Prologue
Raleigh, North Carolina
Early November
The fenced in backyard of the vacant house was muddy from the recent rain and the scene was shrouded in darkness as the eleven o’clock hour approached. An older man moved out the back door and hurried down the steps and through the mud toward a gate at the rear of the yard.
His escape was almost complete when a man’s voice called out, “Stop!” The orders came from a man at the back door and the older man froze in his tracks, knowing that a 9-mil pistol would be pointed at his head. The man slowly turned, while dropping the small package he was carrying, into the mud and then stepping on it in an effort to hide it from his assailant.
The man with the pistol moved slowly and deliberately toward him as the older man looked plaintively toward the gate and his access to freedom; so near and yet so far.
“Where’s the wallet?”
The older man simply shrugged as the man with the pistol raised his weapon toward him. He was about to give up any hope of a rescue and he prepared for death, when, to his surprise, a large dog came bounding in through the opened gate at the rear of the yard and rushed toward him. The animal nearly knocked him over, and as he stumbled backward, the bundle he had dropped in the mud, was revealed. The man stooped down to retrieve it, but that action caused the dog to think this was some sort of game, a game of retrieval. The animal grabbed the small leather pouch in his teeth, then turned to run toward the man holding the pistol. The older man grabbed at the dog’s collar to restrain him, jerking the animal around, causing the collar to slip over the animal’s head. He stood staring for a second, then made his escape in the confusion, still holding the dog’s collar. The dog made a bee-line for the other man, as if he were looking for someone with whom to play catch.
As the older man made his escape, he heard the sound of a single gunshot behind him. He ran through the open gate without even thinking about looking back or considering the fate of the animal who may have just saved his life. His fleeting thought was that, with the loss of the leather pouch, he had lost his only bargaining chip, the only thing he could take to the authorities as proof of what was happening.