February 24th 2014: Testimony of Tommy O'Hara Part Two
Tommy had paused in his testimony again for a moment, and then he began again in a voice that was free of any emotion. "Anyway, he had an alternative - as I said, he showed me it. He had written it all down, then after he had shown me, he threw it in the trash. I rescued it, and kept it on me at all times. The police took it when they arrested me."
"It's exhibit D your honour," interjected Mr Rosen. "I have a copy here for Mr O'Hara if he may…" There were no objections and so the sheet of paper was handed to Tommy. In the gallery, Sam and Santana glanced over at Trent, who could barely look up. They knew what was coming next - knew that in a few minutes there would be sheer horror in the faces around them, starting with Cooper and Sam, hitting the Warblers full on and then battering the New Directions. It was going to be ten times worse than finding out he had nearly killed Blaine and Artie at the hospital.
"Hunter knew that Blaine would eventually crumble - to quote Hunter, 'the weak curly haired fag is lost without his camp little friend, and will probably end himself.' He was going to give it another week before he took steps to force the matter - 'a tragic accident to that talentless, pointless actor brother of his' would probably be enough. If push came, however, then the next step would be carried out first. That would guarantee Blaine's demise. He had already sent Brent to check out the location and to take note of their movements. The next step in question was 'destroying the trout lipped blond moron that started all the questions' - Sam Evans. He intended to push him into suicide too. He knew that Blaine's death would affect him deeply, as 'he is probably a closet case that is getting it from Anderson too.' So to tip him over the edge, increase his sense of grief and loss to the maximum, he would remove his parents and siblings from the gene pool. Murder them in as horrific a manner as possible and make sure that he knew that it was all his fault. He'd be dead within an hour of hearing the news."
In the gallery there was silence, shock on every face. Sam was crying quietly in the arms of Burt. Brittany was already sobbing, and next to her, Tina had just completely shut down.
"Once he had got rid of Evans, he would move on to the real traitor. The 'fat little b*** that sung like a canary.' That ratted on his friends and destroyed all of Hunter's plans with his first hand evidence. How to deal with a sensitive soul like Trent Nixon? Break his heart over and over again, and leave him powerless. Hunter had Sean watching Trent's movements. He and Dan had been assigned to grab him, and hold him captive in the basement of Hunter's apartment building, in the first instance. They would move him later to a safe house in Ohio. His identity would then be stolen - a fake passport made up in Trent's name, but with my picture. Because he was going on a series of trips; to L.A.; to Harvard; to England; and finally, to Chicago."
In the gallery, Wes suddenly froze up. The four locations he had just named added up to trouble. He turned to David, who had also got it. He nodded at Wes, and made ready to grab Thad if necessary. Wes moved himself closer to Nick; Rory already had his arms wrapped around Trent, holding him close, his head buried in Rory's shoulder, his eyes hidden. But he wasn't crying…and Wes suddenly realised to his horror that Trent knew exactly what was coming - every detail. He must have been told by the police at some point. How long had he been hiding this knowledge? More importantly, just how bad was it?
"I was to go to L.A. first, and break into the dorm occupied by Thad Harwood and David Thompson. I was made aware that Thad always drank a mug of malted milk every night before bed. Hunter had been able to access a slow acting poison - tasteless and invisible when mixed with the malt powder" In the gallery Thad had frozen in horror, his eyes glazing over. "He wouldn't have felt any ill effects until the fourth day, by which time the three doses he had taken would have down irreparable damage. He would have died in agony after three more days." Those words caused Thad to pass out, slumping against David. "By that time, David would already be dead - the victim of a drive by shooting, in a tragic case of mistaken identity." David felt sick and dizzy at that, but he couldn't let himself collapse - Thad needed his support. "By then, I would be on my way to Harvard, to deal with, and I quote, 'the most revered Warbler of them all - the saintly Wes; so good and so pure that he makes me want to vomit.' He knew that Wes lived alone in a small, off-campus apartment. I was to break in and lie in wait for him - knock him out, then tie him to his bed, before dousing the room in flammable liquid. I was specifically told to wait until he had regained consciousness before lighting the flames, so that he would burn alive."
There was a collective gasp of horror from around the gallery. Thad had just come round in time to hear those final words, and promptly passed out again. Wes could feel the bile rising in his throat - instead of being there for Nick, he realised that their positions had been reversed. And Tommy's evidence still wasn't finished.
"I was then to head to England. His instructions are vague here; he also had no real concept of the distances involved - but I was to head for two university cities - Oxford and Cambridge; there I was to seek out Ethan and Drew; and by the time I left the UK, they were to be dead. His suggestion was some sort of road traffic accident or a mugging taken to extremes. Incidentally, at the same time as I was on a murder spree in the UK, he would have had someone else working for him at the opposite end of the earth - a US army private in Antarctica, by the name of Nate Roberts."
In the gallery, Beats and Flint had stared at each other when they heard the location - with the name they had confirmation, and the colour drained almost at once from their faces. He was the soldier that had been suddenly taken away from the expedition they had been on. Now they knew why.
"Apparently, a snowmobile was to go out of control and end up falling over the side of a crevasse - as you might have guessed, it was to have two other former Warblers on board at the time…"
In his seat next to Wes, Nick had a feeling of coldness spreading slowly through his body - other than Trent and Sebastian, those deaths would leave only two of the main core group of Warblers from Wes' day standing - himself and Jeff. There was also only one more destination for Tommy to head to. He braced himself for his turn, thankful that Jeff was not here to hear it.
"Finally, I was to return to the States and head for Chicago. To deal with 'those two insanely cheerful, deeply treacherous fags.' What I was to do to them was kidnap them. Hunter was going to deal with them himself, after he had finished what he wanted to do to Sebastian Smythe."
There was a pause at that point - enough time for the eyes of virtually everyone in the gallery to turn towards Sebastian, sat next to Dave. Instinctively, based on what they had just heard, Dave put an arm around his shoulders and pulled him in close.
"Sebastian was going to be the exception to the rule - he was not one of Wes' boys, so he was to be allowed to live. However, he was not going to like that. He was going to wish that he was dead. Hunter described him as a 'two-faced, duplicitous snake. A pathological liar. A cheap whore. Someone who deserved to suffer for a long time.' He thought that he would be able to get him to come and visit - he would then have used a date rape drug on him. Not to have sex with him, but to give him time to tie him up. Then, when he awoke, his punishment would start. He would have chopped of both his hands, perforated his ear drums, cut out his tongue and then gouged out both his eyes. He would live, but in a world of darkness and silence, unable to communicate with those around him. A living hell. That was to be his fate."
If Tommy had glanced up at that time, he would have seen Sebastian crying like a baby in Dave's arms, the latter barely controlling his own tears. His punishment would have been so much worse than death.
"That would have left Nick and Jeff. As I say, I was to kidnap them and take them to a location in Ohio, with a soundproofed cellar. I was to tie them up face to face and then leave, abandoning my Trent Nixon documentation - the airline tickets, hotel bills - in the room. The passport I was to take and destroy far away. Hunter intended to torture them - whatever he did to one, he would do to the other. He would drug them to keep them awake and conscious at all times, to ensure they witnessed everything. I refuse to read out his whole list - it is just too awful. It actually made me vomit on the night that I first saw it and still makes me nauseous now. I will just mention some of the areas that he intended to remove - left eye; right thumb; toes of left foot. He had a cutthroat razor - he intended to shave there heads with it dry - it was blunt and rusty. He had a blow torch; knuckle dusters; two vice clamps. In the end he had a spring loaded device of his own invention. He would have placed it between them, left eye socket to left eye socket. On releasing it, a spiked bolt…. I'm sorry, your honour, I can't read on."
As Tommy retched on the stand, Nick just stared blankly ahead. It was as if he had gone completely comatose to block out everything that he was hearing. Wes had his arms around him; on his other side, Carole held his hand, looking physically sick. She knew how much the poor boy had suffered already - more than most in the room, as it happened. This was very likely the final straw that could tip him over the edge and into insanity. At least the young man on the stand seemed to feel as sick as the rest of them.
"So with that, the Warblers were more or less history. All dead or mutilated. Except one. Trent Nixon, the tattle tale. Hunter wouldn't need to kill him. After all, the police would find all the incriminating evidence that they required lying next to the destroyed corpses of Nick Duval and Jeff Sterling…"
"To make matters even better, Hunter had set it up so that Trent would be on the scene. Whilst he was torturing his two best friends to death downstairs, a drugged Trent would have been sleeping in the room above. Having ended the lives of Nick and Jeff, he intended to allow Trent to wake up again, in a room where there would be only one apparent exit - the door to the basement. Imagine a scared young man waking up, disorientated and desperate to discover where he was - he would have opened that door, made his way downstairs, and found…. Whilst he was doing this, Hunter would have moved the furniture to reveal the other door, so that when Trent ran screaming from the basement, assuming that he hadn't died of shock on finding his friends, he would have run through it, to dial 911, to report everything. When the cops arrived, they would have found a pile of evidence connecting Trent to the deaths of the other Warblers, and his fingerprints all over the scene. He would have been the only suspect - the last Warbler standing. He would have been placed in custody. I think the words Hunter used were 'the soft sensitive fatso would not last two minutes on remand.' He was probably right - he would have been a prime target for the other inmates. What with that, the false accusations, and finding the severely mutilated bodies, he'd probably have taken his own life if it wasn't taken from him. And that would have been the end of the Dalton Warblers."
In the gallery, Trent could only nod in agreement. He knew it: if he had found them the way he had heard it described, he would not have been able to survive. Not with all the others gone too. But he knew that the final sting in the tail still had to be delivered.
"No-one would have suspected that Hunter had any involvement. Not him, the fortunate ex-Warbler that had not been targeted by the sick, mentally unstable Trent Nixon. Hunter's revenge was not over though. He wanted to remove any risk that somebody would realise that Trent was exactly what he seemed - sweet and innocent. Put two and two together and realise that he was the guilty party. He knew that a year to the day after Kurt died, his sappy friends in the New Directions would hold some sort of memorial for him; for Finn, Blaine and Sam. Probably in their old hangout of Breadstix in Lima. It would be so easy to find out - they would book it for a private party. All of them assembled in one place to commemorate their late friends. It would be so easy to get into a place like that; to put explosives under the tables. Then to have a tragic 'gas explosion' wipe out the rest of the New Directions…"
In the gallery there was stunned silence, at first. Then Brittany burst into tears in Santana's arms. The others just sat in disbelief. Had he really intended to do that? End all of their lives because he was caught out cheating? He was insane, that much was clear. He would have destroyed them all. "I never thought I'd say this," said Quinn in a whisper, "but thank God that Sebastian got that text and told Blaine. Otherwise…we owe him our lives. Every one of us." It was a statement that nobody could argue with.
"Couple of days after that, the cops turned up at Hunter's door, with a warrant for his arrest. The idiot was so confident that he would not be caught that the baseball bat was still in a closet - still splattered with Kurt Hummel's blood. I was taken in because Hunter started to blame me from the moment they slapped the cuffs on him. He's a coward deep down - refuses to accept blame for anything that he does. Everything is down to someone else, whether it is his parents, his school, his peers. Never Hunter. I had made up my mind on that long before then. But I was scared of what he would do to me if I went to the police. Based on the evidence, he would have killed me and buried my body somewhere it would never be found. My only relief was that he had put the deaths of all the Warblers in my hands. I know that you might not believe me, but the moment I got to L.A., I was going to go and knock on the door of Thad and David's dorm, and tell them everything. Hope that the police would be sympathetic to me. It is one of the reasons that I am here, telling it how it was. I am so grateful that he was caught out before the Evans family could be targeted. I just wish that I could have done something to save Kurt and Blaine. I will live with their deaths on my conscience until my final breath."