Page 73 of Sweet

“Thanks again for coming down. I’m Detective Sax,” he says as he takes a seat. “And you’re Mr.—”

“Will. Will is fine,” I interrupt.

“Would you like a drink? Soda? Coffee?”

“No, thanks.” I’ve seen SVU, dude.

“Then let’s get right to it. I take it you know what this is about,” he says.

“My best friend is missing.”

“And by that you mean…” He pauses to check a file. “Jesse Miller.”

“Yeah,” I say with a deep exhale.

“Before we get to that, I wanted to ask you about something else while I’ve got you down here.”

“Anything to help,” I agree.

“Excellent,” Detective Sax says. He opens a file folder and lays out a row of photographs. “I was wondering if you could tell me what these men all have in common.”

Jesse. Riley. Jason. Henri.

All missing guys. Half of which are ones we know. Knew. Oh, fuck.

“All them fuck other dudes,” I say with a cocky grin. “Actually, that’s not fair to say. At least one of them was a strict bottom.”

The detective sputters a bit, yet doesn’t waver otherwise. “That is… insightful. May I ask how you came to that conclusion?”

“Easy. I fuck other dudes.” And I smile.

“You’re saying you slept with all of these men?”

“Of course not,” I scoff. I point at Jesse’s photo. “Jess is my best friend. We kinda dated before I got serious about my boyfriend.”

I point at Riley next. “Riley worked with us. He was new and Jess was newly available, so they were supposed to go out at some point. Then Riley no-call, no-showed one day and we never saw him again. It can be kinda awkward working with someone after hooking up, so I wasn’t too surprised he quit without notice.”

On to Jason. “I don’t actually know this guy. I only recognize him from the farmer’s market. He used to flirt with all the guys whenever he came with his wife. He may have gone out with some guys in town, but I can’t say for certain.”

Henri. “And I don’t know this guy, either. Never even met him. But Jess told me one night they went out a few times after we saw a news report about him.”

The detective opens his folder and adds one more picture to the pile. Cas. Fuck.

“And that’s my boyfriend,” I plainly state. “We met at the farmer’s market a couple of years ago and started dating this fall.”

“What if I told you that we’ve known for a while someone has been targeting gay men?” The detective folds his hands onto the table.

“Jess is bisexual,” I interrupt.

“Is that important?”

“Uh, yeah? It’s why I said all these guys have sex with other guys. Saying they’re all gay would be too much of an assumption.”

“Understood,” Detective Sax says. “We’ve known about this problem for a while. It’s a small town. Not a large gay community. When people start disappearing, and a pattern develops, it’s easy to assume we’ve stumbled onto a serial killer.”

I frown.

“Now, your boyfriend,” he says while moving his hand from Cas’s picture to Jess, then Riley, and Jason. “Also happens to know these three men, either from the farmer’s market or the farm where you work. Which is a big coincidence.”

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