SEGMENT OF ONE, Chapter One

My first novel, an analytic thriller called SEGMENT OF ONE, is due out in early 2022 from the Wild Rose Press. Below is chapter one. What do you think?

CHAPTER 1

Thursday, October 24, 7:00 P.M.

???????????

???????????David Bar David held the rope too tight.?He wanted to let go, but he couldn’t.?In the trunk, on his stomach, in the dark.?His breathing slowed as the automobile bumped and rattled along.??

Rope in one hand, rifle in the other.?

The locked lid meant he didn’t have to hold the rope at all, but it gave him something to hold onto.?Which he needed.?

With his other hand, he let go of the gun and felt the yarmulke on top of his head.?Yes, still there, still in place.

???????????Sol drove one of the cars from his used lot and always explained to David some of its particular details.?Then David would give him the location and time of their message.

???????????David pulled his cellphone from his back-left pocket and checked the time.?From his back-right pocket he pulled the plastic bag that held his spare underwear.???????

Slow and heavy.?The Dallas heat made the air inside the trunk difficult to breathe but he tried to count, he tried to relax.?

Maybe Fibonacci would calm him.

???????????1,1,2,3,5,8,13.?What was next??21.?Then 34.

???????????Yes, that helped.?Numbers always helped.?Patterns always helped.

???????????He put the cellphone on the floor in front of him.?Not long now.

???????????He wiped the sweat from his forehead and grasped the Bushmaster XM-15 semiautomatic.?Purchased it legally, legitimately.?He went through all the red tape, filled in all the right documents, with the truth, and walked out with a weapon.

???????????Their Honda slowed and David inhaled.?Tonight’s event was across the street and down a block or so from Garland’s new strip mall.?That target location would work well.??

Could he do it again??The previous times had been difficult, even though the decision was easy.?Black and white.?It had been over a month since the last message.

He thought of Miriam and Jonathan.?David would teach a Calc I class tomorrow and would not sleep much tonight.?He smiled.?He still had the same schedule as when he and Miriam worked together.

Sol turned some corner and stopped.?The trunk lid unlocked.?Distinctive click.?David swallowed and made sure the rope was still tied to the inside top of the trunk.?Not all cars made that easy to do.?For the first time, they had to drill a hole in order to tie the rope.?Sol worried a lot when he put that car back on the lot.

David let the lid rise up a couple of inches.?Squeezing the rope tight, he was glad a cool night breeze hit his face.

He pulled the rifle to his chest and looked out.?Yes, a couple of blocks away was the strip mall.?He would rifle through the shoppers and find his target.

Krogers.?Burger King.?Quick Trip.?A nail place.?A dry cleaners.?All perfect.

Putting his eye to the scope, pointing the gun, he saw two guys walking from the Quick Trip.?To the left, a pregnant woman talked on her cellphone.?Getting out of a pickup truck was a man and a little boy, probably his son, walking toward the Burger King.?A black guy stood outside GameStop.?Two teenaged girls, laughing, came out of the nail place.

Cellphone alarm beeped.?Now.?Who would he nail?

A single target tonight.?So, a single bullet in the gun.?David put the crosshairs on one of the guys walking out of the Quick Trip.?Tall man, longish hair, scruffy beard.?The guy pulled keys from his pocket and the crosshairs settled on his face.?

What was next??David pulled the trigger.

The front of the guy’s face exploded.?A massive head wound.

The guy’s friend looked around.?The pregnant woman screamed.?The black guy ran.?The girls hugged each other.

David pulled the trunk lid back down.?Clicked and locked.

A gentle walkway wound around the mall.?Sol slowly drove away.??

David’s breaths came fast, almost pants.?He then took his black pants off and removed his soiled underwear.?He reached in the plastic bag for the fresh pair.?Changing in the trunk of a dark and hot and moving car was difficult.?Just part of the job now.?

When he pulled the trigger, he orgasmed.?Always did.?The first time, he had no clean underwear and the whole thing surprised him.?Now it was a process.

David slowed his breathing.

Taylor series for ex = 1 + x + X2 / 2! + X3 / 3! etc.?What was next??It was trivial.

Yes, that was better.?He closed his eyes and let go of the rope and let the rifle roll to one side.?

That guy’s face exploded.?

They drove away, below the speed limit.?Didn’t want to attract attention.?No need to, in no hurry.

David didn’t know when their next time would be, but the intervals were decreasing.?Faster between events.?Of course, Sol wanted to be in the trunk next time.?All escalation.?At some point, David would need Sol to have a weapon.

David thought about them walking to Hebrew School, when they lived in Kansas City.?David, two years older, had to turn around every ten seconds.

“Solomon, hurry up!”

Sol would always be looking in a window or chasing a dog.?Easily distracted.?Little brothers, such a pain.?

Sol didn’t do well in school.?David did.?Even by second grade, his math skills were obvious.?Their father, Samuel, was an engineer.?Their mother taught high school math, just like Miriam.?David now taught at Plano High.

“This is for Miriam and Jonathan,” David whispered to the darkness.?

Just like he always did.

He closed his eyes and waited.?The silver Accord’s speed increased, now on the highway.?They had this perfected.

He would check the internet tonight, see what the news was.?

He would give a test next week to his trig class.?How much longer would he keep his full-time job now with escalation?

Soon the Honda Accord slowed and pulled to a stop.?The trunk unlocked.?David let the rope go and the lid went all the way up and he stretched and rolled out of the darkness.?He untied the rope and grabbed the Bushmaster with one hand and the squishy plastic bag with the other.?He walked to the passenger’s side and sat the rope and rifle in the middle of the seat.?He got in and held the plastic bag in his lap.

“You still do that?” Sol asked.

“What?”

Sol pointed to the sealed plastic bag.

“Yes,” David shrugged.?“Bullet leaves, semen leaves.”

“Don’t you think that’s weird?”

David spread his arms wide.?“What is weird?”

They laughed and Sol put the Accord LX in gear.?David turned off the radio and leaned back in the seat.?Quiet, just quiet.?That was what he needed.

They drove to David’s house.?He still lived in that same house.

“Did you drop it?” David asked.

“I did,” Sol said.?“As we left.”

“They will be able to find it?”

“Sure.?I’ve done this before you know.”

David nodded.?“You see any cameras?”

“There’s always cameras.?I positioned as best as possible.”

David sighed.?“When is the next melting?”

“I’ll talk with Frank, but I think it’s in a couple of weeks.?Have to coordinate it with whatever sales promos he has in mind.”

“Always a used car sale,” David said and smiled.

Sol laughed.?“That’s right.”

David looked at his cellphone.?Went to breaking news.?Nothing yet.

“Checking Facebook?” Sol asked.

“I am never on social networks,” David said tightly.

“You okay?”

“Sure.?Worried about the trig test next week.?Hoping they will do well but mid-term is always tough.?Couple of them need a good grade.?Academic suspension might kick them off the football team.”

“Good luck to them.?I hated trig.”

“I know you did.?There is such beauty, though.”

Sol sneered.?“The Unabomber was a mathematician.”

“What Ted Kaczynski did can barely be called math.?Boundary conditions!?Totally irrelevant.”

“He had a PhD.”

“From the University of Michigan.?I don’t know if that even counts.?And don’t think I don’t know that it was his brother who turned him in.”

Sol looked at him closely.?“Whose name was David.?That’s your name, right?”

“I would never turn you in.”

Sol shrugged.?“Of course not,” he said and drove on.

Math was always a difficult conversation.?Math-focused parents.?Brother a math PhD, sister-in-law a math teacher.?Sol couldn’t get away and family gatherings were always quantitative.?Sol would eat his meal in silence.?He had nothing to talk about.

They pulled to a stop in front of David’s house.?He took the plastic bag and they got out and went to the back of the LX.?David looked around.

Sol popped the trunk and removed the floor covering and got the right license plates and two screwdrivers from the toolbox on the side.?He handed a plate and a screwdriver to David.

David went around to the front and removed the plate and put the correct one back on.?He walked to the back and handed Sol the fake and the screwdriver.

“Talk to you tomorrow,” David said.?“Maybe do dinner this weekend, Bar-B-Q brisket.?You will love my sauce.”

“You always cancel.?Good luck with your trig test.”

David nodded and went to the front porch, looked around again and unlocked the door.

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