Never Reply All

by Dan Friedman

  “You got me. Now let him go.”

  Today was all about quoting clichés from movies.

  In the movies, the man usually asked the bad guys to let his woman go.

  Chauvinistic pigs.

  “Sure. After we get what we came for.”

  “What did you come for?”

  Jessica laughed.

  “First thing’s first. Does your boyfriend know you wanted to go with him to the conference in Vegas, just so you could dump him later?”

  Jessica’s laugh turned wild.

  “What?” Mike asked.

  “You’re lying. She’s lying, Mike. She set it up. I never asked her to do it. And I never had plans to dump—”

  “Yeah, right,” Jessica said. “I needed you two to get together, so I could keep an eye on both of you. I knew I should have never had such a good CFO. You do nothing but count my money all day and cry when there’s a nickel missing.”

  “What?”

  “To be honest? I never needed a CFO. Who needs a CFO in a start-up? It never occurred to you as odd?”

  “What?”

  “Never mind,” Jessica said. “I need you to give me the files you stole and I’ll be out of here. You won’t have a job, but you’ll get to keep your life, and his.”

  Emily had wanted to get to the truth and knew it could cost her her job.

  But now her job seemed less important.

  “What files?” Emily asked.

  “You think I’m that stupid, huh?” Jessica said. “I know you took the Excel files home with you. You uploaded them to Dropbox and then deleted them. I knew you wouldn’t be fooled easily so I had to keep track of you. But you weren’t smart enough to do it without leaving a trace.”

  Emily stared at her. “The guy you let in to spy on my computer?”

  “Nah. He only deleted the stupid email you got.” Jessica rubbed her hands. “I sent him there knowing you’d see him. I thought you’d figure you were in danger and stop snooping around, but you didn’t. You know I can access your work computer legally. That’s how I know you deleted the files. But I also know you have the Excel files on your laptop.”

  “My personal laptop? How the hell do you know what I have on there?”

  Jessica smirked. “I’ll tell you the truth. I had some nice spyware planted on your laptop without you knowing.”

  “You what?” Emily yelled. “You were never anywhere near my laptop.”

  “You remember the charging cable you borrowed from me? The one I told you you could keep?” She didn’t wait for a reply. “It had a chip on it, and it let me hack your laptop.” She laughed. “You can’t trust anyone with anything these days.”

  Emily wanted to punch her.

  “Especially not your CEO,” Jessica said.

  “I should have known.”

  “You should have.”

  “If you had access to my laptop, why didn’t you delete the file?”

  “I did. But that’s how I know you were lying,” Jessica said. “And now I need the files and anything electronic you may have, including passwords and everything.”

  Why is she giving me so much information? Is she planning to kill us after we give her everything?

  Where the hell is the FBI?

  “I don’t have them. I deleted them right after you said I had it wrong.”

  Jessica shook her head, then gestured to one of the men.

  The man grabbed Mike and pushed his head toward Emily’s table forcefully.

  Emily screamed and ran toward him.

  But the other man, who seemed prepared, extended his leg and Emily fell. When she got up, the man punched her back to the ground.

  Mike screamed.

  Bob called his wife, but she didn’t pick up.

  If bullets started flying, they could penetrate their apartment.

  They could hit Madison.

  Oh, my God!

  On the fourth try, Lisa answered.

  “Lisa! Why didn’t you pick up? I need you to take Madison and leave the apartment right now.”

  “Bob? What are you talking about?”

  “Lisa, please don’t argue, just do it. There’s a...situation next door. A dangerous one. Take Madison and leave now!”

  He realized it was the first time he’d spoken to her since he heard about Craig. Should he say something?

  It didn’t matter now.

  He felt Craig’s eyes on him.

  “Lisa?” Bob said.

  “Okay. Okay. We’re leaving.”

  “If you deleted the files from my laptop, you know they’re gone,” Emily said.

  “You think I’m stupid, huh?” Jessica said. “I know you kept a copy on a flash drive.”

  Emily’s face turned white. “How do you know that?”

  “The spyware, remember?”

  It was worth a shot.

  “We also know you tried to call the FBI on your way here,” Jessica said.

  “No, I didn’t. You told me not to.”

  “We have your phone tapped. Stop lying!” Jessica yelled.

  “Now give me your phone, your laptop, and any other electronic device you have.”

  Emily shook her head.

  “No problem.” Jessica gestured to the man holding Mike.

  He took out a wire cutter from his pocket and forced Mike’s finger into it as Emily screamed.

  “Leave the phone on,” Bob said.

  He heard Lisa talk to Madison, explaining they had to go. When he heard the door open, he asked her if she could see anything suspicious.

  When she said no, he remembered the last time he’d seen their apartment door. On video.

  He heard her close the door.

  “I hear a woman screaming!” she told Bob.

  “Shit!” Bob yelled. “Run as fast as you can. We’ll be there in a few minutes. The police are there already. Leave now!”

  Then he heard a woman’s voice next to his wife. They exchanged a few words Bob couldn’t understand.

  The line went dead.

  Thirteen

  Emily heard noises from next door.

  Maybe the agent came home?

  Should I yell?

  Jessica heard the noises as well. She shushed Mike and gestured for the man closest to the door to check it out.

  He peered through the peephole, then looked back.

  “Woman with a child,” he whispered.

  “No agent?” Jessica asked.

  How did they know about the agent?

  The man shook his head.

  “Maybe we should use them to get to the agent, in case he decides to show up?” Jessica said, almost to herself, and walked to the door.

  “Wait!” Emily said as Jessica touched the door handle. “Think about it. You won’t be able to get away with it. They’ll hunt you down. It’s not a couple of start-up employees, it’s an agent’s wife and daughter. You can’t kill them too.”

  “Something’s wrong!” Bob yelled. “I can’t get her back. Step on it!”

  He should have told them to wait and hide in the apartment. He hated himself for that mistake.

  He called the agent watching the surveillance camera outside his apartment. “What do you see?”

  “A woman stepped out of the apartment and is talking to your wife.”

  “Is my daughter there?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Bob swallowed.

  “Is she doing anything to them?”

  “No. They’re talking.”

  “Oh God. Send me her picture and keep me posted.” After a few seconds of silence, he asked, “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing so far, sir. Still talking.”

  He knew Lisa. She wouldn’t go down without a fight. She’d give her life to protect their daughter.

  He couldn’t bear the thought of living without them.

  Even after what she did to him.

  “Miss, I need you to go back to your apartment please,” Emily heard Jessica say. “There’s a poli
ce matter here.”

  “Police? My husband is with the FBI. I heard screams. What’s going on?”

  “Miss, we’re interrogating a suspect. Please go back or I’ll have to arrest you.”

  Emily tried to peer outside but couldn’t see them.

  When the other man with the gun started walking toward the door, Emily yelled, “Lisa run! They have guns! Run and get Bob!”

  The man turned to Emily and hit her on the head.

  Jessica looked back, only for a second, then stepped out. She grabbed Madison and pulled her into the apartment, causing Lisa to go in with her. Jessica did something outside and came back in.

  “What the hell’s going on?” Lisa yelled.

  “Don’t worry, they’ll come to get us soon,” Emily said.

  “It’ll be too late,” Jessica said and pulled a gun.

  “The woman is pulling your daughter into the apartment!” the agent yelled to Bob over the phone. “Lisa followed after her.”

  Bob’s mouth dried up and he clenched his seat.

  “What now?” Bob yelled.

  “She came out. She’s...she did something to the camera! I have no visual!”

  “Tell the SWAT team to move in,” Bob screamed. “Now!”

  Emily grabbed an ashtray she’d never used from her coffee table and threw it at Jessica. She missed, but it made Jessica look back.

  Lisa kicked Jessica in the groin, grabbed Madison, and sprang outside of the apartment.

  Jessica fired at the door.

  Emily and Mike screamed.

  Craig parked the car next to Bob’s apartment building. Police cars surrounded the place. Officers were escorting people out of the building.

  He sprang out but Craig grabbed him.

  “Let SWAT do their work!”

  Bob saw SWAT getting ready nearby.

  He hated when, in the movies, the agent or detective would lead the SWAT team into a high-risk entry. The investigator, usually unprotected so the audience could recognize him, would never go in front of the extremely shielded and trained team.

  It irritated him.

  It was hard to stand there and do nothing, but he knew Craig was right. The SWAT team would do the best work possible.

  Craig was probably worried as well. Maybe as much as he was.

  But then Bob heard a gunshot.

  Fourteen

  With a rush of adrenaline, Emily stormed at the man holding Mike down. She grabbed his hand and pulled the wire cutter out of his grip.

  Jessica, who’d opened the door and started going after Lisa, looked back and decided to return.

  Emily and Mike wrestled with the man, and as he tried to pull the wire cutter away from them, they stuck it into the man’s stomach.

  The man fell into a fetal position, holding his stomach, screaming.

  “Run to my bedroom and lock the door!” she screamed at Mike.

  He stared at her for a second, then grabbed her hand and started running to the bedroom.

  Jessica shot in their direction as Mike was the first to enter the bedroom.

  Bob couldn’t wait for SWAT, so he started running into the open back door of the apartment building, where the last people were being escorted outside by police officers. Craig yelled to him as two uniformed police officers grabbed Bob.

  “I’m FBI! Let me go.”

  They let him go, and he stormed in.

  Craig followed him.

  They ran up the stairs to the fifth floor, pushed the door open, and ran toward the apartment.

  Bob couldn’t see Lisa or his daughter anywhere. When he reached his neighbor’s door, he saw two bullet holes in the door.

  “Lisa!” He screamed and kicked the door in.

  Lisa grabbed Madison, who was crying, and ran back to their apartment. On the pathway to their apartment, she almost slipped, but regained her balance and sprang to their door.

  She closed the door and tried to open Bob’s safe.

  He should have a spare gun there.

  But she didn’t know the code.

  Then she heard gunshots.

  Emily saw Jessica running toward her bedroom as someone kicked down the door. Jessica turned and fired at the man in a suit holding a gun.

  She recognized her neighbor, Agent Bob.

  Emily closed the bedroom door with Mike in it.

  It wasn’t his problem.

  Bob screamed and fell back. Emily grabbed Jessica and struggled with her to the floor.

  Someone she’d never seen before—maybe another agent—stormed in and fired at the man closest to the door.

  The second agent missed, so the man grabbed him and wrestled him to the floor.

  Bob ignored the sharp pain to his left arm. He’d not stormed the place as he should have, but his mind wasn’t working straight. He had to find his wife and daughter, and nothing could stop him.

  He rose to his feet as Craig entered the apartment, shooting someone, but missed. Bob scanned the apartment. Craig wrestled the man while Emily fought her boss, Jessica. A second man lay on the floor in a pool of blood, facing away, holding his belly screaming.

  No one else seemed to be in the apartment.

  He aimed the gun at the man wrestling Craig, then at Jessica.

  “Lisa!” He screamed and started sweeping the apartment.

  “She ran away,” Emily yelled from under Jessica. “With your kid. I think they’re fine.”

  Bob returned, eyes blank. He yelled for them to freeze, but no one did.

  He aimed the gun at the man wrestling Craig. If he shot, he’d risk shooting Craig.

  But Craig wasn’t innocent.

  Craig fucked his wife.

  No one knew Bob knew.

  If he shot Craig by mistake, no one would suspect him.

  Fifteen

  Agent Stuber arrived at the scene as the SWAT team was ready to storm in. He’d gotten an update from an NYPD officer, who told him Bob and Craig stormed alone into the building.

  “As far as we know, we evacuated everyone from the building, except the other agent’s wife, daughter, and their neighbor.”

  Stuber nodded, dressed up in a Kevlar vest and a helmet, and hurried the SWAT team to go in, trailing behind them.

  As they all climbed up the stairs and got ready to storm the apartment, Stuber worried less for Lisa and the child, and more about Bob doing something stupid.

  Bob had Craig and the man he wrestled with in his gunsight when the man got hold of the knife from his pocket and raised it to Craig’s head.

  Bob fired three shots and everything went quiet.

  A few seconds later, the sound of grenades rushed through the air, as all the people who were still alive in the apartment started coughing hard.

  The SWAT team entered the apartment, yelling at everyone to lie down. No one resisted, and after they handcuffed everyone, they continued their sweep and brought Mike out of the bedroom, handcuffed.

  Emily smiled when she saw him walking on his own two feet.

  Stuber entered the apartment after SWAT cleared it as the agent in charge. He recognized Emily and Jessica, both handcuffed on the floor.

  He saw Bob on the floor next to them.

  “Tell them to let me go,” Bob said.

  Stuber nodded but didn’t. Instead, he walked over to another man, lying dead on the floor with bullet holes in his head. Next to him lay Bob’s previous partner, blood on his forehead.

  Stuber leaned next to Craig and touched him.

  “What happened?”

  “He tried to kill me with a knife,” Craig said, “and Bob shot him dead.”

  Stuber nodded, then told SWAT to release the two agents.

  Sixteen

  “You knew Craig was having an affair with my wife?” Bob asked Stuber in his hospital room.

  Stuber nodded.

  “How?”

  “I saw the video.”

  “But I erased it.”

  “I saw it before you did.”

  Bob
nodded slowly. “Did you make a copy?”

  Stuber shook his head.

  “When you entered the apartment with the SWAT team, you thought I’d killed him, didn’t you?”

  Stuber stared at him, then nodded.

  “I thought you knew me better.”

  Stuber shrugged. “Good thing I was wrong.”

  Bob suffered a small injury to his arm and was supposed to get released a few days later. His wife had run back to their apartment, locked the door, and hid in their bedroom with Madison.

  They were safe.

  Emily and Mike were treated for minor injuries and released.

  Jessica and the man who was left alive were locked up, awaiting trial.

  “Is Jessica talking?” Bob asked.

  “Yup.”

  “Do we know who the two men who helped her in the apartment were?” Bob asked.

  “She said they were just hired help. They knew nothing.”

  “Was Mike in on it with her?”

  “She didn’t say.”

  “Did she say who wrote the initial email? The one that got this whole thing started?”

  Stuber nodded. “She said it came from Cash. But she said he only wanted to—what’s that phrase you use?”

  “Defraud investors?”

  “That’s the one,” Stuber said. “But Jessica only wanted to get more cash—cash money—for herself. Seems like the company wasn’t doing as well as we thought.”

  “All of this craziness for money?” Bob exhaled.

  “People do crazy things for money.”

  Bob nodded.

  “I still don't know what defraud investors means.”

  Bob smiled. “I thought she wanted to overstate the company’s revenues so that investors would invest in the company at a higher value. I guess that’s what Cash wanted, but I’m not sure we can prove it.”

  “At least Jessica will go to jail for a long time.”