What Did You Think Would Happen?

My eyes are shut tight and my mind and my heart is racing, and I want to scream out of sheer terror and all I could think was...Here i am...in this aluminum deathtrap flying 30,000 feet above the ground...and we have hit some very turmultuous turbulence! People are gasping and I can hear the woman behind me praying. As if I wasn't completely terrified already, simply because I haven't flown since I was eight years old, and now a grown woman of slightly over fifty, I am not feeling so brave. Remembering as a child being so excited about flying, and now I have turned into a very large frady cat. We've only just begun our one hour flight from Sacramento back to San Diego, California. I am sitting here with two strangers and a complete death grip on the arm of my seat and of course, I asked for a wing window seat! What in the hell was I thinking!! It'll be fun they said, get a window seat so you can see the shapes on the ground they said! It will be super cool THEY SAID!! I AM NOT HAVING A GOOD TIME AT ALL!! I think I might very well die from a heart attack, before we could ever hit the ground! The lovely stewardess has checked on me at least 6 times in the past hour and every time, she reassures me this is normal. WELL TO HELL WITH THIS!! I can't believe I agreed to FLY! I could have driven from Sacramento, but nooooo! I didn't want a seven hour drive home! NEVER AGAIN, NEVER AGAIN, NEVER! I will be keeping my feet firmly planted on the ground from here on! as I am thinking all these crazy thoughts the plane begins to stop shaking and rocking around, finally smoothing into a normal, easy flight. oh, thank the lord! During that wild ride, I managed to break into an uncomfortable sweat. We are now about twenty minutes into the flight and the plane is flying perfectly, guess it was just a little turbulence. I have had my eyes closed through the entire rodeo air ride, and for some reason I can't bring myself to open them. "Miss, hello miss?" I hear as I turn my head toward the voice talking, "miss?" then I feel someone lightly touch my hand, I open my eyes and there she is again, the very sweet young stewardess letting me know "miss, we are through the worst of it now, you can relax" as she smiles at me. "oh thank god" I say back. What a job they have, calming down the frady cats like me when they must also be terrified as well, because I don't care how many times you fly or how much you trust the pilot, when that happens, it's got to be scary as hell, every single time! oh, listen to me being rediculous! they do this all the time, they have to deal with someone like me on every flight, it's thier job. As things calm, the ladies bring the cart round, and I buy two mini bottles of wine to calm my nerves, I drink the wine and now I can look out my window without fear, and the ground below looks like a giant jigsaw puzzle that hasn't been finished. Finally I see the beauty of our planet as we fly over...I close my eyes for a few minutes as the wine does what I fully intended for it to do...put my lights out for the rest of the flight.

I am awakened by the jolt and the sound of the tires screeching to slow us down as we taxi over to our loading bridge. I am patiently waiting for my turn to exit, I have my carry-on under my feet as well as my purse. I reached down to get them when I notice a small black book on the floor in front of the middle seat, the gentleman sitting next to me never spoke a word, and I never really paid much attention to him because I had my eyes closed most of the flight, either freaking out or sleeping. I pick it up, put it in my sweater pocket and decide to turn it in to a stewardess on my way out. I sat in the seat waiting to move for about fifteen minutes, so finally when my turn comes to stand up, I step out into the isle and immediately get pushed forward, I managed to reach out and almost break my fall with the seat across the isle, and as I fell to my knees, the man behind me trips over the top of me into the isle in front of me, taking me down with him. As it happens, someone in the back had tripped over another passengers luggage, so it was just like a domino effect and before you knew it, half the plane had fallen in the isle. After a few minutes of apologies and everyone helping everybody back on thier feet, I am also pulled to my feet by a very good looking man of about 6'1, dark hair and the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever witnessed in my entire life! He had a five o'clock shadow, and a slight scar on one of his dark, thick, perfect eyebrows, as he said in a deep french accent, "M'dam, please accept my apologies, I hope you are not hurt?", as he stared into my eyes, I said "no, not at all", with a girlish grin spread across my face. Once I clambered to my feet, I began my walk of shame from the plane. I got through the gate and was waiting to claim my bags when I noticed the man that fell over me standing next to me, "Do you stalk all the women you fall head over heels for" I said in a flirty tone, He turned and smiled "Wee M'dam, especially when she is as radiant as you" he responded, "but I believe my lovely wife would disagree" just as this gorgeous thin blonde woman strolls up and kisses him with such passion, I think I blushed. I smiled and nodded as he pulled his bag and they walked away. I found my suitcases and walked outside and waited. My daughter Jackie would be picking me up soon. I stood there for about 25 minutes when I decided to call her to see what the hold up was . Turns out she thought I was coming in the next day and she was called to work, so I decided to just take a cab instead of calling and waiting for someone else, I was ready to just get home. The cab driver, who is a very happy man, is whistling as he takes my bags. He then comes around and opens the back door with a big smile, I get into the backseat of the car, and looking out the front window of the car, I look down at his license and it says his name is Manuel, he asks for my destination and we are on our way. We pull up to my apartment complex and I get out, as he is putting my things on the sidewalk, I pay and tip him and he climbs into the drivers seat and drives away. I begin to wrestle my luggage, purse and carry-on into the house when I realize that he has given me, a black gym bag that I am pretty sure does not belong to me, and it's a bit on the heavy side, but I can't just leave it here, so I bring it inside wrapping the strap around the handle of my suitcase and sitting it on the top. Well, I guess I will just look inside for some sort of identification when I get settled and hopefully I'll be able to call the owner and make arrangements to meet them somewhere to return it, no biggie.

I finally make it into my house after talking to my neighbor Donny for 15 minutes because he is the nicest nieghbor we have ever had and I thoroughly enjoy chatting with him, my hubby and I are lucky, we live in a large complex but each section is an attached four plex and we have the best neighbors...oh, did I forget to mention that I was married too? I am married to a very sweet wonderful man named Bill who treats me like a queen, and I as well as he, flirt with other people all the time, because we don't care where we get our appetite, as long as we both come home for dinner. Most of the time it's people we know, and we are usually tipping a glass or two of spirits. I don't need to work either, he works for the government and makes plenty of money, so I do the cleaning and cooking. Yes, I am a regular June Cleaver most days, and proud to be! I am greeted as I come into the apartment by my wonderful Kitties, Raider who is a gorgeous short haired tuxedo, and my specail shadow, Criminal who is black as night and long and lean. They are both clambering for my attention because I have been gone for two weeks visiting my sister and my nephews and nieces. I take off my sweater to hang it on the hook by the door and there it is...the little black book! "oh crap, I forgot"! I exclaim, because I completely forgot to turn it in to the stewardess on my way out of the plane! I take it out of the pocket of my sweater and put it with the gym bag that also doesn't belong to me. I will deal with them once I get settled.

I have been slowly unpacking my bags and started some laundry,it's about one in the afternoon, and the hubby will be home in a couple of hours, so lets check this book and bag out. I pick up the book and open it to the first page, there are no names or phone numbers...but instead there is page after page of dates and right next to the date is what looks like a code in letters, then a dollar amount next to that, and I counted 13 pages just the same and the amounts of money were large amounts, some had a "p" next to them, and some had nothing. What could this be? I have no idea how to find the person that owns it! I am now trying to remember what the man sitting on the plane next to me looked like, but I didn't really look at him. I remember little things like he was wearing a suit because I remember thinking how nice it looked against his gold watch and ring before we took off. Now it's coming back to me, he was wearing a Navy ring, I would know it because my husband was in the Navy, but there must be a million of those rings in San Diego, it's a military town with the largest population of Navy men and women anywhere, good luck trying to find him! Well, lets find out what's in the bag, as I unzip it I can see that this bag is going to be sought after! Holy cow, there must be at least ten thousand dollars or more in tens, twenties, and fifties in here! Well now I am a bit freaked out about this whole book and bag situation, and am currently asking myself, how do these things happen to me? What are the odds that I would end up with two things that seem awful suspicous? Why did they need this much cash? Everyone knows all things are done mostly by wire transfer sometimes to offshore accounts, but I wouldn't know a whole heck of a lot about things like that, I have never played in this kind of an arena. The writing in that book could be anything, gambling tallies, loan sharking, money launderers, who knows! I could also be letting my thoughts run away with me, however, my gut is telling me something is amiss. I search the bag for any identification, but all I find is a hand written note that has: 1097 Birchwood Drive, $20,000 to Mr. Hocker for services rendered. Ok, who is Mr. Hocker, and what services cost twenty thousand dollars? oh my god! what if he is a hired killer or a drug lord? Somebody is going to come looking for this bag so I need to get a jump on who was in that cab before me, but I didn't get the cab number? I need to remember the cabby's name, he had darker skin, I was guessing he might be of hispanic origin, but I think the name on his license was Micheal, or maybe is was Miguel. Well lets be honest, I suck at remembering names! it could have be anything, but I remember it started with an M! I really can't remember exactly, however the cab company was "Blue Cab Co", that I do remember because all the cabs in front of the airport were sky blue, with white stripes down the sides of the whole car, and "BLUE CAB COMPANY" was in dark blue in the white stripes on both front doors. ok, now that I know that much, I can find out where the storefront is and go down to see if I recognize the driver, shouldn't be to tough right, just listen for a whistling cabby?

I hid the bag and the book so as my husband didn't see them because I didn't want him to get involved. He tends to become very panicky about things like this, as much as I love him, he is always acting like I am not smart enough to handle things on my own, so you can see why I wouldn't tell him. He would most likely tell me to turn it into the police and let them handle it, which is probably what I should do, but this is the most excitement I have had in a while so I won't be doing that. Plus, I think I can totally figure it out on my own, or maybe I will incorporate some help from my two favorite people, my bestie Sheri and her wife, who also is my adopted daughter, Melanie, or as I call her, Rose. Rose is a very smart woman, and my bestie is also a great slueth! Together we could solve this mystery, and be safe about it. Hey as long as we don't get killed trying to solve it, were good right? Bill gets home around 3:30 pm and is happy to see me, I make dinner, we play some cribbage and retire for the evening. The next morning after Bill went to work, I called my girls over and showed them the book and the bag of money, told them what I already knew about the cab company and the man on the plane, and asked them for thier input. Rose immediately tells me we should go to the cab company and find out who the driver is and ask him if he was allowed to tell us who the passenger was before me to see if we could get some information. Sheri then said we need to go to the airport, turn the book into the lost and found and let the airport find the man. We had all agreed that under no circumstance would we leave that bag at the cab company, because that money would likely go missing, that's an awful lot of temptation, trust me, I was almost tempted, but it's just not in my nature and we all agreed that we had to find the rightful owner. As we were standing out on the patio smoking cigarrettes, and quietly discussing the situation, I see from my veiw, a man about 6 feet tall with black wavy hair wearing blue jeans, a black shirt under walking toward us, looking around nervously as he approached, and as he rounded the walk his coat lifted from the bottom as if the wind caught it, and I saw a gun tucked in his belt! I was sure he hadn't seen us and I got a really bad feeling. I said to them quickly "get in the house, now, go, go, go, I'll explain in a second, just move"! We all scurried into the house and I closed the blinds as quickly as I could so he could not see in. We were peeking through the blinds as he passed my patio, then I told them about the feeling I got and seeing the gun. I wasn't sure if he was there looking for the money, or if he was there for some other reason, but I felt like he was looking for us! We stood there peeking out of the blinds like a bunch of crazy women expecting him to just start shooting at us, when he suddenly came back and stopped in front of my apartment. Sheri started to panic, and I did as well, Rose however was a cool as a cucumber and said in a whisper"stop it!, if he comes to the door I will answer it, just quit freaking out both of you, you don't even know what he wants yet, jesus johnson"! The knocker was loud as it slammed against the door, Sheri and I jumped, and Rose looked at us like we were insane, waiving her hands in a stopping motion, then putting her fingers to her lips she whispered "shhhh" with a furrowed brow, as she strolled to the door to answer it. As she opened the door a crack, there is the man, standing there looking down at her, he then says " is this the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sears"? she calmly says "yes it is, how can we help you"? he asked "are you Mrs. Sears"? "no I am not, I am her daughter, is there something I can help you with"? "maybe", he replied, "she may have come into the recent possession of a black gym type bag"? as he was saying that, both Sheri and I walked up to the door, opening it, and all three of us went outside and closed the door behind us. I told him I was Mrs. Sears and I asked him how I could help him, he told us his name was Jonathan Sikes and that he was the man who left the bag in the backseat of the cab. I told him I didn't have any such bag and I was sorry he came all that way for nothing, he thanked us and left. How did he know my name? Who could have told him? The office might have I suppose if he posed as a delivery guy, now he knows where I live, lets hope that is the last time he comes here.

After he left, Sheri and Rose asked me why I didn't give him the bag? I told them "because the bag was in the trunk, not the backseat so I don't know who or what he has to do with the money, but that bag is not his". We decided to take the bag somewhere it would be safe, so we took it to my storage, making sure we weren't being followed we took several detours, once we got there, I took it upstairs and locked it in the storage unit, we knew nobody would find it there, and I have the only key. Then we went to the airport and talked to their security to turn the book in, and I could over hear a man talking to the desk clerk in a bit of a raised tone, he sounded very desperate, asking if someone had turned in a small black book and that is was very, very important that he find it. I heard the man tell the woman behind the desk "You don't understand, that book has some very important information that I need, you have to help me find it"! I told the girls that I thought he might be the owner of the book and we should find out, but as we were approaching him, Rose happen to glance over and she saw the man, Jonathan Sikes, who tried to get the bag from me at my apartment, standing across from him and he seemed to be watching him intently. At that point we all quickly stopped and turned around so as not to be seen by Jonathan, and we walked around the corner, peeking back to see what was happening, the desk clerk must have told him nobody had turned in the book, because you could see the man walking away with a look of sheer panic on his face. Could the book and the bag be connected? Do the two men know each other? or was all of this merely coincidence? these questions raced through my mind as we watched the two men for any signs that they were aquainted.

We stood staring at the two men waiting to see if they knew each other, and low and behold, Jonathan walks up to the other man and starts conversing with him. We couldn't hear what they were talking about, but the two men seemed to either know each other, or Jonathan was telling him something that seemed to excite him, because he perked up and was nodding as Jonathan was talking to him, then they walked out of the airport together. We followed as closely as we could to see where they were going, and both of them got into a dark green sedan that was not a rental, and drove away. We ran to my car that was parked a few rows down and luckily they got stuck behind a row of cars leaving the airport, so we were able to catch up to them fairly quickly. They headed for the freeway and we followed them as close as we could without being noticed. We followed them to hotel circle, they pulled into the Hyatt Regency, parked in the unloading zone, got out of the car, grabbed their luggage, handed a ticket to the valet, and went in, and that was the last time we saw them. At least we know where they are staying now, and can continue to unravel this mystery.

We decided that we needed to try to find out if they were registered under Jonathan Sikes, or if that was a fake name, but how were we going to do that? The hotel isn't just going to give up that information to total strangers, so we had to come up with an idea on how to do that. We also need to find out who the other man is, what is his name? I feel like they are totally connected. I feel like one might be working with, or for the other, maybe they are friends? maybe they just met to do a job? I don't know, but I am sure as hell going to find out! We all put our heads together to figure out how to find out who they are without alerting them to our presence. The three of us were standing in the lobby when the elevator door opens and out comes the man looking for the little black book and he is alone! We quickly realize that this guy has never seen us, only Jonathan has, so we walk up and get in line behind him and act like we are waiting to check in. We can hear the man say "Yes, my friend and I are staying in room 417, could you please have the maid bring us some extra shampoo and pillows, thank you". He walked away, and she asked how she could help us. I told her that we had been called to "suprise" the two men in 417, she said "oh, Mr. Stiles and Mr. Hocker"? "Yes, that would be the two", I replied with a smile. She asked if she should call ahead to let them know we were coming? "No, no, don't do that it's supposed to be a surprise from the company", however is there any way we could get a key card so we could just surprise them? She said unfortunately policy would not allow that, I told her we understood, I figured it couldn't hurt to try. We went up to the 4th floor and found thier room, then went and stood round the corner away from where Mr. Hocker would be exiting the elevator, and waited for his return. We now know he is Mr. Hocker, so now I see why Sikes...or Stiles whoever he is, tried to retrieve the money, but I still don't know how he ties in, or what the whole thing is about. I decided to look thru the book one more time with the girls to see if maybe we could figure it out. I opened the book to the first page, the first line reads: 01/04/90 JDG GH WDC $44,000 (P), second line reads: 01/25/90 DA VL UK $65,000 and these go on for 13 pages, the last page and line reads: 2/23/21 FWP JS SD $20,000 this seemed to be the smallest amount in the book. Rose said "I wonder what this all means"? that was a very good question, one we would be answering soon hopefully, then we hear the elevator open and out comes Mr. Hocker with another man, as they approach the room door, Hocker says to the other man "He has no idea who you are, and you wanted to do this one right"? the other man agreed with a nod, "then just walk in and do it, don't blink, don't hesitate, just get it done quickly, trust me the sooner you get it over with the better". This statement has really peaked our interest, and we spent a good few minutes deciding what to do, should we call the police? but how do we know what that statement meant? what did he need to do? what if were wrong and this isn't murder for hire? then our cover is blown and we can't chance it! We decide to wait and see, unanimously deciding that if they kill someone THEN we will call the police. they both entered the room and we ran over to the door to see what we could hear. Mr. Hocker was telling the other man to "just do it dammit, do it now"! then we can hear what we think is Mr. Stiles say "hey, what the fuck are you doing, and who the hell are you"? then Mr. Hocker yells "DO IT NOW"! then all we heard was two pops that sounded like an air rifle or a bb gun, something big hit the floor, and then it sounded like the other man began to freak out a bit saying things like "shit, what the hell have I done"? "Why don't I feel any better"?. Mr. Hocker was convincing the other man that it was a necessity, and that he would get what he deserved soon, that it takes time for the results to sink in, but it gets easier, then he told him to get cleaned up quickly and help him "get this out of here".

We stood around the corner waiting to see what "this" is that they had to get rid of. We were under the assumption that they probably murdered Mr. Stiles and had to dump the body somewhere, but how do you get a dead man out of a hotel without someone noticing something strange? We stood around the corner for what seemed like an hour, then suddenly the door opened and out comes Mr. Hocker and the other guy with thier luggage in tow, but wait! the second man didn't bring any luggage up! holy crap, did they stuff Mr. Stiles into the suitcase? They come out, and they both pick up an end of the suitcase and begin moving toward us, Mr. Hocker is walking backwards and the other man is walking forward. As they are quite obviously struggling to carry the suitcase, we all look at each other with started faces, We quickly decide that we can't run that would look suspicious, so we started to walk toward them looking at each door number as if we were searching for our room, they walked past us, and the unknown man is smiling as he says "morning laides", we smile and say "morning" and we kept walking towards the elevator as they go around the corner to the door that has the stairway access, we take the elevator to the lobby and walk out and get into the car that we have parked in the extra parking lot to the side of the hotel and wait. As we are waiting and calming down, we see them come out with the suitcase on a trolley. As they are waiting for their car to be brought to them, Sheri asks "So, I don't know about you, but I think we should be calling the police, we know they killed that man, because they came out and he didn't. How far do we want to take this, we all know they are killers and I am pretty sure they won't hesitate to murder us too". "Well", I say, "they do not know we are onto them yet, but do we want to continue this, and what about the book and the money, I mean lets look at the book one more time and see if we can figure it out"? Rose asks for the book and I hand it to her, she then goes to the last page and says "look at the date, it's 2/23/19, what's today"? I say as I look at my fitbit, "It's february 23rd! oh shit! so he IS an assasin, but who is the other guy"? Rose then goes on to say, "the date was obviously for today, I think the JS is Jonathan Stiles, and I feel like the SD is San Diego. So we have the person, place, price, but what does FWP stand for"? We were trying different words and meanings when Sheri perked up and said "Oh my god, I remember those initials from working at the courthouse, they stand for Federal Witness for the Prosecution"! Well, now we know that the man they killed was a federal witness for the prosecution, but who was he going to testify against? Has to be someone pretty big for them to put a hit out on him.

We watch as Mr. Hocker gets into the sedan, but the other man got into a silver truck right behind him. they both drive out of the hotel valet lot and we follow as they drive out toward the mountainous range and pull off onto a dirt road that leads into an isolated wooded area, we drove past them and decided to go down the road a little and pull off behind some high shrubs that lead into the woods close enough to where they stopped. We walked as quietly as we could to where we could see them, without getting to close, and stayed hidden behind some large trees. We could barely here them, but the other man started to dig as Mr. Hocker was pulling the suitcase out of the car, then we can hear Mr. Hocker say "once we finish here, we have to find the money, and the book, Mr. Stiles revealed to me before he met his end that a woman living in the city might have the bag, or if she doesn't have it knows where it is, because he said the cab driver told him that he accidentally left it with her". We all looked at each other with terrified faces, and Rose said "We need to get the bag, put the book in it, and make sure they find them both without ever finding us"! We nodded and as we were starting to leave, Sheri fell over a branch a snapped it, it was so loud you could here Mr. Hocker ask "what was that"? then he said "Daryl, go check that out". Oh shit! here comes Daryl! I wave to the ladies to stop and get behind a tree! We can only hope and pray that he doesn't come to far! As he moves closer to us, I can feel the heat rising in my face as my heart begins to pound and I think I am going to pass out from the fear welling up inside me, I look over and I can see Sheri starting to freak out, and Rose is shaking her head vigorously as she is concentrating on her wife's current terrified condition. Rose put her hand up to her mouth to signal Sheri to be quiet when we hear Daryl say "how you ladies doing, you look familliar". "Now, where do I know you from"? as he taps his head with the gun in his hand, "that's right the hotel"! "so why are you following us"? as he waved the gun toward the place they were burying Mr. Stiles "move ladies"! We began to move toward Mr. Hocker, I don't know what I was thinking because I know I am really not capable of running due to the fact that I am older, overweight and a smoker, and the girls can't either due to various physical injuries, but in a moment of panic I screamed "RUN"!!! to Sheri and Rose, as I started to run I heard a loud bang, felt a burning pain like I have never felt before pierce me through the back and punch through my ribcage, slamming through my abdomen. I suddenly realize that I had been shot, I feel the breath being sucked from my lungs...I fall, and watch as he guns down the two bestfriends I have ever known...a tear falls as I feel the last breath drain from me....

What did you think would happen?