Elijah balked. “Uh . . .”
Even if Chris hadn’t suspected in high school, it was time to own up to who I really was. I came out of the closet in Chicago, and I wasn’t going back in. But Elijah had no idea of my feelings on the matter, and he was mumbling as he tried to stall Chris in case I wanted to take off.
I dropped the gun into one hand and stepped around the corner to stand beside Elijah. “What’s up, Chris?”
His eyes widened so far I thought they might fall out of his head. The look on his face almost made me laugh as he stared at us standing there shirtless, me in boxers and Elijah in pajama pants, and if he didn’t have it pieced together by now, he caught up real fast. “Uh...” He worked through his shock quickly and went on. “Mason? Thank god. What time did you get here last night? Please, for the love of god, tell me it was before ten.”
I wasn’t awake enough to deal with the shit he was obviously bringing. “Huh? It was earlier than that. There was someone messing around outside the house, and Elijah texted me. It took me nine minutes to get here. I think it was a little after eight. I have the texts on my phone. Why?”
“Someone was here?” Chris cried. “What happened?”
Elijah was rubbing his eyes again. He yawned. “Someone knocked on my door. I wasn’t expecting anyone and I couldn’t see anyone when I looked out. My cat started growling at the window by the door, then my bedroom window, and I was freaked out but afraid I was being paranoid, so I didn’t call the cops but texted Mason instead.”
Chris pushed his way into the room and shut the door behind him. “Hey, that’s illegal,” I pointed out, but Chris was obviously not in the mood to joke around.
“I’m not on duty, fuckwad, or I wouldn’t be here. Let me see those texts. I need to see the time. And Elijah, you can alwayscall us at the station. Don’t ever think you’re being silly. You have the right to be safe just like everyone else.”
Elijah stared at him for a second, but nodded. “Here. You can look at my phone.” He walked toward his bedroom to get it and we followed him.
“What the hell is going on, Chris?” I demanded.
He looked at me, a worried crease to his brow that I didn’t like. “There’s been another murder,” he said.
“What?” Elijah practically screeched. “Who? And why are you at my house... asking me questions about where I was?” He chewed on his lip as he looked at Chris nervously.
We’d come to a stop a few feet from the nightstand where Elijah’s phone rested. Chris sighed. “It was Brock Gray. And we have his phone.” He looked pointedly at Elijah, who’d gone pale.
I was the only one in the dark, so I said, “Brock Gray? Wasn’t he that preppy rich kid who was like three grades above us? The one whose family lived in that big house on the hill with the gate? He switched to our school from a private school in high school, right? Wasn’t he like, a giant dick?”
Chris glanced at me. “Elijah would probably be better at answering that question than me.”
I looked at Elijah, but it took him avoiding my eyes to realize Chris meant it as a double entendre. “Oh my god,” I said. “Youdidn’t.Not him. You really have a type, don’t you? Assholes.”
He finally looked me right in the eye to say, “Yes,I definitely do.” He looked back at Chris. “But that was last year. It wasn’t anything, really, nothing serious. I started talking to him on a hookup app. I didn’t even know who he was for a while. We hooked up a few times and that was it. So... why are you here?”
“Because they have all the messages between the two of you. And apparently, you were the only person on there he was messaging. There haven’t been any others since your last hookup. You appear to be his most recent lover, and this is the second person you were fucking who was stabbed an inordinate number of times.”
“What the hell?” Elijah cried. “Am I really a suspect again?I didn’t hurt anyone! I was here all night. I wouldn’t...” He ran his hands roughly through his hair and looked at me helplessly.
“Look,” Chris said, reaching out to touch his arm. “I know you didn’t, okay? That’s why I’m here. And I’m happy to see you have a... slightly less airtight but still existent alibi again. I don’t suspect you personally, but it’s a pattern that’s been noticed, and they’re going to be looking at you hard. I’m trying to keep them from acting on it, but you can see the dilemma from our side.”
I spoke up. “Did anyone stop to think that maybe it’s a couple of homophobic assholes who love to harass people who are targeting the gay people in this town?” No way was I letting Elijah go through another interrogation. I was still a cop, even if I wasn’t working, and I wouldn’t stand for it.
“Of course we’ve thought of that, Mason,” Chris said, sounding offended. “I can assure you that certain people who’ve made comments and threats will be questioned and looked at just as hard. And there are more than two in this town. The problem with that is, no one knew Brock swung that way. He had girls on his arm at public events, but the most recent ones were apparently paid to be there. He made sure to keep his private life private. So it’s odd that he’d be a target simply because he was gay, when there are more... open people around.”
“Well, I mean, come on, it was obvious,” I insisted, even though from what I’d known of Brock, I hadn’t had a clue he was gay. “Plus, he was on a gay hookup app. I mean, seriously.”
“He did make sure to tell me not to say anything,” Elijah practically mumbled. “He used a fake name on the app. Like I said, I didn’t know it was him for a while. There weren’t any distinguishing pictures on there either. He made me agree in text not to say anything, and promised I’d regret it if I did. He threatened me with legal action, but stopped short of an actual NDA.”
I huffed a little bit, because honestly, I was tired of hearing about the guys Elijah had fucked when it should have been just me. “Yeah, well,” I said, as I moved the pillows and made a show of grabbing the handcuffs. I flicked them closed and picked my pants up off the floor, putting them in the pocket before Ifinished. “I can assure you that Elijah was all tied up at ten last night.”
Chris choked. Elijah’s face lit up like a red Christmas bulb, and if looks could kill, I’d be dead. Chris looked away to avoid staring at the handcuffs, but his eyes landed on the bed, and he was staring there instead. Elijah and I both followed his eyes. That lime-green dildo was visible beside the covers I’d just shifted. If it were possible, Elijah’s face got even redder. “For fuck’s sake,” he muttered, snatching his phone off the nightstand and ushering Chris out of the bedroom. “You can look at my phone. Out here.” He unlocked it and handed it to Chris.
I offered mine to him. “You can look at mine too. My location is on. You can see when I got here, and that I damn sure didn’t leave. Also, check my photos. I found a cigarette ash on the ground under Elijah’s window. There’s also a scuff there, on the wall. I think someone was trying to break in.”
Chris looked at me sharply and grabbed my phone. “You sure the ash was fresh?”
“One hundred percent.”
