Suggesting Murder

by Andrew Hood

  A female voice interrupted: “Shane, can you tell us again, exactly what you were thinking when it all happened.” Shane was furious. “For god’s sake Adam, if we are going to trust each other, like you suggested, you are going to have to tell me who is listening in on our calls, especially if they want to ask me questions!”

  “Shane, that was Belinda. I introduced her to you yesterday.”Adam sounded annoyed that she had put him in this position. Shane was sure there were some intense glances being exchanged at the other end of the phone. “She is a member of the taskforce and wants only to understand why this is all happening. Please assume that Belinda will always be on a call with me.”

  It wasn’t an apology but it was as close as Shane expected Adam got. Shane recounted all that he had said to them the previous evening about the attack. He was happy to have his side of the events now on his tape.

  “You know Belinda, in that instant, I blamed Simone for every bad or painful thing that has ever happened in my life. I guess that’s a hell of a focal point.” Shane stopped talking for a moment to let the words sink in. “Adam, now that I am ‘trusting’ you, I need to ask you a question before I hang up.”

  “What is it Shane? I will answer if I can.This is still an investigation though and you are at the center of it, so some things I simply won’t tell you.”

  “You mentioned before that this was a taskforce. Does that mean there have been other killings outside of me and Pete?”

  “Possibly yes, but I can’t tell you anything about them.” “You might want to just check if any of them had a copy of a self help program called ‘How to be Assertive in an Aggressive World.’ It might be nothing but it could be worth a look.”

  “Why do you feel this program may be involved Shane? What can you tell us about it?”

  “Absolutely nothing, that’s the problem. I will call you back tomorrow morning at the same time, on this number if I can.”

  “Shane, we will have you in custody by 10 am tomorrow.”

  “Adam, you said that yesterday. If you waste time looking for me then how are you going to solve this thing? I’m already telling you everything I know.” The line went dead.

  ( * ) After the phone call from Shane Kirk, neither Belinda nor Tony seemed to want to be the first to say anything. Adam guessed it was like playing your hand too early in a game of poker. It was better to see what others had before giving your hand away. Their best poker faces were bent over their notebooks reading what they had written during the call.

  Adam launched the discussion. “Ok, Tony, what do you think about this guy?” Tony gave an arrogant smirk, which was fast becoming his standard facial expression. “He’s having us on. I think either, him and Peter Roberts came up with this together and he couldn’t bring himself to commit suicide or, he is using Peter’s actions to give him an alibi for trying to kill his boss. Either way, all of this talk is just to throw us off track. I don’t buy any of this crap. Why would he record our phone calls unless this was a well rehearsed story he was looking to use in court later?”

  “Fair enough, that makes sense.” Adam didn’t want to believe it but needed to, outwardly at least; keep an open mind. “Belinda, what are your thoughts?” “I can’t say I agree at all with Tony.” She certainly didn’t have his arrogance but she still seemed determined to get her point across. “Adam, we have discussed this before. Something is altering their behavior and it may just be that audio program.”She paused while Tony scoffed.“Notice how he nearly didn’t mention it at all? It would have been on his mind the whole time, yet he can’t bring himself to outwardly say it may be responsible.If I’m not mistaken,whoever has been messing with these people will have gone to a lot of trouble to ensure it is hidden.”

  “Is everything a conspiracy to you Belinda?” Tony fired across the table. Adam was surprised and without thinking, turned to gauge Belinda’s reaction. He had never even heard them talk to each other before. This sounded like there may be a history.

  “Not always Tony, some people are very simple.” Adam always felt attracted to women with anger in their eyes. He could see the fire now in Belinda. “Ok guys!” lets break it up. “Both points are valid. Tony, I need you to follow through investigating Shane. See if you can find anything that would suggest he planned any of this.” Adam got a nod of reluctant compliance from Tony before moving on. “Belinda, get your hands on that program and check it out ASAP! I have to give Don an update this afternoon, so if anything new comes up, tell me before 2 pm. I will see if Turner or Maloney had access to this program in the meantime.”

  They closed their notebooks and started to leave the room before Adam had a last word. “Before you go, let me just say one more thing.” When they turned he looked them in the eyes. “We need to start taking the lead on this stuff. I don’t want a criminal feeding our investigation.”

  ( * ) Shane looked a mess in the morning. He hadn’t slept well, if at all, last night. He had put so much thought into this morning’s phone call he was mentally spent.

  Shane drove back to the outskirts of the city so that if they traced his mobile phone call, and he wasn’t sure they could, he would be one of hundreds of thousands of commuters walking around the city. He figured the trick is not to stay in one place very long and walk like he had somewhere to go. Everyone looked like they had somewhere to go.

  Shane had called Anita right before he phoned the police that morning and her words were still echoing around in his mind. She had begged him to give himself up.

  Everything she had said over the phone made perfect sense to anyone looking at his situation from another point of view. He had tried to explain to her how terrifying it was to have tried to murder someone and not understand why. He knew he hadn’t succeeded.

  There was no doubt that he hadn’t liked Simone, but in his whole life he had never resorted to violence. It hurt him even more that it was to a woman. He figured a man would be tough enough to defend himself. He now felt pure shame every time he relived the moment.

  Shane needed to understand why or how it happened. If the police caught him in the meantime, he figured he was already in serious trouble anyway.

  He walked into a coffee shop that had a wireless Internet connection and unpacked his Laptop. The possessions he had taken with him from his office were all the tools he had to clear his name for the next week. He was glad to have his computer especially when he no longer looked to his MP3 player for support. Until he knew more, he could not trust the messages it gave him, even though he longed to hear them again. It was almost as if the device itself were evil to him now.

  He ordered a strong coffee and logged into the network. Luckily the office had not yet disconnected him from their system. He was not sure he knew how to connect to the Internet if they had.

  Shane firstly needed to know more about the program. Who made it and where it came from would be a good place to start. There was always a chance he may be wrong about it, which was somehow comforting.

  Shane did a search on the program name.

  Search: How to be Assertive in an Aggressive World

  Results displayed: 1-10 of about 145,000 No matter what combination Shane tried he was unable to find any reference to the program of that full name. There was however only a hundred and fortyfive thousand other Assertive Programs for sale over the internet.

  “Long Black?” Shane jumped in his chair. Without thinking he partially covered his screen before realizing the young lady in front of him wasn’t a threat. “I’m sorry you startled me, I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”

  “Sorry, did you order a long black?”

  “Yeah thanks, I’ll need that coffee.” The young girl placed the coffee down in front of him with a concerned look on her face. He saw her eyes dart towards the screen of his laptop and then back to him. He hadn’t explained why he tried to cover his screen. He wasn’t really sure why he had either but didn’t want to draw too much attention.

  “I’m writing a let
ter to my wife.”He hadn’t given her much of an explanation but she either didn’t care enough or wasn’t interested in any more information. The waitress placed the coffee down and left him to his paranoia.

  Shane would have to try the same place where Peter might have got it. He started up his peer-to-peer file-swapping program and entered it in there. Shane had used this software many times before to swap files with other people over the Internet. While they are mostly marketed for legal file swapping such as photos and information, their main use is to swap illegal files such as pirated CD’s, DVD’s and Software. This is the lane on the information highway where free music, movies and porn were easily available. It’s like an online swapmeet for anything you don’t want to pay for.

  Shane had always been happy to acknowledge in theory that using this type of software was illegal; he, however, had likened it to copying a CD from a friend or recording his favorite TV show on his VCR. Only the big companies seemed to care and he didn’t really get a kick out of porn anyway, so he had never felt much guilt in using it.

  Peter having been single had spent plenty of his time searching through the files available. He often filtered the best self-help programs for Shane. Everything else was for himself in the privacy of his own home.

  He entered the words again.

  Search: How to be Assertive in an Aggressive World The program gave him the message that it was searching the databases of all the people currently logged into its system. This was worldwide and would usually mean millions of people were accessing it at any time. It was a swap-meet that never closed. Search results started coming back within seconds.

  Results: 23 Files Found - 18 Users Shane scanned the names on the files but still found no mention of who had created it. At least he was getting somewhere. These people had the same file.

  Without warning Shane’s connection to net was cut and when he tried to log back on he was rejected. The fact that his work had finally disconnected him from their network would not normally be a big deal if his tension levels were not already high, but in that moment Shane panicked.

  He shoved the laptop into his briefcase without pausing to turn it off and quickly got to his feet to leave. He felt as if they were standing behind him. As he rushed to leave the café Shane knocked over a chair which brought the attention of everyone in the room including the waitress that had served him. He looked straight at her to see if she would just ignore the crash but no matter how hard he tried to forge a smile Shane knew his sudden panic was evident.

  Their eyes met and the young waitress looked alarmed. She was the first one to move. Rather than rush over to pick up the chair she took two steps towards the kitchen. It was all Shane needed. He had already left the money at the table and so she was either going to get the manager or call the police. He had left before she had a chance to do either.

  Chapter 6

  John Keyman was different to other people, better, which created its own problems. He had learnt early that sometimes it was better to do things under other names. This was so that his own didn’t get tarnished if anything were to go wrong.

  In his mid forties, it was getting too late to start again from scratch. John needed success and had always been prepared to do anything to get it. He searched the newspapers for wounded prey every day. Lately there had been more than enough bad news to stir up business and in his line of work bad news was good news.

  John never felt any sympathy for the people who had their lives or businesses turned upside down. Sympathy was not a weakness he had and empathy was simply a waste of time.

  John had started his insurance brokerage firm ‘Keyman Insurance’ 6 years ago. He had worked at another insurance company for two years before that learning as much as he could. The relief he felt on the day of his resignation was like laying down a winning hand at a high stakes card game.

  He had lied, conned and befriended his previous employees long enough to learn everything he needed to know about the business.Finally on that magnificent day he told them all what he really thought about them and set up business for himself.

  In the early days business had been good, and so it should.There was nobody willing to make the tough decisions he would. He had hired and fired the best people in the industry to get access to their customer base. Then in his true style, had bribed and intimidated as many potential customers as he could get his hands on.

  He had felt like a shark hunting for his next meal among wounded prey. Then he was served with the lawsuit that ended his run. His former employer had taken him to court for stealing their customers, which of course he had done.

  Who the hell were they to judge him? His arrogance had been his downfall in the end. Tony had lost the case and Keyman Insurance was ordered to pay $400,000 for lost revenues and Keyman Insurance ground to a halt.

  Still being in its infancy, the company was nearly crippled but not Tony. He still had his wit and hunger and was always ready for a fight.

  Sitting in front of a new potential customer he had all of the outward appearances of success. His suit alone probably cost more than they earn in a month.

  “Firstly let me just say that I am so sorry for your loss.” Whatever brings in the business is ok with me.

  “I appreciate that John, its’ been a tough time for us. I guess that’s why we were happy to meet with you while we might not have been in the past.”

  “In tough times people think about insurance, often when it’s already too late. It really gives my industry a bad rap, which is a shame.”

  The remainder of the meeting was almost the same as the other four he had recently attended. He would have them signed up within a month.

  He had singlehandedly turned his business around and things we starting to look great. So they should, John Keyman is at the helm.

  Chapter 7

  Shane had been looking over his shoulder since he had left the coffee shop. He didn’t know if it was the IT people from his work or the police that had disconnected his account, so he wasn’t taking any chances either way.

  He had found other people that had access to the program. His first step towards getting to the bottom of it all was to communicate with them somehow. One of them must know who created it.

  Shane searched the city until he found a department store where he purchased a few cheap T-Shirts, a pair of trousers, some underwear and socks. Fashion took a back seat to price.

  He was still wearing the clothes he had been in when he attacked Simone. While he had gotten rid of the small blood stains on his shirt, it still looked like a second day shirt.

  Shane decided that it was a good time to park his paranoia and buy some more of the items on his list. He could then take time to calmly plan his next move.

  He didn’t dare take out any more money from his account. Firstly, he didn’t want them to know he was still in the city and secondly, he wanted Anita to be able to access some if she needed it. There was also the possibility that the police had locked his bank account anyway.

  Shane needed somewhere to unpack his shopping and get changed; so he headed back to his car. On returning to the street where his car was parked Shane noticed a parking inspector and two policemen waiting next to it.

  He froze mid-step so suddenly that his shopping bags continued to swing with the momentum. It was his first mistake.

  The second was to run. A clear mind would have told him that he should have casually turned into a shop and disappeared. In running he had caught their attention. Emotion had always gotten the better of him under pressure.

  Shane ran as fast as his legs could carry him, with his briefcase, the two shopping bags and the weight of panic. He no longer cared about fitting in to his surroundings; he was worried only about self-preservation.

  A brief glimpse over his shoulder of the two policemen, who were now in pursuit, only heightened his anxiety. They were screaming into their two-way radios, which meant soon they would not be alone and while one of them had run into a pedestri
an, the other was gaining ground.

  “Stop him!” Shane heard muffled over his shoulder. He realized that this now meant that any hero pedestrian was now also a potential threat. He tried to look angry as he ran in a vain effort to scare off anyone who might try to stop him, but his body was putting all efforts into the chase so it was far from convincing.

  Shane ran into an office building that he had been in many times before to visit customers and dived into one of the lifts that was about to close. It started to open again as he triggered the door sensors on the way in so in frustration he pushed the Close Door button frantically until it closed.

  As the lift finally ascended, he rethought his current predicament. He suspected that by now the police officers would be at ground level watching for what floor he would exit. One would probably stay there to ensure he didn’t double back or take the stairs. That’s what he would do anyway.

  Shane pressed three different floors and got out at the third stop to try and throw them off the scent. He still had not regained his breath from the chase when he sprang out of the lift and clashed bodies with another person.

  “Shane!” Taken by surprise, Shane spun on the spot expecting to see the police. This threw him slightly off balance which he corrected quickly. His body was tense but ready for anything.

  Without meaning to he had run to a familiar floor and one of his former customers was standing in front of him thoroughly surprised by the sudden collision.

  Shane tried to rearrange his facial expression from shock to mild surprise as he casually picked up his belongings he had not surrendered in the chase and they were all he had.

  “Oh, hi Ben, you frightened the life out of me.” “What brings you bursting in here today Shane? I heard you were on leave.” Ben had a distrustful look on his face which was normal but for the first time Shane had something to hide.

  “I’m really sorry Ben, I would love to talk, but I’m so late for a meeting. I’m going to have to run!” His deep breathing probably told Ben that he had been running anyway, so he used it to his advantage.