by L. E. Green
Roger played with a clay model of the new concept. Abigail helped. Roger couldn’t resist watching her from time to time. She moved her hair away from her face. Roger would sometimes get lost in her eyes. She caught him once in a while and he would brush it off with an Elvis joke. Eventually, they disassembled the initial machine. Piece by piece they rebuilt it, replacing gears and rewiring the entire unit. Abigail and Roger picked apart Roger’s experiment and reconstructed it into a working product. The wooden floor in his room was covered with burn marks, screws and wires. In the wee hours of the morning, Roger and Abigail’s remote controlled vehicle zipped across the floor.
The sky was dark purple from the suns approach. Roger finished brushing his teeth and returned to the room. Abigail had fallen asleep in his bed. Her headphones were in and her iPod was playing. Roger had given her a t–shirt and shorts to sleep in. He tucked her away for the night. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he watched her sleep for a moment and smiled. Here she was in his bed, and he had no intention of spoiling things by sneaking a kiss even though the thought had crossed his mind a thousand times. He laid out a pillow and blanket on the floor and fell asleep by the side of the bed.
BROWN’S APARTMENT
Sydney Brown entered his apartment after a late run to the gym. He opened the door and closed it behind himself. He was exhausted. He tossed his jacket and towel on a chair and went into the kitchen. He checked his phone, hoping to have a message from Meghan; but there was only a message from Chief Downy. He checked the message.
“Brown, I’ve been checking the shared files and have a few questions. Tell Finch excellent work and thorough assessment thus far. I want a debriefing in the morning and I want more information on this window cleaner I’m reading about.”
FRANKIE’S APARTMENT ABOVE THE PUB
This was one of the many nights Frankie could not sleep. He and Larry had argued earlier about the club, and all the things he wanted to say were running though his head. Larry has a point. If we go legit, will I be able to afford it? Frankie punched his hanging punching bag ferociously. The sweat ran down his face and soaked his t–shirt. He punched until his arms were rubbery and tired. He finally stopped. His age was catching up to him. It was time for bed. Water would have been nice, but water wouldn’t do the job that he really needed done. He went over to the mini fridge and poured a glass of whiskey. He took a sip, swirled it around in his mouth and finally swallowed it down. He exhaled with relief. He took his time with the whiskey, enjoying every peaceful sip, and embraced the gentle burn as a reminder that he was still alive.
MORNING
DETECTIVE FINCH’S HOUSE
Finch was lying in the bed, but did not enjoy a solid hour of sleep the entire night. Her mind raced about Chapel and Case, Anthony, her mother in law, Sydney… The time was 6:13 am. The sun slowly slipped through the vertical blinds of her windows. She rolled over and got out of the bed. “UGH!” She wore short gray sweat pants and a white tank top. Her hair was in a ponytail. She walked into the kitchen, put on some coffee and went out onto the back porch. She took a few deep breaths of the chilly morning air before she reached down and took a joint out of a side board. She had a lighter on the floor next to the door frame; she lit the joint and began to smoke it. She liked to take one or two puffs of marijuana from time to time but never more than that. She just needed to get the edge off. A sleepless night always made her jittery and unfocused. She thought about the new case. It would be her last case as a trainee. Hopefully it didn’t carry on too long.
Finch took a third and forth puff of the joint, which wasn’t very typical of her. She put the flame out and then she tucked the joint back into the side of the house. She went back into the house and went to the kitchen. She took a mug out of the cabinet and poured a cup of coffee. She wanted to let it cool, so she went to the front porch and grabbed the morning paper.
Back in the kitchen, Finch sat at the kitchen table. On the side she had two Morningstar veggie sausage patties and her coffee.
“GOOD MORNING, SUNSHINE!” Finch received a text from Brown. She ignored it.
Detective Finch continued to eat as she skimmed through the paper to see if anything had been leaked to the press. She didn’t see anything about the case. She did see one article about Chapel and Case:
CHAPEL AND CASE STOCK STABLE AFTER CEO DEATH
She thought to herself, “Good. Nothing about Benson. Let’s keep it that way until we get more information.”
After her quick snack, she cleaned the kitchen and put everything away. She went into her bedroom and moved around the room quickly, looking for socks and shoes. She reached into her dresser drawer and pulled out an Adidas workout set comprised of a tank top and fitted Capri pants. It was 6:30. She laced up her sneakers, grabbed a jacket, and left the house. “Good morning,” she greeted a passing neighbor as she jumped into her car and headed to the gym. She worked out every other day for about one and a half hours beginning each workout with a 45 minute run on the elliptical machine and alternated upper and lower body workouts.
She returned home just before eight, took a quick shower, dressed and left to meet up with Detective Brown.
EDDIE CONS’ APARTMENT
It was 9:00 am when Finch and Brown arrived at Eddie Cons’ Apartment door. They had hoped to get in touch with him the previous day, but for one reason or another, he wasn’t home and didn’t return their calls until 11:00 pm that evening. He ranted about something to do with his mother and sister, but Brown was too tired to listen. Finch on the other hand would have asked Cons to slow down so she could shake off the sleepiness and get her computer ready to take notes. Finch and Brown knocked on the door.
“Why are you so quiet this morning?” Brown sipped coffee from his thermos.
“Nothing to say,” Finch barely looked him in the eye. She sent out a text message. Brown tried to sneak a peek but was unsuccessful. Finch knocked again. They looked around inspecting the halls. The place seemed like a quiet building but it smelled like old people and fried chicken. Finch’s phone vibrated. She read the message and put her phone back in her pocket. “Where is this guy?”
“I called him before we got here. I don’t know what the hell is going on.” Brown knocked again. A short man with a bald head opened to the door. “Mr. Cons? Eddie Cons?”
“Yes. Come in.” They walk into the apartment. The man is a hoarder. The apartment is covered in clothes, papers and old Chinese food containers. “Just step wherever you can find a place to put your feet.”
“We’ll be quick. We just wanna know what you saw, and then we will be out of your way.” Finch was afraid to touch Cons’ belongings. She was disgusted and ready to leave.
Eddie asked, “Can I offer you two to some tea? Coffee?”
“No no. No thanks. We just wanna get started.” Brown wanted to speed this along as much as he could. He saw Meghan’s face and she gave him a signal with her eyes that she was uncomfortable.
“It’s no trouble, but yes, let’s get started. I’m sure you have better things to do than hang out with me. I don’t get much company here, you can probably see why but…”
Finch said, “Tell us a little about yourself.”
Eddie asked, “Like what? I’m an interesting fella. I can go on forever.”
“Well we don’t have forever,” Finch declared. She was getting frustrated. “How long have you worked at C&C?”
“For three years. I was voted Window Washer of the month!”
“How many washers are there?” Finch asked.
“I think we have about 20, maybe 18 or so.”
Finch kept questioning, “Who was on shift when you found the arm?”
“There were five of us, Sally, Charles, Garcia, Clark and myself, but they weren’t anywhere near the arm.”
“Do you think anyone would have wanted you to find the arm?” Finch filled in her spreadsheet as she questioned.
“What? I don’t know. I don’t think so. I don’t have problems w
ith anyone.” Eddie scratched his five o’clock shadow and chewed at his knuckles. “I don’t know anything about Mr. Benson.”
“How do you know this is about Benson?” Finch listened carefully.
“Because the arm was outside of his office and the guard told me it was Benson’s arm. Are you trying to say I had something to do with this?” Eddie was nervous. He stood up straight pacing back and forth in front of his couch.
Brown interrupts, “No. We aren’t accusing you of anything. We’re just being thorough. Relax. So, tell us what happened yesterday at the office. Tell us what you saw, what you did, everything.”
Meghan’s thumbs were clicking away as she took notes. She listened carefully and snapped pictures of the apartment in between the typing frenzy. She believed that the condition of his apartment may have implications about his personality and habits. There are some things that may seem irrelevant but Finch wasn’t sure that the irrelevant facts could be determined until after the case was solved.
Eddie moved a few things over before he sat on the couch. “Well, it started as a routine cleaning. We clean the whole building everyday but in sections. The building is so big; I don’t get back around to that window but once every two to three weeks or so. Sometimes four weeks depending upon weather conditions and bird shit emergencies.” Eddie takes a sip of his tea. He shakes his head and puts on his glasses. “It’s normal to see an occasional dead birdie on the ledge, no problem; but a human arm? You can tell the birds had been picking at it… the maggots, the smell. I just couldn’t keep my food down after that. I got hot and woozy and I threw up.”
Finch interjected, “Describe the location of the arm. Where was it when you found it?” She listened and took more notes in her phone.
EDDIE CONS: WINDOW WASHER/3 YEARS
HOARDER
ANXIOUS
5 WORKERS ON SHIFT: Sally, Charles, Garcia, Clark, and Cons
Eddie fixed his glasses again, “I found the arm on the ledge! It was tied to a brick. I never touched the damn thing. I screamed like a bitch though.” He laughed. No one else found it funny.
Brown asked, “So, how did you alert others about the arm?” Brown propped his hands on his hips and listened carefully.
“I radioed in to dispatch. They called the guard over and I went back to the roof and I threw up there too. Everyone else was asked to leave the floor but they called me into the office. I threw up again! This time I made the bucket.” Eddie got up from the couch.
“Oh yeah. I uh, took a picture before I went back up to the roof.”
Finch was appalled, “You took pictures?! Where are the pictures?”
“On my cell.” Cons picked up his phone from the couch.
“Mr. Cons, this stuff is classified until…”
“I know I know. I promise I didn’t show anyone, and I won’t. Shit. I can’t anyway. The phone fell in the bucket after I threw up in it and now the damn phone isn’t working.” Eddie flipped open his cell phone showing it to Finch and Brown. Brown rolled his eyes and huffed in disgust. Brown snatched the phone opening up the back and removed the memory card. They headed towards the door. He tossed the phone on the couch.
“Hey hey! I need that! You can’t just take my memory card like that.” Cons was flustered and anxious.
“We’ll mail it back to you. It’s police evidence,” Finch smirked on her way out.
“But I have personal…”
“I’m sure it’s nothing we haven’t seen,” Brown opened the door. Brown and Finch stepped out and closed the door.
Eddie ran over and opened the door. “I need that back by tomorrow!”
“Forget about it. You’ll get it when we’re done.” Finch didn’t even turn her head to address him. They disappeared around the corner.
ATKINS’ RESIDENCE 10 AM
Abigail and Roger had a late night playing with Roger’s inventions. They made a lot of progress on a few of his machines and moved on to a more complicated project. Roger wanted to make a safety vest for police and security officers complete with bullet proof protection, LED signaling lights and straps for extra clips, a flashlight and flares. A few months earlier, a state trooper pulled over a speeding drunk driver. While he was in the breakdown lane, he was struck by an oncoming car and died. Massachusetts then instituted the Pull Over law which stated that if a driver passed an emergency vehicle or officer in the breakdown lane, the driver must pull over to the next lane or drastically reduce speed if pulling over safely was not possible. If drivers could not see the officers, Roger thought it would be safer if the officer wore a protective vest to signal to drivers that he or she had exited the car and was on the road. It was just an idea, but Abigail thought it was clever.
Roger woke up first when his mother glanced into the room.
“MA!”
“Just checking if you were awake! Sheesh!” She closed the door again.
“I have to get my own place.” Roger went and watched a little bit of the news with his mother. Because he was extremely excited to spend this much time with Abigail, he couldn’t resist checking up on her every few minutes. Occasionally he would simply look in the room to watch her sleep, hoping he could catch her waking and be the first person she would see in the morning. He finally left her alone, letting her sleep while he took a shower and then prepared breakfast.
Deep in the jungle night, Abigail’s feet sunk into the muddy terrain of rock, sand and fallen foliage. She was lost as the jungle forest closed in around her. Lightning cracked in the cloudless sky splitting rocks and setting fires in the ground near her bludgeoned feet. Streams of blood ran down her arms and pooled into the palms of her hands as black fur seeped from the pores of her skin. She grunted her teeth in pain. The black fur grew longer and thicker, wrapping around her body like a cocoon. Thorn covered vines from the ground tangled around her feet ripping into her skin. She struggled to break free but could not get away. Around her, little blue eyes appeared in the night shadows, watching her like prey. She could see their fangs dripping with blood, sweat and saliva.
Suddenly, the vines pulled her feet from underneath her causing her to fall. Her body smacked against the ground before the vines lifted her up into the air. She hanged upside down. The beasts with drooling mouths and blue eyes, charged as native drums played. They stood up straight like men as smoke emitted from their heads. They jumped, growling, swinging their claws at Abigail, missing her face by inches she could see they had hands instead of paws. The fur wrapping her body also wrapped around her mouth and crawled into her nose and the smoke from the beastly beings rose into her nostrils. She could not scream; she struggled for air.
A man whose face was black as coal came from the midst of the beasts. He was dressed in all white. He took a mahogany colored spear with a stony tip and pierced Abigail in the center of her back. Her body curled as the rod delivered an electric current, cutting deep into her spine. Black blood drained down. The vine wore weak and began to tear. The beasts below waited. Their eyes went black. They drank the blood that dripped from Abby’s hanging cocoon. The drums beat faster. The beasts growled in anticipation of Abby’s inevitable plummet. One ordinary butterfly fluttered from below, past the smoke and blood scented air it fluttered upward ascending towards Abby. Abigail’s eyes focused and followed the light purple winged insect as it eventually landed on her nose and immediately turned to ashes. The vine tore. Little by little she lowered and squirmed, watching the last thread give way. She fell.
Abigail jumped out of her sleep from another frightening dream. Gasping for air, she was shaking, sweaty and cold. The pillow was damp. Roger entered the room just as she woke and sat on the bed next to her. She was happy to see him. She was slightly embarrassed because Roger had never seen her coming out of a nightmare before; she felt vulnerable and weak. Roger was sympathetic and concerned for her. He only wanted to be closer to her and care for her, but he had nothing to offer her except for a friendly embrace. She was accepting of whatever he had to off
er.
“Hey. Elvis. You ok?” He knew she must have had another one of those dreams that she had told him about in the past. As far as he knew, she was having the nightmares more frequently and they were becoming more and more vivid each time. He put his arm around her and gently rubbed her shoulder and neck with his hand. He slightly touched her hair, pushing it away from her face as she closed her eyes and calmed down. She took a few deep breaths until her heart beat slowed to an acceptable pace. He wanted to kiss her, but he was afraid. “Are you ok?” He asked again.
“Yeah. Shit. Sorry. I kind of forgot where I was for a minute.” She put her head on his shoulder but picked it up again quickly. It’s Roger.
“Bad dream again?”
“I wish they would stop. More importantly, I wish I knew what they meant. I’m assuming they mean something but maybe they don’t mean anything. Maybe I’m thinking too deep about it.”
“Maybe not. Maybe your mind is trying to help you remember some things in your past. Things you may have tried to forget.”
“I can’t imagine that what’s happening in my dreams could have ever been real.”
“Maybe they’re symbolic. Like a puzzle. You just have to focus and put the pieces together.”
“I’m trying, Roger. It’s just not triggering anything that I can think of.”
“I hope you figure things out soon.”
“Thanks. I do, too. Anyway…”
“Yeah well, what do you wanna do today? You hungry? I made you breakfast.”