Elizabeth
Monday morning
24 October 2016
"What?" Bridge and Maria's awkward stares have been piercing my back while I marvel at the changes they've made.
The place is still a dump, the underlying smell of mildew and dust ever present. But now it's masked by vanilla diffusers and bleach.
With the rubble cleared you can actually see the white walls of the room. Granted, parts of them still have maps of the world tea stains but for now, they'll do.
"Ok. So we've all heard the tape." I say with an eye roll.
The genuises before me suddenly become rambling idiots speaking at once and mumbling over each other. With Maria's hoarse raspy tone and Bridge's gruff beard muffled strain I could barely catch what they were saying.
"Honestly Liz I didn't even open it, not for
[I don't think its anything you should be]
a second and whoever it is I promise you
[ashamed of. Frankly it sounded amazing] we'll find them and bring them to justice [and the fact that they're using it against you]
because it's disgusting!
[as a woman, is disgusting!]"
Great. That video was ruining my brilliant team to bumbling idiots. The air is thick with silence and I almost wish the erratic blinking of the lights would come back. Bridge having fixed the flashing fluorescents, they now shine brilliantly for human interaction - even awkward ones.
My brow furrows at their strangeness, I change the topic instead. "Do you have something for me?"
The three of us really have more important things to worry about than my sex life and my teams obvious embarassment at knowing about it.
"Right. Uh...h yeah," Maria starts walking around the gas heater and fiddling with the papers in her hand. Her movement guides us to congregate around the lonesome long, brown, table at the centre of the room.
On it sits Maria's laptop and charging station. On the far end was a large white board and markers on a string. The white space was filled with groupings of columns running across it.
"So we've been looking into the Trillium pay roll like you asked. You know cross-checking payments against employees. And it's a pretty extensive list if we're looking across companies, which we were never gonna get through if we're being honest. So over the weekend, I invited my cousin and her boyfriend to dinner. He's this big shot IRS accountant. Super rich from stock investments, but super anal about books and figures. He's actually a pretty boring guy. I think she's with him for the money."
Bridge punctuates the air by clearing his throat, urging Maria to move on.
"Ah right yes. So I throw in some questions about Trillium right, nothing suspicious just super cazsh you know. And get this, he says they're already doing some digging on the consortium. But it's all very upstairs, on a need to know only, you know? He pretty much tells me that it's one of those: if you flag something that links to Trillium it gets disappeared upstairs and goes in THE FILE."
Her emphasis and widened eyes tell me she thinks this is big news. But it was pretty common practice for investigative agencies to have 'that file'. Hell, around here I was the file.
My eyes scan over to the two heavy duty sentinel cabinets where there would have been a window. A stack of papers lay awaiting execution by shredder next to them.
"Anyway the guys getting pretty frustrated with the hold up right. Says everybody knows somethings up but no one knows what it is. After a few drinks I get him to point me in the right direction which leads us to these four sha-ady shenanigans."
"First," she lays out a picture of a group of women, laughing during lunch in some kind of outdoor restuarant. Near me, I notice that Maria smells like vanilla before focusing on the picture before me. Each woman is captured mid-laughter heads rolled back.
"Fatima Reza," she points to the middle-aged, brunette smiling on the far right of the group image. Her legs sat far off the ground disproportionate to her size. They didn't even reach the footstool of her kitted out seat - a motorised wheelchair with neon green edging that must have cost a fortune.
"Thomas Hart." Even though I had expected his name to come up, my heart still lurches at the face of a casually smoking Thomas Hart outside NuRosché café.
"And regular neighbourhood grinch
Emily Green who puts the C.U.N.T in Contservative."
I look at her in confusion for the bad pun.
"Right, that sounded better in my head. -All three of these get a pretty hefty paycheck for their services and random bonuses in between. Do you know what they do there?"
I don't know why Maria is reporting this like a Hollywood NCIS plot, expectant pauses and all. From my encouraging stare she continues.
"We don't know. We -don't -know. The official job title says: 'consultant'. But of what nobody knows. Nobodies seen them, they aren't assigned to any of the districts. Their histories don't appear anywhere accept on Trilliums pay roll about eight years ago."
Hell, my job doesn't even come with a title. An unwarranted flashback of Harts' slimy words pops into my head.
"You said there were four?" I prompt.
"Ahh yes. Now this one we couldn't figure out but defintely the shadiest of them all."
"What, it puts the shh in shady eh?" Bridge helpfully supplies.
"Ab-solutely! So apparently Trillium has what they call a 10c wellness fee." She hands me a stack of stapled statements. Each line ends in 0.10c going to a compamy named Lifestyle Coaching.
"It's everywhere, in every corporation, every district, e-very department-ah! And that's not even the interesting part."
"So Sunday I go check the place out yeah." Bridge explains. "Dressed up so it looks like I'm about to rob the place right. Nothing suspicious. Fronts all business, looks legit, reception and everything. Go to the back, there's nothing." He shrugs. "Just four empty walls starin' at each other."
"Huh." My tongue hits the roof of my mouth as I feel intrigue and excitement pass through me. And so the chase begins.
"Leak it."
My companions look at each other almost checking if they've heard me correctly.
"What?" Maria ventures.
"It's good. All this - -is good. But like I said, Trillium is a big train and we can't fight them alone. We know who their four horsemen are great. While their dealing with that from public scrutiny, let's follow the money. Let's get a dossier on the past five candidates they've poured money into. I'm talking deep dive hire, not the corruption cases, I'm talking bodies, mistresses, war crimes all of it. Dig deep and dig dirty."
Their blank stares start to morph into understanding. Maria's purple eyeshadow crackles with the glint in her eye. Bridge's jaw tightens in determination.
"We're not having another Parkinson. So let's do it, let's shake the tree a little - see what's up there."
I grab my blue tote and office keys from the desk.
"Let's see what those nosey press bastards can find when they do actual work."
Before I turn to leave Maria shouts out 'uh boss', to grab my attention.
"These guys, Trillium, they the ones who did this to you?"
I won't lie and say I haven't thought about it. It's been one of the options floating in my mind.
"-Maybe." I answer.
"Now if you'll excuse me. I have some newsrooms to go and sue."
