Leo's Hands

At the warehouse

At the warehouse

Fortunately, in the meantime it had stopped raining. Steve had the bad habit of adjust himself on his own, so that his convertible car, in a far night of June, became definitely a cabriolet. He was the only one who in those cold and rainy days of the end of February drove with an umbrella tight between his legs, he excused himself repeating to me that the sunroof repair would’ve required a few of his salaries. The problem was that as soon as he accelerated a little, the umbrella punctually fell or flew away… with what he had spent on umbrellas he could’ve bought the whole car again!

«Damn it, we’re late» my friend pointed out stopping the car in front of the warehouse. The air was sparkly and had an intense and bitter smell, like petrol. A man with his hands drowned in the pockets was waiting for us in front of the gate, he was wearing a black jacket with the collar up and a hat with large flaps, that heavy with rain fell on the sides hiding almost his face. Steve got out of the car to head towards him and I followed him.

«Where’s the little bird?» Steve asked to the guy dressed in black.

«He already got in» the Boogeyman answered. «He said he can’t wait to have a little sing… but I warned you to come alone!» he added with a strict tone hinting at me with a movement of his head.

I quickly recognised the voice, it was the same one who left the message in the voicemail, I made out that the Boogeyman was probably one of our colleagues. Steve looked at me raising his eyebrows and shrugged, I went back to the car hopping ruefully. The man pushed the heavy sliding gate that gave access to the courtyard of the warehouse, as soon as they were in he hastily closed it and headed towards the main building, followed by Steve. I didn’t like that guy at all and I didn’t like that situation even more. If my friend had a flaw, it was the too much confidence in himself and sometimes also in others, given his profession I found that thing really weird. I also had some flaws: the first was that I hated being put aside, the second that, contrary to Steve, I never trusted anyone. As soon as the steps on the gravel were far I jumped out of the car again, I started following the perimeter of the fence in the search of a crack that allowed me to monitor them. I had almost completed the patrol of the building and I had just stopped to pee for the third time (you never know, sometimes it might happen to come back to the places) when suddenly the volume of the voices started rising, a sign that a violent discussion was on. Fearing that Steve might need me, I decided to quickly end the patrol in search of another entrance. Unfortunately the alley that followed the perimeter of the warehouse interrupted harshly in a dead end. The voices were heard louder and tensed, now they became proper screams, I rotated the head a little and pricked up my ears to understand better what they were saying.

«But what’s happening? Are you by any chance crazy, or is this a prank? What do you want to do with that gun? Put it away, you could fire a bullet» my friend was saying worried.

«You need to tell me who the other snitches are!»

«But what do you want to do, do you want to shoot me?»

«If you make me do it I’ll shoot you, you can be sure of it! I told you that you have to tell me all the names, and then you have to stop get involved in things that don’t concern you, understood? This matter is a lot bigger than you!» the Boogeyman insisted.

«Okay, okay, I understood» my friend answered to gain time «I’ll tell you everything and I’ll give you the documents that I gathered. But now put away the gun and let’s get out, if my mate sees you threatening me he’ll become aggressive».

«And you call that sort of dog mate?» the Boogeyman replied in a contemptuous tone triggering me.

«Anyway it’s fine with me, but first you have to manage to convince me that you learned the lesson. And then there are still a few things to clear» he concluded.