“In any case, when Lucas left, his usual cocky strut was a little less confident. I called the director, who was just finishing up for the day, and asked him to show me the scene he’d shot with Lucas and Brent.
“I remember him asking, ‘So, you heard about that, huh?’
“ ‘Heard about what?’ I asked him. ‘What was there to hear? Did something bad happen?’ If there was trouble on the set, the director should have come to me. That’s why I was there.
“The director heard my concern. ‘Nothing bad,’ he assured me, ‘but something you’ll want to see. Something extraordinary. But I’ll be there in a few minutes. You can judge for yourself.’
“Of course, at that point, all we had was the raw footage. Usually, watching the films before they’re edited is an exercise in the most extreme form of tedium. There are hours of starts and stops, models fluffing themselves, and limp dicks. It’s not fun.
“But this scene was different. It was shot in one take. There was no fluffing needed. In fact, I’m lucky the boys held out as long as they did.”
Mason gazed up and to the left, as if pulling out memories. “It was… magic. Pure sexual chemistry, captured on film. The director told me there wasn’t a person on set who didn’t almost pop a load themselves just watching it.
“Unfortunately, as so often happens in real life, people can mistake great sex for something more than it is. At least, Lucas did. He came and spoke with me a few days later. He was more open about his feelings this time. He told me he was in love with Brent.
“Who knows what creates the kind of sexual chemistry that occurred between those two? Is it pheromones? Genetic? I can’t say. But I did know it wasn’t love. It was infatuation, perhaps, but not love.
“I tried to explain that to Lucas. I didn’t want to see him get hurt. I told him how easy it is to confuse the rush of endorphins we get from an intense orgasm with something more meaningful. I told him to take things slowly with Brent and not to get his hopes up.
“Lucas listened carefully, and nodded at all the right times, but I don’t think he believed me. Why would he? When has anyone ever been able to convince a young person that their romance wasn’t real?
“In the meantime, the director of School Dayz approached me with an idea. Seeing the incredible energy between the two, he suggested a follow-up movie called Brent amp; Lucas: More Than Friends. He knew the scenes between them in School Dayz would be a sensation, and that a movie that put them front and center would be a huge success.”
Mason shifted in his sagging seat, uncomfortable. He stood and paced as he told me the rest of his tale.
“Green-lighting that project was one of the few things I’ve done in my career that I honestly regret. I knew Lucas was in over his head with Brent. I also knew, although only from what Lucas had told me, that the feelings weren’t reciprocated. Had I been thinking of Lucas, instead of how much money I’d make, I would have said no. In my heart, I knew that putting Lucas through more weeks of intimate contact with Brent would wind up hurting them both.
“But I said yes. And More Than Friends was one of our biggest hits ever.
“But it came at a price.
“Halfway through its taping, Brent came to see me. He told me Lucas was being inappropriate. That he’d told Brent that he loved him.
“Brent said he was kind to Lucas, but he made it clear he wasn’t interested. He explained he was already involved with someone.
“But Lucas insisted they were ‘meant to be.’ He called Brent at all times of the day and night, brought unwanted presents to the set, threatened to hurt himself if Brent wouldn’t see him. It got ugly.
“One night, about a week after filming More Than Friends, I realized I’d left something in the office that I needed at home. I got there around ten and found Lucas had broken into my office. He was looking for information about Brent. Pictures, Brent’s home address and phone number, anything he could find.
“When he saw me, he burst into tears. He knew he was out of control but couldn’t stop himself. I called my therapist right then and there. He agreed to talk to Lucas on the phone and they made an appointment for the next day.
“Things seemed to settle down after that. Lucas told me my therapist referred him to another doctor and that he was going weekly. Brent told me the harassment stopped. When the movie came out, we sent them out to do some publicity together and there were no major problems.
“But there were minor ones?” I asked.
“Brent never gave me details. But I could tell something still bothered him about Lucas. For the most part, though, things went well.
“I never put them together in another movie, however. Lucas asked about it a few times, but I put him off. He lobbied hard for a sequel to More Than Friends. So did a lot of people at the company. The movie was a huge success.
“But, believe it or not, money isn’t the only thing I care about, Kevin. I cared about those kids, and I thought keeping them separated was best for both of them.
“A few months later, Lucas gave me an ultimatum. He came into my office wild-eyed. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days. He’d lost a lot of weight.
“Emotionally, he was all over the map. One minute he was crying, saying Brent broke his heart. Then, he was yelling, blaming me for keeping the two of them apart. He said if I didn’t promise him another movie with Brent, I’d ‘never see him again.’
“I didn’t know what he meant. Was he saying he’d leave SwordFight? Was it a suicide threat? Or, was he implying I’d never see Brent again? I tried to get the answer from him, but he ran out of my office in tears.
“I didn’t know what to do. So, I called my therapist again. Believing that Lucas might have been making a serious threat to hurt himself-or someone else-I asked my therapist if he could give me the name of the doctor to whom he’d referred Lucas. I thought the only responsible thing to do would be to tell his doctor what Lucas had said.
“My therapist confirmed that he’d given Lucas a referral. But Lucas had refused to take it. Lucas told him that he was fine, that it was Brent who had the problem. To the best of my doctor’s knowledge, Lucas never saw anyone for treatment.
“Lucas had lied to me about seeing a therapist. It broke my heart. What else had he deceived me about?
“The next day, I found out. I received a news release that Lucas had signed an exclusive contract with one of my competitors, Hardman Studios. Those kinds of deals take weeks of negotiation, if not longer. Lucas brokered it behind my back.
“But I wasn’t upset. I was relieved. At least I knew what he meant when he said I’d ‘never see him again.’ His leaving SwordFight was the least awful of all the possibilities. I felt sorry for him, though. Hardman’s a shitty shop, and, sure enough, they never used Lucas properly. He made one or two films with them, then dropped off the radar completely.”
“So, he also went missing?” I asked, sitting up straighter on the bed. That was two boys from SwordFight gone into the ether. Seemed like a big coincidence.
“Who knows?” Mason said, chuckling. “Maybe they ran off together.” He must have seen the distress in my face.
“Oh, Kevin. Don’t look so appalled. It’s obvious you think there’s something… sinister going on, but I implore you to use your common sense. Boys who work in adult movies don’t submit formal letters of resignation. This is how ninety-nine percent of them leave the business: They just stop. They don’t return your calls, they change their numbers, they move on.”
I believed most of that. But it didn’t explain why Brent hadn’t said good-bye to Charlie or let him know where he was. There was something hinky here. I could feel it.
“Trust me, Kevin. No one would rather believe Brent is out there willing to return to the business more than I would. That adorable child brought in millions. There’s no one at SwordFight who would have wanted to see him hurt.”
Hurt was the least of it. Maybe I’d stumbled across one too many murders in my time, but Brent’s total disappearance made me seriously wonder if someone might have killed him.
If so, who? One of Tony’s rules as a homicide investigator was to follow the money. Most murders that
