She returned to Althea, laying senseless on the floor next to the pistol.
“That’s it,” Dothan said, pointing to the table. “We’re going to be rich. I have to tell January.” He tried to sit upright, but fell back. “Where is she?”
Agnes grabbed Althea’s feet, grunting as she dragged the limp body toward a high-backed dining chair.
“Where’s January?” he asked. “Didn’t you see her in the hall?”
Panting, Agnes scowled and turned to Dothan. “I ain’t seen anyone but you two. Now, not another word.”
The old woman pulled the plug of a small lamp from the wall. She smashed it on the floor and stepped around the shards of porcelain to retrieve the cord. After ripping off the bulb, she tied Althea’s hands and legs to the chair.
“But…but…,” he said, “she was here. I saw her.”
“I swear I’ll come over there and hand you a come-to-Jesus moment if you don’t keep quiet.” She turned back to Althea, patting her cheeks as the blackened eyes fluttered. “Good morning, sunshine.”
Althea moaned and writhed as she returned to consciousness. She struggled in her bindings and her eyes flew open, wild with fear.
“It won’t do you any good to wiggle around, Mrs. Harrington. You might as well give it up and tell me what I want to know.”
Althea caught sight of Dothan and her face contorted.
“Yeah,” said Agnes. “He’s still alive, and that brings me to my first question. Where’s Reuben?”
“I…I don’t know any Reuben. Let me go!”
Agnes pulled the soft scarf she was wearing from around her neck and walked toward the bound woman.
“What are you going to do?” Althea’s eyes widened. “Get away from me. Get away!”
With one quick motion, Agnes twisted the scarf around Althea’s throat and pulled it taut. “I’ll ask you again. Where’s Reuben?”
A tear drifted across the long, red welts lining Althea’s cheeks. “I don’t…I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
Tightening the silk fabric again, Agnes said, “I’m not messing with you. Where is he? I know all about the blackballing, and I have documents to prove you and your husband forced him into hiding with Conscentiam’s blessings. What you fools didn’t know was Reuben called me the night after he disappeared. He told me he’d left the papers in a bus locker and where I could find the key. If he hadn’t made me promise to wait until I heard from him, I’d have had that messed-up company dismantled back in 1996. I’m done waiting. Where’s Reuben, Althea?”
As the scarf pulled tighter around Althea’s throat, she choked. “I swear to you, I didn’t have any part in that.”
“Liar,” said Agnes, alternating compression and release, as if to tease Althea with a sentence of death and a temporary reprieve.
Althea gasped. “All right. Let go and I’ll tell you.”
Agnes removed the scarf and stood in front of Althea. “What happened to my man?”
Althea coughed, struggling to catch her breath. She lifted her eyes in a malevolent glare and sneered. “He was dead within five minutes of hanging up that call,” she said. “If he hadn’t stopped at that phone booth, he might have escaped, but, thanks to you, it turned out to be just enough time to kill him. They’ll never find his body. You’re blaming the wrong people, Aggie. You’re the one who murdered Reuben.”
Curling her hand into a fist, Agnes punched Althea. Dothan watched a bloody tooth, as if in slow motion, fly across the room.
“Why kill him?” said Agnes. “He did nothing to any of you. He only wanted to make something of himself at Conscentiam. Why didn’t you just leave him alone?”
As blood dripped in a dark stream from her cracked lips, Althea smirked, “You really don’t know, do you?”
“What? What am I supposed to know?”
“Those files he gave you involved Conscentiam’s board. Reuben planned to use them to negotiate big money for his silence. It was just too bad he didn’t take into consideration the company’s zero tolerance to blackmail. As soon as he realized his mistake, he ran.”
“Baloney,” said Agnes. “I know what’s in them because I scanned and encrypted the files a few years back. He was trying to stop parasites like you and Joseph, and the corruption in Acquisitions. He stood to gain nothing from destroying his career and the great future he’d built.“
“A great future? Is that what he told you? That it was just a matter of time before he’d be someone at Conscentiam?” Althea tried to laugh, but choked on the blood. “I can see it now. All those nights you were alone, and him telling you he was working with clients and paperwork.” She lowered her head with a gruesome sneer. “Do you want to know what he really did for us, Agnes? Here’s a hint. He was no suit jockey. Oh, no. Reuben was one of our best hunters. He found the blackballers that got away and arranged their disposal. If there was anyone who should have known better than to toy with Acqusitions, it was him.”
Chapter Twenty
Agnes circled the restrained woman. “You’re a liar. Reuben never hurt a soul.”
“My god,” said Althea, chuckling. “How can you be so naïve? Wake up, Agnes. Reuben became just another greedy corporate pawn who got what he deserved.”
Agnes grabbed Althea’s chin. “Spin all the lies you want, but I loved Reuben and I believe he was a good man. That’s something you can’t take from me. If it’s true he’s dead, at least I can finish what he started by giving the feds the hard copies and digital keys to those documents. You and your late husband are on almost every page. I’m sure the government will enjoy reading them, assuming Conscentiam let’s you live long enough to go to trial.”
She shoved Althea’s face away and wiped her hand against the side of her jeans. Agnes fished out her cellphone and crouched beside Dothan’s chair. “I’m calling the police and EMTs. Try to remember. Were you forced to take any drugs, or is this high voluntary?”
He shook his head. “I had my regular pills a couple of hours ago.” Dothan rubbed his chin. “January said something about them when she was here, so I guess, maybe they weren’t? I don’t know. Everything’s so mixed up and weird.”
“What pills?”
“You know. The ones in my backpack. I lost them, but then I found them. Bekkii didn’t steal them, and so I took them.”
“Bekkii? What does she have to do with this?”
“She cared.”
“Yes, all right. Good for her.” Agnes sighed and patted his hand. “I’ll tell them someone slipped you something, so let’s pray they don’t have to pump your stomach. Anyway, just stay where you are and ignore whatever that monster over there says.”
Agnes stared at the body of Joseph Harrington. “Poor man. May God take his soul heavenward.” She walked to Althea. “I hope his death was worth life imprisonment to you.”
Althea lifted her head and huffed. She was unrecognizable from the woman he met at the cafe. Swollen, dark purple eyes protruded from their sockets, and three long scratches ran from the side of her nose to the edge of her bloody jawline.
“What are you looking at?” Althea dropped her head and coughed. Bloody foam dripped from the edge of her puffy lips.
“An ugly whore who just got her ass kicked by an old lady.”
“You left out the rest. An ugly whore who gets to be with January.”
“That’s a load of crap. When they haul your flabby carcass off to jail, me and January are going to Vegas to get married.”
Althea burst into a boisterous cackle. Agnes covered an ear as she held her phone to the other and turned down a hallway, leaving Dothan alone with the broken woman.
She choked and hung her head, trying to take a breath. “Married? You must still be high if you believe that, genius.”
Dothan smirked. “It’s true. I know everything about Conscentiam, incl
uding how Joseph murdered Sibella and controlled January by trashing her place and forcing her to service his clients.”
“Let me get this right. She told you Joseph killed Sibella, and Conscentiam broke into her place?”
Dothan scowled.
Althea tutted. “Here’s a clue, Sherlock. Maybe January trashed her own place to get into your life.”
“Wow, can you be any more full of shit?”
Althea’s discolored lips spread into a horrifying smile. “As for Joseph, don’t you find it odd she also told you my husband and the cheap tramp were having an affair? Why would he kill someone he loved?”
“I don’t know. She just told me he intended to dump your wrinkled ass, and that you were a sad, pathetic grannie who should be put in a home.”
“She said no such thing, you son of a bitch. You know, in the beginning I almost felt sorry for you, but no more. It’s time you grew up and faced reality. Sibella was a dumb little yokel who was part of Acquisition’s prime stable, trained to con software out of greedy little nerds like you. With the massive payouts January got from her and the others, she didn’t take it well when that junkie jumped into Joseph’s pants and started making demands.” Althea cocked her head with a bloody half-smile. “You look confused. I guess January failed to mention she runs the entertainment division in Acquisitions?”
Dothan’s face burned with fury.
“No?” Althea smirked. “I suppose then, you also didn’t know it was January who had Sibella blackballed and marked to die.”
“What? I don’t believe it. She never gave up trying to find Sibella’s killer.”
Althea sneered as she shook her head. “I spent months getting that bimbo ready to take on our high rollers, but she couldn’t stay away from the drugs. She started turning tricks on her own and got arrested. After I bonded her out of jail, January had her blackballed, but Joseph stopped it. That’s when we decided to get rid of her ourselves. I told Sibella I’d scored a supply of her favorite drug and wanted to share it with her. I planned to push her off the rooftop garden after she was high. Nobody would think much about another junkie committing suicide. But I was running late and didn’t tell January. She showed up before I could get there. There was a fight and by the time I arrived, Sibella was laying next to that table with an enormous gash across her throat.”
“Bullshit,” said Dothan, slapping the padded arms of the chair, “Sibella was January’s best friend. She loved her.”
“Loved her? What? Are you nuts? Sorry to burst your bubble, but January only tolerated that simpering idiot for the money she brought in with that beautiful face. We’d tried everything to keep Sibella in line, including using Lucas Gilmore as her watchdog, but that girl was hell bent on destroying herself.”
Dothan laughed. “Where are you coming up with this stuff? January didn’t know shit about Gilmore, other than he had information on Sibella’s death.”
“My, my,” said Althea, “January really played you like a well-tuned violin. Why do you think Lucas vanished in the first place? He was just another puppet to January and expected to do as he was told. She threw him aside after Sibella’s death, and he resolved to pay her back by blackmailing her with evidence linking her to other disappearances at Conscentiam. By sheer luck he escaped our hunters and ran, but you led them right to him. January was ecstatic.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Nobody crosses January without consequences, not even when they love her as much as I do.” Althea flinched as tears fell from her swollen eyes onto the raw welts crossing her cheek. “The only reason Joseph survived was his usefulness. After she forced him to get rid of Sibella’s body, we thought he’d be easier to control. No such luck. We had to be careful though, Joseph was too powerful to just disappear. I came up with the idea to find a pliable boy from her social media swarm and stage a murder-suicide.” Althea’s puffy lip lifted in a snarl. “Then, out of the blue, an arrogant bastard with no family shows up and solves all of our problems.”
Dothan scowled and shook his head. “You forced her into it. She would never do this to me.”
“You sound just like Agnes. That crazy bitch still thinks Reuben was a saint.”
“If January loves you so much,” he said, “where is she?”
“I’d say that right about now, she’s busy working with my lawyer to bond me out when they set bail.”
“Bail?” asked Dothan with a laugh. “How can you get out after murdering your husband?”
“I’m not worried. I spent months making everyone believe Joseph beat me, and I have the evidence spread across my face. Assuming they even charge me, the worst I’ll get is involuntary manslaughter, and if I go to prison, it’ll only be for a couple of years.”
Dothan leaned forward and smiled. “You know what I think? You’re scared because January loves me. When I find her, we’ll escape Conscentiam, along with the rest of you perverted fucks, and go where you can’t find us.”
“While you waste your time searching for her, January will wait for me,” she said, “and we’ll be stronger than ever. You’re nothing to a woman like her. She chews little boys like you up and spits them out. When she finds out you’re still alive, she’ll tell the police about the sick, obsessed stalker who wouldn’t leave her alone. If you try to contact her, they’ll clap you into jail.”
His stomach clenched.
Althea raised one eyebrow and smirked. “Didn’t you notice how she never went out on cute little picnics and sunshiny walks to the beach? Other than the night you forced her to the hospital, she stayed away from anyone who could verify your relationship was anything
but friendly professionals.”
He caught sight of the gun lying next to Sibella’s table. “You’re taking a big risk telling me all of this just to push my buttons. How do you know I won’t tell the police, or that I’m not recording it all?”
“Your phone is over there on the floor, half-wit, and even if you tried to tell anyone, which story do you think they’d believe? A battered woman who discovers her husband murdered a young woman? Or some crazy-ass kid who blames everyone but himself after killing his own mother, burning down his foster family’s house, and attempting to rape his court-appointed therapist?”
Dothan stood, bracing himself on the arm of the chair, continuing to stare at the pistol. “That’s nothing but a pack of lies.”
“Lies?” Althea grinned. “I’ve seen enough of your paperwork to know you’re nothing but a psychotic sociopath who should’ve been locked away from society at birth.”
He narrowed his eyes and glared at her. “This coming from a delusional geriatric felon who can’t accept that January loves me.”
“Kid, cut the noise. Did you think by running to Seattle you’d escape who you are? January uncovered everything from your past before you met at that cafe. I’ll never know how she kept from being sick every time you touched her. So many nights she would sneak out of your bed to call me and cry after you forced yourself on her. If we hadn’t needed you to deal with Joseph, I would have killed you myself. But then you found Lucas.”
“If January told you everything, then you’d know I didn’t just find him. I went to an address sent to me in an anonymous text.”
“So she said, but I never believed it. I think you sent that message to yourself to cover up being involved in his death.”
Dothan stood on shaky legs and stumbled toward the table. As he reached for the gun, a hand clamped over his wrist. He turned to find Agnes shaking her head.
“Don’t be stupid.” She lifted him to his feet and led him back to the chair. “That alley cat’s not worth a bullet.”
She retrieved the weapon with the hem of her shirt. “He’s not lying, Althea,” she said. “He did receive a text. It was from me.”
Althea jerked in her restraints. “You?”
Dothan sat up
right. “What?”
Agnes nodded. “I found Gilmore six months ago. I hoped to convince him to testify against all of you, but Dothan’s software offered me a chance at a new life. When he got himself mixed up with January, I tried to warn him, but he wouldn’t listen. After your hired scum followed me home, I went into hiding and sent the text. I thought Gilmore might knock some sense into him about that viper. Had I known Dothan might go to my house first, I’d never have done it.”
“But Gilmore had nothing on January,” said Dothan. “She only met him a couple of times when he was dating Sibella.”
“Horse crackers,” said Agnes. “January knew him long before Sibella was even in Seattle. Conscentiam hired him as a junior legal clerk before Reuben disappeared, and that she-devil over there was running entertainment. I found Gilmore’s notes on the corporation’s unethical practices and criminal activities in those files Reuben gave me. They funded his corporate practice in Bellevue and he kept to himself for years, but then January came along. Someone like Gilmore would be nothing but putty in her hands, just like you are now.”
“Why send me an anonymous text?” asked Dothan. “You could have just called and then led me to Gilmore.”
“Two problems here. First, you would have ignored anything I said. Second, this bunch had me in their sights, and after you blabbed it all to January, I’d have been toast. I don’t know what got into your head by driving to my house, but after spotting you there, I’m sure the company enforcers followed your car. Gilmore didn’t have a chance once those monsters saw him. He would have been dead ten minutes after he left.”
“So the dark gray van that drove past your house was the same one the witness saw leaving the motel?”
“I’m sure it was,” said Agnes.
“That van was waiting for me before I left for the playpen. I think I remember that dream-January saying something about arranging a ride for me from the apartment.” Dothan frowned and shook his head. “No, that was a part of that whole surreal shit. She could never do that to me.”
“Child, get it through your head. January was going to use you as the sacrificial lamb for Joseph’s death and blame him for Sibella’s murder. It didn’t matter whether it was Althea or those goons who pulled the trigger, you had to die to protect her.”
The Optogram Page 23