Fox had to admit that it did look pretty swish. It was supposed to be used by MarTech employees on corporate retreat so there was little in the way of physical decoration, but the viron was set up to a fairly subtle design, nothing garish and no subliminal attempts at brainwashing you into corporate loyalty. Not that she had expected the latter: Jackson preferred his employees to be loyal because they felt they should be or because he paid them well, but there were a few companies who would have dropped a few memetic hints into the scenery.
The lounge had a huge picture window overlooking the lake which could be repurposed into a display. A table behind the seating was circular and large enough for six people, and there was a kitchenette at the back. Off to the sides were the three bedrooms, one of those a little larger than the other two and equipped with an en-suite bathroom. Through a door at the side of the kitchen was a short corridor, with another bathroom off it, leading to the pool room, which had a reasonably sized pool and Jacuzzi in it.
‘Well, don’t get used to it,’ Fox told him. ‘I don’t make a habit of staying the night in over-priced health resorts when working. And we’re leaving first thing. I want to be heading out of here at six.’
‘You need to learn to relax. Unless the DNA search finds something, we are no closer than we were this morning and rushing back to New York is not going to change that.’
‘Thank you for reminding me.’
He flashed her a bright grin and then his eyes narrowed, appraising. ‘Why so driven, Fox? Why so determined to push this forward as fast as you can? Sometimes you just have to wait for the answers to reveal themselves.’
She narrowed her eyes back and then went to the refrigerator in the kitchen. There was going to be a bottle of wine in there, she knew it. She suspected Terri had made sure there was a bottle of wine there. She was not disappointed. ‘Why so driven?’ she replied as she poured two glasses: he was fairly unlikely to say no if asked. ‘My parents.’
‘Pushy parents?’
‘Yes and no. They wanted me to succeed, to make my mark on the world, to do what I wanted to do. But they never did a damn thing, and when I decided to join the Army they didn’t like it at all. So they pushed me to do things, and set me an example of exactly how not to go about doing that.’ She handed over one of the glasses and settled onto the sofa to look out at the darkened lake.
Sandoval settled down beside her, not too close but close enough to be companionable. ‘My dad was in the Army. Died in Syria when I was four so I hardly knew him. Mom always wanted me to go into media, but she encouraged me in anything I felt like doing.’
‘Lucky you. As for why I want this particular case hammered out… There’s something wrong about this. The killer is… too random and too good. He’s hit two people associated with the Murder on My Mind show, but the second victim was nothing to do with it. All three were involved with the same online club, but not the same virons within it. And Ross was killed too soon after Adamshi. Even if this were a serial and he’s escalating, it’s too fast. There’s something wrong and I want him nailed.’
‘Not fond of mysteries?’
‘Not fond of waiting for answers. Yes, we have to. Sometimes the information can’t be rushed. Doesn’t mean I have to like it. Doesn’t mean I can’t want to know the answer sooner. Knowing things too late can get a lot of people killed.’
‘Somehow I don’t think you’re talking about this case there.’
‘You heard about the Dallas hostage incident, right? Dillan said you were down that way before joining NAPA.’
‘She did? Huh. I know about Dallas, sure. You were pretty famous for a while.’
‘I still get recognised. I could do without it. There were things going on around that op that I didn’t know about.’
Sandoval gave a grunt. ‘Corporate secrets. Big corporations are–’
‘Jackson told me everything I needed to know as soon as I got there. No, someone pushed to get Marshall put in as leader of the insertion team. Someone told the terrorists we were coming, what we would have, where we would insert. Someone wanted that mission to fail.’
‘I assume you told your superiors this when you got out?’ He was frowning, concerned, and she almost smiled at his naiveté.
‘Marshall was put in place by the UNTPP brass, even if someone pushed them to do it. They knew what was going on and they let themselves be suckered into almost blowing the whole thing. I saved their collective butts by getting Terri Martins out of there alive and they told me they were considering disciplinary action over the destruction of the facility.’
‘Huh?’
‘They wanted a lever to keep my mouth shut about Marshall. I saved them the trouble and quit. They didn’t like that much either, but Jackson was doing his best to make sure nothing happened to me. I saved his daughter and protected something he did not want getting into UA’s hands.’
‘By blowing it up.’
‘Oh yeah. It and what was left of the UA cell.’
‘None of them survived?’
Fox paused and sipped her wine. ‘They never recovered all the bodies. Between the explosion, the fire, and the fallen masonry… They never found everyone, but they were fairly sure that no one could have escaped. I almost didn’t make it out.’
‘Can’t be easy to live with.’
‘I did what needed to be done. I only get nightmares once or twice a month.’
There was a second or two of silence and then, ‘Right, well that was kind of depressing. And my fault. Let’s see if that kitchen’s worth a damn.’
Fox let out a bark of laughter as he got to his feet. ‘You cook, Sandoval?’
He flashed her a grin. ‘Don’t let this suave, attractive, man-who-wouldn’t-know-a-saucepan-if-it-bit-him exterior fool you. I happen to be an excellent cook. Many a girl, surprised at the mere suggestion of my culinary skill, has fallen to the taste of my carbonara.’
‘Okay then, surprise me.’
~~~
Fox watched as Sandoval took the plates and cutlery to the kitchen for recycling. The meal had, indeed, been quite good. Not a carbonara but something pasta-based with a creamy sauce and a hint of something a little spicy in with the meat. Cayenne? Whatever, it had added a little touch of heat which had been nice.
‘I need to make a call up to New York,’ he said, closing the hatch on the recycler.
Fox drained her wine glass. ‘Fine.’ Maybe the spice had been hotter than she had thought. Getting to her feet, she slipped her jacket off, dropping it onto the back of the chair, and then wandered off to the pool room to give him some privacy.
And, she realised as she saw the water, to take a swim. Not something she had planned, but it would be nice. A little light exercise after the meal would not kill her and she had been neglecting her fitness for a couple of days. Sitting down on a lounger, she began stripping off her jeans and shoes. No costume… She glanced at the doorway to the lounge where Sandoval was busy with his call. Well… he could just deal with it. A few seconds later she was diving, naked, into the small pool and setting off for the other side at a brisk pace.
As she came back for her twelfth turn, she switched strokes, catching the side, swinging her legs up, and pushing off on her back. As she had more or less expected, Sandoval was standing at the side of the pool watching her. He did not avert his gaze for the change of view and… The heat was still there, but it was focusing. She wanted him to look. The thought that this was just a little outside her normal behaviour hit her and was pushed aside: it had been a long time since she had indulged herself that way and, thinking about it, he had been looking at her as though he wanted to eat her for half the meal.
Coming to a stop as her hand hit the far wall, she turned and pulled herself out of the water. His eyes followed her as she walked around the pool and then to the door. Nothing was said, but he followed her. She could feel him behind her, masculine heat slowly closing the distance as she walked down the corridor and into the lounge. She stopped
in the doorway, hands on the frame on either side of her chest, knowing he was right there, right at her back, and the heat was becoming unbearable. His hands slid over her hips, she felt his chest, no shirt, against her back, and her breathing turned ragged. Fingers slid over wet skin, gliding over her taut stomach, brushing over the undersides of her breasts. She let out a soft moan and then a gasp as he caught her nipples.
‘Here or the bedroom?’ His voice was rough, eager. He was as needful as she was and she really needed him.
She pushed forward and his hands slipped off her, but she dropped to her knees on the plush carpet and he seemed to pick up on her answer quickly enough. On all fours, she arched her back and waited what seemed like an eternity and then he was sinking himself into her. She groaned and pushed back, and his fingers dug into the flesh of her hips and held her there as he began thrusting into her, controlling the pace and making the motion deep and just slower than what she wanted. Her body was burning; a core of white heat was building between her thighs as he drove into her. There was screaming and she thought, perhaps, she might have come, but she knew that was not the climax: not even close.
His hands shifted, climbing her body to clasp her breasts. The little orgasm had hit him too, her muscles pulsing around him. She had him now, and they both knew he was close as he began to drive harder. His fingers pinched her nipples, wringing a cry from her throat, and she thrust back at him, heard his breath catch, felt him filling her and the white-hot flow of release flooding out through her body from where they joined…
28th January.
Fox opened her eyes, wondering for a second where she was. Then the memories flowed back in, all of them, including what she had spent the latter part of the evening doing with the man lying in bed with her. She knew he was there, could feel him taking up space in her vicinity, but he was not lying close to her. She slipped from the bed without disturbing him and went to the shower in the bathroom.
The water hit her face, washing away the weird feeling of unease that was sitting in her stomach. She had a feeling that it was something to do with Sandoval and their night of rampant, and it had been rampant, sex, but she could not quite work out what was wrong. It had been good sex and she had no conscious regrets…
Kit’s image appeared in-vision, a still indicating an incoming call. She connected it as she picked up the soap. ‘Were you monitoring me to see when I woke up?’
‘Yes, Fox,’ the AI replied and the urgent tone in her voice suggested there was a reason. ‘Forensics passed on the sampled DNA from the Ross crime scene and I ran the genomes against known suspects. I got one hit, Nathan Shark. Maglev transport records have him travelling to Boston on the twenty-third, arriving at nineteen-hundred. He was on a returning train at fifteen-hundred on the twenty-fifth.’
Fox frowned at the wall. ‘How does that match up with time of death?’
‘Precise time is difficult to estimate given the delay in discovery. It is just possible that he could have killed her and left, but Mister Shark does not fit the physical profile of the killer.’
‘No, he doesn’t. I’m a little out of touch here, but has the news of Elaine Ross’s death reached New York?’
‘There were reports on a number of IB channels last night.’
‘Right. Have HQ find out where Shark is. I want uniforms ready to arrest him if he tries to leave New York, but they are to remain unobserved otherwise. I’ll talk to him myself. I’ll be back in town in… ninety minutes.’
‘Of course. Fox, your biomonitoring systems are detecting some unusual neurochemical factors, including heightened dopamine levels.’
‘Huh. Must be from having real sex for a change. Be back soon.’
New York Metro.
Nathan Shark lived in one of four apartment blocks on the west shore of Little Neck Bay, sandwiched between the water and the BQ-line maglev track. Not bad for transportation services, even if he had to change for the LI-line which went into Lexington Tower. It was a good-quality, mid-range block, like Fox’s, but with a better view. Pretty much where Fox expected to see an upwardly mobile media executive.
Shark’s apartment’s biomonitor records indicated that he had not left the building since the previous evening. Fox put a message through to him at eight a.m. requesting an interview, and then she and Sandoval waited in the building’s main lobby for a response. It took ten minutes before she got a reply, and that was an acknowledgement.
‘You stay quiet,’ Fox said as they rode the elevator up to Shark’s floor. ‘Your first meeting with him did not exactly go off well and, if he isn’t our killer, then he just lost someone he had a personal relationship with.’
‘I do know what tact is,’ Sandoval replied, ‘but I’ll leave the talking to you.’ There was a small shrug. ‘He’s probably more likely to open up to you anyway.’
Shark opened the door, peered at Fox and then back at Sandoval, grunted, and then backed up to let them in. He had definitely looked better. He was dressed and looked as though he was going into work, but Fox could see the heavy make-up under his eyes to disguise the bags and darkening of the skin. He had slept badly. His shoulders were slumped as he trudged back to the little breakfast nook on one side of the room to get coffee.
‘I assume you know why we’re here, Mister Shark?’ Fox asked.
‘You figured out I was Elaine’s mystery lover,’ the producer replied. ‘So now you figure you can accuse me of killing–’
‘You’re not a suspect in her murder.’ The flat statement made him look up, frowning. ‘I need to know why you were keeping it secret, exactly when you left, what you know of Miss Ross’s plans after you left… Anything you can think of which might help us find her killer.’
‘I’m not a suspect?’
‘You don’t fit the physical profile we have and we’ve been through your financial records already so we know you haven’t been hiring killers.’
‘Oh. I… Would you like some coffee?’
‘Thank you, no. I’m a little hyper this morning for some reason. When did you leave the resort, Mister Shark?’
‘Uh, it was about two in the afternoon on Sunday. I took an autocab. You can trace that, right? I paid by credit transfer.’
Fox passed the request for verification off to her VA. ‘We can. Do you know what Miss Ross was planning for the rest of the afternoon?’
‘There was a beautician appointment at four-thirty. She liked to relax, meditate for a while, after I’d gone, but she generally made sure she went for a bit of a tune-up before leaving Wolfeboro.’ He paused for a second and then added, ‘I’d have thought the reason for the secrecy was obvious.’
‘Rival productions, rival channels.’
He nodded. ‘We met before she got the part, but we were living in different cities. She used the Retreat and thought we could go out there at the weekend without the gossip columns getting hold of her new relationship. Then she got the Tasker part… Neither of us wanted to give up what we had together. Neither of us could afford to drop our careers. So we hid it, even though we wanted more. And now… This suggests it’s someone at IB-Nineteen, doesn’t it? Mystery and Mayhem have lost the scriptwriter and star of their lead show.’
Fox gave a shrug. ‘Honestly, Mister Shark, this just confuses things more. I think someone wants me to think that this is related to IB-Nineteen, but there’s too much that doesn’t make sense. Someone seems quite determined to implicate you in this as well. If you can think of anything else which might help, contact me immediately. And I think you should take the day off.’
‘Can’t,’ Shark replied. ‘There’s a big meeting at the office about how best to handle Elaine’s death. Not sure how I’m going to get through it, but I don’t have any choice about being there.’
‘He didn’t seem terribly broken up about it,’ Sandoval commented once they were back outside and headed down.
‘He didn’t sleep last night and he wasn’t kidding about the meeting. You need to get your eyes chec
ked. Didn’t you see the make-up under his eyes? Not that that’ll fool half the people he’s wearing it for.’ She caught herself clenching her fists and willing the elevator car to go faster. ‘Damn, but I’m wired for some reason. Go back to HQ and start reviewing everything we have on IB-Nineteen.’
‘Sure, but you said yourself it’s probably nothing to do with them.’
‘Yes, but prioritise anyone who might wish to do both channels harm.’
‘Okay. What are you doing?’
‘I said I’d stop off and thank Jackson and Terri for letting me borrow the vertol, and then I forgot. And I have another case related to them I need to check up on.’
~~~
‘Your pupils are dilated,’ Terri commented as Fox stepped off the elevator.
Fox pushed an eyebrow up. ‘Well, I had sex last night.’
Terri smirked. ‘Must be it. Flight said you came in an hour ago. I thought you’d stop off on the way through, not come back for a visit.’ She turned and started through into the solarium and Fox followed.
‘Something came up in the homicide case I’m on and I needed to rush. And that kind of pushed dropping in here out of my mind. But I did need to drop in and check up on the Hunt case anyway so I figured I’d take the excuse to come back and leave the drudge work to my assistant.’
‘Kit?’
‘No, my human assistant. I’m not giving boring crap like that to Kit.’ Terri giggled at that, and Fox was reminded of something else she had meant to ask. ‘There’s nothing actually stopping Kit from engaging in… interpersonal relationships of an intimate nature, is there?’
‘You having feelings for your agent I should know about? Because if you are, good, my chances are going up.’
‘I am not. She met someone online, helping me with the casework, and he’s clearly interested in her, and she’s clearly interested in finding out where that might lead. I said I’d check there were no blocks on her behaviour.’
Terri glanced back as she turned for her father’s office. ‘She’s developing quite nicely, but keep an eye on her. If there are any possibilities of instability in her program, I’d like to know so we can patch it. And, no, there are no blocks on sexual behaviour in her programming. I’ll send her a couple of modular skill packages that might help. Actually, there are a couple of others which could be useful to you. I’ll send her a set. She won’t be able to run them all at once, but she shouldn’t need to.’
Fox Hunt (Fox Meridian Book 1) Page 17
