48 Hours to Die (5 page)

As soon as the words left Anthony Stone’s lips, the hooded man took off in a sprint.

The hooded man took off in a sprint when the detective yelled freeze. He pulled a .45 off his waistline and fired two shots over his shoulder. He was willing to do whatever he had to in order to escape with his life and his freedom. The hooded man ran out into the street and nearly got side swiped by a car. Several car horns sounded loudly as the hooded ran through the intersection. Right before the hooded man reached the other side of the street a Honda came to a screeching stop. The driver stepped on the brakes a little too late as he watched the hooded man smash into his windshield, his momentum carrying him over the roof of the Honda and sent him crashing down on the concrete. The hooded man hit the concrete hard, looked up, and saw a Mack truck headed right for him. The driver of the Mack truck stomped down on the brakes as soon as he saw the man standing. The hooded man watched as the grill on the Mack truck stopped one inch away from his face. The hooded man hopped up off the ground with the quickness and took off running again.

Run for Your Life

Anthony Stone crossed the intersection and lost the hooded man that quick. He looked left and right, but saw nothing. He knew the hooded man couldn’t have gotten that far. When the hooded man fired off those two shots, it forced Anthony Stone to take cover behind a parked car.

The driver of the Mack stepped out of the truck and approached the detective.

“Looking for a man in a black hooded sweat shirt did you happen to see which way he went?” Anthony Stone asked.

“I almost hit him with my truck, god must have been on his side,” the truck driver said. “He came out of where I almost didn’t...”

“Shh!” Anthony Stone said as he shined his light up into the woods. That’s when he heard it again, someone was moving through the woods, breaking twigs, and stepping on dry, crunchy leaves. Anthony Stone took off into the woods after the hooded man. Anthony Stone held his flashlight just above his 9mm as he eased his way through the woods. He took slow, cautious steps not wanting to attract attention to his location. Anthony Stone waved his flashlight from left to right as he moved out deeper into the woods. He took his left hand and turned down the volume on his walkie-talkie so it wouldn’t give up his location. He continued to inch through the woods when a chunk of the tree he stood next to exploded. Anthony Stone quickly ducked down. He had no clue where the hooded man was, the dark woods made it hard for him to see. Anthony Stone pointed his flashlight in the direction that the shot came from but saw nothing. Then suddenly he heard footsteps coming from his left. Anthony Stone quickly aimed his gun in the direction of the footsteps, and opened fire.
 

POW!

POW!
 

POW!

POW!

Anthony Stone stood still for a second listening to see if he could pinpoint the hooded man’s location. Seconds later, several shots were fired in the detective’s direction followed by the sound of footsteps running in the opposite direction. Anthony Stone hopped up to take off after the hooded man but stopped when he felt a pain in his leg. He shined his flashlight down on his leg and saw blood. One of the hooded man bullets must have grazed his leg.

By the time Anthony Stone limped out of the woods, the hooded man was long gone. He cursed himself over and over again knowing how close he was to taking Uncle Sam off the streets.

Thirty minutes later, Anthony Stone noticed Captain Fisher heading in his direction while an EMT worker worked on his leg.

“Tell me you got a look at this guy’s face,” Captain Fisher asked.

Anthony Stone shook his head. “I was so close to catching this guy.”

Captain Fisher patted, Anthony Stone on the back. “You’ll get him next time champ. Go home and get you some rest.”

Anthony Stone slid behind the wheel of his car and slowly pulled out into traffic. He still couldn’t believe how close he had come to capturing Uncle Sam. He merged onto the highway when he heard cell phone ringing. Anthony Stone looked down at the screen and saw that the caller was calling from a private number. “Yeah,” he answered.

“Close but no cigar,” the caller laughed. “Detective Stone when are you going to realize that you’re never going to catch me?”

“Never say never,” Anthony Stone countered.

“I’ll always be one step ahead of you detective,” Uncle Sam chuckled.

“What kind of animal are you?” Anthony Stone yelled. “What type of real man gets turned on by harming innocent women?”

Uncle Sam chuckled again. “You just don’t get it detective.”

“If you’re going to pick on someone at least pick on someone who’ll defend themselves.”

“Like who, Tasha?”
 

“If you even think about touching her I’ll kill you!” Anthony Stone said with venom dripping from his tone. Before he could say another word, the line went dead. Without thinking twice, Anthony Stone stomped down on the gas. There was no way that he was going to allow Uncle Sam to harm Tasha. He would never be able to forgive himself if he allowed her to get hurt because of him. Anthony Stone pulled up to Tasha’s mother’s house and came to a screeching stop, hopped out with his 9mm already in his hand. Anthony Stone reached the front door and thought about kicking it in, but then decided to ring the doorbell instead. If nobody answered the door in ten seconds, Anthony Stone had already made up his mind that he was going to kick the door down. His reached a silent count of seven when finally; Tasha’s mother answered the door.

“Hey Anthony,” Ms. Brown said stepping to the side so that Anthony Stone could come inside. “Is everything alright?” She asked when she noticed his face covered in sweat and a gun in his hand.

“Sorry Ms. Brown,” Anthony Stone apologized holstering his weapon. “I just wanted to make sure that you and Tasha were alright.”

“Hey Anthony what are you doing here?” Tasha said coming from around the corner. “Are you okay?” She asked when she noticed that his forehead was covered in sweat.

“I got a call from Uncle Sam,” Anthony Stone admitted. “I thought you and your mother may have been in danger.”

“Baby he’s playing with your mind,” Tasha grabbed, Anthony Stone’s hand and led him upstairs to her old bedroom. Once inside the bedroom Tasha closed the door, and made Anthony Stone lay down across her bed, she slowly removed his shirt and began to give him a strong-handed massage. “Don’t let that creep serial killer get inside of your head baby,” Tasha said in a soft whisper. “You are smarter than him, if he wants to play chess then you play chess with him, you can beat him,”

“I know baby, but this thing has gotten a little personal,” he explained. “And the last thing I want is something to happen to you or your mother.”

“There’s an officer parked outside the front of the house at all times we’ll be fine,” Tasha told him. “Focus on catching this scum bag so we can go back to living a normal life, don’t get me wrong I love my mother to death but I’m ready to go home.”

“I’m on it baby,” Anthony Stone rolled over onto his back and gave, Tasha a long slow kiss. “I love you and would die if something happened to you because of me.”

Tasha chuckled, “Baby I’m fine, and I’m a big girl,”

“I know you are baby,” Anthony Stone said. The truth was Tasha had no clue how dangerous Uncle Sam really was and he wasn’t going to tell her the truth about how dangerous the serial killer really was because then she would be scared to death and that’s the last thing he wanted. “I have to get going baby.”

“No,” Tasha wined. “Can you they with me tonight pleeeeease?” It had been a week since the couple had slept in the same bed together and Anthony Stone hated to admit it, but he missed, Tasha like crazy. For the rest of the night, Tasha laid her head on Anthony Stone’s chest as the two watched “Martin” until they both fell asleep.

Now It’s Personal

Reggie sat in his office at the club with one leg crossed over the other and leaned back in his expensive chair. He didn’t like how close Anthony Stone had come to catching him the other day. Things were getting too close so. Reggie decided to fall back and take a break for a minute and come up with a strategy that would surely ruin Anthony Stone’s life, but at the same time, he had to be careful, knowing that one mistake could be the end of his life. Reggie watched CNN and the authorities still had no clue who or where Uncle Sam was. The club wasn’t scheduled to open for the next four hours, but Reggie liked to sit in his office and think. Reggie sat looking up at the flat screen in his office when he heard a loud knock at the door.

“Come in!” He yelled. A second later in walked Lisa carrying two plastic bags. “Hey Lisa?” Reggie asked with a confused look on his face. When he dealt with his employees he made sure, he kept things strictly business.

“Hey,” Lisa said with a huge smile on her face. “I saw you up here so I brought us some food from that new barbeque place down the street; I figured you may be hungry.”

“Thanks Lisa I appreciate it,” Reggie said with a smile. In his head, he was formulating a nice way to kick her out of his office without seeming rude.

“Mind if I join you?” Lisa asked pulling up a chair before, Reggie even got a chance to answer. “You never want to take me out on a date so I figured I’d bring the date to you. I promise I won’t bite.”

“Nothing personal but I just like to keep my business and my personal life separate,” Reggie explained. “I would hate for things to get all messy you know?”

“I get it,” Lisa said taking a bite out of her barbeque ribs. “But you’re always cooped up in this office all the time, so I figured I’d come up here and hang out with you,” she took another bite of her ribs. “So do you have a girlfriend, dating anyone, kids?”

Reggie took in a mouth full of mac and cheese. “No girlfriend, not dating anyone, and no kids, all I do is work. I’m too busy to have a personal life.”

“Well I think we need to change that,” Lisa said. “Change is good and you never know maybe I can be the one to spice up your life.”

Reggie chuckled. “Spice is the last thing I need in my life right about now.”

“You sure about that?” Lisa asked with a raised brow. “What if I told you that you weren’t as innocent as you portray to be?”

“Excuse me?”

Lisa took another bite of her ribs. “What if I told you I followed you that night when you left the club early?”

“Huh,” Reggie said with a confused look on his face.

“I saw you pick up the drunk girl what’s her name? Melissa,” Lisa smiled. “She was last seen with you, then the next day her body was found chopped up in little pieces,” she bit down into her ribs again. “I know you murdered that girl.”

Reggie let out a nervous laugh. “That’s absurd.”

“Is it really? Uncle Sam,” she said letting it be known that she knew exactly who Reggie really was.

Reggie wiped his mouth and leaned back in his seat. “Okay Lisa what is it exactly that you want?”

“I want in,” she smiled.

“I’m confused.”
 

“You heard me I want in,” Lisa repeated. “I want to help you kill.”

Reggie took a close look at Lisa’s face to see if she was serious. “How many people have you told about this?”

“I haven’t told anyone about this...yet,” she smiled. “Listen Reggie all I want to do is help.”

Reggie wanted to tell Lisa that he worked alone, but he knew if he did that, she would more than likely try to blackmail him into letting her onboard. He wanted to slice her throat right there in his office but he couldn’t because he had no clue if she had told anyone about his little secret. “Why are you doing this?”

“Listen Reggie I know you like me, but you’ve been keeping me away because of your little secret,” Lisa smiled. “So now that we’re partners I was thinking maybe we could go on a date tonight a real one.”

It was at that moment when Reggie knew that Lisa had him by the balls. “Sure dinner sounds good to me.”

“Great, meet me at my place tonight at 11 pm,” Lisa smiled, spun, and made her exit leaving Reggie alone with his thoughts.

Reggie sat back in his chair with a frustrated look on his face. He had to think of a clever way to kill Lisa, but first he had to make sure that she didn’t tell anyone about his little secret.

A New Relationship

Reggie pulled up in front of Lisa’s house and killed the engine. He glanced down at his watch the time was 11:11 pm. He rang the doorbell and a few seconds later, Lisa answered the door wearing a pair of black fish net stockings and a black see through top. Lisa held a glass of wine in her hand. “I thought you may have gotten lost for a second,” she smiled stepping to the side so Reggie could enter.

“You have a lovely home,” Reggie said as Lisa led him over towards the dining room where he saw candles lit up all around the kitchen table. “All this for little ole me?”

“You know what they say,” Lisa took a sip of her wine. “You only get one chance at a first impression.”

Reggie removed his suit jacket and rested it on the back of his chair, and helped himself to a glass of wine. Lisa served ox tails, brown rice, and grilled mushrooms. “So what is it that you want from me?”

“I want to be your partner,” Lisa answered quickly.