Jack Little Read online

  Jack Little

  By

  Anthony David Mitchell

  “When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law.”

  -Frederic Bastiat

  Part I

  1

  Some deals are tainted the moment they are made. It’s like the ink on the contract is poisoned or the hand shake to seal the deal is done so with crossed fingers. Every deal is a risk, but sometimes, a guy can just know it’s bad from the start, but because of the circumstances, he goes through with it. For Will Hodge he felt like he had no other choice. Looking back, maybe he did. Maybe he did not. But this was one deal he wished he had never agreed to. The fall out was far worse than any loss of money.

  The deal was simple and on the surface, highly beneficial. Hodge owned Hodge and Sons Jewelry in Memphis. His grandfather started the business with bootleg money obtained in the Appalachian mountains of east Tennessee. The Great Depression made lots of still owners richer men. With the money his grandfather moved west to Memphis where he bought a vacant lot and had the store built. Over the years there were good times and bad but the jewelry business generally held well. No matter what was going on people still got married and women still loved jewelry. His dad took over the business and while Will did have two brothers they cared nothing for it. It was up to him to take over. He accepted it gladly.

  The truth was Will grew up with two brothers who were wild and ambitious young men who wanted to conquer the world. One joined the Navy and had achieved the rank of E-8 Senior Chief Petty officer after a number of years. The other earned a degree in engineering and went to work for NASA. He never saw either of them besides on Christmas and occasionally Thanksgiving, but that was fine. Will had no such ambitions. He grew up as the youngest and a very patient, cautious child. In adulthood he was no different. He sought a nice easy life style. The jewelry store provided him with that.

  Now unfortunately over the past couple of years, business died down quite a bit. Will kept telling himself these setbacks happen and things will take on another upswing, but this time they were not. There were no signs of change. The last month he just broke even. He cut store hours and he cut down to two employees instead of five. His wife was not crazy about him constantly staying in the store, but what choice did he have? Then a man walked through his store one day with a proposition.

  The man was much taller than Will. He looked to be damn near seven feet tall. He was also bulky. Will carried a soft midsection himself, but this guy had to be a solid three hundred pounds easy. He reminded Will of the late wrestler Andre the Giant. Looking at the ring on the guy’s hand he wondered how much that must have set the man back. It was a gold wedding band with some sort of engraving in it but he could not be sure what it said. Will knew it must be a size fifteen at least. The man smiled to him, looked in the cases for a few minutes and then approached.

  “Hello. You the owner?”

  Will nodded and extended his hand.

  “Will Hodge.”

  The hand was massive. It swallowed Will’s with ease, but the grip was not very firm. The guy knew his own strength.

  “Jack Little.”

  Will gave him an inquisitive look. Jack held his hand up. The palm looked like a plaque on the wall behind Will. The store won best jewelry store ten years back. Only Jack’s hand was bigger than the plaque.

  “I’ve heard them all before.”

  “I’ll bet. So what are you looking for today, Mr. Little? Getting married?”

  Jack turned the hand over. He pointed to the giant ring.

  “Already took care of that, pal.”

  “Ah. Yes. I was wondering about the inscription.”

  “Pentru dragostea mea.”

  “Huh?”

  “It’s Romanian. Means ‘For my love.’ My wife’s Romanian.”

  “Oh I see. Well how about that? Not too many Romanians around here.”

  “Oh I know. You should go to the big apple some time. We have every type of “-anian” you can think of. Romanian, Slovenian, Albanian, Transylvanian. You name it.”

  “I could imagine.”

  “And then you have a few plain old Jack Little’s. Like me.”

  Will nodded.

  “So what can I do for you today, Jack?”

  Jack took a look around the store. Will watched him. The big man did not seem to be threatening but any man of that size posed a threat to others whether he meant to or not. But he figured to put this out of town potential customer at ease. After all he did not look destitute and Will needed to make some sales.

  “I’m the only one here, Jack. I hope you’re not planning to rob me.”

  “Oh no. I never steal. It’s not good business. However I do have a proposition for you.”

  “All right.”

  “I would like to buy every piece you have in the store.”

  Will studied him. His mind drifted somewhere else. Then the words snapped him into reality. Having sold so little over the past few years, his mind was not prepared to register such an offer.

  “Um. What?”

  “I want to buy every piece of jewelry in here.”

  “Why?”

  “You’re not much of a salesman.”

  Will chuckled.

  “I’m sorry. I just don’t see why you would want to unless you really love jewelry.”

  “Look. It’s real simple, Will. I buy it from you at your prices. I take it up to New York to re-sell it for higher prices. I got boxes of stuff from other jewelry stores in the south. I’m not on the road down here because I want to be. I just know how to buy and sell. With this score, my whole year is set.”

  “I see. Well how were you going to pay?”

  “By credit card. If that’s okay with you.”

  “Well yes. That is fine. You won’t mind if I ring you up before I box all of these up and get them ready.”

  The huge hand came up again.

  “Not at all.”

  Will went over all the cases and added up the total. Thinking in his mind this would all be pointless. Miracles like this did not happen to Will. But he had to at least try. As his wife reminded him over the past few months, trying was all that mattered in times like these. He presented the total to Mr. Little who shrugged.

  “About what I figured. I will double it up there.”

  “That is amazing.”

  “Yeah. Everybody makes out.”

  Will took Mr. Little’s credit card, his identification and ran the card through. He expected any number of things to happen, but in the end, the transaction held. The card was valid as were Mr. Little’s identification. Out of thin air, a little miracle had graced his store.

  Will boxed up each piece. This took over an hour, but he smiled the entire time. What a day. The kind of day he needed. He and Jack loaded up Jack’s van with the boxes. He barely had enough room. The back was jammed tight with more boxes and they were forced to place the remaining two boxes on the front passenger seat. Jack shook his hand with his own massive paw and he was gone. Will couldn’t help himself but to laugh out loud as he waved to the little miracle driving away. From as far back as he could remember, troubles in the Hodge family always got fixed one way or another. Now another crisis was over for the moment and Will’s store could push onward for another month at least.

  He drove home. When he walked in his wife was going over their bank statement. She wore the same look of gloom she’d worn for the past few months, but he poured them each a glass of champagne and he delivered the great news. Her face beamed. She embraced him. Will felt all the recent worries leave him the instant they kissed. He knew he had to get on the phone and replenish his store, but t
hat could wait until tomorrow. For on this night, he sipped the champagne with his lovely wife on their back porch, took in the night and toasted to a brighter future.

  Jack Little was dead.

  The large man who entered Hodge and Sons a week ago was long gone. According to investigators the man had used Jack Little’s credit card at three jewelry stores before he tossed it. Mr. Little had his head bashed to pieces in a parking garage. This man had some business with him and most likely knew him. Blunt force trauma cracked poor Mr. Little’s skull. He was gone and so were hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry.

  Jack Little came from a wealthy family. He had done little but squander it with gambling. He came down to Memphis for a vacation, but the mob followed. And whoever the big man was provided the hit. From there, he ran up the jewelry, left town and could easily have sold it all off by now. His ID was spot on. So he must have planned the whole thing before ever driving down to Memphis. Will Hodge was now worse off than when he started. His instincts told him not to go through with the deal. No one ever walks into a jewelry store offering to buy everything. He should have waited a day or so, but with bills piling up and a slow business with a foot and four toes in the grave, he jumped at the chance. And now it seemed he had jumped off the cliff.

  The credit card transaction was canceled and his entire inventory was gone. The insurance might cover it but as behind as he was, Will saw no point. His grandfather’s baby. His father’s livelihood. His own livelihood to pass on one day to his son. All gone. After eighty-three years, he closed his doors. And the devastation hit him. He no longer had a store. He no longer had any money coming in. The bank was not happy with him. He and his wife were behind. Their son was away in college as a sophomore. This would be his last semester unless they could scrape up some money soon. What was worse than the impending financial doom was the weight on him of how stupid he had been. How naïve. Neither his father nor his grandfather would ever make such a costly error. And Will who had all this handed to him now would hand it to the graveyard. For several days he did not want to leave his bed, but looking into the terrified eyes of his wife, he did not remain there.

  Will did what he had to do. He forced himself to the unemployment office. He applied at every jewelry store he could for sales positions, but there weren’t many actually looking for anybody. He even pushed himself to apply at other retail stores. Hardware, electronics, appliances, lawn equipment. But so far nothing. His store was now closed down officially with the gloomy ‘For Lease’ sign on the door. After another exhaustive day of job searching, Will climbed into his Lincoln Towncar to drive home.

  He thought about the day the man came in. It seemed like the best day of his life. His wife was beaming when he gave her the news. From the depths of nearly falling into bankruptcy and now to come back from out of nowhere, Will would not believe it, but he forced himself to believe it. Good things did happen some times and this time a great thing happened to him. And he deserved it. Will was a good man. An honest man. A kind man. He loved his wife and his son. He had always treated them with respect. And he always would. They might lose their house. His son might have to come back and start working wherever he could until they could send him back to school, but they would survive. They would prosper. He nodded to himself as he drove toward his home. Night was falling on Memphis. He eased up to a red light. A motel nearby appeared to be out of business. But it always looked that way. Parked outside were two trucks. Both beat to hell. Upon looking again, there was a van, too. The red light changed and he drove on.

  Wait.

  Will turned in the first left hand parking lot he could. He drove straight back to the motel parking lot. He got out of his car and studied the van. He approached the passenger side window. He looked inside. Whoever the man in his store had been had not gotten away. His corpse sat in the driver’s seat. Rotting.

  Unlike Will had assumed the motel really was shut down after years of only looking shut down.

  Tough times.

  The trucks parked there looked abandoned. One had a flat tire. The other was covered with rust. No one was going to buy that. It had no value. He walked up to the entrance. Looking inside, there was nothing. The door was locked. This old roach motel finally had gone under. And there in the van sat the remains of the man who had taken away his livelihood.

  Walking back over to the van, he knocked. The big man did not move. His eyes were open. Will could actually smell him from outside the van. Through the closed windows even. He had never seen a dead body outside of a funeral home. His brother in the Navy had. He said there was nothing like coming upon one. It was like looking at a dead animal. All the intentions or goals of the thing were still in the eyes. But all the survival instincts were gone from the eyes. Especially when they were open. Like they were here. Will stepped away. He doubled over ready to vomit. That damn smell. How had nobody noticed this? And what had happened to him? Did Jack Little’s family get revenge?

  He looked around. Traffic was awfully light. Night was well established. A Monday night. There wouldn’t be much coming this way. He knew he had two choices. Most likely his jewelry was in the back. He could either break in and reclaim his property or he could call the police and leave it in their hands. He knew the right thing to do was to call the police and let them handle it but also state his case and hope the jewelry got returned. But how naïve could he afford to be at this point? After all, his grandfather hadn’t followed the law and he was more successful than he or his father had ever been. The man did as he pleased his whole life and because of it, he prospered and passed all of this on to two prosperous generations. But Will and his father always played by the rules. Will had never committed a crime his entire life. No matter how bad things got for him, he knew to fall into crime would only lead to bad things. But then he thought about his current situation.

  For twenty years, he ran and or helped to run the store. He never complained, served his customers to his best ability and had never wronged a single one of them. Yet here he stood. Broke. The business was gone and his future looked bleak at best. He could keep his pride and call the police or he could take advantage and provide for his wife and his son. She was a model wife. Working overtime to ensure Will every ounce of support she could muster day and night. His son was a good kid who got good grades and worked hard. He had a serious girlfriend who could become his fiancé any time. Did he deserve to suffer because the economy or some thief broke the rules and his father was too proud to save them?

  Will looked around. Sucking in a deep breath, he cleared his head. He knew the risks. He knew what could become of him if he got caught. He knew what would become of him if he did not. His grandfather always said “No risk. No reward.”

  He made his decision.

  The thief was cautious. The doors were locked. Will always locked his own doors as well. He retrieved a tire iron from his trunk. He did not look around. He smashed the driver’s side window. It gave a bit resistance, but three whacks later, it fell to pieces. The stench hit him even harder. Again, he had to double over. The tuna sandwich his wife had made for him was delicious going down. Coming up would not be so pleasant. He hacked for a while. He could feel it start. He even started sweating. He gave himself five minutes to recover. He made his way back to the van with the end of his sleeve over his nose.

  He opened the door.

  The thief remained where he was. His huge face propped up against the steering wheel. His long nose protruded over. Always cautious, Will placed his finger under the nose. No sign of breath. With the body inside, this would never look good. With the body gone, Will could claim the van was his or that he found it this way. He could come up with something. At this point, he could claim he broke the window to rescue the person inside. Dead or not. He could not be sure. But with the body out of the way, things would be much easier. He looked around.

  There were the other two trucks. They both had beds. If he could drag the giant bastard over to the bed and toss
him in, it might buy him the time he needed. With this smell around, people were going to catch on soon but he only required a few hours. Then it occurred to him. What if the boxes were gone?

  Pushing the tombstone-sized head out of the way, he looked back with his sleeve over his nose. Sure enough the back was filled with boxes. He nodded. All was not lost.

  He removed the keys from the ignition and walked around back. He unlocked the back door and opened it up. Now he had another decision to make. He could take the boxes he provided and just leave. Reclaim his property. But he kept thinking he would be a fool to turn the rest over. If there was three times what he had in his store in there, then how could he just leave all that? Sure. The jewelry belonged to the other stores, but so what? Will knew for a fact that the other two stores were doing much better than his store was. He enjoyed competition, but let’s face it. This was his situation. He had to look out for himself. And his family.

  He broke it down. His sole purpose here was the jewelry. If he could move all that jewelry, he was set. It would be enough for his family to get back on their feet. He could save the store, but he saw no reason to. Lots of businesses go under. His two employees were now working for his competitors anyway. No big deal. He could shove what he could into his car, but there was no way he could get them all. He could shove the big man over and drive the van home, but he had to leave his car. His wife could bring him back, but what if somebody showed up in the meantime? And that smell? She would catch on. He couldn’t let her know about any of this. His family would not be involved in this dirty work.

  He shook his head. There was no clear answer. He figured to just shove in as many of the boxes as he could and make a break for it. Recovering some was better than a total loss. He grabbed a stack of the boxes and walked to his trunk. As he did so, his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He tried to answer it in time, but missed the call. By the time he checked, his wife had left a message. Instead of calling her right back, he listened to the message.