Cross-Over Murders by Frank F. Atanacio Chapter Forty-One

Chapter Forty-One

From:http://www.clothes007.com (we have all kinds of Jewelry and fashion handbag for sale.Guarantee the quality,7 Days money Back.The price is cheap.For Chrismas Day Gift)
“Did you miss me?” The dark stranger asked the decoy as he walked into the back yard. “I was gone longer than I expected, but look.... I’m back and ready to finish what I started.”
“Please let me go....please?”
“Too late for that,” he said as he picked up the transfer shovel. “I have better things for you. I think you’ll be my last victim for now. But I must tell you, I’m still not happy with those leeches taking our jobs. I’ll deal with them some other time when all this kind of goes away.”
“It’ll never go away!”
“Everything does, my friend, everything does.”
“They’ll find out what you did,” mumbled the decoy.
“How could they,” said the dark stranger. “Hate runs through everyone’s blood these days. Of course you may disagree, but tell me the truth. When you see a black person getting ahead, do you secretly wish him failure, or when someone gets a promotion, do you feel jealous? Hatred is part of our make-up, whether you like it or not.”
“That’s just crazy people, like you.”
“You hate to admit the truth in my words.”
“You speak like someone who is insane.”
The dark stranger smiled.
“Let me go, and I won’t say a thing to anyone. I won’t tell them what you look like, and I’ll give you my word.”
“Your job won’t permit you to keep your word.”
“You don’t know me,” he shot back.
“But I know what your job entails.”
“I won’t have to tell them anything, because they will discover who did this,” said the decoy. “That I’m certain about. Why add another body to your death count. Think for once in your miserable life.”
“You will be considered a casualty of this act, nothing more.”
“You keep saying that you’re keeping me alive to make me suffer, or set an example,” continued the decoy. “But I think you’re afraid to kill me right away. You will be caught for doing this so there is a battle in your head. Let him live or let him die. I can help you choose. I want to live, I have a family.”
“I’ll tell you one thing for certain,” said the dark stranger. “It will not be discovered through me. That much, I can promise you. So don’t take my keeping you alive as a sign of weakness. I just had to sort things out. Do you understand me?”
“The battle that rages in your mind.”
“No battle, you will die, simple as that.”
The decoy nodded slowly.
“And to make my point clear,” he said adding a little more emphasis on the word, clear “I think your death has to send a message throughout the community.”

“What message?”
“The message is simple,” the dark stranger smiled. “It doesn’t matter who I’ve captured. Death will become him as well. So let them send in decoys, or whoever. If I capture them, they will die.”
“You’re a monster!”
The dark stranger smiled.
“Let me go to my family,” the decoy half whispered.
“Your family?”
The decoy nodded slowly.
“They suffer as I speak,” said the dark stranger. “You might be dead to them already. What they might want is just your body so they could plant you.”
“They have hope.”
The dark stranger laughed.
“Don’t take that hope away from them.”
“So you’re saying that through this, I’m actually giving something to your family?”
The decoy nodded.
“Well, as the Bible says, the Lord gives and he also takes away.”
“Let me live.”
“Not in this lifetime.”
“Freeze!”
Freeze?
The dark stranger heard that word race through his mind like wildfire. He didn’t know where it came from and he tried to block it out. He lifted the transfer shovel and was going to hit the decoy, and that’s when he heard a shot.
Pain?
He dropped the shovel to his feet and fell to his knees. He looked at the decoy and stared at his smile for what seemed like a century. The decoy was smiling, but it was he who was feeling the pain. He didn’t understand it until he saw his own blood puddling right in front of him. He reached for the shovel again, and then he heard another shot.
What’s happening?
The dark stranger closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them he was staring at the decoy’s shoes. It was at that moment he realized that he was incapacitated. He was shot and he felt his life slowly being drained.
“You didn’t have to shoot him again,” said O’Brien. “My shot took him down.”
“I didn’t even fire off a shot,” Nick said.
O’Brien turned around and saw the captain’s gun still pointed toward the dark stranger.
“Captain?”
“He was picking up the shovel again,” replied the captain. “Bobby wasn’t going to be hit again, not if I could help it.”
O’Brien nodded.
Nick Barnum ran toward the decoy and quickly untied him.
“Damn, what took you guys so long?” asked the decoy.
“We had to stop off at the liquor store first,” Nick replied. “We had to take care of our needs first, I’m sure you understand.”
“Take me to the hospital,” mumbled the decoy. “Because when I get better I’m going to kick your ass.”
Nick smiled.
“Back up coming?” O’Brien asked the captain.
“Yeah, but looks like we don’t need them,” he replied.
“Well,” said Nick as he checked on the dark stranger. “Looks like the Cross-Over murderer is no more.”
“Dead?” asked O’Brien.
Nick nodded.
The decoy smiled.