Southern Justice, Part 29

I’m Fixin’ To present part 29 of Southern Justice:

Chris Adams took his work home with him that Friday night, prepared his own dinner, worked some more, then just before midnight, he decided it was time. He changed into jeans, a dark sweatshirt and tennis shoes.

His plan was to check out Hormel’s law office and the surroundings. He would be looking for a way into it, but felt it would be important to scope out the building before actually doing it.

He parked his car in the lot of an upscale strip mall, which was only a short walk from the law office. The mall was occupied by several good restaurants and bars, and since it was Friday night it was crowded and no one noticed him as walked away from his car.

Buried deep in the high-rise office park was a one floor building that was a left over from the early days of the park before the giant high-rises began to spring up like mushrooms. That building was Hormel’s law office. It was well kept and landscaped superbly with ancient six-foot-high hedges surrounding the entire building and the small parking lot.

The area was deserted at this time of night, however, Chris suspected some type of security would be cruising around so he glanced all around before he darted into the driveway like a shadow, because he didn’t want to be having to explain his presence there to some rent-a-cop.

The one-story building was also home to a real estate agency, a travel agency, and the last suite on the right had a brass plate reading: B. Wendell Hormel, Esquire, Attorney At Law.

As he inspected the front door it appeared to be secured simply by a deadbolt requiring a single key. Then, over to the right, he spotted the keypad used to arm or disarm the alarm system. Okay, now he knew there was an alarm system.

Turning right, he walked around the corner and at the end of the building and to the rear where he spotted a window. Upon close inspection he saw that it was a conventional sliding window. Behind the window was a room of the building he hadn’t remembered seeing earlier that day. Leaning close the moon gave him just enough light to see that it was some kind of closet, and that it had a conventional window lock on the inside.

This window, he thought, is what I was looking for—now it’s time to get the heck out of here!

He turned left to retrace his steps, but he had only taken one step towards the corner of the building when he saw the beam of the flashlight. He felt the hair on the back of his neck stiffen as he distinguished the sound of footsteps approaching from around the corner. Nothing to do but run!

Chris had broken into full stride when he saw the second flashlight beam coming from around the other end of the building! Stopping short, he thought fast. Must be two rent-a-cops, and they must have seen him when he entered the property from the front of the building.

Trapped! A security guard coming at him from both directions, the building behind him and that thick, six-foot high hedge row in front of him, with only one possible way to escape.

Chris had been a much recruited wide receiver in high school, because of his height, great speed and leaping ability.

Okay, it’s game time, he thought as he pressed his hands and back onto the building, pushed off as hard as he could. There was only room for three strides between the wall and the hedge, so after he took them he leaped headfirst as high and as hard as he ever had, pretending the hedgerow was the goal line.

Both flashlight beams caught him in midair just before he meshed into the the top part of the hedge. As the stiff twigs snapped and dug into his hands, face and neck, he clawed and rolled until he was over the top and fell with a thump on the other side of the hedges. Touchdown! he thought as he landed on the hard asphalt of a parking lot. He could hear the shouts on the other side of the hedgerow as he bounced to his feet and sprinted away into the darkness, running low, thinking about the possibility of catching a bullet rather than a football.

He was back at the strip mall, in his car driving away by the time the two security guards finally broke through the hedges, where they stood looking around, scratching their heads.

(tmdunagan@aol.com)