A Life with Him [VegasXPete]

CHAPTER 25

VEGAS

“So, here’s what I found about the case...”

Vegas had just sat right in front of Kim, who was focused on the screen of his laptop since they got in the restaurant and found a table to sit. The place was crowded and there were waiters walking everywhere, but Vegas was still able to do a quick check run around the place, just seeing if they were being followed by someone they didn’t knew.

The boiling broth right in the middle of the table was filling the air with a unique aroma, one that Pete would’ve loved, Vegas thought. Honestly, Vegas wasn’t a big fan of Asian cuisine, but he promised Pete he would at least try the famous Taiwanese hotpot. So, when a kind waitress came to place the hotpot on the table along with all the side dishes that accompanied it, Vegas’s initial thought was to eat only the rice, but a promise is a promise after all, right?

“You should at least try to eat something.” Vegas said while grabbing the chopsticks right beside his plate. “You’ve been focused on that thing for hours now.”

Right after leaving Hsiu-Yang's bar, Kim thought it would be better if they tried to find something about ChiaoXiang’s case. According to what Lin Sang said to them, the case must’ve happened at least 30 years ago; finding something about it wouldn’t be easy, but Vegas had no idea of how frustrating that would be. It's been two hours since they started searching and nothing was found, not even a piece of newspaper that briefly showed the case.

“I’m not hungry.” Kim said, his eyes still locked on his laptop. “I rarely do get hungry when I’m frustrated.”

Vegas rolled his eyes at his cousin. Yes, there wasn’t anything he wanted more than just finish what they were in Taiwan for and hurry back to his fiancée, but starving themselves and staying up all night would only make them weak and therefore, vulnerable.  

And that was something Vegas couldn’t afford to be.

“Have you even found something really meaningful?” Vegas asked while drowning a thin slice of raw meat into the boiling broth. “You said you found something three times before this one and none of them were really about the case we’re looking for.”

Kim looked at Vegas like he had just slapped him on the face or something like that.

“Well, it is indeed quite strange that a case like this wouldn’t have even a headline about it. I mean, come on, it’s a murder case, it should be documented.” Kim started. “But I did find something about it. And I believe it’s something quite solid this time.”

Kim turned the laptop, carefully, towards Vegas’s direction and showed him the screen. It was a photo of an old newspaper, which the headline with big black capital letters showed the phrase “Economic Outburst”. For a moment, Vegas stared the photo confused, but then, he saw a small text, which the title was “Mother who killed husband is condemned to prison after popular jury”.

“Right... what makes you think this is our case?” Vegas asked.

Kim just looked at Vegas with annoyance and decided to pretend he didn’t even asked that to him.

“The text doesn’t even talk about the crime, only about how the court was sure of its decision and when she was going to be admitted to the definitive facility.” Kim explained. “Doesn’t have her name, the facility’s name or even the slight amount of information about the crime itself.”

“That’s why I think this piece of information is not trustable at all. What do we do to make sure that this is talking about ChiaoXiang’s mother?”

“I thought the same thing until I search about the person who wrote this part of the news.” Kim explained. “That’s a little trick Kinn taught me when I used to live in the house. You can know so much more about what you’re reading when you know about the author behind it...”