One Step Ahead

Uninvited Guest

 July 12th, 2014 :     

Gerry looked around once more, making sure that no one was around, before slipping the key into the lock , and letting himself into the house . He closed the door behind him , and quickly walked to the keypad just inside the door , punching in the code to disable the alarm .

      He put the keys into his pocket , and looked around the room . "Nice. Real nice,"  he muttered to himself. He took note of the flat - screen TV, as well as the expensive stereo system, but dismissed them as too bulky, and therefore too likely to attract attention.

      He moved through the room and down the hall, to where he assumed the bedrooms would be located, checking his reflection as he walked past the bathroom, to be sure that the showercap he'd placed over his hair was still secure. One of the things his former cellmate had constantly complained about was the fact that he wouldn't have been caught if the cops hadn't found his hair, and been able to pull off a DNA match . So Gerry had filed that information away for future reference, and when he had decided to pay a visit to his grandmother's favorite client , he made sure to have the cap, as well as gloves.

      Looking through the next doorway, he saw what appeared to be a home office, with a bedroom directly across the hall. He stepped into the bedroom, and started looking through the dresser drawers. It didn't take long to find what he was looking for : a flat wooden box, stuck in the back of the bottom drawer. He opened it, dumped the contents on top of the dresser, and started pawing through them.

      "Fuck! This dude either comes from money, or he's got somethin' real interesting going on the side," he said to himself. He knew enough about how things worked to feel reasonably certain that the man who owned the house he was currently in wouldn't be able to afford all of the luxury items in the house on his salary .

      Gerry snickered to himself as he examined a pair of gold - and - topaz cufflinks. "Dickweed must have some sort of a racket going. Gram would never believe it , though . She thinks the asshole shits rainbows," he groused.

      He pocketed the cufflinks, as well as a large gold ring and a small velvet bag, which turned out to contain several gold coins, and then, not finding anything else of interest, he decided to check out the office. Stepping through the doorway, he walked to the desk and began opening drawers. His persistence was rewarded when he opened the first one, and was greeted by the sight of a 9mm pistol. He stuffed the gun into his jacket pocket, and kept searching. 

      In another drawer, he found a bag containing several more pieces of jewelry, and pocketed that, too. He then moved to the last drawer, but when he tried to open it, something seemed to be jammed inside, keeping it from opening fully. Gerry managed to fit a couple of fingers into the small opening he'd managed to achieve, and moved the object enough to allow the drawer to open the rest of the way.

      When it did, he saw that the object that had caused him so much trouble was a leather - bound book. Removing it from its resting place, he saw that it was a journal, and began to idly flip through the pages. He expected to spend a few moments amusing himself by reading about the homeowner's sexual fetishes, or how he cheated on his taxes, or something of a similar nature. What he saw instead had his eyes bugging in disbelief.

      "Christ on a sidecar!" he exclaimed. "He can't be fuckin' serious!"

      As he read further, he saw something that jogged a memory from his time in prison, and realized that it was very serious indeed . Then, being the person that he was, he started thinking of how he could use the information contained in the journal to his own advantage.