The Delivery Man - Chapter One
Thursday 6pm. The house of Jane Redwood, Lake Forest, California.
The bedroom was dark with just a candle burning infront of the picture of Jesus Christ.
Jane was kneeling on the floor, her forehead touching the ground. The intense crying had her body shaking.
“O God… please forgive me for not having loved back my mom… AAAAAA… please forgive me dear Jesus… aaaa… please forgive me… please forgive me… please don’t… please don’t let me die… please don’t let me die…”
The man sat on a chair next to her. His face was devoid on any emotions. He had been sitting there for less than a few minutes.
He moved next to Jane and caressed her hair as he moved his hands on the back of her head. As he moved to her neck, the softness of his hands turned into a firm grip.
“It’s time” He spoke softly in her ear.
Jane’s sobbing intensified… “Please forgive me… please forgive… please don’t do this…”
He wasn’t listening. He gently stuck the needle in the back of her neck and pushed the contents of the injection inside Jane.
A few seconds later Jane’s sobbing withdrew… she was murmuring something in her mouth, that he couldn’t understand.
The man packed picked up the empty vial from the floor and along with the injection and dropped it in Jane’s open palm.
Then he waited… till he heard the last of Jane’s breath. He checked her pulse. There was none. The life of Jane Redwood was extinguished.
He picked up his shoulder bag and walked out of house carefully leaving the door slightly ajar.
His car was parked about 3 blocks away. Not close enough to be observed, not far away to not escape.
He drove his car 30 miles north to a beach city where he had a few rounds of Rum and Coke. He then drove to Northern Hollywood where he picked up a prostitute.
“Hey sexy… long time no see”
“Been busy… get in the car”
She tried to make small talk but knew he wasn’t the type. “Same old?”
“Yes”
She unzipped his pants and went down on him…
The man closed his eyes… he was hard… the prostitute was now deep throating… his eyes shut harder… and then… the tears rolled down… he was sobbing… the prostitute didn’t stop… she had seen it all many times before… she expected his prayer to start soon… a few more hard sucks and the first words came out of her clients mouth…
“O God… forgive me for my sins for I know not what I do. My karma… is that I follow without a thought without a pause… but yet I remain focussed on you O Lord… forgive me if I have sinned today… for I just remain a mere tool that carries out the goodness, and eliminating the pain…
Forgive me O Lord for I’m a mere Delivery Man.”
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10am. Vertigo Systemz Inc. Santa Monica, California.
Venkat Raman a.k.a. Venky had was engrossed in his computer screen trying to find the bug in the two thousand line code.
He had been at Vertigo for more than three years. Initially brought it on a three month contract, the managers at Vertigo were impressed by Venky’s talent and decided to make him a permanent employee. They loved Venky for his work and his focus on the job.
It had been three years, but Venky spoke to no one at his work place except to his boss and in meetings to his collegeas. He never received any phone calls and no one had seen him make one. He never browsed the internet nor did he have any chat programs on his computer. Venky would arrive at 6 sharp and leave work at 3pm. He had his lunch on his desk and never mingled with others at work. He had never stepped into an office party or an office weekend get together. No one know if he had a family or if he was single.
Venky was an mystery. The only thing the entire office knew was that he was a genius and had accomplished unthinkable tasks at the work place.
And Vertigo’s bosses had no complaints either. They preferred guys like Venky and over a couple of scotches would lament that they couldn’t find more guys like him.
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The photographs were being taken from all possible angles to cover as much ground around the body as possible. The detectives back on the 6th floor would spend a couple of hours over it… find nothing and trash it.
Garcia got up and stepped back from where Jane lay on the floor.
“Ok I’m done here”
He looked up and eyed Officer Glover to walk out with him. Glover and Garcia were childhood friends. Garcia had made it to Detective while Glover had failed the exams again on his third attempt and was stuck being the cop.
“So what do you think?” Glover asked as he offered a gum to Garcia.
“What do you think?” Garcia looked at him with a smile as he took the gum and popped it in.
“Suicide maybe? Neighbors say the lady was quite unhappy and depressed in the last few days. She had quit her job a month ago and since then had rarely ventured out of her house.”
“Hmm… but it doesn’t look like suicide… tell me how flexible do you have to be to take an injection and twist your hand to be able to reach the center at the back of your neck, to inject yourself with fatal poison. Why would anyone do that?”
“You know I did notice that…”
Garcia laughed and took a jab… “O Yeah… you did notice… you didn’t say it…”
Glover was used to this… “Hey you were busy and I was waiting for you to be done… come on…”… he noticed Officer Lee walking towards them… “What’s up Lee?”
Lee acknowledged Garcia before turning to Glover… “The postman was delivering mail quite late yesterday. He says he saw a guy enter the house around quarter to six…”
“He did? Do you have a description”
“Yeah…” Lee looked at his notes “Hispanic male 6 foot, black hair, wearing glasses… wearing a white dress shirt and brown pants… aaaaand…. wearing a black shoulder bag”
“Did he get a good look?”
“Yeah… he says he can identify him if he sees him again”
Garcia turned to Glover “Dude… check for prints”
“But we just did”
“No… check for them again… and do look for prints on the door bell and the handle”
Glover nodded with displeasure “Okay boss”
“Thanks dude… I’ve gotta leave… are we meeting at the bar tonight?”
“Yeah sure… you’re buying for making me go through this check for prints shit again”
Garcia smiled as he turned back to walk to his car…
Lee called him out… “O Detective… One more thing!”
Garcia turned around…
“The mail guy said he was quite positive the shoulder bag was a laptop bag… he did mention the guy was Hispanic looking but said… he could have been of East India Origin”
Garcia paused. Software Engineer?
March 5th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
oooh nice start… looking forward to chapter 2 :d
March 5th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
yippeee!!!! yeh hui na baat!
Good to have the good old Oz back in action [ the old thums up jingle is playing in my mind ] with a new thriller (perhaps?) .
March 5th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
= thanks guys. Chapter 2 tomorrow.
March 6th, 2007 at 7:23 am
Good start….:-)