143

Murder

The following day, Ruth woke up to a few surprising messages on her work cell. The first one she opened was from Monte's unsaved number, which read "Good morning Doc, I'll be looking after some things today for our days together, be good. 143." By reading this, it made her heart flutter, as she had flashbacks of their silly banters. When Ruth had just met Montgomery, she was a soft-spoken sweetheart who would sometimes shy away from expressing the way she felt about him, and so they came up with '143' which simply meant "I love you", with each letter representing the amount of letters in each word. I (1) Love (4) You (3).

Monte had a way with words and unusually kind gestures, he was already a powerful man who made sure the aspiring therapist knew that he wanted her. Money wasn't an issue and he had a creative mind, but Ruth confessed that he won her heart not by any of the extravagant gifts or dates that most people dreamed of. It was the way he listened to her, how he protected her heart and left no room for insecurity, and most of all the way he knew exactly how to please her. For Monte, he fell in love with Ruth because of the way she held him down in his weakest moments, and the fact that she embraced his ugliest parts when they were inevitably revealed.

Finally, she had pulled back the covers and stopped scrolling aimlessly on her cell. There were a few other messages inquiring about her availability for the coming week as well, in exactly one day her practice would come to life, but she had explained to her potential clients that she was fully booked for the first week and they reluctantly agreed to set appointments for the week after. After waltzing about the apartment in her bed robes, Ruth made breakfast which had to include a glass of wine next to her coffee.

"May this glass of wine give me the patience of dealing with Monte for the next three days."
She mumbled to herself before indulging hoggishly. Moments later she heard a knocking on her front door and the voice of a woman calling "Ruth! Ruth!".

"Who the hell..." she wondered frantically.

As she opened the door her jaws fell to the hard floor as she was astonished by another surprise visitor.

"What are you doing here?" Ruth asked, the woman standing before her was Caitie, her former associate and a present police informant.

"Can I talk to you for a few minutes? It's about Monte." The slender fair skinned woman asked.

"I haven't heard that name in a while, Caitie, why has something happened?" A clever Ruth responded.

"Kinda, do you have five minutes?" She persisted.

Ruth nodded in agreement as she tried to keep her cool, she had her differences with Caitie back then that caused waves of disturbances in her relationship with Monte. Monte and Ruth met Caitie and for a while they were all friendly with each other, however, Caitie was going through a rough time which prompted Monte to be there for her even at times when he wanted to be with the woman he loves. Once he had to race over to Caitie's home to save her from an overdose. Ruth understood Monte as the protector and caregiver he was but slowly he began to sacrifice his own happiness at the wrath of Ruth's tolerance.

She invited her into her home office and offered a drink of water.

"Well, what's going on Caitie?"

Caitie sipped from her glass just enough to wet her lips, before she started squealing.

"Something happened, Monte did something bad last year and now the police want to find him. They caught me with a gun that belongs to him and I've been interrogated with no mercy for weeks."

"A gun?! What happened, Caitie?"

"I don't know if he told you everything, but Monte has organized and carried out some of the best high profile robberies in the last few years, these apartments he owns are just investments made out of the harvest."