The Midnight Society: Penumbra Part 5

"I don't even need two words for you," she replied. "Obsessed."

"I'm focused," I protested.

"You're angry, and anytime anger comes into play, the focus becomes an obsession."

There was some truth behind what she said, but what did she know about what I had gone through? Seeing the bodies of my parents butchered by my own sister changed my view on life.

"I lost my brother too you know," she said, as if she were reading my mind. "Since I found out, there are times where I just wanted to find Calisto and choke the life out of her with my own two hands-no offense. I know she's still your sister."

"None taken," I said.

"But at the end of the day, what would that accomplish?" Leah said. "I want to bring her down legally and by the books, but I have nothing on her to do so. This is why I agreed to meet with you and give you the head start you need in finding her."

"So what, we're starting a mutually beneficial relationship?" I asked.

Leah nodded. "Here's the reality Shadow, Lincoln is the prime suspect in the murders of James, Brevin, and Donald. His prints were on the gun that killed them, and right now there's no other piece of evidence that indicates that Calisto was the one behind all of this. I don't have the power to aim the cannon that's pointed at Lincoln in another direction unless I have evidence that she's behind all of this.

"I want you to find her, get a confession out of her, and bring her in. Only then can I clear Lincoln's name and bring judgment to her for those deaths," Leah said.

"What makes you think when I find her, I won't kill her myself?"

Leah shook her head. "You won't, Shadow. She's still your sister, and you love her."

I almost choked on those words. "Love? How can I love someone that took everything from me?"

"Calisto took the life of your parents, that's true. But it was you Shadow, you who decided to turn your back on everything and everyone, including me."

Once again, she didn't know what it was like to see the bodies of your parents, soaked in a pool of their own blood, in front of you. Leah wanted me to find Calisto and bring her back alive to face justice. But the truth of the matter was Calisto was already dead to me. The only thing to do with a dead person was to bury them six-feet under.

"Deep down, there's still love for your sister, I know it. I think you want to do the right thing, and that isn't killing her."

I shrugged my shoulders. "I guess we'll find out when I see her again."

Leah pulled a large envelope out of her hand bag and pushed it over to me.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Inside is the information you need to get started. Good luck, Calisto is very good at disappearing. Since the night of the deaths at Inferno, she's become a ghost."

"I'll find her," I stated as I pulled out the doc.u.ments from the tanned envelope and began scanning them.

They were surveillance photos of Elena Zhao and Calisto, walking out of a building together. My sister was smiling, sporting a new haircut that made her look more refined and sophisticated.

She was still a b.i.t.c.h.

"When were these taken?" I asked.

"About one week ago, in Hong Kong," Leah replied. "My source tried to follow Calisto after the meeting, but found it impossible to track her. She's very good at keeping herself concealed. She has at least five body doubles driving the exact cars with the exact license plates. She lost my agent in the tunnels during rush hour traffic."

"I guess this confirms Kara's story then," I said, frowning. "She mentioned that Calisto was in Hong Kong, forging a deal with the Zhao family. Not good."

"The Zhao family is a powerhouse in Asia," Leah agreed. "They're a very powerful enemy to have."

"I called Elena a wh.o.r.e in front of the rest of the Midnight Society on my birthday."

Leah looked at me as if I were chewing on worms.

"Well that was stupid," she said bluntly. "Anything else you'd like to fess up to?"

"I also smashed the only piece of evidence incriminating Calisto," I said, referring to the tablet containing the video of Calisto's insane manifesto, which fell out of my hands and shattered on the ground.

It had been on the back of my mind for weeks, how I allowed the only thing that could prove Lincoln's innocence to be destroyed. To say I was feeling guilty and stupid was an understatement.

I wasn't thinking then.

It was hard to think now.

For the past two weeks, I felt as if I was traversing through mud with no direction, aimlessly hunting down anyone who I thought knew where Calisto was.

"The police found the tablet," Leah said. "They managed to pull the memory from it and upload all its contents onto a console. Nothing was salvageable. There was a failsafe built into the tablet that magnetized the whole device after a trigger was set, which I a.s.sume came at the end of the video." She paused. "Yes, it was stupid of you to not keep that tablet intact, but Calisto was smart in covering her tracks too."

At least that was one thing off my chest.

I nodded. "So I guess it all comes down to me catching Calisto with Elena then," I said.

"I doubt that's going to happen. From the intelligence I gathered, she never sees the same person more than once. Your best bet is to track down Elena and get some information out of her," Leah said, just before adding, "And try not to call her a wh.o.r.e this time. You'll find that women are much more cooperative when they're not being accused of being shamelessly promiscuous."

"I'll take it into consideration," I replied.

I watched as the family left the bookstore. The boy gripped his copy of Maurice Sednak's book in his hands, a large smile on his face. His sister followed closely behind, pulling on his t-shirt with one hand while the other gripped a stuffed animal. The mother thanked the portly old man behind the counter and followed her children out the door.

"Of all the locations we could have met, why here?" I asked.

"I'm killing two birds with one stone."

"What two birds? Meeting with me and picking up a copy of 'Green Eggs and Ham?"

Leah shook her head and pointed to the man behind the counter. His hair was brittle and grey and his face looked worn down, like old beige leather. He was cleaning his oversized reading gla.s.ses with the fabric of his white, b.u.t.toned shirt. "You know how I'm good at summarizing people with one word?" Leah asked.

I nodded.

"Pedophile," she said. "That man is one of the most predominant distributors of child p.o.r.nography. I've been trying to nail him on charges of possession and distribution for the past year, but I'm still struggling to gather enough evidence. He covers his tracks very well, using an untraceable IP address to do most of his business."

I stared at the man, who turned to us and waved, smiling at us with his large slug-like lips.

"Is there anything else you two need?" he asked cheerfully.

Leah shook her head and gave him her best fake smile.

"We're good, thank you. But perhaps in a minute, you can help me look for the box set of 'Anne of Green Gables?'" she asked. "It's a childhood favorite of mine."

"Of course. You come see me when you're ready," he said, turning his attention back to a magazine that he was flipping through earlier.

"You're having no luck getting anything on him at all?" I asked.

Leah nodded. "He was charged once before, long ago, but the police officer who arrested him was too focused on roughing him up to read him his Miranda rights. The entire case got tossed out. He's been extremely careful ever since. I can only imagine how many children will get exploited while I continue to try and build a case."

"The officer made one detrimental flaw," I stated.

"Of course. The Miranda rights are the focal point of any arrest, giving every suspected criminal his humanly rights."

"I'm not talking about that," I said as I rose to my feet and walked towards the door of the bookstore. I flipped the sign over from 'Open' to 'Closed'.

"What are you doing?" Leah asked.

My hands balled into fists. "The officer should have beaten this guy to the point where even thinking about a child would hurt."

I walked over to the counter and fixed my gaze on the f.u.c.ker.

"So you like children?" I asked. The man looked at me and smiled.

"Why yes, of course," he said as he took off his reading gla.s.ses and laid them on the table. "That's why I own this bookstore. I love seeing the look of excitement in their eyes as they explore wondrous new pieces of literature."

I drilled him in his left eye with my fist. "What do you see now? Stars? Good, cause you're about to see a whole galaxy filled with them."

The man covered his eye and howled in pain.

"Do you film naked children?" I asked him, calmly.

The man looked at me with his one good eye, the look of fear unmistakable. I wondered how many times the children he exploited looked at him the same way. I suddenly thought of Julia, poor innocent Julia, and everything went red.

"Why are you doing this?" he cried.

"Because you're a degenerate." I reached over the counter, grabbed him by the collar, and lifted him up and over. I tossed him into a book display featuring various fairy tale princesses, who smiled innocently at us.

He lay on the floor, amongst scattered books and cardboard cut outs, sniveling pathetically, while still clutching his left eye. I walked over and looked at him with bitterness.

In the background I heard Leah screaming at me, but I tuned her out. All that mattered was inflicting as much pain as I could on this sick f.u.c.k.

"I'm going to ask you again and I want the truth," I said. "Do you touch little children?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," the man protested.

I delivered a hard kick to his gut and took satisfaction at the sound of his ribs snapping.

"Do you touch little children?" I asked again.

This time I got the truth out of him.

"I'm sorry," the bookstore owner shouted, his face a mess with tears and saliva. "I can't control it. I need help. Please, that's all I need, just some help."

"Filming disgusting acts and selling them for money does not sound like a plea for help," I said. "Did you have dirty thoughts about those children that were just in the store?"

"Y-y-yes."

I punched him in the groin.

"Shadow, no more," Leah protested.

"I want you to listen to me carefully. Starting today, I will be watching you," I said to the f.u.c.ker. "Every step you take, every morsel of food you place in your mouth, every single person you lay your filthy eyes on, I will know about. If I even suspect that you're having a dirty thought, I'm going to come out of hiding and do this to you."

I smashed him in the groin again.

"Stop, please!" he howled in pain.

"Do we have a deal?"

"I d-d-don't even know what the deal is." he cried.

"My fist in your nuts every time you're considering doing something sick," I replied. "You f.u.c.k up, I hurt you. Is that clear?"

He nodded. I let him stagger to his feet while he shielded his groin with his hands. "No more" he begged.

I connected the end of my fist to his jaw, knocking him out cold.

I turned to Leah.

"There, I bought you some time." I said. "I doubt he's going to look at another child again anytime soon. Meanwhile take your sweet time and build some evidence against him."

Leah looked at me and frowned. "My case died the second you a.s.saulted him," she said. "All the work invested, ruined because of your inability to control your emotions."

"You don't have to play your games with me," I said.

"What do you mean?" Leah folded her arms up against her chest.

"Perhaps you still have some of the Midnight Society in you after all," I smirked.

"I honestly don't know what you're talking about."

"You had no case to begin with. This sick freak was free to do as he pleased and there wasn't a d.a.m.ned thing you could do about it," I stated. "You wanted to see this guy suffer for what he's done, but there was no way you were going to get your hands dirty. That's why you had me come here instead. You knew I would beat the s.h.i.t right out of him. I was your weapon of choice, one that couldn't be traced back to you."

Leah's silence confirmed it.

"So I guess we're done here?" I asked. "I have a plane to catch."

"Despite what you think, I didn't want this to happen," she said, gesturing towards the unconscious pedophile on the ground.

"Manipulator," I replied.