Vanished?

When Melissa came in and sat down, she was a completely different person than when he saw her last. Before, she acted confident, in charge.

This time he saw that he was looking at a woman scared out of her wits.

It took some time, but he managed to dig it all out of her.

There had been an affair, clearly the hubby had found out and planned his vanishing act. Then the woman had moved the boyfriend into her house since she couldn't make the payments, she herself took a small apartment.

Hubby apparently sneaked back in, did the boyfriend and vanished again, after all, how could a dead man commit a murder?

Then years later, up pops hubby and by the wildest of circumstance, she ends up in bed with the guy?

He chokes her while screwing her, pokes her again in the morning and again is off to never-never land?

Leaving her jumping at shadows, terrified he will come back? Finally she goes to the cops, hoping for some protection when probably the truth is the guy is gone and wants to stay gone?

"OK. No way to make this shit up!" Detective Royster laughed to himself.

Time to go see if he could find one Gene Fitzgerald. Was the guy relaxed enough that he wouldn't bother to take off again?

Maybe.

+++

Gene was sitting in his house looking out the window when he saw the police van coming up the road. The hacienda he had purchased years ago for cash was nice, it was fairly remote and had a view of the ocean.

The young woman named Maria that was the daughter of the man who ran a small store a few miles away delivered supplies and groceries to him.

Gene always handed her a wad of pesos, it hadn't taken too long before he had convinced her to stay for an extra hour or so. Then she even stayed the night a few times, her old man frowned at that but Gene handed him a wad of Pesos too and he was smiling again.

Man did she have nice titties, her nipples were pink, a color he had never seen before and her black hair covered pussy was like a damned vacuum cleaner!

That was great, no need to hit any of the bars for some companionship, and man did she like to fuck!

At first he used a rubber, but she tasted so damned good he figured she was probably clean. Handing her an extra wad of pesos along with a suggestion that her pussy was now his and his alone got a smile and a "Si' senor!" out of her.

+++

Gene jumped to his feet, went into one of the back bedrooms and got the hidden compartment open. He knew damn well what was coming, Melissa must have talked.

He had thought that he scared her badly enough she would keep her mouth shut but obviously that didn't work.

When the local cop arrived, there was a conversation, an exchange between them. The cop looked in the briefcase and smiled.

"Gracias, but it might be best if you found a new place to live, senor." He told Gene.

+++

Detective Royster surveyed the scene. Whover had broken in had really made a mess of things. The woman lay there on the bed, her body completely nude.

There was no doubt at all she really was a redhead.

Such a shame, such an attractive female. He took a last glance at her before the other men wrapped her up and took her away.

He had a pretty good idea of what had happened.

The dispatch from Mexico, explaining that when they went to the home of one Gene Fitzgerald, they found evidence that suggested he had committed suicide by leaping off the cliff into the ocean and they never recovered any body.

Detective Royster did not believe that one bit!

He folded his notebook, and headed back to his office. He had all of the time in the world.

+++

Nearly a full year later, Gene sat in a dingy corner bar, sipping the remains of his glass of scotch. He signalled the barmaid for another one.

Things had not gone all that well lately, the brief note from his friend Dave Hanson letting him know his assets were getting thin had put him in a sour mood.

The old Toyota he had purchased for the trip back had broken down twice on the way, it pissed him off that he didn't dare take an airplane.

Now Dave was late, not like him at all. No way did Gene want to spend any more time sitting here than he had to.

Hell, he had seen the newspaper clippings showing his face. Suspicion of murder, the headline read. Of course, he now looked only barely like that but still. Not good. Not good at all.

One of the barmaids kept trying to strike up a conversation, he wanted no part of it. By his math, Dave had somewhere around three quarters of a million dollars, no way in hell was he running out of cash.

Dave mentioned he could explain what happened but needed to do it face to face, privately.

Gene looked at his watch, as a dumpy little man sat down alongside him. Gene just ignored him, sure as hell the asshole would want to talk, probably about fucking football or some stupid shit like that.

"Hello, Mr. Miller." The man said quietly.

It took Gene a moment, he turned to look at the man. Then in a flood of panic he started to get up, all that flashed into his mind was to run.

The dumpy little man's hand flicked out and chopped Gene in the throat, catching him completely by surprise. Gene tried to react but he was far too late, he then felt himself tipped off balance and down he went since the little man's other foot blocked his barstool leg.

Gene tried to take a breath, none came. From somewhere a lot of men were suddenly on top of him.

Detective Royster slid off of his stool, smiled to himself.

That Hansen guy had folded rather quickly when he had explained the facts of life on how his involvement meant quite a few years in a jail cell of his own.

It was very clear that at first he didn't want to, but the facts were the facts and Royster had him cold.

He told the man to send one little note, do that and perhaps the shit he had been doing just might get "overlooked."

Another case closed. He glanced over at the fresh glass of scotch sitting there untouched on the bar, so he reached out and tossed the shot back.

"Hmmm, not bad." He thought to himself. He made a couple of notes in his notebook, folded it up and slipped it into his pocket.

Might as well head back to the office, see what else was going on.

No hurry. After all, he had all of the time in the world.