http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8dZFCeGPE8
Chapter 1…Confusion
29 February 2012
Jimmy was in that transition between having a bad dream and awakening. Far off in the distance he heard a faint knocking on a door that kept getting louder and louder. “Jimmy Paxon, this is the Police, open up!”
The knocking and hollering got progressively louder until Jimmy finally awoke and realized that the beating on the door was not a bad dream. He looked through the peep hole in his door and saw two uniformed police officers plus an FBI agent who he know as Ralph Summerall. He opened the door only to be immediately overpowered and handcuffed by the DC Police officers. He was read his rights and informed that he was under arrest for the murder of Melinda Cambridge. Jimmy’s bad dream just turned into his worst nightmare.
His mind was racing, in an attempt to make sense of what was going on. The fact that he had a hangover didn’t make the task any easier. The name, Melinda Cambridge, raced through his mind trying to put a face to the name. Bingo, he recalled that he had a hooker named Melinda to his apartment about a week ago. He knew he did not remember her departure and recalled that she didn’t even take the $100 bill he set on the nightstand for her. However, she did steal his laptop computer that was on his worktable. A theft never reported by Jimmy, as that would have opened up Pandora’s Box within the FBI, and that, he did not need.
The police retrieved his weapon and un-cuffed him to allow him to get dressed before they took him to central booking. Upon arrival at central booking, they arrested him for murder and set up an arraignment date. During his processing, Jimmy underwent close examination by the crime lab. They paid particular attention to the remnants of his scratches and bite marks, photographing and taking scrapings from all of them. Jimmy changed his clothes one more time this morning; only this time, after being strip-searched, he put on an orange jumpsuit. They put him into solitary confinement, as was standard procedure for law enforcement personnel for their own safety.
Chapter 2…The Rest of the Story
17 Days Earlier
The Deacon, Joe, and the most of the “Geriatric Warrior” chain of command just left Larry’s office after sitting through the dog and pony indoctrination given to all new CIA agents and vetted CIA contractors. Now, at least the “Warriors” had the cover of being associated with the CIA to fall back on if the shit hit the fan, which it has before and more likely than not, it will again one of these days.
Joe was enroute to Columbia where he was the supervisor of an indigenous training camp during the winter months. In the summer months, the training relocated back at the Academy the Deacon had built in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. Joe had but one minor mission prior to flying to Columbia. He had to tend to an FBI Agent named Jimmy Paxon.
It would have been so easy to just kill Jimmy and get it over with, which is what Joe would have done under normal circumstances. The problem with killing an FBI agent, it is akin to letting loose the dogs of war. The FBI is relentless in pursuit when chasing down the killer of one of their own. That is not what concerned Joe, though. Every case Jimmy has ever been associated with would come under extreme scrutiny, and within the labyrinth of cases, there was the possibility of linking many of the jobs the Deacon and his “Geriatric Warriors” have pulled off. Jimmy Paxon was on the verge of putting the pieces together when Vince McCullough found out about it and reported it to the Deacon. This…is what precipitated this action.
Joe received a briefing on Paxon from Vince McCullough of Homeland Security and from Larry Neider from the CIA, both of whom are sympathetic to the cause of “The Geriatric Warriors”.
Joe now knows more about Jimmy than Jimmy does. He knows that, as a result of some questionable decisions and a spate of bad luck, Jimmy is now a pencil pusher for the FBI, and that totally dampened his career aspirations as an FBI Agent. This led him into depression, to drink excessively on a frequent basis, and he was predisposed to pick up hookers and bring them back to his apartment. All of which caused Jimmy to be looked upon with disdain by his co-workers and superiors.
Joe had already located Jimmy’s apartment and inspected it for surveillance cameras, which were nonexistent. He has also watched Jimmy arrive at his home carrying his computer and briefcase, usually around 1800 hours. As a rule, Jimmy would spend most of his time in a local bar a block and a half from where he lived. Invariably he would get drunk, and frequently pick up a hooker and take her home with him.
Joe did some shopping around and found a gorgeous upscale working girl named Melinda Cambridge who he immediately struck up a business relationship with. Joe told her he was only going to be in town for a week and asked what she would charge to spend that week with him. Without batting an eye, she told Joe that for $10,000 she was his to do with as he pleased, barring beating, for the week. Joe, being cautious, said he would go along with that under the conditions that he paid her $3,000 initially and $1,500 every night thereafter. She made out better that way, and Joe was confident he would see her every day and that she would not disappear after receiving the money. This was the beginning of what appeared to be a great deal for each of them.
Actually, Melinda proved to be a delightful partner for Joe both in and out of bed. On one hand, she was a skilled lover and on the other, an intelligent woman that was conversant in a wide variety of topics and just plain fun to be around. Joe was thinking that likely someday she would have made someone a great wife.
On the fourth night of their arrangement, Joe asked Melinda if she would like to receive an additional $1,500 tonight. She immediately got suspicious and asked what she would have to do for it.
“It is simple; I have a close friend who I want to screw with. I want you to go home with him and screw him like he has never been screwed, real bites, scratches, the whole nine yards. Once you have made love to him a couple times, you need to slip him a Mickey with his drink. As much as he drinks, he will likely pass out within a couple minutes. At that time, leave him there, grab his laptop, and get out. Leave his door unlocked when you depart, I will be waiting across the street and we can go to my place for the rest of the night.”
“Why would you want to do that?” Melinda asked.
“He is an old friend, we go to the same gym at noon time whenever I’m in town, and I want to rag on him about his scratches and bites. He always tries to play the role of a preacher. I just want to bust his balls. He and I went to school together; believe me this battle has been going on forever. I am going to replace his hard drive with one that has a bunch of crap on it and I will sneak it back into his apartment before he wakes up. This isn’t shit; you should see some of the crap he has pulled on me in the past.”
“I suppose I can pull that off. You guys, I swear sometimes you act like ten year olds.”
****
When Melinda walked into the bar, she knew that Jimmy was hers, for the taking, by the way his eyes followed her across the room, all the way to the other end of the bar, undressing her with every step she took. Like a dog in heat, Jimmy approached her and asked if he could buy her a drink, an offer she eagerly accepted. It was but a few minutes, when she sensed that Jimmy was already a little on the drunk side, so she decided to make her move while she was sure Jimmy could and would comply with her sexual advances.
Melinda was happy to leave the bar with Jimmy, as it was a dingy dive in her mind not the least bit what she was accustomed to by any stretch of the imagination. Jimmy’s apartment was an improvement from the bar, but just barely.
They were no sooner in the apartment when Jimmy started undressing, ‘a real class act’ Melinda thought. She took a deep breath as she also started to get undressed, albeit very slowly to torment Jimmy who was, by now, panting like the dog he was.
The lovemaking was the least painful part of the evening, as Jimmy was finished before she had really started and was a little strange. He withdrew from her and finished by masturbating and ejaculating on her breasts, which he then rubbed in. She realized that to cause the damage Joe wanted her to inflict on Jimmy she would have to work fast on the next round.
‘And oh what a round it was’ Jimmy thought to himself. He had unleashed a tiger, never having experienced a woman this passionate in his life. He was a mass of scratches and bites and he savored every one of them, as it was proof, to him at least, that he was a virile sexual beast in his own right. This time he ejaculated inside her and promptly collapsed.
During a drink afterwards, Jimmy was already anticipating the next round with Melinda when he started feeling woozy and realized he needed to lie down, but not before Melinda served him another drink. She started to dance for him to keep him awake long enough to finish his drink.
****
“I deserve a tip!” Melinda said to Joe as she got into his car with Jimmy’s laptop in tow.
“That bad, huh?” replied Joe.
“Worse, you can’t imagine. This is precisely why I work the hotels I do; they cater to a totally different clientele. This dude rated high in crass and low in class.”
“Well, we will see if we can salvage your night for you,” Joe said to Melinda as he reached over and rubbed her thigh.
On the way back to Joe’s room, he suggested they stop by the reflecting pool for a drink and a romantic stroll in the moonlight. Joe pulled over and poured them both a glass of Champagne to celebrate. Melinda smiled as she looked at Joe and said, “This is what I mean about class.” She finished her second glass of Champagne while they were getting ready to take that romantic stroll around the pool.
****
It was about 9:30 the next morning when little Jamie’s parents heard him hollering from the woods. They ignored him at first, as this was normal behavior for Jamie, a very hyperactive four year old. He got their attention when he came out of the woods, beside the reflecting pool, covered in blood. He took his parents in and showed them the dead woman.
The crime scene revealed little other than the fact that this is where the murder happened based on the volume of blood present. The victim had her throat slit and her jugular vein severed in what appeared to be one continuous movement; obviously inflicted by one who has done this before.
****
Joe was cruising at 35,000 feet enroute to Columbia about the same time Melinda’s body reached the city morgue. He was excited to be going back to work. He had to be at the Academy in Columbia in order to segregate as much C-4 and Det Cord as possible upon the closing of the academy for the spring. Bert will fly in, pick up Joe with the munitions and take them straight to Wolfeboro when he was finished.
****
It only took the FBI lab a couple of days to process the DNA from under Melinda’s fingernails and from the sperm samples collected from all over and within her. As suspected, it was a perfect match to Jimmy Paxon. The lab also found traces of GHB in her system. Things did not bode well for young Jimmy, thought Agent Summerall, who worked alongside the DC police during the entire investigation. The FBI entered the case from the beginning, as Melinda had one of Jimmy Paxon’s business cards in her clutch bag when they found her. The DNA evidence coupled with finding the empty Champagne bottle with her fingerprints on it under the seat of Jimmy’s car, all of which was topped off by finding the bloody knife used to kill Melinda under Jimmy’s bed made this case a slam-dunk. True, Jimmy had a record of drinking and was a known womanizer, but this shocked even his most ardent critics.
churningcauldron 