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Eating leftovers was all right, he supposed when it was pizza, but anything else was just crap.

As he was finishing off his meal, he decided that it was way past time for him to get what he wanted from the office of Reader Fresh.

His brother had to come through for him, or all this hard work was going to be for nothing.

Picking up his cell, he called Earl and had to wait for several rings to go to voicemail.

He didn’t leave a message but did hang up.

Where was he that he couldn’t answer his phone?

He did wonder if he’d gone to the grand opening but didn’t know for sure.

It would be just like them to leave him by himself while they were off having fun.

Calling Tabby, he got the same voicemail recording.

That she wasn’t near her phone and couldn’t take his call.

There was something about contacting Edgar if it was an emergency, but since she didn’t leave any number for him, he didn’t have any way to call him back.

Just as he was going to toss his phone across the room, it rang with an unknown number.

“What the hell do you want, mother fucker? I don’t have time to talk to your unimportant self.” The laughter pissed him off more. “I’m hanging up now, and you’d better—”

“It’s Edgar Walsh. You called your sister’s phone, and I thought that I’d help her out by asking what you need in the way of help.

” He told him that he wanted to talk to Tabby.

“Well, that’s not going to happen today.

She’s talking to people who might want to do business with her new opening of Reader Fresh.

Now, is there anything that I can help you with right now? ”

“Are you now fielding calls for her? Like I care, but I wanted to talk to her. It’s important that I get her to call me back within ten minutes.

I’m not fucking around with her calling me back at her convenience.

I need her now.” He said that he could help him or he’d be shit out of luck for her calling him back.

“You gonna give me money on behalf of my sister then? I want five grand so that I can pay off some things I have.”

“You mean like the insurance policies that you’ve taken out on your family?

I’m sorry, but I won’t help you with that.

I’ll help you with your phone bill. I figure you need it to get prospective jobs to call you back.

Though I don’t think that’s ever going to happen since you’ve never so much as applied to any place that I know of.

” Tommy couldn’t speak. All he heard was policies, and his world just stopped moving.

He asked him what he was talking about but feared it was too late now to think he was getting away with anything.

“The four one million dollar policies that you took out on your family. I did wonder about why you didn’t take one out on your mom, but I figured you’d get around to it sooner or later.

You’re sort of lazy when it comes to you following through on shit, aren’t you? ”

“What the hell do you think you know about me? My family been telling lies on me? That’s the only way that you’d know anything about me since I’ve never met you.

” He was pissed off now that he had time to think about it.

How he found out was beyond him, but he wasn’t going to confirm nor deny whatever the man thought was going on.

“You just stay the fuck away from my sister and the rest of my family. And don’t be spreading lies either, or you’ll be the next one to get on my hit list.”

“I’m not worried about you at all, Thomas James Reader.

I’ve gotten about all the information on you as one could get on a lazy, cheap fuck.

And that’s what you are.” The man laughed, and it made his hair dance on his neck and arms again.

“Stay away from your family, Tommy boy, or the next time you have to look around to see who is following you, you might well see that you’ve pissed off a dragon, and he’ll have you for a snack.

Do you understand me, jackass? I’m coming for you, and you’d better be ready when I do. ”

He had no idea how long he held the phone to his ear after the man hung up.

Tommy didn’t know what else he might have said either after he commented on him being watched.

The man knew too much. Looking around the room, he put his cell phone back on the table with a shaky hand and backed away from it.

The man knew too much. And Tommy couldn’t figure out how he’d gotten the information that he had.

The man knew entirely too much information about him, and it scared him to death.

It was nearly dark when he left his apartment again.

He’d sat around the place for the last few hours trying his best to figure out what had happened that Walsh found out about his working on killing off his family.

Going back through his mail, he found the other three policies that were for his niece, brother, and father, and they said the same thing.

Without a payment on the policies, there would be no payout.

And something about the policies and rules he’d not known about was that if there was a claim on the policies within ninety days of being taken out, the police would be notified of wrongdoings on his part.

People, it seemed to him, were out to get him.

Tonight, he was picking up a gun. He’d traded his PlayStation gaming set for it, and he thought that he was getting the best deal.

It had been months since he’d played on the game and had been about to toss it in the trash.

Lucky for him, the guy had said he’d take something that he had out in trade.

The deal was for them to meet at the new chicken place on MacIntyre. Tommy was early by thirty minutes but was surprised by the three men in police uniforms who were at the place. They were talking to a man who looked like the person he was to meet.

A man in a yellow sweatshirt and dark jeans with him having bright yellow hair.

Looking at his phone on the arrangements that he’d made, it did indeed say that they were to meet at the right place.

He’d nearly been screwed by it being a scam from the police.

He’d said this before. People weren’t all that trusting nowadays.

Walking back to his apartment to get rid of his gaming system, he tried to think how they’d known about him meeting Mr. Gunz when he was supposed to.

As soon as he was inside, he closed all his curtains and turned off all his lights.

He’d not given Mr. Gunz his address, but now that he thought about it, the man was persistent on getting something from him, like a name or his home address.

Sitting on his couch in the dark, Tommy didn’t know what to do now.

The laughter woke him up. Tommy hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but now that he was awake, he had to look around his place for whoever was in there with him. The laughter continued until he heard a small voice talking to him. It told him that his name was Fred and that he was sent to watch over him.

“Who sent you?” Fred said that he should be able to guess that. “I don’t know who you’re talking about. I don’t know people that would send out someone to keep an eye on me.”

“Sure, and you do, Mr. Tommy. My lord Edgar sent me to you to keep an eye on you for trouble. I’ve been told that I can talk to you now.

I’m not supposed to let you see me, they being afraid that you’d try and harm me somehow.

But that’s all right with me. I’ve been given a great gift to watch over one such as yourself.

” He told him to show himself, or he’d not believe him.

“Well, now that’s a lie, isn’t it? You’re talking to me, so you know you have to believe in me.

Nah, I’ll not show myself to you. You being the kind of man that you are.

And I called the police on you when you went looking for a gun.

Even set it up so that Mr. Gunz—what a clever name that is—was a police officer to catch you.

Now, all I have to do is wait for you to mess up again. Next time, they’ll catch you for sure.”

“I’ll pay you double what Edgar is—that’s my sister’s supposed husband—isn’t it?

He’s paying you something to lie to my family about me.

” Fred said that there were no lies from him.

That he’d taken out the policy and that he was trying for a gun to kill them with.

Besides, he didn’t have any money to double anything for him.

“I do, too, have money. Or I will as soon as I can get into the offices. I’ll go there now and show you how easy it is for someone like me to get money whenever I want it. ”

“You can go there, but you’ll never get inside the place.

Lady Tabby’s place, either. It’s been worth it to miss out on all the pretties that she has been giving away at the grandiose opening of her new, fresh place.

You know, I’ve never thought that it would be such a big deal to eat and to deal with fresh stuff before.

That’s all I eat is fresh. I know you don’t like anything green on your plate, and you’ll have some health issues, more than you have now for not taking fresh vegetables and other good things into your diet.

” Tommy decided that he wasn’t going to talk to the person anymore.

“Ah well, that’s all right with me if you don’t want to talk to me.

I’ve been given special powers that allow me to read your mind for trouble.

Speaking to me or not, it makes little difference to me.

I’ll get the information that is needed to keep the other family safe. ”

“You stay the hell out of my mind.” He felt the little nudge to his mind and put his hands over his head so nothing could be put into it. That was the only way that he knew of that someone could probe his mind. “I want you to show yourself to me, or I’m going to call the police.”