With Friends Like These. . .

Caught

“He ruined it. He f*****g ruined it.”

“I know, I know. He got too cocky. Went too fast. Should have listened to you. Taken it slow. Really built the game.”

“This was the best f*****g meal ticket we’ve ever had, and now--?”

“I know, I know!”

“He knows.”

“He knows?”

“He knows. He knows there are four of us out here. He knows he just killed one.”

“Do you think any of the--?”

“Survived? What--The Human Exterminator? No. He’s too good. And I think they’re on Shayla’s tail. She said the same crusty old Ford has been following her for days.”

“Shit.”

“Yep.”

“So do we keep our mark?”

“Are you f*****g stupid? Of course we keep our mark. We may have to move her. But we have to be careful about her. Make it a conspiracy.”

“A conspiracy?”

“I don’t know! Do you want to lose that flavor?”

“No, no!”

“Well, you’ll have to replace him.”

“That means I’ll have to molt. You know how much I hate--”

“I’m already molting. I’ve got a safespot. Just put your mark and lets get out of here before she wakes up.”

That caught Evie’s attention. Before who wakes up? Her?! She sat up suddenly in bed, heart racing. “Who’s there?” She hissed into the darkness. She reached into her drawer and pulled out a flashlight. Bright as day, she lit up--

Absolutely nothing. She was alone.

“But I could have sworn. . . I heard. . .That’s it, no more bedtime cereal. The sugar is giving me f****d up dreams.” And with that, Evie rolled over and went back to sleep. She didn’t even hear the front door as it quietly clicked closed, leaving Evie to dream dreams of snooping into Mr. Alinac’s skeletons.

Snooping was apparently one of the worst ideas she could have had. Within thirty seconds of creeping into his backyard, Mr. Alinac was there, giving her a dubious expression.

“I don’t appreciate you coming in through my back yard door to return my sweater after ignoring me all day. You’re lucky my daughter texted me telling me a little Evie told her to set my mind at ease.” His arms were folded and his expression was ferociously stern. He looked tired.

“I--”

“Evie, I’ve had a long and scary night, my daughter is sick and I don’t know where she is. I’d appreciate if you would tell me why you’re behaving so strangely. And I’d appreciate the honest truth.”

She didn’t know what made her spill, but she gushed like a faucet. “O-Okay!” She huffed, almost breathless. “Its--It’s just--”

“Go on. I promise. No wrong answers.” His voice didn’t sound very encouraging, and for the first time in a while, she felt like a little kid again.

“I saw you. . . The other night. You had a huge bag with you. The night he went missing. And Karli kept talking about all this stuff, and I thought--I dunno. What you said before you left. . . ?”

She expected a lot of things out of Mr. Alinac, but boisterous laughter wasn’t one of those suspected actions. She stood, startled into silence, while he settled himself.

“I-I’m sorry, I’m sorry! That was the last thing I was expecting. Evie, that was my project. From work.”

“Well, then can you show it to me?” She asked, bravely, despite the show he put on. If he was bluffing, it was a good bluff. Wouldn’t stop her from calling. She needed the truth. What was in that bag if it wasn’t Trevor’s body?

“Sure, sure, come into the shed. You know I work with antiques, right?”

“Uhuh. . .?” She said cautiously, as she slipped into the door of the shed, and looked into the darkness. He pulled a chain light, flooding the small space with weak illumination. It revealed the empty duffel bag, and. . . Something horrific. It looked like a cartoonish approximation of what would happen if a beetle and a human cross bred. Dark, shiny black plates all over a two armed, two legged humanoid body.

“Well, have you ever heard of fake taxidermy?”

“Fake taxidermy?”

“Yeah! Fake Taxidermy! They used to do it all the time, back before the days of the internet. People would make these life-like replicas of monsters and demons and faeries and sell them to museums. Well. We got our hands on one of them. Only, that big mess at work I was talking about?”

He lowered his voice, as if letting her in on a huge secret. “My business partner messed up. He didn’t receive the goods right, and it was in danger of contaminating our entire building!”

“Oh my god! Contaminating?! Are we going to get sick?”

“No, no, not now. I took it home, so I could work on it in secret. Its safe now. No more asbestos. But there’s a couple of restoration projects that need to be done. Only problem, if our buyer happened to come in and see it in this condition? We’d both loose our jobs.”

How. . . Anticlimactic.

“You look disappointed.” Mr. Alinac noted with amusement. “Upset your cool neighbor isn’t some hardened criminal who murders sweet young women’s boyfriends for being mean?”

“N-No! Just. . . I’m now back to square one. I don’t know what happened to him, where he is, or even if he’s okay.”

“Now you know how I feel.” He said, wryly. “Why don’t you come inside? We can have a cup of tea, and you can fill me in on what’s actually going on here.” He didn’t give her a choice, despite how friendly his words sounded. He turned her around and marched her back inside his home, those surprisingly firm hands keeping an iron-clad grip on her shoulders.

“Yeah, sure, not doing anything anyway, let’s pick at new wounds.”

“Be fair, I’m only going to be unreasonable about this one. There’s a lot going on, and I’m only getting bits.”

“About your adult daughter?”

“I don’t care how old she gets, that’s my daughter. As long as I live, she will be my baby. Besides, you’re thrown in there too, missy. I want to be able to watch out for my girls.”

“I’m not your girl, Mr. Alinac.”

“You’re a grown woman, Evie.”

“. . . Sorry. Liam.”

“Please. Just. Just tell me what’s going on. I need you to understand how important this is to me.”

Evie sighed. He had a point. And Liam was being more patient than any man in his position would. She could see the strain of stress tugging the bags under his eyes, deepening the lines in his handsome face. He hadn’t shaved, she could see the stubble starting to build up. A thick, salt and pepper patch across his defined jawbones--

Jesus, Evie, get ahold of yourself! She scolded herself quietly, instead focusing her attention to the living room. She walked over to the loveseat and sat in it, leaning her back against the armrest. Liam mirrored her, his expression alert, attentive, and astute. She had the feeling he had her under a microscope.

“So. . . I guess, where do I start from?” She asked, feeling how small her words sounded in the room so much bigger than she was.

“Wherever you feel comfortable. If you need a starting point, tell me about that call.” He answered politely, yet sternly. All business. This wasn’t the Mr. Alinac she was used to. He seemed like an entirely different person. Even the way his brow furrowed, giving him a darker look than his usual, cheery, clueless self.

“O. . Okay. We were supposed to have a date night. I’d gotten all dolled up, because it was supposed to be a really big night. Kinda petty, but I was going to--Y’know, lose my virginity--and it was a bet between me and Karli over who would. Yknow. Sorry, Don’t know why I’m telling you that part.”

His expression tightened, and he looked confused for a moment. “No. It’s okay. You’d be amazed what’s helpful. Go on. You don’t have to spare me. Being in. . . Antiquing. . .I’ve seen it all.”

“Okay. Okay. Well, he told me he was working late, but that was a day he always had off. I was kind of suspicious, he’d been distant and frustrated, but I didn’t want to fight. When I was eating dinner, he called me, butt dialed, I guess. I heard him moaning some filthy stuff to a woman. I hung up. Before I could do much, you showed up. I don’t. . . Really need to tell you about all that. You were there.”

“I was there.” He agreed, a crooked smile twisting his lips. For the first time, Evie felt she was seeing the real Liam. And it was lovely. “However, do go on. How does my daughter tie into all this.”

“Next morning, I went home and she’d called me like, three times right after it happened. That was kind of weird, but I brushed it off. I get real distant with Trev and stop responding. He freaks out and starts love bombing me, making all these promises and talking about marriage. Weird stuff. Anyway, he swears that--Yesterday--He was going to come over and we would have a great time. I was planning on breaking it off with him, in person, so I wanted him to show. He sent me a picture of his car all packed, but Karli’s jeep was in the background, parked next to some other car. Super noticeable. I figured there had to be only one explanation.”

He furrowed his brow, like he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t. Or didn’t want to interrupt her. So, he inclined his head, and she went on.

“I confronted her, and when I showed her the picture, the look on her face. . .I don’t know. It looked so guilty. Maybe I was jumping at shadows. Karli was the one who submitted the police report last night, so--”

“Last night?” He interrupted, suddenly tense. “So she was there when he--?”

“She says she saw him packing up his things, Alex was worried so she went over to check on him y'know, only she called Alex to give him the update, and when she looked back, everything was gone and his house had been ransacked.”

“Evie, can I see this picture?” He leaned forward, a look of such dire importance on his face, she felt compelled to obey. She passed him her phone, with the picture saved to her gallery. His face went white. “I need you to delete this picture. I will explain everything later, but Evie, I need you to delete this, and erase your deleted folder.”

“Uhhhh. . . O-Okay. . .”

“And keep talking, please.”

“Y-Yeah. Right.” She deleted the picture so he could see, clearing her trash. He didn’t ask her to delete the text image she’d originally downloaded, so she would keep that to herself. “S-So anyway, she said she went in, saw the state of the place, and called the cops t-to report him missing, and then. . .”

“And then what?”

“I don’t know, she didn’t tell me. She texted me after I left telling me about the police report and everything. I don’t know why she didn’t tell me when I was still here. . .But I checked it out for myself. Police everywhere. They interviewed me and drove me home, cause I was a wreck, and. . .Then I kinda zombied out all day. Sorry about that.”

“Mmm.” He grunted in response, and Evie couldn’t help but feel she gave the wrong answer.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, it isn’t you. It just. . . Doesn’t make sense.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I have no idea what’s going on either.” Evie winced at the humorless smile he flashed in an attempt to pacify her. “Actually, can I ask you a question? Cause something doesn’t make sense to me.”

“Shoot, Kiddo.”

“That restoration project of yours looked really light. The bag I saw you carrying, you dragged like. . .Well. . .”

“Like there was a body in it?” He snorted with disbelief, c*****g an eyebrow at her.

“Yes!” She replied, defensively. The more she thought about it, the less it made sense. Was that worry flickering in his amber eyes?

“Some tools, some padding. Mostly asbestos.” He replied casually. The way his mouth tightened at the corners egged her on. He was on the ropes now.

“I can’t imagine any tools weighing that much. It looked really heavy, yknow?”

Acting casual, he reached towards a cup of water on the coffee table, taking his eyes off for just a moment, he said; “You’d be surprised--s**t!” She was watching his face, she didn’t see his hand clumsily knock the water cup off of the table, splattering the front of her shirt with icy cold water.

“L-Liam!” She shrieked, standing up. Her shirt suctioned to her skin, the water leaving nothing to the imagination. For a few moments, Liam gaped at her, eyes wide, unable to speak. Evie didn’t know what that expression was, but it made her cheeks burn, and her skin crawl. It felt. . . Carnal.

“S-Sorry, so sorry, please, let me help you with that!”