by xxxxxxxxxxxx
“I have to get back. Jake called. They need me there.”
Hoyt stepped toward him, stopped, and barely whispered, “I need you, too.”
“Right now you think so. In a week you’ll wonder why you did.”
“I see.” Hoyt moved closer. “Do you think I’m…so shallow? Do you think this…this whole…what I feel for you…is just a…? Was just a diversion? Something to take my mind off the murders?” With each sentence Hoyt’s voice got stronger, and angrier. “Is that what it was for you?” His hand fisted.
Teague took a step back, paused, and caught Hoyt’s fist before the man could hit him or pull away. “No. This wasn’t a ‘diversion’ as you put it. I like you. I care about you. In a different time and place, under different circumstances, we might…we probably would have made this work. But this is here and now. You have your life. I have mine. They’re totally different. You know that, damn it!”
“And how we feel about each other doesn’t play into things. Got it.” Hoyt pulled his hand free. “It could have worked, if you…if we were willing to meet halfway. But I guess that’s not going to happen. Go. Get out of here. Go home to the life you think is best for you. Like you said,” he muttered caustically, “in a week this will just be a ‘what might have been’. In a month…” Hoyt walked past Teague to the door. “Have a good trip. Drive safely, and all that crap,” he spat out before going down the hallway to the stairs.
“Wait,” Teague implored.
Hoyt ignored him, making his way down to the ground floor. Teague followed a few steps behind him then watched as, without a backwards glance, Hoyt went into the kitchen.
“It wouldn’t have worked,” Teague barely whispered. Not unless one of us was willing to change. And if one of us did, he’d resent it in the end, which would tear us apart and hurt worse than my leaving now does.
Teague closed the front door gently behind him before going to the car. As he drove away, he felt as if he was leaving a part of himself behind and knew he’d never be whole again. Not unless…And that will never happen.
* * * *
Chapter 14
Teague poured himself into what needed to be done at the agency, dealing with clients, working on some of the cases that needed his input or skills. Anything to keep his mind off of Hoyt and what might have been.
When he came into work Monday morning, a week after leaving Faircrest, he found a message from Captain Davis asking him to call. He did, and once the usual polite opening words were over with, the captain got down to business.
“I finally got to question Mr. Irwin.”
“With a lawyer present?”
“Yes. That didn’t stop Irwin from going on a rant at one point, as hard as the lawyer tried to stop him.”
“Did he confess to killing the boys?”
“Yes and no. Let me read you the part of the transcript where he goes off the deep end.” Teague heard a rustling of papers then the chief came back on the line. “The questioning was done in Irwin’s hospital room. All right. Verbatim.”
Chief Davis: Can you at least explain why you went after street kids?
Attorney Hancock: Don’t answer that Mr. Irwin.
Irwin: I think it’s my choice.
Attorney Hancock: Then why did you hire me?
Irwin: I believe you were appointed, not hired.
Attorney Hancock: Be that as it may, I’m here to keep you from saying anything that might incriminate you.
Irwin (long pause): So if I tell the cop that those punks were the scum of the earth—fags, selling their bodies to the highest bidder. Infecting them with their sickness—that’s going to incriminate me how? It’s the truth God damn it. One of them infected my uncle.
“He was getting angrier, almost fanatical. The more he talked, the worse it got,” Chief Davis said before continuing to read the transcript.
Chief Davis: How do you know this, Mr. Irwin?
Irwin: Ask my father. Oh, that’s right, you can’t. He was killed by…By my bitch of a mother, because he was going to reveal to the world what my uncle did to stop those…those animals. She should have been proud of her brother.
“Whoa,” Teague said. “That’s what he thinks? Based on the letter?”
“I suspect so. He apparently put two and two together, and came to the wrong conclusion, completely ignoring the fact that his father killed Carl Irwin to stop his rampage. There was a bit more before the attorney stopped him.”
Attorney Hancock: Mr. Irwin. I must ask you to be quiet. Chief Davis, it’s obvious that Mr. Irwin is non compos mentis because of the drugs he’s on for the pain from the surgery.
Chief Davis: Not according to his physician, Mr. Hancock. Feel free to check with him if you don’t believe me.
Irwin: This isn’t drugs talking. This is me! Those bastards need to be—
Attorney Hancock: Mr. Irwin. I must insist you stop talking. Chief Davis, I would like a few moments alone with my client.
“And that was it,” the chief said. “The lawyer got his time with Irwin and after that Irwin refused to say another word.”
“Unfortunately, despite his ranting, nothing he said could be used as a confession in a court of law. Right?”
“Probably. The city attorney hasn’t said one way or the other so far.”
“Not that it matters I suppose. Irwin will at least face attempted murder charges. And if the prosecuting attorney knows what he’s doing, he might be able to bring a case against Irwin for the other two murders based on their similarity to what he started to do to Keir.”
“One can hope so. All right, unless you have any questions, I should let you go.”
Teague knew exactly what the chief was implying, but he wasn’t going to ask about Hoyt no matter how much he wanted to know how he was doing. I can’t…I don’t think I can deal with it if I hear he’s gotten worse, or isn’t handling my leaving well. “No, no questions,” Teague replied. “Thank you for letting me know about Irwin. I’m sure when he goes to trial Keir and I will be called as witnesses.”
“You will be. But lawyers and the court system being what they are, that could be a long time down the road. Especially if his lawyer knows what he’s doing.”
“True enough. All right. I’m sure we’ll talk again when that happens.”
“Yep. Until then, take care.”
“Planning on it.”
When they hung up, Teague leaned back, staring off into space. Please, God, make it months before Irwin does go to trial. Or better yet, let him cop the plea. Then I won’t ever have to go back to Faircrest. I don’t need that, and neither does Hoyt.
* * * *
Two days after the call from Chief Davis, Keir knocked on the door to Teague’s office then opened it enough to ask, “Mind if I come in?”
Teague looked up from the file he was reading, smiled, and beckoned for him to enter. “Why would I mind talking to one of my best investigators?” Teague asked once Keir was seated. “Something going on with one of your cases?” Teague clicked on the file labeled ‘Keir’ that contained all the information about his assignments.
“I…umm…have a question.” Keir twisted his hands together, dropping his gaze to them.
“Go on. Whatever it is, I’ll try to answer.”
“Why the hell didn’t you and Hoyt—”
“Stop right there. I don’t want to hear one more word out of you on this subject.”
“But, Teague…”
“I mean it, Keir. No matter what you may think, it wasn’t fated to happen. We’re two different people. He loves his town and his life there. I like what I do and I’m not about to give it up, any more than he’d give up his job. It was—”
“So help me God if you say fun while it lasted I’m going to coldcock you.” Keir jumped to his feet, his hands fisted as if he meant what he said. And Teague had a strong feeling that he did.
“Sit, please. Then I’ll tell you a few facts of life.”
Keir looked mutinously at him, but did as Te
ague asked.
“Thank you. All right. You’re young. Too young to realize that just because you find someone interesting, or…more than interesting, it doesn’t mean you give up everything else in your life to be with them. Or vice versa.” Teague pressed the palms of his hands together, staring at Keir. “Would we have done something before I had to leave if he hadn’t been shot? Perhaps. Perhaps not. We both knew I wasn’t going to stick around after Irwin was caught.”
“But you like him, and he likes you.”
Teague smiled ruefully. “True enough. Probably more than just like. But what good does that do? If we’d been able to pursue our feelings beyond just talking about them, it wouldn’t have changed anything.”
“You could have asked him to come with you,” Keir protested.
“First off, he wasn’t in any shape to do that, even if he’d been willing. Two. I seriously doubt he’d be willing to pull up roots and move here. We don’t know if what we were feeling was real or just the result of working together on a tough job. Stress like that can make a person think they’re seeing or feeling things that really aren’t real.”
“Love is real,” Keir stated adamantly.
“Agreed. If there really is love involved.” Teague rubbed his temples between two fingers. “We never said the L word or anything even close.”
“Never?”
“All right,” Teague admitted unwillingly, “we said we cared—I think. And we kissed. Very briefly.”
Keir pumped a fist in the air. “Yes!”
Teague chuckled. “It was just a kiss. Nothing more.”
“But you only kiss someone you love.”
“I see. So when you’ve gone to bed with someone, and after it was over you kissed them, that was telling them you were in love?”
“Well…no. I guess not.”
“I think I proved my point.”
Keir shook his head. “Not at all. You two never went to bed so the kiss wasn’t a kind of, umm…’Thank you, that was good. Let’s do it again’ thing.”
Teague shrugged. “No. But it also wasn’t an ‘I love you. I want you in my life forever’ thing either. I was helping him get dressed…” He chuckled when Keir arched an eyebrow. “Not because he was naked. He was having problems buttoning his shirt because of the shoulder restraint, so I did it for him. That was it. End of story.”
“But…”
“Keir. Enough already. I’m fine with things, whether you believe it or not.”
Keir snorted. “Since you’ve been back you spend every minute here, so…”
“Did that before all this went down if you remember right.”
“I guess. But you didn’t walk around looking like you’d lost your best friend and almost bite people’s head off when they stop you to ask a question. You always had a smile for everyone and a ready ear when they had something to say, either about work or something that was bothering them.”
“He’s right,” Jake said from the doorway. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but since your door was open, Teague, for almost the first time since you’ve been back…”
“I have a lot to catch up with, and cases I’m working on,” Teague replied, feeling defensive.
“That never stopped you from leaving the door open so we’d know we could interrupt you if necessary.”
“Did you have something you needed to talk about, Jake?” Teague asked, trying to end his conversation with Keir and deflect Jake if he was thinking of putting in his two-cent’s worth.
“I do, actually.” Jake waved the file he was holding. “It concerns the Fontaine embezzlement case.”
“Then let’s go over it. Keir—” Teague looked at the young man, “—if you don’t mind.”
Keir stood. “I know. Get my ass out of here and back to work.”
Teague chuckled. “That works.”
* * * *
Chapter 15
Days turned into weeks, and slowly but surely Teague managed to put everything that happened in Faircrest behind him. When he thought of Hoyt, it was a combination of wistfulness for what could never be, and tenderness as he wondered if the detective had found someone who would make him happy. Teague hadn’t, but then he wasn’t looking. “Confirmed bachelor and likely to remain that way,” he’d think so often that he finally convinced himself it was true.
Then, when he opened his mail one Thursday morning, he found a summons to report to the county court house in Faircrest the following Monday as a witness in the trial of Bradley Irwin.
“There goes time I can’t really afford to lose,” he muttered, shoving the summons back into the envelope and pushing it to one side of his desk.
Moments later Keir walked hastily into Teague’s office, waving an envelope. “I’ve been summoned as a witness at Irwin’s trial.”
“Aren’t we the lucky ones,” Teague said dryly, nodding toward his matching missive. “Don’t worry too much about it. I’m sure we’ll be there and back in less than a couple of days.”
Keir chortled. “The way you put that, it’s only going to take one day.”
“If the gods are willing,” Teague replied, smiling. “I’ll make flight arrangements and let you know when we’ll be leaving. It will be sometime Sunday since I’m certain the prosecutor will call us soon to discuss our testimony, and then he’ll probably want to talk to us again first thing Monday morning before we go to court.”
“Okay. So while you’re setting up the flight, don’t forget to get us motel rooms, a rental car…” Keir started ticking things off on his fingers. “Find some place to rent skis. Is it okay if I bring Mel along?”
“No, it’s not. And where do skis come into this?”
“It is the season. Maybe we can leave Saturday, get rooms at the ski lodge. That way—”
“Keir. This is not a vacation. I’ll get us into a motel near the court house. If we have to hang around for more than Monday, then you can go up to one of the resorts during your free time to accommodate what sounds like your passion.”
“I’ve never been on skis in my life.”
Teague arched an eyebrow. “Then why now?”
“Because we’re there? The snow is there? What better way to entertain myself?”
“Pack your laptop. I’m sure you can do background checks to keep you occupied.”
Keir rolled his eyes and left. With an amused shake of his head, Teague began opening the rest of his mail. But at the back of his mind was the idea that he’d be seeing Hoyt again—and he didn’t know how to handle it when he did.
* * * *
“You full name?” asked the prosecuting attorney.
“Teague Alan Donovan.”
“Age?”
The attorney took Teague through the rest of the basic questions, including his occupation and marital status. Then he began questioning Teague about the night when Irwin had kidnapped and tried to kill Keir. All the while, Teague kept his gaze locked on the attorney, only twice when glancing at Irwin. When he did, Teague caught a look of hateful loathing on the defendant’s face.
Then Irwin’s attorney, Mr. Hancock began his cross examination.
“Isn’t it true, Mr. Donovan, that you have a vested interest in seeing that Mr. Irwin is found guilty of attempted murder?”
“No, sir.”
“Weren’t you trying to entrap him using your lover, Keir Upton, as bait? And didn’t you want to do this because you believed Mr. Irwin was responsible for the death of a previous lover of yours? Mr. Christian Frye?”
“No to both questions,” Teague said firmly.
“Objection,” the prosecuting attorney called out. “Mr. Hancock has no reason to believe either of those statements is true.”
“I have a witness who will confirm,” Hancock countered, “that Mr. Donovan and Mr. Upton shared a hotel room while they were in town. I also have a second witness, Mr. Paul Frye, who will state under oath if necessary, that Mr. Donovan and Mr. Frye’s brother, Chris Frye, were involved with each other.�
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“Allow me to point out, your honor,” the prosecutor said, “that Mr. Chris Frye was murdered almost thirty years ago. There is no way Mr. Donovan could think that the defendant, who was only twelve at the time, could have been the murderer.”
The judge though for a moment before saying, “Your objection is sustained on the second point. However as to the relationship between Mr. Donovan and Mr. Upton…”
“May I answer that question, your honor?” Teague asked.
“You may.”
“Keir Upton is my employee, as I’m certain he stated when he was on the witness stand. He was also undercover as part of the police department’s attempt to catch the killer of two young, homeless men in Faircrest. Again something I’m certain has been brought out. As part of his going undercover, he spent his nights in the park. All night and into the early morning. As he was pretending to be a homeless boy, he couldn’t very well have a motel room of his own. He would come to mine, to report in and catch some sleep.”
“You are stating that there is no relationship between the two of you other than that of employer and employee?” Hancock said.
“I am. Mr. Upton spent a year on the streets when he was a teen—something that should have been brought out when he took the stand. He made no bones about it to me when I hired him, even admitting that there were times when he had to sell himself to stay alive.”
“Your point is, Mr. Donovan?”
Teague tried not to sneer at Hancock, who had obviously not done his homework. “Mr. Upton is as straight as I presume you are. If you doubt that, I’m sure his girlfriend, Melanie Hart, will be willing to come here and testify to that fact.”
With obvious reluctance, Hancock said, “I withdraw my question.”
* * * *
Coming into the witness room an hour after Teague’s testimony had ended, the prosecutor told him, “You did an excellent job on the stand this morning.” Glancing at Keir, he added, “You did as well. Both of you are released for the day but I have to ask you to remain in town in case I need to call you up again.”
“Not a problem,” Teague replied. “May I ask how many more witnesses you have so we’ll have some idea how long we have to stay here?” Since he hadn’t seen Hoyt at the courthouse, Teague wondered if he wasn’t going to be called to the stand.