"Where are you going?" Samantha yawned and approached Kaito by the front door while he was placing his hat and coat on. Kaito smiled at her.

"To the cafe." He lied. Kaito was planning on meeting Wilson at his apartment. Wilson had found out the bidder and buyer for the missing flash drive, he was going to find out who it was.

"I thought you were keeping the cafe closed today. I was hoping you could stay home with Keiji." She groaned and rubbed her tired eyes.

"I'm sorry." Kaito frowned.

"It's fine, I'll just take him to daycare." Samantha raised her fist to her lips and began coughing lightly.

"Thank you. I love you." Kaito leaned forward to kiss her, but Samantha dodged him and jerked back. He straightened himself up, completely puzzled. "What's wrong?" He was trying to remember if he did anything wrong. Maybe she was suspicious of him.

"I think I caught a small bug or something. I don't want to give you any germs."

Kaito placed his hand on her forehead, and it felt a little hot. Maybe she had a slight fever. "You have work today, right? I think you should stay home and rest."

"No, it's fine. I'll wear a mask or something to work. We have too many bills to pay."

"Sam, I'll take care of that." Kaito groaned. He didn't like when she was persistent. It was one of his least favorite traits about her, not that he had any favorites. He kissed her on her cheek and gave her a fake smile. "Just get some rest. I'll bring you back some soup." He opened the apartment door and locked it behind him.

Then he went to his car and began his route to get to Wilson. Samantha on the other hand decided to ignore her husband's request and got dressed for work. She also dressed Keiji and as she left the apartment with everything she needed, she noticed there was a used cigarette in front of their door.

She thought it was weird because Leo didn't smoke. They didn't have any next-door neighbors yet either. She kicked it off their porch and grabbed Keiji in her arms before placing him in her car.

After dropping her son off at a nearby daycare center, she went to work. On the way there, her coughing worsened. "Crap." She parked in a spot and searched the dashboard for any coughing pills. She left the medicine back at home.

She put on a face mask and went inside the building. Some of her coworkers greeted her with small smiles as she walked past several departments to get to her own office. Recently, she had been meeting the deadlines accordingly. Mr. Giles allowed her to continue making simple reports around the town.

Now that the beginning of wintertime was rolling in, the company was getting busier doing their Holiday promotions, or secret Santa coverage.

Although Samantha was getting things done, she felt sympathy for her old friend Isabella. Over the years, she started losing her spotlight in the papers.

Isabella was still persistent in trying to find out more information about the Yakuza, and more specifically, Kaito's real identity. Because of that, there was still a lot of tension between Samantha and her.

Samantha was starting to get scared for Isabella's safety but continued letting her do whatever she wanted. She couldn't convince or try to stop a grown adult from doing whatever they wanted. Every time Samantha tried being respectful about her concerns to Isabella, she'd flat out refuse or scream at her.

There was still some small part in Samantha's heart that made her want to rekindle the friendship the two had before, but she felt like it was impossible.

"Excuse me." That familiar voice snapped Samantha out of her thoughts. She blinked and raised her head to look at whoever caught her attention. It was Isabella, Samantha was standing at the copy-printer machine and in her way.

"Oh, sorry." She smiled nervously and stepped aside. "How are things, Isabella?"

"Fine, not that it's any of your business." She snapped and placed a document from the printer in a folder. "I suppose you and your family are doing well?"

"Oh! Yes! They're doing fine—"

"Don't really care." She snorted and shoved past Samantha. "I'd be careful if I were you. During the holidays, people seem to get more violent. There are a lot of murders and people dying during this time of the year. A lot of times they can happen within the family, you never know who you can trust."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing. I'm just saying to keep an eye on your surroundings." Isabella smirked at her suspiciously. It was like she knew of something but wasn't telling Samantha or being clear enough.

Samantha responded with a heavy cough. "I'll do that. You enjoy your holiday."

~

"Who's the buyer?" Kaito twirled the pistol in his fingers, bored out of his mind. He was waiting for Wilson to finish whatever he was doing on the laptop. The apartment Wilson stayed at had no great television or anything else to occupy him, and Kaito hated reading books. There were plenty of books everywhere.

"You're not gonna believe it."

"After I got married, nothing else phases me. Lay it on me." Kaito snickered.

"5 years ago there was a grand auction at the Queenstown art gallery, you know, one of the most popular tourist sites. When the flash drive went up for bid, an older man named Nathaniel Giles bought it for over $300,000."

"How much is that in yen?"

"A lot." Wilson snickered. "You've gotten paid a little more from handling a couple of your targets but it's still a good amount of money. The drive comes with a password. Without it, it would be extremely difficult for an average person to unlock it. But don't worry, I'm not average. I'm the best."

"Stop gloating, you're nothing special." Kaito rolled his eyes. "Continue."

"One day you're gonna admit that you like having me as a company." Wilson pouted. "The weirdest part about this guy is that he lacks the money to buy the drive. Not sure why he bought it, but I'm sure he took out a loan from someone."

"He didn't get it from a bank?"

"I looked up the guy's bank statements. Nope. There's only a large amount deposited into his account and then taken out and turned into cash, but it was from a mysterious lender."

"And did you check to see who the lender could be?"

"I did."

"And?" Kaito tapped his foot impatiently. It was getting late, and he needed to return home soon.

"The lender is Japanese."

"Ohh, what a shocker." Kaito waved his hands and spouted sarcastically. "There are tons of Japanese people in Queenstown, dipstick."

"The lender has the same routing number as the one that transferred money to your account many years ago."

Kaito stopped twirling his gun and stood up straight. "You'd better not be messing with me."

"I'm serious." Wilson swallowed. "I told you that you're not going to believe it. Now, if Nathaniel Giles was the initial buyer, loaned some money by a Japanese lender who also has the same routing number as the client who transferred money into your bank account, how did a simple news article publisher like Oliver Harris get his hands on the drive?"

"Nathaniel works at the company." Kaito put two and two together. "That publisher was killed by Asuka, and the company turned a blind eye to it. I don't remember CW Broadcasting being the ones to report about his murder, do you?"

"Not at all." Wilson shrugged. "I think the Olive may have found out some hush-hush business between Asuka and Giles on the drive. After his death, perhaps he snagged the drive out of his folder and hid it."

"Do you think he may know where Asuka is?"

"I'm sure he does."

Kaito placed his gun back in his pocket and pulled out his face mask. Wilson noticed that he was about to head back out, and most likely to the company. He placed an arm in front of him. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To threaten Giles." Kaito spat.

"You can't go to the company now. Samantha is there."

"I told her to stay home. She has a cold."

"She's at the company right now. Before you got here, I heard her talking with several employees. It's a good thing that her phone is still bugged, huh?"

Kaito grumbled and slouched. Kaito leaned against the wall and massaged the bridge of his nose while coming up with an idea of when to confront the man who owned the flash drive.

Wilson's cellphone rang, disturbing his thoughts. Wilson glanced at it and jumped away slightly. "It's your wife. The journalist."

"Samantha?" Kaito snapped his head back in Wilson's direction. "Why is she calling you?"

"That's what I was going to ask you!" Wilson gulped.

"Answer it." Kaito poked Wilson's phone screen. "Turn on the speaker button."

Wilson didn't want to answer it. The only times Samantha called his phone was to ask where Leo went. He swiped right the answer button and cleared his throat. "Hello?"

"Hey Willie, how's it going?" Samantha croaked on the other line.

"I'm doing fine." Wilson blinked at Kaito. Kaito motioned for him to continue. "How about you?"

"Are you busy, Willie?" There was a bit of static on Samantha's end. It sounded like she was getting into a car. "I don't mean to be rude, but I really need you to do a favor for me."

"No, I'm not busy. What do you need?"

"Can you pick up Keiji from daycare for me? I have a cold and I think it got worse. I don't have enough energy to drive all the way there and to go back home." She coughed.

"Why don't you ask Leo to do it for you?" Wilson and Kaito exchanged looks.

"Because I wasn't supposed to go out today in the first place. Leo told me to get some rest but I went to work after dropping Keiji off. Don't tell my husband." Samantha chuckled on the other end, and it made Kaito smile. If only she knew that he was aware of her actions.

The look on her face would be priceless.

"Leo is working at the bakery today, I didn't want to disturb him."

"I understand." Wilson hummed. "What time should I pick Keiji up?"

"Go at 2:30. I need some time to rest up a bit before I can handle him."

"Okay, get some rest. Drink some tea." Wilson smiled and hung up before letting out a breath he'd been holding in. "I think she's on her way back to your apartment. What's with that face?" He raised his head at Kaito, who was still leaning against the wall and glaring at the ground.

"What face?"

"The face you're making right now." Wilson pointed at the frown on Kaito's lips.

"I don't like that she thinks it's okay to lie to me," Kaito mumbled. "She's going to pretend as if she stayed home all day after calling you."

"That's very hypocritical of you, considering that you're the one who's living under a different identity and catfishing her," Wilson whispered, but the growling sound Kaito made indicated that he heard him. He dodged a knife that was thrown at him, and it stuck to the wall. "Jesus! It's true though! No need to throw your weapons at me!"

"I'm going to head over to CW." Kaito put on his face mask and snagged the dagger off the wall. He let his black hair down and threw off his glasses.

Before he could walk out the back door of the cafe, he overheard the news report on the TV. The reporter on screen mentioned the Yakuza and it stopped him in his tracks. Wilson grabbed a nearby remote and turned the volume up.

"Is that..?" Wilson gawked at the TV.

"Asuka." Kaito snapped.

The caption read 'Yakuza and sexual harassment case.' The reporter announced that the article written with the evidence given was made by Isabella Garcia. The reporter currently speaking didn't work for CW Newspaper, but a different company.

Video footage of the journalist was displayed, and the journalist held up a flash drive, the one Kaito and Wilson had been looking for. Isabella stated that the Yakuza were currently in Cartersville and Delsa Valley, and that they were conducting illegal business here in America.

"How did she get ahold of the drive?" Wilson hissed.

"Do you think Nathaniel Giles gave it to her?" Kaito inquired.

"I doubt it. Asuka and Nathaniel are working together unless they're no longer on good terms. Which makes sense as to why Nathaniel would use one of his journalists to publish an article about Asuka."

Kaito balled his fists in frustration. Things just got a bit more complicated than they needed to be.