This was where the rovers had gotten in to the building.
This was where someone had let the rovers in to the building.
Someone had moved the cabinet out of the way, opened the window and rolled out the red carpet for them to come in here and take over the building. How many people had died because of a fucking window? She dropped Corrine's hand and turned to look at her, seeing the same conclusion in her eyes as well.
Was it possible that the rovers had found the window on their own? Yes. But she could tell that there was an overgrown row of hedges just outside the window that probably ran the entire length of the wall. And the window was small, barely large enough for a grown adult to crawl through. So unless someone had crawled around behind the bushes, they likely never would have found it, not to mention the fact that the window would have almost certainly been locked.
Someone had let them in here.
Someone had betrayed them.
Was the person still in here? Were they sitting up in their suite, hoping that no one would figure out what had happened? Up until now, she had been willing to write all of this off as being overly confident in their sense of safety and security. Now it looked like something else.
Sophie felt her hands curling up into fists and the tears started flowing again, hot tears of rage this time. She thought about Jerry, lifeless on the ground and how, in that moment, she thought things were finally done, finally settled so she could move on with her life in relative peace.
But someone had turned on them, committed the worst kind of betrayal and now Rowen and so many others were dead.
Somebody was going to pay.
-53-
"That can't be possible," Meredith shook her head at Sophie's suggestion. "Who would even do anything like that? I mean, I know that Fiona has had her issues but I can't believe she'd take things this far."
"If she felt cornered and trapped, she might," Lot said.
Sophie put her hands up as she saw them winding up for a fight. "I'm not saying it was Fiona. We don't know who did it. You're right, Meredith. We don't even know for sure that we were betrayed. But I'm telling you what I saw. Someone moved that cabinet. It's possible that this was just someone being careless but I seriously doubt it, considering what was going on at the time. And the window wasn't broken so I don't see how it could have been opened from the outside."
"Sophie—"
"No, don't interrupt me. Somebody in here opened that window, climbed out and told those assholes how to get in here. How many people died because they were able to sneak in and surprise us like that?"
"Is anyone missing?" Meredith asked.
"Everyone's accounted for," Lot said.
"I just can't believe that someone would do something like that and then be stupid enough to stay," Meredith said. "They'd be long gone by now. And if someone helped them get in here, don't you think that Jerry guy would have told us? Especially if he thought it might save his ass?"
"Who knows what someone like that is thinking at any given time," Sophie said. "Are you saying we should just give up? Not even try because it might be too hard?"
"I'm not saying that. I'm just pointing out that this isn't going to be a cake walk. And not for nothing, but people are still pretty raw around here. If we start asking around, we run the risk of people going off, half-cocked on someone just because they don't like them."
Sophie slammed her hand down on the table. "This doesn't make any sense, don't you think that—"
"Sophie, you need to take a breath," Lot said. "Look, I agree that this is all suspicious, okay? I agree that we owe it to everyone to find out what happened. I'm just saying we need to be careful. Go ahead and ask around, but only tell people that you're trying to figure out what happened. Don't let on that we think there might be a traitor."
Sophie nodded, not entirely disagreeing but still riding the wave of anger that had crested during the conversation. She hated what she saw as an unwillingness to commit to a conclusion that to her seemed plain as day.
"Look at it this way," Lot said. "Let's say someone did turn on us and let the rovers in here, but are now miles away. Our head count could be wrong, it isn't impossible. What happens to us if we start spreading around rumors, looking for a villain that we'll never be able to find? We fought hard for this place, do you really want people turning on each other? We'd fester from the inside out."
"What if we do find someone?" Meredith asked, turning to direct the question at Sophie. "What are you going to do? I saw you execute Jerry so I know you're capable."
"You've killed people too," Sophie said, weakly.
Meredith shook her head and pointed a finger at her. "I killed people who were trying to kill me. And I'm not trying to judge you for that, I haven't been in that position. All I'm saying is that if someone here did betray us and word gets out, people might start looking to you for a repeat performance. So have you thought about what you would do?"
"No. I don't know," Sophie said.
"Would we have a trial?" Meredith asked. "Seems like it would go against our core principles to just declare someone guilty. People would definitely have problems with that, regardless of what this person did. So maybe you need to take some time and figure out exactly what it is you want. It's one thing to say we need to find out who's responsible, but make sure you aren't just using this as a way of getting revenge."
"What the hell is wrong with revenge?" Sophie asked, before she could even think about it, hating the sound of the question as she said it.
"You should think about why we built this place and what it is. Ask yourself what makes it so important and special, and how we should be doing things. Then ask yourself what you think about revenge. You definitely got it at Jerry's expense. Do you feel any better about losing Rowen?"
Lot winced and waved his hands around to try and reign things in. "Look, if nothing else, this just tips in favor of handling it delicately. If we can keep word from getting out and find out who might have been responsible, then we'll have more flexibility. We can deal with it before we've got mob justice on our hands."
Sophie nodded her acceptance and returned her gaze to the floor. All she could think about was the faceless person who had come to represent the death and destruction that had descended onto their home.
-54-
Sophie gazed up into the cloudless sky and squinted at the brightness of the mid-day sun. Small pieces of art had been placed around the graves and it was one of the few places ironically, that made her feel good. She closed her eyes and tried to listen to the unspoken message from everyone and thanked them again.
What made it difficult was that it was all so unnecessary. With so many fewer people walking the roads anymore, there should have been plenty of resources for everyone. There wasn't any need for the constant fighting and stealing, needing to have every single physical thing you could get your hands on. There were just some people who needed to dominate, to be engaged in the hunt and that pissed her off more than anything.
She knew how lucky she was, how fortunate that while she had lost her parents and Rowen, she still had Corrine. It was a lot more than most. Maybe Lot was right, and she was wasting her time coming down here so much. Maybe she was just avoiding dealing with her feelings of loss for all the friends who had died here and maybe she needed to let her wounds heal properly.
"How are we doing?" The voice came from behind her and Sophie turned as Clive approached to take a seat, several chairs down from her. She hadn't even heard him coming.
"Fine," she said, lapsing into silence and he sat there, also saying nothing. She could hear birds flocking somewhere nearby and took the tiniest amount of pleasure at the idea that there were at least some things out there in nature going on as if nothing had happened.
"You know, we got off on kind of a rough start, didn't we?" Clive finally asked.
Sophie smiled at the memory of the two of them in the middle of the cereal aisle, ready to take each other's heads off. "Y
eah, you could say that."
The smile stayed on his face but departed from his eyes slightly. "Look, I just want you to know something. I know we haven't always gotten along that great, and I don't always agree with you but I want you to know that I appreciate everything you've done. I appreciate you having my back when I needed it."
"Don't leave yourself out of that picture," she responded.
"Sophie, I—"
"No. Don't play it down with that stupid, aw-shucks thing. You sacrificed for people here and don't think that it wasn't appreciated." She paused, wondering how much the other two would object to her saying this. "Look, you get along with people. You're respected and you work hard. I think you should take Rowen's spot on the committee."
It was clearly not what he had been expecting to hear from her, and he fumbled with his words as he tried to respond.
"Sophie, I don't think I could—"
"It isn't about being anything, or doing one thing or the other. You just have to be yourself. Listen to people, and just keep doing what you've been doing. I think you'd be great and frankly, I'm surprised Lot hasn't asked you yet himself."
He nodded and reached up to pull the ball cap off of his head. "I appreciate it. And I'll do it if the others will have me." He scratched the balding spot on his head before going on. "But there's actually something else I need to talk to you about."
"What?"
"It's about Fiona."
She sat back, now being the one surprised at the change in subject. "What about her?"
Clive turned and looked back over his shoulder, gesturing for someone that Sophie couldn't see.
"Look, don't flip out about this. I should have said something sooner, but I wasn't sure. I know you've been looking into how the rovers got in here?"
"Yeah." Sophie watched as Ricco joined them, nodding at Clive as he did so.
"Well, Ricco here has something that I think you should hear."
Sophie nodded without answering, giving him her attention.
"I saw Fiona on the day the rovers attacked."
"Where?"
"I was walking up the ramp towards the suites when I saw her coming down from the other direction. She acted nervous and had a full backpack with her."
Sophie felt her blood turning to ice.
"I almost said something to her, but she ducked through one of the gates before I could. It happened so fast, I thought I might have imagined it because by the time I got out onto the field, there was no sign of her."
"Where exactly did she come in?"
He pointed across the field. "Over there, by the press box."
Sophie followed where he pointed, and her heart sank. The press box was right next to the tunnel that led down to the storeroom where the rovers had been let in. Fiona easily could have run down there before Ricco caught up with her.
"Come with me," she said as she stood up. "We need to talk to Lot and Meredith about this. Have you said anything to anyone else?"
"No."
"Good. Keep it that way. The last thing we need is a bunch of half-baked rumors getting out. Come on, let's see if we can get ahead of this."
-55-
It had taken about five minutes to convince the rest of the committee and another hour after that to gather as many people as possible in the food court. Clive had been selected for the honor of dragging Fiona down to the little make-shift proceeding. She was now seated at one of the tables, surrounded by people to keep her from bolting.
"You've all heard the facts." Lot spoke to the crowd. "We have no way of knowing for sure if Fiona is responsible. So unless we get a confession, which I would not expect, we likely—"
"She fucking did it!" a voice called out from the crowd. "Of course she did it, she tried to run away like a coward and leave us all in here. When they caught her, she tried to sell us out and save her own ass!"
Sophie stepped in front of Fiona, moving into her line of sight and forcing her to make eye contact with her. "Can you at least tell us something that might exonerate you? Anything that would clear this up?"
"What are you going to do with her?" another voice called out, and was joined by a cacophony of other cries. They all called out different suggestions, and while Sophie couldn't understand all of them, what she could make out sounded unpleasant enough. Fiona's eyes were glossed over, as if she had accepted what was happening and was trying to steel herself against their inevitable decision.
"Do you all really want to be murderers?" Meredith was the one to step forward and try to talk down the crowd. There were some defiant shouts back at her, but the overall volume did drop down quite a bit. "I know what she did was unforgivable. We all lost friends and loved ones because of what she did. What I'm asking is if we kill her, are we really any different than the people we have been running away from? Can we live with ourselves?"
Fiona looked around the crowd, at the faces leering in at her as if to see if there was any hope of anyone changing their mind. There was some hesitation, but mostly the rage was still there, albeit more concealed than before. Sophie wondered why she wasn't even trying to defend herself but it occurred to her that there wasn't really anything she could say that would put her in the right.
"What do you suggest then?" another voice called out. "She just gets away with it? There has to be some kind of punishment."
The cries from the crowd rose up again, echoing off the walls around them. Sophie heard death in those voices as the volume rose to a frantic level. She was surprised that no one in the crowd was frothing at the mouth as they shook their fists in the air, looming in closer over Fiona, who sat there stolidly. Sophie knew she had to put an end to this.
"I'll do it."
She stepped forward, and took Lot's Ruger from him. The air rushed out of the room and she saw people nodding, as if this was what they had been waiting for, the entire time. She certainly saw it in Fiona's eyes as she stood and smirked at Sophie, as if she had seen this coming. Sophie looked into that sarcastic grin and felt the death of every single person who had fallen here.
And Fiona wasn't even trying to change their minds.
Sophie drew back and punched her, just below the eye.
The crowd cheered as Fiona toppled back over the bench. She spit out onto the ground and looked up at Sophie with what she probably thought was defiance.
Sophie reached down and hauled her to her feet. The crowd parted for them and a silence fell on the mob as they passed through. Somehow in the faces there, she saw both fear and admiration at the same time. She made her way towards the stairs, dragging Fiona along as they left the food court, buffeted on the wind of the crowd's encouragement.
-56-
Sophie dragged Fiona down the stairs and clicked on her flashlight. As the door closed behind them, all they could hear was the sound of each other's breathing, Fiona sounding more ragged and labored as she staggered along.
Fiona had yet to say a single word to her. Sophie couldn't understand why she wasn't even trying to talk her out of what she must see coming. Maybe this was her attempt to garner sympathy, put up a front that she accepted her punishment. Or maybe she just didn't want to give Sophie any more reason to go through with it.
They turned to walk into the garage. Sophie pressed the barrel of the gun into Fiona's neck and shoved her forward.
"Get on your knees," she said. Fiona stood there, stubbornly at first until she cracked her across the shoulder with the gun. She let out a grunt of pain before dropping to the floor.
"You know you have this coming. You betrayed all of us. How many people are dead because of what you did? You might as well have pulled the trigger yourself."
"You are such an idiotic bitch," Fiona finally said. "This was all your fault. You brought it on yourselves because you always had to have more."
"What are you talking about?"
"Do you think she wanted to die? Do you think she deserved what happened? Just so that your fucking lives could be a little bit more comfortable
?"
"Fiona, I don't understand what you're—"
"NAIRI DIED BECAUSE OF YOU!"
Sophie actually took a step back from the venom and spite in her voice. "Fiona—"
"No! She got herself killed which only happened because she left to run one of your idiotic errands. We were perfectly fine in here. Her blood is on you, Sophie."
"So you thought that made it okay to bring men in here with guns?"
"I was just trying to buy my way out of here. They caught me and I tried to get them to go easy on everyone, it isn't my fault that he lied to me."
"Not your fault? What were you expecting? Really, tell me what you thought was going to happen. Did you really think they were the kind of people you could trust to keep their word?"
Fiona didn't answer, not that Sophie particularly cared what she would have had to say anyway. "I tried so hard to defend you. You have no idea how often people came to me, bitching about something you did and I always stuck up for you. This is how you thank me? You try to get everyone killed?"
"I told you. I wasn't trying to—"
"I don't give a damn what you were trying to do. There is no way you actually thought you were doing any of this for us. You were looking out for yourself. All this time you've been here, you've only ever thought about yourself."
Again, cold silence.
"Fiona, what do you expect me to do right now? What do you think I can do? What do you think the people up there are expecting? Tell me what you want me to do. Give me something other than this zombie act!"
Still no answer. Fiona's eyes looked like the life was already draining out of them. She looked like someone who had made peace with what was about to happen. It just seemed too easy.
"Fiona, please say something. I understand why you're angry, but you can't have wanted this. Give me something." She was shocked that she was the one pleading with Fiona, instead of the other way around. But Fiona just dropped her gaze even more, either unwilling to answer, or simply not having one that would make sense.
Behind Our Walls Page 17