Brandon went to work on Monday like nothing happened. The police hadn’t come to ask him about Brian’s untimely death yet. He had a sob story all worked out for it. When Justin bailed on his promise to kill Brian, he had to go on his fallback. For a bit he thought about having Kyle do the deed, but he would fold in two seconds flat. That’s when he decided to have the ace up his sleeve do it. Chris Hobbs wasn’t his usual type, but the boy was just begging for some direction. A few lies here and there; he was ready to kill Brian without him even asking. All Brandon had to do was point the weapon in the right direction and Chris went.

He didn’t know how Chris did the deed and didn’t want to. The least he knew the better, cops wouldn’t be able to trip him up. That little bastard Justin was now his only weak spot because he knew that he would spill as soon as he found out about Brian. It was a shame because out of all his bits on the side, he liked Justin the best. He was a natural in bed. Looked like an innocent schoolboy with those blue eyes and sweet face but was a devil in bed.

As he prepared his room for his first class, he heard loud heels in the hallway. That usually meant Mrs. Jennings was on her way to his room. The vice principal was a hardnosed woman with a stench of stale CK One wafting in behind her.

She stepped in his room, and he noticed the usual perpetual scowl on her face was gone. In its place was a worried expression, it looked odd on her bird face.

“Everything alright, Caroline?” he asked her.

“No, one of your students was attacked Saturday night. He’s in a coma.”

Had Chris fucked everything up and gotten himself hurt? There was to be no contact between them after the attack in case it could be traced back to him.

“Oh god, who?” he asked, playing up the worried teacher.

“Justin Taylor.”

“Justin?” Shock was clear in his voice, but he covered it. “What happened to Justin?”

“He was attacked with a baseball bat. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. This may be hard to hear but when I went to see his mother after she called to let me know yesterday. I saw a man in the hallway of the hospital. He looked familiar but I couldn’t place him. That wasn’t until the police started to question him, it was your husband. I’m sorry to say but it seems like he and Justin were having an affair.”

Knowing he needed to carefully choose his words. “Why do you think that?”

“The boy was attacked outside of your apartment.”

“Really?” His heart was racing, not for worry about the little fucker sleeping with his husband but this wasn’t good at all. No one would blink at Brian getting attacked outside his loft. Everyone knew he kept money on him. He also had a knack for pissing people off right and left. But a seventeen-year-old student of his, people would ask questions. It wouldn’t take Sherlock Holmes to connect him, Brian, and Justin.

“Yes. I really am sorry but I’m going to have to ask you to leave today because I have a feeling the police will want to question you. I just can’t have them in my school.”

“I understand. Is it alright if I come back tomorrow?”

“Of course, this isn’t something against you, I just have to think about the school.”

“I understand. Thank you. I haven’t had time to write out a plan for a sub.”

“We’ll figure something out.”

Brian was staring at the same four walls he had been looking at for the last six hours. Yesterday he was questioned at the hospital, but the police said they had more questions for him. So far it had been two detectives questioning him. A tall, broad woman by the name of Fisher and a short, whiny voiced man name Harper. He had a feeling they were calling in a bigger gun because they had left him alone for an hour, hoping he would squirm maybe.

At the hospital he stayed until Justin’s mother came running in after the police contacted her. He didn’t want to introduce himself, but the police made sure she knew that Justin had been with him the night before. She had made a weak denial that her son wasn’t gay and even if he was, he wouldn’t be with a man almost twice his age. She didn’t dwell on it too much because that was when the doctor told her that they had placed Justin in a medically induced coma.

The door opened to the interrogation room that had been his home for six hours. In walked a new person. This was an older man with a balding head and quite a gut.

“I’m Detective Horvath, Mr. Kinney, is it?”

“You know it is.” He wasn’t in the mood to fuck around. The kid could be dying, and it would have been his fault. He should have just got up and went to turn the alarm off himself. The streetlight was busted. What was he thinking?

“I just want to go over what happened one more time, then we’ll cut you lose. You said that you’ve known Justin for a few days.”

“Yes.”

“Call me cynical but I think you’re hiding something.”

Brian had told him all the truth except for Brandon. As much as he hated his soon-to-be-ex, he didn’t want to ruin his life. But if it was between the two of them, he would pick himself every time.

“Fine. I met the kid because I suspect he was following me. My ex had a thing with him, and the kid wanted to see the competition. Not that there was any, I’ve been trying to get rid of my ex for a while.”

“Your husband? The teacher at the boy’s school?”

“Not just a teacher at his school, Justin was one of Brandon’s students.”

He could see he had the detective’s interest peaked. “Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Was there something between the three of you?” he asked with distaste clear in his voice.

“Hell no. I didn’t even know about Brandon and Justin until afterwards. I’ve only seen Justin twice. I didn’t even meet him until a few days ago.”

“But you had sex with him?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you know he was only seventeen?”

“He told me he was eighteen.” It wasn’t a complete lie, that is what Justin told him in the beginning. He was of age anyway; they couldn’t get him on anything. The one thing they could was pinning him on Justin’s attack.

“So, your car alarm went off and Justin went to turn it off. Why not you?”

“I was bitching about it. I think he was trying to be nice. I forgot the streetlight was out. If I would have remembered I wouldn’t have let him go.”

“It seems a little bit of a coincidence, doesn’t it? The streetlight being vandalized and then the alarm going off. Making it a perfect place to attack without being seen.”

He hadn’t thought of that, but it did sound very convenient for someone to hurt Justin.

“But no one knew Justin was there, or that he would go turn off my car alarm.”

“What about you Mr. Kinney? Is there anyone who would have wanted to see you dead?”

That made him pause. “Yes.”

“Who?”

“Brandon Brooks, my ex. If I die, he’s looking at millions. I just recently told him that the documents we signed were null and void. Meaning, I get to keep all my money.” He had made really good investments in his early twenties.

“Do you think he has it in him to do this?”

Brian thought hard but he couldn’t see Brandon doing this himself, but he was a master manipulator. “I think if he was the person that did it, he would have made sure it was me. But it’s possible he got someone to do it for him.” More than possible he thought to himself.