Exposed - Part Six
Title: Exposed, Part Six of Eight
Author: mikes_grrl
Rating: Brown Cortina (NC-17+, for seksiness)
Pairing: Gene/oc, Gene/Sam
Warnings: AU, naturally, and maybe specific spoilers mentioned in passing. Nonetheless, let’s just wing it and say “post-2.08” for the hell of it.
Disclaimer: All owned by Kudos, kudos to them. I’m just having fun.
Word Count: 25,000 (in eight parts; part six, 2,600)
Summary: Sequel to Undercover. An execution-style murder case threatens to rip apart Gene’s career; meanwhile, Sam is having trouble adjusting to his ‘lifestyle choice’ (and no one is surprised, least of all Gene).
Notes on Part Six: Oooo the angst! The plot! Things get heated, in so many ways...hee hee.
Background:
Undercover (and yes, you need to read that first)
Exposed: Part One
Exposed: Part Two
Exposed: Part Three
Exposed: Part Four
Exposed: Part Five
Exposed, Part Six
Henry used the phone and set up the meeting for later that night at a diner. Sam called the office to talk to Gene, and gave him a short version of events, leaving out what David told him. He wanted to make sure Henry was not privy to that conversation; Sam did not know what significance David’s information had, but it rang bells that Gene would tell him to listen too, and Sam wanted to share that confidence in person.
When Gene got home Sam briefed him professionally in the kitchen while Gene heated up a tin of some kind of mashed meat, and Sam tried not to notice the smell.
“Don’t think it matters much, who the kid used to fuck.”
“Fine, just thought you should know. David thought it was important and wanted me to tell you.”
Gene looked Sam over as if inspecting for damage. “David wants a lot.”
Sam glared at him from his perch in the far corner. “According to you I don’ put out anyway, so not much he could want from me.”
“There’s a way to solve that problem.”
“And you found it, he’s upstairs handcuffed to the bed. Want me to give you two some alone time?”
Gene slammed his silverware down on the counter and leaned against it, closing his eyes, angry and tense. “…will you ever let that go?”
Sam wanted to be spiteful, and say ‘no’ and yell at Gene, and he knew he had the right. He wanted to hurt Gene, but something in the way the man was standing -- as if holding himself up, readying himself for an attack but not to fight back -- stopped him.
“Sorry. You aren’t mine and I don’t have the right.” Sam tapped his head against the wall, closing his eyes. He did not hear Gene moving or breathing at all. “Look, the kid…Henry has set up a meet with his contact, Jimmy. Tonight, nine o’clock. He’s been acting weird about it since he made the call, I’d say he’s worried or nervous.”
Gene pulled out a chair and sat down. Sam looked at him. He was the picture of thoughtful relaxation, leaning back, lighting a cigarette, his legs set out in front of him and crossed at the ankles. “It’s a plan. More than anything else we’ve come up with. Ray and Chris are spinning circles and we aren’t doin’ much better. We’ll take Henry there, and see what happens. Worse come’s to worse, we’ll grab his contact too.”
“This keeps up we’ll run out of beds to handcuff ‘em too.” Sam laughed. “You’ll have your own harem.” Sam laughed again, walking away from the wall towards the table, towards Gene, feeling relaxed for a moment and enjoying the joke. Then Gene looked at him.
“Got what I want.”
It was a fixed stare, and Sam met it, flushing, remembering his desperate need in the Lost and Found, but he stalled on what to do. Gene threw his cigarette down and pushed the table out of his way as he marched into Sam, grabbing his shoulders. He pulled and Sam fell into the kiss, desperate for Gene’s warmth and desire, wanting to draw everything out of Gene and take it for himself. He ran his hands over Gene’s chest, hard, feeling for muscle and bone, and Gene let out a choking groan that Sam had never heard before, Gene’s tongue reaching for something new. Sam pushed his hands around to Gene’s back and began dragging Gene into him, leaning backwards to force Gene into chasing their kiss. Gene was off balance but Sam kept tugging on the larger man, trying to bring him down and they crashed to the floor.
“Damn!” Gene pulled up an arm in pain.
“Sorry…sorry…”
“You’re always sorry, damnit…”
Sam rolled up to a sitting position. He had wanted something, desperately, but he did not know what and he did not know why he dragged Gene down or what to do with him. He was aroused but it was not particularly about sex, and it was obviously not a desire for a deep introspective discussion, and between those poles was not much of anything to do on the floor. He looked at Gene, who was nursing his elbow, then shook his head and got up. Gene did not stop him or even try, only stared mutely at him as Sam walked out to go back up to baby sit Henry.
They did not talk again until it was time to let Henry lose and drive to the diner. Henry was definitely nervous, and surprisingly cowered near Gene most of the time. Gene let him, and Sam thought that it was probably second nature for that alpha male to just play daddy all the time. It annoyed him, but he understood it. He remembered feeling that way once, when ‘alpha’ was a commodity he enjoyed among his peers, when the name DCI Sam Tyler meant leadership and authority and power. Now he was what, a boy toy? No, not even: boy toys put out. Sam was more of a kept pet, something Gene played with and said he loved but did not respect any more than the boy glued to his side now. As he thought of it that way, the more riled he got at Henry for shuffling close to Gene, and the madder he got at himself for caring.
They parked blocks away, just in case, and Gene and Sam separated to cover the front and back entrances to the place while Henry grabbed a table. Sam showed his warrant badge to the waitress and she let him go through the back storage area and set himself up next to the door. There was no way for Gene to be inconspicuous so he lurked in an alleyway across the street.
Right at nine a young college student walked up the sidewalk carrying a box. He was stocky and fair, with very pink cheeks and a lost expression, and Sam had a hard time envisioning this almost-child as a blackmailing ring mastermind. A courier, maybe, and certainly a good piece of bait for the right man. He sat down with Henry and they talked, then got up to leave. Henry cast a furtive glance at Sam, who waited just a moment before following them. They took a right out of the door, and Sam was not ten paces behind them when the gun went off. Sam stalled in confusion, wondering who was shooting and where, and in that moment both kids broke and ran. Sam went for Henry, but the boy was younger and faster and had some idea of where he was going. Sam lost him two blocks over and limped back, still not fully recovered from his blisters of earlier in the week. He found Gene red faced and furious, standing outside the diner, alone.
“They both got away?” Sam yelled as he walked up.
“Don’t see you got yours either!” Gene yelled back.
“You got the fat one!”
“He had a motorcycle! Less you want me to grow wheels!”
“You are not HALF the truck Optimus Prime was!” Sam yelled louder, then realized what he said as Gene stared at him in massive confusion.
“What bloody ‘ell car is that? Italian?”
“Oh fuck off!” Sam threw his arms up and limped to the Cortina, wishing it was BumbleBee and could beat the crap out of Gene for him.
They stewed in their failure back to Gene’s house and continued to stew in Gene’s living room as Gene poured them both doubles. Sam swirled his drink.
“Tomorrow we’ll go sack Henry’s dorm room, and see if we can get a last name for Jimmy.”
Gene nodded in displeasure and agreement, staring at the spot where his television used to sit.
“Jimmy brought the gun; did you see what happened? Was he trying to shoot Henry?” Sam wrinkled his nose as he looked up at Gene.
“They were talking and Jimmy opened the box and the next thing, the gun was going off.”
“Crap.” Sam slugged his drink and stood up. Gene eyed him. “I’m goin’ home. The car I’m using is parked out back, I’ll drop it at headquarters and walk to my flat.”
Gene looked back at his drink. “That what you want.”
Sam shook his head, indicating that he simply did not want to talk about it. “We’ll meet in the office in the morning, and start over. We’ve got something to go on; we’ll find Henry, if nothing else. He’s middle class and young, won’t know how or where to hide.”
This earned him a brief nod from Gene, who would not look at him, and with that Sam left. There was some logic to his staying, but it was a point of pride for him now. He wanted to walk back in and strip Gene down and make love to him, whatever that might entail, but he could not allow himself to give in to anyone who did not respect him. He left the flat horny and desperate, and angry.
In the morning he walked into CID and caught up a bit on how little headway was being made on the case by everyone else, and went to review Terry’s appointment book again, and waited for Gene to show up so they could go search Henry’s dorm room. By nine am, Sam was furious, and stomped out, nearly shoving Chris into a desk as he threw on his jacket. He took the car back out, and drove to Gene’s, figuring Gene drank himself into oblivion and probably was not even awake yet.
Sam tried to open the front door but it was chained shut, which was highly unusual. He rattled the door and suddenly Henry was there, looking at him through the crack. Sam stalled, in shock.
“What…?”
“He’s asleep.”
“What are…you ran!” Sam began leaning into the door.
“Jimmy tried to shoot me, man! Sure I ran! Came back here!” Henry leaned against the other side so it became a shoving match with the door between them.
“Open the door, I need to talk to Gene…”
“I told you, man, he’s asleep.” Henry glared at him and that was when Sam realized the kid was in his boxers and a tee shirt, his hair mussed and looking for all the world like he just crawled out of bed himself. Sam stepped back in shock.
“I still need to speak with him.” Sam dropped into professionalism, sinking every emotion into being a cop.
“I’ll tell ‘im when he wakes up.”
“He just decided to take a mid morning nap?” Sam frowned, trying desperately to keep from slamming the door down.
Henry did not try to hide his grin. “Summat like that. Wore himself out…look, you can go wake ‘im if you want…” Henry reached up to unchain the door, and Sam grabbed the chain.
“No. Just tell him to call Sam at work.”
“Sure.” Henry nodded noncommittally as Sam turned to walk away. “An’ hey…I’m on your side on this, you know. I was just…playing along for a few quid. I don’ need this to get out any more than you do.” Henry called after him, but Sam refused to turn around.
He was bothered by everything, though, and not just Gene’s libido. Henry might be cooperating, for what that was worth, but something was wrong with the whole situation. Sam did not have the ‘gut instinct’ that Gene possessed, though, and he really did want to talk to Gene about the case, but Gene was too busy fucking their only lead. Sam sat in the car and counted to fifty-five before his blood pressure was low enough for him to drive the car without shaking.
Sam went to do exactly what he should have let Gene do four days ago, and sacked Henry’s dorm room. He did not have a warrant and he decided he did not need one, not while Henry was busy being shagged by Gene, and he bluffed his way past the young and probably stoned dorm matron with frightening ease. He got into the tiny room and was pulling apart the chest of drawers when Jimmy walked in, carrying the same small box he had the night before.
It was not much of a chase, because Jimmy was late off the mark, too surprised and confused to know what was going on. Sam hauled him back into the dorm room and tossed him onto the bed, pulling out his badge.
“Hey! It was Henry’s idea, okay?”
Sam stopped, surprised, because he had not even asked any questions yet.
“What was?”
“The whole gun thing. He had me bring it cause he said you guys were goin’ to nick us both, and it was just a distraction so we could hoof it, yeah? An’ I was supposed to meet him here, he said you guys didn’ know where he lived…” Jimmy held out the package that he brought with him. “Look I don’ want any trouble. Now that Terry’s dead, it’s just over and if my parents see any of these photos I’ll end up like Phil.”
Sam shook his head, far behind the ball. “Phil?”
Jimmy kept holding out the box, but scrunched his eyebrows together. “Look, I know you. From the photos. You’re…safe, right?”
Sam nodded. “Sure. If you’ve seen the photos, I can’t really deny it.” While ‘I can’t deny it’ was hardly the ‘I’m here and I’m queer’ battle cry, it still felt odd to own up that completely.
Jimmy only nodded, though, relieved to be talking to one of his own kind, and Sam felt sorry for him and angry at himself. “Phil was Henry’s boyfriend. They were tight, you know? Then Phil met Terry through his parents - rich, yeah? All hang out at the tennis club - and they cooked up this whole blackmail thing. It was just for fun, really, at least…well, it wasn’t meant to get this serious. Terry saw the money coming in and wanted to push it, and Phil argued, so Terry threatened to send photos of Phil and one of the marks to Phil’s folks, and they fought, and Phil called his bluff and…”
“…Phil committed suicide.” Sam finished, leaning against the door frame.
Jimmy nodded. “I thought Henry was going to kill Terry, but he didn’t…”
Sam flinched, but kept listening.
“Henry got this idea to go after one of the cops. We tried to talk him out of it, but he wanted some kind of leverage with, er, you. That was just too much for me so I backed out. That’s why I’m here. To give Henry the rest of the photos and the negs…I did all the development, I’m in the photography program here.” He held out the box again. “I was trying to turn them over at the diner but he told me to hold ‘em, and…well…look, please, just let me walk away from this. I’ve got one term left ‘til I graduate, then I’m heading south, leaving this damn city. Okay?”
“Terry was murdered, Jimmy. No one can walk away from that.”
Jimmy put the box down and paled, closing his eyes in fear and frustration. “That was Henry, man, I know it was. That gun is his, and he wanted him dead. I don’t know for sure, but I swear, I bet it was.”
“I’m taking you down to the station. You’re not going to talk to anyone about this, and we’re going to put the photos in a safe place. But until I know exactly what ‘appened, I can’t let you walk.”
Defeated, Jimmy just nodded. Sam snapped up. “Wait, the gun is Henry’s?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t have it?”
“No! No way, man, no way. Hate that shit, I’m a pacifist. Gave him the gun back as we dashed out.” Jimmy shook his head so hard, his hair flew around him.
Sam never moved so fast in his life. He dragged Jimmy to the car and stashed the box of photos in the boot. He drove like a bat out of hell to the station, which was in between the school and Gene’s place anyway, and dropped Jimmy off with Phyllis, giving her some vague reason to hold the kid, who was more than willing to be held safely in the bowels of the station once he realized what exactly was going on. Sam basically stole a gun from the armory and when he came back up front, he called Gene’s place from the lobby phone as Jimmy was processed, but no answer. He took off as Phyllis yelled at him and made record time to Gene’s flat.
The Cortina was gone, and the place was empty.
>-------
Cont. in Part Seven
Author: mikes_grrl
Rating: Brown Cortina (NC-17+, for seksiness)
Pairing: Gene/oc, Gene/Sam
Warnings: AU, naturally, and maybe specific spoilers mentioned in passing. Nonetheless, let’s just wing it and say “post-2.08” for the hell of it.
Disclaimer: All owned by Kudos, kudos to them. I’m just having fun.
Word Count: 25,000 (in eight parts; part six, 2,600)
Summary: Sequel to Undercover. An execution-style murder case threatens to rip apart Gene’s career; meanwhile, Sam is having trouble adjusting to his ‘lifestyle choice’ (and no one is surprised, least of all Gene).
Notes on Part Six: Oooo the angst! The plot! Things get heated, in so many ways...hee hee.
Background:
Undercover (and yes, you need to read that first)
Exposed: Part One
Exposed: Part Two
Exposed: Part Three
Exposed: Part Four
Exposed: Part Five
Exposed, Part Six
Henry used the phone and set up the meeting for later that night at a diner. Sam called the office to talk to Gene, and gave him a short version of events, leaving out what David told him. He wanted to make sure Henry was not privy to that conversation; Sam did not know what significance David’s information had, but it rang bells that Gene would tell him to listen too, and Sam wanted to share that confidence in person.
When Gene got home Sam briefed him professionally in the kitchen while Gene heated up a tin of some kind of mashed meat, and Sam tried not to notice the smell.
“Don’t think it matters much, who the kid used to fuck.”
“Fine, just thought you should know. David thought it was important and wanted me to tell you.”
Gene looked Sam over as if inspecting for damage. “David wants a lot.”
Sam glared at him from his perch in the far corner. “According to you I don’ put out anyway, so not much he could want from me.”
“There’s a way to solve that problem.”
“And you found it, he’s upstairs handcuffed to the bed. Want me to give you two some alone time?”
Gene slammed his silverware down on the counter and leaned against it, closing his eyes, angry and tense. “…will you ever let that go?”
Sam wanted to be spiteful, and say ‘no’ and yell at Gene, and he knew he had the right. He wanted to hurt Gene, but something in the way the man was standing -- as if holding himself up, readying himself for an attack but not to fight back -- stopped him.
“Sorry. You aren’t mine and I don’t have the right.” Sam tapped his head against the wall, closing his eyes. He did not hear Gene moving or breathing at all. “Look, the kid…Henry has set up a meet with his contact, Jimmy. Tonight, nine o’clock. He’s been acting weird about it since he made the call, I’d say he’s worried or nervous.”
Gene pulled out a chair and sat down. Sam looked at him. He was the picture of thoughtful relaxation, leaning back, lighting a cigarette, his legs set out in front of him and crossed at the ankles. “It’s a plan. More than anything else we’ve come up with. Ray and Chris are spinning circles and we aren’t doin’ much better. We’ll take Henry there, and see what happens. Worse come’s to worse, we’ll grab his contact too.”
“This keeps up we’ll run out of beds to handcuff ‘em too.” Sam laughed. “You’ll have your own harem.” Sam laughed again, walking away from the wall towards the table, towards Gene, feeling relaxed for a moment and enjoying the joke. Then Gene looked at him.
“Got what I want.”
It was a fixed stare, and Sam met it, flushing, remembering his desperate need in the Lost and Found, but he stalled on what to do. Gene threw his cigarette down and pushed the table out of his way as he marched into Sam, grabbing his shoulders. He pulled and Sam fell into the kiss, desperate for Gene’s warmth and desire, wanting to draw everything out of Gene and take it for himself. He ran his hands over Gene’s chest, hard, feeling for muscle and bone, and Gene let out a choking groan that Sam had never heard before, Gene’s tongue reaching for something new. Sam pushed his hands around to Gene’s back and began dragging Gene into him, leaning backwards to force Gene into chasing their kiss. Gene was off balance but Sam kept tugging on the larger man, trying to bring him down and they crashed to the floor.
“Damn!” Gene pulled up an arm in pain.
“Sorry…sorry…”
“You’re always sorry, damnit…”
Sam rolled up to a sitting position. He had wanted something, desperately, but he did not know what and he did not know why he dragged Gene down or what to do with him. He was aroused but it was not particularly about sex, and it was obviously not a desire for a deep introspective discussion, and between those poles was not much of anything to do on the floor. He looked at Gene, who was nursing his elbow, then shook his head and got up. Gene did not stop him or even try, only stared mutely at him as Sam walked out to go back up to baby sit Henry.
They did not talk again until it was time to let Henry lose and drive to the diner. Henry was definitely nervous, and surprisingly cowered near Gene most of the time. Gene let him, and Sam thought that it was probably second nature for that alpha male to just play daddy all the time. It annoyed him, but he understood it. He remembered feeling that way once, when ‘alpha’ was a commodity he enjoyed among his peers, when the name DCI Sam Tyler meant leadership and authority and power. Now he was what, a boy toy? No, not even: boy toys put out. Sam was more of a kept pet, something Gene played with and said he loved but did not respect any more than the boy glued to his side now. As he thought of it that way, the more riled he got at Henry for shuffling close to Gene, and the madder he got at himself for caring.
They parked blocks away, just in case, and Gene and Sam separated to cover the front and back entrances to the place while Henry grabbed a table. Sam showed his warrant badge to the waitress and she let him go through the back storage area and set himself up next to the door. There was no way for Gene to be inconspicuous so he lurked in an alleyway across the street.
Right at nine a young college student walked up the sidewalk carrying a box. He was stocky and fair, with very pink cheeks and a lost expression, and Sam had a hard time envisioning this almost-child as a blackmailing ring mastermind. A courier, maybe, and certainly a good piece of bait for the right man. He sat down with Henry and they talked, then got up to leave. Henry cast a furtive glance at Sam, who waited just a moment before following them. They took a right out of the door, and Sam was not ten paces behind them when the gun went off. Sam stalled in confusion, wondering who was shooting and where, and in that moment both kids broke and ran. Sam went for Henry, but the boy was younger and faster and had some idea of where he was going. Sam lost him two blocks over and limped back, still not fully recovered from his blisters of earlier in the week. He found Gene red faced and furious, standing outside the diner, alone.
“They both got away?” Sam yelled as he walked up.
“Don’t see you got yours either!” Gene yelled back.
“You got the fat one!”
“He had a motorcycle! Less you want me to grow wheels!”
“You are not HALF the truck Optimus Prime was!” Sam yelled louder, then realized what he said as Gene stared at him in massive confusion.
“What bloody ‘ell car is that? Italian?”
“Oh fuck off!” Sam threw his arms up and limped to the Cortina, wishing it was BumbleBee and could beat the crap out of Gene for him.
They stewed in their failure back to Gene’s house and continued to stew in Gene’s living room as Gene poured them both doubles. Sam swirled his drink.
“Tomorrow we’ll go sack Henry’s dorm room, and see if we can get a last name for Jimmy.”
Gene nodded in displeasure and agreement, staring at the spot where his television used to sit.
“Jimmy brought the gun; did you see what happened? Was he trying to shoot Henry?” Sam wrinkled his nose as he looked up at Gene.
“They were talking and Jimmy opened the box and the next thing, the gun was going off.”
“Crap.” Sam slugged his drink and stood up. Gene eyed him. “I’m goin’ home. The car I’m using is parked out back, I’ll drop it at headquarters and walk to my flat.”
Gene looked back at his drink. “That what you want.”
Sam shook his head, indicating that he simply did not want to talk about it. “We’ll meet in the office in the morning, and start over. We’ve got something to go on; we’ll find Henry, if nothing else. He’s middle class and young, won’t know how or where to hide.”
This earned him a brief nod from Gene, who would not look at him, and with that Sam left. There was some logic to his staying, but it was a point of pride for him now. He wanted to walk back in and strip Gene down and make love to him, whatever that might entail, but he could not allow himself to give in to anyone who did not respect him. He left the flat horny and desperate, and angry.
In the morning he walked into CID and caught up a bit on how little headway was being made on the case by everyone else, and went to review Terry’s appointment book again, and waited for Gene to show up so they could go search Henry’s dorm room. By nine am, Sam was furious, and stomped out, nearly shoving Chris into a desk as he threw on his jacket. He took the car back out, and drove to Gene’s, figuring Gene drank himself into oblivion and probably was not even awake yet.
Sam tried to open the front door but it was chained shut, which was highly unusual. He rattled the door and suddenly Henry was there, looking at him through the crack. Sam stalled, in shock.
“What…?”
“He’s asleep.”
“What are…you ran!” Sam began leaning into the door.
“Jimmy tried to shoot me, man! Sure I ran! Came back here!” Henry leaned against the other side so it became a shoving match with the door between them.
“Open the door, I need to talk to Gene…”
“I told you, man, he’s asleep.” Henry glared at him and that was when Sam realized the kid was in his boxers and a tee shirt, his hair mussed and looking for all the world like he just crawled out of bed himself. Sam stepped back in shock.
“I still need to speak with him.” Sam dropped into professionalism, sinking every emotion into being a cop.
“I’ll tell ‘im when he wakes up.”
“He just decided to take a mid morning nap?” Sam frowned, trying desperately to keep from slamming the door down.
Henry did not try to hide his grin. “Summat like that. Wore himself out…look, you can go wake ‘im if you want…” Henry reached up to unchain the door, and Sam grabbed the chain.
“No. Just tell him to call Sam at work.”
“Sure.” Henry nodded noncommittally as Sam turned to walk away. “An’ hey…I’m on your side on this, you know. I was just…playing along for a few quid. I don’ need this to get out any more than you do.” Henry called after him, but Sam refused to turn around.
He was bothered by everything, though, and not just Gene’s libido. Henry might be cooperating, for what that was worth, but something was wrong with the whole situation. Sam did not have the ‘gut instinct’ that Gene possessed, though, and he really did want to talk to Gene about the case, but Gene was too busy fucking their only lead. Sam sat in the car and counted to fifty-five before his blood pressure was low enough for him to drive the car without shaking.
Sam went to do exactly what he should have let Gene do four days ago, and sacked Henry’s dorm room. He did not have a warrant and he decided he did not need one, not while Henry was busy being shagged by Gene, and he bluffed his way past the young and probably stoned dorm matron with frightening ease. He got into the tiny room and was pulling apart the chest of drawers when Jimmy walked in, carrying the same small box he had the night before.
It was not much of a chase, because Jimmy was late off the mark, too surprised and confused to know what was going on. Sam hauled him back into the dorm room and tossed him onto the bed, pulling out his badge.
“Hey! It was Henry’s idea, okay?”
Sam stopped, surprised, because he had not even asked any questions yet.
“What was?”
“The whole gun thing. He had me bring it cause he said you guys were goin’ to nick us both, and it was just a distraction so we could hoof it, yeah? An’ I was supposed to meet him here, he said you guys didn’ know where he lived…” Jimmy held out the package that he brought with him. “Look I don’ want any trouble. Now that Terry’s dead, it’s just over and if my parents see any of these photos I’ll end up like Phil.”
Sam shook his head, far behind the ball. “Phil?”
Jimmy kept holding out the box, but scrunched his eyebrows together. “Look, I know you. From the photos. You’re…safe, right?”
Sam nodded. “Sure. If you’ve seen the photos, I can’t really deny it.” While ‘I can’t deny it’ was hardly the ‘I’m here and I’m queer’ battle cry, it still felt odd to own up that completely.
Jimmy only nodded, though, relieved to be talking to one of his own kind, and Sam felt sorry for him and angry at himself. “Phil was Henry’s boyfriend. They were tight, you know? Then Phil met Terry through his parents - rich, yeah? All hang out at the tennis club - and they cooked up this whole blackmail thing. It was just for fun, really, at least…well, it wasn’t meant to get this serious. Terry saw the money coming in and wanted to push it, and Phil argued, so Terry threatened to send photos of Phil and one of the marks to Phil’s folks, and they fought, and Phil called his bluff and…”
“…Phil committed suicide.” Sam finished, leaning against the door frame.
Jimmy nodded. “I thought Henry was going to kill Terry, but he didn’t…”
Sam flinched, but kept listening.
“Henry got this idea to go after one of the cops. We tried to talk him out of it, but he wanted some kind of leverage with, er, you. That was just too much for me so I backed out. That’s why I’m here. To give Henry the rest of the photos and the negs…I did all the development, I’m in the photography program here.” He held out the box again. “I was trying to turn them over at the diner but he told me to hold ‘em, and…well…look, please, just let me walk away from this. I’ve got one term left ‘til I graduate, then I’m heading south, leaving this damn city. Okay?”
“Terry was murdered, Jimmy. No one can walk away from that.”
Jimmy put the box down and paled, closing his eyes in fear and frustration. “That was Henry, man, I know it was. That gun is his, and he wanted him dead. I don’t know for sure, but I swear, I bet it was.”
“I’m taking you down to the station. You’re not going to talk to anyone about this, and we’re going to put the photos in a safe place. But until I know exactly what ‘appened, I can’t let you walk.”
Defeated, Jimmy just nodded. Sam snapped up. “Wait, the gun is Henry’s?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t have it?”
“No! No way, man, no way. Hate that shit, I’m a pacifist. Gave him the gun back as we dashed out.” Jimmy shook his head so hard, his hair flew around him.
Sam never moved so fast in his life. He dragged Jimmy to the car and stashed the box of photos in the boot. He drove like a bat out of hell to the station, which was in between the school and Gene’s place anyway, and dropped Jimmy off with Phyllis, giving her some vague reason to hold the kid, who was more than willing to be held safely in the bowels of the station once he realized what exactly was going on. Sam basically stole a gun from the armory and when he came back up front, he called Gene’s place from the lobby phone as Jimmy was processed, but no answer. He took off as Phyllis yelled at him and made record time to Gene’s flat.
The Cortina was gone, and the place was empty.
>-------
Cont. in Part Seven