“My job was to track every person this club supposedly rescued,” Massacre said. “All those people we rescued in Louisiana are gone. Once they were released from the hospitals, they disappeared after the FBI talked to them. They just vanished.”
“My job was to track the money,” Viper added. “Every time the club helped the FBI on a raid, the club was paid anywhere from twenty to one hundred thousand dollars. That money was then sent overseas to an offshore account.”
“My job was to listen and watch,” Bayou said. “The club doesn’t know that I have an eidetic memory. I remember everything I’ve heard, seen, or read.”
“And my job was to watch Reaper since we were childhood friends and I was the Vice President. The reason I asked you hear and to bring all the files is that we’re missing something. Like you, nothing is adding up. I think we can determine the missing piece if we pull resources and your skills.”
“I told you already that I’ve gone over everything. I couldn’t find anything.”
“Well, you have five fresh sets of eyes. Maybe we can help.”
Phantom nodded and over the next couple of hours, I looked around the small house and saw several piles of boxes and folders, each containing a detailed account of every brother ever inducted into the Golden Skulls. Some folders were thin, but the majority of them were thick. Phantom reviewed the Original Seven files we found in the storage shed and compared them to what she had in her database while my team and Gadget were going through the club members. It was a daunting job and I had to walk away a few times. What some of our previous club brothers endured was not for the weak at heart.
“Ghost we're missing a file.”
“What?” I asked, looking up from the folder in my hand.
“The Original Seven. I have files on Xavier Goldman, the original creator of the Golden Skulls, Joshua Cussler, the cult leader of the Disciples of the Word who had Ari. William Doherty, who killed Goldman and took over the Golden Skulls. Edward Lyons Sr, who facilitated the baby farm with Bianchi and took Collin from Catarina and Player, then there is Lucas Katan and Franklin Montague who the Guardian said the Division killed. That’s only six. According to this photograph,” she said, holding it for me to see, she added. “There should be seven. We’re missing a member.”
I walked over to the table she’d taken over and started going through the files with her. We found each known member and placed them before us. When we were done, there were only six piles. She was right. The seventh member was missing.
“Have you identified all the faces in the picture?”
“All but one. The missing member's face was too grainy. My computer couldn’t pick up any markers for identification.”
“Shit. What about the folders? Does any of them mention another name? One we haven’t heard yet?”
“No. In fact, I even went back through their military folders, thinking the seventh member may have died in Vietnam, but nothing. There isn’t even a military file on this missing person.”
“A civilian?”
“Has to be. He would have a file if the missing member was part of the Original Seven’s military unit. One thing you can count on is that the military loves paperwork.”
“Great,” I sighed. “If this fucker is a civilian, we may never know who he was or his part in the organization.”
“Uh guys,” Massacre said, interrupting our conversation. “Max has a file.”
“We all do Massacre. Every member of the Golden Skulls has a file.” I replied, rolling my eyes.
“No. I mean, yeah, I know that. I read Reaper’s file. It’s thick. But this is a different file. It’s labeled Maxwell Doherty. It’s from when he was fifteen.” Massacre corrected, looking up at me.
Phantom and I walked over to Massacre as he handed us the file. Skimming through it, I quickly realized it was from the time he was kidnapped and held captive by human traffickers. The time he spent with them changed him forever. Max was never the same after that and became the man he was today.
“It’s just an account of what happened to him while he was there,” Phantom whispered, reading the file next to me. “Why would the club have a separate file on that? All the club files document every action or deed done by said member, everything from kills to delivery runs. Each file is detailed. This file makes no sense. Why have a detailed account of a child who was tortured and raped.”
“Wait a minute,” I said, handing Phantom the file as I walked over to my pile. Picking up William Doherty’s file, I flipped through it and said, “There was a handwritten note in William’s file. I never understood what it meant. When I first read it, I thought he was talking about James. Here it is. My son did me proud. He solidified my lineage today. He’s going to be the best of all of us. I knew he was a true Doherty. It’s dated May 4th, 2008. Max wasn’t rescued until May 11th, 2008.”
“Okay?” Phantom questioned, then added. “So, James did something that made the fucker happy. Maybe he found Max’s location.”
“But he didn’t. It was William who found the location. I remember that day. That bastard was so fucking happy. It was one of the few times I had ever seen him like that. It was almost as if he was too eager to get Max back. He sent James, Hellhound and a few others to retrieve him immediately. My father was one of them.”
“Could he be talking about Diablo?” Viper asked.
“No. Diablo was in the wind. The only other son he had, was Max.”
“What are you thinking, Baltazar?” Shadow asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, setting the file down. “Look, we all know that William Doherty was a bastard. He raped Diablo’s mother, then later killed her, kidnapping his own son. Little is known about James’s mother. Rumor was she was a cut-slut, but no one knew for sure. In fact, there isn’t a single mention of James’s mother in any of these files. Then there is Caroline, William raped her, which resulted in Max's birth We just recently learned that William kidnapped, then raped Cassandra Montclair, who gave birth to Jessica. Let’s face it, William was a sick bastard. He was maniacal and cunning. What if he already knew where Reaper was? What if William, not Caroline, had Max kidnapped for a singular purpose?”