Just a Sketch (15 page)

Leo stood from the stool. “What? At your house? What the hell?”

“That’s what we aim to find out.” Aud gestured for Leo to follow him out the door. He didn’t wait for Benet and the other officers to follow. He was tired of his life being intruded upon and wanted to get to the bottom of it.

THE RIDE
from the gallery to Aud’s was, in Leo’s opinion, a lot more frantic than the drive across town in response to Heather’s call had been. By the time they reached the small house a few blocks from the gallery, a police car was already there and two more followed behind them.

Aud was out the door without taking the keys from the ignition. Leo jerked them free and followed a bit more sedately.

“Are you the homeowner?” asked one of the cops on the scene before them.

“I’m Aud Sorenson.” Aud paused at the short gate that separated his walk from the sidewalk. “I was with Detective Benet when my security company called me.”

“We’ve only just arrived.” The officer held open the gate for them. “You can tell us what’s missing or out of place.”

With a dark look, made worse by the flashing emergency light, Aud strode into his small yard. Leo hurried to his side. Once again, something was happening to people he cared about and there was almost nothing he could do.
If we were straight, I could take his hand and offer him comfort, but we’re not. I don’t know what the cops would do or how Aud would react. At least I can offer him a hug and a shoulder when everyone goes.

“The front window’s busted.” Aud gestured to the huge window that was shattered; the blinds inside rustled in the breeze blowing them about. “Looks like there’s something stuck in the door.” His voice was low and level as he walked up the steps to the door.

Aud pulled a heavy folded paper from the doorjamb. He unfolded it and frowned before he turned to the police. “I’m not sure you want to see this.” His gaze stopped on Leo. “I think this is evidence from my stalker,” he said louder.

Leo looked at the paper in Aud’s hand. In the low light, it looked like a piece of printer paper, but there was a picture on it. “No, let me see that.” Leo took the paper from Aud. It was a picture of him. From the shirt he had on, it had been taken the night of the opening. Across the bottom, it read “I didn’t know you liked geeky guys.” Leo gulped.
What does the freak want? He knows who I am? Are either one of us safe?

Detective Benet hurried between the other policemen along the walk and up the steps. “May I see that?”

“Sure.” Aud slipped the paper out of Leo’s numb fingers and passed it to the detective. “I guess we shouldn’t have been handling it, in case there were fingerprints or something.”

“Somebody get me an evidence bag!” Benet shouted without turning to any of the other officers. “We can run tests. We’ll need to get both of your fingerprints so we can eliminate them. There’s a chance, not a good one, that we can get something off this.”

An officer handed him a plastic bag and he slipped the paper into it.

“So, let’s go into the house, but don’t touch anything else.” He pulled out a pair of flesh-colored latex gloves. “If you’ll give me your key, I’ll go first.”

Aud did as he requested. Once the door was open, Aud walked in and disarmed the alarm as Benet and Leo followed. There was glass all over the living room. Several rocks lay on the plush carpet and one on the sofa where Leo and Aud had made out a few nights before.

“We’ve got some rocks in here,” Benet shouted out the open door. “Need more evidence bags.”

A sad look darkened Aud’s handsome face as glass crunched beneath his feet. “Why would they do something like this?”

“Most likely trying to get your attention,” Benet replied.

“Maybe they’re hoping you’ll figure out who it is,” Leo said, wishing he was being at least a little bit helpful.

“Then why not walk into the gallery and announce their intentions?” Aud muttered as he walked beyond the field of glass and headed for the kitchen.

Leo continued to follow. “If it is Randal, he may feel he’s already done that and you rejected him.”

“And breaking into my house is going to help me have good feelings toward him?” Aud looked over the undisturbed kitchen, and his face relaxed. He glanced at Benet trailing along behind them. “Everything looks fine in here.”

“Mr. Sorenson, you need to realize that most stalkers don’t think the same way normal people think. This man’s a predator.”

Aud shook his head. “That’s not what I needed to hear.” He turned and walked out of the kitchen.

The bathroom was also clean, but the bedroom had been tossed. The drawers were pulled out. Some of them had clothes hanging out of them. Two drawers lay on the floor. The lamp on the nightstand had been knocked over, and the drawer hung most of the way out. Aud frowned and hugged himself.

Leo couldn’t resist any longer. He put his hand on Aud’s shoulder. Aud briefly squeezed Leo’s fingers. Then he squared his shoulders and looked at Benet, who stood quietly in the doorway.

“It might take a while to figure out if anything’s missing here,” Aud said, his voice tight and angry.

“If you want to go through it now, we can wait.” The detective looked back over his shoulder as the sounds of other people walking through the glass in the living room reached them. “I’ll have my guys bag up the rocks and see about collecting the glass. If we’re lucky, the guy cut himself coming through the window and left some DNA behind.”

“That would be nice,” Aud muttered. “It’d be even nicer if he cut himself really badly and is bleeding out in the alley, but I think we would’ve noticed that much blood.”

Leo squeezed Aud’s shoulder. “Can I help in here?”

Aud glanced around at the mess and sighed. “I don’t know. I never realized I had so much until seeing it scattered like this. I feel so violated. Right now it’s tempting to just toss it all in garbage bags and put it out on the curb. I can buy more.”

A thought of what he would do if it were him passed through Leo’s brain.
I can’t afford to just throw out all my clothes and start fresh. Even with buying Walmart brand stuff, that would be too much. Things like this make me realize that Aud lives in a world I have no real experience with.

“If you think there might be any evidence on anything, don’t throw it away,” Benet said. “Right now we need all the evidence we can get.”

Aud sighed. “Then should I wait to go through things until you have a forensics team in here? Isn’t that what they do on TV?”

Benet shook his head. “Right now this is nothing more than a breaking and entering slash stalking case. We don’t call in forensics unless there’s a murder or kidnapping.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t escalate to that,” Aud muttered as he stepped away from Leo toward the closest upset drawer. He sighed again. “If nothing else, I want all this stuff washed. Leo, can you run into the kitchen? Under the sink next to the garbage can, there’s a box of garbage bags. That would be the easiest way to do this. I just hope I can spot something missing.”

“Okay.” Leo walked out of the room. He tried not to stare at the police gathering up pieces of glass from the carpet and putting them into a plastic box.

When he got back to the bedroom, Aud was frowning harder. “Well, I figured out one thing that’s missing. My black jockstrap.”

Leo pulled out a garbage bag. “You’ve got a black jock?”

“Yep. And every time Randal saw me in it at the gym, he had to make a comment about how great it looked on me.”

“So that clinches it. Randal is the one who broke in.” Leo glanced at Detective Benet.

The officer shook his head. “Circumstantial at best. The perp in this case might’ve had a thing for black jocks. But we can add it to the list of items that are missing. If we find some DNA evidence, it might be enough to get charges filed. I’ll add your suspicions to my report.”

Leo rolled his eyes as he held out a bag to Aud. Aud piled clothes in it, and they worked to clean things up. In the end, Aud also realized some of his workout clothes, a bottle of lube, and a couple of porn DVDs were missing. The items went on Benet’s list. Aud had paused in the sorting to call Heather and ask her to find him an emergency handyman who could come and put a board over the window until his insurance could get it fixed. By the time they’d sorted through the bedroom and Benet was satisfied he could take the officers and go, the handymen arrived.

The neighborhood was quiet while the handyman, a big, burly man in his fifties, and his younger, trimmer son nailed two sheets of plywood across the broken window. Leo leaned against the railing on the porch and watched the men put their tools in their truck after Aud paid the older of the two. With a light breeze blowing, it was almost chilly, but the house was nearly as cold as the porch. Aud strolled up the steps.

“So now what?” Leo asked.

Aud shrugged. “I don’t know. The house will warm up, but I don’t know if I want to sleep here. I’d suggest going over to your place, but Felix is there and I don’t want to disturb him.”

Leo walked over to Aud and gave him a big hug. “Yeah. I don’t think Felix is ready to listen to us having a good time after what he’s been through.”

“We could go to a hotel for the night. Even though it’s the weekend, my insurance will be out tomorrow to give an estimate of the damage and get the ball rolling on making repairs. I guess Heather will have to man the gallery after all if I’m going to be handling this. I think I’ll wait until then to do all the laundry too. Actually, there’s a laundry place near the gallery, just a couple blocks from here. I can take it there and drop it off in the morning and pick it up in the afternoon. That would be easier and faster.” He paused. “Sorry, I’m babbling. You probably don’t care about my laundry plans.”

Leo kissed him. It was short but meaningful. “I care about you. If you need to babble right now, that’s perfectly understandable.”

A warm smile, the first in several hours, spread across Aud’s features. “Thank you for being here for me tonight. You made everything easier.”

“Hey.” Leo shrugged. “All I did was hold bags for you while you piled stuff in them.”

“I know. But you just being here and lending support helped me out a lot.” Aud tapped his chest. “In here.”

It made Leo feel good to know that he was able to help; that was more than he felt he was doing for Felix. “I’m glad.”

“So, let’s go get some ice cream.” Aud moved around Leo far enough to reach the door and click the lock. “I think the place downtown is still open. Then we can figure out what’s going on from there.”

“Sounds good.” Leo hugged Aud again and kissed him. It felt wonderful to be able to do that too.

AUD GLANCED
around the hotel room. It was a new hotel a few blocks west of the gallery, and the smell of fresh paint still lingered. “It’s not much, but I guess it will do until the house is secure again.” He hated being driven out of his home, but the feeling his stalker could show up at any time and violate his sanctuary again worried him.

Leo shook his head and dropped Aud’s overnight bag on the nearest of the two queen beds. “I really can’t believe all this crap is happening. Felix, you…. What’s going on in our world when we can’t feel safe in our own homes?”

“If anybody can give a definitive answer to that, they will be declared the smartest person in the world,” Aud replied. His limbs felt heavy as he walked over to the far bed and sat.

“You’ve got a point there.” Leo settled next to him and put an arm across his shoulders.

The warm, caring vibe that had emanated from Leo the entire evening helped Aud get through it all. He’d never thought he actually needed someone around to lean on, but now having Leo there for him made all the difference. He didn’t feel like he was on the edge of cracking. The tired sensation was all that dominated his body and mind.

Aud hugged Leo and kissed the hollow of his neck. “Thank you.”

Leo kissed Aud’s forehead. “For what?”

“For being here for me. It means a lot. I know Felix needs you right now, probably more than I do.”

Pushing his finger against Aud’s lips, Leo silenced him. “Don’t worry about that. You were there when I talked to Felix and Julie. She’s going to stay with him tonight. He still doesn’t want to be alone, but it’s no big deal.”

Aud slipped one of Leo’s fingers into his mouth and sucked on it suggestively before kissing them. “Good. But having you here with me tonight is a big thing for me. I’m not sure I can express the level of my appreciation.”

Leo chuckled and combed his fingers through Aud’s blond hair. “Don’t worry. If you keep that up, I’m sure an idea will arise.”

“Good.” Aud wrapped his arms around Leo and lay back on the bed. Leo’s weight across his chest felt good.

“Yeah, somehow I think this is going to lead to something.” Leo kissed him.

When their kiss broke several minutes later, Aud couldn’t help but grin at Leo. “I think we’re both fairly tired, but if you’re up to a little bit, I think I could be too.”

“Could be?” Leo ran his hand down the front of Aud’s jeans and squeezed his stiffening cock. “I think this says you are.”

Aud laughed. The sound helped finish breaking the dark mood that threatened to engulf him earlier. “Yeah, I guess you bring that out in me.”

“Good.” Leo kissed him again. “You draw out some pretty hot feelings in me.”

“I like that.” With a deep chuckle, Aud tugged at Leo’s shirt, pulling it free of his pants.

“What?” After setting his glasses on the nightstand, Leo shifted so he had an easier time getting his shirt off.

Once Leo tossed his shirt to the floor, Aud ran his hands up Leo’s torso, pausing to tweak Leo’s nipples. “That I make you hot.”

Leo unbuttoned Aud’s shirt and passed his fingers through the blond hair beneath, sending tingles along Aud’s skin. “Yeah, you definitely make me hot.” He bent down and kissed Aud.

Their warm breath mingled as Aud plunged his tongue into Leo’s mouth, savoring the natural taste that mingled with the Mongolian food they’d had hours earlier. It had been so long since Aud had been with the same man more than once. He found himself noticing little things like a couple of small moles right above Leo’s right nipple. They were nearly lost in the swirl of brown hair around them. He also had a scar on his stomach. Aud traced it. “What happened here?”