Reel to Real

by Joyce Nance

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah, and I’m starting to get a little worried about him. How about you come down for a few days and see if you can help me get rid of him? There’s an extra fifty in it for you if you get here today.”

  “I could do that,” John replied. “I just gotta make sure no cops see me.”

  “I’ll cover you. I’ll get Esther to help out, too. Don’t worry, it’ll be good.”

  “Now that you mention Esther, how come I couldn’t get a hold of you or her last night? Something happening I don’t know about?”

  “Nah, man. I crashed early is all. Unplugged my phone and everything. I got no idea what kinda shit Esther’s up to. Ask her yourself when you get here.”

  “Yeah, I better check up on that bitch, make sure she’s staying outta trouble. Okay, then. I’ll call you when I get the cash.”

  “Cool,” Shane said.

  12 Noon

  Eric and his wife Janine lived on Palomas Drive SE, two streets over from the San Mateo Boulevard Hollywood Video. Eric, covered in grease, was flat on his back tinkering with the engine of a ’56 Corvette, his pride and joy, when he heard the news bulletin on the radio.

  He slid out from underneath his car and cranked up the volume.

  He stared at the radio, his eyes blinking. He could not believe what he was hearing. The announcer said there had been a triple slaying at the Hollywood Video, the one he and his wife went to all the time. The reporter went on to say that the grandparents of one of the employees were missing.

  Wiping the grease from his hands, he called to his wife inside the house and told her the news. Without discussing it further, they walked the two blocks over to the video store to see what was happening for themselves. When they got there, their mouths hung open. Crime scene tape cordoned off the parking lot, hordes of onlookers jockeyed for position, and TV trucks with satellite dishes dotted the outskirts of the crowd.

  “What happened?” Eric asked an older Spanish man wearing blue construction clothes.

  “Some kids that worked here got shot,” the man replied soberly.

  “Do they know who did it?” Eric asked.

  The man shook his head.

  Eric and Janine, big movie buffs, had been to this store hundreds of times and even though the victims had not yet been publicly identified, they knew they probably knew some or all of them. They stood at the tape staring in disbelief. More people flocked to the store as they lingered.

  “We gotta know ’em, Daddy,” Janine said, tears in her eyes.

  “I know, Mommy,” Eric said. “I know.”

  12 noon

  Detective C. Ross discovered four cash drawers stacked on the floor near the front register. Only coins were left in the drawers. Next to the laser printer was a clear plastic bag full of cash. A backpack and two coats were discovered under the counter.

  In the back room, Detective Ross observed the area to be small and confined. The room appeared to be used for storing rental receipts, boxes of candy, and surveillance equipment. Ross noted blood spatter on all four walls and the ceiling. He saw a file cabinet with a television monitor, a camera control box and VCR on top. When he looked in the top drawer of the file cabinet for video tape number two, the primary surveillance tape, he discovered that video tape number two was missing.

  12:30 PM

  “Hey, man, I got the dough. Thanks,” John said, calling from a pay phone in King Supers' parking lot.

  “Cool. So ... are you going to be able to make it down today?” Shane asked, trying to sound casual.

  “Yeah, yeah. I can do it. I gotta catch the bus. There’s one that leaves at two. But you know I can’t ride it to Albuquerque. Too dangerous. Some cop might see me.” John coughed. “Pick me up in Santa Fe, okay?”

  “That’s cool.”

  “I’m supposed to get there at eight.”

  “Got it.”

  1 PM

  News Bulletin:

  The Albuquerque Police Department is investigating a crime scene involving multiple fatalities at the Hollywood Video Store at 333 San Mateo Boulevard in southeast Albuquerque. The crime appears to have happened early Sunday morning.

  Police say one male and two females, ages ranging from teens to thirties, are dead. The bodies were found by police after responding to a possible robbery.

  Law enforcement is also investigating a potential second crime relating to the disappearance of one of the store employee's elderly grandparents.

  2 PM

  When Criminalistics lead investigator Detective Guy Pearce, entered the store, the first thing he did was take a ten minute walk-through to get an idea of the extent and character of the crime scene. He wanted to know the types of evidence and, in general, what he was dealing with. He needed a few minutes to develop an initial plan of action.

  As he walked, he took multiple photographs of everything. Then he directed his assistant to thoroughly dust the glass front door, the only point of entry, for latent fingerprints. After the doors were done, virtually the entire front area of the store was also processed for prints.

  Additionally, the assistant dusted the money bag found on the front counter and the back office where the bodies were found. He also dusted the entire floor for foot prints, and the cash drawers were taken back to the crime lab and tested there.

  The police attempted to obtain “elimination” prints from people that had legitimate business in that area. They fingerprinted all of the employees. Of course, they had no way to obtain “elimination” prints from the public, so they just had to go with what they had.

  They usually took footwear impressions as well but didn’t in this case, because they didn’t have any shoes to compare at the time.

  The police found $2,403.43 in cash and $320.09 in checks in the money bag.

  Victim number one was described by police as a young white male, identified as Zachary Blacklock, nineteen years old.

  Victim number two was described by police as an Asian female, identified as Mylinh Daothi, thirty years old.

  Victim number three was described by police as a Spanish female, identified as Jowanda Castillo, eighteen years old.

  2 PM

  Local radio and TV stations began to broadcast more details about the three shooting deaths at the Hollywood Video Store. The police had received information that a black van with either an “X” or a rebel flag might have been connected to the murders. The public was urged to be on the lookout for such a van. An alert was also broadcast for the missing grandparents, with their descriptions, the car they were driving, and its license plate number. No details about the victims were published at this time.

  Reaction in the community was swift. Citizens were shocked to hear about the multiple murders at the video store, and horrified to hear of the grandparents’ disappearance.

  “This is bad news. I’m puzzled by it. Where can they be?" Leslie Garcia, a friend of the elderly couple wondered. She called the McDougall's "truly nice people."

  2 PM

  Shelly’s young daughter had been pestering her all day to see the neighbor-man’s dog. The little girl loved puppies. The pit bull mix wasn’t a puppy really, he was almost a year old. But he seemed puppy-like and the little girl was fascinated by him. Shelly finally gave in and brought little Emily over to Shane’s apartment.

  Shane looked disheveled, like he hadn’t slept. His long hair, typically in a pony tail, hung straight down, uncombed. His normally animated eyes were motionless circles.

  “Hello, ladies,” he said, unsmiling.

  “Hi, Shane. Sorry. Emily wanted to see your dog for a minute.”

  “My dog? Oh yeah, sure. Come in.”

  “Thanks. Sorry about last night,” Shelly said. “I guess I was interrupting something.”

  Shane looked at her, remembering. “Last night? Oh, you mean when my girlfriend was here? Yeah, sorry about that. Me and Esther was just having a little disagreement. She gets jealous sometimes.”

  Shelly nodded.
>
  While the three year old rolled around on the carpet with the puppy, Shane shared some sobering news with Shelly.

  “Three people got killed last night,” he said, pulling his hair back and attaching a rubber band he had found on the sidewalk. “At the Hollywood Video.”

  “What?” Shelly replied, astonished.

  “Yeah,” Shane said nodding. “The one on San Mateo.”

  “Oh, my God. That’s horrible.”

  “And the old people are still missing,” he continued. “They’re probably dead.”

  “Old people? What old people?”

  “Both grandparents of one of the kids at the store was kidnapped,” he said in a hushed voice. “I think someone might've shot ’em.”

  Shelly looked at him, dumbfounded. “San Mateo? I’ve been there. That’s terrible.”

  “Yeah, the one by Walmart. I tried to go there this morning.”

  “You tried to go there? This morning?” Shelly said.

  “Yeah. When I woke up this morning, I felt like watching a video and I tried to go to the store but there was crime tape and shit all around the whole place and it was crawling with cops. It looked like something out of a movie.”

  “Well, yeah,” Shelly said, “if they just found three people dead, there’s gonna be a bunch of cops.”

  “True,” he said and then looked her in the eye. “I knew one of the people that got killed. I knew one of the girls that worked there. Jowanda, the Mexican cashier.”

  Shelly shook her head and picked up her little girl. “I gotta go,” she said. “How did you know all this anyways?”

  “A guy in the video store parking lot told me,” Shane answered without hesitation.

  2:30 PM

  Shane was not known as an obsessively clean housekeeper. Many people considered him a slob. But today he was obsessive. He noticed several tiny little pieces of something underneath the coffee table. The pieces were sticking up out of his gray carpet and they made him frown.

  Even though he wasn’t one hundred percent sure what those tiny little pieces were he was one hundred percent sure he did not want them in his apartment. Stroking his mustache, he stared at them. That lady or her kid, the ones that were just there, could have picked up one of those tiny little pieces while they were sitting on his fucking couch. That would have been bad.

  He decided the most thorough way to pick up tiny pieces of anything was to vacuum.

  Problem: he did not own a vacuum.

  Solution: next-door neighbor Jason did.

  Since Jason was still out of town, Shane once again used his key to let himself in to his neighbor's apartment and brought the vacuum back to his place. While he had it, he could have vacuumed his entire apartment but he didn’t. He cleaned only the area in question, near the coffee table.

  When he was satisfied that all the offending tiny little pieces had been sucked up, he returned the vacuum. While he was at it, he also returned Jason’s newly-cleaned black leather jacket.

  3 PM

  Esther tossed and turned in her bed. She couldn’t sleep. She wanted to talk to John but she had no way to contact him other than going over to Shane’s house, which she didn’t want to do.

  She pulled out the money Shane had given her and stared at it. She thought it was more than enough to get a bus ticket out of town. Her family lived in Ohio and she didn’t care what Shane said, she needed to leave.

  On impulse, she called the Greyhound Depot and was told a bus would be leaving for Cleveland at 8 AM the next day. She decided then and there she was going to be on that bus.

  4:30 PM

  Jason wandered into Shane’s apartment a little disgruntled, a little out of sorts. He wanted to get to the bottom of the leather jacket thing. When he returned home from his trip, he saw that the missing jacket had mysteriously been returned.

  He shook his head. Shane! It had to be. But why did he borrow it without asking? Furthermore, why didn’t he say something when he talked to him on the phone earlier — when he called to check on the puppy? He did mention borrowing the vacuum but said nothing about the jacket. Why the big secret with the jacket?

  That’s what he was going to find out. See what was up with his little-bit-interesting, little-bit- strange next-door neighbor.

  “Do you think you can take my jacket any time you want without asking?” Jason asked the moment he got in the door. Even though he was somewhat irked, he tried to sound lighthearted, joking. He smiled while he waited for an answer.

  Shane stared at him for a couple of seconds. “No, I don’t think I can take your jacket any time I want,” he said defensively, shaking his head. “I told you about the vacuum, right? I thought I told you about the jacket, too. Sorry. I was just borrowing it. I borrowed ’em both at the same time.” Shane crossed his arms. “Well, you got ’em back now, right? So we’re square?”

  “Right,” Jason exhaled. Shane had definitely not caught on to his lightheartedness. They sat in awkward silence.

  “Hey, I got an espresso machine yesterday that I wanted to try out,” Shane said, breaking the quiet. “You want to try a cup? It’s supposed to make some bitchin’ coffee.”

  Jason tipped his head back. “Yeah sure, let me have some of your espresso,” he said. “I could use a jolt right now anyway. I’m way tired.”

  Shane nodded sympathetically and opened the box his mother had given him. Jason watched while Shane read the instructions on how to use the machine. Shane told him it should only take a few minutes to brew. He returned to the couch.

  “Hey, you know that Hollywood Video store on San Mateo?” Shane asked.

  “Yeah, I know it. I’ve never been there but I know it. I go to Girard.”

  “Right. Well, did you hear about what happened last night?”

  “No-oo?” Jason said, turning his head towards Shane. “What happened?”

  “I guess it got robbed or something.” Shane paused. “And the people that worked there got killed.”

  Jason bit down on his index finger. “What? You’re kidding, right?”

  Shane shook his head.

  “Well, that’s fucked up,” Jason said.

  “I know. And you know what’s really fucked up? One of the girls that got killed used to work at the Girard store. The one you go to.”

  “It’s someone I know? Oh, man, that’s even worse. That’s terrible. Who is it?”

  “It was Jowanda. You know the cute one with the dark hair? I really liked her. I was even thinking of asking her out. But, you know what? I never did,” Shane said solemnly. “And now I can’t.”

  Chapter 18

  “The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crises.”

  GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR

  4:30 PM

  Dr. Patricia McFeeley, from the Office of the Medical Investigator, went to the Hollywood Video murder scene to examine the bodies. She walked through the front area of the store and saw a tremendous amount of dark dust, which she knew from experience was fingerprinting material used by the police.

  When she got to the back, she saw three bodies in a very small room.

  “Oh, dear,” she said, taking it all in.

  She removed the bodies from the back room to better conduct her investigation. She used a portable x-ray machine to take a few x-rays while she was there. She was trying to figure out how many “missiles” (bullets) she was looking for, and how many times each person had been shot. As an expert, she knew it could be difficult to distinguish entry wounds from exit wounds.

  When she finished, she sealed the bodies in new plastic bags and made them available for transport to OMI. The bodies were taken by a private ambulance company late the night of March 3rd. The actual autopsies were performed the next day.

  5:30 PM

  “Open up,” a man’s voice yelled. He banged on her front door with both hands.

  “No,” Esther yelled back. It sounded like Shane, an out of control, sick-in-the-head Shane.r />
  The two-handed knocking continued. “Right now!”

  “No.”

  “I have to talk to you.”

  “I’m not letting you in and I don’t want to talk to you.” Esther pushed her body against the door for reinforcement.

  “You better open this fucker up or I’m gonna break your fucking window and get myself in.” His voice elevated to a psychotic scream.

  Esther peeked through the drapes. It was Shane all right, but he looked different from the guy she had gotten to know. He had changed. His usual affable slouch was gone, replaced by an uptight stiffness. Where his neck had once been there were now thick cords throbbing like an overheated radiator and his face had mutated into a raging tree-knot.

  She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want to let him in but if he continued howling at that volume, the cops would be showing up shortly. That couldn’t happen. So, knowing it was a bad idea, she let him in anyway.

  He immediately pushed past her, then turned and put his face next hers. “I need to talk to you,” he said, breathing heavily.

  “I don’t want to talk,” she said, stepping backwards.

  Shane leaned his shoulder into her body and pulled her down on the couch with a thud. He sat down too, almost dropping on top of her.

  “Sorry bitch, but it’s not optional. I must talk to you.”

  Esther tried to slide away but he slid with her. His body leaned hard into hers as he spoke.

  “Don’t ya wanna know what happened in there?” he asked, upper teeth bared.

  She turned away. “No.”

  “Well, you’re gonna hear it, bitch. You’re gonna hear all about it, you fucking whore. And you’re not gonna forget it. I do not want you to forget it.”

  She tried to get up but he pulled her back down, his mouth next to her ear.

  “Listen up, you stupid cock-sucking cunt. You are gonna fucking know what happened to those kids. All of it. Every fucking bloody detail. That way, if you even fucking think about telling anyone, you’re gonna know — ” He grabbed her upper arm and squeezed. “— You’re gonna fucking know —that what happened to them — is gonna happen to you.”