Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing "Where is home?" ^ v ^
So many questions, OliviaAnne * v * And we'll know the answers to them soon. How soon, though, I'm not sure I can tell you. After all, people are running toward Amsterdam now, hehe !
LOL! I got all of you there on that last chapter. ^ v ^ I'm glad a lot of people seemed to like that part. I was actually amazed that FallenRaindrops thought about it before I uploaded the chapter.
If I'm not mistaken, silentdove93, your question concerns it's this part:
Lin froze. "Uh...What about Shibuya Kazuya?"
The woman shook her head, chuckling. "No," she said smiling. "No, Sheep boo yah Cashew yeah."
And the part Lin tried hard not to laugh at was how the woman heard "Shibuya Kazuya" as "Sheep boo yah Cashew yeah." And no, "Sheep boo yah Cashew yeah" isn't supposed to be a Dutch phrase. It's just...how the woman heard it since she wasn't supposed to be familiar with Japanese names. * v *
Ooh and Aoi Kistukawa's doing an awesome job on the cover for "Where is home?" Let's cheer Aoi on! ^ v ^
So I had some spare time yesterday. But I can't promise it will have that much 'happenings' or 'action' yet because the characters are not yet in their proper places. ^ v ^
Anyway, here's this week's chapter. Do tell me what you think about it!
"They are not there?" Baehler asked, clearly surprised at the outcome of Lin's trip to the Mortimer property. "Are you sure?"
"Yes," Lin said, riding a cab back to town. He didn't know what to do next. He hadn't told what happened to anyone other than Baehler. Lin was sure he saw Noll. But not seeing him in the Mortimer property would be evidence against what he saw.
Madoka, Luella and Martin were already on a train to Amsterdam. If Lin called them about the outcome of his trip to the Mortimer manor, they might Noll really wasn't who Lin saw, and they might decide to go back to England.
"I am quite sure," Lin said. "Could there be, by chance, another property of Mortimer's here in Amsterdam?"
After all, this was Noll. It wouldn't be Noll if Lin and Baehler had easily figured his hideing place out.
He heard Baehler hum in deep thought. "I'll try to check the properties again," he said. "I might have missed something. If they hid a property that tightly, I'm guessing it was acquired decades ago and had been under a different name since then. What do you plan to do now?"
"Well," Lin said. "If Noll and Taniyama-san went on a Ghost Walk, that means they're playing tourists."
Baehler chuckled. "So you're going to play with them, eh?"
Lin looked at restaurants and shopping stalls outside the cab's window. "I just realized I'm taking things too seriously here," he said. "I saw them when I wasn't looking for them. Perhaps if I don't look for them, they'll come my way. And I've been quite an overworked assistant. I think I deserve a good vacation."
Baehler laughed. "Don't forget 'soon to be hitched,'" he said. "I'll be there by later this evening – in time to take you to the beautiful district of red lights! Nothing wrong with playing while Madoka, I mean, the cat is away."
Lin chuckled. "Madoka's going to kill me when she hears about this," he said. He then spotted the road that led to the famous Saturday market.
Perhaps Noll and Taniyama Mai had been to the place...or were, at that moment, checking out one of the stalls.
Lindengracht could be a good place to ask about them.
Naru opened the package he received, expecting to see the documents he requested to be sent from Tokyo.
He was sitting on in his office chair, ripping the package box, when Mai walked in with the cup of tea he requested.
"Here you go," Mai said placing the cup on his table. She watched him pull out an envelope from the package. "Work..?"
"No," Naru answered, opening the envelope and taking a peak at what was inside. He then pulled out a booklet...or better yet, a passport.
Mai stared shocked at him.
Were they again going to go somewhere using false passports? Perhaps their current passports had been traced by whoever Naru didn't want to see, hence the new set of passports.
Then Mai noticed something else on the passports.
She gasped.
Naru ignored her reaction and flipped the passport open to check its content.
"Th-Those are..."
"...Japanese passports, yes," Naru answered placing the passport down on the table and fishing out another Japanese passport from the envelope.
"You had fake Japanese passports made?" Mai asked.
Naru looked up at her – a bored expression on his face. He then offered the passport he pulled out from the envelope, to Mai.
Mai shyly took it and flipped it open. She gasped, for the second time, upon seeing the contents.
It had her picture, of course, and her name...Her name! Taniyama Mai! Single! It even had an address in Shibuya - Emi-san's address!
"That's an authentic passport," Naru said. "Lose it, and you won't be able to get out of the country."
Mai looked up at Naru. "B-but how did you..?"
Naru checked the other contents of the envelope. "I'm not you," he said.
Mai frowned and glared at him. "Jerk!" she spat. "Don't I need this passport stamped in the airport or somewhere here in Amsterdam since I'm here? If I try to get out of the country and they notice my passport isn't marked-"
"It's not marked?" Naru asked, raising a brow at her.
Mai stiffened. She hadn't really checked yet.
She checked the pages and for the third time that hour, gasped. It was marked. It had evidence of her flight from Japan to England, and from England to the Netherlands.
Naru looked down at the contents of the envelope that he was yet to pull out.
Mai looked at Naru. "Are these supposed to be authentic too?" she naively asked.
"Of course not," he answered. "...At least for now."
Mai sighed and sat down on the chair in front of the office table. "You never seize to amaze me," she sighed.
Naru kept his eyes on the papers that he was pulling out of the envelope. "Certainly," he replied.
Mai smirked and rolled her eyes. She stood up and walked to stand behind his chair. She slinked her arms around his neck and leaned her head on his own. She closed her eyes and inhaled the clean scent of his hair.
Naru dropped the envelope on the table, swerved his chair around and pulled Mai to sit on his lap.
Mai chuckled as he tightly held her close.
She sighed and rested her head on the crook of his neck. It was then that she realized the tension Naru had in his body. His heartbeat was beating hard against his chest. And he was breathing deeply.
She looked up at his face.
His eyes were fixed at nowhere, deep in thought.
"We're leaving soon," she whispered.
"Eventually," he answered.
"I love you," she whispered again.
Naru smirked and looked down at her face. "Do you now?" he asked.
Mai frowned. "Haven't I been showing it already?"
Naru chuckled and lightly kissed her lips. "What time are you leaving?"
Mai thought for a moment. "Some time this afternoon..?"
Naru sighed and shook his head. "You haven't called Iris yet, have you?"
Mai smiled and shook her head. "But we have an unspoken bond you know," she said. "We're scheduled to meet today. We just don't know what time. She'll just be in Lindengracht today anyway...Which reminds me." She leaned away and looked at Naru. "Want me to buy you anything?"
"See if there's any Bakewell Tarts there," Naru said.
Mai thought for a moment. "Hmm...I think I remember seeing one in that cafe I told you about," she said. "How many do you want?"
"Just enough for the two us," he said, pulling something from his pocket.
"No, I have money," Mai said, holding his hand to keep him from fishing out his wallet.
"Yes, you do," he said ignoring her.
Mai frowned. "I'll stop loving you if you pull out your wallet this very minute," she warned.
Naru looked up at her. He just stared at her for a moment. "Is that supposed to threaten me?"
Mai sighed and stood up from his lap. "Fine," she muttered. "It's just that...You've already spent so much for the passports, and the house, and-"
"If the Bakewell tarts are too expensive, I'll give you money to buy it," Naru said.
Mai stared at him.
She didn't know the price of the tart. So she can't tell Naru if it's too expensive or not, and he...won't be able to give her money to buy it.
Mai smiled widely at him. "Okay!" she said. "...If it's too expensive."
Naru nodded and turned his chair to face his desk.
"I'll be downstairs!" she said as she trotted to the door - her passport in tucked in her pocket.
"Don't forget to keep that passport somewhere safe!" Naru said as Mai vanished into the hall.
"Yes, boss!" she yelled out from the bedroom.
Naru smirked.
Knowing Mai, she would spend all her money buying the tart and she still won't tell him it was too expensive.
He looked down at the documents on his desk. They were all filed in neatly labelled folders. He opened one and saw pictures on the page – a two-storey building somewhere in Shibuya with a cafe on the ground floor.
"Hmm," Naru said, checking the other pictures included in the folder which were mainly pictures of the upper floor's interior. One picture showed a kitchen with tiled counters and built in cabinets.
It didn't look as spacious as his office in England, but it seemed good enough to receive clients.
"Charlotte," Masako said as she sat across Charlotte in the coach of the train.
They were on their way to Amsterdam from Brussels. She was sitting next to Charlotte, who was busy doing something on her smartphone. Charlotte's detectives sat in front of them, dowsing off, since they left Brussels early in the morning.
Masako and Charlotte had been silent for the past hour of the trip. Tired of staring at the sights passing by the window, she summoned up her courage and tried to open up a conversation with Charlotte.
"Yes?" Charlotte asked.
"What will you do when you see Oliver?" Masako asked.
Charlotte raised her eyes from the mobile phone and stared at the seat in front of her. "I'll call his name," she answered. "I might even run to him, hold him tight in my arms..."
Masako tried not to feel upset at her answer. "And then..?"
"I'll tell him we've been looking all over for him," she said, looking at the drammatic image of her and Noll that she had dreamed for the past weeks. "And that he should go home and that we'll take care of whatever it is that he's trying to do with that horrible woman."
"You'll really do that?" Masako asked.
Charlotte looked at Masako. "You wouldn't..?"
Masako looked out at the window. "I don't know," she said.
Charlotte smirked. "It's that priest you talk to on the phone every night, isn't it?"
Masako raised her brow at Charlotte.
Charlotte snickered. "You're in love with him!" she said. "I guess there's no point in treating you rudely now."
Masako frowned. "Did you hear what you just said?" she asked. "And how did you even know about my conversations with Fr. Brown? For your information, he was a good friend of Oliver's and he's also very much worried about Oliver's whereabouts."
"Please," Charlotte sighed. "We're not teenagers anymore, though you still look like a toddler."
Masako looked out at the window. "Yes, I do look far younger than you," she said. "...Even though we're supposed to be of the same age, you look more like you're ten years older than me."
"I DO NOT!" Charlotte exclaimed. "You don't see any wrinkles on me!" she said, touching her face and making sure it was as smooth as she remembered.
"Wrinkles aren't the only things that make people look old," Masako said. "That might even be the reason why he chose to go with Mai – you look so much older for your age."
"That's not true!" Charlotte hissed. "That woman kidnapped him – forced him into leaving his family in that awful way!"
Masako looked at Charlotte. "But what if it was really the other way around?" she asked. "What if it was Oliver who decided to run away with her?"
"It's not what happened!" Charlotte said. "And that's a fact!"
"You have no evidence to prove it," Masako said.
"And do you have evidence to prove that it was otherwise?" Charlotte asked.
Masako didn't speak. Memories of seeing Oliver sleeping on the hospital bed with Mai Davis flashed in her mind.
"No," she said. "I don't."
"Exactly," Charlotte said. "Now tell me if you want to get out of this expedition because I'll be more than welcome to say 'hi' to him in your behalf."
Masako sighed. Why was she even thinking that way? Why was she thinking such things when they were so close to finding Oliver?
"Short brown hair..?" Iris asked.
"Yes," Lin answered.
He decided to ask people around for Noll and Taniyama Mai while checking the stalls in Lindengracht. Many of the regular businessmen in the area didn't seem to have seen them. But a police in the area told him he spotted people that matched his description.
Apparently, a man matching Noll's description asked him to assist a drunk, flirting prostitute in getting a cab. The policeman said the man was married though, to a young Asian woman that matched Taniyama Mai's description.
Though the being 'married' part seemed off as a description for Noll and Mai, this was the closest Lin had found in his search so he had to believe it was his charge and his charge's girl that the police saw.
The police said one of the dress shop owners seemed to know the couple. And he pointed him to the direction of a stall that at that moment was being overseen by a young woman named Iris.
"We have a lot of tourists with brown hair around here, sir," Iris said chuckling. "You have to be more specific. Just a week ago, a number of people matching your description got involved in a commotion concerning a thief."
Lin nodded. She was right. They encountered quite a lot of tourists. What were the odds of them seeing a young woman with short brown hair, and brown eyes; and a tall young man with black hair and blue eyes in the market place?
"I have photographs," Lin said, remembering something he made sure he took with him before he left England. He fished out his wallet from his coat pocket, and from its sleeves pulled out two photographs – one was a copy of the photo that the press used when they published an article about Noll's academic achievement, and the other was a printed photo of a smiling Taniyama Mai in high school. It was from the photograph Emi-san had in her house. Madoka took a photo of it using her mobile phone to help them with the search.
Lin showed them to Iris.
Iris' eyes went wide.
"Where are you?" Naru asked from the other end of the line.
Mai sighed, standing next to a stall as crowds of tourists and regular customers passed her by.
Before she left the house, Naru advised her again to not talk to strangers, even if they were just asking for the time. She found it a bit absurd, but Naru was supposed to be a smart person so she didn't argue with him about it.
"I'm in Lindengracht now," Mai answered, looking around and holding her mobile phone against her ear. She soon spotted the stall she wanted to see and smiled. "I'm just a few stalls away from Iris' stall. Oh! I see her right now! She's just assisting a customer. A very tall...Hey! I think he's Asian!"
"MAI," Naru warned from the other end of the line. "What did I tell you?"
"But he's Asian!" Mai said seeing the man pointing to something he was showing to Iris. "He's probably even Japanese! Maybe he doesn't know how to speak Dutch or English and he might need my help."
She suddenly realized something.
Had he seen the man before..? She was sure she hadn't met him personally but...in her dreams..? Something inside her told her she had seen him before, with Gene and Noll, in one of her dreams...
"Mai, your Dutch is only good for greeting people, answering 'yes' and 'no' questions and asking the price of market goods," Naru said. "And if he got here in Amsterdam, he must have at least known enough English to-" Then something hit him. "...Japanese? How tall is he?"
