Chapter 6

Carl

Debbie and Carl’s House

Since I got home I haven’t seen her keep still, I know that something is bothering her but asking her now while she’s still riled up really wouldn’t be smart. I have my suspicions that it is about Michael having been arrested and i hope that she’s not going to try and defend him. 

When I saw him get brought into the station by Officer Chandi I couldn’t believe the look on his face, he looked as if we had committed some great injustice against him. 

When will he learn that his behaviour has consequences and if he doesn’t want to have people angry with him or be arrested he needs to behave himself better, rather than running around having tantrums like a toddler. 

“How could I have fucked up so much with him, I tried my best I really did.” Deb says as she finishes cleaning the kitchen and comes to sit down next to me. 

“Honey, sometimes it doesn’t matter how hard you try to raise them right, they make their own decisions and fuck things up for themselves.”  I say to her then pull her into an embrace. I really do hope he changes his behaviour some time soon because the way he is acting up now is going to break her if he doesn’t.

2 weeks later

Jess

Jess and Alex’s Brownstone

Office

I really  did wish when I contacted Tara that all she would be able to find was some small issues that could be easily solved and that would be it but unfortunately i’m not so lucky with my wish list.

Tara sent me an email late last night saying that she had found several things of concern and that she would call me today to talk things through so I have been sat here trying to focus on my work while I wait  but I can’t concentrate at all.

Just as I am about to start going through my emails My phone rings and I snatched it up off of the desk as quickly as I could and answered it.

“Hello”

“Hi, i’m not sure where to start with all of this but it’s all pretty weird.”

“Go on, just let me know what you found.”

“Well I looked into Michael Novotny’s background and it all seemed kind of normal. He was an average student in school, not particularly popular and this seemed to go on through all his teenage years and into his early adulthood. He seems to have stuck fairly close to Brian Kinney at all times which at first seemed like any close friendship during those formative years but then…”

“What? What makes you think it changed from being a normal friendship?”

“It’s just that most people start to drift apart slightly, not because they aren’t as close to those people they were friends with in their teenage years but because they’re usually more busy and things get it the way. But Michael, from what i’ve been able to dig up, only seemed to cling on more and more as time went on.”

“And you think that’s something to be concerned by?”

“Well I couldn’t be sure, so i decided to have one of my guys, Lewis, follow him for the last couple of weeks and he has some very strange habits. Every other day he leaves his assistant to look after his comic shop during lunch and he goes over to Kinnetik where he sits in his car and watches the building…”

“What the fuck for?”

“The photos I now have of him in his car show that he appears to be watching Brian Kinney. His body language throughout these photos is one of the things that concern me. When Mr Kinney leaves for lunch on his own Michael appears to look admiringly towards Mr Kinney but any time he leaves with a man called Justin Taylor His body language is so different, he looks scornful almost.”

“Brian and Justin are partners, Michael I know has some jealousy over that…”

“This isn’t just a case of simple jealousy trust me but moving on to the other concerns I have, I have some photos of Michael in a diner with his husband and he appears to be trying to corner him and his body language is quite threatening but his husband walks away and then in the photos I have his facial expression is one of anger and he’s balling his hands into fists.”

“Well I do know that Ben has left Michael and Kicked him out of the house. Hunter said he got arrested when he was banging on the door trying to get in a couple of weeks ago.”

“Hunter is a concern of mine where Michael is concerned. I also have some photos of Michael interacting with Hunter and it doesn’t look good. One of them was particularly worrying because after some kind of argument not only was he angry but it looked like he was giving into blind rave. He looked around and picked up a rock and threw it in the same direction as hunter was then walking. He then began to leave and as he walked by Lewis he was muttering about needing to bring hunter down a peg or two and that he could do with a good beating to put him in his place.”

“He will not harm a single hair on his head, I won’t let him get close enough to Hunter to do anything at all. He’s in the living room with my son right now so i’ll go let him know what you’ve just told me and I think it would be wise for him to get a restraining order against Michael. I have a meeting tomorrow with Brian about his company doing the Advertising for Costillo’s so i’ll let him know too because If Michael is stalking him he should know about it.”

“I’ll send you a copy of the file with everything I have found out so you can show any lawyers or judges the evidence you need to stop this.”

“Thanks, bye”

“Bye” I hang up and take a deep breath, this is not going to be an easy discussion to have and I really wish I didn’t have to do this but I know it has to be done.

Hunter

Living Room 

“Stop eating all of the popcorn, leave some for me” I swat Nick’s hand away from the bowl on my lap.

He just kissed me on the cheek and took another bit of popcorn. “I’ll leave plenty of popcorn for you, sorry”

I respond by leaning closer to him and we turn our attention back to the screen. I let out a small chuckle because on the screen at that moment was Dominic West dancing around to Shame, Shame, Shame and he looks so camp that I just can’t help but find it amusing.

“Hey boys, sorry to disturb you but I really need to talk to you Hunter.” Jess say’s and I reach forward and get the remote from the table and pause the movie.

“What’s that you’re watching, it looks good.”

“I’s a film called Pride, I thought you said you needed to talk. What’s up?” I say, worried by the weary look on her face.

“I do, I guess I was just trying to stall because this isn’t exactly a nice thing to have to talk about. I had my friend Tara look into Michael, I just wanted to find out what his issues were so that i could help fix them so your life could be a little easier.” she pauses and takes a deep breath before continuing “I think it would be best for you to get a restraining order against Michael for your safety. Tara is sending me a copy of the file with everything so you can see for yourself everything that he’s been doing and her report on his body language but the general impression that she has of him is that he’s starting to turn towards blind rage where you are concerned.”

Oh my god, Blind rage towards me? what the hell have I done to him that he would be so bothered by it to the point of blind rage. 

“I’ll talk to Mel and see what she can sort out for me, thanks for letting me know. do you really think he would hurt me?” I ask her nervously.

“I won’t let anyone harm you, nobody who loves and cares about you will let anything happen I promise.” She tells me firmly and I really hope she’s right and that i’ll be okay.