Brian didn’t feel good about it. He looked at the photo of a young, blond teenager on the expensive coffee table. He really shouldn’t take the job. But the money was good. Best offer anyone had ever laid in front of him.
“Please, Mr. Kinney,” Jennifer Taylor begged. “It would mean the world to me,” she sat on the other dark grey couch, on the other side of the golden coffee table. She looked desperate. She held a white tissue in her hand because she had shed a few tears while sharing her story.
“I don’t know. I don’t do family drama,” Brian shook his head. The exact reason why he had never wanted a family himself. He usually concentrated on people who had been kidnapped or lost for some reason. Not on runaway teenage boys.
“Please Mr. Kinney. Find him,” Jennifer leaned forward and tried to convince Brian with the tone of her desperate voice.
“So let me get this right. He came out of the closet and you and your ex-husband didn’t handle it well,” Brian started. “Especially your ex-husband. So your seventeen year old son run away saying he would never come back,” he lifted his eyes from the photo up to the woman.
Jennifer nodded.
“Can I ask, how big of a drama queen is he?” Brian asked. The whole thing sounded like bullshit to him.
Jennifer just quickly moved her brows up and down, tilting her head a little before focusing his eyes on Brian. Her whole existence told Brian the answer: very.
“Why don’t you just look for him yourself?” Brian asked.
“I’ve tried but I haven’t found him. As I told you, he has a credit card and there’s millions in his bank account. For all I know, he could be in Bali at the moment!” Jennifer was broken.
Rich people, Brian groaned in his mind. “Ever thought of checking where he used the credit card last?”
Jennifer sighed. “We don’t have access to it.”
Of course not Brian rolled his eyes a little.
“10 000 dollars Mr. Kinney. That’s what I’m willing to pay you if you bring me my son back,” Jennifer emphasized the amount she was willing to pay.
Brian sighed and looked at the blue eyes. He could just as well take the job. The boy was probably in the nearest hotel, demanding too much from the room service, watching porn and jerking off. The case would be over tomorrow. “Fine,” Brian promised and saw the mother’s shoulders drop.
“Oh thank you,” she looked and sounded relieved. “Thank you!”
“Don’t thank me yet. I haven’t found your son yet,” Brian shook his head.
“So what do we do? How do we start?” Jennifer asked, eager to begin the search.
“The only thing you can do now, is show me his room,” Brian answered.
“His room?” Jennifer sounded surprised.
“I don’t know your son. A teenager’s room tells a lot about the person,” Brian explained and stood up, ready to start.
“Oh, okay,” Jennifer nodded and got up too. She led Brian to Justin’s room and said she’d give him some room to look around.
Brian let his eyes roam around the space and immediately noticed all the artsy stuff. Drawings and high quality art supplies were everywhere. So the kid was a Picasso. He observed the bookshelf. There were some schoolbooks, books about drawing and a few photos in frames. Nothing interesting there. He checked the closets and found some condoms at the bottom of the sock drawer. Brian smiled. Did mother dearest know about her son’s extracurricular activities?
On the bed there were expensive black Egyptian cotton sheets. The kid clearly liked expensive things. There were two nightstands. One on each side of the big bed. They were pretty empty. A box of tissues, some blank paper and pens, plus other meaningless thing.
There wasn’t really anything that could point Brian into some direction. The room told him Justin was artistic, liked things that cost a lot and had adult sleep overs about which his mother didn’t know about.
Brian’s eyes landed on the laptop on the desk. He pushed a button to wake it up. He didn’t need a special permission to do so because he wasn’t a cop. Just a person who found missing people.
While the computer woke up, Brian pulled out the desk drawers. The only thing noticeable was a cellphone. The battery was dead but there was a power cord. Brian plugged the phone in and turned it on. He found some phone numbers which could be useful. There were photos of what Brian assumed were friends. The brunet’s brows arced up as he found a photo that was clearly taken in Babylon. That could lead to something. Also other dance clubs could be leads. The boy liked to party.
Brian put the phone into his pocket and grabbed the power cord too. Then he turned to the computer. The first thing he checked was the internet browser history. It was all gone. So the kid must have looked up something important. Usually it meant time schedules for busses. Brian just didn’t think a rich kid like Justin would settle down for a bus. Maybe an airplane?
Brian checked the recently used documents but found only more photos of partying. He gave up, he wouldn’t find anything interesting from this room. So he turned off the computer and walked to the door.
*
Brian had tried to call the numbers he found from the phone. Most of them weren’t in use anymore, so the phone was pretty old or Justin’s buddies liked to change their numbers. There were a couple of numbers that didn’t answer. There was one number that did answer and Brian ended up having an interesting conversation with a girl who sounded mighty pissed. Bad thing was, she hadn’t seen Justin in almost a year, so no help there.
The next step was to go to Babylon. It was a Friday night and Brian had just entered the dance club. He was a regular in there so he knew exactly where to ask first. Tommy was the bartender with the best memory. Justin must have visited several times so there was a chance he would remember the blond. Brian found the bartender shaking up a cocktail from the east corner of the bar.
“Kinney, what can I get you?” Tommy asked and leaned his hands on the edge of the counter.
Brian rested his elbows on the counter too and showed him a picture of Justin. “I have a missing kid. I know he’s been here. You remember seeing him?”
Tommy took the photo and looked at it closely. “Yeah, I remember him,” he gave the photo back. “With that attitude, he’s hard to forget.”
“Any chanche you might have seen him recently?” Brian asked hopefully.
“Sorry man, can’t say I have. Must be weeks from the last time,” Tommy shook his head.
Brian sighed out of frustration.
“He’s usually here with some girl. I don’t know her name but she’s a black girl, frizzy hair, young,” Tommy explained.
Brian thought about it. Maybe she was a good friend. Maybe Mother Taylor knew this girl. “Thanks Tommy. Can I get a Jim Beam?” he asked. The least he could do was to buy a drink in exchange for the help. The man put a glass in front of Brian and poured brown liquid in it. Brian downed it in one gulp and left a big tip on the counter.
Next Brian wandered in the middle of the dance floor. He targeted all that looked under 20 years old, showing them a picture of Justin. None seemed to know him. He must have showed it to at least ten people until one smiled.
“Yeah, I know Taylor,” he nodded. He was shirtless. His jeans hung uncomfortably low. He was one of those scrawny teenagers who could use some muscles around their bones.
“Any chance you’ve seen him?” Brian asked and wished he could take a step back. The kid smelled a little.
“Yeah I’ve seen him,” he answered he smiled widely. Brian detected there had been some illegal use of drugs from his state.
“When and where?” Brian got his hopes up again. This could be it.
“About a month and a half ago. I saw him at Meathook,” the boy laughed.
Meathook? Really? Brian though. “So you haven’t seen him lately?”
“Nope, he took off for some reason, that’s all I heard,” the kid shrugged his shoulders a little and eyed Brian.
“Ok, well thanks,” Brian said disappointed.
“So, how about expressing your gratitude?” he looked the brunet up and down, licking his lips.
Brian rolled his eyes at the bad attempt of sexiness. “No thanks,” he yelled over the music and squeezed his way through the dancing people, away from the annoying little kid. The man still asked a few people if they had seen Justin but everyone shook their heads.
Brian exited the building, disappointed that he hadn’t gotten out of his visit as much as he had hoped for. Now he did know that it was possible that Justin had fled the city almost two months ago. That was a lot of time to go anywhere in this world. He hoped he wouldn’t have to check Machu Pichu, that was one hell of a hike, he knew from experience. But for now, he decided to check out Boy Toy. Brian felt shivers go down his body, he hated that place.
*
Justin looked at himself from the mirror. He was in a dressing room, trying on a shirt. The tag waved around in the air from the hem of the shirt as he turned and looked at himself from all angles. It was neat baby blue t-shirt. There was some text on the front but he didn’t bother to read it. Usually the texts were about nothing important. The blond decided it would do for the next couple of days. So he changed his own white shirt on before stepping out of the changing room and went to pay for it.
The woman was pretty quick with her hands as she quickly took off the security tag and rung him up.
“That’ll be 75 dollars. Would you like a bag for the shirt?” she asked politely.
“No thank you,” Justin said as he paid with his credit card. He pushed his wallet back into his pocket and pulled off his white shirt.
“Excuse me, what are you doing?” the woman asked surprised and scared. No one had ever taken off their shirt in public in this store before.
Justin just smiled and took his new shirt, pulling it on. “Relax, I just want wear it immediately,” he chuckled a little and walked out of the shop. There was a trashcan near the front door and Justin dropped his shirt into it. He hated doing laundry and wanted to travel light. This way of life suited him just fine.
For the past eight weeks he had felt the freedom. Coming to Washington was the best decision he had ever made. The city had no connections to him, he hadn’t even been there before, so it was pretty hard to find him. He really enjoyed his life for the first time ever. No responsibilities, no people ordering him around, no scolding, no yelling, and most of all, no parents. Justin breathed in the Washington air and smiled. He had enough money to get by for the rest of his life and he could do whatever he liked, whenever he liked.
This was living.
He had a nice hotel where he stayed. It had the best spa facilities, an amazing pool, great room service and hot workers. There was this pool boy at the pool that he had plans to nail down one night. He so loved Four Seasons. Why would anyone stay anywhere else?
The only down side of this all was that he was lonely. He had to leave all his friends behind. They were great friends but when it came to secrets, they had some improving to do. The only trustworthy friend was the one he had known the longest. Daphne Chanders was one amazing girl and he hoped their road would never part. She was the only one who knew Justin’s whereabouts.
Justin had big plans for the rest of the day. First he was going to go back to his hotel. Then he was changing into his teeny tiny speedos. After that, he would go to the hotel’s outside pools, order a Pina colada and wish that the hot pool boy had his shift as he laid on one of the sun chairs getting gorgeously tanned.