Edge of Grey

by Phelps, J. C.

I took another break and went to the window. I didn’t open the blinds but peered around the edge of them instead. This apartment gave me a great view of White and Associates’ office building and the main office was at my eye level. There was something going on over there. All of the men were in the main office having a meeting. I ached to know what they were doing in the office after midnight but reminded myself I was no longer wanted. Anger seethed just under my skin, but it was mixed with regret and sorrow.

  I was struck with the memory of my first visit to that office. How Alexis Stanton, former data processor in her business suit and a determined look on her face sat in an ugly, uncomfortable chair, being interrogated by White. I could actually picture it as if it were happening right now. My thoughts back then were about the cut of White’s jeans and the hope for something to liven up my life. If I had known back then what would come from that job interview, I might not have taken the job.

  That’s not true, I told myself. I wouldn’t change a thing other than being more careful in Lima. If Green hadn’t seen me take out that guy and then having it being attributed to Penumbra, I might still be over there instead of here. Then I might have been there for White and been able to watch his back. I hoped he would have told me what was going on if only I’d been around.

  My mind wandered again to my different training sessions with the men. All those hours spent in the simulator with Will were the first memories to come back. I missed him, too. Then I thought about my time at the cabin with Black and a tear escaped down my cheek. I scrubbed it off and forced myself to change the direction my thoughts were going.

  I thought of Colin. We’d not spoken as friends for a long time. I knew, if I called him just to catch up, he’d ask me what I’d been up to. If I had to describe what I’d been doing lately in polite company, I’d have to say things had been eventful when I knew it was more like I’d been starring in my own epic and tragic poem. Things were going great, I was moving forward and growing. Then everything was ripped away and here I sat. All alone and cast out.

  What did I do to deserve this? I did what everyone asked of me, even if I did it begrudgingly. I followed the rules and did things the right way. Where did that get me? Right here. Alone in an apartment with no one to call for anything. Missing the man I loved, missing my old life.

  Maybe White would have come with me if I had asked, but I didn’t. I’d hoped he would fix the problem with Red. He didn’t. I should have stepped up back then, taken charge of my own life. Instead, I held out for a life that was gone forever. If only I had realized my inaction would lead to the end of everything I hoped to redeem. Instead, I waited for someone else to fix the problem. I waited when I should have fought. I should have fought for Grey, Penumbra, and White.

  I’d lost everything and now it was time to rebuild. No more laying low and hiding behind the rules. I had nothing left to fight for, except my job. Now it was all about rebuilding what I could. I was doing what was good for me from now on. Damn the rules. It was too late to fight for the past, but I could fight for my future.

  The thought of taking on a civilian hit made me a little uneasy but my days of following the rules, just because they were there, were over. I still knew the difference between right and wrong, guilty and innocent. But, it seemed as if no one was truly innocent. This job I got from Posner was a great example of that. Clint Mayhaffy certainly was not innocent. I was resolved to do the job.

  I walked away from the blinds and my view. I couldn’t see well enough into the office to see what anyone was saying. I’d pick up some listening equipment tomorrow so I could get caught up on what was going on over there.

  Spying on my former partners was the only way I’d figure out what they knew about White’s death and the only way I was going to get a solid lead to follow. I climbed into my newly made bed with thoughts of White and the rest of my former partners threatening to keep me up all night.

  I WOKE BEFORE THE SUN, tempted to make a trip to Helix’s gym for a good workout. Instead, I went out to the lobby area to test out the coffee machine.

  There were no slots for me to put in my money so I just pushed the button for a black coffee. A paper cup fell into place and started to fill with a dark liquid that smelled a lot like coffee. It made me smile. When it finished, I picked the cup off the tray and put it to my face to breathe in the scent. The paper cup was almost too hot to handle so I hurried back to my apartment.

  Back in my apartment I took a cautious sip of my coffee. I didn’t want to burn my mouth. I grimaced and ran to the sink to spit it out. I wasn’t above drinking stale coffee, but this was beyond stale. It tasted moldy. I didn’t think coffee could mold.

  “Great,” I said as I took a paper towel and wiped off my tongue. It didn’t help so I spent three minutes in the bathroom brushing my teeth and tongue.

  I went back to my laptop on the table and began my search for Mayhaffy. I’d been going about this from the wrong side. I’d been looking for Mayhaffy as if he would have a criminal record. As far as I could tell the massive insurance payout hadn’t even flagged him for a local inquiry. Obviously, there was nothing out there directly connecting him to any wrongdoing. I should have been following the money. If I found his money, I’d probably find him.

  Within an hour, I was inside his former bank’s computer records and flipping through Mayhaffy’s information. The money had initially been deposited into this account only a few days ago. Posner hadn’t exaggerated when he said it was a sizable policy. Mayhaffy collected five million for his wife’s death.

  The transfer was made to a bank in Billings, Montana under his name, Clint Mayhaffy. Really? He went into hiding and didn’t even change his name? His phone number and address was right here on the account. Of course, it could be a dummy address, but it was a start. All of this information just laying around for someone to dig up and Posner couldn’t find him? I wondered what I was getting into. The transfer had only just occurred, so why did Posner automatically assume he wasn’t going to pay?

  I dialed Jake. I still planned on taking out the man who promised to pay a hired gun to make him rich, but if there was something else behind it, I should know.

  “Alex!” he answered.

  “Hey, Jake.”

  “Don’t hey me. I’ve been trying to get in touch with you and you haven’t been answering your phone.” He was actually yelling at me. “You will never do this again, is that understood?”

  “What?”

  The force in Jake’s voice shocked me.

  “First of all, stop yelling,” I said. “Secondly, I don’t belong to you or anyone else and I owe you no explanations. But, since we are working together and I want some questions answered, I’ll give you an explanation. I shut my phone off so I could get some work done. I can’t be talking on the phone all night long if I’m going to get this job done for Posner. If you have a problem with the fact that I take my job seriously, that’s just too bad.”

  “Why the hell would you go to Chicago?”

  His tone had quieted a bit, but the anger was still there.

  I smiled an unhappy smile. They’d taken the bait.

  “I thought I made it clear I didn’t want anyone following me,” I said.

  “When you wouldn’t answer your phone Posner ordered me to find you. Make sure you hadn’t run off with his money.”

  “Are you kidding me? That amount of money is not worth running for. It’s already gone and I’m going to have to reach into my own pocket to cover the rest of my expenses. It better not be considered payment in full.”

  He started to speak as I took a moment to shake my head in disgust so I stopped him with a curt sound.

  “I need some distance between me and everything else so I can concentrate and make sure nothing leads back to Mesa, or me. If you and Posner can’t accept my methods, then I have no trouble making a clean break right now.”

  “No. We don’t want that.”

  His volume was significantly lower and the indign
ation was gone from his voice.

  “When are you coming back?”

  “After I complete the job,” I said. “Now. Can I ask some questions?”

  “Fine.”

  “You need to be up-front with me,” I said.

  “Of course.”

  “Has Posner even given Mayhaffy a chance to pay his bill? I know the payment has only recently gone through.”

  “Posner checked in with Mayhaffy yesterday. Mayhaffy said he’d never pay Posner a cent and hung up on him. He’s not answering his phone and he’s not in the city anymore. Posner suspects he’s hiding until he gets the money and then will completely disappear. That’s where you come in. Get him before he and the money are gone for good,” Jake said.

  “That would have been good information to have to begin with,” I said. “Does anyone have a lead on where he went when he left town?”

  I couldn’t believe they couldn’t find him since he was using his own name and didn’t go to any efforts to hide.

  “No. You are the first one on this. I could get someone else to help you on this end.”

  Jake’s bad attitude was almost gone.

  “No. I’m confident I’ll find him. I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t any more information out there that could make this move a little faster and save my personal bank account from Posner’s stinginess. I don’t like spending my own money to complete a job.”

  “I can ask Posner if he can wire you some more money for expenses,” he said.

  “No. I’ll do this one his way, but there will be some adjustments to the next job.”

  “Do this one right and you might have some wiggle room, but screw it up and Posner’ll probably not offer any more. Asking for help with research will not count against you. So, don’t hesitate to ask if you need help,” he said. “But, I know Posner gave this one to you because it should be fairly simple if you move fast and use the hacking skills you seem so proud of.”

  “So, how much money am I supposed to get for Posner?”

  “When you default on a payment, you owe whatever Posner wants and he wants the full contents of Mayhaffy’s figurative wallet.”

  “Makes sense. But I’m asking how much the hit went for so I can try to recoup at least that amount for Posner if I have trouble finding the bulk of the money. Less my out of pocket expenses, of course,” I explained. “His local account has been closed and I’ve not been able to link him to another account yet,” I lied.

  “It would have been ten percent of the settlement. If you can get that much, I’m guessing you can get the full amount. He shouldn’t have that much money laying around his hole in the ground.”

  “Well, I guess Posner gets what I can manage. Let’s hope it’s the full amount,” I said. “I only hope Posner expects to pay me more than what he’s already put on the line. I might even be willing to do this job at cost if I knew he has no plans of screwing me over.”

  “At cost? Okay, Alex. There’s no need to do that. I just know he’s not going to give you what he wanted from Mayhaffy, but he will pay you.”

  “I guess I can wait to decide what I think this is worth by the time I find Mayhaffy and complete the job,” I conceded.

  My questions had been answered, but I spent another two minutes on the phone with Jake reassuring him I’d come back to town after I finished the job. I even told him a long story about my flight to Chicago and how hard it was to find a suitable hotel to stay at because of the convention in town.

  I suspected even Jake didn’t fully trust me. Now I knew. It was helpful to know they were still tracking me after I told them not to. I’d have to keep that in mind whenever I did anything from here on out.

  I immediately went to my list of aliases and started consolidating. I went through all the names and culled every one except the ones I’d created myself and I was sure no one else knew about. It was time to go completely off the grid. I needed to have all my bases covered if I planned to take this seriously.

  It didn’t take long for me to combine the individual bank accounts into a single account and move that money around a few more times while hiding the moves as best I could. Thankfully I’d learned a few things about hiding money transfers from being Penumbra.

  As soon as I finished cleaning up my own mess I cleaned out Mayhaffy’s account. The money was already scheduled to be transferred to an offshore account so all I had to do was change the account number. I followed the same procedures I used when hiding my money because this would become my money if Posner tried to screw me out of a fair payment. Then I looked for a name of someone who lived in Billings. From my research, I knew she’d pass a background check and was an upstanding citizen. I used her information to set up a limited online account and bought myself a plane ticket to Billings. The address Mayhaffy had given was in the hills north of Billings, but it was the closest airport so I added a car rental to my purchase.

  After my travel plans were set, I cleaned myself up and made a trek to the local home security store. I purchased some recording equipment, a couple cameras, and a bug sweeper. Then I stopped by an office store and bought what I’d need to create new IDs and brought it all back to my apartment.

  It took me less than an hour to get everything set up to keep an eye on White and Associates while I was gone. I hooked it all up to an external hard drive with the ability to record and store two full weeks worth of surveillance.

  I tested it and could hear Green talking on the phone. His current conversation wasn’t worth recording, but at least I knew I’d hear everything that went on in that office. Then I took a couple minutes to go over my apartment with the bug sweeper. I didn’t expect to find anything and I didn’t. The only reason I bought it was because I planned on staying in this apartment for a while and it was a risk being so close to White and Associates. I knew they weren’t above installing bugs or hidden cameras and I wanted a heads up if they found out where I was staying and decided to resort to past tactics.

  When I was satisfied with my sweep, I spent a good amount of time doctoring a Montana ID card I already had with the information I’d found earlier. My picture was already on the card. Basically, I was stealing someone’s identity. Except I didn’t plan on running up any bills and sticking the real person with my debt. This ID would be used for this job only and then it would go away. By the time I finished I knew I’d have to hurry to make it through security in time to catch my flight. I hurried down to the street and hailed a cab that took me to the airport.

  Chapter Seven

  FLYING COMMERCIAL SUCKED. NOT ONLY did I have to arrive early to check my nonexistent baggage and go through security, I had to endure catching two connecting flights and some guy trying to make conversation during the flight.

  I was off the plane as soon as possible when it taxied up to the airport in Billings. The car I rented online had already been sent out with someone else so I had to take what they had available. The customer service rep handed me the keys and told me it was the blue Trailblazer in the lot.

  I hadn’t driven much lately and when I did I’d been driving sedan types of cars. It was different to step up into a vehicle rather than to sit down onto the seat. I could see more of what was around me. It was like riding with Black in his big SUV.

  Before I left the lot, I used my iPad to search out the nearest hunting store. It took me less than twenty minutes to get there. Montana had no waiting period to purchase rifles and why I hadn’t called Helix to set me up with a weapon. It was cheaper to buy new than to buy untraceable from Helix. I’d call him when the job was over and ask him if he wanted a used rifle.

  I had to fill out paperwork and wait for the background check to come through all while chatting nicely with the man about guns. Actually, I didn’t do much chatting, just a lot of listening and nodding.

  The man tried to talk me into a small .22 and I refused. It took me a good fifteen minutes of listening to why he thought I couldn’t handle the kick of the bigger caliber weapons before I
finally told him I’d actually shot a rifle before.

  “Oh. Why didn’t you say so?” he said and started pointing out the rifles I was considering. Still, he was adamant I should get a compact model.

  “This is ideal for small-framed shooters,” he said as he handed me a Remington 783, complete with scope.

  I held the weapon to my shoulder and looked through the scope. It would fire a .308 round so it would work for my prey. It felt comfortable in my hands and wasn’t very expensive.

  “You’re a natural,” he said, eyeballing my stance.

  “Oh,” I said. “I don’t know about that, but I think you’ve helped me make a good choice.”

  The man went back to his computer and punched a couple keys. He informed me all looked good with the background check and rang up the rifle. I dropped a box of ammo on the counter and asked him to include them in on the total.

  Within half an hour, I walked out of the store with all the tools I’d need to complete my job.

  I searched for driving directions from the hunting store to Mayhaffy’s address that was listed on the bank account. I’d considered giving him a call before making the drive, but I didn’t want my number showing up on his phone records. I’d find out soon enough if he was at that address. If not, I’d have more searching in front of me.

  The next hour was spent trying to enjoy the scenery. At least the guy lived in the mountains. At some point in the drive, I had to pull off the paved road and navigate a dusty gravel track that didn’t seem to get a lot of attention. The drive, after turning onto the gravel, was slow going because of the ruts. I wasn’t convinced this wasn’t a logging road and kept my eyes open for big trucks hauling logs. I didn’t need them barreling down on me as the road became more narrow. Thank goodness this vehicle had four-wheel drive. It certainly was better suited to this road than the sedan I’d asked for at the rental service. I only hoped this road led somewhere other than just to Mayhaffy’s address or I could lose my element of surprise if I came around a corner and found myself in his driveway.