THE USUAL SUSPECTS Looking Past.

By Philip Arnold

Chapter 1

A man with a briefcase hits the wall hard as he is thrown against it. He yelps out in pain as it shoots through his body. He looks down to his right and sees only the body of his fallen bodyguard, blood-spilling out from the hole in his head. He looks forward and sees his assailant, a man dressed as a homeless person now wearing a ski mask and pointing a gun right at his face. It was the same guy they had passed earlier in the alley, sitting on the ground, begging for change.

"Hand over the fucking case now!" the crook screamed pointing gun closer to the man with the briefcase face. He shook his head and the crook swung back and slammed the butt of the gun in the man's face, breaking his nose. The man with the briefcase screamed out and clutches his face with his left hand while still holding onto the case. He can feel blood pour out of his nose onto his hand.

The man with the gun keeps his distance, levels the gun at the man's head and delivers a final ultimatum. The man with the briefcase looks at him through his bloody hand, determined on not letting go of the case. A car pulls up, slamming on its brakes alongside the alley. A window rolls down and a voice screams out for the man with the gun to hurry up. The crook looks at the man, swallows and discharges his firearm.

It strikes the man with the briefcase in his left knee. He immediately drops to the ground now grabbing his knee, letting go of the case and yelling, "Oh you fuck, you fuck, you fuck! You shot me right in my knee! Oh God!"

The man with the gun reaches down, grabs the case and sprints off towards the car. He opens the back door and leaps in. Before he can close the door, the driver is already speeding off. The man in the back seat takes off the ski mask and lets the hammer of the gun down slowly putting on the safety.

"Why didn't you kill the guy Hood?" the driver asked.

"Just shut up and drive Steve! Make a left here." Hood responded breathing heavily. He gripped the sides of the seat as Steve made the left turn. Hood looked at himself in the rearview mirror. He was filthy as were the clothes he wore. Hood had dressed and acted as a homeless man for the past two days to fool off anyone who was at the least bit suspicious. He wiped the sweat off his brow with the sleeve of his jacket and caught a whiff of the smell instead. Hood needed a shower, badly.

Hood continued to look in the mirror and was not proud of what he saw staring back at him. This was not his intention in life, he never wanted this but life doesn't always work out the way one wants it to. Even though he was a criminal, a multiple felon, he was pretty much a normal guy. There were thousands who looked almost like him. If someone wanted to describe him so the police could find him they would get the following; male, Caucasian, anywhere from five foot eleven to six foot two, medium build and brown hair. In a way, it seemed to be the perfect disguise. There was not one thing unique about Hood, he was everyone and he was no one.

Steve Herowitz on the other hand was different. He did stand out in a crowd. He was tall, had blonde hair and blue eyes. Muscular and if he wanted to be, attractive. It was odd to find him out here or in the line of work he was in. To Hood, Steve could have been so much more but instead, ended up being a no good thug and sometimes a gun for hire. But there was one curious thing about Steve; he slept with his eyes open.

It was bizarre watching him sleep and that's he got the nickname, Catatonic Steve. Some crazy whino for some big crime boss saw him asleep like this gave him the name. The boss found out and like the way it sounded and the name has stuck with ever since. It was pretty funny if one thinks about long and hard enough.

The car came stop in front of a garage as it waited for the door to go up. When it did it slowly coasted forward into the building and the door soon closed behind them. Both men climbed out of the car and both froze for a second as they heard sirens approaching. But they passed the garage and continued on, the wails screaming on into the night.

"Whew," Steve cried out, waving his hand across his face, "You need to fucking shower big time Hood!"

Hood looked at him and pushed him aside. He opened a door adjacent to the garage and walked into their apartment. It was a shit hole if Hood had ever seen one. Two mattresses with sheets lay on the floor on either side of the room. In an area supposedly resembling a kitchen there was a card table with three chairs, one of the chairs was missing a leg. It was as dank as the garage and only a few lamps to light it up. Hood shook his head pitifully.

He walked over, took of his jacket and set the briefcase in the center of the table. Hood walked over to the sink and looked for the cleanest glass, but soon gave up. He went over to the ancient refrigerator and opened it. It was barren except for an opened can of beer and what appeared to be a box of baking soda. He heard Steve come in and slammed the refrigerator door shut. Hood looked over and saw Steve with a hammer and a flathead screwdriver. He began to line it up along the seal of the briefcase to crack it open.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Hood asked walking over to Steve. "What's it look like I'm doing dumb ass! I'm gonna open up this case and find what's inside." he said getting up in Hood's face.

Hood pushed him away and took both the hammer and screwdriver from Steve in one quick move. "Oh no you're fucking not! You know our business policy! We don't get involved in other people's problems! If we open up this case and see what's inside we become part of the problem. It's called employer- employee confidentiality dumb ass!"

"Oh come on Hood just this once! You can't tell me that you've never been curious about what could be in these things?" Steve questioned.

"No and you wanna know why? Because you have no idea what could be inside. What if you open that up and all this shit starts spilling out and what if after we picked it all up, we don't find all of it. Then after we deliver this to it's rightful owner, what if he notices that it's not all there because you know what he's going to do, he's going to come to us and start asking where it could be. Plus, he won't be coming alone and I am not dealing with that. Finally, how do you know that what could be in the case is a bomb of some sort."

"Now that is highly unlikely because if there was, then guy would come after us anyway." said Steve.

"What the fuck ever, I don't care what's in the case and neither should you! That's how bad things start happening and right now, we are too close to getting out of this shit hole and moving up! We have a good business going and lots of people are coming to us with jobs, high paying jobs. No more of these five to ten grand jobs, but jobs that go up into the millions. Ok? Just forget about the case, we got to get ready for Thursday night anyway." said Hood taking a deep breath. Steve was silent and just stared at Hood. He still wanted to know what was in the case but his friend convinced him it wasn't worth it.

"What time do we have to deliver this thing again?" Steve asked after a long, cold silence.

"One thirty sharp at Dresser's place so that gives us time to stop by Jan's." Hood replied.

"Jan? Don't tell me you're still seeing that slut of a whore?"

"Shut the fuck up Steve! She's not a whore anymore! She gave that up remember?" Hood responded angrily.

"Yeah sure and we didn't just steal a briefcase which is worth five hundred thousand dollars." said Steve sarcastically. "Just shut the fuck up!" Hood screamed grabbing and throwing Steve to the ground, "Would you stop bashing Jan? I mean that's all you do, call her a whore or a hoe or something else along those lines. If you do it one more time I'm going to kick your ass, you get me?"

"Yeah, I got ya. Just calm down will you. You know I don't ever mean what I say, I'm just joking around. I think Jan's a swell gal it's just.you know.I mean.come on Hood, she's a prostitute and if you believe she's not one anymore than fine, she's not but don't come crying to me when she breaks your heart." Steve said standing up facing his friend.

"Oh I didn't know you had this sensitive side Steve." Hood said in a sweet voice, wrapping his arms around Steve.

"Get the fuck off me!" yelled Steve shucking off Hood who was laughing hysterically, "Ok, very funny. Just don't do that again."

"Whatever see you tomorrow morning." Hood said walking to his side of the room, turning off the lights.