Evanescent

CW: sexual harassment

Lucy looked around the dank, dingy office wondering why on earth she decided to come here. It stunk like cigarette smoke, the windows were so grimey barely any sunlight filtered through and the only light in the office was a single dim bulb hanging from a string light above the desk.

She felt small in the desk, her feet didn’t even reach the dusty floorboards, while the desk before her was so big it seemed more like a bus.

“Are you sure about this?” came the gravelly, pack-a-day voice on the other side of the desk.

“Yes,” squeaked Lucy. Then she cleared her throat, “Yes.”

The man sighed, grabbed a smoke from a half crushed pack, put it in his mouth and lit it. The tip flared red as he inhaled. He held it in for a two-count moment before exhaling a cloud of smoke that joined the rest of the haze in the small office.

Lucy glanced at the nameplate on his desk. She was surprised he had one. He didn’t seem the type to want to advertise his name too much. He had his name on the door to this office, which felt like it was enough for him.

“Do you understand what I do?” he asked. Even from across the desk she could smell the whiskey on his breath. He spoke to her like she was an idiot. Like she didn’t understand why she was here, as if she had wandered off the street looking for the cinema.

“You’re Jack Martin and you make people go away.”

Jack looked at her with red-rimmed, alcohol-soaked eyes, wondering if this was a practical joke. His face was worn and wrinkled like a well used leather coach with a week's worth of stubble lining his chin and jaw.

“How did you find me?”

“Dad told me if I ever needed help, to go to you.”

“Your pa, huh?” he grunted. “Who is your pa.”

“John Johnson,” Lucy said quietly, like it was a secret not to be overheard. 

Though given the neighbourhood, Lucy would be surprised if there was anyone else within a three-block radius of them.

Jack raised eyebrows, “Baby Powder Johnson is your pa?”

Lucy gave him a look, “Baby Powder...what?”

“You know Johnson and Johnson, the company....”

“Oh…” was all Lucy could say.

Jack leaned back in his chair, it let out a sound that could have been mistaken for wood splintering but she assumed it was just the chair protesting under his weight. Lucy figured at one point he was athletic, probably a football player, before time and too much alcohol and cigarettes got the best of him. He took a drag and snorted out a cloud of smoke like a grizzly dragon and laughed.

“Didn’t know he had kids.”

“Adopted.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Why?”

“Never mind. What do you need?”

Lucy breathed in and held it. An exercise she learned from yoga, trying to calm herself down. But also to give herself some time to think. Did she actually want to go through with this?

She thought back to all that had happened, how she felt. The harassment. The hit her dad’s popularity would take if they ever got out. Finally she said, “I need someone to go away.”

Jack took another drag and stubbed out his cigarette in an ashtray overflowing with other stubs. “Listen kid, if this is some lovers quarrel, then I should warn you, once it’s done. It’s done. I can’t undo it. There is no going back.”

“I understand.”

“Do you?

Lucy nodded.

“What did your pa say I did exactly?”

“You make people go away,” she repeated.

“Go away or disappear?”

“What’s the difference?”

That seemed to satisfy him, “Go on,” he said.

“His name is Greg and he has information about me. And if it gets out, it will ruin Dad as well as me.”

Jack looked at her as if expecting more but Lucy said nothing. He sighed and ran a hand through his grey-flecked dark hair.

“I need more.”

“Why?”

“Because I fucking well said so,” he barked.

“Dad said you owed him.”

Jack nodded, “That’s right.”

Lucy waited.

“Look kid, I don’t do this for fun. I’m not some hero saving a damsel in distress. You might think I am some shit-kicker who needs every buck he can gather to make ends meet but you’d be surprised. Tell me what is really going on or get the fuck out of here.”

Lucy shrunk in her chair, no one speaks to her like that, not even the mayor. She swallowed, “Fine,” she muttered. “We dated for a while. It was fine, he was a good guy. But I wasn’t feeling it so I ended it.”

“And he felt otherwise?”

“That’s right,” Lucy said. “It was texts and phone calls. I humoured him, figured we could be friends, or at least, friendly. But he became pushy, wanting to hang out when I clearly didn’t.”

“So he was annoying. I’ve heard this one before,” Jack interrupted.

“It was more than annoying,” Lucy shot back. “It went from annoying to stalking, to hacking my facebook account, to showing up at events Dad is hosting, making a scene and there are secrets...compromising pictures he has threatened to make viral. He said if we didn't get back together he would show up at an event tomorrow night and reveal them. 

“Can you imagine the stir it would cause? It will ruin the event, my life and dad’s career. ”

Jack sat back, took the last cigarette from the packet and put it to his lips, lighting it. He tossed the packet and tossed it at the waste paper bin near the door and missed.

“Ahh,” he said as if he’d missed a buzzer beater. “Look kid-”

“Lucy.”

“-whatever. This isn’t what I am here for. This guy, Graeme-

“Greg.”

“-whatever is threatening you. Making you feel unsafe. Go to the police. They’ll take a special interest in it since you’re the mayor's daughter.”

“But-”

“This isn’t the type of help I can provide. I make people disappear. Do you understand what that means? Is this something you really want to do to someone?”

Lucy looked downcast, avoiding his eyes and it was all she could do not to start sobbing. If this ‘investigator’ didn’t help she was well and truly screwed.

Jack sighed, “I’ve seen this case a million times. Ignore him and he’ll go away. They usually do. He just wants attention because he’s lonely.” He coughed a hacking cough and cleared his throat, as he did he opened a drawer, fumbling through it, pulling out papers and a weird device that looked like a silvery, smooth handgun, until he finally found what he was looking for; a silver flask. He unscrewed the lid and took a swig. 

As he did Lucy looked at the weird device. It was the size of a pistol and reminded Lucy of a raygun, something you’d see Marvin the Martian carrying. 

“What’s that?” she asked.

Jack tossed it back in his drawer. “It’s called ‘evanescent’ and that’s all you need to know,” he said, slamming the drawer shut. “As I said, kid. I can’t help you.”

“I can pay.”

“So can a lot of people.”

“$100,000.”

That made him pause and Lucy continued, taking advantage. “I can give you $100,000. $50,000 to check him out and if you go ahead with it, you get the other half when it’s done.” She tossed a paper bag on to the desk, brushing past fast food wrappers and the overflowing ashtray.

Jack grabbed the bag and looked inside. He pulled out a thick wad of cash wrapped in rubber bands. It was five thousand dollars and there were nine more of them in the bag. “How old are you?”

“Sixteen.”

“Where does a sixteen-year-old get a hundred grand?”

Lucy gave him the barest hint of a smile, “I’m the mayor's daughter.”

Jack eyed her, taking a drag on his cigarette. He tossed the bag on the desk. “Fine,” he said, blowing smoke out of his nostrils. “I’ll check him out.”

Lucy pulled a sheet of paper from her purse and handed it to him, “This is his name and address.”

He looked at it but didn’t take it and she dropped it on the desk. Lucy stood up and left without saying goodbye.

Jack stubbed out his half-smoked cigarette, leaned forward in his groaning chair, and grabbed the piece of paper. There was minimal information on it, but it’s not like he had anything better to do.

“Kids,” he muttered.

Jack spent the rest of the day researching Greg Williams. He was 17, good grades, star footballer and his parents were loaded. His social media was full of him partying with friends; on the beach or some snow-covered lodge, and always with girls who looked under-under age. There was little in terms of trouble though, no different to other teenage boys except one arrest where the charges were dropped, and, strangely, most of the information had been redacted. As it happens, Jack knew the arresting officer and they met at a local donut shop.

“What are you interested in the kid for, Jack?” Grant asked.

Grant and Jack worked together back when Jack was an officer and Grant was a wide-eyed optimist, fresh out of the academy. Nowadays, optimism had been swapped for appetite. He'd been written up seven times and hung on to his job by the seat of his ever-widening pants.

“A client is being threatened by him.”

Grant put down his glazed donut and said, “Let me guess. A girl, younger than he is, and he has photos?”

Jack nodded, “Got it in one. What’s the story?”

Grant resumed eating, “Nothing much,” he said around a mouthful of donut. “He dated the girl, she ended it. He didn’t take it too well and had some compromising photos he threatened to go viral with.”

“How was this not news?” Jack asked.

“Parents,” Grant said, rubbing his thumb and forefinger together, the universal sign for money. “Kids lawyer argued the girl sent him the photos when they were together, he was being a dumb kid who didn’t take being dumped too well. Money exchanged hands and the result was sealed.”

“What’s the girl's name?”

“I can’t tell you that,” Grant said, indicating the sheet of paper Jack had in front of him. Jack handed it to him and Grant started writing. “I can’t possibly give you the name of an underage victim from a sealed court document.”

He finished writing and handed the page back to Jack. At the bottom, in Grant's scratchy writing was the name Abigail McInness.

Jack rubbed his stubbly chin, “What was your take on the kid?”

“Future sex pest. No doubt.”

Jack eyed his former partner, “You sure?”

“As part of the deal he was to go to therapy but,” Grant shrugged, “who knows if he actually did. And if he did,” he indicated Jack’s sheet of paper which Lucy had given to him along with his own notes, “seems like it hasn’t worked.”

“So it seems,” Jack said, standing up and putting his hat on. Grant did so as well and they shook hands. “It’s good to see you, Grant.”

“You too, Jack. And just a word of warning, stay away from this. The lawyer will turn your life upside down to get the kid off and the parents will stop at nothing to make sure he gets away with it.”

Jack nodded and tipped his hat, “See you around.”

Jack looked up Abigail McInness on social media but found nothing on facebook, twitter, reddit. Nothing. She had no social media presence at all so he went to the phone directory and looked them up.

He arrived at the McInness house in the afternoon. Knocking on the door, he checked his watch, it was a little under 3 hours before the gala started. He didn’t have long to decide.

The door was answered by a portly man with glasses and Jack introduced himself. “I was hoping to speak with Abigail.”

The man, who he presumed was her father, looked at him suspiciously, “Why?”

“It’s to do with Greg Williams.”

The door slammed in his face.

Sighing, Jack removed his fedora and rubbed his hair while deciding whether to knock again. He decided against it. Heading back down the path towards his car he heard the door open.

“Hey!”

Jack turned around to see a girl of 15 or 16 standing in the doorway.

“Hello,” he said, trying not to sound gruff.

“What did you want to know about Greg?”

“You’re Abigail?”

The girl nodded.

Jack walked back up the path. “I’m investigating him.”

“Why?”

“He might be causing someone trouble.”

Abigail had long blonde hair, green eyes and wore stylish reading glasses. She was a pretty girl, like Lucy, and the other girls from Greg’s social media photos.

“I was told all that was locked away now. My parents made a deal with his and that was that.”

She looked angry.

Jack could only hold his hands out.

“You’re an investigator?”

“Yes.”

“You must be a good one.”

“Why do you say that?”

“You found out about what happened to me.”

“More lucky than good.”

“What do you want to know?”

“I want to know if he is a bad kid.”

Abigail snorted, “He’s a spoiled, rich brat who gets upset if he doesn’t get what he wants. Everything is powerplay to him and information is the ace up his sleeve.”

“Would you be upset if he went away?”

“No.”

“Do you want him to go away?”

Abigail thought about it, “He was never physical. He would never do that. It was all about the mind games, the power. He thought I was beneath him so for me to deny him was an affront. I don’t want him to hurt anyone else like he did me.”

Jack tipped his hat, “Thank you Ms McInness, you’ve been very helpful.”

He turned to leave when she asked, “What are you going to do?”

Jack paused, his back to the girl, “Guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

It was nearly time for the gala event and Jack was in a coffee house across from town hall where it was being hosted. He’d tailed Greg from his house and was now seated in a booth with a coffee watching his Greg-the-future-sex-pest sitting in a window seat watching town hall. He looked no different from his online photos. He was tall with wavy brown hair and a winning smile which he was currently using on the waitress serving him coffee.

The only difference was he’d swapped his usual expensive casual wear for an expensive tux.

Jack poured some whiskey in his coffee and took a drink, savouring the hot liquid as it slid down his throat, loosening up the always present phlegm. 

It wasn’t until 15 minutes later that Greg suddenly stood up and rushed out of the coffee house, heading across the street. Jack wasn’t far behind and he looked beyond Greg to the town hall. There he saw a crowd gathering around a man and a young girl, camera flashing and questions being asked. 

The Mayor and Lucy.

They were up the steps and heading into the hall. Greg followed, taking the steps two at a time, and disappeared inside while Jack was huffing and puffing up the steps.

Inside a chandelier lit up the great entrance hall and Jack saw Greg. He’d pulled Lucy aside and they were talking animatedly, hands flailing about and then he pulled her through an exit door.

“Shit,” Jack grumbled and moved ahead, weaving through the crowd. Apologising as he passed the crowd, while they looked down their noses at him. Wondering what a man in a rumpled suit, a fedora and reeking of booze and cigarettes was doing here.

Pushing through the door, Jack found himself in an alleyway beside the town hall. The night air was warm and the alley was lit by a couple of dim, yellow lights.

“Get away from me!” Lucy cried out.

Jack looked down the alley and saw Greg and Lucy disappearing behind a dumpster. Pulling the evanescent from his pocket, Jack hurried down the alley. He arrived just as Greg had Lucy cornered between the wall and the bin, waving something in her face.

“What are people going to say!” he was shouting, spittle flying from his mouth.

Lucy looked scared, cowering in the corner, trying to disappear into the side of the bin.

Jack didn’t say anything. He stood a couple of metres away from Greg, pointed the evanescent and pulled the trigger.

Greg didn’t cry out. He didn’t protest. He didn’t feel a thing. He just disappeared. At first he was there, and then he wasn’t. Gone. Poof. Disappeared.

Lucy looked shocked, looking at the space Greg previously occupied. “What? Where is he?”

Jack shrugged, “Gone. You ok?”

Lucy nodded, “I better get back before they start looking for me. Thank you. You’ll have the rest of your money tomorrow.”

Jack nodded and the girl left, head down the alley and around the corner.

He was about to leave when he saw the thing Greg was waving at her. It was a phone, dropped when he disappeared. Jack picked it up, it was still unlocked and displaying photos.

The photos Greg was threatening Lucy with. He thought he should give it to her, let her deal with the photos but he saw the first one and froze.

“It can’t be…” he whispered, swiping through the photos.

The photos were taken from outside a window looking in. There was Lucy, naked and in various, compromising positions. With her was another man. 

But it wasn’t Greg, it was Lucy and…

“The mayor?”

Her adoptive-father.

He looked down the alleyway where Lucy had gone. 

“Oh fuck…” he grumbled, closing his eyes.

He’d been played.