Early Friday evening, Jack stopped at a grocery store and bought a habanero pepper. Twenty minutes later, he approached the front door of the Chung residence and rang the doorbell.
“Who are you?” a man’s voice asked over the intercom.
“You — you don’t know me,” Jack said, his voice wavering. “My name is Bruce. I was told to come here to talk to Mr. or Mrs. Chung about my son. Please, it’s important. I beg you, I … I don’t know what to do.”
A moment later the door opened. “I’m David Chung.”
Through his teary vision Jack saw the man staring at him.
“I think you’d better step inside,” David said.
Jack entered the foyer and took a moment to blow his nose.
“My wife, Jia.” David’s tone was sombre.
She stepped forward to hold her husband’s arm. Jack nodded politely to her, then took a moment to look at each of their faces as if he was unsure how to start.
“This is about your son?” David prompted.
“Yes. This afternoon my wife, Tina, was driving Mikey to soccer practice and, and — oh, God.” He covered his eyes.
“He was kidnapped,” Jia said.
“You know?” Jack said, doing his best to look confused.
“We’ve been through it ourselves, and so have others,” Jia said.
Others? Bingo!
“One look at you and I knew,” she continued.
“They told my wife that if we call the police, they, they — I don’t know what to do. They told her we should talk to you.”
“I can’t believe they did it again so soon,” Jia said to David. “It’s been less than a week.”
Less than a week?
A cloud of suspicion appeared on David’s face. He studied Jack closely.
Jack wiped his eyes. At least my tears are genuine. “You’ve been through this? They took your son or daughter?”
“Two years ago, our son was kidnapped.” David’s reply sounded matter-of-fact.
No sympathy. He’s suspicious.
“Since then, you’ve been the third person to come to our house, but” — I hate buts — “the other two are of Chinese heritage, like myself.”
Jack feigned surprise. “That’s odd.”
“Yes, it is,” David said evenly. “It happened to us on a Wednesday, and they gave us until Friday — two banking days — to collect the ransom. And yet they took your son on a Friday?”
“Maybe because Fridays are the only day he has soccer,” Jack said. “They gave us until Tuesday to pay.”
“I see.”
“My wife is Chinese Canadian,” Jack said. “Why are they only going after Chinese people?”
David seemed surprised. “Uh, I don’t know why. Maybe they assume we don’t usually go to the police.”
“So you’re saying we shouldn’t involve them?”
“Don’t call them!” Jia said urgently.
“What about the person from last week, did they go to the police?”
“He took our advice and didn’t,” Jia said. “He called us back afterward and said that everything went okay and they’d returned his daughter. We have his number so if you want to —”
“Where’s your wife now?” David interrupted.
“Waiting at home. She’s terrified. Literally sick to her stomach. We didn’t know what to do.”
“Would you mind if I spoke to her?”
“Uh, I guess it would help if you could say something to calm her down. I’ll call her.”
Jack dialed, spoke briefly to Tina, then handed David his phone. He studied David’s face as he spoke to Tina in Cantonese. He had no idea what David was saying, but could see the sorrow in his eyes. Good job, Tina.
David handed the phone back to Jack. “I’ll be home as soon as I can,” Jack said over the phone. “There’ve been others. Hopefully I can talk to one of them, too.” He paused, glancing at David and Jia, then said, “No, they don’t think we should go to the police. I don’t know. We’ll talk when I get home. I love you. Bye.”
“I’m really sorry.” David gave Jack’s shoulder a squeeze. “Jia and I understand what you’re going through. For us, it’s like it happened yesterday.”
“But you paid what they asked and everything went okay?” Jack asked.
“Come in and sit down,” David said. “We’ll tell you what happened.”
“Coffee or tea?” Jia asked.
“Thanks, no,” Jack replied. “I feel too sick.”
She nodded.
Over the next twenty minutes, the Chungs gave Jack details that he already knew, grief, guilt, and sorrow washing over their faces as they spoke. Jack himself felt rage and sorrow on their behalf. Rage wouldn’t be the right response for Bruce, the terrified father. At least not yet. But he allowed his sorrow to show on his face.
“Since then,” Jia said, glancing upstairs, “Tommy seldom leaves his room.”
“He’s seeing a child psychologist, but so far there hasn’t been much improvement. We’re told it’ll take time,” said David.
“He rarely goes outside,” Jia added. “He won’t play with other children because he says he feels like a freak. I’ve had to start home-schooling him.”
“I’m so, so sorry,” Jack said. “Hopefully in time he’ll be able to move past it.”
David and Jia exchanged a silent look, no doubt hoping he was right.
“Would I be able to talk to the person from last week? Tina’s brother is a police officer in Toronto. I’m afraid that she’ll tell him. But I don’t want to hide what happened to Tommy from her, either. It’s best for us to agree on the decision.” Jack looked at their faces and swallowed. “I know she’d feel better if I could meet someone who’s been through this and, uh, didn’t have the same outcome as your son.”
“I understand,” David replied. “He was grateful for our advice. I’m sure he’ll be willing to talk to you.”
“And before that, what about the other person who came to see you? Did everything go okay for them?”
“I presume so,” David replied. “I was so shocked when he showed up that I never thought to get his name or number. We never heard back from him. We wished we’d asked him to call us.”
“It feels like we’re all in it together,” Jia added. “Like we belong to an exclusive club. Later, you’ll want to talk to someone who really understands.”
“Thank you,” Jack said. “You’re very nice people.”
“But bad things can happen to nice people,” David replied. “I’ll make the call.”
Moments later, Jack was speaking to a man called Andy Zhao on the phone. He said he didn’t want Jack to come to his house because his family was still under a great deal of stress, but they could meet at the Kerrisdale neighbourhood Starbucks.
After assuring David and Jia that he’d be in touch, Jack returned to his SUV. He then called Laura, who was parked a couple of blocks away with Alicia.
“It went well,” Jack said. “Need you to get to the Kerrisdale Starbucks on West 41st Avenue in Vancouver. I’m meeting a guy by the name of Andy Zhao. I want surveillance shots of him, as well as his plate number for an address.”
“What’s he got to do with it?”
“His nine-year-old daughter was kidnapped last week.”
“No!” exclaimed Laura.
“It turned out okay. He paid up and got her back in one piece.”
“Oh, man. Glad to hear that.”
“See you there. I’m going to phone Tina. We owe her an olive soup, for sure. Maybe a couple.”
At 7:30 p.m., Jack entered the coffee shop. It wasn’t difficult to spot Zhao. He had noticeable dark circles under his eyes, and he was looking around nervously. Huge trust issues. Jack introduced himself as Bruce, shook Zhao’s hand, and thanked him for the meeting.
Zhao trembled as he spilled out his story. Whenever he lifted his mug, coffee slopped out, and he soon gave up trying to drink it. He was clearly still in shock over what had happened. He didn’t appear to notice Laura walking past with her cellphone in hand.
“So you paid them three hundred thousand dollars,” Jack said. A hundred thou more than Chung. They’re getting greedier.
“A week ago today. I’ll never forget it.” Zhao paused. “And you? Was it the same amount?”
Jack nodded.
“You should do everything they ask,” Zhao stated. “Don’t go to the police. I’m sure you heard what happened to —”
“I heard. I don’t even want to think about it.”
“The kidnappers warned me that if I went to the police afterward, they’d take revenge out on my daughter. I’m a business development manager for an international hotel chain. My work often takes me away from home. But after this, I don’t think I could travel anywhere without my family with me.”
Jack grimaced. “Will you tell me where they had you go with the ransom money?”
“Like I said, they made me go all over the place, for a couple of hours. I finally ended up out in Chilliwack. That’s where I dropped off the money.”
“But before then, where exactly did they make you go? How many street corners or parking lots were you told to wait in?”
Zhao gave him a curious look. “Why do you want to know?”
“A couple of reasons. My wife is really going to be so freaked out while I’m doing this. I want to be able to give her some idea of how long the whole thing’ll take.”
“Tell her to expect about three hours.”
Jack let out a loud sigh. “It’s not only her. I’m afraid of making a mistake, too. I have trouble hearing, especially when I’m stressed. It’s like my brain goes into a fog. If I mess up one of their instructions, will they think I’m up to something?” He shook his head as if trying not to think about it, then put his hand on Zhao’s arm and stared into his eyes, pleading. “What if they do something terrible to my son?”
Zhao sat back in his chair and thought for a long moment. “Okay. They’ll probably send you to different places, but I’ll describe what I had to do as best as I can.”
He was warned not to talk to police or they’ll exact revenge on his daughter. Jack pushed down his angst and gave a grateful smile. “Thank you.”