I was also helping a murderer get a lighter sentence. It had become my job to be on the wrong side of things. “Look I’m going to tell you a couple of things I shouldn’t. They’re not playing by the book. They’re trying to hang something on Jimmy that he didn’t do.”
“And you know this because?”
“Because this afternoon I talked to someone they want to use as a witness. Someone they want to feed testimony to.”
“I can’t worry about that. If I did everything by the book I wouldn’t be on the phone with you, would I? Sometimes doing the wrong thing is the right thing. You know that Nick.”
“Trying to get people to lie so they can put an old man in prison. That doesn’t feel like the right thing.”
“He’s not an innocent man.”
“I know that. But I think they missed their shot.”
“Maybe, maybe not. All I know is I don’t want to go down to save Jimmy English. And neither do you.” He hung up without saying goodbye.
That complicated things. I’d been enjoying the fact that I had a decent paying job that looked like it might go on for a while. The fact that it could put me in prison didn’t make me happy. I tried calling Owen, but I got the answering service. I glanced at my clock radio and saw that it was twenty after seven. I must have actually fallen asleep without realizing it.
Joseph was going to be there in a few minutes and I needed to put all of this out of my mind. I wasn’t sure I could do that. If he were coming by for a quick fuck I’d be a lot better at putting my thoughts on hold. But he was coming for a date, so I’d have to pay attention and seem not only interested but interesting.
My first impulse was to say, fuck it. Let the task force do whatever they could. But it wasn’t just me they’d be taking down. They’d be taking down Connors, too. And not only had he turned out to be pretty decent to me, he was a good partner and a good friend to Harker. Getting him in trouble had all sorts of wrong written all over it. Maybe Owen would have some suggestions. I was picking up the phone to see if the answering service would page him when there was a knock at the door.
Joseph smiled at me when I answered, and I couldn’t stop myself from smiling back. I was happy to see him. He wore a simple baby blue Oxford shirt, a new pair of jeans, and a windbreaker with a racing stripe down one side. He had a brown paper bag in one hand. I stepped forward, took the bag, and kissed him whether he liked it or not. He jumped a little but then he kissed me back.
“Where should we go for dinner?” I asked. As soon as I asked I felt stupid. He didn’t know the neighborhood. I did. I should have picked out a place.
“There’s a Mexican place on Halsted I want to try. La Mañana… I can’t say it, I’ll just mangle it.”
“La Mañana?” It wasn’t the name but I decided to go with his mispronunciation. “We had Mexican yesterday.”
He shrugged. “I liked it.”
“Okay, La Mañana it is.”
“And we have to hurry, the movie is at nine.”
“What are we seeing?” I asked.
“ Terms of Endearment . It just won all these Oscars. And it’s close.”
“All right.” I kind of liked that he’d made all these decisions. I certainly wasn’t in the mood to be deciding things. Maybe I’d ask him to pick out my dinner for me. Maybe I’d ask him to decide what to do about Connors and the task force, too.
As we walked out of my building, I asked, “How was your counseling session?”
“Tiring.”
“Well, you are struggling for your soul.”
“It would be an easier struggle if I understood what winning meant. What about you? Have you struggled for your soul?”
I almost made a joke about not having a soul, but then I decided to go with a more truthful answer. “Every day.”
“And how was today’s struggle?”
“Bad. I’m in a tough spot. I’m working on a case for someone who’s been kind to me and who’s paying me a lot of money, but if I keep doing that I risk hurting myself and someone else who’s been kind to me, badly, very badly.”
“Can you make a different choice?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You presented the situation in an either-or fashion. I’m asking if there are other options, other possibilities.”
“I’m going to have to think about that.”
That settled it. He was choosing my dinner.
We arrived at the restaurant. It was a narrow storefront on the corner of Halsted and Brompton. Inside, there were only about ten tables. The walls were plastered white and hung with sombreros. We ordered a couple of big slushy margaritas and munched on chips while we talked. Joseph asked how I became a private investigator, which led to my telling the story of Daniel and the bashing and how I left the CPD. I tried not to bring up Harker, though there was, eventually, something of an overlap. I decided one depressing story was enough for the evening. Somewhere along the line I made Joseph order; he chose the chicken mole for me and adventurously picked the fish special for himself. The food arrived and I had a very odd revelation.
“This is a normal date, isn’t it?”
“Of course it’s a normal date,” Joseph said. “What other kinds are there?”
“I don’t really do this.”
“You don’t do this? But you’ve had relationships. How did you get into them?”
“Well…it’s kind of sex first, talk later. I mean, I dated women when I was in the closet. In fact, I dated Daniel’s sister. He came over to tell me that she was seeing someone else and the two of us ended up in bed. Eventually, we did things like having dinner and seeing movies but that’s not how it started.”
“And with Bert?”
“I met him on a case I was working. I had a broken leg, he came over to see how I was doing and we ended up…”
“I’m sensing a theme. Both relationships started with the other guy coming over to your place and having sex.”
“It’s a good thing I’m homeless then…”
“Getting into another relationship would be a bad thing?” he asked.
“Relationships are challenging. Even when they’re good.”
“You don’t strike me as the kind of guy who likes to take the easy way out of anything.” He threw the statement out like it was a gauntlet.
Later, as we walked down to The Broadway Theatre just below Belmont, I turned the tables on him and managed to extract a story about his seminary days when he fell in love with one of the other students. Nothing much happened between them except for angst and longing and guilt. It would have been a better story with some real sex.
“Would you have done something if he’d been willing?” I asked.
“Yes, of course. I loved him.”
“Why did you stay then? Why become a priest? If you knew that about yourself?”
“I didn’t know that it was something about me. I thought it was the two of us. I didn’t know it would ever happen again.”
We were silent for a moment. The implication was that it was happening again, and with me. I wondered for a moment if I should do something about that—like jump out of the ticket line and run away. But I knew I wanted to fuck him. After that, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with him. And the only way to figure that out was to hang around.
The Broadway Theatre was a second-run house built in the twenties, but it wasn’t one of the gorgeous theaters like the Chicago Theatre or the Music Box. It didn’t have any interesting embellishments like painted ceilings or ornate moldings. All it had were red velvet curtains and electric lights on the wall that flickered like candles. We picked seats in the back. It was a Wednesday and the movie had been out for a while so it wasn’t crowded. I took my overcoat off and threw it over a seat. I wondered if I should begin wearing a gun again. I didn’t want to. Guns were for killing people and I wasn’t interested in doing that again. But…I was being threatened. Right now they were trying to use the system to take me down. But if th
at didn’t work, what would they do next?
Then something hit me. What exactly had I done? I’d spent weeks reading the files. Files they’d clearly wanted Jimmy’s attorney’s to have. The only two things I’d done outside of that was talk to The Nose Jr. and Jimmy. I could see why they didn’t want me talking to anyone in the Nitti family, didn’t want me to find out they’d tried to coerce testimony. But still, they were awfully quick on the trigger. I’d just been to the Nitti’s that afternoon. Had they been planning something like this for the last month? Waiting until I truly started an investigation? And, if this was what they were willing to do to me, what would they do to Nitti’s son in order to get what they wanted?
Joseph pressed his leg against mine. “You got quiet.”
“Sorry. I was thinking about work.”
“You want to talk about it some more? We could call it confession and then my vow of silence will protect your confidentiality.”
I laughed. “How sweet of you to offer to pervert the rules of your religion for me.”
“Confession is an opportunity to unburden. I always let people talk about whatever bothered them. It wasn’t all sin all the time.”
The lights went down. The previews began. I said, “I just need to think about something else for a while.” And then I slipped my hand into his lap. I half expected him to move my hand away, but he didn’t. I gave him a good squeeze. His dick was already swelling. It seemed like it might be impressively long, if not a bit thin. I imagined it must be very pink to match his skin. I wondered if it was freckled.
The previews were all for movies that were playing elsewhere: a new Tarzan movie, a mermaid movie, something with Jodie Foster. I explored Joseph’s crotch through all of them. He moved his hand to my thigh and caressed it. His breathing grew heavy. A preview played for a new Dudley Moore movie. I didn’t catch the name because I was busy pulling down Joseph’s zipper. He stopped me. He had a point I suppose. This wasn’t the kind of theater where guys did that. Still, I was stubborn.
I took my coat off the back of the seat in front of me and spread it across our laps. Worst-case scenario, if an usher showed up waving a flashlight at us, I could claim that we were cold. Joseph’s eyes followed me as I reached under the coat and went for his zipper again. This time he let me pull it down and slip my hand into his jeans. His dick was fully hard now, as was mine. When I wrapped my hand around him, he moved his hand from my thigh to my crotch. He took hold of me through my jeans.
I was jerking him gently as the movie began. Pulling him out of his pants, I kept stroking, focusing a lot of attention on the tip. He gripped me tighter. I glanced around the theater to make sure no one had noticed what we were doing. There wasn’t anyone near enough to see us in the dark.
From the corner of my eye, I could see Shirley MacLaine trying to climb into a baby’s crib. I leaned over to kiss Joseph. That was even more daring than what I was doing with my hand. Anyone could turn around and see us. But still, I wanted to kiss him, wanted to kiss him while I had his dick in my hand and his hand on mine. He pulled his head back, clearly afraid, but then he leaned back in and kissed me. We explored each other with our tongues, and our hands kept up their business. I could feel his dick getting even harder and thought he might be close to coming. When the lights came up, my first horrible thought was that we’d been caught.
Immediately we separated. Joseph quickly pulled his cock back into his pants. I looked around and saw a slobby, middle-aged guy coming down the aisle. Luckily, he walked right by us. When he was halfway down the aisle he began to speak at the top of his voice, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we need to evacuate the theater as quickly as possible. Please move to the exit closest to you. There’s nothing to worry about. We’ve just had a bomb threat called in. These are always pranks. The police will be here in a few minutes. It should take about twenty minutes for them to examine the theater and then we will restart the feature. In recognition of your patience we will be giving out free popcorn and soda when you return. Once again, please move calmly to the exits.”
Half the theater was empty before he got around to offering us free popcorn. Joseph and I went out through the lobby, since that was our closest exit. Most of the audience was congregating in front of the theater, which was not a good place to stand if there actually were a bomb about to go off. But it seemed no one believed the threat. Certainly, the manager’s speech gave the feeling this happened on a regular basis.
Before the CPD arrived, Joseph asked, “You don’t really want to see the movie, do you?”
“I was enjoying it.”
“You weren’t paying any attention.”
“That doesn’t mean I wasn’t enjoying myself. It’s a comedy, right?”
“Sort of,” he said. “The daughter gets cancer and dies.”
“That sounds hysterical.”
“See, you don’t want to see it.”
I shrugged. “You’re right. After you’ve been through it a couple of times, watching people die isn’t as entertaining as it used to be. We could go back to my office and continue what we were doing.”
“No. I shouldn’t. That was more than I’m ready for.”
“You seemed ready to me.” He frowned at me so I said, “All right. Whatever you want. So, we’ll have another normal date, soon?”
“Yes. I’d like that.”
We stared at each other. It would have been nice to kiss him again, but the street was well lit and crowded.
“So, I’ll catch a cab then,” he said.
“All right.” It felt weird to just leave him there. “Um…so, are you okay with what we did? You don’t need to talk about it?”
“I’m okay.”
“I didn’t push too hard did I?”
“You pushed just fine.” He got a funny smile on his face and said, “I will tell you one thing. I’ll never think of Shirley MacLaine the same way, that’s for sure.”
Then he stepped out into the street to hail a cab.
Chapter Ten
That night I slept like I was drowning in a shallow pool of water. Brian’s couch was too short and too hard, and my mind was too full of bad things. Everything blended into a muddle. Jimmy English knew Madeline’s secret but wouldn’t tell me. Shirley MacLaine was on trial for smothering her daughter in a crib and I was supposed to help her. Someone wanted to hurt me but I couldn’t see who it was. Joseph, Joseph was kissing me, touching me, feeling my cock. Was it Joseph? Or was it, I couldn’t see…
I woke up. The blanket had fallen off me. My prick was hard and sticking out of my boxers. Terry sat on the coffee table just a foot away from me staring at it. I jumped up to a sitting position. Shoved my erection back into my underwear and pulled the blanket up off the floor and across my lap.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“It’s more interesting than morning TV.”
I wrapped the blanket around my waist and walked through the apartment until I got to Brian’s door. I pounded on it, and a moment later Brian and Franklin were standing in front of me half dressed. “I woke up with a woody hanging out of my boxers and Terry was staring at it.”
“But he didn’t touch it?” Brian asked. “I mean, that’s an improvement. Right?”
“What do you mean that’s an improvement?”
Brian shrugged. “He’s crawled into bed with me.”
“What?” Franklin nearly jumped out of his skin.
“I told him to get out of my room,” Brian said.
“You can’t—this is not a safe situation,” Franklin said. I wanted to disagree but I couldn’t. “If anyone found out they’d blame you. And a kid like that could say anything and then where would you be?”
“Nothing’s going on. He’s just confused.”
“I’m standing right here,” Terry said from a few feet down the hall.
“Go back in the living room,” I said. He didn’t budge.
“It doesn’t matter if nothing’s going on,” Franklin
sputtered. “Normal people already think we rape children. Even the suggestion—”
“I’m a normal person,” Brian said.
“You know what I meant.”
“Yeah, you meant straight people are normal and we’re not.”
“That’s not important now. What’s important is that you’re in danger and you’re not seeing it.”
I really hated that Franklin was right. I didn’t like him and preferred that people I didn’t like always be wrong.
“Terry, get dressed. Grab some of your stuff,” I said.
“Oh Nick, I can’t throw him out.”
“You’re not throwing him out. He’s just going on a little vacation.”
“What?” Terry practically screamed. “Where am I going?”
“You’ll see.”
“No. I won’t do it.”
“Yes you will. If you won’t pack your stuff, I’ll do it for you.” Something about my tone of voice must have scared him because he went into his room. I went out to the living room and put on my clothes from the night before. Again the idea that I needed to get my own place crossed my mind. I really did need to do that. And not just because of Terry. Brian and Franklin were arguing in his bedroom. I already knew I didn’t want to be in the middle of their relationship. As arrogant and unpleasant as I thought Franklin was, he did have Brian’s interest at heart so I expected them to get through the nasty fight they were having.
Terry presented himself in the living room wearing his school uniform and carrying a backpack. “I’m not sure you’ll get to school today.”
“That’s one good thing.”
He followed me out of the apartment and down the stairs to the street. My car was a block away and Terry didn’t say a thing until we got there. When we did he informed me, “You’d better not be taking me back to my parents. They’ll just laugh in your face.”
“Don’t worry. I thought up something worse.”
“Worse than my par—” I didn’t hear the rest of what he said, since I’d gotten into the car. I leaned over the passenger seat and unlocked his door. He settled himself in the seat and asked, “How long do I have to be wherever the fuck you’re taking me?”
Boystown 7: Bloodlines Page 9