The Shasta Caper, Chapter Seven completed

Chapter Seven Continued

He closed his eyes. They had a good length of flight ahead of them. Normally, they could take a non-stop and get there in about three hours, but this flight was going to be stopping at least twice and they had to transfer once as well. So eight hours. He groaned inwardly, but such is the vagaries of life, when you try to help others you can't put boundaries on the time it takes.

A tall man climbed into the chair behind him and arranged himself. His knees pressed into the back of Samuel's chair and he groaned inwardly again. He wouldn't be able to lean back in the chair because of the man, and so he would have to sleep sitting up straight. They should have gone business class, but then again, those had been sold out.

He started to shut his eyes and the man behind him groaned and reached a hand onto his chair to adjust himself. Samuel thought nothing of it. Movement and disturbance were par for a flight in the air.

He no sooner shut his eyes than a blinding white light shone in his face the same time as he felt a hand clasp his right arm from between the chairs.

He opened his eyes. 

WHAM!

His vision was blurred by a mist of red and anger. He had never felt so much anger in his life. So much that the man who was standing opposite him in the bar was not much more than a blur.

"Look, Carl, I can come up with the money. I just need a little more time."

"I've given you all the time I promised already." He told Carl, a small mousey man with a potbelly and a bald head. A nondescript man with no future. Nothing more than a loser and would never be anything but a loser.

"I swear to you. This time it will be different."

They stood in an alley, outside the Monte Carlo Casino. It was inset somewhat. Cars parked up and down it. Traffic nonstop on the strip, lots of noise and distractions. They were just two drunks hollering as far as the crowd surging past knew, and were ignored as such.

He grabbed Carl by his left arm and squeezed hard. "I have to be paid now!"

"I don't have the money. I've already told you!"

He felt so much anger that he exploded. He struck Carl in the face. Carl fell back between two parked cars and slammed to the pavement. He hit his head hard against a curb and lay there.

He moved between the cars. "Come on, Carl, get up. I didn't hit you that hard!"

He kicked Carl in the side. Carl didn't move. "Get up you stupid little fat!"

Carl lay there and then he saw the pool of blood building near Carl's temple where he had struck the curb.

"Oh crap!" He said.

He began backing up. He struck something.

"Sir. You have a problem?"

Carl turned around it. It was one of the biggest Policemen he had ever seen. He was smiling. He didn't know about the body yet. Carl  tried to stop sweating. He was sweating profusely, but then it was that time of year when sweating was easy, especially when you were as overweight as he was. He was tall and appeared somewhat thin, but he was a hundred pounds overweight.

"Nah. Just got lost for a moment. Drinking."

"Ah. Happens." The Officer replied. "Like me to call you a Taxi?"

"I'd appreciate it."

The Officer took out his cell and called a Taxi. A few minutes later, after some nervous chit chat a Taxi came up and a passenger door flipped open.

He looked at the door, then the Officer. He reached out a hand to shake his hand, then he noticed the blood on the knuckles and the tears there. He rapidly withdrew the hand, but not before the Officer saw it. The Officer's face hardened for a moment.

He saw the threat and said quickly. "I hit a wall accidentally."

"Right. A wall. Have a safe night, sir." The Officer said as he climbed rapidly into the Taxi and told it to go straight to the airport.

He looked back and the Officer was still staring at the cab, then he looked at the alley. He started into the alley.

"Oh crap!"

WHAM!