by Jerry Cole
Andrew gave his laptop one last look and sighed. He wanted to get this scene completed before he went to the gym. He didn’t like leaving things unfinished.
Andrew sat down and got rid of the screen saver. Then he saw a message flashing up in the bottom corner. It was from his social media page. Curious, Andrew clicked on it and the page came up on the screen. Now he could see the sender and the message in its entirety.
And what he saw made Andrew’s heart sink.
“Oh, shit.”
Not now. He couldn’t be doing it again. Could he?
***
Lee finished his soda can and crushed it, tossing into the back of the jeep. Then he belched as the bubbles brewed in his chest. Kirsty lowered her camera and scowled at him.
“For fuck’s sake, Lee, do you need to keep doing that?”
“Sorry.” Lee checked his cell phone and put it away before reaching for the binoculars on the dashboard. “It’s the bubbles. It’s not intentional.”
“From the amount you drink, I beg to differ.” Kirsty grumbled. She patted the water bottle in the holder between them. “You should stick to fruity water. Tastes good and no belching.”
“I prefer my soda.”
Kirsty snorted. She complained about a lot of things, but it always came down to banter. Lee could put up with that. Kirsty was a good working partner and they got on well together. The two of them could bounce off each other. Their working relationship was strong, even when Kirsty complained about Lee’s messiness and his refusal to stop drinking soda like it was water.
Lee made a mental note to clear the car of his trash when they got back. He did treat it like a pigsty, and Kirsty didn’t like it. It was the least he could do.
At the end of the street, a car turned in and cruised along the road. Kirsty sat up and started taking pictures. Lee looked through the binoculars. This was looking like their client’s daughter-in-law. She had come to them with the strong believe that her son’s wife was cheating on him, and she wanted proof to show her son as he didn’t believe her. Lee wanted to tell the woman to butt out of his son’s marriage, but it wasn’t his place to say. And she was paying them handsomely.
Hopefully, they could prove that something was going on. After following the daughter-in-law around for the past week, Lee and Kirsty had come up with nothing. There was something going on, they were sure about it, but everything seemed perfectly innocent. Fingers crossed; something would happen tonight. Lee would like to spend a night in his own bed and not in the car.
The car pulled into the driveway and two women got out. The driver was the daughter-in-law, a petite and pretty blonde with big breasts. Her passenger was about the same age with long dark hair, and slim. She looked like she spent her days on the treadmill. The two of them went up to the front door, their laughter reaching Lee’s ears, and they went inside.
Just a couple of friends having an evening in. Nothing much to report. Then Lee saw them go into the living room. Neither woman closed the curtains. Mainly because they were all over each other. Kissing with their hands cupping breasts, buttocks and stroking the other woman’s hair. Lee found himself staring. Of all the things he had been expecting, this wasn’t it.
“Whoa.” Kirsty whistled. Her finger kept pressing the button on her camera as she took pictures. “This is a surprising turn-up.”
“You’ve got that right.” Lee lowered his binoculars and shook his head. “I never pegged her for a lesbian.”
“Maybe she’s bisexual.” Kirsty said. “And haven’t they heard about drawing curtains?”
“More pictures for us.”
“Pervert.” Kirsty muttered.
But she kept on taking pictures. Now the women had fallen onto the couch, taking off each other’s clothes. Lee found himself staring at their breasts, barely covered by their bras, and felt nothing. He had discovered some years back that he could watch scenes like this from afar and not get turned on. Helped to stay objective.
But it was a bitch on his private life. Lee had been finding that women weren’t arousing him at all. They tried, they really did, but Lee couldn’t bring himself to want to fuck them. The women flounced off angry, blaming Lee for everything.
Maybe it was his fault. Maybe there wasn’t enough spice in his life.
Or maybe there was another reason. Lee had been thinking about it over the last five years. Ever since meeting Andrew Chase. Now Lee was reassessing everything about his life. Did he prefer men? Lee hadn’t thought about it before, and just thought that he had a specific type of woman he wanted. Maybe that was the reason?
It was certainly easy to find Andrew attractive. At eighteen, he had been slim, a little shorter than Lee, with a smile that made Lee sit up and notice. The teenager had touched something inside Lee and that had made him uncomfortable at the time. Andrew had only just turned eighteen. Barely legal. That had made Lee feel like a pervert.
But then they kept in touch after Lee dealt with Andrew’s case. And Andrew grew up. Filled out with solid muscle. Now, five years later, he was better-looking than ever, and Lee had found himself unable to take his eyes off the young man.
They met up regularly, as friends, for takeout at Andrew’s place and play video games, or go to a sports event together. Their camaraderie was strong, and Lee could feel the tension build. He wanted to touch Andrew more than just a friend.
Maybe that was what he had been looking for. Someone, anyone, who could make him want to curl up in bed with them and not let them out for a while. It had been a while since Lee had felt like that.
“What are you up to later?”
“Huh?” Lee jumped, fumbling with his binoculars. He blinked at Kirsty, who was watching him curiously. “What was that?”
“What are you up to later once we’ve finished here?”
“At this time of night, we’ll be lucky to do anything.” Lee snorted. “Are you that desperate for a date that you’re asking me out?”
Kirsty rolled her eyes. It was dark in the car, but Lee was sure her cheeks had gone red.
“Come on, Lee, we’re partners. I’m just trying to keep a conversation going.”
“Right.” Lee left it at that. He checked his phone again and saw the time. Not too late. “Providing we get to leave in good time, I’ll ask Andrew if he wants me to bring some takeout to his place. Knowing him, he’s probably not eaten all day.”
Whenever Andrew got engrossed in his work, he barely noticed anyone around him. Or noticed that his stomach was growling. Lee had been urging Andrew to get into a decent schedule where he could get some exercise and eat properly, but Andrew found it difficult to move from his own rigid timeline. It was slow progress.
“Oh.”
Kirsty sounded a little put out. Lee frowned. Had she expected him to ask her out himself? He hadn’t realized she considered him someone to date, seeing as they worked together.
“What?”
“I didn’t realize you two were dating.”
Now it was Lee’s turn to feel uncomfortable.
“I wouldn’t call them dates, as such. We haven’t made anything official. We’re just friends meeting up a lot. That’s it.”
“Sounds like a date to me.” Kirsty grunted. “And it sounds like you’ve made your mind up about it.”
Lee wasn’t sure about that. From the outside, it had to look like two friends enjoying each other’s company. And if Andrew wanted it to progress to something else, Lee could go with that. If he didn’t suggest it himself.
But Andrew was inexperienced, and Lee was only just coming to terms with his sexuality. Not exactly the best combination.
“Look.” Kirsty raised her camera again as another car turned into the street. “That’s the husband’s car. He’s not supposed to be back yet. His mother said he was coming home tomorrow.”
“Maybe he decided to come back early.”
Lee raised the binoculars and watched as the car pulled in beside the first one and the driver, a tall muscular
man with blond hair, climbed out. He strolled up to the house with a briefcase in one hand, looking at his cell phone. Lee looked in through the windows. The wife and her girlfriend were now completely naked, the wife’s head buried in the other woman’s pussy.
Shit, this was going to be one hell of a showdown.
Lee felt his heart rate pick up as the two women stopped what they were doing and turned towards the door, out of sight of their car. Then the husband came into view, the briefcase nowhere in sight and shrugging out of his jacket. Neither woman made to cover themselves or scramble away as he approached them. There were some words exchanged, but nobody looked angry. If anything, the husband looked slightly amused. His wife smiled and rose to her feet, wrapping her arms around his waist before they kissed. Then Lee stared as the girlfriend stood and joined them, the husband turning to kiss her.
They were all in on this?
“Am I really seeing this?” Kirsty sounded like she was in a daze.
“Yep, you’re seeing this.”
Lee couldn’t stop himself from watching as the two women dressed the husband, tossing his clothes aside. Then the husband sat on the couch, his very large cock standing up proudly, and both women knelt in front of him. They started to lick his cock together.
This was something Lee had not expected at all. He could hardly believe his eyes.
“Well.” Kirsty lowered her camera. She still looked dazed. “I think I’m going to have the guy who develops this film complaining about pornography if I take anymore pictures.”
“You don’t want any for your collection?” Lee teased.
“That’s not funny.” Kirsty sat back and shook her head. “I doubt that the client’s going to be impressed with this. She was adamant that her daughter-in-law was cheating, not that both are involved with the same woman.”
“Well, it’s your case.” Lee grinned. “You get the pleasure of telling her.”
“Gee, thanks. I love you, too.”
Lee laughed. Then his cell phone started ringing. Normally, Lee would put it on silent, but he had been in a rush and with remembering everything they needed for this surveillance job, he had forgotten. Now it was lighting up with a familiar name.
Andrew. Lee’s heart missed a beat. He hadn’t spoken to Andrew for a few days due to the current case. Andrew had mentioned getting involved heavily with his book and wouldn’t want to be disturbed anyway. With the way they talked to each other, it did feel like they were in a relationship.
Maybe Lee needed to address this. They weren’t going to tiptoe around it forever.
“Give me a moment.” Lee started to get out of the car. “I need to take this.”
“I thought you said we shouldn’t draw attention to ourselves.” Kirsty hissed.
“Yeah, yeah.” Lee nodded towards the house with a grin. “From the look of it, considering those three haven’t noticed they’ve not closed the curtains, I don’t think they’re going to notice me.”
They certainly weren’t paying attention. The wife was now lying along the couch with her girlfriend eating her pussy, her husband fucking the girlfriend from behind. Lee could only begin to think what they were moaning inside. Kirsty was certainly going to be getting an eyeful.
Heading into the shadows, hidden by a hedge separating two properties, Lee answered his phone.
“Hey, Andrew.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m working right now. What’s up?”
“Robert’s come back.”
That was enough for Lee to straighten up. Robert Hodgson’s profile had come back? How was that even possible? Its creator was in jail.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. He sent me a message.” Andrew was sounding panicked. “He’s back, Lee. He’s back.”
Not again. Lee remembered the last time. The vicious messages, pretending to be Andrew and misleading everyone. The time he spent tracking that boy down and coming face-to-face with the most remorseless person Lee had ever encountered.
Lee glanced back at Kirsty. They were done for now. She could develop the photographs back at the office. Lee had something more important to deal with.
“Where do you want to meet?”
Chapter Two
Andrew had thought about going to a nearby restaurant so they could talk but decided against it. He had already received several messages from former classmates and also complete strangers who thought he was the one sending disgusting messages to everyone. Andrew wanted to protest and say it wasn’t him, but there was no guarantee that anyone would listen. They hadn’t before. So, he simply blocked them and braced himself for the next message to come in.
Going out when he wasn’t sure who had received a fake message from the fake profile was not an option for him. Andrew didn’t want to spend his time looking over his shoulders.
So, instead, he paced around his living room, waiting for Lee to arrive. He hated to rely on Lee for help on this, but the man had helped him before. He had found the catfish, and had helped to put the man - boy, at that time - behind bars. If anyone knew what to do, it would be Lee. The man was level-headed, a calming influence when Andrew needed him.
It was remarkable how much Andrew had come to rely on the private investigator.
There was a knock at the door that made Andrew jump. Then he froze, listening. There was no proper security in his apartment building and the swipe card wasn’t working, so anyone could walk in. That could be someone who wanted to hurt him on the other side.
“Andrew? It’s Lee. Can I come in?”
Andrew sagged. Thank God for that. He hurried to the door and opened it. Lee stood there, shaking the rain from his hair. It dripped off his coat and onto the floor. Even soaking wet, the man looked like he had walked off the pages of a GQ magazine.
Andrew swallowed as his pulse quickened. There had to be a law against private investigators looking that good.
“Hey.” Andrew beckoned him inside and shut the door. There didn’t seem to be anyone in the hallway watching them, thankfully. “I’m sorry to bother you. I know you’re working.”
“It’s fine, we’re practically done for the night.” Lee shrugged out of his coat and hung it up. “Kirsty’s finishing up with some photographs. That doesn’t need two of us.”
“Oh?” Andrew tried to focus on the conversation and not the bare flesh of skin as Lee stretched his arms above his head, his sweater and shirt riding up. “Anything...interesting?”
“Just another supposed cheating spouse.”
“Supposed?”
Lee shrugged. Then he rolled his shoulder, cricking his neck.
“It’s a little too complicated to explain right now. Once it’s wrapped up, I’ll tell you everything.”
“Right.”
He really needed to concentrate. But it wasn’t easy. Lee wasn’t the most well-dressed person in the world; he had the rumpled, tired look and preferred simple styles. And it just made him even more attractive. Andrew had been drawn to him when they first met, and the intensity of his attraction towards the private eye had simply grown over the years.
If only he was brave enough to approach Lee for anything more. But that fear of rejection was always there. And it made Andrew shy away.
“Right.” Lee took Andrew’s arm and led him into the living room. Then he made Andrew sit on the couch, standing over him. “You need to talk to me, Andrew. When you said he’s back, do you mean Joseph?”
“Yes, as his persona Robert Hodgson.” Before he changed the name to Andrew Chase. “I got a message from him two hours ago.”
“On your laptop?”
Andrew nodded. Lee went over to the desk and inspected the original message. Andrew saw his features tighten, his mouth hardening into a thin line.
“‘Hey faggot, remember me?’ Charming, nice to know he’s not lost his touch with getting attention.” Lee straightened up. “But are you sure it’s him, Andrew?”
“What?” Andrew shot to his feet. “You
don’t believe me?”
“Of course I do.”
“It didn’t sound like it.”
“That’s because I have to approach it from every angle. I can’t go in with one specific direction and not consider all the possibilities.” Lee sighed and folded his arms. “It’s been five years since we confronted Joseph Gulliver, four since he went to jail.”
“But it’s the same profile and everything!” Andrew protested. “And it looks like he never completely closed down the account.”
“I thought one of his other victims got onto his account and deleted it.”
“Then he must have started up another one.”
Andrew nudged Lee aside sharply with his shoulder and brought up the other messages that had been pinging over and over on his social media page. There were twelve more since he last checked it fifteen minutes before.
“And he’s back with a vengeance.” Andrew said grimly. “I’m already getting messages from my old classmates as well as from complete strangers. They’re not very complimentary, let’s put it that way.”
Lee snorted.
“Are these the same ones who were taken in last time? I thought it was all laid to rest when it was broadcast on the news. How does someone not realize they’re being a dick?”
“They must have thought it was just a stunt to get me out of it.” Andrew sank into his chair. “I overheard the football jocks. They thought I made someone else take the fall and falsely accused him.”
That had hurt. A lot. Andrew hadn’t been comfortable with school, but he wanted to go through relatively liked. Before all of this happened, he didn’t do anything that could upset anyone. Andrew didn’t want to be popular, but he wanted to be liked. That had gone right out of the window with this fake profile. He had been beaten, verbally abused and isolated as if he were stricken with a contagious disease. It had made Andrew’s high school days very miserable.
That was not something Andrew wanted to relive.
“You went to school with some really shitty people.” Lee commented.
“Tell me about it.” Andrew found himself bouncing the back of his chair back and forth at a quick rate. In his mind, swivel chairs were not meant to be simply sat on. “It has to be Joseph. He showed absolutely no remorse for the havoc he had created. There was no apology, not even when his mother got involved, and he was more than happy to do it again if he was given the chance.”