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COURTROOM CHRONICLES: CHAPTER TWO: RAT BASTARDS AND THEIR FINKS Part 2


MANUEL VASQUEZ


“Mr. Vance, there isn’t any way to escape the charges,” I tell him for the hundredth time. “Unless you have an evil, bald-headed twin brother not even your own mother knows about, the evidence against you is indisputable. The fact is that you conspired with Novotny and Peterson in their quest to get rid of Justin Taylor while committing crimes against Brian Kinney. Having him followed and watched repeatedly can be- and is being- looked at as stalking, which is a large part of what the two of them were doing to that man.”


“But I didn’t have anything to do with that!” Gardner protested loudly. “And besides, they came to me. How could I refuse an offer to find out what Brian was up to when he was away from the office?”


“The truth is that it was unequivocally NONE of your business, just as it wasn’t theirs! As long as his job performance wasn’t suffering, there was no reason for you to keep tabs on the man, nor his lover.”


“But…”


“There is no reason you can give, Mr. Vance, that will justify the lengths you, Peterson, and Novotny went to in order to keep Kinney where each of you wanted him. And it’s not going to help your cause when the real reason you hired Troy Perkins comes to light.”


“He was qualified…”


“True, but that was NOT the reason you hired him. It was to entrap Brian Kinney into doing your bidding a la Kip Thomas. It didn’t work for Ryder when he tried it with Kip, and it didn’t work for you either!”


“How did you find out about that?”


“It doesn’t matter how I found out, only that it’s a fact. Justin Taylor-Kinney didn’t sit idle and allow that plan to take Brian’s livelihood away simply because Ryder had run out of ideas to get rid of Brian. The fact was the man’s record was exemplary; it was all jealousy on the former owner’s part. He couldn’t just simply fire Brian without just cause, and he knew that! So did you!”


“Okay. Granted you are right that I wanted Kinney gone from my company. But I also had to acknowledge that he would have taken all the high-paying clients with him.”


“Exactly! So the only way you could have prevented that from happening was to destroy his credibility within the field. But from all accounts, what you never understood was that it didn’t matter what you did; Brian still would have done exactly what he wanted to do. The man is notorious for it, both in business and out of it! He does what he wants, when he wants, and whomever he wants. So all of your machinations still wouldn’t have yielded an obedient slave to your whims. And now you’ve lost your company, your reputation, and very shortly your freedom, unless…”


“Unless? Tell me what I have to do! I’m desperate here!”


“Unless you cooperate fully with the police investigating not only Novotny and Peterson but Stockwell and his ilk as well in every last one of these cases, you can and will be seen as either an accomplice or the puppet master. The choice is yours on how they view you.”


Seeing the increasing terror and despair on Vance’s face is certainly worth the price of admission right now. The man is a turd! That he would go to such lengths to assist in setting up a young man with a bright future in an effort to control another- one with the career Vance wishes he’d had when he was Brian’s age- is beyond disgusting! True, I’m primarily a criminal attorney though I work all facets of law, but I’ve known criminals with far more morals than this asshole. And there was no reason for it except pure, unadulterated greed, since he wouldn’t have been able to maintain his client base without Brian Taylor-Kinney.


“So, why did you really pay for the tape of Justin Taylor-Kinney’s near downfall at the hands of Gary Sapperstein?” I ask him.


“Originally, it was entirely for the reasons that are now public knowledge. I just wanted a way to bring him to heel. You have no idea what it’s like to work with such a stunning, charismatic character as Brian. It was difficult to watch everything the stalwart, stubborn man touched turn to gold, regardless of the fact that I owned the company. No matter the clients’ objections to his initial ideas, he would eventually talk them around to his way of thinking, all without effort. He was as blunt as he dared to be, and yet they still respected him, while ignoring the fact that he had a senior partner in the agency that they should have been able to view as their backup.”


“So again, it was jealousy?”


“Hell YES, it was!” Vance exploded, before lowering his voice again. “Brian Taylor-Kinney used his charisma as a weapon, and I wanted to be able to control how he did. It was that same fucking charm that caused Leo Brown to demand Brian be given a partnership in the company I built from the ground up, and I was fucking pissed about it! I needed a way to reclaim what was mine, and to teach Brian a very valuable lesson in the process.”


“And what was that lesson?”


“That he should never aspire to be more than the follower his blue grass roots produced him to be, instead of trying to break into Elite society. Even to the most conservative clients, like Leo Brown, Brian being an openly-gay man with a partner instead of a wife stopped mattering. It shouldn’t have mattered that the arrogant sonofabitch was able to do everything he promised in a meeting; he’s still gay, and they were allowing him to amass a fortune, which could have been used to further the homosexual agenda.”


Homosexual agenda? What the hell are you talking about?”


“Using his money to further the causes of those people. They shouldn’t have the same rights as the rest of us, who now have to bow to societal norms just to make a living.”


“And you really think that’s something Brian would have engaged in?”


“He already has!” Vance yells. “He’s got a son, he owns property, he’s allowed to get…”


“Ah, I see what your real problem is. Brian being married would’ve meant less time for YOU to use him. That’s it, isn’t it?”


“He should’ve had all his efforts concentrated on making Vanguard succeed in order to keep his job, like when he had to choose between taking his lover to Vermont and saving his job.”


“And what would you have been doing while Brian was working like a fucking dog? Let me guess. You would have been somewhere fucking Peterson.” At his gasp of shock, I narrowed my eyes at him. “What? You couldn’t have thought her involvement with you would have remained a secret, did you?”


“How did you find out about me and Lindsay?”


“Your reputation precedes you, Mr. Vance. And while I’m at it, let me inform you that your ex-wife confirmed it for me as well when I asked her if she was willing to help you out of this jam you find yourself in. The exact words she asked me to tell you were ‘I hope he rots in hell right alongside Lindsay. Oh, and to thank you in advance for the No Contest Divorce.’ It’s the other part of her price for keeping everything else she knows from becoming public knowledge. Now what on earth could she be speaking about, Gardner?”


Once again, he turns white as a ghost and I can’t help but take pleasure in that. It’s obvious that whatever it is, it’s something that he would rather sign his life away rather than have it out in the open. Personally, I think it has something to do with how he obtained Vanguard Advertising Agency in the first place, but I can’t be sure without either of them confirming my suspicions. In any event, it’s my intent to do only the bare minimum to help him. He deserves to rot in prison for his part in all of this mess! 


Recovering from his shock briefly, he asks, “Did she give you the papers for me to sign? And is there any way I can make a deal regarding the rest of this mess? I really only wanted to do everything in my power to retain control of my company.”


I reached into my briefcase, and slid the papers his soon-to-be-ex had her attorney forward to me on her behalf, while answering his question. “It really depends on what the others have to say about your involvement in all of his, especially Novotny and Peterson. Although the D.A. is still building the case against the two of them, you can be assured that they will heap all the blame for their actions on any and everybody else rather than take responsibility for their own actions. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?”


“I…”


“Don’t, Vance. I’ve been your attorney for awhile now, so I know exactly how you work and think. I’m not going to lie to you: you might be looking at jail time for the attempted blackmail, if nothing else. You obtaining that tape of Justin Taylor-Kinney is NOT going to be overlooked in light of your connections to the defendants. Factoring the attempt at Corporate Espionage, and... it really doesn’t look good for you, at all.”


I let him sit and absorb all I’m telling him while he signs the papers before him, and begins writing his statement to the D.A. regarding his part in all of this. There’s no way he can justify his actions. He could have backed out of this mess at any time, and that fact is what’s really going to sway the jury. He had the ability to say ‘NO’ to Novotny and Peterson, and to leave well enough alone at the hostile takeover of his company. But he didn’t. 


The emotional trauma those two men must have gone through can’t be measured. But if Gardner Vance can get the maximum penalty under the law, I think it might go a long way in healing them. 


ERIC


I still can’t believe I’m here. I honestly thought I was doing the right thing by showing Justin what he could continue to look forward to being involved with Kinney. Fuck! I should have just left well enough alone when I found out he basically married the asshole, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.


I didn’t lie when I said that Justin had ruined me for other men. I haven’t been able to sustain an erection with anyone else without thinking about him, even the man I’d been seeing for only a short while. I thought that maybe if I could convince Justin to take me again; if I could convince him to leave Brian, then I could somehow get back to normal. But Justin is just like him! And I may have lost the only chance to have something meaningful, all because I couldn’t leave Justin to live his life in peace without me.


“Maloney, you have a visitor,” the guard comes out to me, and all I can think is that I hope it’s not Franklin.


As I follow him into the visitor’s area from the common room I was occupying, I think back to the first time I met the older man. Franklin was not that much older than Brian, nor as well off. But there was an instant attraction between us. Strangely, when he spoke to me, I felt my heart speed up the same way it did when Justin looked at me for the first time. That right there should have told me something, right?


The funny thing is that now that I’ve been forced to rewatch the airing of the Taylor-Kinney interview, I realize now that I couldn’t possibly have competed with Brian for Justin’s affections. The two of them have been through so damn much! I mean, the story of the bashing alone… If that alone didn’t explain their connection, I don’t know what could have. But to see them after having survived that, and Ethan Gold, and what they are going through now is not only awe-inspiring but relieving as well.

 

Relief at knowing that no one has ever hated me enough to try killing me; relief that the very few people I call friends wouldn’t try to control my life in such a way that they would leave me at the hands of a rapist. Which is really what Gary Sapperstein is, regardless of the supposed consent of his victims. The bottom line is that many of those young men- some my age, but many more younger than me- were coerced into sex through drug abuse and the promise of a warm place to sleep or food. It puts what was happening to Justin at the time I met him in a much different perspective than what I’d initially thought. I can’t help but wonder if Troy has come up with the same revelations.

 

Or is he still stuck in his own idiocy regarding Brian? 


I’m almost inclined to believe the latter since all he could still talk about on the way to the precinct was how Brian should’ve been his. What nonsense! Troy Perkins was such a pampered princess that if he’d had to go through only half of what Brian and Justin Taylor-Kinney have gone through, undoubtedly he would have offed himself by now to escape it all. It’s why I feel such shame right now for my part in the schemes of Gardner Vance. If I had just heeded the warnings I received in abundance from the people who knew the Taylor-Kinney's best, both in business and personally, perhaps I wouldn’t be in the shit tank I am right now.


Upon entering the room, I feel the dread seep into my bones at the people who are with Franklin. “Mom and Jess, what are you doing here?”


“Nevermind how we came to be here,” my sister says, sternly. “You just couldn’t NOT create a mess, could you?! And all over a man that was NEVER going to be yours!”


“Jessica, that’s enough!” My mom yells at her.


“Like hell it is! It’s not enough as far as I’m concerned, but what else could I expect? He was always your baby, right Mother?” Jessica sneers in my direction, before announcing, “I’ll be out in the waiting room.”


Mom watches her leave, before turning to me. “How are you, Junior?”


“Apologetic, but I’m okay.” I look at Franklin, who is standing there with a face as void of his feelings as I’ve ever seen it. “I really am sorry, you know?”


“I know, Eric,” he says, quietly. “But what I don’t know is why you went along with this plan. I mean, you went as far as validly getting hired at Kinnetik so you could what? How did you even get mixed up with Vance and Perkins?”


“I think I can answer how he got mixed up with the two of them, since their meeting was mostly my own fault,” my mother says.


“Mom, you can’t blame yourself for my wrongdoings.”


“Can’t I though? I should have remembered what type of man Vance was from back in the days when your father first introduced us. It doesn’t help that your father had conveniently forgotten that it was his best friend, Gardner Vance, who caused him to lose the company formerly known as Vanguard. Your father died finally acknowledging he never should have trusted Gardner, but still asking me to introduce you to him, saying that he would happily give you a job once you finished college. But God in Heaven, I never would have imagined that he would have involved Senior’s son in his schemes.”


“So why, Eric?” Franklin asks me again.


“There’s no excuse for what I did,” I answer, and it’s the truth. There was nothing that could justify creating those boards at Troy’s behest, or any of the other schemes and slights I’ve engaged in in order to have a man, who was never going to be mine.


“Are you in love with him?” Franklin asks me quietly, and my heart breaks at the tone.


“No,” I answer, honestly. “I thought I was, but no. Jealous that he continued to pick Kinney over me? Yes. Aggravated at the way he treated me after he took my virginity? Yes. But in love? No, I know that now. Justin… it’s complicated, but no Franklin. Instead, I’m in deep like with you and that was part of this.”


“I don’t understand.”


“I haven’t had a reaction to certain stimuli since the afternoon after Justin and I… had relations.” At first, he’s puzzled by what I’m speaking of, until he notices my mother with her own frown on her face no doubt piecing together what I mean. “I thought he could fix me.”


“And it never occurred to you to be honest with me? I mean, me being a psychologist and all, I could have told you that your block is psychological, not physical.”


I nod in understanding of what he’s telling me. But I have to know, “So now that you know that, what happens now?”


“Let’s see how all of this plays out and then we’ll talk. But in the meantime, your mother and I need you to tell us everything you know about this situation. And then we need to get you some representation that’s not legal aid. I’m not going to lie, you’ll probably do time simply because you were a willing participant to this mess. But it doesn’t mean you don’t have certain cards to play to your advantage.”


So for the next half an hour, I tell them what they want to know and answer their questions. Hearing it all aloud, I feel like such a fucking fool. Once again, I wonder what I was thinking, and the answer always comes back that I wasn’t. For someone who always prided themselves on their intelligence, I played the part of dumb fuck really well. By the time they leave and the guard comes to collect me, I feel relieved that they know it all.


And I know it’s just one more step to reclaiming Eric Maloney, Junior- one that should have been taken a long time ago… which begins with fully realizing that there was no way in hell I was ever meant for the likes of Justin Taylor-Kinney. 


AARON HASSELBACK


After leaving Peterson yesterday, I had intended to speak with Claire Kinney. Unfortunately, that had to be postponed since the idiot ran her mouth one too many times to the WRONG inmate and ended up in the infirmary. I can’t help but chuckle at the description the guard who told me gave. He said that Claire looked as if she could be confused with a slab of butchered pork in the Meatpacking District of NYC. Damn, to be compared to the slaughterhouses of the 1900s... 

 

But the rule of thumb is when you run your mouth, have enough ass and some fast fists to back it up. Clearly, Claire didn’t, and I doubt that this experience is really going to teach her to shut the fuck up. But for now, I have a new client, and this guy… Yeah! Something tells me that he’s going to be just as annoying as Lindsay Peterson. 

 

 

Oh joy! Happy fucking JOY!

 

 

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