The Man never had dirty hands. In his profession it was best to fly under the radar and the best way to do that was to have other people do the dirty work. His clients were expected to pay cash and on top of the standard fee, a required amount of sweat equity, a certain favor if you will, would be called upon somewhere down the road. He believed everyone had a hidden talent. Unlike others who were in his line of work, The Man took great pains to fully know who he would be working for. Not only did he spend time talking with them about the business at hand, he interviewed them to learn more about who they were. He had two important unspoken truths, he never lied, liars could never be trusted, and betrayal of any kind was an automatic deal breaker. Do both and the consequences were dire. If he felt they could be trusted and able to do the favor, he would take them on as clients. He kept files on all his clients. He knew who could be trusted with what job, like cleaning up the mess at Janis’s house. He had a special crew for this. The first to show up were the Level-One crew; they removed the body. It was a straight forward task. Go into the house, place the body on a plastic tarp, load into Gerry’s boat parked behind the garage, and drive through the night. Once the Level-One crew made it to the obscure state forest with a seldom used twenty-three-acre lake, they tied cinder blocks around Gerry’s nude body and took him out into the middle of the lake where they his body, keeping his boat for the second part of their task.
Unlike the state parks with more amenities, the smaller state forest campsites are rustic and tend to be more remote. There were plenty of them in the northern part of the state. Level-One didn’t have to look too long to find another lake with a campground. It was off a county road forty-five minutes away from the lake they dumped Gerry’s body. There were eight campsites and all were vacant, until they showed up. In under an hour, they had filled out his back dated camping permit and placed it with the fees into a locked metal cylinder near the pit toilets. The tent went up, cookstove placed on the picnic table, and a small pile of firewood was stacked by the rustic campfire ring. A well-used camping chair was placed by the firepit and a few empty beer cans crushed up and scattered around for accuracy. This campsite had shoreline access to thirty-eight-acre Gunson Lake. One member of the team took the boat out into the middle of the lake, anchored it, tossed the pole, net, and life jacket into the water. There were more crunched up beer cans scattered throughout the boat. After the scene was created, he climbed in a small kayak he had brought and paddled back to shore just as the sun was starting to creep through the dark trees off in the distance. As they drove off down the tree covered road a small pick-up with Minnesota plates pulled a tiny camper with a canoe strapped on top. It headed for the campground.
William Simmons III lived just outside of the twin cities in a swanky neighborhood. He was a functioning drug addict working in the company his father built from the ground up. He had privileges most of kids he grew up with didn’t. Yet, he screwed up over and over. He had been arrested for drugs, driving under the influence, and even trying to steal money from his father’s company. But then he got into some trouble with his drug dealer. His dealer threatened to go public with William’s drug habit unless his father paid him a significant sum of money. William Simmons II called The Man.
Within a week’s time the drug dealer was picked up and taken to the middle of the Boundary Waters. He was tied naked to a tree. The message was clear. Threaten the family again and next time instead of being tied to a tree he would be buried under one. It took two days before a group of people who were portaging between rivers found him. He never made contact with the Simmons family again. It was now time for William Simmons III to pay back his favor.
The Man gave William explicit instructions. He needed to go to Al’s Towing on the outskirts of St. Paul. This had been another favor cashed in. Waiting for him was a pick-up truck with a camper and canoe. He needed to drive straight through the night to the forest campground on Gunson Lake. Set up his camp and then immediately canoe out to the boat described to him. He was required to look the boat over and then go back to shore and call it in as an abandon boat to the local authorities. He was instructed to say nothing to the police other than he lived in the cities and was there for some camping. The Man made it very clear, If you fuck this up, I’ll make sure your next hit from the pipe will be your last. The Man never messed around and his clients believed him.
In the time of seventy-two hours, Gerry died and was buried never to be found again, and an alibi was established for Janis and her friends. The Man had one more complication to address.
*****
The Judge clutched his chest as he spun around to face The Man. The fact that anyone could penetrate his home undetected unnerved him. The fact that it had been The Man angered him. He lunged towards The Man, but his old age and poor health was no match. The Man tossed him to the floor.
The Judge clambered up from the floor and tried to tackle The Man. This action ended with his right arm twisted behind his back as The Man escorted him to the oversized bed. With a giant shove he flopped him down with such veracity a few of his pillows fell to the floor.
“Have you had enough, or do you want to keep playing with me?” The Man asked.
The Judge could not catch his breath as he rolled around trying to get up from the bed.
“I’m here to tell you our contract is null and void.”
The Judge gasped as he struggled to regain his composure. He took a handful of tissues from the box on his nightstand and dabbed at his face and wiped his mouth. “What do you mean the contract is null and void. That bitch ain’t dead yet. And she killed my son.” Spatters of saliva and phlegm exited his mouth.
The Man didn’t like not having the upper hand in any situation. When situations like this developed in his profession, and they did from time to time, he needed to be able to think quick, on the spot to regain the control. He would have to improvise with what resources he already possessed in order to regain the upper hand.
“Now, why would you say something like that?” He pushed The Judge back down on the bed.
“I know for a fact that bitch killed him. She pushed him down the stairs and you helped cover it up.”
The Man realized someone with inside knowledge had told him. There were only four people who knew the truth. Besides himself there was Janis and he had been certain she would not reveal anything. That left Linda and Nancy. This changed everything.
“Where are you getting your information. Are you sure about your source?”
The Judge was certain his source was telling the truth.
*****
Rhonda worked her shift Monday at the plastic factory with most of it spent puking in the ladies room. Her OB/GYN had told her the morning sickness should subside once she was in her second trimester. She had passed that mark three weeks before. The morning sickness had all but stopped and then started back up a week ago.
At first, she was happy with the news of her pregnancy. Gerry had promised her his wife would not be a problem much longer. She was miffed from the confrontation at the bar last week. Gerry had told her repeatedly he had told Janis about the baby. Yet she acted like she didn’t know.
Rhonda had not been able to reach Gerry since the incident at the bar. Her anger grew because in two days she has her first ultrasound and he had promised her to go with. He hadn’t even replied to her texts. Girl, what thinks you are the only side piece he’s got? Her mother could be so abrasive.
She decided if she had not heard from him by the end of the day, she would go over to talk with his dad. He would know; they were thicker than thieves and two peas in a pod.
Chris Writes 