Midnight Angel [Jenlisa FF]

~'~'~ Chapter 9 ~'~'~

Lisa was almost to her office door when she heard someone calling her name. Turning, Lisa found herself facing the very last person she wanted to see at that moment. Joo Won Kim. And she was holding pictures of the man's supposedly dead daughter in a folder in her hand. Great. Just great.

"Good morning, Lisa. You're in early today," Mr. Kim stated as he walked up to Lisa.

An excuse. She needed an excuse. "I needed to do some work on the Chumash article," Lisa improvised.

"Oh?" Joo Won asked and looked down at the folder Lisa was holding. "Are those the pictures? May I see them?"

Wrong excuse. Damn. "Oh, no, this is just some paperwork. I have the photos of the Chumash artifacts in my office," she relayed and nodded toward her closed door.

"Yes, I would appreciate seeing them," Joo Won answered with a small smile that told Lisa he'd bought the story.

Opening her office door, Lisa strode in quickly. She waded through the mess on her desk and produced the portfolio of pictures. After handing them to her boss, she waited a moment until Mr. Kim attention was diverted then swiftly shoved the folder with Jennie's pictures into the top drawer of her desk. If she was lucky, she could get Mr. Kim out of her office before she did something the clue the man in that she was doing something she shouldn't.

~'~'~

Early that evening, Lisa found herself walking along the beach near her house. It hadn't been intentional. She'd stepped out onto her porch, and then suddenly ended up walking to where she'd twice seen the ghostly female figure walking. The area had simply just drawn her in.

Walking forward, she approached the water's edge and stared out over the lapping waves, just as Jennie had done in the photo she now possessed. A myriad of questions whirled around her head. The most prevalent being was Jennie Kim still alive? She was hedging her bets that she was. And that she walked this beach at night. It made sense. Jisoo had told her that after her rape she'd preferred to go out at night. Just one more detail to add to the puzzle.

What did Jennie see when she stared out at the ocean as she was doing now? What did she think? Lisa shook her head and took a step back. For all she knew, Jennie was dead, and the figure was just some woman who liked to walk to the beach. But her gut instincts told her that was not the case. She was alive.

Lisa swivelled on her feet and gazed up at the roofline of the house up on the cliffs. Mr. Kim's house. If Jennie was walking this beach, there was only one logical conclusion as to why. She had to still be living in that house. And if she was still living there, it was fairly easy to assume that Mr. Kim knew she was there. The house was big, but it was unlikely that Joo Won Kim would be unaware that his supposedly dead daughter was living somewhere inside.

Mr. Kim had to know, and he had to know a lot more than he'd told anybody, even the police. What was he hiding, and why? One thing Lisa knew for sure; the man was going to have some serious questions to answer to. But first, she had to meet with Jisoo, Jin, and Jackson so that she could show them the pictures she'd developed and worked with. From there, they'd have to decide what to do next.

Lisa started to walk back toward her house when the setting sun reflected off something shiny in the sand a few feet away. She thought for a moment that it was probably a piece of trash, or a coin someone had dropped, but she decided to check it out anyway. Bending down, she saw that it was a thin gold chain. A necklace? It was half buried in the sand, so she pulled it the rest of the way out. Once it was free, a heart-shaped locket dangled from the bottom.

Her pulse thudded briefly, unexplainably. It's just a locket, Lisa told herself. Some beachgoers or tourist had probably lost it. She twisted it around with her fingers for several seconds, taking in the rose etched into the gold heart and the delicate braiding of the chain. Her knowledge of expensive things told her that this was no cheap item. Someone was definitely going to be upset about losing it.