The Kills: Sutler, the Massive, the Kill, and the Hit (57 page)
Read The Kills: Sutler, the Massive, the Kill, and the Hit Online
Authors: Richard House
I’m angry, this isn’t what we were told . . . we were told that his wage would be $19.45 an hour, but the rate so far is far below at $11.25!!!!! Has anyone else experienced this?
Paul Pakosta
. . . same here, annual income indicated at a minimum of $87,000 to $95,000, starting wage at $21 an hour – so far, hasn’t come close. Plus travel deductions for the first seven months of $750 to $1,000. Why are they taking money out? I have copies of the original contract which says nothing about this?
Sara Watts
. . . and vaccination charges, shipping costs, this is not what he signed up for!!!!! This is not what was promised!!!!!
Paul Pakosta
. . . Mark’s first contract was with U-Tech who recruited him, but he was asked to sign another at the induction in Virginia, where he was told he was working for HOSCO, who charged us $7,000 for his transport to Iraq and for the seven days they kept him waiting in Dubai, which is paid with interest? Is this legal? I don’t think they started paying till he arrived in Iraq, which means those ten days in Austin were unpaid. It’s confusing. Can anyone get information on where he’s placed? All we’ve been told is that decisions are made ‘on the ground’. He was at ACSB. Where is this? Please advise.
Doug & Marsha Samuels
P.S. our neighbors have a family member who was in an accident in Iraq and he worked for HOSCO and he had to pay all of his medical?
Cathy wrote to John Watts and enquired about the chatroom and received an immediate reply inviting her to an online discussion board and suggesting a login time of 19:00. Once she completed the form she noticed a new icon at the bottom of the screen. When she clicked on it a message-box opened up.
JONNIEWATTS92: ; ) it’s cathy, right?
CATHYGUNNERS: Hello?
. . .
. . .
JONNIEWATTS92: i sent emails to everyone in the earlier email did that even make sense ???
JONNIEWATTS92: you’ve not used messenger before?
JONNIEWATTS92: you have to hit the spacebar
. . .
. . .
JONNIEWATTS92: hit enter.
CATHYGUNNERS: OK, thanks. Sorry. Is this live?
JONNIEWATTS92: it’s real time, yup, happening now : )
CATHYGUNNERS: Can we speak with them at Camp Liberty?
JONNIEWATTS92: it’s 4am in iraq now --- you can send an invite : ) click on the red icon at the bottom that looks like a man with a hat -- type in the email address and they get an invite
JONNIEWATTS92: you’ve not done this before?
CATHYGUNNERS: No
JONNIEWATTS92: seriously!?
[DSAMUELS has entered the chatroom]
CATHYGUNNERS: It’s all new
JONNIEWATTS92: it won’t take long -- it’s not rocket science
DSAMUELS: This is Doug.
CATHYGUNNERS: Hi Doug
JONNIEWATTS92: hey
DSAMUELS: Sorry we’re late.
JONNIEWATTS92: s’ok -- we’ve not really started.
DSAMUELS: My wife is here, Marsha, I’m typing, she’s dictating... Cathy, we were happy to hear from you. Did everyone get the same message?
JONNIEWATTS92: i sent the invite ; )
CATHYGUNNERS: I don’t know where to start.
CATHYGUNNERS: I had all these questions.
JONNIEWATTS92: No worries ; )
JONNIEWATTS92: we have time
DSAMUELS: Has anyone heard from Mark? Does anyone know how he is?
JONNIEWATTS92: i heard from my brother -- he didn’t say anything was wrong.
JONNIEWATTS92: u said he was at ACSB... I think he’s at camp liberty now
DSAMUELS: He’s ok?
JONNIEWATTS92: paul didn’t say otherwise -- tho he sounded bored.
JONNIEWATTS92: my brother sounded bored -- said they weren’t up to much -- out in the desert -- just them and some scorpions --
DSAMUELS: Why are they there?
JONNIEWATTS92: the company picked them for the job
CATHYGUNNERS: I think that was my husband.
DSAMUELS: We don’t understand. What is the job?
CATHYGUNNERS: He was asked by the company director to pick a team.
DSAMUELS: By U-Tech?
CATHYGUNNERS: HOSCO.
DSAMUELS: Sorry? It doesn’t make sense?
DSAMUELS: ...like everything else. But you’re sure he’s ok?
JONNIEWATTS92: my brother sent pictures. I have photos.
DSAMUELS: You’re sure he’s ok. We don’t understand why he hasn’t been in touch.
[you have three attachments WY8959001.JPEG: WY8959002.JPEG: WY8959003.JPEG]
. . .
. . .
. . .
DSAMUELS: Thank God.
DSAMUELS: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
DSAMUELS: This is the first we’ve seen him since he left. Thank you thankyouthank you. Tell your brother thank you.
JONNIEWATTS92: most welcome
DSAMUELS: How can we get a message to him?
DSAMUELS: Why is he there? When will he come back?
[Invitation from JONNIEWATTS92 to CATHYGUNNERS for a private chat]
JONNIEWATTS92: this makes me feel bad
CATHYGUNNERS: I know. I don’t understand why they don’t know anything?
JONNIEWATTS92: it’s weird --
JONNIEWATTS92: their son is in Iraq and he’s not contacted them -- they can call anytime they want -- that’s really really sad
CATHYGUNNERS: Do you know what’s going on?
JONNIEWATTS92: paul said that there was a real oddball -- won’t talk to anyone, is kinda ocd, and another guy who’s gay -- probably -- suppressed -- seriously -- they’re stuck in the desert with some guy with ocd and a gay
CATHYGUNNERS: You can’t write that!!!
JONNIEWATTS92: no offence, but they’re in the desert with a guy who does tippy-tap sh*t who wants everything nice and tidy -- that has to be a problem right?
JONNIEWATTS92: I work pt at borders my boss has ocd
CATHYGUNNERS: Seriously? What does he do?
JONNIEWATTS92: she chain smokes
JONNIEWATTS92: honest to god... she’s killing herself.
DSAMUELS: When will he come back?
. . .
DSAMUELS: When will he come back?
[DSAMUELS has left the chatroom]
JONNIEWATTS92: did you see that???? -- that has to be hereditary
At work Maggie commented that Cathy seemed less tense. If she needed more batteries, she said, she could just help herself, as and when.
✩
Pakosta liked the movie, would have wiped the outline of a five-pointed star in the dust on the vehicles if it didn’t run the risk of making him look like some kind of fanatic – Maoist, Zionist, or Russian. But he really liked the movie.
Rem had to hold his tongue.
‘See,’ Pakosta explained, ‘these two brothers slaughter this guy. Gut him. Cut him to pieces, then drop him all over this city. This old woman finds the tongue in a bag. Anyhow, that’s it, job done, these brothers slink back to their farm in France, where they become totally normal.
No one would suspect
. The Italian police have no idea what’s happened. No clue. And they start to look at other cases that look something like the same thing. Other missing people. And this is twisted. So in their investigation the police find that this woman has gone missing, right, and because they don’t really know what’s happened, they don’t have a clue, they really don’t, they have no clue, they make this announcement that whoever killed the first person has – more than likely – killed this missing woman as well. Follow?’
Pakosta drew in breath, a ball of energy stuck on a desert road, a vast stretch of night surrounding him.
‘So, these brothers. These psychos, playing normal in their French farm, see this announcement in the papers that whoever killed this first person probably also killed this second person – which isn’t true, right, we know this. But they learn about this, because the whole thing has everyone interested, and they realize,
fuck
, we didn’t kill no woman. Uh uh. Not us. So what do they do?’
Pakosta held his arms open, turned about, offered the question to the others.
‘Come on. What do they do? What would you do? They’re up for two killings not one. So, they only go back to the same city, right when this film is being made because, I forgot to say, because it’s all based in fact, and pick up a woman, completely random, and kill her.
Because they’ve already been accused of a second murder anyway
.’
Watts slowly shook his head. Kiprowski stood with his arms folded over his chest, and Rem, who at least had seen the film, decided not to speak.
Pakosta looked about for support, confirmation. ‘It’s out now. Just before we came here. Look it up. Go online. What I’m telling you is true. They were making this film about these brothers and while they were making it they came back and they killed someone.’
Everyone agreed that this was publicity.
Rem looked out to the desert anticipating stars, a horizon, a suggestion of life through some hint of light. Instead the moon blotted the sky black, kept the land dense, undiscoverable. Nothing out there to be seen.
✩
JONNIEWATTS92: did you hear about the samuels?
CATHYGUNNERS: Doug?
JONNIEWATTS92: doug & marsha right they were in a fight someone didn’t like a sticker on their car ---- totalled
. . .
. . .
CATHYGUNNERS: When was this? How did you hear?
JONNIEWATTS92: he was online a couple of days ago i wondered if you’d heard
CATHYGUNNERS: They stopped writing. I haven’t heard any of this.
JONNIEWATTS92: last week drove into the local Dominics with an i-heart-our-troops sticker i don’t know maybe jesus-hearts-iraq and some loon rammed them and knocked them one side of the parking lot to the other
CATHYGUNNERS: No?
JONNIEWATTS92: seriously!!!!
CATHYGUNNERS: Because of the bumper sticker?
JONNIEWATTS92: supposedly i wouldn’t put it past the old man to have given some verbal
CATHYGUNNERS: Because of a bumper sticker?
JONNIEWATTS92: that’s not the worst of it they smacked the car two or three times -- Doug Samuels managed to jump out and the person kept ramming the car with his wife still in it, all he could do was watch
CATHYGUNNERS: I can’t believe it. Who did this?
JONNIEWATTS92: god’s truth someone who’d come out of wholefoods -- a woman -- just saw the bumper sticker and went postal -- thing is, Marsha Samuels has some kind of dementia -- no clue what was going on
JONNIEWATTS92: apparently she’s ok -- shaken up but ok
CATHYGUNNERS: Just awful.
. . .
. . .
JONNIEWATTS92: i don’t tell anyone about paul -- no one’s business
CATHYGUNNERS: You don’t talk about your brother?
JONNIEWATTS92: not worth the grief
CATHYGUNNERS: I’m sorry to hear that. Is this among friends?
JONNIEWATTS92: work friends everyone just about
JONNIEWATTS92: not worth the trouble
can’t handle it
his wife’s pregnant
. . .
. . .
CATHYGUNNERS: Because it makes life easier?
JONNIEWATTS92: even family
JONNIEWATTS92: easier?
JONNIEWATTS92: they don’t like the idea of him being there
CATHYGUNNERS: In Iraq?
. . .
JONNIEWATTS92: pretty much
JONNIEWATTS92: not worth the trouble
JONNIEWATTS92: what about you? how does your family handle this
CATHYGUNNERS: There’s only my family. Rem’s family are in Europe. My sister just married. I don’t know what she really thinks. It all came out of the blue. It doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t know.
JONNIEWATTS92: so...
JONNIEWATTS92: ...he just went?
CATHYGUNNERS: Pretty much
JONNIEWATTS92: ...and you don’t want him there?
CATHYGUNNERS: It’s not easy to answer that.
. . .
. . .
CATHYGUNNERS: It’s different for me. Rem’s parents aren’t alive, his brothers and sisters are in Europe. His family is big and they all do different things. I don’t know if it would matter if they had a problem with it. I don’t think that would be an issue.
JONNIEWATTS92: but you don’t want him there?
CATHYGUNNERS: I guess I don’t
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
CATHYGUNNERS: What about you? What about Paul?
. . .
. . .
CATHYGUNNERS: I don’t mean to upset you.
CATHYGUNNERS: This is just how I feel about it.
[JONNIEWATTS92 has left the chatroom]
. . .
. . .
[CATHYGUNNERS has left the chatroom]
