Autumn Revelations

New friends open up about "things"

 

Daniel busied himself tying up details on the Child Pornography arrests. He was looking forward to getting on with a new case in Washington D.C. involving stag movies that "went a bit too far." He wondered just what that might be. He would have to sit in a few smoky theaters late at night, and decide whether there were any laws being broken. He figured that adults flaunting themselves was one thing, but after the arrest of Steven "Cognac" Brissard, he vowed to do anything he could to track down people who "messed with kids."

The father of three had offered his alcoholism as an excuse for his behavior. He had learned to develop and print photographs in the army. After his wife died, he said he "lost his mind" and needed to make extra money because there were no jobs around for an injured war vet. He and Dr. Kipman would be paying dearly for their bad habits.

Brenda met Mr. Griffin at the coffee shop for lunch, and discussed an upcoming trip to Georgetown for a big auction that was by invitation only. Brenda told Mr. Griffin about her parents, and trusted him enough to share the fact that her gruff military father, Donald P. Grayson was also a heterosexual cross dresser. After he died in Germany from a heart attack, her mother began to dress like a man, "but with feminine undertones." His ashes had been sitting on the mantle in the Beltsville home, and would now be placed on the mantle in the living room at the Blundon house. 

Mr. Griffin seemed shock proof, but he also had a surprise. He was a Freemason. His father had been a stone worker, a Freemason, and had married "Up" when he proposed to a young widowed socialite who became Mr. Griffin's mother. They owned two houses, and sent their son to the best schools that money could buy. His father died first from a ruptured vessel in his brain, and his mother died from pneumonia. He sold the Washington house, and chose to live in Hyattsville. 

He never married, but said that he had a fondness for female friends, and preferred male companions for his travelling mates. Brenda began to wonder if he might have "tendencies" but she quickly filed it under her "doesn't matter" folder. 

She wanted to get more information about the Blundons from Mr. Griffin, but there were four people waiting outside her shop, so she invited Mr. Griffin to join her and Daniel for vegetarian supper at the house one day the following week. He was delighted, and asked her to call him so he could check his appointment book.

C J. Marks