by Simon King
So, he made the decision to confront Fenton and because of circumstances, the opportunity didn’t arise until a day after the four teams of agents arrived in Sheboygan to hunt down Red. Evie had gone out for supplies with Trudy, giving Tim the perfect opportunity to finally confront Fenton about a question that had been grinding away at his insides.
All four teams had been booked into the same building, Mumma renting out the entire 4th floor. This gave everybody their own space, with one of the rooms redesigned into a makeshift central office.
Tim went to Fenton’s apartment the moment the elevator doors closed on Evie and Trudy. His old partner opened the door with a jovial spring in his step, genuinely excited at the prospect of the four teams working together.
Tim didn’t waste time with pleasantries, confronting Fenton almost immediately. He accused him of sleeping with Evie, screaming the accusation into his face. The level of anger he’d contained since finding out about the pregnancy had only intensified with time and now threatened to unleash into a tsunami of rage.
Fenton was dumbfounded at the accusation, telling Tim that Evie was a one-man girl. There was no way she would ever cheat on him and despite what he may have thought, he needed to trust her.
“I’ve had a vasectomy, you piece of shit,” Tim snarled at Fenton, before throwing a punch that not only knocked his former partner down on his ass, but also effectively ended their friendship.
The two men stared at each other in shock for a few seconds, the moment caught in a frozen suspension of time. Fenton remained sitting where he fell, staring up at his ex partner with his mouth wide open. A stunned silence fell over the room before Tim turned to leave. That was when Fenton whispered the words that would haunt Tim for a long time to come, words he’d never considered himself.
“What if the vasectomy didn’t take?”
As Tim stepped back into the hallway, a number of agents had their heads poking out, curious at where the shouting match had come from. No-one spoke as Tim returned to his room, his thoughts caught up in a whirlpool of confusion. Fenton’s final words had served their purpose, casting a veil of doubt into his mind.
He’d suspected his future wife of cheating on him, doubting her sincerity and trust in a way many people could never return from. He’d confronted someone whom he’d considered to be one of his closest friends, a man who’d saved his life on more than one occasion.
Having effectively ended his friendship with a single swing of his fist, Tim returned to his room and hopped in the shower. He needed to regroup, resettle and clear his mind. The thoughts that were swirling around made little sense and a single thought repeatedly appeared in the ensuing dust cloud. He’d questioned Evie’s loyalty. What if Fenton told her what had happened?
The thought frightened him more than anything. If Evie found out about the confrontation, about the single accusation he’d screamed at Fenton, things may never be the same between them. If there was one thing he knew about Evie above all else, it was her fierce sense of loyalty to those who mattered to her.
She had committed to marry him, had revealed to him her pregnancy during a time when they were closest. He’d seen the joy and utter adoration in her eyes as she told him the news. And here he was, doubting every word because of something he assumed.
“What if the vasectomy didn’t take?” The words repeated themselves over and over and over again as he stood, feeling the shower rain down over him. The question had been enough to cast doubt into his own mind. But what if she found out?
Evie and Trudy returned an hour or so later and after dropping their shopping off, had gone to their respective rooms. Evie had come straight to the apartment she shared with Tim and found him sitting at the table, doing what he always did when passing the time; drawing doodles on a scrap of paper. It was that very habit that had earned him the nickname his previous partner had christened him with.
Given the hour of the day, the couple didn’t leave again until the next time they needed to attend a crime scene. Mumma messaged all agents with an urgent summons a little after dinner and the four teams immediately headed out.
A vehicle that had been identified as having possible links to Red had been spotted picking up a woman an hour before and Mumma had managed to track it to an industrial estate near the lake’s shore. The agents jumped into two vehicles and made their way to the road where the final sighting of the vehicle had been.
Evie and Fenton had jumped in their own car, together with Terry Manning and Lorraine Cruz. Tim and Trudy jumped into the other car with Karin Schmidt and Fox Dillinger, following the other vehicle as the procession rushed to save another possible victim. It was during the drive that Tim started to feel nervous at the thought of Evie and Fenton in the same car. What if he told her what had happened? What if the others backed his story, saying they’d heard the commotion? The uneasy feeling only intensified the closer they neared their destination.
After pulling up half a block from where Mumma had last spotted the vehicle enter the dead-end road, the teams quickly made their way via different routes. Whilst the first two teams headed down and around a warehouse that sat between them and the suspected location, the other two teams took the direct approach, Evie and Fenton leading the way.
Tim and Trudy led the other agents around the far side, past a trucking compound and through a gate into a Walmart distribution centre. As they stole their way through the yard, avoiding being seen by the few nightshift workers busy forklifting their way around the compound, the foursome quickly reached a hole in a fence that led to what looked like an abandoned warehouse. The abandoned Sheboygan Powerplant stood ominously to one side, it’s shadows standing guard
Evie and Fenton reached the area first, confirming to Mumma that the vehicle, a rusty Jeep Cherokee, was parked behind the building, both of its driver’s side doors swung open. There were faint drag marks in the gravel, leading towards the side entrance of the warehouse closest to the water’s edge.
The teams were in contact with each other via their earpieces, Mumma listening in on her end. Knowing the killer was inside, the four teams decided to split and enter the warehouse from each corner of the building and work their way towards wherever Red was located.
Mumma was able to locate an old floorpan of the building and sent through instructions to each team, ensuring they knew ahead of time of what was behind each door that faced them. Just as they each entered their entrances, Tim looked up to see Evie staring back at him from across the yard and instantly recognized the expression. She knew. Fenton had told her after all and now she stood opposite him, the pain in her eyes ripping into Tim’s heart. It was the look of disappointment, as if he had been the one to betray her, instead of the other way around. Before he had a chance to react, they put on their night vision goggles and entered the building.
Fenton and Evie disappeared into the first door, entering the reception area of the long-closed company. Terry and Lorraine made their way back around to the other side, found their door and found themselves in one of the worker’s old lunchrooms, the smell of stale piss burning their nostrils from the moment they stepped through the door.
Karin and Fox climbed a set of stairs and ended up on a mezzanine level, overlooking the bulk of the warehouse’s stacking area, while Tim and Trudy entered via a fire escape door that opened directly into the toilets and change room.
With all four teams in the building, they remained in constant contact as they stealthily whispered their progress, Mumma coordinating their advance. No one initially found anything out of the ordinary, the place seemingly sitting in the deathly silence of abandonment. As each team made their way towards the main floor, doubt began to creep in that they had entered the wrong building.
It was Fenton that first heard the unmistakable sound of weeping, leading Evie and two other teams towards a small room to the side of the warehouse’s main floor. It could have been a storage room, or an electrical room, but whatever it was, it was small. Knowing tha
t the victim was still alive, the teams decided that the best bet would be for three teams to circle the room, while the fourth team stood back near the opposite wall and monitor from afar, in case Red tried to make a break for it.
It took a minute or two for the teams to get into place. Fox and Karin remained on the overhead walkway, peering through the metal grate at the small room beneath them. If anyone tried to run, they would have the advantageous high ground, while Tim and Trudy had the wide view from afar. Evie and Fenton carefully made their way to one corner of the room, while Terry and Lorraine reached a tiny alcove in the wall, right beside the door to the killer’s hiding spot.
Tim and Trudy watched from the shadows as everyone positioned themselves at their allocated locations, until they were all waiting for the signal to go. Trudy decided to hide behind an old shelving wall that sat halfway across the floor, Tim watching from his own vantage point. He had the best view, with all other agents well in his sight. It was a perfect vantage point for her, ready to pounce the moment the signal was given.
Mumma gave the countdown, all teams preparing for whatever unpredictable event followed. The weeping was becoming more pronounced and Fox was whispering for Mumma to hurry. Everyone waited with abated breath as the countdown reached 5, then 4, then 3.
A split second before Mumma said now, the lights came on by themselves, flooding the entire space with brightness compared to daylight. It caught everyone completely off guard, the momentary stun delivering them right into Red’s plan.
He emerged from the room, holding something up above his head. Lorraine would later tell the others that she briefly saw the woman in the room, her ankles and wrists bound together as she lay on the floor. She was crying, her arms tied to something that looked like a metal drum. Red looked around, saw Evie and smiled, then looked to where Tim was standing.
“Say goodbye to her.” They were the only words the killer spoke.
The explosion that erupted ripped the small room apart, sending shrapnel shooting across the floor in a wall of flying missiles. The fireball engulfed both agents standing above, the shockwave sending them flying up and into the ceiling rafters. The clean-up crew would later find Fox’s head and left arm still wedged between the roof and supporting beam, with Karin’s right leg swinging like a pendulum nearby. While Lorraine survived, thanks to the small alcove she was standing in, Terry wasn’t so lucky, his body sent shooting backwards into a shelving unit. A metal guard decapitated him like a deli-meat slicer, the fatal wound neat and perfectly even.
The blast was powerful enough to disintegrate the small room completely, along with Fenton and most of Evie. The wall beside the room had exploded outward in a fireball of shrapnel, sending debris into the waters of the lake. While the clean-up crew only found Fenton’s right hand wedged beneath a nearby door, they found Evie’s left foot, still sitting snuggly inside her shoe. The pair had been standing right next to one of the walls of the utility room, waiting for the perfect moment to jump him, a moment that never presented itself.
Trudy, watching from behind her vantage point, saw the explosion in all its horror for a split second before a 4-inch splinter from a broom handle pierced her right eye like a fired arrow. It punched through into her brain just enough to render her unconscious. She languished in a hospital room for almost two weeks before passing away.
Tim watched the horror from where he stood, unable to save any of them. His scream was the only sound once the echo from the explosion died down, as he desperately ran towards the carnage. The spot where his beloved had stood only moments before was now nothing more than a patch of flames, the smell of chemicals burning his nostrils.
The bulk of the blast had shot out across the water and because of the positioning of the rest of the buildings around it, the boom of the explosion had remained localized. Most that had heard it thought a thunderstorm had been approaching, one having been forecast most of the day.
The clean-up crew arrived within minutes and managed to do what they did best, decontaminating the area of any evidence. All of the bodies, including those reduced to nothing more than a shoebox worth of tissue, were taken back to the compound where several ceremonies took place in the Memorial Room.
Both Evie and Fenton’s subsequent coffins contained very little of their mortal remains. Dale “Red” Simpson disappeared entirely. While most believed him to have been completely obliterated by the explosion, others were sure he’d been sent flying into the water. Divers repeatedly searched the lake for evidence, but apart from a single finger, never found the body. Only Tim had his doubts, sometimes wondering whether the killer was dead at all.
Lorraine spent a few days in bed recovering and returned to team with Tim for almost a year and a half before new recruits joined. The hunting slowed considerably that year, as the shock of the tragedy continued to resonate through the organization.
Tim blamed himself mostly, for not doing more, despite the plan and execution working just as everyone had hoped. Mumma also considered herself at fault, for not doing more to ensure the safety of the team. But deep inside, they knew the end result had been unavoidable. The killer known simply as Red, had managed to murder his way through eleven innocent victims and six Pogrom agents. To date, it had been the largest single loss of agents in the organization’s history.
To ensure there would be no questions asked, Milton Ward ended up buying the warehouse the very next day, subsequently bulldozing the building entirely. The lot was left vacant, only used for parking by adjoining businesses.
Whilst the public never learned of the killer’s eventual fate, nor the heroic sacrifice of those who gave their lives to ending his spree, both Tim and Lorraine never forgot what happened. They would return to the vacant lot every year, to remember their fallen comrades, and pay their respects to the memories of their loved ones.
Tim carried the agony of Evie’s final expression for weeks, unable to deal with the reality of what had happened. She had been pregnant of course, Mumma confirming that Evie had shared the news with her right before the tragedy.
Three months later, Tim finally decided to put the questions to rest once and for all, returning to the vasectomy clinic for his own revelation. The test came back just the way he’d envisioned, with the doctor looking at him dumbfounded with a sheet of paper in his hand.
Tim had been fertile all along, the procedure having miraculously reversed itself, as it had been known to do on very rare occasions. He left the clinic more heartbroken than ever, hating himself for the final thoughts running through her mind before she died. Of course she had been faithful, her morals stronger and more solid than anyone he’d ever met before. It was he that had screwed up, questioning her before ruling himself out the way he should have. Fenton had known the answer so damn fast during their confrontation, telling Tim of the possibility. Why hadn’t he thought of it himself?
It was a question that continued to haunt him every moment of his waking life, the explosion haunting his dreams. While it took a long time for Tim to get some sort of relative normality back into his life again, love was something he promised himself to never allow again. The first time had been enough to show him its destructive power and that had been enough.
4
Sam listened to Tim tell the story as they laid in the darkness. His voice had sounded strong for most of it, only threatening to break a couple of times. The shock of what happened affected her more than she ever expected, tears silently falling onto her pillow as she quietly heard the tale.
When he finished talking, Sam heard Tim roll onto his side, simply ending the tale with the test results before turning over, leaving her to deal with the information any way she chose. He’d done his part and now he wanted to let sleep heal him, the way it had always managed to help him escape, even if just momentarily.
Sam reran the story through her mind, trying to picture the agents moments before the explosion tore them apart. The blast would have taken them so fast, before they had a cha
nce to realize what was happening. And Evie, taken right in front of him, in a single moment of madness.
A few moments later, Sam heard the unmistakable sounds of Tim’s snores. She felt relieved that he’d managed to lose himself in what would hopefully be the kind of dreams that helped heal the pain, if only just a little at a time. Not long after, she too slipped into the shadows, welcoming sleep with open arms.
Sam was awake before Tim the next morning and rather than try and remain quiet whilst waiting for him to wake, decided to go for a morning run instead. The sun was streaming around the edges of the curtain above her bed and from the feel of the heat, knew that there was a beautiful morning awaiting her.
She quickly dressed and slipped into her sneakers, before quietly making her way to the door. Just before she left, Sam saw the earpieces on the table and grabbed one, just in case he woke before she returned. The new models were virtually invisible to anyone else, sitting snug inside the ear with little evidence they even existed.
Once outside, Sam turned towards the main road, turned left and let the course of her journey be decided by fate. Running with randomness was her favorite kind of exercise, the day pulling her along to wherever it chose.
By the time Sam returned, Tim was already in the shower. She’d stopped by a bakery on her travels and picked up a couple of croissants for their breakfast, combining them with the breakfast tray waiting by their door. She sat and waited for Tim to finish before serving them.
Despite smiling warmly at her as he came out from the bathroom, Sam could see the pain he was trying to mask, doing his best to keep the emotional strain under control. In spite of wanting to thank him for sharing the story with her, Sam figured it best to leave it be. If Tim chose to follow the story up personally, then she’d recognize his immense courage, but until that happened, she would remain quiet.