Criminal

Prologue

Connie Simpson was stuck in the ultimate rut. To be fair, her parents did have to handle paying for two kids for eighteen years each not to mention the unexpected things in life: braces, car repairs, condoms. Okay, so the condoms were more for her brother Brad, but still, kids were expensive. Back to the point, life was expensive and at a young age Brad displayed musical talent and ability and that meant one thing: Julliard. So while Brad was being packed off to America, Con was graduating from the beautiful, University of London wallowing in intense student loans.

And that my friends, is how she ended up here, seated in the kitchenette style kitchen living with a newly married gay couple and staring at the application in front of her. It was fresh from the printer, which was out of black ink so it came out red, and the lines are blurry, but if you squinted enough you could read it.

Pen in hand, she began to fill out what she read in the paper. The clipping was to her left reading, quite boldly, HELP WANTED: MALIK AND ASSOCIATES FULL TIME ASSISTANT. TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS AN HOUR. DOWNLOAD APPLICATION AT ZJMCO.COM.

So she began to fill out the application with her name, date of birth, the usual stuff, and hopeful for this job. When she was done, she folded it, stamped the envelope, and sealed it shut, shuddering at the bitter taste, ignoring one of the newlyweds telling her that she could just lick her finger and apply or better yet, use water and apply. To which she graciously replied, “Shove off Liam.” She really wanted out of there.