by J. M. Hall
“The offer still stands,” I said. “Lunch. Anywhere in town. On me.”
“Why are you doing this?” he said. “Why can’t you just leave me alone?”
“Because your uncle is worried about you, and it’s my job to make sure you get out of this in one piece.”
“I thought you worked for the Academy?”
“I let them think that,” I said. “But in reality, Bobby came to me for one reason -- and that’s you.”
“I’m not hungry. We can go back to my place. My parents aren’t home; we’ll be alone there.”
“Look, I didn’t mean to be such a dick back there. Why don’t we just--?”
“I need you to be quiet,” Drake said. “Come with me. There’s something you need to know.”
* * *
Drake opened the back door of his house and welcomed me into the kitchen. The home was nice -- not a flashy McMansion but certainly no shack, either. Craftsman décor, along with modern appliances and a pretty healthy wine collection.
“Bobby told me your father is quite the sommelier.”
“Huh?” Drake said.
“Your father’s into wine.”
“Yeah, I guess you can say that. He’s not, like, a drunk though.”
I thought of whether or not I should text Kurt, let him know that Drake had something pertaining to the case that he wanted to show me. I decided not to, at least for now. The fact that Drake trusted me with something so private shouldn’t be taken lightly.
We went up the stairs and into his bedroom. He sat down at his desk, turned on the twenty-inch iMac and launched his web browser. A few keystrokes and mouse clicks later, he arrived at the photo in question -- one that showed Simone kissing another man.
“Do you know who he is?” Drake asked me.
“No, I don’t. When was this taken?”
“Yesterday, in the village. I wanted to see Simone, thought that maybe we could sneak off together like we used to. But then, I see her with him…”
The photo was taken right at the entrance of the village, a high-traffic spot if there ever was one. Simone embraced his mystery man right beneath the borough’s Christmas tree, as if she were posing for a Hallmark card.
“What the hell is she doing with him?” Drake said. “I mean, I know she’s making out with this guy -- but who is he? And why isn’t she returning my calls or texts?”
Drake was angry, confused, yet I knew exactly what Simone was doing. My presence had probably spooked her enough that she was trying to save face in the eyes of the community. While she couldn’t eliminate the bad press that’d plagued her since the news of her relationship with Drake first broke, she could salvage her long-term reputation. By kissing this guy -- this adult -- she was making herself out to be a respectable adult.
She’d resign on her own accord from the Academy soon. Then, she’d go to a new town, start a new life. Teaching was out of the question, but without any legal conviction, she didn’t have much to fear. Hell, perhaps it would even help her art career if she played her cards right.
“Jesse?” Drake said. “Any thoughts?”
“Drake, the first thing you should know about Simone is that she’s a cold-hearted bitch. She doesn’t care about you. She never did. And this picture proves it.”
“That’s not true,” he said, his voice more of a whimper than a roar. “She wouldn’t do that to me.”
“She already has, Drake.”
He didn’t have a response. After turning off the computer, he opened his closet and opened a small compartment that was imbedded into the wall -- the secret hiding place where he kept the drugs Simone had given him.
“It’s all here,” he said. “Weed, some pills, even a bit of coke.”
“Christ,” I said. “All right, so you’re admitting that Simone gave you all of this?”
“Yes.”
“And you would testify to that in court if necessary?”
He nodded. “There’s other stuff, too.”
“More drugs?”
“No, I mean…” He went back to his desk and started his computer again. After sifting through a few password-protected folders, he unveiled a treasure trove of what could only be described as child pornography in the eyes of the law. Photo after photo of himself, naked as a newborn baby, in what I assumed was Simone’s bed.
“I’ve seen enough,” I said. “Please close it.”
“She took all of these,” Drake added. “She told me not to tell anyone. They’re on her computer, too. But I have some copies for myself.”
My mind couldn’t help but drift back to the time when Bobby had taken photos and video of me. Had he destroyed them after we’d parted ways? Were they still on his computer, his phone -- or even worse, on the cloud?
“Jesse?”
“Sorry,” I said. “Listen, we need to do a few things. First, I want you to flush those drugs down the toilet. Every last one of them. After that, you need to talk with your parents and tell them everything you told me.”
“No!”
“Drake, what Simone did with you breaks around half a dozen laws in the state of Pennsylvania. Without you testifying in court…”
“I don’t want to go to court. I don’t want to do anything. I just want this shit to be over with. Can you do that?”
“What do you mean, ‘over with?’”
“You said Simone’s going to just cut her losses and leave, right?” He pointed at his computer and added: “Tell her that if she doesn’t resign, I’ll go to the cops and tell them everything. So she can either get the hell out of New Hope now, or spend another ten years in a goddamn jail cell.”
Drake’s face was red with fury, and it wasn’t hard to understand why. He’d given himself to Simone, truly believing that they were going to be together till the end. When he saw how quickly she’d tossed him -- how quickly she’d chosen herself over them as a couple -- she might as well put a dagger right through his heart.
Bobby was right when he said he’s nothing like her.
“I’m not leaving until you flush the drugs,” I said. “You’re too young to be doing that shit, and I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that addiction runs in your family.”
“Yeah,” Drake said. “Dad always says that, too.”
I walked him into the bathroom and watched as he flushed every single pill down the toilet, then did the same with the marijuana and cocaine. He promised me there was nothing left -- that Simone had only given him small amounts that he would either sell to other kids around town or use himself.
“I only smoked the weed,” he added. “I tried the coke once, but all it did was make me angry.”
“I take it the pills and cocaine were Simone’s thing, then?”
“She used to do them before we had sex.”
Fucking on cocaine, I thought. Even I don’t do that, and I’m a prostitute.
“Do yourself a favor and delete the photos and video, too.”
“Why?”
“Drake, you’re only seventeen. In the eyes of the law, you’re still a minor. It’s illegal to have photos or videos of minors having sex. So, technically speaking, you’re guilty of possessing child pornography.”
“What? That’s bullshit. The photos are of me.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I explained. “The law is very black and white in that regard. There’s even an episode of Law & Order SVU about it.”
“Really?”
“Probably,” I said. “Just please do as I say, all right?”
Drake gave me an adolescent scoff before he returned to his computer and dumped folder after folder in the trash. While he continued, I stepped out into the hallway and called Kurt on his cell phone, audibly sighing with relief when he picked up.
“Please tell me that was a sigh of relief,” he said.
“We’ve got Drake. He’s willing to go on record regarding everything Simone did.”
“What…!”
“I’ll explain later, but for right no
w, just tell the Academy to prepare one last offer: either she resigns on her own accord or I will come forward with concrete proof that she was having sex with Drake. And giving him drugs.”
“Jesus.”
“It’s gets worse. She took photos and videos of them having sex.”
“What the fuck…!”
“My sentiments exactly,” I said. “I’ll meet you back in town soon.”
I hung up and returned to Drake’s side. He was about to delete one last folder, then asked if he could keep it.
“Why?” I asked. “Is it something important?”
“It’s the first time Simone and I had sex,” he said. “I… I just don’t want to delete it just yet. The cops aren’t going to arrest me, are they?”
“No,” I said. “No, they’re not.” Truth be told, I could use the evidence against Simone, to further incentivize her to get the hell out of Drake’s life for good. With all the files being password-protected, there wasn’t much of a risk, assuming he hadn’t shared any of them online.
“Please tell me you and Simone are the only ones that have seen these. You didn’t email them to anyone? Or upload them to Dropbox or Google Docs?”
“No, of course not!”
“All right, don’t get defensive.”
“Well then stop asking so many crazy questions.”
Though progress had been made on the case, dealing with Drake was giving me a pounding headache. Perhaps I should have asked him to keep some of the marijuana?
“So what now?” he asked.
“I’m going to meet Kurt, my boss, back in town. We’ll connect with Bobby, and eventually speak with the Academy as well. When are your parents coming home?”
“Probably not until after dinner,” Drake said. “Around eight or nine?”
“Okay -- we’ll speak with them tomorrow. Once everything’s been settled.”
“Do you really think Simone will just pick up and leave?” Drake asked. “I mean, she didn’t want to leave before. So what makes now any different?”
“Because now we have concrete evidence that she had sex with a minor while employed as a teacher, which is a felony in the state of Pennsylvania. Combine that with drug possession, corruption of a minor and slew of other charges, and she’d be a moron not to leave.”
“I don’t want her in jail,” Drake said. “Just… make her leave.”
“Relax, buddy. Like I said before: The Academy might sign my check, but Bobby brought me here for you. You’re my real client. Not them. And if you want Simone out of your life, then that’s exactly what I plan to do.”
Drake seemed satisfied, more at ease. Against all odds, I accomplished what Bobby and hired me to do: come back home and rescue his nephew from what could have been a life-ruining experience. Cocky as she was, not even Simone could keep her cool in the face of such damning evidence. She’d resign and get out of Drake’s life forever.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you,” Drake said. “I probably should have done it sooner, but…”
“It’s okay,” I said. “What is it?”
“I told Simone about you and Uncle Bobby. That’s how she knew. That’s why I was so sure that you wouldn’t go through with all of this -- that if I ignored you long enough, you’d just go away.”
“Trust me, Drake. I definitely thought about it. But that wasn’t what I was hired to do. Despite what you may think, your uncle cares about you very, very much.” I paused, wondered how much detail I should give him about what Bobby and I had done back when I was teenager. “The same can’t be said for Simone.”
“How can you be so sure?” Drake asked.
“I know her type. I don’t mean to be cruel when I say this, but you weren’t important to her. You were a conquest, something she used to make herself feel better about herself.”
“Don’t say that.”
“You know I’m right, Drake. Even you can see it now.”
He let out a tired, defeated sigh and collapsed onto the bed. He lay there, flat on his back, staring up at the bedroom ceiling. I recognized the look on his face, one of adolescent defeat. He didn’t do or say anything -- the complete opposite of the fight he’d been putting up just days before.
After a lot of hard work, I’d finally accomplished what I’d been hired to do. Drake was no longer in love with Simone. Soon enough, she’d leave the Academy for good. And with that, everyone could begin to put this so-called “scandal” behind us.
“So, what now?” Drake asked. “You just gonna stand there for the rest of the afternoon looking at me?”
“That would be kind of creepy, wouldn’t it?”
He nodded. “You can show yourself out, you know.”
“Not until you do what I asked for.” I gathered the Ziploc bags full of pills and coke and God knows what else. “Come on, I’ll help you do it. Every last controlled substance is going down the drain.”
We moved into the bathroom and sprinkled the contents of each bag into the toilet. A quick flush of the toilet, and all of the pills and powder swirled in the bowl and disappeared out of our lives.
Of course, I knew better than to think everything was over. There was no way of telling whether or not Drake was addicted to any of the drugs, or if he would suddenly change his mind and seek out Simone for drugs or sex or God knows what else. Fewer things were more volatile than an adolescent’s temperament.
“So, what now?” Drake asked. “Are you going to tell my parents?”
“No,” I said. “No, that wouldn’t accomplish anything. For right now, I just need you to stay away from Simone. In fact, just lay low in general.”
“Why? What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to meet with my boss, then Bobby. After that, I’m going to formulate a plan to get Simone out of your life forever.”
“Can you really do that?”
I shrugged and said, “It’s what I do.”
Chapter 27
“Jesse, please,” Kurt said. “Join the firm full-time in the New Year.”
Kurt all but pleaded with me to leave escorting behind and become a permanent member of Victory & Associates in January. If this latest case was any indication, I was even better at my job than he thought. According to him, what I did best was dive headfirst into a crisis and figure out a way to solve it. There wasn’t a price tag on that kind of skill -- and he promised to compensate me appropriately.
“I’ll think about it,” I said. “Just give me some time.”
Before he could continue making his case, Bobby arrived at the Italian restaurant where we were having dinner. Kurt visibly recoiled at his presence. Seemed he didn’t like the fact that Bobby had sex with me when I was a seventeen-year-old student.
“Thanks for making it on such short notice,” I said to Bobby. “Like I said on the phone, we have good news. I got Drake on our side this afternoon.”
“Yes, he called me,” Bobby said. “I don’t know what you did, but…”
“Did he go into specifics?”
Bobby shook his head, saying that Drake merely told him that he wanted nothing to do with Simone after he’d seen her kissing another man. Kurt and I exchanged a nervous glance, at which point I said I needed to speak with Bobby outside -- alone.
“What is it?” Bobby asked.
“Just come with me,” I said. “Kurt, hold down the fort while we’re gone?”
“You got it.”
I took Bobby outside and found a quiet corner to talk. His blue eyes were wrought with worry, and he had every reason to be concerned -- because now, I had to tell him what Simone had done to his nephew in graphic, unflinching detail.
“She gave him drugs,” I said. “Weed, coke, prescription meds. But Drake told me that he didn’t do anything except smoke marijuana. He sold the rest.”
Bobby shut his eyes and shuddered. “Please tell me that’s the end of it.”
“Simone took photos and video of him, too. While they were… you know.”
“I stopped him before I saw anything I didn’t want to see,” I said. “But yes, it seems Simone wanted to capture the moment.”
Bobby looked as if he might throw up at any moment. His face paled, and even in the midst of a winter night, sweat glistened across his cheeks and forehead. He took a few steps and gathered himself, then turned back to ask me one last question.
“You don’t think she sold them, do you?”
“The photos and video? What would make you think that?”
“She’s a failed artist, Jesse. And let’s face it, there has to be a market for… pictures… of a teenage boy.”
Bobby had me stumped. As perverse as the idea of taping a teenager having sex was, selling it to creeps around the world was even worse. How much could Simone get for that kind of thing? Hundreds, perhaps even thousands of dollars?
“Let’s focus on the important part,” I said. “We have evidence now, along with Drake’s confession. That’s enough.”
“It still doesn’t change anything,” Bobby said. “It doesn’t change--!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Back in New York? When you called me a hypocrite? You were right, Jesse. Here I am condemning Simone when you and I did the same exact thing.”
“That’s not true,” I countered. “You never drugged me, for one. Nor were you sleeping with me as a way to make up for feeling like a failure in your career.”
For years, I’d been haunted by the idea of what Bobby and I did together. The sex, the intimacy -- the idea that at the age of seventeen, I really believed I was going to be with him for the rest of my life.
“I’ve been thinking a lot lately, about what we had together all those years ago,” I said. “I used to think that you crossed a line. That you did something that no teacher should ever do with a student.”
“Jesse, I was wrong. I have no excuse for what I did. Only the fact that I wanted to be with you.”
“That’s just it,” I said. Seeing Simone today, seeing how quickly she dropped Drake to save her own skin, it made me realize you really are nothing like her. Not at all. You were ready to give up everything so we could be together, weren’t you?”