The Six: Complete Series

by E. C. Richard

“And I’m here now. Why don’t you sit with me?” she said.

  Kyle reluctantly moved towards the couch. “Why are you watching the news? You never watch the news.”

  The story had shifted to a traffic accident on the freeway. He was right. The last time she’d voluntarily turned on the news was when her aunt was interviewed during a Black Friday report.

  The baseball player still bothered her. She knew he was connected but she needed proof. What had they said his name was? Derek? David? No. Dennis. It was Dennis. Kyle had had season tickets to the Giants games since he was in fifth grade. The sheer amount of information about his team that was stored in his head was disturbing and finally useful.

  “Hey babe,” she said, “there was this old Giants player in the waiting room with me but I didn’t recognize him. His name’s Dennis.”

  Without missing a beat, Kyle answered. “How old was he? ‘Cause there were a couple of Dennis’.”

  Shit. They hadn’t said what he looked like. But if he was able to take down a young teacher, he couldn’t be that old. “I don’t know. Maybe like thirtish.”

  Kyle pulled out his phone. “That narrows it down. There was this one guy from the mid-90’s named Dennis Gregoire. He was alright, great second baseman. Then there was this guy from maybe like seven years back, Dennis DiMarco. He was amazing. Oh man my friends and I loved him.”

  He pulled up a picture of the first guy. “That’s Gregoire. Says he’s living in Florida. Not your guy probably.”

  She snuck a peak over for show. There was no telling who her guy was.

  “Yeah DiMarco used to show up with these awesome sunglasses and joke around with the kids who got there early. He signed a ball for me and a mitt for my brother. Real cool guy,” he said. “Is this him?” He showed her a picture of a handsome man that stared straight at the camera with a goofy smile on his face.

  “Yeah that might be him. Does he live around here?”

  Kyle went back to his phone and his face quickly turned from reminiscent and wistful to concerned. “Whoa,” he said.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I don’t know how I didn’t hear about this. He’s missing,” he said.

  “Missing?” She was right. He was a part of this.

  He squinted to read the tiny type. “Yeah, wow. Weird story. His wife was having a baby and one second he was there and the next he was gone. I guess no one saw him leave and no one’s heard from him since then. Damn, that was like three weeks ago. Shit, I hope nothing happened to him.”

  Lila was a sweet girl but she was damaged goods. This man, this Dennis, seemed to be nothing if not a good guy. What was the connection?

  Kyle seemed shell-shocked. “Wow, that really sucks. I hope he’s okay.”

  And they had made him commit murder. These people, whoever they were, had put a gun in this man’s hand and made him unravel all the years worth of hard work. Kyle would be crushed when he found out who the lead suspect was in the school shooting.

  But, for now, he could live in a world still filled with his heroes.

  ***

  Marie endured the further updates on her brother’s condition with a robotic neutrality. She took in the words and buried them deep in mind to digest later when the stakes didn’t matter.

  “...would you like to see him on the news?” Irene said as she pulled out a tablet with a press conference cued up. Even in the paused screenshot, she could see him with his head buried and his wife’s arm around his shoulder for support. He looked broken. She didn’t think she could take much more. To hear his voice again would be too hard.

  Marie smiled. “Irene, I understand what you’re doing here, but whatever you think you’re going to accomplish is simply not going to happen. Let’s get this over with, alright?” She moved the tablet back towards Irene.

  “Fine,” she said. “I suppose the boys told you about your little surgery.”

  Milo had been quite graphic. She didn’t need to hear it all over again. “Yes. I’m aware.”

  “And you know what the consequences are for not completing your job, correct?”

  “Of course.”

  The woman grabbed a yellow folder from the bottom of her stack. “You will be going to Kipling Labs. Have you heard of it?”

  “No I haven’t,” she said. Irene knew she was lying. If they had as much information on her as it seemed they did, they knew where her clients worked. She had two regulars who had jobs at Kipling.

  “I see,” she said. “Well they do medical research. They got a grant to study a new Alzheimer's drug. Big deal, right?”

  “Of course. Terrible disease.”

  “You will be go into their labs and distribute this gas into their air ducts.” Irene pulled out a chemical schematic filled with equations and compounds.

  “What is that?”

  “Doesn’t matter the name,” she said. “If you do your job correctly, they will be immobilized in under twenty seconds.”

  “Is it a poisonous gas?” she asked.

  Irene shook her head. “Oh no,” she said. “It’ll just knock them out. That’s just the beginning, darling.”

  “So what do you want me to do?”

  “We know that they have gotten close with this specific batch. We need you to destroy it. We need it gone.”

  She bit her tongue to keep from reacting. It went against everything she believed in. The people that this drug could help numbered in the thousands, the millions. As much as it hurt her to not fight back, she kept her plan in motion.

  “I want to see my brother.

  Irene laughed. “Absolutely not.”

  “I want to talk to him. I won’t tell him anything. I just want to offer him some support.”

  “No, Marie. You will not speak to your brother. You will do your job and come back without speaking to anyone.”

  She pointed at the picture of Kipling Labs. “You know that I treat a few of those lab techs. That’s why you picked me for this. You’re not going to get that teenage brat do this job. You picked me because I know my way around that place and I have the knowledge. I went to medical school. I studied chemistry. You know that I won’t just flush it down the sink.”

  “Yes your experience is an asset, but you can’t believe that we couldn’t tell another one of your friends what to do. You’re not that valuable.” Irene let the words linger.

  Marie moved her chair back from the table. “No, you need me. There are medical labs all around the country making more powerful medications. You don’t care about mental health. You don’t care if that medicine helps people or not. All you want is the destruction and I’m the only way you’re bringing down Kipling.”

  Irene grabbed the folder. “You’re not seeing your brother.”

  Marie started to stand. “Then you’re not getting your job done.” Every nerve in her body was frayed at each end.

  She didn’t know what to expect next. Irene leaned against the back of her chair with a curious grin on her face. “Is that right?”

  Marie gulped. “You don’t scare me, Irene. I will do your job and I’ll do whatever it is that you want. I won’t ask any questions and I won’t go off-book. I promise you that. All I want is to see my brother one more time.”

  “You do realize,” she said, “that your husband reported you missing four days ago. The police are looking for you. Not as hard as they’re looking for your sweet niece, but there’s a look-out for dear old Marie.”

  She hadn’t thought of that. All she wanted was to see her brother one more time but she hadn’t considered what that would do to everyone else. “I don’t have to see him. I could go in disguise.” The words felt silly the moment they left her mouth.

  “Why would you put your dear brother through all this over again? He’s already barely keeping it together. He lost his sister and then his daughter. How is he going to feel when he sees you again. They’re all going to think he’s crazy, aren’t they? If a grieving man walked into your office and said he saw h
is missing sister, you wouldn’t think he was anything but crazy.”

  “I just--”

  “Marie, you’re not going to see him. It’s as simple as that. Even if I allowed you to speak to him, it would create ripples that you nor I would not be able to contain. He would live his whole life with the hope that he will find you again and we all know that he isn’t going to.”

  Milo had said that there was an exit plan. He knew one guy who got out after doing enough jobs and went back to his family. But Irene made this sound so permanent and hopeless. If she was right and there was no end to this game then what was the point in seeing her brother again. She should let the grieving process begin as soon as possible and let him move on with what was left of his life.

  “Let me at least tell him where Brianna is. Let him at least have that closure.”

  Irene shook her head. “I’m getting really tired of this, Marie. I’m doing you a favor by just listening to you. This is not a negotiation table. You have one job and you can either do it or we can end this little bartering session right here, right now.”

  She had an in. What she was asking for wasn’t extravagant. “I won’t talk to him. I won’t be anywhere near him. Let me just tell someone where you put her. Just let him know that she’s not missing and it’s not possible to get her back. Wouldn’t it be so much better than watching him stand in front of all those microphone and ask for prayers and hope of the people? Let him suffer and live with the fact his daughter was murdered. Let him hurt and let the people hurt. Isn’t that your endgame?”

  The words she said sounded painfully callous but she knew that there was an empathetic core to what she was saying. In order to heal, the wound had to air out and sting before it can fix itself. As much as it would kill him to find out the truth, there was no way of disguising what happened. There was no bringing Brianna back. It was better than he knew and can could recover in his own way and in his own time.

  “I don’t understand. What are you trying to say? Do you want your little friend Simon to be all over the news for her murder? They will be looking for clues and it will all point to that poor boy.”

  Simon could take it. He was trapped just like her. His future was just as lost as the others. “Yes,” she said, “and I want everyone to know that she was murdered. I want them to know what happened to her.”

  Irene seemed taken aback. To the woman, it seemed like Marie had thrown Simon under the bus just to help her brother. She knew that if Simon got implicated in a murder he obviously didn’t commit without coercion, then someone might make the connection and look for them.

  “I don’t know who you think that you’re talking to. I don’t take orders from the prisoners. You do as you are told.” Irene had lost the fiery intensity that she had when Marie had walked into the room. In her years of subtly and not so subtly manipulating people to get them to do what she wanted, Marie could see that turning point when the wheels turned in her direction.

  “Just think,” she said with enthusiastic wonder, “of how scared people will be when they find out the governor’s daughter was murdered. They love Brianna and if she’s still missing then they will hold out hope. But if she’s the victim of a senseless crime then people will be looking over their shoulders every time they go out. Isn’t that what you want?”

  Irene’s fiery temperament had cooled. She looked at Marie with confusion and excitement. “What’s in it for you?”

  “I want him to have closure. I want him to be able to heal,” she said.

  “Even if you’re not there?”

  “Yes,” Marie said, “even if I’m not there. This is bigger than just me. I want him to be able to move on with his life.” She also knew her brother wouldn’t rest until he found out who did it, even if it all led to poor Simon Archer. It was a longshot but it was better than nothing.

  Marie knew she had her. She had worked with more stubborn and more pathologically aggressive people and gotten them to do exactly what she asked, no questions asked. This woman would do her bidding.

  “Alright,” Irene said, “I suppose that could be arranged.”

  Marie smiled. “Wonderful.”

  “But,” Irene interjected, “only after your end of the bargain is complete. If you fail, then your brother will never know and his daughter’s body will not be recovered. He will go to his grave never knowing what happened to his sister or his little girl. You understand?”

  “I do,” she said. “You will get your job done, I promise.”

  Irene slapped the folder on the top of the stack. “Wonderful,” she said. “Let’s get you ready to go, huh?”

  Marie didn’t break eye contact. “Pleasure’s all mine.”

  ***

  Benjamin didn’t try to get out of his binds. They had barely wrapped the belt around his body and he could easily get out but there didn’t seem a point. These boys wanted answers and there was no amount of effort on his part that could be expending to get them to believe him.

  Even half an hour into their sloppy interrogation, they still hadn’t touched him. They seemed scared to get near him.

  “How we get out of here?” Milo asked. It was the same variation on a theme that they had been going on the entire time.

  For the twentieth time he answered, “I don’t know.”

  “They’ve got you in real deep, huh? Are they paying you or something?” Milo asked.

  Dennis, after his belt binding exertion, had pulled back. He was obviously still in quite a bit of pain and leaned heavily against the wall as Milo did most of the talking.

  “Dennis,” Benjamin pleaded, “please stop this. You know I have nothing to do with the people out there.”

  Milo looked over at his partner to make sure he hadn’t gone soft. “No,” he said as he went back to his captor, “don’t try to weasel your way out of this.”

  Benjamin gestured towards the phone they’d given to Dennis. “If you just let me look at that phone, I might be able to work with the electronics in it. Maybe we could find a way to make a call out of here.”

  Dennis went to go untie him but Milo held him back. “Why should we believe you?”

  “Milo, c’mon,” Dennis said. “he might be able to help us.”

  “Or,” Milo said, “this is a test of our loyalty. We let him defy their orders and now they don’t believe we’ll do what they say. What’s stopping them from killing us all right now. No, it’s too dangerous.”

  “I trust him,” Dennis said.

  Milo gestured over to Simon. “He told me some pretty shitty stuff about you, buddy. You made his mom cry? I mean what kind of asshole does that to a kid?”

  He barely remembered talking to Benjamin much less making anyone cry. No one had ever accused him of being aggressive. Too cold and professional were the usual complaints about his work performance.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked.

  “He told me that you were a dick to his mom when they came in. Right, Simon?”

  Simon looked up with surprise. It was clear that that information was not supposed to be shared with the group. “It’s not a big deal...”

  “No,” Milo said, “a guy like that doesn’t deserve a second chance.”

  Benjamin turned towards Simon. “What is he talking about? I don’t remember hurting you or your mother.”

  Simon shrugged. “When we came in, you told us we didn’t have a case. Then you told my mom that she was responsible for what happened to me.”

  The conversation came rushing back. “Simon, no, that’s not what happened. You’re remembering it all wrong.”

  Milo was not in the mood for explanations. “Don’t tell him he’s wrong just ‘cause you look bad. Now we know what kind of person you really are. You’re just a lying asshole in a business suit.”

  “Simon, tell him what happened.”

  Simon shook his head.

  Benjamin turned back to plead with Milo. “He’s twisting what happened. I would never say somet
hing like that. That’s not why I couldn’t take his case.”

  Dennis hobbled over with his hand still pressed firmly against his side. “Why then?”

  He didn’t want to tell them, not like this. “I had a family situation back then. It wasn’t reasonable for me to take that case.”

  Milo scoffed. “Family emergency. Lamest excuse in the book.”

  “I did,” he said. “His case still stayed in the firm that I was in charge of. If I thought it was a waste of time why would I have allowed my associate to take it. It would have made me a lot of money. Who would pass up something like that for a bogus excuse.”

  The boys didn’t have an answer.

  “What happened? Why didn’t you take the case?”

  Benjamin looked over at Simon who already knew. His associate had long ago explained the family why the lead prosecutor wasn’t taking their case. Simon looked at him with sympathetic eyes.

  “Guys, just leave it,” Simon said.

  Milo crossed his arms in frustration. “Are you on his side now? What is going on with you people?”

  He didn’t want to rip open the scars that he’d spent so many years hiding. All he wanted was to end his days without having to talk about Stephanie.

  “No,” Simon said, “I just don’t think this is helping.”

  Milo smirked. “Well now I have to know.”

  He wriggled in his binds. “Just leave me be.”

  The room hummed its quiet song as the four of them stood around the elephant in the room. “Nope,” Milo said as he reared back. It seemed to come at him in slow motion.

  His fist rammed into Benjamin’s face and rammed his head against the wall in turn.

  “Whoa!” Dennis screamed as he hobbled towards Milo. With his one free hand, he pulled the attacker away before could strike again. “What the fuck, man?”

  “Let me go!” Milo shouted as he maneuvered back towards Benjamin. “Tell us!”

  There was unbridled, uncontrollable anger in the boy’s face. No amount of reasoning was going to allow him to escape. “My daughter. My daughter died, alright?”

  Milo’s arched arm fell to his side. “What?” he said with the same intensity, unable to turn it down on such short-notice.