by B. A. Savage
“What is your name, please?” she asked with a polite smile.
“Mark Campbell.”
“Okay, Mister Campbell, let me check and see.” she said, writing down his name on a piece of paper.
As the woman left the room, Mark turned his chair where he could view the parking lot and look for any signs of a surveillance unit. After ten minutes passed, Mark was up pacing the floor, wondering what was taking her so long. Could she have called the police? Or maybe she’s working for the cartels? Maybe they had some of their soldiers on the way to the post office to grab him the minute he walked out the door. He stood up to run out just as the woman was coming back in the door.
“I’m sorry, sir, I couldn’t find anything.”
Mark glanced at the woman. “It must be here. I mailed it special delivery on the fifteenth.”
She frowned. “I’m sorry sir, but sometimes mail is delivered to another post office by mistake. Let me check around and give you a call later.”
Mark left his phone number and walked back down the hallway toward the front door. He saw a bathroom sign on the left, stepped inside, and pulled out his cell phone and punched in a number.
“Hello.” a voice said.
“I’m sorry, it didn’t arrive today.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Mark shrugged. “It didn’t arrive today. Maybe it will be in tomorrow.”
“So what I am I supposed to say to my people?”
“Tell them it will be in tomorrow. Shit, man, I don’t know. I’m just telling you what my people told me.”
“Don’t fuck me, boy.” The voice was hard and cold. It echoed over the phone like a gunshot to his heart. “If I find out that you are trying to sell this list to anyone else, or if you fail to deliver what you promised, I will cut off your balls and watch you eat them. Am I clear, boy?”
Before Mark could reply, the dead tone of the line was all he heard.
Mark walked out of the bathroom and out of the post office toward his car. He was a few feet from the door when he heard someone calling his name.
Susan watched him walk toward his car, then jumped out of her car and ran to him, calling his name. “Mark, Mark Campbell, I know you hear me calling you.”
She is within five feet of him when he turns around. “I’m sorry, are you talking to me?”
“Yes, I’m talking to you, Mark Campbell, or are you Mark Dalton today?”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, you have made a mistake. My name is David Lee.”
Susan laughed. “Okay, David Lee. Do you mind showing me some ID?”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. If your name is David Lee, show me some ID.”
“Look, lady, I’m trying to be nice. Now if you don’t leave me alone, I will call the police.”
“That’s great. I am sure they want to question you about the man found dead in your hotel room Monday.” She pulled out her phone and started dialing 911.
Karen watched what was going on. She began to intervene, to make sure they followed Mister French’s orders. But for some reason, deep inside her heart, she felt that this was something Susan had to do. All her life, it was about protecting her little sister. Life was funny. Sometimes, as hard as it seemed, we just cannot protect our loved ones from everything. Sometimes, life was a lesson our loved ones had to learn on their own. She could be there as a comforting arm, giving her sister that shoulder to cry on. But Mister French had tried to explain it as simple as possible without hurting Susan’s feelings. This man wasn’t any good but in Susan’s eyes, she only saw a prince on a white horse. So she stayed in the car.
“Hello, police department.”
“Okay, okay, Susan, you caught me.”
“I caught you what?” she said, tears running down her cheeks.
“There is something going down right now. I got myself in a little jam. If you give me a few days to work this out, I promise I will tell you everything.”
“A few days for what, so you can make up some more lies and leave me standing around here looking like a fool? Why didn’t you tell me you were married?”
“But we are getting a divorce.”
“I don’t give a damn about that. You should have told me.”
“Yes, you are right, but I didn’t know how you would react to it. I didn’t want to lose you.”
“That’s your excuse? You didn’t tell me because you didn’t want to lose me?” Susan looked at him, and a strong urge came over her to break his nose. She could do it, just execute a palm strike right at the bridge of his nose, and it would snap like a twig. But she held her urges back, maybe because she still loved him.
As Susan was talking, Mark saw a car pull up in front of the post office and two men wearing silk suits and sunglasses got out. As one guy walked, Mark saw a bulge under his left shoulder, the unmistakable sign of a pistol. “Susan, I have to go.”
“You are not going anywhere until you tell me what happened inside that hotel room on Monday!”
“Okay, okay, here take this.”
He pulled out a business card and stuck it in her hand. “Call me later, we will go out to dinner and I will explain everything.”
“But, wait.”
“Call me later. I will explain everything, I promise.” He climbed into the car and drove away.
Karen pulled up beside her sister. “Come on, get in. We’ll follow him.”
“No, Karen, let him go.”
“I don’t think we should do that. He is a murder suspect.”
“I know, but, for some reason, I trust him.”
“You mean you are in love with him.”
Susan shrugged. “I don’t know, Sissy, you could be right. Let’s give him a chance to prove himself.”
“Well, okay. I can live with that, but what about Mister French?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll talk to the boss.”
Chapter Fifteen
Once Susan explained to French why she disobeyed his orders, she was surprised he wasn’t upset. He could have called and reported it to Emerson or Van Dyke, but for some reason, he didn’t. French just smiled, kissed her on the cheek, and walked away. She had been sitting in her bedroom, the one French kept just for her, for over two hours. She looked out the window at Karen and French playing kickball with Victor, Alice, and their friends. It was the boys versus the girls. French wasn’t superb at any sport and the girls were kicking their ass.
It was 7:15 when Mark called. The ringing of a cell phone made Susan’s heart pound in her chest. She didn’t want to admit it, but just like her sister said, she still held on to the hope that Mark was still the man he was in New Orleans. And she was right. If there were any chance that the two of them would have a life together, she would leave with him tomorrow.
“Hello,” she said.
“Susan, it’s Mark.”
“I knew you would call,” she said with excitement in her voice. “Is everything alright?”
“Yes, I need to see you.”
“Sure, when?”
“How about around 8 o’clock?”
“Okay, where?”
“You must be careful, someone could be following you."
“Followed by whom?”
“We will talk about that when I see you. I will meet you at Oak Hill Park at 8 o’clock.”
Chapter Sixteen
As Susan gazed out over the Ohio River, the sun began to set. It filled the sky, blazing with yellow, red, pinks, and oranges, overpowering the blue sky. The reflection in the water crept lower and lower.
Susan had almost given up hope when the blue Ford Fusion, the same vehicle Mark was driving earlier, pulled into the parking lot. The sun had grown smaller as the sky began to darken. Slowly, slowly, the sun disappeared behind the Earth as Mark stepped out of his car and approached on the left side of the water.
“Let’s take a walk.” he said, escorting Susan by the arm.
“What are you into, Mark? Please tell me eve
rything. No more lies.”
He took a deep breath, looking over the water as they walked. “Everyone has an addiction. Some are addicted to drugs or liquor. My addiction is gambling. And that is what got me in all this trouble.”
“So you owe some people money. How much? Maybe I can help you.”
“That is very sweet of you, Susan, but you cannot help me, unless you have a quarter of a million dollars lying around somewhere.”
“A quarter of a million dollars,” she said in a loud tone. “What happened? Did you go to Las Vegas and lose your mind?”
Mark forced a smile. “No, my dear, it happened right here in Fayette. There are a few after hour gambling houses down on Chestnut.”
“There are only shotgun houses on Chestnut.”
“Yes, the perfect cover for illegal gambling and prostitution.”
“So you are telling me you are sleeping with a prostitute, too?”
“No, no, Susan,” he said, raising his hand in protest. “Gambling is my illness; I’ve never had a problem with the ladies.”
“I bet you don’t.”
“About a year ago, I was in debt to some powerful people with cartel connections. They threatened to cut my wife’s head off if I didn’t come up with the money in one week. I tried to borrow the money, but my past gambling problems had burned all my bridges.”
“So no one trusted you, right?”
“No, and they still don’t trust me.”
“So what happened?”
“One of the lieutenants of the east coast cartels made me an offer.”
“You mean he gave you a choice?”
He nodded his head. “Yes, he gave me a choice. I would be a carrier for the Guzman cartels. No questions asked, I would pick up packages and deliver them all over the world.”
“You did all this for your wife?”
“Well, she was one of the reasons. They also threaten to cut my dick off and make me eat it.”
“At least if that had happened, I wouldn’t be standing here, in love with a jerk.”
“Please, Susan, have a heart.”
“What happened between you and your wife? Didn’t she understand you were doing all this for her?”
He shrugged. “No, I never told her. My marriage was doomed from the moment I said, ‘I do’.”
“What happened?”
He sat down on a bench and pulled her down beside him. “I didn’t marry Sara for love. I married her for her money. I needed someone to support my gambling habits.”
“But she is gorgeous.”
“I know, but, to me, she was only a means for gambling money.”
“You are a bastard.”
“Yes, you’re right, I am.”
“What were you transporting for the cartels?”
“I don’t know. I never looked in the package until the pick up in New Orleans.”
“What made that pick up different?”
“Don was very nervous. You saw him. It was as if he was expecting someone else to show up. So when I excused myself and went to the bathroom, I opened the package, and it had a letterhead marked ‘classified. I found out once Lee walked into the hotel room. He said it was a list of undercover officers working in the cartel’s organization.”
“He wanted to buy a list?”
“That what I thought. But he was going to kill me and take the list. So I killed him.”
“Why didn’t you call me and tell me about this? Instead, you ran like a little girl and left me there to deal with the police.”
“Susan, you must understand, I didn’t know who I could trust. The cartels have their hands in half the police officer’s pockets across the country.”
“So you are trying to tell me that you don’t trust me? After the last week we spent together, you don’t trust me? Look, pal, I didn’t give you a fake name. I didn’t lie to you about working for some company, when you were carrying drugs, money, and God knows what else for drug lords.”
“No, Susan, it wasn’t you who I distrusted, it’s your boss, Alex French.”
Susan stood up, walked over to the water, shaking her head. “No, Mark, I’m not going to let you place blame on Mister French for your addiction. You knew what you were getting into; your sick mind couldn’t stop it. The only question that I have for you is where the list is?”
“It’s safe, don’t worry.”
“What are you going to do with it?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. If I turn it over to the cartels, a lot of innocent officers and their families will be slaughtered. If I turn it over to the cops, my life, and my family’s lives will not be worth shit. Why don’t you and I just disappear?”
“What about my family? Karen, Alice, Victor, and Mister French, what will we do about them?”
He stood up and combed his fingers through his hair. “You said this guy, Alex French, is some hotshot detective. This guy was supposed to be some genius. I’m sure you don’t have anything to worry about, he will take care of them.”
Susan walked up to him and placed her hand gently on his cheek. “You poor, poor fool, you just don’t get it. It not about you, it not about me, it’s about family. It always has been, and it always will be. That’s why I had to do this.”
“Do what?”
“Come on in, Mister French.”
Mark looked around to see police officers coming at him from all sides. He reached inside his coat and pulled out a gun, and pointed at Susan. “Don’t come any closer. I will shoot her, I swear.”
“Just like you shot that man in your hotel room,” Susan said. “That wasn’t self-defense. You shot him from the back. You murdered him.”
“You knew along, didn’t you?”
“Yes, you are right. I knew. That’s why I did what I did.”
“I have a list. I’m sure I can work something out with the D.A.?”
“We have a list.” French replied. “The carrier delivered it 15 minutes after you left.”
“But you can’t send me to prison. I will be dead in less than a week.”
“If you are willing to testify against the cartels and turn over your handlers, maybe we can work something out. But first thing’s first, you need to put that gun down, son.” French said in a calm voice.
Mark turned the gun over to Susan, and she passed it on to Lieutenant Emerson. “What is going to happen to Sara and my son?”
“Your wife and kid are already under police protection,” Emerson added, stepping forward and pulling out his handcuffs.
“I’m sorry, Susan. If I met you a year ago, I wouldn’t be in this trouble.”
She got up on her toes and kissed him on the lips. “Yes, you would.”
She watched in silence as the cops put him in the back of the cruiser and pulled away.
“How can something so good turn so bad?” she asked, looking at French and Karen.
French didn’t say a word. He just stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Susan. Karen moved in and wrapped her arms around them.
Two Free Gifts
As a way of saying thanks for your purchase, I’m offering two free mysteries that’s exclusive to my readers. Double Cross and Dead On Impact fast-paced, suspenseful plot… The story’s complicated and intriguing twists and turns keep the reader guessing until the chilling ending.
Sign up for the author’s New Releases mailing list and get a FREE copy of the latest novels Double Cross and Dead On Impact Randall Stone Mysteries…
http://bit.ly/1HvvhAD
MYSTERY THRILLER: BOX SET (8 books in 1) Keeps readers guessing as twists & turns unfold….
FLAT RATE Sale Price $0.99 limited time. MYSTERY, CRIME & SUSPENSE: BOX SET (8 books in 1)…
(Download Here)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SQRMJU8
MYSTERY, CRIME AND SUSPENSE: BOX SET (10 books in 1) Keeps readers guessing as twists & turns unfold
New Release Sale Price: $0.99 for a limited time. Purchased individually, the books in this set woul
d cost $29.99. You save $29.00!
(DOWNLOAD HERE)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PA8VV1Y
FROM THE B.A. SAVAGE
Alex French Series
Book 1
Into Darkness
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LNR86F0
Book 2:
The Scorned
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L4T3MHO
Book 3:
Dangerous Game
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LNR8966
Book 4
Deception
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LR0O7S8
Book 5
Extortion
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LZFW3Z4
Book 6
Suspicion
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MBQNWNI
Book 7
Skyjacker
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N0DGUH6
Book 8
Judgment
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NDJ9ULU
Book 9
Suicide
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NQJ5L5Q
Book 10
Psychopath
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O3YPP8G
Leather Jacket Murder
An Randall Stone Mystery
B.A. Savage
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This Novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locates is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 B.A. Savage
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the permission of the author.
Visit the author’s websites:
https://sites.google.com/site/mysterybysavage/