Page 3 of Dangerous Silence
Shep nodded to the swing door. He rarely let me inside of there. We went through.
As I heaved the big man, helping Shep get him on the stainless steel table, I glanced around at the empty sink and the carcasses hanging from the metal hooks. Shep wiped his hands on his apron, adding another streak of red.
Did Shep butcher people too?
“It’s time you learned,” Shep said, locking eyes with me. “I’ll teach you everything.”
***
Age 10
I was good at it now. Not as good as Shep, but almost. Shep was the best. Even my father thought so.
“Shep can teach you better than I can,” my father said. “He’s the best enforcer we have.”
I had known since I could remember that my father wanted me to be the lead enforcer one day, but until Shep started teaching me, I didn’t know what that meant. For the following year after he saved me from those punks, Shep kept me in the backroom, showing me how to dismantle bodies for easier disposal. I still couldn’t cut through the bones without help, but the stomachs were easier for me. We’d put them in these industrial-sized vats full of acid, checking on them every once in a while like a beef stew. By the third day, the corpses would be gone. Sometimes, we buried the bodies in the woods with pig and cow bones to throw off the scent.
Once I got the hang of that, Shep took me on my first run. I did as he told me, standing in the corner, not saying a word until Shep said it was time to leave. As he held a man by the back of his neck, the blood gurgling out of his throat, he turned to me.
“You saw how I did that?” he asked.
Use the gun to keep him still and compliant, then the knife as the final weapon. Yeah. I saw that.
I nodded.
“Good,” Shep said. He finished the man off by bludgeoning the knife into the back of his head, and the man slumped to the floor. I went to pick up the corpse, but Shep held up a hand.
“We’re going to leave him. It’s a message,” he said. I looked up at him, waiting for an explanation. “You don’t mess with the Adlers.”
Shep wasn’t an Adler, but he had been working with my father since before he took over for my grandpa. He respected our family, and so we treated him like one of us. He always came to dinners at our house. My father would bring out the best whiskey, to celebrate in Shep’s honor.
We had one more stop; I didn’t catch much of the details. But as we walked up to the house, I recognized it. Our nanny’s house, Fran. I hadn’t been there in a long time. But when I was younger, if I wasn’t with my tutors or with Shep, my brothers and I were with Fran.
What had Fran done to us?
Shep barged into her place. I stood in the corner. Fran’s eyes flicked over to me. Shep spoke quietly to her, and when she raised her hands in defense, Shep put her into a chokehold. She gasped. Those wheezing breaths seemed louder than anything I had ever heard, begging for air. Her face turned purple, the veins in her eyes wide and red. Shep kept an elbow tight around her neck, but she pulled at his hand desperately. It was no use. Shep gestured for me to come forward.
I stayed still. It was Fran. Anyone else, maybe. But Fran?
With his free hand, Shep pulled a knife from his pocket.
“In the heart,” he said, the handle pointed towards me.
I stared at Fran, her eyes so red they looked like apples. Why wasn’t she fainting? She pulled at his arm. Shep gave her enough room for a lung-full of air, then pulled tight around her throat once again.
“Kill her Axe,” he commanded. “She was a traitor to your family. Spilled secrets to our rival.”
Her feet pushed on the floor, trying to maneuver herself out of Shep’s grip, but she kept slipping, the screech of her feet against the hardwood floor piercing me. My vision blurred. Those gasps. It was all too loud. I needed it to end.
“Now, Axe,” Shep said. “Like I taught you.”
I couldn’t think about it. I had to focus on what Shep told me. Fran was a traitor. She put us at risk. Gave our secrets to a rival.
We couldn’t have that.
I brought the knife down on her heart with as much force as I could muster, breaking through her ribs to the heart. Her eyes widened and Shep gave her one last breath. Power surged through me, her body twitching against the blade with fight, then simmering down, dissipating. I brought the knife down again, and then again, the wet sound of the metal plunging into her chest overpowering the rest, until everything stopped.
A wave of heat washed over me. Fran was silent. Finally.
