Classic Café Corner, Down Town L.A.:
Rose takes a sip of her coffee as she waits for Sasha Wolfhart to arrive. She was lucky that Mrs. Wolfhart agreed to come and talk with her. She understood why Mrs. Wolfhart suggested this particular coffee shop.
She had googled the place and saw that it had an outstanding review. She looks around and tries to locate Sasha. After a few minutes, she spotted an old silver color Chevy Stingray Corvette pull into a parking space. A smile appears on her face when she spots Sasha get out of the Corvette.
She watches as Sasha scans the outside sitting area. She raises her coffee cup to let Sasha know she spotted her. She watches as Sasha starts walking towards the entrance of the coffee shop.
Sasha had received an email from a woman claiming to be investigating Ciarán Kilvert and his recent activities. She had included some pictures she sent in the email and was asking for her help. Normally, Sasha didn’t get involved in other people’s investigations, but the pictures the woman had sent had piqued her curiosity.
She had arranged to meet this person at one of her favorite coffee shops. When she got out of her car, she automatically started scanning the crowd sitting outside of the café and spotted a woman with light brown hair sitting at a table. She had raised her coffee cup to let her know she spotted her.
A sly smile appears on Sasha’s face as she enters the coffee shop. Sasah stops to order a cup of coffee before going outside to sit with the woman she came to meet. After getting her cup of coffee, Sasha heads outside and over to a young light brown hair woman.
Rose looked up at Sasha as she approached her table. A smile appears on her face, as her idol stops near her table.
“Do you mind if I join you?” Sasha looks at the woman.
She looked to be in her early twenties, had shoulder-length light brown hair, and was wearing a light color sleeveless blouse. Nothing seemed suspicious or out of place about this woman.
Rose looked up at Sasha when she spoke “Please.”
“Thank you.” Sasha sits down across from Rose.
“So, what is your interest in Ciarán Kilvert, Rose?” Sasha felt weird calling this woman by her oldest daughter’s name.
“I think he is up to no good, Mrs. Wolfhart.”
“Please, call me Sasha. As for no good, you’ll need more than that to convince me to help you.” Sasha wanted to know what was motivating this woman.
Rose takes a deep breath and lets it out before speaking. She gathers her thoughts “because I came across one of his victims. I have a feeling that he is purposely choosing his victims, either to profit off them being missing or to help someone to profit off their disappearance.”
“Can you prove any of this?” Sasha knew she’d need proof to move against Mr. Kilvert.
“Nothing concrete, but this is what I do have.” Rose reaches into her purse and pulls out her Apple iPad.
She logs onto it and brings up the phone numbers she stole from Mr. Kilvert’s phone. She hands the tablet to Sasha. “Here’s what I have so far.”
Sasha accepts it and looks through the information. She had to agree that things seem to point towards Mr. Kilvert having some sort of a
connection to the victims. They were the same people that Susan associated with.
Sasha hands the tablet back to Rose. She looks at Rose’s face “That information is a little weak. Do you have anything else to go on?”
“How about this?” Rose opens the file she had encrypted.
Rose hands her tablet back to Sasha “Take a look at these photos and tell me what you think.”
Sasha accepts the tablet again and starts looking through the photo. Several of them caught her attention right away. She looks up at Rose “Where did you get these photos?”
“I sort of broke into Mr. Kilvert’s place. Don’t worry, I was covered from head to toe, so he has no idea who I was.” Rose saw the concerned look on Sasha’s face.
“Are you sure he didn’t?”
“I am, but there was someone else there. I didn’t get a good look at him, because he was covered up from head to toe like me. Here’s what my helmet camera caught of him.” Rose shows Sasha the video her camera built into her helmet caught.
Sasha watched the fight and could tell the person Rose was fighting had some skill, but his fighting style was sloppy. He relied on the weapon he was using too much.
“Did you see him when you entered the place?” Sasha had paused the video to look directly at Rose.
“No, he must either live there or was there for something.” Rose had gone over all the footage her helmet cam recorded.
“I agree with you. The thing is, how did he know you were there? Did you forget to disarm any of the security systems before you entered?” Sasha watches Rose’s facial expression.
“I didn’t forget to disarm any of the security systems. Maybe he had one that was hidden that I miss or wasn’t part of the main system.” Rose knew she had a few like that.
“Maybe. As for the photos you took. Some of this I recognize and I know what it does. Mr. Kilvert must have repaired or rebuilt what the item does.” Sasha knew anyone with expert carpentry skills could fix most magical items made of wood.
“So, do you think that is how he is turning men into bimbos?”
“If I had to guess, I would have to say yes. He found an ancient magical artifact and rebuilt it.”
“So, will you help me get to the bottom of this mess? Because to be honest, this is way out of my league, and having an expert helping me would be a big help.” Rose knew this was out of her league.
Sasha looks into Rose’s eyes and tries to see if she should help her. She normally doesn’t like working with someone she doesn’t know that well. Her apprentice was out of town doing a show.
“Here’s my address. I want you to come by tomorrow and I want to see what you know.” Sasha inputs her address into the tablet and hands it back to Rose.
“Thank you.” As Rose looks at the address.
“You might not say that after tomorrow.” An evil smile appears on Sasha’s face.
“You might be right.” Rose figures it might be some sort of test.
The two women finish their coffee and walk out together. Sasha heads for her Corvette, while Rose walks to the jeep she came in. Rose wonders what Sasha has planned for tomorrow as she drives back to her garage.
