- Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:

So glad to finally get this story finished. Hope you enjoy the final wrap up. TAG


Chapter 22 - Mr. Avenger.



“You did great in there, Brian. You too, Justin,” Monica Shields, the federal prosecutor who’d been shepherding us through the Grand Jury process all day complimented. “Your statements were clear and to the point and you managed to answer all the jurors' questions without getting too emotional.”


“So, is that it? Are we done? When will we know if it worked?” I asked, intrigued by how mysterious this whole Grand Jury thing seemed.


“We’re done with you two at least,” Monica confirmed. “Special Agent Bridges is in there giving his testimony right now and then we have one more witness scheduled, an FBI Forensics Specialist who’ll go through all the electronic evidence we got off the computers and from our initial phone records sweeps, but I don’t think that will take too long. I expect the jury will agree we have more than enough evidence on these first eight individuals to support a finding of probable cause. We should have the indictments on all of them in hand in time to go out for a celebratory dinner!”


“Great. But what about Langley?” Brian asked, getting to the most important point. “Is he still going to be allowed to stalk me and my son while we wait for all this shit to finally get to trial?”


“I think I can answer that,” Carl Horvath announced, walking up from behind and waving a sheaf of papers in his hand. “The fingerprint analysis on that soccer medal came back last night and we found Langley’s prints all over that thing. So I had a meeting with all the legal eagles this morning and they’re fired up to get Langley’s pretrial release revoked for witness tampering and obstruction. I just need you to sign this affidavit in support of the motion and then, hopefully, we can get an emergency hearing set on the judge’s docket tomorrow morning. If I were a betting man, I’d say it’s pretty close to a sure thing that Langley will be back behind bars by lunchtime tomorrow.”


“That’s fucking fabulous!” Brian exclaimed - a little too loudly for the quiet of a federal courthouse hallway - causing several heads to turn in our direction. Not that Brian cared. “Just show me where to sign. I’ll sleep a lot better knowing that he’s locked up and can’t get to Gus.”


While Brian was reviewing the affidavit, I listened in on the discussion between Horvath and Shields. The conversation centered around the logistics for arresting the eight men who were included in this first round of indictments; these included the men that Brian had identified by name whose involvement had been corroborated by the computer records the FBI had seized. There were going to be a lot more indictments to follow, Bridges had assured us, but these eight were the ‘big fish’ that they wanted to get to first before they had a chance to flee or destroy evidence. The rest, men of lesser means who probably didn’t have the same ability to evade the legal consequences of their actions, would be rounded up later. According to Bridges, this trafficking ring was huge and they anticipated the fallout from these first few arrests to be widespread. The investigation would probably take years to complete. Which seemed to me like poetic justice insofar as the guilty would be living with a legal sword hanging over their heads, waiting in fear for the moment of their arrests, for a long, long time. Considering how long Brian and the other victims had suffered, I thought it was fitting. 


“Yeah, but what are we going to do about Stockwell?” Carl asked Shields when they got to the point of discussing how the FBI office in Harrisburg was waiting for the word to pick up the three suspects living in their jurisdiction. “You know that the minute you feds arrest Thomas, his first call is going to be to ‘Cousin Jimmy’, and James Stockwell still has enough clout here in Pittsburgh to throw a wrench in our plans, even after that fiasco with his partner and the dumpster boy. We might not have had the evidence to charge Stockwell as an accomplice in that murder, but I still suspect it was only because his buddies in high places didn’t want their connections to a criminal brought into the spotlight. I don’t want any of our evidence to magically disappear again in this case.”


“Do you think Pittsburgh’s former police chief knows that his cousin caught him on tape when he visited during filming sessions those couple of times?” Shields asked with a conspiratorial smirk. 


“Maybe. But I suspect that was just Tommy’s idea of an insurance policy,” Carl surmised. “If he ever did get in trouble, he could use that video to ensure that his cousin would be obligated to help him, or else risk being inculpated himself.”


Brian, who’d just finished signing the affidavit, spoke up then. “Well, for what it’s worth, I don’t remember Jim ever being one of the men who hurt me. That’s not to say he wasn’t around or that he might not have hurt any of the boys that came after me - there were always a lot of men who came and went, and I can’t recall all of them clearly - but I would think that seeing James Stockwell again, when he hired VanGuard to do his campaign PR, would have triggered some kind of reaction if he had been more than just peripherally involved.”


Brian handed the signed affidavit back to Horvath and I took advantage of the moment to grab his empty hand and squeeze it reassuringly. Brian smiled at me gratefully and squeezed back. That’s when I noticed that Brian was wearing his wedding band and my heart did this weird double thump of happy surprise.  


The detective, who hadn’t noticed our moment of secret glee, was already speculating again. “It makes you think, though, doesn’t it? I mean, Stockwell obviously knew about what was going on in that cabin and didn’t do anything to stop it. So, why not? Considering how vocally homophobic he was back when he was on the force, you’d think he would have been the first one to step up and stop a known gay pedophile ring, wouldn’t you?”


Both Brian and I scoffed aloud at that supposition. “Not likely, Carl,” I corrected him. “You do know that all the biggest homophobe are just closeted fags, right? Jimmy might not have participated, but I’d bet a dime to a hole of donuts that he was secretly getting his jollies off in private to thoughts of what his cousin was doing.”


“Well, at the very least, I think we have grounds to charge him as an accessory,” Shields agreed. “I’ll talk to the Deputy AG about how she wants to handle it but, for all his ‘connections’, I don’t think Jimmy will be able to make federal trafficking charges disappear the same way he got rid of those state charges. And, actually, it might be a better strategy to let him sit and stew for a bit. We could send a couple of agents out to question him - give him something to think about - and then just wait to see what happens. I’m sure he knows that former cops really don’t do well in prison and maybe he’ll come to us with a deal?” She ended with an evil little laugh that made me kinda afraid of her despite her otherwise unassuming appearance. 


“Whatever you say, Counsellor,” Carl chuckled. “I’ll leave those machinations up to you feds. And, in the meantime, I’ll hustle this paperwork back to the folks waiting for it so we can get Langley back behind bars where he belongs. Afternoon, folks.”


Brian and I watched Carl’s departure until he disappeared around the corner and then said our goodbyes to Ms. Shields. She promised to update us as soon as she got word that the indictments were finalized and the agents were on their way out to arrest the first round of baddies. As far as I was concerned, that part of this adventure couldn’t happen fast enough. I knew that there was still a lot of shit ahead of us, including any trials we’d have to give testimony at, but it felt like these arrests were at least the beginning of the end. Maybe now, from here on out, we’d both be able to sleep at night. 


Or, maybe not.


As Brian and I were walking out of the courthouse, heading down the block to the parking garage where we’d left his car, I started going over the list of men Brian had told me about the night before. There were a lot more than just the eight that were hopefully being indicted today. Presumably there could even be additional defendants that Brian hadn’t yet remembered but whose names might come up in the electronic searches the feds were doing. It made me wonder how many more times we’d have to testify like we had today. It was possible, of course, that at least some of them would cut plea deals to avoid trial. That should whittle down the number of court appearances a bit. Plus, there had to be a few who weren’t alive anymore, seeing as the events from Brian’s memory went back more than two decades . . .


That’s when the possible identity of another of the names on Brian’s list occurred to me. “Shit!” I was so surprised that I stumbled and almost fell. Thankfully Brian still had hold of my hand and caught me before I did a full faceplant. 


“You okay, Sunshine?”


“I . . . Uh . . . I just remembered something.” I wasn’t sure if that was the time or the place to bring up my revelation. But, when Brian just stood there, patiently waiting for me to spill my guts, I didn’t really have a choice. “I just . . . I was going over the list of men you told me about last night and I remembered one that . . . Well, talking about Jim Stockwell, brought to mind his former partner, Kenneth Riechert . . .”


“Yeah, good old Kenny . . .” Brian grimaced, squeezing his eyes closed and shaking his head. But it was impossible to deny reality. “I think . . . I’m pretty sure he was one of them.” Brian admitted, opening up his eyes and sharing the sadness in them with me. “He was the first. The one Coach made me ‘play with’ that first day he brought me up to the cabin . . .”


“I’m sorry, Brian . . .” I didn’t know what to say so I let my words die in midair. 


He turned and started walking again, still holding my hand, so I started walking too. “I’m surprised seeing him back when we were trying to find Jason Kemp’s killer didn’t trigger a flashback,” he admitted in a quiet voice as we continued down the sidewalk. “Looking back on it now . . .” He sighed. “I had this feeling in my gut the very first time I saw him in that bar. I just KNEW he was the one. Even before Hunter pointed him out. But I guess I’d just blocked that first time out so completely . . .”


“I’m glad you did,” I confessed. “All the shit that went down with Stockwell was bad enough. You didn’t need to be dealing with memories of Langley and his pals on top of everything else.”


“Ain’t that the truth,” Brian agreed, tugging me closer so he could wrap an arm around my shoulders and lean in for a kiss. “But at least that time, when I was confronted by my past, I had someone there who cared enough to stand by me and not let me drown in the memories. Who knows, maybe that’s why seeing Reichert didn’t hit me that hard? Maybe having a hot blond waiting for me in bed when I got home from the bar that night was what saved me?”


“Oh, you do say the sweetest things, Mr. Kinney,” I replied while letting my fingers play with the wedding band on the fingers of the hand draped over my shoulder. 



After all that, I was looking forward to getting Brian home so I could show him just how much I appreciated him and the gesture he’d made by wearing that damned wedding ring. I spent the entire first part of the drive fantasizing about exactly how I was going to ravish him. But, alas, my happy fantasies were derailed when I noticed that Brian had missed the turn off to take us back to the loft. 


“Are we going out to Britin?” I questioned.


“No. I have one errand I need to take care of first,” Brian answered evasively. 


I didn’t say anything, merely sitting there waiting to see what would transpire next. When Brian got on the freeway heading out to the edge of town, I really started to wonder what the hell was going on. And, when he turned off just after we passed the big brown sign advertising a state recreation area and campground, I started to get uneasy. 


I knew what was down that street, but I hadn’t thought Brian would know; I thought I’d kept my research into where, exactly, the Kick!It Camp was holding their summer sleepaway camp hidden. I still couldn’t believe that, even after Langley had been arrested on child pornography charges, there hadn’t been any restrictions put on him that prevented him from continuing to coach kids. I’d asked Carl about it way back when he’d first told us about Langley’s release, but he’d said the judge had withheld ruling on pre-trial restrictions until a later date. Hence the fact that Langley was still employed as a coach at the Kick!It camp. I hadn’t thought Brian was aware of that circumstance, however. Although, judging by the direction we were heading, he seemed to have found out on his own. 


Yeah, I definitely was not looking forward to the confrontation that I knew had to be coming next.


 


The campground that Kick!It had reserved for their summer program was on the northeast edge of Pittsburgh. It was a typical state park set up; there was a series of green-roofed, barracks-type cabins arranged in a line just inside the fringe of encircling trees, a large open meadow in the center, and an even larger meeting house-style building next to the parking lot where, presumably, the campers would eat their meals and gather in the evenings after the games were done. The meadow had been set up with two chalk-delineated soccer fields and there were groupings of young soccer players doing various drills all over the sunny area. 


Brian didn’t say a word as he parked the car, got out, and began to stride purposefully across the field. He headed directly for the spot where a male coach was teaching some of the littlest campers the art of dribbling a soccer ball. There weren’t many adults around, just the other coaches, who all seemed busy with their own campers, so there wasn’t anyone to stop Brian. 


I trotted after him, my brain frantically reeling through options for what I should do to support Brian in whatever he had planned. Should I try to stop him if his plan was to come out punching? Maybe I should join him and to hell with the possible assault charges? Or maybe I should stay out of it, at least long enough to call Mel and ask for legal advice, since it seemed likely we might be arrested if things did end up getting physical. I wasn’t sure, but I did know I wasn’t going to let Brian take on this confrontation alone no matter where it might be headed.


It was unfortunate that, when Brian was only a dozen meters away, Langley called out to one of the boys and, when the kid came gamboling over in response to the summons, Coach Langley knelt down to give the dark-haired boy a too-friendly hug. In response, Brian let out a howl that caused all the heads around us to turn in our direction. But we were already close enough that Langley didn’t have time to get away. In three seconds flat, Brain was close enough to grab Langley’s wrist in a vice-like grip and wrench the arm he had hold of so far back that the older man had to struggle not to fall over. 


“If you don’t get your hand off that boy right this fucking second, I’ll tear both your arms clear out of their sockets,” Brian hissed, his voice menacing enough that several of the little ones nearby whimpered and started to back away. Brian was seeing red, though, and was probably unaware of the audience watching him. “Don’t fuck with me, Langley. I’m not fucking kidding.”


Brian’s grip on Langley’s wrist somehow managed to get even tighter; I could see the skin puckering and turning purple where the enraged man’s grasp was bending the joint the wrong way. Langley gave one last defiant glance but then relented and removed his other hand from the boy’s shoulder. I was surprised to see that the kid he’d been hugging was none other than little Taniel, the child we’d seen Langley bragging on that first time Daphne and I had gone out to surveil the soccer coach. I guess, after I’d warned the cops about what we’d seen, I’d assumed that Carl would have talked to the kid’s parents and told them about the danger their son was in. It was clear to anyone with eyes that Langley was either grooming poor Taniel to be his next victim or had already started in on the abuse. Fuck, I hoped Horvath and Bridges were able to get the judge to revoke Langley’s bail and put this guy in jail asap so he couldn’t keep hurting more kids like Taniel.


The moment that Langley released Taniel, the kid backed away until he was huddled in a group with the rest of the campers. Brian let go of Langley’s wrist and the coach shook out the limb a little before he deliberately climbed to his feet and turned to face his attacker. Brian was literally seething, his nostrils flaring and his shoulders heaving with each breath. Judging by the fists balled up at his sides, I didn’t think it would take much to set Brian off at that point, but I was so relieved to see him angry and fighting back, rather than cowering and hiding, that I could have cheered. Langley had no idea what kind of rage he’d awoken or how close he was to having his ass handed to him now that Brian was released from the repressed memories that had held him back for so long. So, yeah, fuck Langley.


“Hey there, Buddy. Nice to see ya again after so long. You look . . . Good,” Langley crooned, giving Brian the old elevator eyes inspection, apparently thinking that he could intimidate his way out of this confrontation. “But then, I always suspected you’d turn out to be almost as pretty as an adult as you were when you were a boy.”


“Save your breath, Langley. You can’t intimidate me anymore,” Brian scoffed, not taking the bait. Then he struck back with his own intimidation. “You went too far when you came after my son, you fucking asswipe. That was the last straw. And now I’m going to take you down for good.”


Langley’s smirk gradually melted off his face at Brian’s threat, which caused Brian to chuckle. 


Langley, though, still had a little swagger left in him and he rallied long enough to deflect, “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”


“Feigning innocence isn’t going to work this time, Coach,” Brian sneered the title making it sound like a curse. “I’m not some scared little five year old anymore. You can’t bully or threaten me to stay silent. I won’t help you hide your perversion any longer. This time, I’m going to be the one to punish YOU!”


Langley took two steps backward, giving way to the barely constrained rage that was evident in Brian’s voice. He looked around self-consciously at the crowd of people who’d assembled nearby to watch whatever was happening. Brian also seemed to notice that he had an audience now and raised his voice loudly enough so that everyone - most especially the other camp staff - could hear what he intended to say.


“This guy - Coach Wade Langley - is a PEDOPHILE!” he stated baldly, eliciting startled gasps from the grown ups. “He sexually abused me from the age of five until I was about fourteen. He also trafficked me to his friends and exploited me further by distributing the photos and videos showing himself and others abusing me. He’s already under federal indictment for these and other crimes and shouldn’t under ANY circumstances be anywhere near children.” 


Langley, who had at first looked scared, had now become angry instead, and it seemed like he was prepared to refute Brian’s claims but my badass boyfriend wasn’t done yet. 


“Don’t bother trying to lie your way out of it this time, Langley. I remember EVERYTHING. And I’ve already given a full statement, under oath, to the people that are going to take you down.” Stepping closer to his prey, Brian added in a lowered voice, “And I DO mean everything: dates, places, names . . . Everything the feds need to corroborate those videos of me that you and your buddies sold on the internet. I named them ALL.” Brian smiled vindictively as he loomed over the spineless coward who had once been his abuser, hissing at Langley in a gloating staccato. “So, tick tock, fucker! You and the rest of your degenerate accomplices are all going to be spending the rest of your unnatural lives in prison. Where you belong. And, even better, as punishments go, you’ll NEVER. Be able to touch. Another. Boy. Again. For as long. As you. Fucking. Live!”


Langley, it appeared, was finally speechless. Looking around at the faces of the adults, and even some of the older kids who’d been listening to Brian’s accusations, you could tell that everyone was absolutely disgusted by what they’d heard. It was probably the first time in his life that Langley had ever had to face real consequences for his actions; it was the first time anyone other than his co-conspirators had been shown the truth about him and these people were, rightfully, judging him. They recognized him as the depraved monster that he was. 


I was glad to see that, besides the anger, fear, resentment, and dismay caused by this unexpected exposure of his deepest, darkest secret, there was also a hint of true shame evident on Langley’s countenance. Good, I thought. Let him be ashamed. Let everyone see the pervert that lurked under the urbane, sophisticated exterior. It was time he lived his disgrace. It was time he got a little taste of the pain and humiliation he’d heaped on his victims for so long. 


Redirecting his attention back to the onlookers, Brian raised his voice again. “You’re all on notice! You can’t claim you don’t know the truth about this creep any longer. So, if I were you, I’d make sure he was fired and packed out of here in ten minutes or less. Otherwise, you too are going to be on the hook when their parents sue for any harm their kids might have suffered.”


That warning got an instant response from the watchers dressed in Kick!It Camp uniforms. Several of them began to swarm around Langley and he was herded away from where the kids were standing. A couple of the big, well-built, male staffers looked particularly unhappy with Langley, and I suspected he might not make it home unscathed. Not that I cared what the fuck happend to him. He deserved whatever he got.


At the same time, a couple of the female staff began to direct the campers back to where they belonged. The group that used to belong to Langley, who were still huddled together off to the side looking a little shell shocked, were gathered by one young woman who started to lead them off towards the main lodge. Brian stopped her before she got too far and whispered something to her while pointing towards little Taniel. I overheard the words, ‘Child Protective Services’. 


The woman nodded sadly and then assured, “I’ll take care of it,” before sweeping her charges in the direction of the shelter.


We watched them walk across the field for a minute or two before Brian released a large huff of breath in one great, big, loud exhalation. I could almost hear the relief as he finally let go of all the tension he’d been holding onto for so long. Then he draped his arm casually over my shoulders and we began to amble slowly over the grass back towards the car. 


“Well, that takes care of Langley. At least for the moment. Hopefully Carl will get the court to revoke his bail and he’ll be arrested again by tomorrow,” I summarized. “And, assuming Bridges is right and all the scumbags start ratting on each other as soon as they’re arrested, the feds should have plenty of ammo to use against him to keep ‘Coach’ locked up for the foreseeable future. So, what’s next on your agenda, Mr. Avenger?”


“I don’t know,” Brian drawled, giving me a friendly little squeeze. “I think I just want to go home now.” When I looked sideways at him, a little unsettled to hear Buddy’s familiar mantra again, he smiled shyly at me and snickered quietly. Then he reached through the collar of my shirt, fished out the chain on which I kept my wedding band, and removed it from around my neck. “I believe I’m finally ready to get started on that forever thing, Sunshine.”


Removing the ring from the chain, he resolutely slipped it on my finger and leaned in for a kiss. 


“Yeah. I think I want to go home now too,” I agreed.


So we turned our backs on the soccer field, and the memory of Buddy, and went back to Britin to start on the rest of forever. 



The Beginning. 

 

Chapter End Notes:

2/2/22 - I was so eager to get this posted that I stayed up waaaaayyyy too late. Hope you don't mind the late night stealth posting. It feels so good to get another story done. My writing productivity has taken a serious hit the past two years - pandeming & job insecurity has sapped me - but I'm hoping the fact that I finished this story means my writing drought is over. Thanks for your patience and for sticking with me on this one. So, what should I write next . . . TAG

 

The End.
Tagsit is the author of 61 other stories.
This story is a favorite of 7 members. Members who liked Buddy also liked 445 other stories.
You must login (register) to review.