Love and Its Lies

Ten - Danny's Regret

“Has anyone ever told you that you are the world’s greatest cockblock?” Aly spoke in low volume. She and Danny were standing in the hallway, in front of her room as she unlocked the door—both soaked in rainwater and rightfully annoyed at each other with their respective reasons.

Danny irritatingly brushed the strands of wet unruly hair away from his eyes. “Thank you very much,” he thanked her sarcastically with a smile to match. On a more serious tone, he said, “You just put us in a very dangerous situation. What if he sees through our lies? If he calls for back-up, we will be done for sure.”

Aly pushed the door open and turned around to face him. “Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” she snapped. “If you don’t want to be ‘in danger,’” she made air quotes with her fingers, “then don’t come to the dinner. It was supposed to be just for John and I anyway.”

Danny let out a bitter laugh. “And let you be alone with that man? Who knows what you’ll end up confessing that could put me at risk. We should make a background story—why we are supposedly in this town, how exactly we’re related. If he finds us suspicious—you know what, this is too risky. We are not going tomorrow,” he said, putting an emphasis on the last sentence.

“He is not dangerous, Danny,” Aly said with a sigh, but the man only shook his head in disagreement and disappointment. “Then show me concrete evidence that he is,” Aly added.

“I—” he began, but hesitated.

“You can’t. So, unless I see it with my own eyes, or he lies to my face—and trust me, I would know if he did—then I won’t believe you. Good night,” Aly sternly said before closing the door in his face.

“You’re not a human lie detector!” Danny shouted through the door, before remembering that he was in the hallway. More quietly, he pleaded, “Let’s at least talk about a strategy!”

“Good night, Danny,” was all he heard Aly call out.

“Aly!” he hissed, but was not met with an answer. With a groan, he turned and entered his own room. He grabbed his laptop and sat on the bed without bothering to get out of his clothes. He did not like the feeling of damp fabric on his skin, but he wanted to stew in his own anger for a little more.

That girl had no idea what she was getting into. She was so blinded by her long-standing infatuation that it was almost useless to even try to convince her. Danny turned his laptop on and opened the most important email thread he had last received.

It was from one of his informants—a man who worked as a night security guard for Barrington and Co. He was the one who caught a whiff of the illegal nature of the oil company’s business. With enough courage to do what was right, he blew the whistle on his superiors and sent a convincing lead to Danny’s email using a dummy account—knowing that he was a journalist that was sniffing around.

The first email contained CCTV stills of the appointed COO, David Camp, in a closed door meeting with the owner of an underground gambling corporation, who was notoriously known for engaging in gang-related activities. The second was about how he overheard a newly hired accountant questioning the company’s numbers just a few days after there was a forest fire in the land that the company wanted to dig in. He was terminated immediately. The next was how he found it suspicious that two men quickly rose in ranks—two men who were often seen to closely work with Camp. Second to the last was how he would try to dig for more information about it, to which Danny had only replied that he should be careful and to try his best.

Regret flooded through him once again. He should not have encouraged the innocent man to get even more involved. Danny braced himself as he read the last email for what seemed like the hundredth time. It was obviously written in a hurry with shaky and fearful fingers. The man had snuck into one of the offices during his night shift, and was able to get the names of the men who were seemingly in the middle of it all. He had taken a picture of a document, but it was taken in a panic and too blurry to read, as the employee whose office he entered unexpectedly returned. The informant had said that he was seen, but he made up an excuse and the employee did not seem to be suspicious.

Danny had shown the emails to the editor-in-chief, who told him they could publish a story but they would need an evidence more concrete than a blurry picture if they wanted a legal action to take place. So, the television and internet news sites were filled with the headlines of a big company allegedly running an illegal gambling ring and laundering money through it.

Danny had tried to call the informant after that to check up on him, and when his calls would not go through, his instincts were quick to tell him that something had gone awfully wrong.

As if it was just yesterday, he could still clearly remember how he went to Barrington the very next day, only to find out that the informant never clocked in. He immediately drove to the man’s house, and what greeted him he would never forget—the sight of a man’s wife and child in despair.

Danny closed his eyes for a second—thinking of how things would have gone differently if only he told the man to leave it alone, how he should think of his wife and daughter instead—but it was a little too late to start regretting.

He stared at the name that the informant last sent—the man who had caught him in his office before making him disappear the next day. The recently promoted accountant who was supposedly laundering money for the company, and responsible for a person’s death. The same man who immediately disappeared the next morning after the news broke out. The one who Danny flew miles for, ready to catch red-handed. The very man he was about to have dinner with the next night.