American Albino, Chapter VI: America's Most Wanted
Patrick Matthews oversaw the next meeting with Victor Morales, Howell Spice, and Josue Mendez. Bill Mausse, the very special connection in league with the gun-types such as Rostovich and Raymond, was not part of this meeting, but was hearing it go down on speakerphone, call by Matthews. "I'd hate to put Wheete-Glass as bait but that is a man I could afford to cut loose if he is turned by that fiend Jerry Cruise. Now, regarding our friend, I have only told him he is to act as bait, but he does not, and will never consider himself as an expendable pawn-"
The others laughed in unison, mocking the sheriff from afar.
"Settle down, settle down. Now, I have Aleksei stake out Nelson's place until activity hits. Best case scenario, this Cruise man attacks and Aleksei can arrange it in our favor. Cruise kills Nelson is no issue if Aleksei kills him after. Murder-suicide to drive away what this damn Blacklist group could pull at any moment. Old news, fake news, fuck the Blacklist faggots."
"Soup's hot!" Morales sneered, glasses being readjusted back to face. "We should not worry for the Blacklist members, Pat."
"The fatass is right," Josue cut in, receiving an angry glare from Victor. "It's just three of them, who's gonna listen to three people? What could they have that proves fatal to your campaign? Why, nothing, I could say! There exists no such piece of evidence that is obtainable by them in which could very well dismantle your career."
"That is exactly what I want to hear," Matthews delightfully said. "All they'll do is harass the public with these truths that have no evidence. They're all to be lies, nothing more than that."
"Right."
"When the call arrives, the next phase can advance with no issue," Matthews stated. "It's enough for Cruise to be a man featured in America's Most Wanted, or at the very least, a Dadetown-exclusive fugitive. Oh!" Matthews lifted a finger right up to his face, forming a flabby smile. "I've dug up a little juicy detail that turns it more my way. Get this-"
Matthews had a folder on the table, of sheets faxed from Wheete-Glass. Photographs of the dead bodies of Rex Rick and his gang, all of the struck by Lincoln, and Chloe Binsley's police file. "Our man is some good Samaritan, it seems. This girl here, this Chloe Binsley, had some ordeal with some skinhead fucks. Had to have been like that- All of these guys were killed by Cruise, an effort spare this Binsley woman the death penalty by them."
"How admirable," Morales laughed. "Good old Bill at work."
"I've run into Rex a few times, when I found out about it..."
"And these two stepped into Dadetown as that idiot Chang explained it, if that isn't some luck..."
"We've got enough for a case, what's the next step?" Mendez asked. "Do I need to ask? I'm sure you've got it figured out."
"I had Nelson hold off putting it out until we had enough. At this point, we know he's killed, both within and outside of Dadetown. Feed it all into the papers and the networks, and we'll have people eating it up. I'm counting on him to go after Nelson. He knows he's innocent and will try to plead with the man. Now... I let him out myself so he knows Nelson and I are close enough to make him suspicious-"
The Steel Mill, Dadetown
Lincoln applied a shard across Wheete-Glass' chest as the sheriff hung upside down, dangling from the catwalk. "You're gonna scream and exhaust yourself before I can even let you tell me whatvI want to know."
"Y-YOU SADISTIC FREAK!" Wheete-Glass moved about as much as he could. "LET GO OF ME! LET ME DOWN!"
Heather Eleanor White was licking the blood that dripped onto the ground like some dog yearning for water, much to the disgust of the Blacklist members. "More blood... More blood for me! I love the taste!"
"Not a chance in hell," Lincoln denied. "Not until I've finished what I've started."
"Um, is- Is anyone gonna talk about the fact that there is some minor running her tongue right there?" Jennings winced.
"I've seen horror movies galore, but now..." Johnny Remender gulped in place, staring helplessly as Heather swabbed the spot clean of blood. "I feel like I've stepped in one."
"Oh, as if you haven't seen stranger things before," Heather accused, growling upon the men. "Dare judge me and I'll bite back!"
"Enough of this," Lincoln warned at the others. "All of you, show that shit."
"Stow...?" Remender became discontent. "Hey, asshole, this was not part of the plan! Do you really dare bring the sheriff and some sick random girl here?! Why in the fuck would you dare to do that?! You're messing up our plans!"
"Yeah, yours!" Lincoln shot back. "This isn't how I would dare. Fuck you and fuck your Sprocket toy, too."
"S-speaking of..." Jennings then crossed his arms. "You left with the device, now where is it?"
I was no bullshitter, so I told the truth plain and simple. "I fucking destroyed it."
"Y-you-?"
"WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!" Jennings went berserk and it showed. "YOU MOTHERFUCKER, THAT WAS OUR ONLY WAY OUT OF THIS! GODDAMN IT, JERRY FUCKING CRUISE!"
"Are you serious?" Remender berated. "Why, why did you-?"
"I used it as a melee against Rostovich," Lincoln dropped, "and Rostovich is dead."
"Ros- I'm sorry, did you really go out of your way to make more noise than you already-?" Remender pondered over it. "I see..."
"Y-YOU KILLED ALEKSEI?!" Wheete-Glass kept trying to worm his way out. "SON OF A BITCH, PAT WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD ON A SILVER PLATTER! BILL'S GONNA KILL YOU!"
"Bill?"
"William Mausse, the guy with the dyed hair," Remender reminded Lincoln. "High on ego, thinks he's the shit. Tell you, the man could print pics of himself and put them up like fucking flyers."
"Does that many drugs that jt tweaked his way of thinking," Jennings tossed in, gaining to a calm. "I can't fucking believe you, Jerry."
"Excuse me..." Heather wiped her mouth of the blood, walking right to the men. "Would it matter if I decided to give a confession?"
"A confession?"
Lincoln lowered the glass shard away from the sheriff's skin. "Hang on, I get it..."
"This is a game I'm familiar with," Heather shared. "In the basement of Nelson's home, there are bones, remains of dead people that no one would miss. He took them all down there and I had my fill, and many of them, he'd tell me-"
"HEATHER!"
"He'd tell me they were runaways. Many of them looked young, and now..." Heather looked up at Wheete-Glass. "I can finally say that I believe you might have had a hand in taking tbeir lives."
Lincoln narrowed his eyes; Cannibal Girl, preaching out righteousness? There was a joke in there somewhere. Another damn joke. "Someone, get a camera, start putting her own tape."
"Tape?" Jennings repeated, so terribly lost.
"Wait, I see the goal here," Remender obliged, "The girl is going to expose this man here-"
"And in doing so, destroying who he is what What he serves..." Lincoln hissed in delight. "A racist prick like yourself chose the wrong workplace, do you hear?"
"S-SONS OF BITCHES, ALL OF YOU! HEATHER, YOU BLOODTHIRSTY WHORE! DON'T YOU DARE! DON'T YOU DARE TELL THE TOWN-"
I liked this, I truly did. Cannibal Girl would go on to tell it all, to reveal the remains of the taken bodies that were all there in the basement, and that she was being held captive, damned to fulfill his pedophile needs. Get this- She painted him as the sick cannibal bastard, and the Blacklist guys bought it, even moreso when she showed her tendencies, making them think that Wheete-Glass has successfully broken and turned Heather into a junior version of him. Oh, it was so goddamn glorious. All lf these words and not a single inconsistency that I could have detected. Her word would be true, the remains were there- And maybe if one of the other cops came for a visit around the later hours, they'd see for themselves. Matthews could do his best to cover it up, but the tape needed to be out faster for the press.
"Done..." Jennings closed the video camcorder and lowered it. "Did he really do all of tja"
"He brought so many bodies, and he would cook them-" A Heather White lie layered over the truth. "I- I can't-"
She played the role well, it fooled the three but not me. I already knew she was the real devil here. Good to know she defected over to my side.
"WAIT, I CAN PAY! DELETE THE FOOTAGE, BREAK THAT THING!" Wheete-Glass desperately cried. "PLEASE!"
"What about him, Jerry?" Remender was playing logical sense here as of yet. "He doesn't need to die, he must live with the shame. Matthews will disown him as a friend-"
Lincoln continued to cut at the racist sheriff. "I'm done with the games, I just want Matthews!"
"ARGHHH!"
"J-Jesus..."
"WAIT- I KNOW WHERE HE'LL BE NEXT!" Wheete-Glass betrayed his friends in a panic. "MATTHEWS AND- AND-"
"And?"
"ADAM PARSON!"
"P-Parson?"
"Who the fuck is Adams Parson to me?" Lincoln grabbed Wheete-Glass' head and brought it close to the shard. "Believe me, I want to jam this into your eyes."
"It's-! It's a meeting Pat has talked about!"
"Parson is a real-estate agent," Remender shared to the albino. "Looks like Matthews plans to buy land- Or sell..."
"Where are they meeting?"
"ASIAN RESTAURANT ON ZAQ AVE AND VIK STREET! AROUND NOON TOMORROW!"
"H-hey, Jerry-" Remender slapped a hand onto Lincoln. "You've proved your point, there's no need to further torture him."
"Don't be so fucking stupid," Lincoln harshly disagreed. "It is as necessary as I deem it. What have you it you don't learn from it through the pain? Wheete-fucker, I'd like to break you. I want to hurt you so bad that these scars here tonight, that of which I cast unto you, mean the entirely worst thing you will ever know."
"What...?"
"Death would be merciful now that I see it..." Lincoln gave a nod to Jennings. "Do it, ruin the man's reputation!"
"WAIT, NO! PLEASE!"
"Go upload that tape, that's how we take care of one headache!"
"LET ME GO! LET ME GO NOW!"
"Sure thing!" Lincoln returned the man down to earth, dropping him hard.
"What are you planning here?! Don't fucking kill him, I swear to God!"
"You there, girl-" Heather jerked forward when Lincoln acknowledged her, "tell me something."
"Yeah?"
"All of that in the basement, you've left your DNA-"
"Which is untraceable," Heather grinned, already knowing that she was a true ghost. "Nothing of my body is in any of these virtual databases, I can assure you of that."
"And you have yet to answer all of my questions," Lincoln forced again, and Heather stuck her tongue out like a child. "So then, it has been set."
"FUCK YOU! FUCK ALL OF YOU TO HIGH HELL!"
Meanwhile, Ramirez was still sleeping away as if nothing was happening, snoring loudly.
"Anyone know this restaurant?" Lincoln cracked his knuckles, turning away from Wheete-Glass, and the patch over his wound still stayed in place.
"Yeah, it's Japanese-oriented, pretty fancy," Jennings nodded.
"What do we do about him?!" Remender panicked. "We can't just let him loose-"
Lincoln knocked Wheete-Glass out again. "Tie him up and keep him around-"
"THE MAN'S ALL BLOODY!"
"Then patch him up! We're going to hold him as a hostage until we're guaranteed he can no longer be a foe, until we're sure his affiliation means bad news to those who make it matter."
"That's just one knocked off from the group, but Matthews still has friends he can call upon when he finds out what really happened!"
"No shit... Lucky for us his phone's been left at home, no way they can track him back here, but the cop car outside-"
"Goddamnit man, this was simple..." Remender uttered with a heavy sigh. "Attach Sprocket-3 into his hard drive, and then press a button before leaving. Dude, come the fuck on."
"Yeah, because the law can do no failure," Lincoln poked. "I don't think this, all this you've planned, can do shit to hurt Matthews by reputation will mean shit. Who's to say he won't bribe his way out of it? What of the funds he's acquired from Bart? Where's all that going? Has he or has he not used it all up?"
"Errrr..." Remender revealed to have not the answer. "Okay so maybe we don't keep track of it all-"
"Right..." Lincoln sensed. "You're lacking of a whole heap of information here, but you know the players on that team. Makes me wonder now... How exactly do you know them?"
Then, Remender and Jennings gave each other concerning looms, and Heather laughed. "Well, aren't you little girls trying to hide yourselves a secret or two..."
Lincoln only fired death daggers upon the two. "Leaving me in the dark is not a wise decision."
"Johnny?" Jennings awaited the order.
"Goddamnit- Okay, okay..." Remender gave in. "We... Well... All of us were all on his good side once before. We weren't as close to him as the others but we were friends of Matthews for sure. I gave him a bone so that he could use for his campaign and the bastard says he misplaced it. Something of a con man that can't be bothered to give your help with."
"So, all of you... This is is more personal?"
"It's- It's been our war for quite some fucking time- And before we dragged you into it, it's always been a stalemate. We didn't come to them, they didn't come to us. Our groups kept at bay from one another- And you, you had no restraints, no reason to refrain from going on the offense. I guess... I guess it's because you truly believe there can be no consequence for you. Jerry Cruise, having no personal connection to Patrick Matthews, able to go and kill his friends just like that."
"John, you are a fool," Lincoln let loose. "You can't win by your methods because it doesn't go both ways. You might have been looking at it with clean solutions, but not him. You've been beaten by a man who uses lies and fake accusations and you're still on that? The Sprocket-3 was an ineffective toy, and you're insane, you're all insane."
"Insane is such a strong word, but it is not to be affiliated with lawless- And in this case, you are the face of it, you're making it harder-"
"Harder for whom?" Lincoln scoffed. "If it is for you, it certainly isn't for me. So what if I reject your playbook? Law doesn't work for me, jail doesn't work for me. I'm happy that Wheete-Glass is getting punished but that's as far as I'll allow for this. Everyone else has earned nothing but the death sentence."
"Tell me why..."
Heather helped herself to a bean bag, watching the argument go on. Oh, if only she had some popcorn.
"What is your reason to accept death as the first solution?! It can't- It should not have to be! We are not filthy, mindless savages!"
"It just is, friend. It just is," Lincoln concluded. "By the way, keys are still in the car. Go hide it in the woods or something."
"Whatever... Dale, come help me out with Jerry's mess..."
"Y-yeah, okay..." Jennings huffed. "Worst night of my life."
Right away, both men left the mill to hide the car- And here was to them to not mess up. Lincoln crashed from all this prolonged excitement and sat right next to Heather, his body having been way past exhaustion. He yawned and stretched out, unsure if he should get sleep or stay awake. On one hand, the chaos ensuing around him was too great to simply rest now. Then again, it might have been the only time to do so all the same.
Come tomorrow, a new fucking day.
"Hey..." Heather reached out to Lincoln, eyeing him with a different pair of eyes than before. "If it means anything, I'm sorry I tried to eat you."
"What are you doing, a guilt-trip move?" Lincoln closed his eyes, leaning right back into the bean bag below. "You really should see a fucking shrink about that. So... What happened to you anyways? Kidnapped by Wheete-Glass?"
"No..." Heather brushed the hair that waved to the front of her face back to the side, behind her ear. "He found me, I've already been wandering about on my own before then, eating-"
"You... You're basically homeless?" And then he found it relatable as Heather went on.
"I guess you can say that," Heather nodded to, now thinking about it. "Actually... I am, I really am homeless."
"Where are your parents, girl?" She hadn't any hesitation to answer my questions before this particular one. This was the one that hit a nerve, hurt her- It was damn clear by her body language. She bobbed her head down and made a pouty face she tried to actually not show to me. But of course, I read her loud and clear. She was a victim of life tragedy, a witness left dead to be dead. I related more to this carnivore than I could have ever imagined, and if that wasn't weird enough.
"They're dead," came her sad voice. "They've been long since dead."
"Dead-?" Lincoln felt his eyes distort just a bit, a reaction from far inside. "I see."
"H-hey... How old are you?"
"I'm-" Actually, how old am I right now? Around twenty-four? This venture into time... I'm going to age up, but does this count? Ugh, it makes my head spin. "Twenty-four."
"So you've left home at no doubt... If I could ask you, do you still remember the faces of your parents' faces? Could you ever tell yourself that you'd always remember them, no matter how old you'd get? No matter how long you'll go in life?"
This girl... Cannibal Girl had me on the ropes, pitting me right into the wall of a place I never go to. I never thought of my parents. I hadn't, I hadn't ever thought of them in years. I mean, the story behind that was understandable. They died unfairly in a fire, I never liked to remember them- And that's because the fire was the entryway of those memories. That was the very thing I'd remember them by, a dishonor and disrespect to their memories. I could never have thought about them without thinking about that damn fire.
So yeah... I'm going to forget their faces, and then their names, and I don't think I'll feel sad, but in itself... It is a shame. What could I have said to Cannibal Girl? Was I wrong to have said-
"Well..." Lincoln had no intention to sugarcoat it. "My own parents died in a fire... So, you ask me if I'll remember who they were for all of time, I have to say no. No, I won't always carry their image in here, in my head. I don't know what you wanted to hear, but I can't give you some sweet lie that will give you hope. If your parents are gone, don't ever let them fade from memory. If you miss them, then it's good-"
Heather's eyes sparkled away, developing a regular red.
Lincoln retracted, re-evaluating his words. "I- I do know one thing. Remember them for who they were to you. For me, when I remember them, the fire comes to mind, the whole recollection that they were killed. I should not be going to that memory when there were other ones, better... Happier..."
Heather took his words into account, tearing up worse. "It's- It's all I can see. That sea, that damn endless ocean... M-mom drowned at sea and I can't-" Heather shook her head profusely. "I just can't."
This girl severely lacked parentage... I-
Lincoln stepped in- Pushed to Heather and gave her a hug, a holy sign of affection he was never used to giving at all. Not in this era, not in this lifetime. Things were changing, hearts were being ignited for humanity. His own, it beat again, swelling up in heat to keep him warm, and he shared that with Heather, giving her the warmth. As he hugged her to console her, he had come to find that the girl's pale skin was just as cold as it looked, and that was saying something. Cold, but less by the second. For once...
Heather hugged back, crying into his shoulder, looking at him for the emotional support she was now needing from, well, anyone who would listen. Anyone who would not turn her away for her ravenous appetite of human flesh. Anyone who could not ever be freaked out by the likes of her.
You poor, sick girl... I've got you, kiddo. I've got you.
Not even once had he ever thought to be a father, but here it was, the closest thing to playing the role for the sake of the girl. Tonight, one truly bizarre night of his life so far... Maybe it wasn't so bad. Maybe it wasn't so bad after all.