Page 39 of In His Sights

A MOMENTafter Gary closed his front door, his phone rang. He answered when he saw it was Nina. “Hey. How are you?” He walked into the living room and sat on the couch.

“Better. I’m only going through one box of Kleenex a day instead of two. That’s an improvement, right?” She paused. “Sorry to call you so late, but I thought you’d want to know. A date’s been set for the funeral. Next week. Tuesday, June fifth.”

“Where will the service be held?” Gary grabbed the notepad and pen from the coffee table.

“Bigelow Chapel.”

He gazed at the photo of him and Brad. “Yeah, been there. It’s a beautiful place. You probably don’t remember because you were only seven, and I don’t think you went to the funeral, but… that’s where Brad is buried. Mount Auburn Cemetery.”

“Oh. No, I didn’t remember.”

“I’ll be there. I’ll let the precinct know tomorrow, and I’ll take Tuesday off.” He scribbled the date and place, then put the pen down. “How are your parents?”

“Still in a state of shock. Dad’s coping better than Mom, I think. I’ve written the obituary and sent it to all the newspapers—theGlobe, theHerald, theTribune, theSun…. It’ll be online too. I told Mom and Dad to expect the chapel to be packed. Cory…. Cory went to the memorial service for one of the guys who was killed. Vic something? It was right at the end of last year. He said you couldn’t move in the church it was so full. I’m expecting a similar turnout. Cory was a popular guy.”

“Yeah, he was.”

“I remember him saying he had no idea there were so many gay men in Boston.”

That sent a shiver through him.And right now someone is working his way through them with murderous intent.

“I’ll save you a seat with us, all right?”

His throat seized. “Thanks, sweetheart.” The words came out as a croak.

“Okay. That was all.”

“Call me if you need anything?”

“I’ve been recalling things Cory and I said,” she blurted. A soft sigh filled his ear. “You’re gonna laugh, but… when I was a teenager and you and Cory were roomies in college, I told him you two should date. I said you were perfect for each other. Well, apart from you not being into guys, of course.”

“He never told me that.”

“Probably didn’t want to embarrass you.” A pause. “Good night, then.”

“G’night, Nina. Next time we talk, I want to hear you’ve halved your use of Kleenex. He wouldn’t want us to cry.”

“No, he wouldn’t.” Her voice grew firm. “He’d want us to celebrate his life.”

“Then you’d better start looking for a bigger venue for the reception. There’ll be a ton of men who’ll want to celebrate him too.”

Another pause; then she chuckled. “I’d better get onto TD Garden right away. It can seat thousands. You think it’ll be big enough?” She disconnected.

Gary went into the kitchen to make some tea, grateful for the distraction. For all Cory’s confidence, he was self-deprecating and never would have assumed he was popular enough to warrant a huge turnout at his funeral. The thought of a crowd of gay men gathered to pay homage to him injected ice into Gary’s bloodstream. He could imagine the killer among them, no one suspecting what evil he harbored….

Dan will help us.Danhadto help them. And Dan was messing with his head.

What is it about him?

Okay, so he was attractive. Gary worked with a lot of attractive guys—Riley was good-looking enough to be a model, for God’s sake—but none of them drew his attention the way Dan did.So what if he does? It doesn’t mean anything, does it?

Except there was more to this than Dan’s appearance. It was the whole package.

He intrigues me. Maybe that’s it.

That didn’t explain why a simple squeeze of his hand, lasting all of a few seconds, should linger in his memory.

Not linger—more like it was imprinted.

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