The Last Piano

    It’s possible to loathe someone you’ve never met. It’s possible to loathe them with a passion even though you have never seen their face. 

    My name is Otis Barnes. If you asked me my story you’d have to sit there for a few hours. I’ve been almost everywhere and I’ve done almost everything. I’ll admit, I’ve lived a pretty good life and I’m only thirty three. 

    My current occupation right now is as a private eye. However, my current client is also me. 

    A few months ago, a guy the papers are calling the Piano Man, to Billy Joel’s frustration, committed the steal of the century. The greatness behind this job was not the worth of what he stole but the size and quantity of it that made this crime so miraculous. 

    He stole eighty eight self playing pianos from a warehouse in Kansas. No one knows how he did it, but he did it. And they weren’t those light little keyboards, they were large full scale pianos. 

    Now, why is this any of my business? Because two days later, my mother was found dead underneath one of those pianos. That piano was missing one key. High C. Which led me to his next victim. But I was too late. By the time I had arrived, my brother Archer was already murdered on the very boat he lived on. We found his remains twisted and wrapped around the insides of the piano. And when we opened the lid to further examine the body, the piano began to play. I immediately recognized the song. It was, “Welcome To The Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance. Archer’s favorite. My heart broke with each god forsaken note that played.

    This man, this thing, was hunting those I cared for and waving it in front of my face as if this was some kind of game. I required justice.

    I have spent the last four months following these murders across the globe. One of the best parts of having been everywhere and done everything, is you meet a lot of people and end up caring for many of them. Although that also means that there’s that much more people that can be taken from you. Whenever one of the victims hasn’t been someone I’ve known, it’s always been a clue or a hint. This has only grown my hatred for this child of hell. It proves that he does not care about the lives of others. He has killed one hundred and sixty five people and has used eighty seven of the eighty eight pianos he stole. He has become the most wanted man in the entire world. 

    And he has come to the last piano.

    The eighty seventh piano was found in the cell of a Parisian prison. And nailed to the walls as if they were Christ, was every criminal I had brought to justice. Somehow, this man had found every low life I had locked away and brought them to Paris. 

I will never understand how he did this, but when I entered the cell, the piano began to play. With that first step I took, a powerful minor chord shot from the instrument as if it were possessed. 

The piano kept playing an eerie song that seemed familiar but I couldn’t quite place it. Then, after about twenty eight measures in four-four time, the whole mood of the song changed. Then the song changed again, and again, and again. I realized it was a medley, but of what I didn’t know. 

When the song ended, a small piece of paper popped out of the lid of the piano. The words, “Do you like it? I arranged it myself.”, were typed on the note. The song started again and I looked inside the piano to find a timer. The medley would loop for forty eight hours. It was obvious what this meant. He gave me a time table. Forty eight hours to piece together the identity of his next victim. Forty eight hours to stop one of the greatest criminal minds the world has ever known.

First, I examined the bodies of the dead criminals. It appeared they all died the same way. A bullet to the heart. And almost every other criminal on the wall was missing his or her left shoe. Now, one would look at this and see simply a pattern for decoration, but I knew these men and women as well as I know myself. Each person with the missing shoe was born in the part of the United States that would be considered the northern states which narrowed down the location of the victim down to about twenty six or twenty seven states depending on what he defines as “north and south”. Then there were the shoes. If they were missing a shoe it was the left shoe. Meaning the victim is in one of the north eastern states of the USA. Then there was the one thing each body had in common, other than their shared love of illegal activities. They all died from being shot in the heart. Immediately when this thought popped into my head, so did a song. 

“Right to the very heart of it.”

Genius really. That’s what I was up against. A genius with a very good choice in jazz music. When I came to the conclusion that the victim was in New York, all that remained was narrowing down their identity. The population of the state of New York is around eight point four hundred and nineteen million and I had to narrow it down to one. Luckily, there’s only one genre of music associated solely with New York. Some think it’s Jazz or blues but those reside in New Orleans. However, the modern show tune was born out of Broadway.

Ugh, I hate Broadway. The only reason I knew anything about it was because I loved it as a kid, but then grew out of it with age. In fact, once realizing it was Broadway and hearing the medley a couple more times, I could identify each part of the song. The opening was iconically from the title song of “Phantom Of The Opera”. When Christine finished the first line, the iconic bum bum bum bum bum sounded and then it shifted to Elphaba and Glinda singing “What Is This Feeling” from “Wicked”. After they belted the word Life, it then immediately went into “Little Shop of Horrors” which wasn’t as long as any of the others and went into “My Shot” from “Hamilton” which is very overrated in my opinion. Then the final part was “Stronger” from “Finding Neverland” and the song ended in a layered mashup of all five songs. 

Weirdos who actually enjoy that show tune crap might have appreciated the medley, some might have even liked it, but I only heard the creation of a psychopathic mad man. 

I immediately bought a ticket to Laguardia airport. Once I had realized that the target had something to do with Broadway, I knew who the target was. When I landed in New York I went to a Hilton on eighth avenue in between fifty first and fifty second street, booked a room, and dropped off my stuff. This was the first time I ever had the chance to get to the victim before whoever it is who was killing them. I had thirty seven hours left so I ran over to time square with no time to waste. 

I took out my phone and made a few calls while a guy in an Elmo costume watched and waved at me the whole time from a street corner. After I made the calls, I met an old friend who owed me a few favors backstage at Wicked. I know that only one song in the medley was from Wicked so how was I to know for sure, but the person I cared about the most on Broadway was in that show. Believe it or not, I have a good number of friends and family in that business which is funny cause I dislike it very much. I’m actually surprised that none of them had been murdered up to this point. 

My buddy Andre helped me get backstage and into her dressing room for when she finished the matiné. When she walked through the door with a bouquet of flowers it reminded me of the day we met. It was in high school and we were both in the chorus of our school’s production of Phantom of The Opera. Milly was also the understudy for Christine and I was the understudy for The Phantom. We had never rehearsed together, so when both the Phantom and Christine got sick, me and Milly met for the first time on stage. She was amazing, and I fell in love. Now, Milly plays Elphaba, and for a few months I played Fiero. Then, she asked me to marry her. 

I just wasn’t ready for that. There was so much I hadn’t done and I knew that if I married her, I wouldn’t leave her for any adventure. So I left, and I often stay awake at night wondering if I made the right choice. That’s why I despise Broadway. Every time I hear that kind of music, I think of her and my heart breaks all over again. 

“What are you doing here?” Millie asked, obviously not happy to see me. She was even more beautiful than I remembered, even with all the green makeup. 

“You’re in danger,” I said, not wasting a single word, “ we need to run.”

“What? Seriously? You disappear for years and then you just expect me to run off with you into the sunset?”

“Milly, your life is in danger!”

“I live in New York, my life is always in danger!”

“Not like this. Ok?”

“Why do you even care? Even if my life was in danger, why do you…”

“BECAUSE I NEVER STOPPED LOVING YOU!”

Then we just looked at each other as I started to cry. I almost never cry and Milly knew that. So we just looked at each other in silence. After a minute or so of just sitting in the silence, I explained to her what was going on and how much time we had left. She understood, and she believed me. However, Milly would never disappoint an audience and she had two more shows that week. So she agreed to let me escort her everywhere she went until I was absolutely sure she was safe. 

Although, Mike the director was not a big fan of the idea. So I had to cut a deal. For two shows only I would once again play Fiero. It was just like riding a bike. Just a few hours of rehearsals and I was ready. To be honest, I enjoyed it a little, but only a little. 

Ok, so I loved it. I loved every second of it. And that first performance made me feel like I was finally home after a long and tiring journey. Millie knew this. She could see it in my eyes everytime she looked at me. Then, during “As long as you’re mine”, when we kissed, it was real. It was passionate. She wasn’t acting and neither was I. At that moment, I could see myself spending the rest of my life with her. 

The next day, at the end of the last show I performed in, just as we were taking our bows, I looked to off stage right and saw Andre pointing to his watch. Time was up.

I looked at Milly and just as the curtains closed I grabbed her hand and we bolted off stage. We quickly ran into her dressing room so we could get out of our costumes because there was no way we could have run dressed the way we were. After we got all the makeup off and we were in our street clothes, we went out of the room and into the hall. We suddenly heard a gunshot followed by a plethora of screams. It sounded like the shot came from down the hall but it must have missed because the bullet was in the wall instead of someone’s body. 

I told Milly to stay in the dressing room as I ran toward the origin of the sound. I pulled my handgun out from my holster as I got further down the hall. I then heard footsteps leading to backstage. I led these sounds to the catwalk where I found an Elmo costume and a pair of stilts. 

Then I heard the other shot. 

There was no way I could have known for sure but I just felt it. I felt and I knew in my heart that Milly, one of the last things I was living for, was dead. 

In anger I ran back to the dressing room where I found a figure standing over Milly’s body. I told him to turn around as I aimed my gun at his head. He turned around and what I saw shocked me. 

He was a kid in a creepy mask. He looked to be no older than twelve or thirteen. I was so angry that I was about to pull the trigger and murder a little kid. The little murdered slammed the door before I could shoot and when I opened it again, he was gone. 

I ran over to her and saw the hole in her head. I screamed out and cried into the night, asking for some Angel or Devil or anyone to save her. But no one came. I closed her eyelids and just stayed there with her the rest of the night. 

Apparently Milly wasn’t the only person he killed that night. Three bombs went off that night. All hidden in pianos at Hamilton, Phantom Of the Opera, and Little Shop Of Horrors. The eighty eighth piano was found in the orchestra pit of Wicked. 

The next morning, the headlines read “Piano Man Kills Again” and “Broadway Star Sings No More”. 

That day keeps replaying in my mind. I shouldn’t have left Milly in her dressing room. I just wanted to keep her safe. This monster has murdered so many people I love that I don’t know if I have the strength to do anything anymore. 

The theaters haven’t even been rebuilt yet. They say it’ll take years to repair everything we lost but hundreds of people died that night. I don’t think their families will ever recover. And I know I will never recover.

I think they mean the physical damage.

Yeah, I know that. Why are you even here? Who are you?

I am a man who is very interested in the child you mentioned.

Yeah, you and me both. 

I think I care a little more than you.

What? You his daddy or something?

No. I’m not nearly old enough to be his father.

Then what is he to you?

Well?

What is he to you?!

Hey!?

WHO IS HE?!?!