Writing the Romance Novel – Chapter Five

Novellas of Broken Romance.

Chapter Five

Leaning back in his tropical lawn chair, covered with sun tan oil under a brilliant Caribbean sun and surrounded by a pristine pearl-white beach, an azure sea in front of him, a piña colada on his left, the beautiful Lola on his right, it was easy to forget the circuitous path by which Roderick had gotten to this demi-paradise.

While it ended here in tropical heat, it all started on a cold, wintry evening in a dreary office in Cleveland, Ohio.  Roderick was a boring but unscrupulous accountant who had devised a scheme to defraud his long established firm of three hundred thousand dollars.  On Friday the first, Roderick left the office at 2^nd and Grand early.  He walked four blocks to the local Fifth Third Bank branch and withdrew the money from the firm’s general account.  Promptly at 6 pm, he boarded the 7A bus and arrived at the train station at 8:15.  He bought a one way ticket to New York City and arrived the following morning at 9:04 am, after a painful delay from 10 to 11 pm just outside Pittsburg.

From Grand Central Station, he hailed a cab to JFK International Airport and purchased a ticket to Frankfurt, Germany.  The day before, Roderick had brought his passport, a few overnight items and a carry-on duffel for the money since he was not stopping at his dreary apartment after work or ever again.  From Frankfurt, he booked a flight to Buenos Aires and then to the Cayman Islands.

He now was basking in all the pleasures of this Caribbean paradise.  Lola was some beautiful tramp he found during the long layover in Buenos Aires.  Three hundred thousand dollars, although a large sum, would not support Lola and him to his new extravagant life style for long.  But thirty-one million dollars would.  And that thirty-one million should arrive any day now, at least according to the letter Roderick had intercepted at his old firm.

Dear Sir:

I am Dr. Obi Ngame, a director with the Union Bank of Nigeria in Lagos, and I wish to speak to you most urgently about a matter regarding the sum of US $31 million dollars.  We want a reliable agent who could assist us to transfer this sum to his account.  We only require a deposit of US $300,000 in order to proceed with the transaction …

Roderick stopped reading, stretched his back muscles and smiled.  The account had been set up; the money transferred and it was only a matter of time before he could end his days in the heat and passion of the tropics.  Life was good.