Voice

Three more jobs.

Voice of Choice

By: Burke Lerch

 

The elevator chimed merrily as the doors opened to the 6^th floor hallway. Dirt. Grime. Flickering lights. Jerrad stepped out; crocodile skin boots clicking against the linoleum tile floor. This was the place.

 

            “Sunset Apartments, 6^th floor. Door 627,” Tony grunted. “Should be the third on your left.”

            He handed me the photo.

            “Just four to go, Jerrad.”

           

            One. A baby was screaming on the other side, and a woman. She was sobbing, uncontrollably sobbing.

            Two. An argument. Back and forth, a man and a woman. Jerrad couldn’t make out words, but the meaning was clear. There was only a battered door serving as a bandage for their festering marriage, and their voices had the smell of decay.

            Three. Silence. Always when they were away. He tried the handle but it was locked. Trust was Hollywood.  Click, click. One minute and twenty-seven seconds, the door swung in. Not so bad.

            Jerrad pushed a comfortable looking chair against the wall and sat in it, facing the door. Waiting. He reached into his coat pocket for a battered magazine clipping, humming Pavarotti’s “Nessun Dorma.” Classical Voice Lesson, the clipping read.

 

            Three hours, forty-six minutes. Keys in the lock, and the handle turns. Fumbling in the dark, a man holding a bag of groceries silhouetted in the doorway. The lights flickered on, and he stopped. Staring.

            “Please.”

            “Of course, lets talk.” Jerrad gestured to the couch. “Have a seat.”

            The man’s shoulders relaxed. “Thanks.”

            Two muffled thumps. He was finished twisting the silencer off the Glock 9mm and out the door, humming down the hallway as the milk gurgled its last breath onto the kitchen floor.

Three more.

Reviews

[Fictionborn]

An interesting piece here, with a promising ending. I am sure Jerrad's next targets will prove more difficult. Nice work.

[char]

Awesome. I just love observant people. They're calculated, and are often the most dangerous.

[Epipsychologist]

Hey. I like this. Nice, concise descriptions. He's kind of an exterminator for the building it seems, which is also cool. if you wrote a follow up. or added more to his back story, I'd be keen on reading it.