Julie Clark - The Last Flight

“What you make has a very specific market,” Dex continued. “You will only sell to people referred to you by me. This is how you’ll stay safe.”

“I’m confused,” Eva had said. “Am I making or selling?”

Dex folded his hands on top of the table. They’d finished eating, and the server had tucked the check next to Dex’s water glass and then disappeared. “Historically, Fish has struggled to keep good chemists for long. They always think they can do better on their own and then things get complicated. So we’re going to try something different with you,” he’d said. “You will produce three hundred pills a week. As compensation for this work, you will keep half and Fish will let you sell them yourself, keeping one hundred percent of those profits.”

“Who will I sell them to?” she’d asked, suddenly uncomfortable, imagining herself face-to-face with strung-out addicts. People who might grow violent. People like her mother.

Dex smiled. “You will provide an important service to a very specific clientele—students, professors, and athletes. Five pills should sell for about two hundred dollars,” Dex had told her. “You can clear $300,000 per year, easy.” He smiled at her stunned expression. “This only works if you follow the rules,” he’d warned. “If we hear you’re branching out, or selling to addicts, you put everything and everyone at risk. Understand?”

She’d nodded and cast an anxious glance toward the entrance. “What about Fish? I thought he’d be here today.”

Dex laughed and shook his head. “God, you’re green. I forget you don’t know how any of this works. If you do your job well, you’ll never meet Fish.” She must have looked confused, because he clarified. “Fish keeps things compartmentalized. It’s how he protects himself. If any one person knew too much, they’d become a target—of either a competitor or the police. I’ll be your handler, and I’ll make sure you stay safe.” Dex dropped several twenty-dollar bills onto the table and stood. Their meal was over. “If you do as I tell you, you’ll have a nice life. It’s safe as long as you follow the rules.”

“Don’t you worry about getting caught?”

“Despite what you might see on TV, the police only know the ones they catch, and they only catch the dumb ones. But Fish isn’t dumb. He’s not in this for power. He’s a businessman who thinks about long-term gains. And that means growing slowly, being selective about his clients as well as the people who work for him.”

She’d been eager to get started. It had sounded so simple. And the system worked. The only hard part was being on campus among her peers, having to live alongside the life she’d just lost. Walking past her dorm where the same people still lived. The chemistry building where her classes went on without her. The stadium where Wade continued to shine, and one year later, the graduation ceremony that should have been hers. It was as if she’d stepped through some kind of barrier, where she could watch her old life still unfold, unseen. But as the years passed, the students grew younger and soon campus was populated by all new people. The loss had faded, as all losses did, replaced by something harder. Stronger. She could see now what she couldn’t see then. All choices had consequences. It was what you did with those consequences that mattered.

* * *

Eva’s gaze tracked down the small service road that wound its way through the hundreds of acres that comprised Tilden Park. Something about this meeting felt off, and her instincts, finely tuned after so many years, were pinging. She’d give Brittany ten more minutes and then leave. Return to her car and drive home, closing the door and forgetting about this woman. Eva worked hard to stay sharp. To not grow complacent and careless. Despite how mundane the work could sometimes feel—the endless hours in the lab, the quick handoffs with Dex or a client—this job was dangerous.

Early on—it must have been some time in her first year—Dex had woken her, just before dawn, a quiet knocking on her door. “Come with me,” he’d said, and she’d pulled her coat from the hook, following him across the deserted campus, the pathways still lit by lamps.

They’d walked west without talking, past the track stadium, restaurants and bars closed and shuttered at that predawn hour. She’d seen the flashing emergency lights from a block away. Police, ambulance, yellow crime-scene tape cordoning off the sidewalk outside a cheap motor court motel, forcing them to cross the street.

Dex had put his arm around her and pulled her close, as if they were a couple making their way home after a late night out. They’d slowed as they drew near, and Eva could make out a body, a puddle of blood seeping out from under it, a shoeless foot, the white sock practically glowing.

“Why are we here? Do you know that guy?”

“Yeah,” he’d said, his voice rough. “Danny. He supplied Fish with harder stuff. Coke. Heroin.”

Dex pulled her along, and they rounded the corner, the flashing red and blue lights still staining the backs of her eyelids. “What happened to him?”

“I don’t know,” Dex had told her. “Like you, I only see what I’m allowed to see. But if I had to guess, he was either double-dealing—working for one of Fish’s competitors—or he fucked up somehow, got snagged by police.” He paused. “That’s the thing about Fish. He’s not going to spend a lot of time asking questions. He’s just going to fix the problem.”

Eva couldn’t erase the image from her mind, the twisted form of the body, the sheer volume of blood, more than she’d ever imagined, a black-red shade that only appeared in nightmares.

Dex had dropped his arm from around her, and cold morning air chilled the place where it had rested. “Fish is a strong ally, but a ruthless enemy. He will not hesitate to eliminate anyone who betrays him. Maybe it was a mistake to have brought you here, but I needed you to see for yourself what will happen if you cross him.”

Eva had swallowed hard. Up until that point, she’d fooled herself into believing this job had been no different from any other—mostly routine, maybe a little dangerous in some abstract way. But Dex had insulated her from the worst of it. Until that morning.

“Full transparency,” Dex had warned, as they walked back up her street, the night sky finally shifting to a pale gray. He deposited her on the porch and disappeared, making her wonder if she’d dreamt it all.

* * *

Eva was just about to hop off the picnic table and head back to her car when a Mercedes SUV pulled up at the curb, a polished woman behind the wheel. In the back, Eva could make out a child’s car seat, thankfully empty. The license plate read FUNMOM1 . Her lingering unease intensified, and she took a deep breath, reminding herself she was in control of the situation and could walk away at any time.

She watched as the woman got out of the car. “Thanks for meeting me!” she called. Her clothes were expensive casual. Chanel sunglasses tipped up on her head. Knee-high UGG boots, worn over designer jeans. This was not Eva’s typical ramen-fed student.

Up close, Eva could see the woman’s red-rimmed eyes, how her skin looked tired and stretched, though her makeup was flawless, and another tingle of apprehension zipped through her.

“Sorry I’m late. I had to wait for the sitter to show up.” She held out her hand for Eva to shake. “I’m Brittany.”

Eva let it hang there, keeping her own hands in her pockets, and Brittany finally let it fall to her side as she began digging through her purse as if she’d just remembered why she’d come. “I was hoping I could buy more than what we’d talked about. I know I asked for five pills, but I really need ten.” She pulled a wad of cash out of her purse and held it out to Eva. “That’s four hundred instead of two.”