Black Diamond

21. Chapter 21

Olivia worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she pulled into the parking garage underneath their complex. She had no idea what was waiting for them, and with one glance at Kamella, she wasn’t sure if either of them were ready to find out.

Kamella looked calm on the outside, but Olivia knew better -- her mind was probably running 15 miles a minute. Olivia turned off the engine and took a deep breath. She hoped they weren’t walking away from a fire, only to be shoved right into another one.

Kamella turned in her seat, glancing at their extra passengers, “No one leaves this car,” She ordered simply. Johnny and Yuta nodded in understanding, but Taeyong frowned thoughtfully. Kamella shook her head immediately, looking at him pointedly and repeating slowly, “Do not get out of the car.”

Despite herself, Olivia chuckled, “Mel, I think they can come up. It’s not like there are reporters here.”

“But the police are here. Plus, we don’t know if there are reporters here, or not. Maybe they heard about the break-in and want to see what happened.”

“I think you’re paranoid. How about this? We can go see what’s going on now, and then call them up once the coast is clear. Does that make you feel better?”

Kamella sighed deeply, shaking her head, “Fine, fine.” She pushed the passenger door open and climbed out of the car, “Ty, I’ll text you when we get everything figured out.”

Taeyong nodded, “Be careful.”

Kamella waved over her shoulder as she headed towards the elevator, Olivia chasing behind her to catch up. When the car disappeared from view, Olivia finally voiced her thoughts, “Who would do something like this?”

“If it were any other situation, I’d bet all my money on a certain Queen of Hearts.” Kamella bit out, crossing her arms over her chest while they rode up to their floor. “Thankfully, she has no idea where we live. She doesn’t even know our real names.”

“But couldn’t she find out?”

“I hope not.”

When the elevator doors opened up, Kamella and Olivia stepped directly into an ongoing crime scene. There were 2 men in the hall chatting with their next-door neighbor, and if Kamella had to guess, there were probably 2 or 3 police officers in their apartment.

“Oh! There they are.” The kind, older woman next door pointed in their direction, and both women schooled their features to prepare for the worst. Both detectives turned in their direction, the younger of the two staring at them with wide eyes. Kamella had completely forgotten they were still wearing their Halloween costumes.

“You two were out partying again? You have so much energy,” Their neighbor teased, and Olivia giggled at her words.

“Of course we party on Halloween. You should have come with us,” Kamella replied easily, using the holiday as their cover.

“You two live in this apartment?” He asked, looking between Kamella and Olivia with a calculating gaze.

Kamella nodded, “Yes, we’ve lived here for three years now.”

“I’ll need to see your identification please.”

Kamella reached into her purse and pulled out the necessary documents, with Olivia doing the same. The older detective looked over their paperwork, while the younger detective was still staring at them. He finally looked away when his partner nudged him with his elbow. They looked over the documents for a while longer, before handing everything back to Kamella and Olivia.

“The security system in your apartment went off about an hour ago. Your neighbor called us to come and take a look when she found the door wide open.”

“Our landlady is still on her way too.” Their neighbor added, and Kamella took her hand and squeezed it kindly. The older woman returned the gesture, patting Kamella’s hand softly.

“Did the security cameras get anything?” Olivia questioned, pointing at the camera at the end of the hall. There was a camera by the elevator and another one, about 6 doors down from their front door, so there was no way the culprit wasn’t caught on camera.

“W-we’ll know when your building manager gets here. The security guard won’t let us see the footage until the manager arrives.” The younger detective finally joined in the conversation, just as two police officers walked out of their apartment.

“Are we allowed to go in?” Kamela asked, and the detectives nodded. The older detective motioned towards the front door, and both women followed his cue, stepping over the threshold.

Shattered dishes and glass littered the floor, crunching under their high heels. The pantry and cabinets had been emptied of all contents, and rice flour had been tossed around the kitchen, covering the floor and carpet like freshly fallen snow. The living room was even worse -- they had knocked the flat-screen TV over and shattered the screen.

Olivia gasped, rushing towards her room to witness the damage in there. Kamella felt her heart drop in her stomach because she knew her room was wrecked, especially after seeing their kitchen and living room. Sure enough, her clothes had been ripped into pieces, slashes pierced through the expensive clothes she wore to the club. Her wigs had been cut into horrible jagged things, barely discernible, and certainly unwearable. Her makeup was smeared all over the room, entire bottles thrown against the walls, smearing her joyful yellow bedroom walls with foundation, crumpled bits of blush, and bright red lipstick.

The worst part had to be the poor stuffed animals in her room. They were completely vandalized. Some had their stomachs ripped open, a few were missing their heads entirely. Her grandmother had scrimped and saved to buy most of those for her, and it was sad to see them so damaged.

Kamella was quick to grab the stuffed animals that had escaped the attack unscathed, and place them in a duffle bag, which she put under her bed out of the way. She grabbed a suitcase from her closet and started to pack up the few things in her room that could probably be repaired. She was about to gather whatever clothes she could find when she noticed all of Taeyong’s bags were missing. In a panic, she reached under the bed to see if they were hiding under there -- but the clothes were nowhere to be found.

Kamella moved into the bathroom, where some of her skincare had been dropped in the toilet. More of her clothes were in the bathtub, soaking wet and slowly losing color; someone had poured an entire bottle of bleach on them. Kamella covered her nose, and searched the bathroom cabinets just in case. She still couldn’t find any of Taeyong’s clothes.

“Mel! Where are you?” Olivia called from the other side of the apartment.

Kamella didn’t answer and instead leaned against the bathroom door, trying and failing to catch her breath. The smell of the bleach in the bathtub was making her head swim.

“Noona? Mella-yah, are you in here?? ...Oh my God...”

Kamella’s head shot up, and she leaned out of the bathroom to find Taeyong, Johnny, and Yuta walking into their living room.

“What part of ‘wait until we text you’ got lost in translation exactly?” Kamella huffed, closing the bathroom door behind her so no one else could see the damage in there.

Johnny chuckled, giving the two women a sheepish grin, “We thought maybe you forgot to text us.”

“I was worried,” Taeyong answered honestly, moving towards Kamella to comfort her.

Kamella stopped him, holding her hand up, “And you think that overrides the risk you’re taking by coming in here?”

“Noona, look around you. We didn’t want you to manage something like this by yourself,” Johnny interjected, trying to help Taeyong out. Taeyong gave his best friend a grateful nod.

Kamella wasn’t buying it though, “We’re fine,” she pressed, but her voice sounded flat, even to her own ears. “We have insurance -- we can replace everything.”

Moving together, Yuta and Johnny picked up the broken TV from the floor, placing it upright on the TV stand. Looking around the room at the rest of the damage, Yuta frowned, “It’s not about replacing everything, Noona. You probably won’t feel safe sleeping here tonight.”

“He’s right. I certainly don’t.” Olivia chimed in, coming out of her room with a suitcase. “Mel, let them help. We can’t stay here tonight, and we won’t be able to clean all this up on our own either.”

Kamella huffed at being outnumbered by the people around her, “Fine.”

“Are any of your clothes wearable, Mel? Do you need help finding something to wear?”

“I have a bag of clothes in my car, I can wear that,” Kamella replied easily, heading back into her room for the suitcase she had started filling earlier. She quickly changed into an untouched pair of black joggers and a matching off-the-shoulder sweater, placing a beanie over her flat twisted hair. Kamella then grabbed what little of her clothes remained, a few pairs of shoes, and some underthings. Most likely, they’d need to replace their entire closets.

“We shouldn’t stay for long. We can come back later,” Olivia suggested, and the guys immediately agreed. Taeyong gently grabbed the handle of the suitcase from Kamella and let the two women lead the way out of the apartment. The two detectives were standing in the hallway, waiting for them.

“Your landlady made it to the security office. We wanted to give you some time.” He didn’t comment on the addition of the three guys standing behind them, but Kamella knew there would be questions if the guys overstayed their welcome.

“Could you take our luggage to the car? We’ll come down after we’re finished,” She requested softly, and when Taeyong opened his mouth to protest once again, Yuta clapped him on the shoulder and pulled him toward the second set of elevators.

“We’ll see you downstairs,” Johnny explained, and Kamella nodded, as she boarded the elevators with Olivia and the detectives. They took the elevator to the basement floor of the building, where the security office sat locked behind a series of double doors.

When their group entered the room, the young detective stood beside a security guard and a well-dressed, petite woman that was extremely familiar to Kamella and Olivia.

“Kamella-ssi, Olivia-ssi. You promised me you wouldn’t cause me any trouble,” Their landlady was a playful woman in her 50s, but she was always fair, kind, and had a heart of gold. Olivia had “taught” her oldest son at the House of Cards, and now, he was happily married with three children.

She knew what her tenants did for a living, but she respected their work, and the workers. Her complex had been highly recommended by Yeo Na, as the woman was close to her mother when she was alive.

“Imo, how have you been?” Kamella accepted the hug that the older woman offered, knowing that she was probably worried about them.

“Well, when I got a call from the office in the middle of the night, I was terrified! How does the apartment look?”

“It’s ruined.” Olivia murmured sadly. Their landlady patted her hand softly, nodding in understanding.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find out who did this,” The young detective seemed to be warming up to them, turning to the security guard that sat in front of the terminal that managed the security system. “Please, play the video.”

Kamella reached out to take Olivia’s hand as the video began to play, not sure what they’d see on the screen. Sure enough, the video began about two hours prior to the break-in, displaying an empty hallway. They watched their neighbor chat with another neighbor for a little while, before she went back inside her house. The security guard fast-forwarded the video, as other neighbors came and went. In no time, two extremely familiar faces appeared clear as day on the video feed from the security camera inside the elevator.

“What. The. .” Kamella ground out under her breath, stepping closer to the screen and dropping Olivia’s hand. Behind her, Olivia gasped in surprise.

“Do you know these two women?”

“Mi Na-ssi and Ji Su-ssi. How did they find my building?” Their landlady knew everyone at the House of Cards because of her relationship with Yeo Na and Yeo Na’s mother. Kamella grit her teeth.

“Mel, you called it,” Olivia uttered breathlessly, shaking her head in annoyance.

Kamella clenched her fist, “I wish I hadn’t.”

“So this wasn’t a random attack? You know this person?” The older detective questioned, writing something in his notebook.

“We all do. She’s… a former friend.” Olivia explained quickly, and Kamella was thankful for her quick thinking.

“And this former friend is angry with you now.” He clarified, as he took more notes. In the video, Mi Na held something up to their front door to disable the keypad lock, “Break and entering is a serious crime.”

As the two figures disappeared behind their front door, Kamella counted to 10. If she didn’t, she’d get in her SUV and find the crazy that ruined their place. How did Mi Na even find their apartment in the first place? It didn’t make sense.

“Kamella, I think you need to talk to her. Maybe there was a misunderstanding,” Olivia suggested, but Kamella could read between the lines. Olivia wanted to go on the hunt too.

“Wait, what’s that in her hand?” The younger detective asked. The two figures on the screen had emerged from the apartment, carrying four shopping bags. Kamella recognized the bags instantly as Taeyong’s clothes. What the hell were they doing with his clothes?

“Stealing my boyfriend’s clothes?! What the hell?”

“Why would they want a man’s clothes?” The older detective pondered out loud, writing more notes down in his notepad. It seemed the same question was on everyone’s mind.

“Are those clothes brand new?”

“Brand new, tags still… OH!” Kamella turned towards the detective. “If I give you the names of each store, you could probably catch them.”

The detective nodded, handing his notepad over as their neighbor came back out into the hallway on the video, and saw their door wide open. They watched as she immediately pulled out her cell phone, and presumably called the police. The security guard cut the video feed at that point.

“I can’t believe they’d go this far.” Olivia’s face was glowing red with anger. Kamella couldn’t disagree with her -- this was completely out of the realm of anyone’s expectations.

“Kamella, what are we going to do?”

Kamella had no idea what they were going to do either. She needed some time to think. Since they had a lead on finding Mi Na, there was no reason for them to go looking for her tonight.

“For now, go get some rest, and leave everything to me. You both look exhausted. I can take over the rest from here.” Their landlady reassured them both, and Olivia gave her a grateful smile.

The security guard piped up for the first time since they’d arrived in the office, “Oh, by the way: when I couldn’t get in touch with either of you, I contacted the Emergency Contact on your file. She should have been here already…” He scratched his head thoughtfully, “Anyway, you should call her too.”

“Emergency Contact? We don’t have an emergency contact,” Olivia replied in confusion, turning to look at Kamella curiously.

Maybe their insane night was finally wearing her down, because Kamella had no idea who the man was talking about either.

“Maybe I dialed the wrong number?” The security guard shrugged, and went back to watching the computer screen. Olivia and Kamella bid their farewells to everyone in the room, and supplied the detectives with their phone number in case the authorities caught Mi Na before the House of Cards did.

When they were back on the elevator, Olivia was still thinking about their emergency contact, “Did we even fill out that part of the form? I don’t remember that at all.”

“Liv, he said he dialed the wrong number.” Kamella murmured, exhaustion finally hitting her all at once. She didn’t know where she was going, but she needed a bed and soon.

“I mean, there’s only so many people it could be. It’s not like we have a million friends.” Olivia pressed on, waving at the guys as they got closer to the car.

“Everything taken care of?” Johnny asked, leaning out of the open window.

Kamella hummed in non-commital agreement, reaching for the handle on the passenger door. Something was nagging her at the back of her brain. She stood there in front of the door, staring at her reflection in the window for a long moment.

“Mel?” Olivia called from the car. Taeyong watched Kamella, his brows furrowed in concern.

Suddenly, the security guard’s words hit Kamella like a ton of bricks. He said their emergency contact was on her way. That he had talked to her.

Kamella bolted from the car, scaring the hell out of everyone inside. Taeyong was the next person to jump out and follow Kamella, with Olivia right behind him, though neither of them really knew what the hell was happening.

Kamella made it to the elevators when a lone figure approached her from the other side of the parking garage. Kamella came to a screeching halt, her eyes wide in shock. She opened to speak, but no words were coming out. The woman stopped short in front of Kamella, recognition filling her familiar honey colored eyes. Those eyes that looked exactly like Dealer’s.

“Mel, what the hell?! You can’t just take off like-!” Olivia’s words caught in when she saw the woman standing just a few feet from Kamella. She gasped, stepping back so quickly, she bumped into Yuta, who had been right behind the three of them. Johnny nearly barelled them over in his rush to catch up.

The woman smiled softly at their group, pushing her ponytail of wavy, ebony colored hair over her shoulder. She had a small, pretty face, wide, down-turned eyes, and for some reason, something about her face structure felt familiar to Taeyong.

Kamella still hadn’t said a word, which scared Taeyong even more. He gripped her arm gingerly, hoping to help her come back to reality. The next thing he knew, he was the only thing keeping Kamella upright, as her knees completely gave out from under her.

Taeyong was so confused by the situation, while the woman just stood there watching everything. All the color had drained from Kamella’s face, and she stared at the woman as if she was seeing a ghost.

Olivia pointed at the woman, her fingers trembling as she whispered hoarsely, “U-Unnie.” Tears were streaming down Olivia’s cheeks, and Kamella gripped Taeyong’s arm tighter. Her entire body was shaking against him.

Taeyong took a closer look at the woman’s face again as her smile grew. He remembered where he’d seen those eyes, that smile -- the woman looked exactly like The Dealer of the House of Cards. He audibly gasped when the realization finally set in.

There was no doubt about it. This woman wasn’t just a random stranger. She was Kim Yeo Na. No wonder the girls looked like they had seen a ghost. Technically, that’s what she should have been.

End Chapter 21