By My Side [JENLISA FF]

Part 1

Hongjun Park paused for a moment and looked at the plate on the large building. 'LM Investigations' it said. What a strange name, he thought. But then the whole situation was. When he had married Janice ten years ago and looked into her daughter's smiling face, he'd never thought it would lead him here. he took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

The outer office was bright and sunny, with large windows and lots of green plants standing around. All in all, it was a very welcoming atmosphere, and Park was relieved. This wasn't what he had expected, a hidden office, dark and strange, he laughed inwardly, he'd certainly watched to many Bogart-movies. Opposite to the door was a large desk where a beautiful young brunette was sitting and chatting to a dark-haired man. The way they were looking at each other made it obvious that they were more than colleagues.

He shut the door loudly to announce his presence, and both people looked towards him. The woman smiled and stood up: "Mr. Park," she said. When she saw the puzzled look on his face, she grinned: "Yaya, I am Yaya, don't you remember?"

"Oh, yes. My god, of course. I am so sorry, I didn't recognize you at first, but you've changed," he told her.

She laughed: "I hope I can take that as a compliment."

"It was meant to be one," he smiled now as well and extended his hand. "It is nice to meet you again." Then he looked at the man.

Yaya followed his eyes: "Mr. Park, this is Nadech, he also works here. " she made a little pause. "And he is also my husband," she added.

His eyes widened in surprise: "You are married! What a surprise. My congratulations."

"Thank you. We've been married for six months now." She looked at her husband: "Hon, this is Mr. Park, he was the librarian at our high school and Jennie's stepfather."

Nadech frowned: "Jennie? Oh yes, the new case. Nice to meet you, Mr. Park."

The other man nodded to greet him, and Yaya smiled again: "So, from what Mark's told me, Jennie's in trouble."

Park face became serious: "You can say that," he sighed. "Very serious trouble, I fear."

"I see," Yaya took his hand and led him towards another door. "I think you have to tell us the whole story, but for this, we should go to Lisa's office." She knocked at the door and then went in without waiting for a reply. Nadech followed on their heels.

At a large wooden desk sat a woman who stood up when the three entered. Park was surprised to see she was quite young, around her late twenties, he guessed. She was tall, with dark hair and a pretty handsome face. The type of woman found attractive, but she had a serious face, not very common in people of her age.

Yaya introduced them to each other: "Mr. Park, this is Lisa Manoban, my boss," she grinned for a moment. "Lisa, this is Mr. Park, I have told you about him."

They shook hands, and Lisa pointed to a chair. When everyone had sat down, she asked: "Now, Mr. Park. Yaya told me that you might need our help," she put her arms on the table and leaned a little bit forward. "Maybe we should just start with you telling me the whole story, and then we will see what I can do for your daughter."

Park nodded: "Yes," he began. "I think this would be the best." he took a deep breath: "First of all, you should know that I am not Jennie's real father, although my feelings towards her are alike. Jennie is 22 now, and it is no understatement to say that she had a very colorful life, at least in the last six years. Her father died when she was ten, and although she seemed fine, I think it was much harder on her than anyone noticed. Me and her mother got married only two years later, and she had a hard time accepting a new man in her mother's life, but in the end, she did, and we became quite close. However, around her 15th birthday, she had a crush on a young man who was called GD. He was older than her, but none of us took that too serious, we all thought it was just a young girl's dream and would pass after a while. But it didn't. On the contrary, it became closer, and she began to change. She became more aggressive; she would just stay away for a night without telling anyone. She wasn't interested in her old friends anymore and some other things. So, I tried to find out about that GD-guy and what I heard was anything but promising. He was in a gang, and he also had something to do with drugs. We were very concerned about Jennie and tried to talk to her, but she wouldn't listen, her mother was worried sick and so we forbid any further contact."

He let out a short laugh when he saw Lisa looking at her doubtfully: "As you've already guessed, this was a fault. As a result, she grew further apart from us. And one night, she just disappeared. First, we thought it was just one her usual one-night-stay-away trips, but then we got a card in which she told us, not to look for her and that she was old enough to decide on her own." he shortly closed his eyes, still clearly remembering the desperation he had felt that morning when he'd found the note in the mailbox. "Well, as you can guess, we tried to find her. But without any success. As I know today, she stayed in contact with one of her friends. Jisoo. You will probably meet her. She wrote to her, and Jisoo sent letters back about four or five times a year. But Jennie swore her friend to secrecy. Otherwise, she would not write again, so Jisoo did not tell anyone."

"I am sure she thought she would lose the contact if she did," Lisa threw in. "This way, she would at least have been able to contact her in a case of emergency."

Hongjun smiled slightly: "I know. And I am not angry anymore, although I was, I have to admit that. However. We didn't know where she was, and it came almost as a shock when Jisoo phoned us three weeks ago and told us that Jennie was missing. This time is really missing. She had been living with a friend, called Anna. As Jisoo told us, Jennie left GD when she was eighteen, and as she was quite brutal, she hid from him with Anna. They were living in LA, you cannot imagine what we felt, when we found out that she had been here for four years. Jisoo then persuaded Anna to contact us, and she told us that GD had found Jennie two days before she disappeared. And then, three days later, GD was found dead, and Jennie was beside him, standing with the gun in her hands."

Lisa nodded and looked at Yaya, who was scribbling all the time to get the details. Nadech was sitting at her side with a serious face. "I see," the young investigator said. "Where is Jennie now?"

"She is still in prison. They arrested her right where they found her, standing beside her ex-boyfriend. Tomorrow, the judge will decide if they set her free until the trial. I have contacted a lawyer who is a friend of mine, and he has spoken to my daughter, but she does not talk a lot. Maybe she is still in shock, but personally, I think she does not want us to know anything. The only thing she is very clear about is that she did not shoot GD. But the police are sure she is guilty."

Lisa nodded again: "So you want us to find out who really killed this GD guy, right?"

"Yes," Mr. Park looked at her hands and then back at the young girl: "Do you think you can help us? Mark, a friend of Jennie and Yaya, gave me your address. He talked to Yaya about it and ..."

"I know," Lisa raised a hand. "And I am willing to help you. But we will need your daughter's cooperation. That means first of all, I need to talk to her. Do you think I could see her?"

"Of course, you can talk to her. I am going to see her in jail this afternoon. If you want, you can come with me," Park replied enthusiastically. For the first time, he had a positive feeling about this. The young woman seemed to know what she was doing.

"Fine. Then please leave the address where we are going to meet with Yaya. What time?"

"At four."

"Good. So, we see each other at four." Lisa stood up, and the others did the same. "Mr. Park. We will do what we can to help your daughter, and if she is really innocent, we will do all we can to prove it."

******

special guest star: Nadech Kugimiya & Yaya Urassaya Sperbund