Once Upon a Time...Again

Chapter 7

Tony

I drove to Oak St and found the home of Sheila and Gary Kendall, Tanner's mom and stepdad. Mrs. Kendall was sitting on the front porch of their modest home, having her morning coffee. I parked my car and made my way up the sidewalk.

I smiled, “Mrs. Kendall?”

She smiled back, “yes, can I help you?”

I said, “my name is Tony Malone, I am doing some research on a book about your son Tanner, could I ask you a few questions?”

I saw the sadness come across her face. I said, “I’m sorry, if you don’t want to talk to me, I understand. Just say the word and I will leave and never bother you again.”

She took a deep breath, “no, please sit down. What are you going to write that hasn’t been written before?”

I sat down, “I think there are some things that haven’t been written about yet, I don’t want the police or anyone else for that matter to forget about Tanner. When I saw that interview you did a few weeks ago for the news, I just wanted to do something to give you some closure. You deserve that, even if it is not the result, we are all hoping for.”

She asked, “can I get you a cup of coffee?”

I said, “if it’s not too much trouble.”

She returned a few minutes later and we started to talk. She told me everything she remembered about that day and week leading up to it.

I asked, “had you noticed anything bothering Tanner before that day?”

She shook her head, “Mr. Malone, Tanner did not run away from home.”

I interrupted her, “no, Mrs. Kendall, I know that. I talked to Logan yesterday and I talked to the investigator from the state police. They both told me the same thing, and I believe them and you. What I was asking about is, did he say anything about being picked on, or bullied, anything like that.”

She said, “he really only ever talked about Logan.”

I nodded, “yeah, Logan said they were very close.”

She sighed, “they were more than close Mr. Malone.”

I said, “you know about that?”

She smiled, “I’m a mother, I know. Besides, I walked in on them kissing once.”

I chuckled, “my mom found out about me the same way.”

She said, “he did mention that he thought one of the other boys in his class had found out about him and Logan. Tanner said he and Logan were prepared to come out to their class if they needed too.”

I asked, “did he say who it was?”

She shook he head, “no, he didn’t and before anything came of it, well, that’s when this whole thing started.”

We talked for another hour or so, I thanked her for talking to me and I headed back to my motel room to update my notes. I would have to follow up on who might have known about Tanner and Logan.

I went to the cafe and had some lunch. I had been in town two days, and I was already recognizing many of the residents of Green Lake. I ate with Frank Anderson again, I really did enjoy listening to his stories.

Just as I was getting up to leave the café, Carl King, Green Lake Chief of Police, walked in. I chuckled to myself, he was a lot shorter in person than he looked on TV. He was overweight, had no neck and had combed the last four hairs he had in an attempt to conceal his bald head. I put the money for my lunch on the table and stood to leave.

Chief King walked toward me, “Well. Mr. Malone, I have heard a lot about you.”

I looked at him, “oh, all good, I hope.”

He pulled out a chair and sat down, “how about a chat, please sit down.”

I saw back down, “what would you like to chat about Chief?”

He said, “I was just wondering why you are asking so many questions about the Grisham kid.”

I said, “well, I am doing some research on the case, I want to see if there is enough to write a book about Tanner, or as you say, “the Grisham kid”.”

He scowled at me, “the case is still open and being investigated, I don’t need you coming in here and screwing things up.”

I crossed my arms, “well Chief, what have you investigated this week? This month, or even this year?”

He narrowed his eyes even further, “look here Mr. Malone, you had just better watch your step and keep your nose out of things that don’t concern you.”

I asked, “is that a threat Chief King?”

He grinned, “a threat? No, of course not, I’m just telling it like it is.”

I said, “Chief, I am not interfering with your investigation, I am currently just in the research portion of this project. I am going to continue to do my research and talk to people who have any involvement in this case. Should I gather enough information to write this story, I will present the facts the best I can. If some people in the book don’t come off as being, well, should we say good people. That will be too bad.”

Chief leaned toward me, “is that a threat Mr. Malone?”

I stood to leave, “a threat? No, of course not, I’m just telling it like it is.” I walked out the door, back to my motel room.

I reviewed my notes and made some changes to my outlines, my chapters were all starting to come together nicely. About an hour later, I was surprised to hear a knock on my door. I thought, shit, Chief is going to harass me again. I opened the door to Logan standing there.

He smiled, “hey Tony, mind if I come in?”

I let him in, “no, of course not, please sit down.”

He said, “thanks.”

I asked, “did you get off work early?”

He shook his head, “I took the day off, I just needed some time to think.”

I said, “I’m sorry I brought all this back up Logan, I know it’s hard to talk about.”

He said, “no, you have actually helped me, I feel a little bit better today. I have never told anyone some of the things I told you, it felt good to get that of my chest.”

I smiled, “I’m glad I could help. I talked to Tanner’s mom today, did you and Tanner know that she knew about you two?”

His eyes went wide, “no, I didn’t. How did she know?”

I chuckled, “she said she was a mother, she knows these things, plus she saw you two kissing once.”

Logan smiled, “yeah, that sounds like her.”

I said, “she also told me that Tanner thought someone from your school had found about you, but Tanner disappeared before he could tell her who it was. Did Tanner say anything to you about that?”

He shook his head, “no, he didn’t. God, who could've it been?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know, I was hoping you would know.”

He sat back in his chair, thinking. A small smile came across his lips, “it could have been anyone, the first time we messed around, we weren’t very discreet.”

I said, “really? Where were you?”

He started his story, “where else? The lake, we were 14 and we walked down to the lake go fishing. It was the first summer our parents would let us go there alone. We fished for a couple of hours, it was hot that day and the fish weren’t biting. We left the dock and sat under the shade tree for a while, Tanner suggested we go skinny dipping to cool off. I couldn’t think of a good reason not too, so a few minutes later we were splashing around in the lake buck naked. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but my dick was suddenly hard as a rock, I was afraid of what Tanner would think, so I tried to hide it. I was a little relieved when I looked at him and he was just as hard as I was. We both stood there staring at each other’s cocks, neither of said a word. We walked toward each other and just kissed, it was so natural, neither of us had ever done that before, not even with girls. Pretty soon our hands were wandering over our bodies and we each found the other’s dick. We stroked each other and then walked to the shore and started to suck one another. I was so surprised when Tanner started to shake a little and moan, then the salty taste filled my mouth. He looked down at me and said that felt amazing. I asked him what that was, and he took my cock in his mouth as he said, here I will show you. A few minutes later I felt a tingle in my nuts, and I started to shake, just as he done. He was right, it did feel amazing. We were so wrapped up in our session, we wouldn’t have noticed anyone watching us. I mean we didn’t see anyone after we were done, but who knows. We spent the rest of the summer exploring and figuring out what we liked, it was the best summer ever.”

I saw his eyes light up as he told his story, I asked, “did you always do it at the lake?”

He smiled, “no, not always. We mostly went to the barn on the Hancock place, old lady Hancock still lived there then but never came outside. We would sneak through the trees between there and the lake and go to the back of the barn. Hell, there may still be an old blanket in the hayloft, we just left it there so we didn’t have to carry it with us all the time.”

I smiled at him, “that does sound like a great way to learn about sex, you guys were so lucky to find each other.”

He smiled, “I don’t know if I will ever feel that way again.”

I patted his shoulder, “you will, and I hope I will too.”

He nodded, “yeah, we both deserve it, huh?”

Logan stood to leave, he suddenly paused and looked down then said, “shit, sorry.”

I looked down at his jeans, I saw the bulge and the big wet spot that was now visible.

I laughed, “don’t worry about it, I good memory will do that sometimes.”

He smiled, “I guess so, I didn’t even realize I did that, but I may need to go home and remember some more.”

After he left, I noticed I was also slightly hard too. I lay back on my bed thinking about the day’s events. My mind wandered to the view at the lake, the old fashion Main St, the friendly waitress at the diner. I had nothing keeping me in the city, I think I could get used to living here. I opened my phone and saw the picture of the for sale sign I had snapped earlier today. Maybe I should take Frank Anderson up on his offer to take over his business. I decided I was going to talk to Frank in the morning, then call about the house, and I would need to call my boss back in the city. Shit, did I just decide to move out here in the middle of nowhere?

The next morning, I talked to Frank, he was happy to let me take over the business, he had already sold the building his office was in, to the hardware store, they wanted to expand their store. Then I talked to Pat at the real estate office. We went to look at the Hancock place, even though it had sat empty for a year, it was in good condition. It would need a good cleaning and a fresh coat of paint, but it would give me a private place to work on my book. Since Frank had already sold his office to the hardware store, I decided to use the room that would have been a parlor, for an office for my new accounting business.

We walked out to the barn, the far end had lost its roof a while ago, but a good carpenter could fix that. There was also an old truck and tractor in there, Pat told me they come with the house, she wasn’t sure if they worked. I went up in the hay loft to look around, I laughed when I saw an old blanket in the corner, just as Logan had said.

Pat explained that the last owner had purchased the house from Mrs. Hancock’s estate after she had died. They were only there a few months when they just left one day, and the bank foreclosed. Pat told me that the house had not sold because the bank was asking too much for it. We went back to her office, and we decided what we thought would be a fair offer, and she wrote up the paperwork.

She smiled, “I will get this to the back this afternoon, and let you know what they say.”

I shook her hand, “thank you, call me as soon as they give you an answer. I’m going to go back to the city today and list my house for sale and quit my job.”

She sighed, “good luck.”

A month later, I was back in room 3 in the motel. I was spending most of time out at the house getting ready to move in. I was sitting on the front porch one morning, taking a break. I looked around at the trees as the birds chirped, it was so peaceful. Liam would have liked it here.