Angel Food and Devil Dogs - A Maggie Gale Mystery

by Liz Bradbury

  “I’ll turn on the coffee,” I said pulling my T-shirt and shorts back on. “We can go out to eat or I can make you something.”

  She’d gone into the bathroom. I could hear the shower running. I opened the refrigerator to see what I could pull together. The phone buzzed, it was the building intercom. I picked up the mobile.

  “Hi... it’s me, who’s up there with you?” My nosy sister Sara.

  “Hold on,” I said.

  Kathryn had called from the bathroom. I went in the bedroom to answer her, carrying the phone. I raised my voice and asked through the closed bathroom door, “What did you say?”

  “Do you have a blow dryer?”

  “Second drawer in the sink cabinet.”

  I heard her open the cabinet and turn on the dryer.

  “What?” I sat on the bed and said in a low voice back into the phone.

  “Who’s up there?” Sara whispered.

  “Are you downstairs?”

  “Of course. I’m in my office. I saw the purple dot and... I just heard the shower.” Now who was being Nancy Drew?

  “It’s a friend...”

  “A friend you just fucked or you’d be telling me who she is,” Sara chided, “is it...”

  She named someone so far fetched I snapped, “Of course not, will you get real!”

  “Then who? I really want to know... I’ll come up and find out if you don’t tell me.”

  This is what it’s like having a younger sister. On the other hand, maybe they aren’t all as nosy. Both my sisters Sara and Rosa are notorious snoops. They should be the P.I.s. They have to know everything. Sara wasn’t kidding when she said she’d come up here.

  “OK, I’ll tell you, but be nice... it’s Kathryn Anthony...”

  “Woo hoo! I want to see her. Is she great looking? She works at the College, doesn’t she? Has she been there all night? Hey, I got bakery croissants and donuts. I left them at the door. I didn’t come in... Hello?... Maggie?”

  I’d stopped because Kathryn was standing in the doorway to the bathroom watching me talking on the phone. She had one elbow resting on the door frame, with her head against her fist. She was wearing her black flannel shirt again and nothing else. I could see the swell of her breasts at the open vee of the collar; the material clung to the contours of her damp body. Her shirttail hung to mid-thigh. She was smirking at me with mock exasperation.

  I said to Sara, “Gotta go,” and disconnected.

  “Lesbian chivalry is dead?” Kathryn said shaking her head. She folded her arms and began walking toward me.

  “I’ve been bad and you’re going to punish me?” I asked with amusement.

  She pushed me hard onto the bed and climbed on top of me, straddling me at the hips. She was leaning over me laughing and saying, “You’re shameless! The minute I turn my back, you call a friend to kiss and tell?”

  I was laughing too and saying, “No, no...” in protest. She had her hands on my shoulders pushing me back against the bed. She was trying to pin my arms down.

  “Listen,” I said, “you’re gonna have to learn to trust me and you’re gonna have to face an unpleasant fact...”

  “What?”

  I dropped my hands to the soles of her feet and tickled. She squealed, shifting her balance. I easily flipped her off me and was on top in a second. Martial arts training comes in handy in many situations.

  Now I was straddling her. I held her wrists pinned over her head with one hand. The look in her eye was encouraging, her breathing deepened. I undid the first button of her shirt. She didn’t complain so I kept talking as I unbuttoned.

  “I come with family baggage. See, that was my sister, and I didn’t call her, she called me on the intercom phone. The phone buzzed while you were in the shower. Her office is downstairs and sometimes when she has to work on weekends, she brings her laundry over here to do,” I undid the last button, “and we have breakfast together. She has a key and just comes in, but she knew someone was here so she didn’t... interrupt us... until she heard the shower running...” I explained while spreading Kathryn’s shirt open and brushing my fingers over her lightly from throat to navel. She enjoyed the sensation. She arched into it.

  “But, how did she know I was here?” asked Kathryn who was panting now because I’d begun to caress her breast.

  “Well,” I said a little sheepishly,” I left a colored magnet on the outside of the fire door. It’s a signal not to come in...” I was teasing her nipple between my thumb and forefinger.

  “You mean it’s like a red sign saying Do Not Disturb?” she gasped trying to keep up the conversation, struggling against the tickle of my touch and savoring it at the same time. That nipple had grown full and erect, so I began to work on the other one.

  “Not exactly. A red sign means Do Not Disturb, but I used the purple dot, which means I Have A Date In Here, and believe me, if I’d just used the red sign she would have come in anyway. Sleeping late is not enough to keep her out.” I stopped talking and leaned down to suck one nipple while I rubbed the other with my hand, then I said, “Sara brought assorted croissants, she left them at the door. I think she said donuts too but...”

  “Your sister brought donuts!?!” Kathryn wriggled out from under me and jumped out of bed. I could hear her making her way to the entrance door.

  “Wait,” I shouted, “don’t go out there!” I was too late though, I heard the door open, then Kathryn picking up the bakery box. I could hear my sister hoot loudly all the way from downstairs. Kathryn came back into the bedroom looking in the box. Her shirt still wide open. Her nipples still very erect.

  “Oh, no,” I groaned.

  The phone started to buzz. Kathryn looked at it.

  I said, “It’s my sister again. She just saw you come out of the door on the closed circuit TV.”

  Kathryn glanced down at her open shirt, then she looked at me and really began to laugh. “And that’s her on the phone? How’s she going to feel about a mostly naked woman reaching out the door of your loft?

  “Well since she’s a lesbian, I think she’ll feel privileged to have seen you, like that,” I said sarcastically.

  The phone buzzed again.

  “Answer it,” nodded Kathryn.

  I picked it up. “Yeah?”

  “Woo Wooo Baby!!!”

  “Shut up.”

  Kathryn called, “Tell her to come up and have breakfast with us!”

  Sara said, “OK, I’ll be right there...” and hung up before I could respond.

  “Oh shit,” I said, pressing the intercom button. I yelled at the floor, “Pick it up!!!”

  Sara answered, “What?”

  “Please give us twenty minutes, I haven’t even taken a shower. OK!?!”

  “OK,” Sara conceded.

  I hung up the phone and looked at Kathryn, she was laughing at me. She said, “If you can’t beat ’em...”

  “Geez... OK, look, she’s going to be here in like, ten minutes, I...”

  “You said twenty.”

  “She’s a lawyer, she writes her own rules. I have an appointment in a little while, I’ll have to go,” I was touched to see disappointment register on Kathryn’s face.

  I went on, but with hesitation, “I... I... will you have dinner with me tonight? Is it too, lesbian relationship overkill?”

  “Maggie, we are lesbians, of course I want to have dinner with you...”

  “And stay over again... I mean, if you want to?” I asked quietly.

  She smiled and nodded.

  I grinned, “I don’t know how long the appointment will take, may I come to your apartment when I’m through...?”

  “Sure, it’s 319, but I think I’ll go to my office, so could you come there when you’re ready? Dinner will be my treat, it’s my turn.”

  “I think we’re pretty even on the treats.”

  She laughed deep in her throat. Then she went toward the laundry room saying, “This is one of the rare occasions when the illicit paramour doesn’t
have to wear the same clothes in the morning that she came in in the evening. I have all my clean clothes here!”

  “Illicit paramour is not the right character designation,” I called.

  She leaned out the bathroom door and tilted her head to the side... “What is the right characterization?”

  “Well, we could have talked about that, but you decided instead that it would be a good idea to invite my extremely nosy sister to breakfast!” I said with exasperation.

  “Can we talk about it tonight?” she said with a sweet smile.

  “Let’s talk about everything tonight,” I said smiling back. Kathryn went to get some of her clean clothes from the laundry room. I turned on the shower again, then went into the closet to grab what I needed while the water got warm. I could see Kathryn pulling on her jeans in the laundry room.

  She looked up and said, “That is the finest shower in the world. Did you design it? The tile bench is inspired.”

  “I did design it, I haven’t been able to get the handheld part on the hose to work though, but it’s really the rain showerhead that makes it so special,” I said as I went back into the bathroom.

  Kathryn was in the kitchen area when I’d finished dressing and came into the big room. She was setting the kitchen table with plates and silverware for breakfast. She’d put the butter dish on the table.

  “I’ll be right there,” I called across the room to her.

  I opened a closet near the entrance door where the security equipment was and rapidly changed the recordable DVD in the security recorder and erased the digital files. I took the old DVD over to the kitchen counter and cut it in half with some heavy kitchen shears. I folded the pieces and threw them in the garbage.

  “What are you doing?” asked Kathryn curiously.

  “Protecting you from distribution... Watch what Sara does the minute she gets in here. She’ll try to be subtle, but watch.”

  Exactly eleven minutes after I’d told Sara to give us twenty, there was a knock and she unlocked the door and walked in singing, “Good Morning!” Then she fumbled around with her jacket and causally walked over to the closet, acting like she was going to hang it up.

  “I erased the files and cut up the old DVD,” I called out as she reached for the doorknob to the closet with the video equipment.

  “Damn!” she exclaimed laughing. Kathryn laughed too. I stood there with my arms folded.

  “You are so bad,” I said shaking my head.

  Sara came over to me, kissed me on the cheek, then said very rapidly,

  “Buena manaña, querida. ¿Entonces donde conociste esta chica caliente y cuán fue en la cama? ¿Le sobra algo para mi?”

  “Callate maleriada, recuerda que todavia te puedo dar una tremenda pela. Si, la miras no mas, te boto de aqui,” I said in a menacing voice.

  “Despues de haber hecho lo que yo sospecho, la noche entera, seguro que esta demasiado casada para manejar eso,” she teased.

  “E’tate quieta Sara, de veras,” I said threateningly.

  Translation:

  Sara came over to me, kissed me on the cheek then said very rapidly, “Good Morning, sweetie. So where did you get this hot babe and how was she in bed? Does she have any left over for me?”

  “Shut up you brat, remember I can spank the crap out of you. If you so much as look at her, I’ll kick your butt out of here,” I said in a menacing voice.

  “After what I suspect you’ve been doing all night, I doubt you’d have the energy to manage it,” she teased.

  “Quit it, Sara. I mean it,” I said threateningly.

  Sara said, “Hey, if I’d known I could use donuts to lure naked lesbians into my clutches, I’d have a girlfriend by now. I’m changing my whole approach.” She extended her hand and said sincerely, “Hello Kathryn, I’m just teasing my sister. This is no reflection on you. I’m very glad to meet you.”

  “Sara, thank you for the baked goods. They were just what I wanted.” Sara was still holding on to Kathryn’s hand even after they’d finished speaking.

  “Let go of her, Sara!” I commanded.

  My sister smiled at me sweetly and said, “Do you have any orange juice?”

  Sara was wearing paint stained pants and a turtleneck shirt with a ratty sweatshirt over it.

  “Professional outfit,” I teased.

  “At least I have clothes on,” she quipped under her breath.

  “I heard that,” said Kathryn laughing again, “and someday, I’ll have to know what you were just saying to each other.”

  I got orange juice from the refrigerator and some glasses. Kathryn put coffee cups and a carton of half and half on the counter.

  Although Sara drives me crazy, I love her very much. She and Rosa and their mother are the only family I have in the world, other than Farrel and Jessie, who are family I chose. It was very important to me that they all liked Kathryn. Sara would be the hardest sell. Sara has been known to say on more than one occasion, “I hate new people,” but Kathryn was being so charming to her, Sara was trapped. It was making me a tiny bit jealous, because I’m always aware that even in scruffy clothes, Sara is very attractive to just about everybody. And Kathryn was flirting with her.

  Intellectually I knew Kathryn was doing it to be diplomatic, but it’s amazing how just one night in bed creates a powerful possessiveness. They chatted personably through several croissants and cups of coffee. I ate a donut and watched.

  I knew I was going to have a hard time concentrating on the case during the rest of the afternoon, but I needed to interview Bart Edgar at noon. That gave me about thirty minutes before I had to leave. If I wanted to spend those thirty minutes alone with Kathryn, I might have to physically throw Sara out.

  “So Kathryn, where are you from?” cross-examined Sara.

  “I grew up in Portland, Maine.”

  “You don’t sound like you grew up in Maine,” said Sara at the zenith of snoopery. “Did you have voice training?”

  Kathryn laughed, “I guess that’s a compliment. I can speak like a Northern New Englander, Ya can’t get they’ah from he’ah. You’re right though, I trained in theater classes and I sing a little too. I wanted to have a voice that could carry to the back of the lecture hall.”

  Most of the donuts were gone, but Sara was still mercilessly pumping Kathryn with questions. While Kathryn was doing just fine holding her own in the conversation, I was wondering what it would be like to have Kathryn sing to me.

  “How do you feel about same-sex marriage?” asked Sara pointedly.

  “I feel annoyed and discriminated against because it’s not legal in this state”

  “Uh huh... but how do you feel about it personally?”

  “Fine,” said Kathryn without skipping a beat.

  “So, tell us your coming out story, Kathryn,” said Sara leaning back in her chair.

  “No,” I said to both of them, “we can talk about that later if Kathryn wants to, but right now, I have to go in a few minutes and I want to talk to Kathryn alone, so go back to your office right now.” I gave Sara such a look that she actually did it, after politely saying goodbye.

  I turned to Kathryn after Sara left and said, “I thought she’d never leave. I’m sorry she was so pushy.”

  “Maggie, my twin bother Kiernan is just like her, and he’s gay too. Believe me, I understand. I can also see she loves you very much. It’s important to you that she approves of me isn’t it?”

  “If she doesn’t approve, don’t worry, I can beat her up,” I said in the time honored fashion of an older sister, “Kathryn, I have to leave soon...”

  In response, she leaned across the corner of the table and gave me a tender kiss. She said sweetly, “I want to talk to you about lots of things tonight. Shall we do that?”

  “That will be nice. At the moment there is only one thing in the world I can imagine that would be more exciting than talking to you.” She kissed me again.

  After a while I said, “You don’t have to go, you can stay her
e if you want.”

  “No, I’ll go get some work done, then we’ll have plenty of time to be together. I have to look over two late thesis proposals and, if it’s all right with you, I’d like to take the instruction manual to Carl’s Voice Transcription System. I woke up in the night thinking about it. I don’t understand why it’s working so poorly.”

  “Sure, take it.” I got up from the table, found the manual and brought it back to her. “I’ll come to your office as soon as I can, but I have several people to interview, starting with Bart.”

  “Oh dear, that will be trying.”

  “Quite... I’ll be at your office between 6:30 and 7:00. You get to decide where we’ll have dinner.” We kissed again.

  “And... then we’ll have all night,” said Kathryn. Her expression was so delicious, I began to ache all over again.

  Chapter 29

  On my way down the building stairs, Sara called out to me as I passed her office. “How can you leave that lovely woman alone after what was obviously a very hot evening? Maybe I should go back upstairs and keep her company?”

  “Sara, listen...” I said with irritation.

  “OK, OK, I’ll stop, it’s just so fun to tease you about your girlfriends and you have to admit you haven’t given me much chance over the last... how long has it been?” Smiling she came to the door, “Honestly Maggie, she seems like a good catch. Or was this just a one night kind of thing?”

  “You think she’s all right?” I asked earnestly. Sara nodded smiling, so I went on, “I’m not sure where this is going, but we have a date for tonight. I’m kind of amazed this is all happening. I feel like a lucky pup.”

  “Maggie, she’s the lucky one, don’t think for a minute you’re not a damn good catch, too,” said Sara squeezing my arm. “You better get going, you’re probably late for your appointment already. I just wanted to go over the list from the Daria Webster party. Have you checked it yet?”

  “Emma just gave me the credit information last night, she said there wasn’t much to it and... I’ve been kinda busy,” I said glancing back up the stairs. “I haven’t looked at it yet. I put a rush on the criminal checks, they should be here tomorrow.”