Contracts For Sale

Edward Izzi

Description

Embrace your enemies. When their bodies are found, you won't be a suspect...
How would you like to hire the services of an elite group of professional assassins, who will accept the assignment of deleting your most horrific adversary, performing the perfect murder, without a trace?
Chicago Sun-Times Reporter Paul Crawford is asked to investigate a series of recent murders he eventually calls the 'Houdini Victims'. He begins with the investigation of a corporate executive who vanishes from a parking garage in the Chicago Loop, without a trace. The most unusual fact about this crime is that there is no body, no DNA evidence, no surveillance cameras, and no fingerprints. It is quite obvious that this murder was done by a professional, and neither Crawford nor his Channel Eight reporter buddy, Chaz Rizzo, can figure out who it is.
Mark Stelter, CEO of Eradication, Inc., has found a niche and a marketable demand for those who wish to eliminate their worst enemies. For the price of $99,900, he has a stable of professional killers who can abduct any victim and make them disappear. With the help of his affiliate company, Eco-Green Environmental Consultants, he has the chemicals, the facilities, and the personnel to make any murder victim vanish without a trace. He conducts his covert corporation like any other corporate entity, with a board of directors meeting each month and dividend declarations to his shareholders.
But when one of the directors attempts to resign, things start to get complicated. Stelter sends his killers to track down and assassinate the former shareholder. They use a unique apparatus called a 'bolito', instantaneously killing their victims. With a section in the director's contracts barring them from resigning and signing their own death warrants, the shareholders of Eradication Inc. are now getting nervous. Although they are making millions, the shareholders now realize that they are putting their lives at risk, and can only escape with their deaths.
As the victims continue to vanish, Paul Crawford continues to investigate the environmental company and how they are connected to the recent Chicago murders. With the shareholders of Eradication Inc. wishing to resign and make a deal with the Chicago P.D., Mark Stelter struggles to keep his Board of Directors unified with an iron fist.
It is now only a question of time, before either the reporters or the shareholders become the next vanishing victims of Eradication, Inc.

Sujets

• Policier & Thriller
• Policier
• Thrillers
• Crime
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 20 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798359034845
• Langue: English

Extrait

Contracts
For Sale
A Novel
 
 
 
 
By Edward Izzi
Contracts For Sale
 
 
Copyright © 2022 by Cassino Publishing, Inc.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the author.
 
Paperback ISBN 979-835-903-4845
Hardcover ISBN 979-835-837-1545
Author’s Disclaimer
 
“Contracts For Sale” is a complete work of fiction. All names, characters, businesses, places, events, references, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner to tell the story.
Any references to real-life characters or events are used purely to recite a narrative for enjoyment purposes.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
For Ginette.
Thanks for rescuing me.
Ti amo.
Table of Contents
About the Author
Chapter One
Chemical Plant Delivery Late Evening - June 17, 2022
Chapter Two
Corporate Abduction Earlier That Morning - June 17, 2022
Chapter Three
Chicago Sun-Times Newsroom - Monday, June 20, 2022
Chapter Four
A Visit To the Sixteenth District Tuesday Morning, June 21, 2022
Chapter Five
Michael Fortuna - That Afternoon
Chapter Six
O’Hare International Airport
Chapter Seven
District Twenty-Five Next Day – Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Chapter Eight
Chicago Ward Alderman Sonny Pope Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Chapter Nine
Eradication, Inc. CEO Mark Stelter The Following Monday, June 27, 2022
Chapter Ten
First Vice President Joseph Grimaldi That Evening
Chapter Eleven
Second Vice President – Dr. James Beaumont
Chapter Twelve
Third Vice President Sylvan Jankowski
Chapter Thirteen
Treasurer Edward Lake
Chapter Fourteen
Secretary Chris Johnson That Same Evening
Chapter Fifteen
Sergeant at Arms Marlon Curtis
Chapter Sixteen
The Board of Directors Meeting June 27, 2022
Chapter Seventeen
The Investigation June 28, 2022
Chapter Eighteen
Cocktails with Chaz Rizzo Tuesday June 28, 2022
Chapter Nineteen
Parking Lot on South Ashland Early Morning June 29, 2022
Chapter Twenty
Murder In The Thirty-Eighth Ward Holiday Weekend Friday, July 1, 2022
Chapter Twenty-One
Newsflash From the Thirty-Eighth Ward Friday Evening, July 1, 2022
Chapter Twenty-Two
Eco-Green Environmental Consultants Wednesday, July 6, 2022
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lunch At The John Hancock Friday, July 15, 2022
Chapter Twenty-Four
A Mistake In The Parking Garage Monday Evening, July 18, 2022
Chapter Twenty-Five
A Judas Among Us Wednesday Evening, July 20, 2022
Chapter Twenty-Six
The Surveillance Tape Thursday, July 21, 2022
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Fireworks That Late Evening
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Confrontation With Johnson Monday July 25, 2022
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Thirty Years Ago Holy Thursday – April 14th, 1992
Chapter Thirty
Thirty Years Later Friday, July 29, 2022
Chapter Thirty-One
The Endless Fitness Club Early Wednesday Morning – August 3, 2022
Chapter Thirty-Two
An Explosion
Chapter Thirty-Three
A Shareholder Confrontation Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Chapter Thirty-Four
A Parked Car Thursday Evening, August 18, 2022
Chapter Thirty-Five
A Cozy Train Ride Early Morning, August 19, 2022
Chapter Thirty-Six
An Attorney’s Visit Later That Afternoon
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Detective Dorian Receives A Visitor Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Fitting All The Puzzle Pieces August 29, 2022
Chapter Thirty-Nine
A Fiftieth Birthday Party Saturday Evening, September 17, 2022
Chapter Forty
A Jersey Boys Musical Wednesday Evening, September 28, 2022
Chapter Forty-One
Parking Garage Stakeout October 4, 2022
Chapter Forty-Two
A Dead Executive Early Wednesday Morning – October 5, 2022
Chapter Forty-Three
‘Your Boy Is Dead’
Chapter Forty-Four
Queen of Heaven Cemetery October 12, 2022
Chapter Forty-Five
Dubrovnik, Montenegro December 31, 2022
 
 
About the Author

Edward Izzi is a native of Detroit, Michigan, and is a Certified Public Accountant and businessman, with a successful accounting firm in suburban Chicago, Illinois.
He is the father of four grown children, and two beautiful grandchildren, Brianna and Theodore, and lives with his wife, Ginette.
He currently lives in the Windy City and is not on the board of any dark, evil corporations.
 
 
 
Abbraccia tuoi nemici.
Quando i loro corpi vengono trovati,
non sarai un sospetto.
 
Un proverbio da Napoli
 
 
 
 
Embrace your enemies.
When their bodies are found,
you won’t be a suspect.
 
A Neopolitan Proverb
Chapter One
Chemical Plant Delivery Late Evening - June 17, 2022
The black summer sky was utterly cloudless on that late summer evening as the sound of a dark utility van was pulling into the receiving docks of a suburban chemical plant. The blackened, starry night was abundant with bright shining stars while complementing the quarter moonbeams shining abundantly across the sky. The summer equinox of June was about to arrive within the next few days, as the warm summer evenings and darkened skies would complement the long, summer days of Chicago.
It was after hours, and the bright beams of the vehicle’s headlights were the only rays of light that could be seen anywhere around the vicinity. The suburban chemical plant was officially closed, as the last shift had punched out and closed at six o’clock that evening. There were no lights in the dock area, as the utility truck slowly maneuvered itself, pulling in backward into the receiving dock.
The Northwest Chemical Company is located in a desolate industrial section of Melrose Park, a suburb approximately twenty minutes away from downtown Chicago. It is a hazardous waste and chemical firm that processes and distributes biochemical liquids throughout the midwestern states. Its parent company, Eco-Green Environmental Consultants, is a sizeable ecological corporation located in the Chicago Loop.
It was just past eleven o’clock in the evening, as the night watchman opened the dock doors of the warehouse, allowing the utility van to back up inside. It was extremely late that evening, as the dock doors were then abruptly closed, with the engine of the black utility van quickly turned off.
Two, large, white men emerged from the truck, wearing black woolen hats and black leather jackets. They both seemed to be overdressed for that muggy summer evening, as one of them unlocked the rear door of the utility van. Another plant worker was waiting inside.
The two men were silent, as they removed what looked to be a black, vinyl body bag from the back of the van and quickly loaded it onto a large cart parked next to the dock door. With the help of the other, they all pushed the cart on wheels towards the back of the chemical plant, passing all of the plating machines and large vats containing various green and yellow chemicals.
After several minutes of maneuvering the large cart towards the back of the building, the heavy, black body bag was lifted off of the cart and placed on the floor.
One of the men unzipped the vinyl bag.
A warm, recently deceased body of a well-dressed, overweight man was lying dead inside. He had been gagged, with rags of cloth and gray duct tape across his mouth, still smelling of a heavy stench of chloroform. His hands had been handcuffed behind his back, displaying a large tear across the suitcoat of his black pinstriped suit. One of the three men pulled out a box cutter and began to tear off the victim’s clothing, stripping him completely naked while piling up his torn clothing next to his body.
“Throw his shit into that container,” one of the men directed the other, as his strewn clothes were thrown into a gray, burlap container that looked as though it was used to transport dirty lab coats, industrial aprons, and other soiled laundry.
The other man smiled, as he removed the victim’s expensive gold, Rolex watch, and gold cufflinks attached to his white shirt that had been hastily removed. He broadly grinned as he pulled off the diamond pinky ring that was attached to the victim’s right hand.
The deceased victim must have suffocated, as the body was still warm but without a heartbeat. He had defecated all over himself, as the distinctive odor of urine and feces had suddenly overtaken the area where the body was being stripped and prepared. Next to the naked victim was an empty, large, steel barrel, approximately five feet tall and sixty inches in diameter, sitting on a wooden pallet. It was located in the back of the chemical plant, placed inconspicuously near the back corner of the building. One of the men removed the cloth rags in the victim’s mouth, and the three men lifted the naked dead victim, placing it headfirst into the empty steel drum. While putting on plastic gloves, they began filling up the fifty-five-gallon steel drum with a dark chemical solution that had been stored in several black five-gallon buckets.
The steaming, hot hydrofluoric acid immediately made a loud, hissing sound as it began to dissolve the victim’s body quickly. After several more five-gallon buckets of acid were deposited into the steel drum, a large, blue steel lid was positioned over the container, immediately locking in place. The three men could hear the continuing hissing sound of the hydrofluoric acid dissolving the victim’s body inside as the blue steel drum was sealed in place.
The victim’s clothing was thrown into the plant incinerator and was immediately burned into ashes.
The three men then shut off the lights of the plant warehouse, as they all got back inside of the utility van. Within several minutes, the black van exited the dock of the chemical plant, and then quickly merged onto the dark, unlit street of Twenty-Fifth Avenue. Ignoring the corner stop sign, the black utility van made a quick right-hand turn and sped off, traveling westbound onto Lake Street.
The following afternoon, a plant forklift driver picked up the