P'town Murders: A Bradford Fairfax Murder Mystery (15 page)

Now what? Brad wondered. Here I am sitting across the table from one of the world's sexiest twenty-one-year olds. Do I turn him down again?

"So, are you a little more single these days?" he ventured.

Zach nodded. "Completely. I always seem to fall for the wrong type. Men are only after me because they find me attractive, but they don't want to know what's beneath the surface. They just want a sexy kid to hang with at the bars or sleep with once or twice and then dump."

Brad swallowed.

"Sorry, that was a bit pointed."

"You can't blame them for wanting to be seen with you. You're very beautiful," Brad said. "And as for the sex, I can vouch for that."

Zach smiled shyly. "Was that a compliment?" he asked.

"I think that was two compliments, actually."

Zach cocked his head as if a thought had just occurred to him. "You know, I'm glad I came tonight. I almost didn't." "Oh?"

"Considering what happened the last time, I didn't know whether I should meet you again."

"You mean yesterday in the dunes or the night we slept together back home?"

"Both, actually. I realize it must be hard for you to sit across from me knowing I've said the 'L' word. I wasn't very experienced then, but I definitely am now. You were only the second guy I'd ever slept with..."

"What!"

Zach nodded sheepishly. "I think I was expecting too much. I didn't even want to have sex with you that night, but I couldn't help myself. When I saw you, I..."

"...you realized we'd spent eons together on Neptune's moon and thought, 'This has to be.'" Brad was grinning.

Zach stopped talking and sat watching Bradford. "You're making fun of me," he said

It was true. It was something he did to distance himself from other men. He judged them, waiting for them to trip up and make a fatal mistake that would allow him to dismiss them. He didn't want to get attached to anyone.

Zach set his glass down. "Do you think we could just overlook those things and..." He shrugged. "I don't know. Just get on with it, I suppose, and not get so awkward with each other?"

"And if I invite you to stay with me tonight, would that be making things awkward?"

Zach drew a breath. "I said I wouldn't sleep with you again even if you asked me to," he replied. "But sitting here across the table from you makes me feel weak in the knees."

The wine was getting the better of Brad. Something clicked in his head and said,
Do this!

"Well, I think you should listen to your knees, young man. Why don't you down that wine and let me take you home so you can rethink things?"

Zach sighed. "I don't want another one-night stand with you," he said.

Brad sat back. "I can't promise anything," he said.

"On the other hand," Zach said, brightening, "I'd really like you to fuck me silly again." He picked up his glass and tossed down the contents. "Okay, let's go," he said.

If Bradford thought they'd had good sex before, this time it was positively extraterrestrial. From the moment they shed their clothes it was as if their bodies had become one. Zach played virtuosic first violin to Brad's mellow cello, winding fine lines of fancy around him. Together they were sweet music, Mozart
ma non troppo
and "The Lark Ascending," while below the earth awaited their rapturous return. Not even the heights of passion he'd shared with Ross had been this blistering. Sometime in the night they fell asleep wrapped in one another's arms, their lips touching.

18

Brad woke to the phone's steely ring. Before he could open his eyes, it cut short.

"Fairfax House."

He rolled over to see Zach sitting naked on the floor, receiver in hand.

"Who may I say is calling?"

There was a pause. Zach stood, his muscles rippling coltishly as he passed the receiver up into Brad's extended hand.

"It's your grandmother," he whispered.

Brad groaned.

"Good morning, Red," came Grace's resonant voice. She'd returned as mysteriously as she'd disappeared. "Cat caught you napping?"

"Well,
you
caught me, that's for sure."

He slid down the ladder, wrapping a sheet around himself as he took the phone out onto the balcony. Dawn was just touching the tops of the dunes.

He gave Grace a synopsis of the events of the previous two days, including the news that the young man who'd answered the phone had rescued him from what would in all likelihood have been a nasty fate.

"Glad to know someone's looking out for you," she said. "Any idea who did it?"

"Not for certain. But I'm pretty sure it was Rosengarten or possibly one of his clients who murdered Ross," he said. "The man's got a propensity for taking out his anger on his houseboys. I got the impression he'd be capable of almost anything, if you pushed him."

"Keep that in mind while you're looking into things down there. We don't need him taking anything out on you. Have you managed to uncover a motive?"

"Rosengarten deals in fulfilling personal desires, which includes anything money can buy and maybe a few things it can't. It's possible the boys who work there are up for sale—dead or alive. It's also possible Ross spotted a closeted celebrity or politician who wants his identity kept secret at any cost. When I talked to him, Rosengarten seemed pretty concerned about discretion. Apparently he does a good job of providing it. The night I was there I saw a certain Senator Freeman of the Republican persuasion..."

Grace let out a low whistle.

"Though why Rosengarten would kill one of his own just to keep up someone's reputation..."

"Maybe it wasn't Rosengarten," Grace spoke up.

"I'll be surprised if it isn't," Bradford said. "He just feels like a killer to me."

"He may be a killer, but that doesn't make him Ross's killer."

"True."

"In the meantime, I'll run a check on him and Freeman, but your houseboy's story about his boss's background sounds credible. Anybody else we should check on, while we're at it?"

"Tall, thin fellow named Jeremiah Jones and an Asian bodyguard called Johnny K."

"I'll see what I can do with that."

"When am I leaving for New York?"

"Not until you find out what's going on there. Upstairs thinks there's a connection to the New York problem somewhere on the Cape. So get out there and dig."

"Any clues as to where I should start?"

"Just sniff around for anything to do with His Holiness and you'll be on the way."

"Sniff around? I can't seem to avoid stepping in it. Did you know every other person in this place is a dyed-in-the-wool Buddhist?"

"The better to find your way home again, Red. Just remember to watch out for the big bad wolf."

That's if I don't turn into one first, Brad thought, glancing through the window at Zach, who sat practicing his yoga. Grace clicked off and he went back inside.

"I've got to get going..."he began, but stopped when he saw Zach's lotus posture encompassed a whopping erection pointing due north.

"But not just yet."

"I want you to show me where you found me the other night," Brad said to Zach as they lay stretched out side by side. "Will you take me there?"

Zach smiled and rolled on top of Brad. "Only if you promise to take me to Tea Dance at the Boatslip this afternoon."

"All right," Brad consented, tousling his hair. There were worse ways to spend an afternoon than by going to Tea Dance with a beautiful boy.

They turned right off Bradford Street where it joined the I-6, and then walked for a quarter mile. Zach pointed out the ditch he'd jumped in to avoid the oncoming car. Brad knelt and looked up and down the pavement. Cars passed, slowing to watch the pair who might have been checking for divots on a golf green.

There was nothing unusual to be found. Brad stood and brushed the dirt from his hands. He looked at the blue-haired boy waiting for him to finish, and felt a flush of tenderness thinking of the night they'd just spent together.

A loud cawing reached them from a nearby dune. A second crow joined in, followed by a third. Soon there was a veritable symphony of crowing that went on and on. Brad looked over at the tangle of brush leading from the dune to the beach.

"Something's making those crows angry. Think it might be someone in the bushes?"

Zach glanced over. "Could be a fox," he said with a shrug. "But they do seem pretty upset about something. Too bad I don't have my binoculars. That's what I use them for—bird watching."

Bird watching! That's cute, Brad thought. "I'm going to take a look," he said, jumping over the highway barrier and starting across the sand.

He reached the brush and began to part it with his hands, making his way up the rise. Zach followed him to the edge.

"There's probably poison ivy in there," Zach called out. "Or thorns. Maybe a snake or two."

Brad yelped. He'd just encountered the thorns. The crows—seven in total—flapped away at the sound, landing in another dune nearby. He recalled a nursery rhyme that someone, possibly his mother, had taught him:

One crow sorrow, two crows joy,

Three crows a wedding, four crows a boy,

Five crows silver, six crows gold,

Seven crows a secret, never to be told.

Just then he thought he saw a shape slip out of the trees at the far end of the dune. Or it might simply have been the shadow of a passing cloud, but he was too entangled in the brush to be sure.
Seven crows a secret!
he murmured, looking through the trees toward the beach where a number of men were moving about. No one appeared to be trying to get away or avoid being seen.

"Are you okay?" he heard Zach calling.

"Don't worry! I'm all right."

Zach elected to go around the dune and wait on the far side. Brad soon emerged, fighting off branches and tugging at vine leaves caught in his sandals. The pathway was well trodden, so there was no telling if any of the footprints had been made in the last few minutes.

"What did you find?" Zach asked.

"Not much. I think the crows were fighting over breakfast."

"Did you see anybody?"

"Hard to say. I thought I saw someone sneaking out the far side."

"What would anyone be doing in there?"

"Having sex, probably. I just wanted to make sure we weren't being spied on."

Zach looked at him skeptically.

"First you're thrown from a moving car, and now you think someone is spying on you. Does this sort of thing happen to you regularly?"

"It wouldn't be the first time," Brad answered, tight-lipped.

He scanned the ground until his eyes lighted on an empty bullet cartridge. He stooped and picked it up.

"Look at this," he said, rolling it in his palm. "Someone's been shooting around here."

"Were you shot at too?"

"No, but it's suspicious, don't you think?"

"Not really," Zach said. He looked down and scuffed a plastic tampon applicator with his toe. "This is a tidal marsh. The water comes in and goes out again. That shell could have floated in from Boston or Plymouth. There's no telling where it came from, or when."

Brad shrugged and pocketed the shell. "You never can tell."

Zach stared at him. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

Brad looked around where they stood on an open plain in bright morning sunlight a quarter of a mile from a beach where tourists gamboled in the waves. His story would sound absurd without the facts, yet he couldn't tell Zach more than he already knew without breaching security protocols and possibly endangering both of them.

"Call me suspicious, all right? Can we leave it at that for now?"

Zach eyed him again.

"All right," he nodded. "Until you decide to tell me what's really going on. Now can we go to Tea Dance?"

Brad smiled. "Just one more stop."

19

"Zach, this is Big Ruby. Ruby, this is Zach."

Ruby peered at Zach through her rhinestone glasses and reached across the counter. "Good to meet you, little feller," she called out to Brad's amusement, since Zach towered over her.

"Holy cool glasses!" Zach responded.

Ruby was alone behind the counter. She regarded them critically. "I know what
you're
having," she said to Bradford with a sly glance at Zach. "Now this boy looks like a coconut soy frappuccino to me. Am I right?"

Zach smiled. "Oh, yeah!"

"Looks like the front patio's free," she said. "Better grab it while you can."

They sat on a bench in the bright morning sun. Ruby came out and passed them each a cup, wiping her fingers on her apron.

Zach reached into his pocket, but Ruby stopped him. "First time, you're a guest," she said.

Zach looked perplexed. "Thanks," he said, "Because I think I just lost my wallet."

He fished through the various pockets of his cargo pants. "It'll turn up," he said with a shrug. "It always does. I'll just have to retrace my steps over the last day and a half."

"Well," Ruby said, beaming. "You two certainly make a handsome couple."

Zach grinned. Brad blushed and nearly choked on his chai.

"Thanks," Zach said, licking the foam off his lips.

"You can always tell when two people are meant for each other," Ruby said, "because they look so right beside one another."

Halle arrived just then from around the corner, panting hard as if she'd been running. Her shaved head glistened and the tattoos gleamed in the sun.

She kissed Ruby. "Rue, hon, I'm sorry I'm late," she said in a husky voice.

"That's all right, galfriend."

Ruby winked at Brad and Zach. "See what I mean?"

She was right. The big butch Halle and the tiny perfect cowgirl made an oddly appropriate couple.

"This here's Halle," Ruby said. "And this is Brad and Zach."

Halle nodded gruffly at them, as if they were aliens landed in the front yard.