After a few seconds of silence, Malcolm spoke. “Have you opened the car trunk yet?”
“I think I might have something more important to do than treasure hunting right now,” she responded sarcastically. Then she ranted. “I knew that you would slow me down. I should have been done and out of here by now. It’s your fault Malcolm.”
“Thanks for the sympathy,” Malcolm let out sarcastically. “But the trunk would have something heavy like the handle of a tire jack or something strong,” he responded.
“How is that going to help me?” Kaley complained selfishly. She was seated on the roof of the end car and dangled her legs over the side as she ranted.
“Kaley, if you tied the handle of the jack to the nylon rope you came down on, you could then toss it to me. Once I have a hold of it, you could get one of the men we hired outside the hole up there to start winching the line in by using the boom crane. Eventually they’ll pull me out of this and I could swing over to where you are to help you.”
“Oh, but you’re kind of old,” she seriously teased. “Are you sure your body can take the strain?” she added as a smile crossed her face. She liked that he was still willing to help her.
“I work out you know,” he responded defensively. It was mostly running, but she didn’t need to know that.
“Alright,” she replied. “Give me a second.”
Kaley stood up brushed off the dirt on her fanny and quickly made her way to the trunk of the middle car. She squatted down and leaned over the edge as she picked the lock with tools from her arm pouch. While doing that, she noticed that the car was several years old, not new, and not in good shape. Curious, she thought.
When she crawled back onto the car roof, the trunk lid popped open. She agilely scooted around the open lid, but stopped and stared when she could see into the big trunk.
“Oops,” she uttered and almost lost her balance. The contents of the trunk clearly caught her off guard.
Malcolm was only about five feet away, but couldn’t see what was in the trunk. “What is it?”
“Huh, there’s no artifact in this trunk,” she replied hotly as she placed her hands on her narrow hips. “There is just some dead body in the trunk.”
The news caught Malcolm by surprise. “What?” he croaked.
“This is becoming an unwanted stupid mystery. I’m going to check out the other cars. After I…,” but she didn’t get to finish as Malcolm interrupted.
“Wait,” he screamed. “Get the goddamn jack first and save my life, okay.” He was afraid that she would become consumed in the conundrum and would forget all about him. He believed she was that selfish.
“After I save my sniveling partner, I was going to say,” Kaley continued with an insult. She showed him the metal bar she had already taken from the car trunk. She proceeded to tie the rope expertly to both ends of the bar.
“Tie it tight,” Malcolm said with concern.
“I’m an expert at rope knots, you know,” she said confidently. “Sometime I’ll show you some of my favorite ones, if you like,” she promised with a sinister smile. “They’re very good at inflicting pain on humans.”
Malcolm wondered what kind of invitation she was making. “I’d like a lifesaving knot right now, please.”
“I made the handle like the end of a waterskiing tow rope. You just have to get your arms around the bar,” she told him. She then tossed it underhand to the anxious man. It landed with a splash, but was within reach of the lawyer.
Malcolm wrapped one arm around the metal handle and then, after some effort, managed to extract his other arm from the mud. He clamped it to the handle as well.
“Okay, I’m ready,” he yelled out.
Kaley talked into her cellphone and alerted the men outside the sinkhole. She had to give the crane operator instructions over the phone because he could not see Malcolm in the sinkhole.
“Start lifting slowly,” she ordered. There was a few tense moments as the cable began to grow taut. Malcolm held on for dear life with both arms and prepared himself for some pain.
Soon a sucking sound could be heard in the sinkhole. The mud didn’t want to give up its captured bounty easily. Malcolm groaned in agony from the strain, but held on. Suddenly they both heard a pop and Malcolm was free. Really free as the mud kept his shoes and pants.
“Well, aren’t we a lovely pair,” Kaley said with laughter as she covered her mouth. “Me in my mini-bikini standing on a car and you in your boxer shorts dangling from a rope? Oh, and did I mention that we both have almost nothing on and are thirty feet down in a dark hole that is about to collapse. There has to be some irony in this situation.”
“Have the operator swing me over so I can stand on the car,” Malcolm pleaded.
While it seemed like the logical thing to do, as soon as Malcolm placed both feet on the car roof, it began to shift and sink from the extra weight. Panic once again set in.
“Up,” Kaley screamed into her cellphone.
“Wait,” Malcolm said. “You need to come with me. I’m not leaving you in this hole alone.”
It clearly surprised her. A few seconds later, a look of relief filled her pretty face. She was pleased that Malcolm wouldn’t abandon her even though it’s what she would have done in a heartbeat.
“Okay, but can you possibly hold on for just a minute longer?” She quickly asked him with pleading eyes as she walked away. “I’ve just got a few things to do.”
Realizing that he really didn’t have a choice, Malcolm reluctantly agreed. “Tell the boom operator to stand by.”
As soon as she told the operator to hold the boom in place, the agile Kaley scampered over to the next car over, popped the trunk and disappeared behind the lid.
“I see a pattern here,” Malcolm heard her say from somewhere behind the trunk lid. He watched as she took three pictures with her fancy cellphone and then moved to the third car. There she repeated the process.
“What have you found out? Did you find anything useful that can lead us to the artifact?” the dangling lawyer asked.
“There are three dead men, one in each of the trunks. I took pictures of their faces, pictures of their hands and pictures of the license plates on the cars for identification. I can’t get the vin numbers of the cars because they are buried in too much mud.”
“Could you tell how they all died?” the lawyer in him quickly asked.
“They were shot, execution style, from close range,” she replied and made like she was pointing and shooting a gun. “They were hit right in the center of their foreheads. Whoever did this was a good shot.”
“Well, that should give the police something to go on,” Malcolm said.
“What police?” Kaley questioned as her head popped up causing the blond ponytail to flap. She was busy pulling some very thin twine from her arm pouch.
“We have to give the police all the evidence,” Malcolm reasoned. “There’s been a crime committed here.”
“Oh no,” she replied while shaking her lovely head no. “I’m not giving any of this to the police. They can get their own evidence. I’m going to use this information to solve this case myself.” And make lots of money.
“But Kaley that would be obstructing justice,” Malcolm complained with sudden worry. He didn’t want for either of them to go to jail.
“Alright, dammit,” she agreed while acting mad. “I’ll leave the trunk lids open and I’ll tell the police that the men in the trunks look Middle Eastern too,” Kaley quickly responded.
“Why would you do that?”
“Well they are for one thing. Also I want to recover the codex artifact before anyone else can. By telling the police that these guys are from the Middle East, a hundred government agencies will get involved and trip over each other. It will buy me some time.”
“So you want to divert their attention? That’s pretty clever actually,” Malcolm said as a compliment.
“By the way, what’s with these terrorist guys always wearing stup
id straggly beards anyway? No woman likes that mess,” Kaley once again ranted.
Malcolm ignored her outburst. “What makes you think that this diversion will give us an edge?” Malcolm asked curiously.
Kaley had tied the end of the thin rope onto a strap of the bag she had found in the back seat of the car. “I’m not giving the police this evidence.”
“What?” Malcolm couldn’t believe his ears.
“I believe we have the camera used to film the whole thing and a bunch of paper that looks like research or something in the bag. Someone wanted it buried, which means it’s valuable to us.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“No, I’m guessing that we are already well on our way to solving this case.”
“Then let’s get out of this hole and get to work,” a now more enthusiastic Malcolm exclaimed.
Kaley looked at him mischievously as he dangled from a rope just above her head. After a while, she shrugged her shoulders and began rubbing his body.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m knocking some of the dirt off of your body, silly,” she said in a slightly hoarse voice. “Hmm, you seem to be in better shape than I thought.”
“Why are you doing that?” he croaked back. Her hands rubbing on his body was pure torture and he didn’t even have pants to hide his torment.
“Malcolm, I’m going to have to wrap myself around you and ride on your body to get out of this hole.” She spoke like she was talking to a child. “You wouldn’t want me to get too dirty, would you?”
“Rub all you want,” he said painfully.
When she was satisfied, all he could do was gulp as she skillfully leaped up and grabbed the bar over his head. She then brought up her long legs and wrapped them tightly around his waist. She looked directly into his eyes as she did it. She tied the thin rope to the bar, and then spoke into her cellphone. Soon they were headed out of the sinkhole.
“Now we are both dirty,” Malcolm attempted to joke as he tried to be his old self.
“Don’t get used to it, buster,” Kaley responded sharply. “This will never happen again.” She’s such an asshole, Malcolm thought.
“You said that the last time you were wrapped around my body,” he replied with a laugh.
“Oh,” she remarked. “I forgot,” she said as she deliberately squirmed against him.
He knew that this enigma known as Kaley was manipulating him. She seems to be able to adjust her attitude every time the situation changes to keep me off my game. Is she bi-polar? Why am I so captivated by her?
Chapter Five
On the trip up and out of the dark sinkhole, Malcolm tried to examine what he actually knew about Kaley Wells. He needed a distraction. He needed to do something besides think about the hotness of her bikini clad body as she clung to him. He was becoming painfully stimulated and she knew it.
She had pulled her head back and her cobalt blue eyes stared at him like he was a piece of chocolate that needed to be eaten. She was clearly excited. Danger excites her.
She moistened her lips. “Am I too heavy?” She asked in a little girl voice and immediately squirmed against his body. The maneuver was not a mistake.
“Kaley, please stop doing that to me or you’re going to get an unwanted surprise,” he pleaded.
“But I greatly appreciate that you helped me, she said sweetly. “You should be rewarded,” she purred as if teasing him was a reward. “I like to tease you, you know.”
Malcolm could only stare at her. She oozed sex with such little effort. She used it as a weapon and she didn’t care if anyone knew when she was locked and loaded, like now.
He knew that danger was an aphrodisiac to her and that was why she was sexually teasing him. He knew she was drawn to danger to feel excitement. He didn’t know why or how she had gotten that way.
In fact, he realized that he knew almost nothing about her.
***
Malcolm had been working for Aurora Insurance for eight years and had worked his way into the second in command position, next to Simon Stone. He had his finger on the pulse of the organization and Simon trusted him. He also thought he knew his boss. But one day everything changed when Kaley Wells made a flamboyant appearance during a meeting between Malcolm and Simon Stone. She pretentiously strolled through the office door without knocking and flamboyantly announced her arrival by striking a pose.
“I’m here,” she said and through open her arms.
“Please come and sit down by me,” Simon Stone said suggestively.
As she took a seat in the office, Simon introduced her as his “charge”. He made no comment concerning her interruption of their meeting or who she really was or even why she was able to stay in the meeting.
Being a lawyer, Malcolm knew what the word “charge” meant. He knew she was under his protection or supervision. But which one was it?
Since that time Malcolm had not found out why she was his charge. All he knew was that Simon Stone treated her like close family even though Malcolm knew the old man didn’t have any living relatives.
He did know that Kaley had a very aggressive personality. She showed it all the time. She was quite capable of putting off or even scaring any man or woman she wanted. But in the next second she could act like they were intimate friends — much like she was doing to him right now. He was pretty sure that he would have remembered if they had sex in the past. Yet she acted like they had shared a bed more than once.
She was a complete dichotomy, or perhaps she was a total schizophrenic. He really didn’t know.
However, Malcolm realized that she did have real talent. She told everyone she had an advanced degree in archeology, but never said which university it was from. No matter how hard the people at Aurora Insurance searched they couldn’t find her alma mater. The interesting thing was she was almost always spot-on when dealing with artifacts. She really did know her stuff.
Finally, he understood that she had been physically trained by expert professionals. She was very good at hand to hand combat, could shoot a gun, throw a knife, take apart electronic devices, and run like a graceful gazelle. And all the time looking like a Scandinavian goddess. Malcolm wondered if she had been trained by our government or some other.
The excellent conditioning schedule she followed, along with all her anonymous training and education produced a two pronged personality, a woman to be respected but also feared. Malcolm was never sure which one he was dealing with.
They had worked together on seven mysteries over the last two years and yet he had never been to her house, didn’t know if she drank alcohol, or even what she liked to eat. And yet, she willingly gave him her bra size, her waist size and the hotness of her body when they were on missions.
He also wondered where she went when she suddenly took a couple of vacation days every once in a while. Her office file just said “personal days”. Malcolm knew this because he had taken the time to look.
She was an enigma that he couldn’t get out of his mind.
***
Suddenly, he was ripped from his secret thoughts when his feet touched the ground. The exhausted Malcolm let go of the handle and began to fall to the ground. Kaley stayed wrapped around him and rode him to the ground like he was a wounded horse. She did manage to prevent his head from smashing against the hard tarmac of the parking lot by placing her arms between his head and the ground.
As soon as she was sure that he was safe, she popped up to her feet like a cork bobber. By then a crowd of construction workers had started to gather around. Malcolm was so exhausted, he couldn’t move and lay on the ground with his eyes closed thankful to be out of the sinkhole.
Kaley suddenly had a cruel grin on her face. “Now will you let me have my clothes back? I’ve done everything you asked. You’re such a devious man,” she cried out to the crowd and acted like she was pleading. She then backed out of the crowd.
Malcolm’s eyes opened when he heard several men threaten to throw him back into
the hole for abusing such a pretty, sweet, young girl.
“It’s not what you think,” he managed to say. He quickly got to his feet thinking he might not be able to convince the workers and would have to run.
“Oh, yeah,” one construction worker said. “Then where are your pants, big boy?”
“The mud,” a now worried Malcolm said and pointed to the sinkhole. “I fell into the hole and the mud sucked off my pants and shoes.”
“I think he is telling the truth,” the worker who was operating the boom crane quickly said. “The woman orchestrated the whole thing.”
“Where did she go anyway?” another worker asked as he looked around the parking lot.
“I’m right here,” Kaley announced as she breezed into the group with a smile on her face. She was now dressed in the sundress that she had worn from the beach. She also had on red high heels. Her hair was out of the ponytail and freshly combed.
“Why did you make them believe that I assaulted you, Kaley?” Malcolm screamed at her. He was angry now.
“Oh, I did it so I could slip away and get dressed, of course,” she explained and tilted her head like he was a moron. “I needed a distraction or all of you men would have been salivating while you watched me slip out of my bikini and into my dress. I knew that I would get away with it.”
“You took off your bathing suit off out here in the open? You did it here in the middle of this parking lot?” Malcolm could not believe her boldness.
“Yup,” she responded and gave a shy smile. “Oh, can you put this in your suit jacket pocket? It’s too dirty for me to carry and I want to keep the suit.”
She handed him a small handful of cloth. It was her bikini.
Chapter Six
Preparing for the trip back to Atlanta was also not much fun for Malcolm. First, he called the rental company and asked them to pick up their boom crane before it fell into the sinkhole. They told him that if it went into hole, he was going to have to pay for it. There was also a charge for picking it up early.
The Oracle Philon Page 3
