Disclaimer: I don't own Saw or anything I might reference.
There's a weapon that we must use in our defense
Silence
When you look at them, look right through them
That's when they'll disappear
That's when we'll be feared
-The Go-Go's
"One problem," said Adam as he emerged from the bathroom carrying a wad of clothes. "They're still damp.
"Oh, yeah," Lawrence muttered in realization. They had left their clothes balled up in the bathtub and had only slept for a few hours. They should have hung them up to dry in the shower stall, but they had been too preoccupied with other things.
"There's blood on them, too."
"Yeah. We should probably wash them," said Lawrence. He grunted and struggled to stand up.
"It's OK, I've got it," said Adam, scuttling away towards where the washer and dryer were tucked behind a wall at the end of the kitchen.
Lawrence stood up and hobbled over to the laundry room anyway. He reached above Adam's head to a cupboard to get a box of Oxy-Clean and added a scoop of the powder to the wash. The blood had no doubt already soaked into the fibers of their t-shirts, but it was still worth a try.
Lawrence started up the machine and took Adam's hand in his own, leading him back to the kitchen counter where their phones were resting.
They had dried out since last night but now needed to be charged. Lawrence plugged his into his laptop and used a spare charger with a wall plug to charge Adam's phone.
"I wonder if that warehouse fire made it onto the news yet," Lawrence said softly, opening the news app on his phone.
"What warehouse fire?" Adam asked, genuinely alarmed.
"The warehouse fire we just narrowly escaped? The one caused by the explosion we were almost caught in?" Lawrence asked incredulously.
"OH!" Adam laughed at himself in realization.
"How did you forget that?" Lawrence asked.
"I didn't forget, I just wouldn't have considered it a 'warehouse fire,'" Adam articulated. "It wasn't ON FIRE while we were in there, and it didn't start AS a fire, it was an explosion. I was just confused."
Lawrence chuckled. He scrolled down a few stories, but didn't see anything that looked like coverage of the explosion.
"I HOPE the fire department got there," said Adam. "Even if TV crews didn't."
"I'm sure we'll be hearing something about it any minute," said Lawrence. "It wasn't even that far away."
"Do you think there will be any evidence of the trap?"
"I don't know," said Lawrence. "Depends on how hot the fire burned, and how long it burned before it was put out. The actual mechanical pieces like the bear traps and the buzz saw were metal, so a lot of it could have melted. But mostly, it was drywall and plywood, so there's no way any of that would still be intact."
Adam nodded, accepting this. Lawrence was a scientific genius compared to him. It was like he knew the rational explanation of every hypothetical scenario that could possibly exist.
It reminded Adam of when they had first met, and Lawrence had calmly stated that Adam wouldn't be able to stop the camera that was filming them from running, and that Jigsaw had probably anticipated every thought of theirs ten thoughts before they thought it.
"Well, you won't stop it. That's why we can't cut through these chains; it's why you won't break that glass; every possible angle has been pre-thought out by him."
It made Adam wonder, was this meticulous attention to detail one of the traits that attracted Jigsaw to Lawrence in the first place? Or was it something that the madman had nurtured within the doctor after he had recruited him?
Maybe it was both.
They both sat quietly, looking at their phones until the washer was done. Then, Adam got up to put their stuff in the dryer.
That's when Lawrence saw a headline 'UNEXPLAINED WAREHOUSE FIRE' and clicked on it.
"Adam! This is it!"
Adam rushed back to Lawrence's side, and they leaned close together to watch the coverage on Lawrence's phone.
It was a brief story; footage of the inferno, fire hoses assaulting the flames, helicopter footage of the charred ruins and a reporter telling the public that the cause was unknown, and that crews will be searching the wreckage for answers.
No sign of Eleanor's body, though.
"If they find her blackened skeleton," Adam began. "Will they be able to identify her?"
"Probably, as long as her jaw bones are intact," said Lawrence. "It takes a long time for a body to burn up, though. Especially one that hasn't been dead for very long. The human body is seventy percent water. So, even if they find her, her flesh might not even be completely incinerated."
Adam cringed at all this morbid medical jargon and forced himself to think of something else.
"Do you think that guy who drove us home will suspect anything? What if he calls the police and says, 'I picked up two guys last night, they looked like they'd been through some shit, and I dropped them off at this address…'?"
"I don't think we have to worry about that," said Lawrence. "That guy looked like he'd spent his life doing a lot of hard drugs and was just trying to get by as a handyman or something. I doubt he wants anything to do with crime and the police."
"I hope so," Adam said with a sigh.
"And anyway," Lawrence continued. "Nobody knows anything unless you tell them. It doesn't matter if people ask questions, unless we are required by law to answer them."
"I know," said Adam.
Within a matter of minutes, the dryer cycle ended, and the two men retrieved their clothes. The blood stains hadn't completely disappeared but were now light brown blotches on the shoulders of their white t-shirts. The cuts made from when the knives had fallen from the ceiling of their trap and made contact with their bodies were still there but weren't terribly noticeable.
Adam put on his clothes and Lawrence changed into a new outfit altogether. He also offered Adam a long-sleeved shirt to cover up the stitches on his arm.
"Come on," said Lawrence. "Let's go down to Nibs, get my car, and I'll take you home."
"OK," said Adam.
They walked arm-in-arm down to the bus stop, and when they got on the bus, a man respectfully rose from his seat and gestured for Lawrence to sit down, which he did, after quietly thanking the man.
Adam looked around the inside of the bus at all the handicap awareness signs, about priority seating and such, and wondered how much of Lawrence's life had changed since he'd lost his foot.
Some things must have been harder, of course, like bathing, swimming and carrying things. But there must have been some perks as well. He probably got to go ahead of people at the checkout line and obviously got offered people's seats when going to public places. Since he couldn't tell people how he had acquired a prosthetic foot, and since most people were too polite to ask, he wondered if people assumed that Lawrence was a veteran. People automatically respected veterans. That might be cool, if that were the case.
When they arrived at their stop, Adam offered his hand to Lawrence and helped him down the steps off of the bus. They once again locked arms and made their way down to Nibs.
"I meant what I said about buying you a new cane," said Adam.
"Don't worry about it. They're like twenty bucks at any pharmacy," said Lawrence.
"Yeah, one of those generic ones. That's temporary. I'm talking about like a fancy, custom one, like you had before."
Lawrence sighed. "If you insist," he said. He leaned down and pressed his lips into Adam's hair. "I'd rather lean on you, anyway."
Adam giggled. "I can't be your living cane!"
Lawrence laughed with him, and they grinned like idiots all the way back to the restaurant's parking lot.
The car was there, right where he'd left it. Adam extracted himself from Lawrence's right arm and went around to the passenger side, but before either of them could open the door, they were approached by a policeman.
"Excuse me, sir. Is this your vehicle?" he asked.
"Yes," said Lawrence.
Oh, shit. This is it. We're busted. They know everything. They know who we are, they know Lawrence killed a woman last night. Shit, shit, SHIT, SHIT! thought Adam.
"Did you leave your car parked here overnight?" asked the policeman.
"Yes," Lawrence answered curtly.
"Sir, I'm Detective Grandstaff, like to ask you a couple questions, if you'll come inside with me."
Adam stiffened and shot Lawrence a panicked look. Lawrence held his hand up, a gesture of reassurance, and Adam crept back to his side.
Lawrence could tell Adam was freaking out, but he wrapped his arm around the younger man and whispered,
"It'll be alright. Trust me."
Adam DID trust Lawrence. The problem was, he didn't trust himself. Lawrence was the one who had told Adam he was a terrible liar. Now the two of them had to talk to a cop?
It turned out that Lawrence and Adam weren't suspects in anything, the cops were just gathering information about a missing person.
First, Adam and Lawrence were asked their names and addresses, their phone numbers and professions, and other simple information. Then they were taken to the office in the back of the restaurant to be shown security camera footage of themselves entering the place and leaving it about forty-five minutes later. They confirmed it was them.
"What happened to your head, son?" asked the detective. Both Adam and Lawrence looked confused until the man pointed to the bandages on Adam's upper forehead, almost obscured by his short bangs.
"Huh? Oh, this?" Adam chuckled. "Uh, I don't know, man. Someone could have chucked a bottle at me, or I could have walked into a door. I was pretty fucked up last night."
Nice save? he asked himself. Was that plausible? Could either of those things have happened, as far as the cops were concerned?
"Is that also why you're not walking with a cane today, Dr. Gordon?" asked the detective, alluding to the footage of the previous night that clearly showed Lawrence using a cane.
Lawrence could only agree sheepishly. They could explain away a lot with simply having been drunk.
Detective Grandstaff calmly explained the situation.
Casey Mayberry was Adam's usual waitress on the late nights he would stop in at Nibs. She hadn't shown up for her shift the night before, which Adam and Lawrence confirmed when they were asked about their visit to the restaurant. Lawrence told the detective that last night was the first time he'd ever been to Nibs, and Adam informed him that while he saw Casey on the nights he would stop in, he'd never had a full-on conversation with her.
"I don't know anything about her, I didn't even know that was her last name," said Adam. "I assumed she's working her way through college or something, and that's why she works the night shift. But she never told me anything about her personal life."
"Did she ever tell you she was a student or taking classes anywhere?"
"Nope. The most we ever said to each other was "How's it going?" and "Same old shit.""
Adam told the detective that he was surprised that Casey wasn't there the night before but had accepted her replacement's explanation that she just needed someone to cover for her.
"And this replacement waitress, did she introduce herself? Was she wearing a nametag? You remember what she looked like?"
"No," Adam admitted.
Lawrence echoed his statement.
"We, uh, we hadn't seen each other in about five years," Lawrence explained. "We were so preoccupied with catching up, I guess we didn't pay much attention to anything else."
Adam was afraid the detective was going to ask them how they knew each other, but he didn't.
"So, you had a few drinks, and you talked. That about it?"
"Correct," Lawrence affirmed.
"Is that why you didn't take your car?" asked the detective.
Lawrence smiled and nodded. "Didn't want to drink and drive," he said. "I guess we must have gotten a cab."
"Yeah, I kinda remember that," Adam agreed. Neither one of them had a crystal-clear memory of what had occurred before they'd woken up in their game, but that actually worked in their favor. Whatever they were asked, they could say they didn't remember, and it would be the truth.
"And we woke up in bed this morning, had some coffee and here we are," Lawrence stated. His face betrayed no lies because he hadn't told any.
Adam, however, did show some reaction on his face. He bit his lip and grunted in embarrassment at Lawrence's implication, but Lawrence didn't acknowledge him. He stayed calm and collected.
"So, you don't know anything else about Casey, nothing that could explain where she might be?" asked Grandstaff.
"Mm-mm," Adam shook his head.
"No, sir," said Lawrence.
"Alright. Thank you, gentlemen. I'll call if I have any further questions," said the detective. He stood up from the table and shook both Adam and Lawrence's hands.
"Have a good day, Detective," said Lawrence. He took Adam's arm again and they went back out to the car.
Adam tried not to slam the door in frustration but ended up audibly closing it anyway. He stiffened when Lawrence gently touched his leg.
"That was good. You did real good," said the doctor.
"Dude! What the hell?!" Adam snapped, back-handing Lawrence's upper arm.
"What?" Lawrence demanded.
"Did you have to tell him we woke up IN BED?!" Adam growled. "You made it sound like we banged!"
"So? That's good," said Lawrence. "That just leaves the cops with the conclusion that we had a drunken hook-up, nothing more."
Adam shifted in his seat.
"I don't know if you noticed, but you were sweating and fidgeting—you looked guilty as hell," said Lawrence. "Forgive me for playing it to our advantage."
"What advantage?"
"However suspicious we might seem, we can always write it off as, we hadn't seen each other in years, we got drunk and went back to my place and that's why we're acting so secretive; we're embarrassed."
"Embarrassed that we hooked up so fast?" asked Adam, letting it sink in.
"Yeah," Lawrence said with a grin. "Maybe I'm embarrassed that I look like a slut."
Adam cracked up. "Why would you be the slut in this scenario?"
Lawrence leaned over and reached his arm across, letting his elbow rest on the top of the passenger seat. "I'm the divorced cripple who hasn't been with anyone in years. Maybe I have low self-esteem and threw myself at the hottest younger guy I could find."
"Oh, my God. Stop it," Adam snorted.
Lawrence laughed lightly and put his left hand on Adam's thigh.
"Let the cops think what they want. It's better than the truth, right?"
Adam sighed. "Yeah, you're right."
Lawrence sat back, put on his seat belt, and started the car. As they exited the parking lot and got back on the street and headed towards Adam's apartment, the brunette added,
"Also, it's…not exactly not the truth."
Lawrence side-eyed him with a grin.
Adam grinned back.
END OF CHAPTER 02
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