Anarchy in New Enlgand (14 page)

"Barry," Orange said loudly. "Barry!" this time, snapping his finger, he got his attention, and Mr. Barry looked up at Agent Orange like an obedient child. "Are you mad at Drake?" The agent asked loudly and clearly, a hint of baby talk in his words.

"I’m goig down." Barry said matter of factly with a shrug as he turned his gaze back to the table, "zall over, nufin lose." – shrug – "Drake down too?" – shrug – "Idunno- depends." Barry just kept shrugging, each time making the same ambivalent frown and repeating the last phrase, “Idunnodepends.” He tried to raise a glass that wasn’t there to his lips, only noticing when his hand touched his face, at which point he looked at his hand accusingly.

Agent Orange was looking at Barry and shaking his head in agreement, like a boss in the process of firing an employee.

"Come with me back to the bar," the Agent said as he turned in the doorway, and walked back toward the bar room. It took Barry a second to stumble to his feet, and Agent White walked up behind him to support him walking to the bar.

In the bar room Orange had put on a pair of black gloves, and taken a thin rope out of his pocket and was tossing one side over a sturdy light fixture in the center of the room. Agent Orange whistled a tune as he started tying one end of the rope in a loop. White led Barry back to his seat at the bar, and reunited him with his half empty glass of whiskey before taking the seat next to him once more. Barry huddled around his glass with both hands on it, elbows on the bar, head slumped looking into the glass. His hiccups were lighter and less frequent now, and he seemed to hardly even notice the agents’ presence anymore.

Still whistling Agent Orange strolled across the room and began looping the other end of the rope to an ornate metal hook embedded deep into the hard wood mantel piece. Before tying the knot, Orange looked up at the light he hung the other end of the rope on, adjusting for length. Sauntering back over to the bar, Orange poured himself another half glass of beer, and immediately downed it. He rinsed out the glass, and wiped it with the same material White had used on the screen, also wiping down the outside and brim of the glass, and the beer tap. Agent White also pulled a pair of gloves out of his side pocket, and put them on.

Agent Orange walked back across the room, resuming his whistling, and dragged an armchair to the center of the room, as White dragged a bar stool, taller than the chair, to the center of the room next to it. White then walked to the bar and helped Barry to his feet.

"Wherwe go-n," Barry sputtered, eyes intermittently opening.

"Up the stairs to bed," White said softly, nurturing. "Here’s a big step," he led Barry onto the chair, "And another big step" Barry was helped onto the stool, while Orange stood on his tip-toes to slip the noose around Barry’s neck, and tighten it. White was still holding Barry’s hand to stabilize him, "Now stand up straight, Mr. Barry." White used the same nurturing tone.

Barry had his hands out and his knees bent, shaking a bit, in an attempt to balance. Agent White stepped back, and Agent Orange kicked the top of the stool, which crashed to the floor at the same time Barry’s neck snapped with a clear loud crack. The agents looked over the room once more to make sure they hadn’t left any signs of their visit, and then left out the back door, the same way they came in.

As the Agents walked down the sidewalk away from Barry’s house, the Corner Cop Security tail snapped some long off blurry pictures of the duo, and sent them over to Themis with a note about the two agents visiting Barry that night.

Back in the bar room one more shadow was added to the regular array. It swayed slowly on the wall, and on the bricks of the fireplace. Barry’s body hanged, lifeless in the center of the room, with the Crown Royal sign over the bar offering the only flickering light.

The main story the next morning was the evidence release from Barry Arbitration which supposedly pointed to Atlas Protection as tampering with evidence in order to nail Ted Lanta for the murder, and thus avoid the destruction of the Lanta distillery business when Ted took over. Atlas Protection had managed to survive the first wave of angry customers and dropped policies when Barry first announced the reversal of Ted’s indictment, but this was even worse. Customers didn’t want to hear that they had to wait another month for the independent assessment of the evidence to see who was really at fault.

Usually the office would be like a ghost town on a Saturday, but Atlas Protection was in full damage control mode. Atlas was forced to offer all sorts of incentives just to keep his customers, and AP was running low on operating cash, having waived thousands of fees for customers until this was all settled. With all the news out, banks were not interested in taking a risk to loan AP money. Mr. Atlas wondered if he would be able to keep the company afloat until the final review came out.

He decided to give Molly a call to ask if BER could release some details that would at least cast doubt on Barry Arbitration’s legitimacy. Molly agreed to give an interview to preview the BER report on Barry Arbitration that was scheduled for release on Monday. Mr. Atlas was watching as the interview came on a popular news feed.

"Frankly, we want to urge all customers to wait for the independent review before deciding whether to keep Atlas Protection or drop their policies," Molly explained. "Even BER’s report scheduled for release the day after tomorrow will give some signals that this scandal may not be all it is chalked up to be. At this time, I can confirm that Mr. Barry of Barry Arbitration took a personal bribe to transfer one of BA’s cases to another arbitration agency. Because of this action, and others, BA will be downgraded by Business Ethics Review. While BER has no direct knowledge of the case of Atlas Protection, we would advise skepticism of anything to come out of Barry Arbitration."

The station cut back to a reporter, "That statement coming from Molly Metis of Business Ethics Review regarding Barry Arbitration, the morning after the evidence against Atlas Protection was made public. Mr. Reed Barry has not been reached for comment, and could not be seen entering his office, or leaving his home this morning. Repeated attempts to call and knock on his door have not – hold on I am getting some updated information as this story unravels.

"I am being told that a female friend of Mr. Barry’s entered his home this morning, and inside, found Mr. Barry hanged, in an apparent suicide, with a suicide note written on his counter tablet. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Further details to come as this story takes a dark twist. Indeed customers may want to withhold judgment of Atlas Protection until all the details are sorted out.

"In other news, Transcend Space Travel has announced a breakthrough technology that will allow customers five day travel between Earth and Mars. Stocks surged nearly 2,000% after the initial announcement…"

Mr. Atlas stared at the screen with his jaw agape. Feeling a twinge of guilt, Atlas realized he was happy that Barry had killed himself, because this made the evidence release fade in comparison. Now the focus would be on what made Barry kill himself, rather than on the evidence – fake as it may be – against Atlas Protection. Atlas instructed his employees to bring up the suicide, but try to remain civil, in an attempt to deter customers from dropping their policies. The independent review could not come soon enough.

Eating breakfast, Officer Themis had been watching the same interview as Atlas. As he learned of Barry’s "suicide" he nearly spit his coffee across the room. On big cases, Themis turned into a bit of a workaholic, and had already seen the pictures of the two agents leaving Barry’s house the night before. But CCS was the only agency with that information at this time, and there was no other reason to suspect that his death was not a suicide.

"I’ve gotta get to the office!" Themis burst out to his family as he quickly pushed his seat out and grabbed his jacket and portable.

"What’s wrong?" his wife asked, concerned.

"I don’t think that was a suicide, and I have pictures of who’s behind it. This is big honey, I’ll call you. No idea when I’ll be home. Love you." He kissed his wife and kids, and ran out the door, leaving Mrs. Themis bewildered in the kitchen.

Themis grabbed a pod to go see Drake and question him about Barry’s visit to his office the evening before.

In the lobby of Drake’s office, Drake’s secretary eyed Officer Themis suspiciously, recognizing Themis’s badge as a security badge, and asked in a testy tone, "Can I help you?"

"I need to speak to Mr. Drake about a security matter."

Flustered, the secretary looked at Drake’s schedule and back at Themis. "Do you have an appointment?"

"No I don’t but this is an important matter, Mr. Drake’s cooperation will make this a lot easier."

Sensing that Drake would want to avoid such an interview, the secretary began to make up an excuse about why Drake was not in his office, when Drake popped his head out.

"Benjamin I need you to get ahold of Mr. Patrick and-" Drake began to order calmly before looking up, mildly startled to see an Officer in his lobby.

"Oh you
are
in," Officer Themis said sarcastically, smirking and casting a sharp glance toward Drake’s secretary, who blushed despite his dark complexion, and just stared at his computer screen.

"My name is Officer Themis," he said walking over to Drake and extending his hand.

Drake was obviously caught off guard; he shook Themis’s hand silently, before stammering his own introduction, "Ah yes, I’m Mr. Drake. Won’t you join me in my office?"

Drake closed the door and took a seat behind his desk, flashing a short slightly detectable smile toward Themis to be polite. Drake then folded his hands on his desk, and stared at Themis waiting for his explanation.

It was a few awkward moments before Officer Themis spoke, he was trying to get a feel for Drake.

"Beautiful office," Themis said cheerfully to Drake, with a smile.

Drake just raised his eyebrows for a moment and remained silent, still staring at Themis. Themis cleared his throat and dropped the smile. "I wanted to ask you a couple of questions about Mr. Barry."

Though his heart skipped, Mr. Drake’s appearance did not change in the slightest. His usual calm and collected poker face was an asset in situations like these. A few seconds passed before Drake spoke.

"Mr. Barry was a friend of mine. NESA is also a customer of BA, though we will be switching our main representation this week, for obvious reasons. I was disturbed to hear about his suicide." Drake spoke low and without emotion.

"Could you see any indication of why Barry would commit suicide?" Officer Themis asked.

"Well, the news reports can give us some insight there. It seems Mr. Barry was involved in some less than ethical business practices. I think he saw the writing on the wall, and knew his business would be ruined. Obviously NESA would not have continued to do business with BA under the circumstances, despite Barry being a friend of mine."

"Could you tell he was depressed, especially over the past few days?"

"I haven’t seen much of Barry over the past week or so. I think he crawled inside a bottle when he knew he couldn’t outrun these problems," Drake drawled.

"But specifically when you saw Mr. Barry yesterday at 15:25. Was there any indication that Mr. Barry would end his own life?"

Drake sat silently, staring down Officer Themis, the periphery of the office losing focus as his sight narrowed, and his gaze turned more acidic by the second. How did Officer Themis know that Barry had visited his office the day before, and what else did he know? Could he have connected Drake to Barry’s death? Drake’s heart was racing, but he wouldn’t let that show.

"There was no indication," Drake replied deep and slow.

"None? What exactly did Barry come to see you about yesterday anyway?"

Another pause. "Officer… Themis is it? I’m afraid I won’t be able to answer any further questions without a personal arbiter present."

Officer Themis didn’t move, but stared at Drake unflinching. "Okay." Themis eventually said, with a hint of suspicion in his voice. Themis couldn’t help but ask one more question, just to see if anything about Drake’s stony demeanor changed.

"Just one more question," Themis said as he walked toward the door, turning back to Drake, "through your business dealings, or your personal relationship with Mr. Barry… is there anyone who would want him dead?"

Drake began to speak but his voice cut out, forcing him to clear his throat. "hem, It’s easy to make enemies in this business…."

Themis gave a final nod before leaving the office, "Thanks for your time."

Drake was worried. If Themis knew that Barry had come to see him the afternoon before, he may also know the Agents visited Barry’s home. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would be possible for the dots to be connected if the Agents were identified – although they had taken pains to be unidentifiable, in order to excel in their field of work.

Drake knew he needed to contain this, but he couldn’t initiate his ultimate plan without something solid to blame on drug cartels from outside of New England. The attempted murder of Molly had been attributed to outside drugs, thanks in part to Drake’s control of the popular news outlet, News of New England, but it was generally viewed as an isolated incident. He had originally thought that a string of murders would be best, but there was no time to plan for that. He needed one big, brutal event, linked to the home invasion of Molly.