One Last Thing To Consider

Mathew smiled as he entered to clean the small building of McCormack And Sons at about eight in the evening that night. He already knows the number combination of the safe he plans to open which contained the blueprints of the product his client wanted him to steal.

In his mind, everything has already been planned out. He would act as if he was cleaning the offices of the building. He would wait until no one has seen him, then he would hide in the cleaning cabinet.

He already knows that there was just one single security camera in the building which was located at the main door. He knows how to disable the wiring of the security camera without it filming him.

In fact, he has his own security camera which he has secretly placed inside the room were the safe of the company was located. This was how he was able to know the number combination of the safe. When the owner of the company opened the safe, his camera filmed this.

Of course his plan took several days to implement. First, he found a way to be employed as a night cleaner by the company. Then he observed the activities of the company for several days before finally deciding to hide on the cleaning cabinet.

He carefully positioned himself near the cleaning cabinet and actually hid his cleaning tools inside it. He made sure that no one was around before he finally entered the cleaning cabinet and locked it from the inside.

It was a tight fit for him in the cabinet. It was hot inside the dark steel cabinet and it reeks of cleaning liquid and dirty damp rags. He could also smell the faint smell of muriatic acid which the cleaners used to clean the toilet.

But he didn’t mind all the discomfort he was smelling or sensing. The only thing on his mind was standing still and not making a sound so that no one would suspect that he was inside the cleaning cabinet.

“Where’s the cleaner?”, said a voice from outside the cleaning cabinet. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s finished cleaning and has gone home already,” said a second voice. Mathew became nervous. Cold sweat appeared in his forehead.

He was afraid that the two men inside the cleaning cabinet would discover that he is inside it. “That lazy bum. Still new to the job and he’s already goofing off,” said the first voice. “Let’s just go home and lock up,” said the second voice.

“Oh all right, I’ll have a word with this cleaner tomorrow when he comes back,” said the first voice. Mathew heard footsteps which gradually became silent.

He knew that the building was becoming empty now especially when he peeked between the gaps in the steel cabinet and saw that everything was now dark. He waited several more minutes despite the smell of the cleaning cabinet and its hotness.

When he was sure that the building was empty, he decided to open the door of the cleaning cabinet from the inside. But he can barely move his hands, in fact, he can barely feel his hands and so is the rest of his body.

He also sensed that he was losing his consciousness. Then it dawned on him. The suffocating heat of the cleaning cabinet as well as the many cleaning chemicals when inhaled in a closed setting is lethal.

He tried with all his might to move his hands but they won’t respond to him. He can feel that his head was getting more and more numb. He begins to fear that he was either losing consciousness and worse, could be dying silently.

Two days have passed before the company decided to get a new cleaner for the building. They could have waited more if not for the stench that was coming from inside the cleaning cabinet. No one dared to open it fearing that they would become responsible for cleaning it.

When the new cleaner finally arrived, he opened the cleaning cabinet and instantly, the dead body of Mathew fell to the office floor. His face bore signs that he died of an agonizing death. Everyone became sorry especially when the medical report was revealed.

The doctors who studied his death commented that his death could have been prevented if only someone noticed that he was dying inside the cleaning cabinet. But everyone was sure that he himself hid inside the cleaning cabinet with the intent of doing something bad.

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