Chapter2

#Chapter2

The brightness of the sun shone throughout my apartment which caused me to sit up fast, panting, and confused. My head felt as if a train had just run me over multiple times. It forced me to lay back down while I groaned. I admitted to myself I’ve gotten drunk plenty of times before. I know my limit, but this headache was beyond anything I ever encountered as far as a hangover goes. Flashes of the priest pressing his grimy thumb on my forehead caused me to groan even more as I held my head tightly, pulling the cover over my face to block out the sun.

/"How the hell did I get back in my bed?/" /"What the fuck did that priest do to me?/" Several of these questions ran through my throbbing temple, but I quickly had to stop thinking. It hurt way too much. I even started to feel nauseous from the pain, but getting up wasn’t even an option. I couldn’t even move to hurl over the side of the bed.

Bang! Bang! Bang! When I was just almost back to a normal human being, someone started pounding at the door, very aggressively. I cursed out loud forcing whatever body strength I had left off the bed. I wasn’t a well-built man. I worked out, had a few abs, nothing to write home about. But, at that moment, I did thank the heavens I had enough strength to lift myself out of the bed to the door. The clothes from last night still clung to my body as if they were weights, pulling me down. My studio apartment was wide enough that I had to take several steps, trying to maintain my balance as I did so.

Once I got to the door, I thrust it open to reveal a police officer. My eyes widen before they go into a squint again from the pain. The other man beside him looked to be the chief inspector on the case for my brother. It took several moments before I could talk to him.

/"Ray Segal?/"

/"Yeah…/" I placed my hand over my face.

/"I’m Chief Inspector Travis and this is Officer Lawson, may we come in to ask you a couple of questions?/" I took a step back and invited them in. My studio was incredibly messy. I could tell by the way the officers looked around that they were secretly disgusted with me. If only I could keep my eyes open enough to see what they wanted. /"We won’t take up much of your time. We called Mallory to inform you we were coming today. Did you not get the call?/"

I took a grateful seat at the island, running a shaky hand through my untamed hair looking up at the detective. /"Sorry, I didn’t get the memo./"

/"Clearly…,/" Officer Lawson muttered.

/"What is this about? Anything worth knowing, Mallory would know./" I objected, still straining to open my eyes. Travis pulled a file out of a briefcase. It had several photos in it. One he pulled out and up to me.

/"Do you know this man?/"

I looked carefully at the photo, struggling to ignore the pounding in my temple. Nothing seemed to stand out much. So, I shook my head, /"Who is he?/"

/"Johnny Stan. There was evidence of some kind of a scuffle at the scene where your brother was attacked. Mallory was right to not believe it was an animal./" I scoffed in response as he continued. /"Do you know what connects Johnny to your brother? Have they met before or known each other from anywhere?/"

/"The guy doesn’t look familiar at all. If Mallory can’t identify him, then he probably was a nobody./" I replied, honestly.

/"Were you and your brother close, Mr. Segal?/"

That made me look up at Officer Lawson with malice. That underlying tone in his voice was the last thing I needed to hear. I already knew what they were getting at. /"You think I killed my own brother or hired someone to do it?/" They didn’t respond to me right away. Their silence told me everything I needed to know. Honestly, I couldn’t do anything else but laugh. /"I knew from the start my brother wasn’t killed by a fucking animal. I love my brother. Just because I wasn’t involved in his life, doesn’t mean I wanted him dead. Did Mallory tell you I did?/" I leaned a little closer to read the looks on their faces for the answer.

/"That’s not of question here, Mr. Segal. We just want to cover all our bases. Whatever happened to Brad, we want to get to the bottom of it we assure you./"

/"Yeah, right. The same way you guys were just so certain it was an animal before you pigs investigated. It took Mallory giving you all her life savings to find out what happened to her husband. Otherwise, my brother was attacked by a fucking Chihuahua, let the news tell it./" I laughed, but my laughter held no humor. /"Get the fuck out of my house./" I stood walking towards the door opening it to let them know I was serious. They glanced at each other before making the proper moves to leave my studio. The door slammed right behind them.

I walked to the bed searching for my phone. It was dead as I sighed putting it on the charger. I sat on the bed as my body just sort of tumbled over until I stared up at the ceiling. I was finally coming back to feeling like myself after maybe 30 minutes of not moving. Johnny Stan was stuck in my head. His face, the picture, everything about him started to bug me. My grief was certainly getting the better of me as I grabbed my laptop searching on any platform for this man.

While deep in search, I found that Johnny Stan was a member at the same church as Brad. Everything led me back to that place. I had to go back, with pictures this time, and make them answer me. My phone started to come to life with messages and dinks and vibrations as I reached for it. Several missed calls from Mallory, several from my nieces' phone number--most likely still Mallory--and a couple from Hazel, my client I was supposed to meet two hours ago for her photoshoot.

Honestly, as much as I loved Hazel’s photoshoots, because they always ended with me getting a blowjob from out of space, finding out what happened to my brother was far more important. Determinedly, I showered and ate what I could before leaving the house to go back to the church.