Love and Its Lies

Nineteen - The Study

Years of trying to get the latest scoop and uncovering crimes have taught Danny a thing or two about sneaking into places—be quick and quiet. Those were very simple principles, but they were harder to abide by than one would think. One slip and he could get into trouble—and he had gotten into trouble. There was one time he was seen and forcefully thrown out of a warehouse by largely built, muscular men, earning him a broken finger and a couple of bruises. Another was when he was threatened with a knife by a panicked woman. There were many more instances when he thought he would either be thrown in jail or murdered on the spot.

Tonight, however, was different—he was not working alone. But with the added help came the added risk. If he was right about John and the people he was working for, he and Aly would be in a heck lot of trouble. The COO of a large, well-known oil company would not think twice to take out anyone who was onto their operations. In fact, there was a 99% chance that he already had—Larry Burton.

If Danny only had concrete evidence to prove it, then maybe the people—more importantly, the police—would listen. He was getting close to finding what he needed, and he could feel it in his bones as he stopped in front of the door—which he could only assume was John's bedroom.

There were three doors in the second floor. As John had said, the one at the end of the hall was for the bathroom. This left Danny two rooms to check. He tried the door to the first one, and was relieved to find that it was unlocked.

The first thing he did was look for CCTV cameras–one could never be too careful. They were usually placed in the corners to get a wider view of a room. In the dark, they would be slightly noticeable thanks to the small red lights that are on whenever they’re active. In this specific room, Danny found none, so using the flashlight on his phone, he began to look around.

It was a small bedroom—and a normal-looking one, at that. On the bedside drawer were photos of John with his father. On one wall were posters of old bands and football players that looked like they’d been taped there for more than a decade. Danny could only assume that this was John's childhood bedroom.

He quickly opened the drawers and the closet, but they were mostly empty except for clothes and old toys and notebooks. No folders or gadgets were to be seen. With disappointment and slight annoyance that the first room was a dud, he left and quietly closed the door behind him.

For a second, he leaned onto the stairs to listen in to the two downstairs. He could hear Aly and John laughing, followed by Aly exclaiming in an unusually high-pitched voice, “Oh my god, John! I didn’t know you did that back then!”

As much as she claimed that she was there for non-romantic reasons, Danny doubted her being flustered and her adoration for John had died down. Danny couldn’t blame her—she did spend 6 years head over heels and stalking the man before finding out that he was a criminal. He only shook his head in pity as the sound of Aly giggling traveled upstairs.

Feeling that he’s still in the clear, he went to the second door and tried the door. Locked. Danny knew he hit the jackpot.

It was a good thing that John never thought to remodel the house. The locks were still the same old version, which meant that with a little Danny magic, it would easily open without having to pick the locks. Danny took out a thin card that he had fashioned for this exact type of circumstance, and prayed that it would suffice. If that didn’t work, he knew he’d have to unscrew, which would take him longer.

To Danny’s relief, the latch bolt gave in after his fourth try. He was in. When he found no cameras, Danny scanned the room with his flashlight. It was a lot bigger than John’s bedroom, so he could only assume that this was the master bedroom converted into a study.

There was a wide bookshelf on the side and a cabinet full of folders, but Danny headed for desk first. In one of the drawers was a small safe—only big enough to fit a laptop or a couple of folders, maybe even a gun.

“I’d have to return for this at some point,” he thought to himself as he pulled the other drawer, which contained one folder and the burner phone that Mr. Clement handed to John. He took out the folder and placed it on the desk.

Please, please, please, he repeated in his head as he peeked into its contents. The first feeling that came to him was that of success, when he saw that it contained photos of CCTV stills. There was no way that they were official Barrington paperwork. What immediately followed, however, was that of—well, Danny couldn’t think of a way to describe what he felt at that moment. There was anger, sadness, grief and determination as he held in his hands a photo of Larry Burton taking pictures of a document inside an office. The timestamp read accurate to Danny’s suspicion. It was taken the last night he was alive.

Danny scoured through the files, every piece of it burning hot to his fingertips. He opened the camera in his phone and quickly took pictures before arranging them back to how he found them and returning the folder into the drawer.

Before he left the room, he made sure to lock the door behind him. Then he went to the bathroom, dampened his hands, flushed the toilet and closed the door noisily just for show.

With his heart beating in his ears, and a lump on his throat, he slightly wobbled as he began to walk down the stairs. He had to go back to the hotel to look over what he had. He would have tried to open the safe, but he knew that the longer he took, the more suspicious John would be. Being tipsy and distracted with Aly could only hold him off for so long.

As it turned out, however, John was the least of his worries right then and there, as he looked quite busy enough what with his tongue inside Aly’s mouth.

“Oh my god,” Danny couldn’t help but say out loud, as the image of Aly and John making out on the couch seemed to imprint on his brain. He said it a bit too loudly that it made Aly break the kiss and literally jump up in surprise.

“It’s not what you think,” she said in a panic, her cheeks and her lips red, and her eyes wide as she immediately heard what she had just said. Looking back at John and Danny alternately, she tried to explain, “I mean, it is what you—it’s just that I—” until finally, she gave up and helplessly looked at Danny.

John, who was looking as embarrassed, stood up beside her and said, “I hope this doesn’t make things awkward, Danny.”

Flustered and defensive, Danny replied, “Why would this make things awkward?”

“Well, because you’re cousins?” John said, unsure.

“Oh, right,” Danny said with a weird uncomfortable chuckle. “Yeah, don’t mind me. Feel free, to, um, kiss or something. As long as it’s all consensual,” he continued, then stopped to frown at his own rambling.

“Anyway, I better head out. I’m feeling kind of beat,” Danny said, rushing to take his bag to the door as the two watched. “You guys can… continue or whatever. I’ll see myself out. Thanks for the food, John,” he said, even though he didn’t actually touch the dessert.

Danny didn’t wait for a reply as he opened the door to leave. The last he heard was John saying, “Um, okay, take care, Danny,” and Aly excusing herself as well.

Danny strode fast. He couldn’t quite wrap his head around the whole thing, so he figured he’d mull things over in the quiet of his room. He had bigger things to worry about.

He gave a quick “good evening” to Fred who was sitting behind his desk, then proceeded upstairs. It wasn’t until he was fishing for his keys when Aly turned up in the corner.

“Hold up,” she panted.

Danny paid her no attention and went inside his room. He kicked the door to close and headed for the desk, when it stopped midway and flung open. Aly, who now looked pissed off and even more out of breath, entered without invitation and closed the door behind her.

“You,” she said, her hands on her knees, “can walk very, very fast.”

Danny only glanced at her before putting on his glasses, sitting on the chair, and opening his laptop to connect his phone to it. “I didn’t say you could come in,” he simply said.

“Right,” Aly mocked. She swung her bag towards the bed and sat next to it.

“Why did you leave your boyfriend behind?” Danny rhetorically asked.

“You know he’s not my boyfriend,” Aly said. “Can we talk about it for a second?”

“Talk about what?” Danny played innocent, before saying in the same tone, “Oh, you mean how you were fraternizing with the enemy? What’s there to talk about?”

“I wasn’t,” Aly spat out, “fraternizing with the enemy. I was playing along to distract him!”

This made Danny turn his head towards her, clearly unimpressed. “Well, you did a great job at it,” he said sarcastically. “I’ve been at this job for years and yet, somehow, I’ve never had to kiss anyone. Especially not someone I’ve been in love with since college who, as it turns out, is part of a scheme.”

Aly groaned loudly. “Look, Danny, I got carried away, but I really did go there to get the files. It’s just that we’ve been talking and reminiscing, and then unexpectedly he says that he’s so happy he met me again, and—to be frank with you—that swayed me a bit. Also, what was I supposed to do? If I didn’t, it would have been awkward and weird and it would have probably given you less time.”

Danny rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the screen, bitterly saying, “Oh, don’t use me as an excuse.”

“You know, you’re acting like you’re jealous right now.”

Danny glared at her. “Jealous, my foot.” Admittedly, it wasn’t the best comeback.

Clearly frustrated now, she said, “Look, he leaned in to kiss me. I admit, I didn’t stop it. I mean, 6 years, Danny! For 6 years I yearned for his attention and he was finally giving me more than I could have hoped for. It’s not like I forgot or I don’t believe you, but I just—I have some doubts. Even if he does play some part in Barrington's illegal activities—I mean, what if he has a reason for it? Don’t we owe him the benefit of a doubt?”

Danny was taken aback by her last statement that it made him turn his head so fast to look at her with bewilderment. “I, for sure as hell, don’t!” Anger rose in his chest, and it showed when his ears turned blood red. “A reason for it? Don’t kid me, Aly. You’ve seen him meet up with Clement and you’ve heard him plead to go back to the city to continue his work. Did that seem like a guy who has reservations? No, because he doesn’t.”

Aly shut her mouth, surprised at his outburst.

“You don’t even know what he’s capable of doing,” Danny venomously hissed, “he’s the type of person who works for a cause that gets forests destroyed, communities evicted, and people dead. So, don’t tell me a low-level accountant who miraculously rose in rank that handles the money to fund dirty business is owed the benefit of a doubt.”

“Not my doubt,” he said firmly, staring Aly down. He grabbed his phone and chucked it towards the bed beside Aly, who picked it up to look at the screen.

“And certainly, not Larry Burton’s.”