CHAPTER 72: PRECINCT BLUES PART 6: STEPPIN’ TO THE BAD SIDE

CARL

“Carl, you got a minute?”

I look up to see Brandon in the doorway. “Always for you. What’s up?”

Moving over to the chair directly in front of my desk, he takes a seat before sighing. “The Jason Kemp case.”

“What about it? Reichart killed himself before we could officially charge him.”

“It’s not a question of that, but how you obtained the evidence.”

Now it was my turn to sigh, as I think I begin to understand what his questions will lead to. “Between Hunter, Brian, and Justin, we were able to test Reichart’s DNA against the seminal sample siphoned from Kemp’s rectum during his autopsy. The results were 99.999%.”

“I know that, but…” Brandon agitatedly runs a hand through his hair. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this flustered.

“But what? Is there something you think we missed?”

“Not so much missed as that any other DNA present on him wasn’t tested against anyone.”

“What is it that you think you know? I mean he was a known hustler.”

“True, but… well it was something that Justin alluded to during the interview, about certain others employing diversionary tactics to take the focus off of them.”

“What are you implying?”

“Was there a toxicology report done on Kemp as well?”

“Brandon…”

“Was there?” he asks, and again I notice his agitation. “Please, Carl. I need to know.”

“There has to be something fueling these questions, Brandon. I can’t give you that info until you’re completely straight with me. Now, does it relate to my cases in some way?”

“He nods. “Yes, but trying to connect the dots is proving… difficult, in a sense.”

“How so? Were you on assignment this morning?”

“Since last night, actually… at Babylon. Although the investigation is being run by the Feds on Senator Thompkins order, I noticed some key evidence that tied into Justin’s last interview given yesterday.”

“Oh?”

‘Yes. Not only was there a mountain of records, but the drug paraphernalia… there were vials and full syringes in there as well…”

“Like what we’ve collected from Novotny’s office at his former business, and his home?”

He nods again. “There were specific markings on the tubes…”

“The sign of a bull with an almost-microscopic ‘GS’ at the bottom?”

“Yes, which is why I asked about the toxicology report of Jason Kemp. I remember hearing that there was a syringe found in Reichart’s car when you all searched it. If the fingerprints lifted off the vial match…”

I see exactly where he’s going with this, but I have to ask. “Were you able to track down any of the bartenders that worked Sap’s private parties?”

“All but one, and he was…”

“Jason Kemp?”

“Yes. Even though he wasn’t licensed, since Sap was notorious for not only using the dancers at Babylon, but hustlers as well, he was at the same party Justin attended. According to the bartenders that were questioned, they were told to use the vials to inject the liquid from the syringe into the drinks, instead of pouring them in. They would be able to be much more deft of hand that way.”

“But what does this have to do with Novotny and Peterson?”

“Kemp is the one who allegedly fixed the drink for Justin.”

“And?”

“There’s only one conclusion to draw as to why Justin refused the drink Sap offered him. According to the others, unless Justin was sitting on one of the couches along the back wall, he would have been in full view of the bar. Even if his back was turned, he would have seen what was going on behind him since all the walls had full length mirrors. The living room was designed so that if you were fucking anywhere in there, you would be able to see yourself doing so from every single angle, regardless of the lighting. As for the bar area itself, it was made of windows, not mirrors.”

“So Justin would have known not to drink anything.”

“Exactly! Which would have made the orders given to Sapperstein virtually impossible to follow through with unless Justin did the line of coke. The thing that stuck out during their interview was the knowledge that Sap always mixed his pure bred coke with something depending on the occasion, whether it was LSD, Angeldust, or in this case…”

“Flunitrazepam, whose most common name is Rohypnol,” I answer as I begin to pull up the toxicology report on Jason Kemp. “Although the most common way to use it is in liquid form, if the pill is crushed, it can effortlessly be mixed with something else since it’s tasteless and doesn’t have an odor. It’s composition is a lot like E in that respect.”

“Exactly!” He confirms.

Looking through the report, I notice almost right away that the partial fingerprints collected off the syringe didn’t match Reichart’s, and at the time, there wasn’t a conclusive match within the system. Not only that, but the combination found in Jason Kemp’s system were much larger doses than usually seen for recreational drug use, but not quite as large for an intentional overdose. “Whoever administered the drug knew what they were doing. They wanted him incapacitated, but well aware of what was happening to him and why. But more telling is the reason behind all of this.”

“Carl, there were bite marks on his body. When they were swabbed, did the DNA come back with a conclusive match to Reichart?” Brandon asks me.

“No. We did swab them, but just like the partial prints lifted off the syringe, there wasn’t a match in the system to them.”

“Well now, you have two people in custody who had motive. Is there any way to have the partial prints compared to theirs at this juncture?”

“I can’t do it without probable cause, and a judge’s order, since the Kemp case is filed as closed.”

“Considering that the syringes collected from Novotny’s residence and former business are in evidence against him right now, there’s your probable cause. The only one we can’t exactly tie to this is Peterson, but…”

“But?”

Brandon’s brain seems to be working overtime as he begins to put the pieces together. There’s still something missing as both of us sit there, trying to form a complete picture of what we know versus what we think we know. “The Hustler Bar!” he exclaims.

“What about it?” I ask genuinely confused.

“Even though they don’t have cameras inside the place, the City does have them outside because of its location.”

“The building is on the nearest side street of one of the busiest intersections in Pittsburgh. They don’t call that part of town ‘Death Row’ for no reason since most of the collisions that happen there end up with fatalities.” I shake my head. “So what you’re saying is that if those tapes are still available, we should see which one of them frequented the bar?”

“It may be nothing,” Brandon says, “But I’m willing to bet my badge that not only are Peterson, Novotny, or both on the video entering that alley, but also Rita Montgomery, since it was her base for whoring out her son. That’s why Hunter knew so much about the area. While during the day it looks as if there isn’t much to happen there other than a mountain of traffic jams and accidents, at night it’s the ideal place for seedy dealings. It helps that there is no parking for businesses there, except on the main street leading into the alleyway.”

“I’ll get right on this… and Brandon, good work.”

“Thanks, Detective. I’ve learned from watching the best,” he says as he leaves my office.

And I can’t help the puffed-up feeling in my chest right now as his last words hang in the air.

JOANNE

There are days when I love my job, and then there are days like this… when no words can even begin to describe what I feel as I’m sitting here pouring over these ledgers and receipts. With the arrest of Gary Sapperstein yesterday, the Feds were gracious in letting me look at them since there is no doubt that this links to my cases in some way. The entry for VKPDJT is of huge interest, specifically because of the amount and because it’s listed in the supply ledger with all of Sapperstein’s procurers, as opposed to the one for demands. Now fifteen grand might seem such a paltry amount in comparison to how much he paid for drugs, which are separated in terms of how much he bought in grams, ounces, and kilos. But it’s the fact that this particular entry has a specific weight listed behind it that let’s me know exactly what this listed amount pertains to.

“Joanne, are you too busy to entertain guests?” Officer Pettigrew asks me.

“Not at all, Rich, but I thought you were off today.”

“I was, but since Joan had to meet with Tom and Blake, I figured I’d pick up the extra hours.”

“And just how is it going with Miss Joan?” I ask him, enjoying the slight blush creeping up his cheeks.

“She’s a gem, that one,” Rich responds, blushing even deeper.

And I’m so tempted to tease the stalwart officer about his obvious crush on one Joan Kinney, but I’ll let him keep his dignity. This is what so many of us on the force have wished for him over the years. Most of us know his story, and the reason he got into trouble with drinking. Honestly, we couldn’t blame him. I mean, having to kill your own childhood friend- someone who you shared history with- had to be one of the hardest things someone would ever have to do. But he has a tendency to self-sabotage out of misplaced loyalty and the heavy weight of guilt, so I think a warning is in order.

“Then that means she’s a keeper, and the first flush of love looks good on you, man. Don’t mess this up, Pettigrew, you hear?”

“Loud and clear, my fair Detective,” he says, saluting me. We both laugh before he leaves to bring in my visitors.

I go back briefly to my train of thought before Rich came in. What does VKPDJT have to do with a fifteen grand purchase? And separated by weight? And Procurement… hmmm… There is something there about that particular word… pro-cure-ment…

As I keep mulling over the word, I feel like I’m missing something very obvious here. But I also feel like I’m very close to cracking the mystery behind that odd entry in the supply ledger. The funny thing is that while Sapperstein is a douchebag, he’s also a very meticulous one. Which can only mean that the entry was in no way a mistake. But what the hell kind of weighted supply could he have been procuring? I’m interrupted by the arrival of Ted, Annette, Mel, and Dale, along with a very tall familiar-looking blond man, and a fairly-tall brunette coming into my office.

“Good afternoon all,” I say as I offer them seats at the far end of the conference room table, away from the evidence I was going over. Settling into my own seat at the head of the table, I ask. “So Officer Pettigrew said that you requested to see me?”

“Yes,” the brunette woman spoke on behalf of the group. “We understand from Ted, Mel, Annette, and Dale, that you are the person leading the financial investigations on the cases involving Brian and Justin Taylor-Kinney. This gentleman beside me is Charles Alwin, who is Justin’s maternal uncle.”

And that’s when I understand just why he looks familiar. He looks like a taller and broader version of Justin himself. I address the lady again. “And you are?”

“Oh, forgive my manners. I’m Lori Kennedy, Craig Taylor’s very recent ex-fiancee. I’m also an accountant and legal advisor for the Art Department of Kinnetik. I wanted to let you know that, in case there will be a question regarding conflict of interests later on. However, the reason we are here is because Charles had gone to see Craig last evening before showing up to my home a little after nine o’clock. Upon entering, he headed directly to the office, which at first puzzled me. You see, Charles and I have always been acquainted, but not the point where he would know or understand the layout of my house…”

“I understand,” I say, and I sort of do. Clearly, they are both from the elite social set. So just arriving at someone’s door, especially when you’ve never been there before or had an express invitation, simply wasn’t done.

Charles clears his throat before speaking. “I’ve apologized to Lori about that, since I know that although she has security and other staff, I still should have called first. However, the situation couldn’t have been helped and I wasn’t thinking.”

“O-Kay…” I drag out, not understanding why I need all this history other than to paint a picture surrounding the circumstances of why they requested to see me. I ask, “Was there some specific reason that you went to see Craig Taylor last evening?”

He smirks, and yes, I can see where Justin gets it from. “Other than to gloat about the fact that Craig’s metaphorical house of cards had been blown down?”

I smile back. “Yes, other than that?”

“Well, I also went there to gather a little more information. With the revelations of the last interview segment I had a feeling that Craig knew much more than he’d originally let on. With Justin’s account of the cursed party at Sapperstein’s house, and then his speculation that everything he mentioned could be proven beyond doubt, I had to wonder just who, between Craig, Novotny, and Peterson had initiated the idea of the setup. According to Craig, Novotny did, even though he was the intermediary once the plan was set in motion.”

Lori tells me, “Craig told Charles that there was a hidden laptop within the office in the safe, which contained all of the proof needed that it was indeed Novotny who had set the wheels into motion for Justin’s ultimate downfall. Through my own negligence, when I was cleaning Craig’s crap from my house, it was the one place it never dawned on me to look. I was just anxious to erase any trace of him from my sight. I hope that didn’t hinder the progress of the investigation thus far.”

“No, it hasn’t. I was just looking over the information the FBI was gracious in letting me take a look at to see if I can connect some dots in this ever-growing puzzle,” I reassure her. “In fact, I think it would be a good idea to get my partner on these cases in here. Mel, would you be a dear and get Horvath in here.”

Mel gets up as Lori hands me the laptop. While Charles provides the codes, I see Ted, Dale, and Annette whispering amongst themselves. I chuckle, knowing exactly what they want. But before I even think of giving into them, I want to know why they really accompanied Charles Alwin and Lori Kennedy here. “Someone want to tell me what I’ll be looking for on this?”

Ted clears his throat. “There was an automatic scheduled payment that came out of Michael Novotny’s account awhile back to the CNC Brighter Day Fund. When researching the company, there wasn’t a specific organization listed under that title. We’re kind of hoping that the laptop gives some sort of clarity to the charge.”

“Were you able to stop the payment from going through?” I ask.

Annette answers, “We were, but just barely. Novotny’s accounts were frozen just in the nick of time. But as a result of the request for the automatic payments being submitted, we’re also hoping that there is a way to link the request to whatever account is linked to the laptop. So far, we were only able to obtain the IP addresses of the banks making the requests…”

“Banks?”

“Yes, three in total. One to Melanie’s dormant account that Peterson has been using, the second going to a dummy account, and the third, if it’s as we suspect, to Craig Taylor’s.”

“Okay. But why do I feel that I’m missing something else? Or is it that you aren’t tell me something else?”

“There was an automatic deposit that was returned earlier this morning because of the freeze on Novotny’s account. However, the same amount of money DID go into Melanie’s dormant account. The third auto payment is, as yet, missing,” Dale informs me.

“Missing? As in not yet cleared or no record of the processing? And who is the person shelling out the money?”

“The money is being funneled through Eric Maloney’s account but…”

“Eric Maloney?” Lori gasps.

“You know him?” Dale asks her.

“Only somewhat, since he works at Kinnetik. That can only mean one thing!”

“What?” I ask.

“He’s also working with Vance and a guy named Troy Perkins, trying to ruin Brian and Justin from the inside of the company. Apparently, my nephew screwed him, and he can’t let go of the experience,” Charles answers, wryly. “There is also something you all should know regarding my heretofore unknown connection to Brian, even though he doesn’t know it.”

“What are you talking about?” Mel asks, as she steps back into the room with Horvath.

“The story is a long and varied one, and I didn’t really know or understand it at the time. But Brian saved the life of someone I held very dear to me at one time. The man who Brian lost his virginity with, Anthony Locke, was my best friend. Although he and I were from different worlds, Tony and I were fast friends. He gave me a chance to just be myself, instead of just an heir to the Alwin fortune- much like Brian has always done for Justin in a way, and vice versa.

“I knew Tony was gay from the time we were sixteen, and while he married and had children as was expected of him, he’d still kept that side of himself hidden from everyone but me and a chosen few. Anyway, he’d met a young man by the name of Brian Kinney, and although they both knew it was wrong, they began a brief affair. Prior to that, Tony was talking about ending it all because he had to keep living a lie or lose everything. My friend was so deep into his depression that almost nothing mattered to him anymore.

“Consequently, just about everyone knew about Brian’s tumultuous life at home in the Kinney household, even though no one said anything. It wasn’t like much could be done back then anyway, if I’m honest. Back then, there weren’t clear cut child abuse laws, so in a lot of ways it was a case of staying with the devil you know, or ending up in fostercare, which was no better. So after meeting Brian, Tony decided to do anything possible to not only heal Brian, but to give him a way out of the hell he was growing up in.”

“So it wasn’t just about sex, the way Brian would have everyone believe?” Melanie asks in general.

“No,” Charles answers, quickly. “But why would you ever think that it was?”

Ted clears his throat before answering. “Michael always alluded to Brian whoring his way to getting those scholarships.”

“Michael is an asshole!” Charles explodes, before immediately calming down. “Forgive my outburst, but… well, clearly Novotny was always one who just wanted to see or believe what he wanted to. And honestly, would he have wanted to see Brian’s innate academic and athletic prowess being cultivated in such a way where he would have surely become an afterthought?”

“Yet, he did anyway. And in so many ways,” Melanie sighs. “Same thing happened with Lindsay, when you think about it. It’s funny when you look back and see all the blaring signs of narcissistic personality disorder that you blatantly overlooked simply for your own comfort.”

I nod, not being able to say anything to negate her claims. I haven’t known Brian and Justin very long, but even I can see men who have been chronically and systemically abused by those they had come to trust throughout their lives. It wasn’t so much that they were blind; just hungry for love and attention in any form it came to them. Unfortunately, in Justin’s case, it was done in an insidious way, whereas Brian’s was done openly and with impunity. Using the codes Charles provided, I begin the process of making all of those fuckers pay… and pay BIG!

“So… we now know just who the CNC Brighter Day Fund really is,” I say, as I turn the computer around to face them. “It looks like Claire and Craig have a lot of explaining to do.” I scroll down the last ledger he’d left open.

“VKPDJT 145lbs? What is that?” Lori asks.

Dale studies it for a moment, before he narrows his eyes. “An anagram of sorts. I’m willing to bet that its meaning is Video of Kinney’s Private Dancer Justin Taylor 145 pounds.”

“And the sequence of numbers and letters behind it?” Carl asks.

“BLOBLE5919RO… I can’t be sure, but I believe that’s Justin’s description: Blond hair, blue eyes, 5’9, age 19, and the drug to use, which would be rohypnol.”

BINGO! Those BITCHES! But I’m incredibly curious how Dale was able to decipher all of this. So I ask, “How did you put it altogether like that?”

He chuckles a bit before answering, “I’ve been around the block a time or two, especially when I look for a new sub. We don’t buy them or anything like that, but usually their former Masters provide certain information when we ask for references.”

“References? Within the BDSM community?” Melanie asks, in disbelief. And I’m with her there.

“In certain cases, they are required, like if I’m doing a show as Mr. Leather. We select professional subs in a lot of the same ways that back-up dancers are acquired for live concerts. Anyway, you have to know your sub’s stats, what they are into, their height, weight, and if they have a latex allergy or the like. In Justin’s case, he has a lot of allergies. While the goal would have been to make him incoherent, I don’t believe that it would have been to kill him just yet. Besides, losing Brian this way would have hurt Justin worse…”

“To the point where he would have killed himself?” Lori asks.

“I don’t know, and fortunately we all will NEVER know the answer to that particular question. But what we do know about Brian and Justin is that breathing without each other- without being able to make sure the other one is safe- would be a fate worse than death for either man. After all they have been through individually and collectively, Novotny’s plan would have done much more than torn them apart physically. It would have killed their spirits in such a way that neither man would have ever come back from.”

We all nod in agreement with his assessment. It’s clear that if Novotny had his way, neither man would have the will to keep fighting the fate that others keep trying to plan for them. “So the other people of the ‘fund’? Do we know who they are?” Mel asks.

Annette smiles at her. “I think it’s safe to assume that Novotny, Peterson, and Lance Freeman are the missing pieces of this puzzle. I’m still waiting on the trace from your dormant account to yield the actual account number of the transfer, and not just the IP address. We need a concrete link from the account to Peterson. Of course, Eric Maloney is the person on record whose account it’s coming from, but the IP address doesn’t necessarily have to be his.”

“But Vance is the only person left free from prison who still has a tremendous axe to grind.”

“Not necessarily,” Lori inputs.

“What do you know that I don’t?” Mel asks her.

“Only that Troy Perkins does, too… probably an even bigger one than just Vance losing his company to Brian and Justin. Remind me to tell you the full story of Mitchell Perkins, the Hobbs family, and about the grudges that only Troy would have the wherewithal to act upon at this juncture.”

“It didn’t just start with Mitchell’s dismissal from St. James Academy, nor did it just begin with Christian’s abuse at Craig and his father’s hands,” Charles tells us.

I nod, and then ask Carl as he stands there concentrating on the ‘RO’ displayed on the screen, “Does this help your investigation, Carl?”

“More than you know at the moment, Joanne. I do believe that Dale just helped me figure out what was in the vials and syringes found in Michael Novotny’s former office, and in his apartment.” He smiles wide then. “Oh yes, all of their charges are about to be upped. I need to call Daris.”

“Where is he?”

“California. I think we figured out just how Novotny planned on getting Brian to Palm Springs… and keeping him there.”