The light in the room was that colorless period between pitch dark and bright morning, when everything is slightly grey. The two men, who slept soundly so close together with not even an inch separating their naked bodies were each dreaming far from colorless dreams. The older brunet's brain was filled with images of himself dressed elegantly in tux and tails closely embracing his blond lover's body as they swept around a grand ballroom in an intimate dance that wowed the viewing audience watching their every move. The younger blond next to him was having visions of himself lying on a sandy beach. As he sat up he saw a god (who just happened to look like Officer Kinney) rising from the sea and striding towards him. As the dream progressed, the creature bathed in a golden light fell to his knees beside the blond and lifted his face so that the two could kiss passionately. 

The two sleeping men were quite content to remain in their dream state but the loud buzzing sound that filled their sleeping quarters kept intruding. They stirred restlessly, fighting consciousness. A few seconds later the sound jarred them awake again. Brian was the first to give up and open his eyes, the dream dissipating into the back of his mind. He looked about and saw that Justin was stirring too. The sound that had disturbed him filled the room again and Brian realized it was his cell phone. He checked his clock. It was really early, especially for a day off. He cursed the phone but grabbed it off his side table just as Justin was finally sitting up and rubbing hard at his sleep-filled eyes. Justin groaned at the loss of his own dream but he could happily remember it quite clearly as the fog lifted. He half-heartedly listened to Brian as he got up to relieve himself.

"You'd better have a good reason for waking me so early on my day off, whoever you are," Brian growled into the phone.

A pause, and then, "What the fuck! Where at? .... Yeah, I know where that is. I used to work in patrol for that part of town, remember? .... Yes Sir, I should be there in about thirty...forty minutes. ... I'll get a move on, but Carl, what makes them think it's the same gang? ... Yeah, okay, I'll be right there."

Brian hung up the phone slowly and laid it on the table. He was obviously disturbed about something as Justin walked casually out of the bathroom. He slipped back onto the bed where Brian sat deep in thought.

"What's up Brian? You don't look too happy right now."

Brian turned to his young lover and instinctively wrapped his arms protectively around the young man's slender shoulders. He pulled Justin close and gave him a soft kiss.

"That was my partner with the detective bureau. We've had what looks to be another gay bashing. What worries me is that the park is in a residential area that has never been hit before. It's actually in your part of town. I've got to get going, and I was hoping to spend some quality time with you this morning. I'm really sorry Justin."

Justin was disappointed too but he knew that Brian's job was important to him and everyone was well aware of the mounting number of gay bashings in the city. If Brian could help solve those crimes it would benefit their entire community. 

"No need for apologies. I should get home and reassure my Mom before she gets up anyway. She'll be nervous when she hears on the news that the bashers are hitting closer to home. Will you call me later?"

Brian had risen and was hurriedly getting dressed. He stopped long enough to lean down and give Justin another kiss. He felt a slight shiver as he felt the young man's soft lips on his own. It was almost as if someone had walked over his grave...or Justin's. He didn't like the feeling one bit but he tried to plant a smile on his face. No need for Justin to get worried, he reasoned with himself. 

"Of course I'll call you. We haven't finished celebrating your freedom from school books, at least for the summer." Brian flipped over the pendant that Justin wore on his chest and stared at the words he had ordered engraved on it. "Besides, I'm sure I can still think of a few more after-graduation lessons to teach you...that is if you'd like me to." He grinned broadly.

"Oh I like, I like," Justin laughed.

He hurried to get dressed so Brian could take him home just before meeting up with his partner. He could see that Brian was very tense over what he needed to do but Justin had no idea how to help. He would have to wait for Brian's call to see if the detective had any news on the case. He had no doubt Brian would do his best. Justin knew by now how much Brian loved his job. He had mentioned his concerns over the gay bashing case in some of their conversations in the past, but outside of Brian lecturing Justin to never walk alone at night in certain areas of town and always be aware of his surroundings he had never tried to put any fear into the young man. For Justin the gay bashings were simply a disturbing, yet distant blurb in the news and had little to do with his own world. He always felt safe when entering a predominately gay section of the city since it was always in the company of his hero, Detective Kinney. As he got out of Brian's Jeep, he leaned in and gave Brian a small grin, flashing his pearly, white teeth.

"Don't worry Brian. If anyone can solve these bashings it will be you. Just be safe, okay?"

"Always," Brian replied. "Now you'd better get inside and let your mom know that you survived the night in one piece....and Justin, do me a favor and don't wander around alone even in your own neighborhood right now. Okay? Promise me?"

Justin smiled more broadly. 

"You're not worried about me, are you Officer Kinney? You don't need to be. I have my own personal protector and he takes very good care of me," Justin smirked.

"Just promise you'll be careful, alright?"

Justin heard the seriousness in Brian's tone and it sobered him.

"I'll be careful Brian. I promise. Now you'd better get to work. They need your expertise....and Brian, thank you for the best night of my life. I'll never forget a moment of it." 

He fingered the pendant that lay under his shirt and a smile returned to his face. Justin leaned into the vehicle and gave Brian a warm kiss. He owed this man so much and he knew he would never be able to repay him for all he had done for him and been to him in just these past short months. For a moment his feelings for Brian threatened to overwhelm him and he didn't want the kiss to end. He wanted to stay connected to Brian for as long as humanly possible. Much too soon they had to break apart. Brian laid his hand on Justin's soft, slightly stubbly cheek and gave the young man a reassuring smile. Justin held his hand on top of Brian's for a moment more and then pulled out from the interior of the Jeep. He closed the door behind him and watched as Brian pulled out of the driveway and waved goodbye. He smiled as he clasped his pendant again and headed for the house. He had so much to tell his mom, minus the details of course.

**************************************************************

Only four blocks away, another young man lay on his bed and tried to relax enough to sleep. He simply couldn't do it. Chris Hobbs knew he had gone too far only hours earlier. He had let his fury at that fag, Justin Taylor, push him into doing something that could endanger not only himself but several of his pals from school. His little gang of a half dozen football players from his school team had always been careful about their nighttime forays into teaching the queers of their city right from wrong. They had always worked as a team and had lookouts so that there were no witnesses. They had always chosen their targets randomly and never gone after anyone they knew personally. It had kept them safe so far. Now Chris had broken all the rules they had set up that first time they decided they had had enough of gays bellowing about their rights as if they were decent folks. 

Chris wasn't really worried about fallout from his gang. After all, he had been the one to organize the group in the first place and had always been the designated leader. Even if they were pissed at him for going out on his own, they wouldn't dare stand up to him. Still, he realized he should have kept his temper in check. It was too late to do anything about it now. He had worn a mask to cover his face, but that kid Billy was still a threat. As he was removing his bloody clothing after he had arrived home it dawned on him that he had worn his stupid sports jacket from the football team. His anger at Justin had clouded his judgment in more ways than one on this fateful night. With any luck, however, Billy would be too messed up to put two and two together when questioned by the police. 

As he lay there worrying about what he had done...not feeling guilty but simply concerned about his own safety...he began to relive the events of the night. Billy was nothing but a wimp who was smart enough to stay out of everyone's way. He wasn't really the target that Chris wanted. It was that smart ass Justin who had been a thorn in Chris' side for years now. It had actually started way back when they were just kids in third grade. 

One day the class had gone on a field trip to the local museum. Justin had disappeared just before it was time to leave. The head teacher sent Chris and a few other bigger boys out to find him. Chris found Justin in the first floor bathroom. He walked in and saw the blond standing at a urinal. When Justin turned around at the sound of the door opening, his penis was pointing right at Chris. For some reason that captured Chris' attention. Justin noticed what Chris was looking at so intently and casually asked him if he wanted to touch it. Without understanding why, Chris walked the few feet forward to reach where Justin stood and reached out. His hand made contact with the appendage that really was no different than his own, and yet fascinated him. Just then they heard the door behind them open and Chris jumped away as if scalded by a burning pot. Justin had tucked himself in and zipped up in a split second. 

The teacher who had found the boys seemed oblivious to what had just occurred despite Chris' flaming red face. He told the boys to hurry up and left to rejoin the others. Chris quickly followed, not daring to look Justin in the face. Every since that day he just knew that Justin was smirking at him every time they crossed paths. His hatred for his classmate grew with each passing year and they were never able to be civil to each other from that day forward. If Chris had been aware of how minor the incident had felt to Justin he might not have been so defensive, but instead they remained at odds with Chris wanting nothing more than to never have to see Justin Taylor again. He had thought graduation would bring this about but then the bastard just had to flaunt his warped sexuality in everyone's face during the Prom and that was too much for Chris. 

In Chris' mind, Justin had given him just cause to seek retribution for all the years he had been forced to live with the memory of the blond trying to seduce him when he was too young to know any better. That, plus Justin's blatant display of his perverted ways at the Prom gave him the right to get even. Of course Justin had escaped his deserved punishment by attaching himself to an older man for protection. In a way, Chris reckoned, it was Justin's fault that Billy was the one who was injured. Chris could still see the look of utter surprise on Billy's face when he sat on the swing in the park and saw the shadowy figure step out from behind the nearby tree with a baseball bat in hand. He had been expecting an assignation with his blond crush but instead this apparition appeared. 

Everything happened so fast after that. Billy had no time to react or try and escape. Chris was on Billy in seconds and swung hard. The bat connected with Billy's shoulder and knocked him to the ground. A loud cry of pain escaped the startled boy who tried to roll away from what he saw coming towards him a second time. It didn't help. The bat came down again and struck Billy in his side. After that the small teen curled into a fetal position to avoid the blows he took on every inch of exposed flesh. He soon passed out. Chris lost track of the times he had swung the bat or where they had landed. When he realized that Billy had stopped moving or making any sounds at all, he was finally able to stop himself. He was breathing so hard the harsh sound could be heard in the now still air. He didn't stop to see if Billy was still breathing. His sense of self-preservation kicked in and he turned to run back to where he had parked his car some blocks away. He went home and slipped in unseen so that he could get out of his blood-stained clothes and decide what his next move should be. First he needed to sleep. Then he would decide what to do next. He wasn't sure what he would do, but the one thing he knew for certain was that he wasn't through with Taylor...not by a long shot.

**************************************************************

As Brian arrived at the park which was the scene of the crime, he saw all the lights flashing from several police cars and a small fire truck. An ambulance had just left with its unfortunate victim. Brian stepped out of his Jeep and hurried over to where he saw a group of men and women in uniforms milling about. He spotted Carl in the center of the group and made his way to where he stood. Carl saw Brian coming and dismissed the officers, sending them off to their assigned tasks.

"I'm sorry to pull you away from your weekend fun, partner, but this one is bad...real bad, and I have a feeling it is the work of our park bashers again. Not everything matches the previous cases but my intuition is telling me they are one and the same, and I've learned to pay attention to my intuition."

"So what's different about this case?" Brian asked.

"For one thing, the victim is just a kid. What a kid was doing out here alone in the middle of the night is anyone's guess right now. We need to find his family and start asking questions. He had a wallet on him so we know he is from around here. We'll go see them first while the uniformed officers canvass the area for any witnesses and evidence, if we're lucky. The doc says this happened only a few hours ago at most."

"Is the kid going to be alright?" Brian inquired.

"They don't know yet. He was completely comatose. We won't be getting any info from him for a while, if ever. He was badly beaten and it looks like the same kind of weapon that was used before. I'm not sure his family will even recognize him. Poor kid. According to his driver's license he is barely eighteen too."

Brian felt a shudder run down his spine. He instantly thought of Justin, who had just turned eighteen as well and lived not far from here. What if it had been Justin out walking on this night? The thought brought a flash of anger that Brian was barely able to control. 

"Do we know if this kid was even gay?" Brian thought to ask.

"Not really, but like I said my intuition tells me that they thought he was when they beat him. I'm sure we'll find out more when we talk to the family. Maybe they can even tell us why he was out here in the first place."

Just then they heard the voice of one of the officers calling to them. Brian and Carl hurried over and saw the officer standing near the swing where the body was first found by a man cutting through the park after a late night party at a friendfs house nearby. He was holding up a badly damaged cell phone. Carl took it from the officer and flipped it open. The phone had obviously taken a beating but the light came on when he opened it. He checked the phone and saw that there were messages on it. He clicked for the most recent. It said, 'Hey Billy, meet me at the park near the swings if you can sneak out. I'd love to talk about tonight with you. JT'. He passed it over to Brian who read the words out loud. As he did, something seemed to creep into his heart. He felt a sudden chill, but dismissed it quickly. He had no idea where the discomfort came from and he had a job to do.

"Looks like he was meeting someone here," Brian stated.

"Or was lured here," came Carl's response. "There's no use speculating. We need to get over to his residence and start asking questions pronto."

Brian agreed and the two men headed for their cars. They had the feeling it was going to be a long day and would start out most unpleasantly. Neither man looked forward to talking to the family, but they needed to know what had happened and get to the hospital. It wasn't something that could be done over the phone, and the sooner they got a handle on what had happened in the park this night, the sooner they could look for perpetrators.

To be continued.......................