Two hours later, I was sitting on the couch pondering if I should call Kevin or if I should go and pay a visit to my cop neighbor. I wasn't sure how involved Kevin was and how much he knew. Maybe not so much. But I chose to take a couple of alcoholic chocolate boxes and visit Steven, pretending that I am being grateful for his support, while I check out his apartment and find out more about what he was doing with Tom Goldman. Yep, how hard could that be? Wait, no, I am not sure I want to find out how hard it could be. Hm... I wonder how easy this could be? Much better.
And so here I was, two floors below my apartment, knocking on Steven's door and praying that he wasn't home. Will I ever recognize how terrified I was? Never. And then he opened the door, with a grin on his face.
I was starting to hate that he was one of the sexy good looking neighbors.
"I think I promised you a party. And I wasn't sure what kind of alcohol you prefer, so..." I lifted the two boxes of chocolates in front of him.
"They're great! Thank you!" he smiled and I knew immediately that he was lying. Oh well, more for me. "Come inside. Perfect timing."
"Hm?" I was wondering what he was talking about when I entered the living room and saw who was there.
Sitting in a big chair, with his face at me was Tom Goldman. Right in front of him, sitting on a similar chair was Chris, and on the right, sitting on the sofa was Kevin. In one second I saw my whole life right in front of my eyes, while planning to run for my life while remembering every martial art move that I learned during one year when I was a teenager. Yep, I was fucked, and not in a good way!
"Well, hello!" I smiled while looking at everyone and also checking every escape route that I had available.
I could run into the bathroom but even if I could lock myself inside, it didn't seem like a good idea. I could jump out the window, fall down five floors and most probably die. Or run to the front door, but Steven was right behind me. Yay me! So I chose to do what I knew best at that moment. Say nothing and look at everyone in the room. Someone will get nervous and start to talk. That was Steven.
"Please, sit down" he invited me and I sat down in the middle of the couch in front of the one Kevin was sitting on, clearly making my point that I don't want anyone else to sit next to me. So Steven got the message and sat next to Kevin.
I started opening a box of chocolates while keeping my mouth shut and smiling at everyone in the room. If they were feeling intimidated or uncomfortable, they weren't showing it. Keving kept staring at my hands opening the box of chocolates, while the others were looking directly at me. I remembered when I was on the stage, in highschool during the winter ball and how imagining everyone as naked cartoons seemed to make me less uncomfortable, so I did the same, and my smile grew until I had to do my best not to laugh out loud. Now everyone was more intimidated and I congratulated myself while putting a chocolate in my mouth.
"Who would like some?" I asked, pointing at the box of chocolates.
"I will have one."
Of course you do, mister Tom Goldman.
This whole situation felt more and more like a scene from a movie, so I did my best to keep imagining everyone as cartoon characters and stay calm, cool and collected. I lifted the box towards Tom Goldman and he took a chocolate and started eating, then Steven cleared his throat.
"How are you feeling, Jen?"
"Awesome!" I smiled at him, then put another chocolate inside my mouth. My plan was working well, everyone seemed uncomfortable and I was sure that I might be able to run away soon enough. "So, is this a party, or what? Because I would love some music!"
"No, it's not a party, Jenifer. But we could make that happen." said Tom Goldman, but I ignored him and kept looking at Kevin. Then Tom continued "Kevin wanted some answers to the weird things that he discovered related to the whole restaurant incident."
That made me look at him and he seemed pleased to grab my attention, but didn't continue. Kevin was the one that spoke next.
"After you sent me the video with him from the elevator and told me what he said to you, I started digging. And found out that he was somehow implicated in more weird occurrences like what happened in your restaurant and every time they had a weird excuse and in every case one or both Pills brothers were somehow implicated."
That didn't surprise me. I looked from Kevin, to Steven to Chris and back to Kevin while taking another chocolate and eating it. When seeing that I wasn't going to say anything but just stare at him, Kevin continued.
"So I came to ask Steven some questions about that, but when I arrived the other two were already here. And then you came." He shrugged and then looked at Tom Goldman, as if waiting for him to give us an explanation. But Tom seemed more interested in me.
"You don't seem very surprised,"
It wasn't a question, so I didn't say anything, just smiled at him.
"I'm sure you would like an explanation, but we can't take the risk and offer you that. That being said" he stood up and suddenly his black eyes started turning into gold "Jenifer Lancaster and Kevin Joy, you will forget this conversation and you will forget all the doubts that you had about everything that happened with the restaurant. You will believe that it was just a bad joke that went wrong and move on with your lives. And you will forget that you ever met or talked to me, and delete the video with me from the elevator."
My skin started to prickle and the sensation was similar to the one I had when I listened to Chris and detective Parker outside the interrogation room, only it was way more intense than that. Then me and Kevin repeated what he just told us. As soon as we finished, the intensity was dissipating, and his eyes stopped glowing. Then he left the apartment, leaving the four of us standing in the living room. Kevin looked disorientated, then he looked at me and smiled.
"Jen, I am really happy that everything turned out to be just a bad joke. I would stay longer, but I am a little tired. Have a great evening!" and then Chris walked him to the front door, saying goodbye.
"Yeah, I think I will leave too. I'm also tired. But I am happy that everything was just a joke."
With a smile, I said goodbye to the two brothers and went to the elevator where Kevin kept the doors open when he saw me coming. Then he pushed the button to the seventh floor.
When the doors closed, he turned to me, his dreamy smile disappearing. "What the fuck just happened?"
I was surprised and so relieved that he didn't actually buy the show or turn into a zombie like that detective.
"I am not sure, but Chris did the same thing to the detective Parker at the station. I heard them outside the interrogation room and he turned into a complete zombie who seemed to actually believe the lies that he was telling me about what happened at the restaurant."
I was whispering, afraid that Chris, Steven or even Tom might be able to hear me. Kevin didn't say anything else when the elevator doors opened again and we stepped outside and went into my apartment where I locked the door three times probably for the first time since I lived there.
Kevin started pacing in my living room, making me even more nervous.
"Every one of the other cases that I told you about earlier didn't have the security cameras recordings. Like someone deleted them. But then of course I did some more digging and found other security cameras nearby."
He looked at me with a blank expression. Was he scared? Puzzled? More like he might have a heart attack.
"You won't believe what I saw..."
"Something weirder than what just happened?" I joked. His face was serious.
"Yes."
Well fuck.
"Can you show me?"
He seemed uncertain. I opened my mouth to tell him that I wasn't some delicate damsel, but he nodded, then looked around, saw my computer on the table and sat in front of it, looked at me for a few seconds then started typing on it.
I wasn't going to ask him what he was doing on my computer. He was the IT genius in the room. So I sat next to him and pulled out my phone.
"Should we delete the video with Tom Goldman, just in case?"
"I think that's a good idea. I saved a copy somewhere safe anyway, so it might be safe to pretend that we are good little zombies for now."
This time he smiled when he looked at me. "Can you believe what just happened? I am still wondering if it's a bad joke!"
I smiled, then put my head on his shoulder. Damn, those alcoholic chocolates fried my brain.
"Fuck!" Kevin jumped and made me lift my head from his shoulder and look at his terrified expression. "I left the chocolates at their apartment." I said with a half sad face, and half amused by his scared face.
"Jen!" he growled.
"Oh, nevermind, I have more. And those weren't even my favorites!" I went into the kitchen and came back with another box of alcoholic chocolates. Yay me!
Kevin just ignored me, while still concentrating on my computer. I was wondering if he could see that last week I ordered a vibrator online. But then I decided that probably I forgot it in the bathroom anyway, so I unlocked my phone and deleted the video with Tom Goldman, looking as if he might kill me, in the elevator. Then I remembered that I was recording him, while giving him my middle finger and I was so proud of myself. That looked like a good scene for a movie in my head. I was already imagining filming that scene, for one of his movies, with me as the primary character, of course!
"Here" Kevin's voice woke me up from my daydreaming, and I focused on the screen in front of me when he pressed play. It wasn't a long video and when it ended I had to ask Kevin to play it again, so I can wrap my mind around it. Maybe those chocolates had way more alcohol in them than I thought. I put the box away, and looked again at the video. There was a man who was struggling to walk, like he was drunk. Or no. Like he was wounded? And then all of a sudden he turned into a huge dog and ran away. I looked confused at Kevin, then at the screen and back at Kevin.
"Are you going to tell me that werewolves are real, Kevin?" I smiled at him and he started smiling too.
"Yes, Jenifer, I think I am going to tell you that."