Chapter 7
The Airbnb came with a parking space in a basement garage, which was another reason Kenney had selected it.
There was also a bellman’s cart, which was an added bonus.
From the trunk of the Camry, Kenney removed an open XXXXL wheeled canvas duffel bag, fifty-six inches long and twenty-seven inches high.
He placed the bag on the cart, wheeled it to the back door of the Camry, and he and Teal folded the unconscious woman into it before zipping it half-closed—it wouldn’t close any further because of her size—and draping a coat over the gap.
By then Teal had taped her mouth and bound her hands and feet with cable ties, but they still needed to move quickly because the last thing they wanted was for the bag to begin making noises while someone was passing them in the hallway.
Kenney added a suitcase for appearances’ sake, and he and Teal maneuvered the cart into the elevator.
Fortune was smiling on them, if not the woman: the elevator went straight to the top floor, no stops, and they encountered neither persons nor problems as they ran the cart into the apartment and closed the door behind them.
The apartment had two bedrooms, one of which Kenney was using.
He had stripped the sheets from the bed in the other room and replaced them with a cheap set from Marshalls.
More sheets were laid on the floor; sheets felt more comfortable underfoot than plastic, which was too functional for the first stage, though Kenney had put down plastic in the master bathroom, where they would wash the woman once they were done with her.
Kenney and Teal removed her from the bag and laid her on the bed.
She was moaning against the gag, so Teal gave her another blast of chloroform while Kenney returned the bellman’s cart to the basement.
He didn’t want anyone knocking on their door to find out if they had it, which would spoil the mood.
By the time he returned, Teal was removing her clothes.
Because they weren’t yet ready to untie her, Teal used a box cutter, being careful not to wound her.
Finally, when she was naked, they bound her arms and legs to the bed.
Only when they were satisfied she was secured, and each had double-checked the other’s work, did they strip.
There was no awkwardness about it, not any longer.
“Go ahead,” said Kenney. “I went first last time.”
Teal didn’t argue. Only a fool would.
It was after three a.m. when they finished and the woman was dead.
Both men were tired, and it was tempting to sleep, even if for a few hours, but there was a process to be followed: If we don’t take care of ourselves, the law will take care of us, as the Saint liked to say.
They put on gloves and disposable aprons, tied nets around their hair, and cleaned the body thoroughly before triple-wrapping it in black garbage bags, which they sealed with tape at each stage.
They returned the body to the duffel and removed the sheets from the bed and floor, folding each carefully inward so it formed a neat square, before sliding them into more fresh garbage bags.
The following day, Kenney would take the sheets to a twenty-four-hour laundromat near Chandler Park, where he’d wash them himself before dumping them.
Only when all this was accomplished did each man shower, being careful to remove any stray hairs from the drain protector afterward.
Kenney finished first and went to retrieve the bellman’s cart.
They placed the duffel on the cart—a body always felt heavier dead than alive, which Kenney never understood—and rolled it to the basement.
As a precaution, Kenney had oiled the wheels earlier, but he needn’t have bothered because the other residents were either also Airbnbers or had grown used to visitors arriving and departing at odd hours.
While it was still dark, they drove out of the garage.
On a printed map, Kenney had marked the locations of dumpsters, of which there was no shortage in Detroit, and especially not in Hamtramck, which was also the location of the Metropolitan Transfer Center for garbage collection and transport.
This was the most fraught part of the operation, even more so than the abduction itself, because the victim was now dead, and there was a big difference between being charged with attempted abduction and being charged with murder.
They found a big yellow dumpster over by French Road, but for some reason there were people milling about, even at that early hour, and as they drove away, they saw one of the crowd begin a deep dive.
Teal declared it a good omen and Kenney chose to believe him.
Finally, they came to a black dumpster full of construction waste, just north of I-94.
They parked, Kenney hit the trunk-release button, and within seconds the bag was in the dumpster.
Teal even had time to rearrange some of the detritus to cover it up.
Kenney then swung by the Riverwalk to drop Teal near his hotel before returning to the Airbnb where, at last, he slept.
But not immediately. He’d thought about sharing what was on his mind while they were driving back from dumping the body, but Teal had been fractious.
He was always that way once the Game was over, just as Kenney got sad, but Teal was more quarrelsome than usual.
It might have been because, while Kenney would have another turn next year, Teal wouldn’t get to play for two years.
As for Kenney, his melancholy was a product of a sense of anticlimax, made worse by the cleanup.
He liked to fantasize about someone taking care of the bodies for them, but that was the preserve of wealthy Saudi sheiks who could afford to pay to have journalists dismembered.
Ordinary folks were forced to do the grunt work themselves.
He’d have to speak with Teal eventually, though.
It would involve bending the rules, as once they were done with a girl they weren’t supposed to see each other again in that city, but Kenney regarded it as forgivable for once.
There were minor breaches and major breaches, but one rule was sacrosanct: No Extracurricular Activities, and that rule, Kenney feared, had been broken once again.