End Scene: A Dark Romantic MM Thriller, page 21
“Who?”
“Eliot was the one who set me up. He betrayed me. Thomas was The Director while I was there.”
“I didn't know they passed the role from father to son.”
I stopped myself from saying that Thomas had never wanted that role. I had a flashback of pressing down the pillow until his feeble body stopped twitching, but I pushed the memory aside.
“There was at least one more Director before Theodore, going back to the early 1900s,” Ben said.
“Were they kidnapping people even back then?” Tammy asked.
“Based on what we learned, yes. Their agenda is the rule of the elite over the common man, giving them the right to take and abuse whoever they deem beneath them.”
I couldn’t bring myself to look further into the folder, knowing it would consume me. “Was the FBI investigating them?”
Ben gave a stiff nod. “We investigated them for over a decade. The deeper we dug, the more names kept piling up—people you’d never imagine getting involved with something like that.”
He’d be surprised by what I could imagine. “Did you arrest anyone?”
Ben shook his head. “The bigger it got, the more pushback my team received. By the time I realized the higher-ups were trying to bury the investigation, I’d lost the momentum to fight back.” He took a breath. “I probably could’ve tried to rattle the nest, but that was around the time Tammy was trying to take down her crooked boss, and I saw firsthand what fighting against the system could do to one’s career.” He gave Tammy an apologetic look, which she returned with a grim smile.
“They ended up offering me a different department to lead, claiming it was a budget thing. I swallowed their bullshit until I retired the first chance I got. Horses can sometimes smell, but at least they’re trustworthy.”
I rubbed my face, resenting everything Ben had said. If those who were supposed to stop The Society had done their fucking job, I and others would not have wound up in hell.
“You’re the first person I’ve heard who got away from them,” Ben said, a trace of suspicion in his voice. “I’m sure there’s an interesting story behind that.”
“It doesn’t matter. Do you know of Mr. White?”
“Never heard of him.”
“He was a member of the High Council.”
Ben leaned forward. “You were in contact with the High Council?”
“Just with him. He came to the estate from time to time.” I couldn’t help but feel a tingle of needle-hunger whenever I thought of him, even after all these years. I asked Tammy, “So you knew who I was talking about this whole time?”
“Not at first, but the more you spoke, the more it sounded familiar. I was never involved in Ben’s investigation.”
I ran my fingers over the thick folder. “Can I look at it later?”
“You can take it with you to the motel, but it hasn't been updated in years. No one knew I took it, which goes to show how much they didn’t give a damn.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“I’d still like to have a look at your leg before you hit the road.”
I followed him into a room with a lot of computers. He gestured for me to sit on a chair in the middle of the room. Tammy stood close by as he pressed on my calf, then scanned it with a similar device to the one Samuel had used in the last yearly visit. A monitor showed my bones and the small tracker that seemed out of place. Ben told me to hold the scanner to my calf while he worked on his computer, switching between screens with numbers and graphs. He turned to me after a few minutes. “Like you said, it’s pretty much dormant. It does seem very advanced, but it still has some limitations.” Ben took the scanner from me and put it on his desk. “Mind giving me and Tammy a few moments to talk? You can wait out back. The view is something.”
I stood up and crossed my arms. “I’d rather stay and listen while I’m the topic of conversation.”
Tammy cleared her throat. “Jonah, it’s best to hold back information in case one of us is captured and is made to talk.”
By “someone,” she meant me. Still irritated, I left the room and walked out back. Ben had been right about the view: vast fields stretched all around me, with distant ranch houses dotting the landscape. I frowned at the old, dusty helicopter Ben had parked like an old car. I walked around it, wondering if it could still fly.
Tammy and Ben joined me a few minutes later.
“She’s a beauty, isn’t she?” Ben smiled broadly at the helicopter, which was once red before turning dusty brown.
“Can it still fly?” I asked.
Ben pursed his lips. “On paper, yes. Mary Sue loves the open sky, but I haven’t dared try her out for a while.”
Tammy shook her head. “Did you really call that rusty old thing Mary Sue?”
“I sure did, woman, and you should show some respect.”
“Don’t hold your breath. Jonah, we better get going.”
“Hold on now,” Ben said, “it’s still early. Have you ever ridden a horse, Jonah?”
“Once, when I was six.”
“It’s like riding a bike.”
“I fell from the horse.”
Ben twisted his lips. “We’ll take it slow, then.”
“Is this really the time?” Tammy asked him.
“It’s always the time for horseback riding. Jonah, come on.”
I knew it wasn’t about riding but about him wanting to talk to me. I followed him to the front of the house, where he showed me how to saddle one of the horses—an impressive brown beast he promised was as calm as a kitten, despite being named Storm. We slowly rode through fields that had been recently plowed. Once we reached an old wooden fence, we slowed to a halt. Ben climbed down and helped me as well. We went to lean on the fence, watching the faraway mountains.
“Those are the Sierra Nevada,” Ben said. “They get snowy in wintertime.”
“You wanted to show me the mountains?”
“Hardly.” He glanced at me, his face somber. “I wanted you to know that I’ve been in your shoes before.”
“Meaning?”
He slid his hand into his pocket, pulling out an old photo and handing it to me. A young, handsome man with a lot of freckles smiled at the camera, his arm around a much younger Ben. “That’s Elijah. We served at the Bureau together as field agents. I was good, but Elijah was phenomenal.”
Suspecting this story didn’t have a happy ending, I asked, “What happened to him?”
“An arrest gone wrong. Our intel claimed there were six gang members at the scene, but there were close to twenty. Elijah and three other agents were shot. He lay in a coma for a few weeks, and I had to pretend to be a colleague every time I visited him rather than what I truly was.”
“His lover?”
Ben nodded. “Three years and four months. Best years of my life. We thought that he would wake up and get better, but his system began to crash, and after one hellish day, it was over.”
I couldn’t look away from the sorrow and loss in Ben’s eyes. “How many knew you were together?”
“A few, but remember we’re talking about 1974. The few who knew had no idea what to say to me, and it wouldn’t have mattered either way.” He took the photo from my hand and smiled at it before sliding it into his pocket. “Now I’m an old man, and Elijah is forever young and full of freckles.” He cleared his throat and held my gaze. “You go after your man, and you bring him back safely. But don’t dare let anger guide your actions. Think. Every single step, you stop and you think. You understand me, Junior?”
I nodded, eyes itching. “I’ll act smart.”
He stroked my cheek, his rugged skin comforting. “Good boy. Ready to ride back a bit faster?”
“I won’t be able to help Hayden with a broken neck.”
But we did end up riding faster, fast enough for me to fear I would fall, yet I stayed steady on Storm, hanging onto the pommel and smiling broadly despite how bleak my world was.
When we returned to the house, I dismounted on my own and stroked Storm’s neck in gratitude. Tammy walked out, shaking her head at me. “You’re going to smell like a horse.”
“I’ve smelled worse.”
“Are you still driving like a snail?” Ben asked her.
“Yes,” I answered instead, which granted me a glare from Tammy.
“Let me fix you some food for the road.”
Twenty minutes later, we were back in my car, leaving the dirt road behind in favor of the smooth highway. I tried asking Tammy about her private conversation with Ben, but she just turned up the radio.
I sighed and leaned my head against the window, watching the world pass by while thinking of a young man named Elijah.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“One room for two people? Sure thing, we have one available,” the receptionist said cheerfully, her curly, dyed blonde hair smelling of hairspray. Her name tag read “Cherry,” with a smiley face doodled beside it. She typed on her keyboard and asked, “How long would you be staying?”
“Three nights should be enough,” Tammy said. “My son and I might want to extend our stay, but we’ll be sure to check with you first.”
“Oh, that won’t be an issue—it’s rather dead here this time of year. How did you hear about us, by the way?”
“We decided to be spontaneous and stop somewhere in the area,” I said. Since they were keeping a low profile online, we weren’t likely to find them through a regular search. I gave Cherry a once-over, trying to detect anything out of the ordinary about her, but this middle-aged bundle of perkiness didn’t strike me as a collaborator of The Society, though it made sense for her boss not to share such information with his employees.
“Okay, super,” Cherry said. “I’m putting you in one of our best cabins. You’ll have a bit of a walk to the swimming pool, but it should be quieter—not that it gets noisy out here.” She handed Tammy two keys. “There you go. Have fun!”
We thanked her and stepped into the cool desert evening air.
“No one’s around,” Tammy said as we walked past dark brick cabins, coyotes howling in the distance.
“She said it was dead this time of year.”
“What’s so special about this time? It’s spring. This should be their busiest season.” She eyed me. “It’s a sign we’re in the right place, but it also makes us stand out.”
We reached our cabin, which was indeed farther from the rest but closer to the parking lot. Tammy unlocked the door and flicked on the light. The room was simple but clean, with two single beds and an old-looking television. Tammy put her bag on the floor and went to check on the sliding door leading to the patio out back. She tested the strength of the lock until she was satisfied.
“Which bed do you prefer?” I asked.
“I’ll take the one close to the window in case someone tries to break in.” She sat on the bed, stretching her neck and yawning. It wasn’t late, but we had been on the road for hours.
“I’m going to take a shower,” she said. “Hide your gun underneath the mattress, but make sure you can easily pull it out.”
“Okay. I’ll go over Ben’s file out back.”
“Don’t lose yourself in what’s there.”
“Meaning?”
“Nothing you’ll see there is personal—just facts. Treat them as such.”
Before I could reply, she walked to the bathroom.
I hid the gun underneath my mattress, put a jacket on, and stepped outside with the folder. The light on the patio was weak, but I angled the chair so I could read. It was fully dark by now, not even streetlights in the distance. It felt like being stranded in the middle of an endless sea. I watched the stars for a while, glittering brighter than they did closer to LA.
My phone showed bad reception, but I still sent Jenny a message to tell her I was okay and had taken a few days off to clear my head.
I opened the thick folder, struggling to accept how much information was available, waiting all these years for someone to do their goddamn job. I flipped through the photos, a few old enough to be in black and white. Behind each photo, someone—possibly Ben—had written things like, “A politician,” or “On the board of Wells Fargo.” Some of the written documents were hard to understand, using terminology that went over my head, but I got the impression that all their leads had run cold—dead end after dead end.
Toward the bottom of the folder, I came across two photos of young boys. Eliot was easy to recognize with his blue eyes and jet-black hair, but The Director took a bit more observation, maybe because his dying image still floated in my mind. Behind each photo, someone wrote, “Adopted, likely illegally. No trace.” I searched for more information about them but found nothing. I also wondered why I hadn’t seen any mention of Mr. White in the dozens of documents. The High Council was mentioned a few times, but Ben’s team had clearly known less than I did about them. It must have been frustrating working for years on a case that went nowhere, fighting against forces that operated from the shadows.
I closed the folder, my head aching. I needed a shower and a good sleep. The thought of being surrounded by The Society’s employees was terrifying, but it would be even worse to discover I was at the wrong place and not any closer to finding Hayden. I wondered if he believed I was coming for him, and whether that belief brought him comfort or dread.
Tammy stepped out, her gray hair still damp. “Found anything helpful?”
“No, but I don’t understand most of it.”
“I’ll have a look.” She lit a joint, spreading a strong scent of weed.
“Shouldn’t we be sharp?” I asked.
“I’ll be sharp tomorrow.” She handed me the joint, and I took it and inhaled. It was strong enough to put Jenny’s joints to shame, and it would likely knock me out until morning.
“What are the chances of anyone recognizing you?” Tammy asked as I handed her back the joint.
“I don’t know. It’s been a long time, and I doubt they expect to see me here.”
She nodded. “I’ll wake up early and have a walk around the area. Later, we should head over to the shopping center we drove by to eat and ask the locals about this motel.”
“Okay.”
I took one more puff and went to wash the day from my skin.
*
“This place is a ghost town,” Tammy said as she entered the room. I had just finished getting dressed after getting a decent night’s sleep.
“You didn’t see anyone?”
“One or two people, but they kept to themselves and drove their own cars. It might be that they were driving somewhere else to get picked up by The Society, but I’d rather wait a day or two before following anyone in your car.”
“Should I also go look around?”
“Don’t bother. Let’s just drive to the shopping center—I’m starving.”
I was too. This time, she agreed to let me drive, and I took it as a sign of trust. It took us about ten minutes to reach the shopping center, which was a miniature by LA standards.
We sat at Applebee’s with only three other customers. When a waitress came to take our order, Tammy put on a friendly smile and said we were looking for a place to stay and were considering Delight’s Hot Springs Resort.
“Oh, you can do better than that place,” the waitress said, hands on her hips. “Nobody goes to Delight’s anymore—lord knows how it’s still open. They used to be more popular back in the day, but it’s like they stopped trying!” She seemed thoughtful. “They do have their regulars, though. I frankly can’t imagine why anyone would stay at the same motel for such a long time, but to each their own, I suppose.” She recommended two other nearby motels, and we pretended to consider them.
After we finished eating, we walked around and asked more people for a good place to stay, specifically about Delight's Hot Springs Resort. Most didn’t know the place, but those who did either thought it had been closed or that it wasn’t worth our time.
It all boded well for us staying at the right place, but it didn’t bring us any closer to finding out where The Society was taking its employees.
Back at the motel, Tammy went to take a nap while I walked around the premises, wearing a hat in case I was seen. It was hot, but not humid. The swimming pool caught my eye. The water seemed clean, and the open sandy plains in the background made for a peaceful scenery. But I hadn’t brought sunscreen, and the sun was high in the cloudless sky, meaning I’d need to wait a few more hours.
Before heading back to the cabin, I decided to go to the reception desk and pretend to be searching for activities for “mom” and me. Cherry was behind her desk, listening to a local radio station and reading a magazine. She looked startled when she noticed me, as if the concept of people walking into the reception area was rare—which I was sure it was.
“Hey there,” I said cheerfully and walked closer, enjoying the cool AC.
Cherry put her magazine down, which may have been Playgirl from the glimpse I got. “Oh, hi! How are you and your mom doing?”
“Super. We’re debating what to do around here tomorrow. Any interesting places you can recommend?”
“Oh, you’ve come to the right place.” She grabbed a stand with pamphlets and placed it between us. “How much walking are you interested in? Some of the trails around here can be brutal.”
“Oh, none of that. Mom’s hip ain’t what it used to be.”
She gave me a sympathetic look. “Of course. Same with my old man. He owns this place, but he slipped in the shower last year, so now it’s mostly me running this show.”
I returned a sympathetic look as I processed her words. As the owner’s daughter, there was a strong chance she knew of any shady dealings. “Sorry about your dad. Must be hard running this whole place by yourself.”
She waved her hand, and I noticed a diamond bracelet around her wrist. “It’s really not so bad. Some days I don’t see anyone, but I have my magazines and books to keep me company, and the paycheck’s great.” Her face turned somber, likely realizing she’d said too much.
Our gaze lingered a few seconds too long until I looked down at the pamphlets. “So, let’s see about trips without too much walking…”
