Corridor Man Volumes 1, 2, 3,4 5

by Nick James

Antonnini seemed to think about that for a moment, then clicked his key. The lights on the BMW blinked and the car chirped. “Okay, hop in, but I’ve only got a minute.”

  Bobby settled into the passenger side and said “Nice ride,” as Antonnini climbed in behind the steering wheel.

  “You said you had something to talk about.”

  “Yeah, Miss Emily Saunders. I believe I’ve gotten myself into a situation similar to yours.” Bobby nodded at the images on the paper. He’d placed the image of Antonnini kneeling behind Emily and grabbing her breasts as the top sheet and offered the images to him. “If you could give me some of the details of your involvement with her, I think I can make this problem go away for you. For both of us.”

  Antonnini scoffed, “Yeah sure, and what the hell are you, some sort of boyfriend? Maybe her husband? Or, are you just her pimp?”

  “Hey look, I get you’re upset, believe me, I’m there too. But, I think I can get access to her computer and I can delete these images of you and me. She won’t have the damn things anymore. I’ll be honest, I was stupid, really stupid. We had a fling for a couple of weeks. I made the mistake of taking her to Vegas for two nights. We get back in town and the next thing I know she’s really fucking me.”

  “I thought you said you knew what she was doing, that you had a similar type of problem?”

  “Jesus, but you’re making this hard,” Bobby said then stated the obvious. “Okay, we get back to town she calls me, wants to meet in a bar. Christ, I was afraid she was pregnant. Actually, come to think of it, that might have been easier. She threatened to tell my wife, now she’s got me paying her five hundred a month, in cash. Every month. There, happy?” he said and held his breath.

  “Five hun…are you kidding me, that little bitch is hitting me up for a grand, every damn month, been close to two years now. Shit, she got my wife’s name, has her email address, her cellphone number, Jesus, she even friended her on that damn Facebook. To tell you the truth, I can sit here and bitch about a grand per month and I will, but at the end of the day, you have any idea what a divorce would cost me? Just in dollars? Hell, forget for a moment about the damage to my reputation.”

  “Tell me about it,” Bobby said. “She’s got the two of us in the same barrel.”

  “Hell, I’m a god damed millionaire, believe me, that wife of mine would take the cabin, our place down in Key West and I’d still have to pay her a hell of a lot more than a grand every damn month. Christ, I’d probably end up paying ten times that.”

  “I don’t think we’re the only ones, I think there’s a bunch of guys, ten maybe even twenty guys like you and me that she’s done this to.”

  “You said you have access to her computer. You think you can delete this shit?”

  “Yeah, I can, I can literally make it go away, for both of us. The reason I wanted to talk to you was I need to find out if anyone else is behind her. Do you know? Does she have some sort of mob, or a hitman or something?”

  “A hitman? God, with those pictures of me in bed with her, she’s got all the leverage she needs. If you’re right and she’s got a number of us by the short hairs, she could be bringing in an easy ten grand a month or more. All cash.”

  “So as far as you know, there’s no one behind her, no muscle?”

  “Never mentioned it to me, and I’ve been putting up with this shit since, let me see…”

  “October of 2014,” Bobby said. “The damn date is on the image. Here, why don’t you hang on to these.” He handed the four sheets of paper over to Antonnini. “Is there a way I can get in touch with you, let you know once it’s safe? I’m not sure when, exactly I’ll get back in there to delete this stuff, but it’s gonna be sooner rather than later, I can tell you that.”

  “Here,” Antonnini said handing him a business card. “You can call my office, probably end up leaving a message, but believe me, I’ll return your call. What’d you say your name was, again?”

  “Custer, Bobby Custer.”

  “Custer, huh, any relation?”

  Bobby shook his head and smiled. “Not that I know.”

  “Well, let’s hope you have a little better luck than the General.”

  “Thanks for the information,” Bobby said and held out his hand to shake. “Pleasure meeting you, sorry it’s under these circumstances.”

  “You get this pain in the ass off my radar and I’ll owe you big time.”

  “Believe me, I just want this over with,” Bobby said.

  Antonnini stared straight ahead, clutching the images, not offering his hand. Bobby smiled to himself, climbed out of the car and walked away. Antonnini waited a while before he turned the ignition and Bobby was almost to the stairway door before the good doctor pulled alongside and lowered the window on the passenger side. “Hey, Custer. You get this done and I’ve got a week, no wait, make that two weeks for you down in Key West.”

  “I’ll be in touch,” Bobby said then watched as the BMW drove off.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  He was back in the office a little before one.

  “Oh, Mr. Custer, Mr. Hinz said he would like to see you, but he happens to be out just now,” Marci said then handed him a pink message slip.

  “Any calls,” he asked.

  “No, unless someone accessed your voicemail without going through the switchboard.” She made the idea sound like the worst sort of criminal behavior.

  “I’ve got a two o’clock appointment. With Mr. Montcreff,” he added just to gain a little more credibility. “I’ll have to try and catch up with Mr. Hinz later.”

  “You know his schedule,” Marci said, suggesting most days Bennett was usually on the way to happy hour a little after three.

  He went back to his office, placed another call to Camila and ended up leaving another message. He logged onto his computer and printed off Emily’s entire file. He began to Google the names to find out exactly who she had been blackmailing. There were a total of twenty-six men, twenty-two of whom Bobby found information on. A number of commonalities quickly became apparent.

  The men were all older than Emily, with one exception older by at least twenty years. Six of the twenty-two were at least thirty years older. They were all successful, very successful. the list included six attorney’s, one judge, four doctors, including James Antonnini, an Episcopal minister, one bank president, four corporate executives, two developers, a dentist and one entrepreneur.

  He went online to the white pages site and looked up their addresses, got eight home phone numbers, nine wive’s names and fourteen home addresses, all before he had to go to his two o’clock appointment.

  His cellphone rang at ten minutes before two, just as he was pulling up in front of his building.

  “Bobby Custer.”

  “Mr. Custer, this is Earl with Security House. I’m parked in front of your building.”

  “That you in the white van?” Bobby asked, then put his car in park and opened the door.

  “Yes sir.”

  “I’m about three car lengths behind you, just getting out. I’ll meet you at the front door.”

  Earl climbed out of the van carrying a tool belt. He looked a little over six feet tall and no more than a hundred and fifty pounds soaking wet, he was dressed all in black with a black baseball cap perched on his head emblazoned with ‘Security House’ in red letters. He opened one of the double doors in the back of the van and lifted out a five gallon white plastic bucket.

  “Hey Earl, thanks for coming on such short notice, I’m Bobby Custer,” Bobby said and then waited while Earl leisurely walked up the sidewalk then climbed the stairs to the building.

  “Pleased to meet you, sir,” he said once he’d made it to the top of the stairs.

  “Come on in, we’ll take the elevator up,” Bobby said and held the door open for him. Bobby took four steps, inserted his key and unlocked the security door on the far side of the small entry. They rode the elevator up in silence, once they reached his floor Bobby stepped aside
so Earl could get off first.

  “Just down the hall to the right,” Bobby said then quickly glanced up and down the hall making sure the coast was clear before he stepped off. He passed Earl halfway down the hallway and hurried to his door. The tape he’d applied earlier was still attached to the door and the door frame and he quickly inserted his key, unlocked the door then held it open for Earl as he made his way in at the same slow pace.

  “Very nice,” Earl said stepping inside and looking around.

  “Yeah, I’m pretty lucky. So look, here’s what I’ll need. A new lock on this door and a new lock on the backdoor.”

  “You been having a problem with break ins? I seen the tape on the door.”

  Bobby had trouble hiding the surprised look on his face. “No, but I just recently moved in and I wanted to make sure I’m the only one with a key. I’ve no idea who was in here before me. They could have a key and I’d never know, besides I do a lot of traveling for business so sometimes the unit might be empty for a week or two.”

  Earl nodded like he’d heard it all a million times before, not sure he believed any of it, then said, “I can re-key the existing lock or I can install a completely new lock. Now…”

  “I think the new lock sounds like the better option, that way I’ll be sure.”

  “Another thing I might suggest, sir. Is that you put a chain lock on the door. You know the type, no doubt seen it all over. Can only be locked from the inside and restricts the door to opening no more than three, four or six inches.”

  “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea better install one of those, too.”

  “Very good, sir. Would you like that three, four or six inches?”

  “Let’s do the three.”

  “And Heavy Duty, Super Strength or Tungsten?”

  “Better make it the Tungsten.”

  “And now the backdoor…”

  “Go ahead and do the same on the backdoor,” Bobby said then thought, come on get going, buddy. “I’ll be working in one of the other rooms, call me if you need anything.”

  “Very good, sir.”

  Bobby was thinking about his earlier meeting with Antonnini, the file from Emily that he’d copied and the image Camila had of him on her cellphone. He grabbed a stool from the kitchen then brought it into the bedroom and closed the door. He pushed the stool up against the wall then climbed up and checked for a camera or some sort of monitoring device along the ceiling moulding, around the light fixture, behind the mirror, the baseboard, door and window moulding and the closet. Thankfully he came up empty handed.

  He heard Earl walking toward the back of the unit to change those locks and he brought the stool out to the living room and began to check everything there. He was still going over the book case when Earl carried his white plastic bucket back up to the front door.

  “Got her all changed, just like you wanted, sir.” He held four keys, two on each ring and laid them down on the coffee table. “You look like you’re checking for recording devices.”

  “Just trying to be sure, is all.”

  “Darn things can be just about anywhere and you’d never know.” Earl said then paused for effect. “Now-a-days you could be looking right at ‘em and the damn things would still be impossible to see.”

  “You wouldn’t happen to have a suggestion, would you, Earl?” Bobby asked. He was standing on his tiptoes on the kitchen stool stretching to look behind the row of books on the very top shelf.

  “I got a detection kit just out in the van. I could sweep the whole place for you, you know, just to be sure. Wouldn’t take more than an hour.”

  “I tell you what, yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Why don’t you go get it.”

  “Be right back,” Earl said then left the unit and slowly made his way down the hall. He was back ten minutes later and had to knock, Bobby had locked and chained the door in his absence.

  “I’m thinking those new locks are gonna go a long way in helping you sleep better,” Earl said stepping in. He held a small black box in his right hand. He stepped over to the far corner of the room and appeared to switch the box on. A green light immediately flashed, he stepped next to the wall and began waving the box back and forth along the wall.

  “This here is more or less an antique, but I’ve found it more effective in the long run then most of that high tech stuff they got out there. She does the job just fine.” He worked from top to bottom sweeping the wall then stepped over about four feet and went through the process all over again.

  “Earl, I’ll be in the kitchen, if you need me.”

  “Ok,” was all he said, never bothering to glance over, he just continued to sweep along the wall as Bobby walked back to the kitchen.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Bobby was seated at the kitchen counter, a sheet of paper he’d torn off the yellow legal pad was placed in front of him. He was going over the list of names from Emily’s file, wondering what, exactly he was going to do with it when Earl walked in.

  “This here is the last room I need to check then I’m all done.”

  “Find anything?” Bobby asked absently. He was in the process of trying to envision the house one of the doctors on Emily’s list lived in, a block Bobby was roughly familiar with on Hillcrest avenue.

  “Found two,” Earl said in a tone that sounded like he was just asking for a glass of water or maybe what the time was.

  “Two? You found two recording devices? In this place?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Where, show me.”

  “Tell you what, I’ll be done with the kitchen here in about fifteen minutes. Let me just stay at this, otherwise in my old age I’m liable to miss an area. Then we’ll take a look.”

  “Tell me the room, I want to see if I can spot them.”

  “Whoever put them in was a pro, they’re tough to see.”

  “What rooms?”

  Earl gave a sigh that suggested he was dealing with someone who just didn’t get it. “One in the bedroom the other in the living room, pretty standard. If you do spot ‘em, don’t touch the damn things.”

  “If I see them I’m going to pull them out.”

  “I wouldn’t advise that, let me just finish here and we can look at some options, sound good to you?”

  “Okay, I’m going to see if I can spot them,” Bobby said and headed down the hall toward the living room. He was still looking when Earl walked into the room.

  “Well, that about does it. Why don’t you come on back to the kitchen and we can review everything.”

  “Show me where it is in here, I haven’t been able to find anything yet,” Bobby said.

  “Like I said, back in the kitchen, come on I’ll show you,” Earl said then walked back down the hall.

  Bobby had no choice but to follow.

  Once in the kitchen Earl said, “Look, Mr. Custer. I don’t know exactly what you do, and I sure as hell don’t need to know. I can tell you this, both devices are live. But, all that means is that they work. It don’t necessarily mean you’re being recorded or monitored or whatever you think might be going on. For all we know they ain’t been used in a couple of years. I’d peg the installation at maybe three or four years ago. How long you say you been here?”

  “Not even a year.”

  “Well there you go. Now in the off chance that someone is checking you out, I have a suggestion.”

  “Okay.”

  “Leave the damn things there, leave ‘em alone, there’s a sort of lens and if you want you could put a drop of nail polish or something over it and it will still appear live to whoever put the thing in there in the first place, but they ain’t gonna be able to see a damn thing.”

  “But they could still hear me.

  “Yes, sir they would be able to hear whatever is said.”

  “Show them to me,” Bobby said.

  “Okay, now the one in your living room, it’s right in the fireplace mantel. Fact you could hang a Christmas stocking up in front of it or put some s
ort of cloth cover hanging down over the mantel and that would block it nicely. The other one, in the bedroom, is right on top of that fancy brass hook that holds your painting up. On that one in the bedroom it wouldn’t be much to drop a little nail polish on the thing or even just a drop of paint, same as the wall color. Now, let’s go take a look at that fireplace, but I want you to act like you’re being watched. Understand?”

  Bobby nodded then followed Earl out to the living room. Earl directed him to the couch and then took up a position leaning against the end of the mantel and nodded.

  “Here’s the thing, Earl,” Bobby began. “You’re talking about a will, leaving the lake place to your kids. How many did you say you have?”

  “We’ve got three, actually.”

  “Okay, so what you want to avoid are problems down the road. You don’t want this thing costing the kids a bundle, got it?” Bobby said then nodded at Earl.

  Earl ran his index finger along the underside of the carved Victorian mantel and pointed toward the center of what looked like a carved sunflower. If Bobby really focused he thought he could see a nail hole.

  “I got a file back in the kitchen, come on back and I’ll show you,” Bobby said then got off the couch and walked back to the kitchen. “That was it?” Bobby asked once he was seated at the kitchen counter.

  Earl gave a hearty “Yup,” in response.

  “Thing looks like it’s just a nail hole. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat out there and never even noticed it.”

  “Yeah, they’ve come a long way from those old movies back in the 90’s.”

  “And the other one is just above the painting on the bedroom wall?” Bobby asked.

  “Yeah, little fancy brass thing holding the painting up. I can show you, if you want.”

  “No, I’ll take your word for it. Let’s leave them alone, I like your idea of just putting something in front of them.”

  Earl nodded, then said, “For noise, if you just have some music playing, kind of near the thing, doesn’t even have to be loud and it’ll pretty much scramble whatever you’re saying. They’d never be able to listen in, if they’re even trying.”