by Nick James
“You sure?”
“Yes, unfortunately.” She ran her fingers across his hipbones then down to her intended target and held him in her hand. “Let me just leave you with one thought. There is a lot more where that came from, more than you can ever imagine.”
Bobby caught himself breathing heavily as she leaned forward and kissed him on the lips then just as he was about to wrap his arms around her she let go, stepped back and gave him a big grin. “I’d better get dressed or I’ll never leave,” she said then hurried out of the kitchen.
Bobby forced her to eat a blueberry muffin before she left.
“Mmm-mmm, delicious,” she said, getting ready to scrape the crumbs from the paper muffin cup. “Where did you get these?”
“I baked them.”
“Get out of here,” she said and gave him a little push.
“No really, I did. Here look,” he said stepping over to the refrigerator and opening the freezer door. “Look,” he said reaching in and pulling out a plastic bag of muffins. “You want to take some home? I’ll wrap them up for you.”
“I’d love to, but they’d go right to my ass because I’d sit down and eat them all at once.”
“And it’s such a nice ass.”
She smiled, “Glad you like it. Anyway, I better not. Look, I have to get home and clean up, talk to you later,” she said then leaned forward and gave him a kiss, reaching down and rubbing her hand between his legs as she did so. “I really better go or neither one of us will make it into work today.”
Bobby walked her to the door, gave her a peck on the cheek and then closed the door. He stared at her through the peephole in the door as she walked down the hallway then watched until she stepped onto the elevator and disappeared from sight.
He ate the second blueberry muffin he’d set out for Emily. Then went into the bedroom and dropped his robe on the bed. Her black thong rested on his pillow with a note on top of it.
‘Next time let’s not waste a minute sleeping’
XXX
Emily
He noticed her earrings were still on the end table on the far side of the bed. She was definitely staking out her territory.
Chapter Sixty-Six
“Can you spare a minute?” Bennett asked then closed the office door behind him and sat down in one of the client chairs in front of Bobby’s desk not waiting for an answer. His starched shirt was already wrinkled and he looked exhausted. Apparently staring out the window was hard work these days.
“How did things go at City View yesterday?”
Bennett gave an almost silent harrumph to himself then looked up at Bobby and said, “Just peachy.”
“I take it they didn’t go that well.”
“Well, the good news is when Noah is released from Regions, he can return to City View.”
“Fantastic. That’s far better than we expected.”
Bennett flashed an insincere smile. “They have a secure facility or wing or room or whatever. That’s where they’ll put him.”
“You make it sound like he’ll be serving time.”
“Not far from the truth.”
“His family agrees?”
“On the contrary, her highness was there, the Wicked Witch of the West, Cori Denton. She’s filed a restraining order and made a point of waving it in everyone’s face.”
“She filed a restraining order against Mr. Denton, her husband?”
“Why are we even surprised? Yes, citing the so-called assault and fear of another. Naturally the City View accountant used that to justify a fifty percent increase in the cost of Noah’s transitional care.”
“Oh.”
“Lord help us. This is bound to increase our insurance rates, which are already sky-high. We’re meeting later to look at an adjustment in the coverage we’ll be offering to employees,” Bennett said, seeming to forget for the moment that Bobby was one of those employees.
Oh, everyone is going to just love that, Bobby thought. “You have to do it, Bennett, for the good of the firm.”
Bennett nodded like this made perfect business sense, cover the partners and screw the employees.
“I suppose they’ll whine about that, too. Did you hear about the Benedict shooting?”
“Benedict? Angie Benedict?”
“Well, the woman’s brother, terrible thing, absolutely tragic.”
“I wasn’t aware of that. Is this the shooting I heard on the news? Was it at a home in the Groveland area?”
“Exactly.”
“I only heard a quick news blurb on the radio, yesterday. I had no idea. Her brother, you say?”
Bennett nodded. “Apparently at his home, not sure if it was a break-in or some sort of domestic. I don’t really know what the story is, well except that the poor fellow is dead.”
Payback, Benny that’s what it is, payback. “How awful, God the poor woman.” She’ll get hers soon enough.
“I don’t know what this world’s coming to,” Bennett groaned as he rose from his chair. “All right, back to it.” he said over his shoulder and left the office.
* * *
Bobby’s phone rang about a half hour later.
“This is Bobby.”
“Meow,” a female voice screeched on the other end.
“Hello?”
“Miss me?” Emily laughed.
“Very much. In fact I was just thinking about you,” Bobby lied.
“I’ve been thinking about you all morning. To be honest, I can’t seem to get you off my mind. So I’ve come up with a little plan.”
“Oh?”
“Now promise you won’t say no.”
“Well, don’t you think I should hear it first, your plan?”
“Just promise you’ll do it, well, and me by extension,” she giggled.
“What evil act did you have in mind this time?”
“Okay, I’m going to call my mother, tell her we’ll go to the lake next week. Meanwhile, you’ll rendezvous up there with me this weekend and we’ll have breakfast lunch and dinner in bed for two whole days of the most perverse weekend you can think of. What do you think?”
“I think you should give me a list of what you want to drink and eat along with directions.”
“Really, you’ll come up? You’ll do it?”
“How can I say no to your perversions, Emily? Besides, you said it yourself, there’s so much I have to learn.”
“Mmm-mmm, we’ll take the term ‘teacher’s pet’ to a whole new level.”
“Just tell me where and when.”
“Oh, fantastic,” she said and proceeded to give him directions. “You just get there whenever you can Friday night. I can tell you this, Friday night traffic this time of year is awful, from three until about seven it’s not worth it so either get on the road before or after, just text me when you’re leaving so I’ll know when to expect you and you don’t have to bring anything but yourself.”
“Thanks, Emily I’m looking forward to it.”
“Better rest up, cowboy,” she said then hung up.
Chapter Sixty-Seven
On the way home Bobby stopped at Regions Hospital to check in on Noah Denton. He wasn’t in the mental health facility, he was up on the medical/surgical floor of the main hospital, in a private room. The room was on a circular wing that held a total of ten rooms surrounding a nurse’s station.
With all the screens and monitors stacked behind it, the nurses’ station looked like something from the space shuttle. Three nurses, a man and two women, sat staring at various computer screens and either didn’t hear Bobby approach or didn’t care. Bobby assumed the former.
“Hi, I’m looking for Noah Denton’s room.”
“Are you family?”
“Yes,” Bobby answered and smiled.
“He’s in lucky number seven,” the guy said without looking away from his screen. “The one with the red card,” he added.
“What’s the red card for?”
He turned in his chair, looked Bob
by up and down and said, “Just a cautionary note for us, you said you were family?”
“Yes. You must be referring to the circumstances of his broken hip at City View.”
“Right,” he said then glanced back at his computer screen for a moment.
Maybe electroshock therapy, I’ll administer the shocks. “We’ve been dealing with these incidents for a while. They can’t seem to find out what the problem is, what’s causing that sort of behavior. Up until now he’s been a model citizen,” Bobby said, pretending to plead Denton’s case although not too aggressively.
“Well, he doesn’t need another fall, that’s for sure.”
“Right, thanks,” Bobby said and headed for the door with the red card attached to the frame. How appropriate, he thought, just like a soccer match, the bastard’s been red carded.
He slowly pushed the door open and gazed at the sleeping Denton. IV bags hung from a chrome pole alongside the bed and a bunch of flashing monitors were lined up behind him. A large triangular pillow lay between his legs. In fact, it looked like it was Velcroed to the white stockings on his legs. Bobby guessed the pillow was supposed to restrict movement following his hip surgery.
He quietly entered the room, noticed there still wasn’t so much as a greeting card or a daisy from family, friends or partners, and quietly made his way over to the IV bags. The smaller of the two bags was hanging a little higher than the other and he guessed this would be the narcotic.
Denton lay with his mouth slightly open, snoring softly.
Both the IV bags contained clear liquids with two or three paragraphs of copy imprinted on the sides of the bag, all of which meant nothing to Bobby. The tubes from the IVs ran down into two separate computer monitors that looked like large cellphones, each with a blue digital readout. Bobby was afraid if he opened the monitors an alarm might sound, or at the very least the nurses’ desk would be alerted.
He could possibly detach the tubes from the IV connection a few inches from Denton’s arm, but he risked awakening Denton and to what result? It wouldn’t kill him, unfortunately.
He returned to the chair, sat and studied Denton for a long while. Wondering was there a way to spread infection? A way to over medicate? Was the man worth more to Bobby dead or alive?
“Oh, you’re still here,” the male nurse suddenly half whispered from behind Bobby, pulling him out of his murderous daydream. Then he walked over, checked the IV bags and the monitor, stood back and looked at Denton.
“Apparently he was quite successful.”
Bobby nodded, the use of the past tense not lost on him.
“Your father?”
“Yeah, I was adopted,” he added. “Thanks for taking such good care of him,” Bobby said a minute or two later, then stood and walked out the door.
He climbed in behind the wheel of the Mercedes, pulled out his phone and reported to Morris Montcreff.
“I’ve just come from visiting Noah Denton,” Bobby said once Montcreff answered.
“How is he?”
“Medicated, out cold and I would say more or less confined to bed.”
“They’ll have him doing physical therapy sooner rather than later. You didn’t talk to him?”
Are you listening to what I said? Bobby thought. “No sir, he never woke while I was there, I’d say it’s the result of the painkillers, he’s probably more than a little doped up. I spoke with the nurse, he’s going to be there for the better part of the week, then back to City View for the transitional care. I also learned that Mrs. Denton…”
“That bitch.”
“Filed a restraining order, so he’ll have to remain at City View for the foreseeable future.”
“Jesus Christ, can’t that bunch of attorneys do something about that? Toss her out on the street along with that spoiled little brat of a daughter.”
“I’d say it’s not quite that easy and after the episodes at the firm with Mr. Denton and that assault on the paralegal, the partners are in damage control mode. They’re expecting to be hit with a lawsuit over the assault.”
“A lawsuit? Are you kidding? The woman got run over by a car in Paris, she’s dead, for Christ’s sake.”
“Her family is entertaining the idea, I’d say just about every attorney in town has probably called and offered to represent them for a percentage.”
“And they accuse me of criminal behavior,” Montcreff said more to himself than Bobby. “What do you intend to do about it?”
“Me?”
“Were you listening?”
“Yes sir, well, I know the sister, slightly.” She’s just about the wildest thing I’ve ever had in bed. “I’ll see if I can make some inroads on that front.”
“Anything else?” Montcreff growled.
“No sir, I…” But Montcreff had already hung up.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Bobby left the office a little after two on Friday afternoon and headed north. He pulled off the interstate to refuel in the town of Hinckley and sent Emily a text message telling her he was on his way.
He got an immediate reply, “Hurry up or I’m starting without you!”
He stopped in the city of Duluth on the shore of Lake Superior and purchased a half-case of wine and a bottle of bourbon. Then he drove north up Highway 61 roughly along the lakeshore for another hour and a half before he reached the county road Emily had specified and turned off, following her directions.
It was dense woods all along the road. And as he drove he began thinking, you could hide a body or two out here and it would never, ever be found.
The road to Emily’s family cabin was more like a trail. It was a little more than five miles from the main highway and marked by a mailbox. The actual mailbox was surrounded by a large green fish, giving the impression that the fish had swallowed the mailbox. Bobby turned in and slowly wound his way along a sandy path for a good half mile before he came to a clearing with three outbuildings and a large log cabin resting on a foundation of huge granite stones.
This was anything but a rustic cabin. Although set deep in the woods, the structure was three stories tall, built of massive logs with a gabled roof and large screened porch off the far end.
Emily was sitting out on a second story balcony as Bobby pulled in. She set a book down on the end table next to her then stood and raised a wineglass as Bobby parked the Mercedes in the paved brick parking area.
“I was beginning to wonder, any trouble finding the place?” she called down once Bobby got out of the car.
“No, your directions were perfect,” he said then stretched and turned at the waist a few times to get the kinks out after sitting in the car for almost four and a half hours.
“Be right down, grab your suitcase and come on in,” Emily called then stepped into the cabin. A minute later she was opening the front door as Bobby climbed up the massive log steps and onto a porch that ran the length of the structure.
“Wow, quite the place. When you said cabin…”
“Family trait, we’re all into overkill, got it from my folks, the overkill bit. Come on in,” she said then leaned forward and gave him a long kiss on the cheek.
Bobby followed her inside and stepped into a large open living room with a massive stone fireplace at one end. The room was all logs, open up to the second floor with a log staircase along the wall opposite the fireplace. A series of doors on two sides led off a second floor balcony that overlooked the living room.
“Might as well toss that suitcase up in my room, it’s the third door. Want some wine? I’ve got red or white or a beer if you would prefer that.”
“I’ll have whatever you’re drinking. I’ll toss this upstairs and then let me just run out to the car, I’ve got some more things to bring in.”
Bobby walked back out to the Mercedes, grabbed the half case of wine and the bottle of bourbon from the trunk then stood there holding the box and taking in the silence. The cabin and outbuildings were surrounded by a forest of pine and birch trees that quickly became
thicker and darker about ten yards from the cabin. From somewhere back in the forest a bird gave a couple of sharp whistles and then all remained quiet and peaceful.
“Unbelievable,” Bobby said as he set the box of wine down on the granite kitchen counter.
“Oh you didn’t have to get all this, we’ve got plenty,” Emily said handing him a glass of red wine and peering into the box. “So, you like?” she asked waving her glass around to indicate the larger structure.
“Very nice, I think I’d want to be up here all the time.”
“It’s nice to get away, but after a few days maybe a week, I don’t know, I guess I’m just a city girl at heart. Come October most of the folks up here are on the dole until spring. Probably the most excitement is the Friday night meat raffle over at the Saw Mill, that’s a bar about fifteen miles down the road. Of course, everyone knows what you’re up to around here, or at least they think they do, kinda like high school. Hey, come on, grab your wine and let’s go sit out on the porch.”
Bobby followed her through a large dining room, past what looked like a study or maybe an office and out onto a screened porch half the size of his condo. There was a built-in bar against the exterior log wall of the cabin. In the far corner of the porch a large chrome gas grill stood next to a metal-topped table.
“Grab a chair,” Emily said sitting down in a cushioned chair with bamboo arms and legs. Bobby sat down in a couch of the same design at the end closest to Emily.
“Really glad you agreed to come up. No one will hear me scream up here,” she said, took a big swallow from her wineglass and smiled.
They gossiped about everything and nothing, staying far away from anything that might lead to her sister Elizabeth or Noah Denton. It was somewhere past her third glass of wine when Emily asked, “Would you like something to eat? I’m not really all that hungry.”
“To be honest, I sort of feel the same. I had a large lunch and grabbed a Snickers bar at the liquor store in Duluth.”
