I spent most of Sunday at the bar, getting it ready for Halloween, which would be the upcoming Friday, and on Monday my good mood was still apparent; nearly everyone commented on it, leaving me a little embarrassed. Still, I found time to order a bouquet of red carnations to be delivered to Simone's house and considered how I wanted to handle the upcoming weekend.
"So that's two cases revolving around that relay station," Gregorio pointed out on Monday. "Call me suspicious but is there something there we missed?"
I agreed; it did seem to be more than a coincidence and we still didn't know who had the papers from the lieutenant's attaché. LaSalle thought the best lead was through the skiff receipt and I set him on that, while Percy and Gregorio wanted to look around the actual relay station site.
We all went, and met up with Lieutenant Thuc, who gave us permission, albeit with an amused expression. "Go ahead. It's just sandy coastline receding into swamp," she pointed out. "Nothing you could build on without a lot of concrete laid down first. I hope you brought boots."
Gregorio made a face at that, and Percy snickered. I sent them to look along the beach and gave myself the task of looking along the swamp side, seeing if I could spot anything and giving myself time to think of Simone. I trekked through some of the drier parts of the soupy ground, remembering Saturday and grinning to myself because it still seemed wonderfully unreal to me.
After Simone's initial confession I'd looked up a bit on bondage, trying to avoid the sleazier sites which took work. Fortunately I'd found a few places that expanded on what she'd explained to me and it made for interesting albeit clandestine reading. I wasn't open to everything I saw, not by a long shot, but there were a few things that looked . . . interesting.
A part of me wondered how she got started with this, and I knew that conversation might be difficult to hear. If she wanted to tell me herself, fine, but it wasn't a deal breaker. And Simone made it clear that kink wasn't a full-time deal, so that left a lot of room for other activities along more typical lines. Musing as I was on these thoughts I almost missed the footprints in the mud. I squatted to have a closer look and realized the prints had a groove running between them.
A wheelbarrow track.
I radioed Gregorio and Percy to come join me as I tried to figure out what a wheelbarrow was doing here on the scrub edge of the swamp.
We went in, following the tracks, with Gregorio complaining under her breath about her shoes and after a mile or so found what looked to be some sort of excavation site half-hidden by tarps and brush. As we got closer someone fired a gun and that put us into the action but good. Percy scooted around to my left while I tried to talk to whoever it was, getting a little more loose gunfire for my trouble.
Despite the sludgy water, Gregorio was a trouper and went around to the right side—the watery one—to meet up with Percy behind our perp. They called out, I charged and we managed to tackle our would-be assailant pretty quickly. Small man, definitely not an outdoorsman at all. He gave in, setting down his weapon but not telling us anything more. Searching around, we found the wheelbarrow, some camping gear, and a windlass over a soupy hole about six feet wide.
We also found a few rotting sacks of filthy tarnished discs that turned out to be 17th century Spanish dollars, or as most people know 'em-pieces of eight.
-oo00oo—
"Real pirate treasure!" LaSalle kept repeating. "And I was stuck talking to good ole' boys with bass boats. I miss out on ALL the good stuff!"
"Good stuff," Gregorio complained. "Mosquitoes, mud, a stench I am nevah going to get out of my hair, all for a bunch of coins you'd have to donate to a museum anyway."
"Still worth it," Percy chirped, "if only for the bragging rights! We found genuine pirate booty, wooo!"
They were all dressed up of course: LaSalle had on a screamingly loud tropical shirt and boxing gloves for his Hawaiian Punch costume. Percy was in a green dress covered with little hand-drawn avocados along with angel wings, so she was Holy Guacamole. Gregorio had on a bunch of chocolate bars pinned to a hoodie along with several gold chains—a candy rapper.
Not bad, pun-wise I had to admit. I'd gone for pirate gear, mostly because it was apropos and I had the billowy shirt from a few years back.
"Not ours and not to keep," I reminded them. "But it does put a motive to buying out that relay station, that's for sure."
"Silver's at fifteen dollars an ounce, but the collector value on the eight hundred and forty-two pieces you guys found brings it up considerably," Chill assured us as he rolled in wearing an eyeshade, sleeve suspenders and playing cards along his vest—a wheeler-dealer, clearly.
"How much are we estimating?" LaSalle wanted to know.
"Once the museums start bidding, probably half a million," he replied. "Too bad you didn't get any souvenirs."
Loretta came in, wearing scrubs and a pointy hat. "Witch Doctor," she told us, and we applauded. Behind her, Simone smiled at me and I smiled back.
"And this . . ." Loretta snickered, waving at her co-worker, "Is definitely the best costume of the night."
Simone stepped forward and preened. She had on a short black velvet dress with a neckline that made me stare—low-cut, showing off her bouncy chest to its best advantage Sewn along her décolleté were little tablets, capsules and pills in colorful sequins, and she wore a black velvet choker with a tiny pill bottle on it.
"Oh Gawd!" Gregorio brayed, "It's a drug bust!"
We all broke up; I found myself wheezing, partially because it was a GREAT pun costume but also because that neckline was making my tongue sweat. Simone kept a straight face but I could see the corners of her mouth curling up a tiny bit.
"Gonna be hard to top that!" LaSalle admitted. "Well done, Miz Simone!"
We broke into groups to talk and Simone drifted over to me. "I'm guessing you're a pirate . . . King?" In an undertone she added, "Thank you for the carnations."
"That works," I told her. "And you're welcome. Punch?" I poured her a ladle-full out of the dry ice filled bowl and she took a grateful sip.
We all made merry, telling stories of old cases and talking up a storm together as we took turns passing out candy to visitors. I insisted Christopher show off his juggling skills and served up course after course of Halloween appetizers, making sure everyone was in a good mood. The street outside was full of color and sound too, enough to keep us all buoyant when I propped open the door.
Gradually though, things wound down. LaSalle left first, followed by Loretta and the others one by one until around eleven was just me and Simone cleaning up dishes. We were quiet but from the looks I was getting it wasn't because she felt shy. I saw the way she eyed the loose neckline on my pirate shirt and it did my heart good to see her interest.
"Nice . . . pirate chest," she teased, passing by with cups and deliberately brushing against me.
"You DO realize I'm gonna have to confiscate that dress as evidence," I replied, following her to the kitchen. Simone was loading the dishwasher and bending over definitely made that chest something to look at.
Simone chuckled. "Is that so?"
"I'm sworn to uphold the law and I'm pretty sure that dress is violating several laws including gravity, Simone."
"Well if you confiscate it, I won't have much to wear home, Officer Pirate," she shot back, moving to dry her hands on one of the towels.
I considered that, or pretended to anyway. "Well if that's the case, you probably need to stay," I told her lightly. No point in pushing the matter but the offer was there and I dearly wanted her to take me up on it.
"Stay?" Simone turned and gave me a surprised look and it was clear the idea hadn't occurred to her.
I gave her a crooked smile. "It would make tomorrow's cooking lesson that much easier if you were already here," I pointed out. "I'll teach you French toast. I do make a mean French toast."
She drew in a breath. "Mean you say?"
"Mean as a cat in a sack full of dogs," I told her. "Mean as Gregorio without coffee or sleep."
Simone laughed. "That's pretty mean. Well, the offers' very tempting, and I've got some spare clothes in the car."
"You know what they say about temptation," I reminded her, catching her hand and pulling her into my arms.
"About how the best way of getting rid of it is to give in?" she countered, pressing a kiss to the side of my neck. For some reason Simone always managed to hit the most sensitive spot and I shivered at the touch of her hot lips.
"I find it's true," I told her. "Please, stay."
She purred against me.
-oo00oo—
After locking everything up downstairs it seemed perfectly natural to lead Simone upstairs at that point. She followed me shyly, and hesitated only a moment when I took her past the guest room towards my bedroom. We stood in the doorway, wrapped around each other and I spoke softly to her.
"You gave to me, now I want to give back," I told Simone. "I appreciate what you know; let me share in my way."
She nodded and looked up at me, eyes big. "Dwayne . . . I'm not good at this. Sex, that is. Just so you understand."
My heart ached a little hearing that, and I knew it was due to her husband. Whatever that man had put her through had cost this woman dearly and I was determined to make it right.
"This won't be sex," I assured her. "It's making love. World of difference."
And I set about to prove it in the moonlight coming through the window.