And if the ME boys have to pull my cold body out of this office chair to tie on that toe tag, so be it.
Metaphorically speaking…
Every night around nine o’clock, Stanley Dowbrowski poured himself his usual nightcap of a double Buffalo Trace bourbon over three ice cubes. Sometimes, he might even slip and pour three shots. Then he would bring the cocktail into the office and make one last check of his e-mail. He also usually clicked on the website of his local newspaper to see what the forecast was for the next day’s weather. And he’d run the program that backed up the files on his computer’s internal hard drive to an external drive that he kept in his fireproof safe.
Then he would grab a book from the bookshelf-tonight he was excited about a new novel by a Florida cop named James O. Born-then take it and his bourbon down the hall to his bedroom. And there he’d climb in between the sheets and read till the nightcap kicked in.
He stared at the screen now, which showed the news story on the hospital shooting:
ARMED MAN MURDERS BURN VICTIM BEFORE FLEEING HOSPITAL, FIRING AT POLICE
While police remain mum on details of the murder, witnesses claim gunman fired shots at man who shouted “Police!” while chasing gunman from hospital.
He scrolled down to see if the story had been updated.
And he found that there was something new. It was a single-sentence paragraph at the end of the article:
Update (5:44 p.m.): According to the anonymous source inside the hospital, the patient who was shot to death was J. Warren Olde, Jr.
Then Dowbrowski scrolled down to the comments section. His comment was there, of course:
From Hung.Up.Badge.But.Not.Gun (2:56 p.m.):
I talked to an inside source, too, and was told that this was a hit job. Maybe not a professional one, but the burn victim (there?s more to that story that I cannot share) was targeted. So sad to see this happening in Philly. I?ll say it again: Shoot?em all and let the Good Lord sort?em out.
And below it there were five new postings, including one that seemed vaguely familiar:
From Death.Before.Dishonor (3:20 p.m.):
What about “Thou Shalt Not Steal”??
The only sad thing about what happened is the gun didn?t empty all of its bullets into that pendejo! Skipper deserved every damn bullet!
Recommend [0] Click Here to Report Abuse And he repeated to himself: “Something there’s not right.”
At three twenty, that article had not ID’d who got shot.
And it sure as hell hadn’t said “Skipper.”
I only know the guy’s name was Skipper Olde because Stephanie told me. And that he was the son of that McMansion builder.
He glanced over at the secondary LCD screen, where he could see the e-mail in-box. The list of e-mails included Stephanie’s.
Maybe this guy knew him, too?
But how did he find out?
And that screen name, “Death.B
efore.Dishonor,” rings a bell.
Where the hell else I have seen it?
He sipped his bourbon, then clicked around the newspaper site, trying to remember.
He saw a link in the box that read TODAY’S MOST READ ARTICLES.
In the box was: 2 DEAD AFTER METH LAB EXPLODES, BURNS PHILLY INN MOTEL.