Living in Sin by greeneyes

In a city of lost souls, only four men care about the loss of innocence.

Index

Chapter 1: Chapter 1
Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Author's Notes:

This takes place in modern Las Vegas. Sort of the result of watching too many episodes of CSI, Law and Order, and Blue Murder.

   The relationship between Kaye and Joe will flesh out in later chapters, as well as the introduction of Goku and Sanzo's incarnations.

There was a dog, thin and bony, digging through the trash. He gnawed on whatever bones he could find. Kaye looked upon the dog with pity. But he tried not to stop, he knew if he tried to approach the dog, it would run at best, attack at worst. Also slowing in this area would be dangerous. In fact, there were three young bangers following him at that moment. In his clinic scrubs, he looked weak, fragile even. Hoping that the boys wouldn't try to come after him, Kaye reached into his shoulderbag to get his apartment keys.

People thought Sin City was a place of fiction. They saw the glittering lights, they heard the music of the gaming floor, but they never went beyond that. They didn't realize that there was another world within this city. Of course, people knew that there was gambling going on, some even acknowledged the prostitution, that's as far as anyone wished to look. Kaye worked in a free clinic as a nurse. He saw first hand the evils of this sparkling city. Everyday, young men and women- children really- came in, to get the free blood tests that they offered. More than half of them would receive the worst of news, effectively ending their lives. He saw the bruises on faces, the trackmarks on arms, broken bones. The three behind him were probably among the young souls that came in, now trying to boost their image by taking down a 'helpless' man on the street.

Kaye made it into the apartment building before the three were able to attack. He hit the code to lock the door, and readjusting his bag, climbed the four flights of stairs to get to his apartment. On the first floor, a young couple was fighting, both sounding drunk. His glasses slipped up his forehead as he pinched the bridge of his nose, then glanced around the apartment. Joe was sitting in the fire escape window, a leg on either side, smoking a cigarette. His slim body was dark, the lights behind him, the tip of his cigarette glowing, iluminating his angular face. The sight of him lifted Kaye's spirits. No matter how bad of a day he had at work, coming home and seeing Joe there, and the day just washed away. The redhead on the window, glanced over at him, looking him up and down.

"Hey babe. You look like hell. What happened to you?" That accent that Kaye could never place, lifting and falling with the words. He loved it, it relaxes him, soothes him, but the day was worse than most. He shook his head, smiling weakly and set his bag on the counter, crossing the room to stand near his friend.

"Three cases of HIV today, and four, four, of full blown AIDS. Not one of them older than 16. The youngest was 13. He cried so hard when I told him, didn't get angry or threatening like most. Just... cried." His breath shook as it came out in a rushing sigh. Kaye's Creole French accent only came out in moments like these, when his emotions were starting to overwhelm him. He dragged his delicate looking fingers back through his brown hair.

Joe tossed his cigarette out the windows, it bounced off the building across the alley, landing on the sidewalk. He swung his long leg over the windowsill back into the room, and took Kaye in his arms. He leaned back, looking into the shorter man's eyes. The normally vibrant green were dull now, dark circles surrounding them. He clucked his tongue at his friend. "How about I make you some tea, hmm? Would that make you feel better?" He chucked Kaye gently under the chin.

The brunet laughed shakily. "Merci, bon." He sat on one of the bar stools at the counter that served them as a kitchen table. "It's heartbreaking. It's not like they can't come in and get protection. Hell, we've got a basket of condoms on the secretary's desk, you just need to sit through a ten minute lecture." He leaned his head on his hands, his fingers buried in his hair. "Ten minutes, it would've saved so many lives. And I'm the one that has to tell them that it's time to start saying goodbye. Even if they could afford medication, most of them are too far gone fo it to do any good, it wouldn't do much for the pain. God, if only it was a free-"

Joe cut him off with a wave of the hand. "I know. I know you'd heal them all if you could." He set the cup of tea down, sitting beside him. "But you can't, so do what you can." He lit another cigarette. "You could have left the clinic, finished medschool, and be working in a plastic surgeon's office. No, don't interupt me. If you had've done that, you wouldn't be the guy you are, you'd be... someone else. So, you work to make the world a better place, I'll do what I can to keep you sane."

Chuckling softly, Kaye raised his head from his hands. "And how do you propose to do that?"

Joe turned, the kitchen small enough that he could reach the fridge without standing, and pulled out a bottle of beer. He waved it back and forth in front of his friend's face. "Like this." He smirked almost playfully.

****

They drank steadily for nearly an hour, Joe doing most of the drinking. Kaye was beginning to relax though, feeling less like curling up in bed and not getting out for days.

Joe told him about his day at work. After spending his teenage years as a street tough, he enjoyed having a real job. He was a general labourer for one of the few construction companies that wasn't run by the mob. Which meant he didn't make much money. The two incomes combined were enough to pay for the shitty little apartment, bills, food and still have a bit to put away for the future. They didn't know what exactly they were saving for; a house, their own business, a farm in the country. Whichever they chose, it would be as far from the city as they could get.

After his third beer, Kaye was starting to finally feel hungry. He watched his friend continue drinking as he cut up some chunks of beef, sliced onion and tossed it all in a frying pan. "Rice to go with it, or noodles?"

"Rice. Got any cucumbers? I'm craving a salad or something crunchy."

Kaye nodded, pulling out a small cucumber from the crisper, slicing it thinly. He put them on a plate, sprinkled them with salt and handed the to Joe along with a small bowl of vinegar. "No dressing, is that ok?"

"Mmph." Joe said around a mouthful of the slices. "Wanna toss a pepper in with the meat? I picked up a few veggies on the way home from work." He gestured with a piece of cucumber to the fridge.

Kaye whipped up a fairly decent meal with the few items. He topped the rice with the beef, peppers and onions. Using a splash of beer, he had made a nice sauce to pour over the lot of it. He set the plates on the counter, and sat across from Joe. They linked fingers, Joe watched Kaye though his lashes as the other man murmured quietly, asking for blessings upon them both, thanking for the meal, and for his friend. He crossed himself before letting go of Joe's hand and picking up his fork. Joe was amazed that Kaye still prayed everyday.

After supper, Joe put a movie on and Kaye turned on a lamp to read a book. His legs curled up under him, he made himself comfortable on the couch next to his friend. Joe waited until Kaye was settled, then stretched out, pillowing his head on a slender thigh.

They had barely made it past the credits when a mad pounding came from the door. Joe rolled from the couch, grabbing his gun from the coffee table. He had it held to his side when Kaye placed a hand on his shoulder. "That's not needed. If someone were going to to try and rob or kill us, they wouldn't knock first."

Joe grunted and slid the gun into the waistband of his jeans at the small of his back, concealing it with his shirt. "Can't be too careful Kaye." The person was knocking again, louder this time. He put himself between Kaye and the door, opening it slightly to peek out.

There was a small old woman in the hallway, a black shawl around her shoulders, silver hair pinned up in a knot on her head. She spoke rapidly in a flurry of spanish, gesturing wildly with her hands. Joe listened for a moment, glanced at Kaye and spoke back to the woman in her language. Kaye raised his eyebrows in surprise, I knew he spoke French, but... before he could comment, Joe nodded. "Kaye, she needs our, well your, help. Her granddaughter is unconcious. It seems her daddy came home with a mean drunk on a few days ago and beat her something fierce. Cut her up bad. They are illegals, and couldnt afford to take her to the hospital. She didn't wake up this afternoon." While he was explaining, he put his arm around the old woman and looked pleadingly at his friend.

"Ok, grab my bag. Its got some basic things in it, penicilin and the like." He put his glasses on and let the old woman lead him up a flight of stairs and down the hall. "Since when do you speak spanish, Joe?" he asked softly out of the corner of his mouth.

"Hey, you don't run the streets with gangs for years without picking up a skill or two." Joe touched the small of his back to make sure his gun hadn't fallen out, and spoke quietly to the woman for a moment. "The girl is five years old. Has a bad fever. Cold sweat."

Kaye nibbled his bottom lip. It sounded like septicemia, but he wouldn't know until he examined her. She was in a small room, a barely more than a walk in closet, looking tiny and delicate in her little bed. She had black hair, that was probably bright when she wasn't sick, but was now dull and limp. In the lamplight, Kaye could see sweat coating her face. A young woman, either the girls mother or sister, was sitting at the bed's side. "Joe, tell them I need to examine her, make sure its not just....cuts she's suffering from." The bruises on the girl's face filled him with dread.

He turned down the covers and made a motion to the woman, asking that she stay in the room in case the girl awoke. There was a deep cut in her upper arm, that one seeming to be the worst. Other gashes striped her back and thighs, looking like she had been beaten with a belt. Hands shaking, he carefully lifted her thigh, terrified of what he would find. Relief flooded through him when he saw there were no telltale bruises on the inside of her thighs. Lookng back at her face, he saw the point in her ears. So that's what Joe meant by Illegals. Demons were treated as second class citizens, worse if they weren't able to limit their power. He brushed his own limiters cuffed to his ear and shook his head. He didn't know why the limiters weren't offered as a free service. It's not as if the spells the preists need to put on them is very draining. A novice could do it. That's why Kaye had had to leave medical school. It had come out that his limiters had come from a novice in training while he was still living in the orphanage down south. The nuns that raised him, and paid for him to go to school were furious, but Kaye did what he could to move on.

"Joe, pen and paper please. I need you go to the clinic." He wrote out a quick list, and explained as best he could on the paper what he needed. "Just give this to Luce at the front desk. She'll get what else we need."

"I'll take the daddy's car." With that he was gone. Kaye hoped he would remember to remove the gun before entering the clinic.

Swearing quietly in french, Kaye turned his attention to the task at hand. The family obvously cared for the little girl, just didn't know how to treat her injuries. The cuts were all bandaged, but left that way. Either they didn't know that they had to, or didn't have enough bandages to change them often. The blood had dried from the cut on her arm, sticking the bandage to it. "What can I do?" asked the young woman. The sorrow in her eyes confirmed that she was the mother.

"Some warm water please. I need to loosen the bandages before I can do anything. And does she have any allergies?" A shake of a head as the woman left for the kitchen, coming back a few minutes later with a large bowl and a cloth, as well as a glass of cool water.

"For you," she held the water out, ducking her head at Kaye's thankful smile. He looked around, saw the bathroom and went in to scrub his hands before working. From his bag he pulled out a pair of latex gloves and snapped them on.

"Do you know what he hurt her with?"

"Big knife. He usually carries it around with him." Her voice was bitter. Kaye could understand. If he had have been in the woman's position... No point in thinking like that now.

"Not the first time, is it? Mon dieu. Is she an only child? No, ok." The woman had stopped talking, nodding or shaking her head as was needed, now only clutching her daughter's hand and stroking her hair.

While he worked, he explained what he was doing. The last thing they needed was for the woman to panic while he was in the middle of administering a shot. He had figured out what happened. The knife was dirty, the wounds not tended properly. The cuts had turned septic. Deadly if not treated quickly and properly. He didn't have enough penicilin in his bag, and what he did was in pill form. The amount he needed, and for it to work fast, he needed to give an injection. He waited anxiously for Joe to return. He soaked the bandages, gently peeling them back slowly, so as not to tear the skin further. He threw them all in a nearby trash can, and went about bathing the injuries. For the lashings on her back, he spread an antibacterial ointment. The hiss and whimper were the first real signs of life from the girl. "It just stings. It means it's doing it's job." Kaye told the mother, who had jumped up at the sound. "It's best if she stays asleep, it will help her recover more quickly."

"I got the stuff." Joe was back, standing in the doorway, a paper bag in hand. "The secretary looked like she'd done this before."

"There was a homeless guy that needed stitches, but I couldn't convince him to come into the office. Please, hold her still Madam." Kaye filled a large needle with the dosage he needed, for a demon her size, it would be slightly more than a full grown male human. He injected her swiftly, broke the needle- he didn't want to add yet another contaminated needle to the streets- and began carefully spreading the ointment on her cuts. He let them air for a while since they were no longer bleeding. By the time he wound fresh bandages on them, he was exhausted and fell asleep holding the girl's hand.

*****

The room was quiet, save for the girl's now relaxed breathing. Good, the medicine is starting to work. He sat up, looked for his glasses and massaged the shoulder he had fallen asleep on. From his chair in the tiny bedroom, he could see out into the livingroom where Joe was sitting, his head bent over his lap, shaking back and forth every so often.

"Who's a widdle woozen woo? You's a widdle woozen woo!" He nodded rapidly, his scarlet hair dancing. "Uh huh!" There was a shriek of happy laughter, as two tiny fists grabbed ahold of Joe's hair and tugged. "Aww, look how strong the woozen is! Ow, 'kay kid, that's startin' to hurt!"

Kaye leaned against the doorframe, watching in amazement. He knew that his friend liked children, but he didn't know that he was so good with them. "A woozen?"

Joe looked up sheepishly. The baby still had a firm grip on his shoulderlength hair, so he couldn't lift his head too high. "Uh, yeah. It sounds better than gremlin, or twerp, dontcha think?"

"I suppose it does. But, why are you holding the, um, woozen?"

Transfering the baby boy from his lap to his chest, Joe stood up and peeked in on the girl to see how she was doing. "The mother had to go to work, and Nana was about to drop from exhaustion just like you. I told her to get some sleep, I'd watch the baby for her." He patted the little boy's bottom, and bounced as he paced the room. "I'm off work for the long weekend, so its not like I didn't have the free time. 'Sides, I like kids." He held the baby in front of his face. "I like's 'em for dinner!" and he buried his face in the boy's tummy and raspberried. He grinned at his friend. "Do you wanna feed the little squirt?"

Kaye picked up the bottle that Joe gestured to and took the baby, sitting on the couch. The formula had been warmed already. "Here, hold his head like-"

"I'm a nurse Joe, I've held children before."

"Well turn him to your other side, they like hearing your heartbeat when you feed them."

They sat side by side, taking turns holding the infant and the bottle until he fell asleep. Whenever one of them tried to move, he baby's face screwed up in a pout and he started to sniffle unhappily in his sleep, so they sat like that, the boy across there laps. Joe had his hand lightly on the boy's chest to feel him breathing.

"The girl alright now?" They spoke in whispers.

"Her temperature had dropped considerably when I left the room, and she actually rolled over on her own. I think she'll be fine."

"That's good. You did a good job."

Kaye smiled slightly, still looking down at the baby between them. His nose scrunched up, and he rubbed at his eye, but didn't wake.

"You want one, don't you?"

Joe looked around, then turned to whisper conspiritorially to his friend. "Well, Nana's still asleep. Why don't we take this one?" He was reaching down for the diaper bag when Kaye punched him in the arm. "No? Well, don't say I didn't offer." He chuckled and let his head fall back, resting on Kaye's shoulder with a large yawn.

The elderly woman found them like that, heads resting against one another, fingers twined together, the baby still contentedly asleep between them. She clucked her tongue loudly. Well there's a waste of two perfectly good looking men. She thought with a huff. After checking on her granddaughter, and staring at the two for a long moment she decided to leave them that way. They looked like they needed the sleep. And they are not a sneeze to look at.

Back to index

Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Author's Notes:

Chapter two is up. Woo.

The story is getting obviously darker from here on out. But I think I may keep everything 'suggestive' rather than graphic, let me know which you think would be better.

  One of Cole's many cookies to the first person to figure out who Seth and Trevor are!

Detective Sean Golden had almost cried the day they had forbidden smoking in the precinct. That was also about the time that people began telling him that he was getting wrinkles between his eyes. So, whenever he got the chance, he would sneak smokes in the men's room, interrogation rooms, even that one time in the janitor's closet. The second time he had gone back there, he had walked in an offbeat cop getting a blowjob from one of the lunch ladies. He had gritted his teeth, broke his cigarette and walked off, shaking the sight from his mind. He was now in the parking lot, leaning against his car waiting for his new rookie partner to finish up handing in some paperwork. The one good thing about rookies, they very rarely objected to becoming their partner's personal pet monkey.

Cole looked too young to already have a gold shield, but the background check had come back clean. There had been an incident at Cole's old precinct, and so was now being retrained with Sean. And what was more, he was too damn cheerful to be such a good detective. Sean was of the belief that in order to become a truly good detective in this town, you needed to be even more jaded than the criminals you were trying to apprehend. When he explained his theory to his new partner, the young man had laughed and taken them out for ice cream.

Det. Sean was a slender, skinny really, man with blonde hair and the kind of blue eyes that absorbed the colours around them. Because of the dark circles around his eyes, the blue usually turned a light lilac. His mop of hair was naturally highlighted, with white blonde near the tips, darkening to corn silk yellow at the roots. His delicate features, full lips and high cheekbones made people think he was weak. The only time he used that was when he was in an interview with a suspect or witness. Women opened up to him, feeling safe, while men thought he was weak, and wanted to brag.

He took one more long drag from his Marlboro and ground the butt under his booted heel. He didn't understand the other detectives that wore dress shoes, or even suits. He wore comfortable dark jeans, an old black bowling jersey with the name Jake on it and well-worn, comfortable boots. He knew, chances were if he tried to arrest someone, they would take one look at his slight build and think they could run. And his commanding officer had reprimanded him for using so many bullets, so now he had to actually chase the suspect down.

His partner finally came out of the building with a wave, pulling a schoolbag onto his back. Sean figured he had food in the bag, in the time he's known the kid, he hadn't stopped eating. How he stayed so fit, he had no idea. Ah well, when his metabolism catches up, he'll regret it. "It's 'bout time you got out here, we have to do a follow up about that kid they found in the park." Sean slammed the car door behind himself, turning the key in the ignition.

Cole looked over at him from his seat, a chocolate bar in his mouth as he buckled his seatbelt. "Mrrf?"

"The ME found a card in his pocket to a clinic over in the poorest part of town. Considering how posh the area was that we found him in, it was probably a body dump. Gotta work our way backwards. We'll start by finding out what he was doing at the clinic. Keep your phone on though, the Doc is gonna call if he finds out anything important." He eased the car out of the parking lot, and took the quickest route to the address on the card.

The clinic they came to was a medium sized two story building, with wire mesh in the glass and bars over the windows. There was a sign with Open 24 hours written in several different languages. He parked the car in one of the few free spaces, locked the door. If I come out and the car's on blocks, I'm gonna shoot something.

"Hi." Cole stepped in front of his partner to speak to the secretary. He didn't think it was a good idea for Sean to do the talking. He had a tendency of making people angry. "We were hoping we could speak to someone who works here. A Mr Kaye la Croix . Is he in today?"

The secretary took the photocopy of the card, looking at it over her glasses. "He might be. What do you want with him?" She asked suspiciously. "I'm sorry, but we don't like cops around here. No matter how... pretty they might be." She eyed Sean meaningfully.

"I understand your position, but we need to speak with this man. We doubt he had anything to do with it, but we are investigating a murder, and this card was found on the body, with Mr. la Croix's name written on it. So either he's here and you will call him out, or he's not, and you will tell me where to find him." Sean was beginning to wish he had finished his cigarette before coming here.

Diana, the secretary huffed, brushed a strand of gray hair out of her face and hit a button on her phone. "Kaye, sweetie, there's someone to see you."

An attractive young man in nursing scrubs came out of the room behind her, tossing some gloves in a biohazard can. "Diana, you know, you could have just turned around, I would have heard you. Is it an appointment, or a walk-in that's here?" He looked to where the woman was pointing, and Sean flashed his badge. "Oh. Hello, may I help you, officer...?"

'Detective. I'm Sean Golden, this is my partner, Cole Mason. We'd like to speak with you in private if we could."

Kaye looked from one man to the other. "I have a full roster of patients. I can't exactly leave them sitting, waiting for me. But my next one is just waiting on results from a test, so you can talk to me while I get the print out."

Sean grimaced but shrugged. "That's fine." They followed the nurse into a second small room.

"Sorry about the mess, but our janitor quit this week and we haven't hired a new one yet." He motioned for them to sit on the hard plastic chairs while he signed on to the office computer. "So, what is this about?"

"A few days ago, you saw a boy, his name was Tony. He was-"

"Thirteen years old, five feet, four inches tall, 119 pounds, brown hair, blue eyes. Tested positive for AIDS." Kaye shot them a weak smile. "I remember most of my patients Detective. What happened to him?"

"We found his body in St. Andrews park last night. He had been strangled. We're just trying to find out what happened to him. You said he was Positive?"

"Yes. He was usually quite good at wearing condoms for work, but he said that one broke. All it takes is one." He shot a look at both the men. "Why are you so interested in him now that he's dead. A thirteen year old prostitute, and no one gave a damn about him while he was alive. But now that his body has sullied some rich person's jogging spot, you want to find out what he dared to be doing there?" He spoke through gritted teeth.

Cole reached forward and placed a hand on Kaye's knee. "It's not like that at all. I worked in Vice for three years, trying to get kids up off the streets, I know what you do for people like him. What we are looking to do is make sure that what happened to him, won't happen to someone else. If you help us, maybe we will get the bastard that did it, and that might save one of those guys out in your waiting room."

"You're right, I'm sorry. I've just had a bad week. Tell me what you want to know." He picked up some sheets of paper from the printer and jerked his head, beckoning them to follow.

"Did he mention who he was with that got him sick?"

"Not by name. He just implied that if it got out, it would be bad. I geuss it got out." He shook his head sadly, then squared his shoulders. "Excuse me a moment."

"Hello there Mrs. Anderson. I got the results back from your test. We have some good news. The baby is perfectly healthy, it must have just been some early contractions."

The detectives sat themselves out in the waiting room, both too uncomfortable to be in the same room as a pregnant woman. While waiting, Sean leaned his head back against the wall, and looked at his partner out of the corner of his eyes. "I knew you were in Vice, but I thought you'd be on the drug team."

"Nah, as soon as I got my shield, they posted me on prostitution. Don't ask me why. I made some good contacts in the city though. A few informants, that sort of thing. But, I'm glad to be out of there. I know it sounds strange, but I prefer being on Homicide. Dead people can't look at me with those eyes, you know, that whole 'why is the world like this?' sort of thing." Cole shook his head and dug around in his pocket for something to eat. "That thing in there, that 'We're all in this together' speech, I perfected that my first month on the job. Maybe it's because I actually believe it. I dunno. Ack, I'm getting angsty now. I'm gonna go ask the secretary if I can have one of the cookies she has at her desk." With that, the younger man pushed off the chair and went to talk to the woman.

Sean's eyes followed after him, one one eyebrow cocked as he tried to figure his new partner out. He wasn't able to think about it for too long before he noticed a tall red haired man stroll in. He was too casual to be a patient, didn't look exhausted enough to be one of the nurses, but he greeted the woman at the front desk like he new her well. Sean took note of him, and tried to ignore him when he disappeared into the office he had been speaking with Kaye in. Waiting for the nurse to finish with his patients was beginning to wear on his nerves, so he got up to read some of the articles on the walls. He had made it through the third write up about the good work the clinic was doing when Cole came over to him, chewing on a large cookie. "Mr la Croix is done with his last patient, the secretary said that he was able to rearrange things so the other nurses could pick up the rest of them. He's waiting for us in the office." He gestured with his cookie.

They found the nurse back at the computer, but the redhead was also there. The two were close, talking quietly over the clacking of keys. Scarlet eyes burning, the taller man whirled up out of his chair. "Where the hell do you get off, coming down here, interrupting people at their work, it's not like-"

Kaye placed a hand on Joe's elbow. "It's alright. This isn't really about me. It's just about the patient I spoke to you about, the young one."

Sean crossed his arms over his chest. It was obvious that this new man was pointedly placing himself between the detectives and the young nurse, like a bear protecting her cubs. Probably more like a wolf protecting his mate. Sean thought, noting the way that they brushed fingers after Kaye slid his hand down from his friend's wrist.

"Okay," Cole rolled his eyes and waved his hands. "We just need to speak to you about a few more things, than we will be on our way."

"Yes, that's fine." Kaye finished what he was doing with the computer, signed off, then turned in his seat to give the detectives his full attention. He scowled at Joe until he sat down as well. "What else would you like to know? I doubt I know anything that would be overly helpful."

Sean reached into his pocket to pull out a pad of paper and a pen, taking notes of any information he could glean from the nurse. "Do you know of anyone, other than the person that Tony caught the HIV from, that would want to hurt him?"

"I'm not sure. He didn't open up to me that much. I don't know how long he's been working, where he even lived."

"Do you know if he was friends with any of your other regular patients?"

Green eyes lit up. "Why yes, he spent some time with two patients of ours." He began digging in the drawer of the desk, flipping through files. "I suppose this isn't exactly a breach of confidence if I give this to you." He handed over a sheet of paper with a name and a photo on it. "Trevor and Seth come in fairly regularily. They are some of the few patients we have that are not social write offs, as some people might put it. Seth actually works with Joe, and Trevor is doing correspondence for his college entrance exams."

The photo was of a small blond, hair sticking out on one side. He looked a good deal younger than he really was. His eyes were somewhat clouded, his smile crooked.

"Blind. Was hit in the head a couple of years ago." a small, sad smile flashed on Kaye's lips. "If you call them, they might be able to shed some more light onto Tony's life. I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you more."

**************

There was a stabbing pain behind Sean's left eye by the time they had tracked down the two young men that the nurse had directed them to. Trevor had invited them in, offered them tea. His blind eyes were a pale blue, and he had an easy smile as the detectives introduced themselves.

"Is it alright if we wait until Seth comes home? He went to the store downstairs to get some milk."

Sean nodded, sipping his tea. Cole was having trouble keeping himself from trying to help the boy with the dishes, afraid he was going to hurt himself. He had actually gotten out of his seat to take a pairing knife away from him when the door opened. The man that came in was wearing a dusty green and black jacket. He had dark brown hair and glasses, and stood about an inch and a half above Sean. He looked from one man to the other, and not taking his eyes from them, he gently caressed blond hair, bending in to place a kiss over a sightless eye. "Trevor, why are there two strange men sitting in our kitchen?"

Trevor's eyes widened in mock horror. "There is? Where?" He stretched his hands out, waving frantically for a moment before chuckling softly. He sobered quickly though. "They want to ask us about Tony."

"I was wondering when someone would get around to talking to us. What would you like to know...?"

They made quick introductions, then Sean placed the photo they had of the young boy. "This is him? Alrght, I'm not going to mince words, this boy was murdered. Strangled. We know he was a sex worker, and we know he had contracted HIV recently. So our standing theory at the moment is that he was killed by whoever infected him. What we need to know, is if you could help us track down that person."

"We weren't close with Tony, he just crashed at our place from time to time, if he got chased out the place he usually slept at." Seth lit a cigarette, and began gesturing with it. "No, I don't know where he stayed. All he ever said was that it was with a few other kids, and sometimes the cops would chase them out."

"Where did you meet him?" Cole was writing down everything that was being said in his notebook.

"A diner a couple of blocks from here. We had lunch together. Trev makes friends easily." He glanced down at the boy, his mouth twisted for a moment. "Maybe a little too easily. About a month ago, we took Tony to a soup kitchen that Trevor volunteers at, not too far from the Strip. This big beast of a guy came in after about forty five minutes or so, asking for Tony."

"He started hitting on me." Trevor sneered into his cup of tea. "At least I think he was hitting on me."

"It was more like he was trying to recruit him." Seth placed a protective hand over a slender shoulder. "But he stopped when he saw Tony, and pretty much dragged the kid out of there. We saw him once more, last week I think it was, and that's it."

"What did this guy look like? You said a beast, so what, scraggly, unkempt?"

"Nah, he was pretty well groomed. Maybe six foot six, seven. Shoulder's like a football player. Wore a suit, high quality, but not tailor made."

"He hunched over when he talked to me. His breath got closer when he was talking, further away when he wasn't." Trevor explained.

"If you want my theory, this guy wasn't a pimp exactly, but from what little Tony told us, he might have been higher up in the food chain. A definite predator though."

"So you think Tony was involved in a ring?"

Seth nodded, taking a final long drag from his cigarette and stubbing it out.

"It makes sense." Cole's nostrils flared in anger. "A kid his age is going to be working for clients with a very specific taste, if you know what I mean. And rings are usually safest for clients like that." He wrote a bit more in his notebook. "One last thing, did Tony ever tell you the names of any of the people he worked for?"

"No, all I know is that he did a lot of group work. Entertainment for parties, that sort of thing. And that he was trying to get out of it." And that's what got him killed. It didn't need to be said, they all knew it.

"Thank you for your time." The two detectives rose, and Sean left his card on the table. "If you remember anything else, my personal number is on there, so it doesnt matter what time, just call. Leave a message if you have to."

Sean lit up another cigarette as soon as they were out of the building. He inhaled gratefully, letting the smoke flow out in a long steady stream. "This case is gonna fucking suck balls." He muttered, pushing his glasses up to pinch the bridge of his nose. He grimaced when Cole's phone started chiming. Ignoring the one sided conversation, he finished his smoke.

"That was the ME, they want us to go down and take a look at some things he found."

After slamming his cardoor, Sean tried to work some of the kinks out of his neck. This case was beginning to hit a little too close to home for him. He glanced over at his partner. "You wish you had have stayed in Vice?"

Cole shook his head, chewing on one of the cookies Trevor had given him. "I think I'm going to be able to actually do something with this case."

"Here's hoping."

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