by David McLeod
The screws and panel came off easily, and Scott laid them silently on to the car’s roof. He tapped twice on the windscreen and Vince slid over to the passenger side, got out of the car, and like a chauffeur, opened Joshua’s door. As Joshua got out of the car, Vince grabbed his shoulder.
‘You know what’s gonna happen to your mother if you don’t do this right, don’t you kid?’ he said menacingly.
Not responding, Joshua pulled away from his grasp and hopped onto the hood of the Subaru.
He climbed to the roof of the car and joined Scott who then checked him over to make sure there was no loose clothing or anything to catch or restrict his movements.
Satisfied that everything was fine, Scott clipped a fanny pack onto Joshua and tied one end of a rope to his waist. ‘Everything will be fine; just do as we practiced, Scott said, and then lifted him up to the mouth of the vent.
It was a tight fit. Joshua slid head first into the stainless duct and inched his way along. It was pitch black, but it didn’t matter, he didn’t need to see where he was going, after all there was only one way to go. Using outstretched arms to feel his way and pull himself forward, it only took a few minutes to get to his destination — the metal lattice grill that pointed directly toward the floor of the office’s kitchen. Joshua slipped his fingers inside the holes, and the grill popped out. Unable to keep hold of it, the grill fell downwards; crashing heavily onto the table below. Joshua immediately shrank back into the AC duct and tried to reverse his way along the narrow stainless steel corridor.
‘Don’t panic — it’s all okay,’ Scott whispered. ‘Carry on, no one heard you, just don’t do that again.’ His voice had a sprinkle of humour in it; there was only one grill.
Joshua wormed his way forward and stuck his head down through the hole where the grill had been. Slowly, he let his eyes run around the room in search of any sign of life; only the tiny red and green lights from various electrical devices broke the darkness. Once he was satisfied there was no impending danger, as he’d been instructed, he pulled twice on the rope to signal he was going in.
With the rope taut, Joshua wriggled his shoulders through the hole and gravity did the rest; the rope around his waist controlled his descent towards the table top the grill had crashed onto. He landed softly and gave another couple of tugs on the rope to signal his arrival; immediately the rope went loose.
Joshua let his legs dangle from the table as he unzipped his fanny pack and rooted around for a flashlight. As he removed it from the pouch, he flicked it on and started to run the beam around the room to get his bearings. He had landed facing the main office area with his back to the emergency exit and the wall of paper that was soon to be ignited. The room was a jumbled mess of desks and cabinets. The desks faced the main entrance as if eagerly awaiting any form of visitor, and almost all the filing cabinet drawers were open. Joshua lowered the beam of light downwards as it made its journey towards the side wall and on to its intended use to illuminate his way to the pile of paper at the rear exit.
At first his brain didn’t compute what the light had flashed over as it cut through the darkness. It was only after he turned to face the kitchen area that the tiny bits of information grouped together in his brain to form an image of what was hidden under one of the desks — the form of a man.
Fully expecting the man to burst from under the desk and grab him, Joshua literally threw himself off the table and cowered behind it, snapping off the light as he went. For what seemed like an age, he stayed there unmoving and holding his breath; nobody came. Surely it was a ruse; the man was obviously waiting for Joshua to show himself again; he was bound to be closer, poised, and ready. Joshua’s heart pounded loudly in his ears, but he still held his breath and didn’t dare move. Finally, with his lungs fit to burst, he exhaled and dove prostrate to the ground, scooping in another lung full of air as he went. Still no one grabbed him.
Maybe he was mistaken; it must have been a trick of the light, or even his mind making an idiot out of him. If there was someone there, he would have been caught by now — wouldn’t he? Curiosity overtook his fear, and with his pulse almost back to normal, Joshua slowly got up, flicked the flashlight back on and tentatively shone it back towards the underside of the desk.
The curled up body of a frail, bald man was floodlit by the beam, and again fear dropped its enveloping cape over Joshua. Even though his legs went weak, this time he didn’t run and hide; he let the image of the man sink in; he wanted him to make the first move so he could zag to the man’s zig. But the man remained still; his unblinking eyes just stared back along the beam of light.
Carefully Joshua edged his way towards the man; although unsure whether it was a trap, he kept the light shining directly on the man’s face just in case. Suddenly, the man’s mouth dropped open and Joshua almost pissed his pants with fright.
‘Water,’ the man said, his voice faint and raspy.
In spite of his racing pulse, Joshua kept saying I’m okay, I’m okay in his head as he looked over at the broken man whose frailty began to bolster his confidence.
With his fear almost gone, Joshua obediently made his way to the kitchen. Using the flashlight, he found the faucet and a cup, which he half-filled with water and rushed back to the man, held the vessel up to his mouth, and helped him to take a drink.
‘What’s going on down there?’ Came a labored whisper from the AC duct above. Joshua ignored the question and chose instead to concentrate on helping the man under the desk. The man took a few gulps of water and began to cough and wheeze. Joshua patted him on the back until the coughing fit subsided — mimicking something his mother would have done if he been doing the coughing.
Joshua replaced the cup in his hand with the flashlight and began to examine the man in front of him. The first thing he noticed was that the man had no hair at all on his face or head. Nothing, no beard or moustache, and strangely, no eyebrows — he looked like a bright white bowling ball. The other thing Joshua noted was how skinny the man was, almost as though someone had just stretched some plastic food wrap over his skull and sprayed it white. Images of malnourished Africans or AIDs victims filled his head and he shrank back a little.
‘Wait — don’t go,’ the man forced out.
‘I wasn’t — I …’ Joshua couldn’t come up with a suitable explanation for his retreat, so left his sentence hanging.
‘I need to tell you something. Come closer.’ The man struggled to speak.
Joshua took a breath and reluctantly leaned forward.
‘It’s all true,’ he whispered, ‘Rife, Coley, and many more. It’s all true,’ he wheezed.
Joshua had no idea what the man was talking about.
‘I have the proof too — in my pocket.’ The man tried to lift his hands to his breast pocket, but he was too weak. Joshua reached over and undid the button, fumbled inside, and came out with a tiny flash drive.
‘It’s all on there — you have to tell people. You, you need to let everyone know.’ The man’s words were getting slower and weaker. ‘Promise me!’ The man stared at Joshua.
‘I promise,’ Joshua replied as the man’s breathing wheezed one last time, and then ceased as he slumped down dead.
Joshua panicked; he had no idea what to do. On one hand, a stranger had died right in front of him making him promise to tell the world about who knows what — but on the other hand, his mother’s life depended on him carrying out the task the two guys on the other end of the rope wanted him to do. Fear and confusion paralyzed the young boy.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ came the voice from the duct above.
Startled, Joshua tugged twice on the rope and was immediately dragged back towards the table. As the rope lifted him off the ground back towards the AC duct, Joshua shone the flashlight one last time on the dead bald man.
‘All done?’ Scott asked as he greeted him at the end of the duct.
‘No, I couldn’t. There was a man...’
‘What do you mean y
ou haven’t done it? Fuck!’ Scott was holding back his anger. ‘Get down there to the car, quickly — and don’t speak till I tell you to.’
Joshua jumped back down from the car’s roof and slipped into the back seat while Scott put the outside grill back in place.
‘All good?’ Vince asked.
Joshua just looked to the floor.
‘I asked you a question,’ Vince said menacingly.
Joshua remained silent
‘Listen to me, you little shit; when I ask you a question, I...’
Scott jumped into the car and yelled, ‘Drive!’
They drove silently for several blocks. Vince still had no idea what was going on, and Scott was trying to let his anger dissipate before questioning Joshua — and before the inevitable eruption from Vince when he found out that the job hadn’t been done.
Scott turned to look at Joshua in the back seat. ‘Can you please tell me what went on in there?’ Scott’s voice was calm.
‘I couldn’t do it; there was a man there.’
‘You what!’ Vince yelled and screeched the car to a halt.
‘Vince, let me handle this. You just keep driving.’
‘Told you he would fuck it up; and I told him what would happen if he didn’t do it,’ Vince spat angrily, and then set his own course towards Joshua’s house, driving faster than before.
‘Joshua, look at me. What do you mean there was a man there?’
‘That’s what I said. There was a bald man there hiding under the desk. I spoke to him and he died.’
‘What a load of bullshit,’ Vince fumed.
‘I told you I’d handle this, Vince,’ Scott said tersely.
‘Yeah, well the kid’s making a fool out of you.’
Scott let the comment go and went back to Joshua.
‘A bald man you say, and he died right in front of you?’
‘It’s true, I swear. He said something about Rife and Coley, and that I had to promise to tell people about...’
The look of fear in Joshua’s eyes had actually convinced Scott that he was telling the truth.
‘You don’t really believe him, do you? Don’t you get it? The kid’s lying – he just bottled it,’ Vince butted in, angrily stepping on the gas.
‘Where are you heading?’ Scott asked.
‘Boy’s gotta learn that when you say you’re gonna do something, you do it. And I told him what I was gonna do if he didn’t do this job for us.’
‘No!’ Joshua cried from the back seat. He’d just realized where they were heading. ‘I was going to do it. There was the man there...’
‘Yeah, yeah. Dead guy stopped you from doing it. Couldn’t you have come up with a better story?’ Vince said sarcastically.
‘It’s true, he gave me this flash drive to prove it,’ Joshua protested.
‘Shut up — both of you! And Vince, you slow down and pull in over there a minute. We’re not going to do anything to Joshua’s mother right now. Certainly not until we find out exactly what happened,’ Scott snarled.
Vince reluctantly slowed down and pulled into the curb.
Scott turned to Joshua and held out his hand. ‘Show me this flash drive.’
Joshua quickly handed the device over. Scott held it up in the light and showed it to Vince.
‘What does that prove?’ Vince argued, taking the stick from Scott and looking it over.
‘All I’m saying is…’
‘I get what you’re saying, but I still think the kid’s lying,’ Vince shouted.
‘So, what do you want to do about it then? Lying or not, we have an unfinished job back there. Now, we can call it off tonight and hope we can have another go at it tomorrow — plus maybe have a pissed off contact — or we can calmly work out how we can finish the job tonight — your call.’
‘What about the dead man?’ Joshua asked.
‘Sit down and shut up, kid. Oh, and you can stick this and your story where the sun don’t shine,’ Vince barked, throwing the memory device at him. He went quiet for a moment before announcing, ‘I’m hungry, let’s grab a burger, and then go finish the job.’
They ate their food in the parking lot of the In and Out burger restaurant, and then made their way back to the office. Vince drove slowly down one of the streets next to the office and parked.
‘So, how do you want to do this?’ Vince asked.
‘Same burn, but go in through the front. We know the alarm is off, and even with all the commotion from earlier, the security company haven’t been alerted, so a straight “in and out” like the burger we’ve just had! One small addition though, I’m taking Joshua in with me. He’s gonna point out the dead guy that scared him, and start the fire by himself with me watching — then we’ll all be happy.’
With not much to carry, Scott and Joshua moved stealthily down the street towards the office.
‘One thing,’ Scott said before they rounded the corner to the street the office was in, ‘You put a foot out of line this time, and I won’t be able to stop Vince from doing what he wants to your mother. Do you understand?’
Joshua nodded.
They slipped along the shadows until they got to the office door; Scott pulled a crowbar from under his coat and slipped it into the doorframe by the lock. With one quick tug, the frame splintered and the door cracked open. Scott ushered the boy inside and quickly followed him, closing the door behind them
Scott clicked on his flashlight and swung the beam around the room.
‘Show me the body,’ he said sharply.
Joshua took a second to get his bearings, then pointed to the desk at the back left of the room. ‘Under there.’
Scott moved swiftly over to the desk and directed the torch light underneath — all it lit up was an empty space.
‘Come here and look,’ he barked at the boy.
When he saw the vacant space, Joshua’s mouth dropped open; he was about to speak, but Scott cut him short. ‘Now I don’t know what you were trying to do, but believe me, Vince is not the type of guy to fuck with — nor am I, for that matter.’
He flicked the beam around the other desks for good measure in case the body had miraculously got up and moved, but each space proved to be free of dead bodies.
‘Now, get over there and set the paper alight — and be quick about it.’
Scott pointed the flashlight over towards the back exit and Joshua followed the light. He pulled a Zippo and a crushed cigarette box from his fanny pack and snapped open the lid of the lighter; as he flicked the flint, the flame burst into life. He crouched down and set light to the cigarette box; it immediately took hold. He dropped the flaming box into the rubbish bin alongside the wall of paper and the fire immediately began to spread. He rejoined Scott and both of them returned to the street to creep back through the shadows to Vince waiting in the car.
During the drive home, the tension between Vince and Joshua built to an almost explosive level. Joshua continued to protest that there really had been a dead guy in the office, despite the fact that he had somehow got up and left. Vince was spouting words like reputation and professionalism at them, and indulging in his anger at having to go back to do the same job twice.
‘Get him out of my sight,’ Vince said irately to Scott when they stepped into the house.
Scott marched a tearful Joshua to his room and sat him down on the bed.
‘He’ll lighten up; but for the moment, it’s best that we keep you two apart. It’s okay to be scared, but it’s not okay to make up stories. You did the right thing in the end though, and don’t worry, your mother is safe for now.’
‘I did speak to a man there, and he did give me this. Why won’t you believe me?’ Joshua had pulled the USB flash drive from his pocket. ‘He told me to show everyone what is on this.’
Scott turned the shiny device over in his hand again. Deciding that the only way to put this matter to rest was to take a look at what was on the drive, he said, ‘Alright, let’s see what you’ve got then, shall we.’
Vince had already gone to his own room, evidently still angry, so Scott took Joshua to the computer and switched it on. The machine took a short while to spring into life, omitting its usual whistles and tunes as it configured itself. Once all the icons had come to rest on the screen, the computer waited for its user to give it its first command. Scott rooted around the back until he found the USB port, inserted the flash drive, and the screen popped up with a new device found message. He clicked on it and opened the file.
They both looked at the screen, and Scott shook his head as a series of thumbnails appeared, pictures of what could best be described as vacation snapshots. ‘I know you were scared, but lying to us is not going to get you back to your mother. Now, I don’t want to hear any more stories about dead guys, you hear me!’
Joshua was going to argue, but Scott withdrew the memory device and handed it back to Joshua saying, ‘you really put your mother at risk tonight,’ as he silently marched him back to his room.
Already half-way across to the other side of town — and with Anthony Cain’s dead body in the trunk of the car — Elwood smiled at his good fortune.
Before going to visit the home of Cain’s LA contact, Elwood had decided to check on his contractor’s work at the office he’d wanted torched. Finding the work hadn’t been done, Elwood was pissed. He was about to call the contractor when he spotted movement inside the office. He was surprised to see what appeared to be a dwarf being pulled towards the ceiling by a rope, and then disappearing into the ventilation duct. It was quite an odd and amusing sight, and it brought a smile to his face. Scanning the room through the window to see if the dwarf had started a fire, Elwood’s eyes had hit on a leg protruding from under a desk. He waited a few moments to see if the dwarf returned, or if the leg moved; but neither transpired, so he entered the office and retrieved the corpse of Anthony Cain.
Elwood took out his phone and called his boss.
‘Yeah, it’s me... I’ve got him in the car with me now... Yeah, he’s dead; and no, he doesn’t seem to have it on him. I had a quick check around the office while I was there, but couldn’t find it, so I’m thinking any number of things could’ve happened. He could’ve met with his contact here and passed it on, hidden it properly in the office, dumped it, swallowed it, or possibly one of my contractors doing the torching picked it up. One thing that points to him having met with his contact here earlier is there was no sign of forced entry; so either someone let him in, or Cain knows how to pick locks. How do you want me to proceed?’