Chapter Two
Shawn thought he did a clean job. “Not bad for a rookie,” he says in his head, as if he’s bragging about it to a friend. He thinks that in that dark hour and alley, nobody could’ve seen him commit a crime. Thus, he can walk away a free-man without the guilty conscience. By the time he slips away, nobody could suspect him, when the manhunt is in motion by the NYPD Crime Units Task Force. He can basically slip through their fingers unnoticed.
“No evidence, no crime,” he hummed in confidence.
Now though, he needs to leave this area as soon as possible, for there is an urgent matter at hand, his family’s safety. He also wants to mastermind how to hand down a wrathful punishment. But, he must head uptown before the clock strikes midnight, and kneels to the nightfall’s sword. A warning alarm rang in his ears, “exactly midnight, not a minute late.”
The current situation can change at any moment. Downtown Manhattan will soon be a hot crime scene, and most major streets around Battery Park could be barricaded and closed. The authorities will be doing their preliminary investigations and collect evidences. So, before he gets stranded in an overnight halted traffic jams, Shawn must disappear into the thin air.
He needs to escape via the best route to be at Central Park West entrance on Columbus Circle, by midnight and pick up his family.
He can already hear the police task forces and ambulance sirens started blowing up the city, and closing in. “Holy shit!” he says, panicking, almost he got caught in the hot mess he’s created.
He is furiously growing worried losing his family over his paddy mistakes. His eyes are soaring in fear as he contemplates. For now, he won’t just yet meet the night without a fight. He has lots of messes to clean up, and unpaid dues to collect from sinners.
First though, he must find a quicker route for getting to Fifty-Ninth St. and Central Park West faster. The time on the dashboard says 11:32PM. And in a vibrant Saturday nightlife of NYC, it could take forever to get to uptown from downtown, because he’s in the intersections of Wall St. and Water St., anxiously fighting his own head, and calculating the best driving options.
He can either take FDR drive to exit at east Forty-Second or Sixty-First Street. Or he can take NY-9A North to Fifty-Sixth Street. Either way, time is burning faster than matchstick; therefore he must make a quick decision of his lifetime. The GPS says FDR takes 23 minutes and West Side Ave takes 26 minutes.
He looks left to right, rubbing off his worrisome from his forehead. The streets of NYC are gleaming with shimmering lights all around. Considering no highway trooper pulls him over, he heads North on Water St. and jumps in to FDR drive ramp. Once he entered the ghostly highway, he pressed the gas pedal on his tan white Ford Edge, V6, accelerating to its fullest speed.
Soon after, he caught a glimpse of the crime scene already being overtaken by the authorities. He kept the speed limit to its max, eyeing the roads, his head with his family ahead.
Meanwhile, a phone was blasting off for the last couple minutes in one of the evidence bins. An NYPD officer picks up the phone and answered the call.
“Hello, who is this?”
“This is Mallory Scott,” she replied with bewilderment. She was a bit surprised that someone answered her father’s personal phone. As puzzled as she got, she was also anxious and worried.
“Who is this?” she said worriedly.
“Yes, ma’am. This is Officer Parker, NYPD Crime Units from 1st Precinct.”
“May I speak with my father, please?”
“I am sorry to tell you this but...” Officer Park didn’t even finish his sentences.
“Did something happen to my father?”
“Is my father okay?” She could feel her heart beating faster and a ton of dark shadow waves weighing on her shoulders. She could feel her rib cages cracking open with fear, as her eyes were fighting the sun of raging tears.
“I am sorry to tell you this Mallory, but your father and brother were fatally shot to death near your dad’s office. I am sorry.”
“What happened to my brother and father?” “Shot...?” “Who...?
Mallory’s raging tears burst and flooded her round face.
She could not move her systems. She lost her equilibrium and fainted in her living room.