The second note was sterner. Nice talk about the SEC. Locker 117. Code: 0802. $200,000. 24 hours. Or I send the audio to your board of directors. This time, Richard didn’t just look scared. He looked broken. He delivered the money with shaking hands, not even looking for who might be watching.
Version v2024-08-02 - Completed.
He had won. He had lost. He had become the very thing he hated.
“I know it’s you, Leo,” Richard said, his voice soft. “The fire escape. The 2:00 AM timing. The way you flinched in the elevator last week when I mentioned the locker.” Blackmailing My Neighbor -v2024-08-02- -Completed-
Blackmailing My Neighbor Version: v2024-08-02 Status: Completed
Leo had lived in the shadow of 4A for three years. Not literally, but financially. Richard Vance was the kind of neighbor who made you feel poor without saying a word. Italian marble foyer? Richard paid for the upgrade. Roof garden? Richard’s name was on the donor plaque.
But power, like a cheap high, fades fast. The second note was sterner
And somewhere in a locked drawer in Richard Vance’s penthouse, there is a USB stick labeled “Leo_3B_Backup.” Just in case.
But on the night of the fourth demand—$500,000—Richard did something different.
He couldn’t sleep. The hum of his cheap air conditioner finally died, and in the sudden silence, he heard a sound from the unit next door. Not the usual muffled television or the clink of a whiskey glass. A voice. Low. Desperate. Code: 0802
For six months, the arrangement continued. Leo bled Richard dry: $50k, $100k, $300k. Each time, Richard paid. Each time, Leo moved the money to a crypto wallet. He felt invincible.
The money arrived on time. $50,000 in unmarked, non-sequential bills.
Six months later, Leo is in Portland, working retail. Richard Vance is still in 4A, but the whispers of the SEC investigation have gone quiet. The building has a new tenant in 3B—a young woman who pays in cash and never uses the fire escape.
Richard smiled. “That’s better. Here’s my final offer: Delete everything. I’ll give you one last payment—$100,000—to disappear. Move to a different city. Change your name. And I’ll delete my recordings of you.”
Leo didn’t answer.