Free Needing by Sarah Masters

you two are bent. Didn’t like it so went for the kill.”
    “Whatever, arsehole.” Oliver walked away, anger at Shields seeping out of him the farther away he got. The moral side of him made Oliver turn to warn the cop again not to go down those stairs, but Shields had already disappeared inside the house. The man wouldn’t listen even if he followed him inside and tried to make him take heed. He continued walking, but instead of heading for Langham’s car, he approached a cop standing guard on the pavement.
    “Shields really shouldn’t go down in that basement,” he said. “Those kids…they’re going to hurt him, but he won’t listen to me. Maybe you ought to make sure he doesn’t go down alone, make sure he doesn’t approach them until medical assistance arrives.”
    He walked away only when the cop had entered the house. Inside the car, he hooked up his seatbelt and rested his head against the seat.
    “Something’s going to happen, isn’t it?” Langham asked.
    “Yep, but you warned him, I warned him and I just sent that cop there to warn him.”
    “Are we arseholes if we drive away now?”
    “Yep, s’pose we would be, but I did all I could, so I refuse to feel bad. He said some nasty shit to me just then. Said some cruel stuff to you on the phone. Okay, he doesn’t deserve what he’ll get if he goes down those stairs, but fuck, he’s so stubborn, so right all the damn time, that no amount of pleading from me was going to change his mind. Especially pleading from me. He hates my damn guts.”
    “So we’ll stay?”
    “Yep.”
    “Clean up the mess afterwards?”
    “Well, I don’t know about cleaning up the mess—it’s going to be pretty bloody down there if they bite his hands off—but yeah, we’ll stay to sort it out.”
    Langham sighed. “I’m an utter bastard, and I’d only admit this to you, but I want to drive away.”
    “Then drive.”
    Langham sped up Saltwater Street, and Oliver refused to think about what could be happening to Shields right then. Sometimes things needed to be left up to fate.
    “Where do we go now?” he asked, looking at Langham, who had the facial expression of someone hurt, angry and bewildered all at the same time. “Hey, you okay?”
    “I will be once I forget about Shields. He isn’t worth wasting thinking time on, but you know what it’s like. He gets under your damn skin.”
    “He does. I wonder if they’ve bitten him yet.”
    “Probably.”
    “He’ll be cursing us. That we warned him and he didn’t listen.”
    “Good. A bit of humility won’t hurt him. Hey, if we’re really lucky, the arsehole might even apologise. Act differently towards you.”
    “I doubt it.” And if he were honest, Oliver didn’t want Shields admitting he’d been wrong. He didn’t want anything more to do with the guy. That wasn’t an option, though. Even if he told the chief he and Langham were gay, and they weren’t allowed to work together anymore, Oliver would still be called in on cases. Might even be partnered with Shields. He shuddered at the thought. “What will we do if Shields tells?”
    “I don’t think he will. He likes having people in the palm of his hand. Likes having something over them. We’ll do as we’re told as long as he keeps threatening us—he knows that.”
    They lapsed into silence then, and Oliver eyed the scenery.
    “Um, I take it we’re going to Privo, yeah?”
    “Yep.”
    “To do what?”
    “Talk to the manager, the owner, whatever. Tell him we heard rumours, see what he has to say, check out his reaction.”
    “But wouldn’t that be alerting him? Letting him know we’re onto him?”
    “It’ll be all over the news shortly anyway. No way those kids being found can be contained. Someone will leak it to the press. Better we get to Privo before the owner sees the news and gets his story straight before we get to him.”
    “Ah, so you can be a detective after all. You don’t really need me.” Oliver smiled, awaiting a