DECEPTIONS
By Spense
Note: I can't believe I forgot one of the most important things – my beta readers! Kudos and thanks to Boomercat and Lynn. Lynn for all of the technical 'stuff', and Boomercat for encouraging me to write. She received the first chapter and told me it was most definitely NOT over the top, and to finish the darn thing! And thanks for both of them for the same thing for 'Ferrari'. Sorry guys, I can't believe I forgot.
CHAPTER TWO
"This is a preliminary interview for the purpose of gathering facts," the brunette woman in her late forties across the table stated in a business like tone. She probably would have been friendly enough under other circumstances, but Gordon Tracy thought she just looked officious. The other three people on her side of the table, a self righteous looking older man, a middle aged woman, and a younger woman, all exuded confidence. To Gordon's mind they also looked suspicious.
"Please state your full name and age for the records," the woman instructed Gordon.
Gordon sat on his side of the wood conference table accompanied by his father's senior attorney gazing at the small video and audio recording device in the center of the table, and then at the three social services workers across from him. He felt cold in the pit of his stomach.
Taking a deep breath, he spoke. "My name is Gordon Cooper Tracy, and I'm twenty."
"Thank you. And, sir," the social worker commented to the attorney next to Gordon, "your name and occupation please."
"I am Schaeffer Bradley, Senior Attorney for Tracy Enterprises, representing the Tracy family in this matter."
"Thank you. For the record, I am Sylvia Wagner, Senior Child Protective Services Investigator. I am accompanied by . . ." She trailed off and looked at her colleges inquiringly.
"Bennett Andrews, Senior Child Protective Services Investigator."
"Carolyn Young, Child Protective Services Social Worker, supervisor."
"Melinda Matthews, Child Protective Services Social Worker."
Gordon felt particular distaste for the last young woman. She was the one who started all of this.
"Thank you," Sylvia stated. "For the record, we are hear for a preliminary interview in the matter of possible child abuse regarding Alan Shepard Tracy, aged fifteen."
She looked at her notes a moment, then continued. "All right, Gordon, as I said before, this is a preliminary fact finding interview. You are bound by state laws to answer all questions as fully and with as much factual detail as possible. This is not a hearing, but rather an information gathering meeting."
"Let's begin. Gordon, what is your relation with Alan Tracy?"
"He's my brother."
"Fine. Now, Alan returned to boarding school following the Thanksgiving break with a black eye. On examination by the school doctor, it was determined that Alan had a severely bruised left eye and a cracked septum. In addition, he discovered additional deep bruising on Alan's right side consistent with blunt trauma. Upon questioning, Alan indicated the injuries had been inflicted by his brother – you Gordon."
Gordon couldn't help but flinch. He remember talking to Alan after that exam.
"Yeah, I told the doctor you did it."
"Jackass," Gordon growled at his brother's laughing face in the vidphone. "Just for that, I'll blacken your other eye."
Alan snickered. "You can try. You normally can't even catch me. You're only fast in water," he taunted.
Gordon reported with something unmentionable, causing his brother to laugh again.
"Travis didn't believe it," Alan continued, referring to his friend at school.
"What'd you tell him?" Gordon asked curiously.
"That I got it assisting you on Thunderbird Two, what else?"
"Alan, you asshole!" Gordon shook his head. "Seriously, what'd you tell him this time?" It had become the great family sport, trying to explain the various injuries to outsiders. They were all getting pretty creative at this point.
"I told him that you got pissed at me and used me as a punching bag. He didn't believe it for one second. He's seen how fast I can move, especially around my brothers. He told me he'd get the real story out of me yet."
Gordon could see why Travis wouldn't necessarily buy the story totally. Alan could be like trying to hold onto an eel when he wanted to be. "Well, don't tell him the real story, okay?"
"What, like you think I'm stupid?"
Gordon worked hard to restrain himself, ignoring that tempting opening in favor of finding out what he did actually tell the doctor. "So what'd you tell the doc?"
Alan shrugged. "That we were goofing around in the pool and I ended up on the bottom of a pile. It was a water volleyball game gone bad. I didn't get any more specific than that."
"Plausible enough, I guess." Gordon frowned. "Happens way too often with you anyway. You are such a poor sport."
"Not anymore than the rest of you! Besides, you always change the rules when I start to win!"
Gordon grinned at the expected rise he'd gotten from his brother. Alan was so predictable. He continued. "We're going to have to start coming up with some better stories. You're way too accident prone."
"I am not," Alan replied already irritated, and incensed at the added comment.
Gordon smirked. "Sure you are," he continued, to see if he could escalate Alan's irritation, as the conversation turned onto another tangent. "Remember when . . ."
Gordon's attention was brought back to the present as the social worker continued. "Please tell me about those injuries."
"Alan had returned home and we were goofing around in the pool. We started out just swimming and talking, then decided to play water volleyball." Gordon shrugged for emphasis. "He decided to keep the ball. I went to go get it back. We started wrestling. Unfortunately, I hit him instead of the ball."
"Humm. And the bruising on his rib cage?"
"We were close to the edge of the pool. The impact knocked him into it."
"You must have hit him very hard," Sylvia commented.
Gordon had managed to grab the man and finally restrain him in spite of the heavily swaying rescue platform. He used the flex cuffs they all carried to get him subdued, all the while looking at Alan. Alan was hanging on to the side of the rescue platform, and looking for all the world like he was going to pass out.
"Alan!" He asked desperately while manhandling the struggling, hysterical passenger out of the platform as soon as it hit the floor of the pod.
"I'm . . . okay," his brother's breathless voice answered him.
'Oh, yeah right,' Gordon thought. 'You're just fine. I wasn't aiming at you, and it was a good thing it was a glancing blow.' Shaking his head, he said out loud, "I'll be right back, hang on."
"'Kay," was his brother's gasping reply, as he just struggled to stay upright.
"Gordon! What the hell happened?" Virgil's voice came loudly through his ear piece.
"Hang on a sec Virg. I'm kind of busy right now."
Gordon hustled the other two survivors into the waiting area along with the still struggling man. Restraining him in a jump seat with a five point harness, and indicating seats to the others, he then hurried back out to the rescue platform. Alan was sitting cross-legged on the floor, his head down, arms wrapped around his chest speaking quietly, apparently to one of their brothers.
"Alan!" he called again in dismay. "I'm back with him, guys," he told his brothers through the earpiece.
"Nice going, Gordon," came Scott's disgusted voice through his earpiece.
"I didn't do it on purpose," he exclaimed defensively, tilting Alan's head up carefully. He winced at the rapidly swelling eye and nose. His fist had glanced off the cheekbone and across Alan's eye and nose, thank heavens. Otherwise it would have been significantly worse.
"Check his ribs, Gordon. He's complaining of pain in his right side." Virgil's voice this time.
Carefully unfastening the front of Alan's flight suit, he managed to slide the right side off, accompanied by his brother's hiss of pain. He deftly lifted the hem of the turtleneck Alan wore under the flight suit to see an already large bruise forming. Checking the ribs, to his younger brother's accompanying moan, he sat back, exhaling heavily in relief.
"No broken ribs," he reported back thankfully, carefully assisting Alan back into his flight suit. "Just the mother of all bruises."
"Exactly how hard did you hit him Gordon?" Scott asked in disbelief.
"Way too hard," was Alan's breathless answer.
"A lot harder than I ever intended," Gordon said, depressed. "In fact, I never intended to hit him at all. I was aiming for the ball."
"I see," Sylvia commented.
There was silence in the room for a moment, then she continued. "A friend of Alan's from school informed us that your brother had told him that you used him 'as a punching bag'." She looked at Gordon inquiringly.
"He was joking! Alan told me that he had told Travis that, and that Travis didn't believe him," Gordon answered in disbelief.
"Do you make a habit of hitting your younger brother?" Sylvia asked.
Gordon's emphatic "NO!" clashed with his attorney speaking for the first time.
"That question is not within the scope of this meeting. You are to only gather information for facts, not ask leading questions. Do you have anymore questions regarding the facts of the incident, or are we finished here?"
Sylvia nodded, acknowledging the truth to his statement. "No, I believe that we are finished for the time being. We may have more questions, but not at this time. Thank you. This concludes today's meeting."
With that, to Gordon's immense relief, the meeting ended. However, he had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that he hadn't done much to further their cause.