A Victim of Circumstance Page 2

  They carried an unconscious Jack Bellamy outside and deposited him into the rear of a small truck.

  After Rudy and Larry left, Tiffany and Carl got dressed as they went over the plan again.

  “You’re sure you can pull it off? You look like Jack Bellamy, but you don’t sound like him,” Tiffany said.

  Carl kissed her. “Relax, baby, you know I won’t push my luck. I’ll just go to that bar he likes to hang out at and make sure I’m seen by several witnesses.”

  “But someone will try to talk to you.”

  Carl let his face go slack and spoke as if he were drunk.

  “I’ll just pretend to be plastered and slur my words. It will make me more memorable.”

  “Okay, and afterwards?”

  “I abandon Bellamy’s ride nearby and head to that place we picked out.”

  “And what comes before that?”

  Carl looked confused for a moment, but then he smiled.

  “I leave the ransom note inside the car, so the cops will think he was grabbed after leaving the bar.”

  “Yes, and that will give all of us time to set up our alibis.”

  “Even if we’re suspected they won’t be able to prove a thing.”

  Tiffany kissed Carl, then patted his bearded cheek.

  “I’ll be glad when you take off this disguise. I’m sick of kissing Jack Bellamy.”

  “You did more than kiss him.”

  “Don’t be jealous; it was all a part of the plan.”

  “That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

  Tiffany smiled. “I’ll make it up to you.”

  Carl stared at her, into her eyes, and frowned at what he was seeing.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” Tiffany asked.

  “You’re back on the blow. I can tell by the way your eyes look.”

  “I just snorted a little to get through the day. This kidnapping plot is more dangerous than the usual cons we run. If we get caught we’ll all be in a federal prison.”

  “You promised me, Tiffany. You said you were off the cocaine for good.”

  “I know, and I will be once this is over, and we get paid.”

  Carl gave her a doubtful look, but he didn’t say anything else on the subject.

  When she was ready to go, Leffler walked Tiffany to the door and kissed her goodbye. He didn’t have to leave for the bar for another few hours and had time to kill. After mixing himself a drink, he took a stroll outside and looked around.

  Carl Leffler, a former actor turned con artist, was indeed a master of disguise. So much so that he fooled the assassin who was out to kill the man he was pretending to be. Leffler died in Jack Bellamy’s place, leaving Tanner none the wiser.

  3

  A Change Of Plans

  In the hours after the hit, Tiffany had called Carl several times and received no answer, not even a text. Fearing something may have gone wrong, she returned to the bungalow. That was when she discovered Carl’s body.

  After weeping over her lover, she called Rudy and Larry. When they arrived on the scene, their faces revealed the shock Tiffany was feeling.

  “What the fuck?” Rudy said. “Who would kill Carl?”

  Larry shook his head as he pointed down at the body.

  “That’s Carl, but he doesn’t look like himself. I think somebody thought they were killing Jack Bellamy.”

  “What?” Tiffany said, as she wiped at her eyes.

  “Yeah,” Rudy said. “That makes sense, and lots of people hate Bellamy.”

  “Shit. What does this do to the plan?” Larry said. “Now none of us have an alibi for when Bellamy goes missing.”

  “We have to call Melissa,” Tiffany said, “or better yet, let’s tell her to come here. This was all her idea in the first place.”

  “You think she’ll come?” Rudy asked.

  “She’ll come,” Tiffany said, “and knowing her she’ll think of something.”

  A half hour later, Melissa Bellamy arrived and looked down at the dead form of a man who resembled her husband. The kidnapping had been Melissa’s idea, and she had called upon her friends to help her pull it off.

  The fact was, there really was no kidnapping, or rather, although Bellamy had been abducted, the group holding him had no intention of collecting a ransom. Most kidnappers are caught when it comes time to get their hands on the money. Once the authorities know where to leave the ransom, they also know where the kidnappers will appear to collect it.

  The whole idea of Bellamy’s abduction was to put him out of commission for a few days. Melissa had signed a prenuptial agreement which stated she would get nothing if Jack divorced her or died within their first three years of marriage.

  Cruel bastard that he is, Bellamy was waiting until the last moment to start proceedings. He had done the same thing to wives’ number two and number three, and Melissa had found out about it.

  However, if the marriage lasted beyond the three-year mark, the contract stated that Melissa would receive three million dollars. The plan was to keep Bellamy captive until the deadline passed. It was a date that was only two days away.

  Knowing she would come under suspicion once it became known how fortuitous the timing of the kidnapping was for her, Melissa came up with a plan. That plan involved Carl Leffler masquerading as her husband to obscure the true time of Bellamy’s abduction. With Leffler dead, Melissa’s friends had no alibi.

  “We can fix this,” Melissa said. She was a redhead, petite, and had a shapely body that had lured many a victim of her con games to a sad fate.

  Tiffany flushed crimson with anger. “You can’t fix anything! Carl is dead.”

  Melissa reached out and touched her friend’s cheek.

  “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry for your loss, and you know I loved Carl too. That said, we have to move forward with the plan or we’ll all be screwed.”

  “How do we do that?” Rudy asked.

  Melissa sighed as she stared down at the body. “I have an idea.”

  That night, Melissa Bellamy drove her husband’s Jaguar into the parking lot of a restaurant in a neighboring town. Rudy pulled up alongside her in a small truck, which was a converted van. The truck was there to block the view of anyone leaving the restaurant. It would be moved once Melissa and Rudy set the scene.

  Carl Leffler’s body was buckled in beside Melissa. Despite having driven with the windows down, the corpse gave off an odor that caused Melissa to stop and vomit twice along the trip.

  On Leffler’s hands were clear latex gloves, just in case the body was still capable of leaving behind prints. Beneath the jacket the corpse wore, the torso had been wrapped in plastic so that no blood would be left behind in the car.

  Rudy helped Melissa unbuckle the body and move it over to the driver’s seat. Instead of placing it behind the wheel of the vehicle, they made it look as if it were hanging half in and half out of the car. The plan was to give the appearance that Bellamy had driven to the restaurant while drunk. That was an activity that would not be out of character for Jack Bellamy.

  Once the body was staged, Rudy wished Melissa luck and drove off in the truck. Melissa then put on a show as she berated her “husband’s” behavior.

  “Damn it, Jack! You nearly hit that light pole on the way in here. You’re too drunk to be out in public, much less drive a car.”

  A pair of older couples who were leaving the restaurant together took notice of the scene, although they were too far away to make out details. Another couple who had just arrived at the restaurant walked over to offer Melissa a hand with her husband. It was Tiffany and Larry, who were there to play their parts.

  Larry pretended to be helping the body to stand, while straining to hold it upright. He guided the corpse back to the other side of the car, as Melissa and Tiffany obscured the view of the onlookers. After settling the body back in the passenger seat and strapping it in again, Larry laughed aloud as if Bellamy had said something funny.

  “Ha, that’s a good
one, Mr. Bellamy.”

  Melissa thanked Tiffany and Larry for their help and hollered at her husband again.

  “I should make you sleep in the car when we get home!”

  After getting behind the wheel, Melissa drove off, as Tiffany and Larry entered the restaurant to establish their alibis. The restaurant was on the ground floor of a hotel. Once they’d eaten their meal, Tiffany and Larry would get a room in the hotel and stay the night.

  Rudy, who had parked nearby on a dirt road, was waiting for Melissa when she arrived. The two of them hustled Carl Leffler’s body into the rear of the small delivery truck.

  “What will you do with the body?” Melissa asked.

  “I know just the place to hide it until it’s safe to move him again.”

  “All right, but don’t take too long. Remember, you’ll need an alibi too.”

  “I’ll have one. I’m headed to that new casino that just opened up an hour from here. I plan to get a room there and do a little gambling. Maybe I’ll even get lucky and win some dough.”

  “Good luck,” Melissa said.

  “You too,” Rudy said.

  The real Jack Bellamy had woken from his drug-induced stupor to find himself locked inside a small space. It was a closet, or it had been before someone reinforced the walls with sheets of plywood. Bellamy had been lying on the floor when he’d awakened.

  Beside him was a bucket, a case of spring water, and a box of protein bars. His last memories were confusing, as he recalled watching himself in bed with Tiffany. He concluded that it had been a dream, or a hallucination caused by whatever drug he’d been knocked-out with. After coming fully awake, Bellamy pounded on the steel door of his makeshift cell.

  “Hey! What the hell is going on? Is anyone out there?”

  There was silence, but just as Bellamy was thinking he was alone, a voice spoke from the other side of the door.

  “You have been kidnapped. If you don’t cause any trouble, you’ll be back home soon.”

  The tone of speech was mechanical, as if the person speaking were using some sort of device to alter their real voice. That made Bellamy wonder if he knew the person. There was a thin gap beneath the door. Light was visible, except at two spots, where the feet of whoever was on the other side caused shadows. Bellamy placed his face close to the floor, hoping to get a look at his captor. The gap was too small to make out more than the bottoms of a pair of red sneakers.

  “How much money are you asking for me?”

  “One million dollars,” the voice said.

  “Hell, my lawyer should be able to raise that in no time, but I’ll tell you what, let me go and I’ll give you two million. What do you say?”

  “Just do as you’re told, and you’ll be released soon.”

  Bellamy got up from the floor, realized he had to pee, and put the bucket to good use. When he was done, he tipped it toward the door to send the urine spilling out beneath the crack.

  From the other side of the door came the shuffle of feet and a curse spoken in that strange mechanical voice.

  “Lick that up, will you?” Bellamy said, followed by a laugh. On the other side of the door, Bellamy’s half-brother, a nineteen-year-old kid named Sammy Bellamy was wondering what he’d let Melissa talk him into.

  After arriving home to her estate, Melissa Bellamy drove through the iron gates and parked the Jaguar in the circular driveway. Before going inside the Georgian style mansion, she left the passenger door sitting open, and taped the envelope containing the ransom note to the windshield. To add a touch of starkness to the scene she was creating, Melissa placed one of Bellamy’s shoes near the car.

  She showered and changed into a nightgown. When she returned to her bedroom, she went over everything in her mind once more.

  Yes, the new plan should work as well as the old one would have.

  In the morning, she would awake to find her husband missing and a ransom note left behind. She imagined the questions the cops would ask her.

  “Did you hear anything, Mrs. Bellamy?”

  No, she did not, but she had taken a sleeping pill before lying down.

  “Why did you leave your husband outside in the car?”

  Jack was too heavy to move, and she figured he would wander inside after he sobered up a little.

  “Weren’t you afraid he might drive off?”

  She took the car keys, so he couldn’t do that. When she awoke, she realized that her husband had never come into the house, then found the ransom note taped to the inside of the windshield.

  Why didn’t your alarm system wake you when the front gate was opened?

  Jack always sets the alarm before coming to bed. She never does it.

  In a house this size, don’t you employ a cook or a maid?

  The woman who cooks and cleans has the day off.

  I see cameras outside the home. That should help us identify the kidnappers and establish the exact time the abduction took place.

  Jack bought the phony type that just look like real cameras. He said they were good enough.

  Melissa smiled. She would answer any questions the authorities threw at her and weather their skepticism and suspicion. Someone might get the idea she became fed up with Jack and disposed of him somewhere, then came up with the kidnapping story. But once the authorities received a photo of Jack alive and held captive, they would forget her and focus on finding the people who took her husband.

  In two days’ time, Melissa would reach the three-year mark of her marriage and become eligible to receive three million dollars.

  It had not escaped Melissa’s notice that she might receive considerably more if Jack were to be killed by his captors. She wasn’t certain what was in his will, but she thought she might at least wind up with their estate in the event of his untimely and tragic death.

  Jack Bellamy had taken Melissa for just another trophy wife he could use and discard. Had he known about Melissa’s true past as a con artist, he might have realized they were more alike than he thought.

  Melissa drifted off to sleep while dreaming of the riches that awaited her.

  4

  Say What?

  Tanner learned of Jack Bellamy’s kidnapping the next morning as he was preparing to check out of his hotel room. He was in the bathroom shaving when he heard Bellamy’s name mentioned on a local a.m. news program. Assuming the story would be about the man’s death, he walked out of the bathroom and turned the sound up on the television.

  To his amazement, the news report was stating that Jack Bellamy had been kidnapped sometime during the previous night. Tanner’s first thought was that someone was running a con of some sort after having discovered Bellamy’s body.

  He began to suspect there was more to the story when a related report came on. That story spoke of Jack Bellamy and his wife being spotted at a restaurant just hours before the kidnapping took place. Someone on the scene had filmed what appeared to be a drunken Bellamy being placed back in his car, after having passed out.

  A patron of the restaurant had captured the spectacle by using their phone. And yes, the man being jostled into the car did resemble Bellamy. But Bellamy was dead. Tanner knew there was no way the man could have survived the four rounds he’d put through him.

  When he realized the female member of the couple helping Melissa Bellamy was Jack Bellamy’s mistress, Tiffany, Tanner was certain a con was in the works. It surprised him that Bellamy’s wife was working a game with her husband’s mistress, but then, he’d seen stranger partnerships before.

  Whatever was going on, it was a problem for Tanner. He had left a message for the client telling him that Bellamy was dead, but now, it looked as if he had lied.

  If the kidnapping story was allowed to stand, it would appear that Tanner had failed to fulfill a contract. No Tanner had ever failed to deliver on a contract. Lie that it was, Tanner would be damned if he was going to let it be perceived as the truth. The deadline for the Bellamy contract was up at noon the next day. Tanner had
until then to expose the kidnapping as a fraud and prove that Bellamy was already dead. He finished shaving, got dressed, and headed out to find Tiffany.

  Martin Greene, the Chief of Police of Byzantine, was informed of the kidnapping within minutes of the call coming in. Learning that Jack Bellamy had been abducted put the fear of God in the chief. Chief Greene was fifty-four and a lifelong bachelor. He had sandy hair, blue eyes, acne scars, a deep voice, and stood six-foot-two. Since becoming chief, Greene never wore a uniform, he preferred suits.

  Greene’s fear came from the fact that he was being blackmailed by Jack Bellamy and had been for several years. Bellamy had information on Greene that the chief found so embarrassing that he would rather die than have it revealed. Bellamy didn’t extort money from the man, rather, he insisted that he and those closest to him be allowed to go unmolested by the town’s police force.

  That arrangement had come in handy for Bellamy a year earlier when he’d run down an elderly man during a hit and run incident. The old man lived but needed a new hip. Chief Greene covered for Bellamy and arranged to have the damage to his car repaired without insurance paperwork being filed.

  There were also multiple passes at DUI stops, and once, the chief roughed up a young man who’d had the audacity to insult Bellamy in public. Bellamy was responsible for the man’s parents going bankrupt after they had invested heavily in his hedge fund.

  The chief, while wearing a mask, had broken the young man’s kneecaps and told him to never say a bad word about Jack Bellamy again. Chief Greene despised Bellamy and would snuff the man’s life out in an instant if he could get away with it. However, Bellamy had taken out insurance. If anything, anything, were to happen to him, what he had on the chief would be made public within a week.

  Bellamy had warned the chief that he had arranged it so everyone would learn the chief’s secret via a mass emailing. If that happened, Chief Greene knew his life would be over, and that he might also die of embarrassment.