The Night Gathering

This story can also be read as a continuation of my last submission The Interrogation.****

Kai Matsuda woke up at 2 am and realized that his life will end again. He swept the buzzing red bottom and Jenny Desautel’s voice came through on his cellphone. 

“You OK Kai? They said you were arrested.”

Looking around to confirm he was still in his own bedroom, Matsuda reassured Desautel that he was not in custody. He reached over to the empty bed space and realized that Melissa was gone, and so were her clothes which were hanging on the back of the chair.

“Rumor has it that someone broke into Dean Hutchinson’s office, and said he was you when he was caught.”

“I was home all night.” Kai mumbled, staggering to the sliding door by the balcony and saw that Melissa's Cadillac was still in the guest parking spot. Maybe she went downstairs?

“False alarm then. Go back to sleep.” Jenny hung up.

Hearing noise below on the ground floor of his apartment, Kai started downstairs looking for Melissa, and froze on the landing. A man with the build of an offensive linemen,unaware of being watched, was rifling through his cabinets and drawers. Quietly he retreated upstairs, wishing that he had accepted Jenny’s offer to lend him her revolver when there was a rash of home invasions in their neighborhood.

“Nah. What do I need that for?” He said to Jenny.

Dumb decision as usual. Now the thick guy downstairs will snap his neck with two fingers.

Or, he could run to Jenny's apartment, which was just two blocks away. Jenny, who made him chicken soup for his cold, bought him Meclizine for his vertigo, and told him to buy a fleece jacket before his first winter in New Orlean, even though he thought was in the tropical south - a piece of advice he was grateful for, could now provide safe harbor for his plight.

Kai exited the sliding door, slid down the balcony post. His 2 am run across the driveways and lawns was not witnessed except during the later reviewing of the security cameras feeds by the police when they observed the lanky grad student with nothing but his shaggy hair and white boxer dashing through multiple fields of view.

He knocked and bewildered Jenny let him in.

He explained that Melissa had gone missing and a heavyset intruder was working his way upstairs in his apartment so he could murder Matsuda and dump his body in Lake Pontchartrain.

Why didn’t I call the police? Well, you know, my stash. Anything more than 14 grams is a minimum sentencing of 6 months in Louisiana- and I have a kilo bag which is nearly full. Why so much? Well, I was a steady consumer. Yap. If the cops get a whiff of it, no pun intended,I am definitely going to end up as someone’s prettyboy in Angola.”

Kai has been smoking pot since Berkeley High. However, with age the side effects caught up with him. In the past 6 months he has experienced worsening vertigo and nausea after each usage, which led to the decision of quitting, and giving the rest of his cache to friends. 

Last night was supposed to be the last hurrah before a life-time of abstinence, which eliminated any lingering doubt about quitting the stuff, as thirty minutes after he and Melissa shared a joint, he experienced such nausea that he threw up all the cherry ice cream she made for him. Feeling bad he didn’t have the heart to tell Melissa that all her hard work went the way of the porcelain bowl.

Jenny opened her closet. He donned her purple t-shirt with gold LSU Tiger stenciling. Although half a head shorter, Jenny's jeans were nevertheless too long for Kai, which was easily solved by rolling up the cuff. The bigger challenge was that all her shoes were too big for him. The only thing that came close was a pair of pink hightops which he can keep on with two pairs of wool socks. 

Then he asked her for the gun. 

“Why don’t you wait until he is gone?”

“How would I know when he is gone? Besides, Melissa could still be in the apartment. She and her clothes were gone but her car was still in the lot. I want to make sure she is safe from the intruder.”

She presented a 22 caliber revolver with a one-inch pin hole barrel and banana-shaped grip which fit two fingers. Kai wondered if he would be better off with a peashooter.

“It’s an Heritage Arms boot revolver. I can bag a squirrel at thirty yards consistently with it back home at Houma.”

“Why would you shoot squirrels?”

“Dinner!” She answered his dumb question with raised brows and shoulders. “Let me go with you.”

“No Jenny. You have done enough for me. For tonight and for the past two years, ever since I met you at Charity Hospital emergency room with my panic attack and you were the only person who sat me down and talked to me like a human being and explained my condition. Regardless of what transpires tonight, I don’t want you to get involved.”

He cupped her face in his palms and she closed her eyes in anticipation, but the kiss never came. The security camera showed the gangly figure with purple LSU t-shirt, cuffed jeans, and pink high top scampering back to his own apartment.

Kai entered his apartment from the unlocked front door, lifting it slightly as he opened to avoid the creaking. He can hear the intruder upstairs in his bedroom in the dark. He rushed upstairs, aimed at the giant’s leg, and pulled the trigger - nothing happened.

“Single action, which means you need to cock the hammer each time before you pull the trigger.”

He cocked the hammer, aimed again and the gun popped. The bullet, however, was stopped by the intruder’s thick boot. The large man tackled the grad student to the ground and started to choke him.

That’s it! The end I have always predicted. I will die young and leave a scrawny corpse.

Then came the loud thud. As the intruder fell to one side, revealing Jenny with a frying pan behind him.

“Man that hurts like mother fucker. You know that hitting someone in the head so they pass out conveniently thing only happens on TV right?” The heavy man moaned, rubbing his head.

“Yap. I do. I am a trauma nurse.” Jenny replied, turning the light one.

“You are the security guard from school!” Kai said. 

“Dan Gould. Head of security at LSU School of Medicine. Are you a student?”

“Kai Matsuda. I am a neurogenetic grade student.”

“No you ain't. Kai Matsuda broke into Dean Hutchinson’s office and was apprehended by my guys earlier tonight.”

Kai had to show his driver's license to prove his identity. 

“So that little fucker lied about his name.” Gould muttered.

“Probably Keyser Sozed you as my name was one of the dean’s list students posted on the wall next to his office. What are you doing in my apartment?”

“While he was being questioned by the deans, I decided to search his home listed on the student's residential information on the school computer for any evidence of crimes, which led me here.” 

Just then the front door squeaked open and then shut. Footsteps hurried upstairs, and two ski-masked figures emerged through the bedroom door.

Jenny raised the frying pan. Kai aimed the squirrel gun. Dan Gould habitually reached for his belly club, and, realizing he did not bring one, quickly picked up a cudgel on the shelf and held it ready.

“Kai! We thought you were locked up..” The taller of the masked pair spoke.

"You and everyone else." The grad student answered, recognizing the voice.

“Yeah. We figured we will grab the kilo bag before the police search your apartment.” The shorter guy explained, as they removed their masks.

Matsuda introduced Milton Chung and Jerome Sims, the gaming friends to whom Kai decided to bequeath his ganja.

“What’s with dildo, dude?” Sims asked Gould who just then realized that what he thought was a cudgel was a fuchsia 9-incher.

“I didn't bring mine so I grabbed the nearest … by the way the reefer bag is in the closet - found it earlier during my search - good shit, too. None of those crap my grandson brings home. ” Gould redirect their attention.

“I can put you in touch with my supplier.” Kai tried to be helpful, as Milton and Jerome retrieved the greenery.

All grew quiet as they heard the front door opening again. Jenny turned off the light as the door closed softly. Then cautious steps creeped up the stairs with the rustling sound of fabric.

As the shadowy figure entered the room, Jenny flipped on the light. 

Melissa Lee, expecting to find Kai Matsuda alone in bed, snoring away, allowing her to slip back into bed unnoticed, was surprised by the crowd bearing weapon, cooking implement, sex toy, and a 2000 dollar roach bad. 

People already in the room were surprised by the fact Melissa was naked. 

“You ordered a stripper?” Chung asked.

“Oh, there you are. I was worried. Hey Dan, if you are looking for a quality product, Melissa here is your man. By the way honey, could you remember to put the vibrator away next time? We have talked about this before.”

Melissa ran downstairs and out of the front door too fast for Kai to follow her, leaving behind her handbag. 

Momentarily a muffled sound of a motorcycle engine purred in the alleyway behind the apartment. A 900 cc inline four with baffled noise reducer, Jenny thought, as she dumped the contents of Melissa’s bag on the bed and found a pill crusher, a bottle containing white round tablets, some broken, with EP 905 imprints on them, and rolls of 100 dollar bills held by rubber bands, 5000 per roll by weight, she counted s 17 of them. Meanwhile Milton and Jerome started to exam the cannabis retrieved from the closet and Kai tried to explain to Dan Gould who Melissa was. 

Suddenly the building shook by the pummeling of the front door followed by the sound of the breaking of the deadbolt from the mortice and the door's crash opening .

“Police! NOPD! Show your hands.” Screaming in unison, law enforcement streamed in onto the ground floor and started room clearing. “Melissa Lee! Melissa Lee! Show yourself! “

Jenny slipped the money in the zipper lining of Kai’s fleece jacket and put the pill bottle back in Melissa’s purse.

Startled, Milton tossed the kef bag to Kai, who was also stunned and uncertain what to do with it.

“Toss it from the balcony!” Jenny whispered.

Dan Gould opened the sliding door for Kai to make the pitch.

“Get rid of your weapons!”

Acknowledging Jenny’s comment, Kai shoved the revolver in the bag. In the fog of his dumbfoundedness, Dan Gould also threw in the dildo.

Kai stepped onto the balcony and aimed for the azalea bushes in the backyard. Never known for his athleticism, he missed and the bag bounced off the top of the fence and landed outside on the windshield of a police cruiser, no doubt parked there by one of the New Orlean's Finest who was stumping up the stairs to continue their search for Melissa.

“Keep your hands high and put on your best don’t-hurt-me-please smile.” Jenny ordered just before the police bursted into the room.

                                   **************

Swallowing the story that Kai, believing that girlfriend has gone missing in the middle of the night, called them to be there for help with a search, the police let Milton and Jerome go first, provided that they will be available for questioning. On their exit Jenny gave them a whispering reminder to collect the dope from the top of the police vehicle.

“Maurice Kahlo, a mid-level dealer with an extended wrap sheet, was gunned down in front of his apartment today. Witnesses described a shooter matching Mellisa Lee’s profile. We had her on our radar for sometime now. She came on the scene barely a year ago and has already cornered the market supplying weed to the professors and grad students in Tulane, Loyola, Xavier, and LSU. Kahlo was Melissa’s supplier. We wanted to take her in for questioning and pinged her cellphone and the On-Star system on her Cadillac, both have remained static in this location since last evening.” Detective Lissette Washington explained.

Kai called Melissa's phone and a faint buzzing can be heard. The detective followed the sound and retrieved Mellisa’s phone from between sofa cushions.

“So, here is the background and now, tell me your story. You first.” She looked at Dan Gould.

Gould reported the apprehension of an intruder in the office of Dean Hutchinson of LSU Medical School , who gave a false name of Kai Matsuda. As the Dean himself was interrogating the individual, he decided to come to Matsuda's apartment to look for evidence of property crimes.

“So you were told to step down but decided to pursue the matter anyway.” Washington looked at the school security guard sideways, uncertain how much energy to spend on berating him for his inappropriate and illegal overzealousness at 3 am. “The night duty desk sergeant did not report any break-in.”

“It was never reported by the school authority. Not only that, the LSU Bulletin just reported that Dean Hutchinson just announced his retirement an hour ago. The Louisiana Senate Committee on Health Care and Education simultaneously released a statement of appreciation of his lifelong service. My theory is that the intruder actually found evidence of …”

“Whoa.” Washington held up her palm. “If it's some high-power backroom conspiracy voodoo shit I don't want to corrupt my pristine official police ear by hearing it. Way above my paygrade.”

“You and me sister.” Gould replied.

"Ok, who else wants to chime in about the case at hand?”

“Melissa was with Kai last night. She made cherry ice cream, dusted it with crushed sleeping pills, lorazepam from the look of it, hoping to knock Kai out all night and wake up with her still next to him, therefore providing a solid alibi, along with her cell phone triangulation and OnStar locator, proving that she was nowhere near the Kahlo scene.” Jenny displayed the pill bottle and pill crusher she found. “Unbeknown to her, Kai got sick and vomited the ice cream, and therefore the medication, in the bathroom without telling her. She nevertheless was able to slip out without his notice. The plan would have worked if no intruders in school falsely used Kai’s name, which prompted my call to him, or if he did not throw up the sleeping pills which would let him sleep through my attempted call and Dan’s fishing around the apartment.”

“So I was just a tool? We were even talking about meeting each other’s parents.” Kai groaned.

“Melissa Lee has no parents. In fact Melissa Lee is not even her real name. She was Stephanie Ngueyn, daughter of successful restaurateurs in New Orleans East. The restaurant was robbed and the owners murdered seventeen years ago. However, the perps, one male and one female, did not count on their victims’ 9 year old daughter, who hid in the fridge, to witness the whole thing. The female suspect was convincingly identified by the child, convicted, and soon after died in jail. There was enough uncertainty in the ID of the male, a mistrial was declared, and Orleans Parish DA decided not to retry. Stephanie was given a new name for her own protection and went into the foster system.”

“Let me guess. The robbery homicide perp who walked was Maurice Kahlo, who no longer recognized Melissa, or Stephanie, after seventeen years and the name change. Melissa devised the elaborate plan to avenge her parents.”

“Bingo. A sharp one you are. And your turn.” Washington turned to Kai, who gave the narrative of waking up to Jenny’s phone call, spooked by Dan, ran to Jenny’s apartment for clothing and help, Jenny followed him with a frying pan and knocked Dan on the head, which earned Jenny a you-go-girl smile from the detective, ringed his friend Milton and Jerome to search for Melissa, who returned naked and ran away again, missing the police by minutes. Washington stared at the grad student with skepticism and finally yawned and said fine, good enough for filing a report, oh and just to be complete, did they know if Melissa and any other motor vehicle? Their heads shook. Jenny did not mention hearing the engine of Honda CBR shortly after Mellissa ran out and Kai did not report the stack of stolen motorcycle license plates he has previously seen under Melissa’s sink. 

With direction to keep in touch, detective Washington walked out of the apartment. Dan Gould bid the young people goodbye and left after her.

Kai was rushing out, too, but was stopped by Jenny.

“As the boyfriend you'll be tailed by the police for the next week. I know you are eager to give Melissa her getaway money. Let me do it. How do you usually drop money for Melissa?”

“I mark the traffic light post on northeast corner of St.Charles and Audubon with a yellow chalk as a signal to her, then drop the money behind the easily removable ventilation grille in the men’s restroom at Cafe Du Monde. Then she retrieves it from the women's side, which shares the same vent shaft. She would then deposit the bag in a locker in the greyhound station and drop the key in my front door mail slot. That way money and goods are always separated. Of course the second step is unnecessary this time.”

Jenny pocketed the chalk, shoved the money in three layers of black plastic shopping bags, each tied at the handle, and walked out, passing Dan Gould and Lisette Washington smoking in the parking lot without noticing them.

“I can tell my wife that I found a bigger dunce than myself. Even I can see that the nurse is in love with him. Yet he is oblivious and had to choose a heartbreaker.”

“Young people should be allowed to dream.” The detective uttered, then paused to take a long drag, and continued, “unencumbered by practicality or reality.”