"Can we go by my apartment, so I can change?" Lumen looks down at the purple t shirt and jeans she was wearing yesterday, when we met at the coffee shop.
"Sure, do you want to grab some things for tonight? I mean...if you want to stay the night?" I add hurriedly, still unsure of how fast we're going to go. She frowns.
"I'd love to stay, but I have to work in the morning and..." she sighs and bites the side of her lip.
"I could drive you over? If you want to, it's ok if you want to spend the night at home?" She smiles and comes over to where I am making the bed, wondering if I should just put the sheets in the laundry. She puts her arms about me from behind and squeezes. I turn and hug her back.
"Ok, that'd be great. I'll have to get my uniform and my night things, that way you get to see my apartment too. Have you told Deb we're coming over?" I take my phone from my pocket and speed dial Deb.
"Brother," Debra sounds happy. "Are you telling me you're on your way to pick up my delightful niece and nephews because we're just going out for lunch at the Rock Fish Grill. Wanna meet us?"
"Sure, Deb, sounds good. How was last night? All ok?" she laughs.
"I was just going to ask you the same thing, bro. But yeah, all good here. Astor and I kicked ass on the Wii, the boys are still smarting from the major defeat they took at our feminine, little hands. High five, Astor!" I hear the sound of slapping skin, I smile.
"Good, I'm sure Quinn took that well," she laughs again.
"So, all ok with you two?" Her voice is dripping with innuendo. I shake my head and Lumen grins.
"Yes, all fine here. We're dropping by Lumen's apartment so she can change. We'll see you in about an hour and a half?" I look at Lumen, unsure of how long we'll take and she nods.
"Ok, bro. Hey, I'm glad you got it sorted out. I like her," Deb's voice softens.
"So do I," I say as I watch Lumen grab her purse and my car keys.
I park the SUV next to Lumen's old station wagon and we take the elevator to her floor. The inside of the building has been decorated in keeping with the exterior. Everything is cream, black and gold, sharp lines, broad curves. The parquet floor has a chestnut sheen and the embellishments over the doors and along the walls are graduated lines, neat and elegant. Golden pyramid lamps line the corridor down to her apartment and they cast a soft glow, such a contrast with the bright sunshine outside that it's like starring in an old movie. Lumen sees me smiling.
"I know, she's a beautiful building isn't she? I couldn't believe my luck when I got an apartment here."
"How did that happen? Did you have a job when you arrived?" She shakes her head, getting her keys out of her purse.
"I still had some of the money I'd saved for my world travel." She pulls a face at the memory of what she had planned to do before she nearly became a 'barrel girl'. "So I came to Miami and I stayed in a motel. I'd planned to come and see you right away but then, I don't know, I think I was scared." I put my hand on her waist and she smiles at me.
"So, then I read the papers and looked in the classifieds but I didn't see anything I could really do, anything that was going to pay me enough to be able to rent somewhere. I went to the survivors' meeting, the one where I met Jessica, and I met Mary, Mary Chester... her mother owns the building and I mentioned I needed somewhere to stay..." I remember the elderly lady who was talking to Lumen on her way to work.
"So she gave you a room here? I saw you talking to her last week..." Lumen raises her eyebrows and cocks her head, I frown. "I, er... saw you, after Daniels. Deb said I should find out where you lived so I could talk to you..." she nods and then smiles.
"It's ok, I knew you must have followed me somehow when you returned the glove. Pete said he saw you, I was so surprised because I've been telling him..." It's my turn to understand now.
"I know, you've told him we're together. That's ok, it's not a lie anymore." I pull her to me and kiss her gently. She brings her hand up to my neck and deepens the kiss. My hand is on the small of her back and we lean against her door.
"Whoa! Get a room, guys!" It's Pete, his voice is jovial but there's some undercurrent I don't like. I find myself watching him carefully as Lumen pulls away. "Hey Elle, Dex." Of course, he knows her as Elle, I have to remember that. I decide to consider it an initial, an 'L'. Something inside me registers the over familiar 'Dex'.
"Hi Pete, sorry, we thought we were alone." I smile and turn Lumen's key in the lock.
"Oh I was just skulking about, you know, nothing to do on a Sunday." He leans on the wall of the corridor, ready for conversation. Lumen looks uncomfortable.
"Honey, we have an hour before we have to collect the kids. We should hurry up." Lumen smiles at me and then looks back to Pete who is scuffing his shoes on the wooden floor, his sneakers leaving a dark stain on the neat tiles.
"Oh, you guys get on with your day, I'm just going to down to a bar and hang out with some friends. Maybe we could meet up later."
"We've got the kids so, no Sunday drinking." I look apologetic but I just want him to go away. This guy gives me the creeps and that's saying something. He shrugs, looks at Lumen for a long minute.
"Ok, no problem. Hey Elle, maybe when it's not date night we could watch a movie?" She nods tentatively, it's the most reluctant thing I've seen her do. Pete grins and wanders off down the corridor. I shut the door to the apartment.
"I don't like him," I say, following my tactic of 'think, speak' from the day before. Lumen twists her mouth.
"Oh, he's ok. I think he just... likes me. For a while I think he didn't believe you existed. Probably because you didn't," she laughs as she goes into the bedroom.
"Well, it's lucky I do now. There's just something about him." I say, looking out of the broad, curved windows onto the palm lined street below.
Lumen's apartment is in the same colours as the rest of the building. She hasn't brought much with her, just some pictures, paintings of landscapes, and her laptop. The minimalism fits with the building's ambience. I hear her chuckling from inside the bedroom.
"Is that your killer instinct speaking or Dexter the jealous boyfriend?" I walk into the bedroom and she's pulling on a dress. It's a dark blue sundress, above her knee, with white lines bordering the hem, she pulls on a white short cardigan but not before I see the crisscross of scars on her back. She still makes me catch my breath, she pins her hair back with two barrettes and turns to face me.
"Do I look ok for lunch?"
"Not as good as you look in your kill suit," I walk over to her and move back a stray hair, she laughs.
"The black sweatshirt and pants? Or the denim shorts?" She waggles an eyebrow. I pull her to me and kiss her neck. She sighs.
"I liked both. The shorts were a bit impractical, but a nice twist." She chuckles and turns to pack her bag. She passes me the holdall and then the things she wants to bring with her. I fold her work uniform, a rainbow striped tunic and green cotton pants. "So, how did you get your job? Is this what you did before you came to Miami?" she shakes her head.
"No, I was training to be a child psychologist but I had the kindergarten qualifications from working in my vacations through college. So, when I saw the job and it was near the apartment I thought it was something I could do until I figured out what it was I wanted to do."
"But you enjoy it?" She nods as she gets her toothbrush and some toiletries from the bathroom and tucks them inside the bag.
"Yeah, I love it. The children are so warm, so open. Right." She stands up and grabs the bag, I take it from her. "All ready to go."
Rock Fish Grill is crowded, lots of people have decided to have Sunday lunch with their families today. The place isn't fancy but it does some good dishes and we sit outside instead of in the noisy bar area where a football game is blaring from the large TV screen behind the bar.
Astor and Cody give me conflicting, blow by blow accounts of last night's Wii competition and Debra joins in and digs Quinn in the ribs as she describes how awesome she was and how he 'sucked ass'. Then she apologises to the kids and we all laugh.
"Are you still on the bowling team, Dexter?" Quinn asks me suddenly and I get the impression he's changing the subject. I nod and drink my beer.
"You bowl?" Lumen looks amused and I raise my eyebrows.
"Yeah, I bowl. Is that weird?" I ask, looking at Deb for confirmation, Deb nods and grimaces.
"No, it's not weird, I just couldn't imagine you... bowling," Lumen says and exchanges a glance with Deb and Astor.
"Why do you ask?" I turn to Quinn, thinking he'd better have a good reason for bringing the subject up.
"Vince said they had a match on Tuesday, he's asked me to fill in for Bud from Vice. Are you playing?"
"If I can get a sitter," I say looking at the kids who are now feeding Harrison their shrimp. Should he be eating shrimp? I'm not sure. Lumen takes the shrimp out of his little chubby hands and replaces it with some bread.
"Ask Sonja, then we could all go bowling," Deb says, smiling at Lumen. "We could watch, right Lumen? It'd be nice for us to spend some time together," Lumen nods, I can see she likes Deb and the idea of something so normal as a bowling date seems like a good idea in all the weirdness that's been going on these last few weeks.
"Ok, sure. I'll ask Sonja."
The rest of lunch is full of easy banter, Deb and Lumen tease me as though they've known each other for years and, despite the way it makes me nervous, I find that it's comforting too.
We finish late at the Grill, the kids too full and too tired from last night's Wii tournament to want to do much with the evening. I settle Harrison in his crib and then Lumen and I sit on the balcony while Cody and Astor watch their TV shows and then get ready for bed.
"Night, Dexter." Cody hugs me and then hesitates before hugging Lumen. She smiles, she's made a big impression on him in such a short amount of time.
"Night, guys." Astor waves from the doorway, too grown up for bed time hugs and then she comes to me and presses her head against my chest like she used to do when she was a little girl.
When the room is quiet we slide the French windows closed and drink a beer, talking in whispers so we don't disturb the kids. Lumen has the local paper.
"What about this?" she points to an article on the page she is reading. It's not much of a column and there's a grainy photo of a couple in their twenties. They look rough, angry.
"Joseph Greco was released from prison this week after serving three years for his part in the manslaughter of his partner's baby son..." I read aloud and then look up into her face. She looks grim, serious. I read the rest of the article.
It seems that the courts couldn't prove that Mr. Greco deliberately killed the child, eight month old Todd DiMarco even though there were numerous cigarette wounds and a substantial amount of broken bones on the little boy's body. There were no witnesses and Ms Tina DiMarco, the child's mother, testified that her boyfriend had accidentally dropped the boy. Now he's out of jail. It's the sort of thing that makes Deb hate the legal system and makes me happy to help out where the judicial process fails.
"Does he sound deserving?" Lumen's voice is quiet but I can hear the agitation in her voice. I nod, shrug.
"Possibly, we'd have to know more. The coroner's report totally contradicts what the mother said but they had no evidence it was him." I study the picture of Joseph Greco, something in me recognises him as a fellow monster.
"And the girlfriend? Surely she's deserving too? She was the boy's mother and she let that happen? She testified for that creep." Lumen sounds angry, quietly angry like she did when she talked about Cole Harmon, Jordan Chase, those monsters. I look at her and see that familiar light in her expression, like she's lit from within by some righteous fury.
"Maybe, we can have a look?" She nods. I get up and get the laptop, carefully sliding the door shut behind me as I come back out onto the balcony. Lumen is studying the paper intently.
In a few moments we have the details of the case before us. The injuries on baby Todd's body are horrifying to read but Lumen and I both scan the page and digest every bruise, every burn. We scald it into our memories. The situation looks grim for Mr. Greco and Ms DiMarco. It looks very much like he did the abusing and she sat back and watched.
"How could she?" Lumen shakes her head, the words hissed out over her teeth. I don't know the answer, so I don't say anything.
"We'll have to be totally sure, it's the Code. We need evidence." She looks at me, the soft night time light from the pool picking out her dark eyes.
"How do we do that? The cops will have been all over it, and it's years ago now." I nod and sip my drink, biting my lower lip as I look out into the night, thinking, planning.
"We might have to meet up with this charming couple, see what we can get out of them." I look at her to judge how far she wants to go with this. She nods, drinks her beer. She is not going to stop now. A ridiculous surge of pride for her comes over me. She really is my partner.
"Then let's do it soon. They don't deserve to have any time together after what they did," she says grimly.
Lumen takes the laptop and spends twenty minutes searching through the images which have come up when she typed Tina Dimarco's name into the search engine. Her face, lit by the harsh light of the screen seems cold, alien. She's fascinating to watch when she's like this, all ice and frost compared to the fire and blaze of her when she's killing.
"Here." She stabs the screen with her fingertip accusingly. "This is where she hangs out. It might be somewhere we could meet them, if we want to do it that way?" I look over her shoulder, resting my hand on the skin where the silver scar cuts along her body. She is pointing to a picture of Tina DiMarco outside a bar, 'Judy's Bar and Grill'. Lumen moves her hand and there's another picture, taken in the same bar and another and another. It seems Tina DiMarco is a regular visitor. I nod, it's good work in such a short amount of time but it still makes me nervous imagining going out and meeting these people with Lumen. She's too precious to lose.
"Are you sure about this? I could go alone." I kiss her neck and she sighs, leaning her head to the side to allow me greater access to her skin. I trace my tongue along her scar and she shivers.
"Are you worrying about me, Dexter?" She sounds amused, she reaches her hand up to caress my hair. I smile into her shoulder.
"Of course I am. You're very precious to me and these people are dangerous." She turns her head and grins suddenly. She pulls me down to kiss me. Her tongue slips into my mouth and I take a shuddering breath, electrified by the energy zinging between us. I move around her chair and crouch in front of her, hardly breaking the kiss. She leans forward, takes my head in her hands and trails her lips down the side of my neck, along my collar bone, nipping with sharp teeth, I sigh.
She pulls back and looks at me. I can see her chest rising and falling with the excitement but I don't k now if it's our touching or the idea of killing Greco and DiMarco which has her so aroused. Her hands run along my thighs and I hear my own breathing hitch, I guess it might be both, it certainly is for me.
"Dexter, you're right, these people are dangerous. But so am I." She smiles and the light catches her teeth, the expression is dark and feral. The need for her body, the wanting, become so big that I can't say anything. She nods, understanding how I am feeling. "Let's go to bed." Her voice is low and urgent.
So, the 'season' continues. Thanks for letting me know what you've thought so far. It's great to have your encouragement. thanks to VB for being beta buddy extraordinaire and for loasti17 for Spanish help! Cx