Running Hot - Jacob long (classic book list txt) 📗

the bus,” Angela answered. “Reed will meet up with us later, I’m sure.”
They left their embrace and Angela said, “Hey, you know what? Here, take this!” Angela shoved her phone into Laurel’s hand.
“Oh no; I can’t take this!” Laurel tried to sound like she really didn’t want it.
“No. It’s okay. I’ll get another one.” Angela waved her away. “Reed’s loaded. Besides, we’ll be able to talk all the time now.”
“You’re already talking too much!” Devlin interrupted. “We need to go!”
“He’s right,” Angela said.
Laurel nodded solemnly.
They shared another short embrace and Angela left with Devlin.
Left alone, Laurel sighed and moseyed around the parking lot; thinking. She could draw a little out of their savings and stay at a hotel for a while until the insurance money came for her house. The Marriott was nice.
Suddenly Angela’s phone rang. Laurel picked it up and answered it. “Hello?”
“Angela, where are you guys?” Reed’s voice came over the speaker.
“This is Laurel. Angela gave me her phone. They’re taking a bus back to New York,” Laurel said.
“Huh. So they’re okay though?” Reed asked.
“Yup. Both fine,” Laurel answered.
“Good,” Reed let out a tired sigh, then said, “Soooo hey, now that this is all over maybe we could go out sometime?”
Laurel smiled; vindicated. “No, I don’t think so. I don’t date men who are already in love with someone else.”
“Someone else?” Reed asked.
“Yes. A Charlotte?”
Reed sighed. “She’s not going to be getting in the way anytime soon. She’s… dead. She died a long time ago.”
Laurel shook her head. “I don’t think that matters. Does it?”
Reed considered that for a moment. “No. No, I suppose it doesn’t.”
“She must have been a wonderful lady to have stuck with you this long.. What did you want for her?”
Reed didn’t understand what that could possibly mean. “What?”
“When we were in the morgue, I asked you what you wanted out of life. You said you wanted happiness for Angela, but you stopped before telling me what you wanted for Charlotte.”
Without warning, the line went dead.
Laurel smiled and bit her nail coyly. She had gotten to Reed. At that she turned around and started her long walk.

Reed had shut his phone, turned, and thrown it into the forest. Laurel was never going to be used to find him through his phone if he had a say in it.
Reed got in the Oldsmobile and started it; turning on the radio. “People Are Strange” by The Doors was just starting. Reed nodded in agreement with the song and slipped on his sunglasses. He pressed down on the gas and drove north; leaving New Jersey at last.

Laurel Jacobs stayed at the Marriott Hotel for a week before a package came for her. Inside the package was the security box that once held the evidence that cleared her name. After repeating the password she found inside the money that Angela had promised. Fifty thousand dollars. She nearly fainted.

Detective Matthew Brice quit the New Jersey Police Force a month later with a commendation for bravery and a heartfelt thanks from the people of New Jersey for salvaging what he could of the New Jersey Citizen Relief Fund. Although he was only 32 years of age and only served on the New Jersey Force for two years, he received a pension. The reason he cited for retiring so early was that he was deeply affected by the corruption of the crooked police who participated in the robbery and didn’t feel up to the challenge of carrying it with him. After retiring he became a private investigator; using his pension to fund his investigation into the whereabouts of Reed Newton.

Officer Frederick Smith was tried at the New Jersey Supreme Court for Police Corruption and conspiracy to steal the New Jersey Citizen Relief Fund. He was found guilty by the Grand Jury and is to serve his sentence in The New Jersey State Prison in Newark for no less than ten years. What the courts did not know, was that it was in fact Frederick Smith who drove the knife into David Jacob’s chest eight times; in which case he would have served anywhere from 25 years, to life imprisonment.

Reed Newton returned to New York and went back into hiding, along with the money he took from the New Jersey Citizen Relief Fund. It was an amount of money with a value exceeding $1.2 million dollars. A fraction of the amount was used to pay off Laurel Jacobs one week later. Sometimes he muses at the thought of how she would react if she knew. Devlin stayed on as his mechanic and Angela forever remains his best friend. Reed Newton is still at large today.


The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

-Edmund Burke
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Publication Date: 02-08-2011

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