Confident that his presence wasn’t going to resolve the situation, he departed and returned to his new home. Inside, Vanessa sat up in her chair, surprised by the abrupt entrance of her colleague. She had spent the morning contacting the former employers of Patrick Burns, now known as Rick Spabrunt, found through his social security number. She had extended the review of his career history to beyond Lincoln sites. It appeared that whilst he maintained his interest in security measures of his employers’ properties, his reputation as the ideal colleague had not extended to all of his former jobs. His manager at Chilli’s had given him a written warning for rooting through employee files one night when he was left to close the store. And Macy’s in Chicago had sacked him for tampering with security footage.
‘Have you got any liquor? Strong liquor!’ Darnell asked, licking his lips. He shook his hand, which throbbed from the collision with Thomas’s face.
‘Erm… sure?’ Vanessa jumped up and ran into the kitchen. She grabbed a tumbler and a bottle of whisky, before returning to the living room. Darnell had thrown off his jacket and tie, loosening his blue shirt, before throwing himself onto the couch.
‘My career is over,’ Darnell announced. He threw the printed email towards her which had caused his demise. Vanessa read over the email and gasped at its contents. She immediately knew Darnell hadn’t written the apparent evidence, which pointed towards his part in breaking the Lincoln story to the press; not only was he not that dumb to put his career in jeopardy this way, but the wording just wasn’t in his language nor style.
‘Who do you think sent this?’ Vanessa asked. ‘Your account must have been hacked.’
‘You don’t say?’ Darnell replied sarcastically. ‘It was my son, Thomas.’
‘You’re sure of this?’ Vanessa looked up and held up the sheet of paper, surprised by his accusations when he had been previously so adamant about his son’s innocence.
‘Uh-huh! He’s been knee deep in this shit since the beginning. I’m sure of it. I just need to prove it. And then he’s done for, I’m telling you. That son-of-a-bitch is gonna pay. I don’t care whose child he is. I’ve overlooked all of his behaviour in the past, but not now. He’s no son of mine anymore.’
‘Darnell, I need to tell you something…’ Vanessa spoke cautiously. ‘You’re not gonna like what I’m about to say.’
He sat up and his ears straightened like a surprised cat. Vanessa took a swig of the whisky directly from the bottle and took a deep breath before she revealed to Darnell the secret project she’d been working on just a few feet away from his own room.
‘Whatever it is, just tell me.’
‘I think you’re right about Thomas.’ Darnell’s eyes widened but his shoulders relaxed, appearing almost relieved that his suspicions were not isolated to just himself. At least he hadn’t caused a storm in a teacup without reason. ‘I started following Thomas after what you told me in Indiana about him. Something just stuck with me about it all that I had to follow my gut. They do say there’s no smoke without fire. Well I just had my suspicions but I didn’t want to approach you until I was absolutely sure.’
‘Go on…’ Darnell nodded. His eyes were vengeful with a hint of disappointment that his colleague had gone behind his back to investigate his own family.
‘I followed him for a couple of days, in particularly down at his lodge where he hangs out.’ Vanessa took a deep breath before revealing the most damning of evidence. ‘He’s been hanging out with Rick Spabrunt.’
Jackson fell back and threw his head in his hands. For the first time since their introduction, Vanessa watched her colleague cry. He was inconsolable. She ran to his side and rubbed his arm, before topping up his drink. He took it and downed it with a shaking hand. She grabbed the bottle and took a seat beside him, swigging directly from the neck.
‘What do we do now?’ Darnell asked, wiping the moisture from his eyes and nose. He tried to catch his breath before sipping the poison from his tumbler.
‘Well we have to follow this up, Darnell. We can’t just leave it.’
‘There’s no we anymore, Vanessa.’ He looked down at his drink and swirled his glass, finding the legs dribbling down the sides quite therapeutic.
‘I still need you, Darnell, in some way. I’m going to be lost without you. Your expertise has been vital to us getting this far. Even if you’re no longer on the case, you have a duty to your hero to bring him home.’
‘I don’t know if I can, for two reasons. For one, I’d be risking you getting into trouble. I can’t do that to you. You’re young and a good detective. You need to keep going and keep your nose clean.’
‘And the second reason?’
‘I just don’t know if Lincoln is really my hero anymore after all that we’ve discovered. He wasn’t the man I thought he was.’
They drank late into the evening. When Darnell finally passed out on the couch, she sneaked past the drunkard and picked up the evidence, which she’d hidden away from his sight when she heard his car enter her driveway earlier in the day. The papers had
