Chapter 4: The Morning After continued-
Dylan plopped on the couch at the agency and yawned hugely. She was tired and grubby and irritable. The night before had been extremely taxing and had spent most of it driving back home. Knowing she'd never wake up in time for her meeting with Bos and the girls, she had turned her little Toyota pickup truck around and headed for the agency.
And it was just as well that she hadn't bothered going home, since there was a lot to be done. She wound up working through the night in the lab; dusting the ids for fingerprints and getting samples ready for DNA testing. She had nodded off a bit on the phone to the FBI's office, waiting to speak to the agent on duty, but she managed to keep herself awake long enough to email the fingerprints to them.
It would probably take a day for the FBI to run the prints through their database; in the meantime, she would scope out the addresses on the ids. She was confident the names were aliases, but the addresses might be genuine.
So, when morning came, she tiredly stomped upstairs to the Bosleys' office and plopped her weak self down. Bosley himself had taken the day off, but his brother, Bos, was filling in. Dylan looked over the office and noticed the small changes that Bos had added. She smiled at how both the Bosleys had managed to settle into a unique job share arrangement. Bosley taking over most of the undercover work and Bos mostly bookkeeping and maintaining informant contacts; even Max had gotten into the act, helping out in a kind of after school internship.
And the added hands helped for everyone, especially for Bosley who seemed content to have his brothers there. He was much more confident about going undercover now, not as distracted, not as much nervous fumbling. Guess even a little thing like bookkeeping can keep someone distracted, Dylan thought with a snort.
"Well, well, well," Bos boomed, laughing at Dylan's startled jump, "look what the cat dragged in and so early in the morning!" He dropped onto the couch next to Dylan, causing her whole body to pop off the seat because of his large frame.
He leaned close and said loudly, "So, did we go out and paint the town red, have a little too much wine, women and song? Well, scratch that second one. Look at you, all tired and rumpled, girl you need proper rest."
"Thanks, Bos, and no, there was no wine, definitely no women and no song. Let's just say I had a very, very long and disturbing night. But, ya gotta wait until Nat and Alex get here, 'cuz it's a doozy." With a long sigh, she shut her eyes and let her head fall with a thump on the back of the couch.
"Ok, kid have it your way," Bos said as he stood up and walked to the office kitchen, "want decaf or regular?" "Regular!!"
And so Nat and Alex came in an hour later; Nat perky as usual and laughing at Dylan's sprawled form on the couch, "Boy, we had a late night didn't we?"
Alex, of course, just smirked and then, in mock anger, slapped Dylan's thigh, "Hey, those are my pants!"
"You don't even wear these pants anymore, you said they were too big!" Dylan rubbed her stinging thigh, wincing.
"Well, I want my fat pants back!" Alex and Nat laughed hard as Dylan hit Alex with a couch pillow.
"Just for that, you aren't getting these back! And I was so careful not to get any blood on them." It was Dylan's turn to laugh as Alex and Nat's smiling expressions dropped to serious on a dime.
Waving off their concerned inquiries, Dylan said, "Let's just get started since I think this case is going to be very twisted." By this time Bos had settled into his chair behind the desk sipping from his mug. "There's coffee in the kitchen, if you ladies want to help yourself. Dylan, why don't you share with us what happened last night?"
"It started off as just the usual thing-" "Don't they always?" Nat interjected, filling two mugs with coffee.
"Yeah, well bumping into Creepy Thin Man isn't like always, is it?"
The office went silent as the other three exchanged wide-eyed looks. "What the hell do you mean?" Alex demanded. "We all saw him take that dive off the roof." She looked shaken; she had remembered how he seemed to just appear on the roof. And how he had saved her life during the shocked moment she'd gaped at him.
Everyone sat there, digesting this bit of information. "How?" Nat asked. "I have no idea," Dylan said, "but he's definitely tangled up in this case and not in a good way."
"How do you mean?" Alex said.
Dylan related the whole story, leaving out the strange parts (and the good part!) and kept to the straightforward facts.
"So, forgetting about how this cat survived this fall," Bos started to say. "Well, I have a theory about that," Dylan interrupted, "the night of the premiere at the hospital I saw a man covered in drying cement in the ER. And given that the nurse was speaking in what I assume to be Romanian, I'm guessing that was him."
"And Seamus, did he survive?" Nat asked worriedly. "I talked to the police and there was no trace of his body," Dylan shrugged.
"Jesus! This is getting weird!" Alex folded her arms and stared at the coffee table tapping her foot agitatedly.
Alex, Nat and Dylan started to talk about their respective nights and between the three of them sketched out a rough idea of what might be going on: Alex had found out that several properties, including the abandoned office, was in fact owned by one corporation, Dinex Corp.
"Dinex? What do they do?" Dylan asked. "It's biotech research," Alex replied. "But there's no real company, it just all on paper."
Nat had spent yesterday afternoon, speaking with the client, who was actually the state attorney general. Frequently, Townsend Agency took on consulting work from the state in between regular paying clients. "Apparently, since this company has been investigated before for wire fraud, the AG feels that this company could be a front for smuggling," Nat reported.
"Smuggling what?" Dylan asked. "Well, the usual thing: guns, small arms, high tech weaponry," Nat replied, "we're here to determine those connections and investigate further the leads the AG has given us. And given what happened to Dylan, we can assume that we are making someone somewhere squirm."
"But where does Creepy Thin Man fit in?" Bos wondered, "is, or rather was, he working for this Dinex? And if that's the case, how do we get him to talk to us?"
"Well, if he had some sort of deal with them-it is definitely over. Those men were slaughtered and," Dylan shivered, "and I don't know if I want to know how the deal went wrong."
"But he's strictly specialized in assassination," Alex said, "I just can't see him as brokering any kind of deal."
"Maybe he's sorta on the straight and narrow, I mean besides the killing part, he may be trying to extract himself from previous work relationships," said Bos.
Nat looked at Dylan, "Dylan, I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to pursue him and find out his role in all of this-" Her eyes were smiling as she added, "besides, you seemed to have such an affect on him."
Dylan and Bos laughed as Alex said, "I don't know about this-he did a lot for us and certainly sacrificed himself in order to save Dylan and Max," Bos nodded at this, "but we can't forget who we are dealing with here. And despite his good deeds for the orphanage, his motives are completely unpredictable."
Dylan sighed, " I know!" "Remember that he saw Knox shoot you that night," Alex added. "And despite the fact that he saved my life, I can't say for sure that I'd trust him to be on our side on this one."
"No, you're right," Dylan sighed again deeply. "I have some leads with the stuff I found last night, but," she yawned as she got up stretching her arms, " I gots to get some rest!"
"Ok, meeting adjourned!" Bos said, "We all have our angles to pursue, so I'll contact Charlie and give him an update." He picked up the phone and started dialing. Nat, Alex and Dylan moved towards the door.
"Listen, Dylan," Nat said draping her arm around Dylan's shoulder, "Alex is right." Alex lifted an eyebrow. "You've got to be careful; we don't want anything bad to happen."
"He's not going to do anything, for God's sake, he did save my life, you know," Dylan said huffily, remembering his late night kiss.
"Oh, we know that," Alex smiled wickedly, "we just know your track record and don't want you to fall in his evil clutches. So, did you kiss him again?"
"No, sorry, he was too busy killing people," Dylan shot back, "oh, jeez, I almost forgot! I found this by-" She dug into her jeans and pulled out the necklace, "two of the fire spots, but I didn't have time to study it."
"Give it here," said Nat, her hand outstretched, "I'll take a look at it this afternoon and let you know what I find out about it. You" she poked Dylan in the chest, "go home and get some rest. We'll call you tomorrow."
With that, Dylan waved her good-byes and left the two Angels in the foyer as she trudged out to her truck.
Staggering up the stairs to her walk-up later, she felt her shoulders sag as the sleepless hours started to catch up with her. Shower, then bed; shower, then bed. The mantra helped her focus on not just collapsing on the couch and sleeping like a log.
She started to strip as soon as she locked the door behind her; dropping her shirt, peeling off her socks and kicking off her pants. Stepping into the shower, she turned on the water as hot as she could get it. Forgetting that she hadn't taken her underwear off and whimpering with exhaustion, she peeled off the wet garment and heaved it over the side. It made a nice heavy splat on the tile and she luxuriated under the beating stream of the showerhead.
Feeling refreshed, she towelled off roughly and started to rummage through the bathroom drawer looking for her brush. She knew that tomorrow would be a big day, her leads would become more concrete with the help of the FBI and she was confident that the Angels would find a lot more answers.
Padding into the hall, she clutched at the towel draped loosely around her torso. She sniffed a little, wondering if something was burning and opened the door to her room.
She stood frozen at the sight of the Thin Man standing there in the middle of her room. Her hairbrush in his hand, tapping the side of his long leg; his cigarette hand paused mid-air. Her eyes glanced over to the bed and saw an indent. He had been resting there before, waiting for her.
She looked back up at him, unable to move as she watched him take a slow drag from his cigarette. He was in full Thin Man regalia today; his black pinstriped suit and hair perfect. His shoes shined, his cane tucked neatly under his arm. There was nothing nervous or rushed about the way he held that cigarette. No, he looked very calm, unnervingly so, as he stood in front of her bed, watching her watch him.
Dylan felt an uncomfortable sense of deja vu, as his assessing look swept over her. This was the look he had given her that night at Knox's and as they were walking down into the tunnels last night. She was beginning to think this was his "thinking" look.
Getting pissed at her predicament, and his audacity; she stalked over to him and grabbed the brush out of his hand. "Could you make sure the door is locked when you leave?" She knew that he was here for something else other than just checking her out. But she was too tired to figure out what that was yet.
He reached over and took her shoulders firmly in his hands and pulled her close to him. So, this is what he wants, she thought sluggishly to herself, as his lips lowered onto her mouth. Numbly, she dropped her towel to wrap her arms around the Thin Man's waist.
And with that, her mind slipped into darkness as her body succumbed to sleep and to the Thin Man's kisses.
Dylan plopped on the couch at the agency and yawned hugely. She was tired and grubby and irritable. The night before had been extremely taxing and had spent most of it driving back home. Knowing she'd never wake up in time for her meeting with Bos and the girls, she had turned her little Toyota pickup truck around and headed for the agency.
And it was just as well that she hadn't bothered going home, since there was a lot to be done. She wound up working through the night in the lab; dusting the ids for fingerprints and getting samples ready for DNA testing. She had nodded off a bit on the phone to the FBI's office, waiting to speak to the agent on duty, but she managed to keep herself awake long enough to email the fingerprints to them.
It would probably take a day for the FBI to run the prints through their database; in the meantime, she would scope out the addresses on the ids. She was confident the names were aliases, but the addresses might be genuine.
So, when morning came, she tiredly stomped upstairs to the Bosleys' office and plopped her weak self down. Bosley himself had taken the day off, but his brother, Bos, was filling in. Dylan looked over the office and noticed the small changes that Bos had added. She smiled at how both the Bosleys had managed to settle into a unique job share arrangement. Bosley taking over most of the undercover work and Bos mostly bookkeeping and maintaining informant contacts; even Max had gotten into the act, helping out in a kind of after school internship.
And the added hands helped for everyone, especially for Bosley who seemed content to have his brothers there. He was much more confident about going undercover now, not as distracted, not as much nervous fumbling. Guess even a little thing like bookkeeping can keep someone distracted, Dylan thought with a snort.
"Well, well, well," Bos boomed, laughing at Dylan's startled jump, "look what the cat dragged in and so early in the morning!" He dropped onto the couch next to Dylan, causing her whole body to pop off the seat because of his large frame.
He leaned close and said loudly, "So, did we go out and paint the town red, have a little too much wine, women and song? Well, scratch that second one. Look at you, all tired and rumpled, girl you need proper rest."
"Thanks, Bos, and no, there was no wine, definitely no women and no song. Let's just say I had a very, very long and disturbing night. But, ya gotta wait until Nat and Alex get here, 'cuz it's a doozy." With a long sigh, she shut her eyes and let her head fall with a thump on the back of the couch.
"Ok, kid have it your way," Bos said as he stood up and walked to the office kitchen, "want decaf or regular?" "Regular!!"
And so Nat and Alex came in an hour later; Nat perky as usual and laughing at Dylan's sprawled form on the couch, "Boy, we had a late night didn't we?"
Alex, of course, just smirked and then, in mock anger, slapped Dylan's thigh, "Hey, those are my pants!"
"You don't even wear these pants anymore, you said they were too big!" Dylan rubbed her stinging thigh, wincing.
"Well, I want my fat pants back!" Alex and Nat laughed hard as Dylan hit Alex with a couch pillow.
"Just for that, you aren't getting these back! And I was so careful not to get any blood on them." It was Dylan's turn to laugh as Alex and Nat's smiling expressions dropped to serious on a dime.
Waving off their concerned inquiries, Dylan said, "Let's just get started since I think this case is going to be very twisted." By this time Bos had settled into his chair behind the desk sipping from his mug. "There's coffee in the kitchen, if you ladies want to help yourself. Dylan, why don't you share with us what happened last night?"
"It started off as just the usual thing-" "Don't they always?" Nat interjected, filling two mugs with coffee.
"Yeah, well bumping into Creepy Thin Man isn't like always, is it?"
The office went silent as the other three exchanged wide-eyed looks. "What the hell do you mean?" Alex demanded. "We all saw him take that dive off the roof." She looked shaken; she had remembered how he seemed to just appear on the roof. And how he had saved her life during the shocked moment she'd gaped at him.
Everyone sat there, digesting this bit of information. "How?" Nat asked. "I have no idea," Dylan said, "but he's definitely tangled up in this case and not in a good way."
"How do you mean?" Alex said.
Dylan related the whole story, leaving out the strange parts (and the good part!) and kept to the straightforward facts.
"So, forgetting about how this cat survived this fall," Bos started to say. "Well, I have a theory about that," Dylan interrupted, "the night of the premiere at the hospital I saw a man covered in drying cement in the ER. And given that the nurse was speaking in what I assume to be Romanian, I'm guessing that was him."
"And Seamus, did he survive?" Nat asked worriedly. "I talked to the police and there was no trace of his body," Dylan shrugged.
"Jesus! This is getting weird!" Alex folded her arms and stared at the coffee table tapping her foot agitatedly.
Alex, Nat and Dylan started to talk about their respective nights and between the three of them sketched out a rough idea of what might be going on: Alex had found out that several properties, including the abandoned office, was in fact owned by one corporation, Dinex Corp.
"Dinex? What do they do?" Dylan asked. "It's biotech research," Alex replied. "But there's no real company, it just all on paper."
Nat had spent yesterday afternoon, speaking with the client, who was actually the state attorney general. Frequently, Townsend Agency took on consulting work from the state in between regular paying clients. "Apparently, since this company has been investigated before for wire fraud, the AG feels that this company could be a front for smuggling," Nat reported.
"Smuggling what?" Dylan asked. "Well, the usual thing: guns, small arms, high tech weaponry," Nat replied, "we're here to determine those connections and investigate further the leads the AG has given us. And given what happened to Dylan, we can assume that we are making someone somewhere squirm."
"But where does Creepy Thin Man fit in?" Bos wondered, "is, or rather was, he working for this Dinex? And if that's the case, how do we get him to talk to us?"
"Well, if he had some sort of deal with them-it is definitely over. Those men were slaughtered and," Dylan shivered, "and I don't know if I want to know how the deal went wrong."
"But he's strictly specialized in assassination," Alex said, "I just can't see him as brokering any kind of deal."
"Maybe he's sorta on the straight and narrow, I mean besides the killing part, he may be trying to extract himself from previous work relationships," said Bos.
Nat looked at Dylan, "Dylan, I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to pursue him and find out his role in all of this-" Her eyes were smiling as she added, "besides, you seemed to have such an affect on him."
Dylan and Bos laughed as Alex said, "I don't know about this-he did a lot for us and certainly sacrificed himself in order to save Dylan and Max," Bos nodded at this, "but we can't forget who we are dealing with here. And despite his good deeds for the orphanage, his motives are completely unpredictable."
Dylan sighed, " I know!" "Remember that he saw Knox shoot you that night," Alex added. "And despite the fact that he saved my life, I can't say for sure that I'd trust him to be on our side on this one."
"No, you're right," Dylan sighed again deeply. "I have some leads with the stuff I found last night, but," she yawned as she got up stretching her arms, " I gots to get some rest!"
"Ok, meeting adjourned!" Bos said, "We all have our angles to pursue, so I'll contact Charlie and give him an update." He picked up the phone and started dialing. Nat, Alex and Dylan moved towards the door.
"Listen, Dylan," Nat said draping her arm around Dylan's shoulder, "Alex is right." Alex lifted an eyebrow. "You've got to be careful; we don't want anything bad to happen."
"He's not going to do anything, for God's sake, he did save my life, you know," Dylan said huffily, remembering his late night kiss.
"Oh, we know that," Alex smiled wickedly, "we just know your track record and don't want you to fall in his evil clutches. So, did you kiss him again?"
"No, sorry, he was too busy killing people," Dylan shot back, "oh, jeez, I almost forgot! I found this by-" She dug into her jeans and pulled out the necklace, "two of the fire spots, but I didn't have time to study it."
"Give it here," said Nat, her hand outstretched, "I'll take a look at it this afternoon and let you know what I find out about it. You" she poked Dylan in the chest, "go home and get some rest. We'll call you tomorrow."
With that, Dylan waved her good-byes and left the two Angels in the foyer as she trudged out to her truck.
Staggering up the stairs to her walk-up later, she felt her shoulders sag as the sleepless hours started to catch up with her. Shower, then bed; shower, then bed. The mantra helped her focus on not just collapsing on the couch and sleeping like a log.
She started to strip as soon as she locked the door behind her; dropping her shirt, peeling off her socks and kicking off her pants. Stepping into the shower, she turned on the water as hot as she could get it. Forgetting that she hadn't taken her underwear off and whimpering with exhaustion, she peeled off the wet garment and heaved it over the side. It made a nice heavy splat on the tile and she luxuriated under the beating stream of the showerhead.
Feeling refreshed, she towelled off roughly and started to rummage through the bathroom drawer looking for her brush. She knew that tomorrow would be a big day, her leads would become more concrete with the help of the FBI and she was confident that the Angels would find a lot more answers.
Padding into the hall, she clutched at the towel draped loosely around her torso. She sniffed a little, wondering if something was burning and opened the door to her room.
She stood frozen at the sight of the Thin Man standing there in the middle of her room. Her hairbrush in his hand, tapping the side of his long leg; his cigarette hand paused mid-air. Her eyes glanced over to the bed and saw an indent. He had been resting there before, waiting for her.
She looked back up at him, unable to move as she watched him take a slow drag from his cigarette. He was in full Thin Man regalia today; his black pinstriped suit and hair perfect. His shoes shined, his cane tucked neatly under his arm. There was nothing nervous or rushed about the way he held that cigarette. No, he looked very calm, unnervingly so, as he stood in front of her bed, watching her watch him.
Dylan felt an uncomfortable sense of deja vu, as his assessing look swept over her. This was the look he had given her that night at Knox's and as they were walking down into the tunnels last night. She was beginning to think this was his "thinking" look.
Getting pissed at her predicament, and his audacity; she stalked over to him and grabbed the brush out of his hand. "Could you make sure the door is locked when you leave?" She knew that he was here for something else other than just checking her out. But she was too tired to figure out what that was yet.
He reached over and took her shoulders firmly in his hands and pulled her close to him. So, this is what he wants, she thought sluggishly to herself, as his lips lowered onto her mouth. Numbly, she dropped her towel to wrap her arms around the Thin Man's waist.
And with that, her mind slipped into darkness as her body succumbed to sleep and to the Thin Man's kisses.