Tam's head throbbed in time with her step. Step, pound, step, pound. She followed Jasper down a narrow street near the Los Angeles River, a glorified alleyway really, that abutted the raised concrete pillars of the 101. A fence topped with spirals of barbed wire meant to keep people from loitering under the freeway had utterly failed in its mission. Signs of human activity and habitation were crammed into every crevice of the freeway's undercarriage. She couldn't imagine how people got in there, but she could understand why they'd tried. It was about as private as you could get if you had no building to refuge in.

Along the opposite side of the street, low windowless buildings clung to their surroundings. Concrete on concrete next to concrete. It was hard to imagine Goldie ever coming near this place when even Tam's moderately ramshackle apartment complex made her uncomfortable. Jasper seemed to share Tam's opinion. "This can't be right. There's not a single Gucci wearing corporate sycophant in sight."

The location was indeed a strange choice for an office associated with a high-end makeup conglomerate. The idea of Goldie walking this back street had a disorientating effect on Tam. When she was little, she had a cat that brought birds inside whenever her mom left the door ajar. The cat would release the bird and it would flap around, injured and frantic, not understanding what the inside of a house was or how to escape from it. That's how she imagined Goldie as she set out to meet Aiden here. Barbed wire and dirty concrete walls, and a goldfinch trapped between them.

Jasper came to a stop in front of a building that had been painted what Tam presumed had once been a cheerful green, now more of a testament to a long begotten time when someone had cared enough to put in a little effort.

Jasper pulled on the handle of the building's black metal door. It didn't give. He jostled it and then came to stand next to Tam so they could stare at the building together.

"So, this is a dead end." She touched the tender welt near the back of her head. This morning, it was this wound, where Aiden had first hit her, that was giving her the most grief. "Paul must have given you the wrong information."

"Maybe." Jasper approached the door again, leaning against it and framing his head with his hands so he could peer through the door's tiny barred window. "There's someone in there." He knocked again.

Pound, throb, pound, throb.

"You're going to split my head open, Jasper."

He shifted his weight and stepped to the side. "They're coming. It's... it's not Aiden."

The mystery person cracked open the door. A woman, shorter than Tam and about the same age, squinted into the bright sunlight. "If you're looking for Shim Consultants, they aren't here anymore."

"I'm not sure if they're what I'm looking for or not." Jasper flashed the woman his best EpiGold smile. "Hi, I'm Jasper."

The woman opened the door a bit wider. "Yes, I recognize you."

"Great! Can we come in?"

"Why would you want to do that? I already told you, there's nothing here." She moved aside enough to allow them to peer over her shoulder. The space stretched back about fifty feet or so. Nothing but floor and walls and a cart with cleaning supplies. "They hired me to tidy up after they left."

"Who hired you?" Tam tried to make eye contact, but it was hard for her to judge over the pounding of her head whether she came off as friendly or aggressive.

The woman puckered her face. "I told you, it was Shim Consultants. But they're gone now."

"Gone where, exactly?" Talk, throb, talk throb. "Whoever it is that you're protecting, they aren't worth it. Tell us what you know."

"Who I'm protecting?" The woman stepped away, suspicion furrowing her brow.

"Tam," Jasper nudged her. "What the fuck?"

"I'm just here to clean." She started to close the door again. "They didn't tell me their plans. You should go now."

Jasper leaned against the door frame. "Don't pay attention to my friend here. She's in a bad mood and has terrible interpersonal skills. We aren't trying to be pushy, but I have important business with Aiden Park and this was the address I was given. Without your help, I don't know what I'll do."

The woman untensed her muscles as she gawked at Jasper. "Oh, Mr. Park? He's probably on his boat."

"His boat?"

"Yes. He has one of those big boats. What do you call them?"

"A yacht?"

"Right. One of those. He kept pictures of it in his office. Framed like it was his child's school picture. Every time I went in there to empty the trash, he'd show me it, say "isn't she beautiful?' She. I remember that. I thought at first, he was talking about his wife or girlfriend until I saw the picture. Pretty sure he loves that thing more than his own mother."

"Where is it's moored?"

She bit her lip. "Are you going to give him trouble?"

"Why would we do that?"

The woman paused. "You have no idea what these people are like. Mr. Park, the most normal thing about him was how he obsessed over his boat. Normal for rich people, I mean. I didn't like him, or anyone else really, but Shim paid me to do my job discretely. You get that?"

"Not exactly."

"I signed a form. One of those...the document they make women sign when powerful men sexually harass them."

"An NDA?"

"Yeah. Weird to make your cleaning lady sign one but that's what happened."

"Miss... what's your name?"

"I'd rather not say."

"Okay, Miss Anonymous, we aren't asking you to air any dirty laundry. Just the name of the marina. That's it."

"You don't understand." She glanced out at the street, then ushered them inside, only now seeming to understand it was best if no one saw them. "After today I'm out of a job. So, if I'm going to tell you where Aiden might be, you're going to have to make it worth my while."

#

When Tam was a little girl, before Emelina was born and a host of other things had occurred, Tam's mother had taken her on a one-dollar boat ride around the Marina del Rey Marina. That had been funny to her, the name Marina del Rey Marina. It felt like a song when her mother said the whole thing out loud. She'd loved the shiny boats perched in tidy rows, tucked behind a narrow stretch of land that separated it from the ocean. Afterwards, they'd completed the day by walking up Venice Beach. They played a game where one of them would point to a person and they'd create a story about which boat they owned and all the places they'd voyaged to in it. Then they'd imagine themselves on one of those boats. They'd sail to Tahiti or the Panama Canal and up into the Caribbean.

In a storm of memories, those days had held a rare calm. She remembered it now as the eye of a hurricane. Her mother had experienced trouble by then and there would be more trouble to come. But the boats, whose proper names and functions she would never grasp, existed to Tam as a fantasy world that couldn't be touched by the ravages of disaster.

Now, the marina still retained its order, boats organized by length in the same neat lines she remembered from when she was seven. But the fantasy world, that happy memory she'd carried aside so many unhappy ones, had been contaminated. Somewhere, in one of the slips they were headed to, was a bad man. A man who had bashed in her head and would have done worse if Jasper hadn't been there. A man who had persuaded Goldie to sign her life away. A man who, if his balled-up fists and steely glare were any indication, Jasper would murder if he could.

"We came to talk to the guy. We aren't seeking vengeance and we don't even know if he's guilty. Keep an open mind, Jasper."

"An open mind about his guilt? Jesus, he tried to kill you, this guy is not innocent."

"I was talking about Goldie. Her death. We don't have any proof that he did it, or that he was even involved."

"That's why we're here, right? To get proof. But I don't need proof that he killed Goldie to want vengeance. I've already seen what this piece of shit is capable of doing to women."

"Right, but I'm saying, reel it in. If we can't be subtle, we might not get answers."

Jasper nodded to the yacht in front of them. Along the side of its hull, its name, Knot Yours was printed in squiggly black letters. "Something tells me this guy doesn't comprehend subtle."

The boat's long aerodynamic bow glistened in the sun. "Are you sure this is it?"

A flash of red from the deck caught their attention. The red was a short sleeve button down shirt, and in that shirt, Aiden Park had seen them and clearly decided this wasn't a good thing. Before she could determine what to do, Jasper had bounded up the gangplank.

"Stop!" he yelled.

Aiden didn't stop, instead heading towards the bow. She had to wonder what his endgame was. There was nowhere for him to go from there. Tam couldn't make her feet move off the pier and onto the boat. She'd wanted to come and confront this man who had assaulted her for no good reason and now, her heart felt like it might give out. She watched instead, as Aiden paused and Jasper didn't.

"Get off my boat!" Aiden yelled at him.

Jasper seemed incapable of following such direction, but if Aiden's words couldn't stop him, possibly the shiny metal object that appeared from Aiden's waistband could.

"Jasper, look out!" Tam screamed and now her feet worked again, fueled by adrenalin and terror. She dashed up the gangplank, expecting to hear the ear-piercing crack of the gun firing with each step.

Tam's scream had thrown Aiden. He paused to glance in her direction. A flicker, no more. But it was enough. Tam had just boarded the boat when Jasper collided with Aiden. The gun went flying, and so did the men, an entangled mass pushed over the handrail and into the water below.

______

It's safe to say, confronting Aiden on his yacht has not gone to plan. What now? Is Jasper toast? Will Aiden escape? How long will I make you wait to find out?

More to come, so stay tuned!