L.A. Spa

Chapter Six: Deep Dark Secrets

Jordan Ryan's POV:

"How can it be that she does not know who I am?" I asked Frank, my head security guard, who had run an in-depth report on Emma the night before.

Frank's face was expressionless, which I was used to by now. "No offense, sir, but not everyone in America knows who you are."

"None taken. But how does a twenty-two-year-old woman not know who I am?" I asked him, Frank always had witty comebacks, but I still had yet to figure out if he was joking with me or just telling me what he thought was the truth. I paid him for the truth, not to sugarcoat things for me

"From what I have gathered, she does not own a TV and does not pay for cable. She may watch TV on her laptop, but she hardly leaves room for downtime. She may not have the time if you are looking for an on-demand massage therapist."

"What does she do besides massage therapy?" I asked, wishing at this point he would have left the file on my desk so I could look through it.

"Massage therapy is one of her full-time jobs, she works at a coffee shop a few blocks from her apartment, and three nights out of the week, she is a sleep lab technician." I was going to ask what the last one was when Frank answered it. "She watches people sleep."

"Are you sure she is not a client instead of an employee there?" It seemed like a lot of jobs.

"She is an employee. At first, I thought she was a patient and suffered from some sleeping disorder, but I saw the employee list, and she was on there. She receives payment from them. Besides her jobs, she has a sister that became the legal guardian when she was eighteen."

"What made that happen?"

Frank stepped a bit back, I knew sometimes he did not like crossing personal lines, but he would tell me. "Father died when she was fourteen; her sister was eight at the time. A few years later, her mother snapped and was put into a mental institution outside LA. I believe the state is paying for her mother to stay there. Emma Dempsey emancipated herself from her mother at the age of sixteen instead of going into foster care. Her sister had to be placed in temporary foster care for a year while she battled in court to become her legal guardian."

"How does a seventeen-year-old accomplish that?"

"There are some rare cases. It seems an old friend of their fathers is a prominent attorney in the area that helped her achieve this. At this point, she had already had two jobs along with taking her GED on the side."

"And her financial side of things?"

"With the three jobs, she has a decent amount of money flowing in. The two sisters seem to live below their means of living."

"What is being done with the extra funds?"

"From what I can tell, sir, it looks like any extra money is put into a college fund for her sister. I would say she has enough for at least two years at college. Her sister will also have financial aid, so she is off to a good start. Her sister is looking to become a lawyer like their father; she has a GPA of 4.0. Are there any other details you would like to know about?"

"And her love life?" I asked before thinking.

"I didn't go into great depth. From what I could tell from her social media, the very little that she has, and she rarely updates, she was listed as single. However, I did not look into a great deal into this, so if you would like, I can do some more checking."

"That won't be necessary; I was just curious. And you think she is a good candidate for the position?"

"I'm not a big fan of massages, but from what I can tell, she is a well-rounded person, nothing too hokey to be going on. She seems to keep to herself.