by Matt Lincoln
Megan set a cup of coffee down on the table in front of him. He inhaled the warm steam coming off of the coffee appreciatively before taking a sip. The smooth, hot liquid had just reached the back of his throat when Daniel felt an intense pain explode across the back of his head. He tried to cry out in pain, but the coffee in his throat made it impossible. He coughed and sputtered around the liquid. He’d only just managed to clear his throat when he was struck again on the side of the head, so hard that he fell to the ground. A moment later, his head and face began to burn, and he screamed as hot cooking oil sizzled and melted through his skin.
Megan lifted the frying pan above her head and brought it down again. She repeated the action over and over until Daniel was silent and still, and the only thing she could hear was the sound of her own labored breathing. She stared down at the battered body in front of her and marveled at how bright the blood was against Daniel’s honey-colored blond hair.
“What did you do?” A voice screamed at her from the base of the stairs. Megan looked away from Daniel’s body and up at the source of the voice. It was Patricia, Daniel’s wife. “What did you do?!”
She stepped forward as if to run to Daniel’s aid, but stopped short when she saw the frying pan tightly gripped in Megan’s hand. It was still dripping with blood and crusted with bits of Daniel’s skin and hair.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Patricia stuttered placatingly. “I’m not angry. It was just an accident.” Her voice was gentle, but her eyes were wild with fear and panic. Megan could see her glancing toward the front door, and she knew what Patricia was going to do before she even moved. Patricia made a mad break for the door, but Megan was hot on her heels. She threw herself onto Patricia and knocked her onto the ground.
“No!” Patricia screamed a second before Megan brought the frying pan down hard on her head. Megan didn’t want to hurt her. She hadn’t wanted to hurt either of them, but Patricia especially had been kind to her and would sometimes sneak her extra food when Daniel wasn’t looking. She didn’t have any other choice, though. Megan knew that they were never going to let her leave, so this was the only choice she had. Patricia didn’t die right away, and she gasped in pain as Megan repeatedly brought the pan down onto her head.
Once she had gone completely still, Megan climbed off of her. Her shirt was covered in blood, and she desperately wanted to go clean it off, but she didn’t want to waste any time. She walked back over to where Daniel was lying on the kitchen floor and knelt down next to him. She rummaged through his pockets until she found what she was looking for—his phone.
She’d never used a phone before. Back home, her family had been too poor to afford one, and the Weavers had expressly forbidden her from ever touching either of theirs. She’d seen them using their phones, though, and she knew the basics of how they worked. She lifted Daniel’s hand off the ground and used his fingerprint to unlock the phone the way she’d seen him doing. The phone opened, and she clicked the telephone icon, grateful that everything was displayed with pictures since she didn’t know how to read English.
A keypad prompted her to input a number, and she carefully punched in nine-one-one before pressing the large green call button. She held the phone to her ear and waited, not sure what to expect. After a few seconds, the ringing stopped, and a woman’s voice came through the line.
“Nine-one-one operator, what is your emergency?” The woman’s voice was cold and unfriendly, but Megan still felt relieved to hear it, anyway.
“I need help,” she responded.
“Alright, can you tell me what’s wrong?” the woman asked. Megan understood the question but wasn’t sure how to explain her issue in English.
“I’m stuck,” she replied. “I need help.”
“You’re stuck?” the woman asked, and Megan could hear clicking on the other end of the call. “Where are you stuck?”
“In bad people’s house,” Megan explained, happy that the woman seemed interested in helping her.
“Okay, honey,” the woman replied. “Can you tell me how old you are?
“Eight,” Megan responded. Her English had gotten better in the months she’d spent with the Weavers. A fact she was grateful for now.
“Okay, sweetheart,” the woman assured, and she sounded much nicer now. “Are your mom and dad there?” Megan frowned sadly at her question. She didn’t have a dad, and she wasn’t sure where her mom was right now.
“No,” she replied tearfully.
“Okay, honey,” the woman replied. “Are there any other adults there?”
“Yes,” Megan murmured, looking down at the bodies of the Weavers. “But they are dead now.”
2
Charlie
I woke with a jolt as something thumped in my bedroom. I cracked open an eye and caught sight of Miranda just as she was buttoning her shirt back up. The events of the previous night came flooding back to me, and I was hit with a turbulent wave of emotions.
“Oh shoot,” Miranda grimaced as she caught his gaze. “Did I wake you up? Sorry, I was trying to sneak out early to go get changed before heading to the office. I can just hear Naomi’s commentary if I showed up to work in the same thing I was wearing yesterday.” She rolled her eyes and walked over to the mirror on my dresser to smooth her hair into place.
“It’s fine,” I responded as I sat up in bed. “It’ll give me some time to work out before work, anyway.” I actually hated waking up early, but I didn’t see the point of getting into it with her right now.
“Do you want to get together again tonight?” she asked as she picked her bag up off the floor. I hesitated before answering. My knee-jerk reaction was to say yes, but I couldn’t shake the uneasiness the entire affair was giving me. She must have sensed my hesitation because she rolled her eyes.
“Oh, come on, Charlie,” she smirked. “Stop being so serious about everything. It’s not like we’re doing anything wrong. I specifically checked, and there’s nothing in our handbook specifically forbidding fraternizing, so chill.”
That was a concern, but the professional aspect was only part of it. The truth was that I still wasn’t completely over Esther. In fact, I wasn’t sure where my relationship with Esther was right now.
The bar Esther had been working at on the weekends had offered to bring her on full time. She’d be making significantly more than she was at the job she was currently working, and that wasn’t including any tips she’d make. She’d taken the offer, and at first, everything had been great. I’d been happy for her, and we’d celebrated her new job. However, the busier she got, the less and less we saw of each other. It probably didn’t help that she was meeting dozens of new people every night at work.
Esther had actually been the one to suggest that we should take a break. Even though I’d seen the writing on the wall and sensed that our relationship was beginning to fizzle, I was still crushed. I was surprised by how much it hurt, and in a way, it had reaffirmed my stance on relationships. Esther had been the first woman I’d allowed myself to get close to in years, primarily because my first major relationship had ended so disastrously. Having Esther pull away from me had left me feeling hollow, and at times I wished I’d never started dating her. That was one of the reasons that it had been so easy to start seeing Miranda, who was easygoing and didn’t seem to look too deeply into what we were doing.
We’d been assigned to take on a mission together about two months ago, around the same time that Esther had put our relationship on pause. Junior had come down with a bad flu, and Miranda had taken his place. It was a pretty simple case that didn’t require international travel, but we did need to head to New York to follow up on a lead. A drug-smuggling cartel was importing goods through the ports in New York City, and we were called to collaborate with the MBLIS branch there. While we were on that mission, Miranda and I had ended up spending a lot of time together. One thing led to another, and we’d been meeting each other in secret every few days since. She and Naomi had just come back from an
international mission the night before, and she’d come straight to my apartment from the airport.
I would have said that being in a relationship with Miranda was easier than being in one with Esther, but I wasn’t sure if I could even call it that. If anything, we were more like friends with benefits. Except we weren’t always on friendly terms with each other. In fact, more often than not, we were butting heads and arguing, both in and out of the office. Still, being with her was fun and exciting in the same way going on a mission was. It was challenging, stressful, and sometimes a little dangerous.
“Well, let me know what you decide,” Miranda teased as she opened the bedroom door. “Don’t be late for work.” She smiled and closed the door behind her as she left.
I threw the blankets off of myself and got out of bed. As I headed into the ensuite bathroom to shower, I wondered if I should call Esther. She and Miranda were polar opposites, and I felt conflicted about what I should do. Esther was kind and soft-spoken, while Miranda was boisterous, loud, and incredibly seductive when she wanted to be. It would be impossible to compare them because they were both so different and fun to be with in different ways.
I pushed my turbulent thoughts away as I stepped into the shower and turned the water on as hot as it would go. The scorching spray felt good against my muscles and helped me ease my tension. I felt more relaxed as I stepped back out of the shower, and I moved around my room slowly as I decided what I would wear that morning. Usually, I would have to rush since I tended to sleep for as long as I could before having to go to work, but today Miranda had woken me up with over an hour to spare.
It was June now, and Las Vegas was engulfed with a painfully dry heat. The temperatures had just peaked at a hundred degrees, and I was never sure what I should wear. I’d spent most of my youth in the snowy Northeast and having to move from place to place had put me in the habit of wearing several layers. Doing so right now would probably land me in the hospital with heatstroke. I’d been sticking to polo shirts ever since the temperature began to rise, but I hated how I looked in them, like an overgrown school kid. Miranda had remarked that she liked the way they looked on me, though, so I’d continued to wear them ever since.
I decided that I’d take advantage of the early morning to grab some breakfast in the city. After I finished getting dressed and taming my hair, I headed out the door.
3
Naomi
I glanced at the small clock on my dashboard. I was now twelve minutes late for work, which was incredibly unusual for me. I hated deviating from my schedule, and I hated inconveniencing others by failing to appear or deliver work on time. Normally, I’d be the first one in the office or second after Nelson. Unfortunately, last night there’d been a power outage in my building after I had already gone to bed. My phone had been low on battery as it was, so it failed to charge during the night, and therefore my alarm hadn’t gone off that morning. To top it off, I wasn’t even able to call ahead to warn Wallace that I would be coming in late that day. It all left me feeling intensely uncomfortable and unprofessional.
What made the situation even worse was the fact that today was the day we were supposed to be starting at our new office. Originally, we were planning on returning to the old office once the building was fixed, but everyone agreed that the memory of what had happened there would have made it difficult to work comfortably. Ultimately, Wallace had found us a new space, still on the Strip but in a different building. The building wasn’t as tall, but the interior was larger. It seemed like a bit of a waste of space to me, considering there were only eight of us working at the branch in total, but I supposed that Wallace was looking toward a future in which we would hopefully expand to include new agents.
By the time I made it to the new building, I was seventeen minutes late. I drove my car around the side and toward the small parking lot located around the back. I’d worried that since we no longer had our underground parking garage, that space might be limited. It relieved me to discover that there were plenty of empty spaces and even a small bench where I could picture myself reading during my lunch break. The parking lot was bordered by trees, which cast the area into shade, and I found myself liking the new location already, despite not having seen the inside yet.
I used the employee keycard Wallace had handed out to all of us to gain access to the back door of the building closest to the parking lot. I could see the lobby and main entrance straight ahead and an elevator to my right. I headed over to it and pressed the call button, willing the elevator to reach me faster so that I might be that much less late. The light above the door finally chimed as the elevator reached the ground floor, and I stepped inside quickly before pressing the button for the fifth floor. Once again, our office was located on the top floor, which I appreciated as I quite enjoyed having a nice view while I worked.
The elevator doors slid open, and I stepped into a small alcove. To my right was a large window that overlooked the Las Vegas strip, and to my left was a narrow hall that contained only one door marked “MBLIS” in shiny metal letters. I thought that was a lovely touch and used my keycard to gain entry once again. Svetlana had quit after the bombing at our previous office, and we’d decided to forgo finding another receptionist. Instead, we were putting more security measures in place and ensuring that we allowed no one into our office unless we were explicitly expecting them.
The office was in a state of commotion when I entered. Everyone still appeared to be in the process of arranging and organizing their work areas, and I felt a little better now that it didn’t seem like they had missed my presence.
Miranda and Charlie were arguing over who would get the desk with the best view out the window, and I could see Fiona bustling about in the office directly to the left of the entryway. Unlike her previous office, which had been a completely separate room, this one was actually located in the main area but enclosed with clear glass. There was a similar office on the right side of the entryway, but it was empty. Further along the left wall of the office, I could see a door marked “holding area,” and in the same spot on the opposite wall was a door marked “break room.” I didn’t particularly care which desk I got and would probably just choose whichever one was opposite Miranda’s since we were almost always partnered together. Instead, I decided to go visit Fiona in her new office.
“Can I come in?” I asked with a smile as I poked my head through the open door.
“Of course,” she smiled back. I noticed that she had slowly started coming out of her shell ever since she’d gone to Japan with Junior and Charlie. She’d approached Wallace about being included on another mission, but so far, another opportunity hadn’t come up. She’d been so disappointed she’d withdrawn back into herself, and I was happy to see she seemed to be doing better now.
“This is nice,” I remarked as I took a look. “It’s larger than the previous one, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. “I don’t feel like I’m about to bump into something all the time now. I have room for all of my gadgets. I am a little sad that I don’t have my big window anymore.”
“Oh right,” I replied. “That was the reason you’d offered to switch offices with Howard, right? Even though the other one was bigger, that one had a very large window.”
Fiona nodded.
“Blue light isn’t good for your eyes,” she shrugged. “When you work in front of a computer all day, it’s good to take some breaks and take in the sunshine. But it’s okay. Junior said that the break room is huge. If I ever need to rest my eyes, I can probably just go in there.”
“Really?” I asked, looking over my shoulder at the door I’d seen earlier. “I haven’t been. Do you want to come to look at it?”
“Sure,” Fiona smiled as she set down the monitor she was carrying. We left the office and headed back through the bullpen area. It seemed like Miranda had won the fight since she was currently sitting at the desk and setting out her favorite knick-knacks. To my surprise, though, Charlie didn’t s
eem altogether displeased by the result. I narrowed my eyes and almost stopped in my tracks as I passed them. I was a good detective, and I knew how to spot unusual behavior. This was definitely unusual.
Nevertheless, I decided to brush it off for now and accompanied Fiona into the break room. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was nearly twice as big as the previous one had been, with a long bay window across the entirety of one wall.
“Wow,” Fiona sighed wistfully. “It’s so nice in here. And we got new couches, too.”
She was right. Gone were the old leather couches, and in their place was a set of spongy cloth couches in a deep blue color.
“Nelson got those,” Junior called from where he was organizing something in a cupboard a few feet away. “He said the old ones were ugly, and we wanted something new since we were making a fresh start.”
The kitchen area looked more or less the same, except we now had more counter space, so we wouldn’t need to use a spare table for our coffee machine. I froze for a moment as I remembered the last time I had seen that table, covered in blood, as Miranda’s life quickly slipped away. I shook the thought away. It wouldn’t help in any way to recall bad memories.
“He wasn’t wrong,” I remarked. “Those were ugly couches.”
“Oh, look what I got you, Fiona,” Junior suddenly said as he reached for something inside the cabinet. He pulled out what looked like a glass container with an odd-looking contraption on the top. “It’s a puzzle jar. It’ll stay locked until you can figure out and input the correct solution to the puzzle displayed on the screen. That way, certain people won’t be able to steal your snacks anymore.” He shot a look at me as he said this, and I rolled my eyes.