Fiction
When The Program Fails People Die Part XIII
A Sunny Alexander-Johnson And Henry James Series
My name is Sunny Alexander-Johnson, and I’m Henry James, and we’re writers for Dark Sides of the Truth magazine.
Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, Part XII
By mid-week of the second extremely long week of all of us jumping in fright at our own shadows and flinching nervously when we heard an unexpecting noise, everyone’s nerves had worn thin.
Even worse was that we were no closer to finding anything on Rosa Anita Bianchi.
Which in our line of business did little more than drive us crazy. This was the first time we hadn’t been able to use our resources to get the information we now desperately needed.
It also didn’t help that one of our information sources, Manny Hermanos, was probably going to be frying in the FBI hot seat for a while for marrying one of the people he was supposed to be protecting.
Try as they may, Donnie and Wu couldn’t find a single thing after the birth certificate to link to our mystery woman.
With a little groveling and begging for Rick McDonnell to issue a hall pass on the Friday storyboard session, we decided to head over to Cynthia’s house. Knowing we were missing something, we decided perhaps additional rounds of questions with Manny and Victoria might reveal something we could use.
After buzzing us through the gates, Donnie met us at the front door.
“Hey, guys.”
“Hey, Donnie, how’re your prisoners doing?”
“Well, I don’t want to speak out turn, Henry but Ms. Victoria and Gorgie, they’re really nice folks. They do what I tell ’em, stay away from the windows, won’t go anywhere unless I’m with them, and are real careful, but…”
“Let me guess. Manny’s an asshole.”
Donnie smiled and nodded as he stepped back and swung the door into the foyer.
“Yeah, you could say that. Tries to tell me how to do my job, ya know?”
“Wouldn’t be Manny if he didn’t. We’ve all learned to just ignore him.”
Donnie took a brief inspection of outside, quickly scanning the curved driveway, and the front gates then closed the door, and we followed him down the long hallway to the back of the house.
“We were just about to sit down to lunch.”
“What are you having?”
“Gorgie wanted hot dogs Sunny, and I, well, I make a pretty mean chili, so we’re having chili cheese hot dogs.”
“With onions and mayo?”
“Uh, nobody puts mayonnaise on chili Johnson.”
“I do old man, so zip it. Well, Donnie?”
“Yes, ma’am, however you want it, I suppose.”
“That’s my man. I’m starving.”
“You said that this morning when you cleaned out every freaking danish in the break room.”
“Henry, it’s almost lunchtime.”
“It’s fifteen after eleven, Shaundrika.”
We all flinched expecting flames to spew out, but evidently, the scent of food enticed our resident dragon lady’s attention more than the thought of skewering a partner.
“Hey, everybody. Gorgie, Victoria.”
“Hello, Henry. Why don’t you, Sunny and Roberto, join us. We’re having…”
“Chili cheese dogs with onions, yes, we know. Have you set out the mayonnaise?”
“Uh, no. It’s just nobody…”
“Trust us on this, Victoria. Let the woman have her mayonnaise.”
Typically, when everyone gathers for meals at Cynthia’s house, it’s a raucous amalgamation of children squealing with delighted glee, and adults talking over themselves and laughter, always warm-hearted laughter.
But not today.
We all sat in silence, eating quickly, and encouraging Victoria’s brother to do so as well. When everyone was finished, Victoria suggested Gorgio entertain himself in one of the living areas at the front of the house. It would be far enough away to isolate him from what we needed to discuss.
“Shaundrika, that’s your third hot dog. Ya wanna slow it down a bit, princess?”
“What are you Henry, my mother?”
“Ah hell, Henry, let the woman eat.”
“Whatever, Manny. Since our partner’s mouth is full, I suppose Roberto and I will need to ask the questions.”
“What questions would those be?”
“Victoria? What can you tell us about Rosa Anita Bianchi?”
Victoria tilted her head slightly, her expression a curious look of surprise, wrinkling the creases of her eyes. She smiled then shook her head.
“Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in years.”
“You know her?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, we were like sisters. We grew up together. Celebrated each other’s birthdays and holidays together. We were born within days of one another in the same year. She on August fifteenth, me August twentieth.”
“What year was that?”
“Nineteen ninety. You know it’s not polite to ask a woman’s age, Henry.”
“It’s important, Victoria.”
“You…have…any…punctures?”
“Oh, for the love of God, Shaundrika, swallow.”
“…Victoria, do you have any pictures of her?”
“No, I don’t think so. Wait. Let me go get my purse.”
We sat in silence as Victoria left the room, trying not to pay attention to someone as she finished her last hot dog, surreptitiously licking her fingers clean of the last vestiges of chili.
“Oh dear Lord Alexander, you’re killing us here.”
“Alexander-Johnson old…”
Victoria reappeared with a tattered photo in her hand. She placed it on the table and pointed to a pair of young girls standing near two gentlemen sitting in the front of a group of men and women. All were smiling except for the two girls who were making faces.
“That’s Rosa, and that’s me. Mama died giving birth to Gorgie, and that’s my father. Next to him, Marco. I don’t know why I kept this photo. Silly of me.”
“It’s the last pleasant memory you have of your father?”
“Yes, Roberto. I suppose it is.”
“That’s why I have a photo just like that at home. My father left my mother and my two sisters and me when he died.”
“So when was the last time you spoke with Rosa?”
“Well let’s see. Uh, that would be right before…right before I testified. After that, we never saw each other again.”
“What are you doing, Henry?”
“Sending a copy of this photo to the spy twins, Sunny. Maybe they can do something with that facial recognition voodoo they do so well. You want to answer your phone by the way?”
“Hey, mom. Yeah, we’re all at your house. No, Robert’s at work, but the rest of us are here. What’s that? Sure, I’ll tell him. Love you too.”
“Donnie?”
“Yes ma’am?”
“Mom said she’s sending her new personal assistant over with some papers for you to sign. Something about making sure Alexander Investments getting you on the payroll.”
“I like the sound of that Sunny.”
“I bet you do. Mom said her assistant should be here in about forty minutes.”
“Perfect. I’ll keep a sharp eye on the monitors.”
Read On When The Program Fails People Die Conclusion
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