By Richard Rose.

John laughed to himself, remembering the line used by Liam Neeson in the movie “Taken”.  Neeson says, “. . . what I do have is a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.” John had been scrolling through the channels and started watching an episode of “Unsolved Mysteries”, a show about cold case crimes. This episode was particularly interesting.

It made him think back to almost 35 years ago. John, at the time was a second-year graduate student, dating a fifth-year senior, in fact, after dating for seven months, they had just moved in together, and he thought things were headed towards a wonderful future.  John had received a leave from the Army to pursue a master’s degree in international relations and was making the most of it. His girlfriend, Valerie, was in communications with aspirations to be an on-air personality on radio or television.  They had met in a class on computer systems modeling, that Valerie had thought was something else entirely.  After realizing her mistake, it was not possible to change her schedule, and she had to try to pass.  She reached out to the shy introverted guy in the back row and asked for help.  This was the start of their relationship. 

John had joined the Army after college and served four years before getting this opportunity to go back to school, so he was a few years older that Valerie.  Most of the time Army officers serve as ROTC instructors while in grad school, but John’s service in Special Forces, especially in the Grey Fox unit, had enabled him to get this perk.  He had told Valerie that he was a maintenance officer, and she found that boring and didn’t ask any questions.  John wasn’t the huge muscular type and her seeing him as a paperwork geek seemed to work.  She knew that he was obligated to go back on active duty once he graduated, but she either hoped that he could get out of it, or that she could work locally and stay put while he was deployed.  John existed in blissful ignorance not knowing that his world would change.

They had gone out for her 22nd birthday, the last Friday of April, to a nice restaurant and moved on to a dance club.  After a few dances, Valerie said that she wanted to talk about their relationship.  Eager to hear her plans, John was attentive through the music of the club.   Valerie told him that she was glad that they moved in together because it really cut her expenses, then dropped the bombshell.  She said that in May when he went back into the Army that she wanted to keep the apartment so that he could have a “home base” when he was in town.  John didn’t know that this meant and asked.  Valerie said that it made sense that he could keep paying for the apartment for the year lease and that he could come by if he was back in town.  John felt puzzled and asked why she wasn’t coming with him.  Weren’t they getting married?  Valerie just giggled and said that wasn’t her plan. Since he wasn’t getting out of the Army, she would just stay there for the remainder of the year.  She then said that she already had another guy that could move in, but he didn’t have money for the rent.  So, in her mind, John could just pay it for her. John, shocked, said no way was he paying for someone else to live with her. “Are you crazy?” he shouted, drawing attention to their table. 

With that, a guy, Mike, came up behind him and said, “I told you he wouldn’t agree”.  He added with a smile that he would make sure that the pencil pusher agreed, and that Valerie could just stay at his place until it was fixed.  What John didn’t see were the three friends Mike had with him.  Calling John names, Valerie started to cry, and she left with Mike.  As John tried to rise, the three friends, all ranging about 6’4” and 250 lbs. grabbed his arms and practically dragged him out the back of the club.  There by the light of the back door, two held him, while the third guy said that John was going to pay the rent and be a “good boy” or they would finish what they were starting tonight.  With that, they beat him senseless.  While two held him the third pounded him in the face, body, and then kicked him in the ribs.   John was a mess.  At some point he lost consciousness, and the next thing he remembered was being tossed out of a car door in front of his apartment building.  As he crawled into the lobby and into the elevator to the third floor, he began to remember where he had seen Mike before.  He had seen him go into a ground floor apartment in a cheap building near the gym not far from campus.

 As John made it into his apartment, he assessed his injuries: cuts, bruises, concussion, either bruised or cracked ribs, and maybe even internal bleeding.  He was a mess, and he was mad.  As he went to the bathroom to get painkillers, he formulated a plan.  John carefully took off his clothes and laid then on the couch.  Getting a black long-sleeved shirt and a pair of dark sweatpants, he found his full foot water shoes and gloves, and went to his “go” bag and pulled out his combat knife and a length of rope.  Finding it difficult to breathe, as injured as he was, he knew that he couldn’t let this go. 

Knowing that his apartment building had surveillance cameras on each floor at the elevator and stairwells and at the entrance, he chose to go out the bathroom window and rappel down the back wall.  It was dark and no one was about.  His neighbor, who was out of town, kept his bike by the back garage, and John knew the combination and was soon off.  The pain showed as flashes of light in his eyes as he rode in the shadows on side streets to where he thought Mike lived.  It is amazing what your mind can and will your body to accomplish.  Arriving in the bushes near the building, John cautiously looked through the window and saw Mike and Valerie in the midst of their celebratory activities on the couch.  John took a garbage can and tossed it at the front door.  Swearing, Mike angrily came to the door and looked about, seeing garbage all over.  He yelled to Valerie that some kids had tipped over his garbage can and that he would be right back.  With that, John came behind him and quietly and swiftly cut his throat.  John lowered the body to the ground allowing the blood to pour into the pile of garbage, saying softly, “Just where you belong, with the garbage.”  With that, John was back in the shadows and on the bike.  As he rode away, he heard a scream far behind him from the doorway.  Quickly but painfully, he was up the back wall, and in the apartment. 

He took off his clothes and put them in the wash.  He took his gloves, water shoes, and knife and put them in the dishwasher, starting the cycle.  The rope was coiled and put back into the bag, and then he redressed in his clothes from the club.  Noticing the rain starting, he was glad that the bike was locked up outside and both it and the building wall were getting soaked.  He then made a 911 call indicating that he had been beaten up and needed help.  Unlocking the front door, he sat back on the couch waiting for the paramedics and police.  On the way to the hospital, he laid out the beating and his being dropped off at the apartment.  He said that he had lost consciousness and when he awoke, he called 911.  The officer assigned to the case, Sgt. Ogawa had told him that they would get the camera footage from the back of the club, and the apartment building to identify the assailants.  As the Sgt. stood there, a doctor came in and told John the extent of his injuries.  He had been right in his assessment: cuts, bruises, cracked ribs, concussion, and even bleeding in the liver.  The doctor said it was no wonder John had passed out, and that he would be admitted and depending upon the extent of the bleeding they may need to operate.  Thus, the next few days passed in the hospital.

On the third day, John was lying in the hospital bed, being told that he would soon be released, when Sgt. Ogawa and another detective came in.  The other detective asked if John knew Valerie, and he said that he did, that she was his girlfriend.  With that the detective asked where John had been Friday night.  John relayed the events, giving the same story he had told Sgt. Ogawa.  With that Ogawa spoke up saying that John’s story checked out, he had been in the club, that Valerie and Mike had left together, that John was beaten by three men (now in custody), had been dropped off at his apartment building, crawled inside, and not left until the EMS arrived.  The CCTV footage confirmed it all.  Ogawa also related the extent of the injuries, and that John was in bad shape on Friday night.  The other detective said that Mike had been almost decapitated, and that Valerie had discovered the body.  She was hysterical and claimed that she didn’t see anything but was covered in his blood.   He said that forensics proved that they had a relationship.  Ogawa, quietly asked, “What have you got?” and the other detective said, “Nothing, not a damn thing!” John sat acting stunned, saying that until that evening, he had no idea she had a thing with Mike.  John looked like the dejected boyfriend while the detective said that apparently it had been going on for quite a while, but that Mike was in the process of being evicted from his apartment and trying to muscle a new place to live. 

John was released from the hospital, went home and made sure that all of Valerie’s things were packed and delivered to one of her friends.  He asked the apartment manager to change the front door lock to prevent her from coming back and tried to rest the last few weeks finishing his graduate degree and getting back into shape.  The three friends had been convicted of assault and battery and received short custodial sentences based upon the video evidence.  Valerie had been admitted to a residential psychiatric program based upon her mental breakdown.  The case remained open, but it was very cold.

 Mentally returning to the present, John casually shook his head, as he changed channels, after all he knew the rest of the story.  Graduation with honors, deployment first to the Horn of Africa, then to Central Asia, then Central America, as he left the relationship turmoil behind.  He smiled, happy to have received his Army retirement direct deposit in the mail, again turned to a different channel, popped a beer and said to himself, “I do have a very particular set of skills.”