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Jiro had returned to his complex with a bottle of mango juice and grilled cheese and tomato sandwich he had purchased from somewhere. Taking out the sandwich Jiro began to munch on it as he sat down in the corner where he had created a small office for himself that morning. He had taken one of the wooden chairs from the kitchen and had pulled up an oak desk with cabinets built into it, which he had purchased from a garage sale, and placed it in front of the chair. Other than the empty space on top of the desk Jiro had blank sheets of papers, the few folders which held his current investigation papers, and the orange folder Reeve had handed to him. A mini chalk board sat in the upper right corner of the desk with the words “加油!” (Good luck!). He had planned to work all night putting together all the information he’d gathered so far.

The clock ticked with the quiet humming of the small refrigerator which had been drowned out from Jiro’s concentration. His pencil he was using to scribble down notes made small, short scratching noises. Jiro got up to stretch his muscles every 2 hours that went by and sat back down to continue. There had been a lot more information he had gathered than he’d expected. It surprised him and it didn’t. The only concern he had was the one question that lingered in his mind every now and then: were the twins still alive? If they were, that would be good news, but if they weren’t when he would finally be able to locate them and catch the kidnapper how would he report to Hebe?

It was now a quarter to six in the morning when he finally finished. Within the hours of the night he had filled out 10 pieces of blank papers, both back and front. He got off his chair and walked around. Agreeing with his inner thoughts that he deserved some good food he headed out and treated himself to a bacon and egg sandwich with tea, which he rarely drank. In 30 minutes he was back in his complex sitting down to look over everything he’d written. He’d need to refresh his memory, then figure out how to locate Keven and what to do afterward.

The highlights of the 10 pieces of papers he had filled up weren’t as much as he remembered writing. What he had down were: Keven had a bad record, obviously, and was a person with many problems. Jiro had listed jobs and schools he had worked at and went to. He was Hebe’s step brother and was described as an aggressive person. Apparently, he had moved out of his own home after he graduated and never went back. Keven moved out of his apartment in mid March of 06 where he had stayed for a year. --why and who was he staying with now, if he didn’t live alone? Grandma passed away 4 years ago and left a will. 75% to Mrs. Tian, 20% went to Hebe, and 5% went to Keven, who was clearly unsatisfied and had promised to take some money from Hebe-which was what Ivan had heard from friends. Keven had gone to the wedding-how had he known about it? Should Jiro consider contacting more relatives? But how much time would that take? Months?  

2007 January 1 - Speeding Ticket, received warning
    ---Officer Hu (speed detector division). Mr. Tian apologized for speeding, said he had spaced out and had not paid attention to the speed the car was going at. **is there a reason why he had been speeding on the same day Hebe’s children were taken?

2007 January 5 - Fined $15 for parking on wrong side of road, bailed out Lu Wei Lian
    ---Veteran Li (desk reception in charge of visitors) According to Mr. Tian, Lu Wei Lian was a friend. **how close of a friend was Lu Wei Lian and why was he held in jail?     

2007 February 16 - Attempted burglary at pharmacy, released because of misunderstanding
    ---Officer Chen (officer in patrol team) was called. Mr. Tian denied stealing, explained he had bought wrong adult cold medicine and had figured it was alright to take some children medicine in exchange without paying because the adult cold medicine had been more expensive. Officer Chen left him a warning. **why children medicine? Keven did not have any children that Jiro knew of.

2007 June 15 - Warned for suspicious behavior at graveyard
    ---Officer Li (night patrol 4th division) called in when the cemetery janitor noticed two shadows in the dark. When Li arrived only one person was found. Mr. Tian had said he was visiting some of his cousin’s dead children and apologized for the misunderstanding. The janitor reported that Mr. Tian had looked like he was trying to dig something up, Li dismissed this and told the janitor to continue with his job. **what was Keven doing at a graveyard? Should consider interviewing the graveyard janitor.

Jiro sighed and leaned back in his seat. He needed to locate Keven…but how? Jiro rummaged through his brain for an idea. However, nothing came flying to him. His brain was probably fried out.

“You need to take a rest,” Jiro said aloud and went to lie down on the couch. When he had finally closed his eyes to calm down and let his body relax something flew through his mind. An idea…something he would have never thought of or more like even consider in the first place.

10 minutes later he was walking down the stairs to Calvin’s apartment which was located right in front of the stairs. Also the reason why Calvin always knew when Jiro was back. Jiro stared at the large window imagining that Calvin was standing behind it ready to jump out of the door and leap up the stairs to ask him out again. And because the apartment building did not have an elevator Jiro had to the climb the stairs whenever he had returned with his tired body.

He rung the doorbell, once, twice, and thrice. Was Calvin not in? Jiro tried peeking through the window, but the curtain inside made it impossible to see anything. He heard the door click and turned to see a messy haired-even though Calvin’s hair was not so long-person standing at the doorway looking at him with half open eyes.

“Yo…what you doing here?” asked Calvin.

He looked as if he’d been put into a trance for a week and had woken up after he’d been thrown down the hill.

“I wanted an idea, more like an opinion from you,” Jiro told. “Can I come in?”

“It’s not the time right now,” Calvin told. “It’s only 7.”

“Almost 8.” Jiro corrected.

“Does it have to be now?” asked Calvin.

“I’ll treat you to a drink sometime,” Jiro had no choice but to make that offer.

Calvin suddenly brightened up because his eyes seemed bigger and opened the door wider for Jiro gesturing for him to come in.    

Unlike his place Calvin’s apartment was a light cream color, which Jiro found relaxing but not as relaxing as his own complex. Both their apartments were alike, but Calvin’s apartment was a tad bit smaller. Jiro found his way to the recliner and sat down pulling out the foot rest and laid his feet on top of it. If Calvin wanted to give him a comment he didn’t, but walked around Jiro and sat down on the couch beside it.

The wool rug on the ground seemed to be the highlight of the place for Jiro. Because the walls were a cream color Jiro had expected Calvin to get a colored rug to complement it, but instead Calvin had found a pale cream colored rug. In Jiro’s opinion it made the place seem dull and very plain. Except for the window by the door there was a plaque and an award certificate, which had been placed in a photo frame Calvin had received for one of the books he’d published, hanging on the wall. If a stranger had walked in they would have thought Calvin’s only friends were himself.

“So what did you want?” Calvin leaned back on the couch and looked like he was about to doze off any second now.

“You bragged about being an author of murder mysteries, right?” asked Jiro.

“Of course. I first met you when I wanted to interview you for one of my stories,” Calvin seemed to mutter with his half opened eyes.

“So you base some of your stories of real crimes, correct? And you use crimes as ideas,” Jiro said.

“What are you saying?”

“Your books are reality-like, right?” Jiro asked.

“Of course, you know I hate writing books that don’t seem real.”

“I need your opinion since you’re an author,” Jiro told. “When you write how do you know what will happen next?”

“And you mean…” Calvin held onto his last word for a long time.

It was hard to put into words for Jiro. How could he say it so that it’d make sense? “When you write…say, imagine that your main character is having a hard time figuring out the truth what will you make happen next?”

“You don’t make sense.”

Jiro was aware of the fact that what had come out of his mouth didn’t make sense. That idiot Calvin, why was he still sleeping now? Shouldn’t he have been on his computer all night working on his next story? But Jiro was already well aware that Calvin didn’t stay up all night putting things together, as the author that he was.

“How do I know the right event that will occur next?” Calvin asked blinking furiously. Something must have gotten into his eyes.

“Yea. That’s what I was trying to say.”

“It’s practical and very logical.” Calvin explained. “If a student were having trouble with an assignment would they go to the teacher or throw the assignment out?”

What kind of question was that? “Um…go to the teacher.”

“Most good students would do that, but a student who doesn’t try would toss it out.”

What was the point of the question?