Prologue: Meeting with a devil

The café ran out of their signature green tea.

Hua took in a deep breath and internally prayed to every deity she knew of for patience. The café's signature green tea is why she's here in the first place. After a minute of consideration, she chose jasmine tea with a set of mixed desserts, and the waitress went off with her order. She doesn't know how her cousin would react to the different flavor of tea, but Hua knows Jay loves the desserts here.

She still had ten minutes until their agreed meeting time, so she opened her iPad and started scanning her eyes over a missing person's file. Ryan Issachar Zallik, aged 37 when he went missing five years ago. He was a math teacher at a private boarding school during the time he went missing. Hua's younger cousin, Jay, also attended that boarding school, and after a little more digging, Hua found out that Jay was one of the victim's students in tenth grade.

And that is the reason why the young detective arranged this meeting. Maybe her cousin can shed some light on who Ryan Zallik was before he went missing. Last accounts of him was the teacher leaving school after a regular day at work, and he wasn't seen the next day in class, nor the day after that, so the school filed a missing person's report. It's been labeled a cold case for two years now, but Mrs. Darwyn, the victim's step sister, pestered the police enough to make them open the case back up and drop the responsibility on Hua.

As soon as the time changed from 11:59am to 12:00pm, someone sat down in front of her. Hua looked up from her tablet to see shiny brunette hair and an even shinier smile. The young woman is dressed in a creamy pattered dress which shows off her thick curves nicely. The designer white leather handbag which hangs off her pale fingers is no doubt a gift from her boyfriend or sugar daddy or 'partner' as she called him.

"Hello, Detective TianHua Zhang." Her cousin greeted, her voice soft and yet playful.

"Pleased to see you, too, Miss JiJing Devin." Hua returned her greeting with a straight face.

With every second passing by, they found it harder to hold in their laughter, and on the ten second mark, they couldn't hold it in and laughed.

Hua regained her composure before looking at her cousin with a smile. "Jay, how you're doing?"

"Pretty good actually." Jay hummed and set her handbag on the table, next to Hua's messenger bag carrying dozens of documents. "And you, detective? It's been a while since we meet up and chat face to face."

"Life isn't going the way I'm expecting," Hua sighed and closed her tablet for a moment. "But at least it's going in the right direction."

"Haha, I see. Anyways, you said you wanted to know more about Mr. Zallik?"

Getting right to the point as always. Hua turned on her tablet and handed it to her. "This is him, your math teacher from high school grade 10, correct?"

"Yes, it's him." Jay handed her back her tablet before taking in a deep breath. "I'm not gonna say I miss him or anything."

Deep brown eyes matching Hua's own eyes stared back into her.

"To be completely honest with you, I was somewhat relieved that he went missing." Jay admitted, her eyes softened a little, but it still sent chills down Hua's spine.

Jay is far from an intimidating woman, she's barely as tall as Hua's chin, and she has a permanent baby face and bambi eyes. However, she still managed to give out a menacing aura.

Hua finally mumbled out a small, "Why?"

"He's creepy." Her cousin grimaced at the memory. "Stalked female students, and he got beat up once by some male students because he was asking for a one on one tutor session with a junior girl."

"Oh?" Hua raised a brow in question. So, the victim is a creep? It contradicts what Mrs. Darwyn told her.

He's a bright and hard working man, so he landed a good job at this private boarding school, said Mrs. Darwyn, Ryan loved his students and he always gave them a hand when they needed it, I want justice for my beloved brother.

"I..." Jay paused, her eyes now glued to the table. "It's uncomfortable to talk about this, but I was kinda scared around him. Mr. Zallik always stood too close, talked too loud and smiled too much, everything about him just didn't sit right with me."

A waitress arrived with their order, and Jay's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Sorry, they don't have green tea today." Hua gave her a small smile.

"Oh, it's fine, don't apologize. It's not your fault." The woman giggled and picked up a tart.

"Thank you for the information." Hua poured tea for both of them. "This is my treat."

"Thank you, A-Hua." Jay bites into her tart, and they eat in silence for a bit before she starts talking again. "I'm not sure how telling you that he's a creep will help with the case, though."

"Well..." Hua took a sip from her tea cup. "Would you be surprised if he's killed by a student who thinks he's a creep?"

"No." Her cousin replied with a sigh. "You have a point. Maybe he went too far one day and some students beat him up again. Can you even die from that?"

"Yes, yes, you can."

"Oh!"

Their eyes met again, and there's this understanding in between them. Mr. Ryan Zallik was a creep, and he was probably beaten up by students and resulted in his death.

"A-Hua," Jay called out, but her eyes seemed to be deep in thought. "Now I'm wondering how many killers I went to school with."

"A-Jing, you're not in school anymore, so don't worry." The detective gave her a reassuring smile. "Let the police handle it. By the way, why didn't you report his behavior?"

"I think he was on the principal's good side." Her cousin shrugged. "I and my friends all felt creeped out, but the other teachers said it's normal. So...?"

"No wonder you're glad he's gone."

"I wasn't glad, just relieved." Jay shook her head. "I can give you contact numbers for my highschool friends if you want. I hope they can tell you more than I can."

"Really? A-Jing, you already did enough." Hua assured her.

"Glad I can help, I guess." Jay smiled back.

After that, they moved the topic to something more personal. The meeting ended as usual, with one of them insisting they pay even though the detective already said she'd pay. Hua ended up paying at the end, and she waved Jay goodbye as the pink haired girl was picked up by a sleek black SUV. The driver is no doubt her 'partner'.

The detective let out a sigh after her cousin left. Jay never said much about her 'partner', only that he's a few years older than her and came from old money. Hua doesn't mind her cousin getting a sugar daddy or whatever, but she does care about Jay's safety. Well, as long as Jay is happy with the man, Hua supports her decision. Her cousin isn't a sparkly-eyed little girl who looks at Hua like she's an idol anymore.