Alibi (Day 2)
The silverback gorilla that called itself Leviathan Slater was still at Ace’s apartment, devouring twelve egg whites, four turkey sausages, a glass of milk, and two bananas.
Ace sat next to him at his glass dining room table, in the expansive open space that encompassed the couch, dining set, and TV.
The dining table next to the large windows overlooking the cityscape, that Ace loved to watch every morning, but this morning he could not stop to watch as Levi ate a three-man meal.
Every time he ate, Ace was amazed how much Levi could, and where it all went, and how fast. Ace was on his third cup of coffee, trying to stay awake, and was worried he drank too much caffeine because he was sitting still but the chair was vibrating.
The Rock was now in his room, on the bed, because for some reason Ace started to believe that it was tired and needed some sleep. The moment he put it on his bed, adjusted it on a pillow, and then put a blanket on top he felt quite ridiculous.
Ace lowered the blanket down a little so it wouldn’t get too hot and then left.
Ace was the quietest he had been in a long time, watching Levi eat. It was a rare talent not getting anything on his shirt while inhaling his breakfast, only leaving the banana peels because they were inedible.
“You should eat before we go out,” Levi said, stifling a burp.
“Where does it all go,” Ace asked. “Is this where all the muscles come from?”
“You want more muscles, eat more protein. You don’t eat or sleep much lately and I’m worried.”
Ace continued to drink his coffee, with too much cream and sugar and told Levi he was fine.
“I’m fine. I don’t need food, I’m wide awake! I can hear the electrical outlets,” Ace said.
“No part of that sentence is fine, go to bed Acheus.”
“I don’t want to go to sleep. What if this is all one very long dream and I’m crazy? What if -”
Ace’s phone rang, it was a thin glass stick clattering and vibrating on the table. The ringtone went off, a remix of a song that should never have been remixed, to begin with, somehow worse than the original version.
“What if it's another dead person calling,” Ace asked.
Levi picked up the phone, ignoring Ace’s complaints, and on the other end was Peter Forthright. He thought he had finally caught Ace, the criminal mastermind, now burning down the entire town, running around naked, a pyromaniac sexual deviant.
“I know what you’ve done, Ace,” Peter Forthright said. “ I know what you did last night. ”
“Who is this,” Levi asked. “Who are you? ”
“Pass me the phone to Ace.”
“No! Who are you?”
“Levi, who are you talking to,” Ace asked.
“I can hear him, I know he’s there,” Forthright shouted.
“You don’t know anything, you should mind your own business or else, ” Levi replied.
“Are you threatening me? I’m an officer! You can’t do that!”
“I can do whatever I want, whenever I want,” Levi hissed into the phone.
He ended the call and Ace finished the last of his coffee, the air now vibrating around him, and he was regretting not listening to someone else who had told him what to do, that he should have just gone right back to bed.
“Levi, which dead person is it? Is it Mark?”
The phone rang again, the annoying techno beat louder than before, the caller ID flashing HAS BAD TASTE IN MOVIES. Levi had no idea how Ace remembered who was calling from his contacts list. Ace had him listed as ANGRY RABBIT on his contacts list.
“Ace who is this,” Levi asked, holding up the phone screen for him to read.
“That’s one of my bosses. Did you argue with my boss?”
“No,” Levi lied.
The Rock did not change any colors because it was asleep.
The phone stopped ringing, and they relaxed for only two seconds when it rang again, the same caller ID, HAS BAD TASTE IN MOVIES, was not going to give up.
The dog started barking, thinking that someone was coming to visit because the phone kept ringing, and Levi started asking dozens of questions of why his boss is harassing him and then decided to make the situation worse by answering the phone again.
“Acheus, we know what happened last night. If you don’t come clean, we’ll have no choice but to move forward from there,” Forthright said.
“What we’re doing isn’t illegal,” Levi replied.
He had no idea that Forthright was referring to the burned building and bodies, not his affair, and the conversation became quite obtuse .
“Who is this? Are you his partner,” Forthright asked.
“I mean… yes,” Levi mumbled. “I guess you could say that.”
“You need to turn yourselves in. Telling the truth can only make this end quickly.”
“I can’t. I won’t. What we do is our own business.”
“Not when it hurts other people. You disgust me. ”
“I don’t care if no one understands! We’re consenting adults!”
“What about everyone else you’ve hurt,” Forthright asked. “Will you do it again?”
“What about them? I’ll do it every day! I’m with him right now, ” Levi taunted him. “Tell Mary Jane she can eat rocks.”
“Levi, what are you talking about, ” Ace asked.
He got up from the chair and tried to grab the phone away from him, but Levi easily kept him away with one hand while finishing the phone call.
“Sir, what are you talking about? I’m calling Acheus about the arson incident that occurred last night,” Forthright said.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“You’re not a private investigator hired by Mary Jane,” Levi asked.
“I don’t know who that woman is, but Acheus should come down with a very solid alibi if Officer Sena is telling the truth. We won’t be patient for long, and if you don’t come within the hour, we’ll make it public. ”
Forthright ended the call and Levi gave Ace the phone, tuning out the barking and complaints. Ace needed a very solid alibi and the only person with him last night was Levi.
The walls and all of his lies of the past few years were closing down on him.
Levi had made his own prison.
----------------------------------------
Ace had to give over all his electronics while he was questioned by the police, and Levi was given his cellphone when they were done with it. He sat in the lobby, the brown alternating tiles, the high arches, the many officers pacing back and forth, and Levi did not want to be inside that building.
They were all very aware of his family, especially his father, who since he had come into town last year had gotten in the way of many investigations by giving his two cents on op-eds online, and helping evidence disappear.
Levi, like Sierra Sena, was guilty by association.
Peter Forthright, stood next to the wooden bench on which Levi sat, and every once in a while, he would ask him strange and specific questions, but Levi was smart enough to ignore most of them.
“I found out Mary Jane is your wife,” Forthright said.
“Yes, you discovered the internet today. Congratulations,” Levi replied.
Ace’s phone rang again, and this time it was TALL CELERY STALK. Levi answered the phone for an excuse just to have Forthright leave, but he stood next to him the entire conversation.
No one said anything when Levi answered the call, and Levi was too nervous to speak, afraid it was another dead person to ask him how he was doing, and if he wanted to come to visit them in their tomb.
The call ended, and then TALL CELERY STALK, called again, thinking that the call didn’t go through properly.
“Ace, I saw you on the news, what happened,” Fenton asked.
“Oh, he’s fine,” Levi replied.
“ Levi? Why do you have his phone?”
Levi hung up.
Forthright liked watching him sweat. He believed he was closer to some sort of underground crime ring, or human trafficking scheme. The Slaters must be involved somehow! That's where they got all their money from!
He was so close, yet somehow so far.
While TALL CELERY STALK continued to call and text over and over, Ace was being interrogated by Officer Redd.
The evidence of Ace’s phone location from nearby cell towers matched up, Levi was a solid alibi, and Ace, unlike the perpetrator, had much shorter hair, was taller, and had no tattoos.
Their facial similarity was so uncanny, so bizarre, that no one at the department believed he was telling the truth, even when the facts were laid in front of them.
He was still in the interrogation room, with a grounder on his leg, this one not a cheap dollar store kind, but industrial-grade strength. It was heavy, wrapped around his ankle, and made it hard for him to move or even get up from the cold metallic chair in the freezing room, the metal table uncomfortable as well, and he knew it was all designed to make him squirm.
He was stuck in the cold room with Officier Redd, another fish-person, more fish than a person.
He had shiny scales all over his body, dorsal fins on his forearms, so his police uniform was short-sleeved, and he was drinking from a water bottle, sitting across from Ace, making very little effort at interrogating him.
“Are you going to at least ask me a question, ” Ace asked.
“What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream,” Redd replied.
“Don’t have one.”
Invictus let out a soft chuckle and Ace sighed, telling himself that at worst he was free to go after twenty-four hours, they were wasting more of their time than of his.
Captain Forthright walked in, smug, his day had finally come because he had done it. He had proven that Ace was a criminal hiding under their noses the entire time. Ever since Forthright and Ace arrived at the APD, money had gone missing, so many whispers of dirty cops, and the first one was here, ready to be made an example of.
“Acheus it seems that you were not at the scene of the arson, as evidenced from your location history, but it seems we know where you were two years ago,” Peter Forthright said.
“Yeah. I was here. I started working here, two years ago, ” Ace scoffed.
Redd smiled, but since he was more fish than person, his scales made a strange sound, like plastic stretching when he did so, because he had done as instructed, he interrogated the suspect for the arson.
Now it was time to arrest the suspect of a murder.
“Acheus, where were you, two years ago, on February 3rd,” Peter Forthright asked.
Acheus had a bad memory, and could not recall, and when he answered truthfully, they saw it as him being cheeky.
“Acheus, have you ever been to the Sunshine Hotel,” Officer Redd asked.
“I don’t know,” Ace shrugged.
“ It’s a yes-no question, ” Forthright hissed. “Have. You. Been. To. The. Sunshine. Hotel?”
Ace said nothing, possibly the single smartest decision he had made in his life.
They charged him the murder of Ahana M. Hori, a lawyer who was murdered two years ago at the Sunshine Hotel, his handsome face blown to bits over the couch.
They said it was an open and shut case, DNA evidence. He should go quietly, or he could give in and tell everyone who his co-conspirators were, tell them about the Slaters, they were criminals walking in the daylight.
“I don’t want to talk to either of you,” Ace replied.
“Not even I,” Forthright asked.
“I never liked you. You think you’re better than everyone else.”
Officer Redd drank from his water bottle, trying to hold back a smile, but the sound of stretching plastic filled the silence and Forthright knew.
“This is your final chance,” Forthright said. “I know everything. I know what you’ve done!”
Officer Redd got up from the chair and told him that they were wasting their time but Forthright was persistent. He knew it. He knew that Ace was guilty. Forthright’s perfectly gelled hair came undone as he screamed that he knew about people like him.
People like him were the worst, the reason society was where it was.
“You’re not a common criminal. I've always known you're different now that I see your ears, you’re the kind that-”
The door opened and an officer let a man inside, tall and lanky, steel eyes and black hair. He wore glasses, a loose button-up, dress pants with a simple belt, and black shoes. He was all business with his briefcase and demeanor. The moment Redd and Forthright saw him they knew who he was.
His lawyer.