AHumanMadeMOFO
patreon
Chapter 22: Recognized?
🕑 Added 2024-10-15 15:05:08 +0000 UTCIn the parking lot of the business district, Joe's attention was fully focused on the people entering and exiting the office building, waiting for Margaret to come down. He had no idea that he was already exposed.
Going upstairs was out of the question.
Even in the 1940s, security in a business district like this was relatively tight. Without proper preparation, it was difficult to sneak in.
So Joe had no choice but to wait in the parking lot.
After about half an hour, Margaret finally came downstairs.
But she wasn't alone.
Leading the way was a sharp, energetic older gentleman, probably in his fifties or sixties. If nothing else, this should be the "Uncle John" Margaret had mentioned.
Margaret followed close behind, but to his surprise, she was also accompanied by a very attentive young man.
Behind the three of them were two stern men in long coats, probably bodyguards.
Seeing this, Joe quickly and discreetly took out his camera and snapped a few pictures.
At this point, Margaret and her companions got into a car.
This time, Margaret didn't get into her own car. Instead, she joined "Uncle John" and the attentive young man in another vehicle. The young man drove while Margaret and Uncle John sat in the back seat.
The two bodyguards got into a separate car and followed them.
After the cars drove a short distance, Joe started his car and began following them.
Josh, who had been watching from a distance, didn't hesitate either. He slowly started his car and followed as well.
This was the first time Josh had tried to tail someone, and he wasn't entirely confident. But his focus remained on following Joe and Margaret and avoiding detection by her bodyguards. Fortunately, Joe didn't notice Josh following him from behind.
In fact, Josh was lucky. On Tony Windis's orders, Brian of the Irish gang had vouched for him, and part of the $1,000 reward had been used to pay off some of his debts. This had caused the Scappa's men, who had been tailing Joe, to call off their surveillance.
If they were still around, Josh, with his limited experience in surveillance, would probably have been discovered much sooner.
Josh followed them for most of the day.
Margaret and her group first went to a fancy restaurant for lunch. Afterwards, they returned to a jewelry company to conduct business.
This went on until about 3 p.m., when the attentive young man finally dropped Margaret off downstairs. After saying goodbye, Margaret got into her own car and drove away.
Joe Barbaro, the man who had been following her, persisted in following her, and Josh was no exception.
But this time, Margaret seemed to be heading toward Josh's house.
Along the way, Joe Barbaro kept a good distance, looking like he was just tailing her.
But Josh had no intention of letting Joe off the hook so easily.
Although the area was a satellite city, there was still a stretch of uninhabited land between Chicago and Josh's home in Evanston. There were cars on the road, but it was much less crowded than the city.
In this deserted area, Josh put on a mask, stepped on the gas, and caught up to Joe Barbaro's car. Timing his move perfectly, he veered left and rammed Joe's car on the driver's side.
In both America and China, the driver's seat is on the left, so Josh's maneuver hit Joe Barbaro directly.
The impact knocked Joe Barbaro unconscious for a few seconds, and his car lost control, crashing into the farmland on the right side of the road and flipping over.
Seeing the success of his move, Josh didn't hesitate to follow him into the field.
Since it was late winter, the farmland was just barren ground, and the cold, hard soil made it easy for Josh to drive his car steadily up to Joe Barbaro's overturned vehicle.
Joe Barbaro was no fool. Although disoriented from the crash, he still had the sense to reach for the gun hidden under the passenger seat.
But before he could grab it, a cold, large barrel of a gun was pressed against the back of his head.
Joe Barbaro had no choice but to raise his hands in surrender.
"Get out!" With a calm but commanding voice, Josh pulled the gun back slightly, but Joe still didn't dare make any sudden moves.
Joe was familiar with guns, and from the feel of the gun against his head, he knew that Josh was holding a powerful short-range weapon - a shotgun.
At close range, this thing was deadlier than any other weapon. The phrase "Within ten meters, all are gun equal" was no joke.
Faced with this, Joe Barbaro abandoned all thoughts of resistance and obediently crawled out of the shattered car window.
By now, several cars on the distant highway had noticed the situation.
But when they saw Josh, masked and holding a shotgun, they all hit the gas and sped away.
As for the police, in this day and age without cell phones or pagers, it would take at least half an hour for them to reach this remote area after being notified.
When Joe Barbaro crawled out, he finally saw that the person pointing the gun at him was a tall, thin man wearing a mask.
But why did the mask look so familiar?
"Is that you?" In the next second, Joe Barbaro recognized the figure, his eyes widening in shock.
He couldn't help it - Josh had made a deep impression on him. If Josh hadn't stolen his car, Joe wouldn't be in his current predicament.
But what luck to run into that guy again!
"I didn't provoke him this time, did I?" Joe thought to himself.
"Who told you to follow that woman?" Josh asked coldly, not interested in small talk.
Hearing Josh's question, Joe Barbaro finally realized that the task Tony Windis had given him wasn't as easy as he thought. Otherwise, he wouldn't have attracted the attention of this mysterious figure.
But what was the connection between this man and the woman he was following?
Suddenly, Joe Barbaro remembered seeing a young man in Evanston earlier that morning while he was following Margaret...
"Speak! Who told you to follow that woman?" Josh demanded again when he saw Joe Barbaro lost in thought.
"It was Mr. Tony Windis. He asked me to follow Mrs. Windis to gather evidence of her affair and to find out the identity of her lover..." Faced with the barrel of a gun, Joe Barbaro didn't hesitate to betray his employer.
Men like him had no principles. As long as it meant staying alive or making money, they would do anything.
But when Joe mentioned the word "lover," his tone changed slightly, and his probing look at Josh was noticed by Josh.
Had he recognized Josh?
Josh frowned. At first he had only wanted to teach this Italian fatso a lesson and find out why Margaret was being followed. He hadn't intended to kill anyone.
But if Joe had really recognized him...
"This gentleman, I..." Joe Barbaro began, trying to test the waters with Josh.
But...
"Bang..." A gunshot rang out, echoing across the field.
