burning man part 1
"The last two nights have to have been a nightmare there is no way that this is happening. I did not find my best friend lying in an alley beaten to a bloody pulp after one of the worst fights of our relationship. Looking back the fight was so petty and all my fault if I had just listened and not been so self centered I would have been with him and maybe then I would not now be sitting in this lousy waiting room waiting to hear if I still have a best friend.
Two nights ago
“steve, tango” “go for steve and tango”
“ok guys lets wrap up and get out of here”
“ok jay grant” “g I think tonight went well
“yeah yeah totally”
“I was thinking that after we get some sleep maybe we could get in some sight seeing and then come back to the hotel and get the guys and go to a local bar and just kick back”
“no problem on the sleep and sightseeing but Jay I was going to go over to the museum tomorrow night and see the new Aztec exhibit”
“Grant you can see the exhibit anytime.”
“no, jay I can’t see the exhibit anytime. Its only going to be open to the public for one night”
“g, no offense but how good can it be if it is only open for one night?
“jay I told you months ago I wanted to do this . we talked about it and you agreed that it sounded interesting.
“yeah well you know me I listen but I don’t really pay attention.
“fine you go get drunk with Steve, dave and kris and I’ll go to the museum alone. You won’t even miss me since you don’t seem to even listen to me anymore”
“GW your not my wife so knock off the ‘you never listen to me anymore speech’”
“no I’m not your wife, I’m supposed to be a friend. Friends listen to friends”
“G knock it off”
“whatever”
“no Grant no whatever”
“this conversation is done. I can’t talk to you when you are in one of those moods. I’m going for a walk. I’ll find my own way home.”
“Grant get back here right now. If you do not turn around right this instant you can consider yourself out of TAPS”
“Guess I’m out then. Bye Jay.”
“this is not over Grant not by a long shot”
2 hours later
Shit this is insane where the hell is he? Even walking back he should have been back by now. I still can’t believe what a bastard I was I hope he knows he always has a place in TAPS its not TAPS without him. Where could he be? If he isn’t back by lunch I’ll go out in the Tahoe looking for him.
At some point in my worrying about Grant I fell asleep. I can’t believe that I slept the entire day away. I notice that its dinner time as I check the hotel phone and see that there are no messages waiting for me and I check my cell phone and see no messages waiting for me. I dial Grants room and receive no answer. Did he come back and go back out again without my knowing? Why didn’t he atleast leave me a message? I debate calling his cell phone and decide if he is going to act like a child I’ going to ignore him. He’ll come back he always does.
I go looking for the guys and Kris and find them just finishing up with the evidence review. This one was a major bust the guys didn’t find anything even dust to show me. After reporting the findings I suggest going out for a night on the town my treat.
I came back from a great time with the guys and immediately check my cell phone and the hotel phone. I have 2 missed calls, good hopefully one of them is from Grant apologizing for worrying me. After checking I find that one call was from my son Austin and the other was from my son Logan both missed me and wanted to know if I’m coming home yet.
Where the hell is Grant? If he wanted me to worry he succeeded. I finally break down and call his cell phone. I know immediately something is very wrong. The call connected but he isn’t responding to my voice. I am pretty sure I am hear him breathing on the other end of the line but it doesn’t sound right. I don’t even think I just grab my jacket and run out of the hotel. All I know for sure is I have got to find him.
He could be anywhere between here and the clients house and her and the museum and of course the have to be in polar opposites of one another. The museum is closer so I try in that direction first. I pull my flashlight out of my pocket and start shining it down every side street and alley along my way checking it out completely before moving on to the next . I start thinking that should have gone in the other direction first back towards the clients house when I hear Grants phone cell phone. I would know that cell phone anywhere. He was fooling around with a recorder and taped all his kids and Reanne and set their voices as their ring tones. This time the ring is Reanne. Keep ringing please dear god keep ringing til I find you.
I finally pin point the cellphone and flash my light over the body trying desperately to grab the phone. Oh no this can not be Grant this can not be happening. Oh hell who could would do something like this. I feel sick. I know I have dropped the flashlight even if the noise of the flashlight hadn’t registered the beam was still pointed directly at Grant. You could see his face plainly in the light. God I never want to see that expression on my friends face again. Grant has noticed me now and he started whimpering and was trying to move back against the wall. He was trying to get away from me. He was afraid no terrified of me. I picked up the flash light and noticed that there was a distinctly foul smell in the alley. I can see that there is something around his neck but at this angle I’m not sure exactly it is. I start to walk towards him and I see that his actions are becoming more frenzied. I’m pretty sure his arm is broken its not hanging down right. As I shine the light over him I start talking to him hoping I can break through a little bit and calm him down. He is going to hurt himself more if he doesn’t calm down.
I start slowly inching my way forward as I am talking to him and I am horrified to see that someone has wrapped a chain around his neck and padlocked it to the dumpster he is next to. They have effectively tied him in place like a stray dog. I can also see that his phone has dropped just outside his reach. He must have dropped it when he answered my call. Why didn’t he call the cops if he had the phone or 911 or me?
“Grant? Buddy you need to calm down. Its just me its just Jason. I’m not going to hurt you. I promise I won’t hurt you.”
He doesn’t even look like he is listening to me. He’s hyperventilating.
“Grant Buddy please, look at me its going to be ok. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“J-J-J-jay?” His voices is raw and not even a bare whisper. If I wasn’t so focused on him I never would have hear it.
“yeah buddy its me. You here with me now?”
“please don’t leave me?”
His plea breaks my heart. I should have looked for him sooner I never should have let him leave in the first place. “I’m not buddy I’m right here”
I managed to get up next to him and I can see him shaking and can’t figure out if its from fear or cold. God how could someone do this to another person. I pick up his phone and shine the light on the chain to see how I could get Grant out of it. I see it is wrapped around his neck a few times and padlocked to the wheel of the dumpster. There is no way I can remove the padlock without bolt cutters but if he moves a little closer to the dumpster I might be able to loosen the chain from around his neck so he could slip out or at least breathe a little easier.
I should call the cops.
“Grant I am going to call 911. We will get you helpget a doc to check you out.”
“nono”
His voice is giving out even as he is pleading with me cracking and breaking with each word. Ok moron wrong thing to say he is freaking out again.
“Grant what’s wrong? G, please you need to calm down. Grant you’re going to hurt yourself. G stop please”
He isn’t listening to me he is fighting like crazy. He is really going to hurt himself if he doesn’t calm down soon. I move closer to him and he is backing away from me soon enough he is going to run out of chain.
“G your safe I won’t let anyone hurt you I’m right here I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
“no no no not again please no”
He really has no idea that I am here or who I am. His pleas are breaking my heart.
“Grant if I back up will you calm down?”
I back away watching him freak out knowing I need help and knowing he will never forgive me for letting him walk away without looking for him. So many things. I open his cell phone and see the battery is almost dead I dial 911 quickly and explain that I need the cops and an ambulance and hang up. I open the phone again on a whim and check his outgoing calls and see that 911 was dialed 3 times from the phone.
“I’m sorry G but I can’t get you loose on my own and you’re going to hurt yourself if I try.”
While I am waiting for the cops and ambulance I call Steve and let him know that Grant was injured and is going to be taken to the hospital. I should call Reanne but right now I don’t know what to tell her.
The cops get there before the ambulance and they start questioning me about him. Do I know him? Yeah. How long has he been missing? 2 days. When and where did I see him last? Right after our fight. He was walking away from me and I told him he was fired. Do I have any idea how he ended up in this alley? No. where were we staying? Little hotel up the street. How did I know he was in the alley if he was miles from here the last time i saw him? He had mentioned the art exhibit at the museum so I took a chance. I heard the his phone ringing and followed it to the cell phone and found his attached to the dumpster just as they could see. Just as I am answering that last question I hear Grant let out a horrible howl. I look up to see him trying to strangle himself in his efforts to get away from the officer that is trying to use a set of bolt cutters on the pad lock.
God I can’t stand this I just want to hit something.
I leave the cop and walk over to Grant and start talking to him hoping to calm him down until the paramedics get there.
“Grant buddy your safe. These cops just want to cut the lock. They are not going to hurt you. G? Buddy you listening to me?”
I can see that I am not getting through to him. He is just too upset to listen. So I do the only thing I could think of to do and move behind him and grab hold. If I can keep my hold I should at least be able to keep him from strangling himself.
“G sh,sh,its ok. Your safe.”
I just keep my hold and keep repeating that he is safe hoping to break through his fever and/or fear. I don’t know how long I have been holding him I only know that apparently expended all his energy at this point and is laying against me panting. I am still talking to him and holding him. I am stroking his hair hoping it will help to calm him. As I do this I can see and feel just how hurt he is. Someone really did a number on him. I can feel that he is indeed running a fever and as I hold him I can feel ribs shifting I know at least a few are broken as is his arm.
Finally I feel him go completely limp in my arms and realize that he has passed out. I look up and see 2 paramedics standing there. I have no idea when they arrived or how long they have been standing there in front of me. I quickly let go of Grant so they can check him over and move out of the way. As I am moving back I hear one of the cops tell me not to worry Tim and George are the best and will take good care of Grant.
After they get Grant ready for transport to the hospital I ask if I could ride along and they tell me its fine.
The paramedics are yelling out all sorts of figures none of which sound good and all I keep thinking is this really can’t be happening. Now I can really see what kind of shape G is in in the ambulance lighting. He is deathly pale, the sheet they cover him with has more color than he has, and the only other color I am seeing right now is red, lots of red. He has several cuts on his face one large one over the hair line on the right side of his face and another over his eyebrow and another at the bridge of his nose. We hit a bump and his head turns slightly oh fuck is that a pentagram?
“oh my god”
“yeah we noticed a few suspicious cuts before we covered him up. The doc will need to really check him out once he is cleaned up”
“hey george the cops just called”
“yeah what did they want?”
“wanted to know if any of you noticed the second body in the ally?”
“no I didn’t, Tim did you?”
“nope”
“Jason how about you?”
“another body? No I was too focused on Grant to see anything else.”
“ok cops apparently found second body behind the dumpster were this guy was locked. They said the body was fresh and still smoking. They think our guy here saw this guy set on fire and watched him burn.”
Oh god no Grant will never recover from this. He is so innocent. He hates violence of any kind. What was he doing there?
“ok guys we’re here lets get him with the doc so we can go pick up the other guy and get him over to the morgue.”
Now here I am sitting in the waiting room waiting for Steve and Dave to arrive, waiting for the doctor to let us know what is going on, waiting to call Kris and Reanne until I talk to the doc, waiting to see if Grant tells me to get lost or worse drop dead.
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Two nights ago
“steve, tango” “go for steve and tango”
“ok guys lets wrap up and get out of here”
“ok jay grant” “g I think tonight went well
“yeah yeah totally”
“I was thinking that after we get some sleep maybe we could get in some sight seeing and then come back to the hotel and get the guys and go to a local bar and just kick back”
“no problem on the sleep and sightseeing but Jay I was going to go over to the museum tomorrow night and see the new Aztec exhibit”
“Grant you can see the exhibit anytime.”
“no, jay I can’t see the exhibit anytime. Its only going to be open to the public for one night”
“g, no offense but how good can it be if it is only open for one night?
“jay I told you months ago I wanted to do this . we talked about it and you agreed that it sounded interesting.
“yeah well you know me I listen but I don’t really pay attention.
“fine you go get drunk with Steve, dave and kris and I’ll go to the museum alone. You won’t even miss me since you don’t seem to even listen to me anymore”
“GW your not my wife so knock off the ‘you never listen to me anymore speech’”
“no I’m not your wife, I’m supposed to be a friend. Friends listen to friends”
“G knock it off”
“whatever”
“no Grant no whatever”
“this conversation is done. I can’t talk to you when you are in one of those moods. I’m going for a walk. I’ll find my own way home.”
“Grant get back here right now. If you do not turn around right this instant you can consider yourself out of TAPS”
“Guess I’m out then. Bye Jay.”
“this is not over Grant not by a long shot”
2 hours later
Shit this is insane where the hell is he? Even walking back he should have been back by now. I still can’t believe what a bastard I was I hope he knows he always has a place in TAPS its not TAPS without him. Where could he be? If he isn’t back by lunch I’ll go out in the Tahoe looking for him.
At some point in my worrying about Grant I fell asleep. I can’t believe that I slept the entire day away. I notice that its dinner time as I check the hotel phone and see that there are no messages waiting for me and I check my cell phone and see no messages waiting for me. I dial Grants room and receive no answer. Did he come back and go back out again without my knowing? Why didn’t he atleast leave me a message? I debate calling his cell phone and decide if he is going to act like a child I’ going to ignore him. He’ll come back he always does.
I go looking for the guys and Kris and find them just finishing up with the evidence review. This one was a major bust the guys didn’t find anything even dust to show me. After reporting the findings I suggest going out for a night on the town my treat.
I came back from a great time with the guys and immediately check my cell phone and the hotel phone. I have 2 missed calls, good hopefully one of them is from Grant apologizing for worrying me. After checking I find that one call was from my son Austin and the other was from my son Logan both missed me and wanted to know if I’m coming home yet.
Where the hell is Grant? If he wanted me to worry he succeeded. I finally break down and call his cell phone. I know immediately something is very wrong. The call connected but he isn’t responding to my voice. I am pretty sure I am hear him breathing on the other end of the line but it doesn’t sound right. I don’t even think I just grab my jacket and run out of the hotel. All I know for sure is I have got to find him.
He could be anywhere between here and the clients house and her and the museum and of course the have to be in polar opposites of one another. The museum is closer so I try in that direction first. I pull my flashlight out of my pocket and start shining it down every side street and alley along my way checking it out completely before moving on to the next . I start thinking that should have gone in the other direction first back towards the clients house when I hear Grants phone cell phone. I would know that cell phone anywhere. He was fooling around with a recorder and taped all his kids and Reanne and set their voices as their ring tones. This time the ring is Reanne. Keep ringing please dear god keep ringing til I find you.
I finally pin point the cellphone and flash my light over the body trying desperately to grab the phone. Oh no this can not be Grant this can not be happening. Oh hell who could would do something like this. I feel sick. I know I have dropped the flashlight even if the noise of the flashlight hadn’t registered the beam was still pointed directly at Grant. You could see his face plainly in the light. God I never want to see that expression on my friends face again. Grant has noticed me now and he started whimpering and was trying to move back against the wall. He was trying to get away from me. He was afraid no terrified of me. I picked up the flash light and noticed that there was a distinctly foul smell in the alley. I can see that there is something around his neck but at this angle I’m not sure exactly it is. I start to walk towards him and I see that his actions are becoming more frenzied. I’m pretty sure his arm is broken its not hanging down right. As I shine the light over him I start talking to him hoping I can break through a little bit and calm him down. He is going to hurt himself more if he doesn’t calm down.
I start slowly inching my way forward as I am talking to him and I am horrified to see that someone has wrapped a chain around his neck and padlocked it to the dumpster he is next to. They have effectively tied him in place like a stray dog. I can also see that his phone has dropped just outside his reach. He must have dropped it when he answered my call. Why didn’t he call the cops if he had the phone or 911 or me?
“Grant? Buddy you need to calm down. Its just me its just Jason. I’m not going to hurt you. I promise I won’t hurt you.”
He doesn’t even look like he is listening to me. He’s hyperventilating.
“Grant Buddy please, look at me its going to be ok. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“J-J-J-jay?” His voices is raw and not even a bare whisper. If I wasn’t so focused on him I never would have hear it.
“yeah buddy its me. You here with me now?”
“please don’t leave me?”
His plea breaks my heart. I should have looked for him sooner I never should have let him leave in the first place. “I’m not buddy I’m right here”
I managed to get up next to him and I can see him shaking and can’t figure out if its from fear or cold. God how could someone do this to another person. I pick up his phone and shine the light on the chain to see how I could get Grant out of it. I see it is wrapped around his neck a few times and padlocked to the wheel of the dumpster. There is no way I can remove the padlock without bolt cutters but if he moves a little closer to the dumpster I might be able to loosen the chain from around his neck so he could slip out or at least breathe a little easier.
I should call the cops.
“Grant I am going to call 911. We will get you helpget a doc to check you out.”
“nono”
His voice is giving out even as he is pleading with me cracking and breaking with each word. Ok moron wrong thing to say he is freaking out again.
“Grant what’s wrong? G, please you need to calm down. Grant you’re going to hurt yourself. G stop please”
He isn’t listening to me he is fighting like crazy. He is really going to hurt himself if he doesn’t calm down soon. I move closer to him and he is backing away from me soon enough he is going to run out of chain.
“G your safe I won’t let anyone hurt you I’m right here I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
“no no no not again please no”
He really has no idea that I am here or who I am. His pleas are breaking my heart.
“Grant if I back up will you calm down?”
I back away watching him freak out knowing I need help and knowing he will never forgive me for letting him walk away without looking for him. So many things. I open his cell phone and see the battery is almost dead I dial 911 quickly and explain that I need the cops and an ambulance and hang up. I open the phone again on a whim and check his outgoing calls and see that 911 was dialed 3 times from the phone.
“I’m sorry G but I can’t get you loose on my own and you’re going to hurt yourself if I try.”
While I am waiting for the cops and ambulance I call Steve and let him know that Grant was injured and is going to be taken to the hospital. I should call Reanne but right now I don’t know what to tell her.
The cops get there before the ambulance and they start questioning me about him. Do I know him? Yeah. How long has he been missing? 2 days. When and where did I see him last? Right after our fight. He was walking away from me and I told him he was fired. Do I have any idea how he ended up in this alley? No. where were we staying? Little hotel up the street. How did I know he was in the alley if he was miles from here the last time i saw him? He had mentioned the art exhibit at the museum so I took a chance. I heard the his phone ringing and followed it to the cell phone and found his attached to the dumpster just as they could see. Just as I am answering that last question I hear Grant let out a horrible howl. I look up to see him trying to strangle himself in his efforts to get away from the officer that is trying to use a set of bolt cutters on the pad lock.
God I can’t stand this I just want to hit something.
I leave the cop and walk over to Grant and start talking to him hoping to calm him down until the paramedics get there.
“Grant buddy your safe. These cops just want to cut the lock. They are not going to hurt you. G? Buddy you listening to me?”
I can see that I am not getting through to him. He is just too upset to listen. So I do the only thing I could think of to do and move behind him and grab hold. If I can keep my hold I should at least be able to keep him from strangling himself.
“G sh,sh,its ok. Your safe.”
I just keep my hold and keep repeating that he is safe hoping to break through his fever and/or fear. I don’t know how long I have been holding him I only know that apparently expended all his energy at this point and is laying against me panting. I am still talking to him and holding him. I am stroking his hair hoping it will help to calm him. As I do this I can see and feel just how hurt he is. Someone really did a number on him. I can feel that he is indeed running a fever and as I hold him I can feel ribs shifting I know at least a few are broken as is his arm.
Finally I feel him go completely limp in my arms and realize that he has passed out. I look up and see 2 paramedics standing there. I have no idea when they arrived or how long they have been standing there in front of me. I quickly let go of Grant so they can check him over and move out of the way. As I am moving back I hear one of the cops tell me not to worry Tim and George are the best and will take good care of Grant.
After they get Grant ready for transport to the hospital I ask if I could ride along and they tell me its fine.
The paramedics are yelling out all sorts of figures none of which sound good and all I keep thinking is this really can’t be happening. Now I can really see what kind of shape G is in in the ambulance lighting. He is deathly pale, the sheet they cover him with has more color than he has, and the only other color I am seeing right now is red, lots of red. He has several cuts on his face one large one over the hair line on the right side of his face and another over his eyebrow and another at the bridge of his nose. We hit a bump and his head turns slightly oh fuck is that a pentagram?
“oh my god”
“yeah we noticed a few suspicious cuts before we covered him up. The doc will need to really check him out once he is cleaned up”
“hey george the cops just called”
“yeah what did they want?”
“wanted to know if any of you noticed the second body in the ally?”
“no I didn’t, Tim did you?”
“nope”
“Jason how about you?”
“another body? No I was too focused on Grant to see anything else.”
“ok cops apparently found second body behind the dumpster were this guy was locked. They said the body was fresh and still smoking. They think our guy here saw this guy set on fire and watched him burn.”
Oh god no Grant will never recover from this. He is so innocent. He hates violence of any kind. What was he doing there?
“ok guys we’re here lets get him with the doc so we can go pick up the other guy and get him over to the morgue.”
Now here I am sitting in the waiting room waiting for Steve and Dave to arrive, waiting for the doctor to let us know what is going on, waiting to call Kris and Reanne until I talk to the doc, waiting to see if Grant tells me to get lost or worse drop dead.
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