AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Absolutely, and thanks, Jake.”
“Nonsense, I owe you big time, still, buddy. See ya later at the Corner Pocket?”
“Yeah… sure. See you then…”
Ernie took a deep breath of relief after hanging up the phone.
Maybe I’ll get away with this, after all...
Ernie’s anxiety over being caught lessened each day that passed without any sight of a police car or visits from scary Russians. He even visited the brothel the very next Wednesday, as usual, and asked for Stoya. The Russians lied to him and said she was still dealing with a medical issue.
They have no idea…
This time, he stayed and visited a new girl. He found that as long as he thought about Stoya he could continue going to the motel for his weekly visits.
Somehow, be it luck or divine intervention, Ernie felt that what he did to Stoya would be a secret that only he would take to his grave. Life returned to normal, for the most part, and he even felt as if he were a more confident man because of it.
Until the day Stoya’s body washed ashore.
Despite his best efforts to weigh her body down with the heavy rock, Ernie failed to take into account the pure strength of Lake Erie’s undercurrent. Within a few weeks of his one and only boat trip, the powerful lake managed to free her body from the tightly wrapped sheet and her badly decomposed body washed ashore at Edgewater Beach.
Ernie’s feelings of fear and anxiety returned in full force. He wondered each day if someone would show up at his door to arrest him. He feared that maybe they would find some sort of evidence on her body that he was with her the night she died.
Then a second body washed ashore. Not long after that a third.
The media was even saying that there might be a serial killer out there targeting girls near Edgewater Beach. The emergence of these two unidentifiable bodies and the possibility of a serial killer actually made Ernie feel a little better about his situation.
Because he didn’t kill those two other girls.
Whoever did sure wants everyone to think that I did, though…
Just like before, Ernie’s anxiety dissipated over time. In fact, until Detective Jason Knox paid him a visit at Rides 4 Less he thought he was completely out of the woods. Once he realized that they weren’t after him, specifically, but rather the Russians, Ernie truly began to feel bulletproof.
If I can get through this, and those Russians get popped, the only people who would ever suspect me for Stoya’s death will be dead or in prison...
Everything was going as planned on the day of the motel sting until Ernie walked into the office to get the key, as instructed. As soon as he entered the office, Ernie was greeted by Vladimir Popov holding a gun in his hand and telling him to sit down.
“Hello, Ernie. Let’s have chat…”
“A chat? About what?” Ernie asked, still unsure how they must have known he was working with the police.
Why else would they have a gun?
“Oh, just a little chat about Stoya…” Vlad let his words hang in the air, and Ernie’s non-verbal reaction was all he needed to confirm what he suspected: Stoya Fedorov’s murderer was Ernie Page.
Ernie, knowing that the SWAT team was outside, decided to make a break for it. He was a dead man regardless and this was his only chance out. If he could get outside without getting shot then he might have a chance. Even if Vladimir told the police that he killed Stoya, they wouldn’t believe him. Ernie would just deny it, anyway.
Ernie took a deep breath and then fled out of the office door as fast as possible, knocking over the Russian who was trying to guard the door behind him. Vlad got a couple shots off, all of which somehow missed Ernie as he ran out of the office.
Vlad gave chase out the door, knowing that Ernie wouldn’t be able to outrun him. What Vlad didn’t expect was to see a SWAT team approaching in an armored vehicle as he chased Ernie.
Without hesitation, Vlad ran back inside and alerted his crew that the police were here and to open fire on them. Vlad was hopeful that would buy him enough time to shred the little bit of evidence of the brothel’s financials that were in the office.
His plan worked. While the others were firing shots at the armored vehicle he was able to shred the only papers that possibly could prove that they were running a brothel. He made sure to destroy all of the customer information that they had, including the police officers that frequented the girls at the motel. They would be of much more help to him if they weren’t in jail, too.
Outside, meanwhile, Ernie was laying on the ground and covering his head. He had fully expected to get shot in the back as he ran outside, but miraculously that didn’t happen. What did happen was his disbelief that he was actually happy to see the police for once. Unfortunately, for Ernie, he must have been so surprised that he defecated in his pants while the shots were whizzing by him. At first, he was really embarrassed, but then he realized the more pathetic he looked to the police, the better.
I’ll play the pathetic card, and if I get out of here I’m gone for good...
When Detective Knox released him, Ernie knew that his time may be limited before the Russians talked. Even though the police likely wouldn’t believe them, they still would follow up with Ernie.
That was a chance that Ernie didn’t want to take, so he decided to cut his losses and make a run for Canada on Jake’s boat before the authorities caught up with him. Unfortunately, for Ernie, the boat wasn’t at the dock and he couldn’t get ahold of Jake to see when it would be back. Sometimes Jake and other charter captains would go for nighttime charters because the fishing on Lake Erie was sometimes best in the dark.
This is obviously one of those nights…
Ernie decided to sit in his car, which like most of the cars on the Rides 4 Less lot had very little gas left in the tank, and wait for Jake’s boat to return. He couldn’t think of anyone that would even know about his connection to Jake’s boat outside of a few people and felt none of them would likely talk to the police on the outside chance that they were even questioned to begin with. Even his very own wife, Ellie, didn’t know.
Ernie felt tonight as if he had the small luxury of waiting for his getaway boat to return, and then he’d once again rely on the same instincts that he had always used to survive.
