by JN Lenz
I imagined if a call had come through requesting a pick up Clyde would have answered the phone which rang in both the funeral home and the on call funeral directors house. But what if a call had come in while he was in the alleyways peddling his poison stew, then he would have no idea of a potential returning cadaver. Amazingly he had no such interruptions or unwanted guests during any of those evenings. Or if he had, Clyde had failed to record any such encounter in his files.
Reading the details of the five murders, I realized Clyde had not been exaggerating when he stated to me that the identifications he had provided me were in fact “iron clad”. They were iron clad indeed with no death certificate to complicate or implicate anyone when using these identifications which proved to be invaluable to all of us in the years to follow.
We had decided on a location for the grow op homes located on the outer edges of the city in an area of large scale development. The majority of these newly developed homes would be occupied by new visible minorities who had recently immigrated to the country; these are the neighbors we wanted with most of them working two jobs. What little time they spent at home they stuck to themselves, the lack of activity outside of the grow op homes would be of little consequence to them.
The twins would buy themselves a pair of condos far from the work houses, alternating shifts within the grow houses, maintaining the crops daily. Unlike the small town of Parsons with its aging population where inquiring minds on neighbors is a preoccupation, the suburbs allowed the twins to operate under the radar.
In total there would be four houses, purchased when an entire subdivision was being constructed. The homes we purchased built two side by side with the second pair located directly behind the first pair of homes, all four sharing back yards.
They would be purchased using a pair of the alias identifications that Clyde provided to me, I had built each of these two aliases with bank accounts and a credit rating. Enough of a history had been established for each of the identifications that a pair of forged pay stubs would be all that would be required from the banks to mortgage each of the four properties. The substantial down payment which we had all been pooling together for the past couple of months provided sufficient collateral to secure all the required financing. The payments on the mortgage after we built were never a problem.
The costs of each new home was kept to a minimum by having the contractor remove all floor coverings and kitchen from the build, the twins explained to them they planned to complete this work themselves. Our choice of homes had two of the homes situated on corner lots of the first street leading into the subdivision with the remaining two directly beside the corner lots. There would be a high fence constructed along the border of both the second lots, this along with the planting of numerous trees and shrubs blocked any backyard views of our four homes from the neighboring homes.
During the construction of the subdivision Oliver was lucky enough to persuade an electrician to run a dedicated line from the ground transformer to one of the corner houses. Wearing a ball cap and dark glasses and sporting his newly grown beard Oliver approached the electrician while he worked at a neighboring home, he quickly dismissed Oliver until he pulled the five grand cash from his coat pocket and offered it to the electrician.
The electrician went from a quick rebuttal to an even faster acceptance at the sight of the stack of fifty dollar bills. That secured our biggest obstacle to the new grow houses, the problem of the final home inspection would require him to complete the hook up to the house after the final municipal home inspection would be done. The worker was told he would receive another stack of fifties totally another five thousand when the power was hooked up.
Oliver and Fitch had managed to have the line buried between the house and the transformer before the contractor laid down the soil and sod to the homes. After the homes were complete and we had taken possession, the pair worked under the cover of darkness to trench, lay electrical cable and back filling between each of the four houses. This would supply a concealed electrical cable from the bypassing the meters to power all of the houses grow lamps. The electrician did such an incredible job bringing the free power line into each panel we provided him an additional grand, paying him six grand instead of five. The four homes had all the power they could consume free of charge, there would be no high power usage to alert the authorities.
From the panels the twins would run additional power to every room in each of the four houses, the high wooden fence and newly planted trees that we had installed provided cover in the back yards from any potential prying eyes from the neighboring houses. Bringing a small excavator into the back yards to dig the holes for the large trees we planted between the two of four homes which bordered a neighbor.
Once the high fence and trees had been put into place, the four of us under cover behind the fence and trees had trenched between each of the four homes. The tunnels accommodated not only the direct feed power lines but was also deep and wide enough to construct tubes which would link each of the four homes together. The trench between the houses that sat side by side along each road would only be a little over eight feet, joining each pair of side by side homes at their closest point.
The trench and tunnel linking two of the houses which sat back to back would be over sixty feet in length and would require several of the culvert sized galvanized steel tubes which when connected together would form the tunnels. Using the cover of darkness we brought each of the galvanized tubes late at night utilizing the two adjacent corner lots so as not to draw attention from neighboring residents, as we unloaded the pipe at the side of the corner lots at the end of the street. Using a rented concrete saw to cut a hole into the basement wall of each of the four homes which would serve as the entrance point from each home to the buried tubing.
The tunnels would provide access to each home without the need to go outside each house to enter another; this would avoid suspicions from prying neighbors. Fitch had thought of the idea of having small dollies on wheels in each of the two longer tunnels to make getting through the four foot in diameter pipe, they would pull themselves through by pulling on a rope which was attached to the side of the steel tunnel. The two shorter tunnels, Oliver had mounted a bar on the top of each end of the tunnel and they would just throw themselves into the adjacent home basement by sliding across the smooth laminate they had installed on the base of the metal tube.
With the tunnels and electrical supply in place every room in each house was out fitted with not only the hydroponics but also a closed circuit video system which would allow the twins to monitor views to the street around each of the houses. Should the grow houses be discovered the tunnels that provided access between the houses would serve as an escape to the adjoining house. All windows had been covered with solid blinds and a cheap van or car with deeply tinted windows resided in each of the four garages, each car cost us less than sixteen hundred dollars.
Since all exterior lawns would be serviced by an outside lawn maintenance company the twins would avoid contact with neighbors, rotating the use of each of the four cars in each garage the neighbors would only see the various vehicles leaving and entering the garages of each home. The deeply tinted windows on the cars would prevent them from seeing the same two men leaving from more than one of the houses.
Following the completion of the four new grow op houses Oliver and Fitch prepared to depart from the farm house for one last time, all the existing grow equipment from the farm had now been transferred to one of the new houses. The same uncle would again drop by the side of the road to disconnect the second power line as the pair had informed him of their departure for the better jobs of Toronto.
After the line was disconnected from the road pole Oliver and Fitch would pull bury each end in the ground, the walls of the old farm house now rife with the holes from where the irrigation and lights had been affixed, large holes in the ceiling of each room connected to make shift ducts to the attic in an attempt to remove some of the stifl
ing humidity that formed the mold that now permeated the entire structure.
The hardwood floors became buckled and stained from the humidity, and spilt fertilizer from the past few years. Aside from removing the growing equipment there was little else to salvage from the interior of the old farm house, the twins chocked the black wood stove that sat in the living room corner as full as possible with solid maple logs, even leaving them protruding from the pot belly stoves front door.
As the ambers glowed increasing in its intensity, Oliver used a ten pound sled hammer to bash down the flu sitting directly above the stove, as the steel crashed to the floor the flames shot from the top of the fat black stove like a mini volcano racing towards the ceiling above.
The twins left the farm for the final time that night, the fire would not be reported to the local volunteer department in Parsons until the light of day at close to six am by a motorist who could see smoke from behind the trees which hid most of the farm homes view from the county road. By the time the crew of volunteers arrived on the scene the last embers lay smoking in the bellows of the homes field stone basement walls.
The incident was easily explained to the local authorities by Oliver and Fitch who had explained to the local sheriff that they had been visiting two old friends by the names of Jack Smyth and Clyde Drexler in the town of Largo. They had placed some wood in the stove in the morning before they left and both had checked the stoves door to ensure it was closed properly and the drafts had been set way down before leaving the house for Largo. They both openly speculated to the police sheriff that perhaps it was a dirty chimney; they had never had it cleaned since moving into the rented farm house believing that would be the owner’s responsibility.
The sheriff verified the story that was provided to them by Oliver and Fitch; of course both Clyde and I endorsed a very similar accounting of the details of the night the farm house burnt. Repeating the same facts all four of us had rehearsed several times Clyde and I both explained how the twins had arrived early that afternoon, we spent the time in my upstairs apartment at the Shackles Funeral Home playing cards and drinking until well into the night.
Waking up close to noon on the following Sunday we all headed to the local diner for a meal before the twins headed back to Parsons. These same details would be explained by the twins to the Sheriff who had little reason to believe they were responsible for the fire with nothing to gain financially from the fire. A modest insurance policy still remained on the dwelling by the farmer’s daughter but none of us had ever heard if she received a dime for the old farm house.
Following the fire, both Oliver and Fitch worked to complete the quartet of grow op homes. The pair found a two bedroom apartment with parking about a twenty minute drive away from the four grow op houses. They would share that first apartment in Toronto for close to a year, before Fitch who now was living by the name of Pierre Bullard moved to a similar apartment in a building around the block from the one they had been sharing. Oliver who remained in that initial apartment now lived under the assumed identity of Norman Pershing.
The identifications came from a pair of homeless men who despite all their hardships had never lost sight of who they were legally, with government identification on hand to prove it. Despite living their lives on skid row, they had managed to hold onto this last vestige of the civilized lives they once lived. In the end all their government identification would provide to them with would be their last super and documentation for a life only their names would live.
Both Pierre and Gene would need to be tested for a driver’s license; both had grown a full beard by the time the picture would be taken for the driver’s license, since neither Pierre nor Gene had been officially declared dead with the accompanying death certificate there would be no “Red” flags in any government agency.
I had to give the twins credit they remained in those cheap apartments for almost ten years, living modest lives for that entire period apart from the pair usually driving either a BMW or Mercedes. Initially we had purchased the four beaters for the guys to shuttle from the apartment building where they lived, to the grow op garages where the cars always remained when they worked the crops.
Electric garage door openers would be used in all four of the grow houses to allow the twins to come and go from the houses without having to be outside, eventually the appearance of a BMW or Mercedes in the neighborhood was not enough to arouse suspicion in a city subdivision. The pair of twins would have no contact with any neighbors; along with the lawn services company they had hired to complete the yearly lawn maintenance included plowing snow in the winter from the four driveways.
Oliver and Fitch had some challenges in establishing the first crops in the four houses, but in time the revenue streamed in from an inventory of plants, six times larger than the old farm house. The constant stream of cash being generated from the new set up was beyond what all four of us had all hoped for. In those first few months all the houses would have to undergo multiple additional venting projects, the pairs first crop produced so much moisture that even thru the heavy drapes and blinds that coverall all the windows the massive amounts of humidity resulted in the windows being covered in a fog with constant beads of water forming on the inside glass.
To prevent the sweating glass from being noticed by neighbors or anyone else the twins went to work to push the humidity up and out thru the attic, after the first couple of months the sweating issue had been resolved the twins had installed a series of vents which snaked their way from each room up and through the two story homes leading up into the attic. Here the ducts ran into a boxed in section which had been constructed to hold a series of filters to help remove the strong stench of pot that resonated in all four of the homes. From the boxes, the air was pushed outside through a series of roof mounted whirly style rotating roof vents. The filtering of the air to a level that would not stink up the surrounding homes would take a couple of additional weeks; once these had been completed the homes began to churn out a multitude of high yield crops for the next several years.
At a time when the rest of the world watching as Saddam Hussein’s Iranian army march into Kuwait in pursuit of its vast oil riches we would be handling over a thousand funeral services per year and had just celebrated the opening of our multi house growing operation. Operating that second Funeral Home along with our newly expanded cannabis production facilities contributed to a rapid acceleration in our business holdings over the next decade.
I would push the majority of our cash flow Clyde and I earned from the harvests back into the business and into more and more funeral home purchases. While I remained in Largo, no longer to help Fred run the Funeral Home but instead now spending my days completing all the bookkeeping for our growing number of Funeral Homes. Clyde continued to live close to the city managing Avery’s and also over seeing all the operations of each new acquisition.
During all this business development my relationship with Lilly evolved steadily until our marriage three years after out purchase of the Avery Funeral Home. I would have my first date with Lilly a day short of a week after Clyde’s poisoning death of Mrs. Worthington at the Nursing Home. On that first date on the Saturday following Clyde’s seventh murder, I would pick Lilly up at her parent’s home where she still resided. The weather was warm and the air was crisp on that fall evening.
Having called Lilly on the Monday following Clyde and my Sunday murder mission at the nursing home, asking her if she would be interested in a diner and a movie this coming Saturday. The reply was a yes but only if Lilly could manage to switch her evening shift with a coworker which after she called me back on the Wednesday she had managed to do. The Cadillac would be washed, waxed and vacuumed to a concurs condition before I drove over to Lilly’s and parked it on the street directly in front of the front door of her parents corner side home. There was no good reason for me not to have pulled into the large driveway on the accompanying side street but what the hell a black car always had major looks
especially when they are spotless.
Lilly’s mother answered the door that evening; she was a peasant looking lady in her mid to late fifties.
“Well good evening, I am presuming that you would be Jack” her voice was warm and upbeat.
“That would be correct, very pleased you meet you” I replied as I extended my hand and the small package of flowers towards the well-dressed woman at the door.
“Sophia, I’m Lilly’s mother you come right on in, flowers well aren’t you a sweetheart, Lilly is gonna have to hold onto you” she replied pulling my hand towards the entrance of the home as she shook it. I followed up with the mandatory “mother I thought you were her sister” line, I wasn’t going to take any chances and would lay it as thick as I had to, and Lilly was an incredible woman.
“Oh aren’t you a dear, a nice car, flowers and classy, I think the two of us are going to get along just fine.” She laughed giving me hand a small squeeze before releasing her grip.
“Hal why don’t you get out of that chair and welcome your daughter’s guest, I swear he is glued to that Damm couch and that TV set as long as Montreal is still in the play offs.” Sophia continued as she gestured for her husband to get off his ass.
“How are you Jack? Nice to meet you, boy that is a beautiful car you have their pointing out past the large living room window. Hal replied in a deep gruff but not unfriendly voice, I remembered thinking that the cigarettes and tumbler of a neat scotch on the large coffee table had been the probable culprits to the rasp in the elder male McCutcheon’s voice.
“Can I get you a drink?”
“Oh yes there goes my manners can I get you a beer, scotch or anything else Jack” a slight sound of disappointment was apparent in her voices pitch as if to be disappointed in herself became evident in Sophia’s voice.