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Chapter 19.

Four days later.

Nick woke up from a restless night. It was still very early in the morning. The room was pitch black, and he could hear the wind blowing outside. Leaning over, he pulled the curtains aside and looked out. It had been snowing that entire night and the roads would be impossible to drive on for yet a few hours until the snow had been removed. The streetlamps outside shone dimly and cast shadows on the houses down the street.

His thought wandered back to Ali. If she was out there, how did she feel right at that moment?
Was she cold?
Was she scared?
Nick shivered at the thought of her being alone in the darkness, and at that moment, he thought that he would’ve done everything in his power to take her place, and let her go free. It just wasn’t right that someone like her should be exposed to this kind of action.

Nick sighed and leaned back against his pillow. He wanted to sleep, to rest, but every time he closed his eyes, images of Ali, of the old village, of AJ being shot, entered his mind. He wanted more than anything to avoid thinking about it, yet the more he thought about not thinking about it, the more he did.

A few hours passed, and Nick had finally drifted off into a restless sleep. By then, he didn’t know what time it was. All he knew was that the wind outside had picked up speed, and the last thing he heard before he closed his eyes was the howling of the wind razing outside his window.

Suddenly, he woke up by the sound of his phone ringing. He groaned and sat up confused, casting a quick glance at the watch on the nightstand.
6:30 AM
Following the sound of the ringing, he dug into the pocket of the jeans he had worn the day before and quickly answered.
“…lo” His voice sounded groggy, and he cleared his throat.
“Nick, it’s Granger.”
Nick lay down on the bed again, covering his body with the thick quilt to keep himself warm. “Hi.”
“I didn’t mean to wake you up, but I just had to tell you the latest.”
“Which is…?”
“We found Orlov’s home.”
“You did?” Nick sat up again, suddenly feeling wide awake. “Is Ali there? I mean, what did you find? Did you go inside yet? Is he there?”
“That’s too many questions this early in the morning Nick, even for me. But to tell you what we know, he’s not here, neither is Ali, but we did find a lot of things in here, and I think you better get here as soon as you can.”
Nick was out of bed almost before Granger had finished talking. “I’ll be there. I just gotta get dressed and wake up AJ. Give me the address, and I’m on my way.”

Granger carefully spelled the address to Nick, making sure that they would be able to get there. Nick called AJ right away, and thirty minutes later, they arrived at the location. As soon as they stepped out of the taxi, they immediately felt as if they had arrived in the gutter. It was a shabby house, with broken windows, holes through the roof, and there was so much snow there that people had a hard time making their way inside. It was still dark outside. H ell, Nick couldn’t even remember the last time he had seen the sun. Sometimes he wondered how people could live like that, always surrounded by darkness. The nights seemed to go on forever, and to Nick, the night only brought nightmares.

Granger walked up to Nick and AJ who were standing on the sidewalk, snow up to their knees. Nick pulled on a pair of thick gloves and pulled the hood of his Lakers jersey that he wore underneath his coat, over his head.
“Come on, we’ll talk inside.” Granger gestured for them to follow him inside the small house.

Nick didn’t know what to expect once they entered. He had thought about the options on his way there, but he couldn’t come up with anything that seemed logic. If Ali wasn’t there, what could it possibly be that Granger wanted him to see? As he stepped into the house, and straight into the small living area, Nick suddenly knew exactly what Granger was talking about. Gasping, he looked around. He could hear AJ mumble a few words next to him, but didn’t bother to ask him what he said.

The walls in the room were covered in pictures of Ali, most of them in black and white. Nick couldn’t utter a word. He recognized many of the places and the time the pictures were taken. He even saw himself in a few of them, although in most of them, he had been cut out, even though he knew he had been there. As they were standing there, taking it all in, Granger started speaking.

“We got a tip from a local, about this house. Cody and a couple of Russian officers have been walking around for the past few days, showing a picture of Orlov to the people living here, and one of them recognized him. And as you see, this is what we found. It kinda confirms everything we thought we knew.”
Nick was in complete shock, and all he could do was nod.
“We’ve searched the entire house, the area around and we even spoke to all the neighbours. Most of them say that no one has been here for over a year. In fact, the last observation we have of Orlov was December 20th 2004.”
“Two days after Ali disappeared...” Nick whispered.
“This is insane…” AJ said, walking around the room, stopping now and then to look at the pictures.
“Nick, I need you to tell me when and where these pictures were taken.” Granger continued. He sounded almost apologetically, like he knew what Nick was going through and that he was sorry for putting him though all of this.
“Let’s start over here.” Granger walked across the room.
“You ok man?” AJ whispered concerned.
Nick looked down and shook his head no, as he walked over to Granger.
“Ok, Nick. Take your time, and tell me what you see.”
Nick forced himself to look at the wall and let his eyes rest on the first picture.
Ali was sitting by the edge of a pool, her feet dangling in the water. She was looking down at something or someone, smiling. Her hands were on their way up to cover her face, signalling that someone was obviously splashing water on her. “Umm…” He cleared his throat. “This was taken at my place, by the pool. Late November I think.” His voice was shaking as he spoke, and he tried to swallow the lump in his throat.
Granger removed the picture from the wall and scribbled down the time and place on the back of the photo.
Nick looked at the next one. It was a close up of Ali. Her hair was wet and she was looking almost straight into the camera, although Nick knew that it was just a coincidence. He tried to figure out where it was taken, but most of the surroundings had been cut off, and it was hard for him to see. “I don’t know about this one… It could be on the beach, cause her hair’s wet, but I don’t know.”
Granger wrote beach? on the back of the photo, and gave Nick time to look at another one. He instantly recognized the setting taking place in the photo. Ali was sitting on a lawn in a park. She was wearing a pair of headsets, her eyes closed.


~*~
December 10th 2004.

“Hey, thanks for coming.” Nick gave Ali a quick hug as they sat down on the green grass in the park right outside the recording studio in LA.
“No problem. I’m curious to know what you wanted to show me.”
Nick nodded and pulled out his MP3 player and his headset. “We’re half way through the album now, you know. We just finished recording a song, and I think it’s one of the best ones we’ve ever done.”
“And you want me to listen to it?” Ali asked, taking the headset from Nick and putting it on.
Nick laughed a little. “Yea. Just wanted your opinion on it. I mean, I don’t really care what you think of it, cause we all love it, and it’s definitely going to be on the album, I just wanted to see what you think.”
“Ok… what‘s the name of it?”
“Siberia. It’s a place---
“In Russia. I know.” She smiled and leaned over to press the play button. She leaned back, supporting her weight on her elbows and closed her eyes.

A few minutes later, she sat up again and pulled off the headset. Nick looked at her, trying to read the expression on her face.
“It’s so sad…” She said after a few moments.
Nick nodded in agreement.
“But it’s so good!” She continued, a smile spreading across her face.
“So you like it?”
“I love it.”

~*~

“Nick…? Nick…?”
Nick jerked out of the flashback and quickly told Granger when and where the picture was taken, leaving out as many details as he could. I was one of the few detailed memories he had left of Ali, and he wanted to keep it to himself.
Quickly, he moved on to the next photo, shaking the memory out of his head.

The next photo was hard to analyse. He looked at it for a long time, barely noticing that Granger’s phone started ringing and that he walked out of the room. A few minutes later, Nick still didn’t know anything about the picture.
“I don’t know about this one.” He said, turning around to face Granger who was standing in the doorway, his phone still in his hand. “It could’ve been---“
“We’ve got him!” Granger interrupted.
“What?”
“We’ve got him. They’ve arrested Orlov.”

~*~

It was three hours later, and Nick and AJ were waiting in the small police station in Nefedowa. After Granger had gotten the call about Orlov, they had driven as fast as they could down there, and Granger had rushed into the only interrogation room where Orlov had already been taken.

Nick was wide awake, but he felt extremely restless and nervous. He hadn’t been doing anything else then stare at the door where the interrogation was taking place, thinking that he was in there; Orlov, who had covered his walls with photos of Ali, who had taken his best friend away from him and brought him to this place in the middle of nowhere.


After another hour, the door to the room finally opened, and Nick quickly stood up, AJ following right behind. Suddenly, he found himself face to face with Orlov, who seemed unmoved by the recent incidence. His face showed no emotions, and to Nick it was almost like he was using the scars across his face to cover up any feelings that he might have. Nick took a step forward, now standing only a few feet away from him.

“Where is she?” He asked with a flat voice.
For a moment the two men just stood there, staring at each other. Nick was feeling the urge to jump forward and slam his fist in the face of the man who had changed his life so much, but his legs seemed glued to the floor.
“Where is Ali?” He asked again, almost in a whisper.
Orlov continued to stare at Nick, giving him a small, but cold smile.
“She is dead.” He said in his thick accent, spitting out each word.
Nick shook his head, as if he was trying to get rid of the words he had just heard.
“No. No… he’s lying.” He mumbled. Suddenly, he felt as if someone had just slapped him hard across the face, and he started yelling, panic rising in his voice.
“NO! YOU’RE LYING! WHERE IS SHE?” He took a firm step forward, and AJ quickly grabbed Nick by his arms, holding him back as Nick continued to yell.
“SHE’S NOT DEAD! TELL ME WHERE SHE IS!”
“Nick, calm down.” AJ said quietly, still holding on to Nick’s arms.
“NO, DAMN IT!” He tried to break free from AJ’s grip, but he found that he had no strength left to do so. Granger and the Russian Officer slowly started to lead Orlov away, down the hall. “NO! LET ME GO! TELL ME WHERE SHE IS. I’M GONNA FUKCING KILL YOU!!!!” He turned around and looked at AJ, his eyes filled with horror and anger. But as much as Nick twisted and turned, AJ didn’t let go.
“DON’T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME! WHERE IS SHE?”
“Nick, there’s no use. Calm down.”
Orlov and the two officers disappeared around the corner and Nick felt a strong urge to run after them and knock some sense into Orlov.
“GODDAMN IT!” He yelled slamming his fists against the cold wall, his voice echoing down the now deserted hall. As quickly as the anger had come upon him, it was gone and replaced by tears.