Love Hurts (boyxboy)

Chapter 44: Detective

"I'm looking for a man."

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"Yes yes, hold your bloody horses!"  The annoyed bark can be heard on the other side of the heavy wood. Josh stops knocking on the closed door of Queens, waiting for the bolts to be pulled back, with the door eventually opening. There stood Jojo, makeup pristine, but with the absence of her trademark hairpiece.  "As you can see, I'm in the middle of something, so this had better be good."

"Can we come in?" Josh asks, with Jojo furrowing her brow at only seeing Josh at her doorstep.

"We?" She begins, but then goes wide eyed in a panic as Neil rounds the corner, from parking the car. "Bloodyhell Joshua, you could have said he was with you, I'm literally naked!" She puts her hands on her head before grabbing a headscarf from a peg just inside the door and wrapping it around her head. 

"You look gorgeous Jojo." Neil says with a smile as he approaches. 

"Oh you. Give over." She blushes as she sweeps the comment away with a hand. "What can I do for you?" 

"Now you want to help." Josh says with a light huff. 

"Jojo, can we come in?" Neil asks with his smooth as silk voice.

"Of course." She gushes, stepping back for them both to set foot inside.  "So, what seems to be the trouble?"

"I'm looking for a man." Neil begins. 

"Aren't we all hun." Jojo interrupts. With a laugh, as she lightly taps Neil's arm. 

"We need to see your CCTV Jojo." Josh says, wanting to cut to the chase. 

Jojo's posture now straightens up as she adopts a more serious demeure.  "Why, what has happened?" She asks a little warily. 

"Simon, he was with a guy last night. We need to find out who he is." Josh explains.

" Simon?  Was he that drunk he didn't get the guy's number? I mean, hats off to him, the man was a sexy beast." She recollects. 

"Jojo, this is serious." Josh interrupts. "He planted something on Simon."

"What? You mean drugs?" Jojo says, now in a flap.

"No, a phone, but it has sensitive images on it if you know what I mean?" Neil adds, trying to calm the situation just a fraction. 

"Of what?" she asks. 

"Someone is trying to mess with our relationship Jojo. We need to know who, that's all." Josh says, making Jojo go quiet for a moment. 

"I have a duty of care and I have to respect the privacy of the patrons of Queens. You know that what happens here, stays in here right?" 

"We know and we wouldn't ask but…" Neil steps forwards. "I won't risk losing this man over this." 

Jojo looks at Neil, then at Josh as he stands a fraction behind. "He was a mess. That's true. He was in danger of putting off my customers before you came along...ok, come this way."

"Hey what do you mean a mess?" Josh complains following behind…

***

"So, I'll leave you to it. I need to fix my wig." Jojo says as she leaves the small office out the back. 

The two males begin to look at the screen. They see Simon sitting at the bar chatting with Jojo, then they see someone else approach. "Zoom in a little Josh." Neil says as this seems to be the guy Simon was referring to. "Ok, pause it there…" Neil now gets close to the screen, scrutinising the image. 

"So, do you know him or not?" Josh asks, looking at Neil then at the screen.

"No." Neil replies, his response evidently suggesting he was in thought. "Press play, let's see what happens next. Josh does so. There are a few more moments of conversations at the bar before the male and Simon disappear together. Then after around 10 minutes the male is seen leaving Queens.

"So what now?" Josh says, pausing the footage. 

"Hang on, try this camera." Neil suggests, pointing to the surveillance outside the club's entrance. They now watch the stranger as he leaves the club and walks down to the end of the street, alone. 

"Well I'm utterly clueless." Josh says with a defeatist sigh as he runs his fingers through his hair. 

"We're watching this the wrong way round.. How stupid, we're watching it all wrong!" Neil suddenly says as a lightbulb seems to go off in his head. 

"What do you mean?" Josh looks at Neil with equal enthusiasm. 

"We need to go back a bit more, before he enters Queens." Josh rewinds the footage back, back, way back until before the man enters the club.  "Ok stop. Stop it there." Neil says in a hurry as the man can be seen leaving the club at the top of the road. "What's the name of that bar again?" Neil asks. 

"That's Lady D's. I've never drank in there, apparently the beer tastes of piss..." Josh adds, but he suddenly stops talking when they see another male standing with the first. "Wait a minute…" Josh zooms in the best he can, but the image is rather far away and very grainy. 

"I don't know who that is." Neil says, squinting his eyes at the screen. 

Josh looks on at the slightly pixelated image. His mind, trying to get around what he is seeing. He would recognise that blonde quiff anywhere.  "I do. That's Stewart Berry."