Daze of Reality

by Molly Barrett

  “Alex, hey are you okay? They’re not harassing you or anything are they? Pushing you too much?” John asked, worried that the police or feds might be pushing her too hard to answer too many questions in her highly emotional state.

  “Asking a lot, but I’ll be okay I suppose, John.”

  “Look, I know that you were probably just hammered with all kind of questions, but I need to ask you about something.”

  “Well, okay; I guess.”

  “When you were talking to me earlier you said that there were two men sitting together, dark haired, older guys. But when I spoke to Dave he said that there was only one person that matched that description there, the DOA that had dark hair and eyes, and he also said that the man was middle aged. Dave specifically said that the man was sitting alone. I even asked if there was anyone sitting with the dead guy, and Dave said no. He asked why I was asking, and I told him that I was just wondering. I wanted to hear from you first why you hadn’t said anything about it.”

  “Did I say two people?”

  “Alex come on. How were there two guys there and not one of the witnesses mentioned him?”

  “Because he sat in the very back, next to the darkened hallway. There is a large partition that sections that area apart from others. It used to be a reading nook area. There are a couple of tables there now.”

  “Oh, but that’s not where the dead guy ended up I suppose?”

  “It is.”

  “What? Really, so I’m guessing that the DOA guy probably wasn’t the target if you couldn’t even see him there, unless the guy who disappeared left for that reason, to tell someone where to aim. Still, that doesn’t address why you didn’t mention this second man?”

  “Alright, I, the second man was never there John because he’s already dead.”

  “What, what the hell are you implying? Is he in the witness protection program or something, and you can’t reveal that under someone’s orders; how do you know about him?”

  “He’s not in the program, John. He’s an important informant that I came into contact with at some point in my past work. He was later made to disappear, yet he still works in the shadows I had been told.”

  “And why were you there meeting with him?”

  “I had gotten word that he wanted to see me and James, that he had some important information we needed to urgently receive.”

  “What kind of information would that be? Why would this guy risk coming out in the open like that; it must have been for something nice and juicy or he was asked/forced to get you in the right place at the wrong time maybe.”

  “He said that he had information about something that might be a danger to you, John.”

  “Shit, why would you have not told me? Why did you go without me?! Alex dammit, that was very reckless of you; you shouldn’t be risking yourselves like that for me especially with someone so shady and shit.”

  “He said not to tell you, that if you showed up it could be a great risk for the both of you. He said that he couldn’t risk anyone seeing the two of you together, and I knew, James and I knew that if we told you that you would insist on coming with us, John.”

  “Who was it that helped this man go underground in the first place, and how well did you know this informant, Alex?”

  “I had worked with him a couple of times before. That was before he went underground though, before he disappeared. My partner was the main one to contact him; he worked with him a lot more than I did.”

  “So your former partner knows more about him than you do; maybe he could tell us more about him.”

  “No, he passed away, John. He was killed in the line of duty as they say.”

  “Damn, I’m sorry. Were you there with him?”

  “No, it was after I had transferred here; I really don’t want to talk about that right now, please.”

  “Yeah, sure okay. But you still haven’t told me, who helped the “dead man” disappear?”

  “John, please I can’t, I’m afraid.”

  “Can’t or won’t? You know it seems that the dead man exited the café at just the right moment in order to stay alive. Maybe he was just inviting you to death’s door, and his “friend/bodyguard” was simply expendable as was anyone else who happened to be in the way. Answer me this Alex,” John then added. “Did the people that made the dead man a ghost happen to be feds?”

  “Maybe,” She then answered back while leaning into him.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  “That’s what Cam told me, John, that he had found out that they were feds. They had just taken him one night. That wasn’t long before I had left. But then he must have gone rouge at some point, and Cam found out something about it, I don’t know what or who else knows. I got a phone call from a friend of mine; they said that he’d been killed in a shootout. They had been ambushed on a call of suspicious activity at a warehouse on the outskirts of the city. I kept telling myself it had to be a coincidence; I wanted it to be. But, hell my partner Cam was digging around where he shouldn’t have been, trying to find out why his best informant no longer existed. When I got the call to meet with the informant, I wanted to go not just for you but for Cam too. I don’t know, I guess I just thought that I didn’t want him to die in vain. I had the chance to make his death mean something finally, make it a sacrifice that made a difference by helping you. I walked to the back of the café, and saw the informant. I handed him the cash that he had requested, and then he said for James and I to come back and sit with him in five minutes time. It had been two when the guns started going off. My guess is he was already gone. He wasn’t there during or after the shooting, or he would have been killed or shot up at least like the man who came in with him. The café does not go back too deep, it is more of a rectangle, and the armor piercing rounds had no problem tearing through the partition.”

  “Dammit, I feel responsible for this. You guys were trying to protect me, and you basically got ambushed. Look, I think that the guy fucked you over, Alex. He’s working for the bad guys now, whether it’s due to blackmail or of his own accord I don’t know.”

  “It’s not your fault, John. Don’t do that to yourself, please. We’re all adults here and cops as well; we make our own decisions, our own calls. We have to live with the consequences of our actions, good or bad; you of all people should know that. You’ve been a cop longer than we have. I think you’re right about what is maybe going on with the guy though. I’m afraid to talk about him being there. I’m afraid that I would be punished somehow for revealing that. I told Cam not to get involved before he even discovered that it was the feds that took him. I knew that whomever it was that took the guy, they didn’t want anyone finding out that he was alive or where he was. His name had already appeared in the obituaries at that point. The way things are in our country today crossing the feds would be dangerous enough, but the guy has obviously escaped their grasp and is doing dirty work for someone else now.”

  “Yeah,” John agreed, though technically knowing that these ‘other people’ had infiltrated the feds. There was no reason to share that with Alex. He was realizing now how far these people were spread out; Alex had transferred in from District 2. He would have to get Derek’s assistance on looking into that area. “I understand now you not wanting to mention the guy when you were answering all of those damn questions. Tell me did Cam ever mention the names of the feds that were involved in the initial disappearing act?”

  “He might have known that, John, but if he did he never shared it with me,” she whispered, ocean blue eyes filled with tears.

  “Okay, I’ll stay here with you a while.”

  “What about Caroline?”

  “I don’t know, it’s almost like she’s not there anymore, not herself anyway.”

  “I’ve noticed it too. She’s had to deal with a lot though lately, we all have,” Alex held onto John as he walked them back through the hallways and into the waiting room once more. He then got her a blanket and pillow, laid her dow
n on the long set of chairs and sat down beside her as she drifted off to dream of a better tomorrow.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  “So Ryst told you to fuck off huh”? Derek questioned upon John’s entrance into Derek’s conference room.

  “Yeah, pretty much. It doesn’t matter; not much does matter to me anymore. I’m not stopping till these fuckers are dead, or I am one of the two.”

  “I’ll try to do my best to help you with that,” Derek responded eyeing John’s strange demeanor.

  “The only reason I’m here is to get information. I’ve had enough of you and your bullshit society.”

  “Look John, I’m trying to be cooperative here, but you’re making that awfully damn hard; and I must add that you’re really starting to piss me off.”

  “I’m just returning the favor,” John shrewdly came back. After being bitched at and threatened at work to stay away from anything pertaining to his brother’s case or face severe consequences, John was not in the mood for any more bullshit and had very little patience if any.

  “Dammit John, look, I requested assistance for your brother and Alex. It wasn’t until after the shooting that I was so graciously made aware that no one gave a fuck about my request. You know I feel like I owe you for saving my ass, but my low level of patience is growing ever thin.”

  John took a step toward Derek, anger fueling his movement. “And why should I continue to believe anything your sorry ass has to say? Give me one reason.”

  “You want to fight me now, John?”

  “I could kick your ass before you knew what hit you, Derek. Why is it that you move so damn slow sometimes anyway and drink so damn much? Why don’t we discuss your shitty beginnings and sorted past for a change.”

  Derek grinned slightly and stepped away from John. John’s eyes following Derek closely moved away from him just in time to miss Derek’s swinging elbow strike. Countering with a high kick of his own, John only managed to scrape the edge of Derek’s face. The two men stared each other down.

  “You caused this, all of these problems; you made them happen, Derek.”

  “Don’t put all this shit on me now. All of this was in motion; your pathetic little ass was in motion before I arrived on the scene, John. You were already a target being monitored,” Derek yelled out as he successfully met John’s face with a powerful uppercut. John winced as he felt the force of the blow. He hadn’t remembered Derek having this much power in him before.

  “Lucky punch,” John called out now wiping his bloody mouth. A sudden roundhouse kick then brought Derek down to his knees as the crack against his skull echoed around him. Finding himself momentarily disoriented, Derek then had no defense against John’s elbow strike, which took him down the rest of the way.

  Just as John began to go in for some payback ground N pound however, he found himself suddenly staring upwards, his head crashing to the ground. Derek had performed one of his signature moves, sweeping John’s legs out from under him while Derek himself lie on the ground. Mr. Barnes then returned punishment times three in elbow strikes upon John before John was able to escape Derek’s trap.

  The two soon stood once more and continued to swap punches until finally John rammed Derek into the wall. The protruding boards jutting out pushed deeply into Derek’s back, and John could instantly see the high level of pain upon Derek’s face. His foe was obviously in an excruciatingly painful position, and once again, John could sense Derek’s Achilles heel, his back. He shoved the man into the wall a bit watching the pain on his face grow before his anger finally began to dissipate, and he then backed away releasing Derek, who eyed him angrily before actually grinning a bit.

  “And we were having such a good day, my fucking back and I,” Derek then laughed.

  “Yeah, I noticed.”

  “Just shut the hell up. Look John, I can help you if you let me. Like I said, I owe you for helping me out. That’s the only reason that I’m putting up with your shit, your little tantrum let us say. Otherwise, I’d have you back in your concrete accommodations, give my guards free reign on kicking your ass every few hours for a week or so. Now pay attention, you son of a bitch. I can help you take down Stroud; you just have to fucking listen to me.”

  “Alright fine, I’m listening,” John coldly answered back.

  “There’s no way to bring him down with Grayson; Grayson is just too strong right now, and it’s too big, John. There is another way though. The person who was spying on you, who knew so much about even the inside of your home, it wasn’t one of your detectives. We have Stroud on tape now talking with this person. The guy even asks Stroud if he wants him to off you, and Stroud replies ‘I’ll let you know if it comes to that.” The guy bugged your house, listened in personally on conversations, and even had video installed that he was turning over to Stroud up until we were able to clean out your house and debug it.”

  “Who the fuck was that?”

  “Alright you ready for this?” Derek smirked.

  “Just answer the damn question.”

  “It was one of Chris’ ‘friends.’ A kid named Shaun Thompson. I believe that he was a couple of years older than Chris, so like sixteen I suppose. He had only moved to this area about two years ago.”

  “Damn, so you think that he was forced into it, threatened somehow? Was anyone else in his family in on it as well?”

  “No one else seemed to be a part of it. Our guess is that he was recruited from his gang due to his potential and his… ease of disposability.”

  “Shit, I remember Chris saying something about him being out for several days now. I didn’t think anything of it. Hell, how did we not know that he was in a damn gang? I know that they have some secretive members. He was spending a lot of time with Chris, that’s some scary shit. With that tape that my ‘informant’ brings me, I can at least have Stroud brought in for threats against me. Then attempt to tie the disappearance of Shaun Thompson to him as well… that is if he doesn’t somehow weasel his way out on bail through criminal contacts and disappear. That’s a real possibility, might be a big problem.”

  “Don’t worry about that part, John. If he’s brought in, he won’t be getting out,” John looked at Derek’s eyes, as he seemed to be issuing a promise of sorts. It was one of the few times now that those eyes seemed a bit calmer.

  “I see. Question for you, if nobody showed up at the border except the gunmen, they were obviously trying to draw out whoever was receiving intel on them like we talked about before. Did you find out if they knew that it was you guys or not?” John questioned.

  “No, I don’t think so. We collected our dead and left no witnesses like I said. I have heard nothing else that has me worried that they would know.”

  “I know that there has to be more to this, that there is shit you’re leaving out. You say that the big picture is too big to chase down. You’re meaning from my law enforcement angle I suppose.”

  “That would be correct.”

  “Maybe for now.”

  “Delusions of grandeur, John delusions of grandeur.”

  “Yeah, we’ll see.” Was all John answered before receiving the precious cargo, and heading off to see the Judge he trusted most.

  On his way across town, his phone lit up and he apprehensively answered the call.

  “Hey, Baby.”

  “Are you on your way home now? You said that you would be home on time for dinner.”

  “I’m sorry, Baby. Some things have come up. I’m not going to make it home as early as I thought.”

  “Please tell me this doesn’t have anything to do with James,” Caroline said coarsely into the phone.

  “No Caroline; it doesn’t. And I wish you would quit being so damned paranoid that everything I’m doing is part of some devious vigilante plan. I do have a job you know.”

  “I just know you John, and I need you. I want you to… I just wish that you would get away from all of this. I want you to be in a safe place for me.”

  “Baby, you’ve
always supported me, and the career I chose. Why are you doubting me now? Why are you trying to pull me away from it?”

  “I don’t doubt you John, but look at how everything has collapsed around us. I just want to live a normal life. I want my children to have a normal life. With your father taken care of as we discussed, that’s all we have to do. All we have to do is get away from this life you have us in.”

  “Life that I have us in? What the hell is that? You’re saying our life is shitty because of me? I guess you want to blame my father’s actions on me too now, huh?”

  “Dammit, John.”

  “No, I don’t have to take this shit from you right now. You know you, you’ve always been the person that I could count on to support me, and now you’re blaming me for everything that’s gone wrong,” John’s mind began to shut down as the anxiety overwhelmed him. He felt like he was starting to lose it. “I have to go; I just can’t do this right now,” he finally said numbly as he reluctantly hung up the phone.

  Upon entering the courthouse, John was determined to get payback and soon felt a rush of adrenaline rising through him. When the Judge issued the go ahead however, more people were forced to get involved, some of them not wanting him involved apparently. John however did not wait around on people to show up, have meetings, and make plans while someone in the shadows made a single phone call to Stroud allowing him to slip away into the shadows himself. Derek’s people were tracking Stroud for him, and John had not gone far before he was on the move.

  Stroud was leaving the police offices heading somewhere, and John was following. John knew that Derek’s people couldn’t simply kill off Stroud for the same reason he could not. John was too close to Stroud, and Grayson would be sure to make an attempt to make John look like the guilty party or at least enslave him into the world of blackmail. Derek’s organization couldn’t afford to lose John and his position in the game they were playing. They needed John to trap Stroud for them. Stroud was in reality very high up on the chain, and his loss would be a definite blow to Grayson’s well-oiled machine.