My meeting with Henry Decker

A short written for a contest

“What do you mean?”

 

“It was you who sent those warning messages.”

 

The office was dark and the dark oak wood paneling made it appear even darker.  I was trapped in this office and the man that sat at his dark mahogany desk looked at me with eyes that could cause Armageddon. He was an old man, a powerful old man and he knew it.  The desk was cluttered with files and I knew that somewhere under all that clutter was a .45 with a bullet with my name on it.  I knew enough not to sweat it though; he needed me alive if he was going to get to the bottom of the Great Betrayal.  Who was I?  How did I get involved in this plot?  For the usual stuff that everyone craves even if they say they don’t; love, money and a great bottle of vodka.  What else was there in life?  Who was I?  A pawn in the game I thought I could run and found out that I dropped the ball in a bad spot.  Should have known it was going to happen like that.

 

He stared at me as I drank his vodka neat out of a brandy snifter.  I stared back at him; a loss for words that I never thought possible.  As if overcome by an impulse he reached for the phone, picked up the business end and started punching numbers.

 

He drank his scotch while waiting for whoever was supposed to answer it.

 

“Yeah it’s Henry Decker here. “  He looked at me again. “I’ve found the broken cog in the machine.”

 

A pause.  Moments that turned into eternity.

 

“I’m not sure that we should play it like that.”

 

A pause.  Silence can allow your imagination to get away from you.  I feel uncomfortable.

 

“Yes fine.” He looks mildly happy.  Good for me?  “That sounds like we have something.  I like the recovery... Not as messy as I was going to take this... Right... Okay.  We’ll do dinner at the club tomorrow.  Bye.”

 

He hung up the phone and he started digging through the file and sure enough I caught the glint of the black steel.

Author's Note

A short written for a contest wrote it in 10 mins

Reviews

[Mockingbird]

this story was very suspenseful. i could picture the scene. it was noirish. great job. i had a good time reading it.