CHAPTER 52 - UNCOVERING THE TRUTH AND BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR

BRIAN AND VIC’S HOUSE - AN HOUR LATER

BACK GARDEN

BRIAN

Something has happened, well two things have happened, but judging by the impatience of Dad, Cyn and Claire, what happened with them has to be said first.

“Explain! You have a comfy cushion, a mimosa and I am at the end of my patience!” Dad demands.

“We went to Sacred Heart Church, where she was going to be joining the congregation after her Absolution Ceremony, but now that's not going to happen, and there is every good chance she could be excommunicated for fraud.” Mami takes advantage of our shock to finish her drink and wave for a refill. “Emmett, I talk faster when my whiskers are wet!” She jolts him out of his stupor and he quickly pours. “Thank you. Now, before I go onto how we knew where to get to her, kudos -  and a good seeing to, from you Arthur - has to be given to Claire for putting that spunkdumpster’s ass out to grass in front of her society!”

“Claire?” I feel a brief flicker of panic at the thought of people knowing, but I quickly extinguish that. “What did you say?”

“The truth. I told them all about what he did, what she allowed him to do, and that the letter of recommendation was most likely a forgery…”

“A forgery?” I gasp.

“Yes, seems she said it was from her former Father, saying how sorry they were that she had to leave, but he had said no such thing. He had told her that her views on homosexuality had no place in his church and then he asked about your childhood.”

“Mine? Why?”

“Ironically, all because of Foghorn Wighorn, wasn't that what you called her, Craig?” He nods with a wry smile. “Well it seems she went to the same church for a while before they got bored of her hectoring, lecturing and bullying, and politely asked her to find another church. She went, but not without tattling on our mother-not-so-superior.”

“But it was years ago that Miss Grassi was kicked out of the church.” I frown.

“Yes, but there was a change in priests between then and the time she was affronted his idea that she should admit her sins in order to have her Absolution Ceremony just like everyone else.” She then shudders. “Seems spunkdumpster and the previous Father had an understanding for a while…”

“Oh, gross!” I bury my head in Justin’s shoulder. “You have to fuck that image out of me later!” I whimper. “Promise me!”

“Reciprocation!” Justin whimpers back.

“Can you two stop planning your fuckathon and let Claire and Mami finish?!” Ben lectures with a smile.

“Oh I have finished! Mami, please say your bit!”

“Sometimes it helps to have a lapsed Catholic good looking man for a grandson!” Sighing, she gets comfortable. “I had Rene go around to every church to see where she would be. We found her, and the rest is history...in fact, the stuff of legend. Claire, you did…”

“Hold it.” Roberta interrupts. “Father Shaw recognised you, he called you by your married name, and you only showed yourself once me, Cyn and Claire had said and done what we needed to do.”

“Father Shaw...” She clears her throat. “...and I know each other on a personal and business level.” She sips her drink. “The personal was all above the waist before you even go there!”

“Mami!” We all exclaim, thankful that the kids are either walking Tyson or napping.

“Businesswise, I did his accounts.” She states.

“And that’s code for?” Mel asks.

“I did his accounts.” She repeats and then starts to smile. “And introduced him to his husband! That's the personal. Well, I tried to set him up with Rene first, but my grandson says he only plays with his own balls...fair enough, but far too much in my opinion!”

“Ah, here comes Ronald and Libette...Lynette!” Craig cries out, and we are relieved to get away from Mami’s favourite subject, Rene’s lack of sex life!

“Tyson is pooped.” Ronald smiles as he sits down. “And the boys are going to watch Gus and Jenny until they wake up, then bring them for dinner. Lynette is just freshening up. They are such a credit to you and Arthur, Claire. So what did we miss?”

“Well…” Mami begins.

”I’ll catch you up!” Roberta exclaims, making some people laugh and Mami poke out her tongue. “Their turn! But we must wait for Lynette.”

I watch Ronald’s face soften as Lynette makes her way down the stairs barefoot and clutching a piece of paper. She sits down next to him and hands it over. “John and Peter’s numbers for you, Dad.” He grins and carefully tucks it in his pocket. “Oh, Frederick! What are you doing here?!”

“I was invited to dinner.” He says quietly, but there is something off. “As a reward for my steadfastness and fortitude in the face of such an oppressive regime.”

“Oh no, what happened?!” She sighs.

“Finally!” Roberta grouches. “He refused to tell until you came back, and then we had to sit through…”

“No!” Ben and Vic exhort. “Please, can you just tell us...the previous conversation is branded onto our memories!”

FREDERICK

“As you know, Roberta told me to take them to a different address, and the first thing they did was complain about the smallness of the house. So I said that this was the Nanny’s house…”

“Nice embellishment!” Roberta snickers.

“Junior starts first…” I sneer and huff a breath. “...she demanded to know where the actual house of Mr Kinney is. Said I didn’t know, then they galumph to the front door after Senior dismissed me. They called me after about an hour and I went to pick them up…”

Start of flashback

PICK UP POINT

“Was the visit enjoyable and successful?” I ask politely as I open the door.

“No it wasn’t, and I suspect you know the reason why!” Junior carps, and gives me a filthy look as she gets in.

“I shall be speaking to your superiors about this!” Senior bitches, and gives me exactly the same look as she joins her vicious enfant terrible!

Sighing, I shut the door and slide into my seat. I hope that the return journey will be as blissful - from my point of view - as the outward, but the sound of the partition going down soon crushes that dream!

“Well, do you have an explanation?!” Senior demands.

“For what, Mrs Peterson?” I reply smoothly.

“For abandoning us there!” She spits, and I resist the temptation to wipe the back of my neck.

“I was given the address to deposit you at and…”

“Deposit?!” Junior seethes. “You make us sound like some tawdry package! You will take us to where Mrs Grant Peterson and Mr Peterson are immediately!”

“I’m afraid I am unable to do that without the permission of Mrs Grant Peterson, as I…”

“I am the Matriarch of this family, and as such you are answerable to me!”

Another drop of spit lands on my neck and I feel my eye and hand start to twitch!

“Actually in fact, just give me the address and we will drive there ourselves. Your services are no longer required!”

“I will drop you at your car and then what you do when you get there is your choice, Mrs Peterson, but I will not be giving you the address.” They both hiss in indignation. “As you well know, both of you, giving out a third party address is against company protocol.”

They say nothing at that, and I hope that is the end of it and wait for the partition to go up, but it doesn’t. “Call her now.” Junior decrees. “Tell her that we will be coming.”

“As you wish, Ms Peterson.” I reply.

“I am not wishing, I am ordering!” She snaps “Well…”

“I am currently driving, and do not have a hands free facility in this car.” I grind out as I feel my temper start to ratchet up.

“Well, when you get to our car then you can call her, can’t you?!” Senior snarls much like one of those over indulged snappy dogs!

“Of course, Mrs Peterson.” I start to raise the partition. “Leave it up!” She orders...another gob of her DNA lands. “We wouldn’t want you to suddenly discover that your phone is hands free after all now would we?!”

Unluckily for them, where their car was parked coincides with the end of my patience. As I pull up at the side of the road, I put up the partition and get out. Again with the filthy looks as they get out, and then they look to where their broken down car was.

“Where is the car, Frederick?” Senior demands.

“Due to traffic, I never made it back to the car, Mrs Peterson.” I reply coldly. “So you two whinging windbags have one of three choices...either get a cab and try and follow me like some bad cop movie, allow me to take you back to your residence to lick those well deserved wounds, or I can take your purchases out of the trunk and you can use your legs for their other purpose...walking instead of spreading!”

“How…” Senior begins.

“I dare because I don’t work for you! You are mere baggage in every meaning of the word, so pick and pick wisely!”

“Are you fucking my daughter?” Senior leans in and whispers with a disgusted look.

“No. I wouldn’t denigrate Mrs Grant Peterson by describing what we do in the privacy of our relationship as basic and crass as that!”

“A relationship? Don’t make me laugh!” Junior sneers.

“The decision is made.” I stalk to the trunk and dump out their purchases, and while they scramble to pick them up, I quickly get in the car and drive away.

End of flashback

“So I came back here to give you this, Mrs Grant Peterson. I have already tendered my resignation at the Head Office. Your replacement driver will be…”

“Oh don’t be so daft!” Lynette grumbles. “I refuse to accept this. Seriously, Frederick, no. I like you...working for me I mean!”

“Um, if I may make a suggestion?” Daph pipes up, and I just know what is coming and smile at Justin, who has twigged as well. “Why don’t I work for you? As much I love driving, we all know that Lindsay is not going to be your PA, so why don’t Frederick and I swap? You get a PA slash driver, and he gets to drive a hot guy...and then there is no…”

“Daph! You don’t mean...” Roberta gasps and then looks between Frederick and Lynette.

Ronald stares for a few seconds before smiling. “Well I’ll be jiggered!”

“Nothing has happened!” Lynette squeaks almost going puce. “I mean, I don’t know what you are talking about!”

“And since the kiddies are coming, now would be a good time to serve dinner!” Ems declares and stands up. “So could I persuade anyone to help?”

“Me. I’ll help!” Lynette leaps up and sprints inside!

PETERSON RESIDENCE - SAME TIME

LOUNGE

NANCY

I slam down the phone absolutely livid! “I don’t believe it!”

“What’s happened?” Lindsay asks from the sofa.

“He’s resigned!”

“Who has?”

“That fucking snot nosed arrogant bastard Frederick. He has resigned!”

“Well, you were going to get him fired anyway, what’s the problem?”

“I wanted to be the one to have him fired!” I sit down and she puts her feet in my lap. “Oh how annoying!” I rest my head against the sofa. “So what did you want to speak to her in private about?”

“Hmm...oh, Debs you mean? Well, she was really subdued, you don’t know Debs, she’s really feisty but she looked so...defeated. Turns out that Brian has served them with a restraining order. In fact, she said they all have...one second.” She reaches for her phone and dials a number. “Hi Debs, its Lindz, are you alright? Oh it’s just you sound funny. Reason for my call, you said that they had all served you with restraining orders, does that include Uncle Vic? Ah, I see, I was going to approach him to see if he can speak to Brian on your behalf, but, ah you do…” She waves for a pen and paper. “...okay, give me Brian’s address. Okay, got it, let me see what I can do.” She hangs up and then punches the air in delight. “Grab your coat, Mother, I have Brian’s address!”

“Wait, how are we going to get there?” I can’t wait to see Lynette’s face!

“Oh shit! I had completely forgotten about the car!” She grumbles. “And the only way we can…”

Whatever she is going to say is cut off by a loud knocking on the door. I go to answer it and find Abigail Andrews outside the door, looking highly unimpressed. “Is everything okay, Abigail?”

“Not really. There seems to be a parking problem.” She cavils. “You really must move it, I have an appointment to get to.”

“Move what?” Lindsay joins me at the door.

“Your convertible. It is parked across my drive, and I can’t get my car out.”

“Why would it...oh no!” I gasp and look appalled at Lindsay. “Just one moment, Abigail, we will meet you at your house in about five minutes.”

“Less than five minutes!” She retorts, and I shut the door as politely as I can before turning my anguished face to Lindsay. “Please tell me we didn’t give Frederick the keys to the car?”

“Well of course we did, there would be no…” She trails off as she understands what I am getting at. “...he still has the keys doesn’t he?”

“Yes, and no doubt has given them to his fuckbuddy!” I hiss.

“Yes. But we can just take a cab or, even better, Daddy’s instead.” She declares excitedly. “Come on, let’s go!”

“What about Abigail…” I shake my head in the face of her incredulous expression. “...sorry, misplaced sense of responsibility, she can take the cab!”

DEBBIE AND MICHAEL’S HOUSE - TEN MINUTES LATER

LOUNGE

MICHAEL

I sit down quietly, she hasn't said a word to me ever since she sent me upstairs after Lindsay left.

“I have never felt such shame.” She says coldly.

“I said I wasn't going to do anything. Why don’t you believe me?! And what was what you were talking about with those old bats earlier?!”

“Are you opening your second mouth up to me now?!”

“Second…”

“Yes, you two faced little shit! You said you hate her, does that mean you hate Gus too?!” Her eyes slowly begin to widen. “You do! You hate Gus!”

“I don’t hate him! I just didn’t like the way he put him before Jenny and…”

“Before Jen...do you hear yourself?! Of course his child comes before his best friend, and especially before the best friend’s child! You should’ve put Jenny first instead of your gods!”

“Gods? What gods? Have you been drinking?!”

“You worship two gods, lord knows I foolishly encouraged the first when I saw what it could bring. Your second god after Brian is money!”

My jaw drops. “I do not worship money! Yes, I value the cost of a dime, and…”

“Never spend it unless you are absolutely forced to!”

“I am supporting the pair of us, you aren’t exactly employable!”

She stands up slowly. “No, I am not. But then again, I am resourceful, you on the other hand, like Lindsay, are lazy and rely on your cuteness to get away with shit! Well, I fixed her and will fix you.” I quickly tuck my legs underneath me and grab a cushion. “Oh don’t worry anymore about me hitting you...I can hurt you much harder than that, and I will. Tell me, Michael, and honestly, do you feel any guilt for what you allowed to happen to Brian?”

“No. Well, yes and no.”

“I will take your first answer. Shameful, utterly shameful. And I am glad. I am glad that I stopped that handjob, and do you know why?”

“Do tell.” I sneer.

“Because being in a relationship with you would have been a million times worse than the beatings he endured.” I feel like I have been kicked again, and it must show because she smiles that smile that is only normally reserved for people who she is about to pay back big time. “I never thought I would say that, or this, I look forward to the trial!”

“What do you mean by that?!” I shout at her retreating back, but she just starts to laugh and closes the door.

I wait for a few minutes to see if she’s going to come back, but she doesn’t, so I make my way, sadly and angrily, to the suitcase and open it up again. Almost 20 years of friendship reduced to tattered paper and rubble! I take out the orb and look at it, there is not a scratch on it from where his hellhound threw it. I pick up the court papers and decide this time to actually read what I can and can’t do...twenty minutes later, tears of frustration and anger flow down my face. Nothing I can do nothing. To any of them. All hopes of returning to the Avenue are destroyed much like our friendship and my hopes of taking it further.

JOAN KINNEY’S HOUSE - SAME TIME

LOUNGE

CARLOTTA SWEETSON, HER NEIGHBOUR

“So, all this time you have been looking down your nose at me, at us, like some Mother Superior while you are no better than the thieves, beggars, murderers and harlots you rail against…”

“I am not a harlot, and you will not…”

“Leave until I say my piece! I have known you for years, Joan Kinney, and thought I had escaped you when I moved to Sacred Heart, away from your overwhelming sanctimonious piousness. I could not understand where it came from, but now I know. It is guilt, good old fashioned Catholic guilt! You know you should’ve done right by Brian and you didn’t, so you sought to punish others by transferring that guilt! Well no more. I shall make it my mission to spread the word about you hither, thither and yon!”

“Now just a minute, you old bat! There is…”

“Old bat now? Now the true Joan comes out! And you listen...if there was no truth, for that is what you were going to say, they would not be going to trial! And we will all be there, I will make sure of it, just like you made sure to be at each and every one of the Confessions of the Ungodly services, which you instigated! How did you get Father Matthews to agree to that? Actually don’t tell me, I think it will involve the exchange of fluids, either bodily or booze!”

My hand flies to my cross in shock.

“Ah, hit a nerve did I? I noticed you did that a lot as your ex-daughter was confessing your ungodly sins on your behalf! Now I am leaving.”

When the door bangs shut, the hatred I feel for Jack and his spawn overwhelms me. “God, why did you forsake me so?! Why could you not let me escape the purgatory?! WHY?!”

OUTSIDE TED AND BLAKE’S HOUSE - AN HOUR LATER

LINDSAY

“Well it is definitely an improvement!” I nod approvingly at the gorgeously appointed Victorian style house and take in the minimalist drive. “A gated community is just so typical Brian! And nothing cluttered, obvious or intrusive.” Mother smiles in agreement. “Shall I?”

I don’t wait for her to answer and rap the knocker. I tuck my hair behind my ears and hear laughter as someone comes to the door; once again, I am surprised because this time it is Blake. “What the fuck are you doing here?!” He exclaims. “Ted!”

“I want to see my son! I may not have my rights, but I can still see him! Let me in! Ted, get your twinkish bulldog to move!” I snap as Ted arrives and looks furious.

“First, he is neither twinkish nor a bulldog. Second, if you want to see Gus, go to…”

“Not listening to you anymore! LYNETTE!” I bellow, and their angry expressions are replaced with confusion.

“Who the hell is Lynette?!” Blake demands. “Go away, Lindsay and whoever the fuck you are! You are not welcome at our house, not that you ever were!”

“Your house?” Mother echoes.

“Blake, go and call Brian and let him know what’s happening. I will dispense with this muckiness?” Blake squeezes his arm and then goes back inside. “How the fuck did you get our address anyway?” Ted snarls, stepping out of the door.

“Debbie gave it to me.” I say weakly, beginning to feel exactly the same as when Brian told me he knew about the book. “Ted, I am…”

“She gave it...well I’ll be fucked. There may be hope for her yet!” He seems to be pondering something before he looks at us again. “Well fuck off then!”

We have no other choice but to retreat in humiliation to the car and make our way home...and when we get there, Abigail has left a note, she's had the car towed away!

BRIAN AND VIC’S HOUSE - TEN MINUTES LATER

JUSTIN

“Justin, Arthur, can I have a word please?” Brian calls out from the kitchen door, I can see he is really fucked off, so we make our way to him quickly. Luckily, Gus is distracted, trying to spread the sourdough bread perfectly, like his Daddy does.

“Study.” He grits out and I wave Arthur ahead and hold Brian back. “Sorry, but it’s just never ending.”

“Come here.” I pull him into my embrace and rub his back. “It will end, you know this, and this is just another step you have to take.” He nods into my shoulder. “Now let’s see what this step is.”

STUDY

ARTHUR

I brought my case with me, and Claire had looked confused, but I want to suggest something to Brian, and this seems to be a good time as any. The door opens and they come in looking a little less pissed off in Brian’s case, and ready for war in Justin’s.

“What’s happened?” I ask. “What has the old decrepit fossil done now?”

“Nothing, this is Lindsay, she turned up at Ted and Blake’s house thinking it was mine. Miss Grassi gave her the address…”

“What the fuck for?!” Justin exclaims as he starts then stops pacing. “Does she know where you live?”

“Yes but has nev…” Brian trails off. “...you don’t think?”

“She did it on purpose.” Justin starts to nod. “Maybe this was her last protection of you and Vic.”

“Jesus.” Brian sighs and sits down, immediately Justin kneels in front of him and takes his hand. “Although it is what we think it is, the orders stand.”

“Good. But maybe…” Justin pauses and starts to rub Brian’s arms. “...it was also her warning you.”

“Maybe. Blake was really pissed off and said that she was screaming for Lynette.” He brushes the hair off of Justin’s forehead, before looking at me. “I need a…”

“If you are going to suggest an order for Lindsay, I have it already prepared, I wasn't sure how you would take it.”

“Justin, can you call Ronald and Lynette for me?” He nods and they arrive within minutes. We quickly explain what is happening.

“I think I know the best person to deliver that.” Ronald sighs. “And can you include her Mother in that please?”

“If you are sure?” Brian hedges. “I don’t…”

“No, Dad is right, she will use her to bother you.” Lynette says sadly.

“Then you need to give this to whoever is going to serve them.” I hand them the envelope.

“Thanks. I do believe she will enjoy serving that for dinner when they get to Texas. Now, come on, let’s go and enjoy that fabulous food!” Lynette declares.

“Oh darling...don’t begin to think that we aren’t going to talk about Frederick!”

“Oh god!” Lynette cries before scurrying out, her cheeks flaming.

“Always knew she had a soft spot for him.” He smiles.

“Great. Now with the job swap, he can show her his hard spot!” Brian smirks.