Flow (7)
….
Day 24:
"Are you sure you want to hear all this?"
Cameron reached up and felt gingerly around the bandage he sported just below the hairline on his right side. The small square of taped gauze was the only indication he'd had brain surgery. He let his eyes wander over the group crowded into his room – Kay parked on the edge of his bed, Mike and Dina in chairs beside, Gunter and Jordan leaning against the far wall. The windowsill was crammed with flowers and cards. It was surreal, on the heels of what felt like a vivid nightmare. "Yeah, I want to hear all of it," he said. "From what I remember, the weirdness started when I was checking out surveillance video in the Archive. I got a call from Johnny…."
"No, you didn't."
"Yeah I did. He wanted to know when I was coming to see him."
Mike sighed and scooted his chair closer to the bed. Spying the full water jug on the bedside table, he poured a cup and held it out for Cameron. "Didn't the doc mention something about you being pretty dehydrated when you came in? Something about surviving on coffee for the last several days?"
Cameron grimaced but took the cup. "Yeah, I guess I wasn't thinking about that."
"Well, time to start," Gunter said.
Mike rubbed the back of his neck. "Jonathan didn't call you the other night, Cameron." At the magician's skeptical look he raised a hand. "I checked. I ran your phone records and even swung by the prison to talk to him myself."
Cameron blinked. "But…."
"Alright," Dina said. "Maybe we should start at the beginning. Which would probably be your visit with Jon last week. He phoned me a few days afterward, the same morning you got this case. He was worried."
"Worried?"
"Quite. He said during the visit you were antsy, distracted…you paced around the room. Nothing dramatic, but he thought something was bothering you and wanted to bring it up. But then a few days passed and you kept missing his calls, and he got concerned enough to call me."
"I remember that morning," Cameron said. Dina had worried about him and he'd snarled in return. The words were clear in his mind but whatever he'd been feeling was hazy, elusive. "I don't…" he said, shrugging helplessly at her.
"You don't what, Sweetheart?"
"I don't know why I went off on you like that. I remember it but it doesn't feel like me."
Smiling, Dina waved a hand at him. "It wasn't anything, except it got me wondering too. I figured Jon was right and there was something bothering you. That's the first sign of this I remember seeing."
Kay cleared her throat. "That's actually the first sign I remember, too. When I went to pick you up I caught the tail end of your conversation and it seemed…tense. But you seemed fine after that. We went to search the warehouse and found Harold Cantor."
"And Stein's machine," Cameron added.
"And that. And you were alright the rest of the day." Kay sifted through her mental chronology, landing on a moment. "It was the next afternoon. You were irritated that you'd missed a call from Jonathan because your ringer was on silent. And you had a headache. You seemed…'off.' Moody, unfocused, sort of pessimistic." She shook her head. "I thought you were getting sick."
Cameron raised an eyebrow. "You think I'm the type to be whiny and sullen when I'm sick?" When Jordan snickered and whispered something to Gunter, Cameron tossed them a scowl. "You know what I mean."
"The next day we searched Stein's apartment," Mike put in. "We found all those creepy vintage tools, the embalming machine…you seemed okay, but quiet. Like you were in your own world."
"That's the day I went back to the Archive to watch security footage from the docks."
Nodding, Kay continued. "Yes. And the next morning you told me you'd heard noises and thought someone may have broken in. That's also when you first mentioned seeing the car."
"The car," Cameron muttered. "I think I saw it outside the Archive and then again near the FBI building. I don't know – that's a bit fuzzy. But later…it was tailing me when I drove out to visit Johnny." He caught the look that passed between Kay and Mike, the sudden silence. "What?" he asked.
"There was no car," Kay said quietly.
Cameron frowned at her, looked to Mike and then around the room. "First there's no phone call even though I remember taking it, now there's no car even though I remember seeing it?" He raised his eyebrows. "Are you guys trying to tell me I went crazy?"
Kay smiled softly at him. "This is probably pretty confusing. Maybe it'll make more sense if we tell you what we were up to."
….
Day 23 (again):
She relished the warmth of her coffee as she passed through security screening in the FBI building lobby. Not even 6:30 am, and it had been well past midnight when Deakins had ordered her and Mike home for a few hours' rest. Exhaustion weighed her down, made her vaguely nauseous. What she needed was sleep, not more caffeine, but today they were wrapping things up in a nice neat bow and that was the priority. She stifled a yawn and was grateful that she'd sent Cameron off early the afternoon before, telling him to visit his brother and then go home and take it easy. Hopefully he would be in top shape to help them tie up remaining loose ends.
Thank God for the cyber guys, coming through with Cantor's financials shortly after Cameron had left. They'd learned that the Harbormaster had made a sizeable deposit on the last Friday of each month, and then routed that money into an account on Grand Cayman. She and Mike had squinted at the print-outs, discouraged – the cash deposits gave them no clue who'd been paying Cantor off. But then Mike had blinked and slowly grinned, and she'd looked at him, waiting.
"Remember," he'd said. "The witness we interviewed – the office assistant. Harold liked his gambling."
Kay had felt the pieces fall together then. "His poker game. Always with the same guys, and always on the last Thursday of the month."
So they'd spent last evening running down information on Cantor's poker buddies – all supervisors on the crews that loaded container ships. The men went to those games with cash and left empty-handed, and the day after each game Cantor deposited the cash. His cut for looking the other way, until they'd fallen out or he'd gotten greedy or his expensive tastes had attracted too much attention to their business.
And now their bad guys, having killed Cantor and cut their losses, were probably stowed away on one of those container ships, bound for Central or South America. Frowning to herself as she rode up in the elevator, Kay looked for the bright side. They'd all but solved their murder and blown apart what appeared to have been an organized, long-term smuggling operation through the Port of New York.
The doors opened and Mike was there, peering at his phone. He glanced up. "Thank God," he exclaimed. "I was about to ask when you were getting here. Have you seen Cameron?"
"Good morning," Kay said, checking her watch. Now 6:30 on the nose. "No I haven't...but it's pretty early. What's going on?"
"I'm not even sure," Mike replied. "But whatever it is, it's got me creeped out." He jerked his head in the direction of their desks. "We need to talk."
….
To be continued
Note: Continued thanks for reading! I appreciate the patience in awaiting these updates, and I'm happy to say that the next update will be either tonight or tomorrow. I've written the rest of it…just ironing out a few kinks.
On the Save Deception campaign: happy to report that the petition has over 21,000 signatures! That's a lot of disappointed/disillusioned/ticked off fans. I continue to offer 'feedback' to ABC through their programming feedback site, which is free and accessible and might as well be spammed by those of us who want to convey our thoughts. I've also emailed several other networks about picking up our show.
One final thing…I mentioned in an earlier note that I was considering putting my thoughts on this into Haiku format, despite the fact that Haiku is typically focused on nature. My brain did not let it go, with dubious results. So here it is – a pseudo-haiku. I call it "Commentary":
...
Deception is great
The mystery and magic
ABC you suck.
...
Now I'm torn. I'd like to gift ABC this creative work through their programming feedback page, but I'm concerned it might be viewed as unkind. Thoughts?
