48 Hours to Die Read online

  “I’m Lisa the manager of this place and Mr. Braxton’s assistant.”

  “My name is detective Anthony Stone and either I speak to Mr. Braxton or I shut this place down you choose?” He was tired of playing word games with the woman.

  Lisa smiled. “One second detective,” she said then disappeared in the mist of the crowd.

  Business

  Reggie sat in his office watching CNN. He loved to hear about his crimes on the news, and he loved even more when they acknowledged that they had no clues or leads. Reggie sat up in his chair when he saw Anthony Stone on his TV screen and turned up the volume.

  “Detective Stone, does your department have any clue who’s behind these murders and is this now a serial matter?” A reporter asked.

  “No comment,” Anthony Stone replied as he pushed his way through the reporters.

  “Do you have anything to say to the people?” Another reporter asked shoving his recorder up towards Anthony Stone’s mouth.

  Anthony Stone looked directly into the camera. “Yes I want to say to the person or people responsible for these murders I’m going to find you,” he said with a smirk.

  Reggie laughed as he sat back in his expensive chair. He thought it was funny for the detective to make a promise like that, a promise that he knew he would not be able to keep. A strong knock on his office door grabbed his attention. Reggie stood from his chair, walked over, and opened the door.

  “There’s a detective here saying that he needs to see you,” Lisa said with a worried look on her face.

  “Does he have a warrant?”

  “I don’t think so,” Lisa answered.

  “Did he say what he wanted?” Reggie asked.

  “No all he said was that his name was Detective Anthony Stone,” Lisa said.

  Reggie smiled. “Send him up.”

  “Yes sir,” Lisa turned and exited the office.

  Reggie sat behind his desk and poured himself a drink as he awaited the arrival of Detective Stone.

  Nice To See You Again

  “Detective Stone, have a seat,” Reggie smiled as he stepped to side so the detective could enter his office.

  “How you doing today Mr. Braxton?”

  “You can call me Reggie,” he smiled. “By the way it’s nice to see you again detective.”

  “I’m sorry, have we met?” Anthony Stone asked.

  “Once upon a time, but that’s not important how can I help you tonight?” The fact that Detective Stone didn’t remember him pissed Reggie off even more.

  “Do you know this girl?” Anthony Stone asked handing Reggie a picture of Melissa. Reggie glanced at the picture for a second then handed back.

  “I’m sorry I can’t say that I do,” Reggie sat back in his chair.

  “She was murdered last night and last seen here in your club,” Anthony Stone said.

  “I’m sorry detective but I don’t know every single person that enters my club,” he said with a straight face.

  “I’m sure you don’t, but maybe one of your bouncers may have remembered a woman throwing up or saw her getting into a stranger’s car or something.”

  “Are you saying that I or somebody on my staff is Uncle Sam, the serial killer?” Reggie asked with a raised brow.

  “I never said that,” Anthony Stone countered quickly. “Why are you getting so defensive?”

  “Detective if I was getting defensive I would have told you I’m not speaking to you without my lawyer present,” Reggie took a sip from his drink. “What I am saying is I’m not responsible for everybody that steps foot in my club, it’s not my fault if they can’t hold their liquor, or if they drink too much and end up going home with the wrong person, nothing I can do about that detective.”

  “But you are responsible for helping me with my investigation,” Anthony Stone said. “Why wouldn’t you want to help me catch Uncle Sam?”

  “Help you catch Uncle Sam?” Reggie echoed. “I don’t see you helping me fill this club up every night, but you expect me to help you do your job?” Reggie shook his head with a disgusted look on his face. “Are we done here detective? If so you can let yourself out.”

  Anthony Stone wanted to bash Reggie’s face in, but instead he stood and left. He had more important things to do then to sit there and argue with an arrogant, rich asshole like Reggie.

  Reggie stood on the balcony in his club and watched Anthony Stone’s every move until he had finally exited the club. He had fun toying with the detective especially since he knew that the authorities had no clue who Uncle Sam was. Little did Anthony Stone know but this had just became personal. “Uncle Sam is about to make your life a living hell detective,” Reggie said with an evil look in his eyes.

  How Could You?

  Anthony Stone entered his apartment and heard soft music. He walked further into the apartment and saw candles lit all around the apartment. He made his way to the dining room area and saw, Tasha sitting at the table all dressed up with a frown on her face. “Hey baby.”

  “Don’t you hey baby me?” Tasha snapped. “You were supposed to be here three hours ago! You could have at least had the decency to call and say that you were going to be late!” Tasha stood to her feet and began blowing out all of the candles that laid around the apartment. It was Tasha’s birthday and Anthony Stone had promised her a romantic dinner, but as usual, he was too busy consumed with work.

  “I’m sorry baby,” Anthony Stone began. “I was going to call but...”

  Tasha tossed a glass against the wall. “Don’t lie to me Anthony; you totally forgot all about me and my birthday. All you care about is your stupid job!”

  “Baby calm down,” Anthony Stone said. “My job is to protect and keep people safe if I don’t do my job then...”

  “Protect our relationship and keep my heart safe how about that!” Tasha countered. “I’m not competing with your job!”

  Anthony Stone went to grab, Tasha’s wrist so she wouldn’t walk away from him, but she quickly jerked her arm free from his grip and slapped him across the face. “Don’t you ever touch me again?” She said out of anger. She couldn’t believe that he had totally forgotten about her birthday, and what made it worst was that he didn’t even have the decency to call and say he wouldn’t be able to make it. “You got me sitting here in the dark with candles lit looking like a fool!” Tasha turned to slap Anthony Stone again, but this time he caught her wrist in mid swing.

  “That’s enough!” He growled through clenched teeth. “You need to go in the bedroom and cool off.”

  “Get your hands off me!” Tasha jerked her hand out of Anthony’s grip. “I’m leaving,” she said and stormed off towards the bedroom. Tasha stopped when she reached the bedroom door and looked back at Anthony Stone. “And since you love your job so much, maybe you can make love to that tonight,” she stormed into the bedroom and slammed the door so hard that one Anthony Stone’s trophies that sat on the wall unit fell over.

  Anthony Stone sighed loudly as he flopped down on the couch. He didn’t mean to forget about Tasha’s birthday, but the brutal murders by the hands of Uncle Sam was enough to take over anyone’s mind. He understood why Tasha was mad, any woman would have been mad if the man they loved had forgotten about their birthday. The truth was he didn’t forget about Tasha’s birthday, he had just lost track of time.

  Anthony Stone stood to his feet and was about to go and check on Tasha when he heard a knock at the front door. He wondered who could have been knocking at his door since he rarely ever had company drop by. Anthony Stone looked through the peephole and didn’t see anyone standing on the other side of the door. He slowly opened the door with caution and stuck his head out into the hallway. Anthony Stone looked back and forth. Empty. The hallway was completely empty. “That was strange,” Anthony Stone said to himself, he closed the door and saw Tasha exiting the bedroom with a duffle bag in her hand. “Where are you going?”

  “Home!” Tasha said with an attitude. It was going to take some t
ime for her to forgive him for this.

  “Baby can we talk about this please?” Anthony Stone said blocking Tasha’s path so she couldn’t leave. He loved Tasha with all her heart and the last thing he wanted was for her to leave.

  “We don’t have nothing else to talk about!” Tasha snapped. Anthony Stone went to respond when out of nowhere he heard loud banging on his front door.

  BANG!

  BANG!

  BANG!

  Anthony Stone whipped his gun out of his holster with a snap. “Go back into the bedroom and don’t come out until I tell you to,” he waited until Tasha was in the bedroom safe and sound before he made his way towards the front door. Anthony Stone snatched the door open and stepped out into the hallway. Again, it was empty. He held a two handed grip on his 9mm as he inched his way down the hall towards the staircase. He snatched the staircase door open and saw a figure in all black jetting up the stairs heading towards the next level.

  “Hey stop!” Anthony Stone yelled. The man in all black quickly turned and fired two reckless shots over his shoulder as he continued up the stairs at a fast pace. Without thinking twice, Anthony Stone took off after the gunman. He ran up the stairs skipping two at a time until he heard the staircase door open and close on the floor above him. Anthony Stone cautiously inched his way up to the next level and snatched the door open. With a two handed grip on his 9mm he stepped out into the hallway. An apartment door opened and an older woman stuck her head. “What the hell is going on out here?” She asked nosily.

  “Ma’am go back into your apartment!” Anthony Stone yelled as he continued on down the hall.

  “I’m calling the police,” the old lady said stepping back inside her apartment.

  Anthony Stone eased his way down the hallway when another apartment door swung open from behind him. He spun around just as the gunman dressed in all black sprang from the apartment and tackled Anthony Stone down to the floor. The gun accidentally discharged as the two men went crashing down to the floor. The gunman bent Anthony Stone’s wrist backwards forcing him to release his grip on the firearm. Anthony Stone quickly hopped up to his feet and took a fighting stance. There was no way he was going to let the gunman escape. Anthony Stone moved in and threw a hook, the gunman ducked the punch easily and scooped Anthony Stone’s legs from up under him and dumped him on his head. The gunman quickly got on top of Anthony Stone and delivered a vicious combination of punches and elbows. Anthony Stone bucked his mid-section wildly and got the gunman off of him. He crawled back to his feet but the gunman was on him. The gunman grab the back of Anthony Stone’s head and delivered a knee to the detective’s rib cage, then followed up with a sharp hook to Anthony Stone’s temple. It was obvious that the gunman had some mixed martial arts skills. Having no other choice Anthony Stone rushed the gunman and tried to tackle him down to the floor, but the gunman used his momentum against him and slung the detectives head first into the wall. All the commotion had caused several tenants to nosily stick their heads out their doors to see what was going on. Anthony Stone dove down to the floor and grabbed his 9mm; he aimed it at the gunman’s departing back but didn’t pull the trigger. There were too many innocent by standers standing in the hallway being nosey. “Damn!” Anthony Stone yelled as he quickly hopped up to his feet and ran after the gunman. He reached the staircase and stopped. He had no clue if the gunman had ran upstairs or downstairs.

  “Damn!”

  Missed Opportunity

  Anthony Stone sat on the couch in his apartment as a paramedic tended to the small cut that was right above his eye. His entire apartment building was now crawling with police.

  “Are you okay baby?” Tasha asked with a worried look on her face. After everything that had happened, she felt stupid for starting an argument over something so small. She now realized how serious her man’s job really was and why he had to spend so many hours away from home, it took something like this to happen for it all to start to make sense to Tasha.

  “I’m good baby but I’m going to need you to go stay at your mother’s house until I get to the bottom of this situation,” Anthony Stone told her. There was no way he planned on letting Tasha stay in his apartment especially after what had just happened.

  “How long will I have to stay over there?” Tasha asked with a disappointed look on her face.

  “Not sure,” Anthony Stone said honestly. He still didn’t have a clue how the gunman had found out where he lived. That was something that was going to bother him until he figured it out.

  “Did you get a look at the guys face?” Tasha asked.

  Anthony Stone shook his head as he noticed, Captain Fisher enter his apartment.

  “You alright?” Captain Fisher asked.

  “I’m still alive,” Anthony Stone chuckled.

  “Looks like you have a fan,” Captain Fisher smiled. “This should get interesting,”

  “Detective?” A uniform officer said entering the apartment, in his hand he held an envelope. “I found this out in the hallway,” he held the envelope out towards detective Stone. Anthony Stone grabbed the envelope and saw that the envelope had his name written on it. He opened the envelope and began reading.

  “I heard you were out here looking for me, so I figured I’d make your job easier. The next time we meet, I’ll make sure I’ll bring my brand new ax with me. I spared you tonight, the next time I won’t be so generous. Oh and by the way, tell Tasha I said happy birthday.

  Yours truly: Uncle Sam”

  “I’m going to kill him!” Anthony Stone growled as he handed, Captain Fisher the letter so he could read it.

  “Is everything okay baby?” Tasha asked with a nervous look on her face.

  “Yes everything is fine,” Anthony Stone said quickly, and then turned to face the uniform officer. “You mind taking her to her mother’s house?” There was no way he was going to tell, Tasha what was in that note.

  “No problem at all sir,” the officer replied.

  “Also, I want a patrol car outside of her mother’s house twenty fours a day and seven days a week,” Anthony Stone ordered, then turned and faced, Tasha. “Go with this officer and I’ll call you in a little while, and I’m sorry again about your birthday,” he apologized.

  “It’s okay baby, I love you,”

  “Love you too baby,” Anthony Stone said as he watched Tasha exit the apartment with the officer.

  “Stone I know you are upset but you still have to think with a clear head here,” Captain Fisher reminded him. “When people go off emotions that’s when they usually make mistakes.”

  Anthony Stone nodded his head. “You’re right,” What really bothered him was how Uncle Sam had figured out where he lived and had gotten so close to him.

  Serious Business

  Reggie sat behind the wheel of his vehicle parked two blocks away from Anthony Stone’s apartment. He enjoyed toying with the detective, and was just getting started. Reggie watched closely as a uniform officer escorted Anthony Stone’s girlfriend in the front seat of his squad car. Reggie chuckled at how sloppy the police were. “This is going to be easier than I expected,” he smiled as he pulled off and tailed the squad car. Reggie planned on turning detective Stone’s life upside down. He followed the squad car to a plain looking house. Reggie quickly pulled out a note pad and scribbled down the address. “Got you,” he smiled.

  Catch Me If You Can

  The next day, Anthony Stone sat at his desk stuck in his own thoughts. He still couldn’t believe that Uncle Sam had actually shown up at his home and violated his personal space. Anthony Stone had decided to still remain in his apartment in hopes that the serial killer tried his luck again. There was no way he was going to let someone run him out of his home. What really bothered Anthony Stone was how shaken up Tasha was. She was trying to be strong, but Anthony Stone could tell that the situation had really shook her up.