A/N: Thanks everyone who reviewed so far. Sorry I'm a bit late today but here's the next instalment. Dean is checking out Meg Masters' sleeping quarters aboard the transport ship, looking for any incriminating evidence to link her to the theft of the Pompatus Box. Shush...

The Pompatus Box (Chapter 15: Ruby in Red) by frostygossamer

Dean quietly opens the stateroom door with the steward's passkey. He has undertaken to discreetly turn the place over while Captain Harvelle keeps the occupant busy elsewhere, taking tea with her on the transport's flight deck. He expects to have maybe a half hour to see what exactly he can find out about the mysterious Miss Meg Masters, particularly anything incriminating.

He makes a careful check of the closet, the night table and the dresser. On the night table is a large lead-crystal scent bottle half full fancy French parfum. In place of the usual family portrait there's a pretty fine etching of an early-style Colt revolver in a gilt frame. Dean admires the lady's taste in art. There is also a very rare hardcover anthology of Edgar Allan Poe short stories, the story of 'Hans Pfaall' marked with a monogrammed silver bookmark. One for the bookworms.

There's nothing else noteworthy there. But, after a thorough search of Miss Masters' cabin trunk, pausing only to admire her collection of satin and lace under-things, he finds a secret compartment in the base containing a black diamante eyepatch. Maybe a souvenir from some fancy-ass masquerade ball? Or maybe a little piratical memento? Dean can only guess.

Checking under one downy pillow on the bed, his hand closes on a silver-bladed dagger inscribed 'to M from B'. Very curious. Suspicious but circumstantial. He leaves it there and he's checking under the other pillows when his acute hearing picks up a noise behind him.

He swings around to find the fair Miss Ruby de'Mon, Miss Masters' companion, standing there, a larger sharper knife glinting in her hand. Something tells Dean that this lady is no mere PA.

"What the hell are you doing with Miss Masters' bed?" Ruby demands, angrily.

Dean has been caught red-handed. His ambushed mind comes up with only one suggestion.

"Uh... Housekeeping?"

Lame, he knows. Ruby growls and lunges at him with her blade. She misses and rips a tear in the bedspread. Dean grabs her wrist and twirls her around, pulling his Bowie from his belt as he tries to knock her knife out of her hand against the headboard. She twists nimbly out of his grasp, high-kicking at his head, ripping a lucky slash across his face with her spike heel.

There's a flash of scarlet as her skirt rides up to reveal tiny red thong panties. Not so demure after all. Dean's hand goes straight to his cheek as she dances away. Then they are facing-off like a couple rival big cats ready to pounce. Dean hurls himself on the slender female and tries to ram her face into the bulkhead.

Thinking fast, Ruby gets a knee between his legs and pulls him off balance. They both fall back on the bed sprawling. Ruby scrambles to get back on her feet and Dean comes up wrapping his arm around her breasts from behind, pressing his knife blade tight to her throat.

He feels her nervous swallow against his weapon. As his own blood drips down his chin onto her shoulder, he chuckles.

"Kinda excessive for a Personal Assistant, huh? You sure you read the job description right?"

Ruby curses, attempting to elbow him in the side and ineffectually kicking back at his shins with her sharp heels.

"Miss Masters guessed she was gonna need a bodyguard on this trip. Looks like she wasn't wrong."

So Miss de'Mon (Lady's Companion), was really Ruby de'Mon (Personal Security). Dean pushes her down on the bed, using his weight to keep her restrained. He tries not to think about the hot swell of her bosom under him.

"And why's that? What's she getting herself into that's so damn dangerous she needs a hired blade?"

Ruby mentally zip-locks her lips. He shakes her, sliding the knife tight against the pale skin of her neck. He can feel her heartbeat rat-a-tat fast against his palm where it's pressed to the plump curve of her breast.

"You gonna tell me what you know? What Masters is into? Or am I gonna hand you over to Terran Security when we make Earthside? How does a conspiracy rap sound to you?"

Ruby considers a second before sighing and relaxing against him, indicating she's ready to cooperate. He cautiously loosens his grip a little. She snickers.

"We're talking about the Pompatus Box, right? I can tell you how Meg got it off of the ship."

Dean tucks his Bowie back in his belt. Now he can use two hands to hold her pinned. He's still on alert but ready to listen.

"OK. Talk."

"Meg had a replica box made. Paid th guy who built the original to build her a duplicate, identical right down to the last little detail. He died of semi-natural causes pretty soon afterward. They switched the thing out on Terra, right after the President handed it over. Before Death even took custody of it. Before it even made its way into his big black bag. Some serious blackmail involved back along the line, that's as much as I heard."

Dean raises an eyebrow. "So the Pompatus Box WE saw wasn't even the real deal? The freakin' Pompatus, whatever the hell that is, was never even in there? That right?"

Ruby concurs. "No. Never was. But Meg still had to get the real box to her contact. So it came aboard in her hand luggage. When that 'Selenite' pirate showed up, she put it out a waste chute and he snatched it up from space. The whole goddamn attack was a ruse to get close enough for the pick-up."

That sounds about right. Dean lets Ruby sit up. She tries to rub the circulation back into her wrists. Hitching up her skirt, she reties the side-string of her panties, which the high-kicking and bed-grappling has pulled loose. Dean is incidentally treated to a glimpse that confirms her authenticity as a blonde, but his big brain is on business. His little brain can only pout at being ignored.

He's reminded that he did feel something was off during the dogfight incident.

"So that's why the so-called pirate hung for a beat under the transport?!"

"You got it, clever boy. I, uh, I believe one time Meg called the guy Benny."

Benny? That makes sense. The 'to M from B' on the dagger could be 'to Meg from Benny'. But Benny sounds way too much like a regular name for an alleged alien.

"Benny, huh? Yeah, sure. Sounds like a 24-carat Man in the Moon."

He guesses the Selenite theory has pretty much bombed.

Ruby shrugs. "She let it drop he has a hangout on Emo."

Emo and its liberal open-door policy. Trust the Emoans to harbour other people's criminals and troublemakers, no questions asked. Dean shudders. This whole plot is pretty screwy to him. Miss Meg Masters, wealthy businesswoman, in bed, literally or not, with some imaginary Lunan - or should that be Loony Toons - brigand? Planning to steal some stupid-ass diplomatic freebie from under the nose of the official assigned to deliver it? But Dean can't see why in heaven she would want to do anything so off the wall.

"Seems like a lot of trouble to go to when they could simply substitute another gift. But I'm sure as hell not gonna let them get away with whatever this is. Not on my watch."

Sounds like an admirable sentiment, but Ruby is wise to his real motivation.

"And not when someone's ready to pay you big bucks to straighten it out for them, huh?"

"Hell no. Only wish I knew why this is such a big freakin' deal."

Ruby chuckles. She has her own opinion and she lays it out.

"Love. That's what this is about. L. O. V. E. I reckon Meg's fallen head over heels for this Pirate Benny and he's got her doing loop-de-loops for him. Meg's a lonely, brittle, single lady and what's more romantic than a genuine pirate king to soften an old dragon's dried-up little heart, huh?"

Dean scoffs. "Yeah, sure. Like hard-nosed Miss Masters is gonna lose her head over some guy with an eyepatch, a pegleg and a freakin' parrot."

But then there WAS that sparkly eyepatch in her trunk. Huh! So much for Miss Lisa Braeden's theory about Ruby being Meg's main squeeze.

Ruby starts to giggle wickedly. "Don't underestimate the power of love, Captain Dean. It's everyone's biggest weakness."

Dean was considering NOT punching her out, once he had gotten what info she had to give, but that little comment changes his mind. He leaves her there, splayed legs akimbo unconscious on the comforter. Before he slips out the door, he feels the need to respond.

"Not everyone's, honey. Not mine."

TBC

A/N: Well, Dean found something, but what does it say? Nothing much. And is Ruby right about love? More soon.