Just This Once

by Diana X Dunn

  “Impressive” Julia remarked.

  “It is the greatest joy of my life watching our richest and most difficult guests getting caught in that door when they leave with towels and bathrobes crammed in their cases,” the clerk grinned at Julia and Alex.

  “But that isn’t much help to me,” Julia continued.

  “I’m not sure that I can help in any way.” The man told her, sounding genuinely sorry. “We pride ourselves on discretion. It isn’t usually a problem.”

  Julia made an impatient gesture and then turned away. She sent a quick message to Blake telling her what she’d found out and requesting that they make checking Peter’s M-ped a priority. He had supposedly used it to reserve the room, and used it as a room key, perhaps it would reveal more. A quick reply surprised Julia.

  No M-ped has been found in the room.

  She frowned. Someone must have been with him, then, and that someone must have taken the device when they’d left. Julia had already been convinced that it was murder, this was just more proof. And it was sloppy. After going to all the trouble to stage such a convincing suicide, taking the device looked like the mistake of an amateur.

  She and Alex paused at the hotel doors. Alex had taken public transport to the hotel. His own transport was still parked on the driveway at Lilac Court, so Julia offered him a ride to wherever he was heading.

  “You know what, I think I’ll walk for a while,” he told her. “Actually, I know a great real food restaurant not too far from here. I think I’ll walk for a while and then get something to eat. I need to clear my head.”

  Julia watched him walk away, feeling slightly annoyed that he hadn’t invited her to join him on the walk and the meal, but also relieved. He was starting to feel important to her. She simply didn’t have time for complications of that sort.

  She pulled a FADS bar from her bag to combat hunger and walked slowly to her transport. Going back to the office to do more computer searches held no appeal. The answers might be hiding in some computer records somewhere, but she simply wasn’t in the mood to stare at a computer screen. Two people were dead and she couldn’t shake the feeling that she knew who was responsible. And if her suspicions about Serena Stone were correct, the computer probably wouldn’t be much help.

  Time to have another chat with Ms. Stone, she decided, punching up the work address for the woman on her wrist-con as she walked to her car. She considered messaging first to make sure Serena would be available, but decided that the element of surprise was more important.

  Contacting the office before she’d made the trip would have saved her the journey, though. Ms. Stone was out of the office for the day and the woman that Julia spoke with at reception had no idea when she might be back or where she was. Even flashing a badge at her hadn’t revealed any more information. Apparently Serena had called and said she wasn’t coming in without providing any more information than that. According to the receptionist, that wasn’t usual.

  Julia turned her transport toward the house on Lilac Court. No one answered the door at the Stone/Richards house, though and that left Julia again wondering where to go next. With a sigh she headed back to her office. She decided to focus her computer searches on Serena Stone. Her instincts were finely tuned and she was convinced that, even if Serena wasn’t the murderer, she was keeping secrets.

  Before she headed back to the computer, she dropped into the staff lounge to grab a cup of coffee before she started work. Two steps inside the door she was sorry for the impulse.

  “Hey, F6, how you doing?”

  Julia’s face stayed completely composed and she even managed to smile at the man she hated. “I’m fine, George,” she answered him briefly, hoping to stop the conversation before it started. Head down she headed toward the coffee machine.

  “What you working on these days?” George was undeterred.

  Julia took a deep breath and turned to face him and his companion. If you looked up the definition of “tall, dark and handsome” George’s photo could have been the illustration. As their eyes met, Julia was, as ever, struck by how incredibly good-looking the man was. That he was a lying, murderous snake was another matter. His companion was slightly shorter, blond, and his looks definitely suffered by comparison. On his own, he would probably be considered an attractive man, but standing next to George he practically disappeared.

  Julia tipped her head. “I’d tell you, George, but then I’d have to kill you.” It was a hackneyed phrase, but it suited Julia’s frame of mind.

  George laughed. “Now, now, F6, we’ve been friends for far too long for me to take that seriously.”

  Julia simply raised an eyebrow at him and then poured herself a cup of coffee.

  George wasn’t finished, though. “F6, you have to meet my new partner,” he told Julia, gesturing toward the man next to him.

  Julia turned a sincere smile on the stranger. “Nice to meet you,” she told him. “Good luck with George.”

  George laughed again, but now Julia could hear the tension in his voice. “This is Mike Moore,” George continued. “He’s been with several different agencies in the past and just came over to our side. And Mike, this is F6.”

  Julia took the offered hand.

  Mike smiled back at her. “It is very nice to meet you, as well,” he told her. “Why F6?”

  Julia shook her head impatiently. “Sorry, I’m Julia Randall, George just never bothers to learn my current real name.”

  “Oh F6, you wound me.” George shot back. “Really, after everything we’ve shared?”

  Julia rolled her eyes and picked up her coffee, ready to leave.

  “Actually Mike, Julia and I grew up together.”

  Mike looked interested as George shared his information. “We were both abandoned ex-utero babies who were taken in by the agency to be trained up. Julia was the sixth female child adopted by the agency, so she was called F6. We weren’t given proper names because once we started work we needed to be able to change identity with ease. I was M10 because the agency took more boy children than girl ones.”

  “Only at first,” Julia couldn’t help but interject. “After a while they discovered that girls were easier to train and more reliable in the field. It wasn’t long before the program was dropped, anyway, when ex-utero reproduction became more tightly regulated.”

  Mike shook his head. “I guess I never realized how lucky I was to have a mom and dad who loved me and raised me.”

  Julia shook her head. “Don’t feel sorry for me,” she told him. “I loved every minute of my childhood and I don’t feel like I missed out on anything. I’m not sure George isn’t still pining away for a mother figure, though.”

  She shot the insult out as she left the room, determined to get away from the man she disliked and focused on getting back to her work. She’d never liked M10. He had been a bully when they were children, picking on the smallest and youngest in their ragtag group of abandoned children. Fortunately for her, their careers at the agency had gone in different directions and she’d rarely seen him once they’d reached adulthood.

  Just over a year ago, however, her best friend hadn’t been so lucky. F7 had been Julia’s closest companion for her entire life. They were only a few days apart in age and had grown up together in the agency. M10 was meant to be her backup on a mission that had gone horribly wrong. After a full investigation, the agency had concluded that M10 had done everything according to proper procedures and he was exonerated of any blame. F7 was the only person who might have been able to prove otherwise, and she hadn’t survived.

  Whatever the agency decided, in Julia’s mind M10 was responsible for her friend’s death. Now she made a point of following M10’s career closely, watching and waiting for his next mistake. She knew he was currently calling himself “George Jones” and she knew about his new partner. She was making it her business to know everything about him. One day he would pay for letting her friend die.

  Julia took a moment to compose herself and then
turned back to the matter at hand. Standard computer scans revealed nothing interesting about Serena Stone. As Serena’s life flashed before her eyes, Julia became increasingly convinced that everything was too neat and tidy to be true. Serena Stone’s life looked fabricated to her, in a similar way to Jane Lincoln’s. Jane’s had been done by an expert and had been hard to spot. Serena’s was in a different category.

  While the fabrication was fairly well done, it was missing some of the minutia that real life usually added to the records. That was often the case with artificial life stories created for agents working in the field. Julia’s agency generated computerized histories that would more than satisfy ninety-five percent of the population, which nearly always included whomever they were working against. Another four percent were members of various law enforcement agencies for any of the dozens of countries, organizations and governments that employed the same sort of agents. They might notice something off in someone’s history, but they also had the means to find out more.

  Of course that left one percent of the population that could see through the sort of screen that such histories created. That one percent consisted of the most successful criminals and crime organizations in the world. For the countries, organizations, and governments these sorts of criminals were simply beyond reach. Julia’s own agency very rarely did anything other than keep a very close watch on them. Julia’s friendship with Max Hart was an example of this, and her Susanna Barr identity was much more carefully created and maintained than her Julia Randall one.

  Susanna Barr did very special jobs for very special occasions. Julia Randall was just an ordinary, every day, garden-variety identity, the sort that Julia created and discarded on a fairly regular basis. Jane Lincoln’s had been almost as good as Susanna Barr’s. Serena Stone’s, on closer examination, now looked much closer to Julia Randall’s.

  A couple of hours later, after digging deeply into Serena Stone’s electronic records, Julia was satisfied that at least part of the woman’s life was a fabrication. Julia had been able to track her back for the last five years. Before that the trail grew fuzzy and artificial. The issue now was finding out which agency employed her and why.

  Julia sent a handful of messages summarizing her findings and requesting additional information and then shut down. It was later than she’d realized. Stretching worked out some of the kinks the extended time in the chair had given her. Time for home, she told herself, shutting the door of her temporary office and heading for the elevators. As she rode down, she wondered how Blake was doing with his crime scene and how Alex had enjoyed his meal.

  Back at her apartment, Julia found it difficult to settle. Nothing on the screen interested her and she couldn’t find a book, magazine or computer blog that could hold her attention. Checking her messages every few minutes was pointless. While she was eager to hear back from the people she’d contacted, apparently no one else felt the same sense of urgency that she did. Finally she messaged Blake.

  Anything going on that I would be interested in?

  Blake replied moments later.

  Why don’t I come over and we can talk about things?

  Julia didn’t hesitate before replying “yes”, but she got annoyed with herself when she caught herself checking her hair and makeup before Blake arrived.

  “He is a happily married man,” she told her reflection. That didn’t stop her from adding a fresh layer of shiny gloss to her lips and applying a quick spritz of her favorite perfume. That it was also the fragrance that Blake had bought her when they were a couple was beside the point, she told herself. It was still her favorite.

  The light knock on the door startled her. She had been expecting Blake to buzz from the front of the building.

  “Used your badge to bypass security?” she asked him as she ushered him in.

  “Seemed easier than buzzing you and waiting for you to let me in.”

  Blake grinned at her and then pulled her into a tight hug. After a long moment, the simple hug started to feel increasingly intimate and Julia forced herself to pull away.

  “Nice to see you, too,” she muttered, ducking into the kitchen and putting the counter between them.

  “I love that perfume.” Blake tried to keep his tone casual, but failed.

  Julia tried to turn the conversation around. “Do you buy it for your wife?”

  Blake took a step back as if she had pushed him away physically and shook his head to clear it. “Um…no, I don’t.” He stopped there and Julia decided to quickly change the subject.

  “So, what happened to Peter Henderson?”

  Blake frowned. “It looks very much like he was murdered. His M-ped and wrist-con are both missing, which is a kindergarten mistake for whoever set it up to look like suicide.”

  “If I’m right about my suspicions about Serena Stone, it would seem like she should know better.” Julia was frustrated.

  “Maybe Serena Stone isn’t what you think she is?” Blake suggested.

  “Want a drink?” Julia’s mind wouldn’t settle.

  Blake tipped his head to one side. “I’m not sure that is such a good idea,” he said finally.

  Julia sighed and then turned to her drinks machine and requested two glasses of wine. She rarely drank alcohol, but when she did, she favored expensive classic wines. A bottle of neutralizing agent sat next to the machine, but Julia ignored it as she picked up her glass. She put the second glass on the counter next to Blake.

  “Just in case you change your mind,” she smiled at Blake.

  Inside her head a war was waging. She was tired of working on this case and she wanted to forget all about Alex Knight and his problems for a while. She wanted to take Blake to bed. She could remember vividly how his hands and his lips had felt on her body. Blake was married and that should have made him off limits, though. Julia frowned. His marriage was his problem, not hers. She didn’t understand why anyone got married anyway. Legal commitments were almost the same thing and so much easier to end.

  She studied Blake as he stood staring at the wine glass, fighting his temptation. She was pretty sure that she could have him in her bed if she wanted to. The hug he had given her on his way in had told her that much. She walked slowly around the counter toward him, and stared deeply into his eyes. The chemistry was nearly overwhelming as he reached for her and pulled her close. He dropped his head slightly, bringing his lips down to meet hers.

  The front door buzzer sounded, causing the pair to jump apart. Julia walked over to check the security system.

  “Alex visiting again?” Blake sounded furious.

  “Actually, yes,” Julia answered, allowing a bit of her own disappointment to show in her voice.

  “Are you letting him in?” Blake challenged her.

  Julia realized that if she let Alex in, Blake would leave immediately, and if she didn’t let Alex in that she and Blake would be in bed before Alex made it back to the curb.

  Julia was saved making her decision when Blake’s M-ped buzzed.

  “Damn!” Blake checked it and then swore a few more times. “I have to go and do some things,” he told Julia as he headed for the door.

  “Something up with Peter Henderson’s murder?” Julia questioned.

  “Actually,” Blake snapped, “believe it or not, I do have other cases to work on besides that one. This is totally not related.”

  “Sorry, you don’t have to shout.” Julia answered him.

  Blake paused at the door and studied her for a second. “We have unfinished business,” he told her before he stomped off down the hall.

  Julia shut the door and leaned against it, her emotions all over the place. The door buzzer from downstairs buzzed again. This time she punched in the code to let Alex into the building. No doubt Blake would cross paths with him and be angry that she’d let him in. Alex was still being monitored so Blake would know that Julia had let him in, and also exactly how long Alex stayed, anyway. Maybe it was time to show Blake a thing or two. He was married.
She was free to play.

  Whatever Julia was planning, Alex clearly had his own ideas and when he reached Julia’s apartment he wasn’t going to be deterred.

  “We really need to talk,” he told Julia before she had time to speak.

  “Come in,” Julia offered. “Wine?”

  She waved her free hand toward the counter where the extra glass still sat. Then she took a healthy gulp from the glass in her hand.

  “You sure you should be drinking around me?” Alex sounded angry. “I might be a killer, after all,” he blurted out.

  “And you are angry at me because?” Julia studied him in a detached way. She wasn’t at all afraid of him. She was more than a little attracted to him, but not when he was in this mood.

  “I saw Blake leaving,” Alex told her, “and I saw your goons following me all afternoon as well.”

  Julia blinked. “Blake was just leaving when you arrived,” she acknowledged, “but I don’t know what goons you’re talking about.”

  “Ha!” Alex snapped. “Every where I went, all day, these two guys were right on my tail. They didn’t even have the decency to be subtle about it. If you think I’m guilty of something have your lover throw me in jail. If not, call off the thugs.”

  Julia frowned. “Alex, think, please. You are hooked up to a police monitoring device. If I want to know where you are at any given time, I can access the police systems. I’ve no need to have someone follow you. And if I did have someone follow you, you can be damn sure you wouldn’t know they were there.”

  Alex frowned and grabbed the wine glass, downing its contents in a single swallow. A deep breath and then a second seemed to calm him down somewhat.

  “So who were they?”

  “I’ve no idea.” Julia didn’t like any of the possibilities. “I suggest that whatever you’ve stumbled into, someone isn’t too happy with you. Maybe you should take yourself on a short vacation while the murders get sorted out?”

  “Your boyfriend has banned me from leaving the city, remember?” Alex threw the charge at her again and this time Julia couldn’t ignore it.