The Permutation

Breakthrough (Part 9) Paul

Being a legendary came with costs, and star status pressured Diego into wiping himself off social media to dissuade any advances made by impressionable high school groupies. This fact and the fact he lived in the center of town with his wife and two kids made it exceedingly difficult to find an opportunity to separate him from the pack.

He mulled over this problem for several weeks, working it over and probing to find Diego's Achilles heel. The answer lied in his fame. Although he had wiped his own activity from social media, it didn't stop the innocent folks of Lancet Falls from posting about the wonder coach. Paul kept tabs on Diego's immediate circle and waited for a time to strike, and with Nina Kline, the blonde high school English teacher, Paul hit the jackpot.

Paul's sixth sense for sniffing out shame and weakness of character pinged the moment he noticed dear Nina being far too interested in the comings and goings of the aforementioned Diego Sandoval. The next step was to hack into her social media and school intranet. The woman had the crazy gleam in her eye that most women still single in their early thirties had, the type of crazy that would think about a man like Diego until she had all but deified him. Paul plowed through her password as if it were nothing more than a child's cardboard fort. She used a combination of the names of her two cats, Bowser and Peach, that she posted about incessantly on her Instagram.

A quick sweep through her private messages revealed all that he could have ever wanted and more. On top of suggestive missives between her and Golden Boy, Paul got the added pleasure of seeing Little Miss Crazy in the nude, trying out a myriad of sexy poses. Paul felt the odd combination of disgust and arousal he always got when gazing upon the naked female form. He lingered on the photographs for a healthy thirty minutes before drafting a message designed to separate Diego from the herd. Paul would send a message at precisely 10 p.m. that evening threatening to expose their illicit affair to the entire town if Diego did not meet Nina at 12 a.m. on Lancet Street.

Ding Dong

The sound reverberated through Paul's house, and he was confused at the noise before he realized what it was, the doorbell. In the three months he'd lived here, and the twenty years he'd lived in his old studio home, Paul never once had a visitor. Even salesmen had the good sense to avoid knocking on his door.

Paul heard a masculine voice address his mother, "Good morning ma'am. I'm Officer Durant from the Lancet Falls Police. Department. We have it on record that a Paul Neiman lives here. Is that correct?"

"I'm his mother. What do you need with Paulie?" She asked in a soft voice.

"If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to ask you both a couple of questions concerning an ongoing homicide investigation. Do you mind if I come in?"

"You don't think my Paulie has anything to do with this, do you?"

"We haven't eliminated anyone as a suspect as of this moment, but we do have reason to believe he may possess information pertinent to the case,"

Joyce's behavioral condition of being run over by men took over. "I suppose. Paulie's in his room."

"I don't mean to be impolite ma'am, but I would prefer it if we had this conversation in an open area."

"Oh my Paulie wouldn't hurt a fly, come on back," Joyce said.

Paul heard two sets of footsteps approaching down the hallway, and he felt a new layer of sweat drip from his pores.

They know. I don't know how, but they know.

Paul rebuked himself for his panicked thoughts. The Lancet Falls Police Department couldn't find their ass with a funnel, and even if they did know Paul was involved, they couldn't prove a damn thing. As far as they knew, he was only cripple.