Killer in Vogue

A killer always assumes that things will be easy after you finish those first few hits. It's a simple enough assumption, I mean most people in the civilian world think it's a tough thing.  A killer, who's good at his trade (I mean really passionate)...shouldn't he be getting call backs? Shouldn’t he be getting opportunities instead of laying by the phone, halfway between hungover and drunk? These are the things a depressed man like myself asks the world.

I got into this business at a young age, the army had me for 4 years in a non combat role. I begged for action for years, I wanted to get that deployment in, but it never came. And so I got out after the first enlistment, I lounged around my childhood town chatting up an old girlfriend who was close to getting married. Things were tough, I got a job at the local Dollar store, lost every promotion year after year, they said I didn't show managerial capabilities. So on a lonely do-nothing-day I spied some made for tv movie. It was slop and my tastes aren't that high, but it had this killer in it, and the guy just interested the hell out of me.

Now he wasn't too good looking, the guy was about 5ft 8 and his skill just wasn't there. And I knew that there was some realism there because the intro said “based on a true story” at the start. So anyways, in one of the scenes he shoots this guy in broad daylight, out in a crowded street. The whole movie is about him realizing something about himself, but I didn't pay much attention to that, it just got me thinking how easy it would be for me to kill. Now the only hard thing is what those Internet personalities call networking. I don't know if me and those Al Capone types frequent the same bars, but there has to be some way to find ‘em.  And there is, I would soon discover. 

Now I don't know how I met this character but one day I got this call from a guy named Romero. Now Romero saw one of my flyers and he was wondering if I could knock off this guy who was robbing drug dealers countywide. I said sure, and so I drove a state over, met up with an old army buddy and bought a handgun off him. I drove to a hardware store and got some rubber gloves and some car cleaners to make it look real normal.

And so for a few days I tracked him, as you do. Finally, I found my opportunity and I grabbed it. I waited just like Romero told me and he gave me a grand and a half. Now I knew it was small fry, but I figured that after that hit the money would roll clean in. But he just never called me back. I left a few voicemails, of course very low-key, but the relief never came. The next few jobs were the exact same, one hit then missed calls and voicemails. You kill five guys you expect to make a little more than 5,000! The money isn't the only issue, although my mom is getting a little ornery about the rent, my big problem is that a man in this field is supposed to get his notoriety, but I got nothing to show for it.

That is until this morning. I was laying in bed about to jerk off, a few thoughts away from ending it all when a call came, the biggest call I could have gotten. The voice was low and scary, he told me to meet him at the Moonlight Diner at 11:30. It was a little early for me but I agreed and made sure to have my mom get me up nice and early from my nap. So I fell back asleep, and not too long after I was driving to the diner in my Mom's Rav 4. The man who was waiting for me was a really unassuming guy, I figured I could take him in a fight if I wanted. I said “Hello” and all the niceties I was taught to,  before I called the waitress over to order. I was a few minutes into my bacon and pancakes when he asked me if I thought I could kill a senator.

Of course I told him yes, I said I'd watched that Kennedy movie a million times. "It looked real easy" I told him, but he quickly said that didn't matter. He said that some other guy was going to be taking the shot, but he assured me that I would get all of my due credit. After breakfast he took me out to the car and gave me a rifle, with everything already figured. I almost felt like thanking him, even though I knew I had to do all the work.

They gave me a cash advance of 4,000. I decided to get my mom some McDonalds, and I bought myself some stuff I had wishlisted on amazon. The day of the big event came up. A new guy picked me up and dropped me off near the convention center. I got on top of a building they gave me access to and waited. When the senator came into view, I fired and winged him but he went down from a second shot that I never made. I got down from my perch and ran down the stairs, and down to my car that they hid for me. When I started it up I felt like a million dollars, I felt like I was on top of the world. I sped off and passed two cops but they were preoccupied.

In those minutes when I knew there was money coming my way, and where I knew that it had all paid off I was happy. It was only a nice little bonus that I knew they'd all be calling on me after this.

******

His car didn't make it very far down the road before a state trooper caught him speeding and flipped on his lights. After he refused to pull over a chase ensued, he tried to fire at the trooper but in the gunfight his car swung into a divider and he found himself in pieces all over the JFK Memorial Bridge. Edgar never realized a killer's notoriety only comes in his epilogue.