The man behind the curtain by Jessica Singleton

                                             A few nights ago I came up with an idea of a new story. It is a murder mystery  and cop story.  I guess this is it in written form.  I'm not a published writer. So please bare with me.

                                                  


                                                             The  Man  Behind  The  Curtain

                                                                                  By  ;

                                                                     Jessica   Singleton



    " When the hit man comes , he knows that he has been cheated.  " - Gold Earring 
                                              ( Twilight  Zone lyrics )


    "  Ladies and Gentlemen , I am now locked up in a handcuff that has taken a British mechanic five years to make.  I do not know if I'm going to get out of it or not.  But I can assure you , that I am going to do my best .  "  -  Harry Houdini  



                           Johnny drove a beat up late sixties model of a Chevy .  It still had the 8 track piece stuck in it.  He was a police officer for the Balmoor PD.  Balmoor was a large city that housed millions of people.   He lived in a flat that over looked the city.  He had paid it off five years  before when he'd been lucky enough to jack pot at the casino.  It was only by chance.  Usually in life things like that do not happen.

                        The building that Johnny lived in was owned by a crab of a man named Milton.  Milton had a mouth for a daughter named Camelowa.  She was pretty and skinny but on the inside she was worthless.  Talking to her would give anyone a headache.  

                Any chance Camelowa got , she would walk right up to him and put herself in John's way.  If he did not look at her, then within two days of that chance meeting, he'd get a note on his door from the landlord.  It was always something.

        It was better to smile and nod and then just walk fast.  Say something about getting home because of something that was in the ice box.

                 John had a best friend that he'd been in the army with.  His name was Charles.  Chucky was now an under cover private investigator.  


                      John's one bedroom flat looked about like anything that you'd expect.  Large vintage print above the couch of a Houdini advertisement.  Bookshelf over stuffed with Sherlock Holmes novels and Albert Camus.  Loads of murder mysteries King, Patterson , Grisim  and Tom Clancy and William Peter Blatty.  The bedroom had a picture of his mother on his dresser.  A Beatles White Album poster above the bed and a mickey mouse watch on the night stand.



                                                            2



          Monday rhymes with nothing but it taste like morning breath on a drunk old lady.   When John got into his office, he had a case file that he hardly had time to pick up before he was shoved into a meeting room.  His captain was informing everyone in that room that they were now the new Oz task force.  Everyone laughed when they heard the word OZ.

      "  People this is serious.  This guy is called oz by the media because he is a wizard of a criminal.  He has  not been caught and he seems to think that he is the  ruler of some emerald kingdom.  He leaves calling cards at each place he has been.  "

    Some smart ass yelled out, " What is his calling card a scar crow? "

   "  No he leaves emeralds , like payment in full.  He also leaves a letter.  But the odd thing the letters are addressed to his victims.  The letters sound like a notice of job termination.  As though he thinks that he is their boss.    And all we have to go on, is that all the victims were scientist that once worked for Johnson Bean and sons.  They all worked on the same team of researchers back in the early 1970's.  The company has not had ties with these employees since then.  They hire and then move on.  These people were specialist who specialized in fetal drugs for pregnant women back in the 1970's.  "

    By the time everyone was given each case and details of what was to be seen from autopsy reports, it was lunch time.  The meeting was over.  Johnny did not have much of a stomach after seeing the crime scene photos.  Although a lot of it was the big breakfast that he ate that morning.

            John used his lunch break to go over things in the oz case.  He loved puzzles and he was good at them.  His boss believed that the Johnson Bean and sons company had a skeleton in their closets that would tell who had anything to do with OZ.  But it was too easy.  This killer went out of his way to laugh in the cop's faces to prove that he could get away with it.  He even hand wrote a letter that did not leave finger prints.  Why kill a group of people who were linked if you were too.  No this was something else.  The company history was clean.  They had nothing that could be used against them.  This was someone else who would have had some link to all of these scientist who would have a reason to see them die.  The odd thing about the killings was not the expensive jewels left but the letters.  It was as though he needed them to know why they were being let go.  It was more then that.  He knew other's would see this.  He wanted to publicly humiliate these people.  Like standing up in a boardroom and yelling out; 

         "   SO AND SO IS NOW FIRED BECAUSE THEY ARE A LOSER. "

            What does that say?  These people owed him something or he thought that they owed him some recognition or maybe an apology.  He must think that they wronged him or messed up his life.  That is when he saw that they all worked on a drug that was used for fetal stages in women.  Maybe this guy was born with a birth defect.    Everyone was dead.  So there was no way to contact the science team now.  The company had only one living relative alive.  She was a stock holder in the company.  Her name was Jessica.  She had no part in anything.  She had an air tight life style that kept her from being accused of anything.  

      John went to the company to interview people in the human resource department about company files.  Anyone who would have worked there in the 1970's.  There had to be someone who would have known anything.  The woman that he talked to was fast at printing out a list of ex employees.  With everything placed on computers these days, it made his job fast and easy.  There were 200 people on that list.  But only 12 scientist who died and only 6 people who worked directly around them in one way or another.

         John did attempt to interview Jessica.  He had to sit in her home to talk to her. When he went to her house Jessica answered her own door.

    John smiled at her and he said , "  I am sorry to bother you at your home but I was wondering if you could talk to me about anything you might have heard over the years about your father's company.  Rumors even.  I'm drawing at straws here. "

    Jessica smiled and she let John into her home.  


                    "  I do not mind at all.  This is a tragedy.  No one in life should be murdered.  I do not find it funny that this sick man has used the excuse of my family's company or their name to mark his crimes.  I will try but I do not know much.  I'm too young to know much.  Besides I'm just a stock holder.  I get a royalty but I do not work there. "

     John looked around at the surroundings.  It seemed normal enough.  There was a cat sitting in a chair in the living room.  She had paintings on the walls and designer furniture with a beautiful view of a bird garden in her backyard.  Nothing out of the ordinary.

     Jessica began to speak before he ask, 

                       "  From what I heard about that pill experiment from the 1970's.... There was a man who was well known in the states back in the sixties.  His name was Benson.  Tall smart guy from Europe.  He was a brilliant man who wanted to test plants in the rain forest.  He believed that they had to have a purpose for something in life.  But plants can be poisonous.  Everyone knows that.  Drugs that go on the market have to be tested for years before they are ready for human consumption.  Anyway he was not under contract anywhere.  He wanted donations from my father's company.  My father was not a loan company.  He did not believe in funding this guys vacation to the tropics.  Only to hope that he'd come back with a box full of tree leaves.  So my father told him no.  Then the man came back a few years later.  He had all this research that he said would cure everything from mental illness to morning sickness in women.  All of which was based on a plant out of the rain forest.  My father looked the paperwork over.  He handed it to his science team back then.  They would tell him if it was real or not.  They said it was scribbles from a man looking for money to waste their time.  Well, that man stormed out with his box of work.  My father had nothing to do with it.  His science team was under contract for five years.  A test run if you will.  They lied to my father.  They also used that man's ideas.  They made a pill for the market that would cure morning sickness.  It sold out like hot cakes.  But it did have side effects.  The pill was pulled from the market.  When that scientist found out that my father's team did that, he was mad.  The five years was up.  My father was embarrassed about the team he'd hired doing all that damage.  He did not renew their contracts.  The researchers could do nothing in the form of a lawsuit.  They were lucky that no one sued them. So we had no problem out of them. "

         "  What happened to the scientist with the grudge?  Or do you know ?"

         "  Oh he went back to Europe.  He started his own company.  They did very well.  He did not have a patent so he had no claim.  Really he was just glad that he was not the one with pregnant women pressing charges over a bad idea.  It was Karma.  "

    "  I see.  He sounds like he'd have a reason to hate those scientist though ."

    "  I do not know. "


      "  Well, Jessica thank you for your time.  I am going to leave now.  But thank you. If you can think of anything, here is my card.  You can call me. "

     "  Thank you.  Have a safe trip back into the city. "


             John drove with The Blue Oyster Cult playing on the speakers.  Godzilla was the song of choice.  When John got back into his office it was 4;34 PM.  It was almost a full day.  He called his friend who was the PI.  They met for a drink and to talk.


"  Well, look at you.  So why do you need my help?  This does not sound like it would be to hard for you. "

   " It is something else.  It really does not make sense. "

 John told his friend about the case.  

"  Maybe it is like when you're looking for something, you will never find it.  But if you were looking for something else, then you'd find the one thing you really want to find.  Hey you remember when we were kids ?  You were crazy about running backwards when you'd fly that kite.  You almost went right out into the road that one summer.  Maybe if you'd run backwards.   Or if you went under cover and looked for a hired hit man.  This guy is not a scientist.  He knows the law.  Or he's a cop.  I think he is hired.  You look like a cop. No one is going to talk to you.  Dress the part.  Find people and interview them on a different level.  You know. "

    "  That is a good idea.  Thanks. "



                                               3


   John stopped at one of those second hand thrift shops.  He got some street clothes.  He went home and he dressed the part.  Then he stayed up 26 hours.  So he'd look worn out.  He did not eat.  He only drank coffee.  He wanted to look jittery like he was on something.  He went out in the rain to play.  He ask questions.  He met a lot of bad people that his mother would not want her son to talk to.  

    John met a tall women who said that for the right price he could meet her boss.  John had the right price.  He was drove to a house out in the upstate area.  The house looked normal from the outside.  John went into the house.  The paintings on this wall were priceless pieces of history.  That is when he was a believer.  Whoever owned this house had millions of dollars.

  A tiny old man in a wheelchair came out of the back. 

" Can I help you son ? "

John looked like he just lost the little hope that he did have.

" Well are you a hired hit man ? "

" Yes . " 

" Good .  What do you charge ? "

" Depends on how much you want done and how risky it is for me and my team. "

" Team.... That is an interesting term for hit men. "

" That is what I call them. "

" Fair enough.  X girlfriend and her father.  Just a gun shot to the head.  NO traces back to me or you.  Like a hit and run at the wrong time.  Inner city problems. "

"  Cost you ten. "

" Ten thousand dollars?"

"  Nope Ten million . "

" Okay fine but I need a week to get the cash. "

" Fine by me. Come back when you can pay. Until then loses this address if you do not want it traced back. "

" No problem. "


The car drove John to the inner city where it found him and it dumped him off literally.

John gave the information to his friend.  The friend scoped out the area.  When everyone was gone from the house.  He went in to look around.

He called John to tell him about it.

"  That is not an old man you talked to.  Also it was not a woman either.  There was only one person.  That guy wears mask.  Oh and Johnny boy, he keeps eyeballs.  They are in a pickle jar in the ice box.  His name matches the Benson guy.  He is his son.  His money comes from dear old dad.  And Johnny ... one more thing....  He has your business card in his bedroom.  Also there is more.  His mother and father were divorced after his father moved back to Europe. The mother lost him at age ten to state custody. Three months in group homes and he was in Europe living with Daddy the 1st.  But when he turned 18 years old he took off.  I think I know why he likes emeralds too.  In all these old pictures of his mommy dearest, she is wearing nothing but big emeralds.  The DHS paperwork shows that she was abusing the boy.  He looks just like his father. That is why he hated all those scientist so much. "

"  How did he get my business card ? "

" I was going to ask you. "

"  What can be done now?"

" Doubt it.  I can follow him.  Think he got it from Jessica?"

" I dono maybe. "

                                                 4

Jessica and Benson had no ties.  She was not wanted for much.  Benson left town.  He knew the cops were on to him.  When John's friend looked into him, the Son of Benson owned a family home in upstate Virginia.  

With the right amount of paperwork, they got a search deed and caught him.  No innocent person had to go to jail for the crimes of Benson the 2nt.



                                                THE   END