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Printed from https://shop.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/874716-Even-millionaires-have-a-heart
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by gonch Author IconMail Icon
Rated: 18+ · Short Story · Crime/Gangster · #874716
It´s a detective story. A good detective story.
It was night. A cold night...
Jack was seated in his desk, with nothing to do.
He hadn´t had a case in WEEKS!
He couldn´t be such a bad detective. Or maybe he was such a bad detective. Maybe he should have become a doctor, or something like that. Maybe his parents were right...

The phone rang...
"What the..." said Jack, almost asleep,"Jack Devone, private detective", he said, trying to sound professional, instead of bored and sleepy.

"I have a case for you, Mr. Devone" said a smale voice, from the other side of the line.

"Well, I´ll have to check my..." quickly said Jack. The surprise that there was someone calling him to get a case was something that he received with a smile, a smile that he was still wearing, while trying to pretend to be more important than he really was.

"Please...we both know that you´re not exactly a good private detective. We both know that you haven´t had a case in weeks, and that you were probably asleep and were awaken by the sound of the phone" said the male voice, now with a sort of amused tone.

"So, you´ve been tailing me..." said Jack, while the smile slowly faded.

"Maybe...maybe...you´re not a good detective, but you´re the cheapest one I could find"

"So, what´s the case, Mr..."

"You can call me...Mr. My Name Doesn´t Matter. I have a busisness partner, Mr. Devone. Or, at least, I used to... since he abandoned me after taking something very important that belongs to me" said the voice, with a precision of someone who's in an extreme hurry.

"Who´s your partner?" asked the private detective.

"Mr. Lance Anderson"

"The famous millionaire?"

"Please...everything he has...all that money...he owes it all to me" said the man, in a calm voice.

"So, why did he betray you?"

"He´s a milionaire, Mr. Devone. What does every milionaire in the world wants?"

"Hmmm...more money?"

"Exactly"

"So...he betrayed you...for more money?"

"Yes. I taught him that: "Money is the key for life""

"The key for life?"

"He´s a little paranoid about death. Aniway, I know he´s keeping it at his office, in New York.
And since you're in New York right now, I though you could, well..."

"Break into his office and take it back?"

"Yes, I thought you could do that"

"What is it, exactly? What did he steal from you?"

"You'll know when you see it...The money is already in your bank acount. After you have it, get back to your office and wait for my phonecall"

"How will you know when I have it?"

"Don´t worry, I will"

Then, he hung up.

"Hmm, what a strange guy", said Jack to himself.
He decided to begin working in the case imediately, since he had nothing else to do, and he needed the money... after consulting his bank acount.
25 000 dollars. For a millionaire, that was probably nothing, but to Jack...
"Holy crap!" he said, while leaving the bank, with a bunch of notes in his pockets "Looks like this guy isn´t exactly poor..."
Jack would've probably done the job for half, but fortunately for him, his client didn't even talk about prices.
A despered man, indeed...

The office of Lance Anderson was in the tallest building of the entire city, in the last floor.

"Well, this won´t be easy...said Jack, looking at the huge building "Nope, this won´t be easy at all..."

He had a plan. He would enter the building at night, go to the last floor, enter the office, and then, steal Lance what he had stolen from his client.

Not exactly an intelligent or complex plan... but, afterall, it had been made by a man who was neither intellugent or complex.

It was midnight, and Jack was ready. He had his pistol (just for precaution), his hat (he loved his hat), and, of course, a lock-pick that he had never used before, and a flaslight.

The street was crowded, but the no one seem to notice Jack entering the building.

It was completely dark inside the skyscraper. The windows were sealed by some-kind of metal, and not even the moon-light could penetrate them.

There was a big entrance hall. And at the end of it, there was an elevator.
But, of course, there were also two cameras watching the entrance of the elevator.

"Easy" said Jack to himself, while using his spray to blind the cameras.

"Let´s see...hmm, last floor" he said, while pressing the 55th button.

It was a calm and surprisingly long trip. Some nice ambient music started to play inside the elevator, when the doors closed.

When he arrived at the last floor, Jack stepped carefully out of the elevator, looking for more cameras.

But, there weren´t any.

"Hmm... strange. This is going to be too easy" he said, while walking towards the office that had "Lance Anderson" written on it's entrance door.

It was a big office, with some beautiful painting hanging on the walls.. The batteries of his flashlight were almost over, but, still, he thought they would last enough time.

Suddenly, he heard a voice.

"Mr. Devone... finally. I´ve been waiting for... quite some time... or at least the among of time that a man such as myself cannot waste in vain"

Suddenly, all the lights of the buiding were on.
Jack tried to reach his pistol, but he heard a click behind him. The sort of click that a pistol does when it´s about to fire.

"I wouldn´t do that if I were you" said a voice behind him.

"So...he sent you..." said Lance, the man who was seating in a chair behind a desk, looking amused and extremely calm at the same time.

"How did you know I was coming?" asked Jack, with a nervous tone in his voice.

"Please... I´ve been tailing him. I knew he would do something like this. He´s so predictable... or at least predictable for me, since I've known him for quite some time"

"Who is he, exactly?"

"That doesn´t matter, Mr. Devone. That doesn´t matter at all. So, you were going to just enter my office and take it back, I immagine"

"Yeah"

"Hmm... he really hired the cheapest detective he found, didn't he? You´re lucky. If I hadn´t decided to help you, my guards would've probably killed you"

"Help me?" asked Jack, confused but slightly less nervous.

"I owe him everything I have today. He was my... I immagine that "mentor" is the right word. "Life is the key for life"... ah yes. You see, I´ve always been a little obsessed with death. It´s fascinating how a life can be taken in just a moment.
We are alive, we aren´t alive. Time is a quick and deadly assassin, Mr. Devone... just like money and sucess. I am a millionaire, Mr. Devone. And even millionaires have a heart. Even we can understand the difference between right... and wrong. Altough, both right a wrong are points of view... So, I'm gonna give you a suitcase. Inside that suitcase there are more than one million dollars. It's the precise quatity of money I stole from him. Tell him I'm sorry. Tell him that i'm a bastard, but so is he"
Then, Lance grabbed a suitcase and gave it to Jack.

"Here it is. Take it back. And now, if you don´t mind, leave this building. And, if you value your life as much as I value mine, I highly advise you not to open that suitcase. Now, leave"

Jack turned around and ten minutes later he was out of the building. He was confused...extremely confused.

"What a strange rich guy" he said to himself.

But he had done his mission... and from his point of view, he had deserved the 25000 dollars that his client had payed him.

When he arrived at his office, there was a man seating at his desk.

"So, you have it" said the man, speaking with the same voice that Jack had previously hard on his phone.

"So, you're..."

"Yes, I'm your client. Mr. Smith, at your service" said the man, with a smile in his face.

"Well, here it is...but there´s something strange..."

"Yes yes bla bla bla" said the man with an excited look on his face, taking the suitcase from Jack's right hand, "Well, you've made a good work, and now, I´ll leave. Farewell, and I honestly hope never to see you again"

The man left Jack´s office with a big smile in his face.

"Well...I'm not such a bad detective after all" said Jack, satisfied with himself.

Suddenly, he heard an explosion.

He ran to his window to find out what had happened.

The suitcase had exploded, and Smith was dead. His body lwas laying in the street... burned... in ashes.

"That bastard" said Jack "HA, a heart MY ASS!"




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