A Shadow of Death in The Woods Read online

  The other argument for not killing the stranger was that you don’t just go around killing people, at least not here in the U.S. That said, Mike had no problem with killing people. In fact killing them was easy. Getting away with it was the tricky part. But they were good at this. Uncle Sam had trained them well in not only killing but doing it in such a way that you didn’t get caught. It took careful planning and discipline. They were all good planners but Paul was a genius at it.

  Uncle Sam had turned Bob and Paul into killers. Mike was already a killer when he went in the army.

  He had killed his first man when he was thirteen. He never knew his father. His mother was a prostitute to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. It was a miserable life but he didn’t blame his mother. She was only doing her best in a tough world. Mike had to spend a lot of time in the streets so his mother had the apartment alone with her customers. One night Mike was outside the apartment when he could hear his mother crying out more than usual. Mike opened the apartment door carefully and peeked in. He saw a man beating his mother. Mike sneaked into the apartment, went to the kitchen and got a large knife. As he approached the man and his mother, the man got off his mother and turned toward Mike. He saw the knife and laughed, saying, “What are you going to do with that pig sticker, boy?”

  A feeling of deep hatred swept over him and he had no fear. He knew he was going to kill this man who had beaten his mother. It was a fury built up from many nights of customers with his mother. The man walked toward Mike to take the knife away but Mike was quick. Mike sliced the guy’s arm open. The man swore and grabbed his arm with his good hand. That was a stupid mistake because it left him momentarily defenseless and Mike drove the knife into the man’s chest, killing him.

  Mike didn’t remember much about the night after that. Somehow the police arrived and found his mother beaten and the man dead. The police asked him what had happened but Mike didn’t talk. It must have been something he picked up in the movies but he had heard you shouldn’t tell the police anything without a lawyer. It wasn’t likely that Mike would ever have a lawyer so he just didn’t talk. In fact, he didn’t talk for more than a year. The police assumed that his mother had killed her attacker. His mother was beyond help and died from the beating. The man seemed to have gotten what he deserved. The police made a short report in a busy world and that was the end of their investigation. Besides, what are you going to do with a thirteen year old?

  He was put into the social services system. He couldn’t be adopted because he was too old and he wouldn’t talk. He wouldn’t talk but he liked to read. He read everything he could get his hands on and that saved his life. From all of his reading he figured out how to survive, which included talking. The psychiatrists patted themselves on the back for curing him and making him talk. Mike got a kick out of that. They were useless. He had figured it out by himself.

  As soon as he turned eighteen, he was thrown out of the social services system to fend for himself. He wasn’t prepared to do that so he joined the army. He liked the army. It gave him a structured life. It gave him a sort of home. All you had to do was memorize the rules, follow the rules and keep your ideas to yourself. It was like an extension of the social services.

  He wasn’t very tall but he was strong as an ox. He liked the physical work in the army. He excelled at shooting and hand-to-hand combat. The army was trying to turn civilian kids into killers on the behalf of their country. Well, Mike was already a killer. He knew he could kill but the army gave him the skills to do it better. He was so good at it that he was asked to join the black ops.

  That’s where he met Bob and Paul. They trained together and, later, went on missions together. It was the first time that Mike had learned to depend on other people and it was the first time any person other than his mother had ever tried to really help him. Well, the psychiatrists theoretically wanted to help him as a teenage but they were mostly interested in their careers. The new team was like the family he never had. He learned to trust other people and have them trust him. It was a good feeling, a secure feeling.

  Both Bob and Paul came from “normal” families, families that had parents and a real home. They had joined the army for other reasons.

  They all were part of a bigger team but Mike, Bob and Paul became close friends. They were the first friends that Mike ever had. It was a good time except for Africa.

  Then one day Bob received a letter from home that upset him badly. He went into a rage. Mike and Paul finally got Bob to tell them what was wrong. Bob ranted that he had to go home and kill the kid who had hurt a girl Bob had always taken care of. He and Paul had tried to calm him down but Bob only insisted that he had to take a leave and kill this kid. Realizing that they weren’t going to change his mind, they told him that they would go with him and help. It took a while to convince him but finally the three of them took a leave and went to Bob’s hometown in West Virginia. It wasn’t safe for Bob to go alone on such a mission in his state of anger.

  It took a few days to scope out the situation and as usual Paul came up with a brilliant plan. It had all the steps from catching the kid to killing him and not getting caught. Everyone in town knew what the kid had done. Law enforcement didn’t have enough evidence to charge the kid but everyone in town was ostracizing the kid and his family. So they made it appear that the kid ran away. They killed the kid and destroyed his body so it would never be found. They dressed Paul up to look like the kid and Paul drove the kid’s car out of town, going south. Paul took the car a thousand miles south and sold it as a hot car for parts. The kid simply disappeared. Mike could have done this without Uncle Sam’s training but the military training and black ops had made killers out of Bob and Paul. Once you’ve made a killer out of a person, you can’t undo it. For the rest of their lives they are killers. The only question is whether they choose to kill or not. Good Ol’ Uncle Sam.

  So here they were in another jam. Bob and Mike had set up the scene in the woods to look like a murder-suicide. They estimated that the local law enforcement would buy into that. Everyone of consequence hated the two perverts and no one was going to care much about what happened to them. And the law enforcement was faced with a limited budget so the best solution all the way around was to go with murder-suicide and look the other way. Bob, Mike and Paul estimated that they had almost one hundred percent probability of it working out this way.

  The big risk was this stranger. He was a witness. Could he keep his mouth shut? And not shut just for the weekend but for the rest of his life. There is no statute of limitations for murder.

  He might want to keep his mouth shut but what if he had a nervous breakdown or a sudden religious conversion, requiring him to cleanse his soul? Maybe he liked to brag to his friends at the local watering hole. He was an unknown quantity, a big risk.

  The only thing they had going for them was that the stranger had killed one of the guys. If he had gone to the authorities right away, he could have pleaded self-defense but it was too late for that. By now he was part of a murder cover-up. Actually more than that; he abetted in the second murder. Rationally, this made the stranger on their side and there was no reason for this stranger to go to the authorities. But if he wasn’t rational, what then?

  At a minimum they needed to know more about the stranger. One of the first things Mike had done was to contact a private investigator in Ohio who he had worked with many times and could trust. By tomorrow morning Mike would have a preliminary report on the stranger and in a few day’s time he would have a full report on the stranger’s credit history, his income tax information, his military records, his education, his family, his friends, criminal record, if any, his employment history, in short, a complete history on the stranger. That would give them a better estimate of the stranger’s character.

  One thing for sure, Mike was not going to rest until he knew everything there was to know about this stranger. Also he was going to keep tabs on him to make sure he didn’t talk or go to the
authorities. That was for sure unless he could talk Bob and Paul into killing him first. That is what they should do. In the long run it would be less hassle and less risk and cost less, too.

  They couldn’t kill him at The Cabin after he was here as a guest but they could easily kill him on his way back to Ohio. It could be a road accident or a “trooper” could pull him over and kill him. It wouldn’t be the first time that had happened. Paul could come up with a plan. Mike was going to work on Bob and Paul to do the right thing. They needed to kill this stranger.

  What a life. It seemed as if all that Mike had known was killing. He really didn’t take any joy in it but then he didn’t have any feeling against it either. It was just something that came into his life early and never left. His childhood had been full of hardship and no joy. He didn’t know what it was like to have a family. The closest he had come to a family was in the army and then coming to West Virginia with Bob.

  Then a beautiful thing happened. He met Frankie. Frankie had changed his life. He never understood why but Frankie loved him and he had fallen deeply in love with her. To her credit she seemed to understand him and his background. He, of course, never talked about the killings but he sensed that Frankie knew and accepted it as part of their life.

  Frankie had come from a broken, dysfunctional home. She had experienced things that she refused to talk about. Maybe they were cut from the same or similar cloth. They were happy together but agreed never to have children. They realized that they knew nothing good about rearing children.

  Frankie was a case. She could assess a person’s character faster and more accurately than anyone he had ever known. She wasn’t analytical and she didn’t collect a lot of data like Bob, Paul or Mike would. She looked at a stranger and “just knew.”

  Mike had arranged for Frankie to sit across from the stranger at dinner. He hadn’t said anything but it was her job to take a reading on the stranger. She had turned on her considerable charm and the stranger hadn’t bitten. He maintained his cool and didn’t flirt. Of course, Mike was sitting right there but he got the impression that it didn’t matter. Frankie worked the stranger all through dinner. At the end she decided she liked the stranger and believed that they could trust him. She thought Jack was a man of character, trustworthy, held friendships as sacred. Yeah, he was living in his wife’s house but he didn’t let it bother him and he didn’t kowtow to his wife. He had a big man’s sense of confidence and didn’t need the accolades of friends or other people. He was an intellectual and a thinker. She couldn’t say enough good things about the stranger. Gee, in the end he thought maybe she had fallen in love with the stranger.

  He knew that wasn’t really true. Without Mike, Frankie was half a person and lost in the world. Without Frankie, Mike was a hollow person. They made each other whole. They fit together like pieces of a puzzle and they didn’t need any other pieces. Together they made a whole.

  Above all Mike respected Frankie’s thoughts and especially her assessment of people. If she trusted the stranger, then maybe they could trust him. Frankie was seldom wrong about these things.

  Jane was another matter all together. She had taken Mike aside and broke down into tears telling him how this stranger had come out of nowhere and voluntarily saved them from a humiliating torture and death. Mike wasn’t a soft touch but he liked Jane and her pleas affected him. But their freedom was at stake. If this stranger talked, it could mean prison for the rest of their lives.

  He knew that Paul was on the fence about what to do. He wanted more data. Paul and his damn spreadsheets. He always wanted more data. He was a pencil and paper guy, well, computer guy nowadays, whereas Mike was more of an action guy. Paul wanted to study it to death. That is okay if you have data but what if you don’t have enough data and the consequences of a wrong decision so large? The rest of their lives depended on being right.

  Still Paul was a cool guy. He had gotten them out of many jams, especially at work in Bob’s company. Paul could plan like no other. He was inventive and creative. His thoughts and ideas were always worth listening to.

  And Liz? He honestly couldn’t read Liz. Liz had always been a mystery to Mike. She seemed to go along with whatever Paul wanted, at least in public, but Mike thought that she had considerable influence with Paul in private. Paul and Liz were another strong couple who got along well together and functioned as a team. They would work out their ideas about the stranger and in the morning would present a united front. That said, Mike estimated that they were on the fence and wanted to see more data in the morning.

  Well, they couldn’t do any more today. Mike was going to bed. They could take on this mess again in the morning. Perhaps they would have more data from Ohio.

  Frankie was ready for bed. God, he loved her. She was his whole life. He couldn’t live or didn’t want to live without her by his side, literally. He loved it when she snuggled up to him in bed. According to macho lore, real men didn’t like to snuggle. Well, Mike liked it. Frankie was his other half and he wanted to keep it that way. If the stranger had to go to do that, then that was what would happen.

  Chapter 4

  Paul and Liz Jackson

  Paul was on the horns of a dilemma. It was clear that Bob wanted to let Jack live but it was equally clear that Bob’s judgment was clouded by the fact that Jack had saved his and Jane’s life. That could cloud anyone’s judgment.

  On the other hand he could see that Mike wanted to kill Jack just to be safe. There is nothing wrong with safe except when it involves taking a life.

  Worse, Bob had insisted on keeping Jack here until tomorrow. That meant it wouldn’t be safe to kill Jack at The Cabin. Paul had argued strongly that they take Jack to a motel that night. Paul had one picked out that was fifty miles away. It was perfect. But Bob had prevailed and Jack was staying at The Cabin. Well, maybe that wasn’t so bad. They didn’t want to kill Jack at The Cabin anyway. Too messy.

  Paul owed his life to Bob and Bob was his boss. He most always did what Bob wanted. But this was a big decision. Their freedom might depend on this decision. It wasn’t just some business deal, which if it went bad, there would be another business deal down the road. This was a bet-all-of-your-marbles decision. It had to be right but what was right?

  Paul liked planning and he liked spreadsheets full of data. He loved using math and logic to solve problems. He did almost all of the tactical project planning for Bob’s company and he was good at it. He could plan out huge construction projects with spreadsheets, workflow diagrams, hour estimates, cost estimates, material requirements, all kinds of logistics and he was almost always right on the money. He loved it.

  What he didn’t like so much was making judgment calls. Decisions without enough data. That is what they faced here. Mike had hired a detective in Ohio to investigate Jack but on the weekend they were going to get only preliminary data by the next day.

  Paul sipped his brandy. The brandy wasn’t going to help make a better decision but it was something to do while he thought it through. He had been pacing himself all evening and he was stone cold sober and in a quandary.

  Jack had a family back in Ohio. In addition to depriving the family of a husband and a father, they had to consider what the family might do if Jack didn’t come home. It sounded to Paul as if Jack’s wife’s family had a lot of money and was very influential in Ohio. That being the case the family could bring heat down on them if things went wrong and there was an investigation. That wasn’t good. As Mike would say, ah crap, nothing is good about this situation.

  Well, maybe one good thing. It didn’t sound as if Jack’s family knew exactly where he was riding. So if Jack disappeared, the authorities wouldn’t know where to start looking. Maybe. Jack hadn’t stayed in a motel so there was no record there. One problem was that, under questioning, Jack mentioned he had gotten gas with a credit card. That left a record and an arrow pointing in this direction. That was bad.

  Bob wanted to let Jack live and Mike wanted him dead. That left
Paul in the middle making the final decision. Well, of course the women had a vote as well because this affected their lives too. Jane, of course, wanted to let Jack live. In fact, she had caught Paul alone and had made a teary plea for his release. Jane was an emotional wreck from almost being raped and killed, seeing Jack kill a man and being nearby while Bob killed a man. She knew she would not have left the woods alive without Jack. Sure, she would vote in favor of letting Jack live.

  Frankie’s opinion was going to be important as usual. First, she always judged people accurately. Second, she would influence Mike. Everyone thought that Mike was a tough SOB and ran the family but Paul knew better. True, Mike was tough but he never ran rough shod over Frankie. Frankie was his love and his life. He always listened to her.

  Paul had never figured out Frankie’s background or where she came from. She refused to discuss it no matter how much she drank and she could drink. Booze didn’t seem to affect her much. In any case she never talked about her childhood or where she grew up. Mike never talked about her background. Maybe he didn’t know. He didn’t talk about his childhood much either but Paul knew it wasn’t a happy one. He knew Mike had grown up in the social services network, which was more or less childhood jail. They were a pair and they enjoyed each other’s company. They were so tight together that you couldn’t slide a piece of paper between them. Their love for each other was strong and something to admire. You didn’t see that much in real life.

  One would think therefore Frankie would vote with Mike. Well, think again. Frankie had her ideas, opinions and thoughts. No one except Frankie could influence or change her mind, including Mike. This had always amazed Paul. It had also caused Paul to develop a strong, unshakable faith in Frankie’s judgment. Paul thought that one should always listen closely to Frankie.