The Innocent Project

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The night was still young when 26 year Ryan Bates laid on his girlfriend’s couch in her home on the northeast part of Wheatland and was bored watching the local news story on TV.

Carlene was his girlfriend that he described as his flavor of the month, and her house was clean and comfortable.

He was living there, freeloading off Carlene’s income from her job at a local fast food joint.

It was about 9:00 P.M. mid week and Ryan thought, “God, I am starting to get sick,” and had the urge to start heaving his guts out and having the shakes from drug withdrawal.

“I’m going out for a while to get something for this f*****g withdrawal s**t,” and headed for the door.

Carlene didn’t ask where he was going, she was just glad she had a man in her life.

Ryan would strike her with his fists when he was high on meth and she always thought it was her fault because she hadn’t taken care of his wants and needs.

“OK, I will be right here at home and call me if you need a ride home,” she told him.

She knew that he was not headed to a friend’s house, but was going out to get meth from his dealer at a trap house several blocks away as he had done many times before.

She suspected that when he went out late at night he would be breaking into cars and closed businesses and would sell the stolen property he had acquired to supply his drug needs.

At times she had shamefully asked her parents for money to help with her rent and utility bills and survived on groceries from the once weekly open food bank in nearby Soap Lake.

Ryan knew it was the effects of two days of using high amounts of meth and attending a party at a friend’s cabin at nearby Soap Lake in neighboring Grant County.

He was weak and becoming agitated, and his arms were dotted with small red scabs with some sores infected from meth injections.

Tonight, he had no cash to buy meth to quench his fierce addiction and downslide of his body.

Ryan walked to his dealer’s trap house and knocked on the door.

“Who’s there?” came a voice from the other side of the door and the lights were turned off inside the house except for the front porch light.

A face peered out from a small curtained window at the upper part of the door.

“It’s Ryan, man, let me in, it’s cold outside,” he said softly.

Light snow was falling as it had been most of the day and the night temperature was falling to a few degrees below freezing.

The sound of a sliding lock was heard and Ryan stepped in from the cold to a house that was too warm and smelled like cat urine from the meth that was being cut, weighed and packaged on the small kitchen table.

The man at the door commented, “What the hell do you want man?” Jacob Hunt said as he spun Ryan around and checked him for firearms, and for wires that would reveal Ryan was a snitch for the cops.

Ryan had worn wires for the cops before but not tonight, because this deal was for personal use.

A black revolver laid on the kitchen table within easy reach of a second person named Josh that was processing meth on the table.

Ryan was sweating from his drug withdrawal and felt like he was going to throw-up in the dealer’s living room.

He stared hungrily at the bindles of meth and tried to suppress his urge to grab the revolver on the table.

Josh looked up at Ryan and saw the wild look in his eyes.

Josh picked up the revolver and pointed it at Ryan.

“Get the f**k back from this table man, go sit on the couch,” he said.

“I know you are starting to get crazy and you better not try to grab our meth, or I will put a round in the middle of your forehead,” he said menacingly.

Ryan looked into Josh’s unblinking eyes and knew he would die if he tried to take any meth by force or approach Josh.

“Look man, I’m really getting sick and I need a fix to get me by so I can collect some money later tonight.”

“If you’ll front me a bindle of meth tonight, I will have the money tomorrow,” he pleaded.

Ryan pleaded, “Look man, I’ve been a steady longtime customer of you guys and you have fronted me before, and I’ve always paid you back.”

“I’m one of your best customers,” he continued.

Jacob looked at Josh and said, “Give the man a bindle, but Ryan, if you are not back by tomorrow night with the $200.00 for the bindle, I’ll hunt you down and get it from your skin.”

Ryan looked astonished, “f**k man, this s**t is selling for $100.00 a tenth elsewhere, why are you jacking the price up on me?”

“Supply and demand,” said Jacob with a slight smile as he reached over and patted Ryan on the cheek.

You come back tomorrow with the money to buy a full quarter pound and I’ll give you a special deal since you have been a steady customer.

“Now get up and take your bindle and get the f**k out of here, you know I don’t like the neighbors to see steady traffic in and out of this place.”

Ryan got up from the couch and greedily put his hand out as Josh placed the bindle in the palm of his hand.

Jacob looked out onto the street through the door window and not seeing anyone he unlocked the bolt of the door and Ryan stepped outside, hearing the bolt slide back into place.

Ryan walked about half a block down the street and stopped on the sidewalk between street lights.

He placed a small pinch of the powdery substance in a small pipe and lit it up.

“Ahh,” he said as he took a deep drag from the pipe and the hot acrid smoke filled the deepest part of his lungs.

Ryan’s urge to throw-up started to diminish and he started to feel like he could run for miles without tiring.

He was invincible again.

“Now how am I going to get money to pay my drug debt and buy more,” he thought to himself.

“I know a way,” he thought as he reached into his coat pocket for his cheap burner phone.