He brought the plate of food and the coffee over to where Karl sat, knowing that the old man would probably complain bitterly about the percolated coffee if Aurora was around, but he’d just have to suck it up, because that was all Jiro was capable of.Just as he’d thought, Karl sneered at the food as he placed it on the table, but Jiro ignored the disrespect.He wondered what the old man did all day, left here on his own.Surely he didn’t sit inside and watch television for the whole time?It must be hard to become so diminished as a man who clearly had strong opinions, and it made him wonder what Karl had done for a living in his early days.A sliver of sympathy trickled into Jiro’s heart.The man was a grumpy old bugger, but maybe he had a few reasons to be so.He still didn’t like the way Karl treated his daughter, but there were plenty of men out there with egos the size of a house who would probably act the same way if they were in his shoes.His own father being one of them.
Thinking of his father reminded him they needed to get a hurry on.He left Karl sitting at the table, with a promise they would be back as soon as possible, and went to find his outer clothing.Once he was fully dressed, he stood waiting impatiently in the mudroom for Aurora to appear, which she did half a minute later.Dressed casually in thick black leggings and a dark hoodie, he almost didn’t recognize her as the same woman he’d admired in her police uniform yesterday.Back then, she’d caught his eye and made him wonder why he’d never noticed a woman in uniform before.But now, fresh-faced, she looked even more alluring somehow.Less sexy, yet authoritative, and more girl next-door gorgeous.Wow, if he didn’t have so much else on his mind, he might be in trouble here.
CHAPTER SEVEN
AURORA REVERSED THE car out of her driveway and put her foot down on the gas as much as she dared while she negotiated the icy road.It was still dark, but at least it had stopped snowing.Silently, she hoped they hadn’t had too much snowfall outside the town limits.Even if the graders were out already, they might not have made it to the outer country roads.If the snow had got too deep, they wouldn’t be going far, even with the winter tires on her car.She didn’t tell Jiro this, however, as he was already overly anxious, his knee juddering up and down with impatience, even as he read the directions from the map app to her.
The pin on the map was fairly close to the reindeer farm where they’d been yesterday, only a little further out in a more isolated spot that looked to be surrounded by forest.An area they hadn’t searched yet.She couldn’t tell if it was private land or not, but they would navigate that problem when they got there.Although she’d agreed not to wear her uniform, she was still carrying her gun tucked up in her shoulder holster underneath her hoodie, as well as her police badge in her jeans pocket.Which would help to identify her if the need arose.And she really hoped it didn’t, because that would mean things had got out of hand.
God, she hoped Mr.Nashimori was still alive.She had serious doubts about his welfare.If he had been abducted—which seemed more likely now—had he been hurt or tortured in the interim?And even if he hadn’t, could he have survived the freezing overnight temperatures?Especially without any shelter?
Aurora had debated constantly with herself as she got dressed whether she should let Mårten know what was going on.A big part of her knew it was stupid to go in blindly without backup, without proper intel, and without her supervisor’s express permission.She could get into a lot of trouble for doing this.But something about Jiro’s pleading expression had made her agree.Mårten would lecture her long and loudly, but hopefully he believed in her enough not to throw her to the wolves in the end.But would his backing be enough?She didn’t want to lose her job, not this early in her career.Hopefully, they found Jiro’s father with no fuss, alive and well, and she would be able to report a good outcome before Mårten even got out of bed.Then he wouldn’t be able to fault her.But she knew she was taking a big risk here.
“I want you to know that if anything goes wrong, and I mean anything, or if I feel we are in danger, I am going to call Inspector Viskten,” she said, not looking at Jiro as she uttered her ultimatum.When he made no answer, she took it as his consent.Although he couldn’t really argue.If he did, she would just turn right around and head back home.They continued to drive in silence, and Aurora found her mind drifting backward in time.
The first image that appeared was that of her palm resting on Jiro’s very naked chest.She hadn’t realized at first what she’d been doing; she’d been so focused on stopping him from leaving.But when he’d finally made her aware of her skin on his, there’d been a surge of heat through her fingertips so intense, she’d practically flinched away from him.But even though she’d removed the physical contact, she hadn’t been able to drag her eyes away from all that stunning olive skin.Tracing the dark curls scattered across his pecs, down to his washboard stomach and then the trail that disappeared into his waistband with her gaze.The initial surge of heat had turned into a fiery hot flush that’d raced through her body and erupted up her neck, and she’d had to turn away, embarrassed.Nothing like that had ever happened before.Certainly not with a victim of crime who was currently under her protection.
Sending her thoughts skittering away from that embarrassing episode, she trained her thoughts on their interaction last night instead, and how he had made her feel so at ease.They’d settled in with their glasses of beer, and she’d listened to Jiro explain in exquisite detail how life on the ice-breaking cruise ship worked.Karl had lapped up his every word.The man was outgoing and demonstrative with an air of confidence that she’d picked up almost the first moment he walked into the police headquarters.She’d put it down to a very American trait; it was the way they were brought up, to believe they were good at everything they did.And at the time she’d shied away from such an overt show of ego.But now she considered that perhaps it wasn’t such a bad way to live after all.Very different from the conservative, often reticent personalities of most Swedish people.
She’d watched him charm her father, and then began to slip under his spell herself, as he turned to include her in the conversation.Noticeably, he kept any mention of his missing father out of the discussion.She liked he was perceptive enough to know it would upset her father greatly.One thing Jiro wasn’t perceptive enough to know, however, was the exact reason why it would upset him; because Karl was a narcissist and disliked talk of anything else besides himself or anything that directly interested him.It must’ve taken great effort on Jiro’s part, because if she’d been in his shoes, her missing father would’ve been the only thing she would’ve thought about.
She found it effortless to talk to him, and he was the first man she’d had an almost normal conversation with in quite a while.If their talk could be called normal, with her father sitting there like a ghoulish old man listening to everything detail.They talked about such mundane things as what it was like to live here in this northern snowy wilderness and did she enjoy her job?Jiro revealed he worked at a wildlife park dedicated to the conservation of wolves in California, which was incredibly interesting.Even if Karl hadn’t understood everything that was said, he certainly butted in whenever he could, and it had made Aurora wish for a few moments alone with Jiro.A few moments of peace to talk to a good-looking man.Now wouldn’t that be blissful?Not that she even wanted the conversation to go anywhere, she just wanted to feel like a grown woman talking to a grown man—okay, yes, one that she was attracted to, but what was wrong with a little flirting?—for ten minutes.That wasn’t much to ask, was it?
Perhaps that was part of the reason why she’d offered to let Jiro stay at her house.Not just that he was good-looking, but it was a chance to pretend for a little while.Pretend that her life wasn’t ruled by her father’s demands.Her work gave her some reprieve, but at the end of the day she always returned to Karl.She couldn’t really see a way out of this endless loop of work and care.The doctor had said that with early-onset Parkinson’s, patients usually lived longer as symptoms progressed more slowly than those who were affected in later life.Karl had already lived with Parkinson's for at least sixteen years, and even though the symptoms had increased at a rapid rate more recently, he could live for at least ten or fifteen more years.And with all the leaps and bounds medicine was taking in neurological diseases, perhaps that time frame could even be extended, the doctor had gone on to confirm with an encouraging smile.Aurora had to hide her shudder of fear when the doctor had spoken these words; he thought he was offering her hope as any loving daughter would surely want.But the idea of spending the next fifteen years as a prisoner in her own house didn’t even bear thinking about, and so now she forced her mind to think of something else.
“Can you zoom in and see if there are any buildings in the area of the pin,” she requested, breaking the silence in the car.Jiro bent his head closer to the screen, and she could see in her peripheral vision the blue light illuminating his high cheekbones within the dark interior of the car.
“Nope.Nothing showing up, not even when I use the satellite image.All I can see is lots of trees.The nearest building looks to be at least a couple of kilometers away.”
That didn’t bode well for Mr.Nashimori.If there were no shelter, he most likely wouldn’t have survived the night.Would the abductor really be spiteful enough to send them to retrieve a dead body?Or was there something else altogether waiting for them at the designated spot?Without any information on who, what, or why, she couldn’t answer that question.
“What about roads?How close can we get to the spot before we have to get out and walk?”Aurora had taken a quick look at the map before they’d left the house, so she had a pretty good idea where they were headed, following the main road west out of town that would take them further inland, then they’d turn off onto a secondary road heading more north on which the reindeer farm was situated.But in her quick perusal, she could see no roads or even tracks leading directly into the thickly forested area where the pin had been dropped.
“There is some sort of minor road that turns off soon after Luleå Adventures,” he replied.“But after that, nothing.We might have to walk in.Perhaps even a couple of kilometers,” he ended thoughtfully.
“Hmm.”That didn’t sound good.They weren’t really dressed appropriately for a hike into the wilderness.Jiro’s shoes didn’t even look to be waterproof, which could be a big problem.But at least the roads were fairly clear, even if they were icy, which meant there hadn’t been too much snow overnight, and so perhaps they might not have to slog their way through waist-deep snowdrifts.One small miracle.
Even though Jiro’s knee kept jiggling up and down, she had to hand it to him; he didn’t ask her to drive any faster; at least he appreciated how treacherous the roads were after a night of subzero temperatures.Perhaps now might be a good time to learn more about his backstory.Every little detail counted in cases like these, and conversation would help to distract him from whatever was coming.
“Are going to tell me what your brother has to do with this?”she asked into the ensuing silence.
“I know as much as you do,” he snapped back, then drew a deep breath.“Sorry,” he apologized.“Taro’s involvement came as much of a shock to me as it probably did to you.”He glanced over at her, and she risked taking her eyes off the road to shoot him a quick look.From the expression on his face, he was telling the truth.Or was he?Was there something else he was keeping back?Was this what Mårten had been trying to warn her about?
“But then again, perhaps it didn’t come as much of a shock to you as it did to me,” he qualified.“I bet you see all kinds of corrupt dealings when family members betray each other.I’m sure it happens all the time.Just not in our family.Or so I thought,” he added, his mouth twisting with scorn.
“You’re not wrong,” she replied at last.It happened way more often than people liked to imagine.Whenever a crime occurred, the first suspects were always close family or friends.Greed, lust, and power were strong driving forces.She wanted to know more about the family dynamics; maybe there was a clue she might gain from something he revealed.Jiro hadn’t spoken much about his family last night, probably because he didn’t want to bring up anything to do with his father in front of Karl.So now seemed the opportune time.
“Tell me more about your brother.Is he your only sibling?Older or younger?Do you get along with him?That kind of thing,” she prompted.
“I’m not sure how—”
“Just humor me,” she broke in.
“Okay.”Jiro settled back into the seat.“Taro is two years older.We look quite similar; people often comment that we could even be twins,” he said, raising an ironic eyebrow.“But believe me, that is where the similarity stops.”His leg had ceased jiggling, but now she noticed his hand was clenched so tightly around his phone that his knuckles were turning white.“Even though we were brought up with the same morals and standards, we are as different as chalk and cheese in personality.Taro is…let’s just say he’s more ambitious than I am.He runs a successful business in LA, which my father helped him to start.He’s married with two young kids, and lives a lavish lifestyle.Whereas, I live in San Diego and get by on the relatively small wage from my wildlife job.”He stopped talking and turned to stare at her.“Is any of this helping?”he asked.
“I don’t know.But keep talking anyway.Tell me about your parents.”She was starting to sketch an outline of the family order, and one thing was clear: Jiro didn’t approve of everything his brother did.
“My father immigrated to Grand Rapids, Minnesota, from Kobe in Japan, with his family when he was only fifteen.He married my mother, Deborah, who is American, when he was twenty-five.”Was it her imagination, or did his voice just hitch on the mention of his mother?“So, both my brother and I were born in America.But my father still had the Japanese culture in his heart, and we adhered to many of the strict traditions.He moved our family from Minnesota to LA when I was fourteen and Taro was sixteen to set up his second-hand furniture business.He must’ve hit the market at just the right time and filled a niche where cashed-up celebrities were looking for authentic Japanese furniture to kit out their houses, because business boomed.”
