by Jerry Bruce
Just then the doorbell rang. Seeing Christine through the peephole, Ralph opened the door and let her in with a somber look on his face and a quiet “Glad you’re here”.
Christine ran to Richard, sat next to him and wrapped her arms around him. She didn’t say a word. She just held him as he wept, her own tears running down her cheeks.
After a few minutes Richard gained a semblance of composure and started talking to Christine about anything and everything, as if in search of a topic that wouldn’t remind him of Veronica and the children.
Ralph had put together some finger foods on a tray and placed them on the coffee table in front of Richard with a stern order to eat something. He no sooner set down the tray than the doorbell rang announcing Adam’s arrival.
Ralph answered the door without a word, just a nod to Adam and a pat on the back as he walked in. Adam took off his coat, draping it over one of the barstools. Without a word he approached Richard, now standing to greet his friend, and gave him a hug as he simply said, “I’m so sorry”.
Richard was much more composed now and took a step back from Adam.
“You know who is responsible for this, don’t you? We all know.”
“Are you sure you want to talk about this now, Richard?” Christine was holding Richard’s hands in hers as she stood in front of him.
“Yes. We have to talk about it.”
“Richard, I don’t think any of us doubt for one second that the Controller is behind this. He’s trying to draw you out. He’s hoping you will lose your poise and do something foolish so he can find you. We can’t lose sight of that.” Adam started to pace as he usually did when confronted with a problem.
“Adam’s right. As hard as it may be, you have to stay focused Richard.”
“It’s easy for you and Adam to remain calm; it wasn’t your family that was murdered.”
“You’re right Richard, it wasn’t.” Adam was apologetic in his tone. “But we loved them nevertheless.”
“I’m sorry Adam; I didn’t mean it that way.”
“We know what you meant, Richard.” Christine spoke while she placed her hands on his shoulders and forced him to sit back down on the sofa.
“I can’t help but think about the pain my parents and Veronica’s parents must be suffering. They have been led to believe that I’ve been assassinated, and now this is dropped on them. I need to contact them … talk to them … try to help them.”
“That’s impossible and you know it. You would only be placing them in danger as well. We already discussed this before your disappearance.” Richard knew that Christine was right and he was being foolish.
“So, what are we going to do now? How are we going to make him pay for what he has done to my family?”
“I don’t think that now is the proper time to talk about revenge.” Ralph was over at the bar making everyone a drink. It dawned on him how removed he was from the others, not just in the immediate proximity, but in every aspect. They were all family and he was an outsider. Nothing would ever change that. But, it could be a good thing if it allowed him to remain impartial.
“I want to talk about it. I want to use my rage while it can be an asset. Maybe that’s where we have been dropping the ball. Maybe we need to put some emotion into our hunt for this maniac. Maybe that is the missing ingredient.” Richard’s attitude caught everyone by surprise. Never before had they heard him so emotionally charged when discussing the Controller.
“If we knew more of the details, we might be able to find something that could lead us to him.” Ralph wasn’t sure if anyone really wanted to get into this discussion but thought he would express his opinion anyway.
“You’re right, Ralph. The police know more than they are telling. We need to find out what that is.” Richard was definitely more focused; thinking about returning to the hunt brought him a new direction, away from his anguish.
“You don’t want to know the details, Richard.” Adam gulped down his drink and went over to the bar to make another.
Richard shot up from the couch and turned toward Adam. “You know something, don’t you Adam? What are you holding back?” Richard’s voice had a demanding tone, almost a “tell me or else” inflection.
“If I tell you that there’s nothing to be gained from knowing the details, would you let it drop? Would you trust me when I say that it would not help find the Controller?” Adam was pleading for the right answer.
“Adam, you know I would, and have, trusted you with my life. But I cannot let you keep anything from me. Not where my family is concerned. If you know something, I want to hear it.”
“Even if it will accomplish nothing, only add to your pain?”
“Yes.”
“Please, Richard, don’t make me say it.” Adam was obviously distraught.
“Adam, compared to what the rest of the world has already suffered and what it will probably suffer in the future, do you really think my pain is of any significance?”
“You’re my friend, and your pain is my pain.”
“Tell me, Adam.”
“Against my better judgment, I’ll tell you. But first, I think all of us are going to need a stiff drink. Ralph, please do the honors.”
* * *
He sat alone in the darkness, the only light being the faint glow of the monitors at the other end of the room. He sipped ten-year-old Bordeaux from the Waterford crystal glass he held by cradling the bowl between his four fingers. Lost in thought, he wondered how it had all come down to this. Why had Richard forced him to take such drastic measures? Why didn’t Richard answer the cell phone just once? All this could have been avoided if only he would have answered the call.
True, Richard would have been exchanging his own life for those of his wife and children, but somehow he knew that Richard was the kind of man to make such a great sacrifice without a minute of contemplation.
In some ways he felt sorry for Richard, but not sorry enough to give up his search. He had decided that Richard must perish and nothing was going to prevent him from making that happen. “I never fail … never.”
* * *
Before telling what he knew, Adam made Blocker swear that none of what was said would ever be revealed. Everything was off the record.
“I put pressure on CIA Director Thornton to get involved in the investigation. He didn’t need much prodding. On grounds of national security, he forced the police to release copies of their reports, the autopsy results and the CSI findings. Basically, what it boils down to is that there were absolutely no clues which could lead to the arrest of any of the assassins.”
“You said ‘assassins’, you mean that there was more than one?” Christine beat Richard to the question.
“Yes. Each killing was done at approximately the same time as the others. Because of the distance between the crime scenes, it would have been impossible for one or even two killers to commit all three murders. The conclusion is that three assassins, probably acting without knowledge of each other, carried out the crimes. Then there is the fact that each victim was killed with a different weapon … well, I don’t want to get into that.”
“Go on, what else do you have?”
“Please, Richard.”
“No. I want to know everything Adam.”
“You’ll regret making me tell you this.”
“Then that will be something I’ll just have to live with.”
“Very well. Randall was murdered by a gunshot to the side of the head. He was sitting in a chair, reading and listening to music and never knew what happened. He couldn’t have suffered, Richard, it was over in an instant. The killer, according to the crime scene investigators, used a high powered pistol so as to leave a particularly messy scene.” Adam paused to see how Richard reacted to the description. He was surprised that Richard showed no emotion whatsoever. Adam figured that the shocking details hadn’t been fully absorbed.
“Jennifer was apparently taking a bubble bath when her assailant caught her by surpr
ise. Apparently she was killed by a martial arts expert, as her head was abruptly twisted breaking her neck, killing her instantly. Richard, Randall and Jennifer didn’t suffer. They never knew they were in danger.”
“So? Am I supposed to be grateful for that? What about Veronica?”
“Unfortunately, she wasn’t so lucky. It appears as though she saw her killer. According to what could be pieced together, she was getting ready to retire for the evening and walked into her closet where the killer was waiting. According to the reports, she must have seen her killer an instant before as it appears that she turned to confront him and was then killed. They reasoned that out based upon a defensive wound on her right hand, as if she was trying to block the attacker.”
“How was she killed?”
Reluctantly Adam responded to the question. “Her throat was cut and she bled to death.”
“I sense there is something else you’re not telling me?”
“There was a message left at all three crime scenes.”
“Messages? What did they say?”
“All three were the same. The killers carved the letter ‘C’ in the foreheads of Randall, Jennifer and Veronica.”
With that, Richard lost his composure and was fighting back the tears. “It wasn’t enough that he viciously killed them, he had to degrade them as well?”
“I’m sorry I told you these things.”
There was a long silence, no one wanted to say anything lest it further upset Richard. Finally after several minutes Richard spoke up.
“I forced you to tell me the details, Adam, and in spite of what you may think, I’m grateful to you for finding out all the specifics and telling me. Without knowing all this I might have been stupid enough to take it as a warning and back off. But instead, I feel as though I am more empowered than I have been in a great while.”
“Are you saying that you aren’t going to rethink this fruitless manhunt?” This was the first time Christine, or anyone else, showed any sign of defeat.
“That’s precisely what I’m saying. He did this to get me to blow my cool and come out of hiding. And I don’t intend to disappoint him.”
“What! Are you crazy? You would be playing right into his hands.” Ralph had been quiet the whole time Adam was relating the details, but found it impossible to restrain himself further.
“That’s exactly what I want him to believe. But, in reality, I will be the one setting the trap.”
“Trap? What are you talking about?” Adam was beside himself. He was certain that his news must have so upset Richard that he had gone into some kind of detached state of mind.
“We’ve been approaching this all wrong. Instead of hunting him down we should have been pulling him out into the open. Now we can do just that.”
“Exactly how do you expect to do that?” Ralph was intrigued with the idea.
“By making myself a target.”
“What are you talking about?” Christine didn’t like what she was hearing.
“I’m going to let the Controller know where I am from time to time. When one of his assassins shows up to get me, we are going to nab the assassin. We are going to do that as long as it takes for the Controller to slip up and give us a clue that leads us to him.”
“What makes you think he will keep coming after you?”
“Ralph, you may not be aware of this, but everyone else is; the Controller is proudest of one thing—he never fails to achieve what he starts out to do. But so far he has failed in his attempts to dispose of me. I’m still a thorn in his side. And I intend to remain such for as long as it takes to destroy him. He can sense that. He’s a predator and he can smell his prey. He feels that he has severely wounded me and now he must move in for the kill. He has to finish me off before I can turn back on him. Well, I’ve got news for him—I have no intention of remaining his prey. I am going to reverse our roles and become the hunter.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
After talking to his friends for over an hour, Richard was able to overcome his grief and focus his mind on the controller, so focused in fact that he had almost instantly decided to implement a plan which he had been mulling over for weeks, a plan certain to incite the Controller’s rage and force his hand. As he started to relate his ideas to his fellow conspirators, he couldn’t help but smile at the simplicity of the plan.
“Ralph, you came up with a good idea about using the media to help us and that is exactly what we are going to do. I intend to give you an exclusive, prime time, live, on-air interview. In this interview I will not only be revealing that I am alive and well, but I will reveal all the history I was involved in as it relates to the Controller. If that doesn’t draw him out, nothing will.”
“I think what you’re suggesting bears some merit, but you realize that you are placing yourself in the open with a big target on your back, don’t you?” Adam didn’t like the idea of putting Richard in such a position.
“I know what I’m doing. I’ve been working out the details for a long time. The hardest part of this whole ordeal is going to be telling the public that has so strongly supported me over the years that I let them down. I just hope that they believe me.”
Not surprisingly, Ralph had mixed emotions, liking the idea on one hand, as it would force the Controller’s hand, but hating it since it meant putting his friend in jeopardy. He had been promised an earth-shattering story for a long time and now he had it—but would it be worth the price if something went wrong. “How soon were you thinking about doing this?”
“As soon as possible. Do you think you’ll meet any resistance from your superiors?”
“Are you kidding? When I tell my boss that Richard Sinclair is alive and wants air time to explain everything, he will ask me how high to jump. The only delay will be us coming up with a format for how we want to do the interview. The network will want some time to promote it, a day or two probably. Were you thinking about revealing that you’re alive and then a day or two later doing an interview? You know, to break the news a step at a time.”
“I hadn’t thought about that. I suppose that if you are going to try to promote the interview, that the news I’m alive should be revealed first.”
“Tell you what, I’ll discuss it with my boss to see if he has any other ideas and what he would prefer to see us do.”
“Okay. You go to your boss first thing tomorrow and tell him, but please make sure this is kept as quiet as possible. We can’t risk the Controller finding out anything until we are prepared. Then, and only then, he can start his promotion. I don’t care how he does it as long as we get as much exposure as possible. While he is doing that, you and I will sit down, right here, and come up with a format. I think it should lead off with me making a statement. After that we could do an interview type format with you asking questions. We have to be careful what questions you ask, though. What do you think?”
“I like the whole concept, except for the obvious downside. This is going to be some exciting week! You realize of course that I’m going to be up all night coming up with questions?”
“I’m counting on that, Ralph. We need to be careful what we reveal. For example, I don’t mind telling the world that there are many heads of state that are cooperating with the Controller, but I don’t want to name names; that would put them in jeopardy not only from the Controller but from their own citizens.”
“I agree.” Adam joined in. “By bringing all this out into the open, we might actually motivate them to reverse their positions and join us. I’m sure they will quickly realize that they are in a very precarious position. No matter whether they choose to piss off the Controller or their countrymen, they are caught between a rock and a hard place. Political survival is the least of their problems.”
“What can Adam and I do to help out?” Christine felt like she was being excluded. She wanted to tell Richard that she didn’t consider this plan an option, but it appeared that he had made up his mind and she knew it was pointless to argue with Rich
ard once he made up his mind.
“I don’t want either of you in the limelight on this. If the Controller knew you two were involved, he would rightfully think that you know where I am hiding out and target you both. He may already be exploring that possibility. We need the focus to be on me and Ralph. What I do want you guys to do is find me another safe house. I won’t be able to stay here, it will be too obvious. In fact I don’t want Ralph staying here either. I think we need to make it look like he still lives here, but I think it best if Ralph also has a safe place to hide.”
“I’m assuming that you want me to arrange the security procedures.”
“Yes, Adam I do. I think you should start with Thornton. I think he, more than anyone else, will see how important it is to keep me alive as bait for catching the Controller. We should also insist that Ralph has security people assigned to him as well.”
“I’ll get on it first thing tomorrow.”
“Then we are all in agreement?” Richard looked at each person for a second to see if he could read anything into their facial expressions. He read enthusiasm from Ralph and concern from Adam, but Christine was another matter. Her face revealed pure anguish even though she made her best attempt to feign a smile.
Even though she didn’t submit an objection, Richard felt she needed some reassurance.
“You know, Christine, I’m always going to be a target. There is nothing I can do to change that except for putting the Controller out of business. I’m getting tired of being in limbo, not being able to show my face in public. What have I accomplished by staying in hiding? Nothing except keeping myself healthy and getting my family killed. This has to end—one way or the other.”
* * *
“Alive!”
“That’s right. The kidnapping and assassination were merely a ruse.”
“But why would he do that? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“I can’t tell you everything that I know. If I do, all bets are off and Sinclair takes his business elsewhere. In fact, you can’t tell anyone else about this.”