"A GIFT OF HAPPINESS" CHAPTER 8: A SCENE IN THE DUMPSTER

"A GIFT OF HAPPINESS" 

CHAPTER 8: A SCENE IN THE DUMPSTER 

       It was a rather quiet and peaceful morning, on the day of September 16th. Two days prior it was pouring down so the change of weather was pretty nice. That day, Leslie and I made it to work pretty early, so we had time to seat down and relax in a nearby bench and chat a little. I remember that that day we went into a local bodega operated by Latinos and got ourselves a nice, mashed plantain breakfast with passion fruit juice. That morning Leslie and I were reflecting on the recent events that had taken place on the neighborhood. 

"So, Les how do you feel about there being a killer among us out here?" 

"To tell you the truth, I was a little scared at first but now I kind of feel thrilled, is like I'm in a slasher movie sort of speak." 

"You don't feel scared that you might get targeted next?" 

"So far has only been homeless people that have been dying so I'm good." 

"Yea but what if the killer gets tired of killing homeless people and decides to go for locals?" 

"I'll book it out then. I can't help but wonder though," 

"What?" 

"The elephant in the room? You know, who the killer is and why he does it?" 

"Yea I can't help but to wonder that as well, like, is it one of the locals? does he or she comes from another neighborhood? Is he or she working alone? Can't help for this mystery to be resolved." 

"I haven't heard of any killings lately. Have you?" 

"Not at all, ever since the 6th no more bodies have popped up." 

"Yea, maybe the killer finally decided to leave." 

"He probably took a vacation, after all, killing is a lot of work." 

    After I said this, both Leslie and I suckled at the thought of the supposed killer taking a vacay. We suckled and laughed while zipping on our juice. While we were doing so, Joan happened to be passing by. We waved at her and called her so she could join us by saying: 

"Hey Joan! What's up? Come and sit with us!" 

    But Joan only looked at us, gently waved at us back and continued walking quietly and in a hurry. This is not rare for Joan; she's known to have her social battery go down every once and a while. That time though, I wondered what was troubling her. 

    At that point it was almost time before Chris arrived and entered the store. It was about 7:45am, Chris would often arrive at 7:55am and the store would open at 9:00am. So, Leslie and I got up and started walking towards the pizzeria as well. 

    As a consequence of what had taken place on the 6th, people started showing up to the pizzeria less. Because of this, during that brief period, our hours had been reduced a little. 

    Something else worthy of mentioning is that news outlets at the time would frequent our streets in order to follow up with the story. Out of these, a couple of two, a young woman with long red hair and a blonde young man serving as a camera man would frequent the neighborhood the most. They didn’t seem like they belonged to any news outlet, they were most likely true crime YouTubers. The woman’s name was Margarita and the man’s name was Joseph. These couple would go around interviewing the locals and exaggerating whatever stories or rumors that were going around in the area. Later I found out that they actually lived nearby and whatever social media they had had boosted in popularity due to this case. 

   The case of the “homeless men killer” was not only the hottest topic in the Maple projects and in Emerson as a whole, nor either it was only the hottest topic on the internet but also at schools as well. Every kid in the lunchroom had suddenly become little detectives trying to solve the case. Everyone wanted to know who was the “Homeless men killer.”  

    At the time, I didn’t know who the killer was, all but I did know that the streets where relatively safe due to all the attention his killings had brought to our neighborhood. There was no way that this killer would strike again, at least until the waters came down a little. That was if, OfCourse, this person didn’t want to be caught, that what I would say to myself. 

    Going back to the morning of September 16th. That day I had to do some cleaning in the back, it appears that the day prior someone ate a rather large meal in the back and did not clean up after himself, I wonder who that was. Anyway, as I was cleaning, and Joel was helping the boys with some of the orders and Leslie was at the register, the true crime YouTubers came into our spot. 

    Initially, we gave them bad looks because we thought that they were coming here to cause a ruckus early in the morning. The truth was that at this point, all they wanted was a slice of cheese pizza, which we gladly served. 

    But at some point. The ginger lady, the one named Margarita had the good idea to interview us. None of us wanted nothing to do with that but there was a problem, Joe was there at this point and something you must know about Joe is that yea, he may a bit rough with his personality, he may look a little uncared for at times also and yes, he would sometimes be smelly, specially when work was though, but the guy was an entrepreneur, he was really good at taking advantage of whatever opportunity came across his path. Guess who was more than happy to have a small interview with the couple? 

    The interaction which later became an interview went a little like this. Leslie was casually looking at her phone while waiting for the next customer, something that you shouldn’t really do but whatever, Joe was there, and he didn’t care as long as the customers were being served. Margarita approached the register and asked: 

“Hey is your boss here?” 

“Yes, why you need him for?” 

“We are true crime YouTubers and we been consistently following the case of the homeless men killer which is still loose in the area, and we are wondering if he would like to have a little interview with us if he doesn’t mind.” 

    Leslie a little frustrated called Joe who was placing a large sausage pie in the oven, 

“What!” 

“Come over here, some guys want to see you!” 

“I got no time for detectives send them home! Don’t they see I’m working here?!”  Said Joe as he was shaking the flour of his hands and throwing a small rag into the sink. 

“Is the news outlet couple! They are here!” 

“What! Hold on a second!” 

    Joe then upon hearing that the ‘news outlet’ couple was at the shop, he went to his locker and grabbed a chef hat and put on his apron. He was not going to let this chance; he knew that him coming out in the ‘news’ would bring him customers. 

As Margarita was conversing with Leslie Joe comes out of the back abruptly. 

“Hey! Good morning!”

“Hi, are you the boss of this store?”

“That’s right! I sure am ma’am how can I help you?” 

    Margarita reached to handshake Joe and upon noticing, Joe did as well. Joe gave Margarita a nice and firm handshake and proceeded to give her what could probably be the roughest polite smile on earth at that time. Joe had a thick greasy beard which was uncared for, and his smile showed two golden teeth in different sides of the mouth. 

    Now I know what you are thinking. And no, our place was super clean despite Joe’s appearance, the guy knew how to take care of business not of himself, but he did know how to keep a place clean. While this interaction was happening, we were all busting out laughing in the back while we stared at the interaction. We knew that what we were about to witness was going to be pure gold. These true crime YouTubers had no idea what they brought to themselves, more like, they were not ready for it and yes, we were not ready for it either. 

“So, are we having the interview?” 

“Uh, yes. Joseph.” 

    Margarita then turned toward Joseph, her camera man and husband which he then turned on his Panasonic GG5 video camera and prepared himself to start recording. The video would begin when Joseph gave the signal. 

    The importance Joe gave to this interview could not be understated. During the time that Joseph was preparing to record. Margarita told Joe to get himself ready the best way he could as she took handy compact mirror and started adding some minor touch-ups to her face. Joe went ahead a closed the shop briefly since it was still very early and no customers where around at the moment, the interview would only last a few minutes. 

    Joe went into the back and entered the restroom to look at himself in the mirror one last time. We were just looking at him and chuckling among ourselves. Joe noticed us and simply ignored us. He seemed so eager. Joe then came out from the restroom and met the Youtuber couple, and the interview began. 

    "Good morning, everyone! This is Margaret and Joseph here and we are back in the Maple projects in order to continue updating you about the recent murders that have been happening in this area." 

     "This right here is Mr. Joe and he's the owner and boss of a small pizzeria right in front of the Maple buildings." 

    Joseph upon Margarita mentioning the Maple projects briefly points the camera at the buildings and then points the camera back towards Margarita and Joe. 

"So, Joe, it is a pleasure for us to meet you, how have you and your workers dealt with the recent developments and how have the recent developments affected your business?" 

"We here at Joe's Pizza and Burgers feel very distraught because of what's been going on, despite this we have done our best to continue serving the locals our delicious food." 

    Joe then added: 

"We have also taken precautions in order to ensure the safety and well-being of our workers, for example, we only do deliveries during the day, and we don't allow our female employees to do the deliveries. As of how the recent events have affected our business. Well, as you can see, the sales and traffic have declined by a lot ever since the bodies started popping up but we still in good spirits here at Joe's." 

"Based on what the locals have told us, we determined that not everyone believes there's an actual killer out there, for example some say that all the homeless people have been dying due to sickness and overdose, do you believe that there's a killer lose in the area or do you believe otherwise?" 

"Nah, there's definitely a killer out there, whoever that person is been doing a good job at staying under the rugs sort of speak. There's definitely someone killing them homeless people out there and he's killing them good." 

"Are you satisfied with the way the secular authorities are handling this matter?" 

"Satisfied? They barely been doing anything; I think the locals and you guys are doing more work than they are. So no, I am not satisfied at all." 

"Why do you think the homeless are the ones being targeted by this killer?" 

"I think they are the ones being targeted because they the easiest victims since they don't have families and people that would search for them." 

"Do you feel that you and the locals are safe because only the homeless are dying?" 

"Nah, is only a matter of time before that psychopath starts targeting the locals here, that anti-social is probably planning his next kill right now as we speak." 

"Thank you so much Joe for your time, we had some slices here before we did this interview and we can say that this is the best pizzeria in this area, so if your crime enthusiast is passing by the area make sure to stop by Joe's. Until next video, see you!" 

    After the interview with Joe ended, Margarita and Jospeh left to another area, apparently to conduct more interviews. Their channel became popular after the Maple killings became known. Nothing remarkable happened in the Pizzeria after the couple left, but not so far from us, in the confines of Homeless Street Mr. Hanks and his companions were performing an inspection in the area. 

    More bodies were being discovered even after the events of September 6th, bodies that remained hidden from even before that infamous night. Hanks and his team entered an abandoned apartment. Earlier, an inspector reported a horrible stench coming from the back alley of the building. 

    Upon accessing the back door at the end of the decrepit lobby, Rats started flooding the area. There were so many rats. Hanks female assistant panicked and went upstairs to avoid the rats, some of the men started shooting at them. The shots startled the rodents, and they cleared the area. Despite this, the scene itself was a little too traumatic for two of the officers. Hanks and another man named Hopkins continued to the back alley of the building. 

    The back alleyway was T-shaped, one side lead to the back exit of the building, all the way to the end of that same hallway, there was an exit that would lead to the street. Turning 90 degrees from the alleyway that leads to the back of the building, it was the door that led to the super as well as the dumpsters. The stench became more and more intense as the two men approached the massive dumpster. At some point the smell became unbearable and the two men had to take a small pause. After about Two minutes of this Hanks turned towards Mr. Hopkins and told him: 

"We have to be strong partner, hold your breath and let's bite this frog already." 

    The dumpster had three openings, obviously there was the massive opening at the top which was shut and there were also two small trap doors in the middle of the container in order to make it easier to access the dumpster's inside. 

    Mr. Hanks and Mr. Hopkins tried opening the small doors in the middle, but they were stuck from the inside, the situation got solved very quickly after the men force the door. Upon the trapdoor being forced open by the men, a small colony of rats burst out of the container and started running around in panic. The men stepped back while kicking the rodents in order to keep them away. 

    In the moment of panic, Hanks could not help but notice that these rats were particularly fat, a little too fat. Suddenly a particularly large and morbidly obese rat came out of the dumpster and started squeaking aggressively at the men. Upon seeing this, Hopkins and Hanks immediately drew their guns. In what it seemed like a second, the rat launched towards the men, but Hopkins quickly shot it and blew a hole through the animal. 

    The two men approached the animal to look it. Upon taking a closer look at the animal, the two men looked at each other in the eyes. 

"Looks like they been eating well." 

    Hopkins takes a closer look at the dumpster and calls Hanks. 

"Hey Hanks come and see this." 

    Hanks approached the dumpster and noticed that there were a lot of equally large and obese rats, except that they were dead. when they turned on their flashback to look deeper into the dumpster. Their hearts stopped for what it seemed like a long second. The smell didn't matter to them anymore. All of their thoughts, emotions, and energy were dead focus on their sense of sight. It was horrible. 

    The man was already in an advance state of decomposition, the diseased was later identified as Mr. Martinez the homeless man that was known to be nasty with the locals. There was a massive hole in his abdomen and his insides where mostly gone. He's eyes sockets where empty and his lower right arm was completely consumed, only the bones were left. The man's tongue was also gone. 

    Hanks described in his testimony that to him it seemed like the body was seating in front of an audience of dead rats. Very close to the body was a Pizza box that at the time of consumption would have contained a large pie. Obviously, whatever was in that box was completely gone by that point. 

    Hanks and Hopkins took their heads out of the dumpster and walked away towards the nearest wall. They both puked, they could not help it. The other assistants approached the men to see if they were okay. 

"Guys are you okay?" 

"You won't be okay after you see what's in there." Said Hanks to his other companions. 

    The two men approached the dumpster and peeked, before Hank's female assistant did the same, Hanks held her. 

"Save yourself the trauma, you don't have to see what's in there." 

    The two men upon turning towards Hanks, immediately called for backup. Mr. Hopkins turned toward Hanks and asked him: 

"Do you think he also died on September 6th." 

"Most likely, although is strange that this man ended up inside this dumpster." 

"He either came to this dumpster to hide from the other homeless people while he ate the Pizza, or came here after he started feeling the effects of the poison." 

"Or he was probably brought here by the other homeless people after he died." 

"In that case, if that truly happened, then this man was one of the very first people to die." 

"After all, the people that perished that night didn't all die at the same time. Some of them where alive still by the time 5am arrived." 

"Yes, they started dying off one by one and this in turn caused the mass hysteria that lead to the rest of the homeless people to clear the area." 

"All of the homeless people that survived that night are spread throughout all of the city now, finding them won't be easy." 

"The autopsies show that these people ate Pizza before they died. The pizza was contaminated with rat poison." 

"This is different from all of the prior bodies we found. Prior to that night." 

"Yea, before the 6th - all of the deaths were due to either heart attacks or stroke. But once again, these people's last meals were in actuality Pizza." 

"Heart attacks and stroke due to cholesterol?" 

"Yea, their arteries where completely clogged." 

"The thing is, we managed to find most of the bodies that perished that night, but we never found any Pizza boxes." 

"Except that we did now, that box seemed to belong to Joe's Pizza and Burgers." 

"Are you suggesting that someone from that Pizzeria was the one who fed them all of that Pizza?" 

"Who else can? Who else can feed Pizza to all of these people? Unless a customer is the one doing it." 

    As the rest of the police and detectives arrived, Hopkins asked Hanks: 

"Has anyone died after the events of the 6th?" 

"No, from what I can tell, the killer or killers have not been active after that night. Perhaps that night was their retirement sort of speak. That would explain why they used rat poison instead of just feeding these people to death as they were doing before." 

"Feeding people to death, I never seen that methodology before." 

"We are certainly dealing with a special killer or special set of killers." 

"So, what are we going to do now?" 

"We are going to pay a nice visit to Joe's Pizza really quick." 

To Be Continued...