Ollie turned to Dana. “Kimmo says that I should give to you the flash drive.”
“I agree with him, Ollie.” She put out her open hand. “Please. It’s the right thing to do.”
Ollie nodded. “My heart is so heavy,” he said.
“I understand.”
He reached into the pocket of his bell-bottoms and extracted a silver flash drive. He looked at it for a moment, and then pressed it into Dana’s palm.
“You’re doing the right thing,” she said, wrapping her fist around it. “And I don’t want you to worry. Everything is going to work out for the best...the way Kitty would want it to.”
“Yes, Dana,” he said. “I believe this is true.”
As she walked away, Dana convinced herself that going straight to Marks’s office was the right thing to do. After all, waiting until tomorrow wouldn’t do her any good. It wasn’t like she could plug the thing into a computer to make sure it really held the file Ollie promised. Her laptop had broken months ago, when she didn’t have the cash to fix it. Now that she was bringing home a paycheck it was on her to-do list, but not at the top. And she didn’t want to try to watch it at work, though for half a second she toyed with the idea of sneaking into someone’s office and popping it into their computer. But even the chance of getting caught was too much to bear.
So yes, it made perfect sense to simply drop it off with Detective Marks. She could leave it with him and then go straight to her rehearsals.
* * *
“Is Detective Marks here?” she asked the uniformed police officer at the security desk. Visitors were confined to a square caged entry area, and so she had to shout across a space of fifteen feet to communicate with him.
Except for his shaved head and weary expression, the officer looked pubescent. Or at least young enough for her to picture him at home on his sofa, bent toward the television with a game controller in his hands. She could even imagine his mother in the kitchen making dinner. Dana squinted at the stand on his desk, and could make out that his name was Officer Shane McBride.
“Name?” he said in a tone bordering on exasperation, as if he couldn’t believe another idiot had the audacity to bother him.
“Dana Barry,” she said. “It’s about the Kitty Todd case.”
He picked up the phone on his desk and pushed in a number.
“Marks there?” he asked and paused. “Dana Barry... Uh-huh. Something about Kitty Todd... I don’t know.” He looked up at Dana. “Marks ain’t here. You want to talk to Detective Lee?”
She exhaled, deflated. “No, thanks, I’ll... It’s fine. I’ll call him tomorrow.”
He got off the phone, and Dana turned to leave. “Hang on a second,” he said to her, and pressed something under his desk that opened the gate to her cage. He signaled her to approach his desk and she hesitated.
“Just c’mere,” he said, exasperated, and she did as he asked.
Officer McBride pushed an old-fashioned pink message pad to her. It had While You Were Out printed across the top.
“Leave him a message,” he said.
“It’s okay. I don’t need—”
“Just write something, okay? Otherwise, I got to do it.”
Officer Sunshine. She matched his scowl before staring down at the pad. Then she picked up the skittering ballpoint pen he had handed her and wrote, Found something you will def want to see.
Dana signed her name, wrote her phone number under it and pushed the pad back to the officer without waiting for his sulky approval. She hurried out and walked briskly downtown to Sweat City’s theater.
The troupe ran through the entire second act, which was emotionally exhausting for Dana. Her goal was to scoop herself inside out even if that meant she would have to crawl home. Afterward, she and Raj remained onstage while Nathan gave them notes from his seat in the audience. He had a lot of praise, but a few points about blocking nuances that could be stronger. Since the spots were off, she could just about make out Nathan’s face, even though the houselights weren’t on. She could also discern the shadowy silhouette of a suited man in the back row, and wondered if someone in the cast had a new boyfriend.
Nathan dismissed them and called for some of the other cast members. Before Dana left the stage, she asked him if she could borrow his laptop for a couple of minutes and he agreed.
She went through the velvet curtain into the dark alcove that served as their green room—grateful that no one was around. As long as she had the opportunity, she just wanted to make sure the file in question was actually on the drive Ollie had given her. Dana approached Nathan’s computer on the wooden crate that served as their coffee table. She woke it up with a tap to the tracking pad, and sat cross-legged on a large pillow on the floor. She plugged in the flash drive and promised herself she wouldn’t watch more than a few seconds. Anything beyond that was prurient. And gross. It wasn’t that she was a prude about porn, but these weren’t actors—and one of them didn’t even know he was being filmed. She put a hand on her stomach to quell the nausea.
Dana clicked the arrow on the video. A few seconds of static were followed by an image of an empty bedroom. After some moments, she could hear murmured voices from outside the room, and then there they were—Kitty and Charles, in their underwear. Kitty, of course, was in a matching set—baby pink, as if she were an innocent little girl. They were panting and rushed, but Kitty put a hand on Charles’s bare chest when he tried to move her toward the bed. She stripped naked as he watched, and led him to a spot right in front of the camera. The crazy witch, Dana thought. She wanted to be sure whoever saw this video got a full image of Charles Honeycutt’s cock. Kitty got down on her knees, pulled off his boxers, and there was his erection, front, center and close up. She ran her hand up his thigh and opened her lipsticked mouth as her head moved toward him.
Dana had enough. But before she could shut it off, a male voice from behind made her jump.
“Am I disturbing you?”
Dana fell off the cushion as she turned to see who was behind her. It was Ari Marks! He just stood there, holding back the heavy red curtain to the room.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she asked, her heart pounding like a dryer full of bricks as she scrambled to stand.
He let the curtain fall behind him. “I got a message that you wanted to see me. What the hell is that?” he said, nodding toward the computer.
“I...uh...” She heard grunts coming from the video and lost her train of thought. “I... How did you know where to find me?”
He shrugged. “Lucky guess.”
Dana knew that wasn’t true, but she was too startled to focus. The grunts from the computer got louder and Marks stepped closer to it. “What kind of porn is that, Ms. Barry?”
She felt a flush rise up in her face. “It’s not porn!” she said.
“Could have fooled me.”
“It’s evidence,” she insisted.
Marks raised a dubious eyebrow. She turned toward the computer and saw Kitty’s face moving up and down on Charles Honeycutt’s slick erection. Until that moment, Dana didn’t think it was possible to die from embarrassment, but now she was so burning hot she thought she’d spontaneously combust.
Marks glanced at the screen and let out a breath. He shifted uncomfortably. “If that’s not porn, then—”
“Please,” she said. “You can’t think that I was just sitting here watching this.”
“But you were just sitting here watching this. Not that I’m judging...”
“No,” she said. “No, no, no. I just wanted to make sure it was there. The sex. Before I gave you the flash drive.” The groaning increased as Charles Honeycutt called out indecipherable syllables. Kih sta...kih sta.
“Okay...” Marks said slowly, as if he were trying to process what Dana was talking about.
She glanced back at the screen and realize
d Honeycutt was trying to say, Kitty, stop.
“Don’t you know who that is?” she said, pointing toward the action.
He looked back at the screen as the groaning increased. “The lady seems to be Kitty Todd. I’m not sure I recognize the gentleman from this angle.”
“It’s Charles Honeycutt!”
Just then, the president of the Shopping Channel cried, “Kitty, Kitty! I’m coming!”
Dana practically tackled the laptop, slamming it shut. She yanked the flash drive out of the USB port and handed it to Marks.
He stared down at the small item in his hand. “It’s not even my birthday.”
“You’re making this worse,” she whimpered.
“I’m not sure that’s possible.”
“Well, then...say something to make this less embarrassing.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know.” She paced the room, turned back to him. “Do you have your service revolver?”
He looked at her quizzically.
Dana pointed to her head. “Because a bullet right here would feel really good right now.”
“A mercy killing?”
“I’m begging you.”
“Maybe after you answer my questions,” he said, still holding the flash drive in his open palm. “Where did you get this?”
“From Ollie. Kitty was threatening to show it to Honeycutt’s wife.”
He paused, thinking. “I see.”
“I didn’t want to watch it,” Dana said. “I just wanted to make sure it was actually on the flash drive before I gave it to you.”
“Who else has seen this?”
“No one, as far as I know. About that bullet...”
He looked at her as if he were actually considering her request. “How about I take you out for a drink instead? I think you could use one.”
“Is that...allowed?”
He shrugged. “Do you care?”
Dana stared at him, surprised to discover he wasn’t the rule-follower she had assumed. It didn’t take her more than a second to agree. And so she gathered her things and walked into the velvety Manhattan night with the tall detective. Despite herself, she began wondering what might happen after a drink or two.
“How did you know where I’d be?” she asked, glancing at him. Again, he wore a suit without a tie. But tonight it struck her as the sexiest thing a man could wear.
“I followed you,” he said.
Dana stopped and looked at him, wondering if he was serious. There was amusement in his eyes, but he wasn’t joking—only gratified that he could get a reaction from her. “That’s a little creepy,” she said.
He shrugged. “Truth is, when McBride told me I had just missed you, I rushed outside, but you were all the way down the block already. I could have caught up with you, but you seemed so determined that I decided to hang back and see if you stopped somewhere. Then, when I saw you turn into the theater, I figured I’d slip in and see what was going on.”
Okay, so maybe it was a tiny bit stalkerish. But he was a detective. Nosiness was an occupational hazard. Besides, the image of him rushing out of the precinct to find her was too delicious to release. She was pretty sure it meant he liked her. A lot. Chelsea had been right.
“You watched the rehearsal?” she asked.
“The whole thing.”
Do not ask him what he thought, she coached herself. It’s vain. And childish.
“What did you think?” she said. Damn it.
“I think...” He stopped to rub his face, weighing his words carefully.
Oh God, she thought. He hated it.
“I think,” he repeated, “that this is what you’re meant to be doing.”
“Acting, you mean?”
“Watching you transform like that. It was... I never saw anything like it. I almost didn’t believe it was you up there.”
Yes, she thought. That’s exactly how it felt to lose herself in the role. It was a transformation. She was so grateful he understood that she didn’t want to cheapen the moment with false modesty. Dana knew she was doing the best work of her life.
“Actually,” she said, “no one is going to know it’s me up there. Aside from the cast and crew, I mean. And now you. I have to keep the whole thing a secret.” Saying it out loud choked her up.
“Why?” he asked.
Dana took a ragged breath and exhaled slowly before responding. “My contract with the Shopping Channel. I’m prohibited from performing. So I’m doing it secretly, under a stage name.”
He cocked his head, his eyes warm with concern. “You okay?” he asked.
“Don’t I sound okay?”
“Not really.”
“So much for my acting skills.”
He steered her into a bar called The Hollow, and they slid into a dark booth, where she ordered a vodka martini and he got a bottle of Sam Adams.
He straightened his hair with one hand—a self-conscious gesture she found endearing. Dana touched her throat and his eyes went there, then traveled to her face. She wondered what it would be like to kiss him.
“What would happen if your boss found out about your show?” he asked.
“She’d fire me. On the spot.”
“So why did you do it?”
“I felt like I didn’t have a choice,” Dana said with a shrug, and went on to explain about Raj and what it would have meant to him and the rest of the troupe if she backed out of her commitment.
“That all sounds very noble,” he said, emphasizing the word sounds to imply that it was not, in fact, noble at all.
“Meaning?” she asked.
He tossed it back to her with a gesture of his hands.
She sighed, exasperated. “I had no ulterior motive, if that’s what you’re implying. It’s not like this is going to make me a star.”
“But you have to admit you get a certain charge out of the risk. Right?”
Dana took a sip of her drink and folded her arms. “You think I’m some kind of maniac?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You make it sound like I’m an adrenaline junkie, jumping out of airplanes and crossing against the light.”
“Some people run with scissors,” he said. “Others hand the scissors to their boss.”
So it was back to this again—her habit of self-sabotage. She wanted to be mad at him, to resent the hell out of him for not tripping over himself to compliment her on her sacrifice. But of course he was right.
“You’re not an easy guy to get along with,” she observed.
“I’ve heard that.”
“From your ex-wife?”
He took a pull on his beer and sat back. “Nice detective work, Ms. Barry.”
“Dana,” she corrected.
“Okay... Dana. How did you know I was divorced?”
She reached across the table, took his left hand and pulled it toward her. She ran her finger gently, seductively, over the spot where his wedding ring had been. “You bear the mark,” she said.
“So I do,” he said, and turned his hand over.
She laid hers in his, and he curled his fingers over ever so slightly, stopping just short of holding her hand. The tease of it was almost too much to bear.
“Ari...” she said, testing it out.
“Dana,” he responded.
“You can make all the obnoxious psychological observations you like, but I’m still going to get you to kiss me good-night.”
“And how will Lorenzo feel about that?”
“I’m not seeing Lorenzo anymore.”
He moved his head toward hers to study her face. “You’re serious.”
“I am.”
His hand tightened around hers. Dana wanted to play it cool, but the warmth that rivered through her forced a grin. He s
miled back, and that did something wonderfully terrible to her heart.
They left the bar and walked back to the precinct where his car was parked. He didn’t hold her hand in public, which she supposed was a cop thing. He was on a case, after all, and she was involved in it.
He drove uptown to her apartment and pulled into an illegal spot in front of her building, big enough for his oversize SUV.
“I just realized why you became a cop,” she said.
“For the parking privileges?”
“It’s like getting a key to the city.”
He cut the engine, and there was an awkward pause. She wondered if he was going to make a move, or if the ball was in her court. It wasn’t that she minded being the aggressor, but she had already said the thing about the good-night kiss. It was his turn. If he wanted her, that is.
He brushed a lock of hair from her forehead and touched her cheek with the whole of his warm hand. She was tempted to move her face against it like a cat. The smell of him was more intoxicating than her martini.
“Ari...” she whispered. She was getting breathless.
“You meant what you said about a good-night kiss?” he said softly.
She wanted to tell him she had already moved on to thinking about a good-morning kiss. Instead, she said, “Not here.”
They got out of the car and went into her building. When they got off the elevator on her floor, she was surprised to see a huge bouquet of flowers on the floor in front of her door. She knew they could only be from Lorenzo, which was the worst possible timing. A small white card was forked into the middle of the arrangement, and without even bending down she could make out the words. I hope we can work things out.
Ari saw it, too.
“I guess things aren’t entirely over with Lorenzo,” he said.
“No, they are. Trust me.”
“It seems he doesn’t think so.”
Dana was determined. She was not going to let Lorenzo ruin this for her. With her back to the wall, she pulled Ari by the shirt until they were pelvis-to-pelvis. He kissed her, and it was everything. Crazy and wonderful and so loaded with feeling she would have been scared if she wasn’t so roused and ready, breathless and off balance.
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