Collateral

Ellie keeps crying, holding the body of her mother in her arms. She feels the hand of Sophia on her shoulder, but she slaps it away.

“Why?” Ellie yells at Sophia. “Why did he kill her?”

“Rose found out my dad was keeping blackmail material on all of his runners. He killed her to silence him. And he would have probably killed me too if you didn’t step in.”

Ellie looks back at Sophia. “You think he is going to come back?”

“Knowing my dad, he always finishes the job. Never leaves loose ends.”

Ellie picks up her gun from the table. “Oh god no. He already killed my Mom, I am not gonna let him kill my best friend.”

Sophia grabs her arm. “Ellie, what are you going to do? My Dad is dangerous, you can never take him in a gunfight. You are acting rash right now.”

Ellie snaps at her and pulls her arm away. “He just killed my Mom, Sophia, how the hell am I supposed to act, other than rash?” tears flow over her face.

“Ellie, please, calm down, take a breath. If you really want to do this, I will help you take my dad down.”

“Really?” Ellie says in between her sobs. “Would you do that for me? You love your dad.”

“My dad isn’t the only person I love,” Sophia says. “And besides, he tried to kill me.”

Ellie looks back at Sophia and back at the door. She can grind later, right now, the best she can do is revenge.

She grabs her mother’s gun from the table and gives it to Sophia.

“I, I dunno how it uses a gun,” Sophia says.

Ellie laughs. “It is very easy, point it at something you want dead, and pull the trigger, and it dies.”

Ellie gestures at the blood on the door. “I think I hit him, if we follow the blood trail, we might find him.”

“You think so?”

“Yes.”

Ellie pushes the door open and walks into the hallway. Drops of bloodline the halls, and the girls follow the trail until the elevator.

Ellie presses the elevator call button, and the elevator arrives. Inside is a large pool of blood, and the elevator buttons are smeared with it.

“O no. He could have gone to any floor, there is no way to follow him now.” Ellie curses.

“I am not so sure,” Sophia says. “We can check all the lower levels one by one. Both all the garage boxes and the ground floor. He exited somewhere.”

Ellie sighs. “Sure, let’s check them one by one.”

The sound of the elevator dings and Ellie and Sophia walk out, exiting at the parking garage right below the ground floor.

“No blood spatter here either,” Sophia says.

“Damnit.” Ellie kicks a car. She goes to sit down on it and starts crying. “We lost him.”

“We can check again, maybe we missed something.”

“And then what? He is long gone.”

They both are silent for a moment, Ellie cries for a bit and then wipes away her tears.

“If your father was in danger, where would he go.”

“He has a lot of safehouses,” Sophia says.

“We can check them.”

Sophia shakes her head. “He knows that I know all the addresses by heart. He knows that would be the first place we look.”

Ellie thinks for a bit. “Is there a place he would hide that you don’t know the address off?”

Sophia shrugs. “Probably. My dad always had backup plans.”

“Think Sophia. Is there anywhere he would go, that he thinks you don’t know about?”

Sophia’s face lights up. “His mistress.”

“Mistress?”

Sophia laughs. “My dad has a mistress. He has been seeing her for over ten years. He thinks I don’t know.”

“Do you know where she lives?” Ellie asks.

“I dunno where she lives, or what her name is. All I know is that her husband died ten years ago and that she has a daughter slightly older than me.”

“I know who she is,” Ellie says.

“Do you happen to know where she lives?”

“I have no idea, but I know her daughter.”

“Let’s go question her.”