Dean Warner Intrigues - 1. The murder next door

Chapter 1 The Murder Next Door

4:57 a.m., Saturday, May 5, 2007

BANG!...BANG! Plinkk..WHFFFT...BANG!

Twenty year old Dean came awake with a start, reached blindly for his cell phone and dialed 911 which was answered immediately.

"I live at 946 North Ash, my name is Dean Warner and I was just awakened by multiple gunshots from next door at 940 North Ash. One bullet came through my bedroom window and hit my bookshelf just over my bed." It came out in one breath like a torrent. The operator asked a few more questions, then indicated police were being dispatched and Dean broke the connection.

In the next instant his mom Debbie came charging into his room, knocking open his door, switching on the light and screaming: "Are you okay? What happened?" She grabbed him as he was still in his bed and pulled him into her. Dean was acutely embarrassed as he slept naked and was upset himself. "Mom, the police are coming. We have to get dressed. Watch out there could be glass on the floor. The gunshots came from next door and a bullet came through my window and hit my bookshelf. I called 911 and they said the police were being sent right away!"

"Oh my God!" she replied as she took stock and started backing toward the door as Dean pushed himself up from the bed. "Get dressed" he repeated as he stood and reached for his jeans draped across the back of the chair at his desk. She took one last appraising glance at her son and hurriedly left the room. He pulled them on and then slid his feet into his Nikes and pulled on a sweatshirt, just as he heard sirens.

The next five hours were a blur. The police arrived in force. He had stepped outside and told an officer that he had heard nothing since the gunfire just before 5:00 a.m. Sean Connor a neighbor from across the street who had also called 911 confirmed that he was awoken by the gunfire and immediately got out of bed and looked across the street. He watched the house and saw no one come out or any movement at all. A SWAT team kicked in the door and found the owner dead in his dining room with a single bullet wound to the chest. The evidence units arrived and both the Warner house and the dead man's house were treated as crime scenes. The bullet from Dean's room was recovered from a paperback book. Dean and Debbie were questioned extensively about their now dead neighbor, their other neighbors, themselves, and were asked repeatedly if they had noticed anything unusual in the area over the past several weeks.

Dean finally told the detective that he had to go to work at noon and needed to shower and get ready. He was told he would have to come to the police station on Monday for a formal statement but that they were done with him for now. Dean got showered, shaved and dressed and headed off to his job at Kroger in his 1992 silver gray Corolla. On arrival, he was immediately questioned by everyone as the news was on the radio and TV. He told them what little he knew and that he expected to find out more on Monday when he got to make his formal statement to the police. After the furor died down he was just glad to get to work pulling produce and restocking after the Saturday morning rush.

He called his mom on his meal break around five and asked if she had learned anything more about what happened to Mr. Weiss, their dead neighbor. She told him the house next door was still surrounded by yellow police tape and that all the police had left but that a squad car with a policeman sitting in it was parked in front of the house. She had gone out and asked the officer if he wanted some coffee which he accepted and found out that the police were sending out an advanced evidence unit on Monday and therefore they needed to make sure the house stayed secure. She further related that in the process she found out that there was no evidence of a struggle or forced entry nor any sign of the other gunman as the victim's gunshot was not self-inflicted. She asked Dean if he could think of anything out of the ordinary about Mr. Weiss and Dean told his mom that the man was the most private guy he ever met. He always kept to himself, was single, never had any visitors, did all the work around his house including yardwork and never bothered anyone. He smiled and waved at the neighbors but that was about all. Everyone assumed he worked from home as he was there most of the time. He drove a new car every three years like clockwork during the whole time he lived there which was for the last twelve years. They kibitzed back and forth over what they knew and then Dean had to go back to work until 8:00 p.m. His mom indicated she was headed into work at the nursing home as her shift started at 6:00 p.m. so they wished each other good-bye.

Dean stopped off at Burger King on his way home and grabbed a burger and a coke from the drive-thru and headed home. Just as his mom had described, a squad car was parked in front of the neighbor's house and the yellow police tape still surrounded it. He pulled into his driveway just as he finished his burger and jumped out of his car. Sean Connor from across the street was sitting on his porch and called out to Dean to come over. Dean thought maybe Sean had heard something more, so he headed over to talk to his neighbor.

Sean Connor was a neighborhood character. He was about 50 years old, single, outrageously gay and out, and friendly to everyone. He was a gossip, good cook, had the best candy at Halloween and also always the best costume. He knew everyone and made sure they knew him. He was tall at six feet, two inches, big at about 250 pounds, had orange red hair, freckles and a perpetual smile. He had had at least two live-in boyfriends that Dean could remember, the last one was about when Dean was 16. Sean was plumber and ran his own business. While he could swish, he could also be a big Irish brawler if crossed.

As Dean approached Sean, the man gathered him into a big hug and said: "Are you alright, I heard a bullet just missed you? You must of been okay to go to work. I saw your mom and she looks okay too. I talked to several cops and they think Bruno was killed by someone he knew." Dean pulled back and said "Bruno?" Sean laughed, "Bruno Weiss. Didn't you know his given name?" Dean just shook his head no and replied, "I never knew much of anything about him. He always just waved and smiled and brushed me off. He didn't get upset if we retrieved a ball from his yard or cut across his grass."

Sean related: "Well he was a tough nut to crack but I did get to know him a little. He worked on computer code from home doing consultant work and seemed to be fairly comfortable. He was very careful not to tell me very much but I gathered he was involved in data security. The police are sending some of their data guys out on Monday to look at Bruno's set-up and figure out what they need to take to the labs. I overheard one of detectives say something about witness protection programs but didn't get anything else about that. They have no suspects. Because there is a county park and woods behind the houses on your side of the street which goes for miles with dozens of paths and with no road within a mile or more of the house, they think that Bruno's killer escaped that way."

Dean continued: "I just heard the shots including the bullet whizzing over my head and instantly woke up and called 911. After that my mom came bursting into my room and then we hurried to get dressed before the cops got here. I didn't hear anyone leaving next door and didn't even think about looking out the window that the shot came through. My bedroom window on the side of the house faces toward his dining room window. I never saw him looking out that window from my room looking out my window. It all seems so creepy now." They talked and speculated for a while longer and then Dean said good-bye and headed home. He waved at the cop who gave a slight wave as he crossed the street and entered his house.

He went to his room and noted the window had been boarded up. He started up his computer and went to the bathroom to take a leak. When he got back he logged on and found he had several e-mails. He got out his cell phone and turned it on and noted he also had several messages. Starting with his phone he answered some text messages, deleted others with no reply and listened to his voice messages. He returned a couple of calls to Patti and Janie and assured them he was fine and would see them in class on Monday.

His e-mail was mostly junk which he cleared. He undressed down to his boxers and sat back down at his computer and pulled up his favorite porn site. He blushed as he remembered his mom's bursting into his room and seeing him naked for the first time in years. He was thankful that he was so scared at the time that his usual morning wood wasn't present as she looked him over. He knew he was well endowed since he was eleven. His penis and testicles had a big growth spurt, long before a growth spurt hit the rest of him. He remembered being a five foot-two inch freshman with a seven inch flaccid cock in the showers after his first gymn class and everyone staring at him. They had called him Dino-dick and he hated it.

During his sophomore year he grew from five foot, three inches into just under six feet tall and his weight went from one hundred twenty-five pounds to one seventy-five. He remembered his mom complaining all that year that she couldn't keep him in clothes that fit because he was growing so fast. His cock had kept pace too and topped out at about eight inches flaccid and his erection was over eleven inches and fat! He had never joined in any sports because of it and instead turned to reading. He had no close friends and just some casual friends that he hung with at school. They were in sort of a middle group, not the jocks or popular kids but also not the losers.

He had graduated with a B average and went on to the local community college as he had planned. He had gotten his job at Kroger and got his mom's old car when he was eighteen and she got a newer one. He never knew his dad. His mother had never married and the former boyfriend disappeared after he found out she was pregnant. Dean and his mom lived with her parents until he was four and she completed nursing school, then they moved to this small town in Indiana about two hours from his grandparents home. A year later his mom found and bought the house where they lived now on North Ash. His grandparents had visited several times but that ended when he was 12 because they were killed in a car crash on an icy road returning home.

Dean snapped back to the present as his computer's screen saver came on. Damn, he had been zoning out for over 30 minutes! He re-entered his password and got back to his porn site and selected a video of a threesome with two guys and a gal. His dick poked out of his boxers and he started stroking as he followed the action of the gal being tagged front and back at the same time. As his orgasm neared, he grabbed some tissues and came in them with five or six jets of cum. He grabbed some more and cleaned himself up and flushed them down toilet. Having relieved the pressure he closed down the porn site, cleared his history and cache and shut down his browser and computer. He had been up since five a.m. and decided to crash. He dropped his boxers, pulled back the covers on his bed, climbed between the sheets, adjusted his pillow and within minutes was asleep.

His dreams were of gunshots, people yelling and him cowering and hiding in a cave. He thrashed about and woke himself up twice so twisted up in his sheets that he could barely move. He would fall back asleep and it would be another vivid dream filled with scary, dark, threatening men who were quite indistinct and almost insubstantial. He kept hiding in the dark trying to avoid detection by the would be assailants.