© 2025 J. J. Hanna
I had done everything right. The phone was a burner. Amanda was spooked but safe. The Metgov job had been cleaned.
I stopped for coffee at a bike cart and paid with cash while waiting for updates on our other jobs. In my opinion, George had flown too close to the sun with Metgov. The area was too hot. We should have moved on. But he didn’t want to. He thought the money was ripe for the taking. And he was right, the job itself had been simple. Everything after that job had gone off the rails, and it was only getting more complicated.
We knew the police had been on us. We knew another agency had been talking to Amanda. Military bases didn’t let just anyone on, especially not random baristas.
My phone rang. I sipped my coffee as I hit answer. “Report.”
“The job is done,” the woman on the other end said. “What’s next?”
I smiled. Eleonor was one of my favorite coworkers. She was fast, effective, and highly skilled at making problems disappear. “For now, go to ground. I’ll be in touch with a new job when one shows up.”
She hung up. I went to dial George to give him the update when a man stopped in front of me. “Axel Silvario? You’re a hard man to track down.”
“You have the wrong person,” I said, and turned to walk away.
“No, I don’t think I do,” he said. “I’m Detective Williams with Denver Homicide. I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
There were two ways to get out of an interrogation. Option 1, cooperate and say nothing and hope for a good lawyer. Option 2, don’t get caught in the first place. I didn’t wait to find out what he wanted to know. I turned and ran. I’d been in this city a long time, so it wasn’t that hard to lose people in a crowded street. I could hear the detective shouting behind me, telling me to stop, I was under arrest, et cetera. It wasn’t the first arrest warrant I’d had and it wouldn’t be the last. Didn’t mean any of them had to actually apply to me, though. I tossed my coffee cup aside to free my hands and ducked into an alley. To most, this would seem like a dead end. A fence separated this side from the other street. To me, this was a perfect place to disappear. I climbed the fence blocking my way, used it to scramble up onto a fire escape for a nearby building, climbed a few levels, and then made the short jump onto the lower roof of the building next door. Then I crouched, listening as the detective’s footsteps slowed in the alley.
“What the hell?” he said.
I could imagine him looking around in bewilderment.
“Axel, I just want to talk!”
I stayed quiet. He might have IDed me, but that didn’t mean I had to give away my location. I texted George. I’m burned. Then I took the battery out of my phone and waited as the cop called it in. It wouldn’t be long until this place was crawling with other cops as they tried to pick up my trail. I didn’t plan to stick around and wait for them to find me. I moved silently over to the roof access door and picked the lock, taking the stairs down and confidently walking out the front door of that office building like nothing had happened.
The next step was creating distance. The options were pretty simple. I could hail a taxi or I could take the bus. Buses had security cameras, so I opted for a taxi. I rattled off the address for an office building we often used as a dead drop and watched as the police cars swarmed the area.
I’d done everything right. How had they found me? And why did they think I’d mess up now?
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Please note: This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to real life events is unintended by the author.
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J. J. Hanna is a writer and reader from Colorado. She loves suspense stories above all else, and is currently working on a debut novel. When she’s not writing, you can find her making YouTube videos and Online Courses about the publishing industry. Go find her on social media @authorjjhanna and @jjhannaacademy to keep track of her most recent reads, current adventures, and to get the most up-to-date news on all things publishing. She also runs a freelance marketing business to help authors achieve their own goals. Learn more or hire her at Hanna Book Solutions.
J. J. Hanna, Author 