Chapter 45
On Monday morning, Alex watched the news coverage as he ate breakfast. Nothing was mentioned about James Smith.
That’s good to know. Now I can complete this contract without worry.
Later that evening, after all of the visitors had left the park, he would dig the hole and drop the bagged body into it.
He would do his best to get it done quickly.
As usual, to keep his client happy, he’d changed his plans.
Keeping the body in the Jeep longer than necessary was dangerous.
The last thing he wanted was for it to begin stinking up the Jeep and for other tenants who parked in the garage to catch a whiff of the decomposing body.
He had a few days left before returning the Jeep, and he wanted to make sure there was no odor of death inside.
If he had to buy air fresheners that day, he would.
Planning his next move was high on Alex’s list. He would browse the dark web for contracts and see which cities and states had a lot of offers.
After I leave Milwaukee, I’ll rent a place in Waukegan for a month, sell the boat, then move to the next location. Yeah, that’s the smartest way to go. No trail of me anywhere.
Alex looked around his apartment. Luckily, it was a furnished space and leased by the month.
What he owned outright could fit into a couple of suitcases or totes.
He would buy two totes and, before returning the Jeep, drive it to Waukegan on Wednesday, find an apartment and rent it under his actual name, as he had the Milwaukee apartment, then find a used car lot and buy a vehicle.
He would keep that car in Waukegan, return the Jeep on Thursday, then take a bus back to Waukegan.
Whew, I need to write all of that down.
After taking a seat with a freshly poured cup of coffee, Alex tapped his laptop’s mouse and reviewed the route from the state forest to the farm road off Townline and County Highway H.
It would take only twenty minutes to get there, but his client had double the drive.
They would rendezvous at the spot, leave the car, and drive away in the Jeep.
Alex wrote himself a note to make sure the seat position in the car was correct. He’d seen plenty of TV crime shows in which the seat position hadn’t matched the setting it would have been at had the car owner been driving.
Stupid people get caught that way. I need to be laser focused on everything and cover my tracks.
By leaving the target’s car out in the middle of nowhere, Alex wouldn’t give the sheriff’s office a single thing to work with.
They wouldn’t even know where to start. That spot had no significance to anyone and wasn’t in any of the counties that police were monitoring for a sighting of James Smith.
Also, it was a good distance from victim number four—buried in the state forest with no fingertips or teeth for identification.
When and if the target was ever found, the body would be too decomposed to identify.
I think I have everything under control. This time tomorrow, I’ll be as free as a bird with plenty of cash to hold me over until the next job.
Taking his coffee and laptop out to the balcony, Alex relaxed as he began scrolling offers for new hits on the dark web.