Again they all nodded.
“It seems as though we have a real problem. One I’m quite frankly surprised to have,” he shook his head in disappointment,”
“I have to say, I’m as shocked as you are,” Jerry leaned in. “That Carl was a good kid. Knew him for years I did…. And Lucas was like a brother to me,”
“Yuh…it’s always the quiet ones you have to look out for,” explained Angelo solemnly. “So what’s the plan? What do we know about him?”
“Well he’s an ex-Navy man,” one of the young ones said from the bottom of the table while flicking through his phone. “And pretty much a loner. Only 4 friends on Facebook, no Tumblr account, not even an Instagram. Has a Twitter but hasn’t posted anything in nearly six months and that was just a retweet,”
“I literally have no idea what you just said kid,” Angelo laughed. “Again in English?”
“What I mean to say is that this Carl guy has no online presence, and no social life that we know about. So unless he has some sort of underground, super-secret life then he kinda flies under the radar don’t he?”
“Hmmm…..” Jerry was deep in thought. “What about those Facebook friends? Anyone we know?”
“Hang on let me check,” the young man flicked through his phone furiously before finding the details. “Ah! Got’em. Well three of the guys are Navy too but are still in service so we can’t get close to them. But the last guy….it looks like his old man!”
“Ah! So we have a start,” smiled the Don as he leant forward, and placed his fingers together in thought.
The waiter interrupted with a plate of food and Angelo looked irritated but then was quickly pleased when he saw the pile of fries.
“So…internet kid,” he spoke with a mouth full of food. “You get me the father’s address and you,” he pointed to a small and silent man with sinister eyes and a nervous twitch. “Jorge, you’re coming with us,”
And Jorge grinned maniacally.
~
It was early morning. Carl was walking through the streets of the little town on the edge of St Louis while constantly looking over his shoulder. The anxiety was unbearable and although he knew that it was unlikely the Don and his men would know where he was, he knew that it wouldn’t be long until they did. He turned around to check he wasn’t being followed one last time and then swerved into a women’s clothing store. If he was seen buying women’s clothes they’d know he had Anna and he’d be a dead man for sure. He felt the ridiculous need to dive in amongst the clothes racks but tried to retain some composure. He quickly picked out some basic underwear, half a dozen comfortable looking t-shirts, sweaters and a few pairs of leggings before taking them up to the counter.
“Oooh is it someone’s birthday?” the attractive sales assistant asked as she began to ring through the clothes.
“My girlfriend’s,” he lied smoothly and the word stuck in his head and sounded strange as he said it. It didn’t seem weird to think of Anna as his girlfriend but it was strangely comforting.
He felt slightly dizzy as he paid and left the store. Things had moved so fast and so dramatically that he felt as though he was dreaming. He raced back to the motel and found Anna watching TV with a scared look on her face.
“What is it?” he said as he placed the bags down beside her.
Her hair was tumbling down over her pale naked body and she was staring wide eyed at the television. She pointed weakly to the screen.
“Look,” she whimpered. “Do you think it’s a warning of some kind?”
Carl sat down beside her. A news report was blaring loudly and he could see the female reporter standing in front of a burning building. Her words hit him fast:
“I’m standing here at the Sleep Eazy Motel in Chicago’s south side, where a mysteriously set alight fire in the middle of the night took the lives of 6 guests as they slept, and 2 members of staff,”
Carl felt his hands begin to shake and he gripped the bedsheets to steady himself.
“This is more than a warning,” he grimaced. “This is a preview. We need to move….and now,”
The couple quickly set into motion as they packed up their belongings and Anna threw on some clean clothes. She didn’t think that she had ever worn new clothes in her life, she was always given her cousin’s hand me downs. The feel of the new labels and freshness of the fabric was new to her. She breathed in the smell as Carl closed to door behind them. The TV was left on in the background and as they ran across the parking lot Anna could still hear the news reporter.
“We’ve had many acts of arson in this state in recent years but nothing on a scale like this. The police have declined to comment,”