Have you ever met someone Evil?

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I used to be a regular Gym goer and always avoided the steam room because it smelt like smelly shoes, but oddly enough it didn't seem to bother a lot of people because it was always full. The gym I go to some smartarse had put a car sticker high up on the door to the steam room that read “Evil breeds where good men fear to tread." You got that right I thought the first time I saw it. You could just smell how evil that steam room was. One day I visited during a quiet period of the day and noticed only 3 people in the steam room, so I thought I would give it another chance and went in. All 3 were middle aged men and one started chatting right away. “G'day, what do you do?” “I'm in mortgages.” “Bullsh*t, just the man I need to talk to. Do you have a card? “ There was something menacing in his eyes and in his tome but I could not put my finger on it. After showering and getting dressed I gave him a card from my wallet in the locker and left. He called the next day and we met for coffee. “I am buying two houses and need 80%. I'm paying $800,000 for each so I need $640,000 on each. We are going to renovate them and I have not decided whether we are going to flip them or rent them out.” “What do you do for a living Joe? If you are renting them out I need evidence of your income” “Sh*t. My brother owns a car wash in town. Can we use that income.” He was avoiding the question. “As long as your brother buys them in his name.” “Yeah, we can do that. What are you doing now, I'll take you to meet him.” It became an all day excursion. He took me to see the houses, his brother, we stopped along the way and he introduced me to his sister who ran a bakery, his aging parents, and then onto meet his wife and 2 daughters. Everybody was extremely nice to us. Too nice in fact, as thought they were walking on egg shells. There was something both strange and menacing in his voice and the whole “get to know my family in a day” exercise was weird in itself. As if he was showing me how much respect he wielded amongst his own family. Everything stacked up ok. and during the approval process he would come to the office almost daily and drag me down for a coffee. This was during the GFC period so customers were far and few between and I did not really want to lose a potentially good customer. The only thing left to do was the valuations. He came in on this final day and paid for the valuations in cash $1000. It was not the cash that was unnerving but the fact that he took a wad of rolled up $100 bills from his pocket and peeled off $1000, hardly making a dent in the thickness of the roll. Over coffee I find out what he does for a living. “You don't know what I do do you? “ He asked leaning into me. “No Joe you have not told me yet.” “Well, lets say someone owes you money and they wont pay. You call me and the boys and we will listen to your story. If we think it's OK we will collect the money on your behalf and keep 25%.” This guy was a stand over man. I listened pretending not to be phased as he recounted in so polite terms what his job entailed and like every other time, I paid for the coffee, shook his hand and he left. Upstairs I called the loan officer into my office. “Nancy, Joe's brothers loan. I want you to listen carefully, when the valuation comes back, call Joe and tell him we cant do the loan, the valuations came in short. Even if they stack up.” 3 days later at 8.15 on my way to work Joe calls. “Listen C**t, I know what you did. Aren't you worried? I know where your office is, I know who your staff are, I know your surname and I can find out where you live. My advice to you before I hang up is you either take out a contract on me or you better pack up and leave the state.” We had Joe's details on file and the moment I was back at work I took his file and went to the local police station. “Ahh, these things are usually just hot air in my experience, do you want us to pay him a visit?” “Hell no, I want to report him incase he shows up and my wife or my staff call you, so that you take it seriously. I don't want to intimidate him any further.” “OK” says the lady constable, “I'll record and event and give you an event number and if he calls back get your staff to call us and quote this number. I'll just check our computer records to see if he has had any convictions.” She comes back and she is not so chatty. " what is it? “I asked “I don't want to worry you any further, just call us if he comes back OK.” “Well now I'm really worried.” I google his name when I'm back in the office and I find a court transcript. He had apparently been sued by a café owner because he had trashed the café one evening. The judge asked his lawyer if his client had a reasonable defense. "Yes your honor, the plaintiff owed my client a large sum of money. “ “I said a reasonable defense. Have you seen your clients record? “The judge had given Joe 3 years due to the repeat nature of his convictions. I tried but could not get any more information from the net on his prior convictions but found another transcript which showed the lawyer appealed on the grounds the judge's comments showed his biases toward Joe before the matter was even heard. The appeal was upheld and Joe walked free. Joe did know my surname and our number was in the phone book so the address was easy to find. What Joe did not know was that my wife was Chinese and although she spoke English well, she still had an Asian accent. Around two weeks later at 4am there I am woken with a loud knock on the door. Before it had a chance to register I heard my wife climbing the stairs yelling “ Who is it?” “I'm looking for Susan.” It was Joes voice I ran for the phone as the two of them continued. “Sorry no Susan here.” “I'm sorry to disturb you. I must have the wrong house. " All I can surmise here is Joe heard an Asian accent and believed he genuinely had the wrong house and left. I never told my wife I recognized his voice. 5 years on. My wife and I are separated and Joe is just a story to be told over drinks at the pub. I am sitting with a friend and the news comes on. The headline “Underworld figure shot outside his home last night while his wife and daughters look on” and a picture of Joe splashes across the screen with the same menacing, cold eyes. “I know him” I yell to my friend. “I know Joe, he threatened me and my family and my staff! He must have given the ultimatum - take a contract out on me or leave the state - to one too many people and someone took him up on it”. I started going back to the same gym only after Joe was shot. I still avoid the steam room, the sticker has been removed but the words still echo. “Evil breeds where good men fear to tread.”