Chapter Two
The ghosts of crimes past
Now get this, I’d been contemplating the deal of a lifetime; to actually die, get a second chance and return on a mission from God. All of a sudden my mind was settled for me when I found myself in the middle of the pile of garbage that used to be my living room. It was either the cops looking for evidence or my former employer trying to tie up loose ends. Whichever way it went the bastards knew I wasn’t coming back. I had been thinking that I’d be invisible or glowing like an angel, but no such luck befell upon me. I knew that because of the way the gorilla in the suit reacted to me. Just as that relative of early man rounded the corner of the hallway, a look of udder surprise commandeered his face.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Who am I? Buddy, this is my house. Who are you and what are you doing here?”
It seemed to amuse him because he actually laughed out loud. The moment of humor lasted just long enough for him to reach inside his jacket and draw his piece. That was the last thing I needed having just returned from the dead and get killed again.
“You couldn’t possibly own this house, so tell me who sent you and this will go a lot smoother.”
“I assure you that I…”
“Look, you can’t own this house because the poor bastard that did is lying in the morgue.”
“Do you even know what the person you think owns this house looks like?”
“Judging from the picture in my pocket, not like you.”
“Excuse me, but you’ve obviously got the wrong picture.”
He reached inside his jacket and tossed the picture on the floor telling me to take a look. I took slow, deliberate steps and grabbed the photo. It was sure enough a picture of my mug. As I straightened myself to a standing position, my eyes caught a glimpse of me in the picture frame on the wall. I now understood his adamant stance on my identity, because the face I saw wasn’t the one I wore for thirty-two years prior to that very moment. I was so disoriented at the time that the movement of his hands almost didn’t register in my mind. He’d been screwing a so
