“I’m really sorry about cutting our Saturday night short. I just don’t think I could have ended up enjoying myself,” Henry said apologetically. “I really appreciate the ride too.”
We had been hanging out at the club in the area for only a short time before Henry asked that we leave. I knew he had been wrestling with the idea that Clyde had really been responsible for everything. I had thought a night out could be good for him, but clearly there was no way that it could be put out of his mind. Henry wanted to talk all these things over with his mother so we were on our way to her house.
“No sweat man. I wasn’t really in a clubbing mood either,” I lied. I depend on distractions and think it would have helped me out, at least temporarily. But whatever worked for Henry was my main concern at the moment. I took a right onto the street where his mother lived. I drove a few blocks down the street. “I think your mom might be leaving,” I said, noticing a car backing out of her driveway in the distance.
Henry looked up. “Nope, she has a silver car. She must have had a visitor.” He glanced quickly at his watch. It was 11:16. The car had finished backing into the street. Its reverse lights turned off as we approached it and then it sped away further down the street.
“That’s strange,” I said.
“What’s that?” Henry asked.
I hadn’t even realized I made the comment out loud. “Oh, it’s just that the car there. I was just thinking that it looked a lot like Clyde’s car.”
“Oh, really? I never even noticed what he drives. It seems everything reminds us of Clyde now though.”
“Well, actually, it didn’t just remind me of his car. I think it was his car.” Henry’s eyes darted over to me in a quick, surprised manner. “It’s a blue M6. Don’t see too many of them around. And I’m pretty sure Clyde’s car has a little bump on the right side of his back bumper too. I’ve seen him show that car off a few times, and always wondered why he hasn’t gotten that buffed out.”
Henry didn’t really know how to respond. “Why would Clyde be here? He used to come over sometimes to talk business over with my dad. But . . . why suddenly now? And so late at night? You don’t think he would hurt her too do you?”
I tried to think of something quickly that would make sense and be reassuring but nothing really came to mind. “No, of course not,” I said eventually. “Let’s just ask her and see what the deal is.” I pulled the car into the driveway. “You want me to come in?”
“Uh. . . yeah. Just until I make sure everything is okay.” I turned the car off and we approached the front door. Henry tested the knob, it was locked. He pulled out the extra house key, unlocked the door and walked inside.
The house was dark and very still. Henry flipped on the light switch in the living room, illuminating the house enough to walk through it. “Ma?” Henry called out. Silence was the only response he received. He called out again.
Geraldine Hamilton emerged from a room down one of the hallways wearing a bathrobe. “Henry?” she appeared puzzled. “Henry? What are you doing here? Is something wrong? Did something happen? Do you know what time it is? Oh, hello Steven. How are you? You’re okay too, aren’t you?” I issued her a greeting as she asked a continuous stream of questions.
“I just needed to talk to you,” Henry responded. “Sorry about it being so late. You seem pretty awake though, you weren’t sleeping?”
“Uh. . . no,” Geraldine answered. “I’ve been trying to for like an hour or so though. I’ve been having lots of trouble lately, you know. But yea, you scared me half to death when I heard voices out here. It had been quiet here for so long. The only sounds I usually hear in this house now come from the TV and I knew I had shut that off already so I was getting a little nervous.”
I knew that Henry was also noticing the contradiction that Geraldine had been trying to sleep for over an hour although someone had left the house just moments ago. “You doing okay though, ma?” he asked. “You keeping yourself busy?”
“I guess so,” she responded thoughtfully. “Well not really. But I’m getting by. A lot of reading and TV watching. I try to find things to do, I don’t know how successfully. It gets kinda lonely. I’m glad you stopped by, but an earlier time and maybe an in-advance phone call would be nice too.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. You really should get out more often though if you’re not getting visitors.”
“Oh, I get visitors sometimes,” Geraldine said softly. “A couple days ago Sally from next door came over. She brought over some brownies. They really were delicious. Do you remember the way she used to cook? All those cakes. . .” She stopped when she saw the look on Henry’s face. He was staring hard at her, as if he was trying to see through her words, to get into her mind. “Henry? What’s wrong? Are you sure you’re okay?”
Henry blinked both eyes as if he was coming out of a trance. “Uh. . . yea, I’m fine. Sorry. I’m just a little tired and stressed. I was just curious because we saw a car leaving from the house before we got here. I wasn’t sure if you were having guests or something tonight.”
“Oh, really?” she asked. “Nope. No guests tonight. It really is rare, I’m telling you. Sometimes friends of the kids across the street park in front of our house. Or maybe it was someone making a u-turn with our driveway.”
Henry cut her off before she could come up with more possibilities. “It may not have even been this house. We were pretty far down the street when we saw it. I just wanted to make sure you’re not cooped up in this house all by yourself all the time. That’s all. There was something I actually wanted to talk about with you since you’re awake.”
Henry glanced up at me. That was my cue to exit. I wished them both goodnight and left the house, knowing that Henry had a tough conversation on his way.
“Where is Henry?” Clyde’s voice bellowed in my face.
“I don’t know Cly. . . uh, Mr. Krause,” I replied, still not used to his “new” name. “I’m sure he’ll be in momentarily.”
“He better be. I need to talk to him. I really don’t like his slacking lately.” Clyde stormed away.
A few moments later Henry appeared in the room. I motioned for him to come over to my desk. “Where have you been?” I whispered sharply. “Clyde has been looking for you. He looked pretty mad. . .”
“You think I could care less what Clyde wants right now?” Henry snapped back. He paused. “So, it seems that my mom thinks I’m insane. I explained everything to her yesterday and she didn’t believe a word of it. She thinks I’m overstressed and may need help. Can you believe that? I’m upset about my father’s murder and it’s unreasonable that I’m overstressed?” He kept continuing on his rant without allowing me to comment. “And on top of all that, you know what else? I think my mom’s been having an affair with Clyde!”
“That’s ridiculous!” Henry had finally paused long enough for me to interject. “There are plenty of reasons we could have seen a car that looked like his pull out from near your mom’s house. Let’s not jump to conclusions.”
“Does that explain why his jacket was lying in my kitchen?” Henry answered quickly.
Before I could respond to that, Clyde burst back into the room. “Henry! I thought I heard your voice. You better have a good excuse for being late again today.”
“Hello, Mr. Krause. Cold day outside isn’t it? I certainly wouldn’t want to go out in this weather without a nice warm winter coat. I do hope you dressed warmly, Mr. Krause.”
“Clyde, considering your constant ramblings and frequent lateness to work, I’m not sure why I even have put in such an effort for you. But you’ll be very pleased with this I’m sure. I don’t even know how I managed to pull so many strings for you so you better appreciate this. I’ve told East Street Capital in Detroit about you and they have a high position that they would like you to fill immediately. You’ll be making more money than you are here, with
excellent opportunity for advancement. I know you always wanted that and it’s no longer the case here. I think it’d be really good for you to get away from this building, this city. You know, in light of all that’s happened. All I need now is for you to sign the papers for your transfer.”
“What?” Henry’s face was beaming red with anger. “You’re trying to transfer me out of my father’s company and expect. . .”
“This was your fathers company!” Clyde yelled back. “I’m doing this for you! I’m in charge now, and you will never reach the top spot anymore. If you want that chance I suggest you take this job you ungrateful. . .”
“Is my mother in now?” Henry asked quickly, cutting him off. “There is no way she would be in favor of this.”
“She’s on her lunch break. She should be back in a little bit. Now listen to me...” Before Clyde could finish Henry had already left the room. Clyde slammed his fist against my desk. “Talk some sense into that kid, Steven.” I nodded in response. Clyde started to leave the room as Perry walked in. Clyde stopped and whispered something in his ear before leaving the room.
Perry handed me some memos and sighed loudly. “Rough start to the day, huh?” I nodded. “I don’t know how much more of this yelling I can take. Hopefully that’s the last of it.”
“I have a feeling this can only get worse,” I thought out loud, not really talking to Perry.
“I really hope not. Clyde and Henry being in this kind of fight is pretty bad in itself, especially considering how important each of them are to the company. Hopefully they’ll cool off and that’ll be the end of it.”
I had been working at my desk for much of the past couple of hours without any other distractions. Of course all of this had been on my mind the entire time. I felt so sorry for Henry. Everything was being thrown at him all at once. His father’s death. The possibility of it being a murder. His mother not believing him for anything he said and claiming that he was insane. The possible affair between her and Clyde. And now Clyde was trying to send him a few hundred miles away from the company that Henry grew up knowing he would one day run himself. I wondered what more would he have to suffer. What more could he go through before things turned for the better, or he eventually snapped? My question was answered quickly with the sound of breaking glass, falling objects, and muffled yelling.
I hung up with the client that I was on the phone with. Probably a mistake, but I had to see what exactly was going on. By the time I made it into the hallway the loud sounds had stopped but I was pretty sure I knew where they were coming from. A few other people who had heard the noise were also in the area, and entered Geraldine’s small office.
I pushed myself to the front of the crowd. Henry was sitting in a chair next to Geraldine’s desk. He had scratches on his face and what looked like the start of a black eye. Lying next to him on the ground was Perry. He looked like he had taken a real beating. His face was bloodied and bruised, and he showed no signs of movement. A cabinet had been knocked over and there was a broken vase on the ground.
“Perry was hiding in the room and came out of nowhere,” Geraldine nervously tried to explain the scene to the group of onlookers. “He just started attacking Henry, so they were fighting and then there was a struggle and then he knocked him over and into that cabinet and now he’s knocked unconscious I guess. Oh my god, I don’t understand what is going on here anymore.” As she began to cry a few people went over to comfort her. When Henry saw me in the crowd he stood up and nudged my arm as he passed, indicating that I should follow him.
We were on our way back from the coffee house where we frequently take our lunch breaks. Henry had just forced me to take mine at that moment so he could explain the situation to me. Although that was the intended purpose he barely said a word to me the whole walk there or while in the restaurant. Finally I asked him directly, “Is there something you wanted to tell me?” Pause. “You know, about getting attacked by Perry and then beating the crap out of him?”
“Yeah. . . that,” he said softly. “Um. . . Perry never actually attacked me.” I could tell this wasn’t going to be a story I wanted to hear. “A little bit after my mom came in from her lunch break I went in to talk to her. Basically that Clyde was trying to transfer me out of the company and that she had to take my side on this and everything that I mentioned to her last night. Before she could really say anything I heard a noise coming from the closet. I assumed it was Clyde either because he was spying on me or well, you know, with the affair idea in my head I was thinking other things. So then I kinda. . . yea, I pretty much snapped. I don’t even know how to explain it. I’m not a violent person. But something came over me and I don’t even remember the actual fight. I just remember throwing open the closet door and attacking the person inside. I remember he put up some feeble attacks himself but I had taken him by surprise and was full of a lot more anger. I finished him off and knocked him to the ground. And it wasn’t until at that moment, his body lying motionless on the floor, that I realized that it had been Perry that I had been attacking the whole time. I slumped to the chair and I realized that I didn’t know myself anymore. I assumed a specific person was in there and I was so full of rage that my brain couldn’t even register to who I was attacking until it was all over. That can’t be normal. Maybe ma’s right. Maybe I have reached insanity.”
I looked over at my friend. He was lifeless, defeated, staring blankly at the wall across from his chair. I felt there was little I could say that would comfort him at this point. “I don’t wanna hear you saying that, Henry. I don’t wanna hear you say that again. We’re gonna get through this. . . somehow.”
The walk back to the office was completely silent. Not just between the two of us, but it seemed like the whole world was suddenly without sound. I don’t even remember walking back to the building, but it had become enough of a routine that we made our way there. All I was conscious of was upsetting free flowing thoughts in my head. The flashing lights of an ambulance in front of the office broke me out of my trance.
We stood outside with the small crowd that had assembled there. From the bits and pieces of conversation that I was able to pick up, it sounded like they were about ready to leave in a few minutes but they had to still bring Perry down. I waited a few more minutes. When the main office doors opened, two paramedics were wheeling out a stretcher. But what I saw as they came further out of the building caused my stomach to turn. Where I had expected to see Perry’s battered body getting some treatment, I instead saw a body bag.
“Oh no. . .” I heard the low, barely audible sigh from Henry. “I’m no better than Clyde.” He was muttering softly to himself. “I’m no better than Clyde.”
Within minutes Clyde appeared at the scene, nearly speechless from the recent events. He round up any employees that were outside and told them that they’d have to try there best to keep it all together and continue working the rest of the day despite another tragedy.
The next few hours it was difficult for anyone to work but everyone at least pretended to be doing their job. I did very little talking to anyone in that time. I had no will to even make or answer phone calls. Henry had come to me a little over an hour after the ambulances left the building to tell me of a conversation he had had with Clyde. Apparently “out of love and respect” for his father, Clyde did not want to fire Henry. However, he claimed that for the time being, he was too emotionally unstable to continue the work that he had been doing. Since Henry had refused the transfer, he had no choice but to demote him until he showed signs of improvement. Currently, Clyde had him working on a different floor of the building. Supposedly he was there stuffing envelopes. I knew Clyde had no need for Henry to actually do this for him. It was just another way to chase him from the company and to belittle him. To further reduce him to nothing.
Geraldine came by around a half hour later looking for Henry. I explained everything
that he had told me. She actually showed some signs of having sympathy on him and said that she was going to go talk to him.
After that, I sat at my desk with little physical distraction for the next couple of hours. Of course all my thoughts were distracting enough where I had trouble focusing on anything else.
Near the end of the day a phone conversation with a business associate from another company was providing me with an adequate distraction. To complete the transaction we were discussing, I needed to receive verification from Clyde, which, of course, instantly reminded me of the trouble of the past few days. I put the man on hold and paged Clyde’s office but there was no response. I then told the man that Clyde was out and I would have to call him back. Normally in this situation I would simply ask Perry for Clyde’s whereabouts and be given an answer. Obviously that would never happen again.
I got up from my desk and went to look for him. I asked a few people that I passed on the way to his office if they knew where he might be. Apparently it had been quite a while since anyone had seen him.
I walked up to Clyde’s office door which was slightly ajar. I was about to knock on it but I heard Clyde whispering, “We don’t have to worry about him anymore.” I listened closer, wanting to know exactly what he was talking about. “It shouldn’t be long before the substance gets him. It’s probably too late for him already.” There was a pause. I assumed someone on the other end of a phone conversation was saying something. “Yeah, it is all over the envelopes. If he’s been licking those for the past couple hours he’s probably on the ground already. No one goes down there. I doubt anyone will find him until tomorrow.”
I began shaking all over, dropping the paper that I had been holding. I tried to get my legs to operate and once they did I rushed down three flights of stairs, sprinted down the hall and burst into the room where I knew Henry would be. He and his mother were both sitting there, one on each side of the desk. There was a large pile of empty envelopes and another pile of documents to be mailed. On the ground next to them was a large box already full of sealed envelopes.
“Is something wrong, Steven?” Geraldine asked as I stared at both of them.
“Henry, you’re in big trouble. Clyde, he did this to kill you. Th. . .the envelopes, they’re poisoned. He wanted to kill you with them. Have you been licking them? All this time? Geraldine? You haven’t been too, have you?”
Geraldine showed a face of shock and terror. “No. There’s no way. I don’t believe you. This doesn’t make sense. That’s not possible.”
Henry showed no change of emotion. He stared blankly at me. Then rose to his feet. “He’s put us all through enough. It’s time to end this. No holding back anymore. There’s no reason to anymore. Time to end this. Steve, you’ve been my best friend since grade school. I appreciate everything you’ve ever done for me. All I ask is you remember me and remember all this.”
I was torn of what I should do. I was pretty sure I knew what Henry was on his way to do and although I didn’t feel right allowing that to happen, his safety was my first priority. I got on the phone in the room and called 911. After a few minutes I had explained the situation and they said that poison control would be on their way immediately. By the time I had hung up with them I had already heard the piercing sound of three gunshots from somewhere in the building.
“Don’t worry about a thing, Geraldine,” I said trying to comfort her. “They’re on their way and then everything’s going to be okay. Let’s get you upstairs toward the first floor if you think you can.” She said nothing in response. I turned around to face her. She was slouching over in the chair, a cold, blank lifeless stare on her face. She showed no signs of breathing.
That image was more than I could take. I slid to the ground, leaning my back against the wall. I was defeated. I don’t remember for how long I sat there, mostly unaware of my surroundings. Barely breathing. Barely existing. Eventually paramedics arrived and removed Geraldine from the room, saying it was the second poison victim they had found here, third death overall. They wanted answers but then again, so did I. Eventually they left, giving me more time to think. I thought of how quickly life can change. How quickly tragedy can strike. How quickly every constant in life can suddenly be taken away. Five deaths. And for what? Each one was the result of someone trying to accomplish something in their life in the most drastic way possible. And not a single person benefited through these dreadful actions because they each met a similar fate. Now the innocent are the only ones left to suffer and feel the consequences of others’ need for power and revenge. I wondered how things could have been different. What if that stranger had never contacted me early Friday morning? What if I had kept that story to myself? It may have been the right thing for me to tell Henry what the stranger told me. He had the right to know, didn’t he? But sometimes doing what’s right is the worse possible option.
And although the rescue workers suggested that I should get out of there, I didn’t leave. Where did I have to go? Keep working in a business whose destruction was inevitable now? Go back home where I had no family waiting for me; my best friend taken away? So instead, I simply sat there in the dimly lit room by myself. More and more thoughts flowing in and out of my head. This wasn’t going to bring me to any solution, give me any closure or remedy the situation in any way but all Henry asked of me was to remember and that’s exactly what I did.
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