Chapter 539 – Clay Lays It All Out
I was all ears, waiting to hear what Clay had to tell me about his investigations and potential news story that he was so concerned might get him fired for reporting. The boy was definitely nervous as hell, as he contemplated what he should do about the information he obtained. Should he go public with a breaking news story, or squelch it and act like he never discovered anything, thus keeping his job and his career. Clay was torn, but he just had to tell me what he found out. I couldn’t wait to hear, as we huddled together in the office at the CNB, me waiting excitedly to hear what he had to say.
“Like I said, Clay, I’m all ears. Spill it, and let’s see what it is that you’re so worried about,” I told him. He asked me for another beer, having downed the first one in is nervousness to have me help him figure out what he needed to do. Anxiously, I got up, and hailed Lance to bring us another beer. Lance gave Clay a look over when he returned with the beer.
“Anything else you need here, Mr. Newsman?” Lance asked, rather seductively. Clay looked at him rather surprised.
“Just some privacy here, Lance. Thank you, and goodbye,” I told him, ushering him quickly out of the office. Clay looked puzzled as to what that was all about. I told him to go on with what he had to tell me.
“Okay here goes. I have someone in the president of the University’s office that shared some e-mails with me, Josh. This guy stumbled upon them when he was doing routine file maintenance, deleting any files that weren’t necessary. These emails had been designated to be deleted to free up file space, as I understand it. Anyway, they are rather incriminating, in the sense they are between the president, Hastings, Weinstein and Seward, an email cluster group regarding the new Science building. Anyway, he showed them to me on his laptop. I swear they show the president was getting a substantial amount of money facilitated by Hastings for the deal W&S Construction company put together for the Science building,” Clay told me. I was shocked.
“You have to be kidding. Are you sure that’s what they meant, and you and the guy didn’t misinterpret something else to mean what you think it means?” I asked, totally shocked as to the existence of something so incriminating.
“Absolutely sure, Josh. There was even an amount of $200K mentioned for the president’s role in putting all this together. Now, they disguised the wording of the emails to make it look like this was normal banking protocol which happened to reach the president’s personal email, but it’s got a university email address, and not the president’s personal email on his own private server, but came in to the president’s private email using the university server ending in .edu. There wasn’t any gmail involved. It was the university’s email under the president’s name, which is for official university business,” Clay informed me.
“Good grief. How did this guy stumble onto this? Did he hack into the president’s email?” I asked, still somewhat shocked.
“No hacking was done. He’s just supposed to delete emails that have been designated to be deleted every so often, that have been cleared by the president’s office for deletion. He called it some kind of re-org, maintenance they do to get rid of things that aren’t needed to free up space for new stuff. There are literally thousands of emails that are deleted monthly. Supposedly, anything that doesn’t have to be saved and stored forever, under the Freedom of Information Act, can be destroyed. This guy, that let me read these emails, says he can’t help but scroll through some of them just for entertainment value to see who is up to what. He said you’d be surprised at all the emails setting up clandestine meetings with subject matters such as ‘quarterly budget meeting’, when in reality it was someone wanting to meet someone somewhere for sex. He says, as a result of his email destruction maintenance, he knows who’s sleeping with who. He said he could write a book on all the affairs going on in the faculty at the university, including the president, who seems to have quite the affection for Mr. Hastings, if you can imagine that. There were several references to his basement man cave, that didn’t make any sense to him, but the president and Hastings liked to get together in that man cave for beers and discussions from time to time, also meeting with others there,” Clay informed me. I rolled my eyes remembering Dylan telling us about having to piss on Hastings in his basement. Good grief, could the president of the university be into that kinky shit also? I had to wonder.
“Don’t know what that’s all about, but it establishes the fact, the two were friends and more familiar with one another than a business handshake,” I replied.
“Definitely. Anyway, with the information we have, a forensic investigator could figure out what all was said in these emails. I mean, the guy that showed them to me, could figure out there was some kind of payoff going on there that smelled to high Heaven. I got the same impression, before he told me his opinion. I’m telling you, Josh, the president is guilty as hell here. He got his money already, and Weinstein and Seward didn’t get the job. Not only didn’t they get the job, but they have to pay hefty fines for damages that have yet to be determined. One of the last emails between Hastings and our dear Uni president, asked if he was going to return a retainer of sorts for a known project. Get this, he replied. ‘tough shit’. That was his reply. Can you believe that?” Clay asked. I shook my head in disbelief.
“Okay, so you have emails you’re fairly certain incriminate the Uni president for accepting money to steer the Science building project to Weinstein and Seward, with Hastings being the money man providing the incentive to do so. Why does this have to be reported immediately. If you have the emails, why the rush?” I had to ask, wondering why this was an urgent matter.
“The emails in question were to have been destroyed today, but our guy didn’t destroy them. He didn’t destroy any of the emails sanctioned to be destroyed, so he didn’t alert anyone that there was a problem. He was asked why the file hadn’t been purged later this afternoon, and he just told them he’d do it tomorrow, as he was backed up with other maintenance. This is a fairly routine monthly procedure that he takes care of. Anyway, these emails in question would have been destroyed today, except he thought, what he stumbled across, was pretty important,” Clay explained. “Josh, he has to do the maintenance tomorrow or the system may blow up. If he offloads any of these, he could get caught. If I am to expose this wrongdoing, I have to do it tonight, so the records can be sealed and held as evidence. That’s why it’s important that I do this tonight, if we’re ever going to expose what happened,” Clay explained. Now, with what Clay told me it all made sense.
“How can he keep from getting caught, if you expose what was discovered? Won’t they know he exposed the emails?” I asked.
“No, because, according to him, there are over 10 people that could have accessed this maintenance file and discovered them. After tomorrow, if he doesn’t delete the emails, there’s only him that would be responsible for that. If I expose this tonight on the 6:00 or 10:00 news, then it’s possible the emails will be sequestered and off loaded as evidence. I intend to turn all this over to the police just as soon as I break the story. Our guy has them protected, where no one can delete them now. Plus, he has them on a thumb drive for safe keeping, just in case someone tries to do anything crazy. Not only that, but he mapped them in the system, so if anyone was successful in deleting them, there is a roadmap of where they were and their existence, so that will only lead to a charge of obstruction of justice by trying to destroy evidence. Our techy is working on his forensic investigation degree as a tech to trace and find data. I have to say, he’s damned good at what he does. Also, he’s great at hacking without getting caught. Again, he said the information he finds would send half the university to divorce court,” Clay said smiling.
“So, time is of the essence here, so you say. Do you have the thumb drive with the emails, by chance?” I asked. Clay smiled.
“Why, you want to see these gems?” Clay asked, smiling. I shook my head.
“Hell yes, but most importantly, I think we need Jordan and Nate to examine them to make sure you’re not sticking you dick out there, just to get it cut off, Clay. If you’re going to go for the gold here, let’s make sure the gold is there first, before you suffer irreparable damage. Let’s play it safe,” I suggested.
“Sounds great, Josh. But, like I said, time is of the essence, so how soon can they take a look at these?” Clay asked. I picked up the phone and got Jordan. I gave him a quick briefing on what Clay thought he had, and asked if he and Nate could look at these to see if there was really something there, or Clay was just pissing in the wind. Jordan said he and Nate would be right over.
“Josh, I have never been so scared in all my life. I can’t believe I might expose the Uni president for wrongdoing. This is the type of thing that could get me killed,” Clay said, putting his head down in his hands. I patted him on the back.
“Or win you a Pulitzer, Clay. Good Lord, we have to rely on responsible journalism to keep our government officials honest and doing their job responsibly. So much of journalism today is made up of partisan hacks trying to sell us their fucked up agendas, and not telling us what’s really going on. Thank goodness you do have the balls to come forth with this information and alert the public as to what happened. Uni is a state institution, supported by taxpayer dollars. If the Uni president is guilty for selling us out, then he needs to go to jail, to show others that follow him, they are a steward of the citizens of this state, and must spend ta payer dollars in the appropriate manner as deemed by the legislature of the state, not have it funneled back into the pockets of our government officials. This just makes me sick, as if you couldn’t tell,” I told him.
“Josh, I feel the same way. I believe the public needs to know what went on here. The embarrassment wasn’t enough. Our Uni president probably laughed about it afterwards, as, after all, he didn’t suffer any loss. He got his take out of the deal. So what if Weinstein and Seward, along with Hastings got fucked. They gambled, and they lost. Mr. Bigshot got off free and clear. Who’s going to incriminate him? He’s too powerful for them to take down, with all the hot water Weinstein and Seward are in right now, including their kids,” Clay replied. I had to agree.
Jordan and Nate showed up, bringing in a beer with them as they arrived, anxious to see the evidence. We put the thumb drive in my desktop computer in the office, and brought up the emails.
“Holy shit,” Jordan said, as he perused just a few of them. Nate agreed. “They have some sort of little code going between them, but to the trained eye, their shit stands out like a ten-inch dick on a midget,” Jordan exclaimed, making Clay and I chuckle. The two read on. “Here’s where $200K is mentioned that has to be transferred by a date over three weeks ago, just before their announcement that backfired on them all,” Jordan continued. “Nate, if you were a prosecuting attorney with this information, could you get a conviction?” Jordan asked Nate.
“If I couldn’t, I shouldn’t even be a lawyer. This is blatant shit, Jord. I mean, you’re right. It reeks of wrong doing and clandestine maneuvers. Wow, I have to say, what you have here is a blockbuster news story, Clay. You better be wearing a steel jock when you break this news. Someone’s coming for your balls for sure,” Nate told him, making Clay feel extremely uncomfortable.
“So, if I was to break this story tonight, and the proverbial shit hits the fan, I’m sure the station, our producer, myself and probably the university will be sued for slander, defamation of character, and whatever else they can dream up. But, if the authorities see all this stuff, can I avoid whoever sues us from being successful, and will charges be brought against them?” Clay asked.
“I would say you have a 95% chance of being successful with your allegations of wrong doing that will lead, at least, to a resignation of the Uni president, and possible charges for malfeasance in office, using the university for personal gain, when he was supposed to be a steward of its assets. In short, he fucked over the state and its taxpaying citizens,” Jordan told him.
“You feel certain, I should expose this tonight then?” Clay asked one more time.
“Why does it have to be tonight?” Jordan asked. “You have the emails. They’re not going anywhere.” Clay explained how they were discovered, and how he was informed of them. Both Nate and Jordan then understood, that to prevent their destruction and disappearance forever, Clay had to act tonight or get some innocent techie in deep shit trouble, which the guy was trying to avoid.
“Let me just say this, that your techie is going to get a call tonight a few minutes after Clay delivers the news, telling him to destroy all the files that you say should have been destroyed today. He needs to tell them that the files are sealed, as he received specific instructions from the state attorney general’s office they are to be preserved,” Jordan told him.
“Yeh, but that’s not true. How can he get away with that?” Clay asked. Jordan smiled.
“I’m going to call Baxter, a bulldog attorney I work with at times here in town at my old firm. He’s a personal friend of our state attorney general, and he’s going to make a call to get your guy the authorization he needs to preserve the files. But, here’s what I want you to get your guy to do. You need to tell him to ask, whoever calls him, on whose authority it is, directing him to destroy the files. It will be interesting to find out who directed the destruction of the files, as that will make them an accessory to the crime, getting them into some deep shit,” Jordan replied. Clay, all of a sudden, seemed to lighten up.
“Wow, I could use that in my report, that the state attorney general’s office will be investigating these allegations. That puts some balls into the story and may just protect my balls,” Clay replied, feeling much better about dropping his new atomic bomb. “Guys, can I write out what I’m going to say, and have you two read, critique and correct anything you think I shouldn’t say, then add anything you think I should say, just so I feel like I legally said the right things?” Clay asked.
“Shit, Nate, I think we just got reduced from corporate attorneys to copywriters for our local newscaster. That’s a hell of a demotion,” Jordan commented, chuckling. I rolled my eyes.
“I’ll make it up to you somehow, guys. It’s important that Clay gets it right. You know, to reduce the lawsuits that will be flying at him and the station,” I reminded them. They both smiled, then said they knew what needed to be done.
“Nate, you read Clay’s copy and do any re-writes. I need to call Baxter, and get the ball rolling on this so Clay can make his statement about the attorney general getting involved,” Jordan told Nate.
Jordan got up and called Baxter on his cell. “Well, it’s about time you answered my phone when I call you,” Jordan said, starting off his call to Baxter. I could tell he got barked at from the other end, the bulldog unleashing on Jordan, even though they were becoming better friends all the time, more so than when Jordan worked for his old firm. “Hey, I have something you might be interested in,” Jordan said, as the two got into a deep discussion, Jordan answering a hell of a lot of questions, as if he was being cross examined by Baxter. Meanwhile, Clay was typing away at my computer, and Nate was looking over his shoulder, giving him suggestions on how to word certain things without sounding like a lawyer, but keeping the structure in place factual and to the point.
Jordan finally hung up with Baxter. “Baxter is excited about what’s about to happen. He said consider the attorney general’s investigation into this a done deal. Baxter says he’s hated the Uni president for some time. He said the guy was trying to give him grief over embarrassing him at the fraudulent announcement the president made. Baxter said it was about time they knocked him down to size, calling him an elitist snob. He is going to call me back in a few minutes to tell me that it’s affirmative the attorney general will be involved, so we’re not fibbing when you make the announcement. He reminded me to have your techie guy seal the records so they can’t be destroyed, Clay. Also, he said if he got in any trouble, or anyone gave your techie buddy any shit, he’d represent him for free. One thing is for sure. You don’t want to be on Baxter’s shit list. Right now, our university’s president in on his shit list. Let’s just say, it’s going to get interesting,” Jordan stated, giving us all some reassurance that what was about to happen was meant to happen. Clay was starting to feel much better about what he was proposing to do.
Clay finished typing and Nate re-read the news copy. He handed it to Jordan to read. Jordan read the copy quickly, smiled, then handed it back to Nate and Clay. Clay quickly typed out another story, with nothing really to say, making us wonder what he was doing with this other innocuous story. “This is the copy of my report my producer will see. If he saw the one I’m going to deliver on camera, I’d be thrown out of the studio and probably shot. This lame story will be written to the teleprompter, but I’m going ‘old school’ on the real one, reading it from my notes and speaking directly to the citizens of this town and state,” Clay said proudly. We all shook our heads.
“If they try anything funny, Clay, I’m sure Baxter will back you up and represent you for sure, as much as he detests the Uni president at the moment,” Jordan assured him, making Clay feel much better.
“I better get going as we’re on the air in an hour. If anything changes with the attorney general, let me know before air time. Josh, you have my cell number. Wish me luck, guys,” Clay asked. I got up and hugged him, telling him how proud I was of him for doing the right thing. Both Jordan and Nate patted him on the back, assuring him he was doing the right thing, and even though he might have to endure some shit for this, in the end, we all knew he was right to do what he was preparing to do. Clay said he felt good now, then took off.
“That producer of his is going to shit his pants when Clay breaks that story,” Nate commented. Jordan chuckled.
“Would love to be there in the studio to see his reaction. Would also love to see the Uni president’s reaction to the story. This is really going to stir up some shit in this town, even get the governor involved, I’d say. I wonder if the asshole president will resign or have to be fired. The board of regents are not going to be happy with the news tonight, and from the news station the university owns. Amazing, is all I can say,” Jordan remarked.
“I think we all need a beer, have some dinner then settle in to watch the 6:00 news with our favorite reporter giving his special news story,” I suggested, with the three of us agreeing.
Kyle had come by to have dinner with us. We filled him in on what was going to take place tonight. He was literally blown away. “Oh, shit. I wonder what that’s going to do to Hal’s and my effort to build the new science building,” Kyle questioned. “Fuck it, even if everything falls through, it’s worth it to bring those guys to justice,” Kyle added. I patted him on the back, telling him I thought there was still hope for his project to succeed, and possibly have a better shot with a new president in place. Kyle said he wouldn’t be too concerned about it now anyway, with the damage lawsuit progressing like it was, according to Baxter.
Jordan got a phone call from Baxter telling him that he had talked to the attorney general, who had agreed to look into the matter, as he didn’t like the university president either, calling him a ‘fucking asshole’. Seems as if no one in state politics liked the guy. The AG said the governor had mentioned to him many times he thought the Uni president was dirty. The AG assured Baxter that the governor would probably be happy we uncovered the Uni president’s corruption. That made us all feel a little better before Clay delivered his news story. I texted Clay telling him the AG was onboard. Clay sent me back a smiley face. I sent him back a thumbs up. We got a table near one of the TV monitors and turned into Live 5 News. The anchor started off with some local news, then a preview of the weather report, then announced we had a special report from Clay on the on-going situation with the debacle that happened with the new proposed university science building. We all smiled when we heard that. Little did they know, it wasn’t a continuing story from Clay, it was a blockbuster revelation as to what all went on behind closed doors and the corruption that was at the root of all that happened. We were all excited and nervous before Clay came on. He joined the anchor on the set to deliver his story, telling the anchor, giving, as a teaser, he had new information regarding his continuing story, then they went to a commercial.
When they came back from a commercial, Clay started by saying, “Harry, we have new information tonight that sheds a whole new light on what may have prompted the embarrassment of many of the towns’ principles and our own university president. I may get fired tonight, as I reveal just what has been discovered, since the university owns this station, and I’ve been warned by our producer not to say or reveal anything whether truthful or not, that would embarrass our university president or any of our city officials or financial institutions, no matter how bad the news was about them. Well, I’m about to blow the lid off of what happened,” Clay said, as a preface to his report. I was sure all eyes everywhere were glued to Clay’s report. Clay gave his report from his notes, ignoring the teleprompter. Even the anchor, Harry, was blown away, but followed up with what Clay delivered in his report, by saying that we needed to follow up and get comments from the Uni president or rebuttals the next day, but if the state AG’s office was going to investigate what took place and the allegations that these emails showed, it sounded like some serious business, but thought Clay needed to stay on top of the story. Clay followed up what Harry told him on the air, by saying he hoped he had the opportunity to follow up his report. Harry said he hoped he did also. Then they went to the weather, with the weather man saying although we expected clear skies and warmer temperatures tomorrow, it might be stormy in the admin building of the university, making a joke. Everyone around our table looked at each other as if a bomb just went off, and we were still in shock, then we broke out smiling and got excited.
“Clay fucking did it, guys. He did it. I hope he comes by to tell us how his producer reacted. Can’t wait to hear about that,” I said, getting more excited at the thought. We got into a lengthy discussion about what the fallout from Clay’s story might bring. A half hour later, Clay showed up. I got him a beer, as he sat down to tell us what all happened off camera, once he delivered his story.
“I got called about every evil and dirty name there was in the book by my producer. I think he was more upset that I didn’t read the teleprompter than he was with what I did report. He told me that was a fireable offense, and he should can my ass on the spot, but that might make tomorrow’s headlines, and indicate vengeance on behalf of the university. He said he might as well let the university president fire me instead of him, which he had no doubt he would do. I thanked him for his support, then told him maybe Channel 2 might like to have me do follow up stories on this, causing him to kiss is ratings goodbye and all credibility that went with it. He called me a mother fucker, but said I was probably right. Harry, our news anchor, on the other hand, said that was one of the best block buster stories broken on our station in the history of the station here in Uni. He congratulated me on the terrific job I did, and for having the guts to say it on the air. He told me he thought I was actually going to make it as a news reporter. Go figure,” Clay exclaimed.
“Any threats to your life yet?” I asked him. Then he got serious.
“Oh, my producer told me I might want to watch my back, as strange things were known to happen in this town for guys that didn’t play ball right. He said, I took on some powerful people, Hastings, Seward, Weinstein and our university president, saying that could be dangerous,” Clay stated.
“Anyone know where your apartment is or where you live?” I asked. Clay smiled.
“Who knows, but it wouldn’t be hard to find out. I don’t think anything would happen to me, other than threats to make me back off. The heat is on them at the moment. I don’t think they want any additional heat on them for roughing up the news guy,” Clay replied. Jordan said, not to be so sure, making Clay a little more apprehensive. “Fuck, I sure hope not,” Clay added.
Clay got a phone call. He looked at his phone. “Gotta take this, guys, it’s my source,” Clay announced, anxious to talk to the guy. He stepped away from the table to talk to his source coming back moments later. “My guy is really shaken up. He’s already had calls from various admin officials. He didn’t answer his phone, but got voicemails telling him he better not be involved in this leak, or the consequences are really going to be dire, if that’s the case. I told him that I told no one who he was or even mentioned that I got the information from an IT guy. He said he saw the newscast, knowing I didn’t reveal anything, but he said they had to suspect him in this, especially since he failed to do the reorg of the server and delete all the files. He’s scared, guys. He said someone had already been knocking on his apartment door, and trying to peek in his windows. He said he had the lights out, but he was just sitting in his apartment shaking. He wants me to help him. I don’t know what to do,” Clay told us. We all looked at one another.
“He could come over here and be with us, I guess, that is if he’s comfortable having us know who he is,” I offered. Clay smiled.
“I told him to come to the CNB right away, and we’d figure something out,” Clay replied, surprising me some, although I would have offered anyway.
“Well, that takes care of that,” I replied. “So, he’s a computer grad student of sorts?” I asked.
“Smarter than shit, from what he’s told me. He says he can hack into just about anything, if need be,” Clay replied. “He’s kind of geeky, guys, just so you know, the type that wears glasses that are taped in the middle,” Clay went onto say, then smiled. “Except his aren’t taped,” he added, then chuckled. We all shook our heads.
“I don’t suppose you’re going to tell us his name?” I asked.
“It’s Garth, just so you know. No, he’s not a country western signer either, although I guess his momma liked Garth Brooks so he was named after him. He’s a little unpolished, and disheveled, but seems like a decent enough guy,” Clay explained.
“How did you find this guy, and find out what he had?” I asked. Clay smiled.
“Kind of embarrassing, a little anyway. He called me up and told me he had something he thought I might be interested in. I asked him what he had, but he told me, he couldn’t tell me on the phone, as it was too sensitive, and had to see me and show me in person. He promised it could make my career, and he needed to share it with the public, as he was sick and tired of all the bullshit going on undetected. It was time some of these idiot public servants fessed up to their crimes. I told him I was interested. So, I met with him earlier today, not long before I came to see you, Josh. Needless to say, I was impressed as hell with what he had to show me. I mean you couldn’t have more of a blockbuster story than the one he gave me. I asked him what led him to me, instead of someone else on our news staff or on Channel 2’s. Get this, he said I was cute, and he thought this was a way he could get to know me. He told me he was gay, and was hoping I might be, and maybe fuck his ass sometime, if you can believe that,” Clay told us, somewhat smiling. “I told him I didn’t know anything about that, but I had friends that did. I didn’t want to scare him off, as I needed what he had, but I don’t know anything about what he needed in return. Maybe one of you guys might want to accommodate him sometime. At least I can introduce him to you, and then he’ll have friends he’ll know and can identify with. I get the fact he’s lonely and doesn’t have any friends to share anything with. I hope I wasn’t out of line by telling him I’d introduce him to guys of like mind,” Clay said, somewhat apologetically. I shook my head.
“I just never know what’s coming at us next with you, Clay. Well, at least we’re getting to the bottom of this whole crazy mess with Hastings, Weinstein, Seward, and now Dickerson, the fucking president of the university, who congratulated you at the beginning for being a fantastic journalist. I wonder what he thinks of you now?” I asked. Clay looked embarrassed.
“He thinks I’m dog shit. He also wanted to fire me, remember? Guess he really wants to fire me now. Guys, I don’t even know if I have a job left. I might be a goner for sure now,” Clay said, with somewhat of a defeatist attitude. I patted him on the back.
“You don’t know that just yet, Clay. I think it would be somewhat of an obvious admission of guilt if Dickerson had you fired,” I replied. Clay wasn’t so sure.
A tall, slim, lanky guy, looking a little disheveled, walked up to the table. Clay stood up. “Guys, this is Garth, the brave soul I was telling you about,” Clay said, then introduced Jake and me, then had the other guys introduce themselves to Garth. “Garth, I know you have a lot you want to tell us, and want to know what we know, so I thought it best you be with friends so we can talk,” Clay told him.
“I like that idea a lot. But, is there somewhere not quite so public we can talk?” Garth asked, looking very nervous. I suggested we go upstairs to the apartment and talk there. Nate and Jordan said they were taking off, but if we needed anything at all, to give them a call. I thanked them for their help. They patted Clay on the back, telling him he did good. They shook Garth’s hand, telling him he was a brave soul, and assured him we had the power of the state attorney general’s office looking into this matter with Dickerson. Garth said he was sure happy to hear that. Kyle, Blake, Jake, Clay, Garth and I left to go upstairs.
“We hang out in our briefs, while in the apartment, if that’s okay with you guys,” I told them. Clay looked a little uneasy, but Garth was all for it. Dylan was in the living room playing video games on the big screen. He about did a double take when he saw Garth.
“Dylan, is that you?” Garth asked him, shocking us that the two even knew one another. Dylan turned red with embarrassment, then got up and hugged Garth.
“Never thought I’s see you again, Garth,” Dylan told him. Garth smiled, then hugged him again, telling Dylan he didn’t expect to see him either, although he’d looked around for him at times. “Uh, guys, Garth was one of my clients when I was in the business. He really has a sweet ass, I have to say,” Dylan said, patting Garth on his skinny boney ass. Garth smiled.
“And you had a very nice cock. Gees, I missed that,” Garth replied, stunning all of us. Like your baggy boxers too,” Garth remarked looking at Dylan naked, but for his baggy boxers. Dylan smiled.
“How’s the wife, or are you still married?” Dylan asked. Garth turned red with embarrassment.
“I have a confession to make, Dylan. I was never married,” Garth confessed, puzzling Dylan somewhat. Dylan asked Garth why Garth had told him he was married before. “Damnit, I had feelings for you back then, and I thought you had feelings for me. I used the excuse of being married to keep it from getting serious between the two of us. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you the truth. I was struggling myself to get through school and didn’t need to be in a relationship with someone that might need my support. I know it was stupid, because I really missed you,” Garth told Dylan. Dylan shook his head.
“I guess I can understand. I did have feelings for you, Garth. I told myself, I could never have feelings for anyone, as this was just a business, and I had to keep it purely business, but you treated me so nice. Hell, Garth, you treated me like a real person, like a boyfriend even, not a whore. I appreciated that. Josh, I told you before I had this one great client that treated me special. Garth was the one, not to out you or anything, Garth,” Dylan said. Garth told Dylan he was out now anyway, and knew he was among friends here. Garth asked Dylan how he came to be here with us and off the streets. “Not in the business anymore, as I got nabbed by the cops. There was one great officer that thought I had some redeeming value, and got the court to release me to the custody of Josh and his friends here. Josh, Jake, and the rest of the great guys here took me in, rehabilitated me, and now I have my own family of great guys that I love and live with. It all worked out great, thanks to these guys,” Dylan said, giving me a side hug. “I also have a great job and am a shareholder in the company, so things are looking way up.”
“Damn, this would make a great human interest story sometime to delve into,” Clay mentioned, listening to the background information Dylan was volunteering, sensing a connection with Garth.
“Maybe for another time, but you need to get through this crisis first,” I reminded Clay. The guys took off their clothes to their briefs. Ironically, Garth had on baggy boxers just like Dylan. Dylan chuckled, seeing Garth’s boxers.
“Told you, you’d like those better than your tightie-whities,” Dylan joked.
“I wear these in remembrance of you, Dylan. Seriously,” Garth told him, smiling. Garth was thin and tall, and a bit hairy, which made him look sexy. He had some nice dark chest hair around his nipples, then across his breast plate to a thin line down to his naval and then a broader treasure trail down into his boxers. I was dying to see what was in those boxers. Dylan certainly knew. I grabbed beers for everyone, as we sat down to figure out next moves, and relieve the anxiety of Garth and Clay somewhat, having just blown the lid off a huge scandal.
“I know my bosses at the university suspect me already. I’m not sure what to do now,” Garth spoke up, as he and Dylan sat together on the couch. Garth brought Dylan up to speed on what was going on. Dylan couldn’t believe it. “I swear there were guys knocking on my door tonight and peeking in my windows. I’m afraid to go back to my apartment,” Garth told us, visibly shaken.
“I kind of had the same situation one time myself,” Kyle chimed in. “Ironically, it involved this same situation. It was my land these guys were determined to take from me.” I patted Kyle on his thigh, reassuring him his problems were over now. Damn, if Clay’s and Garth’s weren’t just beginning.
Garth kept getting phone calls, which he ignored on his phone, saying it was work, trying to get hold of him. “They want me to do something or to confess to something,” Garth would say. Dylan told him he was safe with us.
“So, maybe the two of you need to stay out of sight for tonight,” I suggested.
“That would be great, if you guys wouldn’t mind if I crashed on your couch tonight,” Clay asked, anxious to not have to go home and leave the safety of our company.
“Garth can stay in my room, since I have an empty bed available,” Dylan excitedly offered. I figured, Garth would definitely get his wish of a dick up his ass if he stayed with Dylan, because Dylan seemed to have a definite connection there. Garth seemed eager to take Dylan up on his offer.
“Okay, so we have you two hiding out tonight, and definitely out of harm’s way, but what are you guys going to do tomorrow?” I asked.
“I’ll need to go to the studio in the morning sometime, as if I’m still working. I’m sure our attorneys will have questions for me, and I can’t dodge them, as we need to follow protocol to keep this thing moving. If I’m not fired, then I’ll continue to work the story and cooperate with the authorities, turning over my notes to them, not to the University, unless ordered by a judge. Once the AG’s office has their evidence, they’ll be investigating. Garth, what are you going to do?” Clay asked.
“I’d like to lay low, but I guess I better show up for work, so as not to look guilty for exposing all of this. I can just tell them I spent the night at my boyfriend’s house tonight, and put my phone on mute, as we had more important things to attend to,” Garth replied. Dylan said he liked the sound of Garth spending the night at his boyfriend’s house. Dylan said he could play that part with no problems at all. I couldn’t believe how excited Dylan seemed to be. It was like he found an old boyfriend that he never broke up with, but just lost track of, primarily due to his being arrested. He seemed very happy to be reunited with Garth. I was happy for both of them. I had no idea if they’d strike up a new relationship or not, but both seemed perfectly happy to find one another.
I called Dustin and Ethan, telling them they’d probably need to study at the house tonight, as we had something important going on at the apartment. They actually seemed disappointed, but said it wasn’t a problem.
Garth brought his laptop with him, saying he didn’t go anywhere without it. He said he had the original emails on his hardrive now, just in case someone wanted to make them disappear. He asked if we had wifi. I gave him the code to use it. He got connected, then logged in at the university. “So far they haven’t locked down my account. That could be a good thing, meaning they think I need to do something to protect the university, not suspecting it was me that turned over the emails. They probably think I didn’t have the balls to do something like that. Little do they know. I’ve got some decent balls, don’t I, Dylan,” Garth asked Dylan, chuckling. Dylan smiled, saying Garth had nice everything, including one hell of a nice ass. Garth thanked him for the complements, then blew him a kiss. Dylan glowed all over.
“Oh, looky here. Got some activity on this large file to be disposed of. Looks like there are others looking for something. No one has touched this file for a month except me to see if it was okay to dispose of. Got some traffic tonight for sure,” Garth said, rapidly stroking his keys, supposedly looking at the activity on this dead file. “Damn, you boys are nosey tonight,” Garth said, rapidly identifying who was looking at the files tonight. “My boss and his boss are looking. When they find what they’re looking for, that’ll put their dicks in a knot for sure,” Garth said, chuckling.
“Won’t they be able to tell you’re in there also?” Dylan asked. Gath patted him on the cheek.
“Not the way I do it. Those cocksuckers don’t even know I’m there. I use a special shield to keep them from knowing when I’m playing in their sandbox. They can’t see me, and damn sure can’t trace where it’s coming from if they could. These guys are amateurs. I wrote most of the code to access all of this, so I built a firewall between where I am and they are. I can sit here and watch them all day long and they won’t even know I’m there, but I can see everything they look at and do. Whoops a daisy, they just found one of the incriminating emails. Figures, they stopped on that one. Well, would you look at that. Someone just tried to delete it, and surprise, they couldn’t. Plus, it was my boss that tried to do it, so he just joined the coverup party. Give me a second, I need to log what he did, so I can turn this over to the investigating authorities to show who tried to obstruct justice,” Garth said, smiling the entire time.
“Damn, Garth, you really know what you’re doing,” Dylan said, although all of us were thinking it. Clay was making notes, adding to his story to use later, if he had the chance. He had the evidence of malfeasance, now he was adding evidence of a coverup. He seemed to be enjoying himself at the moment anyway, listening to Garth.
“Looks like they’re stumped because they can’t dump the file,” Garth said, as he watched his computer screen closely, all of us there with him, mesmerized by what he was doing. “Wait for it. When they get stumped they usually call me to tell me what they need done,” Garth stated. All of a sudden, his phone rang again. “See, what’d I tell you. It’s my boss, and he’s going to get my voicemail. Let’s see if he leaves a message,” Garth commented. Sure enough, Garth’s phone indicated he had a voicemail. Garth couldn’t wait to hear it, then put it on speaker for all of us to hear.
“Uh, Garth, this is McDaniels here at the office. We’ve run into a bit of a problem this evening with the reorg on the admin email server that you were supposed to do the reorg for today. For some reason that didn’t take place, and we’re concerned without the reorg taking place, some of the current emails might be overwritten because of limited storage on the platform. We probably need to do that reorg tonight to eliminate any problems for tomorrow. You realized the president and all the upper university staff is on that platform, so if anything happens to it because the reorg didn’t take place, we’ll all be in a hell of a shape. Give me a call, or just take care of it for us, when you get this. I can’t tell you how urgent this is, and what immediate attention is needed to keep us from having a problem. You’ve got my number, so call me and tell me you fixed things. I hope you’re okay, as it’s not like you to not pick up regardless if it’s day or night. Again, this is extremely urgent. I really need to hear from you,” the voicemail said.
“Save a copy of that voicemail, Garth. We can use that also to show their desperate attempt to destroy the evidence,” Clay asked. Garth smiled.
“The way I have this protected, they’d have to destroy the whole university’s computer system, which would take down everything before they could destroy these files. That means we all wouldn’t have classes until after Spring Break. I don’t think the assholes are crazy enough to do anything like that, although I’m sure they’ve thought about it,” Garth mentioned. Making that statement, we felt relatively sure Garth had things protected enough for the state AG’s office to inspect the files. “Looks like the guys gave up, waiting for me to come to their rescue, as I always have to do when they have a crisis. Damn, if they don’t have someone at my place again,” Garth said, switching over to another screen, getting an alert on his security system. “Fuckers are banging on my door,” he said, looking at the picture on his laptop, his doorbell obviously taking it all in. Then he switched to another view. Garth said he had several cameras in his security system. He said if they tried to break in, cameras would flash all over the place, letting them know they had been surveilled, plus scaring the shit out of them.
“Damn, I wish I knew you when I was having all my problems,” Kyle commented. I looked at him and chuckled.
“You had a dog even. Would have been nice if you had a setup like Garth here. May need to talk to you about a better setup for the CNB here, Garth. We might need to take a better look at our security here, now that we’re harboring covert players in our business,” I joked. Jake said I definitely had a point.
Clay told us he just got a text from his producer. “The station general manager wants to see me and my producer in his office, first thing in the morning,” Clay said, reading his text. “This could be good or bad. Not sure. Well, I guess we’ll find out if he has a spine or not. I can’t believe they’d walk away from, or kill a story of this magnitude. I just don’t see it. But then, I could be wrong and get thrown out of the building and told never to come back. Well, at least my career was interesting, if not short lived,” Clay said, somewhat disappointed. I patted him on his naked back.
“Remember what I told you, Clay. Good people always end up on their feet somewhere. You will too,” I assured him. That seemed to calm him down some.
“You done playing secret agent man for tonight, pulling your bosses strings and giving them heart failure?” Dylan asked Garth. Garth smiled.
“I’d say we’ve done all the damage we can do for tonight anyway. Why, what do you have in mind?” Garth asked, mischievously, as if he had an idea what Dylan had in mind.
“Why don’t you and I take a quick shower then spend some time getting reacquainted?” Dylan asked, getting Garth half excited. Garth said that sounded great to him. He packed up his laptop and followed Dylan to his room. His narrow ass almost skipping down the hall, he was so happy. The dude had some hairy legs to go along with his hairy chest. I was just sure that ass crack of his was beautifully adorned with dark thick hair also. Damn, he was interesting looking, geek looking and all. Moments later we could hear the shower running, and the two giggling like little kids having fun at their first sleepover.
“Well, that takes care of Garth,” I told Clay. Clay said he was glad everything worked out okay, as he was concerned about how to protect his source, having only met him for the first time this afternoon.
“He’s kind of a strange dude, but seems nice enough. Plus, he did the world a favor by coming forward with the information he had. If it hadn’t been for him, we’d never know that fucking Dickerson was involved,” Clay remarked. We all had to agree. “I just hope, beyond all hope, that our station stands behind our story and doesn’t throw in the towel, which also means, doesn’t fire me,” Clay added. We all told him we guessed he’d find out tomorrow. Clay sighed, as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders.
Kyle said he needed to go home and let Iggy out. He said he almost hated to leave, as there hadn’t been this much excitement, regarding our favorite group of guys, since they burnt down one of his buildings. Clay couldn’t believe they had the balls to do that, but remembered covering that escapade. “Hey, Clay, hang in there, buddy. Josh will get you through this, as he got me through my entire catastrophe. It’s just what he does. I can definitely vouch for that,” Kyle told him. Kyle said he’d see us tomorrow, but if anything crazy happened, to let him know.
Blake said he was going to see what Tim was up to in his room then possibly turn in. Jake said he still had a little studying to do for tomorrow. I told Clay, I’d get him some sheets and a blanket for the couch. He still looked a little down. I retuned with the sheet and started to make up the couch without pulling it out to make a double bed. “I really appreciate this, Josh. You’ve been more than great through this whole thing,” Clay told me, as he helped me put the sheets on to make up his bed for the night.
“Hey, it’s what we do, Clay. We help one another. Look at the bright side. Dylan found Garth, of all people, and he’s happy. That was a stroke of luck for sure. Something tells me this is going to work out okay, and the bad guys are finally going to have to face the music for once. Hastings is down and out, fired from the bank. Weinstein and Seward are under local and federal investigation, plus going to have to pay a shit ton of money in damages to Kyle. Spence and Simon are in jail for probably somewhere close to eternity, and you are about to bring down the last remaining bad guy, namely our own University president, Dr. Dickerson, who should probably be called Dr. Dickhead. Justice is coming to all, Clay, and you helped get us there,” I reminded him.
“Josh, you gave me the roadmap to find all of this. I could never have figured this out on my own. That diagram you gave me pointed me in all the right directions. I shredded that, by the way. I didn’t want anyone to get their hands on it, and figure out I had someone that turned me onto all that was happening. Didn’t want the fingers to lead back to you,” Clay told me.
“I’d say we kind of helped one another out in that area for sure, Clay. You did the investigative work and I just pointed you where to look,” I replied, making him smile.
“Speaking of helping each other out, I don’t suppose you could help me out with one more thing,” Clay started to ask. I looked at him somewhat puzzled as to what was next. “Uh, you said you could shave my balls for me sometime? Remember? Tonight might be a good night to get that done, since I’m staying over and all,” Clay suggested. I half-smiled.
“Okay, I guess. Might as well get that out of the way. I’ll show you how, then you can do it on your own from here on out. It’s not rocket science, believe me,” I replied. Clay smiled. “Take off your briefs and I’ll be right back. Gonna throw my briefs in the bedroom, then we’ll jump in the shower. We shave our balls in the shower. We have a nice bench in there to sit on while we do the deed,” I explained. He was all smiles for the moment.
I went into our bedroom to tell Jake I was going to jump into the shower with Clay for a few, to shave the boy’s balls. Jake looked at me like I was crazy.
“You’re seriously going to shave Clay’s balls?” Jake asked, somewhat dumbfounded. I reminded Jake that Clay told me if he did my bidding for me reporting on what was coming down at the president’s announcement of the new science building that Saturday morning, I’d shave his balls for him. Don’t know why he needed me to do it, but he asked me to, and I agreed if he’d pursue the guys that tried to take Kyle down,” I told Jake. Jake chuckled.
“I guess that’s only fair. You tried to rip off the balls of Hastings, Weinstein and Seward, so I guess since Clay helped you rip off their balls, you could at least shave his,” Jake chided. I shook my head at him, then grabbed him and kissed him.
“Wanna help?” I asked Jake, who almost broke out laughing.
“No, but I think I want to lick your balls later, that is if you don’t fuck Clay in the process of shaving his balls. He is kind of hot looking in his briefs, which look like he’s got a nice package down there. You can give me a report on that later,” Jake told me. I smiled, telling him, I’d give him a blow-by-blow account of what took place. Jake shook his head. “I’m sure there will be some blowing involved, if I know you. Hey, speaking of blowing and probably fucking, there were some crazy noises coming out of Dylan’s room. Can you believe those two knew each other? I mean Garth is kind of nerdy looking, thin as a beanpole, a lot like Dylan in a way, but he has nice ass on him, and I love that hair pattern on his breast. I’m sure with the amount of hair he has on his chest, you know his ass crack is nice and full. That should make your dick hard right there, Josh,” Jake chided. I smiled at him and shook my head.
“Oh, believe me, I’ve already tried to imagine what that might be like. We’ll ask Dylan tomorrow. Do you think this could be the ‘one’ for him?” I asked Jake. Jake shrugged his shoulders.
“He sure did seem excited to see him. Took him aback some. They actually cared about one another while Dylan was working the streets and Garth was a customer. That’s amazing that could even happen,” Jake commented. “Looks like the UPS guy just got moved on down the road,” Jake added. I kind of chuckled at the thought. “Hey, not to change the subject, but both Garth and Clay might need some protection,” Jake said, somewhat seriously. “We don’t know what these guys are capable of doing. Other than work, until we see how that goes, they need to keep a low profile in this town. I’m glad they’re both staying here tonight, just to be on the safe side. Kind of like Kyle did on some of the nights we weren’t so sure about his safety,” Jake suggested.
“I have to think you’re right. I was thinking about that earlier. We need to keep them under wraps, just in case. Let’s get Conner over here tomorrow and see what he suggests. Lucky could come in handy in that area also,” I replied. Jake agreed.
“I better get Clay taken care of and put to bed,” I told Jake, then kissed him one more time, as I slipped off my briefs and kicked them aside.
“Oh, I see how it is. My boyfriend is slipping off naked to the showers with another hot guy, even shaving the TV guy’s balls for him. Just be gentle when you slip that big cock of yours in his ass. I don’t want to hear any squealing like a pig coming out of the showers tonight. Still can’t believe that Dylan fucked Butch. I don’t think I’ll ever get over that one,” Jake jested, making me laugh.
“I promise not to fuck him. He’s not even gay. Don’t know why in hell he wants me to shave his balls, but for some reason, that’s what he wanted,” I exclaimed.
“He wants some intimate time with you holding his privates so he has a connection to you other than just friendship,” Jake replied. I gave him a weird look.
“If you say so, Jacob. I’ll see you in a bit. Get that tongue ready as my balls are going to want a tongue bath when I get back, if you’re not asleep by then,” I chided. Jake threw my dirty briefs at me, as I hustled out of there.
Clay was standing naked in the living room by himself. He had his hands over his groin area. “You ready, Mr. TV Anchor?” I chided. Clay smiled, as I told him to follow me to the showers. I dug out a new disposable razor from my personal drawer in the bathroom. I asked him if he needed to take a leak before we showered. Clay lined himself up with one of the urinals and let loose. I took a leak also beside him.
“Not much privacy here, is there?” he asked, as he shook the piss off the end of his cock. I could tell he had an erection.
“Good grief, Clay, are you hard?” I asked.
so keep it coming FT, keep it cumming 
and Dylan and Garth together again 
