Choked Up

by Hank Edwards

  "You don't know any of the other three men?" Jake asked.

  Rick shook his head. "No, sorry. I mean, they look familiar, but so do a lot of men because I work here."

  "How about this guy?" Pearce pulled from his pocket Robert Morgan's photo taken for his FBI badge and handed it to the bartender. "Ever see him in here?"

  Rick shook his head and passed back all the photos. "No. Sorry."

  "Okay, thanks for talking with us." Jake gave Rick his card. "Call if you think of anything new or hear anything, okay?"

  "FBI?" Rick looked between them. "Seriously?"

  "Completely serious," Pearce said.

  Rick grinned. "That's hot. You guys ever think of doing porn?"

  "And with that, we bid you good evening," Jake said.

  They stepped away from the bar and found an open spot against the wall where they could lean and look out at the crowd.

  "What do you think?" Jake asked.

  "I think it's going to take us a long time to track Morgan down."

  "You know, it's really fucking frustrating," Jake said. "I mean, we pretty much 100 percent know who the guy is. We just can't find him."

  "We'll have to use the media," Pearce said.

  "Fuck," Jake snarled, then chugged his water. "I hate dealing with the media."

  "Come on, with a pretty face like yours?" Pearce said.

  "I bet you say that to all your partners."

  "Just the men."

  "Classy."

  Pearce looked around the bar a final time, then finished his water. "All right. Let's hit another bar."

  "Look at you," Jake said. "Party all night."

  "Like a rock star."

  "I need to take a leak first. Be right back." Jake headed off toward the bathroom.

  As Pearce waited, he sent Mark a text and let him know he was at Danglers and he was not picking up any men. Mark must have had his phone beside him because his reply came back within a minute: Chivalry is not dead. Be still my heart.

  Pearce grinned and wrote: There's no one here as handsome as you. Sleep well. He added a heart emoji, and then an eggplant, which was their code for "cock."

  Mark replied: I will now. Love you. A heart emoji followed by an eggplant, which was followed by another heart.

  Pearce wrote back: Love you, too.

  "Texting Mom to tell her you'll be out late tonight?"

  Pearce looked up. The smartass reply died on his lips as he found someone other than Jake standing before him. The kid was young—most likely too young to legally be holding the beer in his hand—and boyishly handsome with dark hair, brown eyes, and a three-day scruff of beard.

  "Something like that," Pearce said, and slipped his phone into his back pocket. "Is that beer you're holding for your much-older boyfriend?"

  The kid smirked. "Oh, nice one. Looks like I found a feisty one tonight."

  "Yeah, looks like it." Pearce leaned back against the wall. "You come here a lot?"

  "What do you consider a lot?" the kid asked, squeezing into the narrow open space beside him.

  Pearce felt the kid's leg pressed right up against his but couldn't move away due to the crowd. He felt uncomfortable and penned in. He wasn't encouraging the kid—at least he didn't think he was—but how would this look to Mark if he could see him now? Or to Jake when he finally returned from the bathroom?

  "Once a week?" Pearce offered.

  "Yeah, usually. Sometimes more often. Why?"

  Pearce pulled the photo of Erik Hamill from his pocket. "You ever see him around here?"

  The kid pushed away from the wall and took a couple steps forward before turning to face Pearce.

  He fixed him with a hard look and asked, "You a cop or something?"

  "Or something."

  "Looking to bust some underage queers for drinking?"

  "Nope, just wondering if you ever saw this guy around here before."

  The kid held Pearce's gaze a moment, then looked at the photo. "Yeah. He looks familiar. What'd he do?"

  "Nothing you need to worry about," Pearce replied. "Did you see him a few weeks ago?"

  "I don't know." The kid shrugged. "It all blends together after awhile, you know?"

  Pearce did know, and the realization that he knew it—and that he was no longer a part of this scene—filled him with a surprising sense of relief. Along with the relief came the sudden desire to see Mark, to hold him and kiss him and savor the bond that had grown between them.

  Shit, he really was in over his head.

  "What's your name?" Pearce asked.

  The kid narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

  "I like to know who I'm sparring with," Pearce replied. "Just your first name, that's all."

  "Tristan."

  "Okay, Tristan, was that so hard? I'm Aaron."

  "Are you single, Aaron?"

  Pearce grinned and shook his head. "No, I'm not."

  "Well, lucky boyfriend," Tristan said, then raised his eyebrows. "Or is it girlfriend? Or maybe wife?"

  "Boyfriend," Pearce replied. He moved the picture side to side a bit to draw Tristan's attention to it once again. "So nothing? Other than a sense of recognition, you don't recall anything unusual?"

  Tristan shook his head. "Sorry, no." He grinned. "But if I do think of something, do you have a number I can call?"

  Pearce rolled his eyes but pulled a card from his wallet and handed it over. Tristan read it, and his eyes went wide before he looked up at Pearce again.

  "FBI? Are you fucking serious?"

  "I am abso-fucking-lutely serious."

  Tristan grinned and fanned himself with the card. "Damn, that is hot. Do you have a gun on you right now?"

  "Sorry, I'm not packing heat," Pearce replied.

  Tristan slowly looked him up and down. "Oh, you're packing heat all right."

  "All right, all right," Pearce said, waving him off. "Move along, youngster. And if you think of anything, call that number."

  "Oh, I'm thinking of a lot of things right now, Agent…" He looked down at the card again. "Aaron Pearce. Should I call you about those things, too?"

  "Nope, keep those to yourself. But anything about that man, I'd like to know."

  Tristan snapped a salute. "Aye aye, captain."

  "Not really a way to greet the FBI, but I'll let it go this time."

  "This time?" Tristan took a step closer. "So you anticipate a next time?"

  Jake showed up directly behind Tristan and grinned as he looked over the kid's head right at Pearce. "Who's your friend?"

  Tristan jumped and turned, then took a step to the side as he looked between Pearce and Jake. "Uh-oh, is this the boyfriend?"

  "He should be so lucky," Jake said before Pearce could respond. "And you are?"

  "Tristan."

  "Just Tristan?"

  Tristan smirked at Pearce. "For now."

  Pearce rolled his eyes. "All right. Good to meet you, Just Tristan. Call if you remember anything. And be careful."

  "Oh, I'm always careful, Agent Pearce." Tristan smiled, waved, and turned away to disappear into the crowd.

  Pearce looked at Jake and found him grinning back. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go ahead, get it out of your system."

  "What?" Jake tried for a confused and innocent look but couldn't hold it and broke into a broad grin. "Do you get paid extra on your babysitting job if you're up past midnight?"

  "Cute," Pearce said. "All done?"

  Jake shook his head, still grinning. "I haven't even started yet, my friend."

  Pearce sighed and headed for the door, grumbling, "Let's go," over his shoulder.

  Jake laughed as he walked out into the night behind Pearce, the sound of the music and men's voices following after them.

  8

  Pearce was in the office fifteen minutes the next morning before he and Jake left to continue interviews. They stopped at Motor City Grinders to get coffees before Jake signed out a car.

  "Where to, navigator?" Jake asked from behind the wheel.

>   Pearce looked through the case file on his lap. "Since Erik Hamill stands out physically from the other victims, I'd like to talk with this cousin he lived with. Let me find the name."

  "Good idea," Jake said. He braked at a stoplight and sipped his coffee.

  "Here it is. Manny Bilton." Pearce looked up at Jake and made a face. "Manny?"

  Jake grinned. "Let's go talk to Manny. Where's he at?"

  Pearce read off an address in the city of Troy as he tapped it into the maps app on his phone.

  "Got it," Jake said with a nod. "Kind of a long drive from here, but these miles aren't going on my car. Just tell me where to turn."

  Some time later, Pearce directed Jake to turn into the parking lot of an apartment complex. They found the right building, and Jake parked in an open space. Pearce led the way up the sidewalk to the secured door where he scanned the names next to buzzers.

  "Here it is. Bilton and Hamill," Pearce said and pressed the button.

  They waited several seconds before he pressed the buzzer again. Still no response.

  "Working?" Jake suggested.

  "Yeah, probably." Pearce wished he'd brought the case file along with him to see if the DPD detective had made a note of Manny's employment.

  "Excuse me."

  Pearce turned to find a young girl on the steps, giving them a nervous once-over. She had keys out, and he was glad to see she had one securely held between her fingers to use as a jabbing weapon if needed. Someone had given her some good self-defense advice.

  "Oh, sorry," Jake said and stepped out of the way as he pulled his badge from his inner coat pocket and showed it to her. "We're with the FBI. I'm Agent Perrin, and this is Agent Pearce. We're looking to speak to a Manny Bilton. Do you know him?"

  "Manny? Oh, yeah, he lives across the hall from me." The girl's expression fell. "So sad about his cousin, Erik. Is this about his murder?"

  "We just want to ask a few follow-up questions, that's all," Pearce said. "Do you know if Manny's around or where he might be?"

  "Probably at work," she replied. "He works at the GameStop over at the mall."

  "Oakland Mall?"

  "Yeah. If he's not here playing video games, he's at work." She hesitated, then asked, "Are you closer to finding the guy who did it?"

  "We're working hard to figure that out," Pearce assured her. "Did you notice anyone unusual around before Erik died?"

  "No, nothing out of the ordinary. And I've thought about it, too, ever since we found out. I mean, I saw it on the news and then asked Manny about it in the hall one day." She shook her head as she looked out over the parking lot. "Such a tragedy. Erik was a really nice guy."

  "Nicer than Manny?" Jake asked.

  "Oh, I didn't mean that," she said with a flush of pink in her cheeks that led Pearce to believe she might have harbored a small crush on Erik. "Erik was different than Manny. More outgoing, more social. Manny likes video games and skateboarding and other stuff that made it hard to have a longer conversation with him. They were just different, that's all."

  Pearce smiled. "We appreciate your time. Thanks for the information about Manny."

  "Yeah, sure, of course," she said.

  Jake led the way back to the car, and they got inside.

  "Think she had a crush on Erik?" Jake asked.

  "Most likely," Pearce replied. "You know where this mall is?"

  "Yeah, it's not far."

  The GameStop was in an upper level near a JCPenney. There were two men looking through video games when they walked in and approached a guy in his early thirties who stood behind a register. His name tag stated he was Steve and the assistant manager.

  "Help you guys?" Steve asked with a smile.

  Pearce showed his badge. "We'd like to speak to Manny Bilton if he's available?"

  Steve went pale, and his eyes widened. "You going to arrest him for something?"

  "Nothing like that," Jake said. "We'd just like to ask some follow-up questions, that's all."

  Steve nodded as understanding dawned. "Oh. About his cousin, probably. Okay, yeah, sure, I can find him for you. I think he's in back."

  Long, quick strides carried Steve to a door behind the register counter, and he disappeared inside.

  Jake smirked at Pearce. "You like freaking people out with that badge of yours, don't you?"

  Pearce lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. "I like to judge their honest reactions when they don't know why we want to talk with people they know."

  "Interesting," Jake said, "and sneaky."

  "Just doing my job."

  A kid in his mid-twenties with shaggy dark hair and a surly expression stepped out of the back room.

  "Are you Manny?" Jake asked.

  "That's what Mom told me all my life," Manny replied. "I don't know anything about Erik. That cool? We done?"

  "How about a little more time?" Pearce asked and looked at Steve who hovered behind Manny. "Think we can get a few minutes with Manny in the back room?"

  "Yeah, sure, of course." Steve waved for them to come around behind the counter.

  Manny huffed out a breath and rolled his eyes but led them into the back room and closed the door. He stood with his arms crossed tight over his chest and looked all around the room but not at either of them.

  "How've you been, Manny?" Jake asked. "You seem nervous."

  "You guys have badges?" Manny asked.

  They showed him their badges, and Manny's eyebrows went up. "FBI? The Detroit blues tossed it off to the feebs?"

  "That's right, it's on us now," Pearce said. "What can you tell us about Erik?"

  Manny's gaze darted around the room. "Everyone liked him. They're all really sad he's gone."

  "How about you, Manny?" Jake asked. "Are you sad he's gone?"

  "Yeah, I mean, we were cousins, right? But we were closer than that. It was almost like we were brothers cuz our moms lived down the street from each other."

  "Was Erik acting any differently the days before he died?" Pearce asked.

  Manny made a face, looked at Pearce, then away again. "Differently? Like how?"

  "Nervous? Maybe upset about something someone had said, or someone he'd noticed following him."

  "No, man, nothing like that." Manny met Pearce's gaze and frowned. "Which of you is which again?"

  "I'm Agent Perrin," Jake said, and gestured toward Pearce. "He's Agent Pearce."

  Manny grinned and looked between them, finally focusing on Pearce. "Pearce and Perrin. You guys could be a Southern rock band. Or a law firm."

  "Yeah, so about Erik?" Pearce prompted.

  "Like I said, he was fine. He'd come home from work and go to that community center and work some more. In between, we played video games, and on occasion, he'd go out to the bars with me to try to meet a guy."

  "You both gay?" Pearce asked.

  Manny frowned. "You allowed to ask that? Isn't that, like, privileged information or something?"

  "Just asking a question with no judgment, that's all," Pearce replied.

  "Yeah, well, I think for any more questions I should have my lawyer present."

  "You're not being charged with any crime, Mr. Bilton," Jake said. "We're just following up on your cousin's murder. We thought, since you lived with him and saw him more than anyone else, you might have some further insights now that a few weeks have gone by."

  Manny slowly shook his head as he stared at the floor and his expression turned sad. "No, man. Nothing else comes to mind. He was there one day, then gone the next."

  Pearce nodded and handed over his card. "If you think of anything, any single thing at all, give one of us a call."

  Jake passed Manny his own card, and they stepped out of the back room. Steve smiled nervously at them from behind the register, and Pearce nodded to him.

  "He didn't clock out," Pearce said. "Sorry about that."

  "Oh, no worries," Steve said with a nervous laugh. "He was due for a break anyway."

  Jake waited until they were out in the
mall to chuckle. "You're a sassy motherfucker, you know that?"

  Pearce grinned. "Yeah, so I've been told."

  "So what did you think?" Jake asked.

  "Manny needs to lay off the caffeine and the video games for a while," Pearce said. "And we're back to square one."

  "Yeah, good ol' square one." Jake looked over the railing. "Hey, Orange Julius. You want one? My treat."

  "What are you, twelve?" Pearce asked with a frown.

  "Dude, seriously?" Jake looked hurt. "It's Orange Julius. Come on, after talking with Manny, the ADD King, I think we both deserve a treat."

  Pearce shook his head and waved for Jake to precede him. "Lead the way. And after that, you can tell me about the middle-school play you're starring in."

  "I rocked that play," Jake said with a grin. "I rocked it hard."

  "No doubt," Pearce said.

  As he followed Jake to the escalator, Pearce looked back toward GameStop, expecting to see Manny Bilton watching them, but he wasn't in the entrance. He'd probably seen something shiny right after they'd left and gone off in pursuit of it.

  9

  Pearce grunted as the car thumped over another batch of potholes.

  "Sorry," Jake said.

  "What the fuck is up with these roads?" Pearce asked.

  "No budget to fix them," Jake replied.

  "How do people keep their cars operational with this kind of bullshit?" Pearce groused.

  "I think it's a ploy by the Big Three automakers to get people to trade in their beat-up cars for new ones."

  Pearce cursed as they hit a particularly deep pothole. "This is brutal."

  "Glad this is a company car," Jake said. "Hey, check our location. We should be getting close."

  Pearce unlocked his phone and checked the map app. "We are close. Looks like another three blocks or so."

  They'd spent a good portion of the weekend reading through the autopsy reports as well as giving the case files a thorough second review. Saturday evening, after parting ways with Jake in the Bureau parking garage, Pearce had driven his rental car past each of the body discovery sites. He'd wanted to get a feel for the locations and, as much as he hated to do it, try to get inside Morgan's head. The sites were each secluded but not so far from a well-traveled area that the body would remain undiscovered. Morgan had definitely wanted the bodies to be discovered and his notes to find their way to Pearce.