Alien in the House

Chapter 85



“WELL, my bitch of a stepmother’s dead,” Amy said. “So was it her?”

“No, and Ronaldo al Dejahl is out, too, and before you all tell me he’s dead I point to Clarence Valentino and say that there’s a good chance al Dejahl also got better. However, they were out of this part of the galaxy for too long. And I don’t see either one of them as willing to be an Apprentice to anyone other than good ol’ Mephistopheles.”

Chuckie jerked. “That’s the original Mastermind, Yates, or the Yates-Mephistopheles superbeing combination.”

“That makes so much sense it makes me sick to think about it,” Jeff said. “But does it work from a timeline perspective?”

Stryker nodded. “Yeah, definitely. Chuck’s had us research all we could on Ronald Yates. He was old, but he was active all the way through until his death.”

“And he’s influenced every plan already, and we know that, too.” Looked at White. “Richard, what do you think?”

“I’m in complete agreement with Jeffrey, including the nausea.”

“How about Reid fitting into that scenario?”

“Works for sure,” Big George said. “He received several campaign donations from different divisions of Yates Enterprises.”

“Did you memorize the file?” Abigail asked. She didn’t sound appalled—she sounded impressed.

“No, but I could have,” Big George said, flexing his mind muscle for the pretty girl. “We’ve been spending a lot of time on Leventhal Reid.”

“Flirt later, we have other questions that need answering. Can we all agree that Reid was the Apprentice to Mephistopheles?” Everyone nodded. “Super. Then let’s get back to the question of who the Apprentice was we got rid of during Operation Destruction.”

“All the options are dead or not Apprentice material,” Christopher said.

“Well, if Clarence and al Dejahl are still alive, what about that heinous bitch?” Amy asked.

“LaRue’s definitely dead, I watched Esteban Cantu shoot her in the head instead of me. Oh. Wow. Chuckie?”

“Yes, it would fit. He was involved in everything and it took catching him trying to kill you while the world was being invaded for us to be able to arrest him.”

“So, does that make him the Master or the Apprentice?”

“It makes him someone we need to question again,” Mom said.

“Do we have time for that?” I still had time before I had to go meet the Dingo, but probably not enough to question Cantu unless he was close and we used hyperspeed.

“Maybe. He’s not that far away.”

“In some hole in the ground type of not far away or in some official prison not far away? I’m asking because if he’s accessible he could be the Mastermind.”

“Yes to both. He’s not accessible. Other than to me and a handful of other people. And if one of them is the Mastermind or the Apprentice we’re all screwed anyway.”

Heaved a sigh. “Thanks for that, Mom. So let’s presume Cantu was the eager Apprentice. And he got caught, and so the New Mastermind is having an open recruitment period. Start by killing off a few congressmen.”

“But why?” Abigail asked. “It makes no sense.”

“Well, we know the why—they have all these bills with anti-alien stuff hidden in them about to go through the House.”

“Bills get shot down all the time,” Vance said. “Why kill people over something like that?”

Jeff straightened up. “I need to see a list of the dead representatives.”

“It’s upstairs,” Raj said. “I’ll get it.” He zipped off and was back quickly. He handed a sheet to Jeff.

“What is it?” I asked, speaking for the whole room based on everyone’s confused expressions.

“When Ed and I were working after brunch, I told him about what we’d found, the anti-alien lines in the bills. He said he was already planning to fight them. And that Wendell had been planning to help him. He meant Wendell Holmes. Who died in the hospital from pneumonia right before our party.”

Chuckie went and looked at the list along with Jeff. “There are only a few staunchly pro-alien supporters on this list. And a few staunch anti-alien supporters, too. Both definitely cross party lines and the pro and anti factions tend to be nonpartisan.”

“Ed said that as long as he was around to sway the undecided voters, none of these would pass,” Jeff said. “And now he’s not around. Wendell Holmes isn’t around. Some others aren’t around. And we have two dozen new reps getting sworn in two days from now and voting on these bills in just over a week from now.”

“I’m still not seeing the point,” Mom said. “And we need to see the point of all these murders in order to stop whatever’s going on.”

“The Mastermind moves in murky ways.” Hey, it was all I had at the moment.

Len cleared his throat. “I think we’re forgetting something. And that’s what Olga wanted us to focus on—Eugene Montgomery. We’re not sure if she wanted us focused on his incompetence in killing the wrong target or something else, by the way.”

“Wait . . . no one say anything for a minute.” It was there, right there. The answer was simple—it was us who were making it complex. “Eugene was supposed to kill Edmund Brewer, right?”

“Can I speak?” Tim said. “Because if I can, the answer is ‘right.’”

“Okay . . . let’s ask ourselves this question: What would have happened if he’d succeeded?”

“Well, Ed’s dead, so does it matter?” Jeff asked with more than a trace of bitterness.

“Yes, it matters. What would we have done?”

Chuckie closed his eyes. “I think the better question is, what would you have done, Kitty? You drove every reaction we had.”

It was easy to extrapolate. “I wouldn’t have gone down to the bathroom with Edmund, Nathalie would have. And while she might have come for help, we would have reacted differently. Slower, maybe.” After all I hadn’t liked them all that much until after Reyes was killed. “And if Nathalie had reacted the same as she did today, which I’m sure she would have, we’d have been taking care of her.”

Shoved aside the wish that I’d listened to Jeff months ago and had let the Brewers in sooner. Now I’d never have the chance to really get to know Brewer, any more than I would Reyes.

“There’s no way anyone could have expected Eugene Montgomery to murder anyone at that party and get away,” Mom said. “Maybe Kitty would have been too busy handling Nathalie Brewer’s reaction to question Eugene. But I locked us down the moment we knew something was very wrong, and the police absolutely would have found what Charles and the dog found. It might have taken them longer, but they’d have found the incriminating evidence.”

“So Eugene was supposed to be caught.”

“Let’s say you’re on the right track with this,” Chuckie said. “Why?”

“Because they wanted Edmund Brewer dead, not Santiago Reyes.”

“Santiago wasn’t hiding that paper for no reason,” Mom reminded me.

“Then let’s rephrase as they wanted Edmund Brewer publicly murdered by Eugene,” Amy said. “And they wanted Eugene caught for it. But why?”

“Good question, Ames. Let’s go back to our very early theory from when Vance first tossed out the whole Serial Killer of Representatives idea. Somewhere along the line, someone was going to wake up and notice that all these people were dead. Because Eugene screwed up, we’re all really aware of it now. But let’s say he hadn’t screwed up. He kills Edmund. He’s caught. He tells the police about robots. They put him in a padded cell. Then they put the whole mistress thing together, in about an hour, tops, and Eugene’s on death row without a problem. No one’s going to believe him because no one will find the paperwork.”

“He had it at his desk at work,” Amy said. “Not exactly hidden.”

“He didn’t have it at his house or real office. And I’d bet he told Pia he’d destroyed it.”

“I still go back to why,” Mom said. “And I also still go back to the fact that Santiago was worried that he was being spied on, and as near as we can tell, it was because he’d found those anti-alien lines in the bills. His last line about there being more going on isn’t enough for us to extrapolate anything.”

“Wait,” Chuckie said, and I could see his Conspiracy Wheels turning. “Hang on one moment. If we take Jeff’s view, that Pia orchestrated Brewer’s murder today, then they were trying again, right?” Everyone nodded. “So they definitely wanted Brewer killed. She was allowed to set up the second attempt, and this time they used Clarence.”

“And I think they may have used Raul.”

“How?” Jeff asked.

“Man who held the elevator for Edmund, did you look at him?”

Jeff cursed. “No. And that makes sense. Have Clarence do it, because you needed someone strong to get Ed up onto that ledge. But have your professional oversee, just in case things go badly this time.”

“Logical and efficient, and a good follow up,” Mom said. “However, still more public than any of the others.”

“The police are investigating as a suicide. I don’t think it’ll hold up, but Nathalie is with us. If Raul was in the building, and I’m now really sure he was, then he’s already broken into their home and planted proof of Edmund’s hidden despair.”

“Wow, Kitty, are you psychic?” Tim asked. “Because Mossad just confirmed police have found a suicide note.”

“Thank God we took Nathalie with us,” Jeff said. “Or it might have been a murder-suicide the police think they’re investigating.”

“Oh, Jeff, like, in that sense, where your head’s at. And Tim, since when did you become best friends forever with the Mossad team at the Israeli Embassy?” Tim, Reader, and Mom all contrived to look innocent. “Oh, great. It’s classified. Well, at least we all like them. Anyway, the Conspiracy King has more for us.”

Chuckie nodded slowly. “I think we need to answer this question. Why is Pia Ryan dead?”