Manifest Recall by Alan Baxter

Author:Alan Baxter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grey Matter Press
Published: 2018-10-28T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

I’m sitting in a bar in Ottawa, slowly drinking a cold beer, when I next hear Carly Sykes’s name. It’s been eighteen months since I left Vernon’s house near Lake Maurepas. I’m used to the heavy ponytail of hair brushing my back, dyed jet black, and the thick beard that comes past my collar line now. Not yet used to the holes in my life where Caitlyn and Scottie used to be, but coping. I’d been ignoring the TV set burbling away in the corner until I heard, “Carly Sykes, infamous for being central in the botched kidnapping massacre in Louisiana a year and half ago, and heir to the Sykes fortune, was upbeat when she left court this afternoon.”

I turn on my stool, and there she is: radiant, powerful. She looks stronger than ever, hair grown out again, back to her natural color. “It’s a great relief to put all this behind me,” she says, and my eyes narrow at the practiced voice, the familiar turn of phrase. “I’ll be glad to get back to business as usual. Thank you. No further comment.”

She breezes past the flashing cameras and microphones being thrust at her, a soft smile fixed in place, and ducks into a waiting limo.

The newscaster’s voice drones over the top. “The so-called fresh power in organized crime in the American south, Carly Sykes maintained her innocence throughout proceedings. The case was thrown out for lack of evidence, fallen apart, some say, after the sudden car crash death of a key witness.”

I tune it all out again. I’ve tried not to think about her for a year and a half, and I don’t plan to start now. She’s a pro, I’ll give her that. I’ve seen Vernon do the same thing half a dozen times in the past. Looks like she’s inherited Vernon’s empire along with his fortune. I’d hoped for better, can’t help wondering if she’s the abuser now. Was it all for nothing? Maybe she’s going to be as bad as Vernon ever was. Or perhaps she’ll be a new breed, a benevolent dictator. I guess it doesn’t really matter. It’s all just people feeding off each other, no better than a well-dressed pack of hyenas.

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