The Story from X to Y - Part Two

I’m back! 🙂

Here’s more of the weird story I wrote without really knowing what the hell I was doing or where the hell I was going with it.

And here’s Part One.

*****

Yup.

Chapter T

Five minutes before that

501 Jefferson Street. Written on a matchbook.

So, here I was, looking for answers.

I entered the lobby of the tall, granite structure housing the law office that had sent me on the errand that started this whole crazy thing.

According to the directory, Barnwell and Associates was on the fifth floor. I took the elevator, which opened into a hall so gray and dimly-lit, I thought for a moment I was in a black-and-white movie.

The place was also so quiet you could hear the dust gather.

Upon arriving at the office, I found a locked door and no apparent signs of life. I moved to another office and tried their door. Locked.

I took the stairs down one floor and shouted, “Hello!” After a way too long pause, no one answered.

I knew office space was tanking as an investment in the wake of COVID and Zoom, but something was very wrong here. The whole situation stank.

The sound of approaching sirens pierced the building’s concrete walls.

Goddammit, I thought. It’s a trap.

I need to get outta here.

Chapter S

Five minutes before that

“Small cappuccino.” Spoken by a man standing near me at the coffee bar. “To go,” he added. The guy who’d been following me since I woke up in that office.

The man hoisted his substantial frame onto the stool beside me. I sipped my own cup of brew and waited.

The Man in the Houndstooth Jacket. Neatly, if shabbily, dressed. Unimpressive. He shot me a furtive look.

“Words out about you,” he muttered. “City’s crawling with as many cops as roaches.”

“Who are you? What’s going on?” I whisper-shouted over the roar of the cappuccino machine. My day was becoming more bizarre by the minute.

“They’ve put you in a frame. They’re letting you take the fall.”

“I don’t understand. Why? And what’s your part in all this?”

The man sighed. “Fine. I’m with IA. You’ve stumbled into a situation involving some dirty cops who’d rather you didn’t stay alive or at least not confined behind bars. Frankly, it’s all I can do to avoid lead poisoning, if you get my drift.”

He shoved a matchbook my way.

“Go to this address. You’ll find the answers there.”