“You alone?”
“Well, sort of. I’m babysitting Eddie.”
“Oh. Okay.” She took a deep breath. “Ross received a disturbing call a few minutes ago that you need to know about.”
A chill settled through her. “What?”
“Lydia was murdered last night.”
Cali was glad one of the dining room chairs sat right behind her for her to sink into. “What?”
“I don’t know all the details. Apparently she was trying to run a pro-Domme gig via Craigslist, and it looks like a client killed her. She was renting a room from a woman down in Osprey. When the woman came home this morning from working an overnight shift, she found Lydia dead. They estimate her time of death around midnight, plus or minus an hour or so. This is a rapidly developing situation, as they say.”
“Shit!”
“Yeah.”
Cali had hated the bitch, both for the scam she’d tried to pull on Cali, and how Lydia had treated Sean and Max when she was with them. Cali had reveled when she’d discovered Lydia was working a gig at a fast food restaurant…but she hadn’t wanted her dead.
Not…seriously. Just in a revenge fantasy way that no one expects to happen.
Although…
“That’s disturbing, but why do I get the feeling there’s more to this than meets the eye?” Cali asked.
“Because Max and Sean will likely be questioned by the police. Apparently Lydia had a bunch of information about her exes, and Sean and Max’s info was there, too. I would expect police to contact them by the end of the day today, at the very latest. Likely sooner. And you, too, since you’re their wife. This was a courtesy call from a friend in common who personally knows the history between Lydia and the guys and who is 99.9% certain the guys had zero to do with it. That’s why I’m calling you, and Ross isn’t, if you catch my drift.”
Cali caught it, all right.
Trying not to let anxiety get the better of her, she forced herself to stay calm. “Did they arrest the guy yet?”
“No. They’re still trying to figure out who he is. But our friend in common wanted the guys to be prepared for contact with law enforcement. It’s standard operating procedure in a case like this. And if the guys feel they want an attorney when they talk to the cops—which is totally within their rights—they should call Ross immediately, and either he or Ed will go.”
Cali felt…numb. “Yeah, okay. Thanks.”
“You might want to call them sooner rather than later about this.”
That meant as soon as they hung up. “Okay. Do we know how she was murdered?”
“The…friend in common wouldn’t say specifically, because it is an ongoing investigation, but they indicated it was blunt force trauma.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Yeah. Maybe tell your guys to stay out of the workshop for a couple of days so their knuckles aren’t all busted up, too.”
This felt…surreal. “Yeah, thanks.”
“I’ll let you call them and tell them. I’d do it pretty quick. Talk to you later.”
“Thanks.”
Cali needed a moment. She felt…ill. Shaky. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before. Nothing like this had struck so close to home.
She wasn’t sure what the guys’ meeting schedule was like for today, so she texted Max.
Need to talk. Now. Urgent.
He called her five minutes later. “What’s wrong? Is Eddie okay?”
“Yeah. I just got a call from Loren.” She told him as much verbatim as she could remember from what Loren had said.
He didn’t respond.
“Max?”
“Holy shit,” he finally muttered.
“Yeah, kind of my reaction, too.”
“Well, we obviously have an alibi. None of us left last night after we got home. And you were home well within that window.”
“Yeah.”
He sighed. “I’ll tell Sean. He’s talking to one of the project managers right now. I don’t want to pull him out of that for this.”
“Okay.”
“Love you, babe. This will be okay. Cops have to follow all leads. We don’t even know if they’ll talk to us or not. She went through plenty of other victims after she left us. Fresh victims who will feel a lot more anger at her than we did.”
Cali knew that was logical and rational and, above all, realistic.
Except a tiny little bit of irrational fear tried to break through. Much like poor Essie yesterday with her fluctuating emotions. Just because she knew something wasn’t rational didn’t mean she could control her emotions about it.
“Love you, too. Tell Sean for me.”
“I will.” She hated how weary he now sounded. “Text me if you hear anything else.”
“Yeah. Call me back if they do talk to you, okay?”
“I will.”
She ended the call and stared at her phone, wondering if there was some other, darker shoe that would drop. Lydia had been a crafty snake, a user, a thief, a professional victim, and a stealthy predator. She’d tried to tell people—including Cali—that Max and Sean had used and discarded her, a complete reversal of the true events.
When they’d moved her out of their house and into a decent long-stay hotel, prepaying the room for her, they’d done so to make a clean break and had treated her far better than she’d ever treated them.
Certainly far better than she’d deserved. She’d been lucky she hadn’t come home to find all her shit on fire in the front yard.
Cali was still processing when her phone rang in her hand.
Marcia.
She answered. “Hey.”
“Have I got news for you—”
“Lydia was murdered overnight.”
“Oh. You heard already? Damn, that was fast.”
“Where’d you hear it from?” Cali asked.
“We just had someone who’s friends with the roommate call Derrick to tell him because of the club. Wanted to give us a heads-up for PR purposes, just in case.”
“Ah. Word spreads fast.”
“Something like that, yeah. Might make me a horrible person to say it, but I think karma finally caught up with her.”
Guilt flashed through Cali. “I’d already thought that.”
“I’d heard a while back she was running pro-Domme ads. She’d actually had the balls to contact me to ask if she could rent the club during off-hours, even though we’d banned her. I told her to go fuck herself.”
“You did?”
“Well, not in those exact words. I was slightly more polite than that. I reminded her she was banned, and that she’d just eliminated any chance of us ever lifting that ban because we don’t allow pros to ply their trade in the dungeon. Tilly was different when she was doing that. She worked on her own, not here. Anyone she brought here was for personal play, off-the-clock, and she made that clear to us. Besides, she usually only brought Bob here, and you know how that’s turned out.”
“Yeah.” The now-quad seemed happy, even though their hectic work and travel schedules meant they didn’t get to see very much of them all together at the club or at private parties. They saw Landry and Cris more than Tilly and Bob.
“Well, since you already know, I’ll let you go,” Marcia said. “I have others I want to call and pass the word to.”
“If you hear anything else, let me know.”
“You know I will. Oh, did you need any extra help at the club this weekend?”
“No, we have enough volunteers lined up, I think.”
“Cool. I’ll make sure to go shopping before Friday night and get the kitchen and cleaning supplies restocked for you.”
“Thanks.”
“No, thank you guys, seriously. We really appreciate the help. It’s taken a huge stress off us.”
Cali had no sooner ended that call when another came in…and another.
The gossip vine was blooming out of control. She was considering setting her phone to silent when the doorbell rang.
/>
She got up and walked through the kitchen, stepping around a yawning Eddie, to open the door.
There stood two men, one a uniformed deputy, and the other a plainclothes detective.
She swallowed hard. “Can I help you?”
“We’re looking for Sean Dennison and Maximilian Trendle,” the detective said.
“They’re not here. They’re at work.”
“And you are…”
She saw his badge clipped to his belt but asked it anyway before she could stop herself. “No offense, but may I please see your official photo IDs?”
Both men held up picture IDs for her.
“Thanks. Can you come in? I’m babysitting for a friend and I don’t want to leave him alone.”
The two men stepped in, the uniformed deputy obviously looking around from where he stood in the hall.
She walked into the kitchen. “I’m Cali Charleston. I’m their…it’s complicated. Girlfriend, partner, common-law wife. We’re all together in a poly group.”
The detective started taking notes. “Do you have their work information?”
“Yes, but before we go any farther, they were both here last night.”
The detective paused. “Why would you say that?”
“Because my phone’s been ringing off the hook this morning with people telling me the guys’ ex was murdered overnight. Lydia Garcia. Right?”
“Ah.” He made a note. “Their work info, please, ma’am?”
She called up their work and cell numbers from her contact info and gave it to him. “For the record, that woman made enemies more easily than most people change their underwear.”
Maybe this was the opposite of what she should be doing, and maybe Ross would later tell her men to spank her for doing this, but she couldn’t help it.
They were her fucking men, and she knew they were innocent.
“You were acquainted with the victim?”
“Briefly. After I met and moved in with Sean and Max, she tried to con me into thinking the guys had screwed her over when all our friends told me the real version of the story. I haven’t had any contact with her since then. I do know several months ago she was working at a fast-food restaurant, because I’d just run through the drive-thru and saw her walking in wearing a uniform. She didn’t see me, and I didn’t get her attention, for obvious reasons.”
“What restaurant? And how long ago was that?”
She told him.
“How do you know your men were home all night?”
“Because we sleep in the same bed. And we set the alarm. I can pull the log for you.” She did just that, calling up the app on her phone and showing him it was set at nine p.m. the evening before and not deactivated until just before seven that morning.
“Can you take a screenshot of that for me and e-mail it to me at this address, please?” He handed her a business card. She did it immediately.
He checked on his phone. “Thank you. I’ll need the alarm company’s contact info and your account number, so we can verify that with them, as well.”
Also information she had accessible through her phone, and she passed it over to them. “So does this clear them?”
“Ma’am, I can’t comment on that because it’s an ongoing investigation. We’re exploring all avenues right now. We have to follow all leads.”
“I know you won’t find any fingerprints or DNA evidence there connected to my guys.”
He arched an eyebrow at her.
“Hey, I watch Forensics Files, okay? And one of my good friends is a writer. But the last thing we need in our life is aggravation because Lydia was stupid enough to be turning tricks or running a paid Domme gig and it reflects on my guys somehow.”
“We’re going to pursue all leads in hopes of a quick resolution. Do you have any other information that might be germane to our case?”
“Just that Lydia had plenty of people who hated her. She had a way of making enemies. I hope you quickly catch whoever did it. She was a bitch, but she didn’t deserve to die.”
He noted that, too. “Thank you for your time, ma’am.” She saw them out, making sure to lock the door behind them.
When she returned to the kitchen, Eddie looked at her and let out a loud, wide yawn. Baxter sat just outside his reach, watching him with a curious expression. Eddie was interrupting his daily head scritches, which was a cardinal sin in Baxter’s mind.
She texted Max that the cops had just been there and would likely be contacting them soon. He texted her back almost immediately.
Pls tell people to pass the word to stop calling and texting us about this. Our phone’s blowing up.
She winced.
Yikes. Will do.
Then she scooped Eddie up in her arms, hugging him, drawing comfort from him—
“Ew.” She stared down at him. “Duuuuude. That’s one stinky diaper.”
He grinned at her. “Stinky!”
Chapter Five
After changing Eddie, she got his nap blanket and stretched out on the couch with him with the TV turned to cartoons. Once he was immersed in those and falling asleep, she called Loren back.
“The police stopped by.”
“Oh, shit. They did?”
“Yeah.” Cali related what she’d said. “I was caught by surprise. Should I have called Ross?”
“Sounds like you did the right thing. Smart thinking about the alarm log.”
“They won’t really consider them suspects, will they?”
“They have a process. They talk to everyone until they have concrete proof one way or another. It’ll take a while to finish processing the crime scene, get the prints scanned in—if the guy’s prints are even in the computer—DNA evidence, all of that. Unless they have evidence in her phone or computer of who the guy’s real identity is, it could take weeks or longer to figure it out.”
“Shit.” Cali thought about the party. “Should we cancel the party, or move it to someone else’s house?”
“No. Well, I don’t think so, but I’ll ask Ross. I’ll handle that for you and let you know. I’ll also help get the word out to stop bugging Sean and Max. I’ll point people to you if they absolutely can’t keep their noses out of this.”
“Thanks.” Right now, the less thinking she had to do, the better. “I’m still trying to absorb the fact that she’s dead.”
“I know, right? Usually, it’s the good people we lose way too young, not the jerks. I’ll let you know if I hear anything else.”
“Ditto.”
Then Cali set about returning all the calls she’d missed while talking to the detective. Everyone had been calling to let her know about Lydia, of course.
Then Essie called.
“Hey, momma.”
“Heeeey, girlie. Sooo. Anything you want to tell me? Any little, you know, interesting news nuggets?”
Of course word had already reached Essie. “I was going to tell you when you came to get Eddie. That’s why Loren was calling me.” She caught Essie up, who had switched the phone to speaker mode so Mark, who was driving, could hear everything. “That’s where we’re at now.”
“Holy cow,” Mark said. “Hopefully they can use her cell and e-mail to track the guy down. You know the chances are it was a so-called client. Tilly was always uber-cautious. Turned down way more people than she actually took on as clients.”
“I hate to sound like a callous bitch, but it figures that the final act of her life is to throw a monkey wrench in ours.”
“No, that’s normal and human, honey,” Mark said. “I’d be pissed off, too. I’m sure the police will sort it out fast. They usually do in cases like this.”
“Anyway, I guess it’ll make dinner at Sigalo’s Saturday night interesting and give everyone something to talk about.”
“Sorry, sweetie,” Essie said. “We’ll be there in a couple of hours to take the bean off your hands.”
“He’s no trouble. He’s taking his nap now.” Her phone beeped, this time Ross call
ing. “I have to go. That’s Ross.”
“Call me back if you need me.”
“I will.” Cali switched calls. “Thank you for calling Chaos Central. How may I direct your call?”
“I can’t get hold of Sean and Max.”
“Well, the cops might be there at work talking to them already.”
“Dammit.”
Fear filled her. “Why?”
“Because I just got a call from someone who knew her who said she was up at a fetish night at a bar in Tampa last weekend, drunk, and bitching to anyone who’d listen about Sean and Max and how horribly they’d treated her.”
Rage filled her, and if it hadn’t been for the baby right there she would have let out a scream. “What?”
“I know, I know. But I want to talk to the guys.”
“They haven’t even seen her since that night she was at the club!”
“I know that. Stay calm.”
“What the fuck is going on, Ross?”
“Maybe nothing, maybe I’m just being an overcautious attorney. I’m going to get Ed down there to talk to them. Give me their work address and phone numbers.”
She did, her nerves now frazzled. This felt like an emotional ping-pong match, and she was the damn ball. “Please tell Ed to have them call me as soon as they can.”
“Will do.” With that, he hung up.
It was a very nerve-wracking ninety minutes later, and Cali was about to try calling her guys, when she heard the front door open.
Sean and Max walked in.
She rushed over to them, Sean immediately hugging her, tucking his head against her in a way that told her he was in desperate need of some affection and maybe a beating.
Max hugged her and Sean both, kissing her. “Hey, babe.”
“Why are you guys home so early?”
“We took a personal day today and tomorrow.”
“Did the—”
Max wearily nodded. “They talked to Sean, then me. Ed arrived midway in the process. Just as they were finishing up with me, the detective got a call that they’d arrested a guy and he confessed. They found her blood in his car, too, it looks like. Well, there’s blood they assume is hers. They still have to test it, but he did confess. And they found e-mails and texts on his phone between him and Lydia.”
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