Chapter 12 - The Evil That Lurks.
Craig Taylor scowled as he tore the florescent yellow flyers off the backs of the sales registers at the front of his store. The annoying “Have You Seen This Boy?” flyers were everywhere now. Jennifer and that bratty Chanders girl had plastered them all over the neighborhood. Craig had seen at least five on his way into work this morning - and he’d torn them all down. His removal efforts, though, weren’t quite keeping pace with the dynamic duo who were putting them up. Jenn had also been bugging him more about what the police were doing - which was nothing because he’d never filed that report - but he couldn’t tell her that.
At the last register, he paused to look over the flyer again. The picture of the smiling young ‘Missing - Justin Taylor’ on the notice was the same as the boy’s high school yearbook photo. Looking at the handsome young man in that picture just made him even more angry. Justin was a handsome, smart kid, Craig thought. He’d tried to give the boy everything possible to give him a great start in life - including an expensive, private school education. But the goddamned little shit had chosen to just thrown it all away, and for what? Because he thought he was gay?
Craig crumpled up the handful of flyers and strode out of the building, locking the rear door as he left. He was determined to put this matter to rest, whatever way he could. He couldn’t have Jenn interfering and posting all these flyers around. Craig did NOT want the boy found. He would not be laughed at behind his back because of his GAY son. Craig Taylor had a reputation to maintain and a business to run - he wasn’t going to risk it all for a goddamned fairy. Even if that fairy was his son.
Twenty minutes later Craig was seated at a dimly lit booth in a run down dump that was pretending to be a bar. It looked more like a moldy basement rec room, thought the antsy man. And considering that it was Saturday night, and the place was this empty, he didn’t know how the place stayed in business. As he was wondering about this, a short, middle-aged, paunchy man wearing a leather jacket with a hole in the elbow of one sleeve, sidled up to Craig’s booth and seated himself without an invitation.
“You Taylor?” asked the balding, unpleasant man.
“Yeah. You must be Carter?” Craig responded.
“Yeah. So what is it you want, Taylor? You mentioned something about keeping an eye on your kid or something?” Carter mumbled out around the frayed toothpick he was chewing on.
“Something like that. Can I get you a drink before we start?”
“Sure. Scotch on the Rocks”
Craig summoned the bartender and ordered the man’s scotch plus a beer for himself. The two men sipped at their drinks in silence for a few minutes. Craig seemed reluctant to begin.
“I would prefer not to be here all night, Taylor,” prompted the other man.
“I’ve got a bit of a problem with my son,” Craig started. “He’s . . . . seeing someone I don’t care for and I want you to keep an eye on him for me. I don’t want him coming anywhere near me or the rest of my family - not while he’s with this other . . . person. I especially don’t want him to have any contact with my wife. She’s too much of a pushover and he would corrupt her. . . get her on his side. So, this is what I need you to do. . . . .”
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It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon - the sun was shining brightly but it wasn’t so humid that you couldn’t be outside and still be comfortable, even with the huge crowds packed along the sidewalks of Liberty Avenue. Everyone around them was in a jubilant mood - there was music, kids were running everywhere, food vendors were strolling along keeping everyone fed and there were gorgeous men just about everywhere you looked in various states of dress or undress as the case may be. The large, boldly lettered banner strung over the street just beyond where Brian and Justin were standing explained the happy scene succinctly: It read, “Pittsburgh Pride Festival Parade”.
Brian and Gus were planted on the stoop of the Gay & Lesbian Center right beside Justin. Lindsey and Mel were riding in the parade again this year in the 'Dykes on Bikes' group, so the boys were watching young Gus. It looked to Brian that Justin was having almost as much fun as the toddler, since they were both happily sucking at sno cones, both equally messy with rainbow colored syrup stains running down their faces.
Brian was pretty sure that Lindsey was going to kill him when she eventually returned and found out about all the junk food he had been giving to Gus - Brian figured he’d try and blame it on Justin, since the bottomless pit blond had instigated most of the purchases. Both of his boys were contented and smiling at the moment, though, so Brian was not going to rock the boat by complaining. And, not that Brian would admit it, but he was having just as much fun as either of them - listening to Gus going on about the drawings he’d made with the art set Justin had given him yesterday, while Justin smiled and nodded at the boy between sno cone slurps, was pretty entertaining.
Justin was incredibly happy. In fact, he could honestly say, he didn’t remember ever being this happy before. But, then again, he couldn’t remember anything before last Monday, so who knew. Right now, though, everything seemed to him to be about as perfect as it could get. Sharing this beautiful day with the most gorgeous man on Liberty Avenue and the most adorable little boy he’d ever met, Justin couldn’t imagine anything that could possibly make him happier. The fact that his cheeks were actually starting to ache because he hadn’t been able to wipe the huge sunshiny smile off his face all day was definitive proof.
Before the two younger ‘Kinney’ boys had finished their sno cones, motorcycle police began to sweep down the street, pushing back the crowds and clearing people out of the street, clearly indicating that the parade was about to begin. Gus was clapping and yanking on the string of the rainbow printed mylar balloon that Brian had been talked into buying earlier. The Kinney contingent had located themselves near the start of the parade route so that they could get the best view over all the floats and other entries. Plus, Justin had correctly advised Brian and Gus that there would be more candy thrown from the floats near the start rather than the end because sometimes they ran out - Gus, new to the whole parade thing, was very excited by the mention of candy. Brian wasn’t sure whether to laugh at Justin’s youthful enthusiasm or spank him like the annoying twat he was being.
All three were soon distracted as the parade began. The first entry, as demanded by tradition, was a huge stretch limo, complete with an open air hot tub full of unclothed hot men, proudly bearing the parade’s “Grand Mistress” - a gaudily dressed drag queen, perched most of the way out of the limo’s sunroof, waving a jewel bedecked hand at her adoring masses. Brian knew from past experience that most of the ensuing parade entries would get sillier and that the participants would be wearing even fewer clothes the farther back in the lineup they were - which Brian was firmly in favor of. Justin, who didn’t know if he’d ever been to a Pride Parade before or not, was looking on in amazement and drinking it all in.
The third or fourth float just happened to be a large one sponsored by the GLC. Amidst the profusion of rainbow flags and crepe paper decorations, Justin was thrilled to see Brian’s friend, Emmett, wearing his finest finery and waving the end of a rainbow colored feather boa at the crowd. Brian Impulsively let loose an ear splitting wolf whistle in Emmett’s direction which easily drew the giddy young man’s attention.
“Brian! Justin! Hey, guys! Happy Pride!” Emmett yelled at them, waving wildly.
The float came to a temporary halt right at that moment, almost toppling the tall lanky southerner. But, Emmett quickly regained his footing and started waving his friends to come nearer. Pushing through the crowd, Brian and Justin came forward, and Emmett reached down to grasp their hands.
“Having a good time, Justin?” Emmett gushed. Then, a brilliant idea flashed through Em’s brain and he spontaneously blurted it out. “Hey, Justin. Why don’t you ride up here on the float with me? There’s tons of room. Come on, Sweetie. It’ll be a hoot! Brian won’t mind, will you hon?”
Justin looked over at Brian, who amiably shook his head, smiled and gestured towards the float. “Go ahead, Sunshine. Go, enjoy yourself! Don’t worry about me - I’ve got Gus here to keep me company.”
Justin thought for all of two seconds, before he was raising his arms up to Emmett and a large, heavily muscled black man, who grabbed him by the wrists and hauled him up to the float just as it was starting to move again. As soon as Justin found a perch where he could hold on, he smiled down at Brian and Gus, waving as the float pulled away. His attention was quickly pulled away though as Emmett grabbed his hands and twirled him around, dancing to the music flooding out of the speakers attached to the edges of the float. Brian and Gus waved at the departing float and smiled at the crazy blond’s antics.
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Daphne wasn’t sure why she’d let her friend September drag her her to the Pride Parade today. She didn’t feel like going to a parade or doing anything else remotely related to celebrating. Daphne’s head was miles away from here, worrying and wondering about her friend Justin.
Daphne had been mentally kicking herself ever since Jennifer Taylor had called her a few days after the Prom asking if she had seen Justin. Daphne hadn’t thought anything much when Justin had left with the mysterious handsome older brunet who had shown up at the Prom and danced with her friend. From the way the two were acting, she’d thought they must know each other from somewhere else - and judging by that kiss, they probably knew each other pretty well. The only thing that was odd, was that Justin had never told her anything about the guy, even though normally she and Justin told each other everything. Daphne figured she would be able to get the skinny on the guy from Justin later.
When Justin hadn’t come back, she was a little ticked off at him, thinking that he could at least have called her to tell her where he was going, but since she had driven its not like he’d abandoned her there or anything. She had then got a little distracted when Glen started coming on to her and ended up inviting her to an after party. By the time she got home at around 2:00 am that night, she was too tired to care about Justin and hadn’t even tried to get a hold of him until late Sunday night - but he hadn’t answered so she just left a voicemail message. When he wasn’t at school on Monday, though, she started to get a little worried. And, by Tuesday, when Justin still hadn’t returned any of her calls, she knew something was wrong.
The last thing she wanted to be doing right now was standing idly around at some parade. She wanted to be out hanging more of the ‘Missing’ flyers or calling people or doing anything remotely productive that would help her to find her friend. Plus, they’d been standing here in the sun for thirty minutes already waiting for the damn parade to start and she was getting bored.
Daphne was just about to tell September that she was leaving, when the first of the floats began to drift into view. The smart, young, brunette realized she might as well stay now, since she wasn’t likely to be able to get away once the parade started and effectively tied up traffic everywhere around them. She resigned herself to watching the parade and leaned back against the building where they were standing.
September and the other girls they had come with were having a great time, laughing at the outrageous costumes some of the people were wearing and flirting with all the cute guys, even if they were gay. When a large float came by bearing several gaily dressed men and women who were throwing candy at the crowd, Daphne felt herself being tugged forward. September laughed loudly as she caught a jolly rancher thrown at her by a large black man and elbowed Daphne, pointing up at the handsome man to show her friend her admirer. Daphne turned to look where her friend was pointing and nearly fell over.
Standing right next to the large black man, laughing and waving at the crowd, was her missing friend, Justin.
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Jennifer Taylor picked up the phone on the third ring. Except for when she was out hanging ‘Missing’ flyers around the neighborhood, she tried to stay close to the phone, still hoping that Justin would call. And if not Justin, maybe someone who had information on where he was might call. She was completely frantic at this point - it had been a week now with no word from her son and she was starting to think the worst. Especially after what Craig had told her earlier this afternoon.
“Taylor Residence,” Jennifer answered.
“Hi, Mrs. Taylor. It’s Daphne. My mom said you called earlier?”
“Yes, I did. Thanks for calling me back, Daphne. I just wanted to let you know what we heard from the police earlier today about Justin. Craig spoke to someone right about lunchtime and they told him that a witness had identified Justin by his picture and said she’d sold him a bus ticket to New York sometime Sunday evening. So, it looks like maybe he did just run away after all. I just thought he would at least have called us first.” Jennifer poured out her news to the girl who she knew was almost as worried about Justin as she was.
Daphne was silent for several moments after Jennifer finished her explanation.
“Daphne? Are you still there, dear?” Jennifer said into the silent phone.
“Uh. . . . Mrs. Taylor, Justin isn’t in New York. The police must be wrong or maybe your husband misunderstood or something, because I saw Justin this afternoon downtown.”
“What? You saw him? Where? What did he say? Is he okay?”
“I didn’t get to speak to him. He was riding on a float at the Pride Parade downtown. I tried to get his attention, but I guess he didn’t see me. But, I’m sure it was him, Mrs. Taylor. Justin is still here in Pittsburgh.”