The Formidable Stranger (Trilogy)

The Investigation

The weekend fast approached after a hectic week of mishaps, for the first time in a long while Casper woke up to see his father at home on a Saturday. Yawning and entering the kitchen in his pajama pants and white T-shirt, he saw his father and mother sitting around the table having breakfast, it was a rather large kitchen and a rather large table for a family of three, it could seat up to eight persons. Cas poured himself a cup of coffee from the coffee maker, walked over the table, and said "good morning mother" giving her a kiss on the cheek as he usually did, "And father! I am surprised to see you here". Katherine chuckled softly as she gazed into the eyes of the man she loved "Kid's got a point Lee, but we are happy that you're here with us this morning"

The middle-aged Japanese man laughed a little and held his wife's hand across the table beside him, "a man misses his family oftentimes, but rarely has the time to get away from the company, I too am glad to be here. He then looked at Casper and said "come on son, have a seat and have some of your mother's amazing bacon and eggs"

"Don't have to tell me twice" said Casper as he sat in the chair facing his father, the Lee family shared a good morning having good coffee, good food, and great laughs. It was all going too well, Sakamoto then asked his son "so how was your first week at work?"

"ahh well it's been good dad, love my job thank you again for that"

"Don't mention it" said Lee

"There is something I've been meaning to ask you, something has been puzzling my brain all week" replied Casper as he made that confused-looking face again.

"I came by Mr. Wong's office the other day and I could have sworn I heard you speaking with him in his office, but when I opened the door it was just him"

The face of his father as he heard this froze for a second or two, he wiped his mouth with a napkin and finally smiled and said "well I do believe we were on the phone that day, Mr. Wong is a busy man like myself so he sometimes places the phone on speaker"

Casper looked in his eyes and knew he was hiding something, "yeah, that's probably what it was, Grandmaster Ming thought you had a panic room or something"

Lee laughed awkwardly and hysterically at the same time "Ming's getting old, even if I did have a panic room, it would probably be in my office and not the Distribution Manager"

Casper thought about that for a second and ultimately agreed by nodding, still knowing there was something odd about the whole situation.

"Okay! That's enough work talk" blurted out Katherine "Cas could you be a darling and wash the dishes for me while I get to cleaning the house"

"Of course ma, I'll come and help with the house when I'm finished too"

"Thank you baby" replied Kat.

"And I will be mowing the lawn if you need me," said Lee as he kissed his wife and left the kitchen.

For about half that day the Lee family was home together beautifying their place of residence. At about 1:00 pm Sakamoto received a phone call and he had to leave to handle some business, Katherine and Casper watched as he pulled out the driveway in his bright shiny red Range Rover and as he drove away, there was the sound of Drew's motorcycle riding in. The Lee's had a basketball court in their backyard and that's where the troublesome duo would spend some time trying to best each other on Saturdays, of course they would escape to The Raft in the evening hours for a little Saturday night karaoke and drinks but due to the recent incident the raft had been closed down all week; the police are currently conducting ongoing investigations in the area and no one is allowed to enter the premises.