Murder on the Mind

She was imagining how she would dig his grave. Perhaps it would be move enjoyable if she made him dig it, that seemed more fitting. Somehow there was a justice in it if he had to dig his own. The slow steady rhythmic thrumming of the shovel, the quiet finality of it. To be resigned to the fate that awaited upon completion. There was a justice there.

Perhaps her boss didn’t deserve that level of resentment. No, no he totally did. He was the worst kind of dictator. Throwing his authority around, demanding impossible feats of shear wonder. The embodiment of the impossible task master, with nothing ever being sufficient.

He welded his authority like a sword, thrashing those that displeased him. And smashing the poor peons that would dare to venture into his sphere of influence. The plebes were nothing to his dominance and tactics. He chose to destroy worlds, simply because he had the power.

Yes, it would be very fitting if she made him dig his own grave. There was a truly grim satisfaction there. Also, a profound sense of judgement and justice. As she considered she thought that there might be too much grace there though. Digging his own grave might allow him to suffer, but honestly it didn’t make him suffer nearly enough.

She slowly moved around the corner to continue cleaning the tables. She had worked so hard these last several weeks, but still it was simply not good enough for him. Nothing was good enough for him. She cleaned with a vengeance, thrashing the dirt off the tables. Her agitation was so tangible the customers started to stare as she scuttled to start in on the next table.

A group of teenagers silently watched as she attacked the new table, one silently commented, “Yo guys, did you hear that table squeak? I think it’s scared she might do permanent damage.”

“You don’t know the half of it, Jimmy. I heard the table tell a joke and now it’s scared it’s being cleaned for the chipper. There are, apparently, no jokes allowed here. You can literally see the fear in its eyes, look yo.”

There idly conversation was quiet, but not so quiet she couldn’t hear it. They knew she could hear, and of course that was the entire point. Quiet, but still intentional. She cracked her rag with a grim determination and stared directly at them. A flat stare that spoke volumes, a single look just daring them to make another wisecrack. They all thought better of it and returned to their idle chatter, turning back around in the booth.

She completely reflected a murderous thundercloud because when she approached the next table to ask for their order the couple literally jumped in startlement. They both then slowly inched to the back of the booth. That wasn’t good for business. It was even worse for tips. It didn’t matter though; this couple was rich. The rich ones never left a good tip anyway. Did she literally just cause people to physically get away from her because she looked like walking death? Yep, that completely happened.

She slowly stepped to the back of the house to get compose herself. She couldn’t keep frightening the customers if she wanted to pay rent this month. She needed to make something in tips, God knew she couldn’t pay rent on her base wage. After taking a moment, she grabbed the coffee to take to the rich couple. She thought a second and grabbed free refills for the teenager’s colas while she was at it. Sometimes a little generosity went a long way. Her boss didn’t know anything about that though, or basic human decency.

As the wheels turned in her mind, she concluded that she was done with her boss. Unfortunately, being limited in her power to overthrow the dictator she decided her alternative was to seek employment elsewhere. Killing him sounded like the best option but given that wasn’t on the table she had to seek alternatives. The whole prison thing really threw a cramp into her life decisions. Murder being off the table, she concluded that she would start her job hunt that evening after her shift.

The decision made she started feeling moderately better. She had given the teenagers their burgers and the rich couple had ordered medium dishes, which she had apparently also delivered to the table. Her mind had clearly been wandering as she really didn’t even remember that transaction. As she rechecked on her guests, she brought another round of drinks.

How could these kids drink this much soda? She could literally see the sugar puffing out of their skin. People didn’t drink that much water, how was it even possible? It was like their fifth round. Unbelievable.

The rich couple waved her over with the universal check request, the soft air signature. She gave the universal nod response and headed for the point-of-sale system to get their check. Perhaps she shouldn’t think of them only as the rich couple, there probably was more to their story than that. But this is how she kept her customers keenly in their own departments as she served their needs. She got their tab and took it over to the table.

“Is there anything else I can help you two out with today?”, she asked as she handed the black portfolio on the table.

“No, thank you. Everything was fantastic.” The woman sounded like she meant it, not like it was the normal forced response.

“I appreciate it. You don’t have to be in any rush, stay as long as you like, if you need anything else just wave me over. Thanks again.” She slowly walked away to a new mysterious looking character that had just been seated in her section. He looked a little cagey, somewhat out of place in his own skin.

“Can I help you, sir?”, she pensively asked as she approached him.

“Coffee, black.”

“Okay, I’ll be back in just a second with that. Here’s a menu, I’ll be back with the coffee in just a second.”

As she walked away, she heard a phone ring, looking over her shoulder, she saw the mysterious man had gotten a phone call. She noticed he had pulled out a small black notebook and appeared to be writing decisively in it. He was shielding the book to make sure no one else could read what he wrote. She felt unease with this man. Something just didn’t appear to be right here.

The rich couple had left apparently in the middle of the exchange and the teenagers were watching the new mystery guest as well. Their talking had dampened down quite a bit since he walked in. They appeared to be trying to hear or tell what he was up to as well.

She bused the table of the rich couple and was walking to punch in the final values of the check when her eyes went a little blurry and she crashed to the ground. Every head spun in the diner and looked her way as she lay in a heap on the floor. She sat on the floor staring at the tip left by the couple. Her eyes were watering, and the tears couldn’t be stopped, as she stared at the $20,000 written in a pristine hand on the tip line. The total bill coming in at $20,058.74, also written as cleanly as possible.

As she silently cried, still in a bewildered state of shock, she didn’t even notice as one of the teenagers was on his way over to help her. Her emotions already shattered from the earlier events in the day were even more jagged now. It was a sign of her complete shock that she actually allowed the youth to help her up, normally that would have been unthinkable for her.

“Thanks,” was all she could muster as she wiped her eyes.

“Yeh, uh… you okay? Between your table thrashing and now collapsing, like, you know, should we call a doctor or something?” She thought he had joked but taking a second to look at him she discovered it was real concern in his eyes. He really thought she was losing it. But, then, she was.

“I’m fine. Just not my best day. But it’ll be fine.”

“Okay, if you say so. We settled up, we’ll be leaving in a minute, gotta get to class. Before we bounce though, seriously, you okay? I mean, I saw you. You didn’t trip or nothing, you face planted. Not sure I’ve ever seen someone take a dive like that honestly.”

That did it. That restored her strong-woman-completely-independent self. She wasn’t going to be found floundering by this kid. “Yep, all good. In fact, not sure I have ever felt better.” He gave her a completely unconvinced look but gave a nod anyway and headed back to his friends.

Spinning she headed to punch in the numbers as quickly as possible, there was no way she wasn’t going to validate this cleared their credit card immediately. She snapped a picture of the check, signature, and original check immediately as well. She wanted to have this documented and saved. She’d transferred the photo online as well. She started feeling giddy about the entire experience and thought she’d post it online to social media.

As she went to take the photo, one more time, and upload it she slowly stopped. No, that probably just wasn’t smart. She didn’t need anyone knowing she got this money. She also didn’t need any drama from the online world. She had all of it documented and now backed-up in the cloud, that was enough. The charge had gone through successfully too, she still couldn’t believe they left her that tip. How was that even possible?

She returned to her area to find the mystery man gone. There was a five on the table to cover the coffee, but apparently, he had forgotten the small black notebook. She quickly swiped it up and ran out the front door looking for him. He was nowhere to be found. How did he clear out so fast? He was just here. She tucked it in her apron, expecting him to return for it and went back to work.

Her shift finished, she was clocking out and getting ready to head home for the day when she realized she had carried the notebook her entire shift. She had entirely forgotten about the book, her mind wandering all day about the money the couple had left her. She finally opened it, curious now remembering the man had intentionally hidden everything in it when he was scribbling in it originally.

As she slowly read her eyes grew wide. She dropped the notebook and scrambled to pull out her phone. Several minutes passed and she was on hold with the police department trying to get through to a live person.

“Yes? This is detective Johnson?”

“Yes, I need to report a murder. And there are two people who are in danger. A killer is after them. They are running for their lives.”

“Whoa, slow down. Let’s start at the beginning….”