Mel_Hiding In Plain Sight

Davie strolled over to Mel’s house as he thought of questions to ask the man. He heard a high pitch whine piercing his ear but he couldn’t quite make out what it was. He could probably pinpoint the problem if he paid attention to where it was coming from, but as he crossed the yellow tape, he couldn’t find a damn to give. That was, until the sister of the victim broke through his thoughts and grabbed his shirt. “WHAT DO YOU KNOW?!”

Davie thought of how Evan had commented on how he had answered this woman earlier and sighed, “Look, Ms. Stephens, this is still a brand new case. There isn’t enough evidence to form any conclusions or point any fingers. I understand how hard this is to hear and I can’t imagine how hard this is to be going through, but…”

“But nothing! I need answers now!”

“But nothing? But shut your fucking mouth before I start questioning your ass as a damn suspect. You want me to find your sister? Give me time and stop sticking your nose up my asshole. I can’t do my job with your crazy ass always popping up in front of my face. Now leave and get some rest. We’ll have cops swing by your home in shifts to check up on you.” Davie moved past her and grunted. The department hadn’t had a case more serious than finding shoplifters in years. They all needed a little help getting into a mindset to find this killer. He turned into the driveway and knocked on the door. It opened.

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The group of five friends was standing on top of the easiest hill in their skiing apparel. Evan turned to Tony and Anne, “Ok you two, just start going slow. Pizza and French fry your way down like I told you. I’ll stay hovered around you two to make sure that you’re ok.”

He then turned to Jennifer and Tyrone, “Ok Jen, same as I told them. Nice and slow. Tyrone, just remember-“

Tyrone interrupted, “Evan. I got this shit. Hell, look at Tony and Anne.” Evan turned and noticed that those two had already started down the hill. They were steady. Fast learners.

Evan smiled and said, “Well, just be careful, dude.” Tyrone darted down the hill for all of ten seconds before he lost his balance and fell down with a grunt.

Jennifer yelled, “Don’t worry babe! I’m comin’ for you!” She began inching her way down with her skis pointed inward in the “pizza” position. Evan chuckled and made his way down the hill.

Mel poked his head out and smiled at his visitor, “Hey there. What can I do ya for?”

Davie took a large breath, “Well, as you’ve probably noticed, it seems that there’s been an incident involving someone in the area. We found a limb around your neighbor’s home and we’re just asking some questions.”

“Oh, well I can assure you, officer….”

“Call me Davie.”

“Davie. Hi I’m Mel. Anyway, those kids don’t seem like the kind who would do anything to anyone. They’ve kept quiet and have been nothing but friendly to me.”

“Yeah, I don’t doubt it. The thing is, I’m here to question you. The same questions I asked those kids.”

“I’m sorry, am I a suspect here?”

“Just doing my due diligence, sir.”

“Maybe I don’t like being put under this kind of microscope.”

Davie shot him a glance, “Maybe you’ll shoot to the top of our list if you decide that answering questions puts you in a bad position. Maybe it doesn’t give you a good look, at all.”

“Fine. Go ahead and do your due diligence.”

“Can I ask you what your day was like, yesterday? I want to know what you did.”

“You’re obviously under the impression that I am a suspect.”

“Just answer these questions. You-“

“Would you like to know a story about me?”

“Would you just answer my damn questions before I slap some cuffs on your ass for obstructing possible evidence.”

Mel frowned and grimly stated, “Don’t hit me with your bullshit. You listen to what I say and you’ll get all the answers you need. I don’t need to divulge a damn thing that I don’t want to.” This sudden grit and anger in Mel’s voice surprised Davie. His instinct was to reach for his gun, but he knew that was just an overreaction. An overreaction caused by years of laziness that had caused him and his fellow colleagues to get soft and unprepared.

Davie sighed, “Well, alright Mel. Can I at least go inside and grab a fuckin’ seat?”

The group had finished maneuvering down the beginner slope enough times to where they felt they had earned a brief intermission from the action. They undid their apparel and waddled in their ski boots over to a nearby table. Tony moaned in pleasure once he took off the boots, “Holy mother of Vishnu. My feet feel like they’re being crushed together by Goku’s buttcheeks.”

Evan squinted at Tony in bewilderment as Tyrone interjected, “Yeah I’m not sure why Goku would be crushing my feet with his butt muscles. Then again I’m not sure why my feet would even be in close proximity to his butt, so close in fact, that he would have the chance to crush them. That being said, I think I finally realize why there are no other black people here. This is some white people shit.”

Jennifer added, “He’s just a little frustrated that he hasn’t caught onto snowboarding as quickly as he would’ve hoped. We’re having a blast.”

Anne also piped in, “Yeah this has been awesome. Tony and I were pretty surprised at how easily we caught on. It’s pretty cool.”

Evan cracked a smile, “It’s about to be lunch time. Let’s go somewhere and grab a bite to eat. What do y’all think is happening back at the house?”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Davie and Mel were sitting in the latter’s living room. It was cold inside. Mel was on the couch as Davie was situated on a chair about fifteen feet away. Davie cleared his throat, “Alright, Mel, let’s hop to this. I unfortunately don’t have the most time on my hands.”

“Of course of course. You see, I was raised in the South.”

“What the hell does this have to do with my question? If you’re going to sit here and…. and…. and filibuster to waste my time you got another thing coming. Don’t waste my damn time.”

“Relax. I told you that I’d explain why I’m not a suspect here. I grew up in the South. Born and raised in North Mississippi to be exact. A place called Philadelphia. Horrid place. It was full of a bunch of queer-harassing, African American hating, white supremacist assholes. I went to church every Sunday. I’d frequent bible study on most Wednesdays as well. It was always fun. They were very inclusive and friendly. Obviously they wouldn’t have approved of my company if they knew that I didn’t hate homosexuals. If they knew I was attracted to black women.

I hated living there almost as much as I hated living. I was different from the others. There were a few dreamers littered here and there. Most of the popular kids were dreamers. They wanted to go to good universities and get good jobs that paid enough for tropical vacations and whatnot. I mean, they were all idiots. The school sucked because it was a small place and the teachers only taught there because it was the only opening for them. So it was unmotivated idiots for teachers who taught unmotivated idiots for students. But hell, at least the popular kids had dreams. Sometimes an idiot with a dream is worth admiring because he had enough ambition to dream.

Now, I have always had trouble with my heart. I couldn’t play sports. I couldn’t work out. I couldn’t look the way I wanted due to these problems. I was a large kid. Large kids aren’t popular. Large kids are picked on because their parents are too poor to afford healthy foods. Large kids aren’t politely called ‘large’. They’re called fat and they aren’t worth anyone’s time. It messed with me, mentally. It messed with me that I had all the ambition in the world to excel at everything I wanted to, but I had limitations placed on me before I could even push myself.”

Davie cleared his throat; “I’m going to have to give you a ten minute time limit on this. I’m not free all day.”

Mel shot an angry glance at him, but his gaze softened as he continued, “One day I went up to a girl named Amanda and asked her to go to prom with me. I was awkward and it was the most nerve-racking experience I had ever had at that point in my life. See, Amanda wasn’t the most popular or well-known girl in school. She was sweet. She was nice. She was-“

Davie interrupted, “An Angel. I get it.”

Mel chuckled, “Oh quite the contrary. She was easy. As far as I knew, she had slept with more guys than I could count on four hands. In high school she had done that. In high school in 1997 nonetheless! There were probably bigger sluts I didn’t know about. A girl or boy fooling around with that many people is probably average nowadays., but I had never seen a girl so loose be so innocent looking. I had heard some of the stories too. She didn’t mind heavy guys. She didn’t mind guys who were even heavier than I was! This was literally my only shot to be publicly seen with a beautiful girl and maybe even lose my virginity. My senior year was practically the setting for a crappy ‘coming-of-age’ comedy movie.

Anyway, the bitch says no. She isn’t going or something like that. It hurt. I could feel my heart aching in my chest. I hadn’t felt that much pain since I tried to jog. Her rejection wounded my pride and it physically brought me pain. I grew a very deep and burning hatred for her. I had never felt this kind of animosity towards anyone else before. It was kind of scary.

She lived fairly close to me, about three miles away. So one day I drove by her house after school. She’s already there and she’s on her porch, reading a book, petting her cat. I drive by this place everyday for two weeks. If she was outside, she was with her cat. So I got this idea in my head. It had been two weeks since this whore shot me down. I still hated her after fourteen days. This wasn’t some dent in my pride that I would get over like every other insult hurled my way. She was my last chance at creating a good memory in high school. Obviously she didn’t know this. Maybe if I had told her she would have said yes. Maybe if I had told her, she would’ve thought it was pathetic and told half of our class. Who knows?

For the next week I swing by the house at nighttime, roughly around 9 P.M. No one was outside, but there was always this fifty-fifty chance that the cat was indeed out there. I saw it roaming around the porch or making its way across the street towards a fence for another house. One day it jumped over, the other two days it simply strolled along the fence.

So one night, I’m driving by and I see the cat outside. I put on a black hoodie. I put on these gloves that I had found outside. They were leather gloves used for outdoor work. I pulled out a knife that’s way too big for the job, but I thought this really deserved me going all out.”

Davie adjusted himself in his seat and added, “This isn’t painting a picture of innocence.”

Mel could see the discomfort in Davie as he smiled and proceeded, “Well, maybe if you would wait till the end you could find out what happened. So I got out to kill the cat. I brought this off brand cat food to try and lure it close to me. I wanted my revenge, but I was still a cheap little shit. The cat heard me calling and it smelled the food. It was a cute little thing. It was so cute that it actually reminded me of Amanda. I thought of how fitting it was that she would own an animal that was just as nice to look at as she was. Too bad for the cat, I didn’t want any reminders of her cute face.

I took out the knife, grabbed the cat by the waist and shoved my knife straight through its neck. It bled. The blood was coming all the way down my left glove and making its way down my arm as I kept stabbing it. I stabbed it to the point that it was just a mangled pelt. The head toppled off and I threw it in Amanda’s front lawn. I threw the body over the fence to that other home. That throw actually caused a quick pain to shoot through me, but screw it. I was too happy.

I was absolutely giddy at this point. Now, Davie, I know you’re probably pretty sure you’ve found a psychopath. I mean, animal abuse is a very common sign that it could transform into a bloodlust for humans later on. Animal abusers usually don’t stick to abusing only animals. I know what you’re thinking. I know what you’re thinking because I’m a behavioral psychologist whose focus is on criminal psychology and behavior. I get it. I’m a very high profile doctor. You can look me up. I’d give you all the details, but I’m sure you’re not going to be interested in that.

Hell, I feel like we can really trust each other right now, because I haven’t told anyone that story until now. If you feel the need to catch up on your reading, grab one of my books. It was never a best seller, but it did sell. That’s why I can afford this house. I’m an amazing doctor, but I’m an even more interesting author. I guess I was blessed with a few talents.”

Davie was annoyed by this confidence Mel was oozing and asked, “Is there going to be a point to all of this? I’ll tell you right now, if your book is anything like your story telling, I’m not interested.”

Mel’s teeth began to grind behind his closed lips but then he continued, “Yes, Davie, there is a point. After I killed that cat I was so ecstatic that my heart couldn’t take this sudden activity. As I drove home, I had a bit of an episode and my heart began acting up. I crashed into a tree.

I woke up in the hospital. The doctor came in and explained to me what happened. My family wasn’t there. I knew all of our insurance information however and asked if there was any way to help me. Fast forward, I had a pacemaker put in me.” At this point Mel took off his shirt and showed Davie the scar located on his upper chest. Davie admired Mel’s body. He wasn’t the fittest human alive, but he was muscular and strong. There was fat on him but it was mostly located on his abdominal area and there wasn’t much. There was a slight sag to his skin however, wear and tear from his age and from being fat in his childhood.

Davie commented, “You’re pretty in shape for a fat kid with a pacemaker.”

Mel smiled, “Yes, well, the pacemaker was most likely the best thing to happen to me. I was finally able to do physical activity. Granted I was still limited, but I could walk far now. I could jog and run and lift weights and I was normal now. I became healthier and happier. Now why does this mean I’m innocent? Well, if this had happened a few months back, I could definitely see why I would be under suspicion. However in the past few weeks my pacemaker has been malfunctioning a bit and it delivers a certain wave of pain to me if I do anything too strenuous. I’ll be getting a new one installed soon, but for now I’m just relaxing.

So no, I didn’t kill whoever died. Unless you fully expect me to be Jason Voorhees who walks towards his victims, I can’t. I saw you all getting that arm off the roof. I can’t even throw a tennis ball right now without getting some sort of pain. I don’t think I threw that arm onto the roof.”

Davie inquired, “If you can’t do a damn thing, why the hell are you here? You can’t ski. You can’t do much of anything around here.”

Mel chuckled, “That’s where you’re wrong. I can enjoy myself. I also live here. That is until I can get this darn thing replaced. Then I might move somewhere a little warmer, but until then, I like this place. I like the cold. I like Colorado. It’s a beautiful place with plenty of room. So are we done here?”

Davie sat up from his chair and began to walk out, “For now.” He walked out of the door and shut it.

Mel

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