Savage Son (11 page)

Steven Champagne and his mother moved to the small town of Willis, Texas, nearly fifty miles north of Houston, when he was only thirteen years old. The young man, a product of a divorced family, led a relatively unremarkable, yet fun, life. The thin, tall, attractive young man turned many a female head, and he never hurt when it came to attracting the opposite sex.

Steven graduated from Willis High School in 2001. He parlayed his diploma into admission at The Art Institute of Houston, where he intended to study graphic design and computer animation.

To make ends meet, Steven took a job with United Parcel Service (UPS) in Conroe. He would have to commute from Willis to Houston to attend college, travel more than forty miles to drive from school to UPS in Conroe, and then ten miles from work back to his residence in Willis. The constant commuting took its toll on the young man. His academic career suffered the most. As a result, Steven dropped out of school after just one year. He blamed the commute as his reason for quitting.

Spring 2003
Harbour Town
Windlass Lane
Willis, Texas

After having dropped out, Steven moved into a small townhome in Harbour Town, a cozy gated community between Willis and Montgomery, and only a stone’s throw from Lake Conroe. The community was mainly littered with townhomes, such as Steven’s, apartment complexes, and a few small residential homes. Steven could walk out his front door and hit one of four tennis courts directly in front of his residence or take a quick jaunt down to the lake if he so desired. Nearby there was also a park, a pool, a playground for kids, a spot to play volleyball, and a clubhouse. It was, however, a somewhat humiliating experience for the young man, as he had to move in with his mother to help cover the expenses.

One month after Steven’s arrival in Harbour Town, he ran into another young man, who lived on his same street. It was rather unusual to see people Steven’s age around the neighborhood, as the majority of residents were considerably older. Steven perked up whenever he saw the young man, because he thought he could stand to have a new friend, or at least a friendly face to nod to and say hello to occasionally.

After crossing paths several times, Steven decided to introduce himself to the other young man, whose named, he learned, was Bart Whitaker. They began to develop a friendship of nods, hellos, and the random bout of small talk. It turned out that Bart lived a couple of doors down from him.

Steven eventually learned that Bart was employed as a restaurant manager at the Bentwater Yacht & Country Club, located on Bentwater Drive, on Lake Conroe, in Montgomery, only three miles from their townhomes. Tucked away near hundreds of acres of towering pine trees, near the Garden Pines eighteen-hole golf course, the club allows an escape for well-to-do Texans who can arrive via boat at the club’s marina, or sneak in under the cover of the copper-domed buildings of the club itself. Members can participate in a wealth of extracurricular activities, including racquetball, golf, and boating, or take advantage of an indoor workout facility or relax with a European-style manicure and day spa. After the frolicking is done, members can steal away to one of two restaurants, including The Crescent Grill, for a more casual environment, and The Dining Room, for more elegant fare. The latter was well-known for its bay-window views looking upon the vast expanse of Lake Conroe. This was where Bart Whitaker worked.

Steven had always heard about the restaurant in the country club, but he had never eaten there. He told Bart that it must be a really cool place to work—much better than his latest job at the Streater Smith Mitsubishi car dealership in Conroe, where he sold new cars.

As Steven and Bart got to know one another better, they naturally began to open up to each other—at least a little bit. Steven told Bart how he ended up living in a townhome in Harbour Town with his mother.

Bart shared some of his background with Steven, but not much. He did, however, tell his new friend that he was attending Sam Houston State University in Huntsville as a graduate student, and that he was also teaching a few courses there (though he never specifically mentioned what classes he was taking or teaching). He said that he had an interest in the criminal justice courses that Sam Houston had to offer. He told Steven he wanted to become an agent for the FBI. Bart managed to go to school full-time, as well as hold down the demanding full-time position at the restaurant. Steven was impressed with the workload his new friend was willing to take on. It made his brief days at The Art Institute of Houston seem somewhat silly in comparison.

Steven used to see Bart coming home from work most nights, and he would try to catch up with his new acquaintance. Both young men used to hang out on their respective patios and talk to one another from across the way. Most of their conversations revolved around their respective jobs. Bart talked about how much he enjoyed his, while Steven lamented his.

One evening, Steven came right out with it and asked Bart if he could somehow get him a job at the country club restaurant.

“Yeah, I might be able to get you an interview,” Bart answered.

“Man, that would be great,” Steven responded. “I am really sick of trying to sell cars.”

“Let me talk to my boss and see if he can hook you up with something,” Bart reiterated. “I know he’s always looking for good workers.”

“I am definitely a good worker.”

“Any idea what you might be interested in doing?”

“Bartending,” Steven confidently responded. “It’s something I think I’d be good at, and I’ve had an interest in it for a while.”

Two weeks later, Bart came through on his promise to Steven. He was able to land him an interview for a job at Bentwater Yacht & Country Club. It wasn’t a bartending job, but rather what they called a “house boy”—someone whose job it was to help set up the restaurant for special occasions, such as weddings, speaking engagements, or banquets. The house boy’s job involved plenty of physical labor, with moving tables, setting up equipment for the dance floor, or whatever other chores needed to be dealt with to make the restaurant party-ready. Certainly not the most glamorous of positions, but Steven understood he needed to work his way up the food chain before he could land the more lucrative position of bartender.

Steven began his new job near the end of May 2003. He was extremely grateful to his new friend for hooking him up.

Once Steven began work at the country club restaurant, he learned something more about his new friend Bart. He had one hectic work schedule. As manager of the restaurant, Bart oversaw the waitstaff and also coordinated with the head of the kitchen staff to make sure the two entities worked in sync. It was imperative for a smooth-flowing restaurant to succeed that the heads of kitchen and staff were on top of their games, communicated well, and knew how to bust balls, when necessary. Steven was impressed with how organized Bart seemed, and also how well he could run his half of the ship.

Steven also noted that Bart put in lots and lots of hours for work, and was very dedicated to his job. As a result, Steven and Bart did not see each other very often outside of work and the occasional chat on their patios. Steven described their relationship, once he started working at the restaurant, as “very professional.”

Steven felt Bart treated him very well at work. He was always friendly to Steven, and the two young men worked well together. Steven also noticed that Bart seemed to work really well with all of his employees, and he always treated those underneath him with courtesy and respect.

Steven began to feel more comfortable around Bart, Chris Brashear, and some of the other coworkers at the restaurant. Everyone worked the same shift, as the restaurant was only open in the evening and nighttime. The employees’ shift lasted from 4:00 until 10:30
P.M
. After several weeks of working, Bart finally asked Steven to join him and some of the other employees after their work hours. The group of employees/friends would usually head out to eat at a different restaurant after closing, or head on over to one of their houses for nightcaps and some cutting up with one another.

Steven especially enjoyed the get-togethers for their camaraderie and for the alcohol. He had been spending most of his spare hours going out to clubs and bars—practically every single night, sometimes with friends and oftentimes alone—before he began working at the restaurant, so this was just a nice, normal addition to his partying ways.

Though Bart was the one who invited Steven into his inner circle, he did not tend to go to the bars with the groups. He preferred, instead, to have his employees come over and hang out at his townhome, drink, and stay up until all hours of the night. Bart’s reasoning for holding drunk court at his place was that it was much closer to work, everyone would not have to drive as far, and if they got too inebriated, they could always crash out at his pad. Also, he assured them, it would be much cheaper to drink at his place than to throw down serious cash at bars for ridiculously priced beer and overpriced, under-liquored drinks.

Bart, however, did not have a fully stocked refrigerator bursting at the seams with alcohol and beer. Instead, he made sure his employees picked up the booze after work at a nearby convenience store. Bart usually had a bottle or two of something lying around so he would not come off as a total cheapskate.

Bart’s after-work parties became quite the tradition that summer. Usually, they occurred every single night, which Steven, of course, was thrilled about. There was usually a small assortment of employees and friends of employees who would saunter in and out of Bart’s townhome, drinking alcohol, flirting with one another, and just having a general good time getting drunk and chatting.

Bart’s little get-togethers seemed to run on bar hours. Most of the time, the festivities would start closing up shop around 2:00
A.M
. On nights when Steven had a bit too much to drink, he simply made his way two doors down to his townhome, making sure not to wake up his mother in the process. On the nights when he was still raring to go, he would jump into his vehicle and scour the after-hours nightclub scene for some additional action. It became his nightly ritual.

In late July 2003, just as Steven began to run in Bart’s circle, one of Bart’s closest friends, Chris Brashear, stopped working at the restaurant. It wasn’t until about a month after Chris quit his job at The Dining Room at Bentwater that Steven finally began to consider Bart to be a friend.

According to Steven, it was not the usual type of friendship he was used to. He became Bart’s friend because it “seemed like he needed a friend,” referring to Bart. “He always seemed distant, and to himself. It seemed like he needed someone to talk to.”

One thing Steven picked up on, in regard to Bart, was that even though he was usually the host of the get-togethers, he never seemed comfortable in those surroundings. He recalled, “Anytime there were a lot of people around, he kept to himself and just hung back.” Steven added about Bart that he “just always seemed like there was something he needed to talk about.” Steven noted that Bart seemed comfortable and confident while at work, but when he was hanging with others, he did not seem as outgoing or friendly.

“He just seemed to be watching people,” Steven recalled, “just keeping track of how they acted and their mannerisms.” Steven found Bart’s behavior a tad strange, but he never thought much more about it. He did add, however, that it always felt as if he was being watched by Bart—almost as if his friend was sizing him up for some unforeseen job interview. It made Steven uncomfortable, but then he would simply throw back another cold one and forget about it.

Steven also noted that Bart would observe the other houseguests and would not usually engage in much drunken revelry. Bart seemed to want to watch his peers interact with each other. He also noticed that when Bart did engage others in conversation, he was always impressed with his new friend.

“He seemed very educated and very intelligent,” Steven acknowledged. “He could talk about a variety of topics and he always sounded like he knew what the hell he was talking about.”

Bart’s seeming intelligence also added to the air that he created for himself. “The image he portrayed was very successful and very confident.” Steven was impressed with Bart’s intelligence, his impeccable manner of dress, and the fact that the young man owned, outright, his own townhome. It was “just the way he carried himself, and the way he presented himself to other people,” Steven stated, almost in awe.

Steven wanted to be Bart.

Despite Bart’s eccentricities, Steven viewed him as a person that most everyone liked. “He just seemed to have a certain way that would make people like him. He had a charismatic way about himself, and I wouldn’t say he would charm people, but, rather, he just seemed to be able to get people to like him. He is a likable person.”

Steven believed Bart’s ability to be liked came from his overall positive attitude he seemed to have about life. “He always seemed positive and happy.”

Over time, however, Steven would discover one aspect of Bart’s life that the latter was not happy about—his family. As the two young men became closer to one another, Bart finally began to open up a bit more. One day, when Steven and Bart were alone after their coworkers had left the after-work party, Bart sprang something rather unusual upon him.

“I’m adopted,” Bart told Steven with a straight face.

Taken aback, not quite sure how to respond, Steven merely asked, “Really?”

“Yeah, my parents adopted me when I was a baby.”

Steven simply nodded and did not make a big deal out of the new information. He would later hear Bart tell other people that he was adopted. It seemed Bart was tallying the reactions, devising some bizarre unknowable schematic of trust and inclusion based upon their responses.

“It almost seemed like he was baiting you,” Steven described his friend’s behavior. “He would throw out a little bit of information to see if you would pick up on it. Then if you would ask about it, he would try to see if you picked up on what he was trying to get you to talk about.”