Underdogs, p.15
Underdogs, page 15
part #1 of Underdogs Series
#
Chapter Fourteen
Dale woke with Ari's arms wrapped around her. She smiled into the pillow before she rolled onto her back. Ari was awake and watching her. "Good morning."
"Morning." Ari kissed her, sliding one hand up to the curve of Dale's breast as their tongues met. She still wasn't used to the idea of kissing Ari, and she hoped she never was. She loved the way her heart leapt every time. "How do you feel?"
"I feel great. You?"
Ari stroked Dale's cheek and then moved her hand up into her hair. "I think we should have done this a long time ago."
Dale's skin tingled and she bit her bottom lip. "Me too." She touched Ari's shoulders and moved her hand down to Ari's breast. During their massages, this was always out of bounds. She went to great lengths to avoid accidentally touching Ari here and making things awkward. Now, however, she circled Ari's nipples with her thumbs and slid down to kiss her cleavage.
"Not to ruin your efforts of the entire night by bringing it up," Ari whispered, "but thank you for distracting me. I really needed this."
"I think we both did."
Ari moved her hand down and cupped her mound. Dale's eyes closed and she moved her lips up to Ari's neck. "We really should think about what we're going to do when we get back to the mainland. We have to prepare."
"Spoilsport." Ari tilted her neck to give Dale's lips more room to explore. "Can't we just have a little fun?"
"Multitasking, Ariadne." She grinned and tightened her fingers on Ari's hips.
#
Ari reclined in the curve of the bathtub, her feet resting on the opposite side. The bath was barely big enough for one person, but Dale made it work. She was sitting on Ari's lap, facing her so that Ari could wash her breasts. They kissed, touched each other, and explored the new aspect of their relationship in between bursts of scheming. Ari watched Dale's face as her fingers slipped inside of her, and Dale got used to the way Ari's skin tasted.
They toweled each other off after the bath, which led to more kissing. They barely made it to the bed before giving in to another bout of lovemaking.
"Making up for lost time," Ari said against Dale's stomach.
"All the times our massages could have turned into something else. It's going to take a while before we break even."
"I'm willing to put in overtime if you are."
Dale kissed Ari passionately before she said, "You're the boss."
"Damn right."
"Slave driver."
Ari slapped Dale's hip. "Roll over onto your stomach."
Dale chuckled and did as she was told. Ari straddled Dale's hips. "I think I owe you about twenty dozen of these." She began to rub Dale's shoulders. "I thought of suggesting it a couple of times, but every time it came up I was naked. I figured it would send the wrong message."
"Probably." Dale's voice was utterly relaxed. "That feels good."
"I'm not as good as you. But I'll do my best."
Dale murmured in pleasure as Ari continued to knead her tired muscles.
#
They spent the next two days alternating between making love and planning what they would do when they got home. When the self-imposed deadline of three days passed, they took separate baths and Dale dressed for the trip back home. Ari took the heavier bags outside while Dale finished packing, slinging the last bag over her shoulder and locking the cabin door. Ari was sitting on the porch, mouth open and tail wagging when she saw Dale. Dale knelt in front of her and scratched her ears.
"I've gone to bed with dogs before, but this is the first time I didn't regret it."
Ari rolled her eyes and walked to the car with Dale following. She opened the door and Ari hopped in, moving to the passenger seat and settling in.
"We get on that boat, go home... we're fugitives again. We'll probably be hunted down by the cops, if Echols doesn't get his hands on us first. The only thing better than a scapegoat is a dead scapegoat." She looked at Ari and raised an eyebrow. "We could stay here. Have sex all the time. Forget about the rest of the world."
Ari leaned in and licked Dale's neck, then patted the steering wheel.
"That's what I thought." She smiled and kissed Ari's head. "Okay. Out of the frying pan and into the fire it is."
#
Neal Bradley stared at the open document on his computer screen. The words had long ago started blurring, so he deleted what he'd written. They weren't appropriate, anyway. He leaned back and rubbed his face, trying to organize his thoughts. Tragedy seemed like such a small word for the loss of Laura. They had decided to continue with the fundraiser but they were going to make it a tribute to her memory. Her hard work the past two months deserved recognition. The media had gleefully reported every minute of her partying, they could damn well spend a few days honoring what she had become.
Neal was supposed to write a speech eulogizing her, but nothing he wrote sounded right. It came out flat and trite. He rested his fingers on the keyboard and typed, "I loved her." He tapped the backspace until the phrase was erased. He leaned back in his chair, hearing the ominous squeak from the springs. He was in the room at the soup kitchen that the deacon let him use as an office, and everywhere he looked was a need for money they didn't have. The room needed new chairs, a new desk, a new lamp, a new everything, but the money just wasn't there. That was why Laura suggested the fundraiser that had become her legacy.
He shut down the computer and decided to put off any writing until the morning. Maybe his head would be clearer then. Katherine Gavin was holding a public memorial service for Laura and he planned to attend. Maybe that would help put him in the right frame of mind to write the speech.
After sitting in silence for a while, Neal stood up and slipped into his jacket. He had worked at the kitchen for years before Laura showed up. But now, somehow even being in the building felt pointless. He shut off the lights and locked the door. He heard footsteps on the brick walkway behind him, someone moving quickly around the side of the church.
"We're not open right now. If you need food, you can go to the pantry on Maple Street. Someone will be there to let you in." He turned with his hand in the pocket of his jacket, his fingers wrapping around the small bottle of Mace he kept there. The woman approaching him didn't look dangerous, but desperate people could do crazy things.
"Neal. Uh, sorry. I don't know your last name."
She was dressed like one of the homeless who often showed up after hours for handouts without the preaching. A hoodie over a threadbare sweater and old blue jeans. Her sneakers didn't have laces. He could only just make out her face by the light of the moon, but there was something familiar about it. He let go of his Mace.
"Have we met?"
"Yes. I mean... no, you haven't met me. But I know you. I knew Laura."
The name made the connection in his head. He'd seen this woman's face on the news. "You're her. You're the woman who..." He swung at her, but the woman easily ducked his blow. She grabbed his arm and used his own momentum to throw him to the ground.
"Stop. Please. I don't want to hurt you."
Neal lashed out with his foot, kicking her knee with his sneaker. The woman, Willow, went down. Neal yanked his hand out of his pocket, sending his cell phone and the Mace into the grass. He saw the phone and changed his plan: he had to call the cops. He grabbed for it, but Willow kicked the phone away and threw her body down on top of him.
"I don't wanna hurt you," she said.
"You ought to be in jail!"
"I didn't do it. I didn't kill her. If I had, do you think I would have come here to talk to you?"
Neal struggled to push her off, but she was wiry. Rather than pinning him down with her weight, she constantly knocked his arms away so he couldn't get enough leverage to push himself up. He was flat on the grass with a woman half his size keeping him there. If she had a gun or a knife or any intention to hurt him, she would have done it already.
"You wanna talk? What's there to talk about? You killed Laura."
"No. I didn't. I was set up. I'm a private investigator. I was hired by Laura's mother to make sure she was clean. That's how I know who you are. I need your help to get the person who really killed her. Will you help me?"
Neal turned and rested his forehead on the grass. "All right. Let me up."
After a moment of internal debate, she climbed off of him. He got to his feet and moved away from her, putting a buffer space between them. She held her hands out to show she was unarmed. He watched her for signs of deception, but she looked desperate.
"Bradley."
"What?"
"My last name is Bradley." He held out his hand. "Neal Bradley."
She shook it. "Ari Willow. Nice to meet you."
#
Neal didn't speak as he brewed their tea. Ari stayed in the seat he'd directed her to, rubbing her hands between her knees. The office was cluttered, and the lamp on the desk didn't do much to push back the darkness. He refused to turn his back on her completely, half-turned so he could keep an eye on her. Ari didn't mind. When the tea was ready, he brought her a cup and moved to the relative safety on the other side of the desk.
"Thanks."
"It's just instant."
"I meant for listening to me."
He glared at her. "You said you would explain this."
Ari nodded. "I told you I was hired by Katherine Gavin to watch Laura, to see how she acted when she thought no one was looking. I determined she was clean. I was on the job for six days before I followed her to an abandoned house. When she didn't come out, I investigated. I found her." Ari's voice cracked. "Her bodyguard, Oliver Echols, was inside. He hit me with a Taser and put the gun in my hand. He was probably the one who called the cops, too. When they showed up, I ran. I was covered in Laura's blood, I'd fired the gun when I woke up... I wouldn't have believed I was innocent, so why would the cops?"
Neal watched her, obviously waiting for signs she was lying. "Her bodyguard killed her. Why?"
"That's what I'm trying to figure out. Did Laura ever talk to you about her life?"
He put his cup down. "That's... she told me that stuff in private."
"Mr. Bradley, someone needs to pay for what happened to Laura, and everyone else is looking for the wrong person. Laura deserves the truth."
After a moment he closed his eyes. "Laura told me that she grew up in a dollhouse. She was home-schooled by a private tutor. She never saw kids her own age. So when she got curious about sex, there was really only one candidate for experimentation. So she didn't object when he started showing up in her room late at night. She let it go on a lot longer than she should have. When she finally got away from him, she decided to cut ties to her family altogether."
"So she didn't consider herself a Gavin anymore."
"Absolutely she didn't. She wanted nothing to do with her mother."
Ari leaned back and stared into the shadows. "Her legacy fell apart anyway. I think Katherine Gavin was scared about the end of her family line. Generations of Gavins, and she was the last one. It was resting on her shoulders to either continue the line or make sure her contribution to their name was worthy. And in her mind, Laura was what she left behind."
"That's a really sick motive. I think it's a lot more likely you were obsessed with her. You followed her. And then when you finally made your move, things got out of hand."
Ari struggled to remain calm. "Laura Gavin was one of the best people I've ever known. The idea of her being killed is only made worse by the fact that people are blaming me for it. I really do think I'm responsible. I should have seen what was going on, and I should have protected her better. I knew Echols was bad news, but I just sat there and took notes so I could get my fat paycheck from Katherine."
"How much was she paying you?"
"What the hell does that matter?"
Neal shrugged. "Maybe you're lying. If you're lying, something simple like how much you were supposedly getting paid--"
"Forty-five thousand for nine days work. Five grand a day plus expenses."
Neal stared at her. He reached for his cup, took a sip, and put it down on the desk. "Forty-five grand."
Ari shrugged. "She wanted to make sure I didn't take what I learned to the tabloids."
"No, she didn't." He scoffed and shook his head. "Laura told me that her mother would get out of paying for things whenever she could. Contractors, tutors, instructors. She would find some fault with their performance, and she would use that as a reason not to pay them in full. She said she started to see the pattern when she realized how much was promised to the people she never intended to pay. Forty-five grand. That was her magic number. She would always offer forty-five thousand dollars to someone she never intended to pay. It was like a game to her."
Ari felt a surge of hope.
"All the papers had to say was that Marilyn was found in the nude." Neal spoke the words instead of singing them. His eyes had glazed over slightly, but they focused on Ari. "I don't want that empty house to be what Laura's remembered for. She did a lot of good in the past two months and she deserves to be recognized for it."
"I'll make sure the real killers get what they deserve."
"I hope you do, Ms. Willow."
He rubbed his hands together and then ran them down his face. He stared at her over the desk as if making some mental calculation before he placed both hands flat on the table.
"What can I do to help you?"
#
Dale wore a baseball cap and a puffy jacket and walked toward the office as casually as possible. It was odd to be on the opposite side of the street, to not change direction when she neared the door. But she kept her stride even and looked at the office only in her peripheral vision. There were two suspicious cars parked on opposite ends of the block, and they were both occupied by two people. She assumed the older model belonged to the police, and the shinier one held Echols and some other members of Katherine Gavin's army.
From the street, the building looked the same as always. She couldn't see into the public area that separated their agency from the antique shop, but she didn't have to. She knew their door was crossed with yellow crime scene tape. She was glad she couldn't see it; the thought of being cut off from the most important place in her entire life was too much to bear without seeing it with her own eyes.
When she reached the cop car, she took off her hat and ran a hand through her hair. She glanced at the car, dipped her chin, and looked toward the building as she increased her speed. She had just gone past the back bumper when she heard the driver's side door open. "Ms. Frye." Detective Lorne's voice was unmistakable. "We've been looking for you."
"Please leave me alone. I just wanted to see the agency one more time before I shut it down for good."
Lorne caught up with her at the door of Den of Antiquities. Dale spun to face him, surprising him. "The other car parked on this street." She kept her voice low. "I'm sure you've noticed it. Do you know who is in it?"
"Oliver Echols and another member of Katherine Gavin's security team. It's not surprising they want to know if your boss shows up again."
Dale said, "You don't find it odd that they're sitting on top of your stakeout? Who'd they pay off to make that happen?"
"Yes, Katherine Gavin has money. But it was her daughter. Some allowances are to be expected."
"How much are you going to let her get away with? If Ari comes back, will you shrug off her dead body as justice? 'Well, she got what was coming to her. Case closed.' Gavin and Echols set Ari up for this. Have you checked Laura's phone records? Do you know why she went to that house?" Lorne stared at her, conflict in his eyes. "Don't tell me to clear Ari's name. Tell me to help send the right people to jail."
Lorne looked over his shoulder at the other car. "We dumped her phones. She got a call from a burner phone. No way to trace it. Something a private eye might have access to."
"Or a former cop who resigned after a scandal. Oliver Echols is bad news. You know that. He killed Laura and he pinned it on Ari."
"Conspiracies don't happen in real life, Ms. Frye. The real world--"
"The only difference between fiction and real life is that fiction has to make sense. Katherine Gavin sees herself as the standard-bearer for her entire lineage. Laura was threatening to throw that all away. Katherine did what she felt was necessary to protect her family. She eliminated Laura from the family so that she could be the last surviving member. You've been a cop for more than a day; tell me you haven't seen people do screwed-up shit to each other for less of a reason."
Lorne rubbed his face. "So what you're telling me is that Laura Gavin's real killer is sitting in that car across the street? And you just put all of this together yourself?"
"I do work for a private investigator. I followed the clues."
"If I find out you've been in contact with Ariadne Willow, we're going to have a long discussion."
Dale shrugged. "As long as Echols is in jail where he belongs, I'll be more than happy to sit down with you, Detective."
"Try not to disappear again, Ms. Frye."
"Yes, sir."
He walked back to his car and Dale looked across the street. The windows of the other car were tinted, but she could feel Echols' eyes on her. She saluted him, then presented her middle finger before she turned her back and walked away. She kept her shoulders high and moved casually, knowing he wouldn't dare try anything with a couple of cops watching. She was safe for now, but she knew that Echols wouldn't give her any mercy if they ran into each other again. By telling the cops their theory, she and Ari had just declared war on the Gavin family.
#
Chapter Fifteen
Dale met up with Ari in a dog park. The clothes Ari had worn to meet with Laura's boyfriend were back in the stash, and Ari was once again in her impenetrable disguise of a wolf. The clambered into the backseat, and Dale checked to make sure she was comfortable before she settled in. "Both our apartments and the office are under surveillance. Echols is part of the team watching the office." She glanced at Ari in the rearview mirror. "How did you meeting with Neal go? One bark for good--"
