The Bodies One By One

Chapter 59

Marcus and Leo waited patiently in the dark room, 'as far as I was aware, aren't we meant to be in separate room?' Leo whispered but Marcus shrugged, 'I don't think we're getting arrested, they just want more information about the project, unless they were -'.
The door swung open and Baloc walked in with some files, 'unless we were lying? Not at all', he said with a gentle smile as he placed the files down on the metal table, 'sorry, Storm will be with us in a moment, the crutches make it harder for him'.

'Do you guys work together in every case?'

Leo asked and Baloc could see the genuine interest in his eyes, 'yes, we do, I teamed up with Storm when he first started working cases and after a while, we were meant to split up but Finlay said that we ended up being a good team and that she hated to see the both of us go our own separate ways'.

'It's just you two?'

Baloc shook his head, 'we also have a good forensic team with us, you might meet them eventually', and just as he was about to say more, the door was kicked open and Storm came in, 'the fuck were you doing leaving me out there you fucker!' Storm snarled, but Leo and Marcus burst out laughing, and the tension was cut short. Baloc pulled out the chair for him and when Storm was comfortable he started talking again.

'Alright, now that we've gone through unpleasantness, where are we going to start? How about when you first decided to join this project?'

Leo and Marcus exchanged glances, and it was Leo who spoke first, 'so... Marcus and I didn't know each other before we got involved in the Scarecrow Project. I was working at a gas station and I was barely getting by. My parents had died and my sister...'.

'She helped us with the case'.

Leo frowned, 'when? Wait... When she called me?' Storm nodded, 'we were able to trace back the call to you guys'.
Storm could tell that Leo was trying to figure out how to react to that, 'so... I guess she still cared about me then huh?' He leaned back and smiled, 'anyway... I was approached by this man in a black suit, an odd kind of guy and I was a little nervous, but I wasn't alone in the store, there was another worker there, you see, we're not allowed to work night shifts without a second person, safety reasons'.

'The pay was crap, but their care was decent'.

Baloc said and Leo nodded, 'it wasn't bad, but I'd only been working there for about a year, I was going to give it another year where I would get more experience and then find another job, but the guy offered me one'. 
Storm pulled out the picture that he had found in one of the files from a while ago, placed it on the table and pointed to the man in the middle.

'Was it this guy?'

Marcus grabbed the photo to get a better look at it, the photo wasn't of great quality so it took him a few moments to identify the stranger.

'Yeah, that's him'.

Storm focused his attention back onto Leo, 'so... You obviously took the job offer, I'd say he mentioned the salary?'
He could tell that Leo felt a little embarrassed, 'it's okay, you needed the money', he quickly added, 'so what else happened?'

'He came back a month later and told the boss that he'd be taking me and I could tell that my boss wasn't happy. But after a few hours being in the office, he was happy for me to go'.

'Obviously gave the man money'. 

Leo nodded, 'he got his men to blindfold me and they got me into the car, I'm not so sure how long the car ride was, but it felt like ages', his eyes flicked down to the picture for a moment, 'he told me about his business and what he was planning to do and...'. He looked over at Marcus, 'that's when I met Marcus and Graves, but apparently Graves had been there longer than the both of us'. 

Baloc nodded and turned his attention onto Marcus, 'and what about you? How did this man get your attention?'

'I use to work at a hotel just opening doors for people, but the pay was shit'.

'So this guy targeted people who were barely getting by'.

Marcus smirked, 'yeah... But I didn't know much shit I was stepping into', Storm tapped his fingers on the table, 'well... It's not like you knew what you were going into'.
Marcus shrugged, 'well, the guy did the same thing to me as he did with Leo, and yeah... That's when we met'.
The two of them exchanged glaces yet again, but this time Storm could sense something more, 'what happened after you you met Graves?'

'The man took us into his office and showed us all these blue prints and documents, and I mean a lot more than what you guys obtained from Graves'.

'Did it have something to do with diamonds?'

Both of them nodded, 'all this for diamonds', Baloc shook his head, 'so there was a facility with other workers?' Leo nodded, 'he didn't hire us to be with them though, we were acting as leads'.
Marcus looked disgusted, 'yeah, we stayed with him and Graves'.

'Apart from what he'd done recently, did you guys and Graves ever get along?'

'We did... But that was before we found evidence that he was taking most of the share and leaving us was almost nothing, even the boss was quite angry'.

'He was punished'.

'Severely'. 

'How so?'

'His family was threatened and then eventually they took out his wife, but we had nothing to do with her death!'

'But he always thought it was your fault, which was why he was chasing you down'. 

Marcus raked his fingers through his hair, 'I thought we put everything behind us, because the project went under, but I guess James Holly wanted to go back, I don't know why! People died because of this project'.

'People died?'

'Yeah, there would be reports of bodies being found, but the boss would get rid of them completely, and we only knew about it because we were part of the leads because if we were where Holly was, then we'd have no idea what was going on behind closed doors'.

Storm listened carefully, 'so... Your boss is behind all the killings?'
Leo shrugged, 'beats me, but I would assume so, he's the kind of guy who would do such a thing, and he'd even have his henchmen do his dirty work when he's no in the mood'.
Leo notices the way Baloc and Storm were looking at him, 'look, I'm grateful that this man gave me a job and the pay was great... But I didn't want to be part of all that', he waved his hand around, 'the work was horrendous and I was glad that I had nothing to do with all of it'.

Now or never.

'Well', Storm got their attention, 'I know you don't really want to have anything to do with any of that... But our boss was hoping if you could help us', Marcus sat up with interest, 'what'd you mean help you?'

'We were thinking of tracking down this boss of yours. Whilst we were after you guys, we managed to pass on the rest of the details onto the analysis team before Graves stole it back from us and they've been tracing through different codes and software's'. 

Storm didn't know whether to be happy or afraid, 'it seems that the project is up and running again... We were wondering if you could join our team and help us catch the guy who started Scarecrow'.

Leo's eyes started to shine, 'really? Do you really think we'd be enough?' Baloc chuckled, 'you are enough, and you'll be one of us as well, which will make it even better'.
Storm could see that Marcus was still thinking about it and Leo had also noticed, so he grabbed Marcus's hand, 'come on Marcus, we can do this, we can help them, they're on our side!'
Marcus looked straight into Baloc's eyes, 'fine, but if anything untoward happens, then Leo and I will turn and disappear'.
Baloc and Storm nodded in unison, 'we understand', Storm got up, 'fuck', he tumbled back into the chair. All three men had sprung up to help him, 'sorry, sorry, forgot for a moment that I've got a fucked up leg', Storm chuckled.

'You're gonna break it next time'.

They began to laugh, 'I was gonna say, welcome to the team', he extended his hand out for Marcus and Leo to shake.