Mr. Park was distressed. The deeper he dug into this mess, the more entangled it got. He had got back reports from fifteen years ago, twenty years ago, thirteen years ago, and from so many more dates that it became difficult for him to match one against the other. He had been trying to compare Miya"s timeline against that of the Chairman"s wife. The thought itself had given him a premonition.There seemed similarity in some places, on others there seemed to be no connection at all. The fact also remained that Park had no idea of the lady boss"s whereabouts for the past fifteen years.
It seemed like a long shot, the more he got into it. And yet, his own hunch was so strong that the old butler kept digging. He also kept it a tight secret from Jim, not wanting to alarm the boy till he had something solid to say.
In his heart though, he hoped there was no connection.
His own brain wasn"t convinced though. He had also hoped Miya would be clean. And the girl was far from it. She was involved in a lot of sh*t, which was expected considering the background she had. It seemed as if she had enemies all around, in almost every state, every precinct, every corner of Country I.
There were so many unfiled reports against her, of a.s.sault and battery mostly, mostly because she got involved with thugs and gangsters and picked fights with them alone. Park had extracted this information from the hoodlums that he had traced to her way back when Jim had wanted to have something to hold over her head and get her to marry him.
What came as a surprise to the old butler though was how afraid some of these cons seemed to be of that girl. They described her as the haunted woman who only stopped her attacks till the target was within an inch of his life. She had her own set of weapons, and she fought like a human weapon.
Park couldn"t relate to it at all.
And yet, he knew it had to be true, and he wouldn"t have believed it if he hadn"t seen the footage of Miya"s fight against Thad Carver with his own eyes. Albeit Park"s heart had almost stopped beating when the girl had been caught in that situation, but her att.i.tude – and the ecstasy that he had seen in her eyes when she had held a gun to that man"s head… Park had known then that she was no ordinary woman.
Jimmy himself wasn"t exactly clean, but the dirt on him could only be traced back to shady deals. He wasn"t close to the underworld, he wasn"t even fit to handle the bigshots that ran deep into the mud in that part of the world. He had a devious brain, but the Chairman had protected him from being too exposed.
All his planes against Kang Sheng had worked before because the Chairman and Jim had worked together to take down the man.
Simon Hunter, himself, though was the master of the dirt game. Maybe that was why he had Miya"s history figured out way before them all. That was the only reason Park dived head on into the investigation without questioning Miya"s own character even though it seemed jeopardized in his head more times than one.
Chairman knew. And he had chosen her side.
There had to be a reason. Because he was one of the most uptight men in Country I, who wouldn"t so much as talk to the ones at the bottom-of-the-barrel, than have them in his house as part of his family.
There was also the matter of Park being wrong in his investigation before.
That part still confused him.
How had Charlie even made the mistake? How had she mistaken Kasu for Miya when it was actually Kang Sheng"s son? The file that Jim had handed over to Park before leaving – the one with the information on Kang family had it in written. Kang Sung, the third son, estranged from the family and who went by the pseudonym Kasu on the streets.
Charlie was one of the best researchers in the field. She had donned the position of the second female Commissioner of Police in the state before she had quit. How had she made that simple mistake?
And why was Jim so wary of her being prejudiced?
Albeit Park had no answer that satisfied this part of the riddle, but he did know he wasn"t going to go against Jim"s direct orders. So he kept Charlie out and unaware of it all.
Jimmy had told Park that he wanted it all figured out soon, but he also urged the old butler to not go all out and compromise his health. In fact, the young master called him every night since he had flown overseas, just to ask if he was eating fine and resting up.
He was a good lad.
And it was particularly this aspect of his that made Park go on and work the case relentlessly. This was about Jimmy after all, and Park had chosen the boy"s side long ago. There was also the part of him that was intrigued to the point of having sleepless nights. If he disregarded Miya"s relation to Jim now, he couldn"t help but acknowledge that the girl fascinated him.
The more he knew about her from the shadows, the more he felt intrigued. He could look at her cheerful face, from the many interactions they had nowadays, and everything he had read up on her would inevitably flash in his mind. He would have his protective instinct riled up, but then when he went into the darkness of his room and read about her further, he would be afraid to feel.
And the fear had slowly begun to grow in him – what if this girl was actually related to the Chairman"s wife?
On one such night, when his heart was in extreme doubt and reproach, Park finally hit the jackpot. He had sent underlings to collect local newspapers that had been circulated in the village Lang for the past fifteen years, since the incident with Tao and the fire had happened. It was a long shot, but everything was from so long ago that all moves were an arrow shot in the dark anyway.
His researchers had compiled whatever they had thought important enough and now Park"s desk had ten files having newspaper clips alone. He had been going through them when he found it.
It was a short report from the year 2007.
The article described recent cases of some villagers being poisoned due to snake bites. It had been thought of as an incident of a venomous snake let loose in the village, and yet investigation from police reported the presence of a woman nearby, and she was seen in possession of some rare breed of a snake whose venom could paralyse and kill if left unattended for long.
The woman had fled when the police had invaded her.
There were no pictures, but the news was from 2007, long after Park had stopped keeping record of the Chairman"s wife. But from tracking her for long, Park knew Eshni was extraordinary with beasts from the wild.
It was again a long shot, but Park had called in the newspaper house, used the Hunter name and dug further up.
It was then that his darkest fear was realized.
He soon got back pictures from back then transferred to him via. email that had somehow not been printed in the paper before, because of external pressure.
Park had steeled his heart to see a picture of the Chairman"s wife. For he knew she too was involved in the dark side of the world. In fact, that was how the Chairman had first met with her.
And yet, what he saw froze him to the core.
As Mr. Park opened the mail, he saw a blur picture that he had no difficulty at all in distinguishing. It was the picture of a small girl, crouching on a stout branch of a tree, with one of her hands outstretched. On that same hand, was wound in a loop a coiling serpent.
The girl"s eyes were sinister, her face a depiction of living h.e.l.l.
And yet, Park could have recognized her anywhere.
As he stared at that familiar mud-brown hair, at the ecstasy written on her face as she looked at the serpent, a cold chill ran down the butler"s spine.
Miya.
And under the tree, leaning against the bark was another woman. She had jet black hair, and a beautiful, expressionless face. She looked coldly into the night. Park could have recognized her anywhere too. Jimmy Hunter had that exact, same face.
Eshni.
And the worst of the old man"s fear was confirmed.
Miya was related to Simon Hunter"s wife.
And it was a connection warped in blood.