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Mackenzie awoke to find herself alone. She rubbed the blurriness from her eyes, and willed them to focus. Glancing at the night table, she noticed a note propped up against the lamp base. It was written in Howie’s neat cursive; a smile emerged on her face as she thought of him. Mackenzie scanned the note, and sighed disappointedly. He and AJ along with the rest of the guys were expected to be in rehearsal most of the morning and early afternoon. However, Howie had asked Denise to let Mackenzie sleep in, and she had obliged. Mackenzie would have to either catch a ride to the venue, or wait until one of the vans returned.
Micki stretched her arms above her head, and headed to her own room, where she stepped into the shower. Her muscles were tense from strain, and the hot stream of water massaged the knots away. Fifteen minutes later, she stepped from the stall, and wrapped herself in a bathrobe. Mackenzie wound a towel around her hair, and walked into her suite. As she approached the closet, something lying on the bed, leaning against her pillow, caught her eye. Micki strode over to investigate.
“Oh, Howie. You’re such a sweetie.” she murmured. Mackenzie plucked the small package up from the bed, and eagerly ripped it open.
Slowly, the smile on her face died as fast as it had come. “Oh my God...” Mackenzie felt sick to her stomach, her breathing became eratic, and a sob tore it’s way out of her throat. “No...” the photo fluttered from her fingers to the carpet. She watched it fall, and put the back of her hand to her mouth, trying to stifle her crys which longed to sound. Mackenzie turned, and hurriedly pulled on some clothes. She rushed, and caught her foot in the leg of her jeans, and fell to the floor. She pounded her fist on the carpet in frusteration. Micki cursed, and noticed absentmindedly that tears were running down her cheeks.
Mackenzie stood, and sat on the edge of the bed to steady herself. She finished getting dressed in haste, then grabbed the envelope, shoving the picture back inside. She ran out of her room, and down the hall toward the elevator. If she thought about what she carried, she knew she would be sick. Instead, she focused on reaching Howie.
*****
“Ok, that was great, guys! Let’s call it a day.” Fatima Robinson, the guys’ choreographer beamed at them.
“Thanks Fatima.” Howie said, and lifted his hand in parting, as her headed backstage. Howie wanted to get changed as quickly as possible so that he could return to the hotel and find Mackenzie. He pulled his shirt over his head. Micki occupied many of his thoughts these days, with her sweet lips, long hair, and piercing eyes.
Suddenly, someone threw open the door to the dressing room, and Howie turned, ready to chastise whoever it was, when he saw Mackenzie standing there. She looked terrible; her eyes were red and puffy, her cheeks tear-stained, and her skin as pale as a ghost. She also looked like she was going to be sick.
“My God, Mackenzie! What’s wrong? You look frightened!” he exclaimed, closing the distance between them. He reached behind her and pushed the door shut.
“Someone KNOWS!” she hissed.
“Calm down, and explain.” he soothed. In answer she shoved an envelope at him and twisted her hands nervously as she waited for him to open it. “You want to sit down? You’re looking a little pale.” he invited.
“Just open the envelope, Howie!” she cried, tears welling up in her eyes again. He glanced worriedly at her, then did as he was bid.
“Oh my God.......Oh my God....Oh...” he trailed off, trying unsuccessfully to tear his eyes away from the picture. A glossy black and white photo depicted a man, sitting in a swivel chair. Not just any man....it was Marcus. And Marcus wasn’t just sitting, he was dead. Shot through the head, trails of blood down his face; his eyes starring blankly at the camera.
Howie raised his eyes to meet Mackenzie’s. Wordlessly, he opened his arms to her, and she stepped into his embrace. He helped them both to the sofa, and lay the picture face down on the low table in front of them, unable to look at Marcus’s vacant face.
“I found it in my room.....ON MY BED!” Mackenzie sobbed. It was just...there! I opened it, thinking it was from you, and it wasn’t- it was that! Poor Marcus.....” Howie rocked her back and forth, feeling stinging at the back of his eyes.
“Shhh....” he soothed, not knowing what to say.
The door opened. “Hey! What’s up you-” AJ broke off, when he caught sight of the couple on the couch.
“Shut the door, AJ” Howie ordered softly. AJ did as he was told, and approached hesitantly.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. Howie motioned toward the picture, face down, on the table. AJ picked it up.
“Oh crap!” he exclaimed, automatically tossing the picture back on the table in shock, but then picking it up again. “Marcus....” he trailed off. Howie nodded. By now, Mackenzie had brought herself under a semblance of control, though she still held tightly to Howie’s arm.
“Where did you get that?” AJ inquired softly.
“It was left on my bed.”
“In your room?” AJ said increduously.
“On. My. Bed.” Mackenzie repeated, stressing each word with clenched teeth. “What do we do now?” she murmured.
*****
Howie stood with AJ and the other guys, waiting for their opening act to finish up. It was two minutes until show time, and neither himself nor AJ had wanted to leave Mackenzie alone. Yet there she was, sitting by herself on the sofa backstage. Howie sighed in relief as Luke came and sat with her. Hopefully, he would stay there most of the show. As soon as the performance was done, the boys would head back to the hotel to sleep, and Mackenzie would stay and to help tear down. In his mind, Howie already planned to make up an excuse to remain at the venue with her. He was unable to think of an answer to her earlier question, “What do we do?”. Who knew? The three had sat in the dressing room for another ten minutes, not a word passing between them. AJ had finally suggested that they kept quiet about it until they reached the hotel again, later that night. Howie and Mackenzie had agreed.
Fear clenched at Howie’s heart as he thought of someone entering Mackenzie’s hotel room while she was in the shower- a vulnerable place. He had chatised himself over and over for leaving her behind, telling himself that he should have woken her up. Nervously, Howie ran a hand through his hair. He would rather die than see something happen to Mackenzie. “But then,” he told himself, “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. It’s just a picture. Isn’t it?”
“Go, go, go! You’re on!” Denise urged them. The guys ran to their places for their spectacular entrance. On the way, AJ shot a meaningful look at his best friend. He was just as terrified as Howie. The two made a valient attempt at putting their worries in the back of their minds.
*****
Mackenzie took in the sight of Howie coming towards her with sweat pouring off of him, with relief. She had stayed on the backstage couch for their entire performance; Luke kept company with her for some time before Anita came to wait for Brian. Howie reached her, and uncharacteristicly put his arms around her. He had never done that before, not where anyone could really see them. Mackenzie welcomed his embrace.
“I’m going to stay here with you.” he murmured in her ear. She pulled slightly away and scrutinized him.
“You’re exhausted, Howie! You need your sleep!” she exclaimed in a hushed tone.
“Like I would get any sleeping done without you by my side.” he answered. She smiled up into his face tenderly, and put her hand to his cheek.
“I’ll be fine. Luke, Anita, and Steve along with eveyone else will be here too! I’ll catch a ride back in one of the vans, just like I always do.” she reassured him. He wavered. “GO.” she stated forcefully, giving him a little shove. Reluctantly, he let her step from his arms, keeping eye contact for a moment, before sighing and relenting.
“Ok. But promise me, you’ll come into my room and let me know when you get back, alright?” he requested. At her nod, Howie leaned in and kissed her softly on her mouth. Then he was gone.
Mackenzie felt herself missing him already, and set off to find Luke, and help dismantle the lighting.
*****
Howie slipped his key into the lock, and opened the door to his suite. On his way to the bathroom to take a quick shower, he stripped off his shirt. He turned the faucet in the shower on to the perfect temperature. Just as Howie was about to finish undressing, he remembered something. He had forgotten to lock the door. Hurriedly, he sprinted to the door and twisted the deadbolt. For good measure, he entered Mackenzie’s suite, and did the same thing. After checking the windows, and the balcony doors, Howie returned to the bathroom to take his shower.
Twenty minutes later, after most of his aches had been soothed away, Howie dressed in a pair of boxers and a tee-shirt. Settling on the bed, he glanced at the clock. It read 12:48. He booted up his laptop, and began to run a search for more informtion about MAD_MARVIN. After entering the username in the search panel of one of his search engines, Howie waited inpatiently for the quiery results. Three matches were found for the key screenname. The first was “Mad Marvin’s Video Games”, a site maintained by an eleven year old boy, who proudly displayed his collection of Nintendo64 games.
The second match was a club site for “Mad Marvin” comics. Dissappointedly, Howie moved on to the third match. He sat up a little straighter and peered intently at the screen as a dialouge box appeared. In order to load the webpage, it requested a username and password from either New Leaf Enterprises or International Market. Howie inputed the infomation it requested, and was rewarded when the site booted up. The top line read ‘MAD MARVIN’S BUSINESS CENTER’. below that was ‘an affiliate member of N.L.E. and I.M.’ A paragaph, presumably from MAD MARVIN himself, went on to explain that he was a private dealer who could provide a variety of supplies. The things he listed complied with his user profile that they had found earlier. Every fiber of Howie’s being told him that this was their man. MAD MARVIN must be the one that had killed Mackenzie’s parents and stolen their business.
At the bottom of the page, an email address was listed. Howie thought for a moment, Marcus springing to mind. Howie fished out the copy of the pay list that the deceased had given them. Why had Marcus given them the list? It must have been because he felt like Topper was the man they were looking for. Knowing that, Howie thought about the extent of Topper’s payroll. That man, whoever he was, employed a great many people. All of them were listed under code names, but their job was listed right beside their codename.
It hit Howie all at once. “Why didn’t I think of that before?!” he exclaimed to the empty room. He grabbed the phone off the hook beside his bed and dialed up AJ’s room.
“Whaharph?” said a muffled voice.
“AJ! Get over here now!”
“Howie?”
“Now!”
With that, Howie hung up the phone. Seconds later, a knock sounded on the door. He opened it to find AJ outside, a worried look occupying his face.
“What hap-”
“I know who killed Mackenzie’s parents!”
“What?” AJ exclaimed, fully awake. Howie pulled his friend inside of the room, and shut the door, locking it. The two perched on the bed, and Howie began to explain.
“Remember the visit we paid to Marcus?” he asked.
“Yeah.....But I don’t see-”
“Remember what he gave us?”
“Uh huh.....the payroll sheet for some ‘Topper’ guy. That thing was useless. Why are you bringing it up?”
“Because. It was exactly what we needed this entire time. I don’t know why we didn’t examine it further, sooner! Think about it. Marcus gave it to us for a reason, right?” At AJ’s nod, Howie continued. “He knew that somehow, Topper was tied in to all of this. Look at this payroll sheet. Does it remind you of anything?” AJ starred at the paper for a moment.
“Holy-” he whispered. Howie smiled grimly.
“It looks familiar, doesn’t it? This isn’t just a payroll sheet for jobs done here and there. This is a list of EMPLOYEES who are kept on a full time basis. This is the payroll for a CORPORATION!”
“Just like the one that Mackenzie’s parent’s murderer took over.”
“Exactly. The size of their business required nearly the exact same amount of people to run it, as are listed on this payroll index. Topper more than had something to do with this. He DID this.”
“When does Mackenzie get back?”
*****
Mackenzie was about to insert her key into the door when it was flung open before her. She stifled a yelp.
“I thought I heard someone!” AJ exclaimed.
“AJ! You scared me! What are you doing in my room?” she asked.
“I wasn’t in your room, I was in Howie’s. You’ll never guess what we figured out!”
Mackenzie starred at the wall in shock. “You mean, we’ve been this close for several weeks now, and never knew it?” AJ and Howie nodded in reply to her question. “So, we know it’s this guy, Topper. We know he’s still got my father’s corporation in tact, ecept now he’s using it to produce goods for the black market. We think his username is MAD_MARVIN, and, of course, that he deals illegally in the black market. He’s even got his own division of it. Right?”
“Right. The only problem is, we’ve got to be positive that MAD_MARVIN is his username, and we’re not.” Howie sighed.
“How can we prove it?” AJ asked.
“AJ’s right. We need proof to go to the authorities. Where do we go from here?” Mackenzie gazed at them.
“I’m at a loss.” Howie admitted. “There’s only one other profile for active buyers left, and we pretty much elimenated.”
“Since we already know that Topper is our guy, my vote is for sleep. I mean, there’s really not much that we can do for tonight.” AJ pointed out. As much as they hated to admit it, AJ was right.
“Ok. We’ll sleep on it.” Mackenzie agreed. AJ left without another word, pausing only to give Mackenzie hug, and pat Howie on the shoulder. Mackenzie reluctantly rose from her position on the bed next to Howie.
WARNING: The second part of chapter 13 contains content
of a sexual nature. Please click on the chapter link, and scroll
down to the bottom of the page to click on the next chapter link, thereby
skipping the 2nd part, if material of this nature offends you.
Thank You.
~Jessi
© 1997 crunkgrl62382@yahoo.com
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