Untouchable (LGBT - SciFi - Romance)

Chapter 21

There was a deafening silence, and the shock was clearly visible on Robin Lang's face.

"Well, isn't that curious?" Stewart spoke for the first time. "I didn't know there were two of us!"

He took the scarf off his head and showed Smith the ID on his wristcom.

"Will you call Captain Martinez? We need to report the death," he prodded Lang. "I expect he'll be very interested in this."

While they all waited for Captain Martinez to arrive, Stewart stepped outside into the passage to call Michael Banner. He made sure he deleted all records of any prior calls first. If Captain Martinez wanted to check his wrist com for any reason, he didn't want him to find anything that could be used against Robin Lang.

"I'm sorry, Michael, I think I'm going to be tied up here for some time. It looks like we've stumbled onto a possible crime scene. We're still at the Sahara and one of the staff here has just found a dead body. Don't wait up for me, we'll have that nightcap another time. Love you, Alan."

Now where had that come from? He'd been carefully recording a prepared speech that he was willing to show Martinez but the last few words hadn't been part of it. His hand hovered over the wristcom – too late to delete it now, the message had already been sent. He realised he didn't want to delete it, even if he could. He hoped Banner would read between the lines and not worry too much. He really wished he was back in the hotel room with him instead of here, in the middle of another almighty mess.

~~~

Banner listened to the message for the third time. What the fuck had Robin Lang dragged Alan into this time? A dead body sounded serious – he could only hope it didn't end with Alan getting arrested again! He was worried sick. He desperately wanted to talk to him, but he guessed from the wording of the message that Alan needed him to stay out of it. If it hadn't been for the last three words, he would have felt seriously pissed off. He poured himself another drink. He couldn't possibly go to sleep until he'd seen Alan return safely to the hotel.

~~~

Captain Martinez arrived eventually with a couple of Patrol Officers in tow, and a Patrol Medic. Smith went out to meet him while the other two men stayed with the corpse, standing back against the wall and ensuring no one else entered the room.

Robin Lang could hear Smith explaining how he'd found the body as they came down the passage, and was thankful once again he'd let someone else make the discovery. He told Martinez exactly what he had done since his arrival at the club. He didn't even have to lie, as no one thought to ask him whether it was the first time he had been there that evening.

Alan Stewart was vague as to the exact time he had arrived at the Sahara, but other than that, gave Martinez a straightforward account of his movements. Captain Martinez didn't need anyone to point out to him the strong possibility that this man and Max's attacker were one and the same. One look at the size of the body was all he needed, even before he got a DNA match. He was all ears when he heard the man had used Stewart's name to book the room.

"Any idea why he used your name?" he asked Stewart interestedly.

"A smokescreen? That's all I can think of. He evidently wanted to be incognito. I've never met him to the best of my knowledge, but apparently he knew about me. That we were the same height, I mean, and likely to visit the Sahara."

Martinez nodded ‒ it sounded feasible. "Officer Russo will take your statements and then you're free to go. I'll be in touch if I need anything further, Captain, Lieutenant."

Ten minutes later found both men walking back to the Blue Nova, an uncomfortable silence between them. Rather reluctantly, Stewart walked at Lang's side. It would have been too silly to walk in single file.

Lang felt obliged to break the silence. "All good so far. My story seems to be holding up."

"So are you going to tell me the real story now?" Stewart asked after a weighty pause.

"The real story?" the other man prevaricated.

"Yes, Robin. Like how you found him and how you ended up together in that room in the Sahara," Stewart spelt it out clearly.

There was a painful silence. He couldn't possibly tell Alan that! Better to have his resentment than his disgust.

Stewart peered at Lang's tightly closed face in the dim street light. It didn't take him long to jump to conclusions. "Fuck! You knew him, didn't you? Was he your lover?"

"No!" Robin Lang's face twisted in revulsion. "I was in love with Pauline. I've never loved anyone else. I'm not an om!"

"Maybe not, but you had sex with him," Stewart guessed.

Lang was silent.

"Do you know his real name?"

"No."

"Did he know yours?" Stewart persisted.

Silence.

"Sweet god, Robin! What on earth did you get yourself into? Was he blackmailing you?"

"No! No, I only found out tonight that he knew who I was," he was finally driven to elaborate.

"Come on, you'd better tell me the rest of it. I think I have a right to know. After all, you've involved me in this now too." He just hoped Robin was telling him the truth about the blackmail. If he had killed the man deliberately, it put a whole new spin on the situation. An accident was one thing, murder something else entirely!

Another lengthy silence, then, "I'd ring him a few times a year to arrange a meeting. Anonymous numbers, disposable wristcoms, no way for either of us to trace the other ‒ or at least that's what I thought." Lang spoke in such a low voice that Stewart could only just hear him. "We'd meet at the Sahara, in one of the back rooms."

He stopped and Stewart waited. Lang drew a deep breath. "I rang him the very day it all happened. He said he couldn't meet me at the Sahara, other commitments, and we arranged to meet the next night. That's why I never even suspected him. I knew ‒ I thought I knew ‒ he wasn't going to be there."

"Right. You'd rather suspect your oldest friend," Stewart put in bitterly. He still didn't know if he would ever forgive Robin for that.

Lang flinched as if Stewart had hit him. He made himself continue.

"When Max described his voice to me, I realised it must have been him, the man I'd been meeting. I contacted him via the usual channels and arranged to meet him tonight at the Sahara. As soon as we got in the room, I threatened him with the stunner, made him tell me the name of the second man. That's when he told me he knew who I was. He threatened me and Max and I shot him, I couldn't help myself, but I didn't intend to kill him."

"What were you going to do then, if he hadn't died?"

Lang gave a choked laugh, "To be honest, I hadn't thought that far ahead. I wasn't expecting him to know me. Before that, I'd planned to make an anonymous call to Martinez."

He looked up at Stewart's sceptical face. "You don't believe me, do you?" He gave another one of those choked off laughs. "You know what's really ironic? At one stage, I'd almost decided I was going to kill him. I had two stunners with me, one set to 'kill' and the other on 'stun'. I finally chose to use the 'stun' and I end up killing him anyway!"

It was that, which made Stewart decide Robin Lang might be telling him the truth.