《The Manifest》Chapter 25

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Back at the new location, things were just a little intense. Edgar was sitting in a chair in the middle of the room, speaking to no one and thinking to himself. Jerome tried to get him a cup of coffee from the really nice coffee maker he bought with the rest of the equipment, but he wasn't responding to anyone at that point. It had been over twelve hours since the fire and no one from the office had called back. There had been no phone calls, pages or even a word from the station to let them know that a body had been found. Edgar would have to visit the cop shop later on to find out for himself.

Devon was on the roof of the building having a ton of smokes and needing a moment alone to go over a few things. Moth had mentioned to Jerome that she had never seen either of them as angry as they were at this point, and the loss of so many associates had never been seen before from both sides. She lost a few friends that night as did Edgar who seemed lost without Tuck there to pat him on the back and get him back to work. The room was very subdued and no one seemed ready to get to work, and Jessica couldn't blame them at all. She slept that night on the new couch that Jerome had been eager to test out himself that night, but was overruled by Edgar.

Jessica cried when she heard about the fire, and felt so bad about what had happened. Jerome made her feel better by letting her know that the official cause hadn't been determined and for all they knew it could have easily been anything bad wiring or a stray cigarette instead of fowl play. Even though Edgar and Devon seemed to have their doubts, Jerome was hoping that it wasn't half as bad as the two professionals seemed to think it was. They were in the rabbit hole and they were deep enough to land themselves in trouble. Once you're down there, you can't come back out. Jerome was fully aware of this and that scared the complete crap out of him. He turned back to Edgar, eager to ask a few questions.

"Edgar," Jerome called out. "How did you and Tuck pay for this place?"

Edgar finally snapped out of his daze and looked back to who was now his only employee, "We're fine here. It was paid for in cash under a false name. It's going to take a while for them to figure out this place, if they can at all. We also have off shore accounts that are listed through companies that we have zero connection to that we can use to get our money from here on." this comment seemed to get a response from the few people in the room. Moth seemed a little stunned, but Jessica was the one who seemed to have the strongest reaction of the three.

"What do you mean?" Jessica suddenly asked, "Isn't this enough to make you want to back off?"

"I hate to break this to you," Edgar responded in his usual sarcastic smart ass tone, "But as of today, you're the only client I have left. Even if I called everyone else who I was working for right now, chances are they would refuse to work with me out of some fear they'd burn down next. It's a stupid, over-enthusiastic way to look at it but I'm sure that's what they're all thinking right now. What the hell did Tuck and Edgar do to piss someone off that much?"

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"I'm not sure of the answer myself, mate." Devon said as he finally came back from the roof, "but I wouldn't mind asking the bloke who did it a few questions about that myself."

"Join the club." Edgar responding, his humor as dry as ever, "Are you still in this?" he asked both Moth and Devon.

"You bet I am." Devon answered as he looked over to Moth, who gave a nod to show her own approval, "We lost a few mates up there in that blaze too. And the last time I checked, I have a no refund policy. I got your money and I intend to earn every friggin' penny of it. So if you all don't mind, I wouldn't mind getting back to work."

Jessica couldn't believe what she was hearing, but started off for them, "I was talking to Jerome about my mother's heirlooms. He's right about one thing: if she were to see them online and knew they were hers, she would spend anything to get them back. I know exactly what items we should post to get her attention and where to post them."

Edgar turned to look back to his only client, "Now that is something I badly wanted to hear. Do you have a picture of the item in question, or access to the item so we can take new pictures of it?"

"All the heirlooms are at home, in my father's private vault." Jessica said, knowing this wasn't want they wanted to hear, "But until we get what you're looking for, I have some pictures from my graduation that I am sure will do the trick. I wore my grandma's necklace when I attended the ceremony. If you post a picture of me that day wearing it, she'll know it's hers and bid like crazy."

Jessica walked over to Jerome's computer and typed a website address into the browser. It loaded up a dozen pictures from her college graduation, and there she was wearing the necklace that they needed to put up for auction.

"This is perfect. It will do for now." Jerome said as he downloaded the pictures and blew them up. "I can post both the full picture of Jessica wearing it, plus a close up of the necklace itself that way they'll be no doubt what it is. I'll work with Jessica and she can give me a history of the item in question and have this baby online within a few hours. We can use this information to our advantage. We can type in a specific way that will appeal to her and let her know that it's hers. Then all we have to do is sit back and wait for our fish to bite. I'll make it a two day auction, that way we'll force the bids to come in fast and furious with a quick auction. We'll observe who bids rather furiously and investigate them. If we don't find anyone familiar to Jessica, we can always repost and try again."

"Get on it then," Edgar said as he stood up to leave, "I've got to make some phone calls."

Edgar left the room and proceeded to head for the roof himself. But instead of walking out and lounging on the roof, he stooped at the doorway and never left the staircase. He sat there and dialed a number of a friend who he knew would have the information he needed.

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It took a few rings before someone eventually picked up the line "Office of the Fire Chief."

"Yes, hello." Edgar said, trying to be polite, "I need to speak with deputy chief Rodney Jackson, please."

"Can I ask who's speaking?" the voice quickly asked.

"Yes, tell him it's his brother Allan on the phone and that it's urgent that I speak with him." Edgar waited as he was put on hold.

"Allan, what the hell do you want?" an annoyed voice suddenly asked. Edgar knew that his brother called in a lot and always said it was urgent.

"Sorry to fool you Rod," Edgar apologized, "But this was important. It's Edgar Willis."

"Jesus, Edgar!" the voice on the other end said with a sense of shock, "Why didn't you call earlier? We're still combing through the rubble looking for your body!"

"Well, I'm calling now." Edgar responded, somewhat touched by his friend's genuine concern for his well-being, "I want to know what you guys found out concerning this fire. I was out having supper when the fire broke out and got back too late."

"It's not pretty, Edgar." Rod confessed rather quickly, "We've pulled at least a dozen bodies out of your office so far. We've managed to identify a few of them by dental records so far."

"Is Tuck one of them?" Edgar asked, hoping for the best.

"I'm sorry, Edgar." Rod responded, trying to sound as sympathetic as he possibly could, "We found him in his office. Everyone was pretty much at their desks, which is what red flagged the boys in blue."

"Keep going." Edgar said with an idea of what he meant but needed to hear it from Rod, "Tell me everything, I need to know."

"They were dead before the fire started." Rod replied as he held nothing back, "Someone or likely some people killed them all and then set the fire intentionally. I'm still waiting for lab results, but I'm willing to bet my life savings that gasoline was the accelerant. My nose is rarely wrong. I'm so sorry Edgar, but if I didn't know better this looks like a mob hit. Everyone was killed at their desk and the place was set a blaze. What kind of people have you been working with lately?"

"I'm not sure anymore." Edgar confessed but held back because his only lead was in the apartment below, helping Jerome post pictures online, "I'll go through the files we have electronically filed online and hand them all over to the boys, and I'll also give them my alibi. I was eating and the manager can vouch for me. I know that's what you were thinking."

"I'm paid to think about every possible angle, Edgar." Rod answered trying not to sound mean, "You know we all get paid to think that way about everyone, no matter who it is."

"Well, if you genuinely thought it was me, you wouldn't be telling me any of this stuff." Edgar confessed, knowing that much, "And I thank you for filling in the blanks for me. You have no idea how much I appreciate that."

"You be careful Edgar." Rod said rather concerned, "If these people took out Tuck and the others this brutally, you might want to lay low till the boys find out who did this and bring them in."

"Thanks, I'll take that into consideration. Bye." Edgar closed the cell up stood there at the top of the stairs, fully aware that the worst case scenario was suddenly becoming his worst nightmare come true. He looked down, and Devon was just half a dozen stairs below him, looking up and had likely watched and listened to him talk to Rod about what happened. Edgar knew this was likely the best time to tell him.

"Tell me," Devon said, knowing Edgar had the truth.

"They were dead before the fire started." Edgar said, holding nothing back. He looked back down at Devon and could see the anger in his face, much worse than it had been last night. The big biker walked up to the top of the stairs and looked back to Edgar as he reached the top.

"We're going to find these bastards," Devon started, "And when we do, I'll get them to spill their guts about everything. We'll have all the information we need to expose everything and yank their pants down in front of the entire world and expose all of their secrets to the fucking world."

For some reason, Edgar felt rather comfortable with the idea.

"As long as we find the people they're trying to hide and bring them home, I'm all for it." Edgar said, as he stepped back to give Devon some space in the stairwell. The news of his people being murdered before the fire started was enough for him to want to light up again.

Devon was puffing before he reached the middle of the roof, "I'm not just doing this for the money anymore. Now it's personal."

"No shit, Sherlock." Edgar said, "But keep going, let it out."

"I was ready to laugh this case off and just fart around," Devon continued, "Do just enough to earn the money you gave me. I would have done a half-assed job happily just to screw you and Tuck over after what happened last time."

"Okay," Edgar replied, "Some could argue that we might deserve that."

"Well, I'm over it." Devon chided back, "Now I have a new enemy to spew my venom at. I'm ready to kill every one of them till there's no one left. Rip their enterprise down. Strip the walls right down to the studs."

"Sounds good to me," Edgar admitted.

"You have a plan, don't you?" Devon asked, "I mean beyond the one brain boy downstairs come up with."

"I might," Edgar confessed.

Devon tossed his smoke away and walked closer to speak to Edgar about this, "Come on, mate. I know how they work too, and we can use this information and training to our advantage. Let's take it to those bums."

"Alright," Edgar said, "Let's take the fight to them."

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