Drawing Dead: A Small Town Romance (A Good Run Of Bad Luck)

by Giulia Lagomarsino

“Why?”

  “Because Josh already called them before about Carly. She’ll be out here on Friday.”

  “It’s probably nothing,” Robert repeated for the fifth time since we crossed the Ohio border. “He probably just got wrapped up in a job, and the phones are down because…”

  “Run out of excuses yet?” I asked with a sigh.

  “There has to be a good reason.”

  “And that reason is he’s dead,” Andrew said bluntly from the back seat.

  “Thanks,” I nodded. “That makes us all feel better.”

  “Hey, I’m just saying what we’re all thinking. I did some digging last night. Apparently, there was a house fire a few nights ago.”

  “Where Derek lives?”

  “No,” he said sarcastically. “In our town. I thought it was relevant to Derek disappearing.”

  “Fine,” I muttered. “What did you find out?”

  “The name wasn’t listed, so I had to do some digging, but the house belonged to a guy named Chance. He works with Derek.”

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Robert replied. “House fires happen all the time.”

  “Yeah, what are the chances that his house went up in flames, and then no one on the team was able to be reached?”

  Robert and I were both silent. It was a very big coincidence.

  “See? I’m just saying, this isn’t looking good.”

  “Don’t sound so smug about it,” I muttered.

  “I’m not being smug. I’m looking at this like an investigator instead of his brother.”

  We drove the rest of the way in silence, none of us really wanting to speak. When we pulled up to Derek’s house, it looked deserted, aside from the vehicle in the driveway. Claire’s car was parked outside.

  “Okay, either they’re having a lot of sex in there, or they’re dead,” Andrew said as he stared at the house.

  “Knowing Derek and Claire, it could go either way,” Robert said with a laugh.

  I pushed my door open and walked up the front steps with Robert and Andrew right behind me. “This is silly,” I said quietly. “I’m going to knock on the door and Derek’s going to answer, angry at us for interrupting his kinky sex with Claire.”

  Neither of them said anything.

  “Right?”

  When they still didn’t say anything, I knocked on the door. I held my breath, waiting to hear footsteps on the other side or the lock turning, but the longer we stood there, the more I realized no one was coming.

  “They just didn’t hear you,” Andrew said, stepping around me. “You have to ring the doorbell.”

  He pressed the button over and over, then resorted to pounding on the door. “Hey, asshole! If you’re in there, this really isn’t funny!”

  I glanced at Robert, wondering what the next step was. It was clear no one was home.

  “Hey! I know you can hear me!”

  I grabbed Andrew’s arm and stopped him from pounding. “I think the neighbors wouldn’t like all the noise you’re making.”

  “Right,” he nodded. “We should talk to them. I’ll take the left, you take the right. Eric, you go across the street.”

  I was sure it wouldn’t tell us anything, but I walked across the street and knocked on all the doors I could, asking all of them if they’d seen Derek lately. No one had seen him or Claire for days. Nothing unusual happened. They just hadn’t seen them. Robert and Andrew had the same answers.

  “What do you want to do now?”

  “Let’s head over to Reed Security,” I said, worried what I would find there.

  I punched in the address into the GPS system and drove over there. With every mile closer we got, I felt sick to my stomach. Something about this was very wrong.

  “Is that smoke?” Robert asked, looking ahead and off to the right. I squinted into the distance. It was definitely smoke, but I couldn’t tell what it was coming from, and there wasn’t a lot of it.

  “It could be someone burning something,” Andrew said. “It’s not a lot of smoke.”

  But as I drove closer to Reed Security, I knew it wasn’t someone burning garbage. The sight when we pulled up to the gates almost made me puke. The whole building was burnt to the ground. The wreckage was massive, with barely any walls left standing. I got out slowly, looking over all the wreckage, wondering if Derek was buried in there somewhere.

  “Holy shit,” Andrew muttered. “No wonder the phone is out of service.”

  The police tape blocking off the entrance only told a small part of the story. “If the fire is still burning, why aren’t there any firefighters out here?”

  “It looks like they put out the majority of the fire. The rest is just smoldering ash,” Robert said.

  “But if the building collapsed with people inside, they would still be sifting through the debris, right?”

  Robert nodded. “I would assume so. It’s a big building.”

  An unmarked police car pulled up to the gate on the other side and a man in plain clothes stepped out.

  “You can’t be here,” the man said. “This is a crime scene.”

  “We’re trying to find our brother,” I spoke up. “His name is Derek Cortell.”

  His eyebrows rose and he bypassed the tape, walking up to us. “You’re Derek’s brothers?”

  “Yeah, I’m Eric. This is Robert and Andrew,” I gestured to my brothers.

  He laughed slightly. “I’m Sean. My boss said you were trying to reach me.”

  “Then why didn’t you get back to us? We’ve been worried, and then we drove out here and his house is abandoned and the building is burned to the ground.”

  “I’m sorry,” he sighed. “It’s been a rough few days. I’m still trying to figure out what the hell happened.”

  “What do you know?”

  “They’re all gone.”

  “What do you mean gone?” I asked, getting more and more irritated by the minute.

  He held up his hand to calm me down, like that would actually work. Glancing behind us, as if he was worried about being spied on, he lowered his voice. “Anything I tell you has to stay between us.” He looked at each of us for confirmation. After we all agreed, he continued. “Three nights ago, one of their houses was burned down. I don’t know exactly what they got themselves into, but I know it’s bad.”

  “But we’ve been trying to reach him for at least four days. What happened before that?”

  He shrugged. “All I know is they got into something bad. I know they went on lockdown before the house fire, but what exactly happened is still up for debate. Whoever set that fire attacked two of the employees that were guarding the house. We believe the client was inside and wasn’t able to escape the fire.”

  “The client burned to death?” Robert asked, his voice hoarse.

  “As far as we know. We didn’t find any remains inside, but all evidence points to the client being inside when the house went up in flames. The next morning, the police and fire department were called out here for a fire, but that’s not all we found. Evidence suggests the building was under attack at the time of the fire.”

  “Are you saying everyone burned in that building?” Andrew asked.

  “No, they didn’t. In fact, everyone, aside from whoever attacked them, made it out. There were a few with major injuries, but Derek wasn’t one of them.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. At least he wasn’t injured, but that still didn’t explain where they were now.

  “I wasn’t at the hospital, because I was working the scene, but when I got to the hospital, everyone was gone. I talked to the staff and a nurse told me that someone had been impersonating a doctor. Three of the guys died after they were injected with something to stop their hearts.”

  I looked at my brothers, wondering just what the hell Derek had gotten into. This didn’t sound like a typical situation for him to be in. Not that I knew all that much about his job, but I was pretty sure this wasn’t a regular occurrence.

  “
From what I understand, everyone left the hospital late that night. One of the men came by with his wife and picked up the bodies.”

  “Of the dead employees? Why would they do that?” Robert asked.

  Sean shook his head in confusion. “I have no idea. None of it makes sense. I tried calling Sebastian and a few of the other guys, but no one picked up. They just vanished. I’ve been out here ever since, looking for anything that will point me in their direction.”

  “How can you be sure they weren’t attacked again?” I asked. “What if they’re lying dead in a ditch somewhere?”

  “That would be a lot of people laying in a ditch,” he retorted. “It’s not just the guys that are missing. It’s the spouses too. My sister Cara is gone. I know her husband would do anything to protect her, so I have to assume that he got her out of here. And my buddy Ryan is married to one of the women that work here. He sent a cryptic message to his business partner about needing him to take over for a while.”

  “Okay, but that still doesn’t mean they’re not dead somewhere.”

  “They got away. I’m sure of it. They have an underground panic room. It leads to an escape tunnel. I already checked it out. All the SUVs are gone.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. “Do you know where they would have gone?”

  “No, and they won’t check in until they’re all safe.”

  “Wait,” Andrew cut in. “You said they had a panic room. I assume since you checked it out, it wasn’t burned up in the fire.”

  “No, it’s completely untouched, but you can’t access it from the main building anymore.”

  “Right, but there would have been cameras in there.”

  Sean nodded. “I assume so. Why?”

  “Can you get me in there? If I can access the cameras, I might be able to see what happened.”

  “Yeah, I can do that. I’ll move the tape so you can pull in. Just park over there,” he gestured over to the parking lot, which had a few vehicles sitting in the parking spots.

  “I can’t believe this,” I said excitedly as we got back in the truck. “If you can find something, maybe we’ll be able able to tell where they went.”

  “I won’t know where they’re going, but at least we’ll know they’re alive,” Andrew said. I could already tell he was getting in work mode, just by the way his face turned serious. I never thought I would be happy to have a hacker as a brother, but it turned out, we needed him more than ever right now. We parked and walked over to Sean, who was waiting by the building.

  “We’re gonna have to hike it from here. There are no roads leading to the exit, unless you know exactly where to go.”

  As we headed in that direction, Andrew asked, “I’m confused. The house fire was in the news. The Reed Security building is huge and the fire wasn’t in the news. How did that happen?”

  “Sebastian is very tight with security. He pays good money to make sure nothing about Reed Security ends up in the news.”

  “But that wouldn’t account for the local paper,” I said in confusion. “What would stop someone from coming out here and just reporting there was a fire?”

  Sean glanced at me, a slight smirk on his face. “For the safety of everyone involved we’ve been keeping it quiet.”

  I wasn’t sure what that meant or how he was accomplishing it, but I didn’t question him further. We hiked through the woods for the better part of a half hour. It was amazing to me they had this much land and apparently, tunnels dug underneath it. I shook my head slightly, realizing I didn’t actually know that much about Derek anymore.

  “This is it,” Sean said, punching in a code. He placed his hand on a scanner, and the large bay doors opened. It was a huge underground parking structure, along with gun cabinets that were all empty.

  “Holy crap,” Robert said as he stared in awe. “I should have invested in this company.”

  “You could be their lawyer too,” Andrew grinned.

  “Since I don’t specialize in company law, I don’t think I’d be much help to them. Besides, I don’t think Anna would agree to move out here.”

  I laughed. “You barely got her to marry you.”

  “Don’t remind me,” he muttered.

  Sean walked up to another door, entered in the code, and pressed his hand against the scanner.

  “I would say that maybe they’re paranoid, but based on the fact that they just got attacked and their business burned to the ground, maybe I’m the crazy one,” Robert said, chuckling to himself.

  “This is high-tech shit,” Andrew grinned. “Do you think they’d hire me?”

  “No,” I laughed. “You’re still a Millennial that doesn’t know how to speak.”

  “Hey, I haven’t tossed out a single salty or thirsty in weeks.”

  “No, but you still call Kat Quiche-girl.”

  “And I’ll never stop. That name stays,” he grinned.

  God love Andrew, he was the only one that could get away with anything with Kat. She adored him from the minute he shared his pizza with her.

  “I don’t even want to know what that’s about,” Sean muttered. “Alright, we just have to make it down this tunnel and then we’ll reach the panic room.”

  “Why did Sebastian give you access to all this?” I asked curiously.

  “Well, believe it or not, this is not the first time Reed Security has had a run-in like this.”

  “Why does that not surprise me?” I muttered under my breath.

  Sean snorted. “They got themselves wrapped up in a gang war and had to go on the run.”

  “Why didn’t we know about any of this?”

  “Because it’s company business. Derek wouldn’t talk about it to any of you. But after what happened last time, Sebastian wanted someone on the outside that had access to the place. We’ve been friends a long time, so he knows I can’t be turned.”

  “I never thought I would be involved with something where someone could be turned.”

  “Really?” I asked Robert with a grin. “While working as one of the nastiest divorce lawyers in Chicago, you never dealt with the shady side of things?”

  “Never. I worked smart, and I never got involved with anything that wasn’t legal.”

  “You’re just saying that because a cop’s with us,” Andrew retorted.

  “Says the hacker.”

  “The hacker that’s going to tell us where our brother is.”

  “Christ, you guys bicker just like these guys. I can tell you’re related to one of them.”

  “We don’t bicker,” I said, standing up a little taller.

  “We’re here.” Sean stopped below what looked like a hatch and motioned up. “This is the fun part where we climb up inside.”

  He entered another code and placed his hand on the scanner. “Usually these codes would change daily, but since Sebastian’s not here, the code didn’t change. I’m assuming once they’re settled, they’ll start sending me codes. Not that I’ll need it.”

  He jumped up, grabbing onto the hatch wheel. Then he placed one foot on either wall and started twisting the old hatch.

  I stared at him in awe. “Wow, that’s…”

  “Amazing,” Andrew nodded. “It’s like he has super strength.”

  “Oh, come on. I could do that,” Robert smirked.

  “Yeah, you and what army?”

  “Are you implying that I couldn’t do that alone?”

  “No,” I answered with a shake of my head. “I’m flat out saying there’s no way you could do that.”

  “Wanna bet?”

  “Fifty bucks,” I countered.

  “Make it a hundred.”

  “Deal.”

  “Deal.”

  Sean sighed, “Does this mean I have to close it and jump down?”

  “Yes, and don’t leave it loose for him,” I grinned. “Make it tight.”

  “I know I make this look easy, but this does actually take strength.”

  He finished spinning the wheel into place and ju
mped down from the wall, sweating slightly.

  “Well, come on, Superman.”

  “Superman,” Sean snorted. “It’s fitting for your brother. Not for you.”

  “Fine, you want to see this?”

  “You’re wearing the wrong shoes,” Sean pointed out.

  “Then I’ll take off my shoes and grip the wall with my toes,” Robert sneered.

  Sean snorted and backed away, waving him forward. Robert didn’t take off his shoes. He jumped up, grabbing the wheel, but slipped and fell back on his feet. Frowning, he tried again, but the same thing happened.

  “You have to have upper arm strength,” Sean grinned.

  “I have upper arm strength. I work out,” Robert snapped defensively.

  “Do you want a boost?” I asked. “I could hold my hands out for you to step in.”

  I laughed when he shot me an evil look. He jumped again, this time holding onto the wheel. His legs flailed out as he tried to get them against both walls. When he finally had a grip, he tried walking up the walls, but his grip didn’t hold and he fell to the floor.

  “Well, that was an admirable try—”

  “Admirable?” Robert cut me off. “It’s like he said. I’m wearing the wrong shoes.”

  “Ah, but you said you would take them off and climb the wall with your toes,” Andrew chuckled. “I’d love to see that.”

  “I can’t. I’m injured.”

  “You’re what?” I barked out a laugh.

  “Yeah, I pulled a muscle in my arm when I was climbing the wall.”

  “Then you still lose.”

  “No I don’t,” he snapped defensively. “It’s called on account of an injury.”

  “This isn’t baseball. It was a bet and you lost.”

  “Man, I so wish I had reception down here. That would have made a great live streaming video for the town.”

  “You live stream videos for the town?” Sean asked.

  “Yep, on Facebook. I mean, it’s really more Joe’s thing—he’s one of our brothers. But in times of need, I’ve been known to throw up a video or two.”

  Sean looked from Andrew to me, staring at me like I was going to tell him it was all a joke.

  I cleared my throat. “Maybe we should just…”

  Sean rolled his eyes. “Sure, now that he couldn’t do it, I have to do it again.”