Dreams Of Red

            Chapter One – murder?

Heather felt two arms wrap around her waist, she turned her head slightly and smiled when she saw A.J. McLean out of the corner of her eye. She went back to watching the bacon being fried in the pan on the stove. A.J. kissed her neck affectionately before making his way to the fridge to get some orange juice. The phone rang, they both looked over at it, then at each other; worried that it was the office Heather didn’t want to get it. A.J. finally gave in and answered the phone with a smile. His face dropped when he heard the news. He looked over at Heather. She got worried when she saw the look on his face. His eyes turned to flames inside when he heard the person on the line talk.

            “Now listen, I know she hasn’t been there for days…she’s been here.” A.J. argued with the person but soon a smile returned to his lips as he thought of the past few days they had spent together. After a few words he hung up the phone and returned to Heather. A solemn look on his face, he told her what happened. “John’s dead.” He whispered. Heather gasped and clasped a hand to her chest. She looked over at A.J., trying to see whether this was another one of his practical jokes. She could see tears forming in his eyes and knew it was the truth. “They found him, in his apartment… laying in the bathtub… soaked in blood.” He looked up at her, not sure whether he should tell her this or not. He knew she needed to know, “They found your coat in the bedroom. They think you were there last night-or whenever it was…I told them you were here, they didn’t believe me.”

            “Who are ‘they’?” She asked quietly as she sat down on a stool nearby feeling as if her legs would fail her at any minute.

            “Police investigators. An uh…Officer Sherman, and Williams I think he said. They were brought to look around, see if they are any clues on what happened. Officer Williams said it could have been…suicide- but he said it was most likely murder. They dusted for fingerprints all around him and couldn’t find anything but your leather jacket was there. You had it on yesterday right? Why would it be there?” A.J. asked her, pleading with his eyes for her to tell him the truth but praying for her to say she had no idea; that she hadn’t been there for weeks.

            “I…I-I…I don’t know.” She whispered and swallowed the lump rising in her throat. She blinked heavily and looked down at her hands. “I have no idea.” She said barely above a whisper.

            “I need you to tell me the truth…please…” There was a long silence before he cleared his voice and talked in a normal tone again, “They think you might have had something to do with it Heather.”

            “I don’t know where they could get that idea. So my coats there, so what? I always leave something at our friends when we go places.” She looked up at him, her short blonde hair falling into her eyes, making her look more innocent than a two-year-old child holding a small puppy. A.J. felt bad for not believing her. He smiled warmly at her, as to say that he believed her.

            They went on with their routine that day; A.J. went to the studio for a few hours to work on some music with the guys. Heather went to the office where she worked as a newspaper reporter. She did small articles around Kissimmee, Fl. About fifteen minutes from where she lived. A.J. lived right on the beach in Ruskin, it was a beautiful spot and Heather spent most nights there with him, when he was home.

            The Backstreet Boys had just gotten off the Black and Blue tour a week before and now were starting work on a new album while taking some well deserved time off. Although they were still working hard on the album and promotional gigs they were enjoying the time they had at home with their family and friends. A.J. and Heather had done nothing but sit around A.J.’s house the hole week and now they both had to go back to their jobs.

            At the day’s end they returned home and started watching a movie when they got another call from John’s landlord at his apartment.

            “They want us to go down to the station… They found your wallet.” A.J. said as he got up from his spot on the couch and started moving to his car. Heather followed.

            “Murder?” Heather breathed out in a whisper; it was an unthinkable thing. Suicide was even more bizarre considering the life John had. She just didn’t know what to think.

            A.J. drove to the police station in silence making his own decisions. ‘She is NOT a murderer.’ He told himself, trying to make himself believe it. He knew she wasn’t, she couldn’t hurt a fly, but the way the investigator was talking he was calling her a monster. The way they found John’s body was enough to make anyone sick to their stomach, he was sliced down the stomach, cut from head to toe, you could tell he had made a struggle and tried to fight back. He was swimming in blood from the way they described it. A.J. saw a flash of the image in his mind and quickly shook it away. She couldn’t have done anything like that. Not in a million years would he believe it. He glanced over at her, her head resting in the palm of her hand and her elbow propped up on the open car window with her air being blown away from her face, she looked like an angel; his angel. He couldn’t get the thought from his mind so he turned the radio on for a distraction.

            Once they got to the station Heather was taken to a solid white room with a small table in the middle and two chairs. As she looked around the room an intercom system was based in a wall in the corner, a window sat on either side of the room, one looking out into the city, and the other looking into the hallway. There was an uncomfortable feel in the room as she took a seat and waited for whoever was to meet her there. She sat and looked around the room, having no doubt that they were watching her from the old video camera mounted up in the top corner of a wall. She sat fiddling with her fingers for the longest time before someone finally cam in. A man in his late thirties walked through the door, closing it silently on his way in, he looked over at her uneasily and shook her hand and introduced himself before sitting down.

            “I’m a P.I., Officer Williams. My partner talked to Mr. McLean on the phone earlier.” He started, he sighed heavily before opening the folder he had in his hands, he laid it out on the table carefully and looked down at the papers he had spread out, all with reports of what they found and questions he was to ask her.

            “I really don’t see why you think I had something to do with this.” Heather quietly proclaimed. As Officer Williams looked up at her, his eyebrows raised, she looked down at her hands in her lap.

            “Well we did find some of your belongings in his apartment. Where you there last night?” He asked her as he picked up a pen and scribbled something down in his notes.

            Heather stammered a minute, “No.” She said, looking up at him. “I haven’t even talk to John since Sunday…at church.” She whispered, feeling as if her voice was getting week, she swallowed hard and tried to keep the tears from coming.

            “I realize this is a bad time to put you through this, learning that your friend’s been murdered, then being questioned…were you…close friends?” He asked, trying to be of some comfort.

            “We were friends. I didn’t really get to see him a whole lot ‘cause of my work, but on occasions we were like best friends.” She told him, feeling a little more confident of her voice.

            “Could you tell me a little about him?” Williams asked, he looked up at her, trying to be a little more collected. It had been a hard day and since this seemed to be a very fragile woman he couldn’t let his partner go in there and pretend she was some kind of hardened criminal. He knew if Sherman got in there he would tear her apart with questions and pictures, and everything he could just to get something out of her.

            “Well, he was very funny, he could always crack a joke in the middle of a really depressing time and everyone would be alright with that…He went to church almost every Sunday morning…” Heather wiped a tear from her cheek and Officer Williams slid a box of Kleenex over to her, she thanked him and continued telling him about john, he wrote everything down and just let her talk.

            “Are you sure you weren’t there that night?” He asked one more time. After a moment of silence he thought of asking the question again, “ Miss Lyle?” He asked. She sniffled. “Were you there last night.”

            “Yes.” She whispered, it was barely audible but he heard her.

            “Mr. McLean seems to think you’ve been with him the last few days.”

            “I know. He was asleep and I…I went to John’s place, but he was still alive when I left. I swear I didn’t kill him. I loved him.” She whispered the last sentence and looked up at Williams.

            “Were you having an affair with Mr. Coledo?” Officer Williams asked in a whisper as if the whole world were listening at that moment. Heather closed her eyes and nodded her head.

            “A.J. doesn’t know anything.”

            “Mrs. Jackson, the landlords wife saw you leaving his apartment at exactly 3:15; is that right?”

            “Yes.”

            “Where did you go when you left Mr. Coledo’s?” He asked, scribbling everything down. Heather was afraid of what was happening what if they told A.J., she’d loose him, and she didn’t know what she’d do with out A.J. She continued to answer questions.

            “I went back to A.J.’s house, got back in bed and went to sleep. He never knew I was gone.- wait, did you say 3:15 or 2:15?”

            “I said 3:15? Why; is that not right?” He looked up at her, his eyebrows knitted on his forehead.

            “No, I left at 2:15, when I got home it was almost three.” She answered.

            “Are you sure? My report says 3.”

            “Yeah I’m sure, I remember looking at my watch when I was putting it back on and seeing 2:15, when I got and went back to bed and laid there for awhile and A.J. woke up, and asked me what time it was, I told him almost 3 o’clock.”

            “Okay, I’ll have to check that.” He said circling the time on his notes. After a few more questions she was free and he showed her back to the main office, they talked for a minute, told her that if she tried to leave town there would be serious punishment and that they would be getting back to her, that they at least needed her as a witness in court. Heather never told A.J. about her being there that night and leaving her coat and wallet there.