Yoongi recalled the voice message he’d overheard on Jin’s birthday while Martina had taken Tae on a tour of the building and Jungkook had planted minuscule listening devices in Julieta’s building. The phone in Martina’s office had rung while she was gone showing Tae the building. A masculine voice had left a message on the machine when the phone had automatically gone to voicemail.
“Martina, is your phone dead? I’ve been trying to call you for an hour. How are things progressing with Julieta? Has she caved in to all the pressure yet? If not, we need to up our game. I’m running out of time.”
Very interesting, indeed. And coupled with the recordings they’d procured from the listening devices they’d hidden in her office over the last month, they were beginning to get a clearer picture of what Julieta was up against. And now they had some evidence.
—
Something was wrong. Julieta seemed stressed. Jin assumed that working with Martina was eating away at her. He had encouraged her to bide her time. They’d left the bugs in the offices in an attempt to collect evidence to use against Martina, Santiago, and Mr. Gonzalez, but it was taking time.
In the meanwhile, Jin worked on a plan to brighten Julieta’s spirits. He decided that each morning he would visit her at work. On that Monday, he showed up an hour before lunch with a little cooler sack.
Julieta eyed it curiously. “Jin, what is that?”
He pushed it towards her. “Open it.”
She reached out to grab it before unzipping it and peeking inside. He eyes grew wide. “Jin! How on earth did you make sushi rolls in the shape of a heart?”
He looked around the office suspiciously before leaning towards her and whispering conspiratorially, “It’s a secret.”
She laughed. It was good to see her laugh. She beamed up at him. “Thank you, Jin. I assume there’s enough for two in here?”
He nodded. “You assume correctly. Can I stick around until your lunch hour?”
“Actually, I can eat right now. I have a twelve-thirty appointment, so this is a good time for a lunch break.”
“Are you sure you have a twelve-thirty appointment?” He furrowed his brow.
“Yes. I called them myself this morning to double check and told them that under no circumstances would I be canceling today.”
Jin’s eyebrows flew up. “Why did you say that?”
“Because the other day I double-checked an appointment, but when I showed up for it, the receptionist informed me that I had called and cancelled the appointment thirty minutes before.” She stared up into Jin’s pretty eyes. “But, of course, I had done no such thing!”
Jin shook his head. “Unbelievable.” He whispered, “Must have been Martina, huh?”
She nodded. “Check the tapes, will you? It was Friday around two in the afternoon.”
—
When Jin arrived home after lunch, he made a beeline for Yoongi’s room. He stuck his head through the open doorway. Yoongi was sitting at his desk in front of his sound equipment.
“Hey, Yoongi, have you listened to the recordings you took from Martina’s office on Friday? I’m particularly interested in any phone calls she made around two in the afternoon.”
Yoongi glanced up at him. “I haven’t had a chance to yet.” He blinked. “Is it important? Want me to check it now?”
Jin nodded. “If you could…”
“Sure. Pull up a chair.”
Together, they went through the recordings until they found the one that they were looking for.
“Hello, this Julieta Flores. I have an appointment scheduled with Park Eun Min today at 2:30 pm. I need to cancel it…No, I do not wish to reschedule it at this time. Thank you. Goodbye.”
It was clearly not Julieta’s voice. Jin was furious! That little conniver, Martina, was definitely sabotaging Julieta. He glanced at Yoongi. “How many such phone calls have you recorded?”
Yoongi thought for a moment. “Over the last month…there must be three or four each week like this one.”
“Have you saved them all?”
Yoongi nodded. “I’ve catalogued them all with date and time stamps on them too. But, Jin, there’s been nothing to tie Mr. Gonzalez to the sabotage. And if what you told me is true, he is most likely the mastermind behind this little plan. Martina and Santiago are just his minions.”
Jin drummed his fingers on the desk. “Do you remember how the other day, Namjoon reminded us that we’re traveling to Buenos Aires the weekend of January twentieth for the Connect that’s opening?”
Yoongi stared at Jin as he nodded. What was his friend thinking?
“What if we set up a tour of Julieta’s factory?”
“What?”
“Then I’d have a chance to meet this mysterious Mr. Gonzalez. And his son. Perhaps we could take some listening devices with us?”
“You mean, you want to bug Mr. Gonzalez’s office?”
“That is exactly what I mean.”
“Hmm…we could have Julieta schedule a tour of the company for us. No one would find it suspicious since we’re doing promotional work with them.”
“Let’s go talk to Joonie and see if it’s possible.”
—
“It is. We have the time. But just barely. Jin, we’re getting ready for comeback. Don’t you think we have enough on our plate?” Namjoon asked.
“I do, but I won’t rest easy about leaving Julieta alone here for eleven weeks until we’ve dealt with this. If we can’t find the time that weekend, then I will leave a day earlier and head there on some other pretense.”
Namjoon could see that Jin was very serious about this. He sighed. “We’ve got a lot going on. Tae and Jimin won’t be home till Wednesday. But if you truly believe Julieta is in danger, then we will make the time. Even if it means we go without sleep. Right, Yoongi?”
Yoongi nodded. Julieta was definitely their priority.
