The Real
Page 15
“Fine by me,” agreed Jeremy.
“So,” began Jinni, “Did you see her?”
Jeremy fought to suppress a smile. “Just for a second,” he replied. “I didn’t stay long.”
Jinni had come here to apologize for being jealous but she still had to know if he spoke to June.
“She said you were pretty,” added Jeremy.
“She must be a really sweet girl.”
Jeremy thought it best not to comment. Anyone could see that Jinni’s issues with June remained. Jeremy wondered if the real reason Jinni dropped by unexpectedly at one-thirty in the morning was not to apologize but to check up on him. Maybe she thought she might catch June and him together. If that were the case, then Jinni must have been surprised to find Tavalin, not June, parading half-naked around his condo.
“Why don’t you stay?” asked Jeremy as they exited the bedroom. “We ordered a pizza.”
“I might stay for a few minutes,” Jinni replied as she sat down on the couch.
In a few minutes Tavalin appeared and plopped down unceremoniously across from Jinni.
“Where’s that pizza?” asked Jeremy.
“Don’t know. Are you sure you gave him the right address?” asked Tavalin.
“I’m sure.”
“You know, on second thought, I really should head on out,” announced Jinni. “It’s late.”
Jeremy escorted Jinni downstairs but only as far as the front stoop because his feet were bare. He waited while she walked to her car and watched her drive away.
“What did she want?” asked Tavalin when Jeremy returned.
“I think she came here to check up on me.”
“Why?”
“It’s a long story.”
Jeremy did not want to get into the whole parking-at-the-lake-with-June bit, especially considering Tavalin’s feelings for June.
“I’ll be back.”
Tavalin got up and disappeared again, presumably to wait downstairs for the delivery guy. Twenty minutes later he strutted into the living room with the pizza in tow.
They ate gustily, despite the fact that the pizza arrived cold.
Ironically, but predictably, it was Tavalin who fell asleep first, still clad only in his boxers, his bony frame curled up in a tight fetal position on the couch. Jeremy placed a blanket over his friend, more to hide the spectacle than anything else. The second pay-for-view movie was almost over before Jeremy fell asleep in the recliner.
Chapter 21
Sunday, November 23
Jeremy, still in his recliner, awoke with a bitter taste in his mouth and a thumping in his temple. Tavalin was sacked out on the couch. Jeremy started to wake his friend so that he could finally be rid of him but remembered Tavalin’s clothes, still in the washing machine, still wet. Jeremy put the clothes in the dryer and dozed on his bed until the buzzer roused him.
“Wake up!” Jeremy demanded as he tossed the warm clothes in Tavalin’s face.
Tavalin groaned loudly in protest. His first words of the morning were, “Oh, my poor aching head.”
In jest Jeremy asked, “Do you want a beer? Or maybe some warm whiskey? You know what they say, hair of the dog.”
“Shut up,” Tavalin pleaded. “Or maybe you want me to throw up again?”
“I dried your clothes, by the way.”
“Thanks,” Tavalin said but didn’t seem inclined to make any effort to move.
“So you should probably get dressed and, you know, take off.”
“What, you’re throwing me out?”
“All good things must come to an end.”
“Alright already,” Tavalin said as he sat up.
“You don’t look so good,” Jeremy jabbed.
“Looks can be deceiving, but in this instance I have to say they are not. I feel like I got run over by a concrete truck.”
Tavalin dragged himself first to the bathroom and then to the kitchen where he helped himself to a giant glass of water. “You got any aspirin?” he asked.
“Ibuprofen, on the counter.”
Before Tavalin could leave, the phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Spires?”
It was a man’s voice, unfamiliar.
“Yes?”
“Mr. Spires, this is Lieutenant Sykes down at the police station. I have your address listed as 111 Townview. Is that correct?”
“That’s right. What’s the problem, officer?” Jeremy had a sick feeling in his stomach.
“We need you at the station, Mr. Spires. I’m sending a car over right now.”
“What for?” Jeremy asked, but the line was dead.
Baffled, he checked out the breakfast room window and discovered the police car already parked in the tow-away zone at the front door of his building.
With saucer-sized eyes Tavalin asked, “What’s going on? Was that the police?”
Almost immediately came the inevitable banging on the door.
Jeremy opened the door to the sight of two uniformed officers.
“Jeremy Spires?” asked one of the cops.
“The one and only,” replied Jeremy, trying to be upbeat though he felt anything but.
“May we come in?”
Since they asked, Jeremy knew he didn’t have to let them in but could think of no reason why he shouldn’t. “I guess so,” he replied and stepped back from the door.
The policeman in the back looked especially nervous as he held his right hand close to his holstered gun like a gunslinger in a spaghetti Western.
Not a good sign, Jeremy thought.
“Are you alone?” one of them asked.
“No. My friend is in the kitchen.”
“Tell him to come out.”
Tavalin took an uncertain step out from around the corner as he was well within earshot. “Hello,” he said, but the quiver in his voice belied the casual greeting. At least he had finally pulled on his clothes.
“Come out where we can see you.” The policemen studied Tavalin as he skulked into the living room. “Anybody else back there?”
Jeremy replied, “No, it’s just us.”
“Do you mind if we verify that ourselves?”
“I guess not.”
One cop stayed with Jeremy and Tavalin while the other disappeared into the back bedroom. In a moment he came back up the short hallway and made a quick scan of the front bedroom, including the balcony and the closet.
When he had rejoined the rest of them, Jeremy asked, “What’s going on, officer?”
“We need both of you to come with us downtown, if you don’t mind.” The cops were all business.
Jeremy didn’t know how to react or what to say. In the end, he shrugged and said, “Let me get my keys.”
Jeremy didn’t like the way the world looked from the back of the squad car. Tavalin appeared utterly terrified.
*****
Once inside the police station, they escorted Jeremy to a small office and asked him to have a seat. They took Tavalin somewhere else. Jeremy clasped his hands together on his lap after he noticed their slight shake. One of the officers stayed behind, leaning against the wall by the door in silence except for annoying little gum-smacking sounds. After only a minute or so, an older man entered the room and sat down behind the desk.
“Hello, Mr. Spires. I’m Lieutenant Sykes.” The policeman tried to smile, but the expression looked to Jeremy more like how a dog might bare his teeth at an adversary.
“I’d like to ask you a few questions. Do you mind if I record this conversation?”
Lieutenant Sykes placed a small, black tape recorder on the cluttered desk. He was a compact man, with a prominent jaw and a mustache that tweaked up and down over his upper lip in syncopated time with the cadence of his speech.
“I don’t know,” replied Jeremy audaciously. “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on?”
“I get to go first. What did you do last night?”
“I went to the rock festival on campus.”
“Alone?”
“With a small group of friends.”
“Do your friends have names?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Just a couple of quick questions, please. I’m trying to establish your whereabouts last night. What are your friends’ names?”
Jeremy rattled off the names of several of his fellow graduate students who were there, including June Song. “Also, Tavalin Cassel – he’s in the other room – and my girlfriend, Jinni Malone.”
Now the gum-smacker was scribbling in his little notebook.
With an almost imperceptible nod, Lieutenant Sykes motioned the other officer out of the room.
Jeremy’s mind reeled, groping at the possibilities. Why am I here?
“What time did you leave the RockFest?” asked Lieutenant Sykes.
“A little before midnight.”
“Where did you go after that?”
“I dropped my girlfriend off at her car, which was parked on campus. Then I went to the Biotech Facility for a few minutes, and after that I went home to my apartment.”
“Why did you go to the Biotech Facility?”
“I dropped in to speak to my coworker, June.”
“What was she doing there?”
“Working in her lab.”
“Was she alone?”
“Yes.”
“What time would you say you parted company with Ms Song?”
“Must have been around half past twelve.”
“After that?” asked the lieutenant.
“After that, I went home.”
“Did you see anyone else in the building?”
“The janitor was waxing one of the hallway floors.”
“Do you know his name?”
“Grady.”
“Last name?”
“I don’t know.”
“Anybody else?”
“Don’t think so.”
“What about your boss, Skip Sloan?”
Jeremy wondered how the cop knew that Dr. Sloan was his boss and that he had run into him last night.
“Oh yeah, I passed him coming out of the back door of the building on my way in. Also, I’m pretty sure I saw Dr. Cain’s car in the back parking lot at that same time.”
“Where did you go after you left June’s lab?”
“Home.”
“And did you notice anything unusual when you left or at any time while you were on campus?”
“No, nothing sticks out.”
“What time did you get home?”
“Best guess, a quarter till one. I didn’t notice exactly.”
“And what time would you say your friend Tavalin arrived at your apartment?”
“Approximately one fifteen.”
“Did you leave your apartment at all after that?”
“No.”
“Did you see or talk to anyone else after Tavalin arrived?”
“No,” answered Jeremy, but quickly corrected himself. “Actually, I did. My girlfriend, Jinni, stopped by for just a few minutes.”
“When?”
“Around one-thirty, maybe a little later.”
“Why did she come over?”
“Jinni came over because she wanted to apologize over a little tiff we had earlier.”
“You had an argument?”
“More like a small disagreement.”
“About what?”
“About nothing really – something she thought I did. You know how it can be sometimes.” Jeremy thought that maybe he could use the battle between the sexes to make an ally of the Lieutenant.
“I really need to know what the argument was about,” insisted the cop.
“Like I said, it was no big deal. She thought I was flirting, that’s all.”
“Flirting with whom?”
Jeremy hated being forced to divulge his private affairs with this stranger, especially since he had no clue why he was being made to do so in the first place.
“I’m sorry, Lieutenant, but I would really like for you to tell me why I am here.”
“Please, sir, bear with me. It’s crucial that we get through all this.”
Jeremy glared at the policeman.
“Now, who did your girlfriend accuse you of flirting with?”
“June.”
“And were you?”
“Was I what?”
“Were you flirting with her?”
“Like I told Jinni, June is my friend, nothing more.” The cop was punching the same provoking buttons as had Jinni the night before.
“Alright. It’s time to tell you why you are here…”
*****
When Lieutenant Sykes broke the dreadful news, Jeremy’s reaction was one of absolute horror and shock. He sat perfectly still, frozen with his mouth agape, staring back at the bad news bearer, waiting for the smile and the punch line that would not be forthcoming.
“How – how – how could this be?” Jeremy stammered. “Was there an accident?”
“No, she was murdered – slaughtered like a pathetic animal.”
Jeremy’s jaw dropped farther but no words emerged. He shut his eyes to implore God or fate or whatever to take it back, to carry him back to his previous world and away from this one. Like a child, alone and afraid, he repeated the mantra: It’s only a dream, wake up, wake up! It’s only a dream, wake up, wake up!
But all to no avail. When he opened his eyes, nothing had changed.
“Ms Song’s body was discovered early this morning.”
With acute self-consciousness Jeremy realized the cop was studying him, watching his reactions, reading his expression. How was one supposed to react when told that his good friend had been murdered?
“You might very well have been the last person to see Ms Song alive.”
It took Jeremy a further moment to process the trappings of the policeman’s statement. “You mean the last person besides the killer to see her alive, am I right?”
The cop slid a piece of paper to Jeremy’s side of the table. “Do you recognize this?” he asked.
Jeremy studied the roughly-drawn symbol. It appeared gratuitously cryptic and dark, like something an aspiring Satanist might create to impress his friends.
“No, I don’t think so,” he replied.
“Are you sure about that?”
For the next hour Sykes made Jeremy hash and rehash every detail from the night before. It was the longest hour of his life. The cop’s last request had been that he identify the remains at the morgue.
Only when they performed the dreaded act of pulling back the sheet did Jeremy understand the significance of the roughly-drawn symbol presented to him by Lieutenant Sykes: For reasons only a madman could understand, the strange symbol had been etched into her forehead. As disturbing as the spectacle was, Jeremy could not look away. And later, try as he might, Jeremy could not exorcise the grisly image of June’s mangled body from his mind.
*****
The following hours Jeremy spent alone at his condominium in a daze. Denial reigned supreme with one reoccurring thought cycling endlessly around his head: I can’t believe she’s dead.
It was late in the afternoon before Jeremy was able to summon Tavalin on the phone. When he answered, Tavalin’s voice sounded far away like he was halfway around the world instead of halfway across town.
“Is she really gone?” he asked, uncharacteristically subdued.
“What did the cops ask you?” asked Jeremy.
“Where I was, who I was with, did I see anything suspicious and did I have any idea who could have done it – all the usual police stuff. The only weird thing was the drawing. Did they show it to you?”
“Yes, twice.” said Jeremy.
“Twice?” asked Tavalin. “What do you mean?”
“I saw it once at the police station and then again at the morgue. It seems the killer carved the symbol i
nto her forehead.”
A protracted silence ensued while Jeremy waited on his friend to respond. “You still there?” Jeremy asked.
“You did recognize it, didn’t you?” asked Tavalin.
“No, I don’t think so. You did?”
“I had a pretty good idea where I saw it before but I wasn’t sure until I looked it up online.”
“Well, what is it?” asked Jeremy impatiently.
“Are you at your computer?” asked Tavalin. “Go to the events calendar on the University web page. Click on the RockFest link and under that you’ll find all the links for the bands that played. Choose Cocytus.”
“Hang on.” Jeremy moved to his desk and navigated to the Cocytus link. Heavy metal music, obnoxious and loud, spewed from his speakers. As fast as he could reach for the volume knob, he turned it down.
“Now click on the compilations link.”
“I really don’t feel like doing this right now,” complained Jeremy. “Can’t you just tell me?”
Tavalin continued, ignoring Jeremy’s complaints. “Under the compilations link, select their latest, Aliens of the Armageddon.”
“Could they have come up with a cheesier title?” asked Jeremy as he scanned for the link. “Here it is.”
“Now click on the thumbnail of the album cover to enlarge it,” instructed Tavalin.
The album cover contained an over-abundance of the dark-side elements one might expect, considering the compilation’s title. Demonic creatures with their requisite hoods and scythes stood on a carpet of human skulls in a ruined post-apocalyptic world, all in shades of black and white. The symbol of interest was inscribed within the circle of the full moon, and, as such, highlighted in yellow.
“Do you see it?” asked Tavalin.
“That’s it, isn’t it? How did you find it?” asked Jeremy of his friend.
“Did you happen to notice the design on the backdrop of the stage last night?”
“I suppose I didn’t,” replied Jeremy.
“Basically, take the moon with the symbol inside and blow it up to a diameter of thirty or forty feet, paint it on the backdrop with luminescent paint and hit it with black light,” said Tavalin. “I don’t know how you missed it.”
Jeremy’s phone beeped in his ear. “Tavalin, can you hang on? I’ve got another call coming in.”