Title: Hide In Plain Sight 18/20
Author: Red (redfirewitch@yahoo.com)
Dedication: To all my authors at Slashy Goodness. You guys are incredible people! Thanks for letting me host your stories but more than that, thanks for putting up with my crazy e-mails!
******************* Chapter 18: Guilty *******************
Joey sat on the stairs, with his hands clasped together under his chin. He looked over the living room of the Harliss residence. It resembled a wake at the best.
Chris was standing near the window and looking out. His fingers moved against his mouth as he systematically bit off his nails. He continually shifted from foot to foot.
Lance sat crossed legged on the recliner. He looked paler than usual, his hand massaging his forehead as he talked on his cell phone to someone. Joey concluded that it was one of his family members.
Then there was Justin. He was stretched out on the couch, with his head on his mom's lap. Lynn ran her hands over her son's forehead. She had long given up talking to Justin because he never responded. Ever since finding out that Matt was involved in the whole fiasco, Justin had lapsed into silence. It worried all of them but they understood. If anything happened to JC, Justin was going to blame himself. And it might not just stop there.
"They are here." Chris announced suddenly.
Justin sat up abruptly. Lynn stood up, headed to the door and opened it. Karen, Roy, Heather and Tyler Chasez stood there, looking tired and distraught. Karen had tears streaks on her face and the moment she saw Lynn, she broke down again. Lynn embraced her friend and invited them all in.
The next few minutes were spent with everyone hugging everyone else to offer support and comfort. They all then settled down in the living room. Karen noticed Justin sitting motionlessly and silently. She knew from having spoken to Lynn earlier that Justin wouldn't talk to anyone. So she sat beside him and patted his hand in comfort. Justin slowly took her hand in his but didn't say a word.
"Have the police been informed?" Roy Chasez asked.
"Yes. They are keeping this quiet." Chris answered.
"Why? If it's in the news, then maybe someone who has seen him would come forward." Tyler said.
"Elli said that that's a risk. He's got another plan. He'll be here soon to explain to us what is going to happen."
"I still don't understand what happened." Heather said softly, her blue eyes swimming with tears.
"You said something about...er... Justin's boyfriend..." All eyes fell on Justin momentarily. "...being involved in this?" Roy asked.
Lance nodded. "Matt Vance, He's been linked to the first letter and we think he's behind all the letters and the phone call."
"But why? What did JC do to him?" Tyler asked, anger coloring his voice.
Lance looked at Justin who hadn't looked up once. "We are not sure." It wasn't a lie. Lance could guess why but he wasn't sure of it.
"So there is no Phillip? This was all Matt Vance from the word go?" Roy asked.
"It's possible." Lance replied. "But we don't know how he would have known about Phillip and Liam and all the details."
"Phillip. Liam. This is like a nightmare." Karen whispered. In the silent room, her words echoed. She looked at everyone. "I keep thinking that this is just some sick joke. Or maybe this is some other Josh involved in this. Not my son"
Lynn shook her head. "He's still the same Josh, Karen. He's just a frightened boy."
"How can you say that? Is he my son? My son has been hiding from me! For six years? All the things that happened and he never told me! Not one thing! Not that he was gay! Not about Liam. Not about shooting someone!" Karen shook her head. "I...I don't understand? Was I such a horrible mother that he couldn't tell me anything? Did I make him feel that way? For six years, all he showed me was a happy face. He lied to his family! I thought he was happy! But he was hiding such a horrible secret! Oh god!" Karen covered her mouth with her hands and sobbed.
"He was just afraid that if you knew that he was gay, you wouldn't love him." Lynn said.
"Justin told you, Lynn. He trusted you enough to tell you! Why didn't my son trust me?" Karen said.
"Justin told me because I asked him. Sure, I would like to think that he would have told me even if I hadn't had a clue but I don't know that. They are two different people, Karen. Josh has always been serious and reserved. He would rather keep the bad things to himself than to make people around him miserable. He always tries to protect everyone else. He may have thought that he was sparing you from some unhappiness."
"But he didn't give me the choice!" Karen cried out, tears streaming down her cheeks. Realizing that she shouting, she calmed down visibly. She closed her eyes and took a shaky breath. "I don't care if he is gay, Lynn. I just want my baby boy back." Karen ended in whimper.
Lynn, with her eyes tearing up, embraced her friend while Lance consoled Heather who had started to cry too. The other men wished they could hit something. They hated feeling so helpless.
Suddenly, Justin stood up and headed up the stairs. Everyone looked at him in shock.
"Justin? Where are you going?" Joey asked.
Justin didn't say a word. Chris and Joey exchanged a worried look. "We'll talk to him." They told the rest and hurried after him.
Justin went into his room and started pulling out drawers. He took out an album and began to pull out the pictures. He began to tear them up. Chris and Joey saw that they were pictures of him and Matt. One by one were torn up and thrown to the floor. Tears were streaming down Justin's face as pieces of photographs floated to the floor.
"Should we do something?" Joey asked Chris, anxiously.
Chris shook his head without taking his eyes off the blond who was methodically working his way through the album.
Justin lunged at his dresser and pulled open the drawer. He took out a gold necklace and ran to the window. Opening the window, he threw it out. He returned to the drawer and took out some letters. He began to tear them too. Soon the room was a mess with torn paper and photos littering the floor. Justin stopped. For a minute. Breathing hard. Then his face crumbled and he ran out of the room with Chris and Joey tailing him. By now, everyone else was also outside his room watching Justin's outburst. Justin pushed past them and ran into the bathroom slamming the door shut.
"Shit!" Lance cursed.
Joey tried to open the door, but it was locked.
Everyone stared at each other. Lynn's eyes were wide with fear. She knew that Justin wasn't in stable frame of mind and she feared what he might do. She pushed pass Joey and Chris and stated to bang on the door. "Justin! Open the door!" Lynn cried.
They heard the sound of water and crying.
"Justin! Please, open the door!" Lynn cried, banging on the door frantically.
Joey and Chris held Lynn back. "We'll break down the door."
Karen and Heather held Lynn and pulled her away from the door. Chris, Joey and Lance positioned themselves to shoulder slam the door.
"Ready?" Chris said and the other two nodded.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
On the third attempt, the lock gave way and the door slammed open. Everyone rushed into the bathroom and was met with the saddest sight they had ever seen.
Justin sat on the shower floor, against the wall, fully clothed, with the shower running. The water had soaked through his clothes and his hair was a lank mop of wet curls. His fingers were pulling at his hair and he repeatedly hit the back of his head against the wall. Justin kept muttering the same words.
"My fault. My fault. My fault."
**
It had taken them a few minutes to get Justin out of the shower. Tyler and Lance helped Justin change out of his wet clothes, as the blonde was too lost in his guilt to be even aware of his surroundings. Then they put him to bed. Justin slowly slipped into unconsciousness, still muttering to himself. Lynn came into the room and watched her son sleep. She ran her hand over her son's hair and stifled a sob. Lance patted her shoulder. The three of them left the room and walked down to the kitchen.
Everyone was quiet in the kitchen. Karen had made a plate of sandwich for everyone but no one was in the mood to eat. Everyone was lost in his or her own worried thoughts. They looked up as Lynn, Lance and Tyler entered the kitchen.
"How is he?" Roy asked.
"He's sleeping. He kept saying that it was his fault until he fell asleep." Tyler replied.
Karen shook her head. "I can't believe he blames himself. No one blames him for what his boyfriend did."
Lynn sighed. "No one but him. He blames himself because he thinks he's the reason why Matt did what he did."
"What do you mean?" Heather asked.
Lynn, Chris, Lance and Joey exchanged glances. Lynn made the decision.
"JC was in love with Justin."
"What!" Karen, Roy, Heather and Tyler exclaimed at the same time.
"They told us yesterday. Matt might have known this."
"JC was in love with Justin? So this Matt might be doing this out of jealousy? But why? Is Justin in love with JC?"
"Only Justin can answer that."
"So can I." Lance said.
Everyone looked at him.
"Yesterday when we found out that JC had gone after Phillip, I talked to Justin. He said he loved JC too but hadn't told JC."
"Oh my god! So Matt knew that Justin's in love with JC and...oh my god!" Karen exclaimed.
Just then the doorbell rang. Joey went to see who it was.
"I don't get it. So Matt was sending these letter but why? What was he trying to do to JC?" Roy asked.
"Probably harass JC emotionally." Chris said.
"Then where did JC go? Did he go after Matt?" Roy asked.
"I don't think so. JC was convinced that Phillip was alive and coming after him." Lance said.
"But it was Matt all along. We don't know if this Phillip really is alive." Tyler stated.
"Yes we do."
Elli Field entered the kitchen with Joey and another man. Joey quickly introduced everyone.
"This is Detective Pasco. He's taking over the investigation." Elli said.
"You said that you know if Phillip is alive?" Chris asked.
"Yes. Once we found out that Vance was involved in this, we began to investigate all his calls and trips in the past year. He's been to Maryland to investigate Liam's death. He even took a trip to Mexico, where our sources say that he's been asking about Phillip. We then received this footage from the airport security in Washington. It shows Matt and Phillip together. Phillip is alive. He's wanted on drugs, homicide and immigration charges."
"So Phillip and Matt are in this together?" Lynn said in a hushed whisper.
"I'm afraid so, mam. What worries me is that if JC really does know where to find Phillip then he's in danger because..."
"Because I told Matt that JC was going after Phillip." Justin said entering the kitchen. His eyes were red and his face was emotionless.
"Justin? Honey, you shouldn't be up." Lynn said and moved to her son's side.
"I'm ok, mom. Mr. Fields, did you trace the references in the letters?" Justin asked. Chris exchanged a worried glance with Lance and Joey. Justin was too calm. A complete 180 from just a few minutes ago. That didn't speak well of his state of mind.
"That's what I wanted to talk to you all about. Maybe you should take seat."
With worry stark on the faces, everyone sat down. Justin refused and just stood there, waiting for Elli to speak.
"The letters mentioned a lot of places but none of them led to anything significant. Except for the reference to Marty's. It's near the docks and just a mile away from where we found JC's jeep." Elli said.
Detective Pasco continued. "Within minutes we found out that a guy matching Phillip's description has indeed been seen there. And when we showed JC's photo, they positively identified him, saying that he was there just the night before, looking for Phillip. We started a search of the area and found Phillip's apartment."
Everyone looked at him, anxiously
"The apartment was empty but we found signs that there had been a struggle. There was a wrench with blood on it. We sent it to the lab and it matched with JC's."
"Oh god!" Karen sobbed.
"But we don't think anything happened to him, mam," the detective rushed to confirm. "There were wires found which we thing were used to tie JC up and a chloroform soaked cloth. He was still alive when he was removed from the apartment."
"He was removed from the apartment?!" Roy exclaimed. "Where? Do you know?"
Elli shook his head. "No. That's where we reached a dead-end. Witnesses said that they saw a white van parked in front of the building but they couldn't give us anything else."
"What now then?" Joey asked.
"Maybe we should inform the media!" Heather suggested, looking like she was struggling not to break down.
"I have another idea." Elli said and looked at Justin. "But Justin, only you can do this."
Lynn looked slightly alarmed. "What do you want him to do?"
Justin placed his hands on his mom's shoulder. "Whatever it is, I'll do it." Justin said, his resolved evident on his face and in his tone.
Elli nodded and went on to explain.
**
tbc...Chapter 19: The Rescue (tentative title)