Chris ignored the thrashing and tightened his arm around Craig’s neck. Eventually the movements stopped, the muscles relaxed, and Craig’s arms and legs went slack. Then Chris dragged the body down the hall and manhandled it onto his rumpled bed. He stripped the body and redressed it with his own clothes. Then he slipped his wallet and car keys into the body’s pants pockets, moved his wristwatch to the corpse’s arm, and slipped his ring onto a finger. Next, he changed into the clothes that he’d pulled off the body, ensuring that Craig’s wallet, cell phone, and keys were in the pockets. Finally, he took a photo of Craig’s face and hair with the cell phone.
Chris headed back to the kitchen, straightened up the room, and took a final look around his house for any signs that Craig had been there. Then he returned to his bedroom, added some fluffy blankets around the body on the bed, and lit the bedding on fire with a lighter. He dropped one of his cigarettes into the flames near one of Craig’s hands and placed the lighter and the rest of the pack of cigarettes on the night table. Chris left the house once the fire was blazing and drove down the block in Craig’s rental car. He pulled over, confirmed that smoke was coming out of the windows he’d left open, and then headed for the airport. His only stop was at a random barber shop where he got his hair cut after pulling out the phone and saying, “Cut it like I had it in this photo.”
Chris completed the drive to the airport, returned the rental car, and then used Craig’s return airline ticket to board the plane to Chicago. While relaxing in his first-class seat, he considered what he had done. Shit, now it’s my turn, he said to himself. His twin brother always had it so easy. Everything always worked out well for Craig while his own life had been a constant struggle. And when Craig won that big lottery, it was simply too much to take. Now it’s my damn turn with the easy life. His only concern was finding his brother’s car after they landed. He pulled the wallet out of his pocket and started going through it. He found credit cards, a driver’s license, and a lot of other crap. “Alright,” he said out loud when he found an off-airport parking stub mixed in with around two-hundred dollars in the wallet’s money pocket.
Before long he was driving his brother’s – his Tesla to his big house. This is too easy. It feels like I won the lottery myself. He parked the car in the three-car garage and admired the Lamborghini and Corvette in the other bays. He plugged in the Tesla and entered the house. God, I used to hate coming here, he thought to himself. But now that it’s all mine, it’s damn nice.
Chris was just getting comfortable with a beer in front of one of his brother’s large flat screen televisions reminding himself that his name was Craig when he heard the doorbell. “What the hell,” he muttered and thought, I must act normal. He opened the door and an attractive woman holding a bottle of wine smiled at him.
“Hi Craig, I saw you drive up and thought you might want to unwind after your trip. I know how much you hated having to meet with your brother.”
Oh shit, what a babe. A sweet added benefit. Using very poor judgement Chris said, “Ah, hi, yeah, come on in.”