Chapter 136 – Bribery and Blackmail – Silver Brooks

It turned out that yes, of course I was able to visit the Women's Institute of Art and Humanities on such short notice. My parents, both of my parents, heavily insisted upon it after I told them that I received a call with a proposition for me. My dad was surprisingly insistent that I visited soon. Otherwise they'd surely forget about someone like me, he said. Thanks dad.

Cora Wells wouldn’t simply tell me what her offer was over the phone. She promised to show me first hand. She ensured me that it was a one-of-a-kind special offer that I absolutely wouldn’t turn down. With a cheesy sales pitch like that I wondered about how genuine this offer was. It would turn out that it was very, very genuine.

We were inside one of the institute's many art rooms and I was gaining a new appreciation for just how wealthy this institution was. This art room was overwhelmingly large for what it was, with a high, vaulted ceiling. It had highly decorated floor-to-ceiling windows that looked like they'd be more at home in an old cathedral. The amount of natural light pouring in filled the room so well that we didn't need to flip a light switch.

The design was overall rustic and traditional. There was an over-emphasis on natural materials throughout the room. Everything from the hard-wood floors to the clay-fired bricks that made up the side walls looked like they were made by artisan level tradesmen. I was instantly overwhelmed upon entering the room and Cora grinned at my bemused expression.

This type of place was an art student's workplace of dreams and she knew it. That's why this little meeting was happening here, although any place would do. Various easels, canvases, statue busts, and other art projects were scattered throughout the room. Student tools and belongings were left around the room, making the place feel livelier.

Cora didn't call me here to show off the facility. She called me here to give me what essentially amounted to a bribe. She had somehow secured a scholarship pack that didn't cover all of my tuition, but covered a portion of it. Additionally, this pack came with a bag full of school merchandise, art supplies, reference books, and, on top of all that, a high-end drawing tablet for me to take home.

Currently, one of the photography teachers was giving me tips and pointers on how to operate this tablet. My experiences with digital art were limited to my mother's drawing tablet that she often let me borrow. This new tablet was nothing like that. For one thing it was several times larger. Unlike my mother's, this tablet was a display tablet with its own screen.

“You’re already pretty good at this.” Mr. Yates said. “Normally I have to spend some time explaining the mechanics of digital tablets to new students.”

“Oh, well… My family has one at home. My mother bought one for practicing. I’d like to use it more but my sister tends to hog it these days.”

“Then I suppose this new tablet will be solving that sibling rivalry for you.” Mr. Yates said with a chuckle. “My brothers and I fought constantly over much less than this back when I was your age.”

“I’m glad I don’t have siblings.” Cora said flatly.

“They grow on you.” Mr. Yates said. “My brothers and I never got along back when we were living under the same roof. Now that I don’t constantly see them every day I find myself nostalgic about our old interactions.”

“That would never happen between me and my sister.” I said more angrily than was necessary. “She’s a constant pest and always getting me in trouble!”

Mr. Yates chuckled more heartily this time and slapped me on the back.

“Ah, the joys of being young,” He said like an old man. “I think you’ll make a good addition to our school. Be sure to practice with your new equipment at least twice a week. With Christmas break coming up soon you should be able to practice even more than that.”

“I will.” I said. “If the school is investing in me like this then I’ll do my best to live up to its demands.”

“Good!” Mr. Yates said proudly, “Too many students these days take things like scholarships and tuition support too lightly these days. Back when I was your age…”

“I think she gets it.” Cora said irritably. “Don’t you have somewhere to be soon? I didn’t mean to hold you up this long. I’ll take over from here.”

He looked down at his watch.

“Oh, yes! I need to go pick up my daughter from school! She’ll be sour all day if I’m late again.” He said and looked over at me. “Remember, study!”

“I will!” I said as he walked away.

Mr. Yates hurried over to the door in little less than a jog. He threw the door open and ran out in a full sprint. I got the feeling that he was late picking up his daughter quite often.

“Finally,” Cora said. She pulled a chair over from the other side of the table. “We’re alone.”

She sat on the chair backwards, letting her arms hang over the backrest.

“So…” She said, gesturing a hand over to the drawing tablet. “Tell me what you think.”

“I think you went out of your way.” I said honestly, “My parents will be happy to hear about this. It’s tangible evidence that I’ve got a promising future ahead of me, at least in terms of college prospects. That’s pretty much what they’ve wanted from me since I entered high school.”

Cora grinned wickedly.

“Good, then I’ll consider that mission success.” She said. “A display tablet… A bag full of school merch… A partial payment of the tuition fee… None of this stuff comes cheap.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“I was wondering about that.” I said. “You’re just an assistant here, right? How were you able to pull so many strings?”

“Work anywhere for long enough and eventually you’ll curry enough favor to gain a few favors in return. Mr. Yates can’t say no when I helped him patch things up with his wife. Also I’ve gathered enough dirt on the admins by now that they can’t cross me without reason.”

I frowned.

“That’s how you went about this?” I asked in disappointment. “All of this for what? Just so I’d deliver another message for you?”

“Hell yes!” She shouted. “Jackie, the swine, she wouldn’t even deign to grace my letter with a response! She…!”

I pulled a folded piece of paper out of my pocket and Cora practically tore it away from my hand before I even finished presenting it to her. She stood up and unfolded the letter. Apparently she didn’t even need the translation key to read this letter because her lips began moving as she read the letter to herself.

There was a catch here that she wasn’t aware of. It was true that Ms. Sampson gave me a letter to give to Cora, but that wasn’t the letter she was reading now. The letter she was reading now was an edited version of Ms. Sampson’s original letter. The Killing Cat gave me this after I showed her the response letter to Ms. Sampson.

The details were opaque to me, but they were discussing how to meet up so that they could lay a trap for the Killing Cat. The Killing Cat herself gave me a translated version of the original letter so that I’d understand what was going on. Ms. Sampson had mixed feelings about meeting up with Cora and was even less interested in trying to confront the Killing Cat directly.

Cora was the one that was proactive about hunting the Killing Cat. There was little way for her to know that she was the one being hunted. Cora grinned at me the moment that she finished reading the letter and folded it back up.

“I wish you would’ve come to me sooner with this, but this is fine. I can work with this.”

“I was planning to visit this weekend.”

“It doesn’t matter. Now that you’re here we can accelerate time tables. Jackie is still shy about doing things my way. I’ll need to give her a little push. You’re going to deliver another letter for me.” She said.

“I don’t mind delivering it, but why can’t you two just call each other? Even if you don’t know her personal cell phone number you could just call the school.”

“Impossible.” She said without thinking it over. “These aren’t the type of things I want to discuss over the phone.”

“Yet you’re okay with sending them through me?”

She laughed sarcastically.

“It’s not like you can read the letters anyways. Besides, you have a horse in this race as well. Don’t think I’m unable to snub all these little benefits I’m granting you right now. If you screw me over I’ll cancel that tuition support with a single call to the payment office.”

“I’m just saying that the blatant bribe you’re offering makes me question the contents of the letter.”

She put one hand into her face and sighed.

“I didn’t want to have to do this,” She said overdramatically, “But you’ve left me no choice.”

She reached into the bag at her side and slapped a beige folder onto the table. I pulled it over warily and opened it up to the first page inside. It was a cutout of a newspaper article about graffiti around town. The picture featured in the article showed several girls, all of them from Naomi’s gang, spray painting graffiti onto a brick wall. I was among them.

I leveled an irritated glare at Cora.

“Go on,” She said. “I didn’t gather all of this for you to throw it aside on the first page. Keep Reading.”

I turned to the next page. There were more images of various girls from Naomi’s gang spray painting graffiti. The next page was similar, along with the next. It seemed like she wasn’t going to point out the fact that I was only in one of these images. No, instead she considered the fact that I was even part of Naomi’s gang as good enough.

She wanted to have something on hand that would make the school change its mind about me. The smug look on her face made me feel sick. No doubt she was planning to use this little trick on me the entire time. It was the carrot and the stick. Do as I tell you or I’ll reveal ‘certain things’ to the other members of the staff.

“So,” She said, “Do we have an agreement?”

It took a few minutes to get the arrangement straightened out, and another few minutes for Cora to write her response message. This response letter was long-winded, but I was patient. My mother wasn’t picking me up this time. I’d be using a ride-share service to go home.

However, this ride-share service wouldn’t be dropping me off directly in front of my house.

The driver dropped me off at a house that was on sale just a few blocks away from my place. It was night time by the time I arrived. I walked up to the front door and let myself in. The door was kept unlocked so that prospective buyers could come and tour it. The house had been on sale for months now and still didn’t have someone willing to buy it.

This was good for me because it meant that I could use it as a secret location close to home.

“How long have you been here?” I asked the Killing Cat as she came downstairs.

The Killing Cat raised five fingers at me, as if I knew what that was supposed to mean. Five what…? Five minutes… Five hours…? Five days…?

“Your plan went off without a hitch.” I said. “She didn’t suspect a thing.”

I pulled the folded letter out of my pocket. The Killing Cat accepted it gently, unlike last time. I wondered if that meant she was unconcerned with the outcome of this. I studied her as she looked over the letter and realized that she didn’t need a key either. She had memorized their writing system. That was dedication.

“What does it say?” I asked, not fully expecting a response.

The Killing Cat tilted her head at me curiously. Then she turned back to the letter as she seemed to be considering things for a moment. She put the letter in my hand and then pulled another piece of paper from her jacket pocket.

This other piece of paper she handed me was the translation key. At first I was going to dismiss it and hand everything back to her, but then I realized something. She had some of the commonly used words already pre-translated on the ‘key’ page.

“Cora wants to use herself as bait and have Officer Morelli take you down?” I asked.

The Killing Cat nodded.

“That’s bold of them. I’ll give them that…” I said while staring at the letter. “I guess that means you’ll try to take advantage of this to turn their own trap on them and kill them both?”

The Killing Cat stared at me in intense silence.

“Well…” I started out by saying. “I can’t say if I approve of your method of doing things but I don’t know what the other way is. Officer Morelli is a police officer which complicates the idea of going to the police about the conspiracy. Cora has more or less proven she’s willing to get her hands dirty with this. Also, the dirt she dug up on me makes me less sympathetic to her.”

The Killing Cat nodded and pointed out something else in Cora’s letter. It took me a minute or so of matching the key to the section she pointed out before I understood.

“You’ve got her apartment code…” I said. “Along with the time that Officer Morelli is meant to be visiting on Saturday.”

That meant that this was going to happen soon.

“For this to work you’ll have to write Ms. Sampson a convincing letter. She already didn’t want to risk getting involved with Cora’s plots. It’s likely because she thinks Cora is already compromised, which she actually is. How are you planning to overcome that?”

The Killing Cat put her hand out towards me and signaled for me to hand something over. I offered her the letter and key, but she shook her head.

“Oh… You need a pen and paper?” I asked.

Inside the bag of merchandise I got from the school there was a regular notebook. I pulled it out along with a pen and handed them over to the Killing Cat. She kneeled on the ground to begin writing on the wooden floor. I kneeled down beside her to watch her work.

“I’ve helped you with your plan to take out your enemies.” I said to her carefully. “There’s something that I need your help with in return.”

She slowly looked up from the notebook to stare at me.

“I need you to help me without killing anyone involved. Do you think you can do that?” I asked.