Seastead, Tahiti 

“I’m so glad you shared this with me. I still have friends in the government that can snoop for me.” Janice led them toward the veranda. Its terracotta tiles, rattan furniture, and earth tones gave the airy room a cool atmosphere. She motioned for the women to have a seat. “We need to talk. Let’s sit down.” A gecko skittered over a glass-topped coffee table and disappeared into a lush potted philodendron. “Would you like some iced tea? It’s a special recipe.” She poured three tall glasses and sat on the edge of a matching ottoman. “How did you meet him?”

Lena explained, “Jose and Gregory’s father, Shin, became friends early on. We found that all kinds of sea life discovered our farm and produced an enticing microclimate. Way out in the middle of the oceans’ eddies, there’s not much going on. Some people describe it as a desert, but it’s very much alive. Large predatory fish figured out we offered an oasis of sorts. Certain times of the year, we could harvest bluefin tuna with little effort. Shin paid us well and for the right catch at New Year, he’d double it. He expedited the fish to the Tokyo market and made a fortune. Gregory would fly in with his dad, and all the kids played while their fathers worked. We all liked the change of pace whenever we had visitors, and Shin became a regular. That ended when he died in a helicopter crash. I believe Greg—I mean, Gregory—was at boarding school. The poor child was only thirteen or fourteen. Thank goodness Gregory wasn’t in that helicopter.”

“Maybe not,” Janice said. 

Lena reached over and grabbed Bella’s hand. She stared daggers into Janice. “How could you say such a thing?”

“It sounds harsh, but it would be better if he had never been born.” 

Bella became light-headed, and the walls seemed to fall to the floor. She felt like a wave had hit the floating platform that held the villa. But there had been no wave, just the impact of confusion. The queasy sensation passed, but she was glad to be sitting. Her mom didn’t notice, but she suspected Janice hadn’t missed the lapse. 

“Bella, how well do you know Gregory?” Janice asked.

“Look, Janice. You have some information about Gregory that we don’t, so why not tell us what you found?” 

“Sorry, Bella, there’s no painless way to break this to you,” Janice said, this time with a modicum of compassion. “I’ve been an expat for five years. Once I retired, I wanted to put everything, all my government work behind me. My plan was to live a simple life and enjoy what years I have left. But I cannot ignore this. You are my family. I’ll do everything within my ability to take care of you. And I promise, I’ll never lie… not to my family. What you shared with me got all my spidey-senses lit up. The invasion into your bedroom, the wording of the note, and leaving the ring. That is not how a jilted lover acts.” 

“We were not lovers,” Bella corrected. 

The muscles in Janice’s forehead almost raised an eyebrow but relaxed from disbelief and into acceptance. “What was your relationship?” 

Bella said, “I don’t know. Friends… dating… courting…? We never talked about it. At least, I never talked about it. I’m not ready for marriage. He treated me well, and we went out whenever we both were in town. We ate out a lot. I’ve put on ten pounds in the last year. That’s why we went to the Slanted Edge… to work out together. I took him to church five or six times, but nothing weird. Until this. Now I’m scared. What has he done?”

“Did he give you gifts?”

“Sure, I have a closet full of clothes he bought me. Shoes, too. He’s in the clothing import-export business. Every time he returned, he brought something. At first, it made me uncomfortable. Then I decided it was his love language—you know—gift-giving?” A shiver ran through her. “Now I’m uncomfortable again. Janice, what’s going on?” 

“He is in the import-export business, but his clothing business is a front. Enough clothes to make his travels and some of his money seem legit. But he’s the worst type of scum—a human trafficker.”

Lena sucked her breath, loud enough to shift attention to her. Bella felt the wave surge through her again. This time it was worse, and her vision closed until her only option was to sink back farther into the couch and grasp the sweating glass of iced tea with both hands. She could just make out Janice reaching toward her and grabbing the glass from her hands.

“I’m sorry, dear. I’ve got more. You must compose yourself.” She reached into a bag sitting next to the ottoman and pulled out a small device and folded its sides to form a pyramid. Then she handed a pair of virtual reality glasses to Bella and said, “I will need you to see this in VR.” Turning to Lena, “This is optional for you. It’s graphic and you aren’t part of this investigation. You can find Jon. He’s downstairs in the library.”

“Like hell I will,” Lena said. She grabbed the third set of glasses and slipped them onto her head.

“I was ready to spend the night working through this, trying to figure it out. It turns out I didn’t have to. He showed up on a POI—Person of Interest—list a few months ago. An international task force has been connecting the dots. To you, he is Gregory Hattori. Shin Hattori is his father and left him a fortune. He changed his name to Tatsuo Oshiro as soon as he came of age and doubled down on his life as a player. Within five years, he had squandered his inheritance.

“Now he uses Tatsuo Oshiro for his legitimate business dealings, Gregory Hattori for his personal life and many other aliases for travel and to evade law enforcement. He’s very smart. He doesn’t leave trails, but they will get him. It’s only a matter of time. Some of this will seem outlandish until the pieces come together. Please, forgive me for being blunt. Bella, I know this is difficult. It may never make sense to you, but I need you to understand who he is and what we’re dealing with.” 

The visuals were not like a real-crime documentary, just raw video footage of Gregory meeting with men from all around the world. A few clips had background noise, but most were silent. High quality still pictures followed with annotations describing the people and details about the meetings. At first, Bella hoped Gregory was being confused with another bad guy, but soon she was convinced the bad guy was Gregory. 

“This next part is the hardest to watch. These are the likely victims. Please, forgive the coarseness, but he leveraged his last bit of the family fortune and good name into a defined niche specialty. I understand that sounds repugnant when you realize we’re talking about selling people, but you’ll see that he is very selective about his choice of victims. He is paid to be very good at what he does.” 

One image after another flashed before their eyes. Beautiful girls. Most of the photos were professional caliber. The kind models fill their portfolios with plus candid shots—selfies and friends’ photos taken from social media sites. Each had a name, birthdate, and the date they went missing. A running ticker across the bottom of the screen repeated the prime details of each case. Overlaid on the images was a voice, a female, speaking in an unemotional tone, listing significant bullet points about the case. “Margo Hess. Nineteen. Five foot eight. Last seen Burlington, Vermont, USA.” Bella wiped away a tear. “Student. Boston College.” 

Bella had lost count, but there were well over twenty missing young women and half a dozen boys linked to this human trafficker. Each victim had a documented connection to Tatsuo Oshiro. A blurry photo boarding a private jet in Toronto, a picture at a party in Waikiki, on a boat in Cabo, and each one was Gregory. She had not known him. The man she knew had been charming and charismatic—full of life. She realized those same qualities allowed him to… Instead of completing her thought, a shiver went up her back and she pulled off her glasses. 

“Janice, we need to stop this.” Bella spoke loudly and in a commanding voice. 

“I understand,” Janice said.

Bella looked at her mother. Lena, so confident in her life and adaptive to every situation, sat frozen into a dull slouch. She kept the glasses on and didn’t move. Tracks of tears betrayed her emotions. “Mom, are you all right?” With one hand, Bella stroked her mother’s cheek and removed the glasses with the other. Lena’s eyes were open wide, but not seeing, fixed into a trance state. 

Janice rested her hand on Bella’s knee and smiled with a knowing nod. In those simple actions, the former FBI agent communicated she understood, and she had this handled.

“Lena, you’re safe here. Bella is safe. This is the place you need to be right now. Here for your daughter. It’s good you’re together. Now breathe deep and release… the tension is going away. Only the release is here to stay. You are here for Bella. You are strong… strong and safe. As you blink your eyes, they will become heavy… blink… release… close your eyes…” Lena’s eyes shut, and her head eased to the side. “Breathe slowly and relax into the breath. When I say open, you will be restored, rested, well, secure, and open to healthy suggestions. We all are safe. Now, open your eyes. Now!”

Bella jumped. She hadn’t realized how hard she had been squeezing Janice’s hand. She let go and breathed easier as her mother’s countenance returned. 

Lena said, “That son of a bitch. I can’t believe I felt sorry for him when Bella told me how she returned the ring.” 

With a, “well, okay then.” Janice raised her eyebrow in surprise. She gave Bella a wink and got up from the ottoman. She stretched her back and plopped herself into the well-stuffed chair. 

Upon entering the room, Jon greeted the women with a, “Hello, ladies.” He tipped his hat in a greeting that was popular a century ago and walked over to Lena. Reaching downward with his hand, he told her, “My dear, I know there is an enormous elephant in this small room. May I have your company? I must get my walk in today and doing it with you will be the most agreeable thing.” 

Lena smiled, extended her hand to his and raised off the couch. Jon gave a wave like a salute to Janice and followed it with, “Happy hunting,” as they walked away side by side.

“How do you do that?” Bella asked.

“Do what?” Janice answered.

“Your timing. You and Uncle Jon. Do you choreograph it?”

“Bella, we’ve been around for a long time. There must be some advantage to being old.”

“You are not that old, Janice. I’m guessing Jon has twenty years on you.”

“Is that what you want to talk about? Or should I tell you what you need to know?” 

Bella massaged her left hand in thought. The needle-like holes of the eel bite had almost disappeared, but an itch remained, deep and menacing. She noticed the attention Janice paid to her movements, to everything.

Bella asked, “What did he intend for me?”

Janice said, “I can’t say for sure, but I should ask you some questions. It might help. Is that okay?”

“You mean the elephant in the room?” Bella asked.

“How did he explain finding you after all these years?”

“That was odd,” Bella said.

“Go on.”

“I keep things close. I’ve never been one for social media. My CV is public but reveals nothing. Even my contact info for my consulting business is indirect. It would have been hard for him to find me, let alone reconnect. I guess I believed his story.”

“And what was his story?”

“It seems lame now, but at the time I thought it was romantic.” Bella hesitated. “I was at a Starbucks two blocks from my place. My drink was ready, and the barista yelled out, ‘Bella!’ Everybody in the place turned because of the way he yelled it. I’ve been going there for a year, and this day was the only day he yelled it like that. Like the actor in A Streetcar Named Desire yelling Stella. I cringed with embarrassment, grabbed my drink, and ran out the door. Then on the street—we’re talking Singapore. It was at seven in the morning and very crowded. I hear my name. Figuring some jerk repeated what he had just heard at the coffee shop, I picked up the pace.

“But then he calls out Isabella Maria Johansen Espinosa. I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to see a good-looking, well-dressed stranger smiling at me. It’d been years, so I didn’t recognize him, but he took no time introducing himself, and insisted we get together for dinner and catch up. That’s how it happened. He said he was in the Starbucks and heard a name from his past and wondered if, by chance…”

“You were infrequent childhood playmates. Would he have known your full name?”

“I don’t know. But at the time, I didn’t give it a second thought.” 

“You eluded that your relationship with him was not sexual. Did you say that to protect your mother?”

“No. It drove my roommate crazy that we weren’t doing it, but I make it clear with guys early on that I’m a Christian. I don’t do sex outside of marriage, period. Most guys start off cool with that, but once they realize I’m serious, they dump me. Gregory was different. He seemed to respect all that.”

“Can you tell me about the breakup?”

Janice listened as Bella told her story. When she finished explaining, Janice asked, “When did he seem happiest?”

“When I wore something he gave me, a dress for a meal, jewelry for a show. Sometimes shoes and even a couple of gowns for fancy benefit events. He would gaze at me and marvel. It was a heady experience. We’d go out to fancy places and had a wonderful time together. He was a wonderful conversationalist, had great taste, and was an excellent dancer.”

“Did he ever take pictures of you wearing these gifts?”

“No. No, he didn’t. Sometimes I would send him a selfie wearing something that he sent me. But he never asked me to. Why do you ask?”

Janice brushed off the question. “Just curious.” Then throwing her arms into the air she said, “Bella, I wish you were my daughter… or granddaughter. You are lovely and I’m so sorry you’ve been thrown into this. You deserve so much better.” She paused as if to let it settle. “You could beat yourself up with trying to get into Gregory’s mind for the rest of your life and still never get close to his motives. He is a sick person, and he will get what’s coming to him. With your help, it might be sooner than later. Are you willing to help us take this monster out?”

“I’ll do what I can.”

“Good. I’ll need all the details about where he lives when in Singapore and some travel habits you know about. I will put you in contact with the lead Interpol agent on the case. Please, don’t be afraid. I don’t believe Gregory would do a thing to harm you. At least, not physically.” 

“Oh! What does that mean?” 

“He either displays multiple personalities or he is good at compartmentalizing. Everything suggests his name coincides with the corresponding persona. Some aliases represent him as an opportunistic human trafficker. Tatsuo Oshiro is an international business executive and Gregory Hattori was your childhood playmate and the man who wants to marry you.

“Don’t take this the wrong way. He stalked you. Your meeting at Starbucks was deliberate. Maybe he was going through his memory and decided you’d be just right for a certain client. He might have remembered you as a girl and fixated on that. Most of his clients are looking for girls or boys who are underage or close to it. When he saw you, all grown, he might have realized he had a need for a genuine relationship. I cannot be sure as to his motivation, but I’m guessing that he decided you were worthy of worshiping. It was you and your presence that made him feel complete. Or it’s possible that he is a true schizophrenic and Gregory is his nice-guy persona, while the rest of his personalities are psychopaths.

“Ultimately, he is one person, and that person has to be put away. It won’t eliminate human trafficking, but it will keep him from ruining more lives. Please, don’t get sentimental about him. Mark my words, he is a sick animal and if he isn’t caged up or put down, he will devour anybody he wants.” Janice got up and motioned to the VR. “You need to watch the rest. I’ll leave you alone. If you have questions, I’ll be in the kitchen.” She turned and walked away, then stopped, looked back, and said, “Bella, I know this is difficult. You will push through. It won’t be easy, but it will get better.”

Difficult seemed to be an understatement of gigantic proportions. Bella contemplated how simple life had been. If only she could turn back time, even a few days. A mere week ago, her biggest concern was getting caught skinny dipping by a fisherman. Now she had a failed relationship with the worst type of sick psychopath. She placed the VR glasses on her head and sat with her back straight, head up, and breathed in deep. She pushed play. She would see this through until the end.