by Martha Carr
“So you’re part of a cell.”
“Not really. In any organization there still has to be somebody who gets the big picture and can communicate somehow with the others when it’s necessary. Otherwise there really isn’t an organization. In every generation there is one person, known as the Keeper. But that’s where it can get very difficult.”
“If everyone knows who is the one keeper of all of that information, then it becomes simple to cut off the head of the snake,” said Wallis.
Tom smiled and rubbed his neck. “Exactly, dear sister in law. A fate no one wants to experience. But how to communicate with the cells and not reveal the identity? How to even set it all up was an undertaking. The original twenty agreed that one of them would choose the first guardian and take that secret to his grave. Then that guardian would choose a successor from the descendants but never in his own family and he would keep their name a secret forever as well. The original twenty had no problem with the plan because they remembered the original horror and could be trusted to keep quiet. Then over time there were more descendants and it became increasingly difficult to guess who it might be. Plus, I suspect that some descendants were never even told about this part of the Circle and therefore never knew to speculate. That would have been a better idea for all of us.”
“You were chosen,” said Wallis, her eyes growing wider.
“Yes, a few years ago I had a visit from an elderly woman who I adore. She knew that I would find it very difficult to turn her down.”
“Esther,” said Wallis.
Tom lay back and let his body relax into the pillows as he shut his eyes. “You are a quick one, Wallis. But there was a catch this time.”
“A catch?”
“Yes, Esther was only the messenger. She was preparing the way for the next Keeper in case the line of succession has to change quickly.”
“They were worried about the Keeper dying,” said Wallis.
“More like murdered but that’s just a word. Dead is dead and it was the need to create just the slightest added bit of structure at the top. Only the Keeper still held all of the names but it was decided that someone would know who was the present guardian and who was yet to come. The last remaining original zwanzig entrusted Esther but told no one else. It’s probably the only reason Esther is still alive.”
“Why are you telling me so much? The Circle keeps a secret for generations and then you tell me?”
Tom opened his eyes and looked at Wallis. “Every good plan has moments where it becomes necessary to think on the fly and make decisions more quickly or risk losing everything. There isn’t enough time to reason everything out and we need to get a handle on things before it all really gets worse.”
“You have to discover the liar.”
“Yes, I have to figure out who is like a brother or a sister to me that has a connection to Richmond and cares so little for the rest of us that they’re feeding information to Management. You know, on the surface their organization looks like a good idea. Give the masses a better life, feed them, clothe them and give them a decent job. But it never works. Either someone just wants to choose something different for their life that doesn’t benefit the machine or someone gets invested in the idea that the power structure is their Higher Power. Then anyone who threatens that has to go by any means necessary,” said Tom.
“And then the killing begins.”
“Yes, then innocent, decent people die. So, Esther has called me back in order to ferret out the one person who knows just enough to get Management’s attention and leak names. Whoever it is, they started this by getting Carol killed.”
“That woman in Georgia, right?” asked Wallis.
“Yes, that happily married, mother of two. She suspected someone was getting ready to expose her. That’s why she sought out this Ray Billings. It just so happened that she had a little more information than we knew.” Tom rubbed his face. “Carol was a banking regulator in Georgia. She had been groomed as someone that Management would never pay attention to and was viewed as an outsider. Not a member of either group. It gave her the ability to be an effective watchdog over the coming and going.”
“But someone exposed her real background?”
“Yes, the opposition is referring to it as the Emerald Ash Solution. Clever little bastards.”
“Isn’t that those big green bugs? They look like oversized flies?” asked Wallis.
“Yes, they bore in through the bark and feed on the layer just below cutting off any water or food to the tree. Killed off most of the ash trees along the East coast.”
“So, it’s someone close to the core group, I take it,” said Wallis, quietly.
“Yes, someone close to us and I’m guessing by the name Management thinks this one person could help them kill off most of us. You know, Carol was a zwanzig, just like me and just like Norman and now, just like Ned, whether he knows it or not,” said Tom. “And we have all been betrayed.”
Wallis sat back in her chair, her jaw clenched. “Someone who could hurt the entire tree.”
“You don’t like any of this, I get that, but there are a few facts in this life that are hard to change. People made decisions a long time ago and the effects are still rippling out to the rest of us.”
“Tom, if you and Esther had both died in that explosion. What would have happened to the Circle?”
“We would have been many little groups with no real central focus. That is, if I didn’t have such a hard time with keeping secrets all by myself.” Tom gave a sheepish smile. “I’m not very good at suffering alone. I like to make sure there’s someone to commiserate with.”
“You told Norman, didn’t you?”
“I told Norman, who is the master of keeping secrets, as you know.”
Wallis smiled. “My dear husband has raised it to a fine art.”
“You know, I finally prodded Esther once into telling me that he was her original choice for next in line but he had already fallen for the one woman that would make that impossible. I think Norman is a very wise man for a number of reasons,” he said.
“Do you think that someone does know about the two of you? If that’s true, it’s almost too much.” Wallis stopped speaking and thought about what it could mean to her family.
“I’ve had a few days to think about that one and no, I don’t. It was too amateurish and in your face. Sure to draw too much attention. If someone really knew about me or Esther we’d have died of apparent suicides or some kind of accident out of the public eye. An explosion is not Management’s style.”
“Someone started this ball rolling but it’s gotten out of their control, hasn’t it?” asked Wallis.
“Yes, that would seem to be the case. But still, if we follow all of the pieces it still makes a pattern of sorts.”
“I don’t see it,” said Wallis.
“I know and that’s where I’m afraid I have to stop talking. I can’t be sure yet and wild speculation will make things worse. Plus, I hope I’m wrong. Someone exposed Carol Schaeffer with the idea to pull down the Circle. They knew she had a piece of our puzzle.”
“The information from her cell.”
“Yes, the list of children in the homes. But they didn’t know she had also come across something inside Management. We didn’t have confirmation of that until forty-eight hours ago and I take it by that look on your face, you already know what I’m talking about. So there is something on that drive. I’d like to see what’s on there.”
Wallis hesitated. She wasn’t going to give up what Ray Billings had died to keep hidden until she was sure.
“It’s alright, check with Norman,” said Tom. “But make it fast. We don’t have a lot of time. We believe that there’s a cell operating within Management to try and take over from within the organization. A quiet coup of sorts and they’re raising funds to do it. Up until now, they’ve managed to keep everyone at bay from this house in order to hide their plan but they won’t wait forever. Someone will figure out that
you have the thumb drive by process of elimination and they won’t wait long to wrest it away and then do away with all of the loose ends.”
“All of us,” said Wallis, feeling her stomach churn.
“Yes, but we’re going to move before any of that happens. However, there is one idea I’d like to set loose in that lawyer brain of yours right now. Who would be the most likely to lose in this town if Management clamped down?”
“I have a few candidates. There’s a fat little man named, Oscar, I’d like to nominate. But he seems too far down on anyone’s ladder to be the brains behind anything. I don’t know.”
“Yeah, I heard about what happened. The attempt on your life had to be another in a series of panicky move by someone. This is what happens when you rule by force. That idea tends to trickle down and it becomes hard to shut down. Norman suggested a man named Richard Bach.”
“He’s slick enough and just smart enough to think he ought to be in control of something,” said Wallis.
She got up to leave. “Everyone will be getting up soon. You should rest.” She stopped at the door. “Tom, if you’re the current guardian and you keep all of the information on the cells then you know who else was in Carol’s cell and how they might connect to Richmond, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do,” said Tom, grimacing.
“And Norman must have asked you.”
“But I didn’t tell him,” said Tom. “There are limits.”
Wallis hesitated but didn’t ask anything else. She wanted to ask Tom if she might know the person too but she wasn’t sure she could handle the answer. Tom listened to her footsteps disappear down the hall and felt the wave of grief come over him again.
“Harry, my brother, my emerald ash, what have you done?” he said, quietly, as he slammed his fist into the bed.
Chapter Seventeen
The rain came pouring down in Richmond the next day making everyone huddle under a variety of umbrellas as they tried to swiftly move from the parking lot of St. Stephen’s and into the vestibule. The mood was dampened along with the weather as everyone quietly chatted about what was the real cause of Yvette’s death.
The coroner had finally signed off on heart failure and released the body for burial after the toxicology report came back clean. “These things happen sometimes,” he had said to Yvette’s family, “and we never know why.”
Her husband, Bob and their three children sat huddled in the front row surrounded by immediate family members. The youngest, Lance kept craning his neck around watching who was coming and going and wondering if maybe his mother might show up after all. Maureen and Fred slid into the row right behind them as Maureen leaned forward to squeeze Bob around the neck. Yvette had been her best friend and someone she could hang around with without having to talk too much. It had made life easier.
The night before after Fred had returned quietly from Washington the two of them had sat up watching TV in bed without saying a word. Maureen was bristling with anger and had wanted to scream out in rage at whoever had seen Yvette’s life as so easily expendable just to make a point. Fred was the one who had been able to divert the blood and tissue samples just in case, so that no one would ever realize she was poisoned and perhaps start a manhunt for a serial killer who didn’t really exist.
But Maureen had insisted on knowing and the grief she felt in the center of her chest felt like a sharp rock that wouldn’t diminish. There was so little in this life that was hers to claim but this precious friendship had been one corner that was her safe harbor and now it was gone. Arbitrarily stolen away in the middle of some petty fight over power or land or riches, she kept thinking.
“They had no right,” she had whispered to Fred in the middle of a loud commercial. He had turned to her but said nothing. He had never seen her in such pain and had no idea how to comfort her or take any of the misery away. The tears had poured down her cheeks and her shoulders shook but no real sounds escaped. She was a good operative even in the middle of her grief. He had never felt so helpless and for the first time he found himself questioning the point of any of it.
“If none of us can just get through a day and be happy, what’s the point?” she had said to him. He had reached up and brushed away a tear on her cheek to stop himself from thinking about that question too much. She had a point.
He had taken her in his arms in an uncharacteristic movement and enfolded her as she wept. His shoulder muffled the sound.
“I love you,” he had whispered, and he knew he meant it in some deep and abiding way. Maureen cried harder.
The church was crowded with people who had known Yvette. Maureen and Fred sat directly behind Bob and the three small children. Maureen couldn’t stop looking at them without thinking, they have lost their mother for no real reason and will never have any answers. Fred reached over and took Maureen’s hand and gave it a squeeze.
She looked up at him a little startled and gave him a small smile.
In the back Wallis and Norman were taking their seats. Tom had stayed at home still resting from the after-effects of the explosion at the book store. His leg had pins in it and was in a cast propped up on pillows. Esther had insisted on getting out of the hospital as well and was already calling contractors to talk about starting work and getting the store reopened.
Ned had tried to stay home but Wallis didn’t feel comfortable letting him out of her sight. He asked if he could at least sit with Paul and his mother, Sharon and Norman had said, “Let the boy. It’ll be okay,” as he placed his hand gently in the small of her back.
“Nothing is the way it should be,” she whispered as she laid her head on his shoulder.
“Unfortunately, it’s the way it’s always been only now you see it. It’ll be okay, Wallis.”
“How do you know that?” she asked, lifting her head to be able to look at him and see if he meant what he was saying.
“It will be until it isn’t, and until it isn’t I’m moving forward with those I love,” he said. “It’s the way I’ve survived at times over the years. Every time it’s gotten to me I try to remind myself that none of us are really in charge and all I can do is try to keep my own integrity intact. When it’s really too much I go talk to Esther. She’s like a second mother to me. In the end, I believe people will do the right thing. Well, enough people at least.”
“Weiskopf, you never cease to amaze me,” she said, tearing up. “Is this a new realization or have you been holding out on me?”
“Holding out a little, which should come as no surprise. As I’ve always told you, a good marriage should always keep a little mystery going.”
“I’d laugh at that one but it’s just not so funny today,” said Wallis.
Norman pulled his wife back into the crook of his arm and said, “Yeah, I know.”
“Esther has been a good influence on you,” she said, settling back into the pew and opening the bulletin for the funeral. A picture of a smiling Yvette with her family was on the back cover.
“I’ll let her know you feel that way.”
The service was beginning and Father Donald began to recite from the Book of Common Prayer. “Oh God, whose mercies cannot be numbered. Accept our prayers on behalf of thy servant, Yvette, and grant her an entrance into the land of light and joy,” he read.
The rain could be heard hitting the roof far above their heads as everyone bowed their heads.
Wallis glanced over at her son giggling over something with Paul. She bowed her head and took Norman’s hand, squeezing tight.
Father Donald ended with a plea that made Wallis wonder if it was chosen to give comfort for more than one reason.
“Help us, we pray, in the midst of things we cannot understand, to believe and trust in the strength of friendship and family. Amen,” said Father Donald as the congregation echoed “Amen” back to him.
Wallis felt some of her anxiety from the past few weeks start to lift and her first feelings of relief come over her.
“Maybe everything wi
ll be alright,” she said, as she rose to walk up to the altar rail for communion.
“I’ll wait here,” said Norman. “Best not to press my luck with God or with Father Donald.” Wallis smiled and squeezed his hand as she went and joined the line waiting for their turn to kneel at the rail. Sharon came up and slid into line behind her.
“Wallis,” she whispered. “How are you holding up? Are you going to the other funeral tomorrow too?”
“What funeral?” said Wallis. She had been moving slowly forward with the line but froze at the word funeral and turned around to face the people still in the pews, a sense of dread growing in the pit of her stomach.
“Didn’t you hear? I’d have thought for sure someone would have called you. She was your client, after all,” said Sharon, her voice growing higher. “And it was all over the news, so horrible. Richmond is just not what I remember as a little girl.”
“Sharon,” said Wallis, in a firm voice, not looking at her but searching for Norman still sitting in the pews. “Who died? Who is dead?”
“Why Lilly Billings, Lilly Billings is dead. She was murdered in her own home. Throat slashed they said and not a single clue about who did it.”
Sharon kept talking, giving out more details as the communion line moved around Wallis who stood still in the middle of the aisle, frozen right in front of the choir. Every little bit of calm she had found was gone and she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. She wasn’t sure if she should turn and go up for communion or run back to Norman and pull Ned along as she went. Wallis searched the back of the church and saw that Norman was half-rising out of the pew with a look of concern on his face.
She looked at him and shook her head as if she was trying to let everyone in the church know that she was done. Norman stood up and swiftly moved up the aisle. Sharon was still talking when he got there.
“Thank you, Sharon, I’ve got it from here. Yes, thank you, okay, you can go on,” he said, pulling Wallis toward the front and the other side of the altar rail away from Sharon who was mumbling, “I’m sorry.”
