Flash Fiction: Scent of a Man

Karl lost $50000 today. He was pissed. Rob, his broker, had duped him into buying and dumping shares at a huge loss.

Karl’s wife, Carolyn was vacuuming the staircase of their house. Unconscious of Karl’s descent of the stairs, Carolyn grinned from ear-to-ear, staring at the staircase. She looked radiant and beaming – something Karl noticed as strange. Karl was not entirely sure of the reason and with his work pressure and the huge loss that he incurred today, ignored the radiant smile as one of the many Carolyn’s quirks that he got along with over the past 5 years.

Carolyn, on noticing Karl, quickly sobered down into her usual style of nonchalance and poker face and continued vacuuming.

Karl, as was his usual schedule, had his breakfast alone, picked up his wallet, phone and licensed revolver and rushed out of the house. As he rushed out, the hot blast of vacuum air hit him with a thought – a thought of another man in her life, but dismissed it as silly one in favor of Carolyn.

As Karl hit the NY traffic, he stopped thinking all about the love of his life and now his wife, Carolyn and concentrated on the day ahead. He had to first meet Rob, his broker, whom he had not met for the past 2 years to give him a mouthful before he proceeded onto managing his food outlet.

Rob had a busy day. With his pink striped suit and Armani shoes, he looked every bit the power broker he was, taking frantic calls from his and the boss while managing his high net-worth customers. Rob was used to the pleasures of life – Brooks Brothers shirts, Armani shoes were a given. He was especially proud to show off his use of the unique cologne he had procured from Peru, albeit at a hefty price. He had a very good day today, generating commissions out of a lot of trading activity by his customers. He had a special occasion planned for tonight. The very thought brought a smile to Rob’s face as he collected his coat and wished everyone a great evening.

Only to be stopped by the raging Karl. ‘How could you dupe me of so much money?’, ‘Do you brokers live off your customers like this?’,'How do you plan to sustain in this business for long working in such a fashion?’ were few of the many questions Karl hurled at Rob. After the extensive diatribe, Rob moved closer to Karl and spoke softly yet confidently that he would make it up to Karl over the next few weeks. As Rob moved close, Karl whiffed a scent which he had come across before, but couldn’t recollect where. Ignoring this silly detail, Karl gave a stern warning to Rob that if he didn’t mend his ways next time, his business would go to some other broker. Rob agreed and sent Karl down the elevator.

Karl rushed to his car as he was already getting late to open his outlet for the evening. He stopped dead in his tracks, just a few yards away from his car, suddenly realizing where he had smelled the cologne scent previously.

Rob’s autopsy would reveal three bullets in the head.

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