“That you think of me in terms of a relationship. I mean, we only had sex the one time, but if anyone is going to understand how I work and how deficient I would be in a relationship, it would be you. I wish I had known this earlier; I would have saved you the pain and humiliation of me bringing home random women all the time—”
“Wait, she said what?” Jo said, tapping on the brakes so hard that my head bounced off the back of her seat.
I immediately put on my seat belt and heard the horns of cars that were obviously now pulling around our stopped car. In the middle of the street. In downtown Detroit. Where bad things happened.
“Uh, what are you doing?” I asked her.
“What did she say?” she put the car in park, turning on the flashers and looking at me.
“That you have it bad for me,” I admitted.
“That bitch,” Jo said.
“I thought that meant you loved me and wanted to have a relationship with me. You know I got a vasectomy last year. I told you that. And I never want to have kids, and I’m not very nurturing, so having a full-blown relationship or even marriage—”
“Marriage?” Johanna shrieked.
I winced.
“Can we go?” I asked her softly.
“She was wrong,” Jo said. “You’re my best friend too. Sometimes people mistake friendship for love.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” I told her, feeling relieved.
“So we never have to talk about this again?” Jo asked.
“Nope, unless you keep bringing up the sex thing, because I like sex, just as any guy probably does, and even though you claim you were drunk you still said—”
“Shut up,” Jo yelled. She put the car into gear and took off.
* * *
We cracked the door open to IT. Immediately the smell hit me. I turned on the lights and saw the trash can was overflowing with snack wrappers and stuff from the sandwich machine. Skye was dead asleep, face down on the keyboard. Her screen was full of ‘lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll’ as she snored softly on it.
“Dammit, she’s crashed hard,” Johanna said, trying to shake her awake.
“Has she slept at all since this case started?” I asked Jo.
Jo shook her head.
“Have you slept at all since this case started?” I asked her.
Jo shook her head again, chewing on her bottom lip.
“Ok, I’m going to phone the cleaners. She’s obviously not showered for a couple days, judging by her smell, and I’m going to have IT fumigated. We can wait four or five hours to do this. I hope. We will start on it about…noon?” I asked.
Jo looked relieved and nodded. “Where are we going to put her?” she asked. “The cot’s not an option, with the cleaners coming in.”
“I don’t know. If I can’t wake her, let’s put her in your apartment?” I asked.
“Why my apartment? Your cartoon-porn-watching computer girl stinks. Why don’t you put her in your apartment?” she asked me.
I reached down and picked up Skye as gently as I could, one hand under her knees, the other behind her back. Holding her close, I winced at the smell. She needed a cleanup, but it wasn’t going to happen by me.
“Do you think she’s drunk?” I asked Jo.
“No, just crashed hard from too much sugar and no sleep.”
“Ahhh yeah, that makes sense. Get the elevator for me?” I asked.
“As long as she’s going up to the second floor. If you ask for anything else, I officially quit,” she snarked, probably getting close enough to smell the funk.
“No, I’ll put her on the couch in my apartment. I hope she doesn’t think I violated the no-sex clause of the contract while she was passed out. That’s really why I wanted her to go to your apartment. She might wake up in a strange place, sore from sleeping so deeply and then think—”
“You’re doing it again, Jarek.”
“Sorry,” I said softly.
In my arms, Skye snorted in her sleep and then snored again softly. She was getting heavy as the door opened on my floor and Jo used her keycard to open my apartment door. Now, I called it an apartment, but Jo called it a penthouse. I had the entire floor to myself, and only the elevator from my office and a keycard could get you up here. The gym took up a quarter of the massive square footage, with the bedroom taking up the other quarter. What was left was half art deco, half functional living space that included a kitchen and living room. Things sparkled and glittered. My father had built this floor for my mother, but she’d died young. After that, I’d always bunked in the room with my dad. Some thought it strange, but we were two guys alone and adrift, him for his feelings of loss and me not knowing how to deal with the emotions I was feeling. I still don’t, truth be told.
“You want to throw something over the couch first?” Jo asked, probably feeling sorry for my leather.
“She’s getting heavy,” I said, my breathing starting to come out in gasps.
Jo ran to the bathroom and grabbed several towels and laid them down on the couch. I put the very fragrant Ms. Skye on them and then went in search of a blanket. After finding one and covering her, I went to my bathroom to wash the stink off of me. Never before had I had an employee stay up for three solid days on a case for me. I’d tried it when I was younger and helping my father, but this was a new kid. Somebody who owed me no loyalty this deep. I knew there had to be bigger motivations; that was the reason it was a salary job. But she’d been pulling out all the stops for this one, plus running the cyber side of things while I did my own thing.
I stripped off my clothing while the shower warmed. I couldn’t wait to get the smell off of me. It wasn’t all that horrible, just one of those sensory things I couldn’t stand. Two arms and a very nude Johanna pressed herself to my back, startling me.
“What are you doing?” I asked her, seeing her in the reflection of the fogged glass.
“Taking your advice and relaxing. Easing the tension,” she said, her hands trailing lower.
“I’m taking a shower,” I told her, getting in.
“Curiously enough, so am I,” she said, stepping into the hot spray beside me.
6
I woke up to bright light hitting me in the eyes. I opened an eyelid, feeling for my phone.
“How did I get here?” the indignant silhouette in the doorway demanded.
I squinted and waited until my eyes adjusted, but she was already marching towards me.
“You fell asleep in the IT room,” I told the advancing Skye, almost jumping as a hand reached across the bed under the covers and grazed across my inner thigh.
I could hear Jo’s soft snores, and her touch was sending jolts through my body. My body was responding.
“So you, what, brought me up here to do what with?” Skye’s voice was rising in volume.
“Let you get some sleep,” I said and winced as I felt the body next to mine jerk awake. Jo pulled the blanket up to cover herself.
“I doubt that. OH!” Skye shrieked as she tore the blanket off the bed.
“Bitch, give it back,” Johanna yelled, trying to cover herself.
I untangled myself from Jo and walked to a visibly trembling Skye, who didn’t know where she should or shouldn’t look. I took the blanket from her, tossed it to Jo, and then went and sat on the edge of the bed, putting my boxers back on.
“Dammit,” Skye muttered and moved towards the living room. “Dammit!”
“I need a shower,” I told a cursing Jo.
“I do too,” she said. “But not with you.”
“Ok.”
“Let’s not talk about this. Ever. Ok?”
“Ok,” I told her.
I headed to my bathroom to get ready, and the girls silently walked towards the gym with its two shower stalls and spare bathroom. I didn’t understand why everyone was so freaked out, but I spent quite a bit of my time not knowing why people were freaking out, so I was used to i
t. I hoped I didn’t just make things worse for Jo, because I really did mean what I told her about the business of relationships. Could a guy like me fake a relationship to make somebody happy? I considered it. Then I wondered, if I am even considering faking a relationship to make Jo happy, did that mean I really liked her like that?
The thoughts and the supposed guilt washed down the drain quickly as I remembered her words about relaxing and easing the tension. I was there, I needed relaxing, she needed relaxing and, until we knew more about what was going on, we were all pretty high strung and working around the clock. Well, I hadn’t been, but I would be now. We had a woman to find. I dressed quickly and found the ladies waiting for me on the love seat just outside the apartment in front of the elevator, talking softly.
Both had showered, and it looked like Jo had run upstairs to her apartment, because she had a light layer of makeup on. They looked at me solemnly and waited.
“Do we need to talk about this?” I asked them.
The silence was only punctuated by the muffled sound of my grandfather clock ringing off noon.
“Johanna filled me in. I’m sorry I thought you… I mean, your reputation…” Skye’s words trailed off.
“Don’t worry about it,” I told her. “I tried to tell Jo to put you in her apartment, but she wouldn’t listen.”
“I heard that you carried me up here, and then you and Jo had wild monkey sex. Now maybe you won’t be so cranky around each other,” Skye said with an evil grin.
“Wild monkey sex?” I asked Jo.
“You’re dead to me.” Jo pointed at Skye, who put her hands up. To me she said, “No, no we don’t have anything to talk about. Today was a misunderstanding and a mistake. I hope you don’t hold it against me.”
“Yeah, let’s see what Skye here can do with that hard drive. By the way, nice Star Wars shirt!” I said, smiling as I realized what she had on.
“Like it?” Skye asked, laughing.
“Yeah,” I told her.
“It was in the far end of your closet,” Jo said.
Scandalized, I looked over it again, noticing the stain near the right shoulder—my failed attempt at eating a chili dog after my father had pleaded with me to try it. It was disgusting and sloppy, hence the stain.
“No, she isn’t wearing a bra,” Jo said, sounding pissed.
“I wasn’t looking at that. It’s... it’s really mine?” I asked, looking at the stain again, remembering the day it no longer fit… but I’d never thrown it out, nor would I let my father get rid of it.
“Yeah, well, unless you have other kids clothes in your closet… which would be creepy,” Skye said.
“I’m starting to regret hiring all females,” I groused and hit the down button on the elevator.
“I thought you were just saying you loved working with women because they made you feel less intimated and were less judgmental—”
“Shut up, Jo,” I said. And for once, she did.
Of course, Skye thought it was hilarious. I’m glad somebody did.
* * *
Part of the IT room had been set up as a clean room space and forgotten. I turned on the air exchangers and let them work as the neon lights flickered into being. It wasn’t a true clean room in the normal sense, but it was going to have a lot less dust particles and debris than the now-cleaned IT room. Gone was the funk of unwashed bodies and overflowing garbage.
“Kid,” I said, looking at Skye. “Don’t pull three days straight. I have a couch, Jo has a couch, or if you need one of the vacant apartments to crash in…”
“Hold on,” she shushed me, remounting the drive into a new housing with a circuit board that wasn’t burned out.
I was the boss, I was the owner; why were they bossing me around all the time? I was about to assert my dominant side when the door opened and Jo, Susan O’Hara and Peter Ralston walked in with what had to be an FBI agent. Jo avoided my gaze and instead stared daggers at the FBI agent.
“Hi,” I said and waited for them to speak.
The FBI agent raised his finger, ready to poke me in the chest when Jo moved quickly in front of him, putting distance between us. I stepped back, not liking how he immediately came in to bully and intimidate. I knew he was a cop, but my mind flashed back to the self-defense that Johanna had been teaching me, and I wondered if I would be coordinated enough to use it if the time came.
“You broke the chain of evidence,” the suit snarled.
“Identify yourself or leave my office,” I snapped at him.
“I’ll identify myself, you little sack of shit,” he said. Then Jo was holding him back with the help of Pete.
I nodded gratefully at Pete and waited silently for the guy to calm down.
“Johanna, would you escort this man out of my building?” I said calmly.
“I’m a Federal Law Enforcement Officer!” I could hear the capital letters of every word he was saying, and each word he pronounced was emphasized by flying spittle, which landed right on me.
I looked around for some tech wipes and brushed his drool off me.
“Identify yourself, or leave my office,” I repeated. “Or you will either be detained or hurt in the process.”
My voice sounded much more confident than I felt, but I could see Pete’s muscles in his neck tense as he realized what I was saying. My building, my rules, and everyone played by the law, because it was all wired and being recorded. Even the cops had to play it straight when they got aggressive. Dad had taught me that a long time ago, and I’ve found that for most cops, it wasn’t an issue. For the bullies like Pete and this douchebag…
“Special Agent Landon Sorenson,” he said, shrugging off Pete and Jo.
He pulled out his credentials. I made a big deal of holding his ID out and photographing it with my cell phone before handing it back to him.
“So, Special Agent Landon Sorenson,” I said. “Why are you here, and what the fuck do you think you’re doing in my IT room?”
I normally didn’t get loud or profane, but this was sacred ground. Johanna wasn’t looking ashamed because of the wild monkey sex, she was ashamed that she’d allowed the cops into the heart of my enterprise. Only three people were allowed in here besides the cleaning staff, and O’Hara, Ralston and Sorenson weren’t names on the event list.
“We’re here to take the evidence back, to see if we can retrieve it. The degausser had a short in the power supply and wasn’t putting out a strong wavelength, so we need to…”
“Got it,” Skye called from over my shoulder.
I turned and watched as she put it on the big screen. There were directories of files, but the most recent ones by date were images in the /documents/pictures folder. A Windows machine. I snorted.
Skye opened it up, and color pictures filled the preview panes. Pictures of Caroline filled the screen. All of us stood in silence as Skye scrolled through the directory. In all of them, the camera was shot from a distance through a telescopic lens. One other pattern I noticed right away was Sasha. She was in many of the pictures, sometimes behind Caroline, sometimes sitting at a table, observing. One picture even showed her with a camera, taking pictures of the mayor’s daughter.
“Who’s that?” Ralston asked, walking towards the bigger screen.
“Trouble,” Jo said, scowling.
“What do you mean?” Special Agent Sorenson asked.
“Why are you still here?” I asked.
Everyone stopped and looked at me.
“Kill the screen, Skye,” I told her, and the room went dark.
I hit the switch and the lights came back on, blinding everyone with the harsh glow of the arc sodium lighting.
“Excuse me?” he asked, taking an aggressive stance.
“I have a contract from the Mayor personally. It is not with the FBI, nor is it with the Detroit Police Department. I’ve been contracted to do this case and, I can assure you, chain of evidence was followed. I can understand if Susan was wanting to come in here, as I work with
her often, but I do not know you, and you do not have a warrant for barging in here demanding the hard drive, do you?”
I was being a an ass, but I’d learned that the best way to deal with bullies is to not be intimidated by them, or at least pretend you aren’t. It takes away their biggest offensive move. Instilling fear. Sorenson blinked, and Johanna opened the door.
“Jarek, you don’t have to…” Susan’s words trailed off, but Peter Ralston grabbed the FBI agent’s arm and whispered. They both up and left.
“Yes, I did,” I said, flopping in a chair, exhausted by the encounter.
“You are not going to be very much help if you get tossed into lockup. You just threatened an FBI agent. In front of the police! What am I supposed to say if you get hauled in?” Susan said, more than a little pissed.
“Oh, I wasn’t threatening him. Watch this,” I told her. I accessed the files where the recordings were and put them up on the big screen.
I first played back where Johanna stepped between Ralston and me in the mayor’s presence and how he’d been shoving me when he got his ass judo’d. Then I showed her the live feed from the room. Her jaw dropped in surprise. I rewound it to the point they all came in.
“I obviously know who you guys are, but he could have been anybody. Speaking of which,” I pulled out my phone and handed it to Skye, “full background on him, and he doesn’t ever come in this room again without a warrant.”
“Now, as I was saying… I don’t like people in here. I’m sure Johanna tried to explain that several times as the three of you pushed your way in?” I asked her, replaying them barging into IT over and over, looping it.
“Landon was insistent and wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Susan said in an apologetic tone.
I gave her a hard look and then hesitated. Her normally wavy auburn hair was limp and lifeless, and she had circles under her eyes that hadn’t been there before. She’d obviously not slept much, despite the fact that we’d taken some not-so-legal shortcuts and shared the information with the police.
“Besides,” she went on, “we have to work with them. You do, I do, even the mayor. We are all on the same team, Jarek. I think he’s pissed about the phone and tracing the van so quickly.”
Kidnapped: A Jarek Grayson Private Detective Novel (Grayson Investigative Services Book 1) Page 6
