Storymania - A Sloppy Job by Rosenthal

A Sloppy Job
Rosenthal

I turned on the wipers as I raced down the street. Rain streaked across the windshield and seeing through it was a difficult task. The ’94 Toyota I was in skidded and jerked left; it was going off the road. I slammed on the brakes while turning right, it wouldn’t work; I was going to crash. I hit the tree at such a sharp angle that the car flipped on its side. The last thing I saw was a flash of lightning and then I passed out, I knew I wasn’t going to wake up; this was the end of officer Tony Johnson.

16 hours earlier

“Wake up Tony! You’ll be late for work!” my wife Elisa shouted, nudging me on the arm with a surprising amount of force.
“Ten more minutes,” I mumbled while burying my head in the comfort of my pillow.
“You have fifteen minutes!”
I sat bolt upright. “If I’m late one more time they’re suspending me for a week without pay!”

I jumped out of bed, threw on some pants, and quickly put on my shirt. I grabbed the .32 cal from my dresser and slid it into the holster on my hip. I half ran, half fell down the stairs and made my way through the kitchen. Elisa handed me a cup of coffee and I kissed her goodbye.
The old ’94 Toyota was waiting in the garage for me right where I left it. I got in and took off. The police station I worked at, thankfully, was only a couple blocks down the street and I made it with a minute to spare.

“Mornin’ Johnson,” Keith said through a mouthful of donut “What cases you got for today?” Keith is the nosy type; he always has to know what’s happening to everybody, everywhere. He also happens to be my best friend.

“Not much,” I replied leafing through my paper, “I got a robbery down on the Southside at a gas station, and a stolen vehicle a couple blocks down.”

“I got to file criminal reports all day!” he exclaimed rather unhappily.

“Well Keith, I’m off,” I walked out of the building and drove to the site of the robbery.

“Ok everyone down! No one move put your hands over your head, and my assistant will tie them together!” He turned to the cashier “You,” He brandished the gun in his left hand and pointed it at the cashiers face “Get the drugs from the back and make it quick”

“Sir, I told you already I have no idea what your…”

The cashier was dead before he finished the sentence. Both shots fired went squarely between his eyes; he felt no pain.

He pointed towards the manager, “Get the drugs together and be back here with them in two minutes or your face wont look much different then your friends.”

The manager rushed off and was back in seconds. He pushed a cart loaded with bags labeled fertilizer.

“Excellent. Thank you for your help, its been appreciated.”

Two more shots rang out and caught the manager in the eye. He did feel pain, but his death was almost as quick as the last.

The two men loaded the drugs into their black SUV and returned to the shop. An elderly woman with curly gray hair, a purple scarf, and a purple handbag had gotten up in the robbers’ absence and was dialing the police. They both cursed out loud. The younger of the two took out his gun and shot the old lady square in the chest. She screamed and fell. There could be no survivors now that the police were involved. The elder of the robbers, and the smarter, unsheathed his pistol and shot the remaining victims. This had been a sloppy job.

They both calmly strolled out of the gas station and got into the car. They went out of the parking lot and made a left.

“Well at least there will be no survivors to screw it up for us,” The elder one said from the passenger seat.

“I still can’t believe I shot an old lady,” the younger replied.

Then they both laughed, a sick, cynical laugh.

“Jesus Christ!” I said as I walked into the gas station, “What the hell happened here? It doesn’t seem like an ordinary robbery.”

As I walked towards the counter I passed by several bodies being put into body bags and I had a sudden urge to vomit. I even saw an old lady dead on the ground.

“Whoever did this must have been a pretty sick bastard.”

“Actually, bastards,” said a female officer.

“There was more than one?” I asked, “How many?”

“Two.”

“And how do we know this?”

“All of the victims that were shot had two bullet holes in their head, usually between the eyes or in the eyes. The old lady who was murdered had one bullet shot to the chest.”

“So...”

“So there were two accomplices. The one who shot all of the victims but the old lady always used two bullets and always aimed for the head. The other murderer didn’t have a pattern and just shot the old lady in the chest.”

“Did we get any info on these guys?”

“How could we? Everyone’s dead.”

“They didn’t leave anything behind or drop something or anything?”

“Nope. It looks like they planned it well.”

“What was taken?”

“A couple bags of fertilizer.”

“You must be joking,” I said with a quiet laugh, “fertilizer?”

“We were also confused, but we have a way of finding out if those were actually fertilizer. One of the cashiers who use to work there is in the county jail right now for armed robbery; we’re questioning him about the whole thing.”

“Alright,” I said, “I got to go check out a stolen vehicle; get back to me if you get any information at all.”

“Will do, sir.”

“Call me Tony,” and then I left.



“Hello Boss, we got the drugs.”

“Excellent work, but you did a sloppy job. Everyone dead! The police will be investigating this so be on the lookout. We can make a killing on this! Take a break, you deserved it.”

“For how long?”

“A couple hours, I have your next job set up for tonight; be ready.”

I ran home for a quick lunch before returning to the office. When I got home I kissed Elisa and talked about her day so far. I told her of the robbery and murder and she became frightened, almost as if this were happening to her family.

“I promise I wont get hurt,” I told her reassuringly “But I need to find out who these guys are and I might need to go looking for them; Ill call you every hour,” I promised

I kissed her goodbye and went back to the office. The female officer from the gas station was talking to Keith, apparently waiting for me to show up. I walked over to the two and said, “Whatsup? We got anything new on the murder?”

“As a matter of fact we do,” she responded triumphantly.

“Well, what is it?”

“When we questioned the prisoner we found out that there was an underground drug emporium in that gas station.”

“Wow,” I exclaimed, “How’d you get him to give you that?”

“We decided to go the no fail way and offered him two years off of his sentence; He told us everything we needed to know.”

“So they stole a shit-load of drugs…for themselves?”

“Not quite. We think that whoever did this is working for the head honcho of the drug mafia here: Antonio Veraguazzi.”

“How can you assume that?”

“He is the only one in town who would pay people to steal over a hundred thousand dollars worth of drugs.”

“So what’s are plan now?”

“We wait for the next move and then we trump it.”

The two men in the SUV pulled up to the house. They crept up silently and went to the backdoor. It was locked.

“Damn,” said the older one “What are we gonna do now?”

“Let me take care of it.”

The younger took a silenced pistol out and shot the lock. The bullet exploded through the mechanism and tore it to shreds; the door swung open. It was quiet, and then a sudden movement. They turned, a cat came walking past them and walked out the door looking at the two men, thanking them with his eyes. They made their way to kitchen. On the left were stairs going up, on the right were stairs going down.

“I’ll take the basement,” advised the younger one, “There will be people upstairs and you’ll be able to deal with them better than I”

They parted. The older got to the top and swung his pistol steadily in all directions, covering his position. He stopped. A toilet flushed in what sounded like the master bedroom’s bathroom. He turned and walked towards the door, it was open slightly and he saw a man walking towards the bed. A woman lay in bed not being disturbed by her husband re-entering the bed. The murderer opened the door and in two long strides was at the side of the bed. He pointed the gun at the mans head.

“Don’t make a sound,” he whispered, “Wouldn’t want to wake her up,” He motioned to the woman.

“Now get the drugs and be silent and quick, if you make a move of retaliation my assistant downstairs will kill you if I can’t. As soon as the man got up the woman reached under the pillow and picked up a gun. She aimed at him.

“Drop the gun”

The younger of the two murderers had no luck downstairs. He scanned dusty bookshelves without finding a thing; he looked through storage boxes and found nothing. No luck; there were no drugs down here. He walked back up the stairs and sat down at the kitchen table. He was waiting for his companion.

“Ok, I’m on my way,” I hung up, “Keith, you’re comin’ with me. I just got a phone call from a man who thinks two men, who drove up in a black SUV, are breaking into his house. These could be our guys. Lets go.”

We got into the old Toyota and drove off. I sped down the street in the direction of the house.

‘These better be our guys,’ I thought.

The older murderer was stunned. A few seconds ago the woman lie asleep in the bed and he was in control, now the tides had turned. What would he do? He had to get that gun out of her hand; but how? He had an idea. He grabbed the man and used him as a human shield; then he aimed at his head.

“One move from you and I blow his brains out. Now,” he directed conversation to the man, “Where are the drugs?”

“They’re in the pantry in the kitchen, in bags labeled flour.”

“Thanks for your help, its been appreciated.”

He shot the man in the side of the head and threw his body on top of the lady. She pushed it off but the motion was just enough time for the murderer to act. He shot her in the head too but this time in his favorite spot. The first bullet landed on the bridge of her nose and the second above the left eye. She was dead; they were both dead. The murderer, pleased, walked down the stairs; he found his companion and got the drugs. They headed for the car.

“What happened upstairs?” the younger one asked.

“I shot the man and then I shot his wife. They’re both dead. Lets go we got the stuff.”

They loaded up the drugs in the backseat of the SUV. As soon as they closed the doors three police cars came out of nowhere. The older murderer jumped in the drivers seat and took off. He didn’t care that he left the younger one, he needed to escape and fast. Leaving the younger one might have even been advantageous to him to slow down the cops for questioning; apparently not. What looked like an old, white Toyota from the early nineties came rushing out after the SUV.

“Shit!” yelled the murderer.

He got on the highway and sped up. He heard thunder, and then it started pouring rain like god had just dropped a large pitcher of water onto the earth. The Toyota was still behind him; he had to lose it. He got off the highway and sped down a narrow street. He heard a gunshot. He looked back; the cop was shooting at his tires. He sped on.

It was pouring rain. One of the murderers had been taken into custody to be questioned. The other was not giving up as easily; I had to slow him down. I took out my .32 caliber and leaned out the window, after about 5 shots I hit his back left wheel. The car spun and crashed right off the road. I looked and hoped he was dead, I hoped that every inch of his body had been crushed on the impact, and that he lay in the wreckage so mangled and disfigured that not even a loved one would be able to identify him.

I turned on the wipers and looked back at the road. I hadn’t noticed but the car had started skidding left. I jerked right and braked but it didn’t work. The car smacked into a tree and flipped. I looked up and saw lightning. It was the end, I was dead, but at least so was the murderer. I left consciousness feeling better that I was going to leave my wife in a world safer. I passed out, there was no pain, it was over.

I woke up in a hospital bed with casts all over my body. I looked up and wondered why I was still alive. I looked over to the side and my heart stopped. I saw Elisa. She looked even more beautiful then the day before. I smiled.

“Your awake!” she screamed

The doctor ran in “Are you feeling all right Mr. Johnson?” I nodded; I couldn’t talk from the breathing mask that was on my face. He filled out some paper work and walked out briskly. Elisa grabbed my hand, I looked at her and she smiled.

“I’m pregnant,” she said.

I closed my eyes and fell asleep. Everything would be fine after all.