The Cold-Blooded Murder Of My Favorite Boss
The Cold-Blooded Murder Of My Favorite Boss
Who would want to kill such a kind and generous man?
I liked Kevin from the moment I met him for a job interview. I’d spent the last six months working for a vertical shade company run by three brothers, each one worse than the next, and I was desperate to quit when I saw Kevin’s ad for a secretary. When I called about the job, Kevin invited me to come to the office.
He greeted me warmly and asked me to sit down across from his desk. He was a large man who weighed roughly 300 pounds, and his face was red and sweaty just from the walk from the front door to his office. I’d never actually worked as a real secretary before, but I hoped it wouldn’t show.
Kevin explained that he was an accountant and mortgage broker. He asked me a few questions about myself, and we talked for a while. He ended up hiring me on the spot. I had a good feeling about him. He seemed to be a humble and genuine person. I happily gave my notice to the shade company as soon as I got home.
Kevin let me know he had a partner named Mark who worked in the office next door to his. Mark didn’t have a secretary yet, so Kevin told me I’d be working for both of them. That was fine with me. I hoped Mark would be as nice as Kevin had been.
For the first few days, the office was relatively quiet. I took the opportunity to practice writing letters for Kevin. He also had me run a few errands for things he needed. He asked me to set up an account with Charles Chips to deliver a canister of potato chips once a week, something he’d always wished his old boss would have done when he was younger. Kevin was so kind to me that the memories of the three evil brothers at the shade company faded quickly.
From the moment I met Mark, I knew he was trouble. He was loud and abrasive, calling me his “girl” several times, something Kevin never did. He’d ask me to call his mother and tell her off and laughed at me when I refused. Mark seemed to have a circle of businessmen around him who were just as obnoxious as he was. I ignored their comments about how “sexy” I was and tried to focus on my work.
I was as nice to Mark as I could be, especially because I knew it would make things easier for Kevin. I couldn’t figure out why Kevin would agree to be partners with Mark. They were polar opposites with seemingly nothing in common.
As a secretary, I was in charge of all the mail that came in. That was how I noticed Mark stashing away the company’s credit card bill in his pocket every month. It worried me that he was hiding it from Kevin. I could only imagine the damage that Mark had done by taking advantage of his generosity.
The next time the bill came, Kevin was in the office, but Mark was not. I took the bill and brought it to Kevin’s office.
“Mark has been hiding this from you,” I explained as I handed it over.
I’d only been working there a few months, but Kevin always had my loyalty. He was the nicest boss I’d ever had, and I hated to see him get railroaded. I knew I was taking a huge risk by showing Kevin the bill, but I felt it was the right thing to do.
When Mark got back, Kevin went into his partner’s office and shut the door. I heard yelling, but I couldn’t figure out what either of them was saying. When they emerged, I looked down at my typewriter and acted like I was working on something really important. Mark didn’t say a word to me as he stormed out the front door.
After he was gone, Kevin approached me, leaning over my desk.
“I just want you to know that Mark and I aren’t going to share an office anymore. I’m moving into a smaller one across town, and I’d like you to come with me.”
“Of course,” I answered with a great deal of relief.
The new office was much smaller, just a tiny reception room attached to Kevin’s office. He honestly seemed to be as happy as me to be there. The building overlooked the intercoastal waterway, and in my free moments I’d watch the boats sailing back and forth over the sparkling water. Suddenly, going to work was almost peaceful.
Kevin even let me work half days on Fridays, another thing he wished for himself when he was a young man in the business world. When I turned twenty in August, he took me out to lunch at the fanciest place I’d ever seen. It was almost like having a second father looking out for me. I worked as hard as I could to help make his life easier.
Over time, I noticed that Kevin was losing weight. His face slimmed down, and his clothes were looser on him. He confessed that he had been doing the Opti-Fast diet, the one where you drink shakes three times a day instead of eating. I was proud of him, but I worried that losing weight so fast was dangerous.
Kevin then admitted he had a special someone in his life who motivated him to lose weight. I was thrilled for him, but I hoped his new lady would treat him right. Kevin deserved a woman who was as sweet as he was.
He brought her to the office a few days later. Her name was Neela, and she was a petite Latin woman with huge and stunning brown eyes and curly black hair all the way down to the small of her back. It was in the middle of the day, but she was dressed as if she was going to a fancy party.
Neela smiled and shook my hand with her perfectly polished manicure. She left me dazzled by her beauty. I didn’t think I’d ever seen a woman so gorgeous. Kevin stood next to her beaming with pride. I didn’t remember ever seeing him so happy.
Kevin lost well over 100 pounds, and he began spending more time away from the office to be with Neela. When I did see him, I noticed that he was dressing better than before. I wondered if Neela took him shopping for a new slimmer wardrobe. Meanwhile, my secretary duties decreased with Kevin gone so much. I spent a lot of time reading or watching the boats go by, waiting for him to call with something he needed.
Strange people started showing up at Kevin’s office, men who looked angry and rough. They grunted and stormed out when I told them Kevin wasn’t there. I locked the front door when I was by myself, not knowing what other shady people would show up. I wondered if Kevin was doing business with people like Mark again, those who cheated, evaded and made barely-legal business decisions.
Kevin threw a huge birthday party for Neela and invited me to come. He spared no expense, renting out the dining hall in an exclusive hotel and feeding us a five-course meal. There were candies in boxes made out of chocolate as well as champagne and caviar. Everything was perfect down to the most minor detail. Neela seemed delighted and hugged and danced with everyone, smiling from ear to ear.
On my way out, I caught sight of Kevin in the hotel lobby. He smiled at me but looked a little tired and sad.
“Thank you for inviting me, Kevin,” I said. “This was really awesome.”
For a split second, Kevin looked like he was about to cry. He quickly caught himself and embraced me in a fatherly hug. He seemed on top of the world with his beautiful girlfriend and the fancy parties, but he didn’t look happy at all.
About a month after the party, Kevin didn’t show up at the office and didn’t even call to check in, which was unusual. I tried calling his cell phone, but it just rang and rang. It seemed odd because he called me every weekday morning. I thought maybe he was sick or something. I went to bed that night thinking of different scenarios that would have kept him from getting in touch with me, but none of them made sense.
When I arrived back at the office the next day, the police were waiting for me.
“Is this about Kevin?” I asked, praying that it wasn’t.
An officer confirmed my worst fears. Kevin’s body had been found in the trunk of his car, stripped down to his underwear and curled in a fetal position. He’d been shot four times in the head and stomach. His car was found abandoned on a random side street.
I burst into tears. How could this have happened to my second father?
“It looks like a cocaine deal gone bad,” the officer said. “We arrested a suspect, but I wouldn’t expect much in terms of him going to jail. Usually, the courts don’t want to hear about some drug dealer getting killed.”
My face felt flushed with red-hot anger at his callous words, but I said nothing. It couldn’t be possible that Kevin was involved with drugs. He was an accountant, for God’s sake, not a drug dealer. I didn’t want to believe that my beloved boss was dead. It just couldn’t be true.
After the police left, I spend a long time watching the boats from my office chair, sailing along carefree as if nothing terrible had happened. I was afraid to leave my desk. If I left, everything about the horrible day would become a reality. I wasn’t ready yet to accept that Kevin was gone.
Before I finally went home, I went into Kevin’s office and sat in his black leather chair, looking for any kind of clue that would make sense. There were papers all over his desk, deals he was making, and tax returns he’d been working on. Why couldn’t that have been enough for him? I didn’t understand a world where Kevin sold drugs. He was a gentle man who would never hurt anybody. I felt lost and alone in my grief.
After I got home, Kevin’s daughter, Lisa, called me. I’d met her a few times when she came into the office to see her dad, but I didn’t really know her that well. Kevin had told me their relationship had been turbulent since he divorced Lisa’s mother, but I could hear Lisa sobbing over the phone.
Through Lisa, I pieced together the puzzle that was Kevin’s murder. Apparently, Kevin had gotten involved with some bad men. When he died, he was in the midst of a $50,000 drug deal. When he showed up with the money, he was shot in cold blood. The drugs and the money were taken.
“He was trying to impress Neely,” Lisa added. “He just couldn’t keep up with the life she was accustomed to living. Neely was all about the money. I tried to warn him, but he was so crazy for her that he wouldn’t listen.”
There was no funeral or any kind of memorial service for Kevin, nobody to remember him or give a speech about what a good man he was. The circumstances of his death didn’t matter to me at all. He would always be the humble and kind man I knew, the man who treated me like his own daughter, bought canisters of potato chips for the office and let me go home early on Fridays.
I wish Kevin had realized the good in him that I had always seen. He had no reason to be ashamed of the living he made, his weight, his bank account or anything else. He was good enough for Neela with or without money. I wished he had believed in himself like I believed in him. If I thought there was any point in warning him about Neela, I would have done it. I wished I had tried.
I’ve never forgotten Kevin after all these years. I’m sad that I can’t introduce him to my children, who were born long after he died. I would have been proud for them to meet him. Kevin wasn’t the person everyone made him out to be after his death, a drug dealer whose life had no value. To me, he was more precious than gold.
Kevin gave me far more than I could have ever given back. I’m glad to have the memories of his kindness.