Spring 2010

Michael Novotny was meeting with the business adviser he had reluctantly hired to try to get his business back to making some profit. He didn't like what the guy had to say.

"Mr. Novotny, like I've been telling you for months, the best thing for you to do would be to sell off your stock and close up shop. You're barely covering your operating expenses or making any profit for yourself to live on."

"Yeah, no shit," Michael grumbled. "I had to sell my car so I could keep my apartment."

"You don't have enough room in here to have a coffee shop or an area where people can play tabletop games, which would certainly bring in more customers," the adviser continued. "However, I wouldn't recommend upgrading to a larger store, it's just not worth the financial risk at this point. Comic books and collectibles sell much better online than in actual stores these days. You have a lot of rare comics that could sell for quite a bit on eBay."

"You were hired to help me save my business, not tell me to sell off all my stuff!" Michael yelled at him. "Just leave, you're fucking useless. And don't think I'm paying you for this, either."

The adviser walked out, shaking his head.

Michael was beyond pissed off. If it wasn't for that fucking blond whore, he would have Brian for himself and all the money he needed to run his shop. Truth be told, he was furious with his ex-best friend too, for leaving him high and dry.

When Brian walked out of his shop two years before, after he'd found out that Michael had been trying to separate him and Justin, Michael was sure that Brian would have cooled off and come to his senses after a few days. The opposite had happened, in fact. If Brian ever saw Michael anywhere around town, he acted like he was a stranger, not even giving him the courtesy of a "hello."

None of Michael's old friends would even acknowledge his existence after what he had done. Melanie wouldn't let him have anything to do with Jenny Rebecca, and the only pictures he had seen of his daughter were the ones Mel sent to his mother. It was as if they had all chosen Justin over him, and to Michael's mind, this was unfair and unacceptable. Brian should have been his, and the blond bastard should have been gone from their lives and everyone's thoughts years ago.

Well, he would show them all. He'd find a way to get back at all of those who had written him off. He had a right to have Brian by his side where he belonged and to have his family back. He just needed to get their attention somehow.

First, he needed to finally make Red Cape Comics a successful business. Since he had bought the place from Buzzy, the store had never really paid off as Michael hoped it would. Even after the new Marvel movies made comic books and collectibles more mainstream, Michael's stock wasn't exactly flying off the shelves. It seemed that people would rather spend money on t-shirts and cheap plastic toys at the Big Q than support a local business.

Michael visited his mother that evening after closing up his store. He knew Carl would be at his weekly bowling game with his old cop friends, so Debbie would be at the house alone. Luckily she had made a tuna casserole, so there was plenty to share. He waited until she had gone to the basement to fold some laundry to put his plan into action.

Michael knew he couldn't call Ted from his cell phone because his old friend wouldn't answer if he knew it was him. He used the phone in the kitchen to call the man who had once wanted to be more than friends.

"Hey Deb, how are you?" the accountant cheerfully answered.

"Ted, it's Michael. Please don't hang up, I need your help."

Ted sighed, his good mood ruined. "Calling from your mother's house is a shitty way to try to get something from me, Michael. Furthermore, I have no reason to want to help you after that shit you pulled."

"Please, just listen to me for a minute, Ted. I'm begging you," Michael pleaded.

"Fine, you have exactly one minute. Blake and I were just about to sit down to dinner. Make it count."

"I'm having a problem with my store and want to make a deal with you."

"I'm not surprised, I always knew buying that dump was a mistake," Ted said in a condescending tone. "Keep talking."

"I need advertising. I know Brian is the best in the business and I need you to get him to do some mock-up ads without telling him who they're for. If I had some good advertising, then I could make more money. I can't pay for the ads up front, but I'm sure if you talked to him you could get him to do some stuff for free. Either that or just find a way to write it off."

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Ted growled. "There's no way I would do that, for you or anyone. And besides, Brian and Justin would know they were for you; it's not like we could make an ad without the name of the business on it."

"Please, Ted. I'm the only reason you even met Brian in the first place, remember? Have an intern in the art department who doesn't know me do it when the others are at lunch. They wouldn't even notice if the work was done and not paid for. Brian and that fucking blond whore have plenty of money. I would do it for you."

"I really don't appreciate the way you're talking about Justin. I've spent a lot of time with him over the past couple of years, both in and out of the office, and I've grown to really respect the man he's grown up to be. Brian is a better man because of him, in fact."

Michael bit his tongue and held back from saying anything else negative about Justin, so as not to ruin his chance. "If you ever loved me, you will do this one tiny thing for me, Ted."

Ted chuckled dryly. "Tiny thing? You're asking me to lie to Brian and steal from his company! If you had any idea how much we bill for work, you'd shit your pants. I was a fool for ever having feelings for you, especially considering how shitty of a friend you turned out to be. There's one big difference between you and me, Michael: I would never screw over my best friend the way you did because I respect him and cherish our friendship."

Michael's mouth dropped open. "You are not Brian's best friend!"

"The fuck I'm not!" Ted argued. "And how the fuck would you know, anyway? You haven't even talked to him in, what, two years? He's never called me his ‘best friend,' at least not to my face, but he doesn't have to. Aside from Justin, he trusts me more than anyone. I'm his chief financial officer and his personal accountant. I have access to literally every penny he has. I could drain him dry and run off to a beach in Mexico if I wanted to, but he knows I'd never do that. He probably wouldn't let you borrow a few bucks for a sandwich if you were starving. Brian told me not to tell you at the time, but after Justin moved to New York back in ‘05, he named me his proxy in the event he's ever unable to make medical decisions for himself."

Michael recalled the night he and Brian promised that they would "pull each other's plugs", though they never actually signed the papers to do so.

"He did?"

"Yeah. He knows that I care about him, but I would also do what's best for him, even if that included taking him off of life support. Anyway, I've got to go, Blake is waiting for me. Your business is your problem and you will get no help from me. You must be crazy to think I'd betray Brian like you're asking me to. I literally owe that man my life and betraying him would practically be suicidal. Don't ever bother to call me again."

Michael hung up the phone just as Debbie came back into the kitchen with a basket of clothes.

"Who was that?" she asked, gesturing to the phone on the wall.

"Um... wrong number," he lied.

"You don't live here, don't answer my phone," she admonished.

He acted sweet to the kid, who looked very young. He had longish blond hair and ice-blue eyes. The pink pouty lips reminded him of someone who he felt should have to pay for the trouble he had caused. The voice was too low, but he could pretend.

He led the kid into the alley and paid him what he asked. He turned the blond to the wall and lowered his pants, prepared him, and after donning a condom, started fucking the not-quite-tight ass. As they both got close, he looped the cord around the kid's neck and pulled hard, twisting the stick in the back as fast as he could. He climaxed as the kid did, the boy's ass clamping down as he suffocated.

Pulling out, he let the body drop to the pavement as he glanced around, just to make sure they were alone. To be nice, he pulled the kid's pants back up. He reached into the kid's pocket and took his wallet.

"He won't need it where he's going," he announced quietly into the dark before walking away.

Nothing made Carl Horvath happier than getting to sleep in. After being a cop for forty-five long years, he had earned the right to sleep as late as he wanted, which was why he wasn't happy to be rudely awakened from a deep slumber one Tuesday morning by his long-time fiancee.

"Honey... Carl... wake up," Debbie called out as she vigorously shook her partner's shoulder.

Carl grumbled low in his chest. "What?"

Debbie answered by grabbing the remote control from the nightstand and turning on the TV that was sitting on the dresser in front of their bed. She flipped through the channels until she landed on the correct one.

"Look!" Debbie yelled, pointing at the screen with a red fingernail. "It's happened again, Carl!"

Carl blinked a few times as his tired eyes focused in on the screen. What he saw appeared to be a body bag on a patch of pavement, a team of police officers and crime scene investigators huddled around it.

"They found them two blocks away from the diner," Debbie said tearfully.

"Them?" Carl repeated as he tried to listen to what the news reporter was saying.

"There were two of them this time."

"...believed to have been strangled to death," the female reporter on the TV said. "Although the bodies were found in the same alleyway, police suspect that the deaths occurred a few hours apart. At this time, the men have not been identified and there have been no arrests made. We will be following this story closely as more information comes in. Jessica Stanton, Channel Four News."

"You've got to do something!" Debbie screamed, making Carl jump.

He knew Debbie wouldn't let him go back to sleep, so he tossed the blanket off and slowly rolled his old bones out of bed. "What do you expect me to do, Sweetheart? I retired last month, remember?"

"You... I don't know!" she shouted. "I mean, they don't even know who these poor boys are yet!"

"They'll get IDs on them soon."

That answer only got the hysterical redhead more riled up. "But what if they don't? Remember that I was the one who figured out who Jason Kempf was? You didn't have a fucking clue!"

Carl hadn't heard that name in seven years, not since the young hustler's murder investigation was closed following Kenneth Reichert's suicide. He'd hope the day would come that Debbie didn't feel the need to remind him that she was a better detective than he was, at least as far as that one case was concerned.

"Call one of your cop buddies," Debbie suggested. "Surely you'll know someone investigating these murders."

"And say what? ‘Hey buddy, my girlfriend is upset. You'd better hurry up with this investigation'? I'm not on the case, it's bad etiquette to step on another officer's toes during an active investigation. I'm nothing more than a concerned citizen now, anyway."

"Well, we need to do something. I can't just sit around here and wait until they find another one dead."

"Deb, Honey, there's really nothing we can do. Let me see if I can find out anything. They made Mackey lead in Homicide after I left, he owes me many favors. While I do that, could you be a doll and make some coffee?" Carl asked, hoping that he could find out something that would calm her down.

Debbie mumbled about needing to stay busy as she left the room. Cooking and doing housework were always the best distractions for her when she was stressed.

Carl picked up his cell phone, hoping he wouldn't piss off the detective when he called him. When the call was answered, Carl crossed his fingers for luck.

"Hey, Mackey, it's Horvath."

"Hey, Old Timer," Detective Lieutenant Daryl Mackey replied. "You missing me already?"

‘Yeah, like a hemorrhoid," Carl joked. "I really don't want to step on anyone's toes, but you know how Deb is about the kids on Liberty. She woke me up by telling me about that double murder this morning. Do you have anything I can tell her to calm her down?"

"We have nothing," Mackey replied. "Of course neither of them had any ID on them, but they both appear to be very young, probably no older than twenty. Both were strangled. It was pretty nasty, too. Ropes were left tied on them. I know this isn't the best thing to do and you will need to keep this quiet, but do you think maybe Deb would at least know their names if she saw them? She is the unofficial Mayor of Liberty Avenue, after all. The bodies were just brought to the morgue, they're due to be autopsied later today."  

"Let me talk to her and see if I think she can handle seeing them. I'll call you back," Carl answered, hanging up the phone.

After showering and putting on his robe, Carl headed down to the kitchen. Debbie had coffee, eggs, bacon, and toast ready. He went over to his love and hugged her tightly.

"You're the best, Red," he said as he kissed her cheek before sitting down to eat. After he had gotten some food into himself, he told Debbie about his phone call.

"I talked to Mackey. He confirmed they have no identities on the boys, but he said they're young. He asked me something, but before I ask you, I want you to be honest with me about whether or not you think you can handle it."

Debbie sat her fork down, looking impatient. "What are you saying, Carl? Just spit it out."

"The boys are in the morgue. Do you think you can handle trying to identify them?"

"Of course I can. If you remember, I'm the one who found Jason in the dumpster. Come on, get dressed so we can go. You can eat later," Debbie announced as she started to take his plate.

He grabbed the piece of toast and folded it around the rest of his bacon, munching on it as he headed for the stairs.

The couple arrived at the police station downtown about half an hour later. Carl chatted with the officer at the front desk until Detective Mackey came out to meet them.

"Jesus Horvath, did you eat all of the cake from your retirement party?" Mackey asked, poking Carl in his expanding gut.

"Deb's Italian, to her food is like air, you need to have both constantly to survive," Carl answered, laughing.

"We can discuss our eating habits later," Debbie said to the two men, annoyed. "Can we get this over with so you guys can do your fucking jobs and find out who killed these boys?"

"Come with me," Mackey said as he led the two to the morgue.

Walking into the bright room, he nodded to the attendant to wait outside. He had already pulled the bodies out of the refrigerators and had them lying on stretchers in the middle of the room, covered with white sheets.

With Carl by her side, Debbie walked over to the first body. Mackey stood on the other side and uncovered the face of the boy.

"Oh, fuck. It's Kyle," she said, turning her face to press it into Carl's chest. "I never noticed before how much he looks like Brian when he was younger. Tall and thin, just like him. I don't know his last name, but I do know he's from Canton, Ohio. I heard him telling one of the other boys last week at the diner."

Turning to the second stretcher, she took a deep breath as she told them, "Let's get this done."

As the sheet was pulled back, she started crying harder. "Jesus... his name is Frankie. I don't remember his last name, but I hired him a few days ago to work at the diner. We joked about how he would clean up nicely because he looked so much like Sunshine. He was a really sweet kid. He said he recently turned nineteen."

"Can you call someone at work to get his last name?" Carl asked, pointing to the pale blond boy.

Debbie pulled her cell phone out of her purse and walked to the other end of the room, needing to separate herself from the two dead boys who had their lives ripped away so young.

Kiki answered the diner's phone.

"Kiki, it's Deb. What's Frankie's last name?"

"It's Stevens, with a V. And Deb, he didn't show up for work this morning," Kiki said, sounding slightly pissed. "Those little boys are never any good. This one doesn't even have an ID or Social Security card... how the fuck are we supposed to pay him? You'd better be here to relieve me at noon because having to bus my own tables is killing my back. I've got to start wearing shorter heels."

"I'll be in soon," Debbie answered before hanging up.

She turned back to Mackey and Carl. "His last name is Stevens, with a V. I'm not sure where he's from or if he has family nearby, but I'll see if I can find out more from the other boys. Carl, we need to stop by the diner on the way home. I didn't want to tell Kiki over the phone about this."

"We need to wait before releasing names, to notify families first," Mackey said.

"So what are you saying, I can't tell anyone these boys were murdered last night?" Debbie asked, a new round of tears welling up.

"Afraid so, Honey," Carl said.

Debbie turned to leave, unable to be in the cold room a second longer. Before she could reach for the door, Mackey asked, "Uh, Debbie? Is there anything else you can tell us, especially about this Kyle kid?"

The teary woman slowly turned back. "Yeah, they were both hustlers... homeless, too."

"Figures," she heard Mackey say sadly before the door closed behind her.