I opened the door and the big lumbering hulk that was Troy walked in. He looked taken aback for a second at my odd appearance. A towel around my waist, and another around my neck. But then his gaze shifted to the naked body of Pareshbhai, splayed on the floor at the edge of the bed.
"Fuck!" he said.
"Troy, I swear I didn't mean to...." I started explaining, but he raised his palm gesturing me to stop.
"It doesn't matter to me if you meant to. Or how you got here. Or what happened." he said. "All that matters is, if the police find out, you're screwed."
I nodded. Troy walked around the room carefully and surveyed the mess. He then walked over to the room phone, picked the receiver up, wiped it with his t-shirt, and put it back. He then walked over to the windows and checked them. Opened the window, slid it open, and put his hand on the gauze. He shook his head, and then said,
"Get me a napkin or a hand towel from the bathroom."
I did as I was told. He then wiped the windows wherever he had touched them, to remove his fingerprints. Then he said to me,
"Get all the towels from the bathroom. I need to make a call."
As Troy took out his cellphone and dialed a number, I walked into the bathroom. There were 2 more small napkins and two hand towels. There were no cleaner bath towels left. One, which I had used to wipe myself after the shower, and two, which were on my body. I came out with the hand towels and napkins, and Troy was still on the phone. He was talking very softly, but I could still catch some bits and pieces.
"Yeah...Indian guy......no, window has gauze....cant be removed....yeah, third floor.....exit 83......just a guy at the desk...yeah...ok."
Troy put the phone back in his pocket and turned around to look at me.
"Those are all?" he said, raising one eyebrow and pointed at the stuff in my hands.
"Yes." I said.
"We need more. We gotta clean this whole room."
"Should I call the front desk and ask for more towels?" I asked.
"No way." Troy shook his head. "We don't want him remembering that you asked for more towels." He looked towards the bed. "The pillowcases are still clean I guess. We'll see if they're enough."
"Okay. And how about the bed sheet and the blanket?" I asked.
"We need those to keep the body in. And carry it out?" Troy said.
"Carry it out?" I asked.
"Yeah." he said. "Here's what we're gonna do. We wrap this body in the bed sheet, the covering sheet, and the blanket, so it won't ooze blood. We keep it on the side. I have called a couple of guys I know. They're coming here with a pick-up truck. They'll take the body out, and get rid of it. Meanwhile, you and I clean this room as best as we can."
"Okay." I said, surprised at how much more energetic Troy seemed all of a sudden.
"Also, I saw close circuit cameras. We need to disable them, figure out where the images are stored, and destroy that computer.'
"Why?" I asked, dumbly.
"Because no matter how well we clean the blood from everywhere else, some stain will remain on the mattress and on the carpet. And we'll be using up all their towels and napkins. They are bound to call the police. You don't need to leave any evidence that you were in this room."
"But the desk clerk will remember." I said.
"Yes, but it'll just be his word. And I spoke to him when I was coming up. He is obviously high on weed. As long as we don't leave any photographic evidence, you should be fine."
"Okay."
"There's something else. But I'll explain it when we come to it. For now, let's focus on cleaning this place up. I'll go and check the janitor's closet and see if they have any mops, pail or something there."
Troy walked out of the room. I stood there trying to take in everything he had said. He returned a few minutes later with a pail, a mop, and a bottle of all-purpose cleaner.
"It was locked. I had to pick the lock. No towels or rags though. Just this." he kept the stuff down and said, "Now, help me move his body."
Troy took the blankets and other sheets off the bed and laid them out on the ground. He carefully picked up all of Pareshbhai's blood-splattered clothes, my sari and petticoat, and put them on the sheet. He then moved to a corner and started taking off his t-shirt. Then he took off his shoes and socks.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I'll be picking up the body from the head side. Where it is bleeding. So I don't want blood soaking the clothes I am wearing. Bound to draw attention later. I am stripping down to my underpants." he said, throwing his t-shirt on the floor and then unbuckling his jeans and taking them off. I looked away, but out of the corner of my eye, couldn't help noticing how odd his huge black body looked, clad in just underwear.
"OK, pick him up by the legs." Troy said, and I did as he said. Looking away from the body, I picked it up by the feet. Sure enough, his upper body got Pareshbhai's blood all over it, as the two of us placed the body on the blanket and sheets. Once the body was there, Troy covered it with the sides of the sheets, much to my relief. I no longer had to look at it.
"Now, we clean." Troy said. He filled up the pail with the cleaning liquid and water from the bathroom, and started guiding me about what and where to clean.
In ten minutes, Troy had mopped up a lot of the blood from the floor. And wiped the edge of the bed. He got done with the final hand towel, put it under the sheet with Pareshbhai's body and then looked at me pointedly,
"What?" I asked, gazing at his blood-smeared underwear-clad body.
"We're out of stuff to wipe with."
"So?"
"There's no easy way to say this, Savitri. You're gonna have to take off those towels you are wearing."
"What? No way!" I said, putting my hand on the towel covering my chest.
"There's no other way, Savitri. We need them to clean the rest of this up. And besides, there's bloodstains on it from the cleaning. As it is, walking out of the motel with just a towel around your waist would be inviting trouble. Add blood stains to it, and well..."
"But I am naked under it. I can't be naked." I said. "Give me your t-shirt. It's long enough to cover me."
"Sure, you can wear the t-shirt when we leave this place. But if you wear it now while cleaning, you'll get blood on it too. You're just gonna have to....well...clean in your underwear like I am."
"No. I don't have my bra on. They got blood on them too. So if I take this off, I will be naked. I am not getting naked in front of you." I emphatically said. Troy looked at me with a look of disappointment and shook his head. I don't think the disappointment was at not seeing me naked, but more at how stupidly stubborn I was being.
"Okay fine. But I am gonna need those towels. So go the bathroom, leave the towels out, take a shower. Then you can wear my t-shirt. That way, I don't see you naked. In the meantime, I'll have all this cleaned up."
I felt a little guilty being this stubborn. But Troy had been understanding and provided me with a way out. So I picked up his t-shirt from the corner of the room, holding it in two clean fingers. Walked to the bathroom, took off the towels and threw them outside. I closed the door, took off my buttonless blouse and bra, and started showering again.
As I got done showering, I realized I didn't have a towel to dry myself with. I had no choice but to use Troy's t-shirt to dry myself, and then wear the same wet t-shirt on top of the bra. The t-shirt came down up to mid-thigh, and was quite loose, obviously. Even in the middle of that predicament, I could help but feel a little strange wearing a strange man's clothes. I used to wear Vinit's t-shirts at home all the time. Just t-shirts, nothing under it. It used to turn him on. Never did I imagine that I would be wearing someone else's t-shirt in a hotel room.
I decided to just get rid of the blouse. Its buttons were broken anyway, and with his big t-shirt to cover me up, I didn't need it.
"You can use this to clean too if you want." I said, coming out of my room, holding the blouse in my hand. But I saw that it was not needed. Troy had been very efficient and cleaned up everything. There was still a dark stain on the floor where the puddle of the blood had been. But except for that, the room looked almost exactly like it did when I had walked in. Except of course, for the dead body in the corner.
Troy looked at me with an intense gaze that made me blush. I was standing there wearing just a wet t-shirt. And although it was loose, I am sure I made quite a sight, especially with my wet hair. When I blushed, Troy looked away and said,
"Okay, I'm gonna wash up now. Don't touch anything. I have wiped all the prints off."
I nodded and just sat on a chair with my hands in my lap as Troy picked up his jeans from the corner and went to the bathroom. He came out in a few minutes, wearing the jeans, and his torso wet. He didn't have a towel either.
"Thank you so much for this, Troy. You have saved my life from getting ruined." I said. When he was in the bathroom, I had been marveling about how nice and efficient he had been, helping me out of a situation like this. When he could have just walked away or refused to help.
Troy sat down on the other chair, looked at me and said,
"Okay, the easy part is done. Now comes the difficult part. We need to get the body and all this stuff out of here. My friends will be here soon."
"Okay." I said.
"Now, if these windows didn't have the gauze, we could have just lowered the body from there. No one would have noticed this late at night. But we can't do that. So we have to take it through the front."
"But the front desk guy?" I asked.
"Exactly. That's the difficult part. We need to get him away. Also, we need away from the desk, so my friend can figure out how to disable the cameras and delete everything they store. And that's where you come in." Troy said.
"What?"
"You need to get him away from the desk.
"Fuck!" he said.
"Troy, I swear I didn't mean to...." I started explaining, but he raised his palm gesturing me to stop.
"It doesn't matter to me if you meant to. Or how you got here. Or what happened." he said. "All that matters is, if the police find out, you're screwed."
I nodded. Troy walked around the room carefully and surveyed the mess. He then walked over to the room phone, picked the receiver up, wiped it with his t-shirt, and put it back. He then walked over to the windows and checked them. Opened the window, slid it open, and put his hand on the gauze. He shook his head, and then said,
"Get me a napkin or a hand towel from the bathroom."
I did as I was told. He then wiped the windows wherever he had touched them, to remove his fingerprints. Then he said to me,
"Get all the towels from the bathroom. I need to make a call."
As Troy took out his cellphone and dialed a number, I walked into the bathroom. There were 2 more small napkins and two hand towels. There were no cleaner bath towels left. One, which I had used to wipe myself after the shower, and two, which were on my body. I came out with the hand towels and napkins, and Troy was still on the phone. He was talking very softly, but I could still catch some bits and pieces.
"Yeah...Indian guy......no, window has gauze....cant be removed....yeah, third floor.....exit 83......just a guy at the desk...yeah...ok."
Troy put the phone back in his pocket and turned around to look at me.
"Those are all?" he said, raising one eyebrow and pointed at the stuff in my hands.
"Yes." I said.
"We need more. We gotta clean this whole room."
"Should I call the front desk and ask for more towels?" I asked.
"No way." Troy shook his head. "We don't want him remembering that you asked for more towels." He looked towards the bed. "The pillowcases are still clean I guess. We'll see if they're enough."
"Okay. And how about the bed sheet and the blanket?" I asked.
"We need those to keep the body in. And carry it out?" Troy said.
"Carry it out?" I asked.
"Yeah." he said. "Here's what we're gonna do. We wrap this body in the bed sheet, the covering sheet, and the blanket, so it won't ooze blood. We keep it on the side. I have called a couple of guys I know. They're coming here with a pick-up truck. They'll take the body out, and get rid of it. Meanwhile, you and I clean this room as best as we can."
"Okay." I said, surprised at how much more energetic Troy seemed all of a sudden.
"Also, I saw close circuit cameras. We need to disable them, figure out where the images are stored, and destroy that computer.'
"Why?" I asked, dumbly.
"Because no matter how well we clean the blood from everywhere else, some stain will remain on the mattress and on the carpet. And we'll be using up all their towels and napkins. They are bound to call the police. You don't need to leave any evidence that you were in this room."
"But the desk clerk will remember." I said.
"Yes, but it'll just be his word. And I spoke to him when I was coming up. He is obviously high on weed. As long as we don't leave any photographic evidence, you should be fine."
"Okay."
"There's something else. But I'll explain it when we come to it. For now, let's focus on cleaning this place up. I'll go and check the janitor's closet and see if they have any mops, pail or something there."
Troy walked out of the room. I stood there trying to take in everything he had said. He returned a few minutes later with a pail, a mop, and a bottle of all-purpose cleaner.
"It was locked. I had to pick the lock. No towels or rags though. Just this." he kept the stuff down and said, "Now, help me move his body."
Troy took the blankets and other sheets off the bed and laid them out on the ground. He carefully picked up all of Pareshbhai's blood-splattered clothes, my sari and petticoat, and put them on the sheet. He then moved to a corner and started taking off his t-shirt. Then he took off his shoes and socks.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I'll be picking up the body from the head side. Where it is bleeding. So I don't want blood soaking the clothes I am wearing. Bound to draw attention later. I am stripping down to my underpants." he said, throwing his t-shirt on the floor and then unbuckling his jeans and taking them off. I looked away, but out of the corner of my eye, couldn't help noticing how odd his huge black body looked, clad in just underwear.
"OK, pick him up by the legs." Troy said, and I did as he said. Looking away from the body, I picked it up by the feet. Sure enough, his upper body got Pareshbhai's blood all over it, as the two of us placed the body on the blanket and sheets. Once the body was there, Troy covered it with the sides of the sheets, much to my relief. I no longer had to look at it.
"Now, we clean." Troy said. He filled up the pail with the cleaning liquid and water from the bathroom, and started guiding me about what and where to clean.
In ten minutes, Troy had mopped up a lot of the blood from the floor. And wiped the edge of the bed. He got done with the final hand towel, put it under the sheet with Pareshbhai's body and then looked at me pointedly,
"What?" I asked, gazing at his blood-smeared underwear-clad body.
"We're out of stuff to wipe with."
"So?"
"There's no easy way to say this, Savitri. You're gonna have to take off those towels you are wearing."
"What? No way!" I said, putting my hand on the towel covering my chest.
"There's no other way, Savitri. We need them to clean the rest of this up. And besides, there's bloodstains on it from the cleaning. As it is, walking out of the motel with just a towel around your waist would be inviting trouble. Add blood stains to it, and well..."
"But I am naked under it. I can't be naked." I said. "Give me your t-shirt. It's long enough to cover me."
"Sure, you can wear the t-shirt when we leave this place. But if you wear it now while cleaning, you'll get blood on it too. You're just gonna have to....well...clean in your underwear like I am."
"No. I don't have my bra on. They got blood on them too. So if I take this off, I will be naked. I am not getting naked in front of you." I emphatically said. Troy looked at me with a look of disappointment and shook his head. I don't think the disappointment was at not seeing me naked, but more at how stupidly stubborn I was being.
"Okay fine. But I am gonna need those towels. So go the bathroom, leave the towels out, take a shower. Then you can wear my t-shirt. That way, I don't see you naked. In the meantime, I'll have all this cleaned up."
I felt a little guilty being this stubborn. But Troy had been understanding and provided me with a way out. So I picked up his t-shirt from the corner of the room, holding it in two clean fingers. Walked to the bathroom, took off the towels and threw them outside. I closed the door, took off my buttonless blouse and bra, and started showering again.
As I got done showering, I realized I didn't have a towel to dry myself with. I had no choice but to use Troy's t-shirt to dry myself, and then wear the same wet t-shirt on top of the bra. The t-shirt came down up to mid-thigh, and was quite loose, obviously. Even in the middle of that predicament, I could help but feel a little strange wearing a strange man's clothes. I used to wear Vinit's t-shirts at home all the time. Just t-shirts, nothing under it. It used to turn him on. Never did I imagine that I would be wearing someone else's t-shirt in a hotel room.
I decided to just get rid of the blouse. Its buttons were broken anyway, and with his big t-shirt to cover me up, I didn't need it.
"You can use this to clean too if you want." I said, coming out of my room, holding the blouse in my hand. But I saw that it was not needed. Troy had been very efficient and cleaned up everything. There was still a dark stain on the floor where the puddle of the blood had been. But except for that, the room looked almost exactly like it did when I had walked in. Except of course, for the dead body in the corner.
Troy looked at me with an intense gaze that made me blush. I was standing there wearing just a wet t-shirt. And although it was loose, I am sure I made quite a sight, especially with my wet hair. When I blushed, Troy looked away and said,
"Okay, I'm gonna wash up now. Don't touch anything. I have wiped all the prints off."
I nodded and just sat on a chair with my hands in my lap as Troy picked up his jeans from the corner and went to the bathroom. He came out in a few minutes, wearing the jeans, and his torso wet. He didn't have a towel either.
"Thank you so much for this, Troy. You have saved my life from getting ruined." I said. When he was in the bathroom, I had been marveling about how nice and efficient he had been, helping me out of a situation like this. When he could have just walked away or refused to help.
Troy sat down on the other chair, looked at me and said,
"Okay, the easy part is done. Now comes the difficult part. We need to get the body and all this stuff out of here. My friends will be here soon."
"Okay." I said.
"Now, if these windows didn't have the gauze, we could have just lowered the body from there. No one would have noticed this late at night. But we can't do that. So we have to take it through the front."
"But the front desk guy?" I asked.
"Exactly. That's the difficult part. We need to get him away. Also, we need away from the desk, so my friend can figure out how to disable the cameras and delete everything they store. And that's where you come in." Troy said.
"What?"
"You need to get him away from the desk.