Another day in the life...

Chapter 2

The Ultimate Hot Ticket

By J.Vincent Martin.

The next night Ray got the call. “The cops took your brother downtown and grilled him for three hours. They’re watching him like a hawk. He said they got a rough sketch of you, too, but it ain’t so hot. He told me to tell you that even he couldn’t recognize you from it. So you can travel, but don’t do nothing stupid. Danny gave me a Fed-Ex to send to you. He said it will have everything you need to get lost for good. It should arrive at the desk tomorrow morning.”

When he picked up the Fed-Ex the next morning, there was a key inside with directions to Mini Storage Place in Jersey and note...

“There’s a four drawer chest in that back of the room, under a tarp. In the top drawer, you’ll find an envelope with your new identity papers. There’s thirty thousand in cash in the drawer, too. That’s all the money I got. You can take 10Gs. but not a dime more. Thanks to you I’m out of business right now, and I’m going to need the rest to live on till things cool down. Don’t screw me, Ray! 10G’s and that’s all!. Use it to get lost. This is it, Ray, I never want to hear from you again.”

Ray checked out and bought some clothes and a travel bag. Then he made the trip by bus,and took a cab from the station to the mini storage site. When he open the top drawer, the papers were there, and so was the 30Gs. Ray carefully counted out ten thousand and put it back in the drawer, then he put the other 20 thousand in his bag and started to leave. When he got to the roll up door, he suddenly had an after thought. “I wonder what he’s got in the rest of those drawers. He went back and opened them, and found another 500 G’s in fifties and hundreds. He couldn’t have known that it wasn’t Danny’s money, but even he if did, it wouldn’t have mattered to him anyway. He searched the cluttered room and found a suitcase. Then he quickly emptied it, and filled it up with the money. As he was pulling down the roll up door again, another thought struck him. “I guess Danny is really going to be pissed off about this. So I might as well take the ten Gs, too. I’m sure Danny will figure something out.”

He took the cab back the bus station and bought a ticket to Baltimore. When he finally arrived downtown, he checked into nice hotel with his new Tom Grant identify. It seemed like a nice place, so he paid a week in advance with cash. He was now completely alone in the world, but that wasn’t anything new for him. You see, Ray had always been alone, even when he was with friends. Friendship had no meaning for Ray at all, it was merely one of the games he played. With his games of course, he was always free to quit at anytime without remorse or obligation.. After all, friends were only friends when they could do something for you.

Ray had a lot of former friends, of course, but there was still a friend or two around that had gotten into the wind before they caught on to Ray’s true nature. One of them was Phil, a computer geek who owed Ray big time.

Three years back Phil and Ray had a little thing going on with computer identity theft. Phil would get the credit card numbers and order the goods. Then Ray would cash them in through his brother. It was a booming little business for four or five months. In fact, at the time Ray was walking around with a couple of grand in his pocket. Phil of course, was really good with the computer thing, but he wasn’t very good when it came to covering the spread on basketball games. One day Phil called Ray from a pay phone. “You got to help me, man. I’m deep shit with a shark.” “Where are you?” “I’m at a coffee shop on 16th St. and Third Ave. I can’t go to my apartment, they’re waiting for me. I only got ten bucks in my pocket.” Ray’s first instinct was to hang up, after all, it wasn’t his problem. But then he gave it a little thought and figured that Phil’s talents might be useful at some point in the future. So Ray quickly went back to playing the friendship game. “Stay there! I’ll over in 15 minutes.”

When Ray arrived, Phil was sitting low in a booth in the back, shakily watching the door. Ray told him to switch seats, and he’d watch the door. “What’s up, man?” “Ray, I’m in the hole to Tony Bag a of Donuts for 30 grand. I already missed two juice payments, and the juice is up to thirty six hundred bucks, and a beating. ” “You went through all that money you were making?” “I got eight hundred bucks in the apartment, Ray, and that’s it.” “Man, you are in shit, okay. I only got two grand myself, Phil.” “They’re going kill me, Ray!” “Don’t worry, Phil, I’m your friend, I ain’t going let that happen. You need to get out of town right away. You got any relatives that can put you up?” “Yeah, I got cousin in LA.” “Good, I got a grand on me, Phil, and it’s yours buddy. We’ll make the call from Port Authority.”

The call was made and everything was in place. Then as Phil was boarding the bus, he turned to Ray, “I ‘m not going to forget this, man. I’m going to get this thing fixed, and if you ever need anything from me Ray, you got it!” That was exactly what Ray figured, there was a big day in here somewhere. So he just smiled, “Yeah, you just take care of yourself, and when you got the dough, give me a call and I’ll get this thing fixed for you.”

Six months later Ray got the call. “Ray, I just wanted to call you and thank you, man.” “You got the dough, Phil? You want me to take care of that for you.” “Don’t to have, Ray, it’s already taken care of. It cost me 72 grand...62 for the loan, and a ten G beating avoidance fee. I’m clean and legit now. I got my own software company in The Valley. That’s the reason I was calling. I’m going to send you five grand to cover that thousand you gave me.” This was actually bad news for Ray. It wasn’t the pay off he was looking for. He was figuring on ripping Phil for the Shark’s money. But for the time being it would do. Then Phil ended the call with, “Ray, I don’t consider the 5Gs settling the debt I owe you. So if you ever need anything...anything... you just let me know.”

It was time collect, all right. So Ray made the call from his hotel room. “Phil, it’s Ray, man. How you doing?.” “I’m doing great Ray. How about you?” “Not so good, Phil, that’s why I’m calling.” “Name it Ray, how much do you need?” “Believe it or not it ain’t about money. I got money.” “What do need Ray? “I need a place to seriously lay low for awhile.” “Is it the law?” “No, man, it’s a broad.” “A broad?” “Yeah, I was going out with this crazy chick. She’s completely out of her mind. He father is a big time made man. When I broke it off with her, she had somebody beat her up and told the old man it was me. He took it real personal, and now there’s a big time hit on me.” “Damn, Ray, you need more than a place stay. Where are you now?” “I’m in a hotel in Baltimore.” “Get on a plane to LA. Call me from the airport, and I’ll have somebody pick you up. Don’t worry about a thing, Ray, I’m going to take care of you, man.” “Thanks, Phil. I knew I could count on you..” “Anytime, Ray, anytime..”

copyrightJVM2007

To Be Continued...