The Border Part Five Read Free Page B

Hayley was a local girl, Mel just moved here. Big difference. Just get over to their house and tell them they’ll feel better if they give you a few quotes.”
    “Don’t you think it’s a bit soon?”
    “I do, which is why I’m sending you rather than going myself. Sorry, kid, them’s the breaks around here.” Spotting movement over by the door, he glanced over and saw Alex Gordon entering the office. “Hey Dan,” Jack continued, “why don’t you go to the store and see if we’re all sold out down there?”
    “Can’t you just call them and -”
    “Go take a look,” Jack continued, watching as Alex made his way over. “Take your time.”
    Sensing that he was being shuffled out of the way, Daniel paused for a moment before sighing and heading to the door, leaving Alex to stop at the window for a moment, looking out at the town square. Finally, he turned and looked back toward the door, to make sure that Daniel was gone.
    “So how did it go?” Jack asked.
    Alex paused, before turning to him. “There’s no easy way to tell you this,” he said finally. “Jack, your brother Ben is definitely the killer.”

I I
     
    “Jesus Christ,” Beth muttered, staring at her phone and wincing as she saw an image of several decapitated heads, victims of some South American drug cartel with a name she couldn’t pronounce. She scrolled to the next picture and saw a close-up of one of the heads, and after a moment she realized the victim’s genitals had been cut off and shoved into his mouth.
    She looked away from the screen, horrified, but after a moment she looked back.
    “Disgusting,” she whispered, although she quickly swiped to the next image. Her eyes widened with shock as she saw a man whose tongue had been pulled out through a hole in his neck.
    “Here’s your salad,” said the waitress suddenly, setting a plate of food in front of her. She glanced at the phone in Beth’s hands and frowned, before Beth quickly turned it away.
    “Thanks.”
    “Are you -”
    “Thanks,” Beth said again, more firmly this time. “Thank you.”
    “Okay,” the waitress replied, clearly shocked as she headed back to the counter.
    Rolling her eyes, Beth took another look at her phone. She figured she’d seen enough images for the morning, and she was about to close the browser when she remembered the message boards in the online marketplace. Navigating to the page, she set her phone on the table and began to eat while scrolling down the boards, looking at all the hideous and bizarre services and products being offered. Guns, knives, drugs, poison, there was more than she’d ever imagined, and soon she wasn’t even paying attention to the salad she’d begun spooning into her mouth.
    And then she saw it again.
    That same advert, the one that – if she was honest with herself, which she wasn’t – she’d been daydreaming about ever since she’d first spotted it a few days earlier.
    “Metal Pill Terminations,” she whispered, reading from the screen. “Want that problem person gone from your life? It’s easier than you think.” She paused, feeling a little breathless with nerves. “Metal pill. That must mean bullet.”
    She scrolled down a little further.
    “Struggling with life?” she continued to read. “Wondering how everyone else seems to get by just fine, while you’re always struggling? Maybe they know something you don’t. Maybe they only talk about having morals, while secretly doing whatever they need to do in order to make their lives run smoothly.”
    She turned and looked out the window, watching as people made their way in and out of stores on the other side of the parking lot. Now that she actually thought about it, she did feel as if everyone else was in on some secret that had been denied to her, and as she looked back down at the phone, she was starting to think that maybe she was really onto something.
    “You don’t have to suffer in silence,” she read. “At Metal Pill Terminations, we