Dick Johnson - Episode 4: A Savage Beating

Sorry it's taken so long to get this one out... Been super busy with a couple of other projects (and work, and buying a house, and... like everything else). But here's episode four of The Dick Johnson series. If you missed episodes 1-3, you can find them here:

http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2015/february/6/cases-dick-johnson-foo...

http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2015/february/10/dick-johnson-episode-...

http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2015/february/20/dick-johnson-episode-...

I pushed through a small crowd as I thought about my leads. There weren't many. Someone was taking out quarterbacks. Gunner Kiel, Vad Lee, probably a few others. Clarke and Kyle Fuller were the only names I had, but nobody seemed to know who these guys were or who they worked for. Or if they did, they weren't talking.

I wandered aimlessly, thinking about the case more than I was thinking about my direction, until I found myself stopping at the mouth of an alley. Tom Savage had been a quarterback once. A big, lanky kid, he grew up in one of the rougher neighborhoods of the city, before he fell in with an even rougher crowd. They said he could have been great. Maybe even make it to the big times. They found him in that alley. Had to use a spatula to get what was left of him off the ground. Official story was that he had a run-in with a runaway steamroller.

But I never bought it - why would a steamroller be driving in an alley at night? And now that I thought about it, it all fit the pattern too perfectly - the brutality, the thoroughness, the mercilessness. It had to be the same group. But why? What was the motive? And how many other quarterbacks who had been taken out in "accidents" were there?

I stepped into the alley, and took a drink from my flask, savoring the warm burn in my stomach. The moon was pale and cold, barely shining through the haze of dark clouds, and I could just make out the dumpster where they found the body. It smelled dank, like cold wet garbage.

I stepped further in, my shoes splashing in a puddle the only sound in the otherwise perfectly still city. I realized that the entire street was abandoned. Not one person moved. In a city that never sleeps, a lonely road is a warning.

As casually as I could, I reached into my jacket and drew out a cigarette, turning slowly as I took a long drag. I just caught a shadow disappearing across the mouth of the alley. I'd blundered right into a trap. I turned my back to the entrance, and began walking slowly through the alley.

I heard the puddle splash, and whirling around suddenly, I told them a secret I keep very close to my heart. Just down and to the left, specifically. My revolver boomed three times in the still night air, and I turned to run.

I turned and found myself face-to-face with one of PJ's goons. He was wearing brass knuckles, and practiced his chiropracty on me, playing my spine like an accordion. "We told you to let it be," he whispered, just before my last thought left, making sure to turn out the lights on its way out.

Be sure to check out the exciting conclusion of Dick Johnson - Football PI! Coming (as) soon (as I get around to it)!