The story starts with a somewhat cliche start you know the ones that you would hear in kid stories, though this wouldn’t be much of a kid story. The day was December 17 1947 it had been two years since World War 2 had finished, oh boy how things can change in just two years. During the war I was fighting across the Atlantic on the European front helping stop the Germans. Now though I was on the way to court being charged for a crime I didn’t commit. The crime I was being charged for well that was a murder; the person killed was a woman in her mid 30s middle class nothing special really just another person on this world. If I was found guilty for this crime I would be in prison for a long time probably for most of the remaining part of my life.

You probably want to know how I got in this situation well it all started back to just a little before the US joined world war 2; Fabiano my friend who at that time was 18 same as myself, he was a rather reckless man. I had known him since we were little kids both of our families came from Italy and we lived and grew up in the poor parts of New York. Well as we aged we did some dumb stuff together and the worst thing came when we tried robbing a store. It went bad rather quickly we broke a window to get in the store but our careless selves didn’t scout out the area before we did it, and to our luck there were some police officers around the corner of the street. Well they herd the window break and they caught us right in the store trying to take the money. After that we were both held in prison but then the US joined World War 2 and they gave Fabiano and I an option to join the army and help in the war; if we did this our charges would be dropped and we would be free. So of course we took it and we were sent out once our training had completed. The problem of us joining the army was that it would only be worth it if we survived.

We had made it through most of the war with relatively ease hardly any scratches. Then a few days after year 5 of the war started we got a mission to try and retake a town near the city of Lille in France. It was going well until we had to clear out a building that was filled with German soldiers. They caught our squad off guard killed at lot of our men but we managed to take them out; also Fabiano and I both got shot, me in the arm and him in the leg. We were sent back to New York to recover from our injuries and then with the intention to return to Europe. We both knew though that we didn’t want to go back to Europe but there was no stopping it; that is until Fabiano found someone that could make some fake documents that could set us free from the army. We chose to get out easy and we hoped we could continue our normal lives but it wasn’t that easy.

Not long after we did that I got a call from Morris the man who got us out of the army. He said that we owed him for getting us out, and if we didn’t help him out he would send some people to get us to help him. So we did what he said and we met him at a restaurant close by. When we got to the restaurant he was already there waiting for us in a booth towards the back.
“Hey Morris what's this important business you need us for?” asked Fabiano.

“Well I'll tell you if you sit and quiet down.” he replied. “I need you guys to repay me for letting you guys off the hook with the army.”

“Okay how much will it be?” I asked like it was that simple.

“No no no you're not paying me back in money, you're doing a job for me.”
“What kind of job are we talking about here?” asked Fabiano

“The kind that if you get caught you will go to prison for a long long time.” he responded. “but if you succeed then it will be worth it and it shows me that I can count on you for other more important things.”
“Okay so what do you want us to do?” I asked.

“ Well you see there's this guy his name its John he used to be a helper of mine but he couldn’t take what we were doing in some of these jobs; so he decided he wanted to leave just like nothing had happened…”

“Are you saying you want us to whack him?” Fabiano asked.

“Long story short, yes.” He replied. “I know he gets home around 7:00 pm so all you two have to do is get into his apartment before he does and take him out quickly and silently, if you get seen by anyone then make sure they don’t remeber you.”
“Okay sounds simple enough umm where does he live?” I asked.

“He lives over on Baker street in a big reddish apartment, he’s on the 3rd floor, room 40.”

“ Okay we got it we’ll get the job done.” I replied.

We were at the red apartments at around 5:30 so we didn’t get surprised by John if he were to arrive early from work. The apartment seemed fairly empty most people were still at work at this time. When we found his apartment it was of course locked but Fabiano and I both were virtually experts at lockpicking, we both lock picked quite a bit growing up. Fabiano decided to take the lead this time so I just watched out for anyone coming up the stairs. It didn’t take long for him to open the door and we got in we still had about an hour to spare. Our plan was simple, we would just wait for John to walk in and close the door and then it would be quick and easy. We waited until 6:00 for him. When the clock hit 6 he was parking in the parking lot so we both got in position, we were hidden towards the back of his apartment. When he started opening the door I got my pistol ready to just shoot him when he closed the door. The instant he walked in and closed the door Fabiano and I both got out of hiding and I just took a quick shot that would kill him easily with no hassle. Just like that he was dead and we were out of his apartment like it was nothing. We returned to Morris who told us to meet him at the restaurant. He told us it was a job well done and that we would be hearing from him about other opportunities later on.
The next day I was listening to the radio at home when they started talking about how John was dead and how he was under police protection. Then they started talking about a witness that saw two suspects leaving the crime seen. I quickly phoned Fabiano about if he was listening to the radio and he responded with a loud yes and he said that we were screwed. I agreed with him and the instant I hung up the phone, some cops barged through the door. I was arrested on the account of first degree murder.
Back at the courtroom I was waiting for the jury's decision on what my faith would be. All the evidence was stacked against me there was really no way I could get out of this situation. When the jury was ready they told the judge the decision and I could tell by the expression on his face that I wouldn’t be able to taste any freedom for a long long time. “The court has made decision that you Donatello have been found guilty of first degree murder.”