It Takes a Photographer Page 7

  "He tried." Quint shook his head. "Whether intentionally or otherwise, she managed to lose him by running a couple of lights just as they turned red."

  "I don't get why they kept Seaver prisoner, then brought him back to the apartment," Rory said. "If that's what happened."

  "We won't know until we find Ms Garland," Quint replied. "Obviously, from what you overheard, Rory, they knew he'd hidden the memory card somewhere. And maybe they thought he had copies of the photos as well, that he'd printed out. If he did, they're not at the apartment."

  "I wonder…" Lou nodded. "It's possible he planned on selling them on some porno site and the women found out. When they face him down, he gets into an argument with them. Ms Garland goes after him, tooth and nail. He fends her off."

  "And Olivia captured that while she was taking pictures of me, Clay, and Jamie at the party," Quint replied.

  "Yep. Ms Rogers is there and stops him, probably by knocking him out. In the two shots of the women, a few minutes later, they might have been debating what to do about him."

  "All conjecture, but possible," Quint agreed. "They decide to keep him a prisoner until he tells them where he's hidden the memory card. He eventually agrees to, but only if they take him back to the apartment so he can get it in person. Like idiots, they agree. He takes advantage of that to kill Ms Rogers and probably intended on taking out Beth as well, but she gets the drop on him."

  "And now she's on the run," Rory said.

  "It's possible she's holed up wherever they were holding Seaver," Lou said. "We've got a BOLO out on her, and tomorrow morning her face will be in the Post and on the news. With a bit of luck, someone will remember seeing her and the others at this love nest—or just her, tonight."

  "We can only hope," Quint replied. "Right now, though, I'm going home. It's been a long day, and I need some downtime with my family."

  "Meaning Clay, since Jamie's probably asleep," Lou said.

  Quint laughed. "I'm not betting on it. Okay, I'll see you tomorrow."

  Lou went down with him to let him out. When he got back upstairs, he found Rory sprawled on the bed in all his naked glory. "We need some downtime too," Rory told him with a lascivious grin. "Or, some 'uptime', if you see what I mean."

  Laughing, Lou stripped and joined him. An hour later, they were sound asleep in each others' arms.

  Chapter Eight

  Dr Zack Kendall looked at the chart for the woman lying, unresponsive, in a room in the ICU. She was his patient now. From the report he'd been given, she had been found by a park employee, unconscious and with no ID, in the boathouse at Washington Park. The man had called 9-1-1 for an ambulance to bring her to the hospital.

  The doctors in the ER hadn't pumped her stomach, since they'd known from a half-empty bottle found with her that she'd taken an overdose of Xanax. Because the drug caused respiratory depression, she was now on a ventilator and intravenous fluids.

  As he studied the woman, he had the feeling he'd seen her before somewhere. Then it hit him, and he wondered why no one else had caught it. He figured it was probably because the ER docs hadn't had a chance to see the news. Zack might not have, either, if Trev hadn't had the TV on while they had been eating breakfast.

  If I'm right, and I'm sure I am… Taking out his phone, Zack scrolled through the numbers until he found Quint's. When the detective answered, Zack said, "I think I have a patient here you might want to talk to. She OD'd on Xanax and, at the moment, is still out of it. With luck, she should come to soon. Oh, yeah, that would help," he added, when Quint asked who she was. "We don't have a name for her, but I'm real sure she's the woman whose photo was on the news this morning, in relation to a murder last night."

  Quint said he'd be there within the hour.

  "So, are you a killer?" Zack murmured as he checked the woman's vital signs. "I suppose so. Otherwise, why try to commit suicide?" He almost smiled. "You'd have done a better job of it with a gun or drowning. You were right beside a lake." He suspected he knew why she hadn't gone that route. Pills were easier and much less painful.

  He continued on his rounds, waiting for Quint to arrive. When he did, Zack took him to the woman's room.

  "That's her," Quint said immediately. "Beth Garland. Is she going to make it?"

  "Yes. Then, since it was obviously a suicide attempt, she'll be put on a ninety-six-hour psych hold, while the docs decide if she's a danger to herself or others. Of course, you can bypass that by arresting her as soon as she's regained consciousness and we know she's physically okay to be released."

  "Which I will," Quint replied. "She may have had good reason to want the victim dead, but she didn't kill him in self-defense or to stop him from murdering her friend."

  "So I gathered from the news story. Are you going to put an officer on her while she's here?"

  A small groan kept Quint from replying, then Beth opened her eyes. She tried to speak, but the ventilator stopped her. She looked at Zack in appeal, touching the tube in her mouth.

  After checking her vitals again, he called for a nurse, and they removed the breathing tube.

  "Where am I?" she asked hoarsely.

  "In a hospital," Zack replied. "You were brought in a few hours ago."

  "Damn," she croaked, "I'm supposed to be dead."

  "You sure tried to be," Zack agreed.

  She looked past him and saw Quint. "You're that cop," she stated, her voice growing stronger.

  He nodded.

  "You're going to arrest me."

  He nodded again.

  "I guess I deserve it. But, damn it, after what he did to us, then killing Coleen…"

  Zack was surprised when Quint took her hand, saying, "I understand how you feel, but I have no choice. You'll stay here, with an officer watching you, until you're released." Then he read her Miranda rights and put her under arrest.

  A few minutes later, Zack joined Quint in the waiting room. "I'm curious," he said, "and I know you probably can't tell me, but this he… What did he do to her—or them?"

  "You're right. I can't tell you," Quint replied. "Let's just say, and don't quote me, but the man got what was coming to him."

  "Will that factor into her case?"

  "It depends on the lawyer she hires. If he knows what he's doing, he'll play on it. It could be considered a mitigating circumstance and lessen her sentence, if she's found guilty."

  "I think this is a case I'll be following on the news," Zack replied with a small smile. "My nosy gene is coming into play."

  Quint laughed, then waved to an officer who stepped off the elevator. Zack, with nothing left to say to Quint at the moment, returned to his rounds.

  *****

  "And that's where it stands," Lou said late that evening, after filling Rory in on what had happened. "Beth will be moved from the hospital to jail as soon as Zack gives his okay. She already has a lawyer, from what I understand."

  "A good one, I hope," Rory replied. "Not that I think she should get off, but damn."

  "That seems to be the general consensus of opinion."

  Rory leaned against Lou's shoulder as he said, "If Olivia hadn't taken those pictures, or more, if she hadn't noticed what was in the background of them, I wonder if things would have turned out differently."

  "Somehow, I doubt it. Beth and Coleen obviously knew he had pornographic photos of them. Otherwise, they wouldn't have held him prisoner, presumably to try to make him tell them where the memory card was. And they wouldn't have been searching the apartment for it."

  "True. They might have killed him, once they got their hands on it, as payback. Why he killed Coleen…" Rory shrugged.

  "Preemptive strike, before they tried to take him out. Then, he could have sold the pictures and made his getaway, scot-free, and much richer in the bargain."

  "What a bastard."

  Lou hugged him. "You thought otherwise?"

  "Not anymore."

  Chapter Nine

  Six months later:

  "Do you think
he's got any clue that this is his first birthday party?" Cole asked Quint.

  "Does it matter? He's loving all the attention. Not so much the silly hat, though." Quint laughed when Jamie tried to pull it off, then went to help him get rid of it.

  "He is just the cutest kid," Olivia said, before asking Clay, "So, when are you going to adopt a brother or sister for him?"

  Clay grinned. "After everyone else has one of their own."

  "Bite your tongue," Lou muttered. "I like kids, but only if I can give them back at the end of the day."

  Kevin on the other hand, said enthusiastically, "Nine months after we're married."

  The look Olivia gave him should have frozen him in place. "A year and nine months, maybe. Let's not rush things."

  "I can deal with that," Kevin agreed, giving her a hug.

  "If we were younger…" Gideon said.

  "There's an age limit on having a family?" Clay asked. "Hell, you're not that much older than Quint."

  "Did I hear someone take my name in vain?" Quint asked, setting Jamie in his highchair before joining the others.

  "I was just telling Gideon, if we're not too old to adopt, then neither are he and Cole."

  "I think it's a personal decision," Quint replied. "What works for us, and God knows adopting Jamie has, isn't for everyone."

  "I agree," Zack said. "Babysitting him, when he's old enough to know what 'no' means, will do it for me and—" He turned, obviously looking for Trev. He found him, standing in front of the TV.

  Seconds later, Trev called out, "They found her guilty of voluntary manslaughter."

  Everyone came over to watch as the reporter finished the story. Quint commented, "That means three to six years, plus parole. Not bad, all things considered."

  "I'm glad it's only that," Rory said. "She may not have been the best of women, but she definitely got a raw deal. Drugging her—them—so he could take those photos, then holding them over their heads so they'd let him take more… Forcing Beth move in with him, after he'd divorced Coleen. In my opinion, he deserved what happened to him."

  "I don't get why he divorced Ms Rogers in the first place," Trev said.

  "According to Beth's testimony, Coleen wasn't willing to be involved when he first suggested the idea of doing pornography. So, he divorced her in order to bring Beth into the picture—literally." Quint smiled slightly at his pun. "Beth wasn't keen on the idea. No surprise there," Quint continued. "So, one evening, he invited both women to his…what they called his love nest. He told them he wanted to make amends for his poor behavior."

  "And they bought that?" Olivia said, looking appalled.

  "They did. Apparently he could be very charismatic when he put his mind to it. He gave them a drug that reduced their inhibitions, made them go to bed together, and photographed the results. After showing them the pictures… Well, as I said, he held the photos over their heads to make them do more and to get Beth back in his clutches again. When Beth finally rebelled—the afternoon when Olivia shot her pictures—and Coleen cold-cocked him to keep him from hurting Beth, they'd decided enough was enough. The rest, you know."

  "Okay, enough talk about this," Clay said. "We have a birthday boy who needs his birthday cake before he falls asleep." He went into the kitchen, returning with a little cake topped by a candle.

  "Can he blow that out?" Cole asked. "Does he even know he's supposed to?"

  "Probably not," Clay said. He put the cake on the highchair's tray, waited momentarily so Olivia, who was now in photographer mode, could snap a picture, then doused the candle just as Jamie reached for it.

  "Dada," Jamie protested, "no."

  "Jamie, yes." Clay and the others laughed when Jamie immediately stuck his fingers in the cake then put them in his mouth.

  "For the rest of us, we have a grownup cake," Quint said, setting a much larger one on the dining table next to a pile of plates and forks.

  "We didn't sing Happy Birthday," Trev said, then immediately began the song. Everyone joined in, with Jamie totally ignoring them as he demolished his cake.

  "How much of that actually ended up in his mouth?" Gideon asked with a grin.

  Clay looked at the mess on the highchair tray and the crumbs on the floor beside it, sighing. "A quarter? Maybe?"

  At that point, Quint handed out slices of cake to the adults, laughingly admonishing them to use their forks, then they all found places to sit.

  "We should do this more often," Zack said several minutes later.

  "Jamie only turns one once," Lou pointed out, suppressing a grin.

  Zack flipped him off. "I meant, all of us getting together just to relax and have fun."

  "I agree," Quint replied as he cleaned Jamie's hands and face before picking him up.

  "Da." Jamie made his unhappiness known.

  "Okay," Rory said in surprise. "Does he always call you 'Da', and Clay 'Dada'?"

  "Pretty much," Quint replied. "After all, he can't call either of us 'Mama'."

  "Well, he could," Clay said, ruffling Jamie's hair when Quint sat down beside him with their son in his lap. "But he's smart. We told him I'm Dada, and Quint's Da, and he learned that in no time flat."

  "And when he's old enough to learn other words for the two of you?" Trev said.

  "Then I guess one of us will be Dad, and the other one Pop, or Papa, or…" Quint shrugged.

  "'Father', said in exasperation, when he's upset with you," Trev suggested. "That's what I did when I was pissed at my dad."

  "Dada," Jamie said sleepily, reaching for Clay. "Hod."

  Clay smiled, taking Jamie from Quint. "I think it's someone's bedtime."

  "Meaning the rest of us should get out of here," Gideon said. "I think Zack's idea is a good one, though. If everyone's free next weekend…"

  "I work Saturday nights," Lou told him. "But Sunday evening, after the gallery closes?"

  Gideon looked at the others, getting nods from all of them. "Okay. Sunday it is, at our place. We can make it a monthly thing, barring our jobs interfering."

  "And take turns on where," Zack said. "But it has to be at one of our places, so Clay and Quint can bring Jamie."

  Quint chuckled. "Yeah. We're not taking him bar-hopping until he's eighteen."

  "If then," Clay muttered, looking down at his sleepy son.

  They all laughed, then, couple by couple, they thanked Clay and Quint for the party and left.

  "You get cleanup while I give Jamie a much-needed bath," Clay said.

  "Deal." Quint kissed the top of Jamie's head, then Clay's cheek. "And when he's asleep…"

  Clay grinned. "Yes?"

  "We'll probably be, too—or not," he added, when Clay juggled Jamie so he could kiss Quint quite thoroughly.

  "Definitely 'or not'. So, get moving, Da."

  "Yes, Dada." Quint did, and when Jamie was down for the night, the two fathers showed each other, once again, how much they loved one another.

  "We have a pretty damned good life, you know," Clay said afterward as he curled up in Quint's arms.

  "We do," Quint agreed softly. "I wouldn't change it for anything."

  The End

  About the Author

  Born and bred Cleveland, I earned a degree in technical theater, later switched to costuming, and headed to NYC. Finally seeing the futility of trying to become rich and famous in the Big Apple, I joined VISTA—Volunteers in Service to America—ending up in Chicago for three years. Then it was on to Denver, where I put down roots and worked as a costume designer until I retired in 2007.

  I began writing a few years ago after joining an on-line fanfic group. Two friends and I then started a group for writers, where they could post any story they wished, no matter the genre or content. Since then, and for the last five years, I've been writing for publication. My first book came out in February of 2011. Most, but not all, of my work is M/M, either mildly erotic or purely 'romantic'. More often than not it involves a mystery or action/adventure, and is sometimes paranormal to boot.
>
  Blog:

  http://edwardkendrick.blogspot.com/

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  https://www.facebook.com/edward.kendrick.5

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  https://plus.google.com/u/0/115527711406227698357/about

  Email:

  edward_kendrick_001@yahoo.com

  Titles by Edward Kendrick

  Available from Fireborn Publishing

  Sui Generis

  The Housemate

  Talbot and the Enforcers

  Revenge

  Love, Death, & Wednesdays

  You Do What You Have To

  The Hybrid Series

  Don't Touch Me

  Off On the Wrong Foot

  Uncanny Activity

  Engagements Can Be Deadly

  Truth or Lies?

  TO CATCH A KIDNAPPER

  Allyn and Ransom

  Henri

  QUINT AND CLAY ART CRIMES

  The Element Case

  It Takes an Artist

  It Takes a Forger

  It Takes an Archaeologist

  It Takes a Photographer

  Available from Wilde City Press

  The Actor and the Thief

  Majors' Folly

  L'histoire de Francois – Vampire

  The Vampire's Angel

  Garth's Chronicle

  Available from JMS Books

  Sins of the Fathers

  Hell, Look at Me

  Wrong Side of the Law

  Surviving

  The City PI and the Country Cop

  Art Theft 101

  Never Let Go of Hope

  Let Go of Loneliness

  Dylan's Dilemma

  Sean's Predicament

  Love and Christmas

  Tate's Quandary

  The Hitchhiker Murders

  Perhaps, Someday…

  Premonitions

  Murder on Rainbow Lane

  Lonely Vampire

  Available from Totally Bound/Pride Publishing