Free Torn (Jay Gunner, #1) by Gerald Greene

Hwa International Building, Peking Road, right?”
    “Yes, 8 th floor.”
    “I’m on my way”
    Agent Cooper followed most of the conversation. “Mind if we enter your apartment? We may have a situation.”
    “Not at all. You have the address?”
    “We do. I’ll ask Agent Bright to join me and meet you there. Now, better pick up your girlfriend.”
    Joy asked. “Anything I can do to help? Want me to come along?”
    “Thanks for asking, but Amanda is already upset. I’m afraid she would be more upset if she saw us together.”
    Joy picked up her purse. “I’ll be at home if you need me. Tell Amanda, I hope she’s OK.”
    Amanda’s appearance shocked me. One eye was swollen shut. Surrounded by black and blue puffy skin, it looked painful. A shaved eyebrow disclosed a one inch cut and three stitches. Luckily, her nose wasn’t broken, but a bloody nose soiled her blouse. Her face looked terrible; like she’d just lost an MMA fight.
    Amanda pulled up her blood spattered blouse to show three taped ribs. Both arms had bruises from kicks received as she tried to cover up. She was lucky to have only fractured ribs as broken bones. The thieves had the items they wanted, and attacked as they were rushing out. If she’d been home when the thieves first broke into the house, it would have been much worse.
    Agent Cooper and his partner, Agent Bright, beat us to the condo apartment. The door was wide open as we arrived. Police were swarming all over. 
    Agent Cooper filled us in. “Looks like real pros broke in. This is a secure building. Two security guards are always on duty. Police tell us they found both guards lying unconscious in a storage room. They tell the same story. One second they’re fine, the next they felt a little sting on the neck and that was it. The next thing they knew paramedics were working on them on the way to the hospital.”
    Amanda added, “Wish I only had a little neck sting. They made a mess of me.”
    “I’m sorry Ms. Lee. I know you’re not feeling well. I have just a couple of questions. Is that OK?”
    I jumped in, “Please make them short. Amanda needs to be in bed.”
    “Yes of course. Ms. Lee, did you get a good look at your assailants?”
    “No Sir, not at all. As I told the police it happened so fast. I entered the house and was punched and kicked before even turning on the lights. I only know two men wearing black masks and jumpsuits worked me over. As I was lying on the floor, they picked up two bags of our stuff and were gone.”
    “What did they take?”
    “Before police arrived, I staggered around and noticed my jewelry and Jay’s Apple laptop missing. I noticed I was dripping blood everywhere and stopped looking.”
    “Were the men Chinese?”
    “I don’t know. They were wearing all black, had on facemasks, and punched me before I knew what was happening. I have no idea if they’re white, black, brown or yellow. “
    I thought it enough. “Fellows, let’s give Amanda a break. She’s under medication, but still hurting and needs rest.”
    Agent Bright said, “Sure, we understand. Sorry to intrude, but this is a crime scene. We’re not asking you to leave, but need to look around. The computer is what they wanted. Where did you keep it?”
    I showed them to my desk. With the laptop missing, there was only the Apple USB Superdrive unit on the desktop alongside a notebook. Looking at the floor, I noticed my briefcase missing. Oh shit. I couldn’t decide if that was good news or bad news. The FBI doesn’t have the top secret documents, but someone does. Like a fool I hadn’t burned them as Brian suggested.
    Ordinary crooks wouldn’t know or care about pieces of paper. But anyone after top secret computer files would recognize the importance of the documents.
    I no longer felt safe in the condominium or in Hong Kong. 

15 – Confusion
    A manda couldn’t believe our bad luck. She’d decided on Bali for our vacation, and arranged hotel reservations for the