Page 43 of Wired Fear

Jake cursed as he set his phone face down on the desk. He just wasn’t ready to deal with his relationship with Sophie without knowing the baby’s paternity.

“What? Going potty mouth on me, old man?” Felicia called from the reception desk in the other room. Jake kept his office door open, and they yelled back and forth frequently.

Felicia had been a rock for Jake during the time Sophie had been gone. She’d driven him to his doctor’s appointments, kept him fed, exercised the dogs, managed his security guys and all they needed, and joined him in the evenings for pizza, beer, and hilarious old movies likeMonty Python’sLife of BrianandThe Pink Pantherseries.

Felicia had made the time he was healing and hiding from Akane Chang tolerable. He was going to miss their camaraderie.“Sophie’s back. She has a doctor’s appointment this afternoon, but she’ll be in tomorrow.”

“Terrific. I’ll put that in the scheduler.” Felicia was all business.

Jake refocused on the report in front of him with an effort. He was finishing up a bid to install a new AI security system out at that dot-commer’s house in Hamakua. He’d had to oversee others doing all the prep due to his leg, but at least his injury had allowed him to drive out to the estate yesterday and check all the specs in person.

Jake heard the buzzer sound as the office door opened. They didn’t get many drop-ins, but it wasn’t unheard of, and the security guy at the door would have screened the visitor. Felicia’s perky greeting came next: “Welcome to Security Solutions. How can we help you today?”

“I need to speak with Sophie Ang or Jake Dunn, please.” A man’s voice.Jake knew that voice.

“Do you have an appointment?” Felicia asked.

Jake stood up, grabbed his crutch, and hopped to the door of his office. “Terence Chang. This is a surprise.”

The young local man looked haggard. Dark circles hung like hammocks beneath intelligent brown eyes. His hair was mussed, and rusty streaks marked his clothing. “I need help on an urgent matter.”

Jake swung his door wide and gestured toward the chair in front of his desk. “Please, have a seat.” Jake turned back to Felicia. “We’re not to be disturbed. No calls, no interruptions.”

He shut the door firmly on her open-mouthed expression.

Jake returned to sit behind his desk, leaning his crutch against the wall. “You’re the last person I’d have expected as a client, Chang.”

“I’m not a client yet. I’m not telling you anything about what’s going on until you sign a nondisclosure agreement.” Terence’s hands were trembling. He kept his gaze on the floor between his feet. Chang was clearly in shock from a serious trauma.

“Got one right here. Our standard contract.” Jake took a blank form out of his desk and slid it across to Terence, along with a pen. “But you should know that I don’t have legal confidentiality protections like a lawyer, priest, or a psychologist does. I can be compelled to testify in court, so think hard about what you’re going to tell me about those bloodstains on your clothing.”

Terence looked down at himself, an expression of surprise lifting his brows. “Oh that. It’s not mine.”

“I didn’t expect that it was.” Jake stared at the other man levelly.

Terence signed the contract and pushed it back across the desk to Jake. “I didn’t do it.” He dropped his face into his hands. “I’ve done things—but not this thing.”

Jake sat back, laced his fingers over his flat belly, and waited for the man to speak.

Terence leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and pushed his hands through his normally immaculately barbered hair, disturbing it even further. “Akane’s started killing everyone I love or care about, just like he said he would. I just came from my uncle Henry’s place. There were pieces of him all over the house. This is his blood.”

“Did you call the police?” Jake rapped out.

“Anonymously. From a pay phone. I know how the cops work. They’ve been gunning for me for a while now. I didn’t touch anything but…I must have. I don’t know how this blood got on me.” Terence looked up at Jake with red-rimmed eyes. “Akane called me and left a message to go check on Uncle; I feared the worst, but it was worse than I’d even imagined. He’s checking off his list, and my uncle was the closest thing I had to a father. My own dad was killed when I was a baby.”

“He already tried to get me, as I’m sure you’re aware.” Jake extended his bandaged leg, still clad in the support boot. “Tell me something I don’t know, like where that psycho can be found. Our whole firm has been searching for him. The FBI is looking for him, and the Big Island cops are looking for him. And still no one knows where he is.”

“Well, if I knew where he was, I wouldn’t be here.” Terence dropped his face into his hands. “You’ve got to help me find him, before he gets Julie.”

“Julie Weathersby?” Jake’s voice sharpened.

“Julie Weathersby, yes.” Terence looked down at his hands. “She is…special to me. I warned her parents to take her out of the country, and they have. I don’t know where, and I don’t want to know. In case Akane tries to torture her location out of me.”

Julie had been the object of a missing persons case that Jake and Sophie had wrapped up recently. Terence had rescued the girl from Akane Chang. Her story that she had been rescued by Terence and that they’d fallen in love had sounded like a fairy tale cooked up by a girl with Stockholm Syndrome, but looking at Terence’s tormented expression, Jake reconsidered.

“Geez, Terence, dramatic much?” Jake forced a laugh. “We’ll get this guy. We have ways the cops don’t. What I need from you is a complete family tree of the Changs, with names, addresses, and locations—and a list of all of the allies that you can think of, and any info regarding landholdings, businesses, et cetera, that could help our agency find him.”

“I figured you’d need that. My cousin is on her way.”

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