C.: (ring) Hello?
d..: Cal.E., read this and get back to me
Joshua Devine ran Devine Cleaners, his dry cleaning operation like a well-oiled machine. That may have been one of the reasons that he was picked by one of the most powerful people in the world for a job that bore a different description. The small man that came to visit him one afternoon was insistent that he be the one to carry out the mission that was to be accomplished. If you didn’t, the man warned, his family may disappear. To make sure that the dry cleaner understood just how powerful he was, Taylor had two of his friends kidnapped and one of his employees killed to emphasize his point. Since it was his best employee that Taylor killed, this action got Joshua’s attention. He loved his wife and two daughters more than he loved himself, or even the dry cleaning business that he’d built from the ground up when he was a young man.
Joshua’s obsession with becoming a success had kept him from seeking a soulmate until his fortieth birthday, at which point he turned to a computer dating service to find a match. Since he desired to have a family, his profile suggested that he was looking for a mate who was less than thirty years old.
Joshua was successful in wooing and marrying a woman who was fifteen years his junior. The two dated for six months and quickly married. When the couple started to discuss family planning, though, Joshua was disappointed to find out that his new bride had an objection to having children, or even adopting any. Disappointed, Joshua divorced her and immediately started looking for another mate who shared his desire to have children. Unbeknownst to Joshua, his use of a computer dating service had exposed him to a dangerous criminal. Taylor admired Joshua’s determination to accomplish his goals, as well as the way he ran his business, so he decided to help the man find his ideal mate, but only at a price.
Joshua was pleased when he met his new potential mate, but she was beyond the age that most women desire to have their first child. However, Brook found out she was pregnant after the couple had dated for a mere eight months. The couple decided that, since they both desired to have children, it would be best to marry.
Six months after their wedding date, a healthy, six pound, six ounce baby girl was born. Since they both thought that this baby was a miracle child, the couple didn’t practice birth control. Eight months after she delivered her first child, Brook took a pregnancy test and discovered that she was pregnant. It was positive. A visit to her OB-GYN confirmed the prognosis, as well as the fact that she was pregnant with another girl.
The couple was overjoyed with the results. They decided not to practice any birth control and try for a trifecta of toddlers. However, Brook’s eggs had become brittle by then. She suffered three miscarriages before Joshua decided to have a vasectomy to save his wife any more pain from losing another child.
When the Devine children were old enough to go to preschool, their parents sent them to the best one in Greater Houston, hoping to give them an early start on a successful life. Taylor had a large interest in this preschool, and he used it to his advantage. He would send the Devines progress reports bragging on how well their children were doing. Since the Devines were wealthy, they decided to sign their two children up for as many extracurricular activities as the preschool would offer.
On the morning that Joshua Devine handed the small man back his dry cleaning, he noticed that the customer had locked the door behind him. No other customers were in the facility, and Taylor saw his opportunity.
“Now then, Mr. Devine, I have a proposition for you,” Taylor began. “If you will help me with an…enterprise, I will guarantee that your two daughters get special attention at the daycare that I own. But, if you don’t do as I ask you to do, your whole family will end up like your best employee. Certainly you wouldn’t desire the same fate for your wife and daughters as that man and his family, would you?”
Joshua began to shake uncontrollably when Taylor showed him pictures of his best employee’s family’s bodies lying in supine positions with blood pooling under their heads from gunshot wounds. He then proceeded to recite Joshua’s home address, his wife’s daily schedule, and all the activities that his two daughters were involved in.
“What do you want me to do?” Joshua asked. His voice was barely above a whisper because he was so frightened.
“I need someone to clean up this mess.” Taylor began. “leave no trace of blood, or any way for the weapon that was used to execute this plan to be identified.” “I don’t know how to do that.” Joshua protested.
“I suppose, then, that you have some research to do. Dispose of these bodies and report back to me. If you’re successful in doing as I ask, you’ll be richly rewarded. You and your whole family will get to live, as long as you don’t anger me in any way.” Taylor then sat a piece of paper on the dry cleaner's desk with the address of a clandestine website that few people could access. He told Joshua to buy a laptop computer and not use the one at the library to do this, as most people were apt to do in the early 1990s. He then sat five one hundred dollar bills on the counter. “That should buy you a fairly nice laptop computer. When you get it, call this number, give him the I.P address, and listen carefully. This man is the best computer hacker in the world. His computer knowledge is very valuable to me.
“I’ll be listening to that and every conversation you have on your landline, as well as your cell phone that you purchased on August 15 of last year. You got a good discount on it, one that isn’t offered to everyone. I made sure of that, after I put a listening device in it that also bugged your landline after you activated it at your house as you were instructed to do. You’re good at following directions. That’s why I decided to use you for the most important work of any of my staff, Joshua Devine.” Taylor then decided to emphasize his point by giving details of Joshua’s life that weren’t common knowledge.
“You were born on July 9, 1952 to Julia and Geaorge Devine in Jasper Texas at five minutes after five in the morning. You attended the public schools in your town, where you were an above-average but not outstanding student. You played football, basketball, and ran track. You were the leading rebounder on your basketball team and an honorable mention all-conference lineman in your football team. You weren’t good enough to earn an athletic scholarship, though, and the public school system didn’t prepare you well for the entrance exams you took to try to get an academic scholarship to college.
“Your parents made too much money for you to qualify for government help with tuition, but not enough to pay your way through a senior college, so you attended a community college. You hold an associate’s degree in finance, which has served you well. It helped you know how to run this business.”
“What if I get caught?” Joshua didn’t want to go to jail, especially for something he didn’t do.
“You won’t, you have my word on that.” Taylor then unlocked the door and swiftly got in his ancient green-and gray-gray pickup and drove away. Joshua was too afraid not to follow Taylor’s very specific instructions carefully.
C.: I wonder if Joshua Devein could get cat urine out of grout?