Ed Villein's Arc

Chapter 10 of 12

Ed sits in his apartment at two in the morning with the pawn ticket on the table. Five hundred dollars to buy silence. He counts the cash in his wallet twice—three hundred and forty dollars. Not enough. He'll need to pull from the envelope taped behind the refrigerator, the emergency fund he's been building for months. He arrives at work the next morning and heads straight to the break room. The wall calendar hangs crooked near the coffee maker, its yellowed pages curling at the edges. Someone crossed out July ninth and wrote "TONIGHT" in thick red marker. Ed's chest tightens. The retirement party moved up. His nineteen days just became eight hours. He walks to the banquet hall and finds the side entrance blocked by a white tent—canvas panels draped over metal poles. Beneath it, three catering carts wait in a row. The folded napkin he placed as a marker is gone. A catering van idles near the loading dock, engine running. Workers in white shirts carry trays and covered dishes toward the tent. Ed watches them load the middle cart first, then the one on the left. The one he marked sits empty on the right. He waits until the workers disappear inside the van for another load. Ten seconds, maybe less. He crosses to the tent and opens the cart's hidden compartment. The napkin is still there, stuffed in the back corner. They moved the carts but didn't check inside. He closes the compartment and walks away before anyone returns. The chemical is still in Building C. He'll need to retrieve it during his lunch break, get it into the compartment before the carts roll inside. No time for second-guessing. No time to retrieve the ring first. Ed stops at the security booth on his way back. The guard looks up, expectant. "Tonight," Ed says. "The party's tonight. I'll get your ring tomorrow." The guard's face hardens. He stands, steps close to the glass. "That wasn't the deal." Ed meets his eyes. "The deal was silence. You get paid when I finish what I started. If you talk now, neither of us gets what we want." The guard stares at him for three long seconds, then sits back down. He doesn't nod this time. He just turns away. Ed walks out knowing the guard will keep quiet—not because he trusts Ed, but because he needs that ring enough to wait one more day.