Sapphire Angel / Lucas Wong (Wong Yukhei)

Part 28 - Mad City

*****

After a few moments of silence as we watched the three boys be loaded into the police car, my mom spoke up and startled me,

"What were they on, a supermodel cruise?"

I laughed and tried to walk back over to her and my father, but the officer in between us stopped me.

"We need to take you to a doctor." He said.

"I'm fine!" I said.

"Look at you, Zeda." My dad said.

I looked down at myself, and I still had bruises on my body and my foot was in a boot. I sighed and obliged, and they brought me to a clinic nearby.

I got a real cast put on my foot and got a physical and everything else was fine. They asked me to describe anything that happened that could've harmed me, and the list was so extensive I asked my mom to leave the room, so she didn't know the full extent of what happened to me over the course of the past few weeks. 

While we were waiting to leave, I stared down at my cast and wished I could show Johnny. He'd be so happy to see my foot actually getting a break for real now.

After the clinic, they took me to the police station.

On the drive over, my mom started telling me what Vince reported. Everything that happened after I fell off the ship.

He had told everyone that we were having some amazing night, a romantic dinner and then drinks at the bar and dancing. Then we went out for some fresh air and a cigarette. My mom knew something was up at that moment because I haven't smoked in years. 

He told her a ship came by, and someone simply took me away. He said he tried to fight them, spinning the tale that the man on the deck with us was also taken but fell into the water.  When the crew discovered the raft missing, he added that he threw it to the man to try and save him.

My eyes went wide, and I gasped, still seated in the back of my parent's rental car. 

'That means he ... killed him.' I thought to myself. 

 I felt sick. That poor man.

She told me that Vince reported me missing right after I was 'abducted.' 

That's why the ship never stopped ... and Vince got to sleep soundly that very night. Probably with a smile on his wretched face.

I wanted to tell my parents everything right there, but I decided to wait until after I talked to the police.

Apparently, everyone on the ship was questioned and no one spoke up. Not the bartender, the girls Vince was with, or anyone in the bar. All except the dead man's wife. Vince must have paid the others off or scared them into silence. Or maybe they didn't care enough to say anything.

There were no security cameras. So there was no evidence of anything. They relied entirely on Vince's word. Which is exactly what I knew would happen. He was so conniving and manipulative. A snake.

When we got to the station I was beyond irate. I wanted to punch something. My parents walked with me inside.

They brought me straight to a room with two officers on one side of a long table, and an empty chair across from them. They told my parents they'd be better off going to their hotel, that this could take a while. Which made me feel very uneasy. I was the victim here. So were the boys when it came to Lei. Why was I afraid?