by Mark Lemke
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Brenda Williams hadn't been cooperative at first, but after they'd kidnapped her husband, she'd had no choice but to do what they'd demanded.? Each of the keys had a duplicate and was seldom used.? She'd had to steal the spares and could only do it a few days ago, to lessen the chance of their disappearance being noticed.? The previous weekend, when it had been quiet, she'd managed to get into the lock box and steal the spares.? But when she'd delivered the keys, she'd expected her husband to be released immediately.? When he hadn't, she'd started screaming and making a scene.? This was when she'd had to be silenced.? While not part of the original plan, Stone had grabbed her by the throat and squeezed down.? Brenda struggled at first, but he'd been just too strong for her.? With her eyes wide open in horror, she'd slipped into oblivion.? Stone then had to find a way to hide the body.? About the only way to dispose of a body on site had been over the side and into the ocean.?
Rob hadn't liked any of that.? He didn't think of himself as a murderer-which was what most people on death row said-but then, he hadn't been the one to actually do the killing.? It was one of Jansen's men who'd done it.? So Rob justified this killing in his mind as a necessary evil committed by someone else, not him.
By putting her over the side and into the ocean, at least Rob had been able to contain the situation for a while.? But the whole timetable had to be moved up once that damned surfer had found her body on the beach.? That wasn't supposed to have happened.? Sooner or later, someone would figure it all out and piece things together, but hopefully that would take time.? And by then, they'd have everything in place and there wouldn't be anything that could be done to stop them.
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