“I don’t understand….” Frank replied; his brow furrowed as he was just about coming to terms with his new identity.
“Frank, the Government went into, for a better word, partnership with the French in an arms deal.”
Frank stood silent for a while, his mind trying desperately to remember before his awakening in the alley.
“Think Frank” Loki offered, “It’s all in there, just think!”
Frank began to slowly pace the kitchen floor, his mind experiencing brief flash-backs to events that felt dreamlike, unreal, a part of someone else’s existence. Loki sensed this,
“Go on, think, you are on the right path here.”
Frank stopped mid stride, his eyes squinting as his mind tried to unlock the secrets within. He could see this logo, this image clearly in his minds eye he just needed to connect the dots.
The kitchen door suddenly flew open, Pete was holding a photo frame in his hands and Dawn was standing behind him, her hands clutched to his tattered coat trying to restrain him from entering.
“Why is my father in this photograph?” Pete asked in constrained frustration,
“Who the hell are you?” Tom shouted as he stood and marched towards Pete.
“It’s ok Tom!” Dawn jumped between them, “I can explain, please sit down.”
“Let her explain Tom” Loki interjected “there must be a very good reason for all of this.”
Dawn then moved to explain the events of the day, ending at the point she entered the lounge room with clothes for Pete, and finding him holding the photograph asking the question. Tom’s face softened as Dawn spoke, he realized what she had done,
“You have given this boy Philips clothes?”
Dawn nodded, biting down on her bottom lip “Pete is the age at which I lost Philip Tom, I had to help him. He’s done nothing wrong other than run away from a horrible situation.”
Pete lowered the photo frame in his grasp, listening to the conversation at hand,
“Who…who is Philip?”
Dawn turned to Pete, and abruptly wiped the tears that were now on her delicate cheeks,
“He was my son. He would have been twenty five years old by now had he survived. He was everything to me and when he was taken from me I shut down and I buried my head into my career.”
“How old was he when he died?” Pete asked bluntly; Jenny jumped up to defend Dawn,
“Don’t bring up more pain, please!”
Dawn shook her head and indicated for Jenny to sit back down,
“It’s fine Jenny. I have held onto this pain for far too long and meeting Pete was a real blessing.” She smiled at the ragged boy as he waited for an answer.
“He was 17 years old Pete, the same age as you. When Annie told me your story I was horrified. How can a parent turn from their child?”
Dawn walked to the breakfast bar, now weary with her whole existence. She sat down and indicated for Pete to come closer,
“It was nothing unexpected” she continued “Philip was ill for many years, he had cancer in his eye, it was discovered when he was ten years old. The doctors were amazing, but they just couldn’t save him. The cancer spread to his brain Pete and do you know what he did?”
Pete simply shook his head he had not expected this indeed he had not expected anything that the early hours had brought his way. Dawn continued,
“He planted some tulip bulbs and daffodil bulbs ready for the spring. He turned to me and smiled saying that they were there to remind me after he had gone that things live on. He died about four weeks later.”
The room went silent. Loki smiled and quietly praised God for this addition. It never ceased to amaze him, as he moved through his assignments with his strict instructions that he could never deviate from, and yet God managed to bring all strands together in a simplicity that only God knew. He loved his job!
“Pete” Dawn looked at the street urchin with compassion “I don’t know why our paths have crossed. God knows that I have been a heartless bitch for years! I want to take care of you, I want to help you.”
“You mean you want me to be Philip?” Pete took a step back, this was all becoming a bit too freaky for him,
“No!” Dawn almost shouted, but managed to calm herself “no, I just want to help.” She extended her hand to Pete palm upwards and twitched her fingers in indication for him to hand her what was in his hand. She turned to Tom,
“Why is Pete’s father in this photograph Tom?”
Tom took the frame from the young boys grip, and gazed at the image before him,
“Why this is Judas Thompson” Tom said in almost a whisper, he looked at the boy before him and studies his features; there was no doubt about it, there was a big resemblance.
“Judas Thompson won Business Man of the year for the Times Best 100 category three years ago. “ Tom scratched his head, he could not see any connection.
Frank took the photo frame from Tom’s hands and gazed at the picture frantically trying to find a connection.
“No nothing” he said as he gazed trying to find out just who he was.
Loki felt his body starting to transform in the slightest of ways, his human fingers tingled, his human heart beat elevated and these were the signs of his human form beginning to die.
“Look closer Frank, remember your dream.” He said as he tendered to the kitchen, arranging cups and pouring coffee for everyone.
Frank examined the image closely there was something there, something that would help make sense of this. He then saw it
“There!” he said, loudly causing everyone to jump out of their skin “there!” he pointed at the picture and handed it to Tom.
“There!” Frank pointed emphatically at the photograph, as Tom took it from his hands. He looked, he frowned, nothing.
“For God’s sake Tom, look closer!” Frank shouted.
“Oh my God….” Tom brought the image closer to his face as he studied what Frank had found. He turned to Pete.
“What business exactly is your Father in?”
Pete snarled sarcastically, “You tell me you’re the one in the photograph.”
Chapter 8
“Hey is there a party going on that I don’t know about?”
Annie walked into the kitchen, holding a huge flat bundle in her hands. She got excited at the site of Jim
“Hey Jim, take a look at what I did tonight!”
Tom stopped her in her tracks,
“Not now Annie, please!”
“What?” she replied, placing her package on the breakfast bar “what the hell is going on here? Jim?” she turned and looked at her friend. He looked glorious to her; he was so handsome, beautiful and calm, but she was acutely aware of the atmosphere of the moment,
“Jim?” she asked, looking at the amount of people in the morning lit kitchen.
“Annie, some of Jim’s memory is returning, and we are trying to help him”
Frank walked to her and gave her a big hug, “My name if Frank Annie, Frank McFadden.”
Annie’s face broke into a smile “this is good news! You never really looked like a Jim anyway, Frank suits you” she turned and frowned at Pete, “what are you doing here?”
“Pete’s helping us” Tom interjected and turned his attention back to the issue at hand, “can you remember what line of business your father was in? I was in that photograph simply because I was the guest speaker at the event, as you can see there are several people” he pointed to the picture “this man here” he pointed to a kindly looking white haired man in the picture “ is Fred Mitchel, he won an award that night for his charitable contributions, he’s an amazing man. That’s why I had this image framed.”
“Pure Cleanse International”
“Yes, that’s it!” As soon as Pete named the company Tom connected it to Judas Thompson “This company won the NHS cleaning contract the year your father won this award.”
“So” said Frank, “we have a connection here, both companies
won huge contracts from the Government and both men running these companies are wearing some sort of gang member emblem.”
“Do you remember a safety deposit box Frank? Before you went missing you told me all the evidence you had was safe. I think you had cracked this case. I think you had hard evidence of cash for policies, and I believe these two men, along with others were handed multi million pound contracts on a plate.”
“I think…” Franks mind began to offer some snippets of information “I think these business men, and I feel sure there are others, have definitely obtained contracts underhandedly, and I think, no I know that I had code named all my work Black Panther, which explains the dream.”
“So Black Panther is in the safety deposit box?” Tom was getting excited at Frank’s progress.
“No” Frank’s expression changed, his eyes darted towards Loki then back to Tom “No, it’s not in the safety deposit box” his mind dug deeper for answers, Loki moved forward
“It’s all in there Frank, find the answer to this and the whole thing will unravel.”
Frank’s mind flashed up memories of his removing something from a safety deposit box from his bank, then he saw it.
“Where are the bin bags?”
“They are in the utility room” Jenny offered
“They are just old papers Jim, I mean Frank!” Annie said “Don’t tell me those stupid bags hold something important, do they?”
“Give me a hand will you” Frank asked Tom and Loki as he walked to drag the black bags out to the kitchen floor.
Frank looked at the bulging old bags and began emptying them one by one over the kitchen floor,
“This reminds me of my dream, there were papers everywhere I turned.” All but one bag had been emptied and Frank picked it up dumping its contents onto the floor, papers flying unceremoniously across the expanse of the room. There was a thud and Frank stopped.
Everyone looked at the brown leather tattered briefcase sitting amongst the news stories of the last three years.
“Well I never…!” exclaimed Annie.
Tom picked it up and placed it on the breakfast bar, moving all objects out of the way,
“It’s locked” Tom offered as he tried to pry it open. Frank walked over to it, he didn’t know for sure what was inside, but he did know it was Black Panther.
“08071965, right?”
Tom smiled and nodded as Frank slowly turned the combination of numbers on the numbered padlock. There was a click and he slowly lifted the case open, inside were a number of electronic recording devices and a large brown envelope with the words Black Panther written in Frank’s handwriting.
Tom opened the contents of the brown envelop for everyone to see. There were copies of emails between Grant Thornton, the CEO of the company Military Gen and the present Prime minister.
“Look at this!” Tom said and began reading from the email “It’s dated two months before the general election.
Dear David,
The election donation has now totaled £10 million pounds, and of course cannot be traced to Military Gen or any of the other companies involved in this support. I thought I should remind you as head of the consortia that we are monitoring our investments closely in the hopes that we will see our returns once you win the election.
I talked to News international today and their smear campaign against the Prime Minister seems to be paying off so your supporters are doing everything promised to ensure your victory.
Let’s meet up next week for a briefing over dinner
Regards
Grant Thornton
Frank picked up another email, he looked at Pete,
“It’s to your Father;
Dear Judas
It was good talking to you today and I am happy to hear that you have sent your son to your sister’s in Canada, drugs are a terrible blight on the young, you have done a good thing for him and he will thank you when he is older.
“Lying bastard!” Pete spat, Frank continued,
You were right about the investigative reporter, and fortunately we have this issue in hand. We cannot allow him to expose our agreements we have all worked too hard to fail now. This threat will be eliminated this week and we can all get on with winning the election and sharing the wealth.
I hope this message removes any doubts.
David.
Frank pointed to the date on the email
“That was the week you vanished.” Tom picked up a USB pen that was in the envelope “I’ll just go and get my laptop so we can take a look at this”
Tom left the kitchen, and Frank turned to Jenny
“In my dream, I had a wife, but she was dressed as a widow, was that a metaphor in my dream or is this true?”
“Yes, Penny, and yes there was a funeral for you.”
“How come?” Annie asked “How can you have a funeral with no body?”
“Well” Jenny’s tone went somber “there was a body. About 18 months after you vanished, the police announced that they had found the remains of a body and that the DNA testing showed it to be you.”
A shock wave of silence fell over the people in the kitchen
“You may as well know the whole truth Frank, you have come this far. If this is the case, then this whole thing goes deeper than you originally thought. The government is corrupt and it would appear that they or someone else has got to the police.”
Annie took Franks hand in comfort, their eyes met as she tried to reassure him that everything was going to be ok, that between the two of them they could work through all of this mess.
“What about Penny?”
“She remarried about 6 months ago. We don’t see her very often, but she seems happy enough. She was inconsolable when you went missing, and the funeral gave her some closure.”
“That’s good.” Frank forced a faint smile “enough people have suffered, I’m glad she has found some happiness.”
“She’s also now legally a bigamist” Pete added sarcastically, Dawn quickly reprimanded him for his comment.
Tom returned with his laptop fully charged and inserted the pen into the USB port revealing a series of word documents some with file names of companies others were account documents and one movie file. Tom clicked on the movie file and played out the recording.
The video footage was undercover work from a spy cam. It showed Judas Thompson, Grant Thornton, the now Prime Minister, the head of News international and Gregory Gordon, a senior manager at the Bank of England. The meeting was with the person who was doing the recording who was posing as an interested party to the cause.
“My employer” said the female voice “has been in talks with you all over the last few months and has believed it is in the company’s best interest to offer a cash donation in support of the party by the sum of £8 million pounds”
Everyone in the meeting seemed pleased with the conversation and there was no indication of declining the offer
“This is wonderful news!” exclaimed the Prime Minister.
“However” the voice continued “I must remind you that we expect a return on our investment. As the market leader in construction my employer needs guarantees from you sir, that we will obtain any major contracts the new government will be putting forward.”
“Of course, of course” the Prime Minister said “we will need good companies building up our nation. Please give your employer my promise of contracts when they arise. As your employer knows, we cannot have any form of legal agreement to this, but rest assured it will happen.”
“My employer” the lady behind the camera said “is not worried in the slightest, he has his contingency plans in place should you renege on the deal.”
“Excellent” Gregory Gordon interjected and rubbed his hands together at the outcome “I will put everything in place so that a trail to your employer cannot be discovered. My fees for doing this are 5% of the deal as it has been with each new member of the club.”
“Agreed” said t
he woman “I will have the money sent this afternoon”
The screen went blank and the video footage finished.
“Oh my God Frank! Do you know who the woman is?”
Frank shook his head slowly in complete ignorance, “I have no idea, but this is explosive. No wonder they wanted me off the scene.”
Loki’s human form was diminishing he knew his assignment had come to an end. The path was set and the truth would come forward.
Epilogue
Loki lay on the settee in the lounge with Frank and Annie kneeling beside him
“Are you ok Loki?” Annie asked concerned. He looked pale, his brow producing beads of sweat.
“Tom’s gone to call an ambulance my friend, hold on in there.”
Loki smiled weakly,
“All humans die, it’s nothing to be feared. It is a normal process, a series of sensations you humans experience at the start of your transition.”
Annie and Frank glanced at each other concerned for their friend.
“I’m going home” Loki smiled at them both “I’m not always in human form guys, only when I have an assignment to do, and when that happens I take human form in order to guide my assignments onto the right path, you see I am an angel.”
The faces of his two friends expressed complete shock at the revelation.
“Let me finish, I haven’t got much time” Loki coughed gently “I have died a million times, so I am used to the process by now. I have been shot, poisoned, choked you name it I have experienced it, and I believe this is my first heart failure.”
“Are you telling me that we were your assignment?” Frank believed Loki, for some odd reason he had no doubt in his mind
“No Frank, you were my assignment. However, it is wonderful to see so much good coming from one assignment. Pete now has someone to take care of him, you have your life back and have so much work to do and Annie here” his face smiled at her full of love “is an artist.”
Annie started weeping at these words she too felt he was speaking the truth.
“What do you look like as an angel Loki? Do you have a form or are you purely spirit?”
“Annie, go and get your painting from the kitchen, quickly time is running out.”
She returned to the room with her canvas covered over concealing her first work of art.