Chapter
6
Bianca was sound asleep when her cell
phone went off. She awoke to the sound
of a digitalized version of “Everybody” playing, recognized it as her ring
tone, and scrambled up to answer the phone before it woke AJ up too. But as she sat up, she realized he was not in
bed beside her. For a moment, she felt
panicked, then remembered Krystle’s phone call earlier and figured he was probably
still down talking to her.
Bianca climbed out of bed, found her
purse, and rummaged through it until she found her ringing cell phone. “Hello?” she answered it, wondering who would
be calling her so early in the morning.
Looking at the clock, she saw that it was not even four.
“Miss Parker?” The voice on the other line was a deep male
voice, one that Bianca did not recognize.
“Yes,” replied Bianca. “Who is this?”
“Officer Davidson from the Broward
County Police Department. I’m calling
about your boyfriend, AJ McLean.”
Bianca drew in a sharp breath. “What is it?” she asked, her voice shaking
with fear.
“I’m very sorry to have to tell you
this, miss, but Mr. McLean was found in an elevator at the Palace Hotel. He was… dead.”
“What!” Bianca cried, her breathing
growing fast and irregular. “No! No, that can’t be! I-I’m here at the Palace now! He’s not dead! H-he’s down with K-Krystle; he…” But she had begun to cry so hard she could
not speak.
“Shhh, calm down, miss,” the police
officer said. “We need someone to come
down to the morgue to make an identification.
Is there anyone who could drive you?”
Bianca only began to sob harder.
“Miss Parker?” the officer asked.
“I know this is a shock, but you have to calm down, Miss Parker. Do you want me to send a taxi to pick you up,
or can someone drive you?”
“S-someone can d-drive me,” Bianca
choked out in a strangely high-pitched, trembling voice that sounded nothing
like her own.
“Alright. He’s at the Wilson Morgue. I’ll be waiting there for you. Again, I’m very sorry to have to call you
with this news,” Officer Davidson said.
Bianca just set the phone down, her
hand shaking so badly she could barely press the “end” button to shut it
off. She absently put it back in her
purse and crossed the room to the bed.
Once at the bed, her knees went weak, and she collapsed down on it,
breaking into hysterical tears again.
When her tears finally slowed, and she
came to her senses again, Bianca sat up and reached for the hotel phone. She picked it up and held it to her ear,
listening to the dial tone for a long time.
Finally, she punched in some numbers.
This was going to be one of the hardest phone calls she’d ever had to
make.
***
Howie was jolted awake by the ringing of the phone from the
nightstand on the other side of his bed.
“Can you get that, Krys?” he mumbled, disoriented. When he got no reply, he groaned and reached
over to turn on the lamp that sat on his nightstand. Dim light flooded the room.
Rolling over, Howie saw that Krystle was not in bed. I guess I hurt her feelings, he
thought guiltily. But then again, she
deserved it. She couldn’t really expect
me to be happy with her. Not after what
she did.
Meanwhile, the phone kept ringing, and Howie, growing annoyed with
its persistence, quickly crawled over and grabbed the phone from the nightstand
on Krystle’s side of the bed. This
better not be fan, he thought irritably.
“Hello?” Howie asked groggily, rubbing his bleary eyes as he held
the phone to his ear.
“Howie!” came Bianca’s voice, shrill and trembling.
Howie was immediately alert.
Something was wrong; he could tell by her tone of voice. “Bean?
What’s wrong?”
It’s probably nothing, he tried to assure
himself. She and AJ just probably had
another fight. He rolled his eyes,
slightly annoyed. He had no patience to
deal with AJ right now, not after what he had just found out. But deep down, he knew it was more than just
a spat between AJ and Bianca. Bianca’s
reply confirmed it.
“It’s AJ!” Bianca sobbed into the phone. “Oh, Howie, he’s… he’s dead!”
The phone slid right out of Howie’s
hand, which had suddenly become icy cold and trembling. He could have sworn his heart had just
stopped beating. This had to be a joke,
some kind of sick joke AJ had invented. Yes, that was it. AJ must have persuaded Bianca to go along
with it, to call Howie and say that he had died. After all, it couldn’t be real. There was no way. AJ couldn’t be dead; Howie had just been with
him a few hours earlier, after the concert.
He was probably in the room with Bianca, laughing his head off.
But when Howie slowly bent over and
retrieved the phone from the floor, he heard no laughing, only Bianca’s soft
crying. “Howie?” she asked between
sniffles, her voice thick with tears.
“I-I…”
Howie had wanted to say “I’m here”, but at that moment, it hit him –
this was no joke. AJ was really
dead. He could not speak. He felt a burning sensation in his throat, as
he struggled to hold back tears. His
struggle was only in vain; a floodgate opened, and the tears came flowing from
his brown eyes. “Oh my God,” Howie
cried, sobs racking his trembling body.
“Oh my God!”
It was a very strange phone call; for
several minutes, Howie and Bianca sat, only a wall between them, sobbing
together over the phone, unable to speak.
It was Bianca who finally came to her senses and said, tearfully, “Can I
come over to your room, Howie?”
“S-sure,” Howie choked out. Bianca hung up the phone without another
word, and just a minute later, knocked on his door. Howie got up and flung it open.
There she stood, her face red and
tearstained, her blue-gray eyes bloodshot and swollen from crying. She was barefoot and wearing just a t-shirt
and yellow pajama pants with monkeys on them.
Her short, reddish-brown hair was sticking out at funny angles from
sleeping.
“Bean,” Howie whispered, reaching out
and pulling her into his embrace. He
needed the hug just as much as she did.
He pulled her into the room, never letting go of her, and managed to
kick the door shut, still hugging her tightly to him, while she lay her head on
his shoulder and wept.
Finally, they managed to regain their
composure, somewhat, and Howie was finally able to ask, “What happened to him?”
“I don’t know,” Bianca said,
shuddering. “The police didn’t say. All he said was to come to the morgue.” She shuddered again.
“I’ll come with you,” Howie said,
swallowing hard. “Have you told anyone
else yet?”
Bianca shook her head. “You’re his best friend. I called you first.”
He nodded. “We have to tell the other guys. And Krystle…”
He looked to her side of the bed, still empty, the covers pulled
up. He wondered where she could be. She had been gone for hours and hadn’t slept
since the night before. Maybe she had
crashed in one of the other guys’ rooms, not wanting to come back to sleep with
him.
He pushed Krystle out of his mind; he
didn’t want to think about her now. But
when he did think of her and remembered why she had left, he suddenly felt very
guilty. Krystle and AJ had slept with
each other. And he had been angry with
AJ. And now AJ was dead.
Looking at Bianca, Howie wondered if
she knew. Had AJ told her? But it didn’t matter now. It was better that she didn’t know. What good would it do now, now that AJ was
gone?
Gone.
The thought seemed so
unbelievable. How could AJ be gone,
dead, just like that? He remembered his
sister Caroline’s death. Although it had
been horrible and traumatic, it had not come as such a shock. Caroline had lived with lupus for years and
had been getting worse; they all knew it was just a matter of time before she
passed on. But AJ… AJ was completely
healthy. He was only twenty-four, a
young man, in the prime of his life. No
one had ever expected this. No one had
seen it coming. And even though he knew
it was true, Howie still could not accept that his best friend was really dead.
“Should we call them now?” Bianca
asked quietly, bringing Howie out of his thoughts.
“Yeah,” Howie said hoarsely. “Let’s start with Kevin.”
As the man, Howie felt obligated to be
the strong one, to stay calm and take care of everything for Bianca, although
he half-expected her to want to make the calls herself. Normally, he knew Bianca to be very
independent, liberal, and stubborn. She
was a strong women, very sensible and cool-headed. She was the kind of girl who liked to do
things for herself. He recalled one
incident when he and Krystle had been out with Bianca and AJ. Bianca had been driving, and they got a flat
tire. He and AJ had both offered to fix
it, but Bianca had insisted she do it herself.
And she had.
But now she stood there in front of
him, distraught and shaking, tears streaming silently down her blotchy
cheeks. Howie walked over to sit down on
the bed and picked up the phone, and for once, Bianca did not protest.
***
“Hello, Miss Parker,” said the police
officer, nodding in greeting at Bianca.
“I’m Officer Davidson. So sorry
we had to meet under these circumstances.”
Howie glanced over at Bianca, who was
standing at his side, tearful and pale.
He could tell she was in no mood for introductions.
Howie and Bianca had called Kevin, and
after another long, tearful conversation, Kevin had persuaded them to call a
cab to take them to the morgue, while he told the others the horrible
news. And now, there they were – the
Wilson morgue.
“What happened to him?” Howie asked,
wanting to get straight to the point and get some answers.
The officer cleared his throat and
said, in a grim voice, “I’m very sorry to have to tell you this, but it looks
like Mr. McLean was murdered.”
Bianca gasped and let out a strangled
sob.
“Murdered? How?
What happened?” Howie demanded, shocked.
“His body was found in an elevator at
the hotel you were staying at. He
suffered from stab wounds and several blows to the head, it looks like. We’ll no more about his injuries when we do
an autopsy.”
“Do you have any idea who did it?”
Howie asked, momentarily feeling a surge of anger overpower his grief.
“Not yet. The elevator has been blocked off, as I’m
sure you’ve seen, and other police are on the scene as we speak, dusting for
prints and any other evidence we can find.”
“Oh God,” Bianca choked out, speaking
for the first time since they had gotten there.
Howie glanced at her and saw that she
was shaking like a leaf. He wanted to
get out of there as soon as possible.
“Could we see AJ now, please,
Officer?” he asked politely, swallowing hard.
Officer Davidson nodded. “Of course,” he replied. “And you are?”
“Howie Dorough,” Howie said. “I’m… I mean… I was AJ’s best
friend.” A lump rose in his throat, and
Howie felt a sudden strong urge to cry again.
He fought it back and tried to keep his composure.
“Follow me,” Officer Davidson said,
and he led them down a hallway and into a room.
The room was all white and stainless steel, just like a hospital
room. The walls were full of large
drawers, where Bianca knew they stored dead bodies. There were several stainless steel tables in
the room, long white lumps lying on top of them. Knowing that AJ was one of those lumps, that
his dead body was lying on one of those tables, under one of those white
sheets, made Bianca sick to her stomach.
The police officer walked through the
room to the table furthest from the door.
“Here he is,” he said, and he slowly peeled back the white sheet that
covered the figure on the table, just enough to expose the face.
And sure enough, it was AJ’s face.
***
