“Bout time you got here.” A
tall, slender man said to Kent as he and Crispin made their way around to the
backyard of the house. He looked Crispin over while Kent introduced the two
men. “Nice to have a visual to put to all the talk Kent’s been doing about
you.”
“Rick! Geesh.” Kent glared
at his roommate.
“Well it’s true,” Rick
replied with a grin. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to the people you don’t know,
which,” his grin widened, “would be everyone in your case Crispin.”
Crispin nodded, relieved to
see that Kent had been right, he wasn’t the only person over thirty at the
party. Half an hour later, beer in hand, he found himself in a discussion about
the ‘Cell Phone Killer’ with two of the cops who had peripheral knowledge of
the case.
“Are you any closer to
finding out who did it?” Crispin asked, his face showing the interest of
someone who likes to be in the know about anything even slightly crime related.
One of the cops shook his
head. “Not really. Whoever this nut is he’s good at covering his tracks.”
Kent, who was standing as
close to Crispin as he could without being obvious about it, wanted to know,
“Do you think the same guy killed that man found in the handicap parking
space.”
“Sorry, we can’t answer
that,” the other cop said, shooting a look at his companion.
Kent nudged Crispin. “That’s
cop-speak for ‘yes but it’s none of your business’,”
The cops laughed, one of
them saying, “Not necessarily. We’re not on that case in any way, shape or
form.”
“But it could be a
possibility,” Crispin said with the same faked interest he’d asked the previous
question.
The cop veered away from the
question saying, “Anything’s possible,” before changing the subject by asking
Kent how he and Crispin had met.
“Oh I picked him up at a gay
club on Hennepin,” Kent
replied with a straight face, ignoring the look of shock from
Crispin.
Catching on, one of the cops
said with an equally straight face, “Haven’t I warned you about that?”
“Well, yeah, but come on,
look at the man…”
“I am so going to kill you,”
Crispin muttered.
“With a dozen cops around?”
Kent looked at him wide-eyed then laughed. “You should have seen the look on
your face just then.”
“Yes, well…”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have
done that.” Kent turned back to the cops. “We actually met at a health club so
it’s all quite innocent. There was this woman there that we both thought…”
“Was cute and sexy but
stand-offish so I dared him to make a move on her.” Crispin winked at Kent. “He
failed.”
“And he didn’t even try,”
Kent added. “But then she was really young.”
“Gentlemen,” Crispin looked
at the cops, “you might want to turn your backs while I strangle him.”
“He does bring that impulse
out in people at times,” Rick said, coming up beside them.
“No fair double-teaming me,”
Kent grumbled. “Just for that you get to buy the next round.”
“Since it’s free that’s
hardly going to break me,” Rick replied. “Come on you two, food’s up and I
always say never to drink on an empty stomach. The results can be disastrous,
take it from an EMT.”
“This is my first and last,”
Crispin told him. “I’m driving.”
“Then I can get smashed. Hot
damn,” Kent said with a laugh. “But I won’t,” he promised seconds later.
“I hope not.” Crispin put a
hand in the small of his back, gently propelling him towards the barbeque area.
“You’re still eating however.”
Kent leaned back against his
hand for a moment before pulling away. “I know, and from the look of that
spread the only problem will be stopping.”
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