Rose are red
Violets are blue
Everyone is a part of the problem
Everyone, including you...
Atlas felt Dani's grip on his shoulder hardened. "What?" she stumbled, "What the heck do you mean? I-I?" For a moment she was lost for words. Atlas could feel her petite hands fumble like she had Parkinson's disease. But something deep down inside her cracked as she found some words, "You know about Gary?" She spat out with great hatred.
Her reaction was like Atlas' when Adam told him what he knew. Although he didn't react right away, he reacted when Adam left an hour later.
The mysterious person who Dani killed was Gary McNeil. He couldn't believe she hid this from him for so long. Gary McNeil? Charlotte's boyfriend, who ran away to Mexico last year? Atlas thought that was super suspicious, but he didn't question it just like everyone else. Now he wished he did because it was a mind-blowing moment to find out that Gary McNeil wasn't in Mexico—He was dead just like his girlfriend.
And what made matters worse was that his death sparked a lot of things, "Yes..." Atlas whispered. "I know about Gary..." He felt her grip loosen as her head dropped.
She grabbed her face and covered her eyes. Now both of them were in disarray, and that wasn't a good thing. One of them needed to have a straight head, "Who? Who told you?" her voice was muffled by her hands, "Was in it in Charlotte's messages? I told her to delete—"
"No," he cut her off as a few shivers travelled down his spine. He had a major headache that just wasn't going away, and he bit too far down onto his fingers to continue, "Adam told me... He told me he helped Charlotte hide the body. He told me that after that day he started to drink heavily." He recited the boy's words, "he had to be impaired to forget something that traumatic."
"Oh god..." She cried, "Chris was right..."
"What?"
She turned her head, "It's nothing." She grabbed her arms and held her body tight.
I know it's more. Atlas wanted to press for more, but he had too many other things rolling around in his brain. He had to tell her more.
"How did my violent act spark something?" she quietly spoke, "I made sure I covered everything up... Charlotte made sure that we covered everything up? Oh god?!" Her body jerked forward as she recalled the memory.
Atlas took a deep breath and rubbed his tired eyes. "I have some theories." He shut his eyes, "but I need to tell you some more drastic things first." He held his fist together, "You see, Adam was over her a week ago. He's been over here every day since. During his time here, he shared things about his life and his dad. And with the terrible things he shared, there was one common factor between all of them."
"Since when are you friends with Adam?" her voice was barely audible.
He wavered, "That's not important right now." He used whatever energy he had left to stand up and pace around the room. He felt had to move around. He couldn't sit still, not with all this information, "That common factor was Last Year."
"Yeah and?" she sighed, still curled up.
"A lot of things happened last year... a lot of big things! For everyone?" He turned on his toes, "for you it was your incident with Gary and for me, it was my Dad's arrest."
Dani looked up, "Ok?"
Atlas sighed as she wasn't seeing it yet, "Not only did both those huge things happen last year, but they all happened last year around the same time." Dani didn't budge, but he wasn't going to wait for her to understand now. "I thought it was just a coincidence since it happened in the same week; Gary's death, my Dad's arrest, and the messages I received. But no, Everything is connected, including those letters both Chris and Charlotte had. But I will get to those later."
Dani slowly uncrossed her body, but she had a concerned look on her face.
"I did some digging..." he continued. Dani now looked slightly intrigued but concerned for his well being. "I dug around and I asked my mom about my dad's murder case."
When Atlas gained the courage to do that he felt terrible. His mother always hated looking back at the incident. He convinced her to help him by saying it was for a research project.
When she eventually stopped crying, she told him what she knew. Then things started to click.
"Remember a few weeks ago? Everything that happened with my Dad? I said that they kept the identity of the other 3 people he killed a secret. They said it was for the families' privacy, but I think it was for something bigger." He stopped and glanced down at Dani. She was now at the edge of her seat looking even more concerned, "One of the people my Dad was charged for went by the name of Garreth McNeil or as you know him as—"
"Gary?" her eyes widened. "T-that doesn't make any sense?" She slowly got to her feet and stopped him from pacing, "Why was your dad charged? I—I killed Gary? And everyone else who knows him knows he ran away to Mexico?" She didn't look like she wanted to admit it, but at least they were both open about everything.
Atlas took a step back, "that's what I realized too, but then I looked back at the fact that Gary's rich. He had rich parents. They paid people to keep it a secret." He rubbed his chin as his heart calmed down a bit, "Having their stupid son run away to Mexico sounded a lot better than being killed by a serial killer. So they just let the harmless rumour that you or Charlotte made up slide."
Dani looked away, "but that doesn't make any sense... Why was your dad charged then? He didn't kill him."
"My dad knew he didn't kill him... He just confessed to killing him because Gary was on the list he was working on. He was going to kill Gary eventually. You just beat him to it."
Dani shook her head and stumbled back onto his bed. She leaned forward on her hands and stared. Her glasses moved up her face as a few tears ran down her face. "That asshole was going to die eventually?" she stumped in disbelief. "I— I?"
"I think my Dad not killing Gary broke a clause or breach the contract? That's why it's in my hands now." Atlas grabbed his forehead as his brain felt like breaking out of his skull. He thought if he told her everything, his headache would have gone away—but it just got worse. Even with that off his chest, there was more info, and more things to unravel. He slowly slid against the wall and observed Dani.
"Wow..." that was all she said as she held her fists together. For a moment it was just their rapid breaths in the quiet space. But Dani then slowly whispered, "I—don't understand? Same thing with Charlotte? Why was Gary on the list? Why were they both?" She seemed to be in dread and disbelief, "they were just teens?"
"I think it has something to do with the Sterling Property Advisors." Atlas cringed as he got back up to his feet.
Dani looked at him coldly. "You made that assumption already, I told you that Charlotte had nothing to do with them and neither did Gary."
Atlas waddled to his desk and logged into his laptop. "I know you said that but maybe they did have something to do with them? And they just didn't tell you."
"I don't understand," Dani stated.
After a bit of waiting, Atlas navigated through his computer and pulled up the files and images he saved from Charlotte's phone. Before they were not 100% clear, but thanks to Haliey and her text skills they were crystal clear. When Atlas asked her to do it, she didn't ask questions. She just asked him to make out with her in return.
He did... since he didn't know what else to do.
He was so close to piecing things together before Dani arrived, now that she was here and caught up he could now run everything by her. "Remember when we were at Betty's place and we found a termination letter with Chris' name on it." Atlas gagged as he could remember the image of the bodies.
He heard an audible gulp from Dani, "Yeah..."
"Well, that letter was addressed to Chris directly." He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out the stained papers from 2 weeks ago. "I told you I found something like this on Charlotte's phone. There were many photographs of the same document, all saved in a different app." He scrolled through his computer and pulled up the photos. He heard the ground creak as Dani got off the bed to join him. "From a distance, it looks like multiple photos of the same document. A document similar to this one right here." He patted the bloody sheet of paper, "but with a closer look and a good editing program you can see that out of all the 10 photos, 9 of them were addressed to Charlotte and 1 of them was to Garreth McNeil."
"Oh, my..." Dani whispered.
"Indeed." Atlas blew up the photos and allowed Dani to read the messages.
Transcript
March 29, 20xx
Garreth McNeil,
This letter is to inform you that your employment with the Sterling Property Advisors will end as of March 29, 20xx. This decision is not reversible.
Your employment was terminated for these performance reasons:
On xxxxx, 20xx, you received performance coaching and were informed that your performance would be required to improve if your employment with Sterling Property Advisors were to continue.
On xxxxx, 20xx, you received a second warning and were informed that failure to improve performance within 60 days would result in your termination.You have failed to meet the performance targets agreed upon. As a result, your employment has been terminated.
Your health care benefits will remain in effect for 35 days.You are requested to return all company property, including your car, cell phone and ID badge before the end of the day. If you have questions about compensation, benefits, company property or policies you have signed, please contact management at 555-1212.
Regards,
Management
. . .
She gasped, "It's almost identical to the one Chris has." She grabbed the bloody paper from the desk and brought it close to her face.
Atlas gagged as his stomach turned. The nausea plus the headache wasn't a good combo. He held onto his stomach as she held it up to the screen.
"It's identical, the only thing that is different is their names." She dropped the papers, "holy shit!" she stressed.
"Last year..." he added, "Around the same time things started to happen. The photos themselves were taken a few months ago, though."
Dani shook her head. "Wait, so if both Charlotte and Gary had one, and so did Chris... Does that mean Mrs. Herbert also received one last year? And what happened to the other 2 people your dad killed, they wouldn't have received them... weren't they killed before that date?"
"Yes... but they could have received one before that date? And Mrs. Herbert could have also received one. But we haven't stumbled upon it yet." He rubbed his eyes, "those are pieces that haven't fallen into place yet."
The girl hovering over him slumped. She walked away from the desk and scratched her head, "This is... wow, this is all too much."
"I know and I have a major headache just thinking about it," he recalled how panicked Dani looked when she walked into the room. He must look awful now... he sure felt like it.
Dani approached his window and glared out to the trees, "who the hell sends termination letters to people then forces someone to actually terminate them?" She turned on her toes.
"Someone with a lot of power and influence," Atlas shrugged, "Someone who works for the company... These are company-issued letters... but they're not signed." He glanced back at the screen.
"Do you think it's the CEO?" Dani suggested.
Atlas cringed, "Ricky... No! He wouldn't kill his son?" Those words stayed at the tip of his tongue. Ricky looked so messed up when he heard the news. Plus, The Man couldn't be Ricky. Atlas received a text message from The Man around the same time Ricky and Adam were crying.
"You're on first name bases with him?"
"It's a long story."
"Yeah sure?" Dani huffed. She slowly returned to the bed and sat down, "So someone with lots of power sent out these letters to people...then sends you to kill them? This is crazy! What did all those people do?"
"I don't know..." That was all Atlas could say. Things fell into place, but there were still so many questions and parts messing. This problem was much bigger than the two of them.
"What happens now..."
Atlas picked up his head. "What?"
"You heard me... what happens now?" She looked distorted. "You dug deep, uncovered something with a lot of loose ends, and now you're here," she shrugged. "This is huge Atlas... what you're doing is tied to a large corporation... I don't think you should have uncovered this."
Atlas frowned, "I'm now starting to regret that... things were so much better when I was in the dark." He looked at his laptop.
"Uh yeah?" She stated in a duh tone, "You now know that the people on this killing list were preconditioned. Whatever they did to get on the wrong side of the man must have been severe." She paused then leaned forward on her hands thinking, "I can't handle this... I can't handle anything, with Charlotte and Gray... and Adam knowing oh god?" she coughed, "I came over here to tell you I wanted to call the deal off, and now I'm finding out that I'm stapled in the middle of this weird contract problem." She rubbed her eyes, "to be honest, I don't know what I'm going to do. What are you going to do?"
She met his eyes for the first time in a sincere way. There wasn't any hate or dread, it was just a perplexing stare. Atlas' heart picked up as he looked away. He didn't know what to do now. The Man didn't know he uncovered and connected all this. So through The Man's eyes, Atlas was just a pawn he was using to get his dirty work down. But now that Atlas knew part of the truth, he wanted to face the man. He wanted to find out why and what these people did to deserve death. But to do that, he had to kill them... he had to finish the contract. "I'm going to finish the contract," he spoke quietly but Dani heard him loud and clear. His voice sounded unsure about it, "The Man is still threatening me and my family, so I have to see this through."
Dani got up and walked past him, "Ok fine it's your deathbed." She shrugged, "I can't handle it anymore... especially with all this."
Atlas stood up and grabbed her arm. Dani huffed as his skin made contact. She didn't bother to move as Atlas held on tight, "Please... I'm kind of tired of playing the poor begging guy, and we've dug so far into this problem... it's going to be hard for me to come back up alone?"
Her mouth stood agape.
"I'm asking you to help me see this through, help me with the rest of the list, and maybe then we could find out why they were on it in the first place? Don't you want to know why two of your friends were on it?" He strikes at her social appeal. Even Atlas wanted to know why 2 teens were tagged by an unknown stranger. From Dani's perspective, they had no connection to the Sterling Property Advisors. However their rich family names and the fact that they were both six feet under, says otherwise. If Dani could just suck it up and help him finish, they'll both get answers. And as a bonus, he'll be free.
Her lips frowned as her eyebrow bunched together. She removed Atlas' hand off her and crossed her arms over her body. For a moment, Atlas thought she would say something sarcastic, or tell him he's crazy?
But she didn't.
Instead, she got a twinkle in her eye, a look of sorrow. She took a deep breath before she spoke, "Are you still going to pay me?" she asked.
"Oh," Atlas scratched the back of his head not expecting that as an answer, I guess she really needed money? After all that, she was still thinking about cash? "Ok? Yeah I'll pay you." He felt at ease with her on board.
"Good, because after all this criminal detective mafia shit, I need to run away and forget it all." She rubbed her temples.
Atlas laughed, "I have a feeling that once this is all over, nothing would be the same again." He sighed, "I think I might join you? We'll be partners in crime."
Dani playfully pushed his shoulder, then walked back into the room. "Sure?" she smiled, "but before we go back to plotting. Could I perhaps have the answers to the biology homework? You do technically own me more than cash?
"What?"Atlas blinked as he watched her.
"What?" She mocked his voice, "don't pretend that you don't remember!" She laughed, "You promised me reimbursements! And homework answers seem like the perfect reimbursements for me. Don't you think so?"
End of Part 1