Revenge, Inc. Part 4: A Short Story

Hello, everyone and welcome back. Here is yet another installment or serial (however you would like to put it) to my Revenge, Inc. series. You'll find that I gave a bit of depth into the inner workings of Valhalla and abroad in this addition (which I am not quite sure how many more there will be). Much more will be revealed just as soon as it materializes for me, so please be patient and enjoy. Please fee free to leave comments as I'm curious to hear what you think of this story so far.  Thank you for reading.

-ODP

If you haven't already, please click on the corresponding links to be redirected to the preceding installments of Revenge, Inc.

Revenge, Inc. Part 1

Revenge, Inc. Part 2

Revenge, Inc. Part 3

Now, Highway 4 used to be a long stretch of rolling suburban homes of pastels meant to liven up the neighborhood. It wasn’t Jimmy that came to pick me up that day, but some other young deputy who was wet behind the ears. I think he told me his name was Randy. Just as soon as I got in, he took off onto Highway 4 and hit the flashers doing a burnout during takeoff.

Mayor Sylvestri proposed this bill that got owners on Highway 4 to paint their houses “favorable colors” in effort to spruce up the town, free of charge or in other words, tax payer's money. But the residents ate it up and entire families came out and painted their houses with pinks, purples, and yellows and had a fun time doing so. They made it a big smorgasbord, as families cooked and shared meals and refreshments with one another. But the upcoming years would prove to be somewhat of a joke and the proposed bill turned out to be a long-term failure with the stock market crashing and the bandits got away in their private jets to their off-shore accounts in Macau and the Caymans. You might have read all about this in the papers—just not the ones you normally read—but I read it in The Sentinel and believed it word for word. It all made sense to me and the sources were credible enough, as some of the minions of these fat cats had no problem pleading their innocence and crucifying their ex-higher-ups. Someone must have silenced those singing canaries because they were never heard from ever again.

It was during this time when all of the houses everywhere just about went to shit. Suddenly no one could afford their mortgages and so were forced into foreclosure and in many cases, poverty. Middle-class families were suddenly living in their cars with expired registrations and were keeping warm by burning trash as the homeless shelters were over maximum capacity. Letters to congress for help came back unopened and ignored. Then came the pushers and prostitutes turning the once trick-or-treat friendly houses into brothels and crystal methamphetamine factories geared to kill whatever the economy missed. Gangs of rogues began to form. They pillaged from those who were barely getting by during the Crisis. Think this can’t happen to your neighborhood? Think again. If it can happen to mine, it could definitely happen to yours. Everything just turned to instant shit.

While my mind was racing, Randy power-slides around the corner just enough to get the cruiser’s ass to barely miss a telephone poll. I damn near slid over on top of his lap, because I wasn’t wearing my seat belt.

“Where we going?” I asked him when I regained my seating. The station was right down Highway 4. We weren’t supposed to turn.

“Felix and company are over at the Lake,” Randy said.

I thought to say something but then kept my mouth shut. Already, my heart dropped like a stone and fell all the way down to my abdomen. I felt sick and felt the blood rushing out of my face and my extremities, making me shiver. I didn’t like that we were headed to the Lake. I didn’t like this punk cop driving and I of course didn’t like how things were becoming blurry as the image of Haley was already a fading photograph in my mind.

At the gated entrance of Willow Lake, a cruiser was stationed at the path with another newbie cop who stood waiting. As soon as he saw us, he waved us in. When we got inside, I saw Felix’s cruiser, two dark gray unmarked detective cruisers, an ambulance, and a few other cars I didn’t recognize. Felix, who was squatting when I arrived, stood up and looked at me. Before Randy could come to a complete stop, I hopped out of the cruiser and hit the ground running. Felix put both his hands up to try and slow me down, or so I thought.

“Now Cody,” Felix said. “I want you to…Hey! Look at me!” But my eyes were trying desperately and without success to see around Felix’s large frame. Everyone at the lake was huddled around something that was ground-level. And just as I was about to walk past Felix, I felt that death-grip upon my shoulder again just like the other night. It was Felix’s bear paws on both my shoulders. He stopped me in my tracks. He had my attention. “Okay, are you with me now?” Felix had fixed his gaze upon me. I nodded my head. “We found Haley, but not the way you had hoped…I’m so sorry, Cody. Haley's gone.” All the air left my body. I felt as if I got punched in the stomach by a fucking cinder-block.

Suddenly, the huddled mass around the object on the ground that lay atop a black tarp all got up and took a step back. Now all eyes were on me. There was Haley lying still. Her eyes were closed and her face pointed towards the river. She had no shoes or socks and was still wearing the same clothes I saw her in when last I saw her four days prior, which were jeans and a pink short-cropped blouse. The way she was lying there, I swear, it was like she was sleeping on her own bed back at the house on a late Saturday morning just like so many other Saturdays when I'd walk into her bedroom and find her asleep...But it was different this time. There was no rising or falling of her chest. There was no air being pulled in through her nostrils and no air escaping through the small opening of her mouth. Her skin was pale—it was almost a non-color. Haley looked like she was cold so I reach for her and find she’s like ice. Next thing, I’m rubbing her arms and hands to no avail and then lifting her up and off that black tarp that I discover isn’t a black tarp at all but an unzipped body bag.

“Jesus Christ, what the hell is he doing?” Felix says in the distance. “Cody! You can’t move her body!”

“She’s not a goddamn 'body,’ Felix! She’s my daughter.” I’m walking with Haley in my arms and didn’t know where I thought I was going. But wherever it was, Felix was in my way. “Step aside, Felix.”

“Listen to me Cody. Forensics has to investigate...They have to do their jobs.” I laugh.

“You know, captain. If you did your FUCKING job, we wouldn’t be having this conversation! You let my daughter get kidnapped and killed and now you want me to let you cut her up and probe her? Are you FUCKING NUTS?!”

“You're hysterical right now. Put her down, Cody. Now, you understand that I’m not asking you?”

"No, she's coming home with me, Felix, where she belongs. You can't stop me from taking my own daughter home."

He then motions for someone out of my view and gives them the nod. Next thing a black leather arm hooks me from underneath my chin and a firm hand covers the entire back of my neck. The world then slowly fades out of view as I begin to lose the strength to keep Haley from falling.

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