Chapter Text
The sound of rain tapping against the windowpane provided a soothing backdrop to the dimly lit office, another rainy night in December for Luana Soares or just Lua for short, Brazilian adept private investigator who's been here for a decade in the US, arriving at her office, she opened the door and entered, Lua brushed a few raindrops from her coat as she closed the door behind her, revealing the logo of "Lua and Koi Investigations" emblazoned on the glass.
She walked towards her desk, dropping the files she was carrying on top of the already cluttered desktop, sitting down and turning her computer on, the date on the bottom right of the screen says 12/12/1999. Lua leaned back on her chair in thought of the case she was investigating. Nothing too complicated, people these days are trying to find out if their significant other are cheating on them, and this one was another case just like that, inside the folder, a bunch of pictures catching the woman Lua was hired to investigate, cheating.
"Not smart, it was probably easier to ask and see the divorce through first." - She whispered to herself. "Now, I think this guy will get to keep a lot of things." - Lua finished up her email to send to the client, another job was done, more or less.
That's when she heard a knock on the door, at this time of a rainy night, it was strange to say the least, and as Lua got up and close to the door, she slowly noticed who it was, opening the door and having a condescending look on her face. "Don't tell me... you lost your keys again?" - Lua spoke as we see now Kohei Tanaka nicknamed Koi, a novice Asian descent investigator who recently has been learning under Lua in a professional partnership. "No, I just forgot it at my house, it's fine." He said stepping in with a nervous smile on his face. "Did you get the pictures? - that was a good job right?" Koi asked.
"I would say so, these will be useful for the client, even for a low level case like this, you seem to be finding your foot." Lua said closing the door once again, as they started to talk about the case. A few hours and they would leave the office after a whole night awake going through the last few cases they had, discussing ideas and Lua having Koi go through the processes, the "teacher" with the "student" that's how their dynamic worked so far, even though they were partners in the name of the agency, Lua was more the leader of the two.
The next day, Lua woke up listening to music on the radio, getting ready and leaving her apartment, going down the few round of stairs until she reached the street, living only a few blocks off from the office, the adept investigator would always walk, stopping at the bakery to get something to eat in the morning, two muffins and a coffee, a simple order that usually fueled her through the mornings.
This time however, when she left the bakery, a teenage girl was looking at Lua from across the street, following her and trying to stay out of her sight as best as the girl could, after a block and a half, Lua got to the office's entrance, going up the steps, and entering the office and a few seconds after, a teenage girl with black hair and brown skin knocked and entered. "Hello, can I come in?"
Lua who was already sat on her desk, got up and right away said. "We are not buying any girls scout cookies, the last batch made me feel ill." She said in disgust just thinking about it. "I'm here... because I would like you to find someone for me... my mother." the girl said trembling. "I don't have anything else but a photo of her and..." she paused before saying more and just handed the photo to Lua before staring up at her. When Lua had a look at the woman in the picture, her eyes quickly widened. "What?!"
It was the woman who her latest client had hired to find out if he was being cheated on. "Your mom is this woman? Are you sure?" Lua asked, and immediately the girl nodded. "Yes, I'm sure of it." - "Well, your father just hired our services a couple of days ago..." - The look on the teenage girls' face shifted from an anxious one to a sad one. "My father? - That's impossible... my father has been dead for a few years now..." Lua was taken back by that answer, signaling for the girl to sit down. "What is your name?" the girl responded with "Maria."
"Maria... are you sure this is not your father?" - Lua had always took photos of her clients from the cameras she set up in her office in case of anything, this wasn't the perfect photo but it was enough to recognize the man if he was Maria's father. The girl shook her head. "No, that's not him..." - Koi opened the door and Lua immediately yelled out. "Koi, what's the name of the client that asked you to investigate his wife, did we have his wife's name?" - "Mark... Simmons and no, I think he was being discreet as possible because apparently she was sending an investigator on him, or at least that's what he told me." Koi responded. "Why?"
Lua started to dial a number on the phone and then said. "This girl, her name is Maria, and she is trying to find her mother, show him the picture, dear." and as Lua started to talk with a cop contact she had, Maria showed the picture to Koi, who eyes widened as quickly as Lua did once he realized.
"I see... that is the woman that I photographed yesterday..." - He looked down at Maria, handing the picture back, at the same moment that Lua hung up the phone. "Koi, we have a problem." she placed both hands on her desk and looked at Koi. "There is no one named Mark Simmons who is married, the only Mark Simmons in town is a 70 year old man who owns a pet shop."
Koi immediately got his hands on his head. "Shit..." sitting on his chair, looking at the ceiling in disbelief while Lua turned to the girl and said. "Maria, I need everything you know..." Maria went on to explain to both investigators that she lived with her father for as long as she can remember, never meeting her mother after her baby years, not even having pictures of her mother, Maria's father who was named Brock took care of her until he died two years ago in a car accident, after the tragic accident, her mother could not be contacted or found in anyway, she also told Lua and Koi that her father didn't have any family here, only in Europe somewhere but he had lost contact with them also, so, Maria was sent to an orphanage, staying there until today, but a few days ago she got a letter and inside was a photo of her mother and a letter. Lua read out the letter who had the following written:
"Maria,
I hope this letter gets to you, thinking about it now... you must be fourteen... I'm sorry I have not been in your life for most of those years, soon I will explain everything, I know this might sound confusing but the person who is writing this letter is me, your mother, I sent a picture of me with this letter for you, I'm gonna pick you up from that orphanage in two days time. I'm sending this letter in case someone does try to pick you up claiming they are me, if they do, don't trust them, I know you've waited so long to meet me again, but please, wait a few more days, i have some final business to take care of before we reunite again, but I promise, we will reunite soon.
Love, Mom."
After reading that letter, a lot of questions started to go around Lua's mind until Maria explained the final piece of the puzzle of how she got here.
Maria said that two days ago a woman went to the orphanage claiming to be her mother, the teenage girl said she heard the name Rosana, when Maria noticed that the woman didn't look like the same one in the picture that she was sent, Maria escaped, now she's been trying to find her mother for the past two days, unsuccessful, the teenage girl said she is afraid of going back to the orphanage, that's why she is trusting Lua to find her mother, while explaining Lua and Koi could tell that Maria was shaking, afraid and hungry.
Lua sent Koi to buy some food for Maria as she started to ring the number of her last client, only to find out his number could not be reached any longer, same thing with the email, looks like it was a burner one, Lua grabbed a cigarette and went to the window, staring down at the street, not lighting the cigarette, just having it on her mouth as she started thinking about it.
"Could it really be, that whoever this is, used us to get more information on this girl's mother? - What in the world does she know?" - All questions that she was ready to go find out the answer, a few more minutes of thinking things over, as she leaned back on the window now looking inside the office, Maria sitting down waiting patiently for her food, with a sad look on her face. "Maria." - Lua said before placing the cigarette she never lit up back on her pocket shirt. - "I've had my share of pretty weird cases, but this one seems like it will take the crown, that's why I will try to find your mother and get some answers on what is happening, until then, I think you will be safe here with us."
Maria nodded just accepting the situation she was in right now, it was going to take some time and some food to get her back to normal behavior, it was clear that she was still a bit shook with learning that her mother that she hasn't seen in years could potentially be in danger. After a few hours, Lua decided to go out and investigate, before leaving she grabbed her coat and looked at Koi. "You stay here with the girl, anything happens, page me, I'll be over here quick." Koi questioned where she was going, they had zero clues besides a potential name and what the woman looked like. "Right, I feel like we should write down that next time we ask for a little bit more of information on the clients before we start accepting random cases because we needed the money." Lua said shaking her head.
Then the adept investigator turned to Maria. "You are safe with Koi, don't worry, I'll be trying to solve this case in record time, I'll be back later." after saying that she started to walk towards the door, opening but before fully leaving, Maria asked one last thing to Lua. "Where exactly are you going Ms. Lua?"
"Around town sweetie, going to hunt down this Rosana name." As Luana left, she knew that this could be a life changing case for her, anxious and nervous, she went to search for answers.
END OF CHAPTER ONE