by Elle Gray
“I know. I know.”
May swings by and drops our drinks off then bustles away without another word. When we’re alone again, Brody looks at me.
“You realize you’re an idiot, don’t you?” he says.
I shrug. “I don’t know what she wants from me. I mean, I thought we were having a good time together—”
“She’s not wrong. She can’t compete with Veronica,” he cuts me off. “And she shouldn’t have to.”
“I don’t disagree.”
“Then why are you forcing her to?”
“I’m not,” I reply. “I never meant for her to feel like she was competing with her.”
Brody stares at me evenly. “You know I love you like a brother, right?”
“You only say that when you’re about to say something I’m not going to like,” I say. “So, let’s hear it.”
Brody chuckles. “You know I loved Veronica too. But she’s gone, man and you know as well as I do, she wouldn’t want you to spend the rest of your life miserable and alone. She’d want you to be happy. To find happiness and love again,” he presses. “I haven’t seen you as happy as you’ve been spending time with May in a long time. Not since Veronica died. And frankly, it’s been really good to see, man.”
“I know that,” I reply. “I know all of that.”
“May is a great girl,” he adds. “And for whatever reason, she’s really into you. If you don’t pull your head out of your butt, you’re going to lose her.”
“I think that’s already happened.”
He shook his head. “Nah. I saw the way she looked at you. That was the look of a woman who is not ready to let go completely yet,” he tells me. “She’s hoping you’ll figure out just how great she is and do what you need to do to keep her.”
I flash him a grin. “Wow. Dating Marcy has made you the love guru, huh?”
“It hasn’t hurt,” he grins. “But it also doesn’t take a genius to see what’s right in front of me either. She doesn’t want to let you go, and you don’t want to let her go either. It’s why you asked to meet here.”
“No, that was an accident. Force of habit.”
“Right. You don’t make mistakes like that,” he says with a laugh. “Sounds like your subconscious was working overtime.”
“If you say so.”
“I do. And I think somewhere deep down, you know I’m right.”
I look down into my drink knowing there’s really nothing I can say to refute it. The truth is, I haven’t been as happy as I’ve been since I started spending time with may since Veronica died. She’s awoken things in me I thought died with Veronica. As nice as those feelings are though, and as much as I enjoy feeling alive again, it also wraps me in a net of guilt so tight it’s sometimes difficult to breathe.
“Don’t let her get away, Pax,” he urges me. “You will spend the rest of your life kicking your own butt if you do. You two are good for each other. I know you know that.”
“Yeah, I know. Now, can we talk about something more important than my love life?”
“I don’t know. I think the fact that you’re sabotaging your alleged love life is kind of important,” he says with a grin. “But all right, there are bigger things in play right now. I’ll grant you that.”
“Gee, that’s big of you,” I crack.
I take a long swallow of my drink and glance over at May. She’s standing near the bar talking to another waitress, but she’d had her eyes on me. May turns away quickly and even from the booth we’re in, I can see the color rise in her cheeks. I tear my eyes away from her and take another drink, doing my best to push all thoughts of her out of my head. We really do have far bigger problems to deal with right now.
“So, these guys who attacked you,” Brody starts.
“Yeah, them,” I reply. “I clocked them as military, either current or former. They moved like it. Fought like it.”
“No wonder they kicked your ass.”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “Nobody kicked my—you know what? Shut up,” I say with a laugh. “My point is, these weren’t cops or Feds. They were there for the case. For what Veronica left for me in that safe deposit box.”
“That makes no sense, man. How could they have possibly known you had it?” he asks. “I’m the only one, aside from Takahashi, who knew what was going on.”
“Yeah, I thought about that too. It made no sense at first,” I nod. “But then I realized they could have only known if they’d either bugged the office or hacked into my emails. They must have had eyes on Takahashi and gotten wind of his auto-email after they’d moved on him.”
“No way. There’s no way, Pax. Nobody hacked through my firewalls. I designed our system security myself,” Brody defends himself. “There’s just no way it could have happened.”
“Then they’ve got a listening device in the office,” I reply. “Those are the only two ways they could have known.”
“All right. Tomorrow morning, I’ll sweep the office for surveillance equipment.”
“Good. Do that,” I say. “And if you find anything, just leave it where it is for now. We’ll figure out how to use it later.”
“Copy that, boss.”
“Also, do me a favor and run a diagnostic on your firewalls—”
Brody grins at me. “All right, I’ll do it. But I’m telling you, I’m not going to find anything. My system is impenetrable.”
“Just humor me.”
He grins. “Fine. I’ll run a diagnostic.”
“Thank you,” I say.
Brody looks pointedly over at May. “Now that that bit of business is concluded, let’s get back to the other bit.”
“Let’s not,” I protest. “Let’s just let that bit of business play out on its own.”
He chuckles. “It’s your mistake to make.”
“Thank you,” I say.
As I look over at May and see the sadness in her eyes, I feel that lance of guilt pierce my heart all over again. I swallow hard and look down into my glass. I hate that I’ve hurt her. Brody is right. She’s a great girl. She’s got a lot of the same qualities that drew me to Veronica in the first place. I just hate that I can’t let myself be fully open with her. Hate that I can’t allow myself to truly feel. I like May. I like her a lot and in different circumstances, maybe we could have had something good.
But life isn’t fair. The only circumstances that exist are the circumstances we’re in. Wishing and wanting won’t do a thing to change them. All we can do is muddle through the best we can. Maybe once I handle my business and Veronica’s killers are put down things can be different. Maybe once I’ve brought some degree of justice to Veronica’s killers, I can lay my burdens down and live a different life. Be a different person. Maybe then I can find happiness. Maybe even love again. Who knows? Maybe May will still be around.
Until then though, all I’ve got is what’s on my plate right now. And until I solve Veronica’s murder, that’s all I have the time and focus for.
Twelve
Stu’s Greasy Spoon; Belltown District, Seattle
“Well, we’ve got bad news and some really horrible news,” Brody announces.
“Give me the bad news first. I need to pace myself this evening.”
He looks down and pushes the food around his plate, a frown pulling the corners of his mouth downward. He looks embarrassed. Angry. The dinner crowd has mostly dissipated, leaving the diner about a quarter full. We’re sitting in a bright blue booth in the corner. The diner looks like something straight out of the fifties—more accurately, like the place hasn’t been updated since the fifties. It’s vintage kitsch and a hipster’s dream, which fits right into this section of Seattle.
The walls are lined with framed black-and-white photographs of Stu, the original owner of the restaurant, shaking hands and smiling with all sorts of celebrities from the era. Elvis Presley, Doris Day, Fats Domino, Johnny Carson, Sophia Loren… the list goes on. Bright neon lights line the ceiling, reflecting off the t
ile floor, and the vintage jukebox is currently playing “Rip It Up” by Little Richard. The fun-loving, uptempo drum and saxophone of the song is a stark contrast to the nervous air between us right now.
“The bad news is that somebody did indeed slip through my firewall,” he says. “I can’t believe it. I’m… humiliated by it. But… there it is. I’m not infallible after all.”
“I never expected you to be,” I say.
“Yeah well… I screwed up. There was a flaw in my program, and I didn’t catch it.”
He sounds utterly miserable about it. A couple of days have gone by since I asked Brody to do a sweep of the office and a full systems check. I’ve avoided the office just in case, and told him to behave as if there was nothing amiss. Just to act natural and do his thing. He called me last night to tell me he was done with everything and asked me to meet him here at Stu’s, since we agreed to not talk about it in the office while those bugs are still planted.
Marcy is a big breakfast girl. She can eat breakfast food any time of the day or night, so as a result, Brody has become fond of pancakes and waffles for dinner. Taking on the habits and quirks of your partner is just the natural progression of any relationship, I suppose. I remember when I was with Veronica, I developed a fondness for acai bowls with granola and bananas for breakfast, which was most definitely her thing.
“Don’t worry though,” Brody assures me. “I patched it up and put up another layer of security besides that. Plus, I set tripwires everywhere, so if anybody tries to hack into the system again, I’ll get an alert.”
I nod. “Sounds good.”
“I’m sorry, man. I don’t even know how this happened. And I should have thought to put the alarm on it before.”
“Nothing to apologize for, Brody. These people are good,” I say. “They’re pros. They know what they’re doing.”
“That’s really not the feel-good statement you think it is,” he chuckles ruefully. “I know what I’m doing too and I’m pissed that somebody broke through my firewall.”
“Stop beating yourself up about it. You found the problem and fixed it. Let’s move on,” I shrug. “What’s the really, really bad news?”
He sighs. “I don’t know what they got. Don’t know what they saw,” he admits. “They didn’t download anything from our servers. That much I can tell. It looks like they were content to do a little sneak and peek through the system.”
“Well, I think it’s safe to say they got ahold of Takahashi’s email,” I point out. “That’s how they knew to wait for me at the bank.”
“But why now?” Brody asks. “After all these years, why would they move on you and Takahashi? It doesn’t make sense.”
I shake my head. “The only reason I can think of is that they knew Takahashi worked for Veronica and they’ve been watching him,” I muse. “They must have been afraid he was going to move against them, so they hit first. And because of his email, now I’ve been dragged into it.”
“To be fair to the guy, the fact that you’re Veronica’s husband means you were probably already on their watch list,” he says with a shrug.
“Yeah, probably.”
The waitress arrives and refills our coffee. As she does, I look through the windows at the world outside. The night is clear and a full moon hangs in the sky, fat and bright. There was a lot of foot traffic on the street out there for a Wednesday night. Most of them young. Kids, really. Belltown is a popular place with a thriving nightlife. It’s got its share of bars and nightclubs, but it also has a lot of mom-and-pop shops, art galleries, vinyl record shops, bakeries, and of course, brew houses. Can’t have a proper hipster town without a brew house or two.
“So, what are we going to do about the bugs in the office?” he asks.
“I wasn’t sure. I thought we might be able to use them against whoever planted them. But they’ll probably figure out we’re onto them after you patched the firewall. Not to mention them jumping me in that garage kind of tipped their hand,” I say. “We might as well pull them all. And from now on, I want a sweep of the office at least once a day. Hire out. Just make sure it’s somebody you know and trust.”
“Copy that.”
I drag my waffle through the puddle of syrup on my plate and take a bite. Brody tucks into his meal and I can tell by the way he’s stabbing his pancakes that he’s still beating himself up over the whole thing. It sucks that they got into our system, yeah. But these things happen. Especially when you’re up against an opponent who’s got the resources this organization seems to have. It’s not the Thirteen, but somebody different. It’s an organization just as insidious and, for all we know, possibly even worse than the Thirteen.
My mind keeps flashing back to the man in the surveillance photos Veronica took. Who was he? Is he the leader of the group responsible for her death? There’s a lot of digging I need to do. A lot of research I need to pore through still. But I don’t dare risk taking the case full of Veronica’s materials until I have a clean room to get them to. I have no doubts I’m being watched, and these guys are good. I haven’t caught so much as a glimpse of them. Yet. If I take that case out, I have no doubt an army of goons like the pair in the parking garage would come crashing down me. I need to be safe, and I need to play it smart.
As I casually peruse the street outside the diner, I think I get my first glimpse of one of their watchers. An older woman who appears homeless is sitting on a bus stop across the street. She’s not looking at me, but I can see her adjusting what appears to be a parabolic mic hidden beneath a plastic bag that’s aimed at the window of the diner.
But then she stands up suddenly and starts to yell at a pair of teenagers walking by. The woman picks up her bag and I see what I thought was a mic is actually a bottle of liquor. She grabs it and starts walking away, yelling at everybody she passes. I run my hand over my face and shake my head, feeling like an idiot. Maybe the homeless woman wasn’t an operative, but that doesn’t mean they’re not out there watching and listening.
“What is it?” Brody asks.
“I’m just getting a dose of what it must have felt like to be Brian Takahashi,” I sigh. “I can’t imagine going through my entire life on edge like this.”
“Well, I think you’re going to have to get used to it. At least for a while,” Brody tells me. “We’re apparently playing the big game now. Hackers, assassins, and evil organizations, oh my.”
We share a laugh, but it sounds a little forced to me. Especially mine.
“All right, what about the code at the bottom of Takahashi’s email? Were you able to crack it?” I ask. “Since we have to assume they have the email, we have to assume they’re trying to crack it as well. Or maybe they already have.”
“It’s a really sophisticated code. Takahashi obviously knew his stuff,” Brody says. “It took my best codebreaking programs and a little creativity, but I was able to crack it.”
“Finally, a bit of good news in this mess,” I mutter. “What was the message?”
“It’s an address, actually.”
I give him a confused look. “An address? That’s not what I was expecting. Was there anything else?”
He shakes his head. “It’s an address in Chinatown.”
“Chinatown?”
“Yeah. It has the address in Chinatown, and it says to ask the hostess for special number 3C.”
“Special number 3C?”
“That’s what it says.”
“All right. That’s totally not weird or anything, but okay,” I note, feeling a wave of uneasiness washing over me. “We should probably assume they’ve got access to our phones. We need to get some burners we can communicate securely over. We need to stay off our main avenues of communication as much as we can.”
“Though we should probably use them now and then, so we don’t tip our hand that we know they’re listening.”
I nod. “Yeah, you’re right. We’ll do that. Conduct business as normal on our main lines but use our burners when we need to t
alk about anything related to this case,” I say. “It goes without saying this is need to know. Right now, nobody but you and me needs to know. Not even Marcy can know how deep this is getting, for her own safety.”
“This is getting serious,” Brody says, his voice somber.
I nod. “Yeah, as you said, we’re in the big game now. I have to think things are going to get nasty before the final whistle.”
“I’m not liking the fact that we don’t know the rules.”
“That makes two of us,” I acknowledge. “But for now, I think it’s best we operate under the assumption that everything we say or do is being monitored. We need to take a page out of Takahashi’s book and assume everybody’s an enemy who’s out to get us and act accordingly.”
“Oh good, we’re taking a trip to tinfoil hat land.”
“Unfortunately, so,” I say. “And make sure you watch your back—and Marcy’s. We have no idea what these people are going to do.”
“Probably wise.”
“If you want, I can get the two of you out of the country until it’s safe.”
Brody screws up his face and looks at me. “Please. Do you really think I’d leave you hanging like that?”
“I wouldn’t blame you if you did. This isn’t what you signed on for.”
“You’re my best friend, Pax. I signed on for everything, good, bad, or indifferent,” he says. “Ride or die, man.”
I laugh softly. Brody’s putting up a brave front, but I know he’s worried about how all this is going to play out. I can’t really blame him for that. He’s not a real action-oriented kind of guy, and we have no idea who we’re really up against. We have no idea of the odds. This could go sideways really quick and a whole lot of blood could be spilled. But I appreciate the fact that he’s going to stick around and that he has my back.
“There’s nobody I’d rather be going into this fight with, Brody. Thank you.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, but I know you’d much rather have Blake at your side,” he cracks. “If I had to choose between me and Blake, I’d choose her every single time too.”
