Death Note: Blood Ties - 5. PLAN

Chapter 5: PLAN

Vincent:

I exited the bathroom when I heard a shout from the other room. When I entered the front room I saw the door swing closed. Donald and two of his friends were heading out to his car and their deaths. The one called Michel was yelling after them.

"What are you doing? The boss said you have to stay here and call if anything happens!"

When he noticed me he looked a little relieved "Vincent, isn't it? Help me! They just mumbled something about joy-riding, then got up and left!"

"Must have spelt his name wrong." Gallu said from behind me "Be careful, if you accidentally spell someone's name incorrectly four times the death note will be rendered useless."

How do I spell Michel's name? Was it Michael with an 'a' or Michelle with a double 'l'?

"A small oversight." I told Gallu.

"What?" Michel asked me, perplexed.

I knew that there was a chance I might not know how to spell someone's name, so I specifically didn't write the number of people Donnie would be driving with. If I had said 'with three other people' and spelt Michel's name wrong Donnie would have ended up dead from a heart attack and I would have had to hide his body and try to silence Michel at the same time.

"Michel, how do you spell your first name?" he stared at me as if I'd gone crazy.

"Why does this matter now?" he yelled.

Seeing no other option I left the room and headed into Martinez's empty office. Going to the desk, I opened the first drawer and pulled out the revolver. I loaded it with bullets and then twisted on the silencer until it clicked. When I walked back Michel barely had time to yell before I painted the wall behind him with his blood. There was no point hiding his body because of all the blood. I shot him three times to make sure he was dead. I looked through the front door and noticed the ute parked in the driveway was gone. I needed to hurry before anyone else came to the house.

I walked out the room and past the open door to the office and found the familiar brown door. I wondered which one of the two things Jack told me to do I should do first. Jack hadn't been specific about every single detail because he trusted I could figure it out on my own. I would not let him down because he was counting on me. I should either go through here or move along to the storeroom where Martinez kept the supply. Deciding I should probably make sure no one interrupted me first I decided to pick the lock of the wooden door. I had bent wire in my coat pocket that came from a thick paperclip for situations such as these. Inside the room were filing cabinets. Several of them lined the wall and in-between them was a small desk and chair with a computer situated on top.

Walking over to a specific cabinet I opened the second drawer and skimmed through until I found what I was looking for. Anyone found in this room without Martinez's permission and strict surveillance would be in major trouble. If he saw me with this file he would most certainly have me killed.

In my hands I held the file that contained the names and profiles of every client and worker who was currently working for Martinez. The list held over a hundred names and photos. Gallu passed through the wall and approached.

"That was quite a messy way of killing someone. If a Shinigami kills a human in ways other than a death note they can get in major trouble with the Shinigami king."

"Believe me Gallu, humans are capable of doing far worse and disgusting things to each other." I sat on the chair of the small desk and opened the death note. I pulled out my pen and placed the sheet of names next to the open book so I could read them.

"Oh!" Gallu exclaimed. "Are you going to kill all of those people?"

"I have no choice, I must do as Jack has asked me."

"I knew that Jack told you to find and write down all the names of people who were in contact with Martinez in the death note, but I had no idea that you would have to kill this many. Won't it look suspicious?"

"It will definitely be suspicious." I told Gallu. "However with all people linked to Martinez gone no one will be able to find reason to suspect Jack. I'm going to have to write down different causes of death for each of them and make it so that most bodies aren't found until months later so that the police can't find any similarities in their deaths."

Gallu gave another one of his sinister laughs "It's funny, but I think you might become the first human to write this many names in a death note."

"I suppose." I picked up my expensive pen and started writing.

One hour later I was driving back to Brisbane. In the distance I could see smoke from my rear-view mirror of the stake-house setting alight. The last thing Jack had told me was to burn down everything. If someone found that list and saw that everyone on it mysteriously died except for him it would have been bad news for Jack indeed.

There sure was a lot of marijuana plants being grown and kept in the storeroom, but Jack had specified that I only load the back of my car and leave everything else behind to burn. It would erase all evidence of my presence there, except for the bullets in Michael's head and chest (I ended up seeing how to spell his first name on Martinez's list).

At least it would erase the fact that forty kilograms of Marijuana had been taken. Jonathan Martinez was the last name I'd written down, his name wasn't on the list but I saw it scribbled across a few pages in his desk. For his death I stated that he would drown in a river and that his body would not be discovered until June of next year.

Everything had been taken care of. I'd followed all of Jack's instructions and completed his mission perfectly. All that was left was for me to hide this stash of drugs in a place no one would ever find it and then go to Jack and give him the death note so that his memories would return.

Gallu:

Watching the human drive his car back to Brisbane I thought that perhaps being stuck here for a while wouldn't be as boring as I'd first presumed. I had to admit that I was impressed with Jack's plan. It had worked perfectly.

He'd written Vincent Lowery's name in the death note and in the details of death he'd written that he would die in one week's time, he also wrote that before that time he would be completely obedient to the first person he saw and do whatever they told him without question.

Jack had made sure not to write his own name lest he die but instead made sure he was the first person Vincent saw after his name was written in the death note. After doing that Vincent had no choice but to obey him. Jack then went on to describe his plan to Vincent in mind-numbing detail, Vincent, now a mindless servant, obeyed and was happy to do whatever Jack said.

The fortunate thing about the death note was that Jack didn't have to think of everything but could leave a lot of it up to Vincent to do instead. As long as it is within the realistic areas of possibility the death note can make people do anything the writer wants.

Jack had no idea that Martinez had a list of all of his employees and he also had no idea where Martinez kept his drugs. However, with the power of the death note he was able to make Vincent come up with it on his own in order to do what he was told. Jack willingly gave up his memories so that Vincent could use the death note to kill all of those people for him.

When Vincent returned and gave the death note back to Jack as per instructed all of his memories would return. I doubted that even Jack himself had suspected that things would have worked out this well, and he hadn't even needed to exchange half of his remaining life for the Shinigami eyes. As I sailed across the night sky above the road and beside the roaring engine of Vincent's car I couldn't help smiling.

It'd been a lot of fun watching Vincent kill all of those people. Now all that was left was for Jack to eliminate the previous owner of the death note and then it would become his. I can't wait.

Jack:

I was extremely fucking relieved that Vincent no longer suspected me of killing Tony. Talk about bat-shit crazy. I couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for the guy. So what if he made his living off the addictions of others. It still sucked that he got done in, but I guess that was just a risk that comes with the profession. What mattered now was that this gang drug lord would stop sending guys after me. I did hope they'd find the killer, if there was one. It seemed more likely that Tony had died from a drug overdose.

He'd been cheap and ripped me off on occasion, but he was kinda cool and never missed any of our meetings. I was really fucking confused as to why I'd told Vincent that I missed our last meeting because I'd gone to my cousin's birthday party. I'd stayed home that day. To be honest, I had no idea why I hadn't gone to see Tony that day. Did I forget? It was definitely weird. Here's hoping I won't be getting more unwelcome visits from hardened crims.

My hopes were dashed when the ugly maroon car pulled up in the driveway.

I considered pussying out and threatening to call the cops, but I didn't want them and my parents to know that I regularly smoked dope. My parents would be home soon, I needed to see him now and quickly. Afterwards I'd have to firmly insist he never stop by here again.

There was knocking on the front door and I could see Vincent through the frosted glass. I walked over and opened it hesitantly. Vincent was smiling kindly at me, completely non-threatening. It was weird, he'd been so serious and cold when he talked about Tony's death, but that all changed after...

"Here." he held out the death note to me. "I was just returning this to you."

I stared at him incredulously. He came to return the stupid book? Is this guy insane?

"It's okay," I told him. "You can keep it or throw it away or whatever. I found it lying around somewhere and picked it up cause it looked cool. It's just a piece of junk, though. Someone's idea of a joke."

"Actually I found what was inside this to be very useful." Vincent told me. "It has conclusive evidence that you didn't kill Tony Macmullen." I couldn't read his expression, he was just smiling weirdly.

"Really?" I was skeptical, wondering how long he was gonna string me along with bullshit.

"Definitely, open it and see for yourself." I hesitated, then reached out and took the death note.

I screamed as memories flooded my mind. I saw myself writing Tony's name in the death note and watching him walk off to his death, after forcing him to leave his drugs and money in the public toilets for me. I saw myself write down Joel Robinson's name and making him die in front of the school assembly. Revenge for all the times he picked on people smaller than him, but also for laughs.

Most importantly, I saw myself writing down Vincent Lawery's name and telling him to kill Martinez and all his workers as well as robbing him of as much drugs as he could fit in his car. I leaned over, panting heavily as I re-evaluated my current situation.

"So now that you have the death note I can stop hiding, right?" Gallu said as he flew off the roof and landed on the ground behind Vincent.

I remembered telling Gallu to follow Vincent so that I wouldn't freak out and run when I saw him after I lost my memories. I would have only given Vincent a page of the death note but the stubborn Shinigami insisted on being where the notebook was, and I needed someone to report back to me and explain everything if Vincent died.

I looked up at Vincent, he had a glazed look in his eyes and I realised that his memories of using the death note would have vanished once he'd given it back to me. So instead of asking him how things had gone I opened the death note and flicked through. Vincent had filled up several pages with names of everyone that was connected to Martinez.

He'd been smart enough to also write different details of death for every person he killed so that it couldn't be linked back to me. A wicked grin curved up my face when I saw Jonathan Martinez's name written in the book. I had even managed to kill a powerful drug lord and everyone who worked for him, was there anything this notebook couldn't do for me?

It was over. No one would investigate me about the death of Tony Macmullen anymore.

"I thought a job like this would take you days... I'm impressed. Guess you were one of his trusted ones too." My smug tone became commanding "Did you get me the drugs that I asked for?"

The bedraggled man swayed and then looked at me, remembering "Yes." he said. "Forty kilograms of wrapped weed is hidden deep in the old sewage pipe that comes out at Bribie Island. Not too far along the freeway."

"What else do you remember?" I asked him. Vincent thought and his glazed eyes drifted upwards. Even if he didn't remember writing in the death note he still had to obey me because of what I'd wrote.

"I shot someone." he said absent-mindedly "Then I burnt the place down with all the marijuana. So much...just went up in smoke."

"Good job, Vincent." I smiled. "You've done very well. Only now I don't need you anymore. I really didn't expect you to do it all right away which is why I gave you a week before dying. I figured I'd need to use you again. Now that I don't there isn't a need for me to keep you alive." Vincent continued to sway. "Get back in your car and drive. Keep driving. Drive for hours until you find yourself near the coast. Then I want you to drive off a cliff."

Vincent's eyes unglazed. He stared at me like he'd been jolted by something. He looked like he wanted to understand what I'd said but he couldn't grasp it. He only looked at me for a few seconds and then without a word he turned, got back in his car and drove away.

As I saw Vincent's car disappear my grin came back. All that was left was for me to find out Ethan's full name. I was annoyed that Emma had decided not to send me Ethan's full name after she got home. I'd have to find it out on my own. It shouldn't be too hard now that I know his first name. I turned to Gallu who'd been watching quietly.

"We should go inside now."

Ethan:

People were dying. According to the newspaper a drug lord had been discovered after his stash burnt down along with the building that contained it. Almost a million dollars worth of weed, heroine, and cocaine had been destroyed - one of the biggest supply of drugs in the country, also about ten people suspected of being associated with the drug lord all died in the same night. A heap of other associates along with the drug lord himself had vanished on said night.

It had to be the death note. Whoever had it was killing drug dealers. For what reason? Were they trying to see themselves as a vigilante by killing criminals? Or did they use the fire as a way of stealing drugs without getting noticed?

I fiddled with my glasses nervously as I sat in my room, pondering. It had been over two weeks since Joel died. Whoever had the death note had still not killed me or they still didn't know my name. It shouldn't be too hard for them to figure out my name considering we both went to the same school.

This person probably didn't consider me enough of a threat to do away with. I had already wrote a letter explaining everything about the death note and what I knew that I'd stashed away in one of my drawers so that if I did die, at least there might be someone who would look into my death. That would only help someone find the death note after I died.

What I needed to do was find the death note before I died. I needed to tempt this killer into a trap. I needed to make him/her think that I'd slipped up and left my name somewhere and then catch them when they tried to uncover it. That is if that would tempt them. For now it was my only plan to catch whoever was using the death note.

I hadn't actually read all the rules of the death note when I had it. I'd only read the first page in the instructions. If I had taken the time to go through it I would have a better idea of what my enemy was capable of. Ever since the death of Joel Robinson I'd been monitoring local newspapers and news reports for any instances of peculiar deaths. I had discovered that no one within a three hundred kilometre radius had died of a heart attack since Reece Caldon. So if this person was still killing, they were writing down specific instructions about the deaths.

Why? Either they were sick enough to get a thrill from playing God by picking random ways for their victims to die, or, they were smarter than that and were trying to make sure that the deaths were flying under the radar. Specifically so I wouldn't notice, or the police?

I remembered the last rule on the first page of the death note concerning details of the deaths. If time counted as one of those details this killer could murder people and make it even less suspicious by choosing their deaths to be at a later date. They could kill people years into the future. Another important reason as to why I was monitoring deaths was because I wanted to find out who this second person with the death note was killing in order to get a better idea of who he or she was. Thanks to the internet I was able to check obituaries and information on local deaths that were released in the media. There were a few deaths in the weeks after Joel's.

None of them particularly screamed 'death note' to me, other than the death of the workers of the drug lord, and the disappearance of Jonathan Martinez himself. Now that I thought about it, there had been one instance of a drug overdose that killed one man. I remembered it because in the media it was said that it was very unusual for someone to die from an overdose of cannabis. The article then went on to say things like 'you never really know' and 'children must be informed of the risks' and blah blah blah.

It's a stretch, but if this killer was connected to Tony Macmullen's death then they seemed to be someone who is related to drugs somehow, particularly cannabis considering almost a heap of it was burnt down along with the drug lord's hideout.

This person either took drugs regularly, considering a drug lord was targeted, or they had a strong aversion to the usage of drugs. The last version seemed less likely considering there are much worse and dangerous drugs out there then marijuana, which connects the two incidents. And if this person truly wanted to play at being a vigilante, why not target murderers and rapists instead? This Year Eleven student was probably someone in the stoner circles. I wondered if I could use this information to help me uncover the identity of this killer.

I wasn't finished yet, there was no way I would simply wait for this person to kill me. I'd spent these weeks preparing and planning and now it was time for me to put my plan into motion. I was going to find out who was in possession of the death note, even if it was the last thing I did.

The next day at school was an assembly day. I made sure to sit as far back as I could but I still had to sit in my roll call line. Ever since Joel Robinson had died there had been annoying talks in assemblies as well as invitations to see the school councilor if anyone felt the need. The entirety of Year Eleven had witnessed his death and by now the entire school knew of it.

This assembly was different because it was a whole-school assembly. The principle, Mrs Mirsky stared strictly at the students as they all entered. She was at the front on the slightly elevated stage for speakers. Around her were other members of the faculty and staff.

All students were seated on the floor in columns based on their year and rows based on their roll call group, after their roll teachers. The teachers remained silent for a bit until the noise died down. Mrs Mirsky wore a maroon dress that was wrapped in a purple cardigan. It seemed she always wore those colours. Even her high heels were a violent shade of pink.

The brown hair that curtained her face was speckled with silver and her wrinkled face was warped into a definite frown. She never looked this angry. Something serious must be going on. That would explain why the Year Tens and Twelves were here as well.

Instead of the principle it was the short, bald Mr Harris who walked forward to address the campus.

"We have brought you all here because we have something very serious to announce. It concerns the amount of vandalism and inappropriate letters that the school has been getting from someone at this school."

I could sense that, for once, most students were actually interested in what the teachers were saying this assembly. Perfect! Now even if the killer isn't in Year Eleven, he would still hear this message. I needed to look around to see if anyone reacted to what Mr Harris said next.

There had been vandalisms on the toilet doors at the school, graffiti saying heinous things about the incident of Joel's death. I knew all about them, because I'd been the one that done it. Over the last few weeks I'd been using spray cans I purchased with the limited money I saved, and sprayed some messages in private areas where there wasn't any surveillance.

As well as the spray cans I used markers and everything at my disposal to make a mess. I didn't agree with everything I'd written but the point was to attract attention from the teachers. I made sure no one noticed me doing it, and signed every vandalism with the name 'shadow'.

I said things like 'Joel deserved to die' and recently, had sent letters to the school. Typed with no finger prints. Each one was filled with profanities and accusations, but most importantly, in each letter I mentioned past vandalisms and talked about possible future ones. They weren't too extreme, but I referred to each graffiti message I'd made as a 'death notice'.

This was an extreme way to get the killer's attention, but I knew that they would have to reveal themselves. If they were smart, they would realise that soon the school would be forced to contact the police. Instead of the school trying to ignore the letters, the police would analyse them carefully.

After I was sure that my letters were being paid attention to, I could start to write even more serious things concerning the death note and about Joel Robinson's death. This killer would want me dead immediately. That's what I'm counting on. The first part of my plan is already in effect, the second part will be trying to find out who is in possession of the death note.