Prompt #22: Veracity
“Something is wrong, dus Mason.”
I turned around, not surprised to find Aurelius leaning against the wall, with his arms crossed. In the three years of our acquaintance and despite the fact that we were now friends, he’d never called me by name and it had turned into some sort of joke between us.
“What’s going on?” I asked, instantly alert. These last few years had been good for us, but if there was a new threat to Marcus, I was ready.
“Not that,” he replied, knowing where my thoughts were going, “no danger there. But something is wrong all the same… with him.”
I frowned and tilted my head to the side. “I don’t understand. He looks just the same to me. What’s wrong?”
“I walked into his study yesterday. He was talking with someone over the communicator and instantly interrupted the conversation. A couple of days ago, he hid some documents under a folder when I came in; the movement was subtle but I know what I saw. And it isn’t the first time either. It looks like it’s business as usual but I’m telling you, something is wrong. This isn’t how he does things, not even when it’s about the most sensitive areas of his job. I’ve known him since childhood and his behaviour is off.”
“Have you tried talking to him about this? There’s probably an explanation.”
But his words were hitting me in the face and I realised he was right: it didn’t really register until Aurelius gave words to his suspicion, but now I was connecting the dots and something was definitely wrong. I kicked myself for not noticing earlier. The hidden documents? Yes, I saw that happen but I’d written it off as confidential files due to his work. The same thing had happened with the whispered conversation and with some visitors over the last few weeks.
A sudden thought hit me and I paled. “Could it be he’s being blackmailed into something? He wouldn’t be the first public official to suffer this kind of pressure.” And if that was the case, talking with him wouldn’t work, he’d deny.
Aurelius, once again, followed my train of thoughts and nodded.
“If that’s the case, we need proof. We need to know what’s going on.”
I started pacing with my heart in turmoil. Was the calm destined to end? Was my Marcus being forced to do something? What could they have over him? His family? Me? Anything was possible.
“It’s my night shift tonight,” I told Aurelius. “Do you think you would be able to go into his office and look? I can be the…” I grimaced at the mere thought, “distraction and keep him away. And you know the place like the back of your hand.”
He nodded, grim, not liking what we needed to do anymore than I did. It was going behind his back, betraying his trust. But if he was in danger and unable to ask for help, it was all we could do and it also couldn’t wait. We wouldn’t let anybody hurt him, physically or otherwise.
The night came and went. And at dawn, just as my shift was ending and I had to leave Marcus and go, a communication came in. “We need to talk. It’s worse than we expected.”
***
“You’re kidding me.”
I couldn’t believe in what he was saying. “You must be mistaken.”
Aurelius was paler than I ever saw him. He was sitting down at my table, in my home, where he came with a big folder of documents hidden beneath his cloak.
“Look for yourself,” was all he told me. “I found these in two hidden compartments in his desk. I thought about leaving them there, but I couldn’t risk everything would disappear if he found out someone had tampered with the compartments. We need to decide what to do fast, because Marcus is bound to know they are gone very soon.”
Sheet after sheet I looked at the evidence he’d collected that night. It was all there: reports from other departments, deeds of properties I never knew he owned, hidden bank accounts, even forged documents to be used in an upcoming trial, with the real ones attached to be changed as fit. As he saw fit.
“No…” I almost fell down, my legs shaking so badly that they were unable to support me anymore. “Oh no… it can’t be true.”
“Look at this.” Aurelius gave me another little folder and I opened it with trembling fingers. My throat let out a low cry of pain when I realised what I was looking at: it was a series of reports, all linked to incidents happening all over the town in the last few years, reports from citizens that were being harassed, their business going up in flames sometimes, people disappearing and being found dead or badly beaten up. I had seen it with my own eyes, in my own neighbourhood and how many times I heard Seppia complain about it, from her place of work? She worked with children. And sometimes their story were heartbreaking. All the people I talked with, people I knew since I were a child, were all saying the same thing: when they refused to pay the Claudia family for “protection” that is what happened. And reporting to the Vigiles was useless as they were sure their complaints were blocked somehow.
My eyes filled with tears as I acknowledged the gravity of what I was seeing: if anybody had tried to tell me the man I loved, the man I was going to marry was not only taking bribes but somehow was the spider commanding an intricate web of corruption that went down the chain of command and hit the very streets of Garlemald, I wouldn’t have even considered the veracity of the story. I would just call it lies and leave it at that. But I had proofs in my hands. It wasn’t just financial crimes, even though that would have been bad enough.
Marcus was allowing his own citizens to be hurt, scared, killed.
For money. And for years.
My life crumbled before my eyes, my heart broke in a million pieces. And nothing remained save for a bleak blankness.
My eyes met Aurelius’ gaze, as bewildered as I felt.
“What do we do now?”
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Misty 