Foxe Hunt (19 page)

Foxe hunt
149

He didn’t know what else to do. He drove hell for leather to The Bean.

§ § §

Cashmere Funk, with dreads hanging from under his cap, danced behind the counter to a beat playing in his ear buds. At least, Skyler hoped he was wearing ear buds.

“Cashmere!”

The tall man turned to him and his eyes widened to saucers.

His accent was thick when he cried, “Oh man! What happened to you, Skyler!”

“Cashmere, is Philip here? Can you get him?”

“Someone popped you but good.”

“I
know
, can you just get Philip, please?”

“Mos def!” He spun and ducked through the open kitchen doors. It only took a few seconds for him to return with Philip.

“Holy shit, Skyler! What the hell happened to you?”

“I can’t go back to school like this.” Skyler was looking at his distorted reflection in the shiny brass espresso machine behind the counter. “Fuck, it’s like sophomore year all over again.”

“Cashmere, go get some ice and put it in a towel.” The barista disappeared again. Philip grabbed Skyler by the arm and maneuvered him to the cushy chairs. “What happened?”

“I did something really stupid.”

“It’s Keith, isn’t it?”

The
non sequitur
threw him off for a second. “No.
No
! That’s not what happened.”

“I’ll kill the guy. No,
Sidney
will kill the guy ‘cause she has a gun.”

“It wasn’t Keith—”

He grabbed both his shoulders and looked him in the eye. “I blame myself. I told you to go for it. But you tried to tell me how violent he is.”

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“Philip, listen to me—”

“I’m calling Jamie.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out his phone.

“Philip, just listen for a second—”

“Jamie, get your ass to The Bean right now. That dickhead Keith went and hit Skyler.
Yes, way!
Get the hell over here now!”

He threw it on the table, stared at Skyler, and tears formed at his eyes. He clutched Skyler into a hug. “We’ll get that guy, and then we’ll make sure he stays far away from you.”

Skyler pushed back with all his might. “Will you shut up for a second and listen to me!
It wasn’t Keith!
I went over to this Army guy’s office at the VA Center and pretty much accused him of killing Evan, just like Sidney told me not to do, and he punched me.”

“And you expect me to believe a lame story like that? Why are you protecting that guy?”

“I’m not protecting anyone. It was the Army guy, James Fischer, the one I ran into at Jeff ’s house. Remember me telling you about him?”

“Skyler, he’s not worth it. Trust me.”

“Philip!”

Cashmere returned with the ice and by then some of the customers had come over to see what the ruckus was.

“His boyfriend. Domestic violence,” Philip explained tearfully.

Everyone began offering advice, including calling the police, calling a TV station, and calling the paramedics.

“No, everyone, thank you all for your concern but that’s not what happened.”

“Same thing happened to a friend of mine,” said a young woman to her companion. “She defended the bastard all the way to court.”

“Stop, stop! Everyone just stop!” The buzz of concerned voices came to a halt. “I’m only going to say this once. It. Was.

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Not
. Keith! I started investigating my friend Evan’s murder and the guy I suspected did this to me.”

Everyone exchanged glances and the soft buzz of conversation started up again.

Philip narrowed his eyes at him. “Skyler, is this the absolute truth? You’re not just saying this to protect that guy, are you?”

“No! But we cannot call the cops because Sidney can’t find out about this. I swear, Philip. It really was the Army guy.” He prodded his sore cheek with his fingertips. “Does anyone have any make-up?”

“Make-up won’t hide the swelling. You’ll just have to keep away from Sidney. But I swear to God, Skyler, if you’re lying about this—”

“I’m not. Really.” He looked around and the customers slowly retreated back to their tables or lidded their cups and left.

“
Oh my God!
” screeched Jamie from the doorway. Rodolfo skidded through the door a second later.

“
Amante
! That beast! I told you he was no good for you.”

Skyler sat back, pressing the ice to his face.

After explaining it for the fiftieth time, it seemed, Jamie and Rodolfo appeared to believe him, at least a little. Skyler then thought of calling the school to make a lame excuse as to why he couldn’t return. “They’re so going to fire me.”

“Mr. Sherman is on your side,” said Philip. “You said so yourself.”

“I can’t do it. I have to go back. How does it look?” He pulled the towel away and scanned their faces.

Jamie’s eyes were wide and his mouth seemed set in a permanent “o.” Rodolfo winced. Philip patted his hand. “I’ll get some make-up.”

§ § §

Skyler kept checking his face in his rearview mirror as he drove back to school. His cheek and eye were hopelessly swollen and
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beginning to turn dark. His eyeball was red from broken blood vessels. Definitely a shiner. He already had a story prepared and he hoped he could just get through the rest of the day.

But as luck would have it, he literally ran into Keith first thing upon entering the school.

Keith pushed him back, a joke ready on his smiling lips until his gaze focused on Skyler’s face. His eyes grew wide and something dark shadowed his expression. He said nothing as he dragged Skyler into the first available empty classroom and shut the door. “Who hit you?”

“What makes you think anyone hit me?”

“For God’s sake, Skyler. I can tell someone hit you. Who was it?”

“It was an elbow. It was a simple mistake.”

“Was it that Rodolfo guy? Because I’ll kill him.”

“No, no! I swear!” Almost the same words Philip used but an entirely different feeling slithered up his spine. Keith wanted to protect him. He could read it in the concern in his eyes, in the way he pawed at Skyler’s shirt.

“Skyler, don’t lie to me to protect him.”

He laughed, he couldn’t help it. And Keith drew back, perplexed. “That’s the same thing Philip said to me…about
you
!”

And now he was sorry he said it because Keith suddenly looked devastated. “He thinks that I would hurt you? Do
you
think that?”

“No, of course not!” His arms had somehow gone up around the taller man’s neck. He brought him forward for a soft kiss, risking it at school to calm the expression he caused on his face.

“Keith, I know you’d never hurt me.” And this time he believed it. Keith might get angry or jealous but he would never raise a hand to Skyler. He didn’t care what Sidney or the others thought.

This man was different, sweet, loving. He just wouldn’t do it.

He rested his head on his chest a moment, just relishing the contact before he pushed away. They couldn’t take the chance of Foxe hunt
153

someone walking in.

“So someone really elbowed you? Really?”

“Yeah, it was Jamie.” He felt an acute pang of guilt as he lied, but he also knew, just like if he told Sidney, that they would both be all over James Fischer with some big time whoop ass, and Skyler would just as soon put the whole thing behind him.

For now. Fischer definitely bore watching, though. Obviously, violence was in his repertoire. Looked like he had a hot button for gays. “I was helping him move some stuff. He has a really good left hook, elbow-wise.”
Don’t overdo it, Skyler. He’s already
looking at you suspiciously
. He decided to take out the big guns. With a pout he said, “It hurts, you know.”

“Oh.” Keith took him carefully in his arms and cradled him gently. “That okay?”

“Uh huh…well. Maybe we shouldn’t do that here.”

But Keith leaned in and dropped another gentle kiss on Skyler’s lips and then a feather soft one near his bruised eye.

“That should make it all better,” he whispered.

Be damned if it didn’t! Skyler gazed up at the man he had just lied to, who had tried to sooth him, and who had threatened to defend him to the death…and sighed.

Keith released him, straightened, cleared his throat. “You’re going to be explaining that all day.”

“I know.” He shrugged.

“I wish I were going to be free tonight,” he went on, “but I have a previous obligation. Otherwise I’d be there to pamper you.”

“Damn. Pampering sounded good.”

“There’s always tomorrow night.”

“It’s a date. I mean…”

He mussed Skyler’s hair playfully. “You
can
call it a date, you know, and the sky won’t fall in.”

He felt his cheeks heat up. “I-I know.”

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Keith shook his head. “God, you’re cute. Even with a black eye. I’d better go. See you, Skyler.”

“Bye, Keith.” He let the bigger man go first and then waited a beat before he stuck his head out the door and walked down the empty corridor.

As predicted, he spent every class explaining the shiner, but when he got to the last period and Rick and Alex stayed behind at the end of the day, Rick whistled and got a finger close to it.

“Damn, Mr. Foxe. Who punched you?”

“Nobody punched me,” he said, stuffing papers in his satchel.

“I told the class at the beginning of the period—”

“But that was such a lame story. Who really hit you? It wasn’t that guy that brought you flowers, was it?”

“Yeah,” said Alex, a determined look on his face. “’Cause I’ll kick his ass for you.”

Alex too? “No, boys. Really. It’s no big deal. It went down like I said it did.” He grabbed his satchel and walked out the door, locking it behind him. The boys hovered in the corridor. “How’d the GSA meeting go, Rick?”

Rick gave a crooked smile. “There were two lesbians that showed up—didn’t know them. Another guy who said he was gay—he was a junior, I think. I’d seen him around.”

“Not too close, I hope,” said Alex, pinching his arm.

He ignored Alex. “And then there were two chicks who said they were gay friendly.”

“Wow. That sounds like a pretty good turnout. What did you talk about, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“I guess some people knew me and they said they were surprised to see me there,” he said sheepishly.

“Dude, you didn’t say anything about me, though, right?”

He touched Alex’s chin and tilted it up. “Of course not,
mi
pequeña
,” he said softly.

Alex’s eyes scanned the corridor fiercely and he stepped away Foxe hunt
155

from Rick’s fingers. Skyler could tell the Hispanic boy’s feelings were hurt but his eyes soon shut down the emotion.

“But it was a good meeting?” asked Skyler.

“Yeah. Yeah, it was. I still wish you were there, Mr. Foxe.”

“I know.”

“Gotta go. Coming,
mi rosa
?”

“In a minute,” said Alex, shuffling his feet.

Rick waved a large paw and loped down the empty corridor until he disappeared down the staircase. Skyler clutched his satchel and gazed at Alex expectantly.

The boy ran his hand over his spiky hair and licked his lips.

“Here’s the thing. It’s okay to make excuses. Just don’t start believing them.”

“Excuses? About what?”

Alex sighed and stared down at the floor until he seemed to square his shoulders. “About who hit you. And you don’t need to deny it. I know what it looks like…to get hit.”

Skyler’s jaw fell open. “Oh, Alex. Are you telling me—?”

“There’s been a lot of roughhousing in my life, okay. A lot of stuff at school.”

And there was a pause and Skyler wondered if he had meant to fill that gap with “and at home, too.” But Alex didn’t. He just let it hang there. Letting Skyler know in so many words and a lot more unspoken, that Skyler didn’t have to take it, didn’t have to be a punching bag. Maybe he’d wanted to tell
himself
that in the mirror, but it was always a lot easier dispensing advice to someone other than oneself.

Skyler’s eyes prickled.

Alex never looked up. He just kept scuffing his dirty running shoes on the shiny floor. “Just don’t fall for it, okay, Mr. Foxe.

Don’t let the guy do it anymore. I think you’re better than that. I
know
you’re better than that.”

All he could do was nod. Alex touched his shoulder
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comfortingly and then he was gone, dragging his backpack behind him, starting off in a quick walk and becoming a trot as he turned the corner at the stairs.

§ § §

Skyler walked slowly down the stairs, thinking of Alex’s gentle and undeserved reassurance. Sometimes you taught the kids and sometimes the kids taught you. Silently, he went through the main office. He gave a half-hearted wave to the student assistants, checked the bulletin board and the schedule for anything he needed to know, and sluggishly left the building toward the parking lot.

Wow. So much to think about. It was bad enough he had to lie to everyone, but now even his students were coming to his aid.

And if Alex Ryan was confessing to abuse at home, Skyler was obligated by law to report it. But
had
he? Such a mess.

When he raised his head, his gaze spotted that white van again parked across the street. The last few minutes were abruptly forgotten. He stopped and stared at it. “Redlands Orchid Farm.

Why is that so familiar?” And then it suddenly hit him. He had seen a business card with that name and logo on it in Evan Fargo’s wallet. He had to call Jeff.

He phoned Jeff from the car as he navigated the late afternoon traffic. “Jeff, how are you doing?”

“Okay, I guess, for a wanted criminal.”

“You’re not a wanted criminal and I have it on good authority that you probably won’t be the prime suspect long.”

“Are you shitting me, Skyler? ‘Cause that would be the only good news I had in a long time.”

“I, uh, can’t tell you details.”
I shouldn’t even have told you that, but
screw Sidney.
“But I think it will be all right.”