The Art of Deception
The Art of Deception
Part Three
~*~*~*~*~
Brian sat and stared at the phone, as if doing that would cause Nick to call if
he could or least hear some news from the police.
“Here Brian, drink this,” AJ said as he offered a mug to him.
Brian absently took the mug from AJ and took a quick sip and instantly
started choking spitting the contents back into the mug.
“What the hell!?! AJ are you trying to poison me? What is this?” Brian
demanded between coughs.
“Just a little whiskey, I figured you needed something to snap you out of
this trance you’ve put yourself into,” AJ defended his actions.
“I certainly don’t need alcohol to get a grip of my senses like some of
us do. Please AJ, I can deal with this my own way, okay?” Brian stated.
AJ backed away, putting his hands up. “Hey, I was only trying to help, man.”
Brian lowered his head and pinched his eyes with his fingers. “I know you
were, I’m sorry about snapping at you, this is getting to all of us, I suppose.”
Brian stood up and started pacing the room. “Why doesn’t anyone call us?
Why can’t Nick call us? Why did he do something so stupid as to leave
without Jay or even leaving us a note?”
“Bri, we’re talking about Nick here, ya know he is forever doing something
stupid like this,” AJ tried to support Nick’s actions. “I’m sure he just took
off or something. He’ll come back when he’s ready, I’m sure nothing
happened.”
“I hope you’re right, AJ, but I dunno about this, this is just too crazy,” Brian
replied.
~*~*~*~*~
The ringing doorbell startled Paul while he was keying on his computer. He
quickly shut down the computer and walked to the door. The image he saw
standing on the otherside of the door caused his heart to start racing. It
was the North Carolina State Police.
“Yes? Can I help you?” Paul asked, trying to sound as calm as he could
possibly be.
The taller of the two police officers flagged a long sheet of paper in front
of Paul.
“Paul Masters? I have a warrent to comfinscate your computer equipment,”
the police office stated in a booming voice.
Paul swallowed hard. “Comfinscate? Based on what grounds?”
“We have reason to believe that you are involved in the disappearance of
Nick Carter,” the second officer gruffly responded.
“Why the hell would my computer equipment have anything to do with
something like that? This is ludicrous!” Paul shouted, his voice rising with his
desperation.
“We will also be needing to take you down to the station for questioning also.
Please place your hands behind your back,” the officer insisted.
“I will not! I’m calling my lawyer! You have no right to suspect me of
anything!”
“According to the information we received on Maria Lewis’s computer
modem, you are involved in his disappearance and right now you are our
number one suspect,” the officer grimly stated.
“Maria!? That bitch!” Paul shouted as he was being escorted from his
apartment building.
~*~*~*~*~
Maggie and Nick walked out of the woods into the back allyways of the city.
There were a line of restaurants that Maggie liked to go behind and she was
going to show Nick the ropes of street life.
“Mike, ya ever been to the city before?” Maggie asked as they walked down
down the narrow alley.
Nick looked around at the buildings. Nothing looked familiar to him. He shook
his head “no.”
“No, nothing looks familiar to me at all,” Nick replied quietly.
Maggie poked around in the bins, hoping to find some trash that had been
discarded from the restaurants. After both of them looked through the
third bin, Maggie looked over at Nick.
“I think we’re gonna have to panhandle today or starve,” Maggie stated.
“Panhandle?” Nick asked, a puzzled look crossed his dirt streaked face.
‘Ya know, sing for yer supper, do some type of an act or just sit in a corner
and hope they feel sorry for us,” Maggie replied.
“Oh, I don’t know if I could do something like that,” Nick stated.
“Well, let’s go onto the main drag and see if maybe someone was careless and
left some money on the ground, we could possibly pick up some change or
something,” Maggie said as she grabbed Nick’s arm and pulled him towards
the direction of the street.
*~*~*~*
“Honestly Jennifer, if you can’t find those boots that will match your outfit
by now, I think you’re out of luck,” Jennifer’s best friend Andrea sighed.
Jennifer set the shoes she was looking at back down on the display table.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Hey, you game for some ice cream?”
“God, like you read my mind!” Andrea laughed.
The two girls left the store and started walking up the sidewalk along the
store fronts. They noticed the variety of people that were out and about
shopping on the beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon in Raleigh.
“Lot’s of homeless people out in force today,” Jennifer whispered to her
friend as she noticed some people sitting in the doorways of abandoned
buildings.
Andrea nodded her head in agreement, scanning the storefronts hoping to
spot the boots that Jennifer had been looking for. She caught a glimpse of
an elderly woman and a young man that made her stop. Jennifer grabbed
Andrea’s arm and tried to drag her onward.
“Andrea! Come on,” Jennifer whined.
Andrea simply held her hand up and pointed at the couple she spotted and
pointed at them with her index finger. “Look,” she whispered.
Jennifer narrowed her eyes in the direction that Andrea was pointing. “Yeah,
some bums, so what?”
“No, Jennifer, look at the guy,” Andrea insisted.
Jennifer took another look at the man. “Yeah, he looks filthy and I bet he
smells too, so?”
Andrea grabbed her best friend by the shoulders. “You don’t get it,
remember the thing on the news about Nick Carter? Doesn’t this guy look
like Nick Carter?”
Jennifer looked at the guy again. “I think you’ve been out in the sun too long
Andrea, come on, I’m getting hungry.”
“I dunno Jenn, I’m gonna go ask him,” Andrea replied as she started off
towards the couple. She was suddenly jerked back by Jennifer grabbing her
arm.
“Are you crazy? What are you thinking? I mean, he’s dirty and he’s probably
got lice or something, just keep away from them!” Jennifer insisted.
Andrea pulled her friend’s hand off her arm and walked up to the couple.
“Excuse me, but you sort of look familiar to me, is your name Nick?” Andrea
boldly asked the man.
Nick looked at the girl. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Why would this
person think his name was Nick?
“No, it’s Mike, I think you have me confused with someone else,” Nick stated.
“Oh, it’s just you look familiar,” Andrea continued. Looking into this guy’s
eyes she could almost swear that they were the same deep blue color as
Nick Carter’s. “Where do you stay at?”
“What’s it to ya missy?” Maggie asked, a little agitated by this girl’s
persistant questioning.
“I was just curious,” Andrea replied.
A wry smile crossed Maggie’s lips. “I’ll tell ya fer ten bucks.”
Andrea opened her pocketbook and produced a ten dollar bill. She knew this
was crazy, this person may not be Nick Carter, but something deep inside of
her was telling her it was. “Here.”
The man took the ten from Andrea. Although his hands were dirty, she
noticed how neat his fingernails were. This was definately someone that had
not been a street dweller for very long.
“We live down by the river, back that way,” Maggie stated as she gestured
with a boney finger. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, we gots to get some grub.”
With that stated, Maggie and Nick turned away from Andrea and started
heading up the street.
“Jennifer, we need to go to the police station,” Andrea said as she fumbled
through her purse for her car keys.
~*~*~*~*~
“Okay Paul, you can either make this easier on yourself or harder. The
evidence we have right now is almost enough to make you spend a few days in
jail until the matter is sorted through. If you confess now, I swear, the
charges won’t be as severe,” the blonde haired detective stated as he
flipped through sheets of paper in a file folder.
Paul shifted nervously in his seat. “I... I never meant to hurt anyone by this,
you know.”
“Go on, what do you mean?” The detective stopped flipping through the
paperwork and stared at Paul’s face.
“I... I was never really liked in school, you know? I was always pegged as the
loner, a geek that knew everything about computers, but not popular enough
to get girls. I only was having fun, I never asked for online sex,” Paul
confessed.
“But did you ever ask to meet with anyone you were online with?”
“Only once,” Paul bowed his head down and grabbed his hair with his hands,
pulling. “I messed up, I don’t know what I was thinking, it was going to be so
simple, and then HE showed not Sherri,” Paul cried out.
“He? Who is he?” The detective urged Paul on, glancing down at his tape
recorder, making sure it was still running.
“Nick Carter,” Paul stated, no emotion in his voice.
“So you did meet Nick at the park?”
“Yeah. I met him online and he convinced me he was a girl named Sherri, so
that cancels mine out right?” Paul looked at the detective with hopeful eyes.
“That depends,” the detective lied, “tell me what happened.”
“Can I have a cigarette first?” Paul asked.
The detective patted his shirt pockets and then glanced at the guard
standing next to the door. The guard produced a cigarette and a lighter. Paul
took the cigarette from the detective’s hand and cupped the cigarette with
his handcuffed hands while it was being lit.
Paul took a deep drag off the cigarette and slowly exhaled, gathering his
thoughts for the next answer.
“Okay, Carter came online and we started chatting and he told me he was a
girl from Raleigh. We started a good conversation and I asked if she was
planning on coming to the concert that night. When he told me no that he
couldn’t get tickets, I lost it,” Paul sighed taking another deep hit from the
cigarette. “I told him I would have my bodyguard meet him in the park with
front row tickets and backstage passes.”
“What were you planning on doing with this person when you met her in the
park?”
Paul stared through the detective. “Rape her.”
“Okay, so what happened when Mr. Carter showed up at the park?”
“He pretty much told me to lay off pretending I was him and he said he
would forget anything that happened. Then it started getting nasty and he
told me that he had information that could send me to jail if he wanted to
press charges.”
“Alright, then what happened?” The detective pressed Paul for more
answers.
“I panicked and hit him in the head and knocked him out,” Paul stated flatly.
“Knocked him out?”
“Yeah, I knocked him out and I freaked and left,” Paul stated, crushing the
cigarette out in the metal ashtray.
The squeaking of the door stopped the dective from asking the next
question.
“Ah, Pete, there’s someone you need to see out front,” the man said as he
stuck his face in the door.
“Al, I’m in the middle of questioning here,” Pete spat out.
“This involves the case you are on right now,” Al replied.
~*~*~*~*~
Clutching onto the ten dollar bill, Nick and Maggie marched up the sidewalk
towards the McDonald’s that Maggie liked to frequent dumpsters at.
“Now we can go in and eat like the rest of them folk,” Maggie stated.
Nick noticed that while they were walking, there were several people that
stared at them, some with disgusted looks on their faces while others looked
like they had seen a ghost or something. Nick just lowered his head and kept
walking, trying not to pay attention to the looks. Maggie, seemed evidentally
accustomed to stares as she just continued walking and carrying on her
one-sided conversation with Nick.
“So, Mike, what cha hungry fer?” Maggie questioned.
Nick thought for a moment. The only thing that really sounded good to him
was a hot cup of coffee. He was feeling a little chilled this morning and he
felt like he was coming down with something. “Coffee I guess.”
Maggie poked Nick in the side. “You gotta eat something too, I think street
life’s making you skinny. Besides, you gotta eat when ya can boy, this ain’t no
buffet.”
~*~*~*~*~
Brian hung the phone up and immediately grabbed his wallet and keys to the
rental car.
“What’s wrong? Where you going?” AJ asked.
“Downtown Raleigh, the police station,” Brian stated hurriedly.
“They found Nick?” Howie asked dropping the newspaper he was reading into
his lap.
Brian shook his head no. “No but they have some good strong leads.”
“We’re going too then,” AJ offered. “Let me drive Brian, you’re too upset to
be driving,” AJ insisted.
Brian stopped and glared at AJ. “I think we need to get there in once piece
AJ, I can drive fine.”
“Geesh, why does everyone think I’m the world’s worst driver?”
“Because you are,” Brian, Howie and Kevin replied in unison.
AJ shrugged his shoulders and took a backseat in the Black Expedition
rental.
Brian did everything he could possibly do to prevent himself from speeding
to running up the steps towards the police station. They were so close to
finding Nick and he was hoping that between the time he received the
telephone call to the time of them walking in, that the have found him.
The group approached the front desk. The officer sitting behind it looked at
the foursome. “Can I help you?”
“Yes, we’re here to see Detective Pete Dixon,” Brian stated.
The officer picked up a phone and dialed an extension number. “Just a
minute.”
“What’s your name?”
“Brian... Brian Littrell,” Brian stated nervously.
The officer told the person at the other end of the phone about Brian being
there and as he hung the phone up gestured towards a bench along the wall.
“Someone will be out in a few minutes to get you. Take a seat over there.”
~*~*~*~*~
Nick couldn’t help but notice how the smiles on the faces of the girls behind
the counter at the McDonald’s faded when they approached the counter. He
faded behind Maggie and handed her the ten dollar bill.
“We’d like 8 cheeseburgers and 2 black coffees,” Maggie ordered.
The girl quickly keyed the order into her computer. “It’s gonna be $9.89, you
do have that, don’t you?”
Nick was shocked at her total assumption that he and Maggie would be
unable to pay the food tab.
Maggie waved the ten dollar bill in front of the girl’s face. “Yep, right here
sweetheart.”
The girl turned away and started bagging the order up. She took the money
from Maggie and held it by the corner, her face in an abvious twist of
disgust in coming in contact with the money. Nick noticed that one girl was
holding her nose. He didn’t think he and Maggie were dirty.
“So Mike, do ya wanna eat in here?”
Before Nick could answer Maggie, someone from the restaurant made their
minds up for them.
“Just take your food and leave the premises.”
“I could sue ya for that kind of remark there,” Maggie spat.
The manager laughed. “Oh, yeah from a rented attorney, oh boy I’m scared.
Now both you leave before I have you arrested for vagrancy.
Maggie stared at the man. “That wouldn’t be too bad, we’d get three
squares, a bed, blanket and heat. Have us arrested.”
Nick reached out and gently grabbed Maggie’s arm. “Come on Maggie, let’s
go, it’s obvious we’re not wanted here.”
“Yeah, listen to your friend, he seems to be pretty smart for a bum,” the
man shouted back.
Maggie bustled out the door with Nick trudging behind her. She clutched
onto the brown paper sack as if her very life depended on it. Nick was
carrying his coffee and was anxious to stop so he could drink it.
“This bench looks like a good place Mike,” Maggie suggested.
Nick nodded slightly and eased down onto the cement bench. He took the lid
off his coffee cup and sipped the hot liquid.
~*~*~*~*~
“I know this is going to sound really crazy, but I swear I saw Nick Carter
this afternoon walking up the street along the storefronts,” Andrea insisted.
“Okay, calm down,” Pete Dixon said in a soothing voice. “Now, explain this to
me again. How can you be sure it was Nick Carter?”
“I’ve seen tons of pictures of him. I can swear it was him, I mean, I asked
him if he was Nick and he looked at me for a minute, like it was clicking and
then he said something like I think you have me confused with someone else,
my name is Mike,” Andrea recounted.
“Did you notice any injuries to him, how did he appear to you?” Detective
Dixon pressed.
Andrea thought for a few moments. “He was dirty, not smelly dirty but dirt
dirty. His clothes were tattered and dirty and his face was streaked with
dirt. The one giveaway was when he reached out for the ten dollar bill. Nick’s
got these hands that I can identify with, I love hands, I can’t really explain
it, but anyway, his nails looked different to me, not like a homeless persons,
you know?”
Detective Dixon nodded slightly as he put the girl’s information down on
paper. “Was he alone?”
“No, he was with an older homeless woman. I think her name was Molly, he
seemed to follow her lead.”
“Did they mention where they live or where they were going?”
Andrea nodded. “Yeah, they were going to McDonald’s from there and she
said that they lived along the river behind the shopping district.”
“Anything else?”
“No, sorry that was all I could get,” Andrea apologized.
“No, don’t apologize, you have helped us in a big way.”
Standing up, Detective Dixon shook Andrea’s hand and thanked her. After
she left the interrogation room, the detective buzzed the intercom and
requested the next person to come back to the room.
The detective was shocked to see that he was not only going to be dealing
with Brian Littrell, but the rest of the group as well.
“Did you find Nick?” Brian asked anxiously.
“Sorry, no, not yet,” Pete Dixon stated. He immediately saw Brian’s shoulders
sink. “Hey, don’t let your hopes down yet, we just got some strong leads and
someone just left saying they saw Nick this morning.”
“Saw him? Explain that,” AJ demanded. It was pretty obvious to everyone in
the room that AJ disliked authority figures and he was definately having a
time coping with how slow this investigation was going.
“A girl saw Nick with a woman on the shopping district going through trash
bins,” Pete explained.
”Going through trash bins?” AJ echoed.
“Yes, that is what street people do to survive,” the officer spat back at AJ.
“Let’s see if I got this,” Kevin started out. “Nick thinks he’s homeless and
lives on the streets right now?”
“Evidentally.”
“So why are we wasting our time sitting here and having a chit chat session?
Let’s go find him!” Brian said as he jumped out of his chair.
“Whoa, hang on there, it’s not that easy. The river district goes for about
twenty miles. Nick could be anywhere,” the officer reasoned.
“So, let’s just go,” Brian stated. “We will definately be involved in the
search, you couldn’t stop us.”
Detective Dixon placed a hand on his phone. “Let me call some back up, we’re
going to be needing an effective search team.”
~*~*~*~*~
While Maggie went about visiting with her other friends from the street,
Nick sat at the bench, watching the people walking by. Some looked like they
were late for an important appointment while others looked as if this was
just another boring, typical day in their lives.
A whimpering noise brought Nick’s attention to his feet. Looking down, Nick
stared into a pair of deep brown eyes of an apparent stray puppy.
“Hey little guy, how ya doing?” Nick asked as he scooped the tiny shivering
puppy into his hands. “Are you lost like me?” He pet the tiny animal and could
almost feel his tensions drift away.
“Mike ya know if ya keep it, it’s gonna be eating yer share of grub,” Maggie
said as she wagged a disapproving finger at Nick.
“I know and I don’t care,” Nick defended his picking up the tiny puppy. He
looked the male pup over and tried to decide on a name. He looked around
and saw a street sign that read Dudley Blvd. “Okay, your name gonna be
Dudley. Partly cause of the name of the street I found you on and partly
cause it’s a cool name for a tiny doggie,” Nick observed outloud. He didn’t see
Maggie shaking her head.
“Troubles, this kid is gonna be nothing but troubles. He’s gotta share his
burger for today and he is gonna complain about being hungry tonight, I can
see it happening,” Maggie sputtered. She turned away from her friend and
shouted out to Nick. “Ya ready to go Mike?”
Nick nodded as he wrinkled up the top of the bag of hamburgers, trying to
keep what was in there half way warm. “Right behind ya Maggie.”
~*~*~*~*~
“AJ, please, could you sit down?”
Brian as well as the rest of the group was getting tired watching AJ’s
endless pacing back and forth in the hallway.
“I can’t help it, man. This whole thing sucks, you know? I mean here Nick is
missing, probably hurt and no one is doing anything but dinking around and
it’s starting to piss me off,” AJ spat, throwing his hands up in the air for
emphasis.
“We’ll find him, okay? Just calm down a little or they’ll refuse our help and
then we will wind up sitting here waiting for word,” Howie reasoned.
A uniformed police officer approached the guys standing in the hall.
“Detective Dixon would like to speak with you again, follow me.”
“Thank god, finally something,” AJ mumbled loud enough for the officer to
hear but not fully understand resulting in Brian, Kevin and Howie to glare at
AJ. “What? I’m just telling it the way it is.”
As they entered the detective’s office, the three men inside the room,
glanced up from the map they were looking at.
“These men are the victim’s friends,” Detective Dixon explained to the
others in the room. “They offered to help in the search of the riverside
district.”
Brian winced at the word victim. He didn’t really want to think of Nick as a
victim but it was the truth, so he had no other choice than to accept the
wording.
Detective Dixon sighed. “Okay the riverside area is over twenty miles long. I
guess since there is eight of us, we each canvass an area each of 8 miles a
piece.”
The dectective placed four walkie talkies on the table. “I want each of you
to take one of these, we will use it to hopefully relay that one of us have
found Carter.” He shoved them towards Brian.
Brian nodded and scooped the radios up and handed one each to Kevin, Howie
and AJ.
“Okay, we will start at the far west end of the river and I will drop each of
you off, 8 miles apart. You have to follow the river and you will have to look
hard because it is filled with transients and they don’t take too kindly to
having any strangers down on their turf. Any questions?”
No one said a word as they glanced at one another in the room.
“Good, let’s go then,” the detective ordered as he quickly folded the map up
on the table.
~*~*~*~*~
“Maggie, you seem to be in a rush today, what’s up?” Nick yelled out after
the old woman as she hurried down the grassy path.
“Willie told me that there was some folk messin around near the places and I
wanna make sure no one steals our stuff,” Maggie explained.
“Who’s Willie?” Nick asked as he bent down to scoop up Dudley.
“Ya never met him Mike. I talked to him while you were messin around with
that pup you seem to have taken a shine to,” Maggie replied with a tone of
disgust in her voice as she talked about the puppy that Nick befriended.
“For some reason you don’t like my puppy.”
“No I don’t Mike. They are a lot of work and they eat which if ya haven’t
noticed, meals are far and few between and now ya gotta share your portion
with that damned dog of yours.”
Nick thrust the paper sack of burgers at Maggie. “Here take them then, I
certainly don’t want to inconvenience you.”
Nick turned around quickly after handing Maggie the bag of food.
“Oh just fine Mike, where do ya think yer going off to? You need me for
survival!”
“I can do it on my own, I think I have done fine somewhere along the way
cause I must be at least 18 so I don’t think I need your help anymore.
Thanks Maggie,” Nick stated as he kept walking away from the old woman
and her shelter.
Maggie threw her hands up in dispair. “Fine Mike, have it yer way then.”
Maggie scurried into her shelter to make sure nothing had been taken and
Nick walked further away from the shelter he knew as home.
~*~*~*~*~
One by one, each of the guys were dropped off along the area of the river.
They had to cut through paths to make it down to the river bank but that
was easy to follow since most of the paths had been worn by the homeless
people walking in and out of them.
AJ looked down the long trail that was filled with vines and tree limbs. As
the branches hit his face and he fell to the ground, he cursed under his
breath.
“God, when I find that kid I’m gonna kill him,” AJ sputtered as he brushed
his jeans off.
Brian squinted as the glare of the sun briefly blinded him. He looked at the
lean to’s that had been constructed out of cardboard boxes. Several of them
had neatly laid out fire bowls with rocks encirling them. Taking a picture he
had of Nick he approached the first person he spotted.
“Excuse me, could you help me? I’m looking for my friend and he’s missing,”
Brian quietly approached the elderly man.
When the man heard Brian’s voice, his body automatically stiffened.
“Missing? Have you ever thought that’s what he wants?” the man spat out in
reply.
“No, not Nick, I’m afraid he’s hurt and we need to find him,” Brian replied.
The old man walked away from Brian not even bothering to look at the
photograph. “I don’t need to mess with anyone’s affairs, just leave me alone.”
Brian watched helplessly as the old man continued to stack twigs next to his
cardboard home. Suddenly an idea entered his mind.
“Would you look at the picture and tell me for five dollars?”
The old man suddenly stopped what he was doing. He spun around and faced
Brian. “I’ll look at it for ten.”
Brian shrugged his shoulders. Ten seemed steep, but if it would lead to Nick,
no price was too high. “Okay,” Brian replied as he shoved the picture towards
the man.
“Money first,” the old man stated.
Brian sighed as he pulled his wallet out of his back left pocket. “Here... now,
have you seen him?”
The old man grabbed the ten and barely looked at the picture. “Nope.”
“Hey, you didn’t even look at the picture!” Brian protested.
The old man looked at the picture again. “Nope.”
“Thanks, I guess,” a defeated Brian replied. He started off further down the
riverfront praying he would find someone that had seen Nick.
Further up the way from Brian, AJ finally stumbled onto the sandy
waterfront. He looked at the shacks with disgust and shook his head.
“No way in hell would Nick be this dumb,” AJ mumbled. He spotted a
woman by the water. AJ rushed up to her.
“Hey, have you seen my friend? He’s lost I think,” AJ said as he thrust the
picture of Nick towards her.
The old woman took the time to look at the photo and then shook her head
no. Pointing a boney finger towards the east she quickly stated, “You might
want to look that way, more younger folk life that way.”
AJ nodded. “Thanks.”
A few more feet along the river, AJ found a couple sitting on a log in front
of a small fire. “Hey, have you seen my friend?”
“For a twenty, me and Sue see everyone,” the dirty man replied.
“A twenty,” AJ scoffed. “You gotta be joking. How about a buck?”
The couple stared at AJ.
“Okay, a buck fifty.”
The couple continued to stare at AJ.
“Okay, two dollars and that’s my final offer,” AJ replied.
The couple went about their business, refusing the small fee of two dollars.
AJ shrugged his shoulders. “Okay with me then, you’re out two bucks.” He
then turned and continued to walk up the river bank....
“Brian? Anything yet?”
The walkie talkie that was strapped onto Brian’s belt crackled with Kevin’s
voice. He detached the box from the strap and pressed the talk button.
“No, nothing yet, you?”
“I haven’t come across anyone yet, this must be a deserted section or
something,” Kevin reported.
“Same here Bri,” Howie shouted into his walkie talkie.
“Don’t shout dumb ass,” AJ yelled back into his communicator.
“Boys, this is only for business use please, only use this if you have something
to relay back,” came a stern voice over the receiver.
“Dickhead,” AJ mumbled as he shoved the communicator back into his
pocket.
Just as Brian was about to give up all hope of finding Nick, he came upon a
neatly kept shelter with a large fire pit and tree stumps situated around it
like a theatre.
“Excuse me, ma’am?”
The woman turned quickly around to address the voice she heard.
“What can I do fer ye son?”
“I’m looking for my friend, Nick, he’s missing and I was wondering if you’ve
possibly seen him around here,” Brian asked quietly as he held out Nick’s
picture.
The old woman took the bent picture and narrowed her eyes and held it back
at arm’s length as she tried to focus on the face.
“He looks familiar.... yep, I know him.”
“You do? Oh thank god----”
“He left a bit ago, got mad at me, he has a nasty temper,” Maggie stated as
she handed the picture back to Brian.
“He left? Left for where?”
“Dunno, he got mad at me about his dog and he took off.”
Took off. Brian’s heart sank.
“Mike’s a pretty moody boy, I ‘spect he’ll be back once his stomach feels
hungry though,” Maggie said with a grin.
“Mike?” Brian questioned and then he realized that was probably what Nick
was calling himself. “Oh, yeah he is pretty moody. Which way did he go?”
“He took off that way, but if ya want, you can wait here, I’m sure he will be
back,” Maggie said as she patted a tree stump by the fire.
~*~*~*~*~
Nick squinted as he looked up the pathway on the riverfront. Dudley let out
a yap and squirmed to escape Nick’s arms.
“Whoa there boy, let me put you down first,” Nick laughed. The puppy shook
as soon as he was set down onto the sand and then scampered over towards
some tall grass. Nick sat on a rock as he tried to decide what his next move
would be in finding a place to live.
Resting arms on his knees, Nick put his chin in his hands and gazed out at
the stream. Dudley came wandering back from the tall grass and sat down in
front of Nick, staring at him. Nick reached out and pet the animal on it’s
head.
“Dudley, I dunno, but I think I do need Maggie’s help for survival. I have no
clue how to take care of myself along here.”
The dog jumped up and started chasing it’s tail.
“Hey, I was wondering if you could look at this picture of my friend.”
Nick looked up in the direction of the voice. The person that stood in front
of him struck him as odd looking with dyed red hair and yellow tinted
sunglasses.
“Oh my god! Nick!”
As AJ wrapped his arms around Nick to hug him, Nick pushed away from him.
“Okay, a handshake probably would have been better, but hell we’ve been
worried about you!” AJ stated with a chuckle.
“You definately have me confused with somebody else pal,” Nick said.
“Ha ha, very funny Nickolas,” AJ replied. He looked at his band mate’s dirt
streaked face. There was no smile on his face. “Nick?”
“It’s Mike,” Nick corrected.
“Mike? Are you on something Nick? Quit screwing around, it’s me AJ,” AJ
searched Nick’s face for some clue as to what he was thinking. Although he
was filthy, Nick appeared to be okay to AJ. “Shit, what do I do now?” AJ
desperately searched his thoughts. Exasperated, he threw his hands down to
his side and felt the walkie talkie. He pulled it out of his pocket.
“I FOUND HIM!” AJ shouted into the receiver.
“Where are you?” an voice that was unfamiliar to AJ replied.
AJ looked at his surroundings for a moment. “Hell I have no idea.”
Brian’s voice came across the walkie talkie. “AJ, ask Nick if you guys are
near Maggie’s.”
AJ looked at Nick, raising his eyebrows.
Wordlessly, Nick bent over and scooped up the tiny black puppy and started
walking down the riverfront.
“Nick!? Where are you going? Come on, answer me! This isn’t funny!” AJ
called after him. Once he realized that Nick wasn’t going to stop or even
turn around and talk to him, AJ shoved the walkie talkie back into his pocket
and chased after Nick.
“I can’t believe he turned this thing off,” Brian sighed as he stared at the
box.
Maggie shook her head, smiling. “Sounds like he’s fiesty like Mike.”
Brian nodded slightly. He looked off up the river bank, his heart caught in
his throat as he saw two figures approaching in the distance. It seemed to
take forever for AJ and Nick to get closer to Maggie’s.
Nick could see a man standing next to Maggie. As he got closer, he could see
the smile on his face. Nick stopped and set the puppy down. The man rushed
up to him and wrapped his arms around him.
“God, what is it with you people and all this hugging?” Nick asked as he tried
to pull himself away.
Brian looked at his best friend, shocked at his reaction to the hug. “Nick?”
“Why do you keep calling me Nick, it’s Mike, my name is Mike,” Nick replied,
he was getting irritated.
Brian grabbed Nick by the shoulders, his eyes locked onto Nick’s eyes.
“NICK! It’s me, Brian.... us! Come on, you have to remember Backstreet.”
As his eyes searched Brian’s face, they shifted back and forth, trying to
grasp what this man was trying to convince him of.
“Nick, stop messing around,” AJ hissed.
Brian threw a look over at AJ to get him to stop adding to the situation.
Nick looked over towards AJ and then back to Brian. Bits and pieces of
music, crowds, and screaming flashed through his mind. He saw himself on a
stage surrounded by people screaming and lights flashing.
“Brian?” Nick asked quietly.
Brian looked at his friend, not saying a word.
“Brian.... BRIAN!”
Nick’s face brightened as the pieces were starting to fit together. Howie
and Kevin showed up at the river site and bombarded Nick with hugs.
Bewildered, Nick looked around at everyone. “Oh my god.....”
~*~*~*~*~
Maria sat in front of the television set, flipped on MTV and propped her
World History book in front of her, getting situated for cramming for her
mid term exam. She found herself spending less time online after being
duped by the Nick Carter poser. She found herself trusting people less
which she knew was a bad thing, but she felt that in time she would slowly
begin trusting people again. Something kept gnawing at her to go and check
her email. She kept pushing the thoughts from her head until she finally
gave up.
Maria felt her breath catch as she looked into her inbox. There was a letter
with the caption Thank You and it was from Nick C. As Maria clicked on the
messaged, she instantly recognised the email addy was one that belonged to
the real Nick Carter and not the poser she had believed in for so long. She
slowly began to read the email:
Hi Maria,
First of all, I want to take the time to thank you so very much for taking
the chance and telling the police about the emails that were sent by me and
by poser Nick. Without you, who knows, I may still be lost.
Everyday I am getting better, feeling stronger. I have lost some of my
memories, but the doctor assures me that in time, I will once again be back
to my old self which means back to tormenting AJ and the rest of the guys,
lol.
Thank God for people like you. You made a tremendous difference in my
life and I will never forget you. I will always remember what you did for me
and let me tell you I am eternally grateful for it.
Love always,
Nick Carter
Maria allowed the tears to slip down her cheeks as she read the thank you
email. She realized that this could have been totally different circumstances
and if Nick had never stuck his neck out to correct what had been
wrongfully done by the poser she could have been the one that had been
hurt or worse, dead. She debated about sending a reply back to him, but
decided against it figuring that it would be a waste of time.
Getting settled back down onto the floor once again, Maria sighed in
frustration when the door bell chimed.
“I’m coming,” Maria groaned as she got up off the floor. She peeked out the
window and saw a black limousine sitting in her driveway. She anxiously
unlocked the door and gasped when her eyes set upon five people standing on
her porch.
“Hi Maria, this has already been cleared with your folks,” Brian Littrell made
certain that this girl would understand that this was okay.
Nick shot Brian an odd look. He held out a bouquet of wildflowers for Maria.
“We were on our way to the venue for the show and want you to come along
as our guest, sort of a thank you for all you’ve done present, okay?” Nick
rushed the proposition quickly to Maria.
Stunned, all Maria could do was nod yes.
“Hey Nicky, she’s a talker!” AJ snickered.
The rest of the guys in the group gave AJ a dirty look for his remark.
The End
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