by Geonn Cannon
She was dressed for court, sitting on the edge of the bed she’d slept alone in for the past ninety-two days, giving it one final shot as she put on her shoes. When the phone beeped, Dale tried to keep her voice neutral.
“Hey, Ariadne. It’s me. Again. I don’t want you to worry about the Nelson Cook case. The judge decided I was involved enough with the investigation to testify. Everything is fine.” She finished slipping on one of her flats and sat up straighter. “It’s taken care of. I don’t want you to think anything’s gone wrong. It would’ve been nice to see you. Or hear from you.” She scratched the bridge of her nose with her thumbnail. “I don’t want to think anything bad happened to you. But I’m starting to think that’s the only explanation. You’re scaring me. You’re making me mad, puppy, so just… I don’t know, pick up the goddamn phone, okay? You nearly died. You were having a seizure in my arms, and now I haven’t heard from you in months, and my mind keeps… I keep thinking there’s been a relapse, or you’re lying in some creek paralyzed.”
She stopped and pinched the bridge of her nose. She was breathing hard, her anger threatening to explode out of her like a teakettle. She took a deep breath. When she spoke again, her voice was more measured. “I’m sorry. I’m not mad. I’m just frustrated. I love you. I miss you. Everything is taken care of. You can take all the time you need, but I’m missing you like crazy. I just need to hear your voice, wolf girl. Give me a call. Please.”
She hung up and left the apartment, taking care to make sure Neka’s car was gone before heading out. Neka was great, the best landlady Dale had ever had, but she was convinced Ari had broken up with her. Dale denied it, of course, but she couldn’t explain exactly why Ari and her mother had hightailed it out into the mountains for some wolf-pup bonding. So she got the sympathetic looks, the pity invites to dinner, the offers to talk. She appreciated and resented it in equal measure. She wasn’t single, she wasn’t dumped, she was just… alone.
Their hearing was scheduled for eight am, and she arrived at the Municipal Courthouse just before seven. The metal detectors refused to cooperate so she had to be patted down by an overzealous security guard who then pointed her to the elevators. She went rode up to the eleventh floor going over the information from the case she’d put onto her phone. Nelson Cook was accused of stealing equipment from his heating-and-air job to start a new company. Ari got into the shack where Cook was keeping everything and compared the serial numbers to the items missing from the former employer.
It seemed easy enough. She didn’t have to bring up the fact Ari had been a wolf when she did the snooping. The elevator arrived and she slipped her phone into her pocket as she entered the courtroom. It was a small, cozy space with wood paneling and the typical setup of two tables facing the judge’s bench. There were a handful of people seated in the gallery, and one of them twisted around as the door swung shut behind Dale.
It was Ari.
Dale was so startled that she said, “Puppy!” out loud before clapping a hand over her mouth. The judge, lawyers, and the defendant of the case currently being heard turned to look at her.
“I’m sorry,” Dale said. “I’m so sorry.”
She retreated back into the hallway. Ari followed, slipping through the door just before it closed. Dale pressed back against the wall and Ari pinned her there, cupped her face, and sighed with what sounded like relief as she leaned in for a kiss. Dale melted against her, slipping her hands under Ari’s blazer and clinging to the back of her shirt. Any lingering anger Dale had about Ari’s absence was shattered by the kiss. It was worth the long absence just to be in her arms again. And she felt different. She was thinner, though Dale didn’t know how that was possible, but she felt stronger.
They broke the kiss and Ari moved her face to Dale’s hair. “The second you opened that door, I smelled you. It was like waking up. God, I’ve missed how you smell.”
Dale kissed Ari’s cheek and reluctantly pushed her back. “How long have you been back?”
Ari looked at the clock above the elevators. “Eighteen minutes. Literally. We went down this morning to check my messages, and we got all of yours about testifying here today. So Mom drove me down here as fast as she could. I got the suit from her place and came here.”
“You just happened to check the messages today? That was lucky.”
Ari averted her gaze. “Not… exactly.”
The anger threatened to come back. “You’ve been getting all my messages. You just haven’t been responding to them.”
“Dale, I’m sorry. I was…”
“No, I don’t care.” She kissed the corners of Ari’s mouth. She could be angry later, after she’d gotten used to Ari being in front of her.
Ari smoothed her hand over the back of Dale’s head. “Dale, I’m so sorry. I let you down. I was letting down the agency.”
“No. You weren’t. I talked to the judge and he was going to let me testify. It’s fine. It would’ve been fine.”
“I wasn’t just talking about today,” Ari said. “It could’ve been bad. I’m sorry I wasn’t leaving you more messages in return, but things…”
“You can tell me all about it later.” She hesitated. “If… if you’re here later. I don’t know if you’re going to go back up. If you are, it’s fine, but—”
Ari shushed her. “I’m staying.”
Dale breathed out in relief. “Good. It would’ve been fine if you were leaving, but… good. Can I ask, though…? You have suits at home. And it would’ve been less out of the way for you to stop by there instead of going to your mother’s house.”
“Right,” Ari said. “But you would have been there. If I’d walked in and seen you, I wouldn’t have wanted to leave.”
“Aw, you big sweetheart.” She kissed Ari again, and Ari cupped the back of her head, holding the kiss until Dale began to chuckle. She swatted Ari’s shoulder and pulled away. “If you’re not careful, we’ll be back here fighting a public indecency charge.”
Ari grinned and took Dale’s hand to lead her back into the courtroom. The judge glared at them when they entered, but Ari offered an apologetic wave as she took her seat. The defense attorney was turned to look at them over her shoulder. She was blonde and beautiful, wearing an ice-blue suit that matched her eyes. Her hair was pulled back in a severe bun and her posture was rigidly perfect. The overall impression was intimidation, and she found herself uncomfortable after a few seconds under the woman’s gaze. Oddly, though, it didn’t seem antagonistic or angry about Dale’s earlier interruption.
Dale looked away from the lawyer and focused on her own hand. She hadn’t even felt Ari taking her hand, but now their fingers were linked. She squeezed, Ari squeezed back, and Dale bit her lip to keep from smiling too broadly.
When she looked up again, the blonde lawyer had turned back around.
#
“Please state your name and explain your connection to the case.”
Ariadne did, then spelled it. “I’m a private investigator. I was hired by Nguyen Brothers Heating and Cooling to determine if the defendant stole equipment from them before resigning.”
The prosecutor was Fred Beech, an old acquaintance. Ari had worked with him dozens of times and they knew how to work together without too much prepping or rehearsal. Still, she could tell he was irritated about not having her available for a quick run-through of the case. He stood behind his table, leaning forward to read the file before asking his next question. Ari took the time to look past him at Dale, watching from the gallery. Dale was wearing her forest-green “court costume,” with its conservative skirt that ended just past the knee. She was wearing white stockings, and Ari couldn’t get them out of her mind. How they would feel against her skin, how easy they would peel away if—
“Explain how you went about this case, Miss Willow.”
She blinked and focused on the task at hand. Ari went through the case beat by beat, hiding the fact that she’d done a bit of the investigating on four legs. She hated th
is part of testifying. Technically it wasn’t perjury, since she had performed the actions and seen the evidence exactly as she described. The only fact she was omitting was cosmetic. No one needed to know if other investigators were wearing a red shirt or a blue shirt when they found evidence. It was equally inconsequential if she was a wolf when she followed Cook home, and when she watched his house to make sure he was gone before she went into the backyard. They certainly didn’t need to know she had been naked when she got into the shed and made a note of the serial numbers on the equipment she found there.
“I compared it to the list Jeremy Nguyen gave me and there were nine matches,” she concluded. “I passed the information along to Mr. Nguyen and he alerted the police. And here we are.”
Beech smiled. “Thank you for your help, Miss Willow. Nothing further.”
The judge gestured to the defense, an icy blonde woman Ari had never seen before. She stood up, smoothed down her skirt, and stepped around the edge of the table. It was an unprecedented move, at least in real life. Ari had only seen lawyers do the dramatic pace and strut on television. She approached the witness box and smiled. Ari was happy to get a closer look; the woman was absolutely gorgeous. Her blouse was open at the throat to reveal a hint of pink skin, and she smelled earthy and rich. She had one hand behind her back, but the other was bent at the elbow as if in anticipation of gesturing. Her fingers were long, slender, finely manicured, deft, probably dexterous, probably could do all sorts of things in all the right places…
Ari forced her mind off that avenue quick. Three months of not getting laid had gotten her into a dangerous neighborhood.
“Hello, Miss Willow. We’ve never met before. I’m Cecily Parrish. I work for a firm called Gilles Girard and Moreau. I don’t know if you’ve heard of us.”
“Can’t say I have.”
“We’ve heard of you. Bitches Investigations, isn’t it?” She offered another smile, but this one was smug and condescending. “Kind of an immature name, don’t you think?”
Ari said, “There are people out there who think women don’t or shouldn’t do this kind of work. There are clients who have second thoughts about hiring us if they find out a woman is going to be investigating. Our name is a way of taking it back from anyone who might use it against us in a pejorative manner. Sometimes you need a bitch to get the job done. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, Miss Parrish.”
“How do you mean?”
“Oh, I’m positive you’ve been called a bitch by your colleagues from time to time.” She looked at the judge. “I’m sure you have, too, your honor. Maybe not to our faces. But it’s the price of admission if you want to be a woman in the workplace. So I put ‘bitch’ on my door. I’m proud of it. Being called a bitch means you’re doing something.”
Cecily nodded slowly. “How did you gain access to Mr. Cook’s property?”
The question came without preamble or segue, so Ari was momentarily thrown. She had her answer ready, however, and answered without hesitation. “I waited until the house was empty and went in through the side fence.”
“This was on Monday the thirteenth, correct?”
Ari nodded. “That’s right.”
Cecily walked back to her table and opened a file. She produced a handful of photographs and a tape in an evidence bag. “Mr. Cook’s neighbor has a security camera on their back deck. It’s positioned so that it captures a portion of Mr. Cook’s property. It isn’t a lot, but it’s enough for us to see that the gate on the side fence never opened on that date.” She handed the evidence to the judge. “Exhibits A through F for the defense. The fence latch and the door to the shed were also dusted for fingerprints. Would you be surprised to know that yours never showed up?”
Ari tried to keep her face neutral. “I would.”
“Your prints are, of course, on record with the city of Seattle, per your private investigator license. How do you explain their absence?”
“I don’t know.”
Cecily arched an eyebrow. “That’s it? You just… don’t know?”
Ari shrugged. “I’m not going to speculate. I don’t know what’s on the tape. All I know is what I’ve told you. I accessed the property, I let myself into the shed—”
“How?”
“Excuse me?”
“The door was padlocked. The padlock was unbroken. So unless you had a key, how did you get inside the shed to check the serial numbers?”
I found a gap on the side next to the fence and squirmed under it. But would that gap have been wide enough for a human woman to get through? She was thin, but the wolf was smaller around the torso. It was more flexible. She didn’t think it would be plausible, but she also couldn’t think of anything else that would appease the lawyer currently staring daggers at her.
“And you’re positive,” Ari said, “that the padlock was on the door when I made my visit.”
Cecily smiled. “You’re asking me?”
“To be honest, I don’t recall having any difficulty getting into the shed. I didn’t have to break or pick a lock. I touched things, so my fingerprints should have shown up. Everything you’re telling me has me stumped, Miss Parrish.”
“It has us stumped, too,” Cecily said. “I think Mr. Nguyen gave you a list of serial numbers, then planted the items in Mr. Cook’s shed.”
Ari said, “That would be an impressive feat given that the lock was untouched. And I assume Mr. Nguyen wasn’t spotted on the neighbor’s camera planting anything. Maybe it’s just a crappy camera.”
Cecily shrugged. “I suppose that could be the case. But the fact remains that you can’t explain how you avoided being seen.”
“I can’t,” Ari admitted. “But I can swear that I did get in. He had a calendar on one wall from 2011. It was turned to May. I guess he liked the bikini for that month. I saw an old, rusted lawnmower in one corner next to a shiny new one. I know what I saw. There could be dozens of reasons I didn’t show up on the neighbor’s tape.”
“And yet, you can’t give us one that we’d consider plausible.” She started back to her table. “Nothing further.”
The judge said, “You can step down, Miss Willow.”
Ari hated the dismissal. There was no chance to continue the argument, no possibility of coming out on top. The debate was over and she was sure any analysis of the back-and-forth would label her as the loser. She avoided looking at Cecily Parrish as she passed the table and returned to the seat next to Dale. She shook her head, disappointed at her performance, but Dale took her hand in both of hers. It was a small gesture, but it went a long way to calming Ari’s irritation. It had been far too long since she had felt Dale’s touch or smelled Dale’s scent, and it was like falling off the wagon with an extraordinarily healthy drug.
Chapter Two
The judge eventually decided there was enough evidence to determine Nelson Cook had indeed robbed his former employer. Ari relaxed when the verdict was read and leaned over to suggest to Dale that they slip out before the rush. They were alone in the elevator riding down, and Dale took the opportunity to size up the changes in her partner. The most obvious was her hair. For as long as Dale had known her, Ari’s hair had been long and straight. Now it was cut just above the shoulder and had a bit of a curl to the end. It was enormously attractive and served a dual purpose of making her look older and more mature.
She reached out and slid her fingers down the lapels of Ari’s borrowed blazer, then teased the knot of her tie. “You’re looking fine, puppy.”
Ari smiled and put her hands on Dale’s hips. “Three months away will make anyone look better. Like you. Before I left, you were just an angel. Now you’re a goddess.”
Dale pulled Ari’s tie and kissed her lips. The elevator doors opened and they stepped away from each other, finding each other’s hand as they walked out of the building. Ari had been dropped off by her mother with the intention of taking an Uber home. Dale slipped her arm around Ari’s elbow and led her to where she had parked
.
“Uber for Ariadne?”
Ari smiled. “Are you Dale?”
“I am. I hope I can expect a five-star rating from you.”
“You’ll have to earn that, Dale. What kind of perks do you have?”
Dale said, “Candy?”
“Ooh. Sold. Take me to the office. I want to update the paperwork as soon as possible so that whole ordeal won’t linger in my mind.”
They got in the car and Ari took a moment to run her hands over the dashboard and seat. “I’ve missed this car. I can’t wait to see the apartment.”
“Speaking of which, I had to take on a couple of roommates to cover your half of the rent. But it’s okay, they’re all non-violent offenders. And Harry’s rabbit is practically housetrained.”
Ari smirked at her and stopped her from starting the car. “Wait. Before you do that, there’s something I want you to do.” She reached into the pocket of her slacks and pulled out her collar. “We agreed I shouldn’t wear this in court, for appearance’s sake, but this is the first time you’ve seen me in three months. I hate that I wasn’t wearing it.”
“I didn’t even notice.”
“I did.” She held it out. “Put it back on me?”
Dale smiled and took the collar. Ari lifted her hair and leaned forward so Dale could put it on her. It was a symbol of commitment without the faux-tradition of wedding rings and proposals. Neither of them believed in that kind of ceremony, so they’d come up with something specific for their relationship. Ari wore the collar, and Dale wore a bracelet made of Ari’s hair twined with hair from the wolf. The leather of Ari’s collar had a mark where it had been fastened, so Dale was able to easily reaffix it in the same place.
“Too tight?”
“It’s perfect.” She kissed Dale’s wrist just above the bracelet. “I wore it every day when I was up at the cabin.”
Dale smiled. “Let’s go home.”
