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MOLLEEHere you are, Bier. Gosh, you're so quiet. I didn't even know you were here. Do you ever hear people talking about stuff they shouldn't because they think they're alone in the room?

BIERWhy? Do people talk about me?

MOLLEENot about your. Just stuff in general. Um, do you know what Aaron's angry about?

BIERHe's mad about something? Why?

MOLLEEI'm asking you.

BIERNo. I mean, what makes you say he's mad? Did he throw a pencil at you?

MOLLEENo. He's just staring into the abyss. Hardly noticed me at all. Or anybody else for that matter.


BIEROh shit. Do you think he's high?

BIERHi, sis. Are you at work? Are you busy? I need a favor... Can you call the office here and tell me if the receptionist seems strange to you? I mean, don't just call and ask for the classified ads department. Think of something you can inquire about that a receptionist high on drugs wouldn't be able to deal with. Thanks. We'll get to the bottom of this.

BIERClassifieds. Well, what did you think would happen if you asked that? No, he seems fine to me. A co-worker mentioned that he seems a little angry. I'm going to. Yes. Yes. You know... he's the type who wouldn't give it a second thought to toke up at work. Thanks for your help. Appreciate it.

MOLLEEWhat was that about?

BIERShhh

BIERHello, it's Bier. That last caller you transferred, did she sound weird?

AARONWeird how?

BIERYou know, just off her rocker. She told me she saw a personal ad and wanted to find out who placed it. Is that what she told you?

AARONYes. I guess that can be weird. It's just, working the phones at this place sometimes, well... you get all kinds. Her weird was very mild compared to some of the Hollywood types that I come across in this place.

BIERYeah, I guess I'm just being restless about assisting kooks with mundane questions so early in the week.

AARONYou know what's weird? She kind of sounded like your sister. Is that irony, or what?

BIERWhat?

AARONThat I would trasnfer a caller to your desk who sounded like your sister. I mean, there's so many lines I couldn've transferred a caller to in this building. But this one seemed to be your department. Didn't you think she sounded like your sister?

BIERUh, you whoa... uh, what? Are you okay, Aaron? You sound a bit distracted.

AARONOh my god. If you knew the half of it, Bier.

BIERYou aren't high, are you?

AARONNo, nothing like that. This is too serious to be making lite of it.

BIERWhat is?

AARONI saw two people get murdered.

BIERWait! I'm coming out.

MOLLEESo, is he mad about something?

BIERNo. He has something going on. Personal affairs. Stuff. I'm going to go talk to him.

BIERCarumba, Aaron. I don't want to sound insensitive so I came out here to talk. I could've sworn you said you saw two people get murdered. Fucking phones.

AARONYeah, I did.

BIERLook, Aaron. This is probably none of my business, but talking about this out here is probably not healthy. Do you want to talk about it over drinks after work?

AARONI don't really feel like drinking. Do you think I should?

BIERNo, that's not necessary. In fact, a bar would probably be too crude. Why don't you come over? We'll play video games, or fuck knows what.

AARONAw, man. That's nice of you, Bier. I'll take you up on that.

BIEROkay. I'll see you later then. By the way, you're okay, right?

AARONOh yeah. Just a... a little rattled, that's all. I'm fine.

MOLLEE
So, what's he mad about?

BIERNo. Not mad. Didn't I just say?... He's going to drop by my place after work. Just to hang out.

BIERAm I going to be at risk of getting knocked off?

AARONNo. Nobody is getting alliby. Don't you see? This killer don't know I witnessed it because what I saw was something already, uh, the aftermath. My gangster vocabulary isn't all that. What I'm trying to say--

BIERIt was a cover-up?

AARONExactly. So look at it this way. Young gang banger wants to earn respect in the crime world--rites of passage into gang X, what have you--and he gets word of an opportunity. Instead of wacking just any innocent bystander, word gets to him that a syndicated crime boss has a job. Pay is low, but he gets a guaranteed alibi. A fail safe get away for the murder of two people.

BIER (NERVOUSLY)And, and, and who are the victims?

AARONWho knows. Whoever the media mentions, I suppose.

BIER (NERVOUSLY)Okay, okay, okay. And, the bodies are found by you?

AARONNo, I call nine-one-one when I stop at a traffic accident. I saw a motorcycle down on the slow lane of the freeway with two people lying face down on the pavement.

BIER (NERVOUSLY)But, but you said a moment ago this was a murder. A gun, a bat, malice.

AARONRight. The rites of passage into a gang is very high tech now, Bier. The whole messy business takes place inside an eighteen wheeler.

AARON (CONT'D)The business of the cover-up is conducted by the crime boss. He just doesn't want to be mixed in with a murder charge. He coaxes his henchmen to unload a motorcycle, and the victims, onto the highway--

BIERFrom the big rig, where the murders took place?

AARONYeah. Thos trucks are big, man. You can set up a house in them, with several bedrooms, a kitchen, a den. It's like this loft, only bigger.

BIEROkay, I need to get some clarity here because right now I'm visualizing a truck filled with rooms, a torture chamber, a dungeon, a garage, a closet. How does the killer get away?

AARONAw, man. Who knows. Don't ask those kind of questions. Remember, nobody suspects that this was a crime. The story is freight truck runs over two people on motorcycle.

BIERThen how can you say?--

AARONI knew this was a mistake. I shouldn't have talked about it. I went to light a candle at church for their souls because I felt like a worthless pig, stopping at a traffic accident thinking I could help out in some way. CPR, calling nine-one-one. When what it seems like is that I only wanted to get a closer look at the spectacle. After I got through to emergency and reported the location, I walked over to them. They were motionless. They looked at peace lying side by side, their arm outstretched toward one another as if they'd been holding hands.

BIEROkay, yeah. Uh, tell me again.

AARONI stopped, called nine-one-one. Oh, the trucker was just getting out of his truck by then and I remember him saying stuff like "they just went under my axle" as I was trying to get through to nine-one-one. I gave him some re-assuring words like, I think they'll be okay. I just saw them flinching. Moving is a good sign. He stays back as I make my way closer to the victims. I ask another of the bystanders if they saw what happened.

BIERSo you've just been in a daze because you feel like the bad person who, instead of just slowing down and gawking through their windshield, you actually got out of your car and saw two people slowly die in front of you.

AARONYeah, you can put it that way. I don't know what it takes to pronounce a person as being beyond help in a traffic accident, but when I heard somebody in the background comment that the freight truck's tire ran over the woman's head, I was scared to approach her. And the guy... after he got turned over, he was a total mess. So much blood.

BIERCPR training is so lame. They don't prepare you for the shock of the gruesomeness that any given scenario might entail. But wait, I thought you didn't do anything. Why are you saying this was murder?

AARONI didn't lift a finger. Somebody else arrived after I did. He came running with a first aid kit. Despite the other looky-loos outbursts over not moving the bodies, this guy began to speak to the victims asking them how he could help them. I knew he wasn't getting any responses, but he kept at it and posing as if they were saying something. he went to the girl first. Turned her over. She was missing an eye and her helment was cracked. I thought he would begin CPR immediately, but after turning her over he went to the man and began speaking to him, turning him over as well. I thought maybe the girl was diagnosed as breathing and okay for the time being. I even remember seeing her larynx moving in a swallowing gesture. The dude was in bad shape, spewing blood out of his mouth. A stream of blood had flowed underneath him. I don't know what kind of balls a person needs to have to be able to speak to a victim like that, and turn him over to see the damage even when spectators around him are saying "don't move him! don't movie him!"

BIERDid you get anybody's name?

AARONNo. Yes. Pete. But I've since stalked the names published in the news on-line. She had a facebook page with a picture exactly how I remember her looking. Her skull wasn't crushed beyond recognition or anything. In fact, I wouldn't have known that it was an absolute possibility that her eye had popped out of her eye socket had somebody not suggested it when I told them that I heard spectators saying her head went underneath the tires of a diesel truck.

BIERAnd the guy?

AARONI found his picture on-line too. His face was a bit more obsured by the accident. Half his face was covered in blood. I couldn't tell whether it was from being dragged along the asphalt face first, or from the blood that puddled the ground underneath him.

BIEROkay...

AARONThe news describes what happened according to police reports. That's obvious. I mean, there were no journalists at the site, other than Pete, I guess.

BIERSo, because you got there before the police, you claim it was a murder scene.

AARONThe Times reported that the eighteen wheeler was a tanker truck. Ther trucker who claimed that the vicims had gone under his axle was driving a commercial container frieght car. I've been trying to envision what exactly happened, how exactly the accident occured, in my head, that the various scenarios I've heard by people who have heard something about it doesn't ring clear. Okay, the whole debacle happened as a result of a charity event sponsored by Harley. Bikers from all over gathered at the Glendale Harley dealership. It looked like a thousand. And all at once, they start off for Castaic Lake. That's thirty-some miles.

BIERIs this what you've read in the news?

AARONNo, one of the bystanders there was another biker. This is stuff we talked about.

BIERPete?

AARONNo, somebody else. I didn't get her name. She said Jay, the guy from the Tonite show, was the grand marshall, and, get this, he's reported as having condemned the fund raising event by announcing that he hoped some biker would crash.

BIERBefore the actual accident?

AARONYeah. What a crap shoot, huh? Anyway, another version of what happened, according to this bystander biker chick, is that the biker was speeding and crashed right into the truck. Then there's the news reports that describe the accident as the biker being caught between the truck and another car. I got in touch with another biker, after I left the scene, stopped a few feet ahead and they claim the biker indeed went down on his bike but that they both seemed okay. They were about to lift themselves up when in came the truck and plowed right into them.

BIERYeah, but none of these versions suggest foul play.

AARONI'm not make it up, Bier.

BIERWhat?

AARONThe bike had minimal damage to it, for something that is being reported as having been trampled by a two ton truck. I have to believe that this awful thing happened to two people picking themselves up after falling off their bike. That they were moved, after it was quite obvious that there couldn't have been much anybody could do, says something to me. It's ironic that they would've been positioned the way they were when they died, practically holding hands, but I can see how they might've been helping one another up when they were run over. It just seems to me that when an accident occurs in which a biker who's splitting lanes gets caught between two vehicles, the truck driver isn't going to notice that the bike went under his truck, let alone stop with such precision as to be only a few feet from where they lay. I just don't understand how the motorcycle can escape such a horrible fate unscathed. It's just inconceivable.

BIERHow do you know that? If they truck wasn't going more than thirty-five miles an hour, for instance, it probably could've stopped exactly where it did.

AARONI'm just theorizing. Maybe you're right. It's just as horrible, I imagine... if I was driving a car and saw two people in front of me getting up from their fallen motorcycle too late to maneuver away from striking them, I know I would stop not far from where they lied, but if I were driving a big rig truck, and, going thirty-five miles an hour, a motorcycle gets caught between my truck and the vehicle in other other lane, there's a real big chance I'm not going to notice anything happened. Perhaps, if the bike itself was trampled, making a larger bump, and/or noise, I might be impelled to brake, but... the proximity between the two bikers and the truck is making my imagination run away with me.

BIERAnd that's how you conclude this was murder?

AARONYes. I thought that was obvious.