Chapter 1 #2
Janeese, your love for this motherfucker is the only reason I haven’t sent his ass packing.
Anthony Furgeson was a piece of machinery that complemented Blackwood Pharmaceuticals well.
His sharpness and attention to detail are the reasons I brought him onboard.
The security of my niece’s future after he met and married my sister is the reason I allowed him to buy into the company. Fifteen percent was his share.
Fuck it.
I exited my office and made my way down the hall. A swift right led me to Anthony’s office. The door was sealed, but a simple twist of the knob granted me access. I flipped the light switch, illuminating the office.
The smell of freshly changed vanilla plug-ins confirmed housekeeping’s presence.
They’d come during the night, while the rest of the world was asleep.
I hadn’t noticed the changes in my office, because there was hardly ever a piece of paper out of place.
The only task of theirs when inside my office was emptying the shredder.
I sat behind the cherry wood desk. The worn leather welcomed me with tenderness. I rested my hand atop the white mouse and moved it around slowly. Within two seconds, the screen livened and I was prompted to enter the passcode to access the computer.
Arb0424.
I didn’t have to think twice. Aubrey was the center of Anthony’s world. If there was a passcode to be made by him, it would involve the little girl that had us all wrapped around her finger.
Access was granted.
Bingo.
Icons began to appear on the screen, covering the beautiful girl with long, thick curls running down her back.
Her skin was paper brown, almost matching the color of her eyes.
She’d gotten those from her father’s side of the family.
Redheads and hazel eyes were common. However, those genes had been recessive for Anthony, while dominant in Aubrey.
She didn’t have red hair, but those eyes were undeniable.
I paused to gather my breath. My heart was on the screen. Somehow, it was in my chest as well. I tilted my head to get a better look at the image as if I hadn’t seen it a thousand times. As if I hadn’t seen her more times.
It never mattered. Aubrey’s was a face I could never get tired of.
She was the most precious thing God had put on Earth.
Her innocence left me in awe. Teaching her the ways of the world was my greatest passion.
She was clueless and as cute as they came.
But, by the time she was ready for the world, the world would not be ready for her. I’d make sure of it.
GeoPharma. It was the file I was interested in. It was a shared document that Anthony and I had teamed with Rachel on, collecting data and pinpointing inconsistencies that alarmed us. They’d all support BP’s case and getting another look at them was not an option, it was a requirement.
“Geo… Geo…”
Barely above a whisper, I repeated the name of the file I was in search of. The document tab didn’t prove to be helpful. Downloads were my next quest.
Ace Pharmacy.
AD Pharmacy.
A*
A**
A***
A****
I continued to scroll with my eyes, though my index finger had stopped moving. It wasn’t long before I located the file I was in search of. I pressed the Enter key, prepared for the GeoPharma data to appear.
Instead, my heart fell into the Bottega Orbits beneath the legs of my jeans. Redness surrounded me. Crimson blood ran down the walls of Blackwood Pharmaceuticals. Cuffed wrists flashed before my eyes as they closed, then opened again.
Trying to make sense of what was in front of me.
Trying to figure out how I’d intended to click one file but opened another.
Trying to understand why my baby girl, my whole world, was in such compromising positions with little to no clothes on her five-year-old body.
Darkness coated every crevice of the office as discomfort drove me deeper into the files highlighted with stars.
Images.
More images.
Footage.
More footage.
I couldn’t stomach the sight of my sweet Aubrey in the photos or the footage, but determination kept my eyes steady and my heart running wild in my chest. I went through each file. There was no need to scroll the images. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. The first image of each file was already paralyzing.
Blood filled my mouth, forcing me to let go of the inside of my bottom lip. I pulled in a deep breath, not realizing I’d stopped breathing. My teeth ground against each other as I removed my cellphone from my white jacket and began dialing my sister’s home phone number.
I can’t.
As quickly as I dialed the number, I erased the digits from my screen. Janeese didn’t have the heart to deal with this. She’d never survive this kind of news.
She lived in an alternate world. One I’d created for her, although she was four years older than me. Life had been unfair to her as a child, so I felt it was my responsibility to make sure it was gentler the moment I was able to.
Now, her days consisted of Aubrey, pilates, long walks, burning almost everything she baked, learning new recipes, planning family gatherings, PTA at the school, solo cinema dates, collecting eggs from her chickens, and handwriting letters for elderly family members who lived all over Huffington.
I pressed my balled fist against my lips as the calculations rolled in. Vomit threatened to dirty the already disgusting computer. Because of the hour, there wasn’t anything on my stomach, and for that I was thankful.
Four files. Six hundred images. Two hundred and twelve pieces of footage.
7:26a
My watch provided the time again. I wasn’t sure when Anthony would walk through the door or if he’d manage to make it out of the door, but I knew that I didn’t have much longer on his desktop.
I placed the cursor on an image and copied the name. I then opened Anthony’s emails and pasted it in the search bar.
No results match your search.
I repeated the same step for twenty-six photos.
No results match your search.
I repeated the same steps for thirty-two videos.
No results match your search.
Flustered and agitated with the lack of results, I rubbed my palm against my mouth.
Pondering.
Thinking.
Planning.
Plotting.
Reconsidering my life.
Saying goodbye to my freedom.
Mentally pulling the trigger of my gun until it stopped shooting and then reloading and emptying the clip again.
Time wasn’t a friend of mine. Neither was procrastination.
Not right now. I pushed my feelings aside and tapped the button on the bottom of his screen to access the internet.
I searched his bookmarks, but came up empty-handed again.
All of the sites marked were linked to the work we both did at BP as lead pharmacists.
The browsing history was a mile long. However, the frequency of his visits and the websites that were familiar to me helped narrow down the results of my search. Within seconds, I was catapulted into a dark hole.
An abyss.
A different world.
A dark pit.
A well that would dry soon, now that I knew of its existence.
A username and password were stored on Anthony’s computer, granting me access to the dark side of the internet. The black screen and small words in the center were proof I was in the right place.
Just as I entered the site, an email notification appeared. GeoPharma was the sender. The first three lines of the email were visible. Clicking on it would be evidence of the unauthorized use of the computer, so I decided against reading the entire message. What was visible was more than enough.
“Good morning, Blackwood Pharmaceuticals. I regret to inform you that I won’t be making this morning’s meeting. We have another situation on our hands that need my immediate att–”
As the notification disappeared, the office phone rang up front. Rachel wasn’t in, yet. Neither was Anthony.
Fuck.
I unlocked my cell and opened the camera, quickly capturing the address of the website. Anthony’s passwords were next. I located them and took pictures of them as well, along with each website a password was stored for.
Before logging out, I viewed the calendar.
By heart, I remembered each date. I needed his availability, his plans, his time with Aubrey, and his time alone.
It all mattered, suddenly. Anything else hardly did, even the postponed meeting with GeoPharma.
As a distraction, I would still study the data and arm myself with the information that I’d delegated to Anthony, because it was highly likely he wouldn’t make the meeting with Geo.
He’d be cold, stiff, and gray by the time Todd walked through our doors.
Upon exiting the files, I initiated the print job on the file I’d come for.
I shut down the desktop and made my way out, body still in flames and head still spinning.
My walk to the front of the office to retrieve the papers from the printer up front was long, dreadful, and full of disdain for a beloved pharmacist, brother, and the father of my niece.
The respect I held for him dissolved instantaneously.
All that was left was malice and mayhem.
I reached the front of the office as Anthony burst through the door. I pressed my teeth together, nearly shaving them down a millimeter from the intensity of my grinding. My nostrils widened almost three inches. My nose was partially flattened on my face. My chest was swollen.
My heart…
My heart was broken.
I hope you told Janeese goodbye, because today is likely your last day on Earth, my brother.
My eyelids stretched apart at the movement of steel around me. The unit was loud, rowdy, and brimming with chatter. I remained still as the locks were initiated, forcing everyone inside their cell for the night.
With each passing second, the quiet grew louder. Still, I rested my head against the pillow, unbothered by it all.
Daylight was my preferred rest period. There were too many spirits roaming the halls and the common areas. Half of the men here had nothing to lose. The rest of their lives would be spent behind these bars and their pain was apparent. They wanted anyone they came in contact with to feel it.
While I wasn’t afraid of those encounters, I avoided them. Giving the prosecution hard evidence of a crime I committed while awaiting the dismissal of a case for a crime they couldn’t prove I committed was not in my plans. In fact, it would be foolish of me.
So, I slept when the unit was awake. And, I was awake by the time the unit was put to rest. The quiet was my sanctuary. My solace. My sacred place.
I reached toward the back of the mattress, splitting open the small hole. The cell brushed against my fingertips, making it easy for me to remove it from the cushion. I powered it on.
“Uh hm.”
I cleared my throat as I placed my feet on the floor. A text appeared, marked for two hours earlier. My heart rate increased as I etched the digits in my head like the words of a spelling test on Thursday night.
The time on the watch on my wrist was revealed. I’d slept for more than six hours. My body wasn’t exhausted, but my mind was. It kept my lids sealed as it recouped. Reset. Rested.
8:26p
“Decent.”
It wasn’t early, but neither was it late. While I cared about the impression, I didn’t care about anything else. I pulled in a deep breath and began entering the digits into the keypad.
1-228-555-1292
I initiated the call and pressed the phone against my ear. The coolness of the facility made bumps sprout from my skin.
If that makes you feel better. I chastised, knowing the real reason my skin was littered with fine bumps.
The phone rang, crippling my thoughts and stiffening my limbs.
If that makes you feel better.