Avenge Thy Brother

Chapter 6: Mirroring Images

            After putting Denzel Paige in a safe location that only I and an agent from the FBI Atlanta field office knew about, I decided it was best to do the same with William Barrett. I didn't want Karen to know where I was putting him but she insisted on tagging along with me to his office that day. I trusted her but at the same time, I didn't trust her. I'd only known her for the better half of a week and even though she was a veteran with the FBI, I couldn't bring myself to put all of my trust in her. Hell, I wasn't sure I could put all of my trust into my own husband when it came to work related matters.

I sighed before pleading with William Barrett in his office, "Please, come with us, sir. It is no longer safe for you to be without our protection."

"Some people tried to kidnap Kemari's little boyfriend last night," he said angrily. "That has nothing to do with me."

"It's more serious than that," said Karen. "Look, we'll get a judge to sign off on detaining you in a safe location if we have to."

"Fine, get a judge to do that. In the meantime, I have a banquet at city hall to attend tonight. You can leave now. I need to finish up some work here before I head home to get ready for the banquet."

I looked at Karen and then back at William and began, "Mr. Barrett, I highly recommend..."

"I will be fine. I live in a secure neighborhood. I didn't even drive today and won't be driving to the banquet. My driver will be taking me. I've known him since I was a teenager because he works for my parents as well. I am very wealthy, agents. I don't need to be put in protective custody."

"Fine," said Karen. "We'll find you after we get a judge to sign off on giving us authority to detain you for your own protection. Come on, Rowell."

"Be careful, Mr. Barrett," I said to him as I backed away with Karen. "Please, be careful."

After leaving his office, Karen asked me, "Do you think we'll be able to get a judge to sign off on a protective custody order this late in the evening?"

"I hope so."

We filed the order and then immediately headed to the local precinct to wait for a judge to take it up and sign it since the precinct was closer to city hall than our hotel. As we were going in, a uniquely dressed young man approached us and called out, "Agents, I'm Evan Murphy and I'm with The Atlanta Queer Times." He turned on his phone's voice recorder and said, "Obviously, the major news media has moved on from the Michael Travers and Vince Hendricks cases already. Can you tell me if there has been any progress in identifying their killers?"

"We're not at liberty to answer that question," Karen told him.

"Are you still currently trying to find their killers?"

"The investigation is ongoing," I answered.

"And what about Randall Williams? He was the first gay black man to go missing months ago. Do you have any leads on where his body may be?"

"No comment," Karen said as she opened the door to the precinct for me. "No more questions, please." We entered the building and she said, "He looks rather...eccentric."

"Yeah, but he's right. The local news has moved on from it all. And I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, it sucks that so few people actually care about what happens to gay black men. On the other hand, our efforts aren't being broadcast so the network doesn't know all of our moves."