It had been some time since Tobias had seen the sunrise. The docks were filled with mostly fishermen and tourists. The sky was a mix of auburn and orange; he was sitting in the bed of his truck and overlooking the water. Why the Cannery was the Murder's hideout he didn't know. All he did know was that there was something that needed to be done about the Graves, and they were the people to do it.
The cannery behind him barely looked like you could live in it. The building was metal, and rust spots filled most of the structure.
The parking lot was empty except for his truck—he was waiting for Raven and a few of the others to show up. There were said to be only seven of them left; he knew they needed more numbers, and maybe there should be a mission to seek them out.
He could hear the rumbles of cars and trucks that passed by him. They were probably wondering why his was the lone truck in the parking lot and there was no one else here. People would talk anyway, and news and gossip would spread fast in this small town.
The chilly morning air was nipping at his face; he shivered as he dug out a cigarette and lit it. It took him a whole three minutes to smoke the cigarette and then throw it down into the bed of his truck. He saw movement coming from the road; some had walked into the parking lot of the cannery.
It was Raven who walked into the parking lot and scanned the area until he saw Tobias in the back of his truck, and within moments of Raven noticing Tobias, he watched his friend jump off the back of his truck and hit the ground and walk over towards him. Raven was a tad bit cold too. The early morning Maine weather was nothing to laugh at, and it was even worse in the winter.
Under different circumstances, they'd probably stand around and talk about nothing, but they had stuff to do today. Raven walked over to the door of the cannery and pulled it open. It made a metallic sound like you were opening a giant shipping container. Tobias followed behind Raven. They both stepped inside, and Raven ran his hand along the wall until he found a light switch and flipped all the lights on.
Tobias was surprised to see the interior. It looked like an old biker club. Stuff was hung on the wall. A giant flag with a big black crow on it, and there were a few posters on the wall. It was a mix of country music performers and heavy metal bands. He did notice a broken big screen television in the corner. There was also a big freezer and refrigerator. It looked lived in; he noticed a large couch and a few giant chairs. It looked like they had been used recently.
Tobias walked around and took it all in. He never knew a place like this existed. You couldn't really advertise that his kind that was supposed to be killed thirty years ago was still around. He wondered how many of them there really were, and he knew they needed to wait for more of the murder to arrive. He wanted to get moving as fast as he could. He shuddered at the thought of what they might be doing to Ella Grace right now.
Something caught his eye—there was a bar and a pool table. It felt like he was back at the Broken Oar. If they had all of this stuff here, why did they leave? Maybe this was like the headquarters for things they tried to do around Corveth Harbor. That'd make sense to him. He didn't need alcohol; he wanted something to drink though.
Coming back to this city was the wrong thing for him to do. Now he watched Raven disappear behind the bar and the sounds of a coffee maker starting could be heard. The sound of it percolating and then brewing. Raven set out two coffee cups and within what felt like a few seconds of time, he poured a cup of coffee for himself and Tobias.
"Hope ya like it black." Raven said with a chuckle as he brought the cup of coffee up to his lips and took a sip of it. "Haven't got supplies in such a long time. Truth is, we haven't needed to use this place in a while." Raven added.
"I see." Tobias said as he nodded his head and took a sip of his coffee. Both of them took a seat at the bar and took some sips of coffee in silence.
Silas walked in with his eighteen-year-old daughter. She stood about five feet tall, with lightly colored eyes and dark hair. Her name was Kara. Silas smelled the odor of freshly brewed coffee, and the door was open, and that is what had brought him in. He approached Raven and Tobias, who were sitting at the bar drinking coffee.
"I knew I smelled something wonderful in here!" Silas said.
"Once I made coffee, I knew you'd show up." Raven said and laughed. He got up from his seat and walked behind the bar and poured one extra cup of coffee and set the cup at a spot right next to him. He noticed that Silas brought his daughter, and right now this place wasn't the safest place for a child, even though she was an adult.
Raven looked at the members of The Murder that had come already. He thought it might be a good idea to get down to business and try to form a plan on how they were going to storm The Graves Estate and get Ella Grace back. He was half assuming that The Graves Estate was going to be guarded like Alcatraz was. He sipped his coffee and finally finished the cup. You don't talk battle plans over a cup of coffee though.
"You said we had two days to plan this." Tobias said as he took the final slurp of his coffee and looked at Raven with a very serious look on his face. "No better time than the present."
Raven knew where Tobias' head was right now, and if he had lost what Tobias had lost, he'd want to strike back as soon as possible. The planning stage is what they needed to do and assign roles to members of the murder. Now he knew that Toby wasn't going to be thinking straight for some time. That pool table might work well for a table to put a map on.
"Alright." Raven said reluctantly as he finished his coffee. He got up and walked to another room and then grabbed some rolled up maps and then walked over to the pool table and cleared it off. He unrolled the maps.
The murder was planning to hit The Graves at some point, but they didn't think it would be this soon. The two maps that had been rolled out showed the giant Graves Estate Building, and the other showed the grounds it was on. There were x's on the maps, and that is where Raven thought Enforcers and other supernatural allies might be.
Raven, Tobias, Silas, and Kara were standing around the pool table.
"Now the x's are markers of where I think Enforcers or other body guards might be. They have Ella. So they are going to have her under lock and key. Now we do know she employs Werewolves, but I doubt that's the only supernatural creatures on her payroll. It's the only creature type we've been up against."
Something wasn't right. Marcus or Ms. Cheng had not checked in. They always texted Raven if they weren't going to be at the clubhouse. Something inside of Raven's gut told him something wasn't alright and maybe they should put off this planning session for an hour or two. No, he was going to ignore his gut and go along with it. There could be a simple reason for them not checking in. He expected the worst.
"We might have to do this later," Raven said as he looked at the people that were around the pool table with him, pausing briefly. "I have a bad feeling..."
"What are you feeling?" Tobias asked Raven.
"Like those two are in danger," Raven replied.
Tobias hated to admit this but they needed all hands on deck if they were going to take the Graves estate. He sighed as his eyes were locked on the maps that had been unrolled in front of him. He looked at Silas, Kara, and Raven. Now if something bad had happened to Marcus and Ms. Cheng, he didn't want Silas or Kara involved. Maybe he would be able to crack some Enforcers' skulls to get some frustration out.
Ella Grace was the only thing that Tobias really cared about right now and he didn't know why. He wasn't the type of person to get attached or involved with people; all he knew about Ella was she was a good person and she didn't deserve all of this bullshit that was going down. Another thought was if he found a few of the enforcers he might be able to beat the location of Ella out of them.
Raven dug his phone out of his pocket and unlocked it and went directly for his text messaging app. They used a burner app for murder stuff; it wasn't hard to track normal cell phone messages nowadays and he knew that everyone in the town worked for The Graves. The last text messages he had received from Marcus or Ms. Cheng were marked at 8 a.m. yesterday morning.
He knew that Marcus always got coffee at Coffee Bucks, and the irony of that was it was owned by The Graves Family. It was the biggest coffee franchise in the city. Now something told him that he should go and check that out. They could work on the plan at a later date.
"We could check out Coffee Bucks," Raven said as he looked over to Tobias.
"Oh. The rich coffee place? Why would they go there?" Tobias asked.
"Marcus has expensive taste," Raven said, then turned to Silas and Kara. "Just in case they might come back here, I want you guys to be here."
Kara pouted. She wanted to go out on a grand adventure with the others, and then she walked over to another room and sat down at the couch and pouted some more. Silas looked at Raven and Tobias and gave them both a warm smile.
"Don't worry, we will hold down the fort," Silas said, watching Raven and Tobias go towards the door and he could hear a little bit of the conversation that both of them were having.
"Don't worry, we are taking my truck." Tobias said as they got outside and walked over to his truck. It was like old times again and they were going to go do something stupid and possibly save some people. They needed everyone together even though Tobias was ready to kamikaze The Graves Estate by himself.
Raven got into the passenger side and Tobias got into the driver's side. The truck came to life—the key was still in the ignition. The duo drove to Coffee Bucks. It was a five-minute drive from The Cannery and they didn't like what they saw when they got there. The upscale coffee place had caution tape all the way around it and both of them noticed busted out windows. No one was around; both of them got out of the truck after Tobias parked it nearby. No bodies were on the ground. That was good, right?
"Almost looks like the club." Tobias said as he focused on the broken windows and busted door but he did notice some movement inside of the coffee shop.
"Did you see who did this?" Raven asked the young woman.
She shook her head and she was shaking.
"I came in for my shift and then it sounded like a bomb went off and then everything exploded." She said and then started to sweep up the mess one more time. She walked out of Raven's sight and then Tobias joined him at the supposed scene of the crime.
"It's blood." Raven said as he looked over to Tobias. "Just not sure who it belongs to."