"They say we are asleep until we fall in love
We are children of dust and ashes
But when we fall in love we wake up
And we are a god and angels weep
But if I die here tonight
I die in my sleep"
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Benicia sat across from Ben Urich in a small little diner. She was sipping on some warm coffee, "Did you look at it?"
"Yeah, I looked at it."
She waited for a moment but he didn't say anything, "And?"
"And..." Ben sighed, "And it's a story I've heard before. Company gets caught up in scandal, files for bankruptcy, then quietly restructures under a new name."
Benicia set her mug down, "That still doesn't- Daniel Fisher was murdered. And then they tried to have me killed."
"I'm still a little unclear on that point." Ben took a drink of his own coffee, which was black in comparison to Benicia's hazelnut creamer filled coffee, "You say here Rance assaulted you in your apartment. And a man in a black mask saved your life?"
"Yes." Benicia leaned back in her seat, "He... I don't even know where he came from. It was just out of nowhere."
"And you'd never seen him before?"
"No. I think I'd remember seeing someone like him."
Ben slowly nodded his head, "Stranger things, right?"
"But what about Rance? There is no way you believe that he actually hung himself in jail. I sure as hell don't. They tried to do the same thing to me. That guard... Why don't you ask him?"
"Farnum?" Ben questioned, watching as Benicia nodded her head, "He's dead."
Benicia exhaled, "What?"
"At the barrel of his gun in his basement." Ben continued calmly, watching as Benicia grew nervous, "And your old boss, McClintock? Overdosed on pills or some such. You see the pattern here, Miss Duterte."
"I see the pattern, but how come no one is looking into this?" Benicia demanded, her voice was still low so others in the diner couldn't hear, "This is basically a conspiracy."
"You don't understand how lucky you are." Ben shook his head at how stubborn she was, "Count the angels on the head of a pin, and move on."
"And let this all disappear? They shuffle a few papers and they're off scott free?"
Ben shrugged his shoulders, "Wouldn't be the first time."
Benicia scoffed and dropped back in her seat, "Don't bullshit me." She adjusted herself in the seat and pressed her palm against the table, "A construction company is brick and mortar, literally. It's not the same as numbers on a page in the financial department. There are tangible items that need to be shifted around like cranes... trailers... office equipment. There has to be a trail if everything is being liquidated."
For a moment Benicia thought that Ben would actually indulge her in this. That he'd respond. But instead he just gave her a tightlipped smile, "Thanks for the coffee."
