Proceed With Caution
Title: Proceed With Caution (2/6)
Author: appassionata1
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Luke/Noah
Word Count: 2,945 (chapter 2)
Disclaimer: ATWT characters are property of CBS and Telenext Media. No copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: When sixteen year old Luke Grimaldi goes missing while on a ski trip with friends, a top secret organization lead by Noah Mayer is hired to find him.
Prompt: "snow, lost, rescue"
Prompter: cindyls1969
Prompt: "the best Christmas ever"
Prompting: 123cariad
Noah banged on the door of the cottage loud enough to wake the dead and to put the fear of God into the young teens inside. It took a few terrifying seconds for Maddie to realize that the menacing stranger out there must have been sent by Brian. She hurried to the door and opened it just a crack.
Noah growled through gritted teeth, “I’m here on behalf of Luke Grimaldi.”
She gulped and responded, “Oh, ok please come in.”
He pushed the door open wide and bolted past her at a pace so fast she couldn’t keep up with him. When he reached the living room he stopped in front of the coffee table and slammed Luke’s jacket down on top of it. Maddie flinched at the sound as she took a seat on the sofa next to Trina. Noah stood like a tower over them with his arms folded, scowling down at them. The others looked at Maddie as if to say, “Who the hell is this guy and why did you let him in here?”
Maddie cleared her throat and said, “Guys this is, um… I’m sorry I didn’t get your name.”
Noah hissed, “Mayer… that’s all you need to know. There were supposed to be six of you here. Where’s the other two?!”
Trina reticently answered, “Candy had a mani-pedi appointment so Mike had to drive her back home.”
Noah, shocked by her answer hid his distain with sarcasm as he quipped, “And of course her mani-pedi appointment was infinitely more important than finding out what happened to your good friend.” He then mockingly shook his head. “They’re of no use to me anyway.” He was silent for a few minutes while he observed every nuance of their body language as they looked at Luke’s blood stained jacket displayed in front of them.
Scott guardedly asked, “What’s that?”
Maddie answered, “It’s Luke’s jacket.”
He continued, “I know it’s his jacket, but why… is that blood? Aww fuck!” Springing up from his seat, he covered his mouth with his hand and sprinted from the room.
Trina started to cry, “When you guys said Luke was gone I didn’t think you meant… oh my God is he dead?”
“It’s ok Trina,” Maddie pulled her into an embrace and soothed, “Mr. Mayer is here to help us find him. I’m sure he’s alright.”
Kevin shouted, “Trina if you didn’t get pissy drunk last night and if you weren’t passed out all day you would have known what was going on!”
“Seriously Kevin?” Maddie rebuked him.
After this first test ended Noah knew exactly who he needed to question. He announced, “Kevin and Maddie we need to talk.” They all looked at each other puzzled. “You first Kevin. Is there a room in this place where we can have some privacy?”
Kevin rose from the sofa and said, “Yeah, follow me.”
Noah followed him bringing his satchel and Luke’s jacket. Kevin walked into the den on the other side of the house, switched on the light, and sat down on a plush leather sofa opposite a large desk. Noah entered and closed the door behind him. He set his satchel down on the desk and with his back turned, rummaged through it for a few minutes working Kevin’s nerves before he began his interrogation. He pulled out a pair of bolt cutters and a cordless power drill, carefully laying them on top of the desk - his second test.
When he turned around he saw that Kevin was as white as a sheet and attempting to control his trembling bottom lip as he blinked back tears. He defiantly folded his arms and trying hard to sound unafraid he said, “Look Mayer I doubt that you’re a cop, but even if you are I don’t have to talk to you. I know my rights!”
Noah replied with a smirk, “Good for you. You’re right, I’m not a cop. That means I can get away with shit that no cop could ever dream of doing. And you know what? I’m damn good at it. Since I started doing this sort of thing I’ve closed a lot of cases. Some of them have been as easy as making a few phone calls, but others,” he picked up the power drill and inserted a huge drill bit, “were a bit messy. One way or another I always get what I need to solve each case. So you have two options Mr. Davis… clean or messy.” He switched on the drill and when he took two measured steps toward Kevin the terrified boy nearly wet his pants.
Kevin wailed loudly, “Dear God please don’t hurt me! I’ll tell you everything I know!” Noah’s expert tactics had beaten him down in a matter of minutes.
“Good, this is too nice a room to see your blood splattered all over the walls. Now let’s get down to brass tacks.” He turned off the drill and placed it back in his satchel. Then he removed Luke’s jacket from the bag and forcefully threw it at Kevin. “Why did you kill Luke Grimaldi?!”
Kevin was so flustered he let the jacket fall to the floor and shouted, “I didn’t kill him I swear to God! We had an argument out on the front porch and I… I hit him. I knocked him down and… I left him there. I must have bloodied his nose because there was blood on my fist. That must be how the blood got on his jacket. Afterwards I came back inside and went straight up to my room… and locked the door.”
“Why’d you lock it?”
“I locked it because we’re sharing a room and I didn’t want him to come in there.”
Noah began to pace as he spoke, “So you admit to causing an injury to his face and that you didn’t check on his well-being afterwards. Then you purposely kept him from his room where he could have gone to recover.”
“I know it sounds shitty, but you don’t understand my side of it.” Kevin wasn’t ashamed of his actions only how they made him look.
Noah stopped in front of him and said, “Then explain your side. I have a detailed file on all of you little shits. From what I’ve found you’re supposed to be Luke’s best friend. What a fucking joke!”
“Well I’m not anymore alright. How would you feel if your best friend told you he wanted to butt fuck you?!”
Noah leaned over and from within inches of his face boldly opined, “Since I’m not a homophobic asshole I might be flattered.” Then he straightened up and began pacing again as he continued, “Alright Kevin, you stated that the only blood you saw was on your hand and perhaps on Luke’s jacket after you punched him. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Noah stopped again and inquired calmly, “So would you care to explain how blood stains got inside your car and on your trunk?”
Kevin nearly jumped out of his skin when he shouted, “What? That’s impossible! Luke was never in my car after we fought.”
“I can show them to you right now.”
Kevin shot up from his seat and said, “Alright then, I want to fucking see them.”
He rushed from the room to get his car keys, but he remembered he couldn’t find them minutes before Noah arrived. He grabbed his jacket and found them in the pocket on the right hand side. Surprised, but relieved he dismissed it from his mind and lead Noah to his car. He opened the passenger door and gasped when he looked inside. He was horrified by what he saw. He began to visibly shake.
“I honestly thought you were shitting me!” He carefully examined the front and back seats, cautious not to touch anything. “Man you’ve gotta believe me. I don’t know how the fuck this blood got here!”
Noah stood behind him grim faced and said, “Open the trunk.” Kevin did as he was ordered and went to the back of the car and pressed the remote to unlock it. Before he touched the car Noah pushed him aside and with gloved hands lifted the trunk’s door. The trunk light came on and revealed another horrifying sight. A blood stained blanket. Kevin began to breathe heavily and was close to the point of hyperventilating. He looked up at Noah with pleading tear filled eyes, but the disgusted man had no sympathy for him. “I assume you have no idea how this blanket got here either!”
“No! I swear I’ve never seen it before! Somebody’s playing some kinda fucking sick joke. You know what? It’s Mike and Candy. That’s why they left and they took Luke with them. They wouldn’t have left if they thought he was in trouble or de-”
“Or dead?!”
“Yeah, Look Mayer, I know what this looks like, but I didn’t kill Luke! This is unreal, this is totally unreal!” He began to sob like a baby. Then he suddenly stopped and shouted, “Wait a minute, wait… I just thought of something. My keys were missing! I thought Scott was hiding them, but they were in my coat pocket. My coat was downstairs in the hall closet where anybody could have gotten to it! One of those assholes who came on this trip killed Luke and used my car to get rid of his body. They swiped my keys when nobody was looking and used my car so they could frame me. When they put my keys back they put them in my right pocket. It must have been Scott. That shithead’s always been jealous of me. That’s who killed Luke, not me!”
“So what does that prove?” Noah asked with an incredulous frown.
Kevin answered with a relieved grin, “I never put my keys in my right pocket. I’m left handed!”
Noah remained silent for a few seconds. He didn’t believe this rattled boy could think up such an intricate alibi so quickly. There must have been some truth in it.
He sighed and ordered, “Get back in the house!”
“Yes, yes sir.”
Wiping his eyes and face Kevin walked away with his shoulders slumped and his head bowed. He didn’t say a word to the others still sitting on the living room sofa he just went upstairs to his room, shaken beyond measure. Maddie, Scott and Trina looked at each other, more puzzled now than before.
After carefully examining the blood stains inside the car Noah retrieved the blanket from the trunk, placed it inside a plastic evidence bag, carefully examined the trunk, and closed it. Then he closed the car doors and went back inside. This time he slammed the blanket down in from of the three that were left.
“A blood stained jacket and a blood stained blanket in Kevin’s truck. Looks to me like a murder happened here and you’re all responsible for it.” Drowning out their dramatic protests Noah bellowed, “Alright roll up your sleeves! I’m getting a blood sample from each of you right now!” He dug into his satchel and pulled out an enormous syringe. The three of them looked traumatized - test number three.
Maddie spoke up, “No wait… um Mr. Mayer you wanted to question me, so um why don’t you do that first?”
Noah pursed his lips and replied, “Sure, I can do that. After you.” He placed the syringe back inside his satchel, picked it up off the table, and indicated with a wave of his hand the direction of the den. Then he followed Maddie into the room and closed the door. She picked up Luke’s jacket from the floor and sat down in a chair cradling it in her arms. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she looked up at Noah’s menacing face hovering over her.
“The game’s over Maddie. Where’s Luke!”
Looking down at Luke’s jacket she answered through a shuddering sigh, “I don’t know.”
Noah began pacing again, “Ok that’s your story and you’re sticking to it, but unfortunately there’s about a million holes in it. Shall I point out a few? When the DNA results come in for the blood stains I’m positive some of it will be Luke’s. I’m also positive that some of it is yours.”
Stunned she dropped the jacket and screeched, “Mine? What are you talking about?”
He stopped in front of her and ordered, “Roll up your sleeves!”
The rattled girl asked, “Why?”
“Why not… if you don’t have anything to hide?”
Trying to muster up enough courage to defend herself she answered, “I don’t have anything to hide!”
“Then do it!” Maddie pushed each sleeve of her bulky sweater halfway up her forearms, obviously attempting to hide something. Noah shouted, “Alright, enough of this!” He grabbed her left arm and pushed her sleeve up over her elbow to reveal a large bandage. “How’d you get that cut Miss Coleman?!” She defiantly snatched her arm from his grasp. “The longer you take to answer my questions the worse things are gonna get for you.”
She knew it was time to tell the truth. “But I promised Luke,” she said softly.
Noah sighed and said, “You promised him you wouldn’t tell where he’s hiding.”
She was astonished by his extraordinary power of deduction. “How could you know that?”
“I can read people Miss Coleman and you and your friends are a bunch of rich, obnoxious, spoiled brats, but you’re not killers.”
“Gee thanks.”
“So where is he?”
“He’s at a motel about five miles from here.”
He shook his head and placing his things back into his satchel he said, “You know you’ve done a really stupid thing here; trying to make Kevin look like a murderer. Why the hell would you and Luke do something like that?”
“Luke had nothing to do with it. It was totally my idea. Luke and Kevin had an argument and it must have been about something totally serious because Kevin punched him. I found Luke sitting outside on the ground bleeding and shivering. I could tell he’d been crying and he was too embarrassed to come back inside. I begged him, but he kept refusing. I came inside and got a blanket and I took Kevin’s car keys so we could sit inside his car… so Luke could get warm. I kept asking him what happened and he wouldn’t tell me. Then he got into the back seat and lay down underneath the blanket. I didn’t know what to do, so I left the resort and started driving around. I turned on some music and I thought he was asleep, but when we got close to the Motel 6 he told me to stop there. I made sure he got a room and I stayed with him until he fell asleep. He made me promise not to tell anyone where he was. He looked so sad it broke my heart. Kevin was a real asshole for what he’d done and I just couldn’t let him get away with it. Driving back I got the idea to make it look like… well you know what I…”
Noah began to describe the events as if he were there when they happened, “When you saw Luke’s blood on the blanket you got the idea to make it look like he’d been murdered. There wasn’t quite enough blood to create a convincing crime scene so you cut yourself to get the rest. You spread the blood on his car, stashed the blanket in the trunk, and created the blood trail leading to the snow bank where you buried Luke’s jacket. And you did all that just to play a joke on Kevin.”
“Not to play a joke on Kevin, but to teach him a lesson.”
“Oh, that you definitely did. I thought he was gonna shit his pants out there and I must admit I don’t have one iota of sympathy for him. Luke is all I’m concerned about. So I’m assuming all he has are the clothes on his back, his phone, some money, a credit card?”
“Yeah, plus a fake ID.”
Suddenly Noah’s blood ran cold when a mortifying though occurred to him. With an intense stare he inquired, “Ok now, tell me the truth. Was Luke planning to hurt himself? Does he have any drugs with him?”
Maddie put her hand over her mouth and gasped, “Oh my God… he wouldn’t do that…would he? He told me not to call him. I did a few times but, he’s not answering his phone.”
He grabbed her shoulders and shook her, shouting, “Any drugs, alcohol… anything?!”
“He used his fake ID to buy a bottle of Jack Daniel’s before we got there.”
“Gimme the motel’s address,” he ordered, digging his phone out of his pocket. She took out her phone and found the address. He pressed his against hers to transport it into his phone. “In his state of mind you never should have left him by himself.” Her expression was one of pure anguish as she looked up at him, realizing the horrible mistake she’d made. “Go home Maddie and take your friends with you.”
Then without another word Noah grabbed his bag and darted out of the cottage. Moments later he was on the main highway driving to the Motel 6 at break neck speed. He couldn’t remember a time when he was so angry and so heartsick.
Why the fuck didn’t I figure this out sooner? He’s contemplating suicide! God, please let him be alive when I get there. I don’t think I could ever forgive myself if he isn’t.
(Chapter 3)
Author: appassionata1
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Luke/Noah
Word Count: 2,945 (chapter 2)
Disclaimer: ATWT characters are property of CBS and Telenext Media. No copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: When sixteen year old Luke Grimaldi goes missing while on a ski trip with friends, a top secret organization lead by Noah Mayer is hired to find him.
Prompt: "snow, lost, rescue"
Prompter: cindyls1969
Prompt: "the best Christmas ever"
Prompting: 123cariad
Noah banged on the door of the cottage loud enough to wake the dead and to put the fear of God into the young teens inside. It took a few terrifying seconds for Maddie to realize that the menacing stranger out there must have been sent by Brian. She hurried to the door and opened it just a crack.
Noah growled through gritted teeth, “I’m here on behalf of Luke Grimaldi.”
She gulped and responded, “Oh, ok please come in.”
He pushed the door open wide and bolted past her at a pace so fast she couldn’t keep up with him. When he reached the living room he stopped in front of the coffee table and slammed Luke’s jacket down on top of it. Maddie flinched at the sound as she took a seat on the sofa next to Trina. Noah stood like a tower over them with his arms folded, scowling down at them. The others looked at Maddie as if to say, “Who the hell is this guy and why did you let him in here?”
Maddie cleared her throat and said, “Guys this is, um… I’m sorry I didn’t get your name.”
Noah hissed, “Mayer… that’s all you need to know. There were supposed to be six of you here. Where’s the other two?!”
Trina reticently answered, “Candy had a mani-pedi appointment so Mike had to drive her back home.”
Noah, shocked by her answer hid his distain with sarcasm as he quipped, “And of course her mani-pedi appointment was infinitely more important than finding out what happened to your good friend.” He then mockingly shook his head. “They’re of no use to me anyway.” He was silent for a few minutes while he observed every nuance of their body language as they looked at Luke’s blood stained jacket displayed in front of them.
Scott guardedly asked, “What’s that?”
Maddie answered, “It’s Luke’s jacket.”
He continued, “I know it’s his jacket, but why… is that blood? Aww fuck!” Springing up from his seat, he covered his mouth with his hand and sprinted from the room.
Trina started to cry, “When you guys said Luke was gone I didn’t think you meant… oh my God is he dead?”
“It’s ok Trina,” Maddie pulled her into an embrace and soothed, “Mr. Mayer is here to help us find him. I’m sure he’s alright.”
Kevin shouted, “Trina if you didn’t get pissy drunk last night and if you weren’t passed out all day you would have known what was going on!”
“Seriously Kevin?” Maddie rebuked him.
After this first test ended Noah knew exactly who he needed to question. He announced, “Kevin and Maddie we need to talk.” They all looked at each other puzzled. “You first Kevin. Is there a room in this place where we can have some privacy?”
Kevin rose from the sofa and said, “Yeah, follow me.”
Noah followed him bringing his satchel and Luke’s jacket. Kevin walked into the den on the other side of the house, switched on the light, and sat down on a plush leather sofa opposite a large desk. Noah entered and closed the door behind him. He set his satchel down on the desk and with his back turned, rummaged through it for a few minutes working Kevin’s nerves before he began his interrogation. He pulled out a pair of bolt cutters and a cordless power drill, carefully laying them on top of the desk - his second test.
When he turned around he saw that Kevin was as white as a sheet and attempting to control his trembling bottom lip as he blinked back tears. He defiantly folded his arms and trying hard to sound unafraid he said, “Look Mayer I doubt that you’re a cop, but even if you are I don’t have to talk to you. I know my rights!”
Noah replied with a smirk, “Good for you. You’re right, I’m not a cop. That means I can get away with shit that no cop could ever dream of doing. And you know what? I’m damn good at it. Since I started doing this sort of thing I’ve closed a lot of cases. Some of them have been as easy as making a few phone calls, but others,” he picked up the power drill and inserted a huge drill bit, “were a bit messy. One way or another I always get what I need to solve each case. So you have two options Mr. Davis… clean or messy.” He switched on the drill and when he took two measured steps toward Kevin the terrified boy nearly wet his pants.
Kevin wailed loudly, “Dear God please don’t hurt me! I’ll tell you everything I know!” Noah’s expert tactics had beaten him down in a matter of minutes.
“Good, this is too nice a room to see your blood splattered all over the walls. Now let’s get down to brass tacks.” He turned off the drill and placed it back in his satchel. Then he removed Luke’s jacket from the bag and forcefully threw it at Kevin. “Why did you kill Luke Grimaldi?!”
Kevin was so flustered he let the jacket fall to the floor and shouted, “I didn’t kill him I swear to God! We had an argument out on the front porch and I… I hit him. I knocked him down and… I left him there. I must have bloodied his nose because there was blood on my fist. That must be how the blood got on his jacket. Afterwards I came back inside and went straight up to my room… and locked the door.”
“Why’d you lock it?”
“I locked it because we’re sharing a room and I didn’t want him to come in there.”
Noah began to pace as he spoke, “So you admit to causing an injury to his face and that you didn’t check on his well-being afterwards. Then you purposely kept him from his room where he could have gone to recover.”
“I know it sounds shitty, but you don’t understand my side of it.” Kevin wasn’t ashamed of his actions only how they made him look.
Noah stopped in front of him and said, “Then explain your side. I have a detailed file on all of you little shits. From what I’ve found you’re supposed to be Luke’s best friend. What a fucking joke!”
“Well I’m not anymore alright. How would you feel if your best friend told you he wanted to butt fuck you?!”
Noah leaned over and from within inches of his face boldly opined, “Since I’m not a homophobic asshole I might be flattered.” Then he straightened up and began pacing again as he continued, “Alright Kevin, you stated that the only blood you saw was on your hand and perhaps on Luke’s jacket after you punched him. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Noah stopped again and inquired calmly, “So would you care to explain how blood stains got inside your car and on your trunk?”
Kevin nearly jumped out of his skin when he shouted, “What? That’s impossible! Luke was never in my car after we fought.”
“I can show them to you right now.”
Kevin shot up from his seat and said, “Alright then, I want to fucking see them.”
He rushed from the room to get his car keys, but he remembered he couldn’t find them minutes before Noah arrived. He grabbed his jacket and found them in the pocket on the right hand side. Surprised, but relieved he dismissed it from his mind and lead Noah to his car. He opened the passenger door and gasped when he looked inside. He was horrified by what he saw. He began to visibly shake.
“I honestly thought you were shitting me!” He carefully examined the front and back seats, cautious not to touch anything. “Man you’ve gotta believe me. I don’t know how the fuck this blood got here!”
Noah stood behind him grim faced and said, “Open the trunk.” Kevin did as he was ordered and went to the back of the car and pressed the remote to unlock it. Before he touched the car Noah pushed him aside and with gloved hands lifted the trunk’s door. The trunk light came on and revealed another horrifying sight. A blood stained blanket. Kevin began to breathe heavily and was close to the point of hyperventilating. He looked up at Noah with pleading tear filled eyes, but the disgusted man had no sympathy for him. “I assume you have no idea how this blanket got here either!”
“No! I swear I’ve never seen it before! Somebody’s playing some kinda fucking sick joke. You know what? It’s Mike and Candy. That’s why they left and they took Luke with them. They wouldn’t have left if they thought he was in trouble or de-”
“Or dead?!”
“Yeah, Look Mayer, I know what this looks like, but I didn’t kill Luke! This is unreal, this is totally unreal!” He began to sob like a baby. Then he suddenly stopped and shouted, “Wait a minute, wait… I just thought of something. My keys were missing! I thought Scott was hiding them, but they were in my coat pocket. My coat was downstairs in the hall closet where anybody could have gotten to it! One of those assholes who came on this trip killed Luke and used my car to get rid of his body. They swiped my keys when nobody was looking and used my car so they could frame me. When they put my keys back they put them in my right pocket. It must have been Scott. That shithead’s always been jealous of me. That’s who killed Luke, not me!”
“So what does that prove?” Noah asked with an incredulous frown.
Kevin answered with a relieved grin, “I never put my keys in my right pocket. I’m left handed!”
Noah remained silent for a few seconds. He didn’t believe this rattled boy could think up such an intricate alibi so quickly. There must have been some truth in it.
He sighed and ordered, “Get back in the house!”
“Yes, yes sir.”
Wiping his eyes and face Kevin walked away with his shoulders slumped and his head bowed. He didn’t say a word to the others still sitting on the living room sofa he just went upstairs to his room, shaken beyond measure. Maddie, Scott and Trina looked at each other, more puzzled now than before.
After carefully examining the blood stains inside the car Noah retrieved the blanket from the trunk, placed it inside a plastic evidence bag, carefully examined the trunk, and closed it. Then he closed the car doors and went back inside. This time he slammed the blanket down in from of the three that were left.
“A blood stained jacket and a blood stained blanket in Kevin’s truck. Looks to me like a murder happened here and you’re all responsible for it.” Drowning out their dramatic protests Noah bellowed, “Alright roll up your sleeves! I’m getting a blood sample from each of you right now!” He dug into his satchel and pulled out an enormous syringe. The three of them looked traumatized - test number three.
Maddie spoke up, “No wait… um Mr. Mayer you wanted to question me, so um why don’t you do that first?”
Noah pursed his lips and replied, “Sure, I can do that. After you.” He placed the syringe back inside his satchel, picked it up off the table, and indicated with a wave of his hand the direction of the den. Then he followed Maddie into the room and closed the door. She picked up Luke’s jacket from the floor and sat down in a chair cradling it in her arms. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she looked up at Noah’s menacing face hovering over her.
“The game’s over Maddie. Where’s Luke!”
Looking down at Luke’s jacket she answered through a shuddering sigh, “I don’t know.”
Noah began pacing again, “Ok that’s your story and you’re sticking to it, but unfortunately there’s about a million holes in it. Shall I point out a few? When the DNA results come in for the blood stains I’m positive some of it will be Luke’s. I’m also positive that some of it is yours.”
Stunned she dropped the jacket and screeched, “Mine? What are you talking about?”
He stopped in front of her and ordered, “Roll up your sleeves!”
The rattled girl asked, “Why?”
“Why not… if you don’t have anything to hide?”
Trying to muster up enough courage to defend herself she answered, “I don’t have anything to hide!”
“Then do it!” Maddie pushed each sleeve of her bulky sweater halfway up her forearms, obviously attempting to hide something. Noah shouted, “Alright, enough of this!” He grabbed her left arm and pushed her sleeve up over her elbow to reveal a large bandage. “How’d you get that cut Miss Coleman?!” She defiantly snatched her arm from his grasp. “The longer you take to answer my questions the worse things are gonna get for you.”
She knew it was time to tell the truth. “But I promised Luke,” she said softly.
Noah sighed and said, “You promised him you wouldn’t tell where he’s hiding.”
She was astonished by his extraordinary power of deduction. “How could you know that?”
“I can read people Miss Coleman and you and your friends are a bunch of rich, obnoxious, spoiled brats, but you’re not killers.”
“Gee thanks.”
“So where is he?”
“He’s at a motel about five miles from here.”
He shook his head and placing his things back into his satchel he said, “You know you’ve done a really stupid thing here; trying to make Kevin look like a murderer. Why the hell would you and Luke do something like that?”
“Luke had nothing to do with it. It was totally my idea. Luke and Kevin had an argument and it must have been about something totally serious because Kevin punched him. I found Luke sitting outside on the ground bleeding and shivering. I could tell he’d been crying and he was too embarrassed to come back inside. I begged him, but he kept refusing. I came inside and got a blanket and I took Kevin’s car keys so we could sit inside his car… so Luke could get warm. I kept asking him what happened and he wouldn’t tell me. Then he got into the back seat and lay down underneath the blanket. I didn’t know what to do, so I left the resort and started driving around. I turned on some music and I thought he was asleep, but when we got close to the Motel 6 he told me to stop there. I made sure he got a room and I stayed with him until he fell asleep. He made me promise not to tell anyone where he was. He looked so sad it broke my heart. Kevin was a real asshole for what he’d done and I just couldn’t let him get away with it. Driving back I got the idea to make it look like… well you know what I…”
Noah began to describe the events as if he were there when they happened, “When you saw Luke’s blood on the blanket you got the idea to make it look like he’d been murdered. There wasn’t quite enough blood to create a convincing crime scene so you cut yourself to get the rest. You spread the blood on his car, stashed the blanket in the trunk, and created the blood trail leading to the snow bank where you buried Luke’s jacket. And you did all that just to play a joke on Kevin.”
“Not to play a joke on Kevin, but to teach him a lesson.”
“Oh, that you definitely did. I thought he was gonna shit his pants out there and I must admit I don’t have one iota of sympathy for him. Luke is all I’m concerned about. So I’m assuming all he has are the clothes on his back, his phone, some money, a credit card?”
“Yeah, plus a fake ID.”
Suddenly Noah’s blood ran cold when a mortifying though occurred to him. With an intense stare he inquired, “Ok now, tell me the truth. Was Luke planning to hurt himself? Does he have any drugs with him?”
Maddie put her hand over her mouth and gasped, “Oh my God… he wouldn’t do that…would he? He told me not to call him. I did a few times but, he’s not answering his phone.”
He grabbed her shoulders and shook her, shouting, “Any drugs, alcohol… anything?!”
“He used his fake ID to buy a bottle of Jack Daniel’s before we got there.”
“Gimme the motel’s address,” he ordered, digging his phone out of his pocket. She took out her phone and found the address. He pressed his against hers to transport it into his phone. “In his state of mind you never should have left him by himself.” Her expression was one of pure anguish as she looked up at him, realizing the horrible mistake she’d made. “Go home Maddie and take your friends with you.”
Then without another word Noah grabbed his bag and darted out of the cottage. Moments later he was on the main highway driving to the Motel 6 at break neck speed. He couldn’t remember a time when he was so angry and so heartsick.
Why the fuck didn’t I figure this out sooner? He’s contemplating suicide! God, please let him be alive when I get there. I don’t think I could ever forgive myself if he isn’t.
(Chapter 3)