JUSTIN

So once again I’m stuck in Brian’s office with nothing to do. Since the pictures were sent, Cameron went all Defcon 1 on us. Brian, who doesn’t seem to like having anyone follow him around, told us that he’d save Cameron’s pit bulls from having to chase him around by just keeping me with him. Not that I really mind, because I get to make Allen cringe every time I walk by the art department. Terry, of course, had to ruin my fun when he came to tell me that Sam’s agent called to tell us that Sam couldn’t be blamed for what an ex sent him.

“Did you tell the agent what Sam tried to do with what was sent to him?” I ask, because if Sam’s agent is trying to make Sam innocent, then he’s delusional.

“Yes, but I talked to Morgan’s partner, and unless Sam releases the pictures it’s just your word against his. Lindsay, on the other hand, we won’t have a problem pressing charges against, since the janitor is willing to testify to everything she did,” He tells me.

“I assume that’s so we don’t prosecute his ass,” I tell him.

“Justin, he’s not really the brightest guy I’ve ever talked to,” Terry tells me.

“Just do what you think we need to do, but Sam needs to have consequences too,” I tell him.

“Not to worry, I’ve already talked to other galleries and they know that if they promote Sam they won’t be seeing any work from you,” He tells me.

“Now we just have to figure out where Lindsay is,” I tell him.

“Not in Italy, she never took a flight out,” Cameron comes into tell us.  

Brian comes in and looks at all of us lounging around his office, and I can tell he isn’t thrilled about the invasion to his privacy. I get up to get everyone out because he does have a business to run and we aren’t really helping by turning his office into a living room. We were all filing out and see Carl Horvath standing at the reception desk with Brandon.

“Cameron, can we talk?” Carl asks him. “Brian, I need to talk to you too,” He tells Brian.

“Do you need me?” I ask him.

“Only to verify alibis,” He tells me.

“Of who?” I ask.

“Brian, Cameron, and Ted Schmidt. Carl you can question them, I’ll sit out here with Justin,” Brandon tells us, pointing to the waiting area.

“Why not just talk to us together and save time,” Cameron asks, nodding to Blake and the other two guys to stay with me.

“Because when we want to verify an alibi, we tend to not want the suspects telling the person verifying it what to say,” Brandon tells him.

“At least tell us what this about,” Cameron turns to Carl, ignoring Brandon.

“Michael Novotny’s apartment was ransacked, and on the wall someone spray painted that he’d been warned to stay away from Justin. Mr Novotny feels that there were only three people who would do something like this and only one person who forcibly warned him,” He tells Cameron.

“You think one of us would have done this?” Brian asks him.

“I think someone did, but he insists that it was likely one of you three,” Carl tells us.

“Did he give you a reason for the three of them and no one else?” I ask Carl.

“Apparently, Brian, because he stole you away, Cameron, because he did tell Michael you didn’t want his attention, but Ted, I’m still not absolutely sure,” Terry tells me.

“His mother thinks that Ted is still infatuated with Michael,” Carl tells us.

“If you guys want to do this the hard way, Carl can take you down to the station, but Justin can stay here and answer my questions,” Brandon tells us, smiling at me.

BRIAN

“Brian, let’s get this over with, he couldn’t do anything with Carl here anyway,” Cameron whispers to me.

I open my office door and let Carl in. I sit him down and start cleaning up the mess Justin left behind. 

“Just ask while I throw away all this shit,” I tell him, not wanting to sit because I don’t like Brandon near Justin.

“I just want verification of where you all were last night,” He tells me.

“Depends on the time,” I tell him.

“Mr Novotny left his shop at eight to discover the graffiti on his walls. It could be any time between nine AM and eight PM. The other tenants that were home said they never saw or heard anything until Mr Novotny came screaming out of his house for someone to call the police. I want you to know I’m only here because he and his mother insist that it had to be one of you,” He tells us.

“Brian was here from seven AM until six PM with clients, only leaving at twelve-fourteen with the clients, Theodore Schmidt, and Justin for lunch until two forty-five PM. My team and I were at the restaurant the whole time. At six, Brian and Justin were driven to their new home with me as their driver and arrived there at seven-twenty, only stopping when Justin insisted on getting an ice cream which happened at six-fifteen and took until six-forty to leave the shop. The new house is forty minutes out, but it took an additional forty minutes for them to finish what they were doing before coming into the house at eight,” Cameron tells him, reading from a pad.

“What were you doing in the car for forty minutes?” Carl asks me.

“Trust me detective, it wasn’t spray painting Mikey’s walls,” I tell him sarcastically.

“Which is all I needed from you, but I still have to talk to Ted Schmidt,” He tells us.

“Make sure Brandon talks to Blake, because he was with Ted the rest of the evening,” Cameron tells him.

“Any news on the stalking?” Horvath asks Cameron.

“Could be, but right now we are chasing our tails, but if there is something I need to ask you, trust me I will, and hope to get cooperation no matter who we might be looking at,” Cameron tells him.

“Brian, Cynthia said you needed me,” Ted comes in the door.

“Michael had someone ransack his apartment and Deb decided you would be a great suspect,” I tell him.

“I just need to know your whereabouts for yesterday. I’m assuming that you were working at the same time as Brian. I just need to know from six until eight,” Carl asks.

“Blake and I went to dinner at the diner and were there all night. Kiki can verify that, she was our waitress,” He tells us.

“I’ll have an officer get that information,” Carl tells us. “Cameron, if you're implying that if you came to me with proof that I would ignore it, I don’t appreciate the implication,” He tells him.

“Even if it could be someone in your department stalking my client?” Cameron asks him.

“Give me the proof and I don’t care if it’s the mayor, I’ll do what what have to,” He tells him.

“I may have to see if you can back up your words but right now I don’t have anything but suspicion,” Cameron tells him.

JUSTIN

“I’d like to speak to Justin alone,” Brandon tells Blake and the two guards.

“Which you will be, we’re paid to ignore anything that doesn’t concern why we are here,” Blake tells him.

“Look, what do you need to know?” I ask.

“I just need to know if you can verify where you were all day yesterday,” He crowds me. 

“That’s easy. I was with my partner. It seems that I can’t stand being away from him for more than a few seconds in a day. It’s just so hard when you find the one man you really want. Especially when there are so many around that I DON’T WANT,” I tell him.

“Justin, they could be in trouble if you don’t cooperate,” He said as he tried to touch me.

“There isn’t any reason for you to put your hands on him,” Blake walks in between us.

I’m not sure what happened, only that one minute Blake was standing and the next we were both on the floor with him on top of me. I broke our fall with my hands and looked up at Brandon’s hands on Blake’s shirt, which wasn’t to help him up. Brian and Cameron came running out to see why Cynthia yelled and I was still confused at what just happened. Brandon threw Blake to the side and went to grab my arm. Brian blocked him and hauled me up.

“Are you hurt?” Brian whispers in my ear.

“I don’t think so, I managed to stop us from hitting the ground, but Blake kind of landed in my lap,” I tell him.

“What the hell is going on?” Carl asks Brandon, who was looking at Brian as if he’d like to kick his ass.

“Blake must have tripped and landed on Justin,” Brandon tells him.

“That’s not what happened,” Blake tells Carl.

“Then what did?” Carl asked him.

“I didn’t like that Brandon felt the need to touch Justin. I did my job and kept my client from unwanted advances, which your officer didn’t seem to like and shoved me into my client,” Blake tells him.

“I was only trying to do my job when you seemed to not want your client to give himself an alibi. Is there a reason for that?” Brandon asks him.

“Brandon…” 

“No Carl, I think it’s interesting. I wonder if he’s hiding what maybe one of the others was doing last night,” Brandon tells him.

“I have receipts that are time dated for all the things you were told,” Brian tells him.

“I still think we should take them into the station,” Brandon tells Carl.

“I think that if you don’t want Blake filing charges against you, you and your partner will get out of this building. We have cameras in our lobby and I know what I saw,” Cynthia tells them.

Carl pushed Brandon out of the building in front of him. Brandon looked back at Blake and all I can say is if Brandon should judge Blake by his size, he might be the one on his ass next time.

“I need to see the footage,” Cameron tells Cynthia.

“They’re burning the CD now, but all I can say is one minute Brandon was fine but when Blake blocked him, he shoved him but…” She bits her lip.

“But what?” Brian asks her.

“He put his hand on his gun for a second,” She tells us.