Flutter (21 page)

He decided to review more files from the logs on the Robert Benson case, hoping that there would be a connection somewhere that he may have overlooked. Something was missing and Jennifer was the key, but he had to wait until Meghan returned. He looked at his phone again to see if he had received any new messages. There was one. It was a spam email for beauty products from a company called
Face it Fabulously.
He erased the email and decided to pass the time playing
Bejeweled
on his phone. He could never make it past level 11. 

Meghan Finch and Jennifer Martin decided to complete the interview over lunch at Frigo’s. Frigo’s was a small Italian family restaurant that had originated in Springfield and recently opened a chain in Boston. They ordered their food and carried it back to a booth on the right side of the restaurant floor beside a hanging Italian flag. They both ordered soup and salad combos with buttered bread. Once they began to eat, Meghan decided to take notes the old fashioned way. She took out a flip notebook from her inner pocket and sneakily turned on a recorder while her hand was in her pocket. She didn’t want to miss anything.

Jennifer had a few bites of the salad, but wasn’t very hungry. The two women sat calmly. Meghan waited before she asked another question. They could barely be seen through the window from the outside. Jennifer continued explaining the dynamics of her relationship with Jiang, how they had met and how Katherine fit into the picture. Jen explained that she knew Katherine was never involved in her husband’s business affairs but that she knew about Alan’s relationship with Jennifer. She knew that Katherine was a powerhouse at work and that she was called
The Kraken
behind her back. She also explained that Jiang loved his wife, and she wasn’t exactly sure why he had changed his mind about being with her. Soon there was a moment of silence.

She decided to break the silence, “What do you know about Dennis Matthews?”

Jennifer answered, “He was an innocent party in this, but I can tell you that Alan’s wife, Katherine, paid his family half a million dollars. She said it was for funeral expenses, but I’m pretty sure it was hush money.”

“Really? How do you know?” Meghan asked as she took notes. 

“She told me. She had her lawyer visit me at work, which was rather embarrassing. I went outside and she was sitting in a limo. A limo in the parking lot of CVS. She’s a nut. I went inside the limo and she said that if I needed to be paid to keep my mouth shut about her husband’s private life, then she was willing to pay me the same amount that she had paid to Dennis Matthews’ family. She had a check for $500,000 pre–written with my name on it. I refused and told her that she didn’t have to worry about me writing a book about a man that I loved. She wanted to keep everything hush, hush.”

“Hush about what?” Meghan asked.

“I’m not 100% sure. I know that Alan used to be extremely private. Even about things other people wouldn’t think were necessary to be private about. He mentioned a few times that this was the one lesson that Dennis struggled with. He told his mother everything. If I know that, then I’m sure Katherine knew as well.”

“Do you think she had anything to do with the murder?”

“No. She’s not like that. She likes stability. She totally knew about our relationship and didn’t let it drive her mad. As long as he came home, she let it go.”

“Ok. So did she know that he planned to leave her? If she had gotten wind of it, that would be a motive for murder.”

“No. I don’t think she knew. I think she paid Dennis’ mother so that whatever she knew, if she knew anything, she would just leave it alone and move on with her life so that Katherine could sort things out without a conspiracy. Same reason she figured she better drop me off a check.”

“Hmm,” Meghan said as she took more notes on the pad.

“I know something else.”

Meghan was all ears. “What’s that?”

Jennifer looked around and whispered, “
When I saw the men at the dock, one of the men I saw was Robert Benson. I’m pretty sure it was him.”

“Benson was there?”

“Yes. He was there, but when I saw the men grab him, I jumped back and hid. I wasn’t sure if they were going to come into the cabin. They never did, but I wasn’t sure. But yes, Benson was there.”

Meghan was excited. This was important information to note. “Do you know why they were there?”

“I’m
sure
there was a meeting,” Jen said before she took a sip of water. Jen continued, “Have you ever heard of Indigo, Inc.?”

“No. What kind of company is that?”

“I’m not sure. I think they do some stuff with research and development. I know that Alan and Robert were not seeing eye to eye about dealing with the company. They were supposed to meet about something concerning the company. Alan told me that Robert would see things his way but he needed to show Robert some numbers. Maybe that’s why they were there. When the other men showed up, I assumed it wasn’t just a chat over numbers and maybe it was an informal meeting, but a meeting none the less. I’m not sure if it was just an investment deal or a purchase but it was a big deal and Alan wasn’t very interested in any of it. Robert was.”

Meghan’s hand was hurting. She wrote a mile a minute and then she remembered that her recorder was on. She relaxed a little.

Jennifer reached into her big tan purse. “I scraped up some of the files Alan left at the house. Maybe you would like to have them. I can’t promise that they will help you solve the case, but I’m assuming that whatever happened to Alan is probably going to happen to Benson.”

Meghan knew that Jennifer probably had heard that Benson was missing but didn’t know anything about the arm they recovered on the ledge. She said to Jennifer, “This is very helpful. Thank you.” Finch opened the files. 

Jen pointed out a few things and continued explaining the paperwork. Finch received a text from Brown. She read it, lightly smiled and continued talking to Jennifer for a few more hours. Jennifer provided more details about the event. Meghan asked her to repeat what she saw at least three more times to make sure her story was consistent each time. Meghan thought Jennifer to be a very smart woman. They had gotten along fairly well and exchanged phone numbers by the end of the meeting. 

Meghan took Jennifer back to her car where Jennifer managed to get a $41 ticket for an expired meter. Meghan promised to take care of the ticket before she drove off. As she drove away, Meghan thought about Brown. She had forgiven him by now, and was excited to share this information with him, but she decided to go to the library to do some research first before heading back. She needed a break and wanted to make Brown suffer a little before they reconnected. She also needed some time alone to write her report. She knew that meeting up with Brown was going to begin with at least an hour of wasted time fooling around.

In addition to the fact that she had just received information which filled a few holes in the Benson case, Finch could not stop thinking about Sydney. She also couldn’t stop thinking about Anthony. His presence was all over her house and she could not get him out of her mind. She had packed away most of his belongings but hadn’t found the strength to tell his mother to take them. Finch wanted to move on with her life, but Anthony was still haunting her. She knew she was hallucinating but sometimes his presence was too real to deny. She knew she could never move on unless it stopped. She couldn’t figure out if it was his anger with her that kept him there or her guilt that kept bringing him back. 

She pushed the paperwork aside to think for a moment. Her relationship with Sydney was a bit inappropriate, but there were no rules against dating coworkers. Or was she making excuses? It happened from time to time. This wouldn’t be a first. It would have helped if she weren’t a hot topic in the locker room. Unfortunately for Brown, Meghan was well aware of the THANKS FOR THE RIDE jokes and other smart comments the men made about her. She had made a decision to ignore the jokes and to keep working hard. If she complained, she knew the men would make her look like she was just bitching, looking for attention. The only parts of her reputation she cared about in that place concerned her ability to outperform her peers, which she did frequently. Dating Brown would just be the icing on the cake, the final nail in the coffin. Was he worth it? She played with the ring for another minute and went back to work.

Frankie worked the bar with Larry. It was packed. He served dinner after dinner that afternoon. It seemed that a break would only come when the bar closed that evening. Larry and Frankie were a little overwhelmed by noon, so Larry had called in his friends, Marty and Frita, to run the bar for him while he and Frankie worked the kitchen. They had recently lost their bar around the block and had told Larry and Frankie to call whenever they were short on staff. This was a night they were needed. Abigail and Roger were out of town, and a Red Sox/Orioles game played on the big screen. 

Frankie watched the 20 inch flat panel TV in the kitchen. The Red Sox scored. Frankie cheered with the crowd when they scored, but in the back of his mind he could not stop thinking about Abigail and Roger.
Where are they? What have they discovered? Are they coming back?
He wanted them to return, expressing their inability or exhausted desire to find something more. He wanted Abigail to be content with her new life and forget about whatever haunted her. He wanted her to forget about digging into her past or seeing where the rabbit hole went. He thought that one day she would get over the nightmares, forget about everything that didn’t make sense, and think of him as a father.

He also wondered what kind of trouble they had gotten themselves into. He knew that young folks sometimes did silly things, but he felt that this time it was serious. They had come home bloody and bruised. Abigail was almost raped. Roger was shaken up and there was blood on the broom in the kitchen. He thought about what he had seen on the news. He could not imagine that Roger or Abigail would have the ability to pull off a stunt like that. He had only turned on the news to shake them up a bit, but for some reason, they seemed guilty.
Why? Could they manage to pull off something this horrific?
Frankie couldn’t imagine it, but wondered,
If it were possible, how the hell did they do that?

“I need those fries, Frankie,” Larry yelled into the kitchen.

Frankie had lost focus for a moment. He snapped out of it and dropped some fries into the fryer. He flipped a few burgers on the grill and got back into watching the game. He served up the burgers. Marty grabbed them off the counter and passed them to Larry. Frankie checked his phone, but no messages. He thought for a moment and couldn’t resist. He made a funny face, took a picture and sent the photo to Abigail followed by the text: MISSING YOU AT THE PUB– FRANKIE! He looked around to make sure no one had seen him and got back to work.

Roger and Abigail left Ms. Atkins at home while they ventured off to find Dr. Colin Paltee. Ms. Atkins had pulled out an old phone book and prayed the man still had the same number. She called and to her amazement, the number worked. She spoke to Dr. Paltee and explained as much as she could without saying too much on the phone. Paltee understood enough of her clues to get the point and told her to send Abigail to his home in Hampden, CT, right away. They drove off that afternoon hitting the Massachusetts turnpike heading west towards I84. 

It was lightly raining. The wipers went back and forth across the windshield leaving streaks from the worn blades. Roger was driving. Abigail had packed the armor suit into a duffel bag and planted it in her lap. She rested her hand on the bag, keeping guard over it. Suddenly she received a text message. The vibration broke her concentration on the suit folded meticulously in the bag. She looked at her phone. She saw the picture Frankie had sent and for the first time in a couple days, she sincerely smiled.

She said to Roger, “So… the fact that you can build this suit and can’t seem to fix anything else perplexes me.”

Roger knew this was coming and said, “Playing possum isn’t easy, Elvis. I can do a lot more than you think. All the bullshit gadgets in my house... it was just a front so no one would suspect anything.”

Abigail asked, “So what was the point of having me come over to help you work on your 'inventions'? They didn’t work and you never intended for them to work. I don’t get it.”

Roger looked at Abigail and smiled. “I told you to come because I figured you needed to get out. And… I wanted to spend time with... I guess you don’t get it but anyway… We didn’t want them to think we had the capacity to rebuild the suits. They stalked our home because they thought she stole the plans.”

“Which she obviously did.”

Roger nodded, “True, but you know how the government is sometimes. They watched our house for about eight years after we left CT. I fucked up by going to MIT. It made them watch even more. I pretended to have a nervous breakdown. We hoped to leave them with the impression that my unstable mind and disabled mother weren’t capable of fixing a toaster. I intentionally failed classes at MIT so they would leave us alone.”

“So you stopped educating yourself to get the government off your back?”

“The government, Global Tech–Gin and all the other goons they had working on the project. According to my mom, those people were up to no good. She didn’t trust their intentions and sabotaged her own lab before she left. She blamed it on an electrical fire. She left behind some bogus plans for the suit and got out of there.” Roger pulled into the right lane. 

“My mother was being modest, Elvis. She was the brainchild behind the suit. Those were her schematics and her ideas. She designed the suit. Yes, the rest of the team helped, but don’t let that woman fool you. She is a genius. She felt totally responsible for the men it killed. She couldn’t let them have it. That suit would have been left in the wrong hands, so she took the plans and taught me everything she knew about engineering and math when I was young.”