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The Tessarae Inn |
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Suspicions In Scarlet Repose CHAPTER 14
Blair looked up and a slow smile spread across her face when she realized that she indeed was not seeing things. A rush of warmth, the smell of coconuts, the salty scent of an azure ocean and the piercing fumes of a motorcycle exhaust flooded her senses. She stood up and rushed around her desk. “Cal! What are you doing here? What a surprise!” He walked close to her, leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “Nice to see you, too.” She studied him for a second. Same golden tan, sun kissed brown hair and deep brown eyes and warm smile. He hadn’t been away from paradise very long. He, in turn, cocked his head and made an obvious visual scan of her body from head to toe. “You look real good even without the cutoffs.” She laughed lightly. “Okay, now that we’ve gotten the obligatory cheap come-on out of the way, tell me what’s going on. Why are you here?” “Major changes in my life. No one is more surprised than I am that I ended up in Llanview, Penn-syl-van-ia!” “You’ve moved? How long have you been here?” “I’ve only been here a few days and it’s just a temporary stay.” “Really? You should have called or come by sooner.” “I saw you the other night but didn’t get a chance to speak. Saw he was still glued to you like he knows his treasure found.” Blair nodded her head then smiled. “Things are good.” “I guess I’m glad to hear that because I’m a man who keeps his promises.” Blair looked him in the eye for a second then glanced away. “You never did tell me why you’re here.” “Got it. Subject change. But to answer your question, I’ve gone private. I’m working on a case. Not at liberty to reveal the specifics but imagine my surprise when I realized you might be able to provide me with a lead or two.” “Me! How strange. Talk about a small world.” Blair leaned back against her desk. “How can I help?” Cal pulled out a small spiral notebook. “What can you tell me about Heather Shuttlesworth?”
“I’m going to kill you if you don’t back off or if I hear one more ugly word that I can trace back to you.” Todd stared at him and controlled his fury. “Need something more than a damn butter knife.” “The people at the next table had steak for lunch.” “Okay, enough already,” said Todd. “I get the drift of the conversation.” “Do you? Do you understand when it's discovered that a knife…THE knife from the table next to her disappeared and wound up being thrust into poor little Carmen Duvet ten times that a big ol' bright spotlight is going to shine down on her relentlessly? Got any secrets? Anything to hide?” “What do you want, Asa?” “I want to be reasonable. I’m offering a fair market price with no hidden costs. Considering the deal you brokered, you will make out like a bandit. You don’t have a damn thing to lose except maybe your wife’s freedom or her life depending on whether or not the state seeks the death penalty. Maybe you and she can do that pretending-to-be-crazy thing you do so well and she’ll walk on a technicality. Again. But I’m not sure I’d count on that con working one more time.” Todd narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice to just above a whisper. “You don’t want me for an enemy.” “Ooooooh, a hissing varmint," Asa said and chuckled loudly. "I’m a shaking in my size eleven boots. Now, you hear me clear. One time deal, one time offer.” “You have to know that I’d never let her go down. By any means at my disposal, I will protect her.” “Figured as much. I mean it’s not like you are trying to stab her in the back to get custody of the children, or trying to send her to jail to punish her for getting pregnant by Max or like you need to have your she-lawyer goad her into shoving her out a window to win the pity vote or anything. Her going to jail right now would serve absolutely no purpose for you, so, of course, you’ll protect her.” “Shut up, Asa.” “I’ll leave, Manning, but when I walk out the door, the deal walks out with me.” “I'd rather do business with a walking, talking piece of hound dog crap than you. At least it would have some integrity.” “Why thank you, son. I’m glad you noticed. Always felt integrity was overrated. Speaking of sons, I think I’ll go drop in on my younger boy at work. Haven’t talked to him in a while.” Todd narrowed his eyes and glared at him but then said, “I’ll call my lawyers.” “Get them over here pronto. Papers are already drawn up. My attorney is one floor, one cell phone call, and one finger snap away.” “I need a day. Maybe two.” “And women in hell need suntan lotion. Don’t try to outfox a fox. Will never happen.” Todd gripped the knife in front of him and tried to calm himself down. “Here’s the deal, Manning. I don’t care whether your wife stabbed the hell out of the-woman-in-red or not. None of my beeswax. For all I know, Scarlet may have been a damn nice filly but she won’t connected to me or mine, so I can’t find the interest to lasso a care.” Todd gritted his teeth and locked his gaze on Asa’s face. “All I care about, Manning, is that with Blair’s well-documented tendency toward violence." Asa nodded his head in an exaggerated manner and arched his right eyebrow. Todd glanced away and focused on his breathing. In. Out. In. Out. "And with her quote–unquote previous bouts of temporary insanity, coupled with evidence of some really stinky-poo blackmail directed her way, plus a convenient steak knife and the opportunity to transgress, verifiable, by the way, by a cast of tens..." Todd looked at Asa and then ran his tongue across his upper teeth and tapped the table with his fingertips as he used every ounce of self-control he had ever begged, borrowed or stolen in his life to remain seated, with his hands in his lap and not around Asa's neck. "Well, daggone, son, with all of that the press will have everything it needs to crucify her and that oh so sweet new company of hers. That spells trouble for you and an opportunity for me. Now are you going to make the phone call or not?”
“I am not exactly the more unbiased person when it comes to Heather Shuttlesworth, ” Blair said. She stood up and then moved around her desk and sat in her chair. “Bad blood.” “We had a slight business competition recently. She lost. Didn’t handle it well. I’m sure I didn’t see her at her best.” “Do you know her outside of that situation? I mean can you give me any low down on her personally?” “What is this about, Cal?” “Can’t say more than I’m trying to figure out if she killed that woman.” He glanced in his notebook. “Whether she killed Carmen Duvet.” Blair picked up a pencil and held it on each end. “I have no idea. From what I’ve heard, though, they found her standing over the body with a knife in her hand. Now, if you are asking me if I think she was capable of plunging that knife into the Woman-in-Red then the answer would have to be, hell yes.” “The Woman-in-Red? You knew her I gather. The victim I mean.” “I met her that night when you saw me at Capricorn. She came by here the next day and tried to get me to hire her at JStarr. There were no openings that she would fit. End of story.” “You don’t seem particularly upset about her death.” “I didn’t really know her, Cal. How upset am I supposed to be beyond general sympathy?” Cal seemed to study her for a second. “I’ve heard Miss Duvet wasn't particularly well liked.” “Okay, now is this about Heather or something else?” “ Does it matter?” “Not really. I didn’t know Carmen beyond two brief encounters. I do know Heather and she is a manipulative spoiled brat who probably sincerely believes she can get away with murder. That pretty much sums up what I can tell you.” “What about Heather’s father? Know him at all?” “Met him. The deal I talked about was a family affair and…” Cal sat up straight and slammed the arm of the chair. “The Tornadoes! You bought the freakin’ Tornadoes?” “Well, actually, Todd did… or we did together.” "You've got Treyscott and probably the Super Bowl, too." "Well, we hope...about the Super Bowl, I mean." Cal whistled. “I knew you weren’t hurting for money but Tornadoes money is serious money. I had heard Carl Shuttlesworth was bought out by a young hotshot but I didn’t put two and two together until now.” “Cal, I really don’t see where this is going and the specifics of the deal with Shuttlesworth is not open for discussion.” Cal nodded and closed his notebook then slipped it into his inside jacket pocket. Blair studied him for a second. “Why did you really come here, Cal?” He clucked his tongue softly and shook his head. “I wasn’t lying to you. I’m trying to find out whether Heather Shuttlesworth killed Carmen Duvet. The truth.” “So you think the truth may never come out?” “I think the air that circles the kind of money and power Carl Shuttlesworth swims in is pretty damn thin. Most people can’t breathe up there and the people who can damn well do whatever the hell they want.” “By why would you think I’d know anything?” “I saw you talking to her the other night and thought that maybe you could shine some light on the Shuttlesworths. Of course, until I walked in here and saw all of this and heard about the Tornadoes, I thought I’d be getting some information from an outsider—a woman in frayed cutoffs and a golden tan.” Blair focused squarely on his face. His tone had shifted. A subtle edge of suspicion had crept in. “What did you do as a cop, Cal?” “I went after the bad guys.” She sighed and locked her fingers together. Cal looked her straight in the eye. “Caught my fair share of them too.” “Robbery?” “Homicide.”
Todd watched Blair for a few seconds. She was deep in thought, looking out of the window to the left of her desk. He was going to make this up to her but as far as he could see he only had two options here—the truth or a lie and he had no more balance left in his “lie” account. He took a deep breath and walked into the office. “Blair.” She turned and smiled at him. “Hey.” “Look, I need you to sign something. People are waiting for me in the lobby. Not a lot of time.” She walked slowly to her desk. She was frowning. He deserved that. There had been too many times when he’d tried to run roughshod over her common sense and self-interest for her to ever totally trust him again. They'd come a very long way but there would always be that moment of hesitation accompanied by a frown before she reminded herself that they were in whatever was going on together. He handed her the papers. “Don’t have time to let you go over them really carefully. Need you to trust me and just sign them. Okay?” She flipped through the papers and then looked up suddenly. “These are transfer of ownership papers. The Tornadoes? To Asa?” “He is threatening to point the police in your direction if I don’t sign but look I had my lawyer insert a timeout clause—“ “I didn’t kill Carmen, Todd. I told you that.” “Yeah, well Asa doesn’t care. He can make things hell for us for a while before the truth comes out.” “If it comes out.” He looked at her. Kind of a strange thing for her to say. But she was right. The cast of characters in this drama—Asa, Daddy Carl, Heather and god knows who else--could all cloud the truth in something the equivalent of pea soup. “Forget the truth. What I care about is that you are not tarnished with some sick allegation from Asa that's dipped in lie-after-lie but is so sensational that no one will care whether it’s true or not.” “I can tolerate whatever Asa throws at me.” “Can JStarr?” The statement seemed to knock the wind out of her sails. He knew how important this company was to her. It was one of the things that allowed her to love him. She would never again be dependent on him. “Look, Blair, I’m going to take care of this. I'm not going to let Asa win but I need time and the only way I can get it is to sign those papers.” “Let him have the team.” “Let him think he’s getting it. The contract stipulates seven days before it takes effect.” “What can you do in seven days?” “Find out who really murdered Carmen Duvet.”
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Suspicions In Scarlet Repose FAN FICTION SLIDESHOWS
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