Witness List

Tessa Ryan quickly locked the front door of her empty home as she stood in her foyer soaking wet, out of breath and covered in blood. Her heart beat wildly in her chest as panic and dread filled her body. All the lights were off but the open living room and kitchen illuminated in bright baths of thunderous light as the sheets of rain battered down around her small home on Poinsettia Avenue. It was nearing eleven-o-clock and thankfully for her, her husband and two small kids were out of town for the weekend on a camping trip giving her much needed time to get rid of the evidence and put her plan into action.

As she looked down at her stained clothes and bloodied hands she began to panic; it had become all too clear that her night had ended in the worse possible way and she wasn’t even sure how it had happened, or even what had happened. She didn’t know if she killed him—she hadn’t stuck around long enough to find out. One minute Tessa was inviting herself into the man—Mr. Garret Montgomery’s home, and the next she was fighting for her life, all over a stupid black-leather-bound book and twenty-thousand dollars of money that wasn’t either of theirs.

Tessa had spent hours ruminating her situation over the course of the prior night as she kissed her husband and kids good-bye—a hard feat considering it just might be the last time she saw them alive or vice-versa but it was a decision she knew she would have to make in order to save her friend and she knew it had to be done that night. You see, Mr. Montgomery was not just a client, he was the co-owner of the lounge that Tessa and Lindsay had been working at and it just so happened that Lindsay had stumbled across some information about him that had gotten her into a bit of trouble—which wasn’t unusual for her but it was this time that Tessa had to go undercover to get her out, their lives depended on it.

A few days before this harrowing night, Lindsay had confided in Tessa about another missing girl from the club—Rylie James and how she was connected to a book of names and a bunch of money—well, that part, the part about the money that was soon to be Tessa’s doing. She had no choice but to take it. At least that is what she told herself as she tried to reason one problem with another. She was doing it for her family and besides, Lindsay had begun to blackmail Mr. Montgomery and Tessa needed to make a clean break before things got too out of hand…and no sooner had Tessa began spinning her web when things began to come undone. The timing couldn’t have been any better—or worse—depending on how you looked at it but either way, it spawned a set of unfortunate events that would end with her best friend missing and possibly killing her boss.

As you can tell by now, Tessa worked hard at the lounge day in and day out with her friend Lindsay. She had developed quite a penchant for being a money-maker in the club circuit and was known to have the top musicians and high-rollers of the area request her. This stood out to Mr. Montgomery who was for a lack of words “Mr. Montgomery”—THE man of the club. Tessa was one of the few women who incessantly turned him down—something he wasn’t quite used to. She wasn’t drawn into his money or his personality, in fact, everything about him turned her off but that would soon be of little concern as the tables were about to turn.

Tessa of course was happily married. She wanted to make her own money without having to owe anyone; especially Mr. Montgomery who would bind you to him forever, literally. Indeed, it was hard to turn down when he mentioned how much money she could make for just indulging him one night—as she cheekily told Lindsay how much money he had offered to pay her—“yeah, as if that would persuade me”, she said late one night as they drove home. Lindsay scoffed, rolling her eyes—“you always attract the crazies”—she began, “what do you mean” Tessa asked, slightly annoyed by her friends implication—

“It’s like I said before Tessa, Mr. M is obsessed with you. He only has eyes for you…it would be like eating out of his hand. He has all that money sitting in a safe in the lounge, probably double at his home and he has no one to spend it on…think about it, you would only have to do it once”—Tessa slapped her friends arm—she knew nothing was ever free with that man and it didn’t matter, she wouldn’t sleep with him for all the money in the world, that she was sure of.

A silence fell over the car as Tessa pondered—they were talking about a man who had everything hand-made and tailored, a man who wore personalized cufflinks and put his money into thousand dollar wallets. Of course he could probably part with what was joked about between the two friends as ‘pocket change’—“Tessa, all jokes aside, remember who you are talking to—I lock the money up at night and he has hundreds-of thousands of dollars in one safe alone, just grab a handful and go. No one will know. I promise, we can split it and get out”.

Now this was an idea Tessa could get behind—making him think she could be seduced by him, making him think she was his. The plan had been set in motion, the seed planted. Tessa would go in undercover and seduce the man that was untouchable; it was something he had wanted anyways so what was taking it one step further? Besides, Tessa was determined to make it happen, without actually making it happen. All she needed to do was provide enough of a distraction to get in and get out, money in hand. It was easy enough, she knew he would be drinking when she tousled her hair and threw the fitted trench coat over her black lacy one-piece.

Chaos was in her mind as she numbed herself with a few shots of courage. Her fishnet stockings and thigh-high stiletto heeled boots made their way up the stairs as she slowly slinked her way into his clutches, passing the framed wall-safe on her way in. That was all she needed—fifteen minutes of slow-dancing to get his mind off of business. She pressed the full weight of her body against the doorframe, her fingers sliding across the oil-painting that covered the safe and made her way over to his private stage—this was going to be much harder than she imagined.

Pieces of the previous night flashed in Tessa’s head, she made a mad dash for her back patio as large bolts of lightning and chilly gusts of ice-cold rain pelted against her skin. She hoped it would wash away the dirty feeling she couldn’t seem to scrub off. She neared the edge of where her roof ended and pulled a small black leather bound notebook out of the back of her pants—she had kept it there for safe-keeping while she ran the ten blocks from Mr. Montgomery’s house to her own home, desperate to get away. She skimmed through some of the names before safely burying the book in layers of soil. The book seemed to contain a list of people the lounge had blackmailed over the recent months. Lindsay and Rylie were among a handful of names crossed out. Tessa knew this couldn’t be a good sign but whatever it was, the book was her insurance ticket towards finding out.

Once she was sure the book was hidden deep inside the flower pot, she set off down the hall to her bathroom in a bid to clean herself up. She wasn’t sure if anyone saw her—or god forbid—if someone followed her. She had been careful enough by leaving her cellphone and car at home— but still, she couldn’t be too sure.

Tessa’s normal life began to take on a new light when she started at the lounge in Ashton Square, a city about thirty-minutes or so away from her home. Tessa had been recently let go from her job as a paralegal and needed to find a quick way to make some money and the club seemed like an easy enough answer. It was mindless fun that she could do without having to prove herself. Tessa’s first week started out pretty typical but as she soon found out, there was much more to this job than met the eye. Behind the burlap curtains, plush jewel-toned Persian rugs and soft leather seats there was a rampant underworld of torture, crime and revenge waiting to be revealed—or as Lindsay said, dying to be hidden.

“Boy…word travels fast around here” Tessa said to Gwen and Rachel, two other girls that she danced with at the club. “Yeah, Mr. Montgomery is pissed but he seems to think he knows who did it”, Gwen responded as the three of them huddled in the corner of the small dressing room preparing for the busy night ahead. “Who did what…?” Tessa asked coyly, looking back at Lindsay’s locker. Her friend of twenty years was late to her shift which was unusual even for her. “Don’t worry about it” Rachel said, “Mr. M. Gave Lindsay the weekend off”. Tessa’s eyes grew wide and dread silently took over her as she finished getting ready.

“You seem distracted” Garrett Montgomery said as Tessa walked into the private loft that overlooked the crowed club below, it was now a few hours into her shift and she could feel the weight of the room bearing down on her. Tessa flashed a nervous smile. She knew he was onto her but she couldn’t pinpoint how he would know—that was until he started talking. “Don’t worry I paid for the room, your time as I see it is mine anyways considering you took over twenty grand from me…” Tessa gasped, noticing he was standing close behind her. She could feel the angry heat radiating off of his body as his eyes bore a hole into the back of her head—“you are going to make this right” he said to her, “and don’t worry, Lindsay will be fine, I just want my money back…and who knows, maybe when all of this is over, I can put you on the books and make you some real money. You have a certain skill set that might come in handy”.

Garrett Montgomery’s annoyance was evident. He reached around, barely grazing her neck with warm lips. Tessa held her breath as he tossed a file folder onto the table in front of her. Pictures of her kids and husband at the campsite splayed out in front of her. He dumped a baggie of pills out onto the table. Tessa felt her legs grow weak as the next words out of his mouth passed through her head like a nightmare—“take as much time as you need, I rented the room for the rest of the night, you practically deserve it with all the work you are going to have to do to catch up…maybe these pills will be as useful for your customers as they were for me”, Tessa was unable to breathe as she felt the air suck out of the room when he shut the door behind her. It was then she knew what had to be done—Garrett Montgomery would have to die. She needed that black book, whatever the cost. He knew too much.