More of Chapter 1
Jay held the brass knob in his hands and twisted it slowly. It turned turned with an easy twist. “A piece of good fortune,” he thought. Perhaps he would be able to enter without too much noise and with the element of surprise.
He listened and waited for the conversation to pick up again and then opened the door slowly. he opened the door silently and found his sister’s white Jaguar between he and the three men. He raised the barrel of the shotgun and aimed it at the two men standing over the third seated on the bench. He saw that the man being beaten was covered in blood as he moved closer to them. The three froze and looked up at him, startled. The man on the bench wore an ankle monitor issued by the court. It was Jay’s nephew Billy. Thankfully, he was still alive.
The men looked up with surprise and anger. One man quickly lowered his hand to his pant’s pocket. They were loose and might have held a gun.
“Stop moving or you’ll be sorry pal,” Jay said with emotion. The man stopped moving his hand instantly. The two men on either side of Billy stared at each other in alarm and then at Jay.
Jay saw a box of money and a large trash bag partially open and filled with marijuana buds.
“You sitting on the bench, bring the money and the dope to me and return to your seat or you”ll be sorry. Be quick about it or I will shoot you.” Jay was talking gruffly to Billy.
The man on the left side of Billy looked at Jay with a sneer. Billy stood up and brought the two packages to Jay and put them at his feet.
“Get back to the bench kid.”
Jay didn’t worry about Billy’s mental anguish. He had brought these circumstances on himself, no doubt. This was part of the priuce he would have to pay for his stupidity.
The man on the left of Billy started to speak.
You’re making a big mistake mister. You don’t want to mess with us. We’re just the tip of a very large organization that you will never be able to escape from.
“I’m not interested in escaping from it.”
The man’s hand went slowly down to his pocket again. He thought Jay might not notice. Jay shot the man in the right knee. The dark room was instantly full of light and a loud report of a rifle being fired cracked the silence. It sounded like desert thunder, but very close by. The gun wasn’t filled with buckshot. It was loaded with 12 gauge slugs. The man’s hand flew to his leg, and he instantly forgot about the gun in his pocket. Smoke floated slowly up toward the ceiling and fanned out in a wide arch from Jay’s shotgun. Everyone’s ears were ringing.
The bullet passed through the man’s knee, hit the concrete floor and then bounced through the garage door and entered the radiator of Billy’s old Toyota with a loud clang. It then passed through it and hit the engine with a loud bang.
“Two hits with one shot, sorry Billy,” Jay thought but didn’t say.
The other man made a move toward jay and jay fired again. The slug went through the man’s foot, hit the floor and shot out through the garage door and flew over the house across the street. The slug landed in the sand trap of the fifth hole of the golf course. It looked like a melted Kennedy fifty cent piece, buried in the sand. The cops would find it in the morning with a metal detector.
Jay walked over and found the gun in the man’s pocket. The man grabbed at Jay’s ankles and Jay kicked him in the stomach with his leg. The man let go and fell back gasping for air.
“You’ve made me wake the neighbors I think,” Jay said softly. Both men laid on the floor whimpering in pain as red pools grew larger. Jay picked up the man’s gun and tossed it into the box filled with money.
Jay waved for Billy to come to him once more. Billy stood up slowly with his hands in the air and approached Jay. Jay gave him four zip ties and had Billy tie up the two men to the weight bench. When Billy was done, Jay tied Billy up there as well.
“Don’t worry kid, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just taking all your money and your dope.” “It’s not mine, it’s theirs,” Billy added. “You won’t mind then. “Hell no sir,” was his quick answer.
When Jay was sure the three men were tied to his satisfaction, he left the garage through the same door he had entered through. Jay wondered if Billy might have recognized his voice but he didn’t think so.
“Too much fear and danger at hand for that to happen. Billy was surely in shock from the beating and being tied up by an armed maniac,” Jay thought.
Jay had seen it many times before. Descriptions of assailants by victims are seldom correct. Three victims will identify the same criminal three different ways. That’s part of what makes a detective’s job so difficult. Jay left the garage with his prizes and closed the door behind him.
Jay walked past the man tied to the tree and waved a little wave to him. Jay held up the box of money and the large bag of dope.
He walked to his car sitting out in the darkness and tossed the dope into the back of the car behind his seat. Jay put put the box of money on the floor next to him. He could see the silver gun sitting on top of the money under the starlight. He started the car, backed it up and made a u turn when he got over the first hill. He left unseen with the car’s lights still out. He called his sister from his car to talk with her.
“Billy is fine. The gate guard has been murdered.” “Oh my god,” his sister screamed in the darkness of her den closet. “You can call the cops but I’m sure someone already has. Call your attorney. Not your divorce attorney, but Billy’s criminal attorney, now.
He needs to be present when Billy starts talking to the cops. Have the attorney work out a deal in exchange for for info from Billy on this drug network he is involved with. He might not have to do any jail time for this event if he cooperates. He looks like a victim here to me.”
“If he talks he’ll be in danger Jay.”
“You’re both already in danger. He can live with his father if he is allowed to stay out of jail during the investigation.” “I don’t want him to live with is father.”
Jay hung up on Billy’s mother and pushed the gas pedal to the floor. The car moved forward, quickly toward the gate. Jay was soon leaving with the gate closing behind him. The pressure sensor in the pavement had opened the gate. The tires of Joe’s car chirped as Jay pushed the accelerator down and the car came to life.
He looked to his right and saw the morning sun. He looked to the left and saw cop cars arriving at high speed from the west with lights flashing and sirens blaring. The sky had just turned that beautiful shade of purple gold.
The cops turned into the driveway of the complex and stopped at the gate shack as Jay drove away. He saw them in his rear view mirror.
More to come later.
If you like this, read the first chapter of “Atlanta” or “Judgment Day” here on my website.