by Joe Jarvis
"What’s wrong?" his wife asked, concerned.
"I don’t think that was a suicide, and I have pictures of who’s behind it. This is big honey, I’ll call you. No idea when I’ll be home. Love you." He kissed his wife and kids, and ran out the door, leaving Mrs. Themis bewildered in the kitchen.
Themis grabbed a pod to go see Drake and question him about Barry’s visit to his office the evening before.
In the lobby of Drake’s office, Drake’s secretary eyed Officer Themis suspiciously, recognizing Themis’s badge as a security badge, and asked in a testy tone, "Can I help you?"
"I need to speak to Mr. Drake about a security matter."
Flustered, the secretary looked at Drake’s schedule and back at Themis. "Do you have an appointment?"
"No I don’t but this is an important matter, Mr. Drake’s cooperation will make this a lot easier."
Sensing that Drake would want to avoid such an interview, the secretary began to make up an excuse about why Drake was not in his office, when Drake popped his head out.
"Benjamin I need you to get ahold of Mr. Patrick and-" Drake began to order calmly before looking up, mildly startled to see an Officer in his lobby.
"Oh you are in," Officer Themis said sarcastically, smirking and casting a sharp glance toward Drake’s secretary, who blushed despite his dark complexion, and just stared at his computer screen.
"My name is Officer Themis," he said walking over to Drake and extending his hand.
Drake was obviously caught off guard; he shook Themis’s hand silently, before stammering his own introduction, "Ah yes, I’m Mr. Drake. Won’t you join me in my office?"
Drake closed the door and took a seat behind his desk, flashing a short slightly detectable smile toward Themis to be polite. Drake then folded his hands on his desk, and stared at Themis waiting for his explanation.
It was a few awkward moments before Officer Themis spoke, he was trying to get a feel for Drake.
"Beautiful office," Themis said cheerfully to Drake, with a smile.
Drake just raised his eyebrows for a moment and remained silent, still staring at Themis. Themis cleared his throat and dropped the smile. "I wanted to ask you a couple of questions about Mr. Barry."
Though his heart skipped, Mr. Drake’s appearance did not change in the slightest. His usual calm and collected poker face was an asset in situations like these. A few seconds passed before Drake spoke.
"Mr. Barry was a friend of mine. NESA is also a customer of BA, though we will be switching our main representation this week, for obvious reasons. I was disturbed to hear about his suicide." Drake spoke low and without emotion.
"Could you see any indication of why Barry would commit suicide?" Officer Themis asked.
"Well, the news reports can give us some insight there. It seems Mr. Barry was involved in some less than ethical business practices. I think he saw the writing on the wall, and knew his business would be ruined. Obviously NESA would not have continued to do business with BA under the circumstances, despite Barry being a friend of mine."
"Could you tell he was depressed, especially over the past few days?"
"I haven’t seen much of Barry over the past week or so. I think he crawled inside a bottle when he knew he couldn’t outrun these problems," Drake drawled.
"But specifically when you saw Mr. Barry yesterday at 15:25. Was there any indication that Mr. Barry would end his own life?"
Drake sat silently, staring down Officer Themis, the periphery of the office losing focus as his sight narrowed, and his gaze turned more acidic by the second. How did Officer Themis know that Barry had visited his office the day before, and what else did he know? Could he have connected Drake to Barry’s death? Drake’s heart was racing, but he wouldn’t let that show.
"There was no indication," Drake replied deep and slow.
"None? What exactly did Barry come to see you about yesterday anyway?"
Another pause. "Officer… Themis is it? I’m afraid I won’t be able to answer any further questions without a personal arbiter present."
Officer Themis didn’t move, but stared at Drake unflinching. "Okay." Themis eventually said, with a hint of suspicion in his voice. Themis couldn’t help but ask one more question, just to see if anything about Drake’s stony demeanor changed.
"Just one more question," Themis said as he walked toward the door, turning back to Drake, "through your business dealings, or your personal relationship with Mr. Barry… is there anyone who would want him dead?"
Drake began to speak but his voice cut out, forcing him to clear his throat. "hem, It’s easy to make enemies in this business…."
Themis gave a final nod before leaving the office, "Thanks for your time."
Drake was worried. If Themis knew that Barry had come to see him the afternoon before, he may also know the Agents visited Barry’s home. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would be possible for the dots to be connected if the Agents were identified – although they had taken pains to be unidentifiable, in order to excel in their field of work.
Drake knew he needed to contain this, but he couldn’t initiate his ultimate plan without something solid to blame on drug cartels from outside of New England. The attempted murder of Molly had been attributed to outside drugs, thanks in part to Drake’s control of the popular news outlet, News of New England, but it was generally viewed as an isolated incident. He had originally thought that a string of murders would be best, but there was no time to plan for that. He needed one big, brutal event, linked to the home invasion of Molly.
Drake figured he could also have stories on queue in case it was revealed that Barry had actually been murdered. He would give the impression that drug cartel activity was heating up in the region, and that fragmented security companies couldn’t handle the influx of unsavory characters. Molly’s home invasion would be framed as an attempt to silence the media about the rising concerns of drug cartels, thus far successful. Barry’s murder would be cast as a hit to prevent prosecution of a high-level cartel leader. And what better fit than if the head investigator for Corner Cop Security, handling Molly’s case and involved in Barry’s case, was brutally murdered in his home along with his adorable family?
Drake would put out the story that drug cartel hitmen were streaming into New England from New York to further disrupt the system, within a short period of time, and establish their control over an unsuspecting area, that was insufficiently prepared for this type of turmoil. The stories from News of New England would be enough to fuel the rumor for long enough that Drake could "save the day" with NESA intervening.
This time Drake wouldn’t make the mistake of having an unreliable drug addict perform the task. He would have Agent White and Agent Orange take care of Themis. If he planned the murder for the following night, that would give him enough time to get the news stories ready for release at strategic times. The following morning after the attack, the border would be initiated, when Themis’s body was discovered and known drug cartel members were stopped from entering New England.
Drake was nervous, but he thought he could pull it off. Anyway, he didn’t have much time to waste, it could be any day that the right pieces would be put together. Without Themis there would be no one to sound the alarm about Drake’s connection to Barry and Molly. Drake had to pull this all together before it started unraveling.
Eight
The next day Molly invited Mr. Atlas out to dinner, and he was happy to oblige. His spirits had been lifted by the shift from his supposed wrongdoing, to the story about Barry’s unsavory business ethics and suicide. Molly was working on her next piece, connecting the dots of the events unfolding. Mr. Atlas was part of the story, but Molly also respected his insight and opinions. She was talking through what she had so far.
"I think that the break-in at my house is somehow connected. It doesn’t make sense that the electronics would have been the focus, or that he would try to –" Molly took a deep breath, but tried to downplay it, "– um
, kill me," she tried to remove emotion and focus on the facts. "And the only big story I was working on at the time was about Barry Arbitration. And BA made up the story and manufactured the evidence against Atlas protection – we just need to wait for the independent review for confirmation."
Atlas was shaking his head in agreement, "It is just unfortunate for me that those reviews take so long. Though to be fair, they are doing the investigation the right way so it is hard to complain."
"Have things gotten any better since yesterday morning?" Molly asked.
"Well, the deluge of cancellations has slowed, yes. But it is going to take months – possibly a year – to undo the damage caused, after the independent review. I’ve filed for damages against BA for once the review finds that the evidence was fake. But I suspect there may be a lot of people seeking restitution from BA. Their insurance kicked in this morning to place all their customers with other arbiters. It’s just a matter of dismantling NESA now, who gets what."
"The piece I don’t understand is why BA would have it out for AP. You guys aren’t even competitors so it can’t be something as simple as that. Can you think of any reason why Barry would want to damage you or your business?"
Atlas paused, thinking. "Nothing stands out. I mean we have had our small differences in the past, but what arbiter and security company haven’t? All I can think of is that Barry was paid off to hurt my business, since we are a blooming company. And we do know now that Barry was open to that sort of bribery." Atlas didn’t mind the business side of this dinner, but was enjoying the social side more. Every time he found himself with Molly his spirits were lifted.
Molly was taking notes and thinking hard, "Remember when this whole thing started with BA holding that news conference? News of New England started talking about the tiny amount of stock you own in Illicit Liquors. Do you have any history with NNE?"
Again Atlas thought, looking up and to the left. He slowly started shaking his head, "No… but now that I think about it, they have taken shots at me before. When we announced that we were beginning to form street divisions they ran a whole segment questioning if we had the expertise, blah blah blah. They kept contrasting us with NESA, saying that since New England Security Agency started as a street team, they had the foundation and knew how to do the job better. It was stupid, I don’t think anyone really picked up on it."
Molly grabbed her tablet off the table and started typing while she asked curiously, "Is NESA your main competitor for street teams?"
Atlas loved watching Molly work. She is so resilient, he thought.
"Yea, and they do a pretty good job. I guess that’s why they were being held as the standard by NNE," Atlas hadn’t given it much thought.
"Maybe not." Molly said without looking up from her screen.
"What’s that?"
"Guess who owns 55% of News of New England?"
"Oh, I don’t know," Atlas said pondering, distracted, "I always thought it had a broad stockholder base."
"Mr. Drake of New England Security Agency owns a controlling stake – 55% – of the popular news site News of New England," Molly read off her tablet screen.
Atlas was looking suspiciously – not at Molly but over the implications for NESA. "You don’t think…"
Molly interrupted and continued reading, "The company gained a stellar reputation among consumers in 2056 for its unyielding opposition to Unified New America, the quasi-American-government which sought to impose monopoly force over the people of New England…blah blah blah... Despite NESA running into some minor setbacks after switching to Barry Arbitration in 2109, the company has remained profitable since its inception during the New England Renaissance of the 2040’s."
Molly looked up at Atlas, wearing a most serious look on her face. Atlas’s face likewise betrayed his concern, but he would not let emotion get the best of him.
"Let’s not jump to conclusions here…" He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.
"I think we should go talk to Officer Themis, he’s the head CCS investigator handling my case."
They paid their bill and took a pod to Themis’s neighborhood. Molly messaged Themis on the way over to let him know they were coming. When the two arrived, Atlas introduced himself, and the three settled down at Themis’s kitchen table. It was getting late. Mrs. Themis came over and introduced herself; she understood how important this case was.
"Can I get you three anything? Some coffee, dessert?"
"I could go for a cup of coffee, thanks," Atlas said with a smile.
"Me as well, if you don’t mind," Molly added, also with a friendly smile.
"Sounds like coffee all around," Themis agreed, giving his wife a nod, "Thanks honey."
Turning his focus to Molly and Atlas, Themis asked warmly, "So what was it you wanted to speak with me about tonight, Molly?"
"Well, I was discussing the latest article I am working on with Mr. Atlas. We were trying to figure out why BA would target his company. We don’t have anything solid, but what we did find out is that NESA was a customer of Barry Arbitration, and that Drake owns NESA and a controlling stake in NNE. News of New England figures in because they seeded the story about Atlas’s stake in Illicit Liquors, even though it’s only $5000 worth of stock."
Themis was taking it all in and shaking his head in agreement. "Can I speak off the record?" Themis asked Molly.
"Of course," Molly quickly responded, "This is all off the record."
"Drake has come under some suspicion. It seems Barry went to see Drake two evenings ago, just hours before Barry committed suicide. Two unidentified men were also seen entering and leaving Barry’s house around the time of the suicide, but that has been kept out of the media for now. There was nothing else to suggest foul play, no fingerprints, DNA, broken windows, etcetera."
Molly’s eyebrows were raised, and Atlas wore a shocked look as well. "This is too much to be a coincidence," Molly said looking between the two men.
Atlas looked like he was trying to put it all together. "So are we saying that Drake and Barry had something going on? Could they both have been threatened by the same people?"
"But that still wouldn’t explain why you were attacked by News of New England, and why I was targeted by someone," Molly added.
"If the third party needed to manipulate both Barry Arbitration and New England Security Agency…" Themis was thinking out loud, slowly articulating his ponderings, "in order to target each of you… but that still wouldn’t explain why they were targeting you."
"Officer Themis," Molly started.
"Please, call me James."
"Okay. James. Do you have any idea who the men were that left Barry’s house on the night of his suicide?"
"We don’t know… the pictures were too obscured for facial recognition. It’s possible some technology tampered with the signal, or it just happened to be a blurry picture set. But obviously, that would answer a lot of questions."
"It sounds like they are advanced," Atlas chimed in. "If they have the technology to jam a signal like that."
"Well I don’t know for sure, like I said, it could have just been a bad shot. They were dressed pretty well, though."
"What if," Molly began looking off somewhere, "Barry was coerced by someone who thought he would squeal when my report came out on BA?"
Mrs. Themis put coffee down in front of each of them.
"I’m heading off to bed, don’t you three work too hard," Mrs. Themis joked with a sweet smile, and left the room after kissing her husband on the cheek.
"So what you’re saying, Molly," Atlas returned them to the subject at hand, "Is that Barry could have been coerced to frame me, and whoever coerced him didn’t think they could trust him to keep quiet?"
Officer Themis gave it some thought. "That would account for why Molly’s electronics were stolen. Whoever it is, didn’t want the report on Barry to come out, because then some stones were going to be unturned, and maybe someone would look into who threatened Ba
rry. It makes sense, too, that they used Trix to attack Molly, since he would be easily bribed or threatened."
"I don’t know…" Atlas skeptically interjected. "Did Barry seek out Drake to protect him then? Or was Drake coerced as well? After all, it was Drake’s News of New England which made such a big deal out of my holdings of Illicit Liquors."
"Is that it?" Molly asked. "Was it the owners of Illicit Liquors the whole time, trying to keep Teddy out of jail? So they make it look like Atlas framed Ted, and threatened Barry to support that claim with his arbitration agency. And then what, threatened Drake to support that story with News of New England?" She finished shaking her head, thinking it sounded a bit far fetched.
Themis had both palms on his coffee mug and was looking attentively between Molly and Atlas. "They could have chosen Barry knowing he was sketchy, but not knowing a BER report was in the works. When they found that out, they needed to get rid of the report, or else their coercion of Barry would be revealed."
There was a pause as the three considered this scenario.
"I’m skeptical," Atlas added. "Why Drake? There are plenty of news agencies that could have seeded the story."
"Not big ones with singular control." Molly retorted. "There are small news sites with single owners, and large ones with a bunch of owners. News of New England is unique in that it is large, and has a majority holding by a single person: Drake."
"There was something odd about Drake when I interviewed him." Themis said. "He could have been scared… but really? I mean the CEO of the biggest security agency in New England being threatened by a company without direct access to agents and gunmen?"
"That’s what’s not making sense. If I know Drake, anyone threatening him would have another thing coming," Atlas added this insight on his competitor.
"Unless it wasn’t a threat of violence." Molly almost asked. "Maybe Drake and Barry were in with some sketchy dealings, and Ted’s family blackmailed them. That explains all the AtlantiTrade notes floating around."
