by F P Adriani
“Do you need me there today?” she asked me.
I shook my head; then I realized she couldn’t see that. “No. Not for a while probably. Nell, it just isn’t safe.”
“Exactly what the hell happened, Pia? I spoke with Roberto, and Jamie’s at his house—huh?!?”
“It’s a long story—well, a one-day story. But I can’t tell it to you today. Roberto’ll be waiting outside the office for me.”
*
When I got there, Roberto and I did a couple of once-overs around the outside, checking for anything unusual. I used my Osier scanner too, but I came up with nothing match-wise except those-of-us-who-should-be-there’s fingerprints.
I unlocked the front door; we both had our guns drawn as we searched inside, but we found nothing untoward again.
Over the phone I’d told Roberto that Julianne had woken up, so he was in better, less-guilty spirits today.
I really didn’t want to ruin that better mood by bringing up difficult subjects, so I asked him in a light voice, “How’s Jamie working out?”
“All right. I mean he’s gonna need a job. I don’t run a boarding house. But he’s handy, Boss, you didn’t tell me that. Already he’s started fixing things around the place.”
“Great,” I said. “I figured as much. He knows a lot.”
“About what?” Roberto looked at me. “Boss, considering all this stuff that’s happened, you know I’m all kinds of worried now. It seems like everybody but me knows what’s going on. This just ain’t our normal business lately!”
“Look, starting tomorrow, I want you and Mike to take a break from MSA. Until Julianne’s back on her feet,” I said with a very confident air about me, though I didn’t feel very confident. “You’ll be told more later. Right now, be glad you don’t know much. You don’t want to know much.”
I stared at him, but he finally sighed and nodded.
We went over to the desks and started in on some of the business’s neglected housekeeping.
At one point during working, Roberto asked me, “So have you seen Darla?”
“Yeah. She should be getting out of the hospital soon. Which is good. Though she’ll be out of commission for a while of course. But she’ll be all right. Which is good again…. Three women hurt in one situation—that’s not good. I don’t know who I want to strangle for this sickness.”
Roberto held up his hands in an innocent little twitch. “Don’t look at me! I feel bad enough as it is, responsible….”
“You got anything else for me about that? What did the police say?”
“Just that you should come see them when you got back.”
I didn’t want to respond to that now. “Darla says one of the masked guys was large, muscular. And at least one of them had a Crayton accent.”
“So?”
“So, nothing. Those are the only distinguishing things to go on. And they aren’t much.”
“Boss, she did tell me they made a mess downstairs. She thinks they were looking for something. You think they found it?”
“I’m not sure,” I said slowly. Then I sighed, loudly. “Eh, in the meantime, as long as you’re here, let’s take a look at the bank job….”
“Actually, me and Mike have been taking care of that, just like you asked, Boss. Everything’s gone smoothly there—no problems. Everyone’s showed up and been doing what they should.”
“Good then! We should be getting another payment soon. That’s one thing we’ll still need to do: pick up the mail here even though the office will be dark and blank.”
His big face fell a bit. “I hate to see this, Boss! I mean, the business—we were doing good….”
“We’ll do good again,” I said, my faux-confidence back.
*
Not far from my office, the Castano house sat waiting for me to do something very important. But I couldn’t do that important-something just yet: it wasn’t safe enough.
Still, my mind couldn’t resist propelling my body there now; I wanted to just look at the place. But of course I assumed I wouldn’t yet be able to do what I needed to do. Then when I finally turned toward the driveway, I found my assumption had been correct.
Three police cars were parked outside. Red police tape hugged the front doorframe, but the door within the tape lay open. Physically, I could have backed away, but one of the cops stood hovering in front of the house yet facing me. It might look weird if I reversed fast….
I kept going instead, feeling doubly disappointed. I’d been hoping to at least use my scanner on the house again. But then what would be the point? The police had probably been all over the place doing their own scanning and manipulating and cleaning, and anything important had probably since disappeared into their knowledge-base.
I parked my car close to the house, and the cop walked over to me. I had to show her my ID before she’d let me get out of the car.
Then she said, “Well, Detective Burroughs has been expecting you and he’s here now.”
“What a lucky break,” I replied as I got out and walked past her onto the porch.
“Hello!” I called inside the doorway, a little sarcastically. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to this.
The Sun was shining very strongly that day, so the indoors farther back looked quite shadowed. My eyes adjusted to the view a bit; I recognized Burroughs’s block shape as he came closer.
“Well-well,” he said. “If it isn’t the little P.I.”
“I’m not a P.I.,” I replied, bristling and standing up straighter. “I’m a security expert.”
“Call it whatever you want, Miss Senda.” He slid a piece of tape aside and stepped out onto the porch. “I like to call it P.I.A. for Pain In Ass, as in a pain in my ass.”
Hating his smug cleverness, I bristled again at the P.I.A. “I haven’t done anything wrong,” I snapped. “In fact, I’ve done your job. I found Millie Rodriguez on Hera, or didn’t you get my—her message?”
He nodded, his eyes falling on me with a strange expression; I could have sworn I saw a little respect in there. But I must have been imagining that, given his next words. “That was a good little video show, I’m sure. But I did confirm it with her cousin and I called her in. Didn’t have anything on her to do something with. Unless you’ve got something….”
“No. I don’t.”
He was quick. “What about your break-in?”
“She didn’t do that. I’m not even sure there was one.”
“Oh sure, sure. But, you see, now I’ve got this dead body here and your name’s attached to this family. You and your PIA-ing or SE-ing—whatever you want to call it.”
“I didn’t do this!” I said, but I could feel the heat in my face giving away some of my feelings. I tried to hide my heat—too late.
“You know something about this, you better tell me,” Burroughs stated flatly, his eyes narrowing at me.
“I don’t know anything. It’s got nothing to do with me. YOU might look in the mirror. The girl here hired me—”
“I heard about that. To guard her. She thought she was in danger. Turns out she was right.”
“And maybe she was right about her mother too. That someone killed her. Again, investigating that’s your job.” Arguing with the police was never something a person should do, especially with the Diamond police, but I couldn’t help myself. The stresses of the past few weeks had finally caught up with me. Everywhere I looked now I saw a mess, and I didn’t know how to clean up even an inch of it.
Burroughs’s eyes hardened at me, but he only shrugged his big gray-covered shoulders. “Her mom died, still fairly young, in good shape it seemed, so naturally an autopsy was done.”
“And?”
“Look here,” he said now, his hard eyes fixing on me even more firmly, his heavy brow lowering in a threatening way. “I’m the one’s supposed to be asking the questions. That body there’s in the ground. This one here’s still in the morgue.”
“Again, I don’t know anything abo
ut either.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
My angry mouth shook. But I managed to say evenly, “If you have an accusation to make, make it and I’ll call my lawyer. If not, I’m saying goodbye now.”
“Well okay. See ya later, Pia Senda. I’ll be talking to you again very soon.”
*
As I drove the short distance back to my office, my hands shook on the steering wheel. Goddamn the fucking cops. They were the pains-in-asses. Who the hell did Burroughs think he was kidding…?
But as I cursed all this, I suddenly realized that one good thing had come out of the shitty situation: now that the cops would be sniffing around, that would indirectly afford me some protection. Even my office might be safer than I’d thought.
Roberto had since left there, but I did my once-arounds outside again; then I slipped inside and did the same checking. Then I collapsed in the chair behind my desk, my gun in my lap and my face in my hands.
I was about to pick up the phone and call Tan at The Citadel when the phone rang.
It was you-know-who. My face must have turned purple with feeling now. Like I needed HER calling me with the cop’s sniffing around nearby!
“Are you insane calling me here now?” I said to her. “You have any idea what’s happened?”
“I’ve been told dribs and drabs. Good thing you got back okay.”
“Oh sure. Yeah, it’s a good thing, now that my life’s an increasing wreck. I got the cops off my ass over one thing; now they’re on it for another!”
“Who—what cops?”
“Someone broke into the Castano house—the housekeeper was killed. Duh—get with the program! Don’t you get the news in your caves?”
“Very funny. I know all about that. And I’ve heard from someone who told me something else about a certain hotel room.” Jamie. “We’ve got to step all this up. Did you find out anything more—the notebooks? Something?”
“I’m sick here—sick that this girl is now sick and in pain in the hospital. Don’t you give a goddamn?”
“Senda, you think I haven’t kicked myself over that? Contrary to popular belief, I’m neither a supervillain nor a superhero. I wish I was because then this would have never happened.”
…At this point, I kind of believed what she said. She did sound sincere; though her sincerity seemed a bit useless now. “I’m glad you’re finally finding yourself. But this detective is also on my ass, and—”
“Who—what detective? Give me more information already.”
“Why? What can YOU do? I don’t trust you.”
“I understand, but give me some names. You just never know who I know.”
“I’m not giving you names. If you’re so great at black ops, figure it out yourself. Don’t call me here again, goddammit. Call my portable.”
I slammed down the receiver.
And then a moment later, my portable phone rang.
I felt a sharp blinding pain in the center of my forehead as I clicked the talk-on button. “Not when I’m in my office, goddammit!” I shouted.
“Some things are more important than you, Senda! When are you going to realize that?”
“I’m aware of that. I certainly am. But now I can’t help thinking that if everything’s bigger than everybody, why the hell are individual people fighting to save anything? For chrissake, this is two people dead now. Me and Jay could have been two more. Is this all worth it? Maybe I should just mind my own fucking business already.”
“Are you insane?” her sharp voice repeated my words at me. “Didn’t you hear anything I explained in person that day?”
Now I felt really pissed. I didn’t need a reminder of that day, especially that she and Tan had seen each other again for the first time in a long time….
“Goddamn you. I’m fully aware of not only that, but I know more than you know.”
“Then when are you going to tell me—”
“I’m not telling you shit unless I’m there and taking care of this. Know this: even if you drug me again, you won’t get anything out of me until I’m ready.”
There was a long pause. I thought she might have hung up, but my phone showed the line was still open. “Okay, okay,” she finally said. “That’s okay. I had no intention of doing that anyway. But at some point very soon, we both need to take direct action.”
“I know. I just need a little more time. Within the next few days—when the heat around here cools a bit.”
*
Fortunately, it did die down, starting only a few hours after I’d left the Castano house; only one cop car sat outside it now. I knew this because I passed by the house again. And I had to because in the hospital earlier, Julianne had finally revealed the location of the notebooks. But I couldn’t get to them unless I could get into the house. I had to learn the cops’ schedules. I had to pick my time-of-entry carefully.
I probably could have gotten a sanction from her to the cops, a sanction for me to collect some of her stuff from inside the house. But I was pretty sure the cops wouldn’t let me do that unless they followed me around. And that just wasn’t acceptable.
So, at some point, I would have to semi-break into a crime scene. I soooo wasn’t looking forward to that.
One thing at a time. Right now, I had to collect my own belongings and move them over to Tan’s place.
*
He had given me a key and the security code for the alarm system. And it took me hours to move my stuff into his house.
I really didn’t know what to put where. I felt very uncomfortable: I hadn’t lived in anyone else’s home since my childhood. And, in particular, I’d never lived with a man….
Tan had said he’d be late getting home that night, which was good because it left me more time to get used to the place. But his being late was also bad because I really didn’t want to be alone that night. The girl kept weighing on my mind, her body’s situation….
An hour before Tan was due home, I called her at the hospital, but the nurse said she was sleeping.
“Out—unconscious?” I asked.
“No, just sleeping.”
I hoped the nurse was right. I hoped Julianne wasn’t in so much pain that it had knocked her out. The pain was what bothered me. The bastards had injured her belly internally…oh I didn’t want to think of that!
I was pacing the house, screaming Where the hell is Tan! inside my mind when he finally walked in.
“Hello,” he said as he dropped his keys and bag on the side table near the front door.
“Tan,” I said, rushing up to him and my words rushing out my mouth, “I just can’t deal with this alone anymore.”
He stopped moving and looked at me as he said, “But, Pia, you don’t have to.” And then his arms reached out to me.
*
Not long after, he made us some black-bean tacos for dinner. We ate at the dining-room table, and I couldn’t recall ever having swallowed tacos so fast; I polished off four in only minutes.
When I’d finished stuffing the last taco into my face, Tan finally brought up Hera. “So what happened that last day? Nell told me some things about earlier, but you stayed on.”
“They’re…on to me,” I said then, picking up my glass of lemonade and finishing off that too.
Tan sat up straighter. “On to you? What the hell does that mean?”
“Tan, these people mean business. Obviously.” I glared at him as I lowered my glass. “They could have killed me….” I watched his sarcastic eyes…damn him. “All right, they tried—all right! So now you know.”
His face turned a furious bright crimson as he rocket-shot off his chair. “Dammit—I knew this would happen!”
“What the fuck do you want me to say? Hooray! You were right! I’ve been in grave danger! I’m only glad Jamie was there—he woke me up—”
“—So then you were sleeping together—”
Now it was my turn to shoot off my seat. “Are you nuts? This ridiculous jealousy has got to stop a
lready. Have you taken a good look at me now—do I look like I’m in good shape? Like I’d inspire amorous feelings? Oh yeah, it was really romantic in that room, getting shot at and all.”
“Not that different from the way we met,” Tan said then in a dark voice. He was too clever sometimes. He was also too jealous. I could see that now, and I didn’t know what to do about it. He hadn’t been this way at first. It had taken time to reveal itself….
I said now, “I have to work around other men. You work around other women, and I don’t give you a hard time—though that doesn’t mean it never bothers me…. But this is stupidly stereotypical of you. And I don’t fucking like it.”
“I don’t like a lot of things too—like your line of work….”
“Oh christ,” I said, looking ceiling-ward.
“…But I deal with that. Not everything goes perfectly.”
“I certainly don’t need a lesson in that again. What I need right now is…some comfort. Something nice. Just something nice to hang onto. Someone nice. Can you be that for me—just for tonight?”
For a moment, his whole self didn’t move even a bit. Then he let out a hard breath—through his nose. “Of course, yes. Look, you go shower, and I’ll clean up here. I think you need sleep right now more than anything.”
“That’s the truest thing you’ve said all night,” I replied. Then I walked away and began doing what he’d said.
Later, we met up again in his bed. I had shut the nightstand lamp beside the bed and had been lying in the semi-dark, listening to him shower. When he finished in there, he turned off the bathroom light and didn’t turn on any other lights.
In the thick darkness, I felt his slim damp body slide into the bed. He pulled me near him, and at first I thought he was naked, but then I realized he had on his pajama-pant bottoms. They were damp though, and for some reason, the wet feeling chilled me. I pulled the blanket up higher.
