CHAPTER 2
Ollie Burckhardt was sitting next to a dumpster behind the strip mall. He had been living out on the streets of Houston for the last nine years and managed to survive through Hurricane Ike in 2008. It had forced him to live for a short time on top of a fast food restaurant. That had been the roughest time he had endured so far.
He watched as a van came up the alley and stopped about fifty feet down from him. Two men got out and walked over to Clarence Otto, a friend of Ollie's who also lived in this alley. After being beaten a few times since being homeless, Ollie had learned how to make himself almost invisible. He didn't know why, but the arrival of the two men in the van had made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Very quietly, he moved further behind the dumpster. He could hear Clarence talking to the two men about a job. After a couple of minutes, he saw his friend climb into the back of the van and it took off.
Ollie didn't take jobs from people who drove up and asked if he wanted to work. On a couple of occasions he had – and those were the times that he had found himself beaten up. He had taken odd jobs off and on the whole time he had been homeless, but most of them were just temporary except for the one that he had now. It had been almost two years since he first approached the owner of the restaurant a couple of blocks up from the alley that Ollie called home. Frank Desmond had owned the restaurant for fourteen years and often helped out the homeless who lived nearby with either food or money. Once when Ollie had a case of pneumonia, Desmond had gotten him to a free clinic for medicine and even rented him a hotel room until he was well again.
Part of Ollie's work for Desmond consisted of taking out the trash, sweeping the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, and keeping the parking lot cleaned up. He took pride in the work he did and made sure that the areas were spotless. In return, Frank paid him $30 a week and gave him free meals.
As it began to get dark, Ollie's fears for Clarence increased. The thought had occurred to him that most people would want someone to work for them during the day – they wouldn't be coming by late in the afternoon to pick up help. He just had a bad feeling about the situation.
Later that night in an office across town there was a meeting going on. "What do you mean you only got one?" The boss sat back in his chair and looked at the men that he had entrusted to do the job. "I'm not paying you to just get one of 'em at a time." He threw the newspaper on the desk.
"Yes sir." The taller of the two men shifted uncomfortably in the chair.
"I've spent a lot of time and money on this. It WILL happen. And if the two of you and your helpers can't make it happen, then I'll find somebody else who can. Guess where that will put you?" He leaned forward with his elbows on the desk.
"Yes sir." Both men answered that time.
"Now get the hell out of here and get the job done or the two of you will be the next job. Got it?"
"Yes sir." The two men took off out the door and headed back out in search of more victims.