A Shattered Heart

When Baxter entered 217 on that afternoon, he heard voices coming from one of the bedrooms.  For more than a year, Baxter had the place all to himself, though there were telltale signs that other people had been there. He liked the solitude it offered, and he wondered who was trespassing upon his privacy and invading his space. He knew that the space wasn’t really his, but he temporarily claimed it for himself since no one had lived there. He remembered telling some friends at school about 217 and thought that it might be one of them. But the closer Baxter got to the bedroom, the more he realized the voices were unfamiliar to him and he sensed tension in their tone. The male voices seem to be full of anger.

As Baxter peered undetected into the smallest bedroom, he saw one man sitting in a chair with his hands and legs shackled and two men taking turns punching the bound man in the face. Baxter smelled a strong scent of gasoline.  As his eyes scanned the room, he saw a gas can sitting on the floor. He saw some kind of liquid dripping from the bound man’s clothing. Baxter thought that it must be gasoline. Then one of the men said, "Max, I think we've wasted enough time on this chump. Let's just slice him, cook him and get outta here!"

Baxter suddenly felt a rush of fear surge through his body.  He concluded they were going to cut up that man and set the body on fire.  He never knew fear like that before. He became more frightened when he saw the taller of the two men remove a long knife from his jacket, place it against the man's throat and yell, “Joey is right man, we should just waste you. This is your last chance to tell us where it is.  Where the hell is it Jesse? Where is it?"  But Jesse just sat there, silent, as he turned toward Max and spit in his face. 

Max, Joey, and Jesse worked for RTK Enterprises, a company that printed and distributed credit and debit cards for financial institutions throughout the metropolitan area. RTK would receive orders from banks and credit unions to print credit cards for their customers.  They became very good at it. As the quality of the equipment and technology improved over the years, so did their level of proficiency.

On one afternoon, Joey mistakenly processed two sets of credit cards. Jesse thought it was funny, making a joke about it. “We should make two sets for each transaction we process,” he said, “keeping the second set for ourselves. We could get over, ha, ha ha. . .”

After a moment of laughter, there was silence as the men all looked intently at one another. They each had the same idea. Max looked at Joey, and then he looked over at Jesse. Both Jesse and Joey looked at each other then they looked at Max. As Max sat gazing into space, he was tapping his foot, not to any rhythm in particular but most likely to the rhythm of the thoughts in his head. Anyone who knew Max well couldn’t help but notice him tapping his foot when he was deep in thought. After several minutes went by, the three of them got together and came up with their plan. 

They had a combined tenure of 30 years with the company and knew all there was to know about credit and debit card distributions and how businesses and financial institutions processed them. After a while, the trio began to feel overworked and burnt out. That was how they justified it whenever their conscience interfered. Eventually, greed got inside of them and they devised a near-perfect plot of creating duplicate sets of debit and credit cards and generating false identification cards using an identification-producing software program, a system that many local governments use to create identification for its employees and state residents. They secured cash advances and placed the funds in a safe in Max’s basement. They also used the cards to purchase merchandise. They bought things such as jewelry, automobiles, appliances, clothes, and virtually anything imaginable and they would purchase multiple quantities oftentimes at wholesale prices to resell at higher prices. Most of the purchases were not for their personal use but on occasion, they did buy things for themselves. They didn’t realize how close they came to getting caught.

One customer had a special anti-fraud feature on his account that generated an automated phone call to the customer, generally within one hour of any purchase over one hundred dollars. The feature is customizable for any dollar amount indicated by the customer. Jesse used a card to purchase a variety of camera equipment totaling more than three thousand dollars. By the time it was determined that someone other than the account holder had made the purchase, Jesse was long gone. Max, Joey, and Jesse were smart enough to use a card only once. In fact, they discarded the cards and receipts after each use. Each one of them strictly adhered to that policy without exception and was also careful not discuss their schemes with anyone.

Their downfall was their greed. Jesse was the greediest of the three. One day he disappeared with all the money. Baxter didn’t know it but Jesse was the other person hanging around 217. Jesse would go there to hide out from Max and Joey. He had inadvertently dropped the key and those loose papers that Baxter had found. Jesse decided to keep all the money for himself and hide it in a secure place. Max and Joey kept asking him where it was but he wouldn’t’ tell them. After a brief moment of silence, Max slit Jesse's throat. Blood spurt out everywhere. Max suddenly had a momentary lapse of sanity and he repeatedly slashed and chopped and hashed and cut at Jesse's throat. He acted as if he had no control of what he was doing. Baxter was terrified. There was blood everywhere. There was blood on the floor, blood on the walls, and blood all over Max and Joey.  Baxter saw his own life flash before his eyes and he felt in his heart that he was about to be killed.