Woken
Page 3
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Epilogue
One week after John Michaels passed, the Police Chief, Lead Detective and several police officers, as well as the Crime Unit, were in his apartment looking for answers.
Five days ago they received a piece of mail stating that the death, or soon to be death, of one John Michaels, was not of natural causes, medical illness, mental illness or anything of natural order.
It was murder.
The letter also said the evidence needed to start the necessary hunt for the murderers would be in his apartment on an old-fashioned answering machine that still used tape.
The letter was signed “John Michaels”. Originally dismissing it as psycho babble from the mentally unsound, just this morning the Police Chief was approached by a uniformed officer who was at the hospital at the time of John’s death.
Apparently something rubbed him the wrong way about the death, and the couple he saw living the hallway from John’s room, so he looked into this type of death to see if there were any others.
There were 8 recorded similar instances that had happened over the last 4 years in the same state, where someone of wealth seemed to have died from mental illness treatment after being hospitalized from a form of medical illness.
“Here Chief,” the detective said, as he pulled a machine from underneath the bed in the master bedroom. He handed it over. “Right where he said it would be.”
The Chief plugged the machine in, set it down on the kitchen counter, sat in a chair, turned the machine on and after a few seconds, hit “play”.
“You have one new message and one saved message.
“Saved message:
“Hello.
“I hope this is being played and heard by the authorities. Otherwise yet another murder will be gotten away with.
“My name is John William Michaels, Junior. I am 32 years old.
“Possibly today or in the next two days I will be murdered by two people, a man and a woman. The man’s name is, or so I have been told, Jason Beek. The women, Janice Williams.
“When I was 5 years old, I was diagnosed with epilepsy. My parents were told that if treated right, I should live a long and healthy life with minimal if rare visits to the hospital.
“Exercise, especially running, was something that for some reason helped stay seizures from happening, or would help my recovery if I had one.
“About a year ago, I met Jason at work. He said he was a medical doctor who just finished his training. We became friends. Shortly after, I met Janice.
“I started dating Janice at the urge from Jason. I thought I could trust him and since we were friends, I started dating Janice.
“I was never one much for dating. I had a lot of money from a double inheritance after family deaths of my parents and an uncle, so I was well off. However, I liked to work. But soon people would find out about my money and I would be asked out on dates, unbeknownst to me they would want my money. I didn’t know them and assumed they didn’t know me.
“Janice came along and we hit it off. After we started dating, I noticed Jason and Janice meeting up at times, and became curious about their goings-on.
“One morning, while I was running, I had a seizure hit me. I did not have my medicine, and fell to the ground in shakes.
“Somehow, only later did I understand how, Janice and Jason were there, bringing me in a car to the hospital.
“While in the car, I overheard the two talking. Jason, who apparently was a medical graduate, assured Janice I could not hear nor understand them while I was having a seizure. He was wrong.
“They were talking about how to get my money. Janice said she knew where I kept well over $150,000 in cash, as well as figured out my bank account pin number on my debit card.
“Jason said it would be easier if they just left me behind. They both started arguing, when Jason suddenly had to swerve to avoid hitting someone and smashed into another car.
“They decided the best plan at that point was to get an ambulance to take everyone to the hospital and sort out the accident later. They couldn’t drive off at this point.
“When the ambulance arrived, they told the caretakers that I was not only having an epileptic seizure, but I was prone to psychosis and possibly needed to be heavily drugged, or giving shock treatment.
“I was sedated, brought to the hospital and by the end of the next day, I was discharged without incident.
“When I got home, my cash was gone. My debit card was not in my wallet and my bank account had $60,000 withdrawn, two day’s worth of maximum withdraws from an ATM.
“At that point, I decided to call Janice and let her know that I knew what was going on.
“While calling her, I went to the window to look outside. A car drove by, creating several flashes of light that nearly blinded me each time. As a result, my heart rate starting increasing and I knew what was going to happen. Janice picked up the phone, I told her I knew everything about her and Jason, my money, and already had reported it to the authorities over an hour ago and they were on their way. This was a lie to get them to give-up.
“At this point, I have taken my medicine needed to handle my seizure. I am recording this message now in case my plan falls through, and I don’t make it. If I am dead, I have been murdered.
“Janice and Jason, or whatever their real names are, have done this 6 other times in this state alone. They may have done it in other states.
“Know that... [knocking and pounding on a door are in the background. “John?!” a muffled voice could be heard.
[“Open this door, now!” a second muffled voice yelled. It was a female and male voice.]
“Please, find them and make them pay.”
“To delete this message, press ‘delete’.....”
“Shut it off,” the Chief grumbled.
“You think that’s why they said John went psychotic on them and started beating them? To get him shocked while in the hospital?”
The Chief rubbed his hand down the side of his jaw, as he said, “Looks that way.
“Get an APB out immediately on these two, Jason and Janice.
“Looks like we have a murder on our hands.”