14 Crime and punishment

It was morning 7 am when Jack woke up and other than a slight headache and noise in his eardrums he was feeling fine and full of energy. He rushed in front of his bathroom mirror and looked at himself.

With his mouth half-opened he rubbed his eyes at what he was seeing. His ribs were so prominent that he could count them easily. His face lacked its former fat, so his cheeks were sunken in. He was feeling great though. Even better than ever before. As he was standing at the mirror and looking at his flat belly, it started growling. He was hungry again. After that feast from last night, he thought he would get some respite, but it was making noises again so soon.

Jack quickly washed and put on his clothes then went to the kitchen and other than the empty containers there was nothing he could eat. He considered eating spices for a second, but he worried it would only give him indigestion and had no caloric value. He browsed through the shelves and found a bag of white sugar.

He poured some directly into his mouth, and as he was choking on it, he cursed himself.

»What the fuck am I doing?« he shook his head, grabbed a glass poured some water from the kitchen sink and flushed the sugar into his stomach.

He quickly went out from his house and ran to Starbucks which was quite near. He got four breakfast sandwiches and a coffee. As he ate, people were looking at him with weird expressions.

With the black hoodie that was obviously too big for him, gaunt face and dark sunglasses he looked like a drug addict getting the munchies. He stuffed himself with those sandwiches like there was no tomorrow but he still felt like he could eat more.

He went back to the counter and bought himself some foldovers and chocolate croissants and left the place since he didn't appreciate the dirty looks other customers were giving him.

Before he even reached his home, the food was already gone, and he still was not satisfied. He spent sixty dollars, and he was still hungry.

»At this rate, I am going to eat myself into bankruptcy,« he thought as he shook his head.

As he was nearing his home, he remembered to check his status.

Name: Jack "Doggie" Russel

Strength: 10

Constitution:8

Endurance:10

Speed:9

Dexterity:8

Perception:8

Intelligence:10

Wisdom:9

Willpower:9

Charisma:3

Luck: ???

He noticed that his speed, dexterity, perception, and intelligence were all raised by one point while his charisma has fallen. He was thinking about what the reason for this could be while he was walking absentmindedly. He figured with his body changing so drastically on the outside and inside the effects on those stats was logical. His legs and arms were longer, so his speed was higher and also dexterity increased. His inside structure must have changed too, so more blood flow to his brain raised his intelligence and perception.

Charisma, he didn't know how it was evaluated, but from the look of Starbuck's customers' expressions, the stat being at 3 was probably a correct one.

He just shook his head, and as he was about to reach his home, he was surprised to see his friendly neighbor sitting on his doorstep drinking something from a paper bag.

He was quite the distance away, and Jimmy had not noticed Jack as he was smoking a cigarette and sipping from the bag once in a while starring at the morning sky while squinting his eyes.

Jack used Inspect on him.

Name: Jim »Jimmy« Granger

Strength: 6

Constitution:6

Endurance:3

Speed:3

Dexterity:3

Perception:4 -2

Intelligence:4

Wisdom:4

Willpower:5

Charisma:4

Luck: ???

As he read through his stats, he saw the details box once more. He remembered he heard t was unlocked and clicked on it. There was just a concise amount of info in the box, but Jack was astonished by it.

All it said was:

»He is selling your stuff on Craig's list using the username JollyRanger101.«

Jack immediately turned around and started walking away while he pulled out his phone and went to Craig's list. He found the username by using Google search.

He just typed: »JollyRanger101 site:.craigslist.org« and there he was.

JollyRanger probably thought he was funny using part of his last name and Jolly Roger a nickname for pirate's flag. Jack browsed the items he was selling, and he recognized most of the stuff was his.

Jack considered confronting him on his steps as he was walking in the opposite direction of his house but he was wary of his new found strength. He imagined the scenarios of using Krav Maga moves on him and pummeling him to the edge of life. He would probably get arrested if he did so.

He could not even claim self-defense if he accidentally killed him since according to his stats he was way stronger than Jimmy.

»It would be fun though,« Jack thought and smiled, and then he frowned at the discovery how little he thought of life after his experiences in the cube space. He was turning into a sociopath unknowingly. The social norms of cherishing life were slowly being eroded from his worldview as he experienced countless deaths and torture in his trials.

»I will never become like that, treating people as ants I can step on at any time,« Jack swore to himself.

His parents were idiots in spending money and all financial matters, but they gave him a strong sense of morality and empathy towards humanity. He was a bit disgusted with his way of thinking from just a moment ago.

He looked through his phone address book and found the number the police sergeant gave him. He chose to call the police instead of dealing with Jimmy himself.

As the phone rang a couple of times, Jack prepared a story in his head when a disgruntled voice answered:«Hello this is Sergeant Murphy.«

He was polite, but the tone of his voice reminded Jack of Robocop. A monotonous sounding formality that came from Sergeant's mouth was almost enough for him to hung up his phone. His last name was also Murphy, so it was no wonder Jack associated him with the fictional crime fighter.

»Hello, this is Jack, Jack Russel,« Jack finally managed to stutter.

Sergeant Murphy was a bit annoyed, and he immediately started saying back: »It has only been a day since we were at your place, we have no concrete leads, and the lab has not finished processing the physical evidence, so please wait till you hear from us. We will inform you as soon as there is a new development.«

Sergeant Murphy probably had such meaningless phone calls on a daily basis, so he just repeated like an answering machine. Leave your message after the beep was all that was missing.

»Oh,« Jack said and was about to excuse himself and hang up his phone call when he remembered he was not calling to ask them if they knew who burglarized his home. He found out the answer himself.

»I know who had stolen my stuff,« Jack hurriedly said.

It was Sergeant Murphy's turn now to say, »Oh!«

»What happened?«, he quickly asked with a more human tone of voice.

»I found my stuff on craigslist,« Jack replied.

»Oh, that will make things easier. We just have to get a warrant to get the username details and trace back the IP address. If the burglar is not particularly internet savvy, this should be a piece of cake.« Sergeant Murphy quickly replied with enthusiasm apparent in his voice.

»There is no need for that,« Jack replied.

»What do you mean?« Sergeant Murphy replied with interest.

»It was my neighbor. His name is Jim Granger. He used JollyRanger101 as his username, and he is sitting on my steps as we speak. He also published his phone number on craigslist on the pages with the stolen goods. You just have to call him or message him when you see him to confirm it. It also explains how the burglars knew I was out of town the very next day. He is a useless bum with prior criminal arrests, and he had a motive and opportunity to do it. You just have to pick him up in front of my door. He is drunk, so he may resist.« Jack spewed info frantically and with ease now that Sergeant Murphy sounded more human.

»Ok, I will come with two squad cars and an unmarked vehicle in 30 minutes. Please stay away from your home for safety. I will call you as soon as we pick him up. I will get an arrest and search warrant so you can rest assured. By the way, why is he sitting in front of your doorstep?« Sergeant Murphy wondered. It made no sense to burglar someone then he bothers them after.

»I punched him yesterday when he tried to get more money from me on the street, and he probably wants to get revenge. He could be armed with something.« Jack replied.

By now Sergeant Murphy was looking at the mugshot of Jim Granger on his work computer, and he could not imagine the slim and weak looking Jack get one over this buff guy.

»Ok. Please stay away from your residence until we call you for your own safety.« Sergeant Murphy advised.

Jack thought to himself, »You mean for the asshole's safety.«

He knew that with his new power and speed he could treat Jimmy basically like a grown-up bullying a ten-year-old. The lazy drunk bum would have no means to resist, but he chose to not make trouble for himself and washed his hands clean of this matter in a civilized way.

»Thank you, Sergeant Murphy, in advance. Then I will walk around the neighborhood until I hear from you.« Jack politely said.

»You are welcome and thank you for making my job easier,« by now Sergeant Murphy's tone turned friendly,«be sure to wait for our call before going home.«

With that Jack hung up and Sergeant Murphy quickly organized his request for a search warrant and send it to the judge responsible for approving them. He got his partner Sergeant Mazza up to date and four other officers to follow him to the car park.

Jack, on the other hand, went a bit back towards his home. He just came far enough to see the asshole was still camping on his steps. He just smiled and walked away.

»Well, I did absorb Crime and punishment by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky the day after they robbed me. How fitting was that,«

was his last thought as he slowly walked away from his house.

The book had nothing much to do with this case though except for the title. Jimmy would be getting his just deserts soon, and Jack was hungry again.