Alexandra couldn’t bring herself to look her friend in the eye and instead focused on the Ewan McGregor poster that was pinned to her wall. The only thing calming her nerves now was the lavender incense that burned on Melissa’s windowsill and the dull white Christmas lights that lined the back of her bed. It took her a few minutes before she could muster up the courage to walk into the bedroom.
“I’m not nuts,” Alexandra muttered as she stuffed the mask back into her canvas shoulder bag that sat opposite from Melissa.
“Then what made you decide to do such a crazy thing? You know the cops will find out about you, Alex,” Melissa warned her, like Alex hadn’t already thought about that for the entire month she had planned her exploit.
Alex thought back to the first time she’d heard about the terrible tests being conducted on small animals by Anna Marie Cosmetics. She had been volunteering at a charity walk her dad’s organization, The Sacred Heart, had put together in August when she started up a conversation with a fellow volunteer. The thirty-something-year-old man – that looked more like a twenty-something-year-old – had rambled on for over an hour about his life as a vegan. Alex had smiled and listened politely, like her parents had taught her to do as a child, but had zoned out for most of the conversation. It wasn’t until the man, dressed in nearly every clichéd hippie garment from his tie-dyed bandana to his recycled sandals, began to discuss other volunteer work that Alex finally paid attention.
The energy that began to course through the man became infectious. The strange, lanky man held a master’s degree in education and had once held a comfortable position at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Yet, he’d practically thrown it all away to go overseas and assist numerous nonprofit organizations. He had taken a leave of absence from his teaching, had left his girlfriend of two years, and sold nearly every possession he owned to pursue his passion to help. His eyes lit up as he described being on a speedboat slicing through the waters to stop the illegal slaughter of whales in the Pacific Ocean. She soon found out that his volunteer work found him in jail quite often when peaceful protests became less peaceful, but he continued to do it, all without blinking an eye. Alex could feel her heart racing excitedly with each story the older hippie told, as if she was right there with him on each adventure.
“But weren’t you scared to give up everything?” Alexandra had asked.
“Sure,” the guy laughed, stroking his mangled almond-colored beard, “but if there is something you’re passionate about, you should just go for it. Just go all out, you know, or you’ll be more miserable than if you failed in your attempt. If you sit around and wait for change to happen, you’ll just feel terrible for sure. Inaction is the worst answer to any decision.”
Alex had thought she was a pretty smart girl but for some reason, the Yoda-like wisdom this guy was spouting hit her like a ton of bricks. The conversation filled her with a newfound sense of direction and she finally realized what she was supposed to do with her time. Her dad enjoyed his charity work but Alexandra could never fully appreciate the slow-moving nature of it, nor the seemingly constant defeats. His change depended on the action of legislation, the people en mass, and the better nature of those in the private sector. If he was lucky change would eventually occur months, if not years, after a campaign, and if he wasn’t then he’d be forced to start over again and hope for a different outcome the next time. No, for her, it would have to be a more direct method if she wanted to bring change to the world.
It wasn’t until the end of the charity walk when Alexandra bumped into the hippie professor again. He fumbled about with the numerous pockets on his hemp pants as he told Alex of protests he was going to be apart of in the coming weeks. The guy, who had clearly snuck off to get high at some point that day if his red-shot eyes were any indication, finally produced what he was looking for. Alexandra grabbed the leaflet from his hand and began reading about the “cruel and sadistic torture” of rabbits and other small animals by Anna Marie Cosmetics. She stifled a sympathetic cry at the images splashed across the leaflet of makeup-smeared animals covered in their own feces and trapped in cages barely bigger than they were. The worst ones, however, were of the animals being held down as they were poked, prodded, and injected with syringes by people wearing surgical masks. Some animals were lying with their tongues lolled out and their eyes rolled back in their heads.
“You should totally come on down into the city next week. There’s going to be a big march in front of the corporate offices they just opened on State Street.”
Alex agreed and not only did she take part in the protest, she delved headfirst into every piece of news she could find about Anna Marie Cosmetics. With each new piece of information she learned, she grew more disgusted with the cosmetics giant. Anna Washington, the CEO and founder of Anna Marie Cosmetics, had muscled her way to the top of the cosmetics world by any means she could, including blackmail and bribery, all to get her product on shelves in place of other companies. There were accusations that she forced her business partner, Marie Adams, out of the company, leaving her on the verge of bankruptcy. The company was also accused of forcing employees to work in sweatshop-like conditions in one of their overseas warehouses. The company was also highly criticized by environmental organizations for not having an adequate waste management system set-up to deal with the chemicals they used in their labs. They instead let the tainted water flow into streams nearby, putting numerous human life and wildlife in harm’s way while destroying ecosystems in the process. Alex’s face turned pale at the images that scrolled past her computer screen, as animal after animal seemed to cry out to her to be rescued. Anna Marie was one corrupt ecological and moral wasteland of a business.
From August to October, Anna Marie Cosmetics became Alex’s personal obsession when she wasn’t busy with work or Melissa. She had stared so intently at her MacBook for such long periods of time that she began to dream about staring at her laptop, making it difficult for her to distinguish between reality and make-believe. Alex had written a formal letter to Anna Washington on the harmful effects her company was having but received no reply. She even wrote to the Tribune to get them to investigate the company but that led nowhere.
It wasn’t until John, her coworker at Simply The Best, started to chase Juan around the backroom of the meat department with the skinned head of a goat, that Alex realized what a menacing, terrifying image an animal could be if it could fight back. Anna Washington might not be so blasé about animal welfare and the world she was so intent on helping to destroy if something could stand up to her. Maybe her direct approach wasn’t as direct as it could be? Her next stop had been a Halloween supply shop just down the strip mall from her work. The end result was the ten dollar pig’s mask that was now located in her bag.
Looking back on it, the conversation with that hippie volunteer felt like it had been a lifetime ago. Alex had to shake the memory away as she focused her gaze back at Melissa.
“I wanted to do something with my life that I could feel good about,” Alexandra said to herself as much as to Melissa. Melissa could see a fire had been lit inside Alex’s eyes that she had never seen before.
“So join an advocacy group. You’re going to get caught,” Melissa snapped, her knee nervously bouncing up-and-down like a jackhammer.
Alex sighed and shook her head as she sat down next to Melissa on the bed.
“I didn’t just do this on the spur of the moment, Mel. I thought it out and did it away from any cameras or busy neighborhoods. You saw the news, they’ve got nothing.”
She said that more to convince herself than Melissa. She still had lingering doubts she had the ability to pull off a perfect crime. After all, she wasn’t the Zodiac killer or the talented Mr. Ripley. What gave this 22-year-old the confidence to say that she had tricked the police with her ingenious heist? She wasn’t out of the woods yet but the more time she put between her crime and herself, the better her odds seemed.
“Except that gun you used,” Melissa shot daggers with her eyes as she clenched her jaw.
That, admittedly, wasn’t her smartest move, but she had needed the protection. The driver was at least double her weight and a good five inches. There was no way she would be able to convince the guy to do anything she wanted without a weapon. However…
“You mean this thing?” Alex reached into her bag and fished around for the gun that was buried at the bottom. Melissa jumped back in her seat as Alex waved the revolver around in the air. “It’s plastic, Mel! I bought it at Wal-Mart, for god’s sake.”
The fact that it was purple did nothing to change Melissa’s agitation. She got back up from the bed and made a beeline for her dresser, searching through her drawers for something.
“You think that makes it better? What if he had a real weapon? Ugh, I swear, sometimes I wonder how you got into NIU,” Melissa said as she shoved clothes around.
“Well, NIU isn’t that diffic-,”
“That’s not the point!” Melissa shouted, finally finding the small Ziploc bag she had been looking for and produced the one remaining joint. “Oh, thank god!”
Now it was Alex’s turn to be mad. She got up from the bed and marched over to Melissa and grabbed the joint from her lips before Melissa could light it. Alex shook it at her in disgust.
“I thought you gave this shit up!” If Melissa was going to be a nurse, she would have to wean herself off of her drug of choice she’d enjoyed since senior year of high school.
Melissa, standing three inches taller than Alex, peered down at her with a dangerous look in her eye before grabbing the joint back.
“If you didn’t notice, that was the last one in the bag and I think you’re crime is a bit more extreme than mine.”
Melissa turned her back to Alexandra as she lit the joint and took a long hit. Alex tapped her fingers on the old white-painted dresser and bit back her lecture on the nasty habit. Instead, she tried a different tactic.
“Look,” she began slowly, “I know it was a dumb mistake. I swear, it’ll be the last time I ever use the thing, but I have to dump it someplace far away. Please, Mel, can we just forget about this for tonight?”
Melissa listened patiently before turning around to face her friend again. Alex was hoping this would be the end of it and they could just go back to their peaceful night. She was running on empty and didn’t know how much longer she could keep this argument going. Melissa’s jaw was going to break her teeth if she ground them together any harder than she already was but Alex could only stand there and be judged by Melissa’s piercing gaze. She desperately wanted to be forgiven and was two seconds from dropping to her knees to apologize.
“You said it was your last time. Your last time just using the gun or this whole Avenger bullshit?”
Alex didn’t know how to answer because she was still waiting to see if she got away with this escapade. A hypothetical second appearance as her so-called ‘Animal Avenger’ persona was the farthest thing from her mind at the moment.
“Uh… Well, I haven’t really thought about it,” said Alexandra, quietly. She immediately regretted not coming up with a better response.
“What do you mean you haven’t thought about it? You can’t honestly be telling me that you’d do it again, are you?”
Ding, ding, ding – round two, Alexandra thought.
“I haven’t had a real reason to do it again. Anna Marie was all I was focused on for so long that I didn’t think beyond that.”
“Congratulations, Alex, I agree – you don’t think,” Melissa snapped as she brushed past Alex and left the room.
Alex groaned as she spun around and grabbed her bag off the bed before following after her friend. Melissa was already down the hallway and entering the living room by the time Alex made it out of the bedroom.
“Christ, I thought that shit was supposed to mellow you out,” Alex chuckled, trying to break the tension.
In all the years of their friendship, Melissa had never been this upset with Alexandra.
Alex bounded into the living room in time to see Melissa holding her front door open. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Alexandra, who stood with a lump in her throat.
“You’re kicking me out?” Alex could barely choke the words out. They had never left things on such a bad note before. For all intents and purposes, this night was more earth shattering than the previous one.
“I just want to be alone right now. You’ve put me in a really awkward position and I need to think things out, okay?”
Melissa looked up at Alexandra, and Alexandra saw a flash of pain on Melissa’s face before her steely resolve reappeared. There were a million things that Alexandra wanted to say to her but what was the point? She didn’t want to press her luck. She lowered her head as tears formed at the edges of her eyes and walked briskly past Melissa, still hoping for her friend to stop her before she left. She didn’t.
Alexandra turned around as she stepped out beyond the doorframe.
“What about the Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow?” Alexandra had almost forgotten that she had invited Melissa over to spend a belated vegan Thanksgiving with her family since Melissa’s family was out of the country.
Melissa sighed, shaking her head before leaning against the door.
“Don’t know, Alex. Just… go, please,” Melissa said before shutting the door on Alexandra.
Alexandra could barely see through her puffy, tear-drenched eyes as she tried to call for a taxi. It took her four incorrect tries to simply be able to hit the correct speed-dial number on her cell. Of all the nights to leave her bike at home! The cold night wind nearly froze her tears to her cheeks as she walked down to the corner of Melissa’s block. She spent the next ten minutes silently cursing her uninformed friend, her own stupidity, and the damn Animal Avenger idea. She almost wished the cops would show up and take her away instead of the taxi.
It was bright and cold on the “Black” Friday morning, and Detectives Daniels and Eddington were speeding down US-20 while most people were busy speeding down aisles at retail stores for that perfect sale. The object of their mission was the Animal Avenger, a vigilante that the local media and online social networking sites had named. The previous night, as they were both about to head off for their late Thanksgiving meals, the detectives had received news that a fingerprint had been lifted off of a bike that was found three miles from the Animal Avenger’s crime scene. It was the only real lead they had at an otherwise barren location. The gravel road had zero tracks, the cosmetics truck had zero fingerprints, and the surrounding fields had zero fibers or tracks.
Despite their initial frenzy to follow-up on the lead, their boss, Sergeant Stevens, suggested that since the person-of-interest lived over an hour away – and since he didn’t feel like handing out overtime on a holiday – that they rest up and get an early start on Friday. With a heavy heart, Detective Trevor Daniels consented to his boss’s wishes and retired to his girlfriend’s apartment to spend a painfully long evening in her family’s company. Not that his stomach minded the three helpings of turkey he had eaten.The two detectives reached out to the local police department to announce their impending approach and met little opposition. They turned off of US-20, a busy street that stretched on forever through numerous suburbs in northern Illinois, and pulled into a shared parking lot for Meadow Springs Townhouses, a group of ten townhouse complexes just off of US-20. It was an older set of buildings, the maroon of the sidings, decks, and window shutters was starting to fade, and the willow trees were in desperate need of trimming along the sidewalks. It was still dark enough for the few parking lot lights that remained in working condition to be on. To Detective Daniels, it would’ve seemed the “Meadow Springs” name was meant to inspire a lovelier environment than the reality the complex actually evoked.
Detective Eddington, Daniels’ younger partner, knocked on the door of the address they had on file for their person-of-interest. It only took a moment for the door to be swung open and for them to come face-to-face with a curvaceous African-American woman in her late thirties holding a brown leather laptop bag slung over her shoulder. She had a look of someone who didn’t have time to deal with interruptions in her day, holiday weekend or not.
“Yes?” she asked, positioning herself between the door and the doorframe. Detective Daniels had to fight the urge to stare at the black skirt that wrapped around her legs like a tight cocoon all the way past her knees. Her barely-there purple blouse did not help his concentration either.
“Ma’am, we’re with the Rockford police department. Are you Miss Karyn Rodgers?” Detective Daniels asked, showing her his badge while Detective Eddington followed suit.
A severe look of displeasure mixed with confusion came over the woman as she shifted her weight and adjusted her thin black-rimmed glasses.
“Rockford?” she sighed, glancing over her shoulder to the stairwell behind her.
“Yes ma’am, we were wondering if your son, Maxwell, was home,” Eddington replied.
“What’s this all about, officers? I was just on my way to work,” Karyn said, sounding put out.
“We’d just like to ask your son a few questions about a case we’re investigating. He might have some information that could assist us. May we come inside?”
Reluctantly, Karyn dropped her bag next to the doorway and stepped aside for the two officers. Once they were inside, the two detectives were ushered into the living room to the left of the doorway, opposite from the staircase. Daniels looked around the home as pictures of Karyn and her son lined the walls. The furniture in the living room was a lot nicer than the hand-me-down green sofa he had back at his apartment. Judging by the entertainment center that stood against the wall facing the front window, Karyn had a music and movie collection that could rival what any electronics store could offer. Daniels supposed that her free time was not as exciting as his partner’s but being a single mother probably left her without much free time anyway.
Karyn yelled up the staircase to her son while the two detectives took a seat on the black leather couch. They didn’t have to wait long for the eighteen-year-old, with an impressive head of dreadlocks to come down. Maxwell was a wiry, tall kid with a lazy right eye, who wore a Bob Marley t-shirt and who had piercings up and down both his ears. Daniels looked down at the case file in his hands and then back up at Maxwell. With the exception of the piercings, young Maxwell looked exactly like the mugshot from the file, right down to the same put-out expression his mother was displaying.
“Maxwell, we’re with the Rockford police department. We wanted to ask you a few questions about a case we’re working on,” Daniels stated, before the kid sat down on the matching leather sofa.
Maxwell raised an eyebrow, looking like he wanted to say something other than what he did say:
“Yeah, sure.”
“First off, where were you Wednesday night between 10pm and 2am?” Detective Daniels asked, looking down at his notepad.
Maxwell’s appearance changed from irritation to befuddlement. He looked at his mother, who looked just as lost, before they looked back at the detectives.
“That’s a joke, right?” Karyn asked.
“Ma’am, can Maxwell answer our question, please?” Mike Eddington asked, flashing her an empty smile.
“Can you just tell us what this is all about? Because whatever it is, I’m pretty sure Max was not wherever you think he was,” Karyn said, changing her gaze from Eddington back to Daniels.
Daniels cleared his throat and looked at Maxwell but directed his reply to his mother.
“We’re investigating the theft you might’ve heard about on the news up in Rockford about the cosmetics truck and the test animals. We have reason to believe that Maxwell might have some information about it that could help us.”
Maxwell gave a chuckle and shook his head.
“Are you kiddin’ me, man? I couldn’t have been there!”
“And why is that?” Eddington asked.
“Because I was in Chicago with a few of my friends spraypainting some warehouse.”
Daniels glanced at Eddington before looking back at Maxwell. Not a rock solid alibi but an amusing one – admitting to a crime to avoid another, more serious, crime.
“We’ll need your friends’ names and where you were in the city,” Daniels said, scribbling the new information down on his notepad.
“Sure, and do you want the police officers’ names, too?” Maxwell scoffed.
Daniels jerked his head up before closing his notepad.
“You were arrested?”
Karyn clenched her jaw. “Yeah, and I had to go bail him out at one in the morning.”
“Precinct,” Eddington pressed.
“The Twelfth.”
Damn, so much for our only good lead, Daniels thought.
“Have you ever owned a blue and black Schwinn bicycle?” Daniels asked. He might not have been there but maybe he knew who had used it. They still had leverage to get information from him. All was not lost.
Maxwell leaned back in his seat and looked at his mother with a look of disgust.
“Yeah, I used to.”
Convenient.
“And? What happened to it, Max?” Eddington pushed.
“I got rid of it about two weeks ago,” Karyn interjected. “After he was caught cheating on a biology test I threw it out as punishment.”
“Where’d you throw it out?” asked Daniels.
Karyn pointed out the window behind the two detectives. In unison, the two detectives turned around and saw a large dumpster that stood within a wooden enclosure about fifty feet from the townhouses.
“I placed it against the wall. I figured it wouldn’t take long for someone to take a free bike.”
Daniels could see Eddington’s shoulders droop slightly out of the corner of his eye.
“When’s the garbage picked up here?” Daniels asked.
“Every Wednesday.”
“Ever see any garbage pickers drive by?” Eddington chimed in.
“Sometimes.”
Daniels studied Max for a moment and moved forward in his seat, staring at Max with a cold, hard stare.
“Max, did you give your bike to any of your friends, maybe without your mother knowing about it? That’s a bike that could go for some nice change.”
Max licked his lower lip but held Daniels’s stare.
“I didn’t get the chance to. It was gone by the time I got back from school that same day,” Max said.
“I sure hope so, because your bike was found near the crime scene, Max. If we find out that you had anything to do with it, we will be back, and bail might not be set so low like it was the Wednesday night,” Daniels said as he and Eddington stood and walked toward the door.
The two detectives were back outside within moments after gathering the names and addresses of Maxwell’s friends. Once they were outside, the two detectives stopped in their tracks along the paved walkway by the parking lot. Eddington shook his head and gave Daniels an annoyed smile that he always had whenever things weren’t working out the way he wanted.
“So, our new list of suspects ranges from Maxwell, Maxwell’s friends, garbage pickers, neighbors, anyone walking or running by the townhouse complex, or anyone driving by on US-20 on whichever day Mrs. Rodgers happened to place the bike outside. Do I have that right, Trevor?” Eddington asked, tapping a pen on his notepad and looking around at the ten townhouses.
Daniels stood in silence for a few moments to take in the scene. He looked around the complex and at the row of windows that could easily see the dumpster. He glanced across the side street at four homes that, despite a few elm trees lining the street, could also see the dumpsters. This was going to take awhile as long as most of the residents weren’t out shopping.
“Rock, paper, scissors for who gets the townhouses and who gets the houses across the street,” Daniels suggested. “Winner walks across the street.”
Eddington held his fist out and they pumped their fists once, twice, and then a third time.
“Aw, goddamn,” Eddington groaned, when he saw Daniels’s rock to his scissors.
“You always pick scissors, Mike.” Daniels smiled. “See you in an hour.”
It had been a very long Friday for Alexandra. Nobody was shopping at her work since most people were still recovering from their food comas from Thanksgiving. That left her and a few others in the meat department to stand around and do nothing but clean the glass display cases over and over again. The monotony was only broken whenever John, a coworker with a head of lead, would say something stupid.
“Hey, Sunflower,” his annoying nickname for her, “I’m going on lunch. Can I bring you back some sushi?”Alexandra was cutting a chicken into pieces for a customer and nearly sliced her hand off when John called out. She turned toward him with a look that must’ve been terrifying if his reaction was any indication.
“Please tell me you’re not asking me if I want sushi just because I’m Asian,” Alexandra said, “because if that’s the case, maybe I should go buy you a tampon for being such a bitch?”
Her customer was out of earshot, thankfully, and John’s only response was an awkward shrug of his shoulders before he hightailed it out of the department. He ended up leaving her alone for the rest of the day. She contemplated the possibility that her response was a bit out of proportion for what the situation called for but her frustration with Melissa had boiled over into her work.
The silence that permeated the store only helped reinforce Alexandra’s thoughts and guilt about keeping Melissa in the dark. Not even Juan, her coworker in the department, could cheer her up despite his best efforts. Alexandra looked down at her aqua blue watch with the peace sign in it every five minutes until she could punch out.
It was with little surprise that Alexandra was ecstatic to be able to leave and head back home so she could lock herself away in her room for a few hours. Maybe her addiction to the Hitchcock movies that her dad had gotten her hooked on as a kid would help her escape her own misery. As she weaved between cars on her motorbike, Alexandra silently cursed Melissa for ruining what was supposed to be her greatest accomplishment. By the time she pulled into her driveway on her sleepy street in Roselle and into the garage, her anger had subsided long enough for her to enjoy the aroma coming from inside her house.
After kicking off her filthy meat and blood-spattered shoes, Alex stumbled into the kitchen to find her mother, Ophelia, quickly preparing what would become their vegan feast that night. Ophelia, with her blonde locks pulled back into a tight bun, gave her daughter a quick smile before looking back down at the large pot that was cooking on the stove.
“Mashed sweet potatoes with green onions,” Ophelia noted, eliciting a loud rumble from Alex’s starving stomach.
At the kitchen table, staring at his laptop, was Alex’s dad, Nathan, who looked up long enough to sigh and roll his eyes at his daughter.
“Everything okay, dad?” Alex asked, walking past him toward her mother, who tried to shoo her away from the food.
“Only if you want to write this e-mail that Mark wants me to write by Monday morning. I have to admonish the criminal behavior of this Animal Avenger nutcase but do it in a way that shows we’re not too concerned about him.”
Mark, Nate’s boss and friend from college, often dumped the crappy jobs he didn’t feel like dealing with on Nate’s doorstep.
“Doesn’t the fact that you’re having to write an e-mail about one minor crime already show that you’re too concerned with this Avenger guy?” Alex asked, snatching a carrot from a bowl on the counter.
“Exactly, dear,” Nathan smirked. “Welcome to the wonderful world of PR Hell.”
Alex bent over and wrapped an arm around her dad’s shoulder, squeezing gently.
“You’ll think of something, dad. Mom tells me you’re kind of smart.”
Ophelia laughed in between stealing carrots for herself.
“Oh, thank you, daughter of mine.” Nathan threw a pistachio at Alex from the bowl he had next to him as she headed out of the kitchen. “If I ever meet this idiot, I’m going to strangle him myself. He’s becoming a bigger headache for me than for the police.”
Alex, with her back to her parents, cringed. She never thought her actions would be something her dad would ever have to deal with. The day just kept getting better and better.
It was three o’clock by the time Detectives Daniels and Eddington had finished canvassing the entire Meadow Springs Townhouse area. They had talked with only a handful of residents in the morning before deciding to break for lunch. From there, they had gone back to hit the places they had missed earlier in the day. Once again, they found themselves standing along the walkway near the dumpster bin as the traffic began to increase and the day’s glow began to wane.
“Not a damn thing. I can’t believe it! Not one person remembers seeing the bike by the dumpster. That bike must’ve been swiped pretty damn quickly. Maybe Max texted a friend and the friend took it? Either way, please tell me we didn’t drive all the way out to Bartlett for nothing, Trevor,” Mike Eddington pleaded.It wasn’t a complete waste of their time. They did confirm that the bike found near the crime scene belonged, at some point, to Maxwell Rodgers. It was the only anomaly found around the scene and until they could get their hands on Anna Marie’s hate mail and the video footage from Midway Airport, this was their best lead. So, Eddington was right; either Maxwell lied and he sold it to someone or someone swiped it as they passed by the dumpster. At the very least, the suspect could be tied from Rockford to the Bartlett area.
Eddington was mumbling to himself as he headed toward the car when Daniels caught sight of a vegetable stand on the other side of US-20. Monica’s Fruits & Veggies had a clear view of the dumpster that sat near the townhouses of Meadow Springs. It was their last chance until they could track down the garbage pickers who patrolled the neighborhood next week.
“Hey, Mike, I have a long shot idea,” Daniels called out, quickly walking to the driver-side door.
“Everything with this case is a long shot,” Eddington huffed.
The two got into their unmarked silver car and drove across to the decent sized vegetable stand being manned by a teenage girl with long, braided, brunette hair and a woman who appeared to be the older version of the teenager. The two walked past customers who picked through various bushels full of cucumbers, green and yellow zucchinis, red and green bell peppers, fat violet eggplants, green and red apples, huge oranges, and piles of corn. Despite the cooler temperatures the stand still managed to attract a decent amount of people. The older woman with the graying brunette hair came up to greet the two detectives as they approached the counter.
“Hello, gentlemen, how can I help you all?” she asked with a giant smile that gave way to a smoker’s row of yellow teeth.
“Ma’am, I’m Detective Daniels and this is Detective Eddington, and we’re with the Rockford police department. Do you mind if we just ask your assistant and you some questions?”
The woman momentarily paused before shaking her head and regaining her warm glow.
“Uh, yeah, of course, detective. Sorry, we just don’t get many police officers pulling up,” she cackled.
“Probably too busy at the 7-11, ma’am,” said Eddington.
The woman, whom the detectives learned was the one and only Monica, brought them around the counter so they could talk to her and the younger woman, Stephanie.
“What time do you all work here?” Daniels began.
“Well, since it’s the fall, we usually don’t open up until noon. Then we close up and are out by five,” Monica huffed, sitting her hefty body onto a high stool.
Daniels’s heart sank as he fell against the counter for support. Not a very big window.
“Oh, but we only changed over a week ago,” Stephanie said, continuing to ring a customer out.
Daniels nearly jumped into the air when he heard this.
“What where your hours before?” He had to choke back his excitement.
“Nine in the morning,” Monica answered. That was a bit better.
“Ladies, do either of you remember seeing a woman placing a bike against that dumpster across the street?” Eddington asked, pointing to the wooden enclosure.
Both Monica and Stephanie scrunched their eyes, focusing on the site as if it would elicit a memory if they just stared hard enough. Monica shook her head as she raised her arms in defeat.
“I’m sorry officers but I’m usually too busy to pay attention to anything other than setting up and watching the customers.”
Yet, Stephanie kept staring across the street.
“How about you, Stephanie?” Eddington asked.
Stephanie rapped her fingers on the thick wood counter as she hemmed and hawed for the longest time. Daniels and Eddington both felt their hearts thumping in their chests and prayed that the girl saw someone take the bike. They needed a break in the case and they needed one badly.
“I vaguely remember a woman putting a bike out there. I had just pulled into the lot that morning around eight-thirty when she threw the bike against the wall,” Stephanie said, turning to Daniels and lowering her eyes in disappointment, “but the bike was gone before we left that day.”
“You didn’t happen to see anyone around the bike, did you? A garbage truck? FedEx? A van? Anything?” Eddington asked, desperation seeping into his voice.
Stephanie shook her head.
“I don’t remember.”
Daniels gave a faint smile and nodded at Stephanie.
“Don’t worry, Stephanie, it’s not a problem at all.” He hoped he sounded more comforting than he thought he was being.
The two detectives walked back to their car with yet another blow to their case. This left only the hate mail from Anna Marie and the video tapes from Midway to pin their hopes on for a viable lead. They would have to find a break in this case fast otherwise their superior officer was going to shut the case down. A case where nobody was hurt and a few small pet shop animals were missing did not warrant a long investigation. At least, not until the public spotlight died away from the Animal Avenger angle.
Daniels let out a loud groan as he sat back in his seat and slapped the wheel in front of him.
“Damn, Mike, who is this guy? I mean, there is nothing left behind at the scene to identify this guy or the vehicle he came in except this bike. Yet, the only fingerprint on the bike belongs to a kid too busy getting arrested two hours away from Rockford! A kid, by the way, who just so happens to get rid of his bike two weeks before the crime goes down. So, what, our perp just happens to spend a month planning this crime with nobody noticing and just happens to come across an abandoned bike that – on the spur of the moment – they decide would come in handy in their crime?!” Daniels cried out as Eddington nodded in agreement.
“Don’t forget the fact that they had to have had some other transportation standing by when they dumped the bike,” Eddington added.
“I know! Who the hell are we dealing with here? Batman?” Daniels bellowed, his face turning red.
“No, Trevor, not Batman,” Eddington gave a defeated smile. “The Animal Avenger.”
Six o’clock rolled around and Alexandra was bursting at the seams to dive head first into the feast being laid out before her. For such a small, thin woman, Alexandra could sure pack away the food. How could she not help shoving piles of food into her mouth when it looked as good as the meal her mother had put together? Not only was there her mother’s famous mashed sweet potatoes with green onions, but the feast had grown to include vegetable stuffed pumpkin, steamed broccoli with olive oil and crushed garlic sprinkled over it, roasted butternut squash with green apples and red onions with an olive oil drizzle, and a giant kale salad with cranberries, grape tomatoes, diced cucumbers, and a maple pecan dressing. Last, but not least, the trio had the choice of either a peach pie or a pumpkin pie with rice whip topping or vanilla almond milk ice cream. It was a meal too big for the three of them.
Just as Alexandra was seconds from sitting down at the table the doorbell rang. Since her mother had collapsed into her chair and had given Alex a look that said she wasn’t getting back up and since her father was putting the finishing touches on the e-mail he’d procrastinated on, it was up to Alexandra to pull herself away from the table. When she opened the door she was surprised to see Melissa standing in front of her. She had hoped Melissa would show up but with the way things ended the other night, she had blocked out that possibility.“Hey,” Melissa said faintly. She pulled her bright red wool cap off of her head and unzipped her jean jacket before walking inside.
“Didn’t think you would show up,” Alexandra said, standing aside for Melissa to enter.
“Me neither but it was either a full meal for free or McDonald’s,” Melissa replied as she entered the small hallway before entering the dining room.
“Did you mention McDonald’s in my household, Mel?” Ophelia called out as they entered the dining room.
“My mistake, Mrs. Arcos,” Melissa said, taking her usual seat at the table.
“We’re glad you could help us devour the meal, meat-eater. Hope it lives up to your standards,” Nathan added in-between chewing the food he was already shoving into his mouth.
Melissa laughed as she piled the food onto her plate.
“I think I’ll survive, Mr. Arcos.”
For the first several minutes, Alexandra noticed that Melissa was avoiding eye contact with her. She was pleasant enough with her parents but she was working hard to miss Alexandra’s gaze. At least she was there. For Alexandra, that was a huge victory and she was happy with that. The conversation was minimal as all four shoveled the food away with gusto but about halfway through the meal, Melissa decided to make conversation with Nathan.
“So, Mr. Arcos, I hear you’ve got to deal with this Animal Avenger idiot, huh?” Melissa inquired.
Alexandra hoped her face wasn’t turning as red as she thought it was.
“Just part of the fun of heading an anti-animal cruelty organization, Mel. My partner thinks one act by some random nut deserves more attention than it really does,” Nathan answered.
“I thought you were also against what the Avenger did?” Melissa finally glanced at Alexandra as she took a sip of red wine.
“I am. I wrestled with this, too, but by the time I realized that ignoring the Avenger was the better option right now, my partner had decided something different. Oh well, in a week’s time nobody will remember something so banal as a pig-masked vigilante,” Nathan said, waving the whole concept away with his knife in the air.
“What if the Avenger decides to make a second appearance?” Alexandra spoke up. This time, Alex turned toward Melissa and raised an eyebrow at her friend.
Nathan tilted his head to consider the point.
“It would be pretty stupid of him to do so, darling,” Nathan said after contemplating the question.
“Why?” Alex asked.
Nathan smiled and said, “Well, let’s just say he gets away with this crime. Luck is not on his side in the age of forensics and surveillance cameras.”
Alexandra caught Melissa’s smug look from across the table. She wanted to fling a spoonful of mashed sweet potatoes at Mel.
Nathan saw the look Melissa had given Alex but misinterpreted the message.
“Don’t mind Alex too much, Mel. I think our vegan activist here has taken a shine to the Avenger’s strong-armed ways.”
Melissa gave a weak laugh before inhaling another forkful of squash but Nathan wasn’t finished with his thought.
“Besides, Alex, this guy probably will let his identity slip to someone, whether it’s intentional or not, and a secret can’t be kept forever. No, if you ask me, if the masked nut decides to strike again, the police just need to offer a reward for information and they’ll grab this guy in two seconds.”
The words hung out there like a weight that was dragging Alexandra down. As Ophelia and Nathan hurried to take the dishes away to make space for dessert, Melissa sat back and folded her arms as she studied Alexandra, who did the same thing to Melissa. Was her secret safe with Melissa? She had always been trustworthy up to that point but how far did that trustworthiness go? Alexandra brushed the thoughts away and chalked it up to her own paranoid delusions. She had been so concerned about being caught that every little problem seemed to blow up into a full-fledged crisis.
Before Alexandra could push the thought away she must’ve had a look on her face, because Melissa’s eyes widened and her jaw drooped before regaining composure when Alexandra’s parents brought out the two pies. The two friends had always joked that they could read each other’s mind but could Melissa figure out just how deep Alexandra’s mistrust apparently went? Whatever Melissa was thinking about, it didn’t show for the rest of the dinner. The quartet was able to finish the desserts without another mention of the Animal Avenger or Ophelia’s fondness for strawberry wine coolers. As soon as dessert was finished, however, Melissa tried to end the evening as quickly as possible.
“I guess I should be going. I have a project for bio that needs to be finished by Monday,” she explained.
“Speaking of school, did the study session go well the other night?” Ophelia asked, taking another sip from her wine cooler.
Melissa’s forehead furrowed in confusion and she glanced at Alex, whose eyes had grown two sizes and looked like she was silently screaming at Mel with her mind.
“Huh? For what?” Melissa looked like they were speaking Cantonese to her.
“For your English class. Alex said she was helping you with your Shakespeare Wednesday night,” Nathan replied as he began to load the dishwasher with the plates Ophelia was handing him.
Melissa shot Alex a dirty look before the smile she had plastered on her face for most of the night returned.
“Oh, right, sorry. I’ve been doing so much studying that I nearly forgot. I guess the studying went well enough but even after all of her help I still don’t know if I soaked anything up,” Melissa said with a hint of annoyance at the end that Alex’s parents didn’t detect.
“I’m sure you’ll do fine, dear,” Ophelia said, giving Alex a look that read ‘dear god, I can only pray that girl does well’ behind Melissa’s back.
“I’m going to walk Mel out,” Alex said, rushing to catch up to Melissa, who was already grabbing her coat and sliding on her cap.
It wasn’t until the two of them were outside and in front of Melissa’s blue Honda Civic that they started to talk.
“Wait, Mel, stop for a second, please. I’m sorry I forgot to tell you about that. After our argument the other night my cover story was the last thing on my mind,” Alex blurted out in a hushed voice.
“It doesn’t matter,” Melissa shot back, spinning around on her heels. “Had I not found out about your crime, you would’ve told me a lie to cover up for your other lie.”
“Is that what you would’ve preferred?”
“I would’ve preferred you not to have held the guy up,” Melissa said, catching herself before her voice verged on yelling loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear, and then whispered, “and don’t think I didn’t catch that look on your face when your father said someone would turn you in.”
Alex’s face turned red. Melissa had seen the look.
“Mel, I know you wouldn’t turn on me,” Alex said meekly.
“You could’ve fooled me. You know, I came over tonight to give you this…” Melissa fished about her tiny purse that dangled from her shoulder and pulled out a flyer, handing it to Alex.
Alex took the flyer and saw that it was for the local community center. On the cover was a picture of a middle-aged Hispanic woman dressed in a black and red gym outfit engaging in a combative pose with a younger blonde girl. Above the photo was the caption, “Daliah’s Women’s Defense Class – Tuesdays at 8 O’clock”. Alex held it up as if she had no clue why she was handed the flyer.
“What’s this for?”
Mel could tell when her friend was truly lost and when she just wanted to hear Mel say something just for the sake of it.
“I thought you could use it. If you’re going to get rid of that ridiculous toy gun of yours, then you’re going to need to learn how to protect yourself,” Melissa huffed. “It’s not like I want you to get killed just because you’re an idiot.”
Alex smirked.
“I love you, too, Mel.”
Melissa folded her arms but then shot her middle finger at Alex.
“This doesn’t mean I agree with what you’re doing, Alex. I’m dead serious. I’m not going to tell your parents but I won’t be your Robin, either. Just promise me you’ll go, okay?”
Alex stared at the flyer while Melissa got into the car and started it up, Britney Spears blasted from the speakers momentarily before Melissa could turn the volume down to a whisper. She lowered her window and kept staring at Alex, studying her, trying to see if Alex was preparing to lie to her again. Finally, Alex nodded at Melissa and brought her eyes up to meet Melissa’s.
“I will,” Alex finally said.
Melissa must’ve seen something in Alex that told her it was the truth because she let out a tired, relieved sigh before turning back toward the wheel. She was reaching for the gearshift before Alex placed her hand on the car door and was on the verge of saying something when Melissa cut her off.
“I’ll call you but only when I feel up to it,” she answered Alex’s silence, “but not before.”
Alex took a step back from Melissa’s car as she drove the car out from the driveway and pulled away into the night. The wind started to pick up and she felt a chill spread down her back while she watched Melissa drive off. She looked back down at the flyer and sighed. Her friend worried too much. It wasn’t as if Alexandra had any major plans to bust down doors or get into fistfights. Alex would’ve been better off had Ophelia known what she was up to. She’d probably give the class one or two tries just so she can say she went whenever Melissa planned to ask her about it.
Alexandra was not going to be caught. She was the Animal Avenger now and as long as she kept her head in the game, she wasn’t going to be stopped.
