Chapter 28
Everyone staring into the hole Jason and Caroline made gasped, even though they were told what was inside beforehand.
It was an already mummified head, with metal chains around its neck and a piece of shiny object embedded in the mouth.
“Holy shit! Did you see that folks? We just found a fucking body buried inside the walls of the Prime Royals Hotel!” Branston was excited beyond belief by this discovery and he practically yelled these words to his camera on livestream: “Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shiiiiiiiiit!”
“We just got some exclusive footage of the body and we will definitely follow up as they try to dig it out!” Brian also stated to the camera with a semi-professional and semi-serious tone, “Adam, do you have a guess on who the body is?”
“Okay, let me first clarify that this is my speculation. And we might be wrong.” Adam took over the camera: “From my research into the history of the Prime Royals Hotel, there are three main suspects.
“The first is the first wife of the third owner of the Prime Royals Hotel, at the time it had a different name. The owner’s name was William Jenson, and his first wife was Abigail Jensen. I am not very familiar with their story, but the story went that Abigail Jensen disappeared and her body was never found.
“The second is a maid of the seventh owner, we do not know her name, but she also disappeared and was never found. But at the time it was right after the San Francisco earthquake, she was presumed dead because of the earthquake.
“The third and the creepiest possibility is the one of the hotel’s previous owners. Her name was Beverly Winters. Unlike the previous suspects, she was never missing - not when she’s alive. She died of pneumonia at the age of 35, and the next day, her body was stolen from the morgue and was never found.”
On the other side, police officers were questioning Jason and Caroline.
Since they were the ones that found the body, the officers decided not to arrest them, even though the hotel was a historic site.
And the questions were really simple: “How did you know there was a body inside”, “Why didn’t you call the police”, “What were you doing in the hotel.”
It was not long before they were let go, and the police officers started questioning Branston, Brian and Adam.
Quickly hopping onto a rideshare car, both Caroline and Jason could not fight the weariness anymore and fell fast asleep before their ride even got onto the main street.
“Hey sir! Hey lady!” when Jason and Caroline were woken up, the car had already arrived at the inn, the driver handed over two small bottles of water: “Here you are. And take these, you look thirsty.”
“Thanks man.” Jason and Caroline grabbed the water, rushed off the car and straight towards the lounge of the inn.
“Yo, you came back early. I thought you’re not gonna be back till later. How’s San Francisco?” Dave greeted both of them at the reception’s desk.
“Where’s my uncle?” Jason did not have time to entertain Dave’s chit chat attempt.
“He’s doing good, enjoying himself with some matcha ice cream in the diner.” Dave pointed to the diner’s direction, “He woke up about half an hour ago and helped me with some guests ...”
“Thanks a lot!” before Dave could finish, Jason rushed into the diner and grabbed Uncle Bu’s arm.
“Little Jie, what happened? Dave said you went to San Francisco to make an emergency delivery to your boss?” Uncle Bu was indeed eating matcha ice cream, and he was watching Chinese TV on his phone. Jason’s sudden move startled him a bit, but he still asked kindly.
The hand - shaped bruising was gone.
Jason gave out a long exhale in relief and sat down by Uncle Bu’s side: “It was tough, who knew a delivery could be this tormenting? But I am so glad you are up, let’s go and buy some clothes shall we?”
“It can wait, you just went to San Francisco and back, you must be exhausted.” Uncle Bu smiled and said, “Have some matcha ice cream with me! Can you tell me what brand it is? This is amazing!”
“Yeah, Boss had them custom made with his own tea leaves, believe it or not.” Caroline came over, sat down by Uncle Bu’s side and said in accented Mandarin, “Have you tried his tea? If you like tea you should definitely try it. In fact I think Boss wouldn’t mind if you bring the whole bucket home.”
“Hey! Good Madarin you got there.” Uncle Bu looked pleasantly surprised.
“Thanks Uncle. Jie taught me a lot.”
Just when the three of them settled down and were about to enjoy some more ice cream, Uncle Bu’s phone rang.
“Sorry, I gotta take this.” Uncle Bu apologized to Caroline and turned to Jason: “This is Little Yuxin’s mother.”
“That’s Elaine, my cousin.” Jason also stood up and explained to Caroline.
“Uh huh … that’s so nice to hear. How are they feeling now? … understood, Little Jie and I will visit the first thing tomorrow.” Uncle Bu turned to Jason while covering his phone: “Little Yuxin just got off sedation, and Donovan woke up.”
“Whoo!” Jason cheered in relief, and he received a high five from Caroline.
“Hi, is Mr. Yu here?” while Jason, Caroline and Uncle Bu were having some happy quiet time in the diner, a young woman wearing a long coat and sunglasses came to the reception’s desk.
“Oh, he’s out until next Tuesday. I am here to take over his shifts till he comes back.” Dave hesitated for a second then chuckled nervously, “Do you need a room? Can I take a message?”
“That’s fine. I will come back next Tuesday.” the woman looked a bit disappointed.
“Holy shit! Guys! Do you know who just came looking for your boss?” after the young woman left, Dave barged into the diner.
“Who?” Caroline frowned and asked.
“Don’t tell me it’s Josephine Wong.” Jason swallowed some ice cream.
“Oh my...” Dave looked ecstatic and frustrated, “You knew?”
Caroline almost spitted out the ice cream in her mouth.