Foxe Hunt (13 page)

Honestly, I didn’t think you were real.”

“Jamie…”

“But I’m so glad you finally got a chance to meet the S.F.C.”

“S.F.C.? What’s that?”

“
Jamie
…”

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99

He was leaning on Keith’s shoulder now, moving with the music. “The Skyler Fuck Club. S.F.C. for short, see? All of us were Skyler’s hook-ups before we became friends. All except Sidney, of course.”

“JAMIE!”

Keith’s grin faded. “All of you?”

“Oh, yeah! Rudy came into the group only about a month ago. And there’s probably
quite
a few others here, too.” He looked around, squinting through the flashing lights, hand over his brow as a visor.

Keith stopped dancing. He looked at Skyler with a shuttered expression for a long moment before he turned abruptly and left the dance floor.

Skyler stopped to give Jamie a scathing look before he went after the taller man.

“Keith! Keith, wait!” Damn, he was heading for the door.

Keith stopped. There was hurt in his eyes. “Is that what I am?

Just another inductee in the—what did he call it? The Skyler
Fuck
Club? What the
hell
?”

“It’s not like that. Well, it
was
like that, I guess, those other times. But you’re different. This is different.”

“So what happens? We fuck a few more times and then just become friends? Is that what you want?”

Skyler could hear Philip’s voice in his head, haranguing him about his commitment issues. Because hooking up and becoming friends was exactly how it
had
worked for the last eight years.

“Look, Skyler, far be it from me to step on your lifestyle. But that is just not me. I don’t do that. I don’t hook up. Not…not with that kind of frequency.”

Skyler wilted. “Go ahead and say it. You think I’m a slut.”

“Well, are you?”

It hurt. But he thought about the basket of condoms he kept on his nightstand. “Probably. I
was
. Not now. Keith, I like you.

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I’ve never dated anyone before. This is weird for me—”

“Great.” He turned again but Skyler grabbed his bicep and pulled him back.

“Look. I…I can’t change my past but it is
in
the past. Jamie and Philip, they’ve become really good friends.”

“Don’t forget that Rodolfo guy.”

“Yes, and Rodolfo, too. They’re good for me. And they’re good
to
me. I wouldn’t trade them for anything. But they are just friends now. Just friends.”

He ran his hand through his hair. “Jeez, Skyler. It’s not safe sleeping with that many guys, you know.”

“I get tested all the time and I’m Mr. Clean. Really.”

Keith stared at the floor, his head moving from side to side like a bull in a bull ring. Finally he looked up above Skyler’s head to where his friends had gathered again by the table. Jamie was looking devastated and Philip looked murderous. Sidney calmly glared with narrowed eyes but Skyler knew that was when she was most dangerous. Rodolfo looked a bit smug with his arms crossed over his bare chest, but also a little defensive.

“Skyler, I…I guess I just have to think about this. I’m the monogamous type. Always have been. If you aren’t, then this is never going to work.”

“Does it have to be so serious? Can’t we just…you know…”

“No. We can’t.
I
can’t. Sorry. I’ll…I’ll call you later.” And then he was out the door.

“I’m
so
sorry, Skyler,” Jamie hissed in his ear. “I wasn’t thinking.”

“It’s all right, Jamie.”

Skyler kept looking at the door, thinking that maybe Keith would change his mind and return. But as the time ticked on it certainly didn’t look as if that was going to happen.

“He’ll calm down,” said Philip. “And then you can talk to him.”

“I think you should let him go,” said Rodolfo. “He doesn’t look worth it to me.”

“Who asked your opinion?” said Philip, getting up in his face.

Rodolfo bristled. “My opinion is just as good as anyone else’s.”

“Not when it’s a stupid opinion.”

Skyler stood. “Guys! Just give it a rest, okay. I think I’m going to go.”

Jamie patted the vacated seat. “Skyler, you just got here.”

“I know, but I don’t feel much like partying right now. I’ll see you guys later.”

They called out to him but he didn’t stop, didn’t slow, and made it to the parking lot alone.

All through the drive home he kept thinking of Keith and his own rather risky lifestyle, and he could see how Keith would be concerned. The man said he was monogamous. That was something Skyler had never been before. Hell, he’d never had a boyfriend before. Not that Keith was his boyfriend. Not at this rate, anyway. Did he even want a boyfriend? Things had been going just fine until he met Keith Fletcher. Was it worth changing his life for this guy? Although, maybe it was time to stop fooling around so much. He’d been lucky. No bare-backing, no broken condoms. Yeah, he swallowed. He loved the taste, the whole
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sensation of hot cum shooting in his mouth, but it never seemed like a big deal.

But looking at it from Keith’s point of view, he must seem like the most casual of man-whores. But he wasn’t all that casual.

He had plenty of feelings. He always liked the guys he fucked or at least they all seemed nice to him. It just never occurred to him to go further. With the S.F.C., they all became friends once he had given up all interest in sleeping with them. But maybe it was like Philip said. He was afraid to commit. Was he still afraid? He was giving Keith a chance but Keith wasn’t giving him the same opportunity. It was beginning to piss him off again.

He turned the corner to his street and pulled up front.

Shutting the engine off, he climbed out of the car and hit the key lock. He grew angrier as he stalked up the walkway and trotted up his stairs. It just seemed that
he
had to go through all these changes and Keith didn’t. What about give and take?

Inside, he switched on his Tiffany lamp and dropped onto the sofa, staring at the dark TV. In the blank screen he could see himself, alone. He had been really looking forward to tonight.

Getting together with his friends and Keith, too, just to see how they all meshed. A little drinking, a little dancing. And Keith was apparently a good dancer, one of Skyler’s favorite pastimes.

He was also good at Skyler’s other favorite pastime and he had wanted to do that, too.

Skyler thought Jamie had more tact than that but oh well.

Rather than continue to stare at himself reflected on his TV

screen, Skyler got up and went to his desk situated in the bay window. He couldn’t see much out the window except for a street light or two glowing in the darkness. He needed to take his mind off of Keith but when he did that it inevitably slid toward thoughts of Jeff and Evan. Okay, fine. If no Keith then he would work out Jeff and Evan’s problem. He was good at that, at least.

He proved that the last time he had solved a murder case.

He took out a piece of paper and grabbed a pen. On the top of the paper he wrote “Possible Suspects in the Slaying of Evan Fargo.”

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And then his pen wavered over the paper. He didn’t really know anything yet. Except. Reluctantly, he put down Jeff ’s name.

“In the sake of all honesty, it has to be done,” he muttered.

Next he wrote “James Fischer.” After he finished the “r” he looked at it. He had absolutely no reason to suspect him except by virtue of his weird encounter and because Jeff so vehemently hated the guy.

He tapped his pen on the paper. “Who else? Who else?”

There was always the possibility of a burglary gone wrong, but given the circumstances of Evan having cleaned his gun in a lighted room, why would someone break in?

He shrugged and wrote “Random Burglar.”

Well, this obviously needed more investigating but there was little he could do now.
Might as well grade papers
. But when he reached down to get his satchel it wasn’t there. “Oh crap! I left it at school.”

He couldn’t leave it till tomorrow. His first period kids needed their test scores before they could go on to the next project. He’d just have to go down to the school and go get it.

He grabbed his car keys and switched off the lamp, then he was flying down the stairs to his car.

Since the parking lot gate was locked up tight he pulled his Bug in front of the school. Climbing up the front steps he fitted his key in the lock and opened the glass doors. Once inside he quickly locked it again.

The hallway was dark except for a few recessed lights shining soft pools of illumination on the polished linoleum floor.

Heading for his classroom, Skyler turned the corner and noticed a light in the office. “That’s strange.” He looked at his watch. It said ten-thirty-five. Did the janitor work this late?

He peered into the open office area and saw the light coming from Mr. Sherman’s office. His door was solid wood but his office walls were glass. One light was on at the desk along with the light from the computer monitor. But it wasn’t Mr. Sherman
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at his desk. It was Keith! He was earnestly typing something into Mr. Sherman’s computer, and then he sat back, fingers on his chin, eyes tracking the screen.

Skyler ducked back into the corridor, heart pumping a million miles an hour. What the hell was Keith doing hacking into Mr.

Sherman’s computer? The old suspicions reared their hydra heads again. Skyler had thought that Keith’s mysterious behavior had to do with his hiding the fact that he was gay from his homophobic football coach. But there was clearly something else afoot.

Carefully, keeping low, Skyler peered around the corner again.

Keith was still there, going through more documents. He wrote down some notes in a small notebook and then he started closing it all down.

Skyler snapped back again and rested against the wall. Should he confront him? Alone, in an abandoned school? No, that didn’t seem like a good idea. Wait a minute, what was he thinking? It was probably something entirely innocent. Of course it was! He was just being excitable. And what would poor Keith think if Skyler came barreling forward flinging accusations?

Except. Why was he on Mr. Sherman’s computer? The principal probably kept his office locked. That meant that Keith had broken into that as well.

How could this be happening? What was going on?

He heard Keith switching off the lights and closing the office door. Skyler took off, padding quietly in the other direction. He scrambled onto the staircase, hiding behind the walled railing.

He heard Keith’s steps as he walked along the corridor, thankfully going in the other direction. He listened for the sound of the front door being unlocked, opened, then closed and locked again before he came out of hiding. This was not good at all.

Slowly he went up the stairs, walking to his classroom as if in a dream. Try as he might, he couldn’t imagine what Keith would have been doing in Mr. Sherman’s office on his computer that would be on the up and up.

He was surprised to have reached his classroom so quickly.

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Unlocking the door he found his satchel in his desk where he left it and hastily snatched it up. He locked the door behind him again and hurried down the corridor. When he got back to the top of the stairs he stopped. His car was parked right in front of the school. Keith couldn’t have failed to see it. He looked down the stairs and noticed a light suddenly go out.

While he had been in his classroom, far from the front door, someone could have easily come in the front entrance without his hearing it. Or come
back
in.

Terror froze him to the spot.
Don’t let it be Keith
. He didn’t want to be afraid of him, couldn’t really imagine it now, but he
was
afraid of the soft sounds he could hear downstairs.
Now
what should he do?

He looked behind him. There was another stairwell at the other end of the corridor. But which would be better? This one was closest to the front door, but the other way might be smarter.

But he was right here. He might as well go down.

Slowly, one tread at a time, Skyler edged his way down the steps. He couldn’t help but think of poor Julia, the calculus teacher, who had been pushed down the stairs. That crime had not yet been solved and Skyler knew the culprit was still at the school. He didn’t want to mingle these thoughts with Keith.
It
couldn’t be him
. Or was it that he just didn’t want to believe it?

When he got to a point where he could see something below, he crouched down behind the railing and peeked over the side.

He saw a man’s shadow and he was holding a long stick of some kind. Shit!

Just as he turned to go back up, there was a shout.

“Hey! Who’s up there?”

Skyler froze and turned.

A man in gray coveralls with a mop in his hand stood at the foot of the stairs. Relief flooded him. He loosened his feet and came down the stairs, one hand over his heart. “Oh Mr. Bishara.

I didn’t expect you.”

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“Mr. Foxe? What are you doing here so late?”

He lifted his satchel in answer. “Forgot it. I had papers to correct.”

“You shouldn’t be here so late,” he said in a heavy Middle Eastern accent. He looked out at the damp floor he just mopped, no doubt thinking that Skyler would have to tramp across it.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Bishara. I’ll try to tread carefully.”

The janitor headed for the front door with Skyler, took the wad of keys from his belt, and unlocked the door. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Mr. Bishara.” The door locked behind him and Skyler all but sprinted to his car.

He drove too fast toward home and he almost hit a lamp post when he turned the corner a little too tightly and saw Keith’s truck parked in front of his house. Skyler slowed to a stop fifty feet away and just stared ahead at the quiet street lit by vintage lamp posts.