Page 49 of Hoodoo House
Charlie nodded, went to the kitchenette and made Cody’s drink. By the time he returned to the office, Cody had eaten three of Gwen’s pastries and was looking slightly more at ease. Cody looked up sheepishly from the plate of desserts.
“I’m sorry I ate so much. I’m…a bit nervous. I’ve never had to hire a detective. I’ve never had something like this happen to me before.”
Charlie smiled. “It’s okay. There’s nothing to worry about. Just tell me everything that’s going on. I’ll be taking notes, if that’s all right with you.”
Cody nodded. He appeared tired…and anxious. His fingernails were chewed. When he looked up, Charlie could clearly see his face under the office light. He had the most beautiful golden-brown eyes.
Charlie sat behind the desk and grabbed his notepad. “So how can we help you?”
Cody began, “I know that your firm deals with cases connected to the gay community. I need a place where I feel safe and I’m not going to be judged.”
“I assure you,” Charlie said, “whatever you say is in the strictest of confidence and we pride ourselves on serving our clients with their best interest at hand, without judgment.”
Cody shifted in his seat. “I guess it’s all pretty simple,” he started. “I got together with a guy I met on an S&M internet hook-up site. Actually, we got together a few times. It was fun. He really seemed to know what he was doing…”
Cody went quiet. He stared into his lap.
“It’s okay,” Charlie reassured him.
Cody lifted his left hand and started chewing on his thumbnail.
“I haven’t had a huge amount of experience with men. I’m just trying to figure myself out,” he said, looking up to meet Charlie’s gaze. “I wanted to live out one of my fantasies, and I thought this guy was into me—I thought we’d made a…you know, a special connection. But sometimes it took him a long time to return my calls and when he did, it seemed that he was only into the sex. God, I sound pathetic.”
“No. Not at all.”
We have a lot in common.
Charlie continued. “You sound like you’re just figuring out your place in the world.”
Cody nodded and settled back in his chair. He stopped nibbling at his nail long enough to take another sip of coffee. “This is really good. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” Charlie said.
Cody’s eyes started to well up. “It was after the last time we got together that he told me…he told me,” Cody continued, “that he’d been recording our meetings—”
In a flash it came to Charlie. He knew who this was. It wasSmoothStud123from one of the files on Malcolm Tull’s computer.
Don’t say anything. Let him do the talking.
“—and if I didn’t give him a lot of money he would send copies of the files to one of his connections in the mob, and…”—he took a deep breath—“to my mother.”
The last phrase he managed to choke out before breaking down into tears.
Charlie wanted to give Cody a hug, but he refrained. It would be unprofessional and he didn’t want to blow this. He wanted to show Declan that he was worth more than Declan thought.
Charlie gently asked, “Does your mother know that you sleep with men?”
“I don’t think she’d be surprised. Anyway, she has gay friends and has no problems with gay people. It’s just that…”
Cody started to drum his hands on his thighs. “The sex in the video…it’s a bit rough. Bondage, spanking, choking, that sort of stuff. Not what you want your mother to see. But what I’m really worried about is that he was going to send it to a guy in the mob and my mother’s supposed to be trying a case in the next few months…”
“Is your mother a lawyer?”
“No. A judge. My mother is Associate Chief Justice Beverly White of the Alberta Court of Appeals. She’s going to be trying the appeal of a case connected to a guy who is allegedly involved with a gang.”
Charlie racked his brain. He’d read something about this case. It had to do with a crime syndicate. Then he remembered. The case had to do with the trial of a man who they had identified as being connected to—Charlie inhaled quickly—Monarch. He remembered his encounter with the thugs from Monarch only a few months ago, and they didn’t play around.
“And how would the videos of you affect the case?” Charlie asked.
