On the other hand, I could not even begin to imagine Annette’s pain. Her father abandoned her, yet he chose to take care of another daughter. "I always knew he was hiding something from me; I just did not know what.
Often times I would see him get lost in his own thoughts and cry in the middle of the night. I don't know what else to tell you." I looked at Annette. Her gaze was not directed at me. Instead, she stared at a father who was trying to catch his daughter’s balloon as it floated away. The daughter was crying onto his shoulder. “What about my mother? Why would he leave her?” I had no idea how to answer that statement. Then a thought struck me. I stopped dead in my track. Annette turned around and gave me a questioning look. I could not bring myself to meet her eyes. “Did your mom have another daughter?” Annette understood my question. “We’ll find out when we pay her a visit.”
