Vengeance

21 LANHAM, MARYLAND

As Lonnie Mixell stepped from the hotel room shower, his cell phone on the desk vibrated. He unlocked the screen, and a notification appeared, informing him he had received an encrypted message. After drying off with a towel and pulling on underwear and a pair of shorts, Mixell launched the application and read the message:

The package you’re interested in has been located.

Mixell typed his response. “Where?”

Medina Falls, Arkansas.

Mixell smiled. After Angie’s funeral, Mixell had decided that Harrison had suffered enough and it was time to put him out of his misery. But Harrison had disappeared the next day, seemingly knowing that Mixell was coming for him.

Making oneself disappear was a challenging endeavor, and Mixell had been confident that it would only be a matter of time before Harrison surfaced somewhere. One of Mixell’s former business partners had the necessary capabilities, and for a modest cost, Mixell had arranged for the surveillance of every transportation hub and internet post, searching for the face or name of his former best friend. Mixell was surprised, however, that Harrison had slipped up so soon, only a few weeks after disappearing following Angie’s funeral.

Mixell had been there, watching the funeral from under a tree across the street, wearing a gray overcoat and wide-brimmed hat, his eyes fixed on Harrison as Angie was lowered into her grave.

He had paid Harrison back for killing Trish.

Even now, Mixell could clearly remember the night he killed Angie. The look of utter despair and helplessness on Harrison’s face had been priceless. As satisfying as that had been, the best part had been the way Angie had trembled in his grasp like a frightened rabbit, the way her body had stiffened in shock and horror when the knife sliced into her neck…

Mixell looked up, catching his reflection in the wall mirror, and noticed he was smiling. The smile faded, but the memory remained.

Trish had been avenged, but there were still two more debts to collect: from Harrison, for the betrayal that had put him in prison for eight years, and from Christine, for aligning with Jake and thwarting his recent plans, costing him fifty million dollars in unpaid fees, since he had not completed the assigned task. Taking care of Harrison would be a straightforward task once he was located. Being the CIA director, Christine was more problematic, but Mixell was confident that an opportunity for revenge would eventually present itself.

Mixell’s thoughts returned to Angie’s funeral, where he had spotted Christine off to the side instead of near Harrison as he had expected. The two had been inseparable in high school. Even when Christine left for college and Harrison joined the Navy, they managed to return home at the same time and were rarely seen apart. There had been no doubt in Mixell’s mind that they would end up together.

He now felt obliged to arrange it; not in marriage, but together in a shallow grave.