“That it does. Have you thought about how you want to take care of them?” Eddie asked as he looked at the chessboard.
“I have a couple of ideas, but we’ll discuss those after a few moves,” Ness answered.
Eddie nodded and pushed his pawn to the e5 square, and Ness responded by pushing her pawn to the c5 square.
“So, why do you like the French Defense, Ness?” Eddie asked as he played his knight to the f3 square—adding extra protection to his pawn on d4.
“I like it because it looks defensive, but it really attacks the center which can put white on the back foot if it’s played properly,” Ness pushed her queen to the b6 square.
“Bringing the bitch out early, I see,” Eddie smiled, moving his light-squared bishop to d3.
“It’s a normal variation for this defense. Besides it adds extra pressure onto white’s pawn on the d4 square. But now you’ve made a mistake by blocking the protection of your queen by moving your bishop to d3,” Ness smiled and took the pawn on d4 with her pawn on c5. Eddie didn’t comment and took the black pawn with his knight.
“You’re giving up your knight for a pawn?” Ness asked, taking the knight with her queen.
“No, Ness. I’m giving up my knight to win your queen,” he said, moving his bishop away from d3 and to b5, placing the black king in check while simultaneously attacking the unprotected black queen with his queen.
“Shit,” Ness uttered.
“You see, Ness, things aren’t always how they appear to be. In this position, you assumed I made a mistake by blocking the defense of my pawn by moving by bishop to d3, where in reality I was setting a trap—and a rather tempting one I might add. It appears that black can gain complete control of the center of the board by taking the d-pawn with their queen, but it’s really a crushing blow for black if they fall into that trap,” Eddie said sitting back into his chair.
“That gives me an idea for Jarrod and Nathan,” Ness said.
“Carry on.”
We lure them back to Travis’ apartment when they don’t expect it. We tell them that the police have discovered new evidence that can pin the rape of that 14-year-old girl on all three of them. However, Travis has an idea and promises a way out, but they need to come back tonight and meet him in his apartment. Once they’re inside, we take them out and disappear for good. That prevents the risk of them being on guard because their friend was murdered, and their bodies won’t be discovered for a few days because the apartment is only scheduled to be cleaned on Wednesday.”
“It could work. You up for another round tonight?” Eddie smiled. “It is risky going in the same way that we came in, but people are normally lazy on a Sunday night. Are you sure you’ve planned everything out that you need to?” Ness nodded and rose from her chair.
“It’s a good thing that I bought a few duplicates of the outfits that we wore tonight.” Eddie went upstairs and grabbed the change of clothes for Ness.
“How do you finance all of this?” Ness asked.
“What do you mean?” Eddie asked, handing her the clothes.
“All of this—the clothes, weapons, vehicles, modifications to the house. All of this is expensive and difficult to come by.”
Eddie smiled, “I’ve been doing this for a long time. You build up what you need to and gain experience in many different avenues of life. Go and get dressed. It’s almost midnight, and if there’s any hope of us pulling this off tonight, then we better get moving.” Ness nodded and went and got dressed. That done, they walked back into the garage. “Do you have hollow-point 9mm ammunition?” Ness asked.
“I do, why do you ask?” Eddie seemed very intrigued at that strange request.
“I’d prefer to swap out the regular ammo in the Beretta with hollow points.”
“Alright,” he said, grabbing the Beretta from the duffel bag, ejecting the magazine, and replacing it with one that contained the ammunition of Ness’ choice.
“So, why do you want hollow points?”
“It’s part of my plan,” Ness said as she climbed into the passenger seat.
“Fair enough,” Eddie said, climbing into the car and starting it up.
16
Wyatt pulled into his driveway just before lunch. He parked his truck in the garage but noticed that Lindsay’s car wasn’t there. He checked his phone, but there weren’t any messages from her. He walked toward the front door and went inside. Lindsay had scribbled a note for him and left it on the little table:
Hey Babe,
I went to my mom’s for the day. She called and was feeling pretty lonely, so I suggested that we go out for a little while. I’ll see you a bit later if you get home before me.
I love you lots!
Lindsay xxx
P.S. There’s some leftover pizza in the fridge if you’re hungry.
Wyatt smiled at the note. Lindsay was always old-fashioned and preferred sending letters instead of text messages. She was also a lover of flowers, so keeping her happy was pretty easy. All Wyatt had to do was write her love letter and buy her a bouquet of flowers, and she would swoon.
Wyatt was actually feeling a little peckish; he walked through to the kitchen and grabbed a couple of slices of the cold pepperoni pizza and a beer out of the fridge, and he walked to the den. He turned on the computer and took a couple of bites while he waited for it to boot up. Once he had accessed the
