Hey hey, hope your day is going great :)
Today I have a story for you that was supposed to be so completely different from what you’ll read in every possible aspect that it’s honestly hard to believe it exists in the shape it has now haha Crazy how one idea can evolve into something else entirely over a course of just a few days.
Anyway, I hope you’re gonna like it. And I guess we will have to wait and see if the other idea ever sees the light of day 👀
Enjoy!
Secret investigation
We met in the autumn of 1998. It was a strange day, filled with sunlight and people claiming to be someone entirely different from who they actually were.
He was a peculiar man.
I had been invited to an evening at my friend’s place, John’s, who had been my dear companion since our years at university. We studied business together and, well, it would be an understatement to say that we knew how to do business indeed.
That evening, I arrived at the manor perfectly on time. We were supposed to do business once more that day, and so I made it my priority to seem as one needed to seem when money was involved. Flawless and refined.
I left the car with the valet at the front and entered the mansion. The house had been cleaned to the last piece of dust, every floor polished to a shine. John greeted me with open arms.
“Michael, my friend. What a sight for sore eyes,” he exclaimed and held out his hand, which I gladly accepted.
“The pleasure is all mine, John. Tell me, is everything in place?” He threw his arm over mine and showed me to the ballroom.
“See for yourself.”
And indeed it was. Tables set up proudly around the room, fifteen of them, each one with dealers shuffling their decks. The bar shimmered in the chandelier light, gallons of expensive alcohol stood there carelessly, or so it would seem to an untrained eye.
I saw them for what they were – merely a tool in my skilled companion’s hands.
“Do not bother, Michael. You have seen this a thousand times before.”
I smiled at him, a sudden flash of sentiment growing in the corner of my eye. “And yet, each time is like that first one you surprised me with.” I took the glass from the table next to us and raised it in his direction. “You will never cease to amaze me, old friend.”
“I do hope so, Micheal. Let us drink to that, then.”
We did, and soon the other guests started arriving, each tasteful and sophisticated, famished and eager to multiply their wealth.
He was there, too – or should I say – he was there, and everyone else happened to be around him. He was magnetic in a way I could not even begin to explain. He seemed strange and ill-suited for an event of this magnitude, and yet nothing seemed more fitting in this place than him.
We chose our tables, and the evening began.
It was slow at first, as all games are when the players have not yet drunk enough to lose their masks and abandon hesitations towards their undiscovered opponents. I will not bore you with the details of what was happening in those moments. I am sure we are all familiar with the way of cards and their various meanings. The gambles were starting and ending, and soon, it became obvious who would count for something and whom we would leave behind. Winners eyed up other winners, and the bets got bigger – partly an unwritten rule but also a natural reaction to the presented circumstances, ones we had studied with John to their core. None of these desires were foreign to us – only we trained to use them to our advantage, while others have not.
There came a pause after my third win, and as I thanked the other gentlemen, John appeared and with him the man my eyes had been following the entire evening.
“Michael, I would love to introduce someone to you,” he said, and the man stretched out his hand. “Meet Leonard Hewitt, a businessman, curious to join our meetings. Leonard, this is my dear friend Michael Howards, the man I have been telling you about.”
“I have heard great things about you, Mr. Hewitt. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” I said while shaking his hand, and the gleam in his eye hypnotized me.
“As I have about you, Mr. Howards.” He let go of my hand and assumed a comfortable stance next to John and me, a third piece of the puzzle almost as obvious as though he had always been our companion. “I must admit, you exceeded my expectations far and beyond. Your moves have been fantastically impeccable tonight and an absolute delight to decipher.”
We laughed, and I felt John's gaze lingering on me as if impatient to hear my response. “You are overestimating me, Mr. Hewitt. I am a mere slave to the whim of the cards. A lucky player, one would say.”
“Let us leave these lines for amateurs, shall we, Mr. Howards? I think we can both agree that there is no such thing as luck in rooms like these,” he said, and I found myself smiling when during similar conversations, I would always try to keep my composure. There it was. A challenge.
“What do you think it is then? That drives some men to wealth and power, and some to foolishness?” I asked, with an eyebrow raised, the smile not wanting to leave my lips.
“We both know it is a game of smirks and subtle frowns, nothing else. As soon as you realize you are not among simple mortals here but actors – skilled or not, it does not matter – you will start noticing things you have never noticed before. As I am sure you are perfectly aware of yourself, Mr. Howards. Am I correct?”
“A brilliant hypothesis, Mr. Hewitt, if it were true. Not a game of wins and losses, but simply a never-ending performance? I will have to consider this.”
“I expected nothing else from a man like yourself,” he said and finally smiled back. There was something hidden there – a dare, admiration, slight mockery? I would not know; it disappeared too fast for me to tell. “Now excuse me, gentlemen. Duty calls.” He bowed to Jonh, then to me, an almost insignificant second longer, and, just like that, he was gone.
“Fascinating man, is he not, Michael?” asked John, and turned to me when we lost sight of his guest.
“Very fascinating indeed. Where do you find people like these?”
“I will just say I have had a certain problem for years, and he happened to be the only person who convinced me he could solve it. Right people attract each other at the right times, or so I am told.”
“It would appear so, my friend. It would appear so.”
I wanted to say more, but it was time to return to our tables. Relentless cards called for our attention, and who were we not to answer?
The evening turned to night, and we were all almost as relentless as the cards we had been dealt. When enough time passed, I found myself face to face with Hewitt, both of us excellent players, determined to show what the other had never seen before.
It was electrifying. The way he anticipated my every move, and I his. It was like a beautiful dance, my mind finally at peace, knowing it had found a worthy opponent, after all. I had never experienced anything like that before, and I never would with anyone else but him.
And then I slipped.
A silly mistake, really. One a regular player, even an advanced one, would never have noticed.
He did.
He placed the cards on the table and stood up, then nodded at the crowd.
“Good work, gentlemen. We have it all recorded from the start till till the end,” he said and stood up too. “Mr. Micheal Howards, you are under arrest for deceit and cheating and on suspicion of amassing millions of dollars through years of fraudulent activities. You have the right to remain silent…”
I did. There was nothing to say.
Three men disguised as guests blocked me from all sides, and I just stood there, thinking about all the nights that had led to that one. Could I have done anything differently? If I had known, would I have?
“Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you.”
He gestured at his assistants. I felt a hand on my shoulder pushing me towards the exit when John’s voice appeared, hurt and furious.
“You had never lost a game in these halls, not in the past, not ever. I did not want to believe this but it was so obvious! How could you do this to me?! We swore to each other. No greed would come between us – you swore to me! You looked me in the eye and–”
“No more words are needed here," Hewitt said to John, and I bowed my head in gratitude. "I am not saying this for you, Howards. Do not flatter yourself. I am here at the service of my host, not you. Take him.”
I would like to say I knew that would happen, just like I knew exactly how each game I participated in would look like, but there is no point in lying now, not anymore. John, yet again, proved to be able to surprise me, even after all this time.
Was it all worth it, you may ask? Do I regret it?
Yes and no. The answers are never as simple as we want them to be.
Yes, I will be in prison till the end of my life. No, I do not regret living in prosperity for many years of my adulthood. Yes, I wish I had not been caught. No, I cannot imagine not meeting Leonard Hewitt and not getting a taste of knowing someone just by the way their hands move and reading their thoughts like my own.
I wish, I do not. It does not matter. I am who I am, and I would not be me if I had not done it.
So when he enters the room and I hear a familiar, “Shall we play, Mr. Howards?”, I do not think about the past or future. There is just now when I answer, “It will be my greatest pleasure, Mr. Hewitt.” And there is nothing I said in my life that is truer than these words.
Thank you so much for reading! If you want to share some thoughts, don’t hesitate to talk to me in the comments :)
See you next week <3