I drove home and dove head first into my work. I filmed a few videos all morning and then I spent the afternoon editing everything to make it look and sound as good as possible. After that I went by the station to see my friend Al Bradovic. He and I have been friends for years. We actually served in Iraq together and we have been really tight ever since. I consider him a brother.
“Ok, Al, what have you got for me?” I asked as I sat down with him in his office.
He closed the door behind me and then went behind his desk where he fished out two small paper cups and a bottle of scotch. “It’s whiskey time. What a damn day.”
“Rough one?” I asked, pretending to care.
“Oh, don’t get me started. But about this woman… Zion? Yeah, apparently that guy she was with was into some bad things. Mostly he had a shit ton of gambling debts.”
“Yeah, I figured it was something like that.”
“That’s not all, though. While searching through his history and his known associates, I stumbled on something. When the officers searched Tyler’s place, they found a briefcase under his bed containing one hundred thousand dollars cash.”
“Interesting,” I said.
“Yeah, and that got me thinking. Why? We did a search on the bills and they were registered to an account owned by Roger Mayfield, a wealthy entrepreneur who was murdered a few months back during a home invasion. His safe was raided. One hundred and fifty thousand dollars were missing. Guess how much debt Tyler owed? Eighty-five thousand. That’s hard to pay off for a guy of Tyler’s station. He wasn’t a big, fancy deal making lawyer yet. He was really just getting his feet wet.”
“Right. That sounds a bit more than a coincidence, right?”
“Right.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” he said. “Now, the best I can figure is that Tyler went in on a job with these guys for the money, which he probably set it all up, and then he refused to pay them or he was busy racking up more gambling debts and dolling the money out for it. The guy was pretty twisted, or he just got himself in so deep he couldn’t swim out of it.”
“Right.”
“That’s very good work,” I said. “Zion will be pleased to hear it.”
“Zion… that’s an interesting name. So, you having any hanky panky with this woman?”
I rolled my eyes. “Why are you going there?”
“Because, I saw her and she is rather hot looking. Plus, smart and ambitious Those are tough qualities to come by in the same woman. She just might be a keeper. You can’t tell me that you haven’t thought of it.”
“She’s an attractive woman, but I’m not looking to turn this into a thing. I’m just trying to help her out and do the right thing. She needs help. That is all. Just let me know when you find out more or get a lead on who these guys might actually be.”
“Yeah, I’m already ahead of you. We might have something soon. I’ll get back with you.”
“Thanks, Al.”
I left the police station and went to the law firm where Zion worked to pick her up. When she got in the car I filled her in on everything that Al had told me. She listened patiently.
“Ok, that’s good. We have something to go on. I just can’t believe that Tyler was mixed up with all of that noise,” she said.
As I looked at her, something in my brain began to click. I felt an odd warming sensation all over me and I realized that I was lusting hard after her. She was quite a woman and I wondered what if…
“Hey, are you hungry?” I asked.
“I could eat, yeah…”
“Well, let’s grab a bite somewhere.”
“Ok. That sounds great.”
I drove us to Jim’s, a great BBQ and steak place I love to go to. The portions are outrageously huge and the meat is always so tender that you can hardly believe it. I hadn’t been there in a few weeks at least and that meant I’d stayed away too long.
We went inside and found us a nice booth in a semi-dark corner. It was the perfect place for us to be alone and just get to know each other without the stress of everything else coming down on us. We could breathe easy for at least an hour or so and just have a meal.
“So, where do you see yourself in five years?” I asked a little bit tongue in cheek.
She smiled, which was the intended response. “I don’t know, but hopefully alive. Hell, I’d settle for five hours from now with that one.”
“You’ve got to let that fear go. I know it’s easier said than done but it’s going to eat away at you until you become paralyzed. Fear makes people do even stupider things than anger does. Emotions are your worst enemy at a time like this. They override your rational judgment. It’s ironic that you become so focused on survival that you end up putting your very survival at risk.”