Millstone - Novel 02 Ch. 05

"So, what started all the pretending?"

I took a deep breath. "It started with my first persona. After that, the others seemed easy."

"What was it?"

"The first one was my hardest and the least fun of all, but fortunately it had an expiration date. Because of the abuse at the group home, I took on two after-school jobs just to stay away from Declan O'Neill who ran the home. I needed the money, but if I worked it gave him less time to abuse me, and that was on top of being made to fuck his wife every night. I think he hated me because I could do something for her that he couldn't. Anyway, after I went to the police, I contacted Charles Stanley, the pro bono lawyer who became my avuncular friend. I knew that fifteen was the minimum age for emancipation in Maryland. I told Charles that I wanted out of the system. With the money from my two jobs, my grades in school, and my clean record, I fit the criteria. My biggest problem was that I was an abused, skinny, 15-year-old kid who had to convince myself and the court that I needed no one to take care of me. So, my first persona was that of Adult."

"Oh my god..." He pulled me to him, wrapped his arms around me, and hugged me tightly.

"After my emancipation, I had two years of court-ordered therapy for the abuse. Since then, I've done a lot of work on myself. I'm not the same person anymore. Along the way, I just discovered that I have a knack for pretending, and it's come in handy over the years. It saved me from some early scrapes in Baltimore. And when I played the lead in the high school dramas; I never had a dry eye in the house."

He pulled back from me. "How can I know that anything you just told me is true?"

I laughed. "You and your detective mind, I swear. I figured that question would come up sooner or later, and it's completely fair to ask. I know some people might say this to throw you off, so you'll believe them without bothering, but I absolutely insist that you run a full background check on me; I want no secrets or doubts between us."

"We had checked a bit when we suspected you of murder," he said, "but we didn't go all the way back."

"You're welcome to search all the way back to conception if you like. Although I must warn you, you'll find the reading of my first nine months a total drudge."

Once Wade had relinquished the case to the officers in the patrol car, and we climbed into the Jeep, I discovered why he had asked me several of the things that he had that morning. I doubted he set me up by his questions but rather was feeling me out before making his request.

"I want to ask you for something, and so that you know, you're welcome to turn me down flat."

"Yes, you can have my hand in marriage," I said. "The rest of the body comes with it, of course. It's kind of a package deal."

"Well, man can't live by handjobs alone."

"Oh, I don't know about that. This left hand of mine's pretty magical."

I have loved to hear Wade laugh and making him laugh has been one of my joys in life. Once he came around, he made his request of me, and it was nice to know he had that much confidence in me.

"I would like you to go to The Crypt tonight, pretend to be a goth, and keep your eyes and ears open. They're having Barty's memorial there at midnight."

"What are you expecting me to witness?"

"I don't know what the autopsy results will say, but just from what Dante said to us, I suspect one or more of them is involved. To stake someone through the heart is illegal, either before or after their death. But the problem is, we need some evidence, and I want to know the full circumstances of what occurred."

"Isn't this dangerous? Why not choose some trained officer?"

"I admit that I don't know this for a fact, but I think the only person in danger is now dead. And I'm not asking you to catch a killer; it's just a fact-finding mission. But I'm asking you because I trust you, and you have the qualities necessary to make it work. You're strong and capable of defending yourself if anything should happen--I don't think it will; it's just a memorial service. You're smart, and you think fast. You enjoy pretending, and you have enough bad boy vibe to convince people for years of your sadism, so vampire goth should be easy. Also, you're a remarkably handsome man with a pallor virtually that of an albino. All of which, I find extremely appealing, by the way. Besides, I can't ask any of the cops at the precinct, most of them have suntans--which doesn't exactly say 'vampire'--and with all of them, a change of clothing wouldn't make them anything other than what they are."

"So, they can't act," I said.

He shook his head. "They couldn't even mime their way out of a paper bag."

I agreed to do it, but I told him that I would need to inform Millstone and Max. At that point, they were probably talking to Johann, so I would have to wait.

I took Wade back to his SUV, and he told me that after our discussion with Dante, he had questions to ask the owner of the motel. So, I went with him to the front office.

The faulty air conditioner in room 20 should have told me something because the place seemed to have gone downhill from when I stayed there, the office smelled like a septic tank. No one met us at the desk, so Wade rang the bell.

A haggard-looking man came from the back with a hand to his head like he had a headache, and he spoke like he had a hangover. "Hello. I'm Harold. Would you like a room for one night or two? Or even an hour or two. At this point, I really don't care."

Wade showed him his badge. "I'm Detective Sergeant Edgerton of the Franklin PD. I have a question about the man in room 20. Had someone booked his room for him or was he a walk-in?"

After checking his computer, he said, "A corporation made the reservation on July 8th. A company called Disco."--he turned to me--"And here we all thought disco was dead. Apparently, it just incorporated."

"What was the reservation for?"

"For last night, a room with a queen bed, and I made a note that they made the request for room 20."

"Really... DiSCo is a shipping company. We know they've made nearby deliveries in the past. Can you tell me if they reserved rooms here for their drivers on other occasions?"

Harold shook his head. "I don't think so."

"Are you sure?"

"I make all the reservations in the system. There's no way I could have let a name like Disco go without a witty one-liner, and I would have remembered that."

Wade smiled a little. "I believe you." Wade gestured down the hallway from where the man came. "The smell. What's going on with that?"

"I apologize. We had a problem with the plumbing yesterday. Don usually has these things fixed, but he woke up ill this morning, and I have a terrible headache."

Wade made a quick glance at me, and back to Harold and pointed down the hall. "Is Don back that way?"

"Yes, he's lying down."

"I'm going to ask you to go outside with my partner Tucker, and I will bring Don to you outside."

"Why? What for?"

"You've both been exposed to sewer gasses. Go with Tucker, and when you get outside take deep breaths of fresh air, okay? Tucker, when you get out there call Nine-One-One, give them my name and tell them what happened."

"Right," I said. "Come along, Harold. We both need some fresh air."

About 6 minutes later, several emergency services arrived, including the fire department. It took some effort to get Don out of the building, but Wade managed it, and Don did not look good. Wade probably saved their lives. Apparently, Harold had been in and out of the office that morning because of the murder, but Don hadn't.

I had a lot to accomplish before the memorial that night, so while the ambulance crew tended the couple, Wade took me to my Jeep.

I said, "It's never a dull moment with you, is it?"

"The job has its dull moments, but those never last. Something's always happening somewhere in this city. I need to hand this scene over to uniform, and head back to the precinct." He put his hands on my hips, pulled me toward him, and rocked his pelvis on my cock with a sexy little smile on his face. When he started speaking, he had used a slow and intimate voice that sounded almost seductive. "Something you should know...pay attention to your time with me, because one day when I seriously ask you to marry me, you will need all this experience to make an informed decision."

"When you ask?"

He nodded. "Count on it." He then pulled my face to his, kissed me with great passion, told me he would see me later, and then walked to one of the uniformed officers at the scene.

After that morning, he acted released from all his restraints, and he showed me more of himself. I found his confident and assertive approach refreshing. Masochists are so passive, and they always made me above them. Or more likely, thinking me a real sadist, they assumed I would, even in my feigned narcissism, view them as beneath me. On that day, I witnessed Wade in his element, and I loved his can-do and in-charge attitude. I think he wanted me to see that, in our relationship, we could be equals. I couldn't believe anyone as incredible as Detective Sergeant Wade Edgerton could possibly want me, but he did.