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~ 23 ~

The Dumpster





“Guys did you call him yet? Did Kevin actually get in touch with him…what are you both staring at?” Brian asked when he walked into the room and saw us standing there staring at the closet door. He paused for a few seconds, registering the blood on the floor before he spoke again, “Is that blood?”

“We think so.” Howie answered.

“It isn’t Kevin’s, is it?”

“We don’t know.”

A pounding coming from inside the closet made all three of us jump. The sound of a muffled voice and another kick finally made one of us move. “Kevin?” Brian asked as he opened the door.

A man with his hands tied behind his back and a piece of masking tape on his mouth greeted us with a kick to Brian as he fell to the floor. The guy then tried his best to crawl out of the closet and get to his feet. He was hurt though so the pain slowed him up. Unsure of what to do, I tackled him back down to the ground as Howie helped Brian to his feet.

The man struggled under my weight but I had him pinned down, so he wasn’t going anywhere. “Who the hell are you?” I asked him as he continued to struggle, at one point completely knocking me off of him before trying to get to his feet once again. This guy was a pro; it was pretty easy to tell by his fast moves. The three of us all tackled him this time and managed to sit him down on a chair just as AJ came into the room all confused.

“What the hell?” He asked as Howie hit the guy upside the head with Kevin’s Bible, making him slump on the chair.

“I am pretty sure I’ll be going to hell for that.”

“Howie! Why did you do that? He needs to tell us where Kevin is!” Brian yelled.

“We need a plan and some more rope to hold this guy in place.”

“Who the hell is he?”

“We don’t know AJ, he was in the closet. Go find something to tie his feet together so he’ll stop trying to run away.” Howie said as he put the Bible down on the dresser and made the sign of the cross.

“It looks like he’s been shot.” I said, noticing the bullet wound near his shoulder where all the blood was coming from. The man started to move a little and groan as his eyes began to open, “AJ, hurry!” I called out to him just as the guy once again tried to stand up.

All I could think to do was sit on his lap to keep him down, “Just relax buddy.” I said as calmly as possible as AJ came running in with two scarves.

“This is all I could find.” He said handing them to Howie who proceeded to tie one leg while Brian took the other. The guy tried to fight it but stopped when he realized he was out numbered.

“Good job AJ. Nicky, you can get off of him now.”

Trying to get a really good look at him, I squatted down beside him and looked him in the eyes. He had blue ones just like me. His hair was a little darker than mine and he was probably a few years older than Kevin. He was staring right back at me and smiling from behind the tape.

I stood up and moved as far away from him as I could. He never took his eyes off of me. Even as I turned my back to him, I felt his gaze going right through me. I needed to walk away from this for a second. It was all too much. “I’m going to call Max.” I said, taking the number that had managed to fall on the floor and walking out of the door before anyone could stop me.

Once out there, I figured out that I didn’t want to call my uncle either. He would ask me a ton of questions that I didn’t know the answers to. Should I tell him about the briefcase or should I play stupid? I wanted to talk about it and ask him why he kept it to himself that my mother was alive. I was so angry at him and this situation. But it was Kevin who had me the most concerned, so I sucked it up, forgot about all of my woes for a minute and dialed Max’s cell.

Of course it went to voicemail because, that’s just how things are going.

“Hi Max, it’s me Nick. Look, things are going really bad here. We really need your help. I’m not sure if Kevin reached you or not but now he’s missing and we have a guy tied up in our room. They found us and we don’t know what to do. Please call me back as soon as you get this message.”

I sighed and rubbed my temples. I was getting a huge headache. I’m surprised it took this long before that happened. I’m sure most people’s heads would have exploded by now. I must have a really high tolerance for crap.

“I left a message.” I said before anyone even had a chance to ask.

“Okay, we are going to remove this tape, but if you scream, we’ll put it right back on.” The way Howie said that, you would think he did this for a living. In fact, the way we were all acting, you’d think this was second nature to all of us. I’m sure we were all freaking out on the inside but we were doing a pretty damn good job of not showing it to this guy.

We all watched as Howie gently removed the tape from the man’s mouth and in return the guy spit on him and muttered something in Russian after the fact. D turned around and wiped his face looking like he was about ready to puke.

“Who are you and where is Kevin?” Brian asked walking towards the guy but stopping before he got too close. I guess he didn’t want to be spat on.

The man turned his head away from Brian and looked at me. “You look like your mother.” He said in a very Russian accent.

“How do you know my mother?”

He smiled at me, “You do not remember me, Andrew?”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Why? That is your name.”

“Not anymore.”

“If it were only that easy to erase who you are.”

“Where is Kevin?” I asked since he seemed to be ignoring everyone else in the room.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

“Sure you do. Big guy, about same age as you, brown hair.”

“You know, your mother would be so proud of you if she knew you were a performer. Did you know she used to sing?”

“She did?”

“Yes, she had a beautiful voice. I’m surprised your father never told you that.”

I tried to ignore what this guy was saying and stay focused on finding Kevin, but at the same time, here was someone who could probably answer all of my questions. “I’m glad she had a nice voice, maybe we’ll reminisce some more once you tell me where my friend is.”

He shook his head at me. “Of course, I’m not that surprised considering he probably didn’t even bother to tell you about your mom in the first place.”

I got in his face, “Where is Kevin AND what did you do to my dad?”

“Nice to know you have the same temperament as your mom too.” He said calmly, once again smiling as he did.

I felt someone’s hand on my shoulder, “Come on Frack. Let’s go in the other room for a little while. AJ and Howie will deal with our guest for now.”

I let out a sigh but decided it was probably a good idea. I think both Brian and I needed a break. I turned to Howie and AJ and gave them a smile. “Watch your backs.” Brian whispered to them as we walked out of the bedroom and back into the living room area.

“I don’t think he’s going to tell them anything.” I said frustrated as we walked over to the balcony and looked out the window. The fire truck was now gone but the snow had once again picked up.

“Don’t you think it’s a little odd that they left him behind?”

I nodded at my best friend. I didn’t think it made any sense that they decided to leave this guy in our closet when they could have easily just taken him with them. Why leave someone here that could virtually tell us what we wanted to know.

“Maybe it’s some kind of trick? Maybe he’s going to tell us some bogus information and lead us into a trap.” I know it sounded a little James Bond-ish, but after all the shit that’s gone down, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

“I think he might be related to you, Nick.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked it kind of defensively. I didn’t mean to sound so annoyed but part of me was thinking the same thing and that part of me was hoping that no one else would have noticed the resemblance.

“You just kind of look a like.”

“But he’s Russian.”

“Maybe your mother was too.”

“But Max is her brother. He’s not Russian.”

Brian shrugged, “I don’t know, just seems like he might be a cousin or something.”

I let out another sigh, “Speaking of cousin…I’m so sorry about Kevin.”

He said with a very serious look on his face, “This isn’t your fault, Nick. And Kevin is fine! Nothing has happened to him. I’m sure we’ll find him safe and sound.”

Just then, the phone to our suite rang and all I could do was hope that it was Max. Brian beat me to the phone so I just stood there and waited in anticipation. By the look of panic on his face, I immediately thought the worst. I braced myself for what he was going to say.

“Oh, hey Aunt Anne.” Shit!!! “No, its okay you’re calling so late. We were all awake. We couldn’t sleep and had a mishap with the fire alarms anyway.” He gave me a look of utter horror. Boy she had bad timing. “Kevin? Uh…he’s actually in the shower. Have you heard from him lately?” I’m glad he’s the one that answered the phone because I would have become a stammering idiot. “Oh…yeah, we loved the presents. Thanks again!”

“Did she hear from him?” I tried to whisper as quietly as possible.

He shook his head at me, “No, that was Nick in the background.” He paused for a second, “He’s doing well and loved all his presents too.” His eyes grew big, “You want to talk to him? Okay…hang on a second, I’ll give him the phone.” Oh my God! No!! I can NOT talk to her.

He shrugged at me and covered the phone with his hand, “I can’t talk to her. I’ll totally give away that something is wrong. Tell her I’m in the bathroom.”

“With Kevin while he’s in the shower?”

“We’re famous, can’t we have two bathrooms?”

He gave me a disappointed look and then took his hand away from the receiver. “Aunt Anne, he doesn’t really feel like talking to anyone. I think the poor little guy is just tired, sorry.” He paused again, “Yeah, I should probably be going too. I’ll tell Kev you called though.” Poor Brian looked like he just tripped an old woman walking across the street as he lied to his aunt. “Love you too. Bye!”

“I hate lying to people!” See? I knew it.

“Believe me Brian, I think this time a lie is better than the truth.”

He nodded at me, “Maybe we should go back in there and see if Howie and AJ found anything else out.”

Before we had a chance to walk in, Howie and AJ walked out. “Who was on the phone?” AJ asked hopeful that maybe it was Kevin or Max.

“Aunt Anne.”

“Shit, this late?”

“I guess she was missing her son.”

“Aren’t we all?” Howie answered as he walked over to us. “He’s not going to talk to anyone but you, Nicky. He was pretty clear on that.”

“I had a feeling he was going to say that.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Why D?” Brian asked.

“He’ll only speak to Nicky alone. He doesn’t want any of us in there.”

“He’s tied up. I’ll be fine.”

“It’s not that. You’ve been through so much. I just don’t want him playing mind games with you right now.”

“I appreciate that D, but we have to worry about Kevin. I’ll be fine.”

Howie gave Brian a look. My best friend thought about things for a few minutes and then said, “I think he’ll be able to handle it and if not, he can always just walk out of the room.” Then he looked me, “You will walk out of that room if he starts with any crap or if he seems like he’s breaking free.”

“Yes, of course I will.”

“Okay, but please be careful. We’ve already misplaced one Backstreet Boy today.” I liked Howie’s interpretation of Kevin’s disappearance. With that being said, I walked into the room and had my go at our little prisoner.

We have a prisoner. You know something in your life has gone terribly wrong when you can utter the words “I’ll go talk to my prisoner.”

I closed the door behind me and made my way over to the man we had tied up with AJ’s apparel. “I heard you wanted to talk to me.” I said nice and calmly as I sat across from him on my bed. I was so exhausted I just wanted to lie down and call it a day.

“Tell me what your father told you about your mother.”

He had the nerve to try to interrogate me? I rolled my eyes at him, “I’m not telling you anything until you tell me what happened to my father and my friend.”

“Something happened to your father? I was not aware.”

My heart started beating just a tad bit faster at that news. “What do you mean? He’s missing. If you didn’t have anything to do with it, then why are you here?”

“Do you still like drawing?”

That question took me by surprise. When he saw the look on my face he smiled, “I take that as a yes. You used to love to draw. You always made me pictures.”

“Tell me where Kevin is, please.” I didn’t know what else to do besides beg.

“I keep telling you, I don’t know who that is.”

“He was with us, he went to make a call and then he disappeared.”

I was embarrassed when I felt a tear fall on my cheek. The last thing I wanted to do was cry in front of this jerk. His face softened just a little when he saw the tears come, “I’m sorry Andrew.”

“Sorry about what?”

“Check the dumpster downstairs.” He looked me in the eyes when he said it, and I immediately closed mine, hoping I hadn’t heard right.

“You…killed him?” I managed to get out in the middle of hyperventilating.

“Breathe Andrew, you’re going to pass out if you don’t breathe.”

I walked over to him and punched him in the face. The force of the blow made his chair fall to the ground. I straddled him and found my hands around his neck. “How could you do that?” I asked ferociously. I was even scaring myself.

AJ, Brian and Howie all came running into the room and it took all three to pull me off of the guy. Once I let go of his neck he started coughing and that made me want to charge at him again. “Get him out of here!” Howie said to AJ and Brian, the two were restraining me. They wouldn’t be if they knew what he just said, but in my grief, I couldn’t tell them. I had to go see for myself.

Once outside of the room, they let me go. “What the hell happened in there?” AJ asked.

I didn’t answer him, instead I put on my jacket and went for the front door. “Where are you going?” Brian asked as he came running after me.

“Stay here! I need to go check something out and I need to do it alone!”

“You’re not going anywhere alone, Nick.” AJ said walking past me and trying to block the door.

“Get out of my way or I swear to God I’ll punch you!”

“Then punch me! You are not leaving!”

“I have to go check something.”

“What?”

“I can’t say, just let me go!”

“Did he tell you to do that?”

“Get out of my way!”

“NO!”

I grabbed AJ and pushed him with all my might and he fell to the ground. I heard Brian call out after me but I left and bolted down the stairs. I was hoping he wouldn’t be following me, but I didn’t have time to look. The thing is, I knew myself and I knew that if I even took a second to think about things, I wouldn’t have the courage to look in the dumpster and if anyone deserved to find Kevin’s body in there it was me. Not his cousin or any of his other friends, but me. Because I was the one who was responsible. It was my fault. So I just kept going, running down the stairs as fast as I could, forgetting about my phobias, forgetting about the threat of other people catching up with me and forgetting about the blizzard outside while I was only wearing a tee shirt and jeans. I just kept going until I was back in the lobby.

The lobby was completely deserted and only two hotel workers were manning the front desk. They looked at me and smiled. One of them was the muffin lady from earlier in the day. I smiled back and then walked out the door and into the snow.

The wind had really picked up but I didn’t care. I glanced around the parking lot, looking for any sign of a dumpster and when I didn’t see anything I decided to run around the corner to the back of the hotel. I had to stop when breathing became increasingly harder to do. I couldn’t even feel my hands or face anymore and wanted more than anything to turn around and go back inside, but I couldn’t. So, I sucked it up and kept moving and within a few minutes, I was at the back of the hotel where three huge dumpsters sat under shoots.

“Kevin please, don’t be in there!” I pleaded as I walked over to the first one. I took a deep breath, found a crate and stood on it as I peered over the side. Grateful that I didn’t see anything besides trash, I moved on to the next one.

I took the crate and put it beside the dumpster and stood up and peered over. This time I did see what I thought might be a foot exposed through a layer of garbage. “Please God…no.” I went to reach in and move things around when I felt someone grab me from behind.

The force of the man pulled me right off the crate and we both went tumbling in the snow. I was struggling to break free but he had a strong hold on me and wrapped his hands around my neck. Now I knew what it felt like to be strangled. I was gasping for air and trying my best to break free but the spots in front of my eyes were hindering my escape. My arms felt rubbery and I just lost all my fight. I closed my eyes and let the blackness take over.