My thanks to Sylvain for the beta work.
Spectre
Part 25
Hearing raised voices, Jackson had made his way into the living room to investigate. On entering, he found the room silent. There was an unmistakably icy atmosphere though, and his gaze moved suspiciously between the two men, he knew they'd had words about something. "What's going on?"
"Ask him," Aaron gestured angrily at his uncle; he couldn't believe he thought he could just take off and leave Jackson behind. He thought Cain knew just how much Jackson meant to him, how much he loved him. But it seemed he saw their relationship as nothing more than meaningless and that had hurt.
"I'm just making sure he knows all his options," Cain stated calmly.
"Options?" What exactly did Cain mean by that?
"He thinks I should leave the country."
"What?" Jackson could make no sense of that.
"Do a runner as soon as I can."
Momentarily stunned by the idea, Jackson then turned to eye the older man incredulously, "What the hell for? He really would look guilty then."
"What if he is guilty?"
Jackson's anger flared at the question, "He's not! I know he's not."
"You mean you don't want him to be. We don't know for sure though, do we?"
"I do." He knew Aaron wasn't responsible for Chris' death, and it wasn't just a case of wishful thinking, he knew in his heart he wasn't.
"What you think isn't going to stop it going against him, what you believe won't keep him out of jail.
"And you think you're helping him by suggesting he goes on the run?" He just couldn't get his head around the idea.
"Better that than serving time for murder, whether he did it or not."
"It won't come to that."
"It might, and if it does, you're going to be wishing he had taken off when he still had the chance!"
"It's not the answer." It wasn't, how could it be?
"After this afternoon, it might be the only answer!"
"No." Jackson refused to believe that.
Turning his attention back to his nephew, Cain said, "Think about it. This is your decision to make, not his."
"Get out!" Aaron snarled at the older man, he'd just trampled over Jackson's importance in his life for the last time.
Cain stepped towards the door, turning around to leave them with one last thought, "Time's running out."
As soon as Cain had left, Jackson moved to stand before his boyfriend, eyeing him questioningly, "Well?"
"Well what?"
"He's put the idea in your head now..." he wanted to be sure Aaron had dismissed it totally out of hand, that he wouldn't at any time consider it.
"I'm not going anywhere Jackson... not without you." Leaving without Jackson was not an option... but with him?
"What are you saying?"
"We could both..."
"No!"
"Jackson..."
"Do you want to be forever looking over your shoulder, forever moving from place to place? We'd never be able to come back here, we'd never see out families again!"
"But we'd still have each other. That's the most important thing, isn't it?"
"Yes, but..."
"But what? Jackson I can't face going to jail for all those years, only seeing you for an hour once or, if I'm lucky, maybe twice a week. What will it do to us, to our relationship? It will change me, and it will change you. By the time I get out, we'll be different people, we'll have lost what we have now."
"It's not going to happen."
"Jackson! Listen to me," Aaron pleaded, he had to make his boyfriend understand. "I know we have to stay positive but we can't ignore the possibility of me going down for this, like Cain said, whether I did it or not. Innocent men have been wrongly convicted before now..."
"David Smith won't let that happen to you."
"What if I did do it, what then?"
"You didn't!"
"I know you believe I'm not capable of doing something like that, but what if I did?
"No. It was Joel."
"Jackson, your blind faith in me isn't what I need right now. What I really need from you is for you to see all the possibilities, and to be ready for them. The thing is, you weren't there, you can't know what happened. But I do know I wouldn't have been thinking straight at the time, that I'd have been scared, so scared I'd have probably done anything just to get away from Chris, and what if that meant using a knife on him?"
He'd heard every one of Aaron's words but only a few of them had registered, serving to out the guilt he felt, "I'm sorry I wasn't there."
"What?"
"I should have been there. I shouldn't have left you. I should never have taken that job. I knew what Chris was capable of. I should have known he'd come after you, Joel or not. He was never going to let you get one over on him. He'd lost four years of his life because of you, I should have known he'd want payback of some kind. Aaron, I could have prevented all of this, Chris hurting you, him turning our lives upside down..."
"Jackson..." He didn't like the way Jackson was talking, he was owning the blame, well none of this was his fault.
"I'm sorry."
"None of this is down to you. I handled things badly..."
"No. You're the innocent in all of this; you always were, from the very first minute Chris set eyes on you, you were the one wronged then and again now. I know you didn't do it, Aaron, I won't let you take the blame for something you didn't do. I'm not going to lose you..."
"Jackson?"
"What you said about us both taking off, I hate the idea, it's wrong and it scares me but... if things don't look to be going our way then maybe it is an option we need to consider."
"You'd do it?" He couldn't quite believe his sensible, responsible, right-thinking boyfriend was now considering it.
"I don't want to, but if it's the only way we can be together then yes, I'd do anything for you, to be with you." He just hoped to God they would never have to take that drastic step.
/
The time for the police interview had come all too soon. David Smith was waiting for them by the police station door, as always the solicitor had found some words of reassurance for him. He too remained convinced of his innocence, was determinedly fighting his corner again and Aaron knew he should have more faith in him, after all he had convinced a jury of Chris' guilt. But the very fact he doubted his own innocence prevented him from doing that.
Jackson had had to wait outside the interview room, he'd barely left his side these last few days and he instantly felt alone, even though David was with him. The detective in charge of the murder inquiry wanted him to view the tapes before questioning him again. Thankfully, they could be viewed at varying speeds and they were working quickly through them, but he was rapidly losing heart. After viewing seven, there was still no trace of Joel, not even of Chris, but he knew for certain he was on at least one, the police had told his solicitor that much, Joel had to be on that one too, he had to be.
The ninth one was now playing and ten minutes in, he saw a familiar figure, it sent a shiver down his spine. The picture quality wasn't all that good but Chris' mountainous frame was unmistakable, he could see he was smiling, laughing... he still couldn't believe he was dead. The reason for Chris' mood suddenly stepped into view, "That's him! That's Joel."
The detective immediately froze the frame, asking him to look more closely, to make sure he had the right man."
"It's him." He insisted, relief flooding through him.
The detective had pointed out the man he'd identified on the tape differed slightly from the description he'd given them and the police artist who'd drawn up a likeness for the media. Joel's hair was a little longer than what he remembered, he'd obviously let it grow, surely that wasn't going to damn him?
They'd watched the remainder of the tape, seeing both Chris and Joel later leaving the club, only separately, a good few minutes separating the time they each walked out through the door. The detective had commented on that, saying there was nothing in either sighting to indicate they were actually together. David Smith had argued against that, but he'd sat silently, realising that was how it looked.
There was one last tape, he watched it willing Chris and Joel to appear, hand in hand or kissing in the doorway, doing something, anything that would give credence to the fact they were a couple, but no, that had been too much to hope for, neither one of them had been caught on camera that night. He didn't know what to think, was the sighting of Joel on the tape going to be of any use to his case? It didn't look like it would, not the way the police had reacted. Doing a runner was sounding more and more like a good idea.
They'd got right down to the interview then, going over the same old ground. When it was finally over, he had to ask himself what had been the point of it all. He knew the answer to that though, they were trying to catch him out, expecting him to give a different account of things, but he hadn't, he'd stuck to his story because it was the truth.
Before he was allowed to leave, he was asked if he would, in the presence of the investigating officers, visit Oak cottage. The police thought it might help him remember something. He'd agreed, he'd had no choice, he had to look like he was doing everything to help, but it was the last thing on earth he wanted to do.
TBC