The Hitman and His Consort

XXXVII - Leads

First Person P.O.V: VALENTIN HACKSAW

We got everything, including extra clothes in the event that we needed something to change to, I also doused the white streak of my hair with black wax hair color, I’m pretty sure the news mentioned something about it because I recalled Arthur saying that it was noticeable.

‘It’s like my world started to revolve around her and her influence on me without even noticing it,’

I put on a coat because the air chose to be chilly tonight for some reason. I used another one of our incognito cars to help up on this f*cking odyssey. I felt like some Greek jock on a journey to take up a game show-style survival quest. It was not a good feeling.

“You just holler if you need help, a’ight,” Madeline reminded as he hopped in the passenger seat and strapped the seatbelt on.

I frowned at him, “Why would I need help?” I asked, and he gave me this blank yet disappointed look at me.

“You’re shot in the gut… can we focus here? I don’t want to save your ass on top of Art’s,” he said, reminding me that I’m not in my best shape, that doesn’t mean he’ll be any better than me though, for f*ck’s sake I swam while carrying him over a damned bay while being shot,

“Don’t worry, I’m still better than you, even in this state,” I replied to put him at ease. That’s what I do, after all, I’m simply a delight to have around,

‘I should do stand up with this comedy,’

He, on the other hand, didn’t seem too appreciative of my response but that’s old news. He’s someone who nitpicked on my relationship with Arthur before, his approval of the least of my f*cking worriers. He also chose not to reply, finally figuring out the cheat code to deal with me, which is to not deal with me, to begin with.

“Then who are we going to deal with first?” he began, holding onto the notebook that Inka handed to us earlier,

“Who’s the closest?”

“This guy named Roxon Jenner,”

“His parents must’ve hated him,”

“For sure, I mean I’m named Madeline, but I’ll choose mine over his any day,” Madeline agreed and I shrugged at him, now it felt weird that we’re actually getting along and agreeing over something, even if that something was bullying. He told me the address, and it was a dragging amount of time until we reached his city and even got to his address. He’s part of the more industrialized parts of the town, too.

We parked close by, it’s a condominium so it’ll take us forever if we’ll try to find his room if we comb through each unit one by one. Time for people like us to do what we do best, lie. Luckily, we’re men. It’s like a preset.

“What’s the plan?” Madeline asked as he leaned against the car door.

“Do we have a picture of him?” I asked, and he nodded as pulled out his phone and showed a picture. Good, I’ll be able to play something out, if it wasn’t for Madeline’s tacky get-up of a fresh set of borrowed sweatshirt and sweatpants combo from Rodrigo, this plan would be flawless, but I’d be a sh*t liar if I can’t play out something that would explain something like that.

I wore a cap, one of the things I prepared back at home along with masks for the both of us, “You’re not going to catch me up on your scheme or something?” he asked as he put on the mask I handed to him,

“Just adapt,” I replied as I walked into the place, it’s a cheap-looking establishment so I doubt it’ll have security and I’m right, we just strolled right in and looked around the place, they don’t have those ugly nameplate plaques with the associated room number and even if they did, there’s a chance that our target faked a name when he got into this place.

I wouldn’t blame him, Roxon’s an ugly ass name.

I approached the closest room on this floor and knocked. It didn’t take long for someone to come to the door,

“Can I help you?” a man asked, barely opening his doors with the chain lock still intact. I nodded,

“Yes, we’re here for an investigation, do you know this man?” I began and, as if on cue, Madeline showed the photo of our guy. The man looked at us before looking back at the photo.

“What about him?” He answered, obviously knows the man, maybe he’s seen him a couple times and came to ask the room number too, but that’s just me being hopeful, we have a long list of scum to go through I just want to sweep through them as fast as I can, I’m not doing this so I can get a special meet and greet with them. What do I have to tell this man to make him spill out everything?

‘… one, here’s one,’

“He gave us a tip on some ongoing narcotic transactions from a place he went to, we just got notified that his life might be in danger as we speak,” I replied, seeming like it was enough to rattle some bones in his body.

Humans are easily so weak and roped along whenever the safety of another is compromised. Their concern for everyone else is fascinating, even if those people are complete strangers. It always amused me in a bad way, like a really awful theatrical play. However, I didn’t feel the usual distaste that I would. I wonder what’s different now,

“Then… are you like real investigators? Why’s your friend dressed like that,” the man said, see? It wouldn’t have been pointed out like that if Madeline wore something similar to mine,

“He’s undercover, we’re not sure how the grave the situation is so it would help if you could just tell us what’s his room number,” I pressed and the man sighed as he gave us each a long but panicked look,

‘You’re not the only one who wants this conversation to be over,’

“He’s in room 304 or was it 302… on the 6th floor? I’m getting him mixed up with another guy, but it’s between those two,” he said,

I had to stop myself before I roll my eyes at this man; we approached him so we could steer away from the guessing game, but here he is giving us a door #1 and door #2 option; I nodded at him as I gestured at Madeline to go on ahead. Luckily this place at least afforded a functional elevator. We pressed six and waited as the elevator made some concerning sounds that an elevator shouldn’t.

Once we reached the floor, Madeline opted to go to room 304 while I stood in front of 302. We knocked twice, and the doors almost opened at the same time, Madeline’s door opened first,

“Who’re you?” the person behind my door asked, bringing my focus back to them, but as I did, Madeline kicked his door open and charged inside.

“Wrong door,” I replied to the person behind 302 and followed after Madeline into the correct room. I was expecting all sorts of things, but not this. As Madeline pinned our target on the ground, a woman carrying a child in her arms stared at us in pure terror.

I turned to the man that Madeline was currently choking lightly, it seems, because I think even he was shocked to see this element in this man’s unit. The woman clutched the child tighter as her mouth quivered.

“This guy has a family?” I asked to, particularly, no one.

“Seems like it—like hell, I’ll buy that! Where’s Arthur you pretentious f*ck!?” Madeline yelled as he started choking the man for real this time, I closed the door behind me just so we don’t gather any unwanted snooping, it was always said that the darkest parts of a family are hidden beside closed doors.

The woman started sobbing, “Stop! Please! Stop this! Let him go!” she sobbed, and I slowly made my way toward her.

“I can hold your child so you can try to pry that man off of Roxon,” I offered, but she only clutched the child tighter, the child was starting to cry too, and with that, I think I triggered the target too good that he managed to throw Madeline off to the side,

Then again, Madeline’s probably lighter than a sack of potatoes in his current state.

“Don’t f*cking touch them!” he screamed at me with too much aggression for someone named Roxon. It’s not like I’m playing tug of war with this girl for the kid, I’m literally standing beside her doing nothing,

“I doing no such thing,” I replied to him, but since he expected I would, I pulled out my gun and pointed it at the woman’s head, “I have a gun as an alternative,” I added, and I couldn’t help but smirk at the facial expression he had, that miserable anger mixed with desperation. One of the key elements in establishing leverage,

“What the f*ck do you want?!” he yelled and Madeline pulled out his own gun and point it at the Roxon,

“Arthur,” I replied, and he frowned, opening and closing his mouth, seemingly loss for words,

“I… I don’t understand—are you looking for her? I don’t know where she is—I’ve cut ties with her for over 2 years, man! Please! Let them go!” He yelled as he locked eyes with the woman who was still crying silent tears as she stiffly rocked their child who, on the other hand, cried loud as it could,

“I’m not holding onto her in the first place, but we’re not here to hunt for Arthur, she’s missing, we’re just looking for her,” I replied and he took a deep breath.

“I really have no idea where she is… please, and how long has she been missing? Why would you go to me? The last I’ve seen of her is when we broke up 2 years ago,” he listed,

‘Yeah, I got it from the first time,’

It also sounds not so grave if I say that she's been gone for four hours approximately. I glanced at Madeline and he sighed. Seems like the first one is a fail. It doesn’t look like Roxon is lying either, taking a closer look at the kid, it kind of looks weird but in the same weird that Roxon looked like. He couldn’t have just put a family together for a front unless he’s that serious. I wonder how I could tell that this is actually real,

‘Oh, I got one,’

This time, I was now planning to have a full-on tug of war with this woman for her child, but I guess I caught her off guard because, in a single tight grip jerk, I was able to snatch the crying kid.

Ew. Do kids usually look this ugly?

The woman yelled, but I already made her shut up by pointing the gun at the child, or their child, I’m not so sure. I can’t just assume things in scenarios like these. I turned to the man and by now he’s hardly holding up, it wasn’t my intention to bring him to his knees but here we are, one must work with what one is given.

“Are you sure about your sh*t, sir?” I asked,

Roxon was shaking, tearing up, and trembling as he looked at me with all the anger and pleading in his eyes, he should just pick one, this is what I mean when I said I was well versed in what the face of panic looks like, this is exactly it.

Even Madeline was staring at me with some mild concern, I got to say, everything gets easier when children are involved, they’re such big vulnerabilities, results or these terms may not apply to all, my real parents, for instance, wouldn’t be shaken up if I was taken hostage.

They’re dead after all, anyway...

“I promise you, I have nothing to do with Arthur’s disappearance, I know nothing, please let Kristen go,”

He answered before resorting to actual begging. I’m somewhat proud of him for taking this stance and not following his parents’ example of naming his children with stupid names.

“I think he’s telling the truth man…” Madeline noted, why is he tense? He’s also looking a little nervous over there—don’t f*cking tell me he’s nervous, I’ll actually shoot a child.

‘I’m f*cking offended.’ I’m a sociopath, not a psychopath. There’s a difference.

“I know he’s telling the truth, but it’d be a shame if we end up here for nothing,” I replied, I just want to see how far I could push the situation and what I could gain from it, Roxon looked more hopeless than he already is as he crawled closer to me,

“Please… just me, don’t hurt them, just me,” he bargained, and the woman sobbed harder as she also fell to her knees,

“No, Rox…don’t, please, what else do you need?” she asked, her shoulders shaking along with her voice as she hiccupped.

‘Can’t believe someone from Arthur’s roster became a family guy, people really do change huh,’

“I need any possible detail you have of Arthur,” I replied and Roxon sighed as he drugged his hands across his face,

“How many times do I need to tell you I know nothing—“

“Alright, then how about these men,” I interrupted, gesturing for Madeline to show him the pictures of the rest, assuming he does have those and he does, he started scrolling through the phone with the screen faced to Roxon, he looked between the two of us and gulped,

“I don’t know much… but I do know some of them, but I need you to hand Kristen to me first,” he bargained again. Need I remind him that he’s in no position to make negotiations with me? Maybe it’s his edge or spunk from being a past killer, or who knows he might still be doing some killing as a side gig,

“F*ck no, get your ass up and sit it down on the couch, you too, lady, I could talk, listen, and carry a child at the same time, move it,” I replied, and with Madeline’s indication they did as I told, as the yelling calmed down so did the child’s crying.

‘Kristen, huh?’ I thought as the child and I stared at each other, me with contempt and her with confused crying and snot on her face.

“Ugly kid,”