Selina turned to look at Jiro. They found themselves traveling through the noisy village with children running about in their diapers and others fully clothed. Dishes clattered in the kitchen as mothers screamed for their children to come in for lunch. Fathers were out hunting for food and young girls and boys hurried back from school to their homes. Tall trees stood overhead blocking the homes from view of highway traffic. Finally reaching the hut as Bai Er had instructed they stopped in front of a closed wooden door. Jiro reached for the doorknob and pushed it open, but it didn’t budge. Selina turned to look at him.

“Is it locked?”

Jiro tried one more time, but the door didn’t move an inch.

“You might want to move back,” Jiro cautioned.

Selina moved aside and watched as Jiro stepped back then ran forward throwing himself at the door. It opened with a loud noise and Selina walked in after Jiro. They turned the light on to find it empty. There was a bed to the left and a small stove across from the bed, a really small place. A breeze passed Selina and she felt something tell her that the abandoned hut was no longer important. Selina hurried back outside and looked around.

“Where are you going?” asked Jiro.

“Lets look through the diary. If no one knows the reason why she left maybe she wrote it down,” Selina suggested.

After walking down the road Selina found a place to sit under a large tree, the shade blocking her off from the sun and sight of the villagers. Jiro had offered to go buy drinks while she started reading. Selina flipped the pages one by one skimming it paragraph by paragraph. Jasmine had written about her feelings for a young boy that attended the same school. As Selina read further on she started reading word for word when Jasmine had began writing about a man she’d met. He promised he’d take her outside of the village to see the world, but first he needed money for his mother’s illness.

As Selina journeyed through the diary she found that Jasmine had taken more than Selina had thought from her father. About three thousand had been stolen from the savings in 6 months. Selina came across a sentence of guilt Jasmine felt toward her family. She’d said she wanted to stop it and not do it anymore, but Derek refused to her requests. The boy that she had liked had started talking to her, Jasmine had really wanted to date him.

“Selina,” Jiro called.

Selina turned away from the diary.

“Lets go get something to eat. If you want to continue on with the search you’re going to need energy beforehand,” Jiro told.

Selina marked the page she’d stopped at and got out from under the tree. They stopped at a village restaurant and got their lunch. After lunch when they began to head out Selina stopped and turned to look back at the village.

“Sometimes I can’t help but wonder what’s going through that mind of yours,” Jiro commented.

Selina turned to look at him, “I’m planning a night here.”

“You want to spend a night here?” Jiro repeated.

“If you want to you can head back. Something’s telling me not to leave this place,” Selina told. “I probably don’t need you anymore, I’ve done this plenty of times.”

When she said that, Jiro felt something inside of him telling him that he couldn’t leave her behind.

“Then I guess we’ll have to find a place to stay,” Jiro said.

“Look here, I’ve already said I don’t need your assistance anymore,” Selina stated.

“Assistance or not, if it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t have gone pass those gates over there. This isn’t just your case, but mine too so don’t think too much of it,” Jiro pointed out. “The Bai family might have a spare room for us.”

Giving in Selina followed Jiro back and a while later they found themselves standing in front of a shed not too far away from the house the Bai family lived in. The shed was filled with shelves of gardening tools, but the solid gray floor was pretty much empty.

“We don’t have any empty rooms in our house. This is all we have,” Jasmine’s father told, “sorry if this is inconvenient, but it’s the best I can do for you two. I’ll get my wife to bring out some blankets for you.” He said then turned around. Jiro turned around as if to protest, but nothing came out of his mouth. Selina, on the other hand, had walked into the shed first. It was a really small place, plus dirty looking too. She turned around to look at Jiro who stared back at her.

“What?” Selina asked.

Jiro glanced at the floor and a ‘this is what you get’ smile erupted onto her face.

“Shall we?” Selina said.

“But it’s so small,” Jiro complained.

Silent footsteps sounded through the yard and Jasmine’s mother came with a couple of blankets and pillows. Jiro helped take them from her.

“I hope this is enough for you two,” she said.

Her face was pale and expressionless. Selina watched as the woman turned away and took a blanket and pillow from Jiro. She laid it down on the floor making herself comfortable as she took her bag off. Jiro stared at the floor unsure. With the room so narrow he’d have to practically sleep next to her.

“What? It’s not like we’re close enough to dating. I don’t see what the big deal is,” Selina told.

When it finally got dark outside and they had closed the door the hut was deathly silent and dark. Things ran over in Jiro’s mind as he lay awake. Not once in his life had he shared a room alone with someone else. Suddenly a flashlight lit the room catching his attention and he turned to see Selina sitting up to read Jasmine’s diary. He figured she was really into solving the murder.

“He promised me he’d leave me alone after I gave him another 2 thousand. Why isn’t he going away so I can live peacefully? I told him I don’t like him anymore and he threatened to kill me if I didn’t keep giving him the money. I’m so scared I don’t know what to do. Dad is really sad right now and mom won’t talk to me. Why am I so alone now?” Selina read.

The last page ended there and Selina turned off the flashlight covering herself with the blanket. Selina to her side so that her back was to Jiro and after half an hour her eyes finally closed.

She was running through the woods after someone had tried to pull her back. Her arms and feet ached and she felt very hungry as if she hadn't eaten for days. Her hair had fallen out from her ponytail covering her shoulders in a mess. The branches whipped her faces and scratched her arms and legs. It felt as if a huge cat had pawned her throwing her to the ground. Tears streaked her face as she ran into the night. It was so painful...so painful.

Heavy footsteps followed her and she was slowing down because she was getting tired. There was a hut up ahead, thank goodness, if she ran in there maybe she would be safe from him. However, when she tried to close the door after her it had broken down and her heart began to beat with fear. Shivers climbed over her body as she felt something slam against her head and she landed upon the ground.

Selina awoke with a loud cough escaping through . She panted heavily as she sat up quickly reaching for her flashlight and searched around the shed. Nothing had changed from the way it was earlier. That same breeze that had passed her in Derek’s hut passed her again. She needed to get out and as if automatically her legs got up. She opened the door and stepped out into the starry night.

===

Jiro awoke a second later after he felt the cold wind blowing into the room. As he opened his eyes to stare at the opened door he sat up.

“What in the world…” he muttered and turned to see that Selina wasn’t there anymore.

Frowning to himself he quickly slipped on his shoes and hurried out, but paused noticing that Selina's shoes were still there.

===

Selina flashed her light through the woods that stood in the backyard of Jasmine’s house. The woods seemed thick and uninviting, but it looked familiar enough to the one she’d been running through in her dreams. Without further thinking she stepped into the woods and made her way through it.

Bushes and plants scratched at her jeans, but it didn’t both her. Owls hooted in the night and rodents scurried around. The sport gauzes that were still on her feet protected her bare feet from the stingy leaves underneath her.

Flashbacks of her dream appeared in her mind as she processed further on. She recalled her heart pounding, her heavy breathing, and those loud footsteps coming after her.

Selina glanced down the path calmly stopping to see the hut she’d seen in her dream and it was then that her heart began beating wildly. The hut was worn out and part of the wooden siding had come off. She paused in front of the weak old door and pushed it open. As she flashed the flashlight around in the small room she found that it was a tool room. Wrenches, screwdrivers, hammers, nails, paint brushes, and so on sat around on the table. Selina stepped in to see a thick wooden board lying on the ground.

Her dream about getting hit by something hard on her head flashed into her mind.  

As she flashed the light around more she could see blood stains on the wall and ground. There had clearly been a struggle in there. A reek of something rotten finally got to her nose and tears formed in her eyes as she ran out. She dropped onto her knees and started coughing hoarsely. Hurried footsteps of someone running neared her. She could feel someone place their hands on her back and Selina looked up to see Jiro’s worried face looking down at her.

At the break of dawn Taoyuan police cars surrounded the Bai house. Jiro and Selina shared with them what they’d learned from the Bai family and upon reading Jasmine’s diary. Officers were sent to investigate the abandoned hut and take the stained blood for DNA testing. If right, Jasmine Bai was murdered on the same day she went missing.

“We’ve to locate Derek in Chilung,” Jiro explained to an officer.

“The hotel he’s been located to be at is a five star rated one. There’s no way he would have had that much money on him,” an officer said. “Why don’t you go check it out today and bring him into custody?”

Jiro walked over to Selina who had just pulled her sweater on.

“Feeling alright?” he asked.

Selina turned around, “Yea.”

“We’re heading to Chilung,” Jiro explained, “do you want to tag along?”

===

It was the break of noon when he walked into the hotel with a handsome black jacket on. His hair had been spiked up using gel in the early morning. He slipped his arm around the girl he’d picked up from the bar last night.

“Do you really live in here?” she asked as she tossed around the gum in .

“Are you going to believe me or not?” he asked. “I’m a millionaire. I’ve already told you so.”

They stepped into the elevator and rode up to the 6th floor.

“You’re going to see what luxury is today,” he told before slipping in the card that opened his door.

As they walked inside the girl walked out from his arm and looked around the room spinning in a circle. opened in awe.

“This is awesome!” she screamed.

Derek smirked closing the door after him and slipped off his jacket tossing it to the ground. The girl raised her eyebrow.

“What’s with that belt?” she questioned. “It looks creepy.”

“Well you won’t have to worry about it,” he told slipping his arms pass her pushing her onto the queen sized bed. “Lets have some deserved fun shall we?”

She smiled up at him waiting for him to kiss her, but the door slammed open interrupting their moment of intimacy. She looked up and pushed Derek away as a black haired man walked in.

“Who are you?” Derek asked annoyed as he turned around.

The girl who had followed the intruder in glanced at Derek’s belt.

“You’re under arrest, Derek, for the murder of Jasmine Bai,” Jiro said as a crew of officers came in behind him.

“What are you talking about?! I never heard that girl’s name in my whole life!” he shouted.

“We’ll testify in court after we match her blood with your special belt there eh?” Jiro called as the cops hurried over to handcuff Derek.

===

After returning to Taipei Selina hurried to Hebe’s house to take a hot shower and change. By the time she’d arrived Hebe was already out and the house was empty. After changing into a new outfit and before heading out again Selina paused to look at the photo she’d saved from the fire. Xuan smiled back at her.

“We solved another mystery,” Selina said proudly as if speaking to her twin then headed out.

Selina hurried toward the large black framed glass doors that led into Prescon Reports. As Selina walked through the doors the first thing she saw was a man with red hair she believed belonged to Evan.

“Hey Evan!” she shouted.

Aaron turned around from the stairs to stare at her.

“So you work early in the morning too huh?” Selina said. “You don’t have to look so cold.”

Aaron’s face expression immediately changed into one that made him look kinder.

“You should smile more,” Selina said stretching her lips, “like this. You’ll look really nice if you do. That cold face of yours makes you seem distant.”

“Selina!” her boss shouted from the office door.

“I’ll catch you later,” Selina said and hurried off.

“Derek made front news today. It’s on TV as well as on print,” her boss said as Selina walked through the door.

“Really? That fast?” Selina asked.

“He’s being held in custody for questioning and they’re going to keep him in jail until results come out,” her boss explained, “they’re testing finger prints found in the hut and the blood that is Jasmine’s. That belt of his has been taken away from him, I bet they’ll find some of her DNA on that one.”

“I’m tired,” Selina yawned turning away.

“Good job,” he commented then walked away from her desk.

Selina smiled to herself then her computer.

“Oh yes,” her boss walked back, “you might want to look up some background information before you start your next case. It’ll help you if you learn about the family first.”

Selina frowned at him as he placed a thick folder in front of her.

“This case has gone unsolved for 5 years,” he explained, but encouraged, “you can do it.”

Selina opened the folder and looked at the thick news article that had been written about the death of the father. She stared at the documents for a moment then stretched her arms out ready for what the day would bring.