CHAPTER TEN - Belly (Part 2)
BANG!
Three large boxes filled with clothes, books, underpants, balled up socks and scuba diving equipment came tumbling and clattering out of the closet. And Josie came with it, falling to the floor under a storm of boxes and falling debris.
He looked up to find Emerald and Howard standing over him. A pair of pink underpants sat on his head.
A scuba mask plunked down on top him.
"Ow!" Josie screeched.
"Geez, Emerald, you should really unpack."
"I agree!" Howard said, extending his hand to help up Josie. "I'm Emerald's dad, Howard."
"Uh, hi," Josie said, pulling himself up.
"You must be Josie."
"Yeah, um, nice to meet you," Josie said, rubbing his head where the scuba mask whacked him and shaking Howard's hand with the other.
"I'm sorry dad," Emerald.
"Um, Sir, Mr. Phan, sir, I can explain about being in the...." he pointed to the open door.
But before he could explain anything or before Howard could ask him any questions, or find out the full story from Emerald, there was a loud pounding on the front door.
They froze.
Emerald went to the window and looked out. The police were going door to door, looking for Josie. She couldn't see how many were at the door, but a couple were milling about her lawn, looking through bushes and behind trash cans.
"Police" she said.
"They're looking for me," Josie said to Howard. "They think I killed Trinket and now Marty...."
Howard looked at Emerald.
"We just moved into the neighborhood....we can't harbor a fugitive until we've been here at least a week," Howard said, his eyes twinkling mischievously.
"Dad, he's not a fugitive," Emerald looked at Josie.
"He's my friend."
Josie looked at Emerald and saw that this was true. Even though he had tried to kill her, even though he might have taken both Trinket and Marty, even though he might have mind melted with Bangkok, she still believed in him. She was still his friend.
Bang! Bang! Bang!...
"Open up! Police!"
"Hide him!" Howard whisper-shouted, "And clean up the board and all the research. I'll try to get rid of them."
Howard rushed out of the bedroom and down the hall. He stopped just shy of the door, pressed his scant pieces of hair down on his head, and opened the door. The Barrel was standing there, his mustache jumped like a frog hiding under his nose.
"We are searching for a missing boy..." The Barrel shoved a photo of Marty in his face. Howard noticed how short and fat his fingers were, like little sausages.
"And we're looking for a fugitive. His name is Josie," The Barrel said, thrusting another photo in his face.
Howard pretended to examine each of the photos intensely, pushing his glasses up and down in front of his eyes, as if seeing with them on, and also with them off, mattered.
"Nope...No...can't help you," Howard said, handing the photos back.
"I'll be sure to keep an eye out and let you know if we see anything." Howard said it politely but curtly. He started to close the door.
Then, the big fat hand stopped the door from swinging closed.
"I think I'll need to look around a little," The Barrel said, stepping into the doorway.
"I mean we are looking for a young boy who was taken...I'm sure you have nothing to hide, right?"
At that moment, Howard realized The Barrel was coming in whether he wanted him to or not. He also noticed how small he felt next to the large man, so big and round, under his bush hat.
The Barrel looked back and forth around the room, scanning walls and floors and counters and all their moving boxes. He looked at one particularly large one and as if he were trying to surprise whatever as inside, ripped the top open quickly.
There was nothing but bathroom cups and toothbrush holders inside.
"You can see there's nothing here, but our moving boxes," Howard said it a little too loudly, trying to warn Emerald.
"I see that," The Barrel said. "You might want to get this cleaned up. You have a daughter, right?"
The Barrel took out his notebook and scribbled something in it.
"Yes."
"Hmmm...What's her name?" The Barrel scribbled more in his notebook.
"Emerald...Emerald Phan and I'm Harold Phan."
"Are you alone today, Mr. Phan?"
Howard was figuring out how he would answer that - lie or tell the truth - when they both heard a loud THUD coming from the room down the hall. Emerald's room.
The Barrel looked at Howard. His eyes twinkled with happiness. He loved catching people in a bad act.
"Will that be all, Detective?" Howard hoped The Barrel would simply leave, but he could see by his twitching mustache, and his eyes darting around the room that this wasn't possible.
There was nothing nice about the The Barrel. Years ago he had cared about justice and getting the bad guys. But his years of chasing nasty criminals had hardened him.
On his watch, two small children had disappeared in a matter of days and the Mayor's office was leaning on him hard. He had been in meetings, heated high-pressure, people-screaming-at-each-other meetings. He needed Josie to pay for slipping out of his grasp, for making him look foolish, and he cared not a little bit about whether Josie had taken the children or whether he was guilty or innocent.
He was going to find him and make an example out of him.
"I think I'll have a look around," The Barrel said, eyeing the rooms at the end of the hallway and then walking there, all heavy-footed and angry.
"Detective, that's my daughter's room, she might be...sleeping." Howard said a little too loudly, and walking fast, down the hall, behind The Barrel.
"You can't just barge into a young girl's room un-announced!" Howard shouted after him.
He wasn't sure if Emerald had time to hide all their research, her board and hide Josie. He hoped Josie wasn't in the closet, that would surely be the first place The Barrel would look.
The Barrel knocked quickly and opened the door. Howard was right behind him. His heart was beating wham, wham, wham, every breath hurt.
The door swung open and there was Emerald, wrapped in a towel, her hair spun up into a white turban on the very top of her head. She looked distracted like she was thinking of something completely different than what they were thinking about.
She squeaked a little when The Barrel burst through the door, and that surprised him. It knocked him off kilter.
"Um, Dad!...you and your friends should knock. I'm not dressed."
The Barrel looked away and around the room. He was oddly stiff and obviously uncomfortable.
"I'm not your Dad's friend. I'm Detective Angus Louden. I'm looking for Trinket Parsnips and Marty Kadoura...uh, sorry, uh...didn't mean to barge in."
"I heard," Emerald said, dashing behind the curtain that covered her board, pretending to find clothes as she talked to him, peeking around the curtain now and again.
"Um yes, I heard, Dad and I were just talking about it, so sad." Emerald said.
Howard noted something he didn't know about his daughter - she was a convincing actress. This both pleased him and worried him.
"Do you have any leads?" she asked, as though she were just some normal girl in the neighborhood.
"Um no, could you come out?" The Barrel asked, trying to be polite, but still suspicious.
"Sure, just getting on some jeans." She pulled jeans on and a hoodie and came out, she pulled the towel off her head, letting her wet hair fall down over her shoulders. She toweled it dry as she spoke. Howard was amazed at how cool she was acting and that she thought to wet down her hair. It was genius. She never failed to surprise him.
"You can look around, Detective. We have nothing to hide. Trinket and Marty aren't here."
"What about this guy?" The Barrel said, holding up the photo.
"Oh, I think he lives across the street," Emerald said vaguely.
"We just moved in so...."
"Uh, yeah! I got that.... we know where he lives. He's missing."
"So many disappearances on this street...you think they're connected?"
Emerald was enjoying acting completely clueless. It was a new thing for her.
"Uh, no, Miss Phan he wasn't abducted. We think Josie abducted the kids....you don't know anything about that, do you?"
The Barrel was looking around the room now, turning over different books and boxes.
Emerald couldn't help that her eyes drifted a little to the pile of papers and an iPad that she pushed under the bed and were sticking out just a little.
Howard saw the pile too, how close The Barrel was, how all he had to do was look down. Howard stepped forward.
"There's no one here, Detective. You should be focusing your efforts on finding the children elsewhere. You are wasting precious time." Howard pushed the glasses up on his nose.
The Barrel looked at Howard and his mustache twitched. The Barrel moved closer to the nightstand, pretending to look out the window, but his eyes moved every surface. He was clearly searching for any sign that they were hiding something.
His boot hit the iPad, and he looked down and frowned.
Emerald sucked in a breath and held it. She and Howard stared at each other, frozen.
Then, The Barrel turned, stepped over the iPad and papers and walked over to the closet.
Howard looked at her, trying to figure out if Josie was in the closet.
The Barrel jiggled the knob. It was locked.
"Have a key for this?"
Emerald did her best to sound scattered.
"Uh, oh yeah, somewhere here. I thought I saw them in this box here...No, nope, not here...Maybe in this drawer..."
She was tearing through her drawers pulling out strips of paper, twine, compasses, and odd pieces of gear from her scuba equipment.
"I'm sure it's here somewhere," she said, smiling meekly.
Howard marveled at his daughter. The girl who was always composed transformed herself into a train wreck, flustered, scrounging through boxes and drawers, as if she might know where the key is. Howard could see that The Barrel had fallen for her act.
"Hurry up," The Barrel shouted impatiently.
"I know it's here...it's a little chaotic...Sorry." Emerald said, putting on her most pathetic, worried face.
She moved to the table full of monster heads and proceeded to rummage through boxes of make-up, plastic fingers, and tubes of fake blood.
"I think I found it," she said, sticking her fingers way deep into a tin box.
"Woopsie-daisy, not that!" she shrieked pulling out a severed ear, dripping with bloody pus
The Barrel was not amused.
"Oh forget it, I'll get in myself."
Emerald's eyes flashed fear and Howard realized Josie was in the closet.
Howard jumped in front of The Barrel.
Now, Detective, you can't destroy our house because you think..."
The Barrel took one hairy, beefy arm and pushed Howard into the wall and made his glasses fly off his face and streak across the room like a paper airplane.
"Ooof" Howard hit the wall and sunk to the floor.
"Dad!" Emerald screamed and ran to her father.
The Barrel grabbed the door knob to the closet and shook it hard, and then with fists like ham hocks, pulled at the wooden door until the whole thing came off its hinges, busting open, plaster and dust falling down around them.
"Are you in here you lilly-livered, kid-stealing, no-good delinquent..."
The Barrel jumped into the closet and tore at everything inside. He flung shoes, and blankets and clothes out onto the floor.
"Stop it!" Emerald screamed.
"There's no one here!"
But she knew it was only a matter of time before he found Josie. She hid him under a pile of blankets on the floor in the way-back of the closet. No matter how quiet and still he was, The Barrel was going to find him.
Emerald and Howard watched The Barrel tear through the closet, upending shoe racks and scuba gear. Sending books and ocean maps, rolled into long tight logs, pitched this way and that, out onto the floor of her room. A globe slammed onto the floor, and cracked open like an egg.
Then, The Barrel saw it.
A lump of blankets. Quilts piled on top of quilts in the way-back of the closet.
He lept onto the pile. Emerald closed her eyes. Howard grabbed his daughter and hugged her.
It was over. Josie was going to juvie. Howard would most likely get carted off to jail for hiding him. God only knows what would happen to Emerald. And who would go after Bangkok when they were the only ones who knew? How many more children would be taken before the the stupid adults of Tamarama Street wised up and realized they had a monster among them?
Emerald glanced through the window at The Organic Food Store. It stood stark, and white, and still. People rushed this way and that way, right past it, searching for the missing kids, talking to reporters, crying in huddled crowds. A gang of kids ran by, their fists raised in the air. But the Haunted Organic Food Store was hiding in plain sight. No one suspected it was haunted. Yet, she was sure now, it, like the monsters it housed, had a life of it's own.
An ugly, evil life.
She felt it laughing at her. Mocking her for being stupid enough to hide her friend in such an easy-to-find place. It wanted more children inside. It wanted to fuel and care for the creatures there. It wanted to hurt the children. It wanted more children to feed on.
Emerald looked back to the closet. Tears stinging her cheeks.
Emerald watched The Barrel tear through the quilts, and knew her whole, new life was about to fall apart.