March 18

Brian scrubbed his hand over his hair and walked into the police station, only mildly grumbling under his breath over missing yet another lunch due to the ongoing investigation into the stalker. And Blaine; can't forget that new tidbit. But it couldn't be helped; he had another busy day ahead of him and this was the only time he could meet with Carl and Tak. And truth be told, he'd rather miss a thousand lunches if it meant keeping Justin and Sunbeam safe and out of this psycho's hands.

Drawing a deep breath, Brian strode up to the desk and stood, waiting until the woman sitting there had finished her business on the phone. Taking that time to look around, Brian raised a brow when some fresh-faced, teenaged brunet that reminded him a lot of Hunter when he'd first joined the family licked his lips and blatantly looked him up and down as if he were trying to decide which body part he'd wanted to lick first.

Shifting, Brian looked away, shaking his head at the blatant ploy. Jesus, what was it about him and fucking teenaged twinks? They all seemed to think that they had even an inkling of what it took to garner his interest, and that would never be the case. There was only one teenaged twink that had once had that power, drawing Brian in like a moth to a flame as he stood there, fearful and innocent, under a street lamp outside of Babylon.

Prior to that, Brian had never even looked at a twink, let alone one so young. He preferred his tricks to be well-seasoned and packing the kind of body found only on a gym bunny. He liked them tall. He liked them dark. And he liked them easily handled and just as easily kicked to the curb after he was done.

So basically, the exact opposite of Justin.

He'd always told Justin that he'd had no idea what had made him stop and look his way; and that was the truth. What hadn't been true was when he'd also told Justin that he didn't know why he'd taken Justin home with him that night; because that, no matter how fucked up he might have been, he knew without a doubt – once he'd seen the little twat's face, there had been no turning back.

Lust had punched him in the gut, and raged throughout his body, leaving him damned near breathless as he'd watched, transfixed, as a blond angel walked down the street and leaned against the lamp post, the light haloing his face and hair, and beckoning Brian to come closer to take a taste. And taste he did; all night long in fact.

His reaction, however, had left him completely floored; never in his life had he had such an instantaneous desire to take a trick home and fuck him until they could no longer move, let alone leave the bed. To wring every drop of pleasure from his body, and then start over and do it all again. But with Justin, that's what had happened.

And Brian would have kept right on going if the twat hadn't damn near worn him out before passing out himself.

"Can I help you sir?" the desk clerk asked, interrupting Brian's jaunt down memory lane.

"Yes, I'm here to see Detective Nakumara," Brian said politely, turning fully away from the now disappointed twink. Brian just shook his head, amused by the reaction; why on Earth would these puppies think that he had any interest in them whatsoever when he had a beautiful husband waiting fro him at home? "Brian Kinney; he asked me to meet him here."

"If you'll take a seat over there," the woman nodded towards to some chairs close to the brunet twink. "I'll call back and let him know that you're here."

Brian nodded and walked over towards the chairs, but chose to lean against the wall instead; he'd been sitting on his ass all day as it was and it was nice to stretch out a bit. He rested his head against the wall and stood there, mindlessly counting the ceiling tiles for a minute or two, until he heard the door open and a harried Carl rushed in.

Carl looked around and then released a pent up breath when he saw Brian leaning against the wall, and walked over. Brian arched a brow and wondered why he looked so ruffled, but Carl just shook his head and waved him off. Brian shrugged; he figured that he'd manage to get it out of the older man later.

"Hey kid," Carl said, leaning against the wall next to Brian. "How are you holding up?"

"Been better," Brian admitted; he'd given up playing cool with this man as it never worked; Carl had always seen through his act and would just stare him down until he finally caved and told him anyways.

"Justin still having nightmares?" Carl asked, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked around the precinct, nodding to the occasional person as they passed by.

"Yeah," Brian sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face; it had been a rough few nights for them both. "Not as bad as the first night, but he's woken up at least once a night since. Unless I've just slept through the other times and the twat hasn't said anything; which would be just like him."

"As if you aren't as bad," Carl snorted; and then looked around the room for someone, before arching a knowing brow. "Speaking of Justin, where is he?"

"Off rescuing another one of his little lambs from the evil Simon," Brian snorted; blatantly ignoring the knowing look. So what if he was happy that Justin had plans that had prevented his attendance today? His husband didn't need to deal with the stress of this meeting on top of everything else. "He wanted to be here, but I told him to go save the kid instead. I can easily fill him in on everything later."

Carl nodded, a wry smile on his face, letting Brian know that he was one bit fooled by his act.

"So, how many 'lost lambs' does he have under his belt now?" Carl huffed, letting it go for the moment.

"Three with this one," Brian said with only a littlest amount of exasperation; and Justin called him the superhero. If Justin had his way, he'd save the entire world from themselves. Luckily, he managed to contain himself to his little artists. JT strikes again. "Christ, him and his fucking strays. Although, I can't blame him for wanting to help kids who are facing the same struggles that he did when he first tried to break into the art world."

"Has he ever tell you what his beef was with this guy?" Carl asked out of curiosity; Brian didn't blame him as very few in the family knew what those first few months in New York were like for Justin; nor had they ever met this Simon asshole outside of Lindsay. They just knew that Justin was gunning for him after some unpalatable situation had occurred between them.

Hell, even Brian didn't have all the details since Justin tended to get cold and distant and clammed up whenever Simon was brought up. Much to his great annoyance.

"Not in so many words;" Brian conceded with a frown. "But from what I did piece together, he has a reputation for discovering 'hot' new talent; and not just in the art sense if you know what I mean." He paused to arch a brow at Carl, who pulled a disgusted moue. "And then he sweet talks them into letting him 'guide' them when they reach the big, bad city to pursue their dreams, taking them around and introducing to 'the right people,' getting them a foot in the door, so to speak. And then, if they were feeling ever so grateful for all his help and wanted to show it by gracing him with their 'personal' time, well he certainly won't complain. Fucking slime ball."

"Ah," Carl nodded, catching the hidden meaning behind his words and understanding why Justin found the man to be a distasteful boor. "He ever pull that with Justin?"

"Didn't even get a chance to," Brian snickered, feeling irrationally proud of the way Justin looked down his nose at Simon from the beginning. "He saw through him right from the beginning; called him a cunt if I remember correctly. Not to his face mind you, but he was definitely unimpressed. Plus, you know Justin; he's the most independent twat in all of the known universe. He wouldn't even let me help him out; he sure as hell wouldn't have taken a handout from a stranger that he disliked on sight."

"He's has always been a stubborn one," Carl agreed, laughing at Brian's aporetic look.

"You're telling me this?" Brian asked incredulously, shaking his head when the other man just continued laughing. "Try being married to the little twat."

"Oh, I'll leave that to you, son," Carl chuckled, an amused smirk curling on his lips for a moment; and then he sighed heavily as his face clouded over. "Deb is enough work."

"Yeah," Brian agreed, his own expression darkening as he'd still hadn't had the chance to deal with her latest 'let's make Mikey's life easier' ruse. Brian still wasn't happy with how she manipulated Justin into giving into her whims; and he was beginning to wonder if he'd eventually have to distance himself from her as well just to make sure that Michael didn't have a way to pry his way back into Brian's life.

Carl cleared his throat, pulling Brian out of his thoughts again. "She wanted me to invite you over for dinner." He paused and looked at Brian, trying to gauge his reaction to that news. Brian kept his expression neutral as he didn't know just how he felt about that at the moment. "You and Justin. To apologize."

"That might not be a good idea after Saturday," Brian hedged; and it was the truth. He was certain that Mikey had ran right back to mommy as soon as Brian had left him there on the doorstep, whining about how mena he'd been to him; and he was so not in the mood for another one of her 'poor Mikey' diatribes.

"You mean your little tête-à-tête with Michael," Carl smirked; and Brian was well aware that Carl had long gotten tired of the way Michael twisted Deb around his finger. He wasn't likely to feel any sympathy for his step-son.

"Heard about that, did you?" Brian asked rhetorically, purposefully keeping his face blank; because, even if Carl might agree with him, he did still have to live with Deb when it came down to it. "Mikey run back in and whine to Mommy?"

"Heard about it nothing." Carl snorted, shaking his head. "We actually overheard the entire encounter ourselves when we came up to the door to greet you. Damn doors are thin as shit there."

"That must have gone over well," Brian sighed; fuck, that was even worse in some ways. Because, while part of him was glad that Mikey wouldn't have been able to embellish what had happened, Brian also hadn't bothered to temper his words and didn't want to listen to Mama Novotny defending her precious baby boy from the Big Bad Brian.

"Not as badly as you might think," Carl said quietly, and then shrugged when Brian looked at him in surprise. "Mostly because Jen got on her ass about it before Michael had even showed up that day."

Well, that made more sense. God, he so loved his mother-in-law some  days.

"I…" Brian began, but then trailed off when Tak hurried  through the door and beckoned to them. "Hold that thought for later."

"Brian, Carl, come on back," Tak greeted, shaking both of their hands as they approached; he then turned on his heel and led them through the maze of halls back to a private interview room. Brian looked around a bit disdainfully; he was getting a bit sick of being there. "Sorry for the delay, but I was on the phone with the lab, going over some results for the case."

Brian nodded and sat down in the seat across the table from Tak, but remained otherwise silent; Carl patted him on the shoulder and immediately took the seat next to Brian. And Brian had to admit that he was happy to have Carl there with him again. While he liked Tak for the most part, and trusted him not to jerk Brian around, it was just nice to have that silent supporter at his side to take over if necessary.

"As you know," Tak said, getting straight to the point as he always did. "I interviewed Emmett early Saturday morning before one of his gigs, and he provided what information he had of the person that we'll call Blaine." He paused to open the file in front of him, and Brian couldn't help but raise a brow at his wording; while he had doubted that Blaine was his real name, it sounded as if Tak had reason to believe for certain that it wasn't. "I've since spent the last few days tracking down source and looking into the information supplied by Emmett and found some things that both disturb and frustrate me."

"Like what?" Brian asked, his stomach curling with dread; he really didn't like the sound of that because the last time he'd seen that look on Tak's face, it had been when he'd told Brian that they didn't have any leads for the case.

"While the employee file provided a name – Warren Blaine Anderson – and an address, a Pennsylvania driver's license and a social security number, we've found some discrepancies," Tak said with a frown. "The driver's license itself is fine; it isn't a fake. The problems come when we ran the social security number and the address."

Brian nodded, but didn't say anything; what was there to say? He had already guessed that Blaine's identity was false, so he wasn't surprised that he'd provided false documentation to Emmett for this job.

"The address listed – 3945 Forbes Avenue, No. 10 – is a UPS store that rents out boxes to customers that want a street address opposed to a PO Box," Tak continued with a frustrated sigh. "And when I inquired about it, I found out that the person had terminated the use of it two weeks prior, and hasn't been seen or heard from since. He left no forwarding address."

"So that's a dead end," Brian said; and yes, he was stating the obvious, but he didn't know what else to say at that point in time.

"Yes," Tak nodded, still looking frustrated. "And then, when we ran the social security number, we discovered that was a fake too. The first three digits were from a batch of numbers that have never been issued; something that Emmett wouldn't have realized as Blaine was an outside contractor and therefore would have been responsible for reporting his own income. Which he obviously didn't do. And given his previous line of work, I'm guessing that he did a lot of stuff under the table."

"He was a hustler when I knew him," Brian said with a mirthless laugh. "It's not exactly income that you can claim." He shared a look with Carl. "What I don't get is, why would he get a job with Emmett if he was so obviously hiding something?"

"Good question," Tak shrugged. "If I were to make a guess, I would say that he wanted to establish a way into the Justin's show. Emmett said that he only worked the gallery events for the two months he was in his employ; claimed he was only doing for 'a little extra cash to make ends meet.' His words."

"So, he planned this from the beginning?" Brian asked, completely confused by this new information. "I thought you said he called in with a tip and that he'd only had the one interaction with the stalker? And now it sounds like you have reason to believe that he's a part of it?"

"I don't know," Tak said with a frown. "That is what the caller told me. Whether or not it was this Blaine character, I couldn't tell you. He may very well have taken the job for the reasons stated. But the fake address and social security number definitely concerns me. You don't conceal your identity unless you're hiding something. And the fact that he was there at the show, as the video does place him as the bartender, on the same night that you and Justin both reported issues with your drinks, doesn't bode well."

"Why report the stalker then if he's an accomplice?" Brian asked, still trying to wrap his mind around it; although he did make a mental note to come back to what Tak had said about the drinks.  He really wanted to know if they had found anything wrong with his drink.

"The deal went sour?" Tak suggested, sitting back in his seat. "That's happened before; or something happened that made him realize just how disturbed this individual is and he wanted out; or maybe he finally realized that he was in over his head? Those are just some possibilities."

"So, you're no closer to finding him," Brian sighed, feeling a headache blooming behind his eyes. Of course, it would never be that simple.

"We'll keep looking, but with false information…" Tak trailed off, leaving the rest unsaid; but Brian heard them nonetheless. Again, this person had covered his ass far too well for detection; and that frustrated Brian to no end. He shook his head as Tak sat up and flipped through the file. "So, the other thing I wanted to talk to you about is the drink you brought to my attention. I sent everything in, and placed a rush on it, and the lab finally called me back today, confirming the presence of GHB in your drink; and a fairly significant amount. We obviously have no idea what happened with Justin's drink since the glass went missing, but at least this is proof that there was some sort of tampering of the drinks that night."

"Fuck," Brian cursed under his breath; he fucking hated GHB, and had since Ted had fallen into a coma because of the drug. It was one of the few drugs that he'd refused to mess with even when he'd been popping E like candy. "Well, that's just great."

"Yeah," Tak sighed, scratching his brow as he stared at the file. "Someone really had it out for you it seems. You were smart not to drink it. Now, as for the glass itself; we had it dusted for prints and actually found a few good ones; the problem is, they only match up to Brian and the server. There were no others on there, which Emmett said would likely be the case since Blaine had a habit of wiping the glasses before the servers took them away. He claimed it to be a habit because he hated sticky, or dripping glasses, but..."

"The most likely reason is that he didn't want to be detected, of course," Brian said, his frustration growing again. He didn't even know why he bothered anymore as it seemed like he'd received nothing but bad news lately.

"Interestingly enough," Tak continued with a hum. "We did get a hit on server; it turns out that he was arrested a couple of years back for possession of illegal substances, GHB being one of them. But he swears up and down that he didn't have anything to do with the GHB in your glass. And video shows that him picked up the glass from the bar, placed it on the tray and took it directly to you. It all happened to fast for him to tamper with it. Blaine on the other hand, We didn't get anything on 'Blaine' pouring anything into it as his back was turned away from the camera the entire time he was pouring the drink."

And well, wasn't that fucking peachy? So they were no closer to nailing this asshole, even with all the new information. Fuck. He was this fucking close to pulling a Rage and tracking down these assholes himself.

"So what do we do now?" Brian asked, completely exhausted by everything. It felt like every time that they had a lead, it turned into a dead end and he wasn't sure how much more of this he could take. "Because, I have to be honest, I'm ready lock Justin up in a tower and throw away the key with the way things have been going; and would, if I didn't think he'd kick my ass for trying."

"Oh, please do try it," Carl snickered, a mischievous look in his eyes. "I could really use a laugh right about now and that would be fucking hilarious."

"You've been talking to Molly, haven't you?" Brian accused, rolling his eyes as Carl smirked, but remained otherwise silent. Brian just shook his head and then sobered as he turned back to Tak, and listened to where the detective planned to take the investigation next. It was better to focus on something he might have a chance of solving than to dwell on what he couldn't fix at the moment.