La Façade

A typical day with the sun shining on a beautiful autumn day. The leaves begin to gently dance along with the breeze of the autumn wind. It is on particular days like these that The unexpected is bound to happen. “Look, I’m sorry I forgot your birthday, OK?” Two guys are walking casually through the street. One talks on the phone with a bit of an annoyed expression, while the other is just casually walking alongside his friend with a slight smirk as he listens to his friend pleading on the phone.

“I didn’t mean to forget your birthday, things just kept coming up. Yes, I care about you. No, I’m not running around with another girl. Wait, how about I take you to this new place that opened up. Remember that new place, Leblanc? Nevermind about how I got a reservation, your dear Michel always finds a way. Yes just for you. I know I’m the best. We’ll meet up at the restaurant tomorrow around 8pm, ok? I love you too.” Michel hangs up his cellphone with an exasperated sigh.

“I gotta say Mikey, I thought for sure she was done with you this time.”

“Can it Jack, it was your fault I missed her birthday.”

“My fault? You practically jumped at the chance when you heard Cleopatra’s scepter was making its way to the museum.”

“But you still helped with the ‘job’."

“Ah yes, the ‘job’. Does she even know what you do for a living?”

“No and I rather keep it that way for both our sakes.”

“Well it’s none of my business what you choose to do with her.”

"Which reminds me, Jack, you got any jobs lined up?”

“Aren’t you still recovering from the last case?”

Michel fakes a smile, feigning innocence.

“Did you give up some of your cash to the orphanage again?”

“So what if I did?”

“Seriously, Mikey I get you feel like you owe them but-”

“What’s done is done. Are you going to help me or not?”

“Fine, but I’m sorry to inform you Robinhood, the streets have been quiet. Word is that some big deal is going down and nobody is making a move. Worse comes to worst you can always get a real job.”

“Hah, a real job, don’t make me-!?”

Michel slips. Leaves are sent flying into the air as Michel lands on the ground. After some groaning, the two men look to see what Michael slipped on. They slowly brush the leaves aside and find a small, black Moleskine book underneath.

“I wonder who left this book behind?” Jack asked.

“Good question,” said Michel, picking up the book. The two of them sit at a nearby bench in a park to inspect the book. Michel and Jack peered inside the book to find a list of names with a series of phone numbers, dates, and times.

“With all these names, whoever owns this book must be well connected,” said Jack.

“I’ll say, and look at these here,” Michel pointed to a series of numbers beside a list of initials before continuing.

“Based on the book’s organization, these numbers here seem like bank account numbers. I’m guessing VIP members only have their initials revealed.”

“I guess to protect the important members if the book was lost.”

Michel begins staring at the book intently, flipping through each page.

“Boring, and here I thought we could make a quick buck. But with all those numbers, we’d need a computer expert just to decipher it. Oh well,” said Jack, disappointed.

“Look at the list again.” Micheal said.

“Why?”

“See here? The top of the list has some names with phone numbers. As we go lower the names start to turn into initials instead, along with what we can assume are bank numbers. Are you following me so far?”

“Yeah.”

“So explain why, there’s only one client in the book with initials and a phone number, but no bank number. What’s even stranger is that those same initials are in other parts of the book with dates and times.”

“Interesting,” Jack said as he took the book for a closer look. “So what?”

“My guess is that the list is ordered from least important to very important. The top of the list is just a bunch of nobodies. If their names were revealed, no major harm would be done. However, as we get lower we see initials and bank numbers. This could indicate people that value their privacy. But not many have a phone number next to their initials. In addition, as you look through, not many of those people have meetings with whoever owned the book. Which could indicate whoever owned this wasn’t someone you’d want to associate with in public. This is why the last initials, ‘JJ’, are so interesting. They list initials and a phone number, but they don’t have any bank numbers. Yet, they appear to have regularly scheduled meetings. This tells us two things: One, that they are a person that values anonymity but do not mind meeting with this person. And two, that there may be some level of mistrust as JJ didn’t give any banking details and doesn’t seem to mind associating with our mystery owner in public. So JJ should be the type to have enough money and power to consistently arrange these meetings and stay anonymous on the books. The only problem is I can’t figure out who this JJ is. If we can figure this out we can figure out the owner of this book.”

“Wait, you said someone with a lot of money and power and-!?” Jack holds the book, shaking in astonishment. Slowly, he said, “JJ, I think it’s Jarvis Judd - aka Jarvis ‘The Professional’. That man is beyond dangerous. He used to be a hitman for the Lorenzo family till he managed to become a Made Man and became wealthy enough to get out of the game publicly. Sex trafficking, Money laundering, drug dealing - he does it all. They call him ‘The Professional’ for his ruthless ‘business tactics’. Hell, I heard if you try to back out of a deal with him, he won't just kill you. He’ll cut your ears off and stuff them in a jar. You heard about the old man that sells pineapples down the street? Well, he decided to over-charge Jarvis. You know what happened? The next day when the cops found the body, both the old man’s ears were lopped off.

“So this book probably belongs to one of his drug suppliers.”

“Who cares? This guy is bad news. I say we dump this thing and forget about it.”

Michel contemplated, then asked, “Did JJ have an upcoming meeting?”

“The meetings are always on the second of every month... which happens to be tomorrow. Why?”

Michel began to tap his forehead in thought, “Your brother is still a taxi driver?”

“Yeah, . . . Wait, Mikey don’t tell me you’re-”

“You know, I still need to get her a gift,” said Micheal as he walked past Jack.

“This is crazy, Mikey!”

“By the way, I’m borrowing your phone.”

Jack reflexively reached for his back pocket, “When, how?”

Michel merely responded with a daring grin.

The next day at 7pm in an abandoned shipyard, a man in a trench coat is standing by the ocean smoking a cigarette. He appears to be waiting for something as he cleans his serrated knife. He blows out a huff of smoke until someone greets him. “Jarvis, good to see you. It’s been a while.” Jarvis slowly returns his knife and tosses his cigarette in the ocean. He turns around to see a fop with a burly mustache in a fur coat.

“Good to see you, Jason. I see you’re doing well,” said Jarvis quizzically.

“Oh, you like it? I got a hot date later tonight and I wanted to look fresh,” said Jason as he spun around in effect to show off his outfit.

“You sure kept me waiting.”

“Yeah, my blasted secretary mixed up my books. It’s a shame I had to let her go,” said Jason making a throat-slitting motion before continuing. “But a guy in my profession always has some insurance,” Jason then revealed a black book from inside his jacket pocket.

“Well I am happy to hear your business will continue to run smoothly. Now if I can direct you to the inside of the warehouse so we can continue our business, my men are already inside,” said Jarvis motioning his hand for Jason to walk ahead.

The two men walk into the warehouse where two of Jarvis’s men are stationed, one of which is holding a briefcase.

“Gotta tell you, Jarvis, this is a sweet meeting spot completely out of sight. The cops would never think to look here, plus it gives that old mobster feel to it.”

“Yes, I was always a fan of the classic. Now do you have what we discussed?”

“Ah yes, of course.” Jason begins to whistle as a short and stocky man walks out of the shadows with sunglasses holding a suitcase.

“New muscle?” questioned Jarvis.

“Oh him? He is just my new driver.” Jason takes the suitcase from the driver and gestured him to leave.

"So like we discussed Jarvis, you wanted about twelve hundred grams of the purest substance around and in exchange, you give me one hundred thousand dollars.” Jason opens the briefcase in front of Jarvis, revealing a white powder.

Jarvis goes to touch the case but Jason pulled back. “No can do playa, you want this case I’m gonna need to see some green.”

Annoyed, Jarvis snaped his fingers, prompting his men holding the briefcase to step forward and reveal the cash inside.

“Now that’s what I like to see.”

The two men slowly exchanged briefcases.

“Well Jason, pleasure doing business with you as always,” said Jarvis, extending his hand.

“Enough with the formalities, come’ere pal.” Jason goes to hug Jarvis. Jarvis's men prepared to reach for their guns. Jarvis decided to wave them off as Jason releasesd Jarvis from his embrace.

“Well, I’ll see you guys later. Same time next month?”

“Wait,” said Jarvis as his men stopped Jason in his tracks.

“Apologies, Jason but I insist you stay as we test the material. You know, standard procedure.”

“Be my guest.” said Jason, adjusting his collar.

Suddenly, the lights in the warehouse shut off. A plethora of footsteps are heard entering the warehouse.

“POLICE! DON’T MOVE! RAISE YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!”

Immediately, Jarvis and his men take a defensive position with their guns drawn. Jason hides behind a barrel. After a few seconds, the sound of police sirens can be heard from far away.

“We need to go, NOW!” Jarvis exclaimed.

Excited, Jason pulled out a gun and stepped away from the barrel, ready to shoot.

“Bring it on! I ain’t going b-?!” A gunshot reverberated in the warehouse as blood poured out of Jason’s stomach. Then a second shot was fired right in his chest. Jason quickly fell to his knees and collapsed face forward. Jarvis and his men took this opportunity to escape the warehouse and run to their cars. Meanwhile, the police sirens grew closer. When Jarvis got in the car, one of his men tried to start the car repeatedly to no avail.

“GET US OUT OF HERE!” Jarvis yelled in vain. The car refused to start. Soon enough, the cops arrested them. As the cops were reading Jarvis’s Miranda rights, they frisked him and found a black book in his trench coat.

“Well, what do we have here?”

“Huh, I’ve never seen that book before in my life.”

“Really, then why is your name in here, huh?”

At that moment the trunk of Jarvis’s car began to make noise. The cops investigated, only to find Jason tied up and gagged. Jarvis stared at the scene in disbelief.

“Wait, I saw you die!! I saw you get shot, TWICE!!”

“Yeah, tell it to the judge,” said the cop as they pulled him away.

Meanwhile, a gray sedan casually drives away from the scene.

Inside the car, Michel speaks as he removes the fake mustache and tries to wipe off the blood. He’s sitting next to Jack, whose brother is driving.

“Jack, did you have to shoot me twice? You almost ruined the coat.”

“You said to make it convincing.”

“Your brother got the spark plugs?”

“You bet,” said the driver as he tossed the spark plugs to Michel.

“Now did you get the money, Mikey?” Jack asked.

“But of course.” The Trio shared a laugh.

“Now then, to the main event.” Michel opened the briefcase and started to divvy up the cash. “Twenty for me, twenty for Jack, and twenty for the getaway driver.”

“Wait, that’s twenty thousand for each of us. What about the rest of the forty thousand?” asked the driver.

Jack gave a large sigh. “Bro, drop him off at Leblanc.”

“But I-”

“Don’t worry I’ll take care of the anonymous donation, now here are some fresh clothes. Go show your girl a good time.”

“Thanks, Jack.” Michel and Jack exchange a fist bump before he gets ready.

In The Leblanc at 8:15pm, a woman is sitting alone at a table wearing a black dress.

“He’s late,” said the woman, pouting. A few more minutes go by and the woman looks like she is on the verge of tears until someone drapes a fur coat over her.

“Apologies, my dear, traffic was terrible.”

“Mike, you’re here!”

“As promised.”

“So how was your day?”

“Well I managed to take down a business tycoon, get paid a generous sum of money, and now I get to end the night with the most beautiful girl in the world. I’d call that…. One hell of a good day.”