47 Doppelganger

Ryan had just finished ordering takeaway dinner when he finally received a call back from Lucas. Wedging his phone between his ear and his shoulder, he headed back to his car with two bags of food.

"Bro...you're finally calling back! What took you so long? I have something urgent to tell you!" he complained.

Lucas raised an eyebrow. Urgent? "If it was urgent, why didn't you leave a message?" he asked.

Ryan furrowed his brows. "I left a message with Noah for you to call me back as soon as possible. Didn't he tell you?"

Lucas frowned. "Noah didn't tell me anything," he replied. [Perhaps, he was too distracted by all the flirting that was going on.] The thought of the man made him feel slightly annoyed.

Ryan arrived at his car and stopped. He had no hands to open the door. Struggling a little, he quickly said to Lucas, "Are you back at the hotel now? I bought you dinner. I'll come over now and explain everything."

"OK, but make it quick, I have a charity event to attend tonight."

"Yes, I'll be right there!"

...

Inside Maya's hotel room, Sam shuffled over to Tiffany's side and said to Maya, "It's good that you called Tiffany for help. She's a beauty blogger and she knows all the latest trends. I bet she has a way to make your eyes stand out under the mask."

Maya glanced at Sam in surprise, "Oh? Is she a beauty blogger? No wonder she has such a big makeup case. But...I never called her. I thought you told her to come."

Sam shook his head in confusion.

Tiffany opened up the big case she had brought with her. Inside was a huge selection of makeup and skincare; most of them were sponsored products. Seeing how confused the two people were, she explained, "Delilah told me to come."

"Delilah?" Maya asked. How did she know about the masquerade ball?

"Apparently, she received a message from Lucas..." Tiffany replied. "She told me to tell you that you're doing a great job."

Maya raised an eyebrow. What did Lucas write in his message and how much did Delilah know? Did he mention anything about...their kiss?

Sam also raised an eyebrow. "So, did Delilah send you because she wants to help Maya or because she wants to help herself?" He was still mad at her for being selfish.

Tiffany did not reply. She was there when Sam got upset at Delilah earlier so she didn't want to fuel his anger further.

But even though she didn't say anything, Sam knew the answer. When did Delilah ever think about anyone but herself?

...

It didn't take long for Ryan to arrive back at the hotel. As soon as he walked in, Lucas could smell the fragrance of smoked ribs.

Ryan placed the bags of food on the dining table and started pulling out the boxes he had brought. He then fetched a file from his bag and placed it in front of Lucas. "I spoke to Tracy today. She's here in Vegas," he started explaining.

Lucas glanced at the file and sat down. Tracy was a private investigator that he often worked with when he wanted to investigate the backgrounds of his blind dates, but she was based in LA, what was she doing here in Vegas? Did Ryan call her here to investigate who had reported him for trespassing? LA wasn't far away so it sounded possible...

In that case, did this file contain information about the trespassing case. If it did, then she was certainly quick at her job!

But...that was not the case...

"You know how we asked her to do some background research on Delilah?" Ryan continued cautiously as he observed Lucas' reaction. "I thought she had already stopped with her investigation, but as it turns out, she discovered something strange and continued without us knowing..."

Tracy had worked with the two men for many years, so she had developed a slight friendship with them. Normally, she would charge her clients for extra work, but she did this out of genuine concern.

"She wasn't sure if it was just a coincidence or if she was paranoid, but...a couple of days ago...she thought she saw Delilah Yeung in LA..."

Lucas opened up the file and saw a photo of a young woman with shoulder-length black hair standing under one of L7's artworks. He recognized that piece: it was the umbrella installation in downtown LA! That artwork had only gone up a couple of weeks ago.

He held the photo up to take a better look. It was a rainy day and the photo was slightly blurry, but the face on that woman did indeed look like the face that he had seen earlier that day...

He glanced at Ryan in confusion.

"The woman looked like a spitting image of Delilah, but Tracy knew it couldn't be Delilah. That was the same day that Delilah attended the pool party in Vegas and Tracy had seen her post up a photo on social media, so she knew she couldn't possibly be in two places at once. But it fascinated her. She thought she had encountered a doppelganger so she followed the woman and tried to get another clearer photo of her. She thought it would be funny to send it to you. But to her surprise, she ended up following the woman to the airport where she caught a flight...to Vegas..."

Lucas listened with interest. He had never met a doppelganger before either, so this was quite fascinating.

But Ryan hesitated a little before he said in seriousness, "Obviously, Tracy couldn't follow the woman onto the plane. That would have been ridiculous. But it did spark her interest. Normally when she does background checks for you, it's only about their family situation, education, and recent activities, she's never gone as far back as investigating their childhood. However, this doppelganger triggered her to dig deeper into Delilah Yeung's history, and guess what she found..."

Ryan picked up a piece of paper that was inside the file and showed it to Lucas. "Delilah Yeung's parents divorced when she was a child... While she chose to live with her mother...her twin sister went to live with her father..."

Lucas looked at the information and his eyes opened wide in surprise, "Twin sister?"

Ryan nodded. "Yes, the woman in LA was Delilah's twin sister; Tracy confirmed it.

"But that's not all.

"She also discovered that as soon as Delilah's twin sister arrived in Vegas...she headed straight for Sunset Hospital..."