Daniella Rose

IV

*Unknown*

"The Johnsons?"

"Not coming back."

"Hawk inc?"

"Gone."

"Weathermen Co? Please tell me they're willing to come back? We need them!"

"Nope. May I remind you that they were the first ones to use a clause and pull out? Maybe if you weren't so reluctant, held your ground or tried to reassure them, they wouldn't have pulled out so quickly. "

"I was worried, that's all. I didn't want them to pursue legal actions."

"Yeah right?"

"Well... at least we still have Toronto?"

"Um, yeah, about that..."

"Fern?"

"Ms. Rutherford requested to talk to you, to express her wishes to call back her investments. She said that she wasn't influenced by the others or the reviews; she just didn't want to have her name on a town that had an alleged serial killer.... and now has another." Fern pushed up her glasses. "Her words, not mine."

"Well, damn it!" The Man leaned against his bookshelf. "This is all your fault, Fern,"

Fern gasped as she stood up from her desk in the office room of his soon-to-be sold home. "My fault it's not my fault it's your son's fault!"

"Don't bring Chris into this! His funeral is next week and I can't stand people bringing up his awful past."

"Not Chris you dummy, Adam!"

"Oh..." The Man fell silent. "Yeah—well maybe if you didn't encourage it—"

"Oh, please, Ricky!" Fern paced the marble floors, pissed. Her fingers picked at every scar she had on her nimble fingers as everything she spent years working on crashed downhill. Ricky, the man she spent her life helping to support, was just plain old, useless. He never put his foot down, he never outsourced the competition. He was just a pretty face that was clueless. "Both you and I know that what Adam came up with was a good plan."

"I would have told him it was a bad plan if he didn't tell me about it once 9 people died. How could you keep me in the dark for so long?"

Fern rolled her eyes. "We kept you in the dark because we knew you wouldn't keep your mouth shut." She slammed her fist on the desk, startling the man. "If we told you from the beginning, half the town would have known!"

"Fern—"

"Shut it!" Her feet stopped pacing. "Ms. Rutherford is available in a few hours. I would start thinking of a way to keep her in. Lie and tell her the right killer was caught. Bribe one of your employees to take the blame or something?"

His eyes fell as she could tell he didn't have the guts to throw someone under the bus for his moral and business profit.

"Have you heard from her mother yet?" she changed the conversation to at least get him talking; despite his idiocy he still had vital information for her.

"Yeah..."

"Yeah and?"

"She's gone."

Fern did a double-take. "Gone? As in-" She dragged her nail across her next and shut her eyes.

"No." Ricky sighed, making his way to his desk. Fern watched as he sat down, picking up a picture frame. "Gone as in ran away, just like Adam." He caressed the photo of his youngest son, "I have no one left now Fern, not even sweet Persephone can fill this void, oh!" He slammed his head down sobbing like the baby he was.