To Protect a Witness

Chapter 1



Orlando pushed his way through the crowded streets of LA. He was in

a state of shock and fear. What had he just saw? He couldn't

believe that five minutes ago he had been on his way to visit Lonny,

a good friend of his that he had met at one of Viggo's art exhibits.

Instead, he had witnessed him have his limo driver murdered. It was

too much for Orli.



Now, though, he had to run. He couldn't let the two men following

him catch him. He may not have known much, but he did know that if

they caught him it would be curtains for him, with no encore

performance.



"Taxi!" he yelled, waving down a yellow cab near him. He jerked open

the door and jumped in. "GO!"



The driver, sensing his urgency, stepped on the accelerator. "Where

to, pal?" he asked, after they had driven for a few minutes.



Orlando was torn. All he wanted to do was rush home to Viggo and

find comfort in his arms, but his conscious was telling him to go

straight to the police. In the end, his conscious won out. "Police

station."



"You got it."



*************



"Orlando, hi. I'm Detective Hilman. I hear that you have

information concerning Lonny Geroni," an older man said, sitting in

the desk in front of Orli. They were alone. Apparently, Lonny was

high on the station's most wanted list. "Can you tell me what you

know?"



"I don't know much. Lonny is, was, a good friend, that is until he

tried to kill me," Orlando stated nervously.



"Why exactly did he want to kill you?" Detective Hilman inquired.



"Because I kinda saw him kill his limo driver," Orlando answered.



At this, the detective became extremely interested. "Tell me what

you saw."



"I saw Lonny talking to the driver, I think he was questioning him

about coming to the police or something. He said, 'Say goodnight,

Charlie,' and motioned to this guy on his left to shot the driver and

he did," Orli gushed out.



The detective looked disturbed and thoughtful. "Would you be willing

to testify to this in court? We have all the evidence we need to put

Lonny away for good, except a witness. I won't lie to you, that limo

driver was the last witness we had. All the others seemed to come

up 'missing.'"



"What do you mean 'missing'?" Orlando asked fearfully.



"Well we've found a piece here and there," Hilman

stated. "Unfortunately, most witnesses were forced out of hiding by

Lonny having the people they loved hurt."



Terror swept over Orlando. How could he agree to testify against

Lonny if it would mean hurting the people he loved and signing his

own death warrant? Then again, how many more people would be hurt by

this guy and his goons? Would Orlando even be able to get away

scotch free after he saw what he did? There was only one logical

answer.



"I'll do it."