THE SANDMAN - PART 8

THIS IS PART 8 OF 9. Be sure to read the previous parts:

PART 7
PART 6
PART 5
PART 4
PART 3
PART 2
PART 1

At 7:00 PM on Friday night, the doorbell to Remington’s place rang. Remington opened the door to find Rex and Chelsea. “Hey you two! Come on in! Good to see you,” said Remington. Chelsea walked in and Rex followed. Jamie was already there, in the kitchen. She had one hand grasping the other arm, just like she always did when she was nervous. She and Rex made eye contact. Her smile was very forced. She seemed to be saying “Get me out of here!” or “I’m going to kill you for this!” Rex just sort of smiled like he found humor in her suffering.

“Well, how’s it going?” said Remington after no one said anything for a bit.

“It’s going good,” said Chelsea. She seemed to be having as much fun as Jamie was. On the way here she had started to seem bored already. Rex had wanted to tell her that she should feel lucky because she wasn’t going out with a murderer tonight. But he decided against it.             

“Well, you two go ahead and have a seat in the living room,” said Remington. He extended an arm toward the living room. “Jamie and I were just finishing up talking about where we’re from.” Rex followed Chelsea into the living room and raised his eyebrows toward Jamie as if to say “Good luck.”

Chelsea sat down on the far end of the couch. Rex sat safely in the middle. Not too close, not too far. “So...you like BYUSA?” asked Rex, trying to start a conversation.

“Yep,” said Chelsea.

Rex waited for a moment to see if she’d continue that strain of thought. Nothing. So he just nodded. “Awesome…So where are you from originally?”

“Blackfoot, Idaho,” she said.

“Wow. Now, I’m not familiar with that area. Is that a smaller town?” asked Rex.

“Well, I guess you could call it that.”

Rex waited for her to either expound on the idea of growing up in an I-guess-you-can-call-it-a-small-town or (hopefully) ask him where he was from. Nothing. Rex just touched the ends of his fingers on one hand to the tips on the other. Repeatedly.

“I’m from Murray, Utah,” he said awkwardly, not waiting for her to ask.

“Hmm,” said Chelsea, succinctly. It was becoming evident why she was so available this and other Friday nights.

“Yep...my whole life, born and raised,” said Rex. “Except, of course, when I served my mission, because then, obviously, I was gone for two years.”

Rex purposely left out the fact that he had served in South Africa, hoping she’d ask him where he served and get a conversation going.

Nothing.

“So, do you...” Rex tried to think of something to ask her about. “...like...the Church?” He winced at the lameness of his own question. He turned the other way and mouthed the same question to himself in his own disbelief that he just said that.

“Yeah,” said Chelsea.

Luckily the laughing from Remington and Jamie got louder as they both walked into the living room. “Oh Jamie,” sighed Remington. “You are too funny!” Rex looked up and saw Jamie actually looking like she was having a little fun. They came in and sat down on the other couch. Remington put a box on the coffee table in front of them.

“Well, I was thinking of playing some Catch Phrase. Whaddya you two say?” said Remington. He opened the box and took out the sand timer and the clicker that revealed the words to be guessed each round.

“Sure,” the other three said, not in unison.

“Great. Me and Jamie versus Rex and Chelsea,” said Remington. “We’ll start. Rex, will you turn over the timer? Thanks.”

Rex turned the one minute sand-timer over. “Go!”

Remington hit the side of the Catch Phrase word generator to get his word. “Okay Jamie, this is what your blood flows through.”

“Heart.”

“No. Okay, okay. If I were to do something pointless I would be doing it in...”

“Oh! Vein!”

“Right!” Remington hit the side of the word generator again. This went on for a few more words until Rex shouted “Time!” just as the last grain of sand fell into the bottom of the sand timer.

“Alright, Jamie. Ten points! Not bad. Alright Rex and Chelsea. Your turn,” said Remington.

Rex took the generator from Remington. Remington turned the time over. “Go!”

“Okay, let’s see.” Rex was much more relaxed and calm. He’d grown up playing this game with his family. The word he had to get Chelsea to guess was “northwest.” “Alright Chelsea, Cary Grant starred in a famous movie called...”

“An Affair to Remember! Charade! To Catch a Thief!” interrupted Chelsea.

“No. It’s the one with the plane that chases Cary Grant ….”

“Oh! Of course. The Bishop’s Wife!”

“Okay. No. It’s the cardinal direction halfway between the one that points up and the one that begins with a W.”

“South.”

Rex closed his eyes out of frustration.

“Let’s try this again. What’s the direction that points up on a map?”

“Well, it depends on if the map is a traditional map with the northern hemisphere on top and the southern hemisphere on bottom or not,” said Chelsea as if Rex should know better than to ask such a stupid question.

“Okay, let’s pretend the southern hemisphere is on the bottom for now.”

“Then north points up.”

“Okay, good. Now what’s the direction that begins with W?”

“West.”

“Now stick them together.”

“Northwest!” Chelsea was really excited at getting this one correct.

Rex was only able to get Chelsea to guess two others before the timer ran out. “Good job you guys,” said Remington. He took the pad of paper and pencil and wrote down the score. “It’s now 3 to 10. Alright, when you’re ready, Rex, turn the timer over.”

Rex reached his hand forward, grabbed the timer, and started to turn it over. He started to slow down as something occurred to him. He lifted the time in his hand and took a closer look at it. He turned it one way, then the other way, watching the sand go back and forth between the two chambers.

“Rex, start the timer,” said Remington.

Rex still examined the miniature hour-glass as he didn’t hear Remington.

“Rex, what is it?” asked Jamie.

A big grin spread across Rex’s face. “I know how you did it.”

To be CONCLUDED...

THE SANDMAN - PART 7

THIS IS PART 7 OF 9. Be sure to read the previous parts:

PART 6
PART 5
PART 4
PART 3
PART 2
PART 1

The next day Rex was walking on the second floor of the WILK above the commons. He passed by the BYUSA offices. Remington was inside looking over some papers with his VP, Chelsea. He looked up just as Rex passed by. Remington interrupted himself mid-sentence and said to his staff, “Hold on, just a moment. I’ll be right back.” He walked briskly, opened the door, and called to Rex.

   

Rex stopped in his tracks and looked up, then turned around. Remington was now walking toward him.

“Hey Rex, listen,” Remington said in a rather apologetic tone. “About last night. I overreacted.”

That caught Rex off guard a little.

“In fact,” said Remington, “I was thinking that in an effort to show there are no hard feelings, you and I could double on a date this weekend.”

Rex scratched the back of his head, trying to think up an excuse. Before he could Remington started planning the whole thing out.

“We could go to my place, and play some games or something.”

“Well, uh...”

“Come on Rex. No hard feelings?” Remington said this and looked Rex in the eyes as if to say “remember who’s the one not pressing charges here.”

Rex got an idea too, though. “Sure, I’ll go.”

“Great! Oh, and one more thing...”

---------------

“No!” exclaimed Jamie as she and Rex walked home late that afternoon.

“But Jamie, you and I both know he’s hiding something about Alyson’s death...”

“Which is why I don’t want to go out with him,” Jamie interrupted.

“Jamie, Jamie. This will give us an opportunity to get a closer look at him. Besides, you know how Bishop McKee is always telling us we shouldn’t be so picky in who we date...”

Usually Jamie would have laughed at this. Instead she gave a cold glare as if to say “Not funny.”

“Okay, okay,” Rex held his hands up in self-defense. “I’ll just have to tell Remington it’s a no-go.” He paused, giving a chance for the next sentence to sink in. “I guess I’ll just have to catch him myself, and you’ll have to write your next article on something else, like the Cannon Center or something.” He let that sink in.

Jamie thought about it for a moment. “Fine, I’ll go. What about you? Who are you going with?”

“Remington’s VP, Chelsea.”

Chelsea Allen was undoubtedly one of the more “sought after” ones at BYU. She was probably responsible for winning the male vote in the most recent school elections that ended in Remington’s victory.

“Oh, really?” Jamie smirked. “Look at you. Going out with Chelsea Allen. In that case, I can’t wait for the date. When did he say it was exactly?”

“Friday night. He said he’d pick you up at 7:00 then we’d all go over to his place and play some games. He specifically mentioned that he wanted you to wear that flowery top of yours.”

“He told you what he wanted me to wear?” Jamie’s facial expression was one of disgust.

Rex chuckled. “Nah, I’m kidding. I couldn’t resist.” He sort of elbowed her in her rib to reinforce the fact he was joking. Jamie chuckled a little bit too.

They walked into Rex’s apartment to find Adam sitting on the couch with his guitar on his lap. The computer was sitting on the coffee table. He was practicing along with Remington’s video on BYU-Tube.

“Still practicing that same song from last night?” asked Rex as he shut the door behind him and Jamie.

“Yeah, except this isn’t the same video from last night. It’s a video he put up a few days earlier. My guitar capo just came in the mail today so I figured I try this video because he uses a capo in it.” He pointed to the capo he had clamped on the second fret of his guitar. “But, to be honest, I think I’ve practiced enough for today.” Adam put his guitar back in its stand.

Rex stood over Adam and watched the video. “Wait, when was this video posted?” asked Rex.

“Let’s see...it says it was posted Wednesday before last. Why?”

“Because, look at the capo. That’s the same position it was in when Jamie played it at the party.”

“So?” said Adam.

“So, I think this video was made AFTER the one that Remington supposedly posted the morning of Alyson’s murder.”

“I don’t quite follow,” said Jamie.

“Adam, you just said you were done playing the guitar and put it down WITH THE CAPO still on. Jamie, how often do you take the capo off when you’re finished playing?”

“I never do. You should, but no one ever does.”

“Exactly. No one does. Not even Remington. At the party the capo on Remington’s guitar was still on his guitar, second fret. But he said he hadn’t played it since he did his last recording. But according to the videos his last recording was posted at the same time Alyson was murdered, and his guitar had no capo. And look, he’s even wearing the same thing in his last two videos. I think he recorded both videos at the same time, but only posted them at different times to make it look like he couldn’t have murdered Alyson.”

“Holy smokes. You’re right. He really did kill her,” said Adam.

“And I’m going out with him tonight,” said a wide-eyed Jamie.

Continued in PART 8

THE SANDMAN - PART 6

THIS IS PART 6 OF 9. Be sure to read the previous parts:

PART 5
PART 4
PART 3
PART 2
PART 1

Rex and Adam walked back into their apartment. Adam headed for his room after throwing his jacket on a kitchen chair.

Rex sprawled himself out on a couch in the living room and closed his eyes. “I hate parties,” he said to the empty room.

He heard Adam tune his guitar in the back room and start to play “I’ll Be” by Edwin McCain. It used to be one of Rex’s favorite songs, except that’s all Adam ever really played. Rex could’ve sworn that was the only song he knew.

About fifteen minutes passed (it seemed longer, being filled with strains of “I’ll be your crying shoulder” coming from the back room) and the door swung open. In walked Jamie. She came in and sat down on the couch opposite Rex’s couch. She took off her shoes and lifted her legs up onto the couch.

“I hate parties,” she said. “I thought Remington was going to talk about the newspaper. Instead he kept telling me stories that gave him excuses to touch my hand. He demonstrated how he can pretend to read people’s palms, then he talked about how to ensure the hands get good circulation (with a demonstration), then he insisted we compare the sizes of our hands.”

Rex chuckled. “Sounds…fun.”

“I did manage to work in some questions though,” said Jamie. I managed to find out where he was on Monday when Alyson died. He said he was downstairs in his house practicing guitar for class.”

“Really?” said Rex. “So he does have an alibi. Was the party starting to die down when you left?”

“Yeah, why?” responded Jamie.

“I think I’m going to go back to the party. I wanna check something out.”

“Like what?” asked Jamie.

“Well, tonight when you and Remington were talking about your most recent test you said you got a 72 but Remington said he got a 95.”

“So?”

“You also said that with the curve your score was the average. I’m just guessing here, but that would mean Remington’s score is almost three standard deviations above the average. Do you know what the odds are of someone as busy as he is getting such a high score on one of the hardest tests in one of the hardest classes on campus?”

“No, do you?”

“Well, no. But they’re not very high. I think it’s a little too coincidental that HE would get such a high score in Alyson McBride’s class,” said Rex. “Like I said, it just doesn’t fit.”

“Then I’m coming with,” said Jamie.

Rex and Jamie got back to the party. People had started to leave and only a few remained. Instead of walking inside, Rex and Jamie walked through the carport to the back of the house. They peeked around the corner to see if the coast was clear. No one was back there. Rex saw one of the windows was dark and started to look around for a way to get up to that window. He pulled a trash can over. It was full so it was pretty sturdy. There was even a plastic bag hanging out from under the lid. It looked to be a leftover sandbag or compost bag. He took it out and examined it. It wasn’t opened, but it was empty. That struck him as unusual. He climbed on top and put his hands on the windowsill above and pulled himself to a standing position on top of the trashcan. Jamie held the trashcan sturdy. Rex put his hands against the window and looked through. “Do you see anything or anyone?” whispered Jamie.

“No,” whispered Rex in return. He removed the screen and handed it to Jamie. She set it to the side. Rex quietly opened the window and climbed through.

He shimmied rather ungracefully through the window and onto the bed in the room. He turned around and reached his arms through the window to help Jamie through. It was dark but their eyes slowly adjusted.

In the living room, Remington was saying goodbye to the last of the party guests. He was talking with one of his fellow student council members about an upcoming Question and Answer session with BYUSA to be held during lunch in a few days. “Let me go get a flyer from my room with all the information,” said Remington.

This looked to be Remington’s room, thought Rex. He and Jamie spread out a little and began to look around. There was a BYUSA sweater on the bed with a student government pin and Remington’s name embroidered on it. On his desk were his computer (in power save mode) and a large spring, like one from a mattress. Jamie picked it up and looked at it. Why would someone have a spring like this just laying around? Rex also noticed a funnel on the bed next to the spring. He shrugged his shoulders, not knowing what to make of them. He continued to gaze around the room, up and down. Something on the ceiling caught his attention. Some rope was hanging from the ceiling, just above Remington’s desk. It was nailed in.

He looked down an imaginary straight line from the rope to the desk underneath. All he saw was the computer mouse and a pencil. He squinted, picked it up and took a closer look. He could see what looked to be sand stuck between the mouse buttons. Suddenly the bedroom light turned on. Rex froze in place, holding the computer mouse. “Rex? Jamie?” said Remington with his hand still on the light switch.

Rex and Jamie both turned around. “Remington, hey!” Rex said nervously, trying to think of something to say.

“What the heck are you doing here?” said Remington. But he didn’t say “heck.” “Do you realize I could call the cops on you? You’re trespassing.”

Rex and Jamie were silent.

“Is this still about Alyson? I told you, you’re making a BIG mistake. Leave. Now.” He was adamant.

Jamie had started to climb through the still-open window. Rex followed her. He reached toward the window then turned around. “Maybe I’m making a mistake, but I can afford to. You can’t, though Remington. Because when you do, it’ll be all over.”

With that, Rex climbed through the window and into the night.

Jamie walked through Rex’s apartment door. Rex followed and shut the door behind him. Jamie sat on one couch and Rex flopped himself face first into the other couch’s cushions. He let out a small sigh of discouragement. Rex turned himself around so he was now lying on his back with his face toward the ceiling.

“I know he did it but I just can’t prove it, the why or the how. Were they dating? Was she blackmailing him? Was he trying to cover up an accident?” Rex asked hypothetically.

Jamie rested her head on her knees. “I trust you Rex, but I have to admit, you don’t have a lot to go on. I agree that what Remington said about Alyson earlier this week after the devotional sure makes him look like he knows more than he’s letting on, though.”

Adam came walking out of the back bedrooms holding his guitar in one hand and his computer in the other. “Can I show you guys my guitar piece I’ve been working on?”

Rex and Jamie smiled at each other. Adam was a welcome relief to the stressful night. Rex had told her about Adam’s one-song repertoire. “Sure,” said Jamie, always supportive of Adam.

“It’s a new song I’m learning. It’s based on a tutorial that one of my classmates posted on BYU-Tube.” Adam set the computer up on the coffee table and sat down in the banana chair.  He hoisted his guitar onto his lap. “It’s actually a video by Remington Jenkins. He’s in the guitar class above mine. He puts up a video every week. This one already has 15,000 views.”

Suddenly Jamie and Rex became much more interested and sat up on the couch. Adam pressed play on the video and started to play along with Remington’s video. Minus a few errors here and there, Adam did pretty well for an amateur guitarist. He strummed the last chord very dramatically and Jamie and Rex applauded.

“Adam, that was so good!” said Jamie.

“Yeah!” agreed Rex.

“Thanks. Remington makes some pretty good videos. I’m actually looking at another one of his. It uses a capo so it’s a little bit different for me. I’ve never used one before,” said Adam.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll do great,” said Jamie. “I’d love to hear how it’s coming, but it’s late. I better get going.”

“Let me get the door for you,” said Rex. They both got up from their couches and headed for the door. “Thanks again for coming to the party with us,” said Rex. “I’ll talk to you more about Remington and his alibi later.

Jamie started to walk out the open door when Adam called from his banana chair. “Wait you guys. When did Alyson die?”

Jamie responded. “About 12:43 AM Monday morning. Why?”

“Well, I was looking at when his most recent video was posted just as you said that thing about Remington and his guitar alibi. You better look at this.” He pointed at his screen, beckoning Jamie and Rex to come and look. Jamie walked back into the apartment and Rex shut the door. They walked over to the computer and looked at the video. It showed Remington sitting at home on his couch. Their eyes darted to where Adam was still pointing. The time stamp showed that Remington posted this video at 12:43 AM on Monday morning. The same time Alyson drove into the parking lot.

To be continued...