Twisted Dreams

by F J messina

  The coffee cup in Sonia’s hand began to shake, almost imperceptibly. “Yes, yes. Of course we’re a couple.” She took a tiny breath. That’s a new word, couple.

  “Well then, it seems logical that you’d come work for me at some point, doesn’t it?” He sounded a bit like a salesman closing the deal before the customer could think it through.

  “For you? As an employee?” Sonia could feel the muscles in her jaw tightening.

  “Well, you don’t have to think of it that way. We’ll work together.” Brad waved his hand. “The employee thing, that’s just a technicality.”

  Sonia’s right foot started tapping. “Well, as an employee, don’t I get to know how much I’m going to get paid? What kind of benefits I’ll get?”

  “What’s going on?” Brad seemed honestly confused. “I thought you’d want to come work with me. You just said it yourself, we’re a couple─we’re together.”

  Sonia’s mind was spinning. She would have loved having a conversation about their moving forward, becoming a real couple. But not this way. Not while they were negotiating about work. “Yes, we’re together,” she said, her voice terse. “But that doesn’t mean I give up being who I am, does it? Jet and I have put a lot of time and money and effort into building BCI; we’ve got more clients than we know what to do with. And you think that without even asking me you can just assume that I would walk away from that─walk away from my best friend?” Her voice was rising, and the shaking of her hand was no longer imperceptible.

  “I never said that. I just . . . .” Brad simply stopped. The silence at the table was palpable.

  Brad turned his head to the left and looked out the large picture window. He spoke as if the person he was conversing with was on the other side. “So how do you see this going?”

  Sonia took a very deliberate sip from her cup. “Well, honestly, I don’t think I’ve thought this through much more than you have. It’s just been so nice lately, you know, being together. I just hadn’t thought much about a business relationship.” She moved closer to him. “And of course, I always want to help you in any way I can. But I can’t stop being me. I’ve learned so much professionally. And I know I could be that working with you,” she shook her head, “but it’s not the same.”

  Brad remained silent while Sonia paused, getting her thoughts together. She took a quick breath. “And then there’s Jet. She took me into her vision, the agency, as a full partner. We’ve worked so many cases together. And now we’ve got so many more, more than she could handle alone. Do I walk out on her? Do I just say, ‘Hey it was great while I waited for something better to come along, but now I’m with Brad, so I’m out of here? Good luck?’ ” She paused again. Her tempo increased. “Come to think of it, if I come and work for you, doesn’t that put me in direct competition with Jet? Doesn’t it?”

  Now it was Brad’s turn to think for a moment. He looked down into his cup as he swirled the coffee in it round and round. Finally, he took a deep breath. “Let me ask you a question.”

  “Okay.” Sonia knit her brows. Where’s he going with this? Her foot started tapping again.

  He looked up. “These new jobs you’re getting. What kind of work is it?”

  “Well,” she sat a bit taller, “mostly the same stuff we’ve always done, cheating lovers, missing kids like Mariana.”

  Brad moved forward cautiously. “And you know what kind of work Semper Fi focuses on, right?”

  “Yeah, mostly corporate work.” She watched him carefully. Where is he going with this?

  “That’s right.” He sounded stronger, more confident. “All the other stuff, that’s more of a hindrance to me than anything else. It takes me away from the larger accounts.”

  “I can see that.” Sonia felt like she was holding her breath as she waited. In fact, for a few moments, she was.

  Brad leaned in, his bright, blue eyes looking directly into Sonia’s. “How about this. You stay at BCI. You do the work you guys have always done. Something comes across your desk that seems, well, maybe a little more heavy-duty, you send the account to me. On the other hand, I keep doing corporate stuff, but I give up doing anything else.” He raised his eyebrows. “Someone comes to me with a job that’s right up your alley, I send them to you. How does that sound?”

  Sonia was a little taken aback. Hearing Brad imply that only he could deal with larger clients, corporate clients, “heavy-duty stuff,” put a knot in her stomach. Hadn’t she worked shoulder to shoulder with him bringing down that last group of dangerous, very dangerous, people? Still, she knew in her heart that he had a lot more experience than she and Jet had, not to mention a veritable armory of sophisticated equipment. Her lip curled a bit as she spoke. “So, we never work together again?”

  “No, that’s not it at all.” Brad, the salesman, was full throttle and talking fast. “You and I may be working in different firms, but we’re still us; we’re still a couple. If I need computer help or just an extra pair of hands or two, you guys come and help me. Maybe on some kind of contract─just for business sake. Then, if you guys need help from me, some equipment or, God forbid, some muscle, then I come and help you. Isn’t that what a couple would do, no matter what the business relationship?”

  Sonia looked down and thought for a good solid minute, Brad waiting─staring at the top of her head. Reluctantly accepting the current reality of their different situations, and eager to allow room for their relationship to grow, she spoke, slowly. “Actually, that sounds like it might just work.” Her voice was soft, tentative. She looked up at him. “That might just be okay.” A vision of Jet’s sardonic smile crept across Sonia’s mind. “But I’ve got to run it past Jet. I think she’s been ahead of us in thinking about the ramifications of you and I being . . . together. And I think she’s a little nervous. Let me see what she thinks. It’s got to be okay with her, too.”

  The discussion seemed to end there. Sonia’s level of frustration ebbed slowly. At the same time, she realized that this was the first uncomfortable conversation they’d had since they’d become . . . whatever they’d been lately. She took in a deep breath. I guess that’s what being together . . . a couple . . . in a real situation . . . in the real world, is like. Not always peaches and cream.

  Sonia and Brad spoke for a few more minutes, mostly about what they might do that evening and on the upcoming weekend. Soon, however, she felt the need to get away, the intensity of the previous discussion still jangling her nerves. She stood. “I’ve got to get back to work. Thanks for the coffee. I’ll see you tonight, okay?”

  “Okay, babe. I’ll see you tonight.” He rose to give her a quick kiss. It was nice but less than comfortable. She rose, walked out the door, turned the corner, and looked up those steps. Her mind was spinning. The conversation with Brad had been difficult. She wasn’t a hundred percent sure how she felt about the new arrangement, nor if Jet would be on board with it. And what was worse, a worried father had come to ask her help in finding his daughter─and no one had the slightest idea of what had happened to her.

  5

  Sonia was sitting at her desk when she heard the ancient door to the BCI offices open and saw Jet walk in. “Two o’clock,” Sonia said loudly enough for Jet to hear while she was still in the waiting area. “That must have been some meeting.”

  Jet spoke as she walked toward Sonia’s office, her high heels clicking and reverberating off the empty brick walls. “Yeah, well, I just had a fascinating meeting with Steven Brownlee. You can’t imagine how wonderful it was to be given the complete, and I mean the com-pl-ete tour of the Bronson/Brownlee plumbing universe. There were butterfly valves and CL flange reducers, drainage pumps and sump basins.” She gave Sonia a snarky smile. “Hell, I even saw box after box of ballcock valves, whatever the hell they are.”

  “Pretty sexy, huh?” Sonia’s smile was mischievous.

  Jet brushed invisible dust off her clothing and hands. “Oh yes, Steven Brownlee about swept me off my feet. Never mind the fact that he�
�s almost eighty years old.”

  “Good.” Sonia smiled benevolently. “I’m glad to see you getting a little romance in your life. Any chance you two might . . . you know . . . ?”

  “Yeah right. God knows what condition his plunger is in.”

  Sonia let out a hearty laugh. Then she asked, “So how can we be of assistance to Misters Bronson and Brownlee?”

  Jet shook her head. “Oh, there isn’t a Mr. Bronson, not anymore. He’s been dead for thirty years or more. It’s just out of respect for his old friend that Brownlee keeps the two names on the firm. He said, ‘That’s the way it started and that’s the way it’ll end.’ ”

  Sonia nodded. That’s the way it should be. “So?”

  “So, Mr. Brownlee, given his age, has had to bring in new folks to actually run most of the operation. Last year he brought in a bright computer guy, just graduated from Transy two years ago. The guy’s brought the whole thing into the twenty-first century. Ordering, inventory, billing, etc. They all go through his computer program now.”

  Sonia leaned back in her swivel chair, a mechanical pencil eraser touching her lips. “So, what’s the problem?”

  Jet took a seat in the red padded chair opposite Sonia’s desk, one that matched the chair opposite her own. “Well, as you can imagine, Mr. Brownlee is old school.” She rolled her eyes and smiled. “Pretty pencil-and-paper, you know what I mean?” She shrugged. “Listen, he still knows everything under the sun about plumbing supplies, it’s just that he can’t keep up with the financial information anymore. The way it’s all laid out in spreadsheets and all.” She closed one eye and raised the other eyebrow. “And he’s starting to get pretty suspicious that there are some shenanigans going on there.”

  Sonia sat forward in her chair, her forearms leaning against her desk. “So, this guy graduates from Transylvania University with a computer science degree. Then he finds himself a great business being run by a true old-timer and uses a lot of techno smoke and mirrors to rob the old guy blind. Is that it?”

  Jet twisted her lips. “That’s what Brownlee’s afraid of.”

  Sonia rocked back in her chair again, resting both her elbows on its worn wooden arms. “And are we going to help?”

  “I’d sure like to. Mr. Brownlee seems like a sweet old guy. Aaand,” she winked, “he’s more than willing to pay top dollar to protect his business.”

  “So, what’s the problem?”

  Jet adjusted herself in her chair. “The problem, sweetheart, is that we need two things to figure out what the hell is going on down there. First, we need someone who is computer savvy, and it just so happens that one of us is the geekology queen of East Main. Second, we need someone who understands accounting. And,” she looked at Sonia over the glasses she wasn’t wearing, “neither one of us knows grits from gravy when it comes to accounting. I just don’t know that we can do the old guy justice on this one.”

  Sonia started tapping her pencil against the edge of her desk. “Now, wait a minute. You said the old guy didn’t mind spending money on saving the business, right?”

  “Right.”

  The tapping stopped. “Then what we’ve got to do is bring in someone who does know about accounting, a forensic accountant, or something like that.”

  Jet thought for a moment then reached into her purse and started searching on her phone. “Okay. There are two firms in Lexington that offer forensic accounting services. One is up near Hamburg Pavilion, the other down on Harrodsburg Road.”

  Sonia liked the sound of that. “Why don’t you give them a call and see how much it costs to get one of their folks to come work with us? We’ll just take our regular fee from Brownlee and tack on the cost of the forensic accountant.” Sonia picked up a small pile of papers on her desk, tapped them into a perfect rectangle, and slipped them into a blue file folder. “I think he’ll understand that it’s going to take a team to find out what’s going on out there.”

  Jet picked up her purse; she stood and turned to leave the office. “Yes, your highness.”

  Sonia sat up in her chair. “Listen before you go, we need to talk about something.”

  Jet turned back toward Sonia but remained standing.

  “No, you’d better sit back down.”

  “Oh, my, my, my,” said Jet, slipping into one of her infamous southern accents. “This doesn’t sound good.”

  “Actually, I think you’re going to be okay with this.”

  Jet took a seat but kept her purse in her lap. “Okay. Go ahead. Spill it.”

  “Right.” Sonia took a quick breath. “So, I had two very interesting conversations today. First, just after you left, a client came in. His name is Francisco Castillo, but everyone calls him Paco. His daughter has been missing for two weeks and he wants us to find her.”

  “Two weeks? That’s pretty quick. What about the police?”

  Sonia ran her fingers through her hair. “Well, he said they were cooperative, but there was just so much they could do in a missing persons case. It’s not like they’ve got any reason to believe she was the victim of a crime. I’m sure part of their thinking is that she’s just up and left.”

  Jet rubbed her nose with her index finger. “How old is she?”

  “Twenty-six.”

  Jet put her purse on the floor next to her chair. “Yeah. Young woman─just old enough to go off without telling anyone─maybe just to meet some guy she’s met on the internet.”

  Sonia nodded. “Right. That’s what I said to Mr. Castillo.” She leaned forward onto her desk again. “But he says she’s not that kind of girl.” She went on to fill Jet in on the few other details she had about Mariana Castillo.

  Jet bent down and picked up her purse. “Look, honey. I don’t mean to sound callous, but this could be one tough gig. Searching for someone who may have just run off, someone who may not want to be found? Sounds like we could spend a hell of a long time on this one. Does it look like Mr. Castillo has the financial resources to pay for all of that time?”

  Sonia thought back to the image of the smallish man standing at the back of the room─the way he was dressed, the way he moved. She knew the answer. “Honestly, probably not. But you should have seen him, Jet.” Her voice became plaintive. “The way he was suffering. And just imagine his wife and the rest of the family.”

  “Sonia,” Jet gave her a firm look, “you’ve got to remember we’re not a non-profit.” Jet stopped and sighed. “Or maybe we are.” Then she regained her momentum. “But we’re not supposed to be. We need to get paid for our time or we won’t be able to pay for our own needs.”

  Sonia looked at Jet. She didn’t say anything. She just kept looking straight into Jet’s eyes. The seconds passed. Jet didn’t say anything either, but her lips slowly twisted, as if in resignation. Finally, Sonia realized the implication of Jet’s silence. “Great, but put your purse back down. There’s more.”

  “Boy, Sonia Vitale,” Jet let out a big sigh, “you’ve sure got a way of piling things on, don’t you?”

  Sonia remained sitting forward, her forearms leaning on her desk. “Again, I think you’re going to be okay with this.” She paused for a moment, tightening and relaxing her fingers. “Now, after I spoke to Mr. Castillo, I went downstairs to have coffee with Brad. I told him about the case and he said the weirdest thing.” Sonia rolled her eyes. “Okay, maybe not so weird.”

  “What did he say?” Jet’s voice had a bit of an edge to it.

  Sonia took a quick breath. “So, he tells me he doesn’t think we have time to take on Mr. Castillo because of all of his other cases.” She leaned back in her chair, motioning with her hands. “And I say, ‘We?’ And then he tells me he thinks I’m going to be an employee of Semper Fi from now on.”

  “Well, son-of-a-bitch.” There was no pleasant southern accent attached to those words.

  “Yeah, I know, right?”

  “And what did you say to him?” Jet seemed ready to pounce.

  Sonia went on to tell Jet about the entir
e conversation between her and Brad, not leaving anything out. She asked Jet if she was okay with the arrangement Brad had proposed.

  Jet sat quietly for a while. Then she said, “Honestly, I think that’s the best solution. Let him take his fancy-dancey corporate work and we’ll just stay here and keep helping real people, people who are getting screwed by someone else . . . or missing someone they love.”

  Sonia remembered how BCI had gotten started. Jet had caught her husband and the hot young secretary he worked with in flagrante delicto. That experience was the driving force behind Jet’s desire to start BCI, and it was no surprise that she was content to keep that kind of work as the main focus of the firm.

  Sitting back, as if to indicate the conversation was over, Sonia said, “Good. I’m glad you’re okay with that. I think it’s the best way to move forward, too.”

  Jet stood up once again. “Can I go now? I still haven’t had a chance to eat lunch.”

  “Are you going to eat downstairs?”

  “Yeah, I’m starving and I just want to get something as quickly as possible.”

  Sonia stood as well. “Come on. I’ll join you. I haven’t eaten lunch yet either. But tomorrow I want to go to Papi’s for lunch.”

  There was surprise in Jet’s voice. “I love that place. But why do you want to go there?”

  “That’s where Paco Castillo works. And that’s where he was the last time he saw Mariana. I’d like to get the lay of the land.”

  “Sounds good to me,” said Jet. “Papi’s for lunch tomorrow, one of Magee’s turkey sandwiches for lunch today. We’re on a roll. Get it? On a roll?”

  Sonia grimaced.

  As the two women walked out into the warm sunlight and down the steps to Magee’s, Sonia felt a sense of relief. Jet was going to work with her on the Castillo case. Another paying job had come their way. And most of all, she had a sense that business arrangements were going to work out just fine for her and Brad. In the back of her mind, however, she kept wondering how in the world they were going to find an attractive twenty-six-year-old who had simply disappeared.