¨Tell me again what we're doing checking out the whereabouts of an ex- NIS agent from the Gwacheon field office? ¨ NIS agent Jimin Park asked from the backseat of the car.
NIS special agent Jungkook Jeon slowed the car as they approached the city limits of the small town of Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. ¨We're doing this as a professional courtesy because the Gwacheon office asked us to.
¨A little over four years ago, Sokjin Kim was a respected NIS profiler before he came out here for a two-week vacation and fell in love with Jisoo Kim who owns
The Dalgom Moon Bed and Breakfast.¨ Taehyung Kim drawled from the passenger seat ¨Apparently true love won out over career climbing. Sokjin quit the agency, moved here and he and Jisoo got married.¨
¨Sokjin not only became a husband but also a full-time father to their daughter, Lia. And this morning we received a call from the manager of the bed-and-breakfast that all three of them are missing.¨ Jungkook said.
¨Unusual that we'd be sent out, since it hasn't even been twenty-four hours.¨ Taehyung observed.
¨According to the manager, they've been missing since last night.¨ Jungkook kept his gaze focused on the road ahead knowing that the bed-and-breakfast was five miles outside of the small town.
His gut feeling was that this was all a wild goose chase, some sort of misunderstanding between the manager and the family she worked for. It was half an hour drive from their field office in Seoul, and they hadn't been dispatched to leave until past three that afternoon.
Hopefully they could get this sorted out and he would be in his own bed back in his comfortable house in Itaewon before midnight.
He'd been surprised when Director Seung Hyun Choi had assigned two men to travel with him to check out this supposed disappearance, yet he had been grateful for the company of the men, who were not only good agents adept at processing crime scenes and sniffing out bad guys but we're friends, as well.
¨There.¨ Jimin pointed out ahead to a sign that indicated to turn right for the Dalgum Moon Bed-and-Breakfast.
Jungkook made the turn, squinting against the bright hot sun. He drove on for two more miles and then turned again, following another sign leading into a lane that took them to their destination.
¨Nice.¨ Taehyung said as a two-story house with a sweeping veranda surrounded by large trees came into view. On one side of the B and B, a big pond glittered in the overhead sun, and on the other side, a giant carriage house looked inviting with large pots of multi-colored flowers along its perimeter.
The employees must park in another area, and there must be no guest, Jungkook thought, for the parking lot in front of the house was empty. He pulled the car to a halt and shut off the engine. At the same time, the front door opened and a woman stepped out on the porch.
With the sun sparking off her short blonde hair, creating a halo effect, she looked like a slender angel. Her long bare legs exposed by a pair of black shorts and her shoulders by a yellow tank top, she looked like a very hot angel.
¨Sweet.¨ Taehyung muttered from the backseat.
¨On the job, not on the prowl,¨ Jungkook reminded his fellow agent who had a reputation around the office as a ladies' man. Still, he was shocked by the quick visceral warmth that swept through him at the sight of her. She looks like a foreigner, and her eyes must be hazel, he thought.
She started down the steps as if unable to wait for them to join her on the porch. As she drew closer the men exited the vehicle.
Two things occurred at the same time: Jungkook flashed his official identification and noted that her eyes weren't hazel, as he'd expected, but rather a mesmerizing and rare amber. She was more than pretty with her slender face, doll-like eyes, cute button nose and generous mouth, but at the moment all of her features were radiating an emotion somewhere between panic and unadulterated fear.
¨Thank God you're here,¨ she said after Jungkook had introduced himself and his two men. ¨I'm Lalisa Manoban, the manager here and I'm the one who sounded the alarm this morning. I called the sheriff first, but he was afraid to get involved in what might be federal business, so he said I should contact the NIS. I found Sokjin oppa's contact list in his bedroom and called his former director.¨
¨And Assistant Director Hoseok contacted our field office in Seoul and here we are.¨ Jungkook replied. Despite the fact that the sun was slowly sinking in the west, the mid-July heat and humidity made it difficult to breathe. ¨Can we go inside?¨
¨Oh, of course.¨ She whirled on the heels of her white sandals to lead them back to the house. Jungkook couldn't help but notice the shapeliness of her butt in the tight shorts as she walked ahead of him - and that irritated him.
It had been a long time since a woman had attracted his attention in any way, and the last thing he needed was to be distracted by these blonde bombshell. He just wanted to get inside, figure things out and get back home as soon as possible.
She led them into a great room, obviously a place decorated for guests to hang out. Besides a couple of couches and chairs, there was a flat-screen television and a bookcase full of paperbacks and puzzles.
She paused in the center of the room, and her gaze shot from Jimin to Taehyung and then finally landed on Jungkook.
¨They're gone.¨ Her voice was a tortured whisper as her eyes became shiny with unshed tears. ¨When I got up this morning, I knew that something was horribly wrong.¨
¨And how did you know that?¨ Jungkook asked.
Her eyes darkened, and she twisted her ringless hands together. ¨You need to see the kitchen.¨
Once again she turned and walked out of the room. The three men exchanged curious glances and followed.
¨This is the guest dining room,¨ she said as they entered a room with a table big enough to seat a dozen. A sideboard held an industrial-size coffee brewer, but no scent of coffee lingered in the air.
She posed at the door on the opposite side of the room, her eyes still shiny.
¨There,¨ she said and pointed into the room. It was obvious she had no intention of going inside.
As Jungkook swept past her, he caught a whiff of her scent, a clean floral fragrance he found instantly appealing, but the allure of her perfume immediately died as he walked into the kitchen and saw the table before him.
The small round wooden table on the far side of the roomy kitchen held the remnants of what appeared to be an evening snack. Three glasses of milk sat next to three small plates with cookies. Milk was missing from all of the glasses, and there was one cookie on one plate and two each on the other plates. A single chair was overturned on its back on the floor, as if the person seated in it had jumped up so quickly that it had flipped over.
¨The back door looks like it's unlocked,¨ Taehyung said.
None of the three men had taken more than two steps into the room. ¨Has anyone been inside the here besides you?¨
She shook her head, her bangs dancing with the movement. ¨No. We don't have any guests right now, and I've made sure the other help have stayed out of the kitchen all day.¨
Jungkook frowned. ¨Before we do anything more here, I'd like to see their bedrooms.¨
¨They live in the two-bedroom suite upstairs.¨
¨Are they the type of people to take an impromptu trip somewhere?¨ Jungkook asked as they all followed her up the wide staircase.
¨Not at all. If they had planned anything, they would have let me know and they would have never taken off in the middle of the night.¨ Her voice was laced with a simmering frantic worry. ¨Something bad happened last night. I just know it. Now they're gone, and nobody has seen or heard from them all day.¨
Jungkook had known the moment he had stepped into the kitchen that he wasn't going to make it into his own bed tonight. Although he's gut told him they'd just looked at the crime scene, he didn't have enough information to fully embrace that as a certainty.
Upstairs there were guestrooms on either side of the hall. Jungkook paused at each doorway to look inside. The first was decorated in blue and white and held two double beds, a dresser, a small table and chairs next to the window.
The second held a king-size bed and was a study in lavender and lace, with the same type of furniture again. There appeared to be nothing amiss in either of the rooms.
¨The guest rooms have their own baths, and there are three more rooms in the carriage house,¨ she said, flipping on lights, even though night wouldn't encroach for a couple of hours yet.
¨Where does this go?¨ Jungkook asked, referring to a closed door in the hallway.
¨It leads to an old servant's staircase that goes down to the basement and outside. Nobody uses it anymore, and the door is kept locked.¨
Jungkook nodded, knowing before the night was over that the door would be unlocked and the basement thoroughly checked.
¨These are Jin oppa, Jisoo unnie and Lia's rooms.¨ The door was already open, and Lalisa paused in the hallway and gestured the men in.
The initial space was a large bedroom/sitting area. The king-size bed was neatly made with a black-and-white spread. At the foot of the bed was a settee in front of a wall mounted flat screen television. A set of bookshelves held games and books, and it was easy for Jungkook to recognize that this was the family getaway from a house full of paying guests.
The bathroom was also neat and clean, with no indication that anyone had been there during the day. The smaller bedroom was an explosion of pink with a single bed covered with stuffed animals and dolls.
Junkook returned to the main room and opened the closet doors as Taehyung and Jimin checked the bathroom and Lia's bedroom more carefully.
Jungkook noted a set of suitcases were shoved to the left of the closet, and there didn't appear to be any clothing missing from hangers. He moved to the dresser, where two phones resided side by side. He couldn't imagine the Kim's leaving without taking their cells with them. He picked up the phones and noticed that both were turned off, probably shut down for the night before their owners had gone to bed.
He then pulled out the top drawer of the dresser, dismayed to find Sokjin's wallet and his gun. A check in the wallet let Jungkook know that his driver's license, credit cards and bank card were all intact.
Jungkook's heart stepped up its rhythm as he tried to imagine any reason a man would take off with his family without his wallet. And an NIS agent would never leave for any extended time without his gun. It just wouldn't happen.
He turned to see Lalisa still standing in the hallway. ¨You'd better set us up with rooms for a night or two. It looks like we're going to be here awhile. And don't allow anyone into the kitchen. Right now that appears to be a crime scene.¨
One hand shot to her mouth in obvious horror. ¨You have to find them.¨
Jungkook nodded. ¨That's the plan and the first thing i need to do is ask you some questions.¨
Lalisa Manoban might be pretty, and she appeared genuinely distraught, but he had to figure out if she was truly scared for the people who had been her bosses or a good actress who was somehow responsible for whatever had happened in the kitchen the night before.
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(an: my inspo for Lisa's hair in this story is the one she has on Bvlagri Colors add... she' so hot!)