Time Stands Still

Val Nichushkin and Reilly Smith arrived to their temporary hotel suite. It was booked for them by Antti Niemi and the HDA. The two private eyes settled in. Val went to use the restroom, while Reilly took his cell phone out. He dialed his boss’s number.

“Hey, Nemo, it’s Reilly. We tried to talk to Tyler, but he sent us away!”

“You need to stay on him,” Antti’s command came back.

Reilly bit his lip. “We tried to give him the message to tone down his online behavior, but he wouldn’t have it!” He began to pace back and forth before the door to the hotel room.

“He is a stubborn child!”

“He told us to tell you that you should “mind your own business” and that “you aren’t his father,” so you have no right looking into his personal stuff!”

“I’m not his father alright, but it’s not me who is concerned about him! It’s the HDA -- the NHL is worried about him. And we received a threatening text, that we intercepted in cyberspace.”

“Really, what is it?”

“It was posted on Twitter, from an anonymous account. Our sources have been trying all day to track the private account, but have had no luck.” The boss didn’t seem thrilled by the failure.

“What did the tweet say?”

“See for yourself, Smitty. Show Nichy as well!”

“I will. But what should we do about Tyler?”

“Talk to him again. Try to get through to him. He needs to stop.”

“But what if he doesn’t?”

“He must!”

“But what if he refuses again?”

“If he continues to abuse the right of his popularity on the internet, something bad WILL happen to him. It’s not a threat, but the truth. And no one wants to have him get into any kind of trouble! You’ve got to get through to him somehow!”

“Right. You got it Nemo, we’ll try once again tomorrow and talk to him.”

“Good work Smitty. I knew I could count on you two!”

A click sounded on the other line, as Antti hung up. Reilly followed a little later. He was reluctant about going back, after he and Tyler had fought. The Dallas Star seemed set to do things his way and he didn’t want to hear that a group of rogue detectives were spying on him and telling him to change his behavior.

The Bruin dropped his phone, as Val emerged from the bathroom.

“What did he say?” the Russian kid asked, walking over.

Reilly shook his head and showed his partner the message on his phone. It was a screencap of the tweet to Tyler.

“He’s really got to stop it with the borderline tweets. He’s pissing people off.”

“Yeah, but what are we going to do about it?”

“Nemo said to try again.”

“So we are going to go back to his house tomorrow and try again?”

“Yup!” Reilly sighed.

They got into their separate beds and quickly fell asleep.

The next morning, the two detective awoke. They quickly dressed themselves and headed back out to their car. They hopped in and made their way back to Tyler Seguin’s address.

They pulled back up to the side of the driveway, just like the previous time. They shared a quick look and sighed in unison, before they opened their doors and walked up to the door. They knocked a few times, before the man known as Tyler Seguin answered.

“You two again? If this is about the online thing forget about it!” He began to close the door on them.

“Listen, can you please just listen to us, Tyler?” Val asked, putting his hand out, bravely to stop the door from closing all the way.

Tyler rolled his eyes, but sighed. He gestured for them to come in once more. They walked in and sat down on the couch with the Dallas player. Reilly looked up at him.

“So what do you want to tell me now?”

“Segs, Tyler, I am begging you, as a fellow young hockey player, can you please listen to the HDA. I hate to tell you this but we intercepted a tweet threat from an anonymous user!”

“I told you people to stay out of my personal business!”

“How can we, if you get a threatening tweet directed to you!!?? Just think about what you are posting!”

“I’ve been doing that! It’s the stupid fans who twist it into something bad! But I don’t care, I’ve learned to ignore them!”

Reilly shook his head. He sat up on the edge on the couch. “But its a serious threat!”

“It may be or it may be a prank by one of the other players! I wouldn’t put it past Marchy to do something like this!”

“But you should still watch out nonetheless. You don’t know. Did you even try sending Brad a text, asking if it was him?”

“I did.” Tyler looked down at his feet. He was hiding something. He had gotten a response from Brad and it wasn’t funny. It wasn’t good.

“Tell us. We are here to help you!”

“I can’t.”

“You can’t or you don’t want to cause you know that we are right to be concerned about you!?”

“I don’t want the HDA poking around here anymore. I can take care of myself! If you come by anymore and keep pestering me like this then I will change all of my accounts and tell no one!!”

“Tyler please, you’re being irrational!” Reilly stated, leaping to his feet. “We are willing to help you! We are trying to help you! We don’t want to see you get hurt!”

“I won’t get hurt, I can take care of myself! Now, please leave. I need to do things…” He was losing his mind. He was in a panic and both men could tell. Whatever he had gotten back as a reply from Brad was freaking him out. But he didn’t want to share it and he was shutting them out again.

Reilly and Val didn’t move this time though. They remained with him. The troubled young man dropped his head and spun around, facing away from them. He withdrew his phone and sniffled. He may not have wanted to share what he had received but he gave an obvious clue to the pair. “Marchy, what’s happened to you? You never go this long without giving your pal a text.”

The Bruin and Star shared a look with one another. They both walked over to the depressed man and patted him on the shoulder.

“We’re here for you man, if there is anything ---- anything at all that you want to tell us, ----”

Tyler whipped around, clutching his phone tightly. The pair could see his tear-stained bloodshot eyes, but they were caked with angry and fury. A fire burned there and it was raging. “GET OUT!!”

They were taken aback by the sudden rage of the young man and stepped backward. Tyler snapped his head back and forth, gazing at both men. Steam seemed to billow from his ears and nostrils and his chest was heaving in and out, violently. “You think I am stupid? You think I am dumb? You think this is a game? It’s not!”

“What in the hell are you talking about?”

“Maybe the reason why I’m not getting a response from Marchy is because you all told him not to text me back, as a test! You want him to hold off?”

“No! What? No!” Val and Reilly exclaimed in unison.

“GET OUT!!” the Dallas superstar barked once again. “Tell Nemo to stop this and that I can take care of myself and that the HDA should bother someone ELSE!!”

The two men took the hint from his anger and raced out the door once more. They halted outside and shared a nonverbal signal between each other, before fast walking to the car on the street. They hopped in either side and sat down.

“Well, Nemo’s gonna love this! Now Tyler thinks that the HDA is behind the threats and trying to teach him a lesson!”

“Hey, Smitty, I know that I probably shouldn’t have done this, but I caught a quick glance at his cell phone’s screen. It was a text message. I remember it said something like:

“Star light, Star bright,
The first Star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have little Seggy dealt with, without a fight.”

Reilly cocked his head in interest. He smiled and slapped his friend on the shoulder, gently, chuckling. “Nichy, that’s brilliant! He is spiraling and he knows that he is in trouble! We have to call Nemo right away and report this to him. He’ll instruct us on how to proceed!”

“So are we staying here?”

“For now. Nemo might have us try again, if that’s the case, we can’t necessarily fight him and leave!”

Val nodded his head. He turned and stared out the passenger side window, gazing at Tyler’s Dallas home. Reilly quickly got onto the phone with the boss, Antti once more and notified him about their current situation.