Double Coverage

Chapter 5: Meeting Mr. McDestin

Chapter 5: Meeting Mr. McDestin

1:45 P.M.

I didn’t have an office down at the Vanmer Independent, but I did have one inside my Tudor. My home office was small, useful, and not at all tidy. Photographs of different sizes were scattered about the room on shelves, my desk, and on the floor. Three windows overlooked a sprawling backyard and in-ground pool. The leaves were not starting to change, having no intention of welcoming autumn. It was still nice outside, warm at eighty, and balmy. Summer had yet to say goodbye.

I grabbed a pair of sunglasses, my iPad, and walked down the sloped yard to the pool. I was curious about the Vanmer murder and wanted to do more homework on Tad Dossner, which included information on his friends and limited family, his hobbies, heartaches, and headaches. Anything I could learn of the man could maybe cure my snooping. I found a seat next to the pool, removed my shoes and socks, and rolled up my skinny jeans.

The water was tepid and soothing on my bare legs. I sat at the deep end in the warm sun. The pool was spotless, shimmering with a pristine blue. I had a deal with Ollie Pender, an eighteen-year-old queer kid in the neighborhood who kept the pool clean. He and his gay friends could use the pool if he became my pool boy. Ollie loved the title, took it seriously, and threw some great summertime parties. Ollie’s dad was a police officer for Vanmer and prevented drugs and alcohol at the parties, but he didn’t stop the summertime boys from skinny dipping and giving each other head, which he probably didn’t know about.

I clicked the iPad’s screen a few times, Googling Tad’s full name: Tadworth Miller Dossner. A number of sites popped up concerning the official. Most of them were about Tad’s career in the ESFL. Others detailed his education and his military service at eighteen years old in Iraq. I learned that he was born in Indianapolis, Indiana when a man’s deep voice startled me and said behind me, “Mr. Knight, I’m sorry to bother you.”

I almost dropped the iPad in the pool, scared out of my hide. I was not a big believer in toting a gun around, but maybe needed one at that moment. With superhuman speed I spun around, stood, and took in the interloper, finding him attractive.

Interloper was massive in size with a football player’s build, an orange buzz cut, topaz-colored eyes, and an orange goatee. I placed him at twenty-eight. He stood at six foot and maybe weighed two-hundred pounds. Like Francine Foxxe, another natural redhead, he too had freckles on the bridge of his nose and cheeks. He was dressed in a pair of navy workout shorts, and a muscle-clinging tank that was gold. Both the shorts and tank said Vipers on them, which caused me to believe that he was a rookie for the city’s team, trespassing on my property, and wanted to introduce himself to me.

“Who are you?” I asked, planning to use the iPad as a weapon, if I was forced to.

Interloper held out his right hand for me to shake and said, “Matthew McDestin.”

I didn’t think he was dangerous because he looked durable and sexy. I decided to shake his hand. Plus, I was a tender man who liked men, and wasn’t about to scare him away since I had a s****l appetite for the visitor, particularly because he was a redhead, which just happened to be one of my weaknesses and fetishes, of course.

His grip was intense, which I enjoyed. His right bicep bulged as we rocked our hands together. Our eyes met, brown mixed with blue, and he said, “I’m sorry to sneak up on you like this, but there’s something I need to ask you.”