The Society

Chapter 28: The Aftermath

The Aftermath - Ian Dawn

As I drove her home we both stayed silent. Someone could have sliced the silence with a knife, as it enveloped us like a thick blanket. Cassie was staring passively out of the window, her hands were still shaking. God, I knew that if we failed it would hit her hard. But I didn’t know that she would react like this. She really is broken.

“Here we are.” She looked at me like I had spoken in a strange language as I pulled the hand break and switched off the engine. “Come on let me walk you up.”

She looked indifferent but a quick bend of the chin constituting a minute nod confirmed that she had heard me. I walked over to her side of the car, to help her out, something I normally wouldn’t do but now  I was treating her like a porcelain doll. She looked so broken and fragile that every single inch of me hurt. I could feel the rage towards Broffman rise up in me. It’s all their fault, him and Lieberman. If they hadn’t murdered her mother none of this would be happening now. They will have to pay, pay for the murder and pay for making Cassie feel like this.

I opened the door to the passenger seat as I was trying to push down my feelings of rage, being angry right now would not help Cassie.

I had unlocked the door, cajoled Cassie in the living room and placed her on the couch. I had just gotten her coat off when she seemed like she was suddenly back in reality with the rest of us.

“Thank you for this Ian. You really didn’t have to.”

I looked at her, my heart swelled with emotions of care and concern. Yes, I really did have to take care of you. “Don’t worry. I just wanted to make sure that you got home okay. I know this is really difficult and I didn’t want you to be one your own.”

I had returned from her kitchen, where I had made tea. This kitchen seems far sparser decorated that her old one…

“Here you go,” I put down the steaming cup in front of her on the coffee table. She had curled up on the couch underneath a blanket. As I sat down next to her I noticed that her cheeks were wet. Tears had just recently rolled down her eyes, she had been silently crying while I was making tea. I scooted closer to her, put my arm around her shoulders.

“You know that this is not your fault.”

“But it is!” tears started rolling down her cheeks again. I looked at her, struggling with what to say, so I just held her closer. They need to pay… “I should have listened to my father and I should have listened to The Society. We could have done more. We could have been just as bad as them. If we had been then he would be in a jail cell by now.” Yes, that could have been the case. But it’s not.

“It’s done now. There is nothing that we can do to change this now. The real culprit is really Lieberman, he is the one who issued the orders. He is the one that is ultimately responsible and his trial is still ahead of us.” I hesitated for a second and then continued, “They use unethical tactics but we can do the same. I know it’s not what you want to do as an attorney or for me as a detective for that matter. But maybe we need to start fighting fire with fire. It’s not the tactics that determine if they are unethical it’s what goal they are used to achieve.”

She did not respond but just continued to silently cry against my shoulder, the tears were still streaming down her face but seemed to be slowing down in pace. I held her tighter as the tea stood on the coffee table untouched and slowly getting cold.

I was walking towards headquarters, hopefully I would be able to speak to all the fellows and quiet them down before Cassie arrived. They are going to be upset that we didn’t use full force and they will blame her. They have to understand that she is already taking this seriously enough.