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Checking his watch, Carl comments, “The professor should still be in his office.”
Brian nods, pulling off his sunglasses as they enter the building. Disregarding the elevators, he heads directly towards the stairs, ignoring the annoyed huff from his companion as he begins his ascent two steps at a time.
He had promised Carl that he would be cool and collected: that he would speak calmly when he asked his questions… that he wouldn’t throw the man against his desk and attempt to squeeze the life out of him via his throat.
Nearing the office, Brian forces himself not to start running towards it. His entire body is vibrating. Stopping by the door, he takes a deep breath and turns to see Carl catching up.
“Alright, just stay calm, remember that, Kinney. This isn’t WWF.”
Brian rolls his eyes before turning the knob and entering the near-empty office space.
A young woman looks up from the receptionist desk, “May I help you?”
Carl smiles politely and begins walking up to her while taking out his badge.
Turning to his right, Brian immediately sees Daniel West’s name on a door and goes over to it, opening it quickly.
He stops for a moment as he stares at the man standing behind the desk. A look of surprise and then…guilt? He wasn’t sure…until Brian sees the photo of Justin in Daniel’s hand.
Daniel’s face shows the uncertainty, but the flush in his cheeks shows anything but innocence… and if the bulge in his pants is any indication, Brian is pretty sure that Professor West was on his way to his private bathroom before this interruption.
Justin’s glossed photo, with his trademark smile, stares back at Brian as it rests between Professor West’s fingers. And all Brian can feel is rage.
He isn’t sure how he managed to practically fly off the ground when he lunges over the desk, and he doesn’t remember wrapping his hands so tightly around Daniel’s thin neck… but he does hear the man’s raspy and choked out words, “I already told you everything I know!”
“Shit, I can’t leave you alone for a second, can I?” Carl growls as he enters the room, closing the door before the receptionist can peak inside and see what the commotion is about.
Releasing his grip from the man’s neck, Brian flings him over the desk, “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Look…I told you guys already…” Daniel spurts, sitting up slowly, “I gave you his new name, I gave you the location for when you can do your thing… come on, I don’t know anything else!”
Straightening his stance, Brian realizes that the man in front of him thinks that he is one of them: one of the people out to kill Justin. Which means… that Daniel West isn’t one of them… so what is he?
Walking over to the two men, Carl shows Daniel his badge, “I think you have some explaining to do.”
“What? Oh Fuck,” Daniel cries as he stands up, “You guys are cops? Shit!”
“Shit is what you’re going to look like if you don’t start talking,” Brian threatens.
Pointing at Brian, Daniel turns to Carl, “He can’t do what he’s doing! You guys are cops. Innocent until proven guilty! He assaulted me! You saw that! He had his hands on my throat!”
“I didn’t see anything,” Carl replies with a shrug before leaning against the door. “So how about you have a seat and we can have a little chat?”
Switching his gaze from Brian to Carl several times, Daniel surrenders with his hands, “Look, I know this looks bad…”
“No shit,” Brian sneers as he crosses his arms against his chest.
“What’s your connection with Mr. Taylor?” Carl asks.
Taking a deep breath, Daniel sits down, “He’s just a student, er, was a student…”
“No one was supposed to know he transferred. That was classified information,” Carl replies. “How did you gain access to his file?”
“I, uh..”
Brian clenches his fist, “You’re treading on thin ice, West.”
“Look, it’s just that… I… look, I know what I did was wrong, but…” Daniel gives up, “They found me.”
“Who?” Brian and Carl ask in unison.
“I don’t know their names!” Shaking his head, he continues, “Everyone here, well, at least the staff, knew that I was interested in Justin… in more than just a teacher-student relationship.”
“Go on,” Carl presses.
“I was going to wait until the end of the semester to make my move, you know? I mean, I know the rules… it’s not ethical to date your students… but he wouldn’t be a student of mine in the summer, so it would be fine.”
“Very noble, keep going,” Carl adds, glancing over at Brian’s tense expression. He needed to keep the conversation going before Debbie’s surrogate son imploded in this very office.
“Pretty much everyone in the department knew my plan… and then, when he disappeared… some people assumed he was with me,” Daniel states, looking down for a moment.
“Why would they think that?” Brian asks icily.
“Well, with the semester ending so soon… I… well, I had told… I told a few of my associates that Justin and I were secretly seeing each other and were planning to make it official once the summer began.” He swallows hard, “And, well…”
“Were you?” Brian asks bluntly.
“Pardon?”
“Were you secretly having a relationship with your student?” Brian questions, keeping it neutral: while his heart rate quickens to a speed that would compete with Shinkansen.
“No,” Daniel confesses, “But telling my co-workers was my downfall in it all.” Sighing, he looks over at Carl, “When the news broke out about what happened, a lot of my co-workers assumed he was hiding out at my place… and I didn’t correct their postulation.”
“Liars never win, do they?” Carl asks with a hint of sarcasm.
“Actually,” he starts, but immediately closes his mouth.
“What?” Brian barks.
“Nothing.”
“Fuck, tell me before---”
“Brian!”
Brian frowns, but takes a physical step back.
“Let’s just keep going, shall we?” Carl says slowly as he walks over to Brian. “So what happened next?”
Daniel sighs, “I have to get ready for my class.”
“It can wait.” Brian counters.
“Spill it, West.” Carl demands.
“There isn’t much to tell…”
“My patience is running thin,” Brian comments curtly.
“Fine, look, gossip spreads fast in this department and after a couple of days these guys broke into my apartment, beat the shit out of me: demanded to know where Justin is… of course they didn’t believe me when I told them that I didn’t know… they started following me… harassing me..”
“And you never thought about going to the police?” Carl asks with irritation.
“They were following me!” Daniel repeats in a louder voice before shaking his head and turning his attention to Brian, “I finally thought they gave up on me when a week later, after not seeing them for awhile, they re-appeared with a proposition.”
Brian arches his brow, “What did they say?”
“Money’s always tight, you know…and I would love to take a semester off and just focus on my own art… maybe travel...”
“You’re rambling.”
“Right, er, well, they offered me money… like, a lot of it… like, my yearly income if I told them where the last two Taylors were.”
“You do realize that Molly is just a kid, right?” Carl asks.
“A year’s worth of money! Do you even grasp that?” Daniel asks impatiently, “I could finally do what I always wanted to do and not spend my hours wasting my time with snot-nosed brats who think they are the next Warhol, Klimt, or Seurat!”
Brian clears his throat, “So what did you do?” He asks, trying to keep that edge in his voice as neutral as possible.
“Well, as much as I wanted the money, I was realistic,” Daniel points out, “I told them that I didn’t know where he was, but that if I found out anything, I’d tell them.”
Asshole! Brian wants to scream Fuckin’ idiot!! , but bites his tongue so hard that he tastes his own blood instead.
“So how did you end up with Justin’s file?” Carl asks.
Daniel sighs, “There’s this woman in the administration building… sweet thing: thinks she’s every gay man’s best friend, when really she’s just plain annoying.”
“Sounds wonderful: keep going,” Carl drones.
“Well, she knew that Justin and I had a supposed relationship… so when she whispered to me a few days later if I was planning to visit Justin in Amsterdam…well, I played along. I told her that I was waiting to hear from Justin…and I was able to pry some more information out of her… like where the file had been sent… I knew he’d be accepted there… the man is so gifted, any art school would want him… so I just needed to ask my friend, Olga when she was visiting Amsterdam to do her lectures… and I asked her to check on one of my students…and hinted to her how fantastic it would be if she liked his work well enough to showcase it in her museum gallery.”
Carl decides to play dumb, “What gallery?”
“Hirshhorn Art museum… in D.C., he hasn’t given her a definite answer, but I knew it would be ‘yes,’ so I contacted the men who had propositioned me and told them what I now knew.”
“Which was?” Carl asks.
“That Justin was now using the name JT Kinney and that he would be showcasing his art at the Hirsshorn this November…I didn’t tell them that he was living in Amsterdam though!”
Carl studies the man for a moment, “Why?”
“What?”
“Why wait until November to get your money? Why didn’t you tell them that he and his sister are in the Netherlands?”
“Um… because I was going to call the police and tell them?”
“Is that a question?” Brian asks in disbelief. This man obviously had his own motives. Cocking his head to one side, he asks, “Is it because you can’t afford to fly to Amsterdam and steal him away for yourself?”
“Um…well, he’s married now… but… I mean… he… who wouldn’t want to be saved like that… I mean…well…but I mean, they’d give me the money… they already gave me some now, and will give me another once they receive confirmation that he’s going to be in D.C. in November.”
“So you’re biding your time?” Brian continues, pressing his lips together.
“I know I’m a great catch,” Daniel says suddenly.
“Pardon?” Carl asks mid-cough.
“If it wasn’t for what happened, Justin and I probably would be together now… but instead he ran off to Amsterdam and met some Dutch guy and married him… probably for citizenship or something. Olga was supposed to meet him for dinner the other day… I haven’t heard back from her, so I don’t know how it went…”
“You’re rambling again,” Carl comments.
“Right… anyways, I was going to tell the police, honest.”
Brian sighs. This man was full of shit, but between having to deal with hit men vs. obsessive dim-wits, he’d choose the obsessive dim-wit any day. Besides, maybe he could use this for their advantage.
Daniel stammers as he stares at the change in Brian’s demeanor. “Um, why are you smiling?”