Page 5 of Shadow Lies

“You do?” She gripped the pen tighter in her hand.

“Sure. It was in the Lee’s Christmas letter this year.”

A letter. Even better than a card. Packed with information that might be helpful.

“What did they say?” Alexis asked, her pulse beating faster.

“He’s living in China.”

She frowned.

“Are you sure?” Alexis asked.

There was no US Navy base in China. Maybe her mother was mistaken. Or confused and he was on a ship in the Pacific, not on a base.

“Hold on. I have the letter. Let me find… Here it is. They wrote, ‘We are so proud that since our son Kane left the Navy he has traveled back to our home country where he was accepted as a student and is studying to become a Kung Fu Master at the Shaolin Temple in Henan.’”

Alexis scribbled every detail as fast as she could. She was going to have to get on google and figure out where this place was exactly. She had a feeling Charley and the mysteriouswewouldn’t accept anything vague.

“Did they say anything else?” she asked, heart pounding faster than before as everything began to fall into place.

“Mr. Lee had a pacemaker installed last year.”

She let out a huff. “Anything more about Kane?”

“No. That was it.”

If that was all, she could end this call. It was more than time to do that. “Oh, Mom. My boss is on the other line. Gotta go. Call soon. Love to Dad. Bye.”

She disconnected and opened a browser on her phone. She did a voice search and watched the results populate the screen but she didn’t believe her eyes.

The Shaolin Temple wasn’t the name of some martial arts school, as she’d expected.

It was a monastery.

She sat in the broken passenger seat of her piece of shit car, staring between what she’d scribbled on the napkin and the facts on her screen.

Kane Lee had left the SEALs and was now studying to be a monk in China.

What the hell was going on?

That couldn’t be right. Could it?

She was still contemplating the situation when her cell rang.

The call was from a blocked number.

Charley.

“Hello?”

“What do you have for us, Alexis.”

It was creepy as fuck the way she insisted on talking in the plural, but as long as her cash was green, Alexis was willing to put up with it.

“Kane is in China. The Shaolin Temple in Henan.”

“Really?”

---