The Private Investigator

Chapter 2: Hitman

Sitting alone in a booth at the local Waffle House, Dan Crawlers sat quietly staring at his plate of fresh pancakes. He used his fork to push them in small circles smearing the syrup all over his plate until it covered every inch. He was grieving again, year after year on the same day, at the same time he would sit in the same booth as he once did that very day years ago with his wife. That morning years ago they sat and ate breakfast together before they went their separate ways to work. Both of them sharing a stack of four pancakes, two for each of them, sharing smiles back and forth, joking, talking, and just simply having a loving breakfast date.

They had been together since middle school, now in their thirties, and more in love than ever before. They chose to have a special breakfast date every Friday morning before work and kept it that way for many years. It was one simple way they kept their love alive. That day was different, she had an important meeting to get to by 8:30 and he begged for her to stay just a few minutes longer but she insisted on going. Before they parted ways they shared a kiss and expressed their love for one another. *A sudden bang on the table behind him pulled him from his thoughts. He didn't bother to look back to see who was there. The couple sat down behind him and began talking about something that made his ears perk up and listen in. "Can you believe Carrol has been gone for four years now?" The woman asked her friend that sat across from her. 'Carrol, are they talking about my Carrol?' Dan wondered, and the woman continued, "I wonder how Dan is doing though, no one has seen or heard from him since the funeral." They were talking about his wife, not only his wife, but him as well. He continued to listen as the other lady spoke up. "I heard they still haven't found her body yet."

"I know. What makes things even worse is there is word going around that she might not even really be dead. They can't prove her death without a body. We just did the funeral for Dan's sake and her family's sake. They needed closure."

With that he broke into tears and stood up turning toward the women behind him. "Dan! Oh my goodness I am so sorry, I didn't know you were here." The first woman said, shocked to see him. He said nothing and stomped out. He went back home and called The P.I Headquarters. "I just found out my wife that has supposedly been dead for the past four years may still be alive and I want someone to help me find her." He said almost demanding their help.

Cheyenne and Jim arrived at Dan's house to gather information about Carrol. With Cheyenne's skills it took her no time at all to find out Carrol really was still alive. The only problem was finding her. Carrol was placed in a whiteness protection program and was being hidden from the world so her life would be spared. That much they knew due to the large data base only used by P.Is, police, CIA, and FBI. Cheyenne questioned Dan about her favorite places to go and about her personal habits. They needed to start somewhere and Cheyenne knew that would be the best place to start. Maybe she would slip up and revisit one of those places. They went to Target, Solar Nails, EarthBound, Wal-Mart, and several other places asking all the employees if they have seen the woman in the picture they provided. Obviously they all said no because Carrol would not look like herself. Her appearance would have been altered.

"Dammit Jim, it's all your fault." Cheyenne said

"What did I do?"

"I can't work with a damn partner. I knew she wouldn't look like she does in these pictures but having you around made me make a vital mistake!"

"Vital Mistake?"

"Yes, obviously her life is in danger because she is in a protection program right?"

"Right."

"Now, let's say one of the people we asked wants her dead, well, guess what idiot! Now they know she is alive and we are looking for her. 1. All they have to do is follow us! 2. They will find her and kill her! Maybe even us too!"

"Why are you so damn dramatic?"

Cheyenne didn't take to well with Jim asking her that and decided to leave him stranded. She ran away from him, jumped in the car, and took off before he realized what she was doing. She went back to her office and started researching more about Carrol, alone, just the way she liked it. She hated distractions and Jim was a bit on the slow side which was a big distraction for her because she kept having to slow her pace so he could catch up. Ten minutes into her research her phone rang. "Cheyenne speaking." She said. "I'm watching you." The voice whispered. Cheyenne pulled her phone away from her head to look at the number. "Who the hell are you?" The line went dead. "Jim, if that was you I will kick your ass." She said rolling her eyes and returning her phone to it's clip case attached to her hip.

She continued her search and ran across an article from The Staten News Paper. The head line read : Local woman disappeared after testifying against notorious Mafia member. She didn't think it had anything to do with the case at first until she opened it and read the date stamp. November 14, 2005 "That was four years ago, it might have something to do with it." She said softly to herself and began reading.

"Local mafia member Eric Bistone was imprisoned today for murdering one of his own members, Jake Idle. They were located in the alley behind Aregal's Reality off Sydney Street. Eric and Jake were apparently fighting over money when Eric pulled a knife from his pocket and slashed Jake's throat. Eric was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison without the possibility of parole. We extend a huge thank you to Mrs. Carrol Crawlers for helping us identify the man that committed this heinous crime."

"Well, looks like I just figured out why she is in whiteness protection. They just completely put her on blast for all to see without even thinking that this is a Mafia. They see who ratted out one of their own, they are going to come after you." Cheyenne put 'Carrol Crawlers' in her data base search engine just to see if any more articles with her name in it would come up, and it did. "Local woman declared dead after trial." Was the headline.

****

After Carrol and her husband parted ways for work that dreaded day four years ago, she climbed into her cherry red dodge charger and drove to work as usual. She had an early morning meeting and wanted to make a good impression due to the possibility of her getting a promotion so she didn't smoke a cigarette on her ride to work like she usually did. Instead, she would wait for her 10:15 smoke break. She was a realtor at Aregal's Reality, and heard that she might be getting her own building due to her number of sales being in the lead by a landslide. She was right! They called the meeting to tell her they were going to start construction on her own building the following month. After the meeting she was so excited she called her husband while walking to the alley behind the building in the designated smoking area. She rounded the corner still looking at her phone, a man yelled out in front of her, she looked up and was struck with a horrifying sight.

***

Cheyenne skimmed through the article, Carrol Crawlers body has not been found, declared dead five months into search. "She isn't dead, who the hell is Eric Bistone?" Chyenne said talking to herself. She typed his name into the data base and found out he was a leader of one of the biggest Mafia groups in the city. He had escaped prison six months after being convicted. Jim barged into Cheyenne's office soaking wet staring at her with an angry look on his face, then quickly turned it into a smile when she looked up at him. "Well, hello beautiful! Surprised to see me? I would be too. Were you aware that it was going to rain? Yea, me either, so I walked all the way back in the pouring rain. Oh and another thing I found Carrol. Your Welcome!"