Justin Ashburn had searched all of the self-publishing print-on-demand companies. He had settled on lulu.com. They were less intrusive than the others and didn’t require an ISBN or copyright to publish. All you had to do was upload a WORD doc and print. He could type whatever he wanted between the sheets, slap a template cover design on the material and have them print it up into a perfect bound book.
Justin was from Mecklenburg, North Carolina and had the IQ of God. He was in a dank room in South Philadelphia that he had rented from an old Italian woman. She welcomed his four months’ rent, which he paid in cash. He had been there two months and had been plotting the escape of his pal since he had word that he as arrested. That was what Iraqi vets did for one another. Before he could act, though, he had to develop a bona fide method to get word to DEA Agent Lucas McKenzey, who was housed in protective custody at the Philadelphia FDC.
Justin had surmised that Agent McKenzey was housed in PC to protect the malign, corrupt agent from killing someone in the general population, whether it was staff or an inmate. Justin did not like that and was coming to the agent’s rescue. This would not be a forceful escape plan involving blazing guns. This plan was sophisticated and tight, and what better place to put it than in a book? Certainly, the mail room would not read an entire book shipped from a publisher, titled Crying to Pretend I’m Not Laughing.
After uploading the interior document, Justin worked on the cover. He uploaded a smile and then positioned a tear drop to hang from the corner of the lips. Now it was time to type in the title and the author: Kareem Bezel. He smiled at the joke, and thought, laugh now.