Your Past May Catch Up With You

Joe had done pretty well in life. He had a successful accounting business, a nice house, and a beautiful wife and kids.

He was an only child, raised by his mother who passed away when he was 19. He had never met his father.

One day, a rather burly man with a limp walked into his office.

"May I help you sir?" asked the receptionist.

"I'd like to see the owner."

Do you have an appointment sir?"

"Let's just say that you will make one right now, shall we?"

"The soonest would be on Thursday, 3:00 PM, will that work for you?"

The man bent threateningly over her. "No, I mean now."

"I don't think I can do that," she replied.

Checking behind him, he pulled the corner of his jacket open to reveal a handgun.

Startled, the receptionist slowly rose from her chair and squeaked, "Right this way, sir."

Joe looked up from his desk when he heard the tap, tap on his door. "Yes, Mary, what is it?"

"You have a visitor, sir."

"A visitor? Who is it?"

With that, the man pushed his way past Mary into the office, then turned to her. "That will be all, you can go now, keep our conversation to yourself."

Mary backed out of the door and then swiftly walked down the short hallway and sat at her desk. Should she call someone, the police perhaps? No, she reasoned with herself, better not, he might hurt Joe. Then she thought, what if he did and she hadn't tried to help. Oh, My, what should I do?

Unfortunately, all the other employees had left for the day. Mary couldn't concentrate on work, so she sat at her desk staring at the wall. Soon the man appeared again.

"Good night, Mary wasn't it? I hope you weren't frightened by my little joke." Laughing, he limped out the door.

Quickly, Mary went to the door and locked it, then hurried to Joe's office.

Joe looked like he had seen a ghost. "Are you OK Joe, that awful man had a gun."

"Ah, oh, nothing to worry about Mary. Why don't you lock up and take the rest of the day off with pay. I'll be leaving soon too."

"OK sir, thank you. She turned to leave and then stopped. "Joe, are you sure everything is alright?"

"Yes Mary, it was only a small misunderstanding. Nothing to worry about, nothing at all."

"I'll see you tomorrow then, have a good evening."

Oh boy, thought Joe. What to do, what to do? He couldn't go to the police, or could he?

Drumming his fingers against the pane he stood looking out the office window for some time. Walking to his computer he typed on the keyboard and then printed out something, grabbed tape, and pasted it on the door. The note read: Office Closed Until Monday for Plumbing Work. For more information call 207-963-8149. Thank you! Joe Wilson, Owner.

Sitting once again at his desk he thought, how the past can come back and haunt you. He was in a pickle and not sure how he would get out of it, not sure at all. He couldn't tell his wife but knew she would find out sooner or later.

He knew what he had to do.

"I've got to tell you something," Joe said when he got home. "Better sit down for this."

"Years ago, when I was in my 20's, still living in New York, my friend said I could make a lot of money and all I had to do was deliver packages."

"What kind of packages," I asked him?

"I don't know, he said; better not to question."

"The money was good and I, being young and dumb, minded my own business. One day I was on a delivery when something struck me from behind. When I woke, I had a lump on my head and the package was gone. I called my friend and told him what happened."

"That's not good Joe, not good at all," he said to me. "I reminded him that it wasn't my fault, someone knocked me out."

"They won't care, you'll have to pay for it."

"Fine, I'll pay for it. How much is it?"

"At least $100 grand," he said.

I replied, "What, are you kidding me. What is this stuff anyway? What did you get me involved in?"

"Drugs Joe it's drugs, I thought you would have figured that out by now. They'll be after you for sure, better hide Joe, better hide good."

"That night I packed up all my stuff and traveled across the country to Seattle. Nothing came of it until now, they have somehow tracked me down. If I don't pay up by the weekend, I will never see the light of day again. We don't have that kind of money Hon."

"They said, better find it Joe, find it by the weekend. We've waited long enough."

"We'll figure it out Joe, just let me think on it a bit, this is a lot to take in."

Saturday, Joe sat at his office desk, a briefcase full of money in front of him. Soon, the burly man showed up with a greasy looking companion by his side. Joe opened the briefcase and they went through it until they were satisfied.

As soon as he was sure they had left the building he rushed out of the office to the hotel where his wife and children had gone to make sure they were safe. With a sigh of relief, he picked up the phone and dialed a number.

Police picked up the suspects on the interstate. They had secretly placed a tracking device on the gangster's car when it arrived at the office building.

Thanks to his honesty with his wife and a brother-in-law who was a homicide detective, they managed to come up with an alternate plan of action.

Joe lived to see another day.


994 Words
Prompt: Facing deadline with extremely dire consequences if not met.
Use Thriller/Suspense as one of the genres
Submitted to The Writer's Cramp 2.15.23
Won 1st place on this contest