Did I get fooled by an unknown person? Oh my gosh. Was I so stupid to trust someone in my desperation?
“Oh no,” I signed in disbelief. “Are you sure about this?”
“Well there is one easy way to find out,” Susie signed.
Susie pulled out her phone, sent a message and, after a few seconds, Susie was reading the reply.
“I was right,” Susie motioned. “Amelia doesn’t have a rented place and she certainly doesn’t work at a convenience store.”
I couldn’t believe this.
“You know what this tells me?” Susie motioned. “The Magistrate has stolen the names of everyone in our class and are using their identities. This is so incredible and illegal.”
Susie was fuming, and it was one more piece of evidence of how far the Magistrate would go to silence me.
“You know what I should do? March into the Thomson newspaper offices and show everyone my ability,” I countered. “Then the Magistrate’s efforts to silence me would be over.”
Susie shook her head. “The Magistrate controls the news outlets. The second you step into their offices you would be arrested because you are a wanted murderer who killed an innocent teacher, remember?”
Susie was right because the shooting at the Wills’ home was the perfect storm for the Magistrate to destroy any credibility I had left. Thomson no longer saw me as an innocent teenager who lost her guardian but instead I was now a cold-blooded murderer who killed her own beloved teacher and I doubted I would find much sympathy with anyone in this town.
“Did you see anything about this process thing in your dad’s conversation?” I gestured.
“Nope never heard of it until you told me,” Susie signaled.
So if Susie’s dad didn’t know about it did it mean “the process” was a separate thing from the Magistrate? This was one more piece of the puzzle that didn’t fit in.
“It is possible the Magistrate really doesn’t know about this process,” Susie motioned.
“I was thinking the same thing,” I signed. “This could be why they see me as a threat. I need your help too to find out about the process since so far everything I and Oliver have tried has led to a dead-end.”
Susie stared at me for a few seconds. “Hmmmmm. It is risky, but we can try my dad’s computer since I know his login information now.”
I was grateful for her offer to help.
“Are you sure it is safe?” I signed. “I don’t want you to get into trouble because of this.”
“Well by meeting you, a supposedly wanted murderer, I am kind of quite deeply involved in all this,” Susie motioned with a smirk. “Getting into trouble is the last thing I need to worry about now.”
I smiled at her because she had really taken a serious risk even agreeing to meet me here in public particularly after the news report. If anyone found out Susie was associated with me, she would be in so much trouble.
We left school and hopped on a bus to her place.
THIRTY
I could not believe I was inside Susie’s home and, to be more precise, standing in her dad’s private study. On the way over Susie told me her dad was out of town but on his way back to Thomson while her mum was working the night shift at the local hospital as a nurse where although her hours were long she apparently loved her job. I wondered if this was where Susie got her genuine concern genes for other people from.
Her dad’s study was amazingly organized, filled with shelves of books along most of the walls that would make Oliver go crazy if he were here right now, and a large leather desk in the center and I didn’t see any sign of things thrown about or out of place. This study was quite the opposite of Felix’s room, which, while not really a mess, to the outsider may appear like a hurricane had landed there and never left. Despite the chaos in his room, Felix always knew where everything was in the room and I guess, to him, his room was quite organized. I smiled at the thought.
Susie motioned me to come over to the desk and, although no one was at home, my heightened sense of being a wanted fugitive had made me more careful and so I walked over quietly. Susie logged into her dad’s computer, began browsing through some of his folders and, then, did a search for anything related to “the process”. While the computer was processing, I noticed photos on her dad’s desk some of which were of Susie and some of which were with her parents. I started to feel a bit sad as I recalled my days with Felix, but I quickly pushed it aside knowing I didn’t have the time for any more mourning now.
Susie pointed to the screen showing one file had been found that matched “the process” as my heart started beating faster, a tingling sensation washed over my skin and Susie’s lips curled in anticipation. Could this finally be the clue I had been waiting for? Susie clicked on the file which opened to reveal a single photo of a building with the title “The Compound” and below it was a phrase: “the process?” with an address.
“Oh my gosh,” Susie signed in shock.
I guessed Susie wasn’t expecting her dad to know anything about the process and, to be honest, neither was I. Susie and I looked over every inch of the photo trying to find out if either one of us recognized the building but neither of us was able to identify the building. Susie opened a map and found the location of the building and I was surprised to realize it was at the center of Thomson.
“I didn’t expect it to be so near the center of town,” I signed.
“Yea I thought such a secret building might be in some hidden corner down some unknown alley or at the edge of town,” Susie agreed with me.
Whoever made the decision to use a building in the heart of Thomson was clever because it would be the last place anyone would suspect.
“Oh wow the mall is close by to it,” Susie pointed out. “Wait a minute. This building is actually next to the main mall.”
I looked at the surrounding areas on the map and realized she was correct and wondered whether this building could be the process. I rarely visited the main mall in Thomson and was unfamiliar with the area.
“I go to this mall quite often,” Susie motioned. “But I never noticed it.”
Susie noticed me staring at her. “Well I do have to keep up my popular girl image you know? It isn’t so easy Marinette and sometimes being a normal person in high school is the easy life which makes me jealous of what you have.”
I could not stop myself from grinning.
“Is there anything else on the computer?” I signed hoping for more clues.
Susie shook her head. “Doesn’t look like it.”
“We need to go to this Compound building and check it out,” I gestured.
Susie nodded. “Okay but we have to be very careful because your photo is most likely stuck in everyone’s mind after the media blitz by the Magistrate.”
Susie didn’t have to remind me.
THIRTY-ONE
“Is this it?” I signed pointing to the grey colored six floor building.
“According to the map it is,” Susie motioned.
I never realized the main mall was such a busy place, even in the middle of a weekday, but it made sense since it was one of the major landmarks of Thomson. There were people bustling around, vendors in stalls trying to sell whatever they can to make a living and, fortunately, my presence went unnoticed by everyone only thanks to my shorter hair, hoodie and shades which completed my new undercover look.
I was surprised there was no unusual police presence around which meant the Magistrate, although determined to get me, didn’t want people to panic. Of course, it didn’t mean there weren’t undercover people walking among us and after what happened with the fake Amelia I was taking no chances.
I looked around to find out what was the conversation of the moment and, to my disgust, people were still talking about the murder. Although it had been a few days already the buzz behind it hadn’t died down and I was sure the Magistrate would be pleased to know the people were still focused on the murder.
Most of the time the Magist
rate news reported on the daily happenings at Vinder but often those were the boring items of charity events, political events and other useless things. Based on the news reports Vinder was as squeaky clean as Thomson used to be but nothing as juicy as a fake murder story to muddy the waters a bit. I saw everyone’s heads turn to the giant monitor at the front of the mall with some pointing in excitement and only then did I realize it was time for the Magistrate news.
The news reporter mumbled through the usual introductions and idle talk and, to my horror, my photo was again splashed on the entire monitor. It was like I was watching a giant version of myself and what made it worse was the bad school photo they were using because I looked like a loner nerd who got lost in a tomboy’s outfit and who didn’t take care of her skin. Seriously couldn’t the Magistrate find a better photo of me?
I suspected it was the impression the Magistrate wanted to leave in the minds of the people about me because who would be willing to help, let alone believe in, a loner kind of murderer. Susie was watching intensely as the news reporter continued to talk about the murder and highlighted the fact the teens hadn’t been captured yet but this time there was something more. The monitor changed to show a reward for any information leading to the capture and the people here were again getting excited by the large tempting amount as if they were watching some real-life drama unfolding before their eyes. The Magistrate was getting desperate by dangling money in front of people and I was thankful when my turn on the stage of Thomson was over as quick as it started and the people around the mall returned to their own affairs.
I was amused Oliver’s photo was no longer considered a prime-time attraction for the Magistrate news maybe because he wasn’t enough of a celebrity lookalike to bring in the viewers. I was glad the Magistrate didn’t want to waste time on him which meant people wouldn’t be looking out for him so much and this, itself, comforted me a bit.
Susie turned to me. “The news report was so interesting, don't you think?”
I first glanced around to check if anyone was looking in my direction since using sign language in such a public setting was very dangerous because anyone else could easily read our conversation and I wouldn’t even know about it.
“Yes the Magistrate is really pulling out all the stops,” I gestured. “I cannot wait to see what they will try next.”
I pointed to the Compound building. “Let’s go.”
We both walked towards the Compound building and I noticed on the outside it looked like any other ordinary building on the road with a sign stating it was a clothing factory. This was quite common as Thomson had many of these factories spread out around of which some were still running but most had shut down due to the daily migration of workers to other towns as well as to the city. The higher pay offered by these places was too much for many people to resist despite the long hours needed to travel.
This Compound building was no different as it looked like it had been shut down for a while with the washed off front door begging for a new paint job. Trying the door, I realized it wasn’t even locked making me wonder if this was going to be another dead-end like the abandoned building on the other side of town where I was reunited with Oliver. I looked around to see if any of the people near the mall had noticed us, but it appeared all of them were still preoccupied by their own business as Susie and I entered the building.
The interior of the building wasn’t musty at all, the air was much fresher than I anticipated and the sunlight streaming through the glass windows was more than enough for us to see inside. I noticed the ground floor we were on extended quite a distance like a large factory floor as Susie pointed in the distance to a room somewhere in the middle of the ground floor. We walked over carefully trying not to make any noise because I didn’t know if there were any unknown homeless people occupying this building. Despite the Magistrate’s mandate for the homeless to stay in the dormitories there had been people who refused to move into such places and once in a while the news report would highlight such cases, which prior to the murder, were really the most interesting segments of the Thomson daily news cycle.
Once we reached the room I noticed there didn’t appear to be any windows except for a single door at the entrance as Susie pointed to the door and, initially, I thought she was showing me the entrance, but it was not what she was doing. It took me a few more seconds to realize the door was a brand-new steel like structure with a shiny latch unlike the front washed off door of the building.
“Do you think someone is still here?” I signed.
“I don’t think so,” Susie motioned. “Did you notice the dust near the door?”
It was only then I discovered we were both standing on a layer of dust and if someone had been here recently they hadn’t returned in the last few days.
I opened the latch, the door swung open without as much as a whisper, we walked in, Susie turned on the lights and the room was filled with an explosion of green light. There was a hospital-like gurney in the middle of the room with two stools beside it, a cabinet behind it and on top of the gurney was a used white crumpled sheet, but beyond all this, the room was hauntingly lifeless.
“It looks like this place was some kind of lab,” Susie motioned.
“For what though?” I gestured. “This is an odd place to have a lab for patients. It is not even a clean area unless….”
“Unless you are up to something you don’t want other people to know about,” Susie completed my thought. “Then this would be an ideal place because no one would ever think to look here right across from the mall and people could easily come and go without attracting much attention.”
“Well whatever they did here is gone now,” I signed.
It was another dead-end and I didn’t know if we were chasing ghosts or maybe the woman who died in the car was delusional when she spoke those words because there was nothing here which could help us find out about “the process”. Choosing not to give up, I walked over to the cabinet, opened it to find it was empty and lifeless like this room but then spotted something shiny beneath the cabinet. I kneeled down to pick it up and Susie joined me.
“What is it?” Susie signed.
It looked like a kind of storage device.
“I have seen this before,” Susie signed frantically. “Let me take a look.”
I passed her the device and I noticed Susie was clearly excited about something as she flipped the device over.
“I knew it,” Susie signed. “Look closely at this Marinette.”
She pointed to one end of the device where written in small lettering was the unmistakable crest of the Magistrate. So, this room did belong to the Magistrate and whatever they were doing here was supposed to be a secret if not it made no sense for the Magistrate to use this place.
“There is no reason for the Magistrate to use this place as a medical facility,” I signed. “They have so many medical facilities throughout Thomson. Why here?”
“My dad has one of these exact devices,” Susie indicated. “I think it is something the Magistrate gives to all its employees.”
My hope level took a turn as I realized maybe this wasn’t a dead-end after all and that we could be onto something since the storage device was the first real evidence I had seen so far.
“We need to find out what’s inside it,” I indicated to Susie trying my best to contain my excitement.
“There is only one place we can do it right now,” Susie signed. “We need to go back to my home. It should be pretty safe since both my parents are at work now.”
THIRTY-TWO
I could not keep my hands still because Susie’s computer was taking its own sweet time in reading the contents of the storage device. Technology was supposed to make things faster when it counted like right now, but as usual things didn’t go at the speed of your wants sometimes. Susie was equally nervous biting her lip as she paced up and down her room.
Susie’s room was really the poster girl for all teenage girls’ rooms as it was
designed from head to toe with vivid colors and very cute furniture and this was the kind of room I would wish for if I could have ever imagined it. Being the only child Susie’s parents had obviously given her the best of everything but despite all of this Susie hadn’t turned out to be the self-absorbed girl she could have been.
After another very long minute the computer finished reading the storage device to reveal a lot of junk files none of which could be opened though but then there appeared a large video clip file near the bottom of the screen and Susie clicked on it.
The video footage opened outside a room and I immediately recognized the new steel door of the room inside the Compound building. For the first few minutes there was nothing on the video except for the closed door and then a couple entered the video, went to the steel door, the lady knocked, and they entered it. A flash of a person in a white lab coat from within the room appeared briefly as the door was being closed and another boring ten minutes later the door opened, the couple left, another couple entered and left, and this pattern repeated itself at least several more times during the entire duration of the video.
Piercing Through the Silence Page 14
