The Man I Became... Because of You (Completed)

A Familiar Face

Ae's discharge went smoothly. Both himself and Pete were quietly collected by Oh and driven to the house. Cassie and Nigel followed later, bringing their vehicles. Pete would have to return to work the next day but that was ok. Plans were being made for his protection.

"Diew is calling me," Pete said in surprise, later that afternoon.

"So. Answer. He must have something to say to you." Ae smiled at him before turning back to his computer screen.

"Hey. Hi." Pete answered nervously for some reason. 

"Hey. Is Ae close? Put me on speaker. I have some news for you both."

"Sure." Pete followed instructions and Ae greeted his friend easily.

"So first things first. I heard you got shot and was the king of the Life Bet system. Do you know how long we've been trying to lock that shit down?" If Diew had a little awe in his voice, it was because Ae had managed to affect in a day what his people had been working on for years.

"Nope. I didn't even know something like that existed." Ae shook his head, still in disbelief that people would put a price on life.

"That's the most amazing part. I can't believe a junkie fool fell into a system like that. It's really tight lip. Hardly anyone knows or it would be easier to bust them."

"We got lucky because he took out, what, 13 bets on me?" Thirteen times I could have died.

"Just about," Pete agreed softly before moving closer to Ae's side. "And won about 9 if I remember it right."

"That's a lot of fucking bets dude. How are you still here with us?! This fucking unbelievable. Shit! I really hope they can use him to crack this open. He's a fucking dead man anyway. He's marked now. There is no way he can survive this for long. Even in prison. If the police let him out, they'll shoot him. If they lock him in, someone on the inside will get him. He must be losing his shit right now. Anyway. On to the other information I have. So. This Sheri chick? She left Thailand a couple of weeks ago. She went by train first to a job deal for some modelling gig. Then she flew out to Japan for several more jobs, before travelling to Europe from there. She's scheduled to return this week. Tonight in fact if my dates are correct."

"So Sheri may not be tied to this after all?" Pete wondered. Then why were they trying so hard to make it seem that way?

"Chances are, if she is, someone is posing as her to do her duties. However, I believe she is not involved, at least not that deep. Her current schedule puts her mostly outside of Thailand than in and if she needs to be here to deal with this then why be so absent?"

"Unless she's avoiding questioning? The perfect alibi is to be somewhere else with witnesses. Even if she's not involved, I believe she does know something. Her name is being used and someone is taking the time to pose as her. She carefully left the country without making it obvious which means she wanted to leave quietly." Ae reasoned. Pete couldn't find fault with his opinions and nodded.

"Then she's allowing her name to be used for some reason while maintaining the idea that she's not involved, using her schedule. I did notice from her past schedule that she had taken on a lot more work lately. Granted her current jobs are very high profile." Diew added in support of Ae's theory.

"Which means she has a great excuse not to refuse them." Ae noted.

They talked for over an hour, running through all the persons that could possibly be involved and that's when Ae thought of something. He called Officer Dami after speaking with Diew.