Foxe Hunt (29 page)

But even though it was a quiet, pleasant night, his roiling gut told him that he was full of regrets at what Heather so aptly called “teacher hijinks.” Was Keith
that
irresistible that he would throw caution to the wind? Maybe he had been hasty about the boyfriend thing. That was kind of uncool of Keith to have put him in that position without asking him first. And he would have said no.

But would he always say no?

Keith had asked if he was tired of always standing apart. He knew the man had meant their physical relationship in a public setting, but being outed meant that he
would
stand apart. Now all the evangelical teachers and kids would make a wide berth around him. Of course, he had done the same thing to them, too. He supposed turnabout was fair play. Maybe everyone had something that isolated them from everyone else. It was perhaps a bit boorish of him to assume that just because he was gay he was the one who was different. “‘Society is no comfort to one not sociable,’” he told himself, quoting from Shakespeare’s
Cymbeline
.

His phone rang. Finally! Sidney.

But it wasn’t Sidney. It was Philip.

“Just calling to find out what’s going on tonight. Jamie and I were heading over to Trixx and wondered if you and Keith want to come. With us, that is. Or are you guys already out?”

“Funny you should mention that. I think ‘out’ is the operative word.”

“Skyler, what are you talking about? You sound funny.”

242 Haley Walsh

Skyler walked down the front steps and leaned against a tree.

“I’m at school right now chaperoning the Winter Formal. And a few minutes ago, Keith asked me to dance with him in front of everyone.”

“You didn’t do it, did you?”

“Didn’t I?”

“Holy shit! Skyler! What the hell?”

“This is such a fuck up, Philip. I don’t know how I let him talk me into it.”

“Let me guess. He batted those baby blues at you and you turned to mush.”

“Yeah, pretty much. I thought I could sort of keep this under control but now it will be all over the place. Parents are going to start calling the school.”

“Yeah, I guess you’d better brace for it.”

“But they can’t fire me, right?”

Philip, in his best lawyer voice, quoted from the California law code: “‘It is an unlawful employment practice for an employer, because of the race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, marital status, sex, age, or
sexual orientation
of any person, to bar or to discharge the person from employment.’ That good enough for you?”

“Yeah, okay. I wish you’d finished law school.”

“But then I’d miss out on making you coffee every day.

Seriously, Skyler. Try not to worry about it.”

“The Vice Principal is putting a warning in my record. A
warning
, Philip! I’ve never had a warning in my life.”

“Oh dear. Your spotless record now has a minor stain.”

“Everyone is treating this lightly but it’s no joke when it comes to tenure and budgets and layoffs. The guy without the warning gets to stay.” He knew he was working himself up again and breathing hard into the phone but he was powerless to stop Foxe hunt
243

it. Philip must have heard it.

“Skyler, I want you to calm down. It’s going to be okay. It will blow over in a little while and then it will settle down to normalcy.

And Keith will be there right beside you, right?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I jumped in on this boyfriend thing a little too soon. Maybe we should take a break.”

“Walls, walls, walls.”

“Seriously? I’m hurting here.”

“You’re panicking and it’s normal. Just take some deep breaths and when you get home pour yourself a tall cool one.”

“You’d better believe it.”

“I’ll talk to you later, Skyler.”

“Bye. Thanks.”

He closed his phone and stuffed it back in his pocket.

“Talking to yourself, Foxe? They kick you out of the school yet?”

He didn’t even bother turning around. “Really, Fallows?

Haven’t you got anything better to do than bother me?”

“Not at the moment, no. You and Fletcher, huh? I knew something was off with that guy. Well we won’t have to worry too much about him when Coach Carson gets a load of this. No one wants a homo coach watching their boys take a shower.”

“And it’s okay for their
hetero
coach to watch them take a shower? You know what, just go away.”

“I didn’t connect what Mr. Fischer was talking about when he spoke of a troublesome fag. Now I know he meant you.”

Skyler stayed leaning against the tree and folded his arms.

“Do you
not
understand what ‘go away’ means?”

“Are you going to press charges?”

“Well I don’t see the point, being that he’ll be in jail for murdering my friend Evan Fargo.”

“
What?
” He nearly screamed it. Skyler snapped around to
244 Haley Walsh

stare at him. “You know Evan Fargo?” he cried.

“Yeah. He was a really good friend of mine. And I know you knew him, too, in college and dumped him just because he’s gay.

So just go fuck yourself.”

“You know way too much.”

“Yeah. I know that you won’t have a job at the orchid
pot
farm soon. Was it you or Fischer who suggested Evan open up the farming business in his own living room?”

By the look on the man’s face, Skyler saw that he’d hit the nail on the head. He had offered Evan a job, all right. A nice stay-athome production sort of job.

“How much money does it cull these days? I mean, a modest little house like theirs?”

Fallows recovered but his hand was shaking as he wiped it over his face. “He had quite the smart mouth, too. Not so smart with the muzzle of a gun in it.”

Skyler stopped. “How do you know that? That wasn’t released to the press.”

There was a pause, as if the world was holding its breath.

Neither of them moved. And then suddenly Ed’s hands zipped out like a rattlesnake’s head, clamping around Skyler’s neck.

The man shoved him hard against the tree and all the wind was knocked out of him. And there was none left to inhale because his throat was being systematically squeezed shut.

He scrabbled at the hands around his throat, trying to pry him off, but it was no use. He tired to yell—no breath. His vision was closing up, a black tunnel, getting smaller…

All at once, Fallows fell away from him, hands mercifully disengaging from Skyler’s throat. Skyler bent over and breathed great gulps of air.

When he looked up, Keith was beating the daylights out of Fallows. Skyler tried to yell at him, but his voice wasn’t working.

He stumbled forward and smacked Keith’s back until he stopped.

Good thing, too, because a sedan screeched to a halt in front of the school and Sidney leaped out, gun drawn. Mike flung himself out of the passenger side, gun drawn as well.

“Stay where you are, Fallows,” snarled Sidney. She got right up to him and put her wedge heel on his cheek. She flicked a glance at Skyler. “You all right?”

He nodded, not trusting his voice just yet.

Keith suddenly scooped him up and held him in his arms.

“Can you breathe? Do you need oxygen?”

Skyler shook his head, held up a finger for a pause, cleared his throat, and then spoke slowly. “I’m fine,” he said, voice hoarse. “I will be fine.” He pushed Keith’s arms off of him.

He turned to Mike de Guzman as Sidney was engaged in handcuffing Fallows. “How did you guys get here so soon?”

“Got a tip about five minutes ago that something was going down. Sidney heard it was the high school and took the call.”

A black and white pulled up with lights and siren. The siren was cut but the lights were raking a jagged streak of red and yellow across the front of the school.

“Sidney,” said Skyler, pointing to Ed Fallows on the ground.

“He killed Evan Fargo. He and his boss, James Fischer, were trying to get Evan to do their pot farming at his house and he refused. I guess Ed here didn’t want to take no for an answer.

Plus he’s a big time homophobe so I’d add hate crime to the charges.”

246 Haley Walsh

“You just let me decide that, okay, Skyboy?” She dragged the bleeding Fallows up to his feet by his cuffs and looked him over.

“Who did this? Not you.”

Skyler gestured toward Keith.

Keith stood defiantly, as if he expected to be arrested, too.

She tossed Fallows to Mike who grabbed him and pushed him toward the car. “Nice job, Fletcher,” she said.

“Thanks. What is Skyler talking about?”

“He’s investigating crime again without a license.” She turned back to Skyler. “I got your message, by the way.”

“He basically admitted it, Sidney. He attacked me when I—”

“I’ll take your statement at the station. It corroborates our own forensic evidence, just so you know. One of his boots is a match for a footprint we found outside Evan’s house that night.

We’ll do a DNA test on him for the skin under Evan’s nails. And with your statement I’m sure he’ll stay jailed for a very long time.”

“So Jeff is free?”

“I’ve already sent the paperwork to the county and all charges will be dropped.”

“That’s the best news I had all night.”

She put her arm around him. “Are you really okay? Maybe we should drive you to a doctor.” She examined the bruises on his neck. “These will match your shiner at least.”

“And just when that was disappearing for good.” He rubbed his neck. “I’m okay. I don’t suppose you’ve heard yet.”

She smirked and thumbed over her shoulder toward Keith.

“You mean dancing with this lug? I got a call from Philip.”

He dropped his face in his hands.

A warm hand skimmed over his back. “Come on, Skyler,”

said Keith. “We’re done here. Let me take you home.”

Sidney snapped the safety on her gun and holstered it, pulling her jacket over it again. “He needs to come in for a statement.”

Foxe hunt
247

“He can do that after he’s had a chance to change and take a shower, detective.”

Sidney narrowed her eyes, never a good sign. She glanced once at Skyler before turning on her heel and heading for her car.

His hand lingered on Skyler’s back. “Come on. I have to swing by my place first and then I’ll take you home.”

“What about the dance?” But when he turned around he noticed most everyone from the dance was standing on the lawn in front of the school talking about the commotion.

“I was coming out here after I told Alice we were done for the night. She heartily agreed. And then I saw that asswipe choking you.”

“You saved me.” They started walking toward the parking lot.

“I don’t mind. Wait. I do mind.”

“Huh?”

“If you wouldn’t get into these messes you wouldn’t need saving. I hope this is a lesson to you to stay out of it and let the police do their job. Sidney would have handled it without you getting your neck in the way.”

“I had it wrong, though. I thought it was Fischer.”

“He may well be just as involved. Anyway, he’ll certainly be up on drug charges.”

“And assault. I haven’t ruled that out.”

He opened the door of his truck and helped Skyler up into it.

He walked around the other side and easily climbed in.

As Skyler sat back against the leather seats, he expelled an exhausted breath. “This has been quite a night, huh?”

“I guess so.” He pulled the truck into traffic and started driving down the oak-lined street of old Victorians and bungalows.

“Look, Skyler, I owe you a huge apology. I thought it would be a terribly romantic gesture to offer to dance with you. I just felt all kinds of frustrated hiding it all the time. And I was watching all those couples and just wishing I could hold you, too. I did it
248 Haley Walsh

on impulse and didn’t think the consequences through. I’m really sorry if it screws up things for you. I don’t know how to take the blame but I will.”

Skyler looked out the window as they passed quiet houses, light spilling though homey lace curtains or the blue glow of television sets flickering behind drawn shades. He realized he had never been to Keith’s place before. Always they had gone to Skyler’s.

“You did kind of spring it on me. It’s the sort of thing we should have discussed first.”

“I know. It was wrong of me. I just really care about you, Skyler. No matter what stupid thing I do, I just want you to know that.”

That had a strange sound to it. He glanced at Keith for clarification but the man’s jaw was set and he was staring straight ahead out the windshield.

He was too tired to even ask, to argue. He glanced at the truck clock and it read ten-twenty. He just wanted to crawl into bed and pull the covers over his head. But when he thought about that scenario, Keith was always crawling in there with him. Maybe he would stay over at Keith’s…no,
no
! He was angry with the guy. He wanted to put the brakes on this boyfriend thing, give it a pause before either of them got too deep.

Say something, Skyler
. “Um, Keith. About what I said to Alice.

You know. About the b-boyfriend thing—”

“You’re getting cold feet again, aren’t you? This whole thing freaked you out. I get it. I do. But don’t make any hasty decisions tonight, Skyler. Sleep on it and see how it looks tomorrow.

Tomorrow may surprise you.”

“Okay,” he muttered.

They pulled into the driveway of an apartment complex built sometime in the late sixties. Keith pulled his truck into the carport, where it barely fit between another SUV and a Prius.

They both climbed out at the same time, but Keith was suddenly right beside him. “I’m okay,” he muttered as Keith offered to Foxe hunt
249

help him.

He followed the man up a flight of concrete stairs and walked along a gallery to a door that had a large “12” on it. In the courtyard below was a pool surrounded by potted palms and metal lounges. It was an old place, sort of retro, but in good shape. Keith unlocked his door, switched on a light, and held it open for Skyler.