Chapter 14: 3 crime scenes, none alike in dignity
It had been a quiet few hours. Aaron Langemann had been reading the staff notes and reports, but asked Holly to review the audio files while he reviewed the texts (noticing that she could make out the voices of the other guests quite easily thanks to the interrogations earlier that day). They worked in tandem while Ida calibrated her deceased husband's CB radios to a frequency only those 3 had and with proper video capabilities. It was 5:00 sharp when a knock came on their hotel room door; they all stopped what they were doing and headed to answer the knock together, hoping to get a drop on the killer. It instead was room service. This was a different staff member than any of them remembered. He was well over 6 feet in height, roughly 275 pounds, and talked with an Austrian accent. The combination staff uniform and chef's hat looked somewhat out of place even as he spoke:
"I cooked this, neither it not had I ever left the kitchen. Then I travelled with it alone. No one touched these meals but me. None of you are in any danger."
Aaron took a whiff, "Blackened Chicken with corn and roasted garlic mashed potatoes I presume?"
"Good nose, I am very impressed."
Holly began flipping through her purse, looking for the right amount of cash. "I will never get used to Canadian money with it not being paper and all"
"It is on the house. How goes the review of our notes and whatnot? I trust you have at least eliminated a few suspects?"
"Great. We have eliminated a lot of people actually, but we are going to need the utmost of privacy and secrecy as we need to go over the crime scenes again after we have finished eating."
"Of course. I will see to it personally that neither the scenes nor any of you are disturbed. Enjoy your meals."
"We will, thank you."
The chef nodded, clicked his heels (while bowing slightly, an ancient farewell style of Austria) and took his leave, they set up the food at the dining room table and sat down (Aaron and Holly at opposite ends with Ida in the middle). After about 1/3 of the way through the meal, Ida spoke first. "I have the CB's all on the same frequency and I think we are a go for video. How many people did you guys eliminate as suspects?"
Aaron finished his glass of Jamieson on the rocks, "28, 14 people left their respective alibis long enough to have killed Aaron without also being picked up on any of the staff's recorders. And the 14 all have decent enough computer skills to crash the computers long enough to ransack the safety deposit boxes and are agile/quick enough to have killed Fabio and Harley."
Ida tilted her head sideways, "That is amazing but how do they breakdown in terms of Cult people and Yfe people?"
Holly was the first to finish her food, "It is an even split. 7 cult and 7 yfe. Our criminal is either Allan, Andrey, Catherine, Chiara, Corrine, Elizabeth, Frau, Heather, Isabel, Laurie, Marcel, Phoenix, Solveig or Vanessa."
"Wow, So from that list, either Allan does not support his fellow autistic as he claims, Andrey really wanted film money for his struggles, Catherine is nowhere near as nice as she appears to be, Chiara is capable of killing her own husband if it means covering her tracks, Corrine was hired by her former roller derby team, Elizabeth is more Robot than mom, Frau was not worn out from shagging Damon's brains out, Heather hates pirates, Isabel had enough of Aaron's independent thought, Laurie assaulted Lindsay to misdirect us, Marcel is faking his shoulder injury from carrying D.J. equipment to misdirect us, Phoenix really wants a show in Toronto even if her biggest fan does not live to see it, Solveig gets murderous when high or Vanessa was acting under the false guidance of the nearby band."
Holly and Aaron L. looked at each other and then nodded at Ida.
"Ok, I know Holly has looked at the bathroom scene already…"
"…Oh I can go over it again. That is not a problem."
"Great, thank you. And Aaron L. can go over mine and my husband's room."
"Of course, I would not want to subject you to that. You have suffered enough"
"Thank you. I guess that leaves me in the room of the safety deposit boxes. Should be easy enough…"
"Sounds like a plan."
Aaron L. and Ida finished their meals and the 3 detectives grabbed the Cb radio's. Aaron turned them all on. "I will not be leaving the room. But may I suggest you 2 travel in different ways. In case our killer tries to blow something else up, they will not be able to get to you both."
Holly and Ida simultaneously thought of the killer getting at either of them. Then realized how pragmatic it was for them to travel alone, contrary to the wolf pack mentality of certain genres of film and book.
"Agreed", whispered by both simultaneously.
Holly and Ida exited the room door. Holly looked at Ida and asked, "Would you like the stairs on the left or the stairs on the right?"
"Right works for me."
"Ok. Good luck."
"You too."
They split up on their respective journeys, hoping to crack their case.
Holly and Ida reached their respective points of investigation without any issue. Once Ida was inside the safety deposit box room she spoke into her Cb, "Testing, Testing….Aaron…Holly…can you hear me?"
"Copy that Loud and clear." replied Aaron L.
"Good reception here, over." replied Holly
"Ok. The ventilation shaft the killer needed to get into the men's room looks like the opening was returned back to its' correct position."
Holly looked over by the urinals, "same on this end."
Aaron asked, "Did you ladies bring flashlights?"
"I did."
"Me too."
"If you can do it safely, I would like you 2 to search inside the ventilation shaft, in case our criminal dropped something inside the shaft."
"Good idea Aaron, I will get the step ladder out of the Janitor's closet."
"I have a desk under the entrance to the shaft on my end, I can climb up."
Ida had just enough difficulty climbing up the desk so that when she was inside nosing around, she also recognized Holly's flashlight.
"It is such a short distance that Holly and I can see the whole shaft between us. Anything on your side, Holly?"
"No such luck. How about you, Ida?"
"Same. Nothing is in the shaft Aaron. Still a great guess though."
"Ok, climb down and continue. Now Holly, did you check all of the stalls or just the ones nearest Fabio and Harley?"
"Just the ones nearest Fabio and Harley."
"Look in all of them, our criminal could have used a different one to cover their escape."
"Sure. That makes a lot of sense"
"And Ida, are the desks stuck to the walls or can you move them?"
Ida pushes a desk, to her delight, she can move it easily. "They appear to move, and quite easily to boot."
"Ok. Do a check of the floor around you, then check behind the desks."
"Ok, how is your search going Aaron?"
"Nothing new here, see?"
Aaron waves his webcam around the room, slowly. Holly sees a sparkle where 1 should not be. "Aaron stop. Behind the safe, I saw something shiny."
Aaron looked behind the safe and found, "It is a necklace. Red semi-precious stones on thin black rope."
"How many stones?"
"4, unusually shaped, it spells out the word…cult."
"So our criminal is in the Cult of Aaron and they are taunting us." replied Holly with a mild sense of smug in her voice.
"Not necessarily. It could be, almost literally, a red herring left by someone in the Yfe family."
Aaron and Ida heard a shriek coming from Holly's cb radio.
"Holly? Are you alright? Please copy quickly, are you alright?"
After a moment's pause (and noise resembling someone picking up the radio that had fallen onto the bathroom floor, "Yes I am fine. I just found something. The stall nearest Fabio's body had its' top removed. So I looked inside and I found…"
"…found what? An upper decker?"
"Aaron that is disgusting. Why would some shit in the upper bowl of a bathroom? No, I found a picture."
"A picture inside the shitter. Of what?"
"Of Your favorite enemies. They are onstage, somewhere in…YES…this is a picture Aaron took of the band a month ago at Canadian music week."
"So our criminal is in the Yfe family?" replied Aaron with a mild sense of smug in his voice.
Holly caught the echoing sentiment immediately and denied it, "Or someone in the Cult of Aaron left behind a red herring of their own."
Ida sighed and whispered, "Knock it off, you 2. My pants are vibrating."
"Is it that fingerprint app on your phone? Did it find our criminal?"
Ida got her phone out and looked at the main screen, "I wish it was but sadly no. It is a text message. It says 'check front desk. Sincerely, a friend.' It does not give a name but the area code is 512. Aaron, is that a Canadian area code?"
"No, and I deal with all of them from my business in the Philippines."
Holly sighed and said, "I cannot remember where offhand, but it is somewhere in the southwest united states."
"I have no wi-fi to find 512 on wikipedia, do either of you 2 guys have internet access?"
"Nope. I think the hotel staff took the internet down as a precaution so that the killer cannot get outside help. Unless Holly is holding out on us."
"I have no internet either. Ida, I am finished here, I will go with you to the front desk."
"Thank you Holly."
Ida waited a minute before leaving the safety deposit box room, knowing it would take Holly that long to get to where she was. Then she exited and walked almost right into Holly. Getting to the front desk was a walk in the park by then.
"I just got a text saying to come here."
The afternoon shift front desk manager nodded and handed her a brown envelope. On the front it said, "To Ida, do not open until you are back in your room. Take the freight elevator, it will not explode, I promise. Signed, a friend."
"Do we trust this guy?"
"My gut says yes. The writing looks different than the killer's."
"Ok. Freight elevator it is."
Holly's instinct was right. As they reached their room quite quickly, Aaron took notice of what was in Ida's hands.
"What is that?"
"An envelope someone left for us at the front desk. I guess it is time to open it. We are all here."
Ida opens it carefully as she did not want to damage it. She began reading aloud:
"I am not the killer, compare this writing with any writings you have from the killer to know that I am not lying. I am neither from the Cult of Aaron or the Yfeniverse but I believe I know who has committed the crimes. As a gesture of good faith I would like you to hold my note and the killer's notes (If they made any) under a lamp as I unfortunately have something in common with the killer."
Aaron gets the killer's note out and all 3 hold up both notes to the main light in the living room, they gasp at clue simultaneously. Holly spoke first this time:
"Good God, both notes are written on stationery paper that came from the A&E TV network."
"Can you order that stuff online?"
"No. You have to have done some business with A&E at least once in order to receive it."
"I think our 'friend' is a whistleblower. Looks like you were right Holly, these 2 letter writers are clearly not the same person"
"We should keep reading."
"Agreed."
Meet me by your floor's Ice machine at 8:00 sharp. This is more than just 1 criminal at work. This is a criminal with some major backing. That said, the killer is not conspiring with anyone else in this hotel. See you soon. Signed, a friend."
Ida looked up from reading the note, "What time is it now?"
Aaron looked at his watch, "Uh, 7:55"
Ida's eyes widened, "Shit. I better hurry."
Holly put a hand on Ida's shoulder, "We will not be far behind."
Chapter 15: The obligatory celebrity chapter
Ida walks out from her hotel room to the floor's Ice machine with a lot on her mind before she announces who the killer is (she is still not entirely certain as to who did it all even after all of that examining of all of the scenes), where she is met unobtrusively by a stout, southern gentleman in his 50's dressed in casual clothing, cowboy hat on his head, and an erect posture.
"Ida Wordell?"
"Yes?"
"I am glad you came. I am sorry about the precautions. But I promise you, I am a friend." Stated the mystery man while he and Ida shake hands. There is a vague familiarity in him to Ida, but she cannot at the moment place him.
"Well, I just hope it was worth my while, Mr …"
The man does not answer. Ida, after all of the crimes that have taken place, is testy and suspicious. The mystery man picks up on this, and does not blame her given the circumstances
"I could give you a false name, but I will not. Just call me X."
"I have already been taunted by the killer, Mr. Whoever. So if this is another type of threat, I do not...
"Again, I am not with the killer, Ms. Wordell, I checked in here just before Aaron was killed. I was too late to be an observer to Aaron's birthday and the subsequent aftermath as per his private request to me last fall and I assume that if you have followed my letter to meet with me here, what I have to say interests you. But I am not going to name names, or tell you who or what part of Aaron's life I represent. I think you should know that in the next few minutes on your own. Except to say that you are close, you are closer than you think…Ok?"
Ida nodded, as she was more impressed with this person that any person that she had to interrogate. Something about his manner speaks of authority, knowledge, and above all, old-fashioned honesty with his eyes looking at you straight on. He indicates a walk around the floor over and over with the index finger of his right hand.
"Ok, Everything I am going to tell you is classified top secret...Aaron only kept this from you because you asked to stay out of the political side of his social existence whether it was Yfe or Cult of Aaron."
Ida offers him a significant look, one indicating reluctance but eventually acceptance.
"I am a TV figure, Ms. Wordell. Storage wars, the Texas one to be exact."
A light bulb went off inside Ida's head, "Good to see you Ricky Smith. Aaron told me you were one of only a few famous people he ever trusted as family. I wish he was here to see you."
Ricky continues as if she said nothing, "I was one of those secret guys in Aaron's life that never adhered to the rules and regulations of your favourite enemies or any of the groups comprising the cult of Aaron. The celebrities who did things for Aaron that none of his regular friends could do. For what we call "black operations" - "black ops", Character assassinations, criminal exposure to the police, rigging social situations, propaganda, psych warfare, internet warfare, charity surpluses, social initiatives, Facebook security and so forth. 2011 and 2012 - I helped take the Facebook and Twitter intelligence apparatus out to help us fight Amy's brainwashing of male yfe fans and her getting away with all of the temper tantrums she pitched in the church. We also fought Amanda Anastasio's ignorance that Yfe was doing Aaron more harm than good and Shandee Lingard's desire to visit him at his home in Brampton despite his declining mental state. CMK in 2013, stealing communications in order to stop the civil war from destroying the Bramalea City Centre. Russia in March 2014 we were breaking strikes to help Andrey Iskanov make more independent films to start a peace revolution throughout Asia - we overthrew the Premier of Russia, the Mayor of Moscow and Mayor of St. Petersburg in under 8 hours. Vietnam in September 2014 to get the last of Thom Phung's family out after the floods, Chicago in 2015 to ensure a Wwe talent scout saw Harley Pakula and John Grim wrestle each other in a 2 out of 3 falls match that ended in a draw, Alberta 2015 we got Adam Debideen out of the largest Prison riot in Canadian history - we were good, very good. Then we got into the Yfe thing again. Not so good. Set up all of the bases for You, Aaron and Aaron's mom to have a safe time at the YFE 9 year anniversary party supposed to take place in Montreal in November 2016. Alex Foster sent the invitations to all of Aaron's Non-Yfe friends to resist the invasion, Zoran Mitrovich refused to invade and we were standing out there with our dicks in the wind as Aaron wanted to successfully neutralize yfe's use of guilt trips, ignorance of people (especially Aaron himself) who expressed independent thought and forceful advice but at the same time get a peace treaty signed by Yfe and the Cult Of Aaron that established both sides as equal in Aaron's life. A lot of pissed-off people, Ms. Wordell, you understand? I will come to that later...Aaron's 2018 birthday, I spent much of September 2017 working on the Aaron Collins plan for getting all grudges between himself, his friends, his enemies and his acquaintances resolved by the end of 2025. This plan was one of the strongest and most important ideas issued from yours and Aaron's house. His first 1,000 grudges were ordered resolved for Christmas in order to prove Aaron's determination to bury all of his hatchets. Tensions were high. Earlier this month, one week after the murder of a former CMK advisor to Aaron Collins named Kevin May by his own wife Sarah, and two weeks before Aaron himself was murdered...a strange thing happened to me."
Ricky's mind flashes back to the A&E offices a couple of weeks prior. He strides down a busy hall and into the offices of one of his superiors, a lean, cold warrior, battlefield handsome, civilian clothes, and several advisors. There is a U.S. flag on the wall. The status of the TV executive is only clear by the sing on the desk, the name blocked by a passing figure.
"I was sent by the TV network to South Africa as the liaison to promote our show as A&E finally got a TV deal in Africa. I was being wined and dined by a bunch of international VIP's. This trip had nothing to do with my years of work in storage auctions. It was sort of a 'paid vacation'. One of which I would rather never been asked to go on."
They hear vague mutterings of a friendly atmosphere, and we see Holly and Aaron L. emerge. Ida stares at Ricky and says, "They are the other 2 amateur detectives. Mr. Aaron Langemann and Ms. Holly Ann Rapp." Ricky tips his hat in their direction, "I will continue. Ida, fill them in later." Ricky struggles to remember where he was and suddenly his mind shows him the JFK airport in New York City. He sees himself, in a suit, at a newsstand reading an article about Aaron's 35th birthday. The banner headline of an "Extra" edition of the New York Times screams out 'Aaron Collins's guest list escalates.'" Ricky sees himself with a look of dread on his face, very atypical of him to have.
"It was not until I was on my way back in New York that I read of the birthday party becoming such a security issue. That was 2 o'clock in the afternoon on April 18th, but already the papers had the entire history of an unknown ragtag group of people whose only connection to each other was Aaron Collins who was turning 35 at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto. Pictures, detailed biographical data, criminal records, travel information and we are pretty sure of the fact he had supplied everything to the media alone, although it took until four hours before everyone started arriving to realize it came from a secure connection in Quebec. It felt as if, well, a cover story was being put out like we would in a black op. Except that every other person in Aaron's celebrity friends were so busy ensuring that communications between the guests and you Ms. Ida remained secure. So none of my own, no one in California and no one in New York could have done it. I then remembered a conversation that took place sometime around Valentine's Day where Aaron said that if his birthday had too many guests or if the party went public that I had to come along."
Ricky then hands Ida a black mailing envelope with the A&E logo on it. Ida took it, expecting it to clear the names of everyone Ricky Smith implied. Aaron L. snapped his fingers and asked, "What about Dave Hester?"
"He killed himself when his lawsuit against the network failed. Plus, Dave Hester never knew Aaron existed save for a mention in passing by 1 of us."
Ricky's mind goes back to the JFK airport as he remembers trying every commercial airline for a flight to Toronto; he remembers that Gene Simmons keeps a private jet in a nearby hangar. He frantically calls Gene, asking him to borrow it, which Gene grants on the condition that he waits for it to be fuelled, Ricky accepts. He then calls his wife, at first trying to keep things quiet before breaking down and saying to her, "I think there is going to be an attempt on Aaron's life. Yeah, that guy we gave the photo too who became a friend of our family. I am going to Canada to try to stop it and watch his back. I will get home as soon as I can, we are not filming so Bubba can run things at the shop for a few days"
"Anyway, after I landed at Lester B. Pearson I asked myself why was I, the country bumpkin of our TV show, selected to travel to South Africa at that time to do a job that any number of others could have done. I wondered if one of my routine duties if I had been in America would have been to arrange for additional security for Aaron in Toronto. A&E's Canadian office is relatively small being only 2 years old, and by custom the American office will augment them (they always have). I checked it out when I was on the train to union station and sure enough, I found out that someone from A&E's Los Angeles office had told all of Aaron's friends in the network (namely Brandon Sheets, Dan Dotson, Laura Dotson, Mike Braiotta, Courtney Wagner and Joseph Pauletiech) to 'Completely ignore Aaron despite his years of loyalty to the network' that day, over the protests of the best friend he had at the network, Brandon Sheets…"
Ida imagines an outdoor shot of the Sheets estate in California only a few days ago. Inside, on the same day, Brandon is on the phone, angry that he cannot travel to Toronto during weeks of non-filming.
"Now this is significant, because it is standard operating procedure, especially for a known fan and benefactor like Aaron, to supplement the new Canadian office. Even if we had not restricted the number of guests that Aaron and you invited, we would have put at least half of Aaron's celebrity friends in the party, without question! There had already been several attempts on Aaron's life when he went to the World Magic: The Gathering championships in Paris, France. Only a month before in Toronto, Colin Wright had been spit on and hit by Matt Borsellino. We would have arrived days ahead of time, studied the hotel, checked all of the guests...We never would have allowed all the guests to be on different floors...NEVER...We would have had our own security covering the area. The moment anyone went into Aaron's room they would have been on the radio talking to everyone else. We would have been watching the guests - packages, suitcases, a coat over an arm, never would have let a friend of Aaron's mingle with others in private - Never would have allowed that Thai restaurant to cater the dinner party, unless our guys take a taste test of the food first. We may be celebrities but you would have felt an Army presence in the hotel that day, but none of this happened. It was a violation of the most basic principals of friendship with Aaron that we have. And it is the best indication of a MASSIVE plot in Canada. Who could have best done that? A band and people working for a band in a church that monitors their own followers, Ms. Wordell. People with experience in booking business arrangements could have told the network and Brandon Sheets, 'Look we have another unit coming from 1 of the other celebrity friends of Aaron Collins providing security. You will stand down.' I got here by the skin of my teeth and , in fact, I have prevented as many crimes as I could with my limited means. A&E is still trying to figure out who and why. But they were not protecting our greatest liaison. One of my efforts, by the way, was taking photographs of each crime scene after you guys sealed it off. You will find the photos along with other key evidence in this bag."
Aaron Langemann takes the bag, while envisioning Ricky taking pictures with an HD camera. They exchange a nod with each other as if to say, "Thank you." and "You are welcome." respectively.
"A&E Canada has most of you on file, but all of those files have been destroyed. Many strange things were happening that day, and The Cult of Aaron had almost nothing to do with them. They have their entire group accounted for to such an extent so that none of them were physically capable of committing Aaron's murder. Nor were any of them within 50 feet of any of the other crimes or any computer they needed to help them do it, and 4 minutes after your husband was murdered, the entire telephone system went dead in the Montreal metropolitan area for a solid hour, and is it a coincidence that A&E's Canada office is less than 6 blocks from Yfe headquarters, Ms. Wordell? Not for one moment. The majority of the band is out of the country to get their perception out of the way. The troops were in the streets for possible riot control. The phones did not work to keep the wrong stories from spreading if anything went wrong with the plan. Nothing was left to chance. I bet you there were even backup teams and employees on the same floor as you guys in the event that Aaron got through wounded. They would have moved in with weapons like they did with the Magic: The Gathering incident. Aaron Collins could not be allowed to escape this hotel alive."
Aaron, Holly and Ida stand there, listening. This information is much greater than they ever envisioned, and they are stunned that their killer has such extensive aid. Ricky pauses and gets a bottle of water from his jacket pocket. He starts talking again:
"I do not think things will be the same after this. Yfe vs. Cult of Aaron will start for real. There was an air of, I do not know, make-believe in the Cult and Yfe since 2010. Those of us who had been in secret ops since the beginning knew the Yfe/Cult camaderie was mostly fiction, but there was something ... deeper, uglier. And I knew Aaron Collins very well. I assisted him many a time on his Twitter. He was, as I said, A&E's primary benefactor. But for the life of me I still cannot figure out why Aaron was so determined to bridge the gap between the Cult and Yfe as Yfe largely ignored him. I am getting out of the network when my contract expires. I will retire from Texas storage auctions, maybe Bubba too. I do not even know about the others on the Texas show. The only other person to talk to him that was a series regular was Jenny Grumbles."
Holly, being the closest to Yfe, finally speaks up to voice her disbelief. "I never realized that Aaron was so dangerous to the establishment. Is that why?"
Ricky chuckles and resumes talking, "That is the real question, is it not Ms. Rapp - Why? - the how and the who is just 'scenery' for the public...Yfe, Cmk, Schoolyard friends, Music and Miscellaneous, it keeps people guessing like some kind of a parlour game, but it prevents them from asking the most important question - Why? Why was Aaron killed? Who benefited? Who has the power to cover it up? Who?"
Ricky takes another sip of water and focuses even more intensely on Ida, "You know in 2016 right after you turned 30 - very few people know about this, ok? - I participated in drawing up Aaron's Social Networking Action Memos 55,56, and 57. These are crucial documents, classified top secret, but basically in them Aaron instructs his friends, that from here on forward that the Cult of Aaron and Yfe would be wholly responsible for all covert action against each other . This basically ended the reign of power struggle on both sides 'splintered it', as Aaron promised you he would, into a 'thousand pieces', - and now was asking us to help him do it. This was unprecedented. I cannot tell you the shock waves this sent along the corridors of power in Brampton and Drummondville, among the other major towns where Aaron had friends. This and, of course, starting 2 new, separate Facebook accounts after Aaron terminated his original one and forcing all people who want to be Aaron's friend to enter into a written agreement to leave the other half of his social life alone. You had some VERY upset people here."
Ida recall her 30th birthday where after he gives her some Sapphire earrings, he hands her a document and is moved to tears that Aaron finally made it official that he had had enough of the in-fighting between both sides. There's a look of surprise on Ida's face, not because her life partner is making her sign a contract, but that said life partner is going back to Facebook after years of not wanting anything to do with it. She signs the contract immediately after reading it and kisses him, proud of him.
Images flash in Aaron Langemann's mind - A sweet-faced, smiling Yfe employee, at the church handing the band members a document. And the band laughing after reading it all the way through. Images also flash in Holly Rapp's mind - A sweet-faced, smiling trustee of the Cult of Aaron, at the Bramalea City Centre handing the cult of Aaron the same document. And the cult also laughing after reading it all the way through. They are not so different, maybe too similar to get along.
"Aaron's directives were never really implemented however, because of…bureaucratic…resistance, but one of the results was that the diplomatic operation was turned over to my department as 'Operation Bucketheadland', Operation Bucketheadland was pure black op. Which meant that people like my network representative, took over Aaron's desire to balance out everyone he considered a friend in his life. Which was contrary to his younger days when he was ok to let everyone fight amongst themselves for his own amusement - and the groups like the former Rover extremists camp at Snake Island less than an hour's boat ride from here that were closed down by Aaron after he influenced Canadian Scouting to close down half of its' Ontario houses...and that is how the 'black ops' people work. People like the A&E network reps, ended up taking the rules of covert social warfare they had used abroad to get TV in China and brought them into this continent. Now they had the people, the equipment, bases and the motivation to do it...check out an old YFE woman, Amy Smith - ran something called 'Executive Action', which carried out character assassinations for people Yfe considered 'dissident', just like Aaron. Amy was also involved with the Myspace reaching out program that got Aaron into Yfe in the first place. Check out the Lavoie brothers, Max and Samuel. Interesting links to this case."
Ida, Aaron and Holly think about what they should do now. The size of this continues to stun them. They are lost, reeling back to the past in their minds. Ida is reliving her husband's murder while also focusing on the grandiosity of the plot needed to kill him and the baby that until recently, had been growing inside her. Only the enormity of past evil can prepare her to confront present evil. In a strange way, it reassures her.
"And do not underestimate the social cuts Aaron called for in his first facebook account either - close to 520 people in 25 countries, 4 additional groups to be listed by Aaron, you are talking big popularity. Do you know how many business and personal interests have been lost by him in the last 20 years? About three thousand so far. Who makes contact the most? Fans of a certain band. But who owns Yfe? Yfe was near bankruptcy when the First National Bank of California and A&E approached the Yfe about developing the band for world tours and TV. How about the countries reluctant to let Yfe play? Most of those countries have people in their diplomacy department that are pro-cult of Aaron. Find out the cyber budget since Yfe began. 75 going onto a hundred million...2 billion will be spent before it ends. In 2005 it was $10 million. No fans, no money. Sometimes I think that the organizing principle of any society including Aaron's, is for war. The authority of the state over its people resides in its war powers. Even Mark Zuckerberg - the inventor of Facebook - warned us about it: 'beware the online band - online fan complex', he said. Aaron wanted to end the digital war in the second half of his life because he knew he was going to surpass Doctor's expectations by decades. He wanted to call off the divisions of groups that he made in favour of cooperation with both sides. He signed a treaty with the cult to ban computer hacking, he refused to let them invade Montreal in 2012, and he set out to withdraw from all public life as he felt he was partly to blame for everything. But all of that ended on April 19, 2018. As early as a year ago, certain people on both sides sent secret e-mails to each other saying they would keep on fighting behind Aaron's back , but only 1 side promised retribution to Aaron himself if he interfered."
Holly flashes back to 2017 Canadian music week. The band is having a private meeting that she almost walked in on. She sees them as shadowy figures from a distance across the wide room, or near a veranda with a porch and plenty of light. The entire band, their back to her, talks in a loud, thick French Canadian drawl (mostly muted) and sign a document.
"I intercepted something with my laptop that was sent from that church in Drummondville, Quebec and it is in the file I just gave you. Only four hours after Aaron was murdered, someone in Quebec sent A&E network Memo 273, creating a seemingly harmless 'Storage Wars: Quebec' on the surface but when you read it in detail, it essentially overrides Aaron's new resolution policy and gave the green light to the covert operations against The Cult of Aaron that will no doubt turn the tide in Yfe's favour (and with network support to boot). In that document…its' signature and recipient…lays your murderer."
In the corridor with Ricky, Aaron L., Holly and Ida is staggered by all of this information. Ricky ceases walking and looks at Aaron L. who is prepared to speak first.
"I do not...I cannot believe it. They killed him because he wanted to change things. In our time - for the ones that he loves?"
Ricky shrugs, pretending to be detached from the matter, but his remorse is very transparent. "Kings are killed, Mr. Langemann. Politics…even social politics is power, nothing more. But do not believe me. Do not trust me. Do your own work, your own thinking."
Ida picks her jaw up from the floor (almost literally) and stares at Ricky. "The size of this is...beyond us. Testify?"
Ricky seems briefly conflicted, but quickly regains his composure. "It would be the least I could for Aaron, Ms. Wordell. Even though I would be sued by the network, arrested, gagged, declared insane and hospitalized...maybe worse. You 3, too. But I can only give you the background, you have got to find the foreground, the little things...Keep digging. You know you are the only 3 people to ever investigate the murder of Aaron Collins. That is important - it is historic. And What I just gave you brings it down to 1 person backed by 1 TV network"
Holly interjected, "We have not yet. We do not have much of a case."
Ricky rises to leave, but feels obligated to encourage them further, "Thanks to me, you do now. And you do not have a choice anymore. You have become a significant threat to the network programming structure, not to mention Yfe and any Cult of Aaron sympathizers. They would have killed you already, but you have got a lot of light on you. Instead, they are going to try to destroy your credibility; they already have in many circles in this town. You 3 are some kind of ego-crazed, amateur detective caricatures to many folks. Be honest - the best chance you got is come up with a case, something, anything, make citizen arrests, stir the shitstorm. You got to hope to reach a point of critical mass where the murderer will come forward and the network will crack. Remember, fundamentally people are suckers for the truth, and the truth is on your side, ladies and gentlemen. I just hope you get a break"
Aaron, Holly and Ida watch Ricky walking away. He vanishes in the hallway. They rise, a decision made.