fiction
Mystery, crime, murder, unsolved cases. Contribute your own tales of crime to Criminal.
Secrets of a Dead Man
It’s been four days since the old man died, and yet it seems everyone else has already figured it was time to divvy up his belongings. My family is like a pack of vultures, ready to pounce on the first opportunity to better themselves in a greedy pursuit of self-development. Abandoning all morals and self-respect, prepared to stab even their flesh and blood in the back if that’s what it takes. As I sit in my grandfather’s attic, dark and damp, I could hear the old house settle and creek as if it were crying for its lost owner. I sat on an old crate and stared helplessly out the small window peering over the harbor behind his home; I gaze out upon the old docks where I caught my first fish. As the rainy day progressed, I began to feel water running down my face.
By Frankie Gonzalez 5 years ago in Criminal
Road to Riches
I opened my eyes only to be met with darkness. “What’s going on? Where am I?” I said. Wherever I was it was dark and compact, I could hardly move. A sudden jolt made my hand bump against something hard and cold. After feeling on it with my hand I came to the conclusion that it was a car rim. “Am i in a car trunk? What happened, and why does my head hurt so much?” I wondered. Part of me wanted to scream for help, but the other side of me thought that it’s best if I kept quiet; at least until I could fully assess the situation. The car came to a screeching holt. I used my hands to stop myself from being thrown into the hard metal of the car rim. The radio was turned off and I sat there in silence. I could hear the sound of seagulls and waves crashing upon a beach. We’re they going to throw me into the water? What did I do to deserve this? As my mind wandered I heard two car doors open and shut. I quickly devised a plan to play dead and then attack if they opened the trunk. Then I’d escape on foot. It’s not like I was bound or weighted down in any way. I was a pretty husky yet athletic guy, hell I used to play football back in high school. I’m pretty sure I could take down whoever tried to harm me or at least put up some sort of resistance. That plan quickly went out the window when I heard guns being cocked back. “Click clack...click clack.” I heard footsteps walking towards my direction. Then the trunk popped open. There stood a tall muscular man and a short skinny man both in ski masks pointing pistol at me. “Alright, time to get out.” The short man said. I crawled my way out of the trunk and fell to the ground. When I stood up the bigger man walked closer and put his pistol to the side of my head. “Don’t try anything and this won’t have to get any uglier than it already is.” He demanded. “What’s going on? What did I do?” I pleaded. They both ignored my cry. I started to ask another question but a cell phone went off. The bigger man reached in his pocket and answered it. “Hey boss we just delivered the package to the drop off point....ok we’ll be here waiting for you.” He hung up the phone. “Boss says he’ll be here in fifteen minutes.” He told the shorter man. Then he turned his attention back to me. “In the meantime why don’t you sit down and get comfortable.” I wanted to ask more questions but I decided it’d be in my best interest to oblige. I sat down on the concrete and awaited the arrival of their boss. Sure enough, about fifteen minutes later a black sports car came cruising down the street. It pulled up next to us and a guy in a red suit stepped out. He had on a ski mask as well. Before I could ask any questions he walked over to me. “Get up!” He demanded. I stood up. “Hey, I don’t know what’s going on but I’m sure there’s been a mistake. If not I’m sure there’s a resolution to whatever’s going on.” He grabbed me by my shirt collar. “You think you’re slick huh? So you’re just going to take 20,000 from me and not pay it back. That’s not the way this works. You needed a service done, I supplied that service. How do you pay me back for my generosity? You go ghost on me. Well this is really ironic, because now you’re about to go ghost for real!” He yelled. “Hey, listen I’m sorry for not paying the money back. I had the money, but someone stole it from me. Just hear me out. If you don’t like what I say when I explain myself then you can do whatever you wish, but I think I should be able to tell my side of the story.” I pleaded. The shorter man walked over to us. “Enough of this, boss let me off him right now.” He said. “Put your gun down.” The boss demanded. “I actually would like to know his side of the story. Ok, humor me, I’ve got nothing but time. I’ll let you tell your story before you die. Everyone does a jury before there executed. Just know that we’ve had eyes on you for a while now, so if you lie about anything or if I think you’re jerking me around...we’ll let’s just say your story will be cut short.” I nodded. I leaned up against the car, reached in my pocket to get a cigarette. I lit it and enabled. “Um, where do I start?” A couple of months ago I was living a lavish lifestyle. I had my own plumbing company, I didn’t even need to do any physical work. I was in charge of the funds needed to do repairs as well as paying my employees. Pretty much I just sat in my office making phone calls, and inputting numbers and information into my computer. Occasionally I’d go out and assess a situation at someone’s house, but that was only every blue moon. Everything was running smoothly in my life until seven weeks ago. I awoke that morning with a smile on my face. Today’s the day, my plumbing company was well-known around the city of Detroit. Money was coming in and I couldn’t have been happier. While things were running at a nice and steady pace things were about to change. We’d received a call from a celebrity who had a major plumbing problem all throughout their mega mansion. We were going to get a lot of money from this job, which is great in its own right but I was looking more forward to the publicity. This was the day where we were going to be solidified in the plumbing world. Everyone was going to know our name and I just knew our business was going to go to another level. I hopped out of the bed with a smile on my face. I had one missed call on my phone. It was from the my lead plumber John. He also sent a text message. “Hey Bill, we’re on our way to the big house now. See you at 9 o clock.” I replied with a thumbs up emoji. It was time to hop in the shower and head to St. Clair Shores. As I entered the city of St. Clair Shores, Michigan I couldn’t help but notice the beauty of it all. A few streets over was Detroit, dirty, abounded houses, high crime rates. A few blocks east was St. Clair Shores, clean, peaceful, with gorgeous mansions that sat right across the street of a lake. “Wow, one day I’m going to own one of these places.” I said as I tried my best to focus on the road despite these beautiful distractions around me. Everything seemed clean and perfect here. I really felt out-of-place in my dirty old pick up truck. If this wasn’t business related I would’ve cruised these streets in my second vehicle; a big black Escalade I leased a few months ago. While I didn’t have the money to live out here, I could definitely put on a façade. I pulled up to the house’s gate enormous gate. There was an intercom with a button on it, so I pressed it. “Alan resident, how may I help you?” A female's voice asked. “This is Bill Shaw. I’m here for the plumbing work for Mr. Walt Alan’s residence.” There was a buzz sound and the gates opened up. Walt Alan was the one of the biggest actors of the last decade. He starred in many movies that made hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. It just so happened that he has a soft spot in his heart for Michigan. While he has a few houses around the country he wanted one in his home state that he could come to in between filming. He paid a company to build his house from the ground up. From my understanding he moved all his furniture inside and was set to spend his first night in his new home but then he had a plumbing nightmare. His water stopped working. You know how people with money are; especially celebrities. If you’ve got the money you might as well pay for the best quality service you can. So it was a no brainer to pick us for this massive plumbing repair. I pulled into the elongated driveway and was blown away with the sight of a massive water fountain. Though no water was pumping through it, it was still a sight to behold. Then over by his multi car garage I saw a green Ferrari. I loved foreign cars so I had to resist my urge to run over to the Ferrari. Feeling myself get overly excited I had to snap myself back to reality. “Get it together Billy, business and professionalism always comes first.” I whispered to myself. As I walked up the steps the door opened up. Walt Alan emerged from the door way. “Welcome to my house, thank you for coming. Dude I got so many issues with this plumbing. I know it’s going to cost a lot of money, but I need this repaired at all costs.” I nodded and shook his hand. “We’re happy to have you as a customer. Have my guys gave you an estimate yet?” I asked. “No not yet, they're in the basement right now. I can take you to the basement if you’d like.” I nodded and proceeded to follow him to the basement. After walking what seemed like miles we finally made it to the basement door. I could hear talking from the other side, my men hard at work. “They’re down there, if you guys need anything I’ll be in the kitchen.” He said as he turned to walk away. “Your house is so big, I might get lost trying to find the kitchen.” I joked. “Just follow the smell of oven cooked pizza, you can’t miss it.” He replied with a smirk. I watched him walk away and turn the corner. I had to compose myself. I’ve met a few celebrities in my lifetime, but never have I been in a celebrity’s house. How many people can say that they did business with a celebrity who’s worth millions and even checked out how they were living. It didn’t help that I was a big fan of his. It all felt surreal. Neglecting my urge to scream like a fan girl at a boy band concert, I proceeded to walk down the stairs and check on my crew. When I emerged from the basement I had the calculations in my phone of how much this job would cost Walt. There I saw him in his living room enjoying a big slice of pizza. I walked over to him. “May I sit down?” I asked. He nodded and I sat opposite of him, I handed him my phone with total cost of repairs on the screen. “No problem, how long until it’ll be done?” He asked with a mouth full of food. I sighed. “Honestly I can’t say, either it should be done by the end of the day today or worst come to worst tomorrow for sure. You don’t have a big problem here, it’s more of many small problems with your plumbing. However rest assured we will get it handled in the most timely and meticulous manner. My team is hard at work right now. You have my number. I need to go handle some other business, but you can reach me anytime. My team will keep me updated on there progress. By the way I have to say that painting you have downstairs is beautiful.” He sat his slice of pizza down. “Thanks dude, I got it from an auction last year, it cost me 200,000 dollars. Might be a bit much but you can’t take the money with you. It’s my first piece. They say art appreciates over time, so I look at it like less of a flex and more of an investment.” I nodded in agreement, then he continued. “You know, there were plenty other companies that I could’ve called, but I was referred to you guys through a few different people. They speak highly of you guys, like you’re the plumbing Gods or something. I recognize that I’m a celebrity and people listen to what I have to say. If everything goes well, I’ll definitely give your company a shout out. I believe in helping smaller businesses grow. Especially when they come from my hometown of Detroit.” I smiled and nodded again in agreement, but what I really wanted to do was run over to him and give him a big hug. “It’s an honor to work on your mansion. Rest assured, your home is in good hands.” With that he shook my hand and thanked me. I proceeded to the front door. I had a few other plumbing jobs going on that I needed to check into, but before I got into that I needed to get me a quick bite to eat. I pulled up to a burger joint. Actually I had no intention of stopping here to eat, but the aroma of the burgers on the grill lured me in. I pulled into a parking spot right by the door and turned off my truck. Thinking about all the attention the Walt job would get us, when someone walked by my window and interrupted my train of thought. It was a woman. She had beautiful long hair, and a walk that screamed of sexiness and confidence. I could smell her sweet perfume as she walked by. As luck would have it she walked right into the burger joint. I sprang out of my truck and hurried in after her. The place wasn’t too crowded so she was easy to spot. There she sat at the counter looking at her cell phone. I walked up to her. “Excuse me miss, mind if I sit down here?” I said pointing towards the bar-stool next to her. “I suppose. You’re not a weirdo or anything like that are you?” She asked. “No, I’d like to think of myself as the perfect balance of weirdness and gentlemanness.” I said with a grin. She laughed. “Is gentlemanness even a word?” I shrugged my shoulders then sat down. “Wow, you have a pretty smile, my names Bill by the way, Bill Shaw.” I said reaching out my hand for a handshake. “Candy.” She replied. “Candy? So is that your real name or nickname.” I asked. She smiled a devilish grin. “It’s the name I give to weird gentleman who want to talk to me.” She exclaimed through a laugh. We enjoyed our meal together and actually hit it off. What was supposed to be a 30 minute stop at a restaurant turned into an almost 2 hour conversation. I looked at my wrist watch. “Wow can you believe we’ve been talking for almost 2 hours. You know as much fun as I’m having talking to you, I have to get back to work. Do you think we can continue this conversation at a later time.” I asked. “Bill, is that your way of asking me for my phone number?” I paused when she asked me that. She was quick-witted and I wanted to say something to match her wit, but I couldn’t think of a worthy reply. “Yes I am asking you for your number? Can I call you sometime? Maybe we can go get another burger, I know of another spot on the other side of town. You’d love it.” I said. She smiled. “I’d like that.”She said as I smiled back. It was something special about this girl. She made me feel happy. The happiest I’ve felt in a long time and we hadn’t even done anything except eat hamburgers. I reached in my pocket to grab my phone. Only to find that my pocket was empty. I checked both pockets, and it wasn’t there. “Uh, hold on one second. I think I left my phone in my truck.” I said as stood up and exited the building. When I got to my car, I found my phone on the driver seat. I could see it was bleeping. I had a few missed calls. Nothing to worry about, especially since my job can get busy at times. From current jobs, to people calling to inquire about information. So I grabbed my phone and quickly went back to the restaurant. I walked up to her. “Ok I’m ready.” I said. I saved her number in my phone, and called her so that she could save my number as well. I paid for both my meal and hers. She gave me a hug and I departed the building once more. First I got to meet one of the biggest celebrities of the year, then I meet Candy. I felt like I was on top of the world. As I unlocked my car I got a phone call. When I looked at my phone I saw that it was James. James was one of my plumbers at Walt's mansion. “What does he want? The job isn’t even suppose to be finished this quick.” I said as I sat down in the truck and closed the door. I picked up the phone. “Hey James, talk to me.” I said. “Mr. Shaw, theres been an accident!” He yelled. “What! What kind of accident? Is everyone ok?” I asked. “Yeah, listen you need to come back to the mansion pronto.” He said hanging up the phone. With that I started my truck and headed right back to Walt’s mansion. On the way back over I couldn’t focus. My mind was full of questions. What kind of accident was James referring to? All kinds of scenarios were running through my mind. At this point the main thing that concerned me was the safety of my customer and my crew. I kept that same mind state as I pulled up to his gate and pushed the button on the intercom. This time the woman didn’t ask me who I was. The gate opened and I proceeded to drive up to the mansion. The way James was talking on the phone I expected to see no mansion, just debris and ashes. Sure enough, the mansion stood there in all its glory. It wasn’t until I rang the door bell that I came face to face with an irate Walt. He quickly opened the door and just stared at me with an angry look. It looks could kill, he would’ve inialated me. “Before you left you told me to rest assure that my home was in good hands!” He yelled. His words caught me off guard. I didn’t know what to say. Hell I didn’t even know what was going on. “What happened?” I asked. “Why don’t you go ask your employees! They're in the back yard right now! Ask them what they did to my basement!” I walked past him and followed a long hallway to the backyard. There on the patio stood my three-man crew conversing among each other. James stood in the middle puffing a cigarette. He looked up and saw me. A worried look came upon his face. When I saw his expression my heart dropped from my chest to my stomach. This was the job that was going to catapult us to a new level and they messed it up. James walked over to me. “Mr. Shaw, we screwed up.” He said. “What do you mean you screwed up? What happened?” I asked. He took a big puff from his cigarette and exhaled the smoke. “We were working on his pipes in the wall, and determined the route of the problem. We worked on fixing it, but before we knew it it was lunch time. So we went back to the truck to get our lunch boxes. We ate lunch and Mr. Walt went upstairs to take a nap. When we returned to the basement we saw that the pipe we were working on had started spewing water and partially flooded the basement during our lunch break. Now why there was some water damage to the floor and wall, the big issue was the painting he had downstairs. The water ruined the painting. That’s when I called you.” I stood there in disbelief. This was supposed to be the stepping stone that evaluated us to officially being the beat plumbing company in all of metro Detroit. Now it was just a dream of things that could’ve been. Of course, Walt was angry with us. I would’ve been angry with us too. He ordered us to get out of his Mansion and hired another company to fix the plumbing and water damage. The same way we were supposed to get recognition from Walt, he went on a public rampage about our company. It was highly publicized in the media when he was building his mansion. So when the media checked in on the progress of his mansion, he told the story of how my company flooded his basement and ruined his 200,000 painting. Walt has so much influence and power. He’s loved so much throughout the state of Michigan that when he told the news what we did, it severely hurt our business. Business came to a screeching holt. I even tried to lower our rates to grab more customers, but the bottom-line was that our company accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage while trying to repair his pipes...or at least that’s how he worded it. To make matters worse I got served a subpoena. He wanted to get his 200,000 back. My company didn’t have 200,000 dollars. After taking to an attorney we came to the conclusion that it was best if we settled out of court. With no income coming in I had to dig into various funds from my company and that put us out of business. Now I was back to square one with no form of income, and a bad reputation to go with it. I tried to talk to Candy about my issues over the phone, but I felt ashamed. She knew something was going on with me, but I didn’t want her to know the truth. The truth being that I was jobless, broke, and didn’t know where my financial future was headed. After a while I even stopped talking to her. Not that I wanted to cut her off or anything, but my financial issues were more important to me than the possibility of satisfying a woman. I fell into a depression and started to frequent a local bar to drown my worries. This was my pattern for a couple weeks... until the one night that changed everything. It was a Friday night and I sat on the very same bar stool I occupied on the previous days. My drink of choice was vodka. I was on my fifth shot. It helped numb the pain. I’d felt like a failure and I really didn’t know what to do. With little to no income I worried about possible eviction, as well as my Escalade being repossessed. I just couldn’t understand how things had changed so quick. I was living the American dream a couple of weeks ago, and now here I was trying to find the answers to my problems in a bottle of alcohol. “Hey!” Someone said from behind me. I turned around to see an older man smiling at me. “Aren’t you that Billy Shaw guy? The one who flooded Walt Alan’s basement?” I turned back around and drank my shot in one gulp. I motioned for the bartender to bring another shot my way. Even though I kept my headed down I could sense the entire bar looking my way, though no words were spoken I knew what they all were thinking. This wasn’t the first time someone had recognized me for that botched job. It was ironic how Walt was the celebrity, but once my crew screwed up I became famous too. The bartender walked over to me and sat another shot of vodka down in front of me. “Hey son, don’t let them get you down. This will pass just like everything else.” I looked up to see a concerned yet caring look on his face. “How is this going to pass? I loss my company, I don’t have any money, and my reputation is ruined. I don’t know how I’m going to make it to next month.” I exclaimed. The bartender put his hand on my shoulder. “Well why I do appreciate your money, if you are having financial trouble you’re not going to find a solution spending all of your remaining money on liquor. You have to get your head together and learn to roll with the punches. You’ll figure it out, things will get better.” Then he walked away to service another customer. After four more shots he cut me off from any more liquor so I just sat there listening to the chatter of other patrons. I kept my head down to avoid anymore unwanted conversations. My attempts at this were thwarted when someone sat at the bar stool next to me. I heard a voice say “Let me get a tequila and lemonade on the rocks.” I looked up to see a short, chubby man sitting next me to me. “Hey pal.” He said to me in a raspy voice. I turned towards him. “Yeah that’s me, I’m the guy who messed up Walt's basement. Go ahead with your jokes.” I said putting my head back down. “No you got it all wrong. I don’t want to ridicule you or anything. I was sitting over at the booth and I overheard your conversation earlier with the bartender. I think I can help you with your problems.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m listening.” I responded. “I know a guy who can help you out with your financial situation. He specializes in loans, and the best part is he’s not super crazy on the interest rates.” When he said that it sparked something inside of me. This could be the break I’d been waiting on. A chance at redemption. “Listen I’d love to talk business with you but I’m kind of drunk right now.” I reached in my pocket and gave him one of old business cards. “Tell your guy to call me tomorrow and we’ll talk. My numbers on the back.” I woke up the next day with the worst hangover I’d ever had. My head was hurting and I felt queasy. I decided to lay back down and try to sleep it off. My stomach didn’t agree with that plan, so I ran to the toilet to throw up. While I was puking my brains out someone called my cell phone. My phone was all the way in the bedroom on the nightstand so I waited until I finished in the bathroom. I stumbled back into the bedroom and grabbed my phone. I didn’t recognize the number so I went to lay back down. Then it hit me. “Man this might be the loan guy trying to call me.” I said as I hopped out of bed. I grabbed the phone and laid back down. I redialed the number. It rang four times, then someone picked up the phone. “Bill Shaw?” The voice asked in a sinister tone. “Yes this is him.” I responded. “Hey this is Gary the loan guy. My business partner said you wanted to discuss the possibility of a loan?” “Yeah, I tried to take out loans recently and I didn't get approved. How certain are you that you guys can get me approved? Then I need to know what the interest rate is and just exactly how much you can give me. Also how soon would it be until I’d be able to get the loan?” There was a long silence. For a second I thought that the call dropped. “Hello.” I said. “Yes, so you’re interested?” The guy asked. “Uh, you didn’t answer any of my questions.” I said. “You’re either interested or not. Tell me your answer and we can proceed with everything else from there.” He demanded. Normally that would be a red flag for me, but the way things were going for me lately I didn’t really have many options. So I agreed with him. “Yes, I’m interested.” Then he hung up the phone. I tried to call him back but he didn’t answer. I sent a text message, but received no reply. Assuming he declined me or went back on his offer, I started to feel helpless. With nowhere to turn I reach under my nightstand and grabbed my bottle of vodka. I took a couple swigs and laid back down on the bed. With no hope in sight I drifted off to the only place where my troubles were no more; dream land. I awoke a 2 hours later to the sound of an alert of a missed text message from my phone . When I unlocked my phone I saw that I actually had 2 missed unread messages. The first one was from my bank app, the second a random phone number. “Wow this is just what I need. More money being taken out of my account. I’m probably in the negative now.” I said as I clicked on the banks message. My bank app opened and I clicked on the account balance button. I damn near dropped my phone when I saw my account balance. “Your account balance is 20,000 dollars.” I couldn’t believe it. This was just what I needed. I had the money to start over. I could start a new plumbing business and work from the ground up. Plus I wouldn’t be getting my car repossessed or evicted. I checked the other message from the random number. It read “Hey I delivered the money into your account. Check your mail box outside if you have any questions.” I called the random number back to thank them but it went straight to voicemail. Then tried I calling the loan guy I had spoken to yesterday. I couldn’t even find his number in my call log. After calling my bank to verify that this transaction was legit I walked outside to check my mail box. When I opened my mailbox there was a little black notebook. I wondered how they knew my bank information or my address since the only info they had on me was from the business card I gave the guy at the bar. Something didn’t seem right, but I decided to ignore this because I really needed the money. Bill Shaw was back. I retrieved the black notebook and went back inside my house. I sat down on my couch and opened it. It read as quoted. “Congratulations on your payday. You don’t know who I am, but I know who you are. I recognize that life plays us all a bad hand sometimes. Unfortunately this happens to the bests of us more often than it should. You were in need of some financial assistance, so I helped you out. You wanted to know the fine details of this loan. The only details you need to know is that you received 20,000 today. I’ll be expecting 30,000 in return. You’ll pay that back in three weeks. Now don’t go spending that money all willy-nilly. You’re a man with a plan, I can respect this. Make your money work for you. We will be there to collect in three weeks. Again, congratulations on your money and just be smart about what you do with your money.” To pay them back 30,000 in 3 weeks seemed kind of unreasonable, but I had a plan. I’d pay my rent and car note, use about a thousand for expenses, and use the rest of the money to make more money. While I wanted to celebrate my new-found wealth with a bottle of champagne I decided it’d be better to just celebrate on a budget. I had been thinking of the girl I met at the burger joint. I still had Candy’s number saved in my phone. She had tried calling me a few times, but I just ignored her. I was going through something. Truthfully I wanted to talk to her, but I didn’t have any income and was embarrassed at what had become of my company. I didn’t know where my next dollar was going to come from. I figured I needed to figure all of this out before I talked to her again. I had to put business over pleasure. Now I didn’t know if I’d ever hear from her again, but I hoped if I did that she’d understand where I was coming from. I dialed her number and it a few times. Then she answered. “Hello.” She said. “Hey Candy this is Bill. We met at that burger joint. I know I got your number and haven’t used it, but I just want to let you know I wasn’t trying to ignore you or anything. I really liked our conversation. I’d to continue where we left off, if you’d just let me explain.” I said. “Ok I’m at work now, I can’t talk. I’ll be at the same burger spot tonight around 7. Come and we can talk there.” When Candy and I met I had my dirty plumbing clothes on. I know they say first impressions make the difference, but I was going for a second impression. I put on my sweater vest, slacks, and loafers. I really liked this girl and wanted her to like me too. I had to make up for me being so distant. I had to show her that I was interested and wasn’t into playing games. I just hope she understood things from my point of view. I hopped in my Escalade and made my way to the restaurant. When I pulled up the restaurant it was 6:45pm. I exited my vehicle, walked in, and sat in the same spot I sat in the day me and her met. I ordered a coffee and waited for her. About 20 minutes later she walked into the restaurant in a nurse uniform. I didn’t even notice her until she sat down on the bar stool beside me. “Hey.” I said with a smile. “Hey.” She responded with no emotion. “What’s going on with you? We sat here and talked for a long time. I thought we really hit it off, then you ignore my phone calls. When you did that it became clear to me that you weren’t interested in me the way I was interested in you. Then you just call me out of the blue. We’re not in a relationship so you’re not obligated to call or check in on me, but I’d just like to know what’s going on. What are you intentions?” She was right, I should’ve let her know something. I sat there for a second trying to gather the right words to tell her. “Candy, when we first me I was blown away at your beauty and even more blown away by how much we clicked when we talked. I wanted to get to know you even more. When we exchanged numbers I was so happy. See, I was raised by my father. From a very young age he instilled in me that a man is supposed to be a provider. The day we met things went downhill for me, and I found myself in a bad financial slump. I kept thinking to myself that she wouldn’t want a guy who has no job, or no money in his pocket. I mean look at you, beautiful, great personality, and you’re a nurse. You have all these great things going for you and here I am. Just a regular guy who was on the verge of losing everything. I kind of felt like you deserved better. However things are different now, things are looking up for me again, I wanted to apologize and see if we could start this whole thing over.” I pleaded. “How did we meet?” She asked “Uh, what do you mean? We met here, you walked in and I walked right up to you and we started talking.” I said. “Exactly, we met from you initiating a conversation. See communication is key in any kind of relationship. No matter if we were friends, an item, or even enemies. If you express to me, how you’re feeling, I can express to you how I’m feeling and we deal with how we’re feeling from there. If you had answered the phone and told me what was going on with you, do you know what I would’ve told you? I would’ve told you that I really didn’t care that you had no money. I would’ve told you that I enjoyed our conversation so much that I just wanted to spend some more time with you. Now I’m concerned, see if we do start over who’s to say that things won’t go well and then you just stop talking to me again. You’re not obligated to talk to me, this is true, but I don’t want to have my time wasted.” She said. I took her by the hand. “I understand that now. I got a little nervous and acted immaturely. I mean at the very least I could’ve told you that I was dealing with some things. I’m sorry about that, if we could start over I’d like to right my wrongs. It won’t happen again, I promise.” With that she gave me a hug and all was forgiven. “I already knew what you were going through and I didn’t care that you didn’t have any money. Walt Alan was on television bashing your company, I figured that would’ve did some damage to your business. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. I called out of concern. ” She said. I smiled. “Well, while Walt's comments did hurt my business, something amazing happened earlier today. See last night I was at a bar and a guy told me about a loan company. Long story short I was a little drunk and didn’t want to get into particulars at that time, so I gave him my business card. I got the loan today. I’m back. I might not be as big as I was, but I can pay all my bills and start my way back to what I once was.” I said. “That’s wonderful, so you were moping around for nothing. Things ending up working out for you.” She said. I nodded. “Yes it did, listen I want to celebrate. How about we leave here and go to the burger joint on the other side of town I was telling you about. They serve liquor there too. All shots on are on me. Are you down?” I asked. “Let’s do it.” She replied. We went over to the other restaurant, ate, drank, and danced the night away. This night was magical. She felt so good in my arms, like the missing piece of a puzzle. It’s like she belonged there. At 2 in the morning the bar closed and she invited me back to her place. The next morning I woke up to her snuggled up in my arms. I kissed her on her forehead and she woke up with a smile. “Goodmorning.” I said with a smile. “Goodmorning. I had so much fun last night. I have slept a little longer than I should’ve, I have to ready to go to work now. So unfortunately that means you have to leave, but maybe we can do this again next weekend.” She said. “Yeah, I’d like that.” I responded. “So what are you going to get into today?” She asked. “Well now that the celebration is over, I’m going to get down to business. Time to use the money I got and make more money. I’m back in business.” I replied. The next couple of weeks were wonderful. I spent the day doing plumbing work, and spent my nights with Candy. Now I had money coming in and a partner who understood me on so many levels. Things had definitely turned around for me. It started off kind of slow, because I couldn’t use the same name for my plumbing services. Once I changed the name business started to roll in and I found myself with 35,000 dollars. That’s five-thousand more than I needed to pay back to the loan guys. To celebrate this Candy and I planned to go out on Saturday and spend the day together. As avid fans of burgers we made it our mission to visit as many restaurants as possible and drink as many drinks as possible along the way. The day before our outing a received a text message from that same random phone number. “I hope you used what we gave you to enhance your quality of life. Like I said use the money you have to make more money. If you did indeed do this then I am happy for you. If you didn’t then things will be handled when the time comes. We will be here to collect the 30,000 dollars on Sunday. Although we sent you the money directly to your account, we want to get our money back in cash. We look forward to collecting on our investment.” After making a run to the bank I was able to get them to give me 30,000 dollars cash. At first they weren’t going to let me do it, but it just so happened that Candy knew someone who worked in the bank and they pulled a few strings for me. Even though things were going great between Candy and I didn’t want to know just how much I was withdrawing from my account. I didn’t know her long enough to trust her with that information. The only people who needed to know anything about that money was me, the bank, and the loan guy. Once I got the money I took it home and put it in a duffel bag. I hid the duffel bag in my closet under a heap of clothes on the floor. With everything set in place I was ready for the events of the weekend...or so I thought. Saturday Candy met me at my house. She rang my door bell. When I opened it she stood there in a skin-tight t-shirt, and a short mini skirt with leggings underneath. “Wow, you are beautiful.” I exclaimed. “Thank you. You’re looking pretty good yourself.” She replied. I had on a polo shirt and blue jeans. I would’ve preferred to dress up for this date of ours, but we were going to go to the mall. If we were going to do a lot of walking I’d prefer to walk in gym shoes than dress shoes or loafers. We departed my house, hopped into my Escalade, and listened to oldies the whole way to the mall. Everything seemed right. Like the universe had been shifted into my favor. I had money in my pocket, money coming in through plumbing, and a beautiful woman by my side. The best part of it was that I was doing all the handy work, before I had employees and I’d pay them. Now I only had to pay myself. I made less money, but I had way more time, and way less responsibility. I’d found the perfect balance. I opened up my sun roof, rolled the windows down and felt the breeze. For the first time in a long time, I actually felt like I was living. When we arrived at the mall we were both hungry. We decided against burgers since it seemed like that’s all we had eaten since we met. We decided to eat tacos. Afterwards we walked around the mall to burn off some calories. Now I only had 5000 dollars to my name. I didn’t want to blow it all at the mall, though I was tempted. I’d been working hard the past couple of weeks and I wanted to reward myself. It didn’t help that the mall had a few designer outlets in them. I resisted the urge but I did find a few good deals that I couldn’t pass on. After shopping for a couple of hours, we decided to go see a movie. The only thing playing at this time was a horror flick about a man who came back from the dead to torment his killers. It seemed like a cliché horror movie concept, but Candy really wanted to see the movie. I couldn’t say no to her especially when she looked at me with those eyes. She spent the majority of the movie cuddling my arm. I could see she was scared so I put my arm around her and drew her in closer. She rested her head on my chest then she lifted her head and kissed me. The day was full of activities. After the movie we went bowling. Even though I lost we had a fun time. Then we decided to get another bite to eat at a Chinese buffet. After we stuffed our faces full of sesame chicken we decided it was time to call it a night. We went back to my house and when it was time for her to leave I opened the door for her. She started to walk out the door, then turned around a kissed me. We kissed for what seemed like a couple of minutes until I closed the door and we made our way back to my bedroom. It was the perfect ending for a perfect day. The next morning I woke up expecting her to be laying next to me. To my surprise she wasn’t in the room. I got up from the bed. “Baby!” I yelled out. I got no reply. I checked the bathroom. She wasn’t in there. I checked the dining room, living room, and the kitchen. There was no sign of her. I decided to check my phone. Maybe she had to leave, maybe she texted me or something. My phone did have a missed message on it, but upon checking it, I saw that it was from the loan guy. Be there in an hour. I saw that he sent that message 30 minutes ago. “Cool, he’ll be here in about a half hour.” I said. Once I settle this debt, everything will be the way it should be. I went back into my room and went to my closet. I dug through my clothes heap to retrieve my duffel bag. It wasn’t there. “What they hell! What happened to my money? Did she, no, she took my money!” I yelled. I called her phone but it was disconnected. I rushed to put my clothes on. I can go over to her house and be back before the loan guy comes. I ran out of the house and to my Escalade. As I opened the door to my truck I heard a car door slam in the distance. When I looked up I saw an older model boxed car in the distance and saw the chubby guy I met at the bar walking towards me. I paused as he called my name. “Bill! Where are you going?” He yelled. I turned around as he walked up to me. “Listen, I know you guys said you’d come get the money today, and I had it but it was stolen from me. I’m about to go get it back. If you could wait here for about 20 minutes, I’ll be right back.” I said. I opened my trucks door and he reached over and slammed it. “Bill, Bill, Bill. My boss believed in you. If you don’t have the money he’s not going to like that.” He said in a disappointed tone. “I have, or had the money. I know who stole it, so I’m about to go get it now. Tell your boss I’ll have his money ASAP.” I pleaded. “I have to let him know that you don’t have his money, but I can’t let you leave. Not until he tells me what the next plan of action is now that you’re delinquent.” He said. “Look I promise I’ll be right back.” I said as I opened my car door. He slammed it again. “What the hell is your problem?” I asked. “You’re the one with the problem. Now come with me.” He demanded. “Dude I don’t even know you, I’m not coming with you. You guys give me this money when I didn’t even tell you my bank account information, you dropped off that black note-book when I didn’t even give you my address. I’m pretty sure that you know I’m not going to just run away from you. Even if I did, it seemed like you guys already know everything about me. Just let me go and I’ll be back with the money.” I said. He opened up his jacket to show a pistol. “No you’re not going anywhere. You’re going to stay right here until I call my boss!” He yelled. He reached in his pocket and grabbed his cell phone. He dialed a number and put it up to his ear. “Hey, yeah he doesn’t have it.” The guy said. I interrupted. “No I did have it. Somebody stole it, I’m about to-“ “Shut up!” He yelled. “Yep, no problem. We’ll be waiting here when you get here.” He said, hanging up the phone.“ “What did he say?” I asked. He withdrew his pistol and hit me with it on my jaw. I stumbled. “Ow, what the hell man.” I yelled. He put his gun above his head as if he was attempting to come down and hit me again. I lunged forward and tackled him to the ground. Then I hopped up quickly and punched him in the head knocking him out. I hurried into my truck and pulled out of my drive way. As I drove over to Candy’s house I looked into my rear view mirror. My jaw was swollen and he busted my lower lip. I could feel the pain pulsating on my face. I tried to call Candy again, but had the same result.when I finally made it to her house I saw that her car wasn’t in her drive way. I parked on the street and hurried to her door. I rang her door bell, and knocked as hard as I could. There was no one home. I began to wonder if she took my money and left town. “How could I have been deceived.” I said. “She really got me that comfortable that she could just take all my money and leave. How did she even know I had that money in my closet?” Then I thought back to the bank. She knew someone who worked at the bank. They must’ve told her that I withdrew 30,000 dollars. She must’ve went through all my things while I was sleep. I didn’t know what to do, I figured i couldn’t go back home now. Especially after I knocked out that guy. Plus, his boss was looking for me. If they knew my account information and address without me telling them, it’s no telling what else they knew about me. So I decided to do what anybody else what do in this situation. I decided to make a police report. As I drove to the police station I could’ve swore there was a car following me. I made a right turn, and so did they. I made a left and sure enough they made a left too. I made neither right turn and the car continued going straight. I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw this. “Maybe I’m just paranoid.” I said to myself. Deep down I was terrified, I didn’t know what these people knew or were capable of. My fear came from not knowing what to expect. I figured if anyone could help me it could be the police. I pulled up to the police station and got out of the truck checking my surroundings. I should’ve felt safe outside of the station, but I didn’t. I hurried inside and walked up to the front desk. A bald, chubby man sat there looking at a newspaper. He sat the paper down. “Detroit police department. How may I help you?” He asked. “I was robbed of 30,000 dollars, and some thugs are after me. Is there a detective or anybody I can speak to?” I asked. Seeming to ignore what I just said he reached under the desk and grabbed a small stack of papers and a clipboard. “Here, fill this out and bring it back to me when you’re finished.” He said picking up his newspaper again. After I filled it out I walked back up to the desk and handed it to him. He told me to sit down and wait. I waited for a full hour before someone came from the back of the station to see me. The door opened up and a guy in a dress shirt and slacks walked over to me. “Mr. Shaw. Come with me.” He said. I followed him into the back of the station. We sat down at a table in his offices. “I’m officer Irving. I’ve read your report and we put it in the system, but why don’t you tell me exactly what happened and hopefully we can get to the bottom of this. Use the most detail as possible, the smallest thing may help us solve this.” I told him everything that happened to me. Afterwords he just sat there sipping his coffee. He looked at me with a stern expression on his face. “So let me get this straight. You met a girl named Candy, no last name, just Candy. A guy named Gary offers you a loan over the phone, you accept and he sends you 20,000 dollars to your bank account with the intention that you pay him back 30,000 dollars. So this Candy girl, steals the 30,000 dollars and just disappears. The chubby man you met at the bar who you gave your phone number to comes to your residence to collect. You don’t have the money so he physically assaults you. Now you believe that him and this boss guy are coming for you?” He asked. I nodded. “Yes, that’s it.” “If you want our help there’s certain things we need from you. You’re not able to give us the full names of these guys or even the last name of this Candy girl. Not to say that we need them but it would make things easier if you did.” He said. “Well.” I started “I do have text messages from these loan guys as well as my bank record. I pulled out my phone and went into my text messages. They weren’t there. “What the hell?” I said as I went to my bank app, my bank transaction records were deleted too. All that was on my phone were the messages and phone records from Candy and I. “Everything’s gone, it was just here. I don’t know what happened.” I exclaimed. “Wait the day I got the money they told me to check my mail box. When I did check it there was a little black note-book. Inside the note-book was a letter from the loan guys telling me when they’d come pick up the money I owed them. But the notebook is back at my house. I’m not going back there by myself.” I said. He took one last big swig of his coffee. “Listen, if you can find this notebook it’ll be a pivotal piece of evidence, or at least a start for us. Let’s ride, I’ll follow you in a marked car.” When we arrived at my house everything seemed normal. There was no one waiting for me or anything. I’d thought about so many scenarios about what would happen when I finally went back home. So far, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I expected to come home to find my place ransacked, or set on fire. You can imagine my relief when I saw that everything was in tact. Officer Irving followed me to my door step. That’s when I noticed my door was ajar. He pulled out his gun and pushed pass me. I followed behind him. After he inspected the house I looked around. Everything seemed to be in place. Now I just had to find that black notebook. The notebook had the loan guys handwriting on it, and worst come to worse i was sure it had his DNA on it. I searched all around the apartment for it before I remembered that I had sat the notebook inside my top dresser drawer. I walked up to my dresser drawer and opened it to find that the notebook was missing. “No, they took the notebook.” I told the officer. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” I exclaimed. “I’ll add this to your report, we can send a car by here every so often to do a welfare check. In the meantime I suggest you go over a friends or family’s house or something. Any place but here, just keep a low profile and we’ll work on catching these guys.” He said. With that I went under my mattress to retrieve my revolver, grabbed a few pairs of clothes and left. Sure I had family and a couple of close friends that would’ve let me stay for a few nights. However, since I didn’t know what these guys were capable of I figured the safest bet would be to get a hotel. The saying is their that there is power in numbers, but there even more power in avoiding numbers especially when you don’t know what to expect from an enemy. If they knew my address and bank account, who’s to say they wouldn’t know where my relatives were. I wouldn’t want to risk put my loved ones in danger. Even if they saw my truck parked outside a hotel, they wouldn’t know what room I was in until I emerged from the building. I checked in at a hotel 40 miles away. I wanted to keep driving, but it was getting late and I was exhausted from the events of today. The hotel put me in room 144. I would’ve preferred a room upstairs, but all they had available was this room on the first floor so I had to take what I could get. Had I inquired about a room earlier in the day I probably could’ve gotten a room upstairs, but how could I have guessed that all this was going to happen. I just had to make the best of this situation. When I walked into my room I turned on the television. There was a Walt Allen movie on. I quickly changed the channel to the sports station. There was a basketball game on. I’m an avid fan of basketball, but for some reason I really wasn’t into it as much as I usually am. I sat there and thought about my situation. The next day I planned to leave the hotel, but where would I go? Where could I travel to insure my safety? Maybe it’d just be better if I remained at the hotel. My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on my door. I grabbed my revolver off of the nightstand. “Who is it!” I yelled out. “It’s room service.” The voice replied. I walked to the door and looked through the peephole. Sure enough it was a hotel employee. I stuck my revolver into my back pocket and opened the door. “What are you doing here?” I asked. “When you checked in, you mentioned you wanted a pepperoni pizza. Remember you paid for it when you paid for the room.” He said. I smiled. I forgot I had ordered food when I checked in. My mind was on other things. “Yeah, my bad, it’s been a long day.” I said as I took the pizza from him. “Enjoy the rest of your night sir.” He exclaimed as I closed the door. I went back to the bed and ate a couple of slices of pizza. I wanted to talk to someone, but who could I talk to? Who could help me? I had a lot of family and friends in Michigan. However, we weren’t as close as we once were. I decided to call my brother Richard, or Rich as my family called him. Now me and my brother were different in every way. We were both raised in the same house hold, however we chose different paths. We were both teenagers getting into trouble in the streets of Detroit, but I decided to turn my life around. I ended up graduating from high school then going to trade school. I worked my way up to a master plumber. Eventually I started my business and things were going good until the Walt job. My brother Rich on the other hand continued to stay in the streets. Eventually the law caught up to him and arrested him for his involvement in a car theft ring. He spent fourteen years in prison and ended up educating himself while incarcerated. When he was released from prison he called up a cell mate of his who had gotten released a couple of years before he did. He had a business down in Miami that was doing big numbers. He ended up offering my brother a job. Rich moved to Miami to escape the streets of Detroit, and though he lost touch with the family, we could see the positive changes he made in his life through social media. We were all proud of him. The strain on our relationship began back when he kept getting into trouble. Since my mother and I looked down on what he was doing he felt as if he was outcast from the family. Now after all these years later, with the passing of our mother, we had’nt spoken since his trial. However I came to conclusion that I had no idea how these loan guys thought, but In order to understand the way a criminal thinks then I need to talk to someone who is or used to be a criminal. I opened my phone and went through my contact list. I found his number and dialed it. It rang three times then someone answered. “Hello.” The voice said. “Hey, is this Richard?” I asked. “Yeah this is him, who is this?” He asked. “This is your brother, Bill.” I responded. “Hey, what’s up little bro, how have you been?” He asked. “I’ve been good, it’s been a little hard since mom died, but I’ve been doing good. Well I was doing great actually, but things happened.” I said. “Yeah I feel you. Things have been going great down here for me, but you know how life is. It’ll throw you a curve ball with the quickness. Regardless I miss you bro, I know moms not around anymore, but I’ve been thinking. We have to cherish what little we have. As far as our intermediate family, you’re all I got.” He said. “I couldn’t agree more, I’m glad we could finally talk.” I said. “I am too, when you gonna come visit your big brother?” He asked. “Maybe sooner than you think. I need some help.” I said. “Do you really want us to patch things up or did you call me just because you need help?” He asked angrily. “Rich I’ve been wanting to call you for a while now, but I was scared. It’d been so long since we’d talked and so much had changed since the last time we spoke. I didn’t know where to start. I think I was scared of the possibility that you wouldn’t forgive me for how I treated you. I just want to make things right between us. Just like you said were all we got bro. If I don’t get help, you might not have a little brother anymore. I wish I would’ve contacted you before things got all crazy. Nevertheless good times or bad times, I know mom would want us to be as close as possible. I love you big bro. ” I pleaded. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to hear that. I love you too little bro. So what kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into?” I told him my story. “So you want to see what’s your best move huh. Well can I give you my honest opinion before I tell you what you need to do?” Rich asked. “Sure, go ahead.” I said. “See I’m not a criminal anymore, but I keep my ear to the streets. Sounds like to me you’ve been hacked.” He said. “What? Hacked how?” I asked him. “You gave the guy at the bar, your business card. It had your phone number on there. All they needed to do was type in your information. And all the information they didn’t have they were able to pull from various sources. I mean you and your company were damn near famous around Detroit. It couldn’t have been that hard for them to dig up information on you. When the hackers got your information they must’ve hacked your bank account to send you 20,000 dollars. That’s the reason they wanted you to send them 30,000 dollars back. Since they gave you no real money, they would be getting 30,000 real dollars back from you. Wow this is some serious stuff bro. If I were you I’d come down here to Miami. Like I said I’m not a criminal anymore, but I got what I need down here to protect myself if you know what I mean. Come on down here, I got you bro.” He said. “Wow, you came to that conclusion just based off of my story, you didn’t even have to think about it.” I said. “Well being locked up for 14 years, you see and hear a lot. Oh by the way, since they were able to hack your phone I’d destroy it. Who knows if they aren’t tracking you to that location at this very moment. Destroy that phone and get your ass down here to Miami.” He told me his address then I wrote it down in a piece of paper. “Rich, thanks again bro. See you soon, I’m about to go check out from this hotel and then I’ll be on my way.” Then we said our goodbyes. I’m glad I had a brother who was street wise. He wanted to protect me the same way he did when we were younger. It was almost like life was coming in full circle, in its own twisted way. I hadn’t even unpacked yet so all I had to do was grab my bag. I put my revolver in my jacket pocket opened the door. I stepped out of the door and looking down the hall. There was a big muscular guy and a short skinny guy standing down the hall. They seemed as if they were looking for their room. The short skinny guy looked in my direction and pointed his finger at me. “That’s him!” He yelled. They both started running my way. I ran back into my room and locked the door. “What do I?” I said in a panic. I looked at the window. That was my only way to escape. I ran over to the window and tried to open it. It had an anti security lock. “Come on!” I yelled trying to force the window open. It wouldn’t budge. “Boom!” The door shook. They were trying to kick it in. I pulled out my gun and started hitting the window. The first hit shattered a hole in the middle of the glass. I stuck my pistols in the hole and made sure I shattered all the glass in the window pane. “Boom!” They kicked the door in and both of them ran inside. I turned around and drew my revolver. They stopped in there tracks. “What the hell do you want from me?” I demanded. “We want 30,000 dollars or your life. Whichever is less of a hassle.” The big guy said. The small guy chimed in. “Listen here kid, you’re not going to pull that trigger. You’re in debt, you gotta man up and face the consequences of your actions. You maybe can do some favors for the boss and pay it off, that is if he permits it. If you kill one of us, we’ll there’s no coming back from that. In short you don’t want to piss of the boss any more than you already have.” He said. “Yeah, we’ll let’s say I talk to your boss and he doesn’t permit it. What happens then?” I asked cocking my revolver. “You know what happens, you’re already in deep shit, I’m trying to offer you a possible way out before you do something stupid and make it so that there’s no way out.” He said. “Well despite your generous offer I’m going to have to decline. You two are going to stay right here. I’m going to climb out of this window and you guys are never gonna mess you me again.” I said turning towards the window still aiming my gun in their direction. I put one leg out of the window and the big guy charged towards me. “Bang.” I pulled the trigger. The big guy fell to the ground holding his left leg. “Dammit, he shot me!” He yelled. The smaller guy looked at me. So I pointed the gun in his direction. He stood there and watching as I put my other leg out of the window and dropped down. I ran to my Escalade, hopped in and sped off. Before I left the hotel parking lot I rolled down the window and threw out my cell phone. 24 hours later I finally arrived in Miami. I got hip to the game the loan guys were playing. Since they wanted to track my every move, they were hindered by me no longer having a phone. I figured they’d look at my debit card transactions so on my way down to Miami I made a stop to an ATM in Kentucky. I withdrew as much money as I could. That way I already had all the cash I needed already on me. I could avoid making a digital paper trail of my various cash transactions. As far as they know I left Michigan and disappeared in Kentucky. I was untraceable. Driving through Miami I felt as though I had reached the promise land. I’d never been to Miami before. Though I’d seen it on television, it was totally different being here in person. The warm weather and palm trees made for a party atmosphere. How I wish I could’ve came here on leisure time, but this trip was all about survival. It wasn’t an easy trip to make either. I would’ve made it much sooner but traveling across the country in a gas guzzler requires you to stop every so often to fill up your tank. I kept getting lost on the streets of Miami. Part of it was due to drivers fatigue, part of it was due to the fact that it was a brand new city I’d never been to before. Those two factors together are a hell of a combination for getting lost. I stopped at a gas station to fill up my tank. Luckily when I asked the clerk for directions he was able to give me exact directions to my brother’s place. A half hour later I pulled up to his residence and was surprised by the fact that stayed in a condominium on Ocean Drive. I parked the truck and made my way inside. He buzzed me in and I made my way up. I walked up to his door and before I could knock the door flung open. There stood my big brother Rich. We just stared at each other. Then he reached out and hugged me. No words were spoken. We didn’t need to say anything. I interpreted that hug as “I miss you, I’m sorry, let’s get this brotherhood back to where it should be.” He chuckled. “Either you got a gun in your pocket or you’re happy to see me.” He joked. I laughed, I had forgotten that he had such a wild sense of humor. I walked in and sat my bag down on the couch. “We have a lot of catching up to do but I’m tired bro. I need a nap after that drive.” I said as I laid down on the couch. “Nope, get up. You’re not sleeping here. You’re staying in the guest bedroom.” He said pointing down the hall way. I stood up any grabbed my bag. I walked into the guest bedroom, threw my bag on the floor and gun on the floor, and laid down on the bed. It wasn’t long until I was sleep. I woke up to a delicious aroma in the air. I walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen air. “Goodmorning sunshine.” Rich said looking over his shoulder. “Goodmorning, what are you making, it smells so good?” I asked. “I see you haven’t changed a bit, still trying to eat up all my food.” He said. “Yeah that’s what little brothers are for.” I exclaimed. I sat down at the table. “I’m making steak and eggs. I hope you like your steak well done. I was saving this steak for a special occasion but I figured what occasion could be more special than the Shaw brothers rollin’ again.” When he was finished cooking he brought two plates over to the table and sat them down. It was just like old times. It felt good to have my brother back by my side. The only thing missing was out mother. We sat in silence for a while. This surprised me since he had all the answers on the phone. I figured once I came down to Miami he’d have a plan to resolve my situation, but he seemed to be as stumped as I was. “So what’s our next move, what am I going to do now?” I asked. “I honestly don’t know, but I know you’re safe with me brother.” He said with a mouth full of steak. “Rich, these guys seem pretty big time, hacking my information, all these guys I’ve encountered have a boss. It’s no telling how many other guys he has under him. Plus I know they have money and weapons. Just how are you going to protect me from that?” I asked. “You see that picture on the wall?” He said, pointing towards to his left. I followed his finger and saw a picture of a mountain top covered in snow. “Yeah, so.” I said. “Go over there and push that picture to the side.” He said. I walked over to the picture. Grabbed it and pushed it to the side. Beneath the picture was a button. “What is this?” I asked “Just push it.” He urged. I pushed the button and heard a beep. The whole began to lift up. I hopped back being caught off guard. The wall lifted all the way up to reveal a room full of guns lining the wall. There were all kinds of guns. From small pistols to heavy-duty assault rifles, my brother had it all. He walked over next to me. “ Like I said, I got you. They follow you to Miami, it’s gonna be a trip they NEVER forget.” He said with a smile. I felt relieved, yet curious. “Bro I thought you were legit. What exactly do you do? Keep it real with me, you got a condo on Ocean Drive, a secret room full of guns. Knowing you, you probably have a corvette outside.” I said. “It’s actually a Porsche.” He said modestly. “See that further proves my point. Just keep it real with me Rich. I’m staying at your place, I just want to know if I’m going to be safe. I could just get a hotel or something.” I said. He walked back to the table and sat down. “Look, If you go get a hotel you’re going to have to use your card. If you use your card then those guys can track you. I don’t think you have much of a choice. Either you can stay here or you can try your luck out there.” “Point taken, I won’t ask any more questions. I’m just glad you’re here.” We sat there and caught up on what happened to each other over the years. “Okay look, I’ll tell you what I do, but before I do I have to say this. If you tell anybody what I’m about to say, you’re going to wish those loan guys got you first.” He said. “My lips are sealed.” I promised. “One of my cell mates was in on a murder charge. He was looking for someone to take over his business in Miami. Me and him both got real tight. Now I didn’t want to take over his business, he sold drugs and I was trying to go legit. He got out a couple of years before me due to someone admitting that they fabricated the story used to convict him. So anyways when I got out a couple of years later I didn’t have much. Nobody wanted to hire a felon. I was tempted to going back to stealing cars, but I wanted something more for my life. I heard about your plumbing business, but I just couldn’t bring myself to call you up. You were doing so well, and I felt like I was a burden. I was a burden on you and Mom. I knew she was sick, but I felt like I contributed to her death. She died while I was locked up man. I know we can’t control these things, but at the very least I would’ve liked to be by her side when she passed. So yeah, I made a phone call and he gave me a bus ticket it Miami. I came down here and he told me that he wasn’t into drugs anymore. He was a gun dealer. He gets the guns from the docks, I sell them. It’s less risky because he knows people. He’s cool with a few crooked cops and politicians. He has them on his payroll. So we do what we do and stay under he radar. It’s not right but it sure beats stealing cars back in Detroit.” I didn't know what to say so I just nodded in approval. I looked around his condo and took it in for the first time. He had the biggest television I’d ever seen, a pool table, even a jacuzzi in the living room. I guess I hadn’t notice all of this when I walked in because of how tired I was. “While I don’t agree with what you do, I’m happy to see that you’ve become successful. You’re living the dream big bro.” “Thanks man, it means a lot to hear you say that and you know what’s mines is yours. Now I work from 9 to 5 just like any regular person. So you’ll be here alone a lot. I suggest you lay low and don’t go outside. Also I got some clippers in the bathroom, shave your head.” He said. “Why do I have to shave my head?” I asked defensively. “Because these guys know what you look like. You’re going to want to change your appearance.” He replied. As much as I loved my hair and beard he was right. I was going to keep a low profile and stay in the house. However, if one of them did happen to be in my presence I’d prefer to not look like the guy that they were looking for. Then I got an idea. “Wait you have all this money, can’t I just borrow 30,000 from you and pay them off?” I asked. “I suppose you could, I could give you the money to give to them, but you don’t know the temperature of things. You didn’t have their money, and then went on the run. They’ve been chasing you, and when they finally catch up to you, you shoot one of them. Now picture yourself in their shoes. If all that happened to you then they finally decide to give you the money that they promised they’d give you in the first place would you just be cool about it?” He asked. “Damn, I guess not.” I said. There had to be some way to get out of this. I just needed to strategize and plan everything out. “Well since you’re ok, and fully protected I have to go get to work. You don’t go too far now.” He teased. “Yeah, I won’t. I guess I’ll just chill here.” I said. As my brother left out the door I looked around the apartment to figure out what I was going to do with my day. Eventually I ended up watching television for a few hours. That became boring. I decided to go back into his gun-room. When the door lifted I was again greeted by all the guns on the walls. I inspected them closely. Some had extended clips, others had scopes and silencers. I was really intrigued by the Uzi on the right wall. I had never seen one in person. When I picked it up I was surprised at its weight. I put it back up on the wall and looked to my right. There was a sniper rifle with a scope and silencer. I’ve used this gun plenty of times in video games but I never saw one in person. I wanted to pick it up but I became intimated by its size and many contraptions on it. That’s when I noticed a small box in the room. Curiousity got the better of me, I opened it up saw that it was filled with hand grenades. “Damn, I’m never going to get into a fight with my brother again.” I said. Around 6:00pm my brother came back home and he found me asleep on the couch. He walked in and went straight to his bedroom. I woke up about an hour later to the sound of moaning. “What’s he doing in there, is he watching an adult movie?” I asked myself. I walked up to his door. I knocked on it. “Hey Rich, what you doing in there?” I yelled. “Nuttin!” He replied. At that I retreated to the guest room and laid down in the bed. I slept for the entire night away. I woke up in the morning surprised that I slept the entire night. I had slept for the majority of the evening so I figured I’d be up all night. I guess I was more tired than I thought. I woke up and went to the bathroom. I turned on the shower. “Hey Billy, I’m about to go to work!” Rich yelled. “Alright, I’ll see you later bro!” I yelled back. I took a shower, then went to kitchen to see what Rich had in his fridge. I heard a phone ringing in the distance. “It’s 2021. He still has a house phone.” I said contemplating answering it but decided not to. Eventually it stopped ringing. I went back to looking in his fridge. Then the phone started ringing again. I wanted to keep a low profile, but this was my brother's house. What if it was someone important? He did work in a dangerous business. I’d hate for something to happen to him because I didn’t answer the phone. Before I could grab the phone it stopped ringing again. “Okay.” I said. I began walking back to the kitchen when the phone started ringing again. I decided to go over and answer it. If anyone asked me who I was I could make up something, like this is his cousin Steve. I grabbed the phone. “Hello.” I said. “Gotcha!” The voice on the other end yelled. Then they hung up the phone. I put the phone down and ran to the guest room. I dumped all my clothes out of my bag, grabbed my revolver, then ran to Rich’s gun-room. I grabbed the Uzi, a 9mm handgun, and two hand grenades. I stuffed them into my bag and left out of the condo. I didn’t want to take my truck because I figured they’d be looking for an Escalade. I ended up walking around Miami with my hand in my pocket. My finger resting on the trigger of the revolver. I walked around Miami for a few hours. I didn’t know where I was heading. I didn’t have a phone to look up tourist attractions. I did stop to get a bite to eat at a hot dog stand, then I went to a gift shop and bought a Hawaiian shirt. I wanted to blend in as much as possible. At the end of the day I found myself sitting on the beach watching the water go back and worth against the sand on the beach. The sun sat on the skyline. It looked like a post card, so beautiful and peaceful. As I thought deeply about where I could go for safety, I had a terrifying thought. I didn’t have a phone so I couldn’t let my brother know about the call I received on his house phone. He could’ve walked right in the house and be confronted by the loan people. I jumped up and ran straight towards his condo. When I arrived I was buzzed in and used the stairs to run straight up to his floor. As I ran down his hall way I reached in my bag and grabbed the Uzi. I put it behind my back and knocked on his door. No one answered so I grabbed the door knob, it turned and then the door opened. It wasn’t locked. My brother should’ve been at home, something wasn’t right. I grabbed the revolver so now I had a gun in each hand. I went into the apartment to inspect it. There was no one in the living room or kitchen. I checked the kitchen, bathroom and both bedrooms. Nobody was here. I put the Uzi back into the bag but kept the revolver in my other hand. Then I saw that the house phone had a light blinking on it. Someone had left a message. I clicked on the message button and was met by a robotic voice. “You have two unread messages. First message.” There was a pause. “This is Brian, your car warranty has expired, we’re here to help you extend your warranty.” I deleted the message. “Message deleted. Next message.” The voice said. “Hey.” My brothers voice spoke out from the speaker. “They trying to catch me up in some bs. I got arrested, I’m at the precinct. Come get me. Pool.” He said. Then the message ended. I pressed the end button. “What does he mean by pool?” I asked myself. I ran to the jacuzzi. I ran my fingers around the pool. Nothing happened. Then I turned my attention to the pool table. I ran my fingers around the pool table. There wasn’t a secret button or anything. “What doe she want me to do?” I said. I bent down and looked under the pool table. There was something taped under the table. I went to the kitchen and got a knife. I cut it down. A bunch of money fell to the ground It was a bunch of cash. I emptied out my bag. I put the Uzi and 9mm back into the gun-room then I rushed to the pool table. I scooped up as much cash that fit into my bag as possible, zipped it up, and rushed out the door. On my way to the police station I got the impression that I was being followed. I was having déjà vu. A black sports car was behind me for a while. I made a right turn and they made a right turn too. I made a left and they kept on going. I pulled up to the police station and I went up to the desk. “I’m here to pay the bail of Richard Shaw.” I told the man at the desk. “One second.” He replied as he typed something into the computer. “Richards Shaws bail is set at 90,000 dollars.” He said. “Hold on, so I have to pay 90,000 dollars to get him out?”I asked “No when bail is set you only have to pay 10 percent.” I sighed. “Okay, I got that right here.” I paid the police and my brother and I walked free from the police station. We got into my truck. “What happened?” I asked. “Man, I usually only deal with people I know. Some new guy asked for a vest. That’s it, a bullet proof vest. I went to give him the vest, he handed me the money. Then then police came busting in and arrested me. I’m not worried though, if they happen to bring this to trial. Well like I said before we got dirty cops and politicians on the payroll. It’s not like they caught me with guns or drugs. Neither of which I’d sell to a newcomer any ways.” He said. “I’m just glad you’re safe.” I replied. We came back to the condominium and sat on the couch. “By the way I think those loan guys are on to me.” I said. “What? Why do you say that?” Rich asked. “I was in the apartment and someone kept calling. I tried to ignore it, but then I thought what if it was your or one of your business partners. I didn’t want anything to happen to you so I picked up. I said hello and the guy on the other end said gotcha and hung up the phone.” I told him. “Then what happened.” He asked. “Well I emptied out my bag, filled up on guns and left out. I figured they’d knew where I was so I better leave. When I came back the door was open so I searched the apartment, but no one was there” I said. “Wow you’re not as dumb as you look.” He joked. I laughed. “I’m just glad you’re okay bro.” I said. “Likewise.” he replied. “But on the real, I don’t know if the people who kicked in the door were your loan buddy’s or the police.” We talked about situation until It got late into the night. “Rich I’m about to turn in.” I said. “Okay.” He replied. He then went to his gun-room and retrieved a 12 gauge shot-gun. “Whoa, what are you going to do with that?” I asked. “I’m going to sit right here by the door and make sure that we have no uninvited guests.” He said. The next morning he opened my door. “Hey I’m going to work now.” He said. “Okay. See you.” I said still half asleep. When I woke up. It was still in the morning. I was wishing I could get my hands on a cellphone. The last few days I had no contact with the outside world, no access to social media. Just then I got a sensation in my gut. I had to urinate. I walked to the bathroom. After finishing up in there I walked back into the hallway. “Boom!” The door flew open and the big guy and small guy ran into the living room. I paused in fear. I reached for my pocket, but my revolver wasn’t there. It was on my nightstand. The big guy pointed at me. “There he is, the smaller guy pulled out a pistol and shot it. I ducked then ran into my room. I grabbed the gun and fell onto the bed. Just then they both ran into my room. I cocked it and pulled the trigger and the gun jammed. The big guy limped over to me and grabbed my legs dragging me off the bed. I kicked him in his bad knee and he fell backwards. The short guy pulled his pistol and aimed it at me. “Don’t move!” He shouted. I laid there in pure terror. I was ready to accept my fate. “Turn over.” He demanded. “Hey man.” I started. He cocked his pistol and I obeyed. “Okay.” I said. Turning over I was ready for the gun shot. Then he hit me in the back of the head with the gun. Everything went black and I woke up in the back of their car trunk. Now we were back to we’re we started from. The boss, his two goons with pistols drawn on me, and I were at the docks. “So that’s the end of your story?” The boss asked. “Yeah. That’s it.” I said. “Well you’ve been on quite the adventure. While I appreciate your story I am less than amused at your attempt to evade me.” The boss said. “Hey, kill him!” The boss demanded. “Wait!” have your money. I can give it to you if you let me.” I yelled. “So let me get this straight. After this chase you sent me on, and after shooting my guy, you want me to trust you to give me my money.” He asked. “I’m being honest I have your money, hell I can get you more than 30,000 dollars. If you need 60,000 dollars I can get you that.” I pleaded. “I don’t believe you.” He said. At this point I knew I was going to die. If I was going to die here, need to know the truth, the whole truth. “If I’m going to die then I think I deserve to know the full story, like how did you guys track me all the way to Miami?” I asked. The boss smiled. “Well since this is the last moments of your life I suppose I can tell you. My name is Giovanni Coleman, I run an agency that fulfills dreams. When people are in need I supply. I believe in people. I believe that people can achieve more than they ever could have imagine. If you need drugs, I supply them. If you need a car, I supply that. The same way that if you need money I can supply that. All that I ask is that when people receive whatever it is that their heart desires they pay me back. In your situation you wanted money. I supplied that, I just wanted to get paid back. Even if you didn’t have the 30,000 dollars and you paid me back my 20,000 I could respect that. See we were able to look up your information. We found your bank route number and address. We sent you fake money with the intention that you were going to withdraw that as well as the money you’d earned, but when we realized that my goon messed up the message and forgot to send the particulars we sent a little black notebook to your address. When you didn’t have the money, I wanted to talk. You could’ve just given me my 20,000 dollars back and we could’ve been even.” He said. “I told you, somebody stole all my money. I didn’t even have 10,000 to give back to you.” I started. The big guy shot his gun at the concrete right next to me. The bullet ricochet off the concrete and sped into the water. “Be quiet and let the boss talk! You shot me, now you want to talk your way out of this. No way, no how!” He yelled. The small guy ran over to the big guy. “Hey take it easy, wait until the boss finishes talking.” He said. The boss continued. “When you didn’t have the money, you attacked one of my guy and ran away. We tracked your phone and found you at a hotel. When we came to you there, you shot him and fled once again.” He said pointing to the big guy. “Luckily before these 2 ran into the hotel, they put a tracker on your car. So when you thought you escaped, you only prolonged your death. We tracked you you to a condominium on Ocean Drive, Miami, Florida. We sat outside the building and waited. When you didn’t come out we called the front desk and asked for Shaw’s residence. They told us the room number. Since I’m against harming people who haven’t done me wrong or present any threat to me I called the room number to make sure we’d be hitting the right room. When you eventually picked up we knew your voice. Like I said, we tracked your phone, and listened to your conversations over and over. We knew your voice, so when you said hello we knew we’d had the right place. Imagine my surprise when we picked your lock and you weren’t there. One of my other guys sat outside and monitored your brothers work schedule. We knew when you’d be there alone. So then we played the waiting game. When your brother drove off in his Porsche earlier we knew it was time to move in. It just so happened that a cop pulled over someone for speeding the very moment we were about to exit our car. The parked right in front of the building. So we got back into the car and waited. As soon as that was over my boys made there move.” He said. “One of my favorite expressions is if I tell you I have to kill you. I mean I was going to kill you regardless, but now that I’ve told you the truth, you absolutely have to die. Get down on your knees!” The boss demanded. I obliged. As I got down on me knees I looked around expecting for officer Irving or someone to come to my rescue. The big guy and small guy raised there pistols. It was then I realized that no one was coming to save me so I closed my eyes. I was ready to accept my fate. “Boom! Boom!” A shot rang out. I felt weak. This was it, I waited for the pain to kick in and for the energy to drain from my body so that I could fall over. It didn’t. I opened my eyes and saw the big guy and small guy both looking at me surprised looks on their faces. “What?” I said. What was going on. They were supposed to shoot me. Then they both fell forward. With their bodies laying on the ground I could see they both had blood pouring from there backs. They both had been shot. Giovanni the boss ran back to his sports car and opened the door. I ran over to his car as he open the door and punched him in his face. He kicked me In the stomach and I stumbled backwards. “Ah!” I yelled. He started up his car and sped away. I stood there in disbelief. “What just happened?” I said. That’s when a yellow Porsche came speeding onto the scene. The window rolled down, it was my brother. “Get in, it’s time to end this.” He said. He didn’t have to tell me twice. I hopped into the passenger seat and he sped off. We have chase but Giovanni was way ahead of us. “Damn, what kind of sports car does he have?” I asked. “Looks like a Lamborghini. But don’t worry, look in the back seat.” He responded. I looked into the back seat and there laid a M4 Carbine assault rifle. “I’m driving you shoot.” Rich said. I grabbed the M4 and rolled down the window. It was time to settle this. We sped up but still couldn’t catch up to him. “He’s going too fast!” I yelled. “Naw we got him just where we want him.” Rich said with a grin. With that he ordered me to shoot. I leaned out the window and readied the gun. I pulled the trigger and bullets flew out. Giovanni started swerving to avoid the bullets. This slowed him down to the point where we were a little closer. I sprayed the M4 again and I hit his back right tire. He started going back and worth. “He’s losing control!” My brother yelled. Then he regained control. “Lamborghini’s engine is in the back of the car. So aim for the back.” He said. I aimed for the back, but as soon as I was about to pull the trigger Giovanni aimed a Tex-9 out of the window and started shooting at us. The stream of bullets shattered our window. “Aw, not my baby, he shot my baby. Now we definitely got to kill him.” He said. When the spray of bullets stopped I leaned out the window again and aimed at the rear of his car. By the time the tire I shot off had flew off. The Lamborghini was riding on a 3 wheels and a rim. I pulled the trigger and emptied the rest of the clip in his direction. A few bullets hit the back of his car and his car slowed down. We pulled up to him. Now we were driving side by side. I leaned out the window once more and aimed the M-4 at his head. He had a look of pure fear on his face. I pulled the trigger and nothing happened. “Damn it’s empty.” I said. “That’s alright.” My brother exclaimed. Rich rammed his car but he remained in control. He rammed it again and almost crashed into an Impala, but he served to avoid the collision. “Damn he just won’t die.” I said. “What did mama used to say? What was her favorite expression.” Rich asked me. I thought about it and smiled. “Never say never.” I responded. “Yeah, Never say never.” He said reaching under his seat. He emerged with a hand grenade. He handed it to me. I looked over and Giovanni was inserting another clip into his Tec-9. I pulled the pin on the hand grenade. Giovanni put his arm out the window and my brother swerved, narrowing my missing a city bus. Giovanni screamed as his Lamborghini ran head first into the bus. “Yeah!” I yelled in victory. “Throw it out, throw it out.” My brother yelled. That’s when I realized I was still holding an active grenade. I threw it out the window and it exploded behind us. The blast narrowly missed our car but it did shatter his back window. He gradually bought the car to a stop then put it in reverse. We slowly backed up all the way to Giovanni’s car wreck. He sat there in the mangled car coughing up blood. We both exited the Porsche and walked over to him. By this time we could hear police sirens in the distance. “Come on, let’s go.” I panicked. “One second.” Rich responded. Then he pulled out a 44 magnum and shot Giovanni in the head. We both ran back to the car and sped off. “Where are we going now?” I asked as we drove away. We’re going to dispose of this car and the weapons. We drove for a couple of miles to a beach. We parked the car on the docks. “You got everything you need?” He asked. “Yeah I think so.” I said. “Cool.” He responded, then he reached into the car and put it in neutral. We watched as the car rolled forward and went into the ocean. “Let’s split up, I’ll meet you back at the condo.” He said. I started walking and eventually took my shirt off to avoid any description of one of the suspects. I made it back to the condo and met him inside. “What do we do now?” I asked. “Nothing, you have no records to show you were down here in Miami, Giovanni’s people deleted your phone records. As far as everyone else knows you were never here. You know what, just to be safe let’s get out of Florida and head back to Detroit.” He said. I agreed. We removed the tracking device from my Escalade and started to drive it back to Detroit. We sat in complete silence until we got into Tennessee. I had to ask him a question, it had been on my mind since we left Florida. “Hey, how did you know they had taken me to the docks?” I asked Rich. “Once you said those guys called the house phone back at the condo I took a couple of days off. When I told you I was heading to work, a couple of associates of mines sat outside and watched the building. There are a lot of condos in my building so when people entered and left we made sure to take note of anything that seemed out of the ordinary. When we saw a big guy and small guy come out of the building with a big package the size of a body we followed them. I waited in the distance in my car, and my associates waiting nearby with sniper rifles.” I had completely underestimated my brother. “Rich, you saved my life. I don’t think I can ever repay you.” I said. “Sure you can, I’m ready to go legit for real this time. Get me into plumbing school and let’s go into business together. It’s what mom would’ve wanted us to do.” He said. A few years later we had a company, Shaw Brother Plumbing. Giovanni’s crew were done for. Our company made so much money that eventually we tracked Candy down. She’d moved to Arizona, we decided to let her go though. If she hadn’t stole that money from me I wouldn’t have reunited with my brother. Her actions we’re actually a blessing in disguise. Now we had so much money that we bought ourselves a mansion in St. Clair shores, MI. Life was looking good, and we owed it all thanks to a conniving thief and a crazy hacker mob boss. I know what you’re thinking, this is the part of the story where I say we lived happily ever after, but we had one more loose end to tie, the loan recruiting guy I met at the bar. He had gotten word of what happened to his boss so he skipped town. He moved to California and we loss track down him for a couple of years. What he didn’t know is that we had friends out on the west coast. When they alerted us of us presence there we gassed up the Escalade and went on another road trip. I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say he’s not recruiting anyone anymore. He found himself with a gun shot wound to the back before falling into the Pacific Ocean. Now that things were back to normal my brother and I swore to put the criminal life behind us and we returned to Detroit where we made a continued on with our plumbing business. Epilogue: I awoke with pain in my back. “Ah!” I screamed. I was laying in a hospital bed. The nurse ran in into the room. “Doctor come quick, he awake and alert.” A doctor ran in and looked me over. “He’s doing good. Give him some morphine for his pain. He should be back to 100-percent in no time.” The doctor said. As the morphine kicked in I had one thought. “Bill Shaw knocked me out and then tracked me down with his brother to shoot me and just leave me in the ocean. When I recover I’m coming for them. Working for Giovanni it was strictly business but now it’s personal.”
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By Jackson Dickert 5 years ago in Criminal
Powerful Magic: Bibbity-Bobbity-Book
The royal coroner removed the blanket, and the consultant nearly lost her breakfast. She’d seen plenty of bodies in her day but never like this. All around the mangled corpse were feathers. Handfuls of feathers; some of them bloodied, but most were white and gray. The disfigurement was fuel for nightmares, and then there was the smell. An unworldly odor permeated the air all around them.
By JASON MATTHEWS5 years ago in Criminal
The Confession
“well then Alex” Vinney said as he laid a large handgun on the table beside him, “I think it’s time for your confession”. Vinney’s eyes were fixed on the young man who was sitting on the opposite couch in front of him. Alex could almost see his reflection in them. Small and beady in the center of a large, bald face. Alex looked away at the bloody-beaten face of his friend, who was sitting hunched down on a large sofa at the back of the room, caught between two large unpleasant men, barely conscious. Well then, thought Alex, a confession is what he’s gonna get. He took a deep breath and started talking.
By Nevisandeh5 years ago in Criminal
