The Last Option

Bernard summoned Phil Wilcox to the apartment to talk to him about what he was planning to do. The ex-lawyer of Nathan Hicks came the next day to his call, and now they were both, face to face, in what Bernard had set up as a kind of study in the fourth room of the apartment, with two chairs in front of a simple desk, next to Anthony, who was sitting in one of the chairs next to Phil, while Bernard sat behind the desk. Phil was surprised by this, and Bernard could tell by his face that he hadn't liked it either.

"It's temporary, lawyer," Bernard told him, "I don't like it either, but I needed a space where I could think, and where my friends from outside weren't listening with the child."

Bernard was referring to Thomas and Laura, who were busy with the baby in his room.

"This is my father-in-law," Bernard said, gesturing to Anthony beside him. "His name is Anthony Foxworth."

Phil greeted Anthony with a handshake.

"Please, Bernard," he told him, once the formality had been completed, "stop calling me 'lawyer' as if I were a complete stranger. I've already asked you once. I think by my actions I have shown you that I can be trusted, right? Call me Phil." "Very well, Phil. To the point: I called you to ask for your help."

"You already told me once you needed it, and I told you that I'm willing to help you with anything. What do you need?"

"As you know, I have a small amount of money in my bank account, money that belongs to little Nathan and with which I am attending to him-"

"You told me you needed more money the other time," Phil interrupted. "How much do you need?"

"I don't need it now, Phil, maybe at some point I'll ask you, but for now I just want you to help me with little Nathan and his money."

"What are you thinking? How can I help you?"

"You know I have recognized him as my son, but I still intend to see him receive all that belongs to him from the Hicks fortune. I'm not going to rest until I achieve that, and taking into consideration some actions that I will take in the coming days, I need you to make me a document where I appoint another person as Nathan's guardian and executor, in case something should happen to me."

Phil frowned, eyeing Bernard and Anthony warily.

"What are you going to do?"

"Only Anthony here and now you know, Phil, I'm going to find Nathan and Norma's killer. I know who he is and maybe I have a way to track him down. I'm going to make him tell me the name of the person who ordered them killed, and then bring those two people to justice, the killer and the one who gave the order."

"And why don't you leave everything in the hands of the police? Tell them who the killer are and they'll take care of it."

"I can't, because I suspect the one who gave the order is a person with many influences, and perhaps he will be able to get out of all this, just as he was able to get the case dismissed in the family court."

This time Phil realized everything, and even though he somehow expected it from that previous conversation, he couldn't help but feel surprised.

"You already told me that you suspected Nathan's family, Randall and Rebecca Hicks. Forgive me, Bernard, but I don't think she had anything to do with everything that happened. Maybe Louis Randall, who is a real bird of prey, but Rebecca isn't."

"It's Louis Randall I suspect, Phil. Nathan warned me about him and his ambition to own Southern Hilltop Gold, but he never thought he would get this far. And neither do I, but it is a certain fact that he may have had something to do with it. Think for a moment, Phil: who would want to kidnap an important businessman, killing him in the attempt, along with his accomplices, losing all the effort and possible ransom money?"

"It really sounds illogical from every point of view."

"I listened when the killer said he had his own plan, Phil, and then he shot them all. His plan was to make it look like the kidnapping had gone wrong to justify killing them all, including me. Who goes to all that trouble to plan a kidnapping and then not see it through?"

"I confess I have my suspicions too, but I wouldn't think of doing something like what you're saying you'll do. I prefer to trust the police and trust them to do their job."

"A lot of times the police don't do anything," Anthony intervened, "and I know exactly why I'm telling you that."

"Okay," Phil said, not very convinced but willing to help, "I'll help you then. Who do you plan to appoint as the child's guardian?"

"Camila. She seems to me to be the right person to take care of little Nathan if something should happen to me."

"Okay. I'll draft the document and bring it to you."

"Thank you Phil. Please try to bring it to me before Tuesday."

"You'll have it before Tuesday. Please, Bernard, take care of yourself, consider well what you are going to do. Don't risk you, remember little Nathan needs you."

"Don't worry Phil. There are times when the lion has to defend his pride and becomes very dangerous. Well, at this moment I am that lion, and the pride is my friends and little Nathan. And I am about to become very dangerous."

Phil saw determination in Bernard's eyes, and decision in his words. For some reason he thought what he was going to do was risky and dangerous, and suspecting it, he had prepared himself adequately. He reached into the inside pocket of his suit and pulled out a wad of hundred dollar bills, which he tossed on the desk in front of him.

"I was already planning to help you," he told him, pointing to the wad, "and for some reason I also thought you could do something like what you just told me."

"I told you that for now I don't need money, Phil."

"Use it to buy protection," Phil said. "You will need it. Buy a gun; you don't know what you'll find in your search, or when you find the killer. If you're really going to do what you've told me, then you must protect yourself." "That's true, son," said Anthony. "It wouldn't hurt to be protected. Just in case."

"Use it for your logistics," Phil concluded, "and don't worry about giving it back to me. I'll consider it an investment to avenge the deaths of Nathan and Norma, or to get justice on his behalf."

With that said, Phil got up and left the room, while Bernard stared at the wad of bills on the desk.

"Now do you trust him?" Anthony asked him.

"Not yet. He still has to do something else to prove to me that I can trust him."

"Something like making the document, for example?"

"In part. We'll see."

"This morning I did the notice in the newspaper. Do you think the killer will see it on Monday?"

"If he's in the service of Louis Randall, like your friend Gonzo said, he won't see it. Not having an answer will be what confirms it for us."

"If he doesn't answer, how will you locate him?"

"We'll get his attention. Somehow we'll get him out of the shadows."

At that same moment Duncan arrived at one of his houses located in the center of Queens. After making sure they weren't following him, he went in and locked the door. He went to one of the rooms and upon entering he found a table in the center, on which there was a computer and a monitor; he turned them on, and a few minutes later he sat in a chair opposite, searching for and opening a surveillance program, which divided the monitor screen into four, showing images of the surroundings of the house in two of them, and of the front door and the back door in the other two. He returned to the living room and located a small panel with a screen and a keyboard next to the main door, he pressed a button and the panel lit up, then he entered four numbers with the keyboard and there was a beep, which told him that the motion sensors around the house and the alarm were activated. He went to the kitchen and opened the window, leaned out, and after making sure he wasn't seen again, he looked over it and raised his arm, pulling a lamp above it, which gave way down a little. The wall next to the window was pushed back a little, leaving a small opening; it was a thin, false wall of drywall, he walked over to it and entered. On the other side he pressed a switch and a light bulb illuminated a small room two meters wide by three meters long, with a cot, a small shelf where there were several bags of food and a small refrigerator with bottles of water and soft drinks. On the opposite wall near the corner was installed a toilet and a small sink. He checked that everything was in order and went back out. He leaned out the window again and pulled the lamp back, the wall was pushed forward again, sealing the opening.

If the police discovered that house as one of his hideouts, the motion sensors would alert him when they were in the vicinity preparing to break in, he would check with the surveillance camera footage, then quickly go to the hideout in the kitchen wall, where he would spend the next two or three days locked up there, waiting for the police to leave the place for good.