A car halts
outside the fences, and he glanced the security guard manning the
gate who then checks it out. The starless skies and the cloud-covered
moonlight isn't helping his already blurry vision, so he walked
closer to have a look, and there he sees the white cab and the person
he'd been waiting for more than an hour now.
Cornea Marie
steps down from the taxi and walks toward the gate. She sees Alfredo
through the iron-grilled gates and she makes a calculated smile. The
guard looks back at him as he nods then proceeds to open the gates.
“Good evening po Ma'am”, he greets, acting surprised to find a
person completely opposite of what he expects.
“Good evening too,” Cornea greets back with a charming smile. She walks through the gate and waves at Alfredo with a friendly rapport, “Hell-Ow, what's up?”
“You're
late.” Alfredo remarks with annoyance.
“Sorry man,
its the holiday traffic! We couldn't get through EDSA. Plus, I didn't
know what to wear.” Cornea quips, glancing down at her clothes.
She's wearing a peach-colored wrap skirt, a pair of low heel ankle
boots, a white beaded tank top covered by a peach open front cardigan
and a peach bow felt cloche hat.
“Please,
just for once, when I tell you to dress up, I mean dress up for a
client meeting, not for a cocktail party. Come on, get inside.”
Cornea Marie purses her lips, stopping herself from laughing hard.
She enjoys teasing this old man with the clothes she wear during
client meetings, but she couldn't dare rouse him in anger. She
follows Alfredo inside the house.
Its
forty-five minutes past midnight, but the people inside the Forbes
park mansion of the Baltazars are all wide awake. Alfredo and Cornea
are greeted in what appears to be a library or a mini-office. At the
middle of the room is a desk, and around are a couple of chairs.
Alfredo introduces Cornea to the head of the family, Mr. Joel
Baltazar, and to the rest; Amanda Baltazar, his wife, Valerie, their
first-born daughter, and Atty. Ortiga, the family's legal counsel.
Joel signals
Alfredo to come near and whispers, “Are you sure about this? She
looks like she's as old as my daughter.”
“Joe, you
told me you wanted the best person from my team and I assure you she
is the person in my team.
She's a bit childish, yes, and a little showy, but she's very smart,
efficient, and she solves cases faster than any agent I have. If you
want someone to find your daughter as quickly as possible, you can be
sure it would be her. Trust me on this.”
Joel
straightens up and reaches for Cornea's hand in greeting, “Good
evening Miss Cornea, I hope we are not interrupting you from
anything, but we are facing a serious matter, and we need your help.”
“Its a pleasure to be of help, Sir.” Cornea sits herself down at
the desk's receiving chair, “Fill me in on the details, if you
would.”
“Ok.” Alfredo struggles to reach for words, “At around 5 PM
this afternoon, our middle daughter..”
“Oh, wait,” Cornea interrupts and opens her shoulder bag reaching for her tablet computer. She sets it up on the desk and opens a voice recorder app. “For documentary purposes.”
“Ok, I understand. At around 5 PM this afternoon, our daughter
Veronica, we call her Nica and she's the same age as you I think,
asked my permission to go to this Christmas party at one of her
friend's house. I told her to go with her driver but she refused,
telling me that she'll be fetched by Dylan, her best friend. We know
him enough to trust him with her, and they always go to parties
together. Dylan arrived shortly and they went out at around 6 or 7.
You see, we're used to this kind of lifestyle that she has, so she
and us never really texted around for details of where she is or
whatnot, we just wait for her to come home. Then at around 10 PM her
Mom received a call from her phone, but no one is talking from the
other line. She heard noises and the sound of the car engine, but
she..”
“I thought she just pocket-dialed it or something, I never really
gave it a thought.” Mrs. Baltazar interrupted.
“Right.” Mr. Baltazar continues, “Then at around 10:15, she
received a text from her number”, his wife passes her smart phone
to Joel and he shows Cornea the text message:
Nasa
amin po ang anak n'yo. Ligtas siya sa ngayon pero pag di n'yo po
binigay ang gusto namin, mapapahamak po siya.
“We
texted back”, Mr. Baltazar continues, “but they never replied.”
Cornea looks at the line of text that follows, Sino ka?
Asan ang anak ko? “Then we
called her number, nobody's answering. But I got a call on my
phone...”
“Wait, do you mind?” Cornea asks as she reaches for Mrs.
Baltazar's smartphone. “I'll just copy the messages to my phone.”
She looks at Amanda who hesitates for a moment but Joel gave her a
look, “Its alright.” He says, “You can copy everything.”
Cornea brings up her smartphone and starts sending the message via
Bluetooth. She places both phones on the desk and they continue the
conversation. “So what happened next?”
“So a man called me on my phone”, Joel shows Cornea the number,
“and he told me that they indeed have my daughter, Nica, and he
asks how much do I love my daughter, and I told him I love her, and
he asked me again if my daughter is worth 20 million pesos, and I
told him I don't have that kind of money, and he told me, bullshit,
and he wants the money before Christmas eve, or he'll be sending us
her head wrapped in a bow, his exact words.” he recounts, choking
on the words.
“Oooh, brutal Santa,” Cornea jests. When no one laughs, she
looks back at Alfredo who squints his eyes on her and she apologizes.
“That's
the last communication we had with her kidnappers, we presumed that
they'll contact us again to give us details for the exchange, and
that's the time we called Alfredo here, I know about his security and
private investigation business. He went down and he told me he'd call
you, his best agent.”
After hearing that, Cornea looks at Alfredo and winks.
Cornea and the couple passed a few glances and after toying with
Mrs. Baltazar's smart phone and hers for a minute, she speaks. “To
tell you the truth, I know Veronica, or, yeah, Nica. Though we
haven't really met in person. I saw her once or twice in a club
somewhere. To be honest, she's a bit of a bitch, really, no offense,
but she saw me once staring at her boyfriend, or whatever, and she's
like 'stop looking at my guy you little slut', and I'm like 'I'm not
gonna steal him away from you, even though I can, you stupid bitch'
and that's it.”
Joel and Amanda glanced at each other looking unsurprised, “we
never talked,” Cornea continues, “I don't know if you got that,
we just stared at each other; but we could've scalped each others
head off if only we're not decent human beings.”
“Thank you for honesty,” Joel answers, “We know our daughter
enough and we're really not surprised about her behavior.”
“I'm glad you do. That would've been awkward.” Cornea smiles
wryly. “Now, there's something missing here. This looks like a
serious matter, why call us? Why not call the police? You're a pretty
prominent family, I know there are people out there who's in your
pockets, some even from the military. Why us?”
“That's where things get complicated. You see, this isn't exactly
the first time this happened..”
“She's been kidnapped before?”
“No, not exactly that, but you could say so...” Joel answers in
hesitation. “Last year, she have been kidnapped, while on her way to
school, and the kidnappers were asking for 2 million pesos. We called
the police, the NBI, and even some of my friends from the army, and
we tried to track her kidnappers for almost two days. Then it turned
out it was a hoax and she made it all up, she faked her kidnapping to
gain 2 million pesos. It was an embarrassment, really, it was a huge
scandal for our family. We asked the media not to mention our
daughter's name in the news, but still, we were ashamed of the whole
incident.”
Cornea now remembers, the “Kidnap me” modus that went out on the
news the previous year. Names have been changed but she was pretty
sure back then it involved a very famous family. “So, you want us
to make sure that this is a real kidnapping, and not just one of your
daughter's mischief?”
“You could say that.”
“Now,
assuming that this is another fake kidnapping, why not just give her
the money? You can get it back anyway, right? And, if this is real,
if she was really kidnapped, wouldn't it be easier if you just pay
for the ransom? How much is 20 million pesos for your daughter's
life? Mr. Baltazar, you own half a dozen malls and hundreds of
pawnshops and remittance centers in the country. And you Mrs.
Baltazar, I love your
fashion magazine, I buy it every month, though I still suggest you
should have a subscription scheme or something, I hate walking into
book stores. Why not just do that? Its your daughter's life at
stake.”
“Its not that easy, you see, this past few months, the economy
have not been kind to our companies. Then last month, Yolanda came
and it almost devastated our businesses down south, and we're now in
the process of rehabilitation actually, so we really don't have that
much of money to spare. Plus, we don't want another pile of
embarrassment on our family name.”
Cornea ponders for a moment while looking back and forth at the
faces in the room. Joel and Amanda looks calm, but she can sense
their panic and desperation. Valerie, the eldest, sits nonchalantly
at the far end behind her Mom, and beside her sits their lawyer. At
the other side, Alfredo is standing by the door, and two people from
his agency sits beside him.
“If they call again..” Cornea addresses Alfredo.
“Our people from tech have already tapped into their phones and
their land-line, so if they call again we can listen in, and if we're
lucky, we can trace them. T'hey'll wait here until morning.”
Cornea
fondles Mrs. Baltazar's smartphone some more and hands it back. “So,
I guess that's all I need for now, but please keep your lines open if
ever I need more information. I assure you, Mr. and Mrs. Baltazar, I
will find your daughter. And if this turns out to be another fake
kidnapping, I will
scalp her, literally, if you don't mind.”
“Thank you, Miss...”
“CM. Just call me CM. Good night.” Cornea stands and shakes
Joel's hand.
Outside the office, she pulls Alfredo to the sides and whispers,
“You told them I'm your best agent, wow, color me flattered. I
didn't know you were that proud of me.”
“Don't get me wrong, they needed assurance.”
“Sure they do. Still, I am proud of you for admitting that you are
proud at me. Plus, I know why you gave this case to me anyway.”
“Without Ed, you're the only one who could solve this. Plus, its
Christmastime, almost everyone is on vacation. And you live near.”
“No, no, no. I mean, look at him.” Cornea points at Mr.
Baltazar, “he cares more for his reputation than his daughter's
life. He's very much like my father, except that this guy here
recognizes me for what I can do.”
“Don't make this about you, Cornea, its a job. We get paid. That's
it. Alfredo and I play golf and our companies go way back but he's
not in my circle of friends that I would care about him, his family
or what he does with his money. Keep your mind on the case and we'll
be done before Christmas eve. As for now, I'll escort you back home.
I'll return here to wait for any development, and I'll call you again
tomorrow. Is there any thing else you'll need?”
Cornea
looks at Alfredo. This old man has lost all his soft side since Sir
Ed disappeared, but she knows him well enough to know that he's lying
about not caring about his client. If there's a difference between
her two mentors, Eduardo and Alfredo, is that the latter has heart
while the former is all brains and logic. “Well, since I'll be
moving a lot”, Cornea starts while they're walking outside the
house, “I'm gonna need a ride. And since I don't know how to drive,
I will need a driver.”
“I can get Jennifer to lend you one of the company cars. And Raul
can drive you to anywhere.”
“No. The traffic is killing me, I want something faster and more
accessible. You still have the keys to Sir Ed's garage, right?”
“How many times I've told you, you can't use his motorcycle.”
Cornea shows her charming doe eyes to the old man, and he gives in,
“alright, but be careful. Raul will still drive you though.”
“No, I want someone I know”, Alfredo hands a key from his
pocket to the girl, “Someone I could talk to.”
“Him
again? You know he's suffered
enough, you want him to suffer more?”
“Nah, he'll like it. He enjoys my company.”
“The guy is in love with you. You'll just break his heart.”
“Nah, he's moved on. I'll call him later.”
“Whatever.” The two ride into Alfredo's car and drive off the
through the gates. “Anyway, about the case, you have a lead?”
“Yeah, Mrs. Baltazar's yoga instructor,” Cornea equips out her
smartphone and shows Alfredo the Facebook profile of a young athletic
man.
“Why him?”
“I don't like his face. Plus, the two are having an affair, they
even have a sex video, look.” Cornea shows Alfredo a video of the
yoga instructor pounding Mrs. Baltazar from the behind. “I got it
from her phone after I copied the text messages. Hah!”
Alfredo rolls his eyes and shakes his head in disbelief and drives
away.
**********************
“Hello Tim, its me, CM, I figured you're still awake. I know its
weird calling you at this time, but I need your help with something.
If its ok, could we meet tomorrow, or rather, later, at Sir Ed's
garage? I would really be grateful. Really? Thank you! Anyway, about
last time... I hope you're not mad at me or anything. Look, we're
still friends, right?”
