GENRE: Gay Mystery Romance
LENGTH: 21,606 words
RATING:

Olivia is a photographer working at Rory and Lou's art gallery. While taking pictures at the party Clay and Quint throw to celebrate the adoption of their son, she captures what seems to be a murder in the building behind them.

Lou and Quint take it upon themselves to investigate -- unofficially at first -- with the help of Rory and Gideon Monahan. When they find out the presumed victim is alive and denying anything happened, they dig deeper. Things heat up as Rory goes undercover to try to learn the truth while the others delve into the backgrounds of the people involved and Olivia finds more photos relevant to the case.

Now all they have to do is find out what the photos really show, and if what looked like a murder may be even more than it seems.

EXCERPT:

Two days after the party, Olivia strode into Valencia Gallery as soon as it opened, looking ... disturbed was the first word that came to Lou's mind as she came into the office. He wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for the fact his hours at the precinct had changed. He was now working two to ten.

Olivia had a portfolio under one arm that she set down on the desk.

"I have to show you something," she said, flipping it open. "Tell me if I'm crazy."

"Okay." Lou waited while she thumbed through the pictures before laying three of them out in front of him.

"What do you see?" she asked.

"Quint. And Clay holding Jamie, sitting on one of the lounge chairs. They all look very happy. Okay ... Jamie looks more like he's about to fall asleep, poor baby."

"Look behind them."

Lou did, then asked, "What am I supposed to be seeing?"

Taking a magnifying glass from her purse, she handed it to him. "Look at the window to the right of them, in the building behind them. I wouldn't have seen it if I hadn't been trying to decide how to crop the photos."

Lou did, then frowned. "It might not be what it looks like," he said, tapping one of the pictures.

"But you do see it. It's not my imagination."

"Yeah. He seems to have his hands around her throat. At least, I guess it's a female ... or a male with long hair. Hard to tell from the profile." Lou looked up at her. "Can you ... Did you blow this up?"

She nodded, taking another photo from the portfolio.

"What's going on?" Rory asked, coming into the office. "Oh, you have pictures from Clay and Quint's party. Great. Can I see?"

"Just these," Olivia replied. "I wanted Lou to look at them."

Rory rested his hand on the desk, leaning in to take a look. "So much love," he said quietly.

"Unfortunately, that depends on where you look," Lou replied, pointing the window behind Quint and Clay in one of the photos, then to the blow-up of it that Olivia had made.

Rory whistled. "Not so much love there, from the look of it." He glanced at Olivia. "Do you know which building this is?"

She shook her head. "What you're seeing is all that I got of it."

"Then we need to pay Clay a visit so he can let us up on the roof," Lou stated, piling the photos together then handing them to her.

"Kevin and I can watch the place while you're gone," Rory said. "Unfortunately, we're not exactly booming with business, even though it's Sunday."

Lou nodded, offering to drive, which Olivia accepted.

On the way over to Clay's place, she asked, "Do you really think he was killing her?"

"Or him. It's hard to tell. The room is too dark. If they had been a little closer to the window ..."

"It was late afternoon and the sun was behind that building," Olivia replied. "I tried to enhance it, but I can only do so much."

"And you're the expert, so that's probably the best we'll get." Lou realized he should let Clay know they were on their way over. When Clay answered, Lou only asked if he was going to be home for a while.

"Yep. Jamie's asleep, so I'm taking advantage of that to get in some painting."

"I bet." Lou chuckled before they hung up.

Clay let them into the loft a few minutes later, putting a finger to his lips, pointing toward the screen blocking off an area at the far end of the main room before leading them into his studio. "So what's this all about?" he asked.

Olivia handed him the portfolio.

"I want copies of all of these," Clay stated, spreading the photos out on his work table. Then he came to the blow-up of the window. "Or not." He looked at Lou. "Is this what it looks like?"

"That's what I need to find out. First, though, we have to go up to the roof so we can figure out which building it is."

"Sure. Come on." Clay turned to Olivia. "Would you mind terribly --?"

"Staying here, in case Jamie wakes up? Not at all."

Taking the photos with them, Clay and Lou went up to the rooftop patio. It didn't take them long to determine which building was in the photos. Leaning on the railing, Lou counted the floors from the sidewalk to the window in question. "Seventh floor, rear. It looks like it's an apartment building."

"Probably, although, since she took the pictures Friday afternoon, it could be a business."

"Only one way to find out." Lou counted the windows across from the corner of the building. "Okay, I'll leave you to it and see what I can find out."