Authors: Jesse Abundis
“ Where are you going?” Peewee asked rubbing the crust from his eyes.
“ I need my sleep and that bitch isn’t going to let me have it today.” She tossed half her clothing onto the floor until she found the pair she was looking for, but putting them on still half asleep was making it a challenge and with the music growing louder with each second, made the task more complex. “ She’s dead!”
After slipping on her pants, she raced out of the apartment and into the hallway, where she was welcomed by the other tenants, they waved and said hello to her, which she replied with a bitter. “ Bite me.”
She passed the broken elevators which had been promised to be fix over five years ago. According to the landlord, “It was still a work in progress.” Which was code for “They’ll be fixed when hell freezes over.” Not far behind her was a half awaken Peewee still holding on to his doll. Some of the tenants laughed and pointed at him, but he wasn’t quite sure why? “Morning.” He waved at them. “Odd people.”
Karen made her way into the stairwell, going up one floor. The moment she graced the next level she was surprised to see how well taken care of it was, the carpet was new, the painting smelled fresh.“ We pay less, so we get less?” Karen muttered to herself as She made her way to apartment 206, the home of the Nympho herself.“ Vanessa open the hell up!” Karen yelled over the loud music and slammed her fist against the door. She could hear Vanessa running to answer, but as the door opened, she was shocked to notice the person standing in front of her wasn’t the nympho, but a white tall man with glasses, he looked too neat to be around from their neck of the woods. “ Who the hell are you?”
“ I live here, who the hell are you?” The stranger said to Karen. He eyed her from head to toe, holding the door open halfway, wondering who this crazed woman was. It took him a few seconds of observation to know exactly what she was. “ Look, I know times are tough, but there’s a lot of other jobs you can do, God forbid, I don‘t like to judge but you can do better.”
“Come again?” Karen asked.
“I know it’s not your fault, you probably had a bad life, always looking for a daddy figure.”
“What are you talking about?” Karen tossed her hands up in the air.
“Look, the manager warned me of your type, he told me people like you might show up, but I didn’t think you would actually come knocking at my door.” He rolled his eyes as Karen kept her confused look. “ I know you’re a hooker, but I don’t want any sexual favors from you.”
“ What !?” Karen was offended, she felt the urge to punch this new tenant in the throat for thinking she could be on the streets trying to sell her body. “Where do you get off calling me--” She was about to unleash the shit storm on him until Peewee came walking behind her, rubbing his eyes, with his Batman doll still in his arms.
“ Can we get something to eat, I’m hungry. ” Peewee asked
The tenant shook his head, he couldn’t believe what Karen was doing. “ You need to set an example for your mentally retarded son, think how he feels about his mother being..” He leaned and whispered to Karen. “ A hooker.”
Peewee let out a laugh like no other, a laugh which seemed to prove that man’s point of him being mentally retarded. Karen was red faced from anger and embarrassment. “I’m not a hooker, and he’s not my son!” She told him. “ I live right under you, your fucking music woke me the hell up!” She stomped her foot on the ground.
“Oh crap, I’m really sorry.” He apologized. “I swear, I didn’t know. Just give me a second.” He ran back inside the apartment, to lower down the radio.
Peewee was still giggling over what had happened. “I like this guy already.”
Karen sighed at him. “Peewee, he thought you were mentally retarded.”
“Must be my haircut?” He combed back his hair.
“Is this how morning starts, really ? ” Karen muttered under her breath.
The new tenant came stumbling back. “I’m super sorry, my name is Scott, I just moved in a day ago.”
“What happened to the other person that was living here?” Peewee asked him.
“The landlord said that she eloped with the janitor of the building.” Scott pulled out a box of Vanessa's old things. “She left this here, just a lot of vibrators and countless pictures of men's penises.”
Karen had always thought that her story about photographing her ex lovers penis was just a rumor, didn’t seem that way anymore. “ Keep it,” She shove the box back to Scott, causing the embarrassed man to fumble with his balance. “Look, just keep the music down. I was trying to get some sleep.”
“No problem. It won’t happen again.” He promised
“Good. Come on Gilbert, let’s head back down stairs and keep you from climbing any water towers.” She pulled Peewee by his shirt collar.
But as they were leaving Scott called out to them. “Wait up.” He tossed the box inside; he nervously rubbed his hands together as he approached. “How about we have dinner tonight, my treat, it’s the least I can do to make up for this whole mess.”
Karen was about to decline, only to have Peewee interfere. “We accept, what time?”
“ Is nine cool with you guys?” Scott asked them. “I know it’s a late time for dinner, but I want to whip something special for you guys and besides,” He was stumbling with his words. “I still have some items to unpack, so, yeah, is nine alright, or not, it’s really up to you guys.”
“We’ll be there!” Peewee wasn’t one to past up a free meal, his only source of nutrition was doughnuts and Rusty Chicken Shack value meal.
“That’s great, really sorry again.” He could only clear his throat as Karen stared at him with those eyes that wanted to burst him into flames. “I should go back, I’ll see you guys then.” Scott walked back inside his apartment, opening the door again slightly, just to apologize once more. “Really sorry.”
As they made their way back down, Karen was fuming. “You had to invite us.” She snickered and smack Peewee's shoulder. “You couldn’t just politely decline or tell him to screw off?”
“It’s a free meal, besides, it gives us some time to relax and kick back.” Peewee hid his Batman doll behind his back as they passed two female tenants. “ You ladies are looking lovely this morning.”
“That guy really bugs the hell out of me, you know there’s a good chance I might end up stabbing him with a fork before the night is done.” She warned Peewee.
“Would you relax, he seems like a cool guy, pretty funny too.”
“Have you forgotten we have a case to do ?” She reminded him. “We can’t spend time having dinners and chit chatting. We need to get serious.”
Peewee rolled his eyes at her. “I know, we’ll just head down to the nightclub right now and talk to the owner.”
“Might as well,” She sighed. “My beauty sleep is long gone by now.”
Chapter 21
Scrapbook
He walked back into his apartment, turned on the radio to drown out the noise from the outside world. He casually walked over to his bedroom; everything was completely neat, set the way he had planned. A plain room with no color or life, the objects left in his nightstand and his drawers were alarms to him, if someone ever walked inside his apartment unannounced and decide to rummage through his belongings he would know immediately. Then it would be up to him to take the appropriate actions in dealing with the culprits.
He knelt down and began to remove a floor board a few feet from his bed; he dug his hand slowly inside the hole to remove a scrapbook that was hidden inside. He brushed the dust off it and inhaled the scrapbook scent. Inside were photos of his soul mates, with pictures dating back to their childhood. He smiled at each passing page; he could feel himself be taken back in time, living each one of their memories as if they were his. A gift each of his lovers gave him, they wanted him to relive the special moments in their lives, they wanted him to be a part of their memories for eternity. “You’ll have a new sister soon.” He said out loud, he felt his soul mates presence in the room with him. “She has a way with words, I can’t wait for all of you to meet her.”
He took a pen from his pocket and began to write the name of their new sister “Carolina Carter” inside the scrapbook, saving her a spot. Soon she would become a part of something wonderful beyond her comprehension. He knew she’d be frighten like the rest at first, but she would come to understand it all in the end.
In the mean time they needed his protection to keep them safe, keep the outside world of knowing what was going on, he wouldn’t let anyone harm them, as Angela had tried with her lies, but he found a way to deal with that problem. He looked at the watch on the nightstand; It was time to make the phone call he had promised.
Chapter 22
National Front Disco
The Midnight Heat was empty; the cleaning crew was busy picking up the mess left by last night’s visitors. The only way Karen and Peewee had access this early in the morning was by passing themselves as private detectives hired by Janet Morales's family, the owner Luis Santos agreed to meet them at 10:00 AM with the staff that was working on the night Janet went missing. “ The cops already talked to every of me workers and found nothing, okay, I’m not sure what you looking for.” The owner was a Puetro Rican in his mid forties, he talked a bit like Tony Montana and attended to walk with swagger. He opened the night club ten years ago, in the same exact spot of another failed night club name the National Front Disco, a joint paying homage to the Morrissey song of the same, you would still get those Morrissey look alikes walking into the club remembering the days of old.
Mr. Santos used to work as a kitchen cook in a Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn. It wouldn’t be long until he hit it big with a small sum from playing the lotto. It wasn’t enough for him to retire, but just right to fulfill a dream of owning a nightclub. The club was becoming vastly known in New York, it was bringing some of Hollywood Celebes under its roof. It was a hot spot for some of the N.Y Giants Football players to blow off some steam during the off-season, most of the heavy hitters would drop a cool four-thousand in mere minutes, but despite all the glitz and glamor, Midnight Heat still stayed a club for the people.
A club for the people, but now for Peewee, as he had tried to get in on numerous occasions, only to be tossed out by the bouncers at the door, which in itself is a shocker, as all guests were welcomed with open arms, but that one particular bouncer just had it in for Peewee. All in all this was a small victory in a way; he was finally inside the club that had made his mortal enemy list, right under old people and Oprah. “We just need to double check, you know how cops are.” Peewee was dressed in a cheap worn out suit, something a private eye would wear, an upgrade to his jeans and masturbating bears shirt or have a nice day smiley face.
Karen was dressed in her nice long trench coat, and work slacks, something a fed would wear. They needed to sell themselves, fit the description, fool the untrained eye, lies were only half of the equation. “We won’t take much of your time.” She added as well.
The staff that had been up late night walked in one by one, none of them pleased to be called out this early in the morning. “pendejos de mierda.” One of the bartenders muttered, Karen dabble in Spanish, she knew it meant “
Fucking assholes.”
“lo siento por todo esto, esto sólo tomará un minuto.” Karen replied in Spanish to the bartender, the only thing he could do was smile after being embarrassed, he and the entire staff never expected them to know a single word of Spanish, they both looked like the average white person with low self-esteem. “ Like I told your friend here, I’m sorry, but this won’t take long. We just need to ask you guys a few questions on the night Janet Morales went missing.”
The twelve employees talked among themselves, a bit suspicious that people were asking questions about the case, seeing how the cops had brushed it aside. “Cops already asked questions?” One female employee said.
“Yes, we know. We’re private detectives hired by the Morales family. We’re conducting our own search.” Karen pulled a photo of Janet and passed it around the employees to get a good look at her. “We know for a fact, that this was the last place Janet was in before she vanished. We just need you guys to remember something about that night that can help us speed things up.” Karen and Peewee spent hours speaking with Janet’s friend whom they ran into outside Rusty Chicken Shack, what they got out of her was little, but Janet did match Karen’s theory of the killers taste in his victims. Janet had been a part of a broken family, no father in her life, looking to the common loser for that missing void. Now all they needed was a miracle, someone that might have seen anything.
The photo circled around the group, each one just shook their head as they laid eyes on Janet; they couldn’t come up with a single thing to help them with their case. But the look on one of the girls face in the back caught Karen’s eye. “Hon, do you have something to add?”