Her heart pounding in her ears, suddenly Tia heard Tae’s voice in halting English.
“Thank you for your help. I can’t find…my wallet. We came through here…an hour ago, you know? I thought maybe I dropped it on the floor. Mr. Gonzalez showed us everything but his office. So I don’t need to check there. Maybe around this corner?”
The voices receded. Tia breathed a sigh of relief. She pushed the door forward and walked out around it. Then, she made a beeline for the front door. Away from Tae’s louder-than-usual voice. She waved goodbye to the receptionist and headed for Tae’s rental car. She’d spotted it as soon as she’d walked out the door. What was he doing here?
She walked around it and sat down on the ground near the driver’s door. A couple minutes later, Tae wandered up to her.
“Tia.” His voice was sharp. “You scared me half to death.” He unlocked the car. “Get in.”
She crossed to the passenger side and climbed in. Once her door was firmly shut, she put her seatbelt on and turned towards him. “Why did you come here? Did you really lose your wallet?”
“No. Yoongi was keeping an eye on the spy cams on his phone. And he saw you snooping around Mr. Gonzalez’s office. He also saw the security guard making his rounds. We knew it was just a matter of time before the two of you discovered each other. I rushed out of the factory and ran over here. Thankfully, they are less than a block apart. I got to him just in time.”
As Tae turned the corner and hit the main road, Tia reached into her purse and pulled out the last tape. The one that had caught her eye. It was different than the others. It had a word written on it. A word that she had forgotten long ago. “Auntie.”
It was the first English word that she had learned. Her father had teasingly called her “Auntie” from the time she was tiny because Tia was the Spanish word for “aunt.” Clearly, her papá had left this tape for her.
How was it possible that Tío Pedro had never opened that drawer? These tapes had sat in that drawer for ten years? Perhaps he hadn’t been able to pick the lock and had decided that it didn’t matter because he was in control now. Obviously, he didn’t know what that drawer contained.
Tia was terrified. She knew she held in her hands some powerfully incriminating evidence. And something from her papá. Tears filled her eyes.
Tae turned towards her. “Hey, hey, what’s wrong?”
She glanced up at him. As she blinked, the tears ran down her cheeks. “Tae, I found it.”
“What?”
“The evidence we’re looking for.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know yet, but I found a locked drawer with audio tapes my father left for me.”
“What?” Incredulous, Tae stared at her. “Where?”
“In Tío Pedro’s office.”
“You found tapes from your father in Mr. Gonzalez’s office? Locked in a drawer? I don’t understand.”
“I don’t either. But that office used to be my father’s. That desk was his too. I remember it. And when I was tiny, my papá had a nickname for me. He called me by it only when he tucked me into bed at night.”
Her father’s voice echoed through her mind, “Buenas noches, Auntie.”
“I would giggle whenever he said it because it sounded so absurd, his fluent Spanish ending with a harsh English word. No one else – except Mamá and Julieta – knew he called me by that name.”
“What was it?”
She held the tape out to him. He read it. “Auntie.” He glanced at her. “Your papá called you ‘Auntie’?”
She nodded. “Do you understand why?”
“No.”
“Tia is the Spanish word for aunt.”
“Oh.” Understanding dawned. “Your father left this tape for you. And he marked it with your code name.” Tae furrowed his brow. “Why?”
“That’s the question that begs to be answered. But we need to find a tape player to answer it.”
“Do you know anyone who has one?”
Tia shook her head. “I mean, people stopped using them years ago.”
Tae looked at her. His brow was furrowed in concentration. “We’re headed to L.A. next. Where we work with lots of people in the music industry. Certainly, someone has a tape player. If they don’t, I bet we can buy one at Walmart.”
Tia was scared. She didn’t want to wait that long. “But Julieta and I were planning to fly home after this.”
Tae nodded. “I know. But you could fly to L.A. with us. I don’t relish the idea of you girls going home alone right now. If they figure out that you were in his office…”
“I know,” Tia responded. She glanced at Tae. “What was I thinking?”
“But look what you found! You followed your instincts, and you were right. Something was hiding in that office.”
“But…what? I thought it was something Tío Pedro had hidden. But it turns out, it was something my papá had hidden. For me to find. But…why?” She looked up at Tae with eyes large in her tan face. “I mean, I was only thirteen when he died. Why did he leave me a tape? Did he know that he and Mamá might die?”
Tae shook his head. “We won’t know until we listen to the tapes.”
Tia let out a long sigh. “You’re right. We won’t.” She shuddered. “Tae, I’m scared.”
“Don’t be scared. We have eyes and ears on that office. And I distracted the security guard before he saw anything. He was making his rounds while you were in that office. He wasn’t watching the cameras because no one was in the offices except the secretary. So he got bored and took a walk. Right before you showed up. I intercepted him before he could find you.”
She looked at him. “Tae.”
He glanced at her.
“You really are my hero.”
“Just returning the favor, Woong.”
