Guise, p.13
Guise, page 13
“And getting that proof could very well get you killed, or worse!”
“Right now, they haven’t done anything to me. You, however, have.”
“Look,” said Patience, visibly calming herself. “I understand that from your viewpoint, things appear -–”
“Messed up?” interrupted Darwin. “Not exactly as you have been portraying them? Like something from the Twilight Zone? Yeah, they do!
“Ever since you entered my life, things have been turned upside down. I’m having strange hallucinations, which you say are psychic powers. I’ve been threatened by people that I’ve never met, but they seem to know you. Today, you dangle me as bait before going in and kicking over a hornets’ nest so we have to beam out before armed guards arrest us. What do I get out of this? A monster headache!”
Darwin ground to a stop, grabbing his temples as his anger worsened, so did the pain in his head.
“If you are finished mangling metaphors,” began Patience, pausing as Darwin glared at her. She took a moment and regrouped her thoughts.
“Let me start with, I am sorry,” she said, taking a different tack. “I should have been more cautious in approaching the area I thought might be their headquarters. Naturally, they would want to defend that. I should have anticipated that, and not placed you at risk. I apologize.”
“Thank you,” grumbled Darwin, fighting not to be mollified.
“I did learn what I believe is the location of their center of operations. With that knowledge, I should be able to do something about any future attempts against you. That should help get your life back onto a path of normalcy.
“However, I think you are going to have to accept at some point that your life has changed.”
Darwin glared at Patience who hurried on to make her point before his anger built once more.
“Whether you accept it now or not, you do have psychic powers. Those are not going to go away by wishing or ignoring them. They are something you are going to have to deal with and very soon.
“My offer to help you with them is still on the table. As is my commitment to trying to keep you safe. However, if you want to tackle this on your own, that is your call. It won’t be easy, but it can be done.
“Bottom line, your abilities are something you will have to find a way to live with.”
“Maybe,” agreed Darwin, reluctantly. “But I don’t have to like it.”
“Fair enough,” said Patience. “For now, how about I take you to your place? You can lay down and try and get over that headache. We can get your car tomorrow.”
“I guess,” started Darwin before trailing off.
“Is there a problem?” asked Patience.
“What time is it?” he asked.
Patience pulled out her phone and replied, “6:18. Why?”
“Oh crap. I’m late!”
“Late? For what?”
“I was supposed to have dinner with Yoki. We were going to meet at six, and now … oh no.”
“I’m sure she’ll understand. Just give her a call and explain. It’s only a few minutes after six.”
“That’s not it.”
“Then what?”
“Bo?”
“What?”
“I was supposed to meet Bo at my place at six.”
“Wait. You made a date with Yoki, and then you made a backup date with Bo for the same day and time?”
“No,” said Darwin, frowning. “I arranged for Bo to come by my place before I asked Yoki out.”
“So, Yoki is your backup date,” said Patience with a smirk.
“No, I had some papers I needed to bring into work and Bo offered to come by my place and pick them up. It’s not a date.”
“Of course not,” agreed Patience with an overly reasonable tone of voice. “You just invited a girl over to your place, after work hours, to ‘pick up some papers’ that could just as easily have been dropped off the next day. Sounds perfectly innocent.
“And then,” she continued matter-of-factly. “You decided that your non-date with Bo wasn’t spicy enough so, you invited your old college flame out for dinner at the same time, perhaps hoping that the three of you would enjoy a robust meal together followed by other activities broached during dinner conversation?”
“Knock it off,” said Darwin. “You are as bad as Bob.”
Patience laughed.
“Why don’t you just check your phone,” suggested Patience. “I’m sure you have some messages. You can let both girls know that you are on the way and that perhaps they should get better acquainted, especially seeing as all three of you will be spending the evening together.”
“Not funny,” said Darwin, groping in his jacket pocket for his phone. He unlocked the screen and looked for any messages. There were none. He checked for missed calls. He didn’t have any.
“What’s wrong?” asked Patience.
“I don’t have any messages or missed calls.”
“None? Did you forget to pay your bill?”
“No. My phone is working fine. Just nothing from Bo or Yoki.”
“That’s not right. Text them.”
“I don’t have Bo’s number,” said Darwin, typing away on his phone. “But I’ll text Yoki and let her know I am on my way.”
“Here’s Bo’s number,” said Patience, jotting a number down on a sticky note and handing it to Darwin. “Contact her as well.”
“Why do you have her number?” asked Darwin, sending a quick text to Bo, apologizing and letting her know that he was on his way.
“Can you give them a call as well?” requested Patience.
“Okay,” said Darwin, calling up Yoki’s number. “But we’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“I know. I just have a bad feeling.”
Yoki’s phone went to voicemail. Darwin left a brief message, apologizing for being late and letting her know that he was headed to her place. Finished, he called Bo. He left her a message as well.
“No answers?”
“Nope. They could be busy…or angry. I don’t blame them.”
“Both? I doubt it. Something isn’t right. We need to head over to your place, now.”
“What do you think happened?” asked Darwin, following Patience from her office. She locked up and they headed to her car.
“If you can’t get to your target, go for their friends,” said Patience, unlocking her car.
“What!?” said Darwin, getting into the vehicle.
“Considering they have been watching you, I would guess they know about Yoki. Could be they decided to try a different angle to get to you. I don’t know about Bo. Heck, she could be one of them.”
Patience pulled out of the lot and headed towards Darwin’s condo.
“Have people been watching me?”
“Yep.”
“And they might do something to Yoki because she’s friendly with me?”
“It’s possible.”
“Do you think Bo is in on it?”
“I have no idea.”
“I can’t believe she would be part of this group.”
“Why, because she’s cute?”
“She seemed so nice.”
“Villains do not typically run around twirling their mustaches, laughing manically, nor do they spend their time lurking in evil lairs. Most of the time, they appear like normal people, going about their lives. They are pretty inconspicuous, until they are tying the heroine to the train tracks.
“Besides, what better cover to get close to you than a hot, goth girl?”
“How do you know Bo is goth?”
“Do you think I only have a file on you?”
“How many of my friends do you have files on?”
“Some,” replied Patience airily. “Although I’ll have to annotate Bo’s file to include a note that she is a friend. A cute, nice, hot friend. Anything else you’d like to share?”
“No,” stated Darwin. “Let’s just get to Yoki’s so she can yell at me for being late and you can be wrong about people coming to harm her because of me.”
“I would like nothing better,” said Patience with more seriousness than she intended.
CHAPTER 18
“We’re here.”
Darwin opened his eyes with a start. Covering a yawn, he sat up, embarrassed that he had fallen asleep on such a short ride. He looked out and saw Yoki’s PT Cruiser parked in front of their unit. Next to it was a black KIA Soul with aborigine curtains in the windows. The hearse-like feel of the small vehicle was marred by the bumper sticker - My other vehicle is a catbus.
“Looks like your dates haven’t gone anywhere,” commented Patience pleasantly as she got out of the car.
“They’re not,” began Darwin, before sighing and shaking his head in resignation.
“Hold up,” said Patience, her bantering tone gone. She stopped and raised a hand for Darwin to halt.
Darwin looked to where she was staring.
Yoki’s front door was ajar.
Darwin took a step towards the complex, but Patience’s hand, on the center of his chest, stopped him in his tracks. She stood, scanning the parking lot, her gun held casually in her hand against her leg. Satisfied, she motioned for Darwin to follow her.
The two crossed the small lot and stopped again at the base of the outside stairwell spiraling up to Yoki’s second-floor unit and Darwin’s third-floor condo a level above. Slowly, Patience ascended, Darwin treading anxiously on her heels. They reached the second-floor landing without incident.
Patience stopped outside the door to Yoki’s unit. There was no sign that the door had been forced open. After long tense moments, Patience sighed and holstered her gun.
“What?” asked Darwin in an overly loud voice.
“Her place is empty,” said Patience.
“How do you …” began Darwin, but Patience was already walking forwards and swinging open the door. She entered. Darwin followed.
Once they were both inside, Patience closed the door.
The place was pretty much as Darwin remembered it from the other day. Yoki had done some more unpacking and a small pile of collapsed boxes – arranged by decreasing size - had been started in a corner. Painting tools were, once again, neatly laid out on the kitchen countertop for drying.
Darwin wondered which room she had been painting and what color.
Patience moved efficiently through the tidy condo. She didn’t touch anything, just looked around as she moved deeper into the unit. Darwin stood looking around the main living area, reluctant to invade Yoki’s privacy any further than absolutely necessary.
“Maybe she just thought she closed the door when she went out?” said Darwin as Patience passed him on her way to the master bedroom.
“No,” said Patience. “There were other people here. Waiting for her. At least three. And your friend Bo was here too.”
“How do you know that?” asked Darwin, perplexed.
“I may not know a lot about your college girlfriend,” said Patience, stopping and moving toward the sofa. “But this doesn’t strike me as hers.”
She pulled a cell phone from her pocket and waggled it in front of Darwin.
“What’s that on the back?” asked Darwin. It was a picture of a gold and brown, vaguely cat-like, animal.
“Teto,” answered Patience, stopping by the far corner of the sofa.
“Who?”
“The fox squirrel from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. No? Not your kind of anime?”
“Haven’t seen that one,” replied Darwin.
Patience reached down and picked up a soot sprite shaped backpack. A small kodoma figure attached to a zipper pull tinkled musically as it moved.
“This doesn’t seem to be hers either,” she continued, stepping over to the coffee table. “Your work girlfriend Bo seems to have a bit of a Miyazaki fetish.”
She set the backpack on the coffee table with a solid thunk. Raising an eyebrow, she opened the backpack to look inside. She raised the other eyebrow and looked at Darwin.
“And that isn’t the only fetish she has apparently.”
“What do you mean?”
Patience removed a black leather corset and set it on the coffee table. She placed a pair of black, four-inch, stilettoed heels atop the corset, and draped a pair of black fishnets across those.
“That is the tame stuff,” said Patience, as Darwin blushed and opened his mouth to speak. She pulled a mass of leather straps and locks from the bag, dropping it onto the coffee table. She pulled out a set of matching leather cuffs, placing them atop the harness. Finally, she removed a bit gag with overlarge rings on the ends.
Darwin’s blush deepened.
“And the surprises keep coming,” said Patience, rummaging into the bottom of the bag. She extracted a Glock 10mm pistol. She ensured the safety was in place before removing the clip and clearing the chamber. Carefully, she set the pistol down next to the other two piles. She pulled out an extra clip for the pistol and set it next to the gun. The final item was a small black rectangle.
“What’s that?” asked Darwin.
With practiced motions, Patience picked up the rectangle and snapped the sharp blade inside it out. She set the knife down.
“Gravity knife.”
Cocking her head to the side, Patience asked, “What exactly did you have planned with this girl?”
Darwin looked at her with large, confused eyes, mouth agape.
“Never mind. Let’s check the master.”
She went into the master bedroom, leaving Darwin staring at the three piles on the coffee table. After a moment, she stepped into the doorway and said, “If you are done drooling over the party favors, I think you need to come in here.”
Darwin headed over to her. Patience stepped back and indicated the bed. He looked over and saw two items centered on the neatly made bed. One was presumably Yoki’s cell phone. Next to it was a small non-descript flip phone. A post-it-note under the flip phone simply said, “Call me”.
Darwin looked at Patience, puzzled.
“It’s what they call a burner phone on TV,” explained Patience. “It’s a pre-paid cell. Apparently, whoever was here, took your girlfriend with them and wants you to give them a call.”
“You said there were people here before. How do you know that, and how do you know someone took Yoki and Bo?”
“Depressions in the carpet show where people have walked. One was a pacer making a track by the balcony. Another waited by the front door. The last, who wears too much perfume, waited on the couch. That last was a woman. Maybe the others. All three were armed. You can still get a trace of gun oil.”
“As for them taking the girls? Neither of them are here. Both of their cars are in the lot. Their phones are here. I would guess they were removed under duress. It even looks like the exiting prints are a little deeper. Could be they were carried out, but it’s too tough to tell for certain.
“I figure our mystery people let themselves in and waited for Yoki to come home. A very professional job getting in by the way. Once she did, they took her somewhere. Presumably, they want her to use as leverage to get to you.”
“I have no idea how Bo figures into all of this. Could be she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, surprising them on their way out or in. Either way, it looks like they took her along to keep things tidy. That makes her something of a wild card in their plans. That can be either really good or really bad.”
“You can see the depressions in the carpet? I didn’t smell any perfume, let alone gun oil. You have some kind of super-senses?”
“I’m just full of all kinds of surprises,” said Patience, giving him a suggestive wink, dissembling. “However, I think it would be best if you called the person who left you the note and see what is going on.”
“Are we even sure the note is meant for me?”
Patience just gave him a withering look.
“Yeah,” said Darwin, irritably. “I know. How am I supposed to call them without their number?”
“The phone they left you will have a number programmed into it. Call that number.”
Darwin picked up the flip phone. It had a single number waiting on the display. He hit the call button.
“Put it on speaker,” instructed Patience as the phone rang.
“Hello sugar,” purred a pleasant female voice after the fourth ring.
“Who is this?” demanded Darwin. “Is Yoki there? Let me talk to her. If you’ve hurt her --.”
“Let’s stop right there,” cut in the female voice with steel in her tone. “Here is how this is going to work. I talk. You listen. Quietly. Talk out of turn and I’ll do something unpleasant to your girlfriend. Or maybe her little friend. Or both. I haven’t decided yet.”
“What do you want?” asked Darwin angrily.
“For starters,” replied the voice, accompanied by a muffled scream in the background. “I want you to follow directions. Perhaps I wasn’t clear? Or maybe you just don’t care about either one of these two?”
Darwin fumed silently, gripping the phone hard.
Suddenly, he was hovering in the air in a dimly lit, rundown motel room. Yoki sat on a stained green and gold striped chair. Her ankles and wrists were taped together before her, with a piece of black duct tape covered her mouth.
A statuesque brunette in a form-fitting turquoise dress held a handful of Yoki’s hair, yanking her head cruelly back and to the side. A pink rhinestone encrusted cell phone was in her other hand. She had bright blue nails decorated with yellow flowers.
On the bed behind the pair squirmed Bo. She was wearing a pair of black skinny jeans and a dark grey t-shirt, sporting a collection of brightly colored frogs hiding among a maze of dark jungle leaves, accompanied with the caption, “Pick Your Poison” along the bottom in ornate script. She was wrapped in loops of black tape and gagged like Yoki.
While Darwin watched, the brunette bent down over Yoki and whispered something into her ear. Yoki struggled, but the woman held her in place. She glanced over her shoulder at Bo and blew her a kiss. Bo’s struggles increased. The woman laughed.
