Page 45 of Fight
“Shit, yeah, I hadn’t thought of that. Either way, we’ll go in prepared for everything, and we’ll have the Conspiracy waiting for the buyer,” I reply.
Rome nods as the others make sounds of agreement and then asks, “Is everyone done?”
“Yeah,” I reply, standing up, “just let me go and get dressed into something more appropriate and grab some more weapons, and then we can head out.”
It’s not long until we’re all in the car and heading down to Rip’s, like when we’ve approached one of the guy's houses before, there’s a tension in the air as we drive.
“Rip, how big is the risk that one of the staff members is going to take exception to us being there?” Rome asks and then adds, when he doesn’t immediately reply, “We know that your parents are dead, your dad by your hand, and Demelza is good at her job. She would’ve made sure that the twin's father ended her properly, or the threat would still be there. Yet despite all of that, you are still concerned.”
Rip sighs and rubs a hand over his head, “You're right. It seems that my parents are slightly different than yours in the sense that my mother had several, erm, partners, I guess you could call them amongst the staff, and they genuinely cared for her. I have no idea how their relationships could’ve changed since my father died and we left, but it’s those that I am concerned about. They had a sense of loyalty for her.”
“Right, that makes more sense,” Rome replies, “we go in armed, and we make sure that we check everywhere, never put your back to a staff member if there are any still up there and make sure that every single one of them leaves, if they have homes on the property, then they need to be escorted to get their things, and then off of the property, we can’t risk anyone staying behind.”
“Got it,” Ace replies.
“It shouldn’t be too hard. My family kept a small staff, only four I think, although that was when I was here. I have no idea if there are more.” Rip replies as we turn down a long and winding road with densely packed trees on either side.
“I see smoke,” Mason mutters, “a lot of smoke.”
Rip frowns leaning forward, “We have fireplaces, but that’s far too much for that. It almost looks like the incinerators been lit.”
“What? You have an incinerator?” I ask.
Rip’s expression is grim, “It’s in one of the outbuildings, remember we specialise in disposing of bodies. Nothing quite does it as burning them at an extremely high heat,” he starts to explain and then asks me, “You know how all the families had major roles in the town?"
I nod, frowning in confusion, as I reply, "Yeah."
"Well, we ran the crematorium for the town. It was the perfect cover since no one would question the smoke coming from up here, the incinerator itself, or the odd tooth that someone may find inside it."
"That makes so much sense. I always wondered how you got rid of the bodies without rousing suspicion. I just never got around to asking." I reply, thoroughly impressed that they've got it so well covered. "Have you been the cremators since the town began?"
Rip nods, "Yeah, which means no one suspects anything because it’s a generational family business."
"The perfect cover," I reply.
"Wait, how did the grandparents get rid of all the bodies at the twin's estate if they didn’t bring them up here?" Rome asks.
"I have no idea," Mason replies, "they know the estates even better than we do though, so it's not something that we need to be concerned about," Malachi replies.
"Yeah, I was just curious," Rome replies.
I pull a face, “Yeah, all that makes sense. But what doesn’t make sense is the fact that the incinerator is burning now.”
“It means someone is up there,” Ace replies, pulling out his gun, “and most likely up to no good.”
“There are no traps on the main drive, just cameras, so if you pull over just before the main gate, we should be able to get through no problem, and even if we’re spotted on the cameras, they’d have to be in the house to do that, so it will take them a while to get to us. That’s if they didn’t add security guards.” Rip explains.
Rome nods, “Got it.”
“It’s been a while since your mom was killed; surely any staff left would’ve gotten the hell out of dodge by this point?”
“I would’ve, but clearly, someone is there,” Rip replies.
“I want us all to stay together on this one. We couldn’t get access to the cameras, so we have no idea what we’re walking in on,” Rome replies.
“What?” I ask.
“When did you try to get access to the cameras?” Mason asks, as Malachi, looks just as confused, and I’m glad that I’m not the only one that’s been left in the dark.