Howie looked at me like I was some kind of crazy man as I sped out of the airport and down the road so fast, I was sure I’d get pulled over by at least airport security. It actually kind of disturbed me that no one cared about how fast I was going. Maybe they didn’t notice?
I kept looking in the mirror to see if my tail was still there and of course she was, but not as close as before. “Uh Nicky…mind telling me what’s going on?” Howie asked once we managed to get onto the highway.
“This is going to sound really strange.”
“Stranger than you asking me to buy you a magnifying glass?”
“Yeah… and did you, by the way?”
Howie answered by handing me a paper bag, “It was $50.00.”
“What the fuck? How big is it?”
“It’s tiny but it was an airport gift shop, what did you expect?”
“Wow…thanks D.”
“I will be paid back for that, correct?”
“Of course.”
I went to open the bag much to Howie’s dismay. How did I know he wasn’t pleased by this? He let out a gasp as if me looking down at the bag for five seconds while driving was going to get us killed. Now if he freaked out about that, can you imagine how he would be if I told him we were being chased by someone who shoots guns for a living?
“Why don’t I take that back and you can look at it when we get to Kevin’s, okay?” He said as he grabbed the bag out of my hands. “Why do you keep looking behind you?” He asked once he felt like I wasn’t going to kill him anymore I guess.
“Because we’re kind of being followed.”
He turned his head to which I, without even thinking about it, smacked him. “What the hell?”
“Sorry…don’t turn around.”
“Why?”
“Because we don’t want her to know that we know we’re being followed.”
“Her?”
“Yeah…it’s a long story.”
“Paparazzi?”
“Here? I don’t think so D, unless they have trained cows to take pictures.”
“Nick, I’ve been here for ten minutes and I already have a ‘you’ headache, so please just tell me what’s going on before my head explodes.”
I looked in the mirror one more time and was kind of surprised that I didn’t see anyone following me anymore. Maybe I lost her when I got on the highway. “Did Kevin tell you anything about his house?”
“Only that he loves it and that you seem to be mildly obsessed with it.”
I had to laugh because I could actually hear Kevin saying that while rolling his eyes and pushing his hair back in frustration as he paced while talking on the phone to Howie. “Did he say anything else?” I asked as I looked behind me one more time. Happy to see that there was absolutely no one on the road except for me.
“Just that you have been to the emergency room a few times too many for his liking and that one of them involved a teddy bear? I’m not sure I want to know the story behind that one.”
“What? I can’t believe he told you that!”
“I can’t believe you thought he wouldn’t.”
“Did he mention that the bear almost killed me?”
“No, he did not. Although to be honest, if he did I probably would have thought he had lost his mind.”
“We managed to get into some trouble…” I confessed not feeling like going into the damn Chub Chub story again.
“We?”
“Okay….me. I managed to get into some trouble with his house.”
“You got in trouble with the house?”
“Kind of.”
“Still not making sense Nicky.”
“There was this girl who lived there with her family and something bad happened and then there were these people who are also police officers who came in and knocked me out and stole stuff. She’s the one who’s following us.”
“The girl who used to live there?”
“No, the police officer who knocked me out.”
“You were knocked out by a female officer?”
“I know it sounds crazy Howie, but it’s true.”
“Is this before or after the teddy bear tried to kill you?”
“After.”
Howie just nodded with a half smile on his face. I have come to recognize that look as the one he used when he thought I was totally yanking his chain. He didn’t believe a word I said to him. Sweet D my ass!
“So why did you need the magnifying glass?” He asked.
“I need to decode something hidden in a book.”
He actually laughed out loud, “Nicky…sometimes you are just too much.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Before he had a chance to answer, we were hit from behind with so much force that I lost control of the car and veered off the road and into a ditch.
I felt a hand on the back of my head and recognized the voice of Howie. “Nicky…please answer me.”
I swallowed hard and tried to move but I felt like a ten ton weight. “Nicky…come on…”
“What happened?” I managed to ask, slowly moving my head away from the steering wheel. I must have hit really hard because there was blood all over it. Great, I bet I opened up my stitches.
“Thank God…are you okay? Does anything hurt?” He sounded a little frantic and I was still trying to figure out why.
“My head…” He gently grabbed my face in his hands to get a better look.
“Help is on the way.” He said. I noticed he was bleeding a little bit as well.
“Are you okay?” I asked him, as he let go of my face and nodded at me.
“I’ll be okay.” He said, but he didn’t sound okay.
“What happened Howie?”
“I don’t know. I felt something hit us from behind, but for the life of me I didn’t see a thing.”
“So, no one stopped?” Howie shook his head.
“You said someone was following us…would she have actually done this? I mean would someone do this on purpose?” Now he believed me, sad that it took us almost dying AGAIN before he would.
“I think maybe…oh my God…Kevin is going to kill me!” I said when I realized what I had just done to his car! The same car he trusted me over AJ to drive.
“This wasn’t your fault Nicky and I called him right after I called the police. He wasn’t mad, just concerned.”
“You called the police?”
“Of course I did. They should be here any second with an ambulance so we can get you to the hospital.”
“But it was the police that did this!”
“Nicky…”
“I’m serious Howie! We can’t stay here, we have to go.” I tried to start the car but the engine wouldn’t catch. “We’re just sitting ducks right now!”
“Nick, we can’t just leave, besides this car isn’t going anywhere and you were out cold for at least ten minutes.”
“But it was them!”
“Nothing will happen Nicky, trust me okay? You need to go to the hospital and get that head looked at.” The flashing lights and sirens coming towards us made me finally take my hand of the key and sigh. “It’s going to be okay.” He placed his hand on my back just as the paramedics made their way to the car to check us out.
The ride to the hospital was one big blur. People were poking and prodding me all over the place. The entire time Howie was right by my side. If he called me Nicky one more time I was going to scream. I swear that’s all I heard, Nicky this and Nicky that. I don’t even know if he was talking to me or to the paramedics. Whatever the case I know I said “stop calling me Nicky” at least three times. People were laughing. Nice to know I could brighten so many days.
I fell asleep at one point because when I woke up I was met with AJ shaking his head at me. I wonder if he had been shaking his head the whole time I was asleep. Oh, and yes, if you are keeping tabs, this was the third time I was at the hospital. They probably will have a wing named after me with all the money I’ve been giving them on this mini vacation of mine.
“Hey.” I said, not even recognizing my own voice.
“You amaze me Carter.” Was AJ’s answer as he walked over from his chair to take a seat on the bed facing me. “Are you trying to give Kevin a heart attack? Make me gray? Kill Howie? All of the above?”
“Is Howie okay?” I asked when I noticed neither he nor Kevin were in the room shaking their heads at me.
“He’s fine. The police are questioning him about what happened.”
“It was her AJ, I’m almost positive. She was following me.”
“The police officer?” I nodded at AJ as he continued, “Howie mentioned you said that. He didn’t see anyone hit you guys though.”
“Well, something hit us.” I grimaced when I moved my head. “What’s wrong with me? What did the doctor say?”
“You have a mild concussion. They want to keep you overnight for observation, but other than that…you’re good to go.”
I nodded at him, “I’m not sure I’m all that happy about having to stay the night.”
“I’m not too sure you’ll have a choice in the matter.” He said, just as Kevin and Howie walked into the room. Kevin did not look like a happy camper. I was almost tempted to close my eyes again and pretend I was still asleep.
“You’re awake.” But obviously, I was a little too late for that.
“I’m sorry about your car Kevin.”
He walked over to me and placed his hand on my forehead. “Forget about the car, I’m just glad that the two of you are okay. Are you sure it was her Nick? I mean no doubt in your mind she was following you?”
“I’m sure. I saw her when I was waiting outside for Howie.”
Kevin had a look of intense anger on his face, “This has gone on long enough. We have to tell the police about this.”
“But Kevin she IS the police!”
“She’s not the entire police force Nick. They need to know they have two potentially bad cops on their force, don’t you think?”
“Kevin, I’m not sure that’s a wise choice. That’s a huge accusation and he has no proof. I mean he swore up and down he didn’t see anything at your house and then it’s just his word against hers that she was following him. Neither of them saw anything at the time of the crash. To report her now would do nothing but let them know WE know.” AJ said as he stood up and moved back to his chair, allowing Kevin to take the place on my bed he vacated. It’s not like my bed was this huge massive thing either. They were squishing me. I guess they had no idea that sick, injured Nick needs his own space.
“So we just let her try to kill him again?” All three of us made a shush sound to Kevin because he said that really loudly. I’m sure it echoed through the halls of the hospital.
“I don’t want to sound like an idiot and believe me I’m trying to grasp all of this, but why are the police trying to kill Nick?” Poor confused Howie. I looked over at him and saw the bandage on his head right above his left eye as he looked from one of us to the other, desperate for an answer that would make sense to him. “I mean I want to kill him sometimes but I’ve known him for 13 years. These people have just met him.” He stated it as fact. Sure I get why someone would want to kill Nicky but why only the first week? Most people it takes at least two weeks! Gotta love Howie.
“We don’t know Howie.” And I guess that’s the best any of us could do. I’m glad it came from AJ’s mouth and not mine though.
“Wait! What about the book? D, do you have the magnifying glass on you?”
“I left it in the car Nicky, it suddenly didn’t seem so important to me.”
“Shit! The notebook is in the car too. Guys I think I might have found something.” I said when I realized none of them knew what I was talking about. “There was tiny writing at the top of one of the notebooks from the attic.”
“Really?” Kevin said, looking down at the ground suddenly. “I thought I saw something at the top…”
“You mean on some of the others as well?”
“Yes.”
“That’s excellent! Maybe we’ll find what we’re looking for! You guys have to go back and get them so we can see what they say!” I was getting all excited again. No mere car crash was going to keep me away from solving this mystery!
AJ and Kevin looked at each other. It wasn’t a good look either. It was a ‘do you want to tell him or should I’ look.
“What?” I asked, although I think I already knew the answer.
“Well, I used them like I said I would and they are sitting in the trash outside.” His eyes got really big, “And maybe now that they know we are all here at the hospital, they are busy going through the garbage!” Kevin stood up really quickly and headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“To the house!” Kevin answered.
“It’s too dangerous!” Howie yelled, yes we had Howie D yelling. “Have you all lost your minds?”
“But Howie…”
“Kevin shut up! You are being ridiculous. You want to go back to that house knowing that some crazy people are there going through your garbage, crazy people who tried to run us off the road and know how to shoot guns?”
Kevin looked perplexed as if he hadn’t thought of that. “But if they take those books…” I started, only to be interrupted by Howie once again, who was now blocking the door by the way.
“They take them, so what? You still have the one in Kevin’s car. All we have to do is get that one, right? And besides if the print is so small, they might look at the books and not think there’s anything to them at all.”
All three of us didn’t know what to say. The voice of logic was too loud at that moment to come up with any rational reason why any of us should go back to the house. Damn Howie and his logic!
“Look, I have no idea what the holy hell has been going on here with the three of you, but I have been here for less than a day and I have already been in a car accident and now am in the middle of some big weird….” He was searching for the perfect word, “Thing.” And apparently he couldn’t find one. “I’m hot, headachy, tired and frankly a little stressed right now. So here’s what we are going to do. Nicky is going to get some sleep so he can come home tomorrow and the three of us are going back to the hotel…not the house where the crazy, bad cops might be, but to the hotel. Then tomorrow we will pick up Nick and all of us will sit down with this notebook and see what happens, okay?”
“Kay…” We all said at the same time like three children just yelled at by daddy.
“Good!” Howie let out a sigh and shook his head.
“I don’t want to be here alone.” I admitted just as they were about to walk out the door. “I mean, what if they come back here? They know I’m at the hospital.” Once again the three of them looked at each other.
“I’ll stay.” Kevin said as he walked over to the chair and had a seat.
I was kind of glad he volunteered. AJ would have been useless, he most likely would have hid under the bed and let the bad guys kill me and Howie was kind of scaring me at the moment.
“Do you guys need anything before we go?” AJ asked.
I shook my head and so did Kevin as he grabbed his jacket and rolled it into a ball and placed it under his head. “Okay then…see you guys in the morning. Nicky I’m glad you’re okay.” Nice Howie made a brief appearance. Good for Nice Howie.
“Thanks D…and I’m sorry for almost killing you and making you spend $50 bucks.” I answered.
He laughed and then came over and gave me a hug. I licked him, I had to! “You are gross!” He said shaking his head at me.
I extended my arms out for a hug from AJ, “Dude, that’s why I never hug your ass!”
“I don’t want you to hug my ass AJ.”
“Whatever…”
I laughed as they both exited the room. There was an odd quiet between Kevin and I and I felt him staring me down. Gah, I hated that. To look or not to look, that was the question.
I said the first thing that popped into my head, “You know Tommy and I have the same birthday.”
Kevin was still staring at me, “I know, AJ told me. He said that you guys were exactly 40 years apart and then I called him a moron!”
“Why?”
“Because he can’t add.” Okay I’ll play along.
“What do you mean?”
“He said Tommy was born in 1950…”
“Yeah and?”
“What year were you born Nickolas?”
“1980.”
“Okay…so….80 minus 50?”
“Wow you’re right, AJ is a moron!” I said, closing my eyes and trying not to laugh.
“You really gave us a scare tonight Nick. I mean a real scare. Don’t do that again.” I’m glad my eyes were closed when he said that, but I had to admit to feel cared about was nice. “Get some sleep kiddo.” He said softly as I heard the light in the room click off.
“I will.” I answered as I drifted off to sleep feeling safe for the time being.
