“Why? Is that weird?” Calliope asked.
“I don’t know. Just vicious gang members living in condos is…off-putting,” Nico muttered.
“BTK lived in a subdivision. Even serial killers have to live somewhere,” Calliope chirped.
“I guess,” Nico said, sounding deflated.
More typing ensued before Calliope spoke again. “Feng Zhao, born November 15th, 1997 in the Yuen Long District as well. Also arrived in the U.S. at approximately the same time as his brother. Zhao Feng lives—” She cut herself off to bark out a surprised laugh. “Uh, he lives in the high-rise directly across from Freckles and Jericho. Not the penthouse, though.”
“Odd coincidence,” Mal said.
“It looks like they both lived in New York for several years as children while their father ran a factory in the fabric district. The family moved back to Hong Kong when the two were teens.” More typing. “No, wait…this is interesting…”
She fell silent then.
“Uh, care to share with the class?” Nico asked after a bit.
“You’re worse than Atticus,” she clucked. “So impatient. I was reading. Apparently, their father did not go back with them. In fact, he never went back at all. He died in Attica in 2019.”
“Attica? That’s a maximum security prison. What did they convict him of? It clearly wasn’t a white collar crime,” Mal said.
“Aggravated murder,” Calliope answered.
“Is that worse than just plain old murder?” Nico asked, glancing over at Mal.
Mal nodded. “Aggravated murder is when the crime is particularly heinous.”
“LikeLaw & Order: SVUheinous?” Nico asked.
“Not always,” Mal said. “If the victim was a police officer or judge or something. Or if it’s a kid. Or if they killed someone to intimidate or terrorize a witness into, say, not testifying. Things like that.”
Nico shook his head. “Your brain is like a cursed library—every book is there, but half of them are bound in human skin.”
Mal grinned at him. He wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not, but he chose to take it as one anyway. Nico wasn’t wrong. Sometimes, it was actually exhausting. Nobody should have access to this much knowledge all the time.
“I’m trying to look for more details,” Calliope said over her typing.
“I guess if they’re part of the GTB, it wouldn’t be strange if their father was also part of that gang or the Red Lotus Clan. It is kind of a family legacy thing,” Mal mused. “Maybe he was some kind of enforcer and killed a witness or a cop or prosecutor? The factory could have just been a cover?”
“Got it,” Calliope cried, like she was yelling “Bingo!” at the nursing home. Her excitement seemed to die just as quickly. “Oh, Jesus. This is definitely not gang related. He apparently strangled his pregnant teen mistress and then tossed her body on her parent’s porch. He was sentenced to life in prison for extenuating circumstances.”
“Wow,” Nico said. “He seems nice.”
Mal’s lip curled at that information. “Guess we know where Frankie gets his psycho tendencies from. Can you shoot us their addresses?”
“Already done,” she said. “Anything else?”
“Don’t suppose you know how to hack their security so we can snoop around without tripping any alarms?” Mal asked.
Calliope gasped dramatically. “You doubt me? Of course, I can. But why not just go talk to them? You have the Dai Lo’s permission.”
“I just want to have a look around their places first and then we talk to them. Maybe we’ll find something that will give us the upper hand,” Mal said.
“Suit yourself,” Calliope chirped. “I’ll be on standby should you need me.”
Nico looked at Mal. “How do we know if they’re home? It’s not like we have time to do any recon.”
“Luckily for you, it seems both Frankie and Jason have phones that are trackable,” Calliope cut in. “Which probably means they also carry burner phones for their less seemly activities.”
