Flutter (30 page)

“That seems to be the biggest puzzle piece here,” Duffy said. “I checked up on Scott Baine and Caesar Gibbs, the two Johns we ID’d from the alley killings, and nothing. There was not one significant connection. Scott used to work for about three weeks at a mail delivery service that delivered once or twice to Chapel and Case, but that was about a year ago. He’s been to jail a few times for aggravated assault and armed robbery.”

Brown said, “Then maybe it was random.”

Finch replied, “Maybe unintended. Maybe the Johns mistakenly crossed paths with the killer?” She pointed to the image of Abigail and said, “I can’t see these two frail things here pulling off something this vicious.”

“You’re right, but they were there. Maybe they saw something. Maybe they saw the killer or killers and ran away,” Brown added.

“That’s plausible. We really need to find out who they are. I need better footage or something. Until then, we have nothing to trace back to them.” Finch took out her phone and took pictures of the Alan Jiang murder photos just to have them on hand. “What about Caesar Gibbs?”

Duffy said, “Oh. You’ll love this. That boy had a rap sheet as long as he was tall. And he was a sex offender. He had just got out of...”

“Sex offender?” Brown said.

“Yes! Big time. There were three complaints. Only one was solid. Sex with an eleven year old boy. He was in jail from the age of 18. He just got out a year ago. He should have been about 25 now,” Duffy added.

“So... a sex offender... in an alley with a convicted armed robber, and I’m sure the other two Johns weren’t Mormon saints,” Brown added. He pointed at the digitized picture of Abigail and Roger and said, “They were attacked by those men, and whoever else was in that alley probably helped them get away.”

Tammy said, “Maybe it wasn’t the same killer as Jiang and Benson’s. Maybe...”

Duffy interrupted, “Impossible! That type of strength in more than one person? I can’t see it.”

Finch said, “That may not be a far off idea, Duffy. Give me a minute.” Finch turned to her computer. She began typing as Duffy, Brown and Tammy continued to discuss connections or possible scenarios. 

Brown eventually noticed Finch was completely focused on something else. Brown asked, “Everything okay, Finch?

Finch was shaking her head as she looked at an email she had just received, “Well, first off, I contacted the HR department at Chapel and Case to see if we could come in and talk to the security guard who thought it was a good idea to tell Cons to steal Benson’s ring. They told me that they outsource their security to a company called Guardsmen Security. I called Guardsmen. They told me they would look into it and get back to me. They just sent me an email in response to my inquiry. They don’t have any record of him.”

Brown sipped his coffee and rubbed his head in frustration, “Why am I not surprised? I bet he hasn’t shown up for work since we left.”

Finch said, “I doubt it. I asked, but they refused to give me work schedules. Even more interesting, I’m looking up this company Indigo Inc. that Jen told me about. Alan and Robert were supposed to be meeting about it the weekend Alan was killed. I keep getting all these whacked out conspiracy theories and a supposed connection to research facility in CT called Plum Island.”

Duffy had been secretly listening and butted in, “Yes I heard about Plum Island. I saw this thing on the History Channel about it. Some stuff about testing bio–warfare initiatives and human DNA alterations and testing. There was this… thing that washed up on a beach a few years ago, a crossbred animal...”

Brown said, “Yeah. I remember hearing about that. It was called the uh... the Montauk Monster. It was really creepy looking. Then there was another one. Some sort of dismembered and distorted human figure. It had elongated extremities, the witnesses said. And when people tried to get copies of the police report about the dead body, the police pretended not to know anything about it.”

Tammy said, “This sounds interesting.”

Finch continued, “So, Indigo received a shit load of money from the government for research and development to take over a project called Gray Scale. Investors didn’t know much about it but they made a ton of money. When the government invested in the company, the stock price increased by 25% in a month. So being that Project Gray Scale was first class, top secret, the details of the project where hush hush. But thanks to WikiLeaks, the facts on a Project Gray Scale were leaked to the public, but no one was concerned about it because no one knew to look for it. Until now.” 

Launched in 2006, WikiLeaks was a non–profit organization that received recognition by releasing and publishing classified government documents on its website.

Finch handed Duffy a paper which was a print out of a top secret document dated back in the early ‘90s. He read, “Project Gray Scale… creating
super soldiers
… tests 1 through 62… failed, resulting in 24 deaths of marine soldiers… blah blah blah. President orders cease and desist. Project Gray Scale failed… blah blah blah. Government no longer funding. Project orders reassigned to Indigo Inc. under the direction of Jason Dewey. Dr. Colin Paltee… Reignite Project Gray Scale as Project Flutter… inconsistent results… cease and desist.”

Finch said, “Then, as years went on, Indigo suddenly lost a bunch of money, investing revenues from other projects into Flutter; and they requested additional funds from the government. The government declined and from there, they sought out funds from venture capitalists, angel investors, etc. So, guess who recently dropped a huge sum of money on Indigo Inc.?”

Brown said, “Chapel and Case.”

Tammy said, “Ok let me sum this up so I can see if you agree with where I see this going. Indigo is connected with Chapel and Case and connected with Plum Island– known for human and animal testing. And, they wanted to create super soldiers... At some point Chapel and Case invested money...”

Brown said, “And Jiang and Benson were supposed to meet with Indigo again.”

Finch said, “Don’t forget Jen’s account of what she saw. Men that could leap 15 feet in the air, moving around as fast as lightning.”

“Sounds like they would have enough strength to rip a man apart with their bare hands,” Brown said. He wiped sweat off his brow. There was a brief moment of silence. Brown walked back over to look at the pictures on the board. He took a sip of coffee and scrunched his face as he thought a little more. Tammy watched over Meghan’s shoulder as she scanned through more memos, photos and articles on WikiLeaks.

Duffy broke the silence and said, “Awesome work guys. Really! I have to step out for a moment. Nature calls.” He smirked.

“Thanks for sharing,” Brown said.

Duffy walked out of the room.

Tammy said, “He’s right Meghan. This is great work. I was a little worried for a minute. It looked a bit bleak for a moment.”

“Tell me about it!” Finch said.

Brown added, “I can’t even take credit for all of this. You’ve outdone yourself, Meghan. You should be proud.”

Meghan smiled and blushed a little. “Thanks but the case isn’t solved yet, Sydney,” Finch said.

“True indeed. We should talk with Downy and keep him abreast of everything,” Brown said. 

Suddenly an alarm went off on her phone. Finch immediately started packing up her things and said, “Yes, but in the morning. I’m gonna get outta here. I want to follow up on something. It should be quick.” But she knew it wouldn’t be quick.

Brown was taken aback and said, “Whoa! Where are you going? You make these connections and then boom. Gone!?”

Finch continued packing and said, “I’ll text you.” She just shut down the computer and tucked it back into her bag. She took off out the door so quickly that she scratched her knuckle on the lock. She didn’t even finch, she just kept it moving right out the door and down the hall.

When Meghan got into her car, she took a deep breath. She rolled down the windows and let the breeze flow over the mist of sweat on her brow. It felt refreshing, reminding her of her younger days playing in the meadow with her brother, hiding in the shade from the sweltering summer sun. The cool breeze offered a comforting coolness that helped to calm her nerves. They were on edge. 

Meghan had finally answered her mother–in–law’s text message that morning after months of ignoring her messages and phone calls. She wasn’t sure why she answered this time, but the woman’s persistence made Finch feel guilty. Meghan promised to meet up with her for a late dinner. She was about to get there. She really wanted to go home, shower and change, but knew she wouldn’t have enough time to do all that.
Should I go or come up with an excuse?
Meghan tossed the idea around in her head, unsure of what she should do. She thought,
Technically, she was never my mother–in–law in the first place. I don’t have to be there for her, do I?
 

Meghan knew she was avoiding the things that would feed into her memories of Anthony, starting with his mother, who was never friendly towards Meghan. Anthony was still haunting her and she needed to move on. And, now that she could admit to herself that she was in love with Sydney, she didn’t want to take any steps backwards by digging up old wounds. But she had made a promise to meet Anthony’s mother; and though it made her nauseous, she decided to follow through.

She didn’t tell Sydney about the meeting. She didn’t want to stir up anything or answer any questions. She didn’t want advice or judgment. She decided to see how it would go and tell Sydney only if it were necessary. Sydney was intimidated by Meghan’s lingering feelings for Anthony. He knew that anything referring to “Anthony” took Meghan ten steps backwards in progress. Telling him now wasn’t the best idea.

Meghan plugged in her iPod. She scrolled down to Adele and played the first track. She pulled off the road, deciding to make a stop at the store before heading out so that she wouldn’t arrive too early.

******

Duffy left the men’s room and walked to his desk. He received a text message, “CHECK THE DRIVE. ALL FILES VISIBLE AND UNLOCKED.” Duffy looked around and made sure no one was peering over his shoulder. Most of the men in the office had left for the evening. He opened the shared drive and saw the two folders: and . He clicked on the JENNIFER MARTIN folder and saw scans of photos of her and Jiang, he saw Meghan’s hand written notes which she had scanned and then typed out from the meeting he had missed. He saw files and memos between Chapel and Case and Indigo. He copied all the files onto a jump drive. Then he opened the DIANA BENSON file. He didn’t see much, but since he wasn’t sure what he was looking for, he took copies of those files as well. He tossed the drive in his pocket and left the office.

Roger and Abigail took Frankie’s truck and headed off to check on Ms. Atkins. As they drove, Abigail could hear Roger’s heart beating against his chest. She analyzed his anxiety levels, breathing speed and depth and watched his eyes. He was in total panic but was holding steady. She wasn’t very good at being affectionate, but she knew she had to try. Roger was about to lose his composure. He held back tears, and negative thoughts came to his head.
Why am I panicking? She’s okay
, he kept telling himself, but he didn’t believe it. He never went this long without hearing from her. She had always returned his messages, but he couldn’t have imagined what was really going on.

Roger became more and more concerned as they got closer to the house. Abigail called Ms. Atkins a few times but there was no response. She said to Roger, “I can’t get through.”

He replied, “Please keep trying. If it’s not going straight to voicemail, then the phone is still ringing, which means she should hear it.”

“Maybe she stepped out, Roger,” Abigail said. She tried to offer an alternative to what she knew Roger was thinking.

“My mother NEVER leaves the house. She rarely goes outside; and if she did leave the house, she would have contacted me. I just need to get there soon as possible. I don’t want to speculate about what’s going on,” Roger said with his hands shaking on the wheel. Roger’s feelings were valid. He knew how his mother functioned.

Roger knew his mom slept a lot, but she was not a hard sleeper. If she heard the slightest noise, she would wake up. After years of paranoia, she learned how to listen in her sleep. Roger knew that even if she had missed the first call, she would wake up for the second call. A third or fourth call would not be necessary. He tried to stay positive. Abigail sensed his anxiety and knew it was her turn to comfort him as he had been comforting her for some time. She placed her hand on his thigh, softly rubbing her thumb from side to side. She would have held his hand had it not been on the wheel. He picked up the speed, going 20 miles per hour over the speed limit.

Abigail thought of the day she had warned Iris that they were once again coming for her. She had slipped out that evening from her apartment which was shared with other Ezekiels in the same building. After reaching the desired skill level, Dewey let the Ezekiels live on their own in apartments he chose for them, but he would usually make them live in what he called “clusters”. Abigail lived in the Alpha cluster with four other Ezekiels including Adonis. She lived in a posh two floor apartment with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a small office, a personal gym, and a pool. There were black marble tile floors throughout the apartment. Her living room had a leather ivory sectional sofa with a matching chaise and ottoman where she often sat eating Thai noodles with chopsticks. On the wall hung a 60 inch LED HD TV over a gas fueled fireplace. Unknown to anyone, Abigail had installed surveillance into the other Ezekiels’ apartments. She would turn on her TV and study footage of each of the apartments where she had installed six cameras and microphones in key locations. Abigail didn’t watch much TV. She mostly spied on her counterparts.

One night as she returned from an assignment, she looked out the window to see Dewey entering the building with Ben and Saul. His
pesty pets!
She rushed to the TV dropping her weapons and supplies on the floor. She flipped through the channels, unsure who he was visiting. When she realized he was visiting Adonis, she put in her headphones and carefully listened to the conversation. Dewey was completely unaware of the surveillance and spoke freely about the next target, “Adonis, we’ve located a target that eluded us a few years ago. She’s been in hiding ever since. I’m sure she is receiving assistance.” He pulled out an envelope. “Here is her photo and information. This will require your special, immediate attention and comes with Red Level 10 discretion requirements.”