Chapter 5
It was evening, and the sun dropped to the west. It left a beautiful orange and purple sunset in Orlando.
Joey lived in a second-floor apartment that had one bedroom, one bathroom, living room, and kitchen. It even had a balcony of which he never used.
In the kitchen, Joey wore cleaner Khaki pants with a rose-colored button-down shirt. He had his iPhone clipped to his belt. He danced a dorky dance while he sang to the song Let’s Get In On by Marvin Gaye that blared from the CD player from the living room.
“Oh, come on, Whoo, let’s get it on…” Joey sang along, in a key that doesn’t exist, with Marvin Gaye.
He danced around the kitchen to the rhythm of the music. Well, almost to the rhythm.
He danced over to the oven and opened up the door.
He peeked inside. The lasagna looked mouth-watering.
He closed the oven door.
He danced and whistled to the song all the way to the refrigerator and opened it up. He removed a pitcher of tea.
He danced and whistled to a cabinet, opened it up and grabbed a glass. He poured a glass of tea.
“There’s nothin’ wrong with me lovin you,” Joey sang out while he danced his glass of tea into the living room.
He danced to his lazy boy chair next to a small table with two remotes.
He sat down and turned on the TV with one of the remotes. He grabbed the other remote and turned off the CD player, which is located on the top shelf of his computer desk, which houses his new twenty-four inch iMac.
Next to his iMac is that picture of Joey and his pals taken the day they all departed UIC. He had it in a beautiful frame.
Joey took a swig of his tea as he watched the TV.
On TV, Joey watched while a commercial started.
Joey changed the channel with the remote.
On TV, saw a picture of Joey, in his car at the bank drive-thru from earlier today.
Joey didn’t notice and changed the channel with the remote.
On TV, a bachelor reality show started. Joey kicked back in his chair and watched. Then his eyes widen when it dawned on him he was on TV.
He sat straight up and quickly changed the channel back to the bank scene with the remote.
On TV, a female reporter stood with a microphone in hand by the drive-thru lane. The one Joey used earlier.
Orange County Detective, Angie Williams, beautiful thirty-five-year-old, African American female, walked up to the female reporter.
“With me is Orange County Detective Angie Williams,” the reporter stated to the viewing audience.
A small video still shot appeared and showed Joey with a huge smile inside his car in the drive-thru lane.
“Witnesses got the tag number of the bank robber and called it in, so we now have a suspect,” Angie said.
A police officer walked up to Angie and whispered in her ear. Angie rushed off.
Back to Joey in his apartment, he sat with his mouth dropped in shock while he stared at the TV.
From the kitchen, the oven buzzer blared. Joey got spooked.
He jumped up and knocked his glass of tea off the table.
It bounced and landed on the carpet, and tea poured out.
Joey danced around the living room in a panic. He stopped, and today’s events raced through his mind.
Joey recalled the tube of bundles of one hundred dollar bills that came the bank’s drive-thru pneumatic terminal.
He paced and fidgeted while the oven buzzer continued to blare.
Joey had a revelation of his future life…
He slept in a jail cell bunk where the prison was quiet.
A big thug walked up to Joey’s bunk.
The thug smiled as he looked at Joey with love in his eyes.
The thug lowered Joey’s bed sheet. Joey woke up, saw the thug over him and panicked. The thug covered Joey’s mouth with one hand and removed Joey’s underwear with his other hand.
Back to reality…
Joey had fear in his eyes while he paced around the living room.
“I’m going to be a criminal’s butt bitch then die in a cold gray cell!” Joey thought for a second. Then his eyes widen when he remembered something. He snatched his iPhone off his belt and quickly made a phone call.
“Sloppy Pete’s Pizza. How may I help you?” said the male voice from his iPhone. Joey disconnected the call.
He tried again while he thought he typed too fast when he punched in the number.
“Sloppy Pete’s Pizza, how may I help you?” the male voice from his iPhone repeated. Joey disconnected the call, slapped himself upside his head.
“Stupid me, I got Sandy’s number all wrong!” Joey said, as he felt so dumb and slapped his forehead.
Joey sensed danger approached.
He rushed over and peeked out his living room window.
From his window, two Orange County sheriff’s department cars speeding through the parking lot and headed in the direction of Joey’s apartment.
“If I don’t know I’m wanted for bank robbery, then it’s okay to run. After all, they haven’t officially arrested me, yet,” Joey rationalized.
He raced out of the living room and headed to the hallway.
Joey raced down the hallway and slid on the floor to his bedroom door.
Joey raced inside his bedroom.
He raced over to his closet.
He reached inside, tossed out a backpack. He unzipped the backpack, reached inside his closet and removed some shirts and shoved them into a backpack.
He reached back inside the closet, removed some Khaki pants, and shoved them into his backpack.
He raced over to his dresser and opened it up.
He reached inside and removed some tighty whiteys and shoved them in his backpack. He reached in the drawer, removed some socks, and shoved them into his backpack.
Joey grabbed his Schooner Bank Cachalot hat and sunglasses off the top of the dresser.
With his backpack, hat, and sunglasses in hand, Joey raced out of his bedroom.
Joey raced down the hallway.
He raced into his living room and over to his computer desk.
He opened up a drawer and removed a wall charger for his iPhone. He unzipped a side pocket of his backpack and placed his charger inside. He zipped up the pocket.
At the rear of Joey’s two-story apartment building was a tree.
Joey opened his dining room apartment window.
Joey leaned out the window with his backpack in hand. He dropped the backpack, and it plopped on the ground.
Joey climbed out the window and jumped onto a nearby oak tree branch. He grabbed a branch and dangled.
He lost his grip, fell and slammed on the ground with a hard thud.
He got up slowly, moaned as he grabbed his backpack and limped away.
At the far end of the parking lot, Jesse’s GTO was parked with a perfect view of the front of Joey’s apartment building.
Inside Jesse’s GTO, Jesse was behind the wheel, Rose, in the passenger seat and Frankie, in the back seat. They all watched as four deputy sheriffs got out of their parked police cars and raced up the stairs.
They stopped at Joey’s apartment door.
“Yeah!” Jesse shouted then he high-fived Rose, then turned around and high-fived Frankie.
They watched as Angie Williams drove her unmarked Orange County car to Joey’s apartment.
“Okay, let’s press on before they see us,” Jesse told everybody.
Joey drove his GTO off slowly, so he doesn’t attract the cops.
Inside Joey’s apartment, it was quiet except for the TV that continued with the news and the oven buzzer. Someone knocked on the door.
“Open up, Austin! Orange County sheriff’s department!” a deputy yelled from outside Joey’s front door.
A few minutes passed.
The front door of Joey’s apartment was kicked open with a battering ram.
Angie cautiously entered Joey’s living room with the four other deputies. Angie sniffed the air and looked in the direction of the kitchen.
She walked into the kitchen and sniffed her way to the oven.
She opened it, and black smoke poured out from Joey’s burnt lasagna. She turned off the stove.
Outside his apartment, Joey looked over his shoulder as he rushed down a nearby street with his Schooner hat on.
He didn’t know what to do and wondered if he really should have run away.
An Orange County Sheriff’s car drove down the street towards him. Joey got nervous, as it got closer.
He rushed into a nearby parking lot of a strip mall.
Joey discreetly looked over his shoulder to see if that deputy came after him.
The Sheriff’s car drove away. Joey sighed a sigh of relief.
Back at Joey’s apartment bedroom…
Joey’s bed mattress and bedsheets were dumped on the floor.
A deputy rummaged through his closet. Clothes were thrown out all over the floor. Boxes of Joey’s college books were dumped and searched through.
The deputy walked to Joey’s dresser.
He removed the top drawer, turned it upside down and all Joey’s tighty whiteys and socks dumped on the floor.
The deputy removed the next drawer. He turned it upside down and folded pairs of Khaki pants dumped on the floor.
In Joey’s living room, all the cushions to Joey’s furniture had been dumped on the floor, and his furniture searched.
Angie sat at Joey’s computer desk where all the desk drawers were dumped on the floor, and all their contents are searched though.
Angie searched through Joey’s iMac. She searched through his bookmarks and wrote down the name of his bank.
The deputy from Joey’s bedroom walked up to Angie.
“We didn’t find the money in his bedroom,” the deputy informed her.
The second deputy walked up to Angie. “The bathroom came up clean,” he told Angie.
The third deputy entered from the front door. He walked up to Angie. “We searched the grounds of the apartment and could not find Austin,” said one of the deputies.
“Did you by chance find a cell phone, blackberry or iPhone?” Angie asked.
All the deputies nodded, “No.”
“He probably has it with him,” she suspected.
The fourth deputy entered from the outside.
He walked over to Angie and held up a plastic evidence bag with a single one hundred bill inside. “I found this inside Austin’s car. Under the passenger seat,” the officer told Angie.
Angie thought for a second. “Put out an APB on Joey Austin. I want him picked up tonight,” Angie ordered.
One of the deputies rushed to the front door then left the apartment.
Angie picked up Joey’s UIC picture. She looked at it then placed it back.
She got up from Joey’s computer desk.
“Rope this place off,” Angie ordered.
Angie walked to the front door and left with the other officers.
The sun went below the horizon hours ago. The Orlando nightlife started to wind down since it was a weekday.
Traffic was light while Joey moped down another Orlando street. But now he was on the outskirt of Orlando. There were patches of wooded areas that hadn’t been developed yet.
He still wore his dorky hat. Every second of today’s events ran through his head while he attempted to figure out how his life went down the toilet so fast.
An Orlando police car drove down the street. Joey got concerned and immediately turned and rushed to the parking lot of a strip mall that had an appliance store as its main attraction. A small patch of woods was behind the mall.
Joey walked around to the rear an appliance store where there was a back road than ran along with a small patch of woods.
He looked around the rear of the store and wondered what he was going to do.
He looked at his watch, and it was ten-thirty that night. He was exhausted as he walked over ten miles, and his feet killed him.
He looked around and saw a big refrigerator cardboard box by a dumpster. He looked at the woods.
He walked over and dragged the refrigerator box into the woods.