He was right about that.
Michael huffed impatiently. “Why are we acting like this is some kind of board meeting? Get over here so I can hug you.”
Chuckling, I rose and went around to the front of my desk, letting my brothers envelope me in their love and affection.
Our hugfest was interrupted by a knock on my door. Liz poked her head in and said, “Sorry to interrupt. I have Mr. Chen here for his interview.”
I pulled away from my brothers. “All right, enough hugging. We have a business to run.”
By the end of the day, I was more than ready to go home. Greg was coming to my place for dinner and a relaxing night on the couch watching a movie. The office was mostly empty by thetime I shut down my computer. I saw that Michael was still in his office, so I went over and knocked on his doorframe. “Go home. You’ve worked long enough.”
He nodded absently, then held up his hand. “I forgot that there was something I wanted to tell you. We got so busy today that it slipped my mind.”
“Okay, hit me.”
He tapped a few keys on his laptop. “Do you remember how we were wondering if Greg’s stalker was his ex?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Greg didn’t seem to think so but said it was worth looking into.”
“It was,” Michael agreed. “He’s dead.”
Shock rippled through me. “Dead? When? How?”
His eyes focused on his computer screen. “Randolph Kramer was charged with fourth-degree felony assault and got six months in prison. Greg was granted a permanent restraining order against him. Randy served another year on parole after he got out of prison and was mandated to get anger management and counseling.”
I resisted the urge to tell him to get to the point. This was the way Michael did things. “What happened to him after that?”
“Once he was off parole, he moved to Texas—I guess thinking he could get far away from anyone who knew he had a DV charge.”
“Texas isn’t exactly the friendliest place for gay men,” I observed. “Did someone kill him because he was gay?” I really didn’t want to feel sorry for the guy, but that would have been a shitty way to go.
Michael shook his head impatiently. “No. He moved to Houston, which is a fairly progressive city—for Texas.”
I reined in my impatience. My brother had his process. “So what happened?”
He went back to reading his screen. “About three months after he moved to Houston, he started dating Corey Harrington. They’d been together almost six months when they had an argument in Corey’s apartment. According to the police report, it got physical. Randy was much bigger than Corey and was giving him a hell of a beating. Corey got away and locked himself in his bedroom. Randy didn’t like that and decided to break through the door. Corey shot him in the chest. He was dead before he hit the ground.”
“Holy shit,” I breathed. “And Texas is a stand your ground state.”
“It sure is,” Michael agreed. “No charges were filed against Corey.”
I blew out a frustrated breath. I’d already been almost one hundred percent certain Greg’s ex wasn’t the stalker. It would have been so much easier if it had been. We had so few leads on the guy stalking Greg.
“Thanks for looking into it. At least we have one person eliminated.” Another thought occurred to me. “Did you ever get the security video from Greg’s apartment building?”
Michael nodded. “I did.” He opened a video window that showed the hallway on Greg’s floor and what looked like a man in an oversized dark hoodie kneeling by his apartment door.
I growled in frustration. I really didn’t think there would be anything, but I’d hoped. “Nothing.”
He shook his head. “Nothing to go on at all.”
“Thanks.” I squeezed his shoulder. “Go home. You’ve worked hard today.”
He hummed in agreement and turned back to his computer. I shook my head and rolled my eyes. “Goodnight, Michael.”
“Goodnight,” he murmured.
I was about to walk out the door when I saw Liz was still at her desk. “What are you doing here so late?”
