Posted at 7:43 am on Jun 26, 2015 by:
Derrick Scrivens
Adjusting the Plan
When Scrivens arrived at home a short while later, still thinking about the murder and how much he enjoyed it, he greeted Emily with a kiss.
"You're in a better mood. Good news at work?" She again followed him into the den where he poured both of them a drink.
Handing her one of the glasses before sitting down on the sofa, he said, "Nothing's certain yet, but things do seem to be going in my favor now. Did you hear about the guy killed at the restaurant last night?"
"I did. That's not connected, is it?" She sat down next to him, watching as he took in some of his drink, her own ignored at the moment. "Please tell me that's not connected. I know about the shady stuff that goes on at your job, but from what I read, that was cold-blooded murder."
"I can tell you that it's one reason why things are looking up for my project." He quickly finished off his drink and stood up to refill it. "I have no doubt Walsh's project would have received the funding meant for my project if he wasn't dead."
"It just seems weird for you to succeed because of the death of a co-worker." She set down her own, still untouched drink on the coffee table. "Did they at least catch who murdered him?"
"No, not as far as I know." Scrivens remained standing this time, leaning gently against the liquor cabinet. "He had a lot of enemies, so any list of potential suspects could be a long list."
"Would that list include you?" A look of extreme concern appeared on Emily's face.
"Well, I was his co-worker. They might look at me at some point merely to eliminate me as a possible suspect." This did nothing to change the look on her face, so he added, "Relax. There's no reason they should truly suspect me of having anything to do with his death."
She only sat there for a few more minutes, still ignoring her drink. When she left the room, he closed the door behind her. Setting his once again empty glass down, he sat down in the chair by the phone and dialed Shizuka's number.
"This is Scrivens," he said when he heard the phone get picked up on the other end. "Number three on the list has been taken care of."
The usual silence on the other end. Scrivens wondered if he should just leave it at that and hang up until Shizuka finally said, "I hope you aren't expecting the money back that you already paid me. I don't do refunds."
"That's fine. I didn't expect you to." He didn't dare try to argue about it with Shizuka either. He knew he could just as easily end up like Walsh if Shizuka viewed him as a problem.
No further words were exchanged as Shizuka hung up immediately after Scrivens accepted his policy. For a few minute, Scrivens remained in the chair, thinking the situation over, now wondering if he possibly made a mistake in killing Lombardi. It wasn't so much that he was worried about the police linking the murder back to him, but that Shizuka didn't sound particularly happy over the news. Not that he ever came off as being happy.
When he stood back up, he was about to fill his glass again when he spotted his wife's still full glass. Seeing no reason to waste perfectly good alcohol, he grabbed it instead before going off to find her and ask what was for dinner.
