Killing Kirshner (A Psychological Suspense Thriller) (6 page)

He popped the trunk and looked at Kirshner’s face. He hated him. He hated him more than he had ever hated any other human being in his life. This man had spent his career helping the dregs of society and now he was torturing innocent students that were only in class to learn.

He taped Kirshner’s hands, feet, and mouth and lifted him out of the trunk. Kirshner was a lot heavier than he appeared. He dragged his body to the back entrance. Will had propped the door earlier that day after the last class had ended. He pulled the door open and dragged Kirshner into his own classroom.

He propped Kirshner in the front row of the lecture hall – the very seat that he sat in. Will broke a piece of smelling salt and stuck it under Kirshner’s nose. Kirshner immediately awoke in a daze. He squirmed and shifted in the chair, but soon realized he could not get free. He finally looked to his left and saw his captor.

Kirshner’s evil eyes squinted as Will walked over to him, smiling, and ripped the tape from Kirshner’s mouth. “Who the hell are you?” Kirshner yelled.

Will realized he did not even know who he was. He had picked on him class after class and Kirshner could not even recognize him. “I’m a student of yours, asshole. Remember Will James? I sit in the front row. You have spent most of the semester humiliating me in front of the rest of the class,” Will shouted back.

Kirshner looked at him, still unable to place who this person was that had kidnapped him. This enraged Will even more; he turned his back to him and took a deep breath. He pulled out a long rope with a noose on the end. He slid it over Kirshner’s neck, and threw the slack over a banister in the ceiling. He spun back around and shouted, “Time to begin class.
Mr. Kirshner,
please brief the first case of the day.”

“You’re completely mad. Untie me, you little piss ant,” Kirshner yelled.

“Here’s how it’s going to go
Mr. Kirshner
. For every question you get right, I loosen a piece of tape. But …” Will paused for a minute and walked behind the podium.

“For any question you get wrong, the rope gets pulled. Got it?”

“Please begin,
Mr. Kirshner.
”

Kirshner stared at the book in front of him and remained silent. “Come on, Mr. Kirshner, the class is waiting,” he shouted.

“Are you unprepared for class, Mr. Kirshner? You know what that means.” Will pulled on the rope and the noose tightened around Kirshner’s neck. Kirshner squirmed in his chair, trying to break free.

~~~

Will took a bite of pizza as Amanda, Jack, Sean and Abrams sat, captivated by his story. “That’s it,” Will said.

“But you didn’t even finish him off,” Abrams exclaimed.

“I know. That’s as far as I want to take it – for now, at least,” Will said as an afterthought.

“I loved how you started it, but the ending sucked, man,” Abrams said laughing.

“Okay, if you’re so great, how would you do it, Abrams?” Will asked.

C
hapter 23

Abrams sat in Professor Kirshner’s class listening to him pounce on each student he called on. Insult after insult, Kirshner annihilated each of his prey. Students sat stunned and shocked by his cruelty. By this time in the semester, Kirshner had called on every student in the class at least once. Unfortunately, Abrams’ study group had been called on several times each. Just when they thought their row was safe, Kirshner would surprise them by starting to call on the front row once again.

It seemed that Todd Garner was the only student that did not get blasted by Kirshner. Todd appeared to be “the teacher’s pet,” if that was possible with a professor like Kirshner. Todd finished briefing a case, and Kirshner was not happy. He was in an unusually vicious mood that day. Kirshner called around to several other students and finally decided to once again focus his venom on the front row.

“Mr. Freeman, you appear bored. So, entertain us with your brilliant wit. Tell us all about it,” Kirshner said, waiting to jump down Abrams’ throat at his first mistake.

Abrams sat quietly, not even making eye contact with Kirshner. “Do you have some kind of a hearing problem, Mr. Freeman?” Kirshner yelled.

Abrams folded his arms and smiled at Kirshner. “You have five seconds to brief the case. If I don’t hear you briefing that case when I get to five, I am going to fail you from this class. One – Two – Three – Four – F…”

Abrams jumped over the desk and slammed his textbook into Kirshner’s face, and he fell back into the podium. Abrams grabbed Kirshner by the arm and shoved him over to the window. He grabbed the cord for the blind and wrapped it tightly around his neck. He pulled the cord as hard as he could. Kirshner flailed his arms around, trying to break free.

The entire classroom just sat there watching Abrams murdering their professor. No one moved from their seat – they just sat and watched – almost quietly cheering Abrams on. Kirshner’s face became red, then blue. His yellow-orangey eyes bulged out of his head, and then his arms finally stopped moving. Abrams released the cord, and Kirshner’s body fell to the floor. Abrams looked up and the entire classroom stood up and clapped.

~~~

“That was way lame,” Sean yelled with a piece of pizza in his mouth.

“Big time,” Jack added.

“Come on, now, I thought that was pretty damn good. At least I actually killed him,” Abrams said, looking at Will.

“Ya’ll are sick,” Amanda said, refilling another glass of sweet tea.

“Not only are you sick, but you guys are the worst killers of all time. You might as well drive right to the police station after you’re done,” she laughed.

“She’s right; a good murder must be carefully planned. One does not just kill somebody on the spot; it takes hours and hours of planning to make sure you don’t get caught,” Jack declared.

“You sound like you are talking from experience,” Will mumbled.

“No, but I have read enough good mystery novels to know how to plan a decent murder,” Jack claimed.

“So, let’s hear it then. Tell us how you would do in that evil dick,” Sean challenged.

“I’ll do better than tell you. I’ll show you,” Jack said confidently.

C
hapter 24

“You got internet here, Amanda?” Jack asked.

“Of course. What, you think I’m just some dumb hick girl?” Amanda snapped.

“Yeah, yeah, get me into Lexis,” Jack quickly responded.

“Give me your username and password; no way I’m using mine,” Amanda said. Jack quickly gave it to her.

While most law students only used LexisNexis to look up case law and regulations, LexisNexis was a great tool for getting information on people.

“Kirshner does not have a listed address. That psycho is paranoid of everyone. So, let’s see what Lexis has on him,” Jack said.

Jack quickly navigated through Lexis’ menus and searched for any property records in Isaiah Kirshner’s name. Three properties came up:

9800 NW 18
th
Street, London, England.

3 W. Canal Street, Apt. # 213, New York, New York

432 SW 5
th
Avenue, Coral Gables, Florida

“Here we go, 432 SW 5
th
Avenue – too easy,” Jack smiled.

“It looks like this dude’s got some serious dough – a place in London and New York. Wish I had his money,” Sean remarked.

“Yeah, but he made that money defending murderers and child molesters,” Amanda said.

“True, I wouldn’t want it that way,” Sean agreed.

“So, what do we do now?” Abrams asked.

“We take a field trip to his house,” Jack smirked.

They all looked at each other as Jack printed the address to Kirshner house, wondering if he was really serious.

“You’re being serious?” Sean asked, watching the address print.

“Let’s just see where the asshole lives,” Will said.

“I’m in,” Abrams quickly chimed in.

“Me, too,” Sean added.

They all waited for Amanda’s answer. “Fine, but I’m sitting way in the back of Jack’s truck. I don’t want Kirshner seeing me anywhere near his house.”

“Let’s do it. I’ll meet you guys down there. I’m going to grab my camera,” Jack said as they walked out of Amanda’s dorm.

“What do you need a camera for?” Will asked.

“Every great murder starts with good surveillance,” Jack laughed.

“I really think he’s gone nuts,” Amanda joked.

They piled into the Jack’s Escalade and Amanda jumped over the back seat and hid in the back of the car. Will put Kirshner’s address into Jack’s GPS, and Jack peeled out of the parking lot and headed to I-95. The GPS said they would arrive in 25 minutes; Jack did not put on any music for the ride over. They were completely silent on the drive over. None of them knew exactly what Jack was going to do once they got there.

C
hapter 25

Isaiah Kirshner sat at the island bar in his kitchen as he looked at the news on the television. He walked over to his stove and swirled the vegetables that sat in a light brown sauce in a wok. He twisted his neck and it cracked several times, let out a deep sigh and turned the television off.

The vegetables were finally done for the impatient Kirshner. He plopped them down on a square plate and pulled out a fork out of his silverware drawer. He sat down in his dining room and ate his vegetables as he sipped on a glass of red wine.

His house was very tastefully decorated. Kirshner was an extremely successful criminal attorney for many years, and he had made a lot of money. By the time he was 40 years old, Kirshner had stashed away nearly $4 million. When he got bored representing clients, he decided he would teach in Florida.

He loved teaching; he felt it was his duty to make sure only the best got through his class – that is why he ran his classroom like boot camp. He purposely would do his best to break the weak students and get them to drop out. He felt the weak had no business becoming lawyers.

He was almost finished with his plate of vegetables when he heard a bang outside his window. He jumped out of his chair and ran into the other room to get his gun.

C
hapter 26

A few minutes earlier, the Escalade pulled along the main road in front of Kirshner’s gated community. Jack failed to realize that Kirshner’s development might have some security, so he quickly pulled back onto the road and drove about half a mile down to an empty field. He turned off the car and got out, leaving Amanda, Will, Sean and Abrams inside, not knowing what he was doing.

“Come on, let’s go and see if we can get into this fortress,” Jack yelled.

“What exactly are we doing here, Jack?” Amanda asked.

“We are just going to see his house. What did you think we were doing here? Do you think I was really going to kill the guy?” Jack responded.

“I was hoping you weren’t,” Amanda said, shrugging her shoulders.

The five students ran along the front gate looking for another way into the community. Will spotted a small door hidden by some bushes about 100 feet away from the main gate. They huddled around the gate, which had a large padded lock on it. They decided they would just climb over it. One by one they propped themselves over the gate balancing between the gate and the bushes.

Jack pulled the address he printed out of his pocket, and they jogged along the road until they got to the address listed as Kirshner’s house.

“That’s the place,” Will said in awe.

The house was huge. It was mostly made of grey stone with a slate tile roof. The grounds were immaculately kept with every bush and tree beautifully shaped. The only thing that seemed a little odd about the house was its lack of windows. This house was obviously owned by a man who was paranoid and untrusting of the outside world.

They crouched along the side of the house peeking into a few windows, but every room was too dark to see into. Finally, they came to the kitchen, which was brightly lit. Kirshner had all stainless steel appliances with black granite for countertops.

Suddenly, Kirshner walked by the window. Sean jumped back away from the window, and they all hid with their hearts pounding out of their chest. Sean decided to peek and see if Kirshner saw them. He watched as Kirshner walked into the next room, and Sean motioned to follow him.

They hurried along the side of the house to the dining room where Kirshner was eating his recently made dinner. Even though the blinds were tightly shut, they could see through the side of the blinds. Kirshner was sitting at the table eating his dinner and drinking wine. Amanda pushed her way to the front to get a better look and was resting her hand on the edge of the window when it slipped. She fell forward and her head crashed into the window making a loud bang.

“Shit,” Will said, helping Amanda up.

“Let’s get out of here,” Sean said.

Jack peeked through the blinds and saw Kirshner running toward the front of the house with a gun in his hand.

“Holy shit, he’s got a gun,” Jack whispered.

C
hapter 27

The front door to Kirshner’s house blasted open. Kirshner stood in the doorway with a shiny, silver gun held tightly in his right hand and a large flashlight in his other, his cold blue eyes making him look possessed. He ran toward the side of the house where he heard the noise and saw five people running down the street. Although he was not a young man, Kirshner was still in very good shape. He took off down the street chasing the five intruders.

Jack, Will, Amanda, and Abrams kept even as Sean fell behind them. Will kept looking behind him to make sure Sean was able to keep up. To all their surprise, Amanda began to pass all of them. Will forgot that Amanda had been playing soccer for most of her life and could run at this speed for hours.

Sean, unfortunately, had not run this fast since he was a kid. He gasped for air as he pumped his chubby legs as fast as he could. He saw a beam of light on the back of Abrams’ head; he looked behind him and saw Kirshner slowly approaching with his flashlight pointed at them.

Sean was close to hyperventilating, but he was able to get out a few words. “He’s behind us.”