Otter Under Fire

by Dakota Rose Royce

  “Might be fun,” Joel said as he gestured for her to go ahead of him.

  The furniture had been pushed against the walls to open up a makeshift dance floor. They twirled around the room for the duration of two songs and then stopped for something to drink

  “OK, I’m a little rusty,” he said.

  Spooky waddled over to beg half-heartedly. He had to be nearly stuffed.

  “Well, if you’d like to practice dancing, it would be something we could do together.” Otter said hopefully smiling up at him. He had a natural grace; he could learn the steps easily.

  “I would like that, and I really like your cats,” Joel said, bending down to scratch Spooky behind the ears. “They are real characters.”

  “Let me show you something.” Otter said, leading him into the living room. “The cats really love parties. Spooky likes the food, but the girls like to screw with the drunks.”

  “There is no way they know that people are drunk.”

  “Says you,” Otter said, pointing to one of the cat shelves about six feet off the floor. “I’ll bet you right now that if you walk under there, Stella won’t mess with you.”

  Looking at her like she was crazy, Joel walked by the shelf. He peered up on top of it. “Ok, you’re right, she’s crouched there, but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t just keeping herself out of the way.”

  “Just come over here and stand a minute, they have to come this way to the bathroom.” Otter said.

  One of Tempest’s clients named Sophie came in, weaving slightly as she walked under the shelf. A stealth paw came out and tapped her on the back of the head and disappeared.

  “What the hell,” Sophie slurred as she turned to see what had hit her.

  “If you’re looking for the bathroom, it’s just over there,” Otter directed.

  “Thanks,” Sophie said and looked back at the wall one more time. As she made her way into Tempest’s wing toward the bathroom, a grey paw whipped out from behind a chair, smacked her ankle several times and disappeared again.

  “Mouse,” Otter said as Sophie looked around the floor. Joel chuckled in appreciation.

  Tempest burst into the kitchen for an iced drink. “Ah, there you are, are you having a good time?” She strolled up to Joel, “I’m Tempest.”

  “Yes, you are,” Joel said shaking her hand. “I’m Joel.”

  “Nice to meet you,” she flashed one of her famous megawatt smiles at him, grabbed a drink and went back outside.

  “She is quite beautiful,” Joel said, watching her go. “But I bet she’s a real hand full.”

  “She is both,” Otter agreed, “and the best friend ever.”

  “And you look like you are about as opposite as two people can be.”

  “That is probably true.”

  “Good,” Joel said with some relief, “I’ve navigated a few hurricanes in my time and although they can be exciting, they can also be devastating.”

  “That would be an excellent assessment.”

  Just then the diet cola deliveryman strolled in, whistling. Otter liked him, he was funny and personable. He came to their parties quite often and usually ended up running the grill with a circle of people around him laughing at his jokes. A catered party didn’t allow him to grill; Otter wondered what he would do to occupy himself. He chatted with them a moment and then went back outside.

  “Looks like the majority of the party is going to be in the back yard tonight,” Otter observed.

  “We could go out and mingle if you like,” Joel said, “but I’m feeling a little selfish and don’t really want to share you right now.”

  He certainly knew the right things to say, Otter thought, but the evening passed pleasantly enough. They sat on the couch with Spooky and talked for a while, then went out and socialized with the guests. At the end of the evening, Joel told Otter he wanted to see her again and they parted with an agreement to go out later that week.

  Tempest had disappeared an hour before the last guest left. The catering company had cleaned up the food and the dining room. Otter locked up the house and went to bed. They could straighten up in the morning.

  Saturday morning dawned bright, as most mornings do in Phoenix. To her surprise, Otter slept past 8am—which was very unusual for her. In her robe, she padded out to the kitchen and found that the house had been straightened up and all signs of the party had disappeared.

  Except for the soda fountain guy, he was sitting at the dining room table and he looked quite pale.

  “Are you all right?” Otter asked him with concern. He seemed to be trembling too.

  “Is she always like that?” He asked in a shaky breath.

  “Who? What?”

  He waved toward Tempest’s side of the house and everything began to fall into place.

  “So you stayed over?” Otter hazarded a guess.

  “OMG,” he said and he shut his eyes.

  Otter poured him a glass of orange juice and put together a breakfast sandwich for him. Tempest must have worked out her frustrations in the wee hours of the morning, she speculated. The release made her so happy and energetic, she cleaned the whole house. She also must have fed the cats so they didn’t wake her up at the customary time.

  “Where is she now?” She asked him. Once he got some food into him, he seemed to get some of his color back.

  “Don’t know,” he whispered. “She left.”

  “I see.” She wondered what she should do with him, but she needn’t have worried. After he ate his breakfast, he got shakily to his feet and slowly made his way out the front door.

  Good thing, because she had an appointment in a little over an hour. Mitch had come into her office the afternoon before with a box and requested that she take Clark’s personal items to his widow. Mitch had offered to take them himself, but she had requested Otter if it was possible.

  Otter didn’t know Clark’s wife all that well. They had met at company parties and once in a while they had exchanged pleasantries when Tonya had come to pick Clark up at AzTech. She had no idea why the woman wanted to talk to her. Remembering her conversation with Brad in welding earlier that week, Otter had a feeling it wasn’t going to be a pleasant chat.

  Oh well, Otter thought, she may as well get it over with. She put on a lacey pink V-neck; dark wash jeans and low heeled boots of cranberry suede. She also wore a tailored jacquard jacket of denim blue, cream and burgundy because the mornings were starting to get a little chilly.

  “I really love your jacket,” Tonya McCartney said when she opened the door. “It looks like a tailored tapestry.”

  “Thank you,” Otter said and then carried the box of Clark’s belongings into the house. “Where do you want me to set this?”

  “The coffee table is fine,” Tonya said, gesturing toward the couch. “Thank you for bringing Clarks things for me.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “If you wouldn’t mind taking a moment,” Tonya said nervously, “I had a couple of questions I wanted to ask you.”

  “Sure,” Otter felt like an Amazon. She was head and shoulders taller than this chubby little woman in a house dress. She pictured Tonya and Clark together and figured they looked like a novelty salt and pepper shaker set when they had stood side by side. Tonya waved Otter toward a chair and sat on the couch.

  “I’ve heard a rumor that you might have been the last person to speak to my husband.” Tonya started in a trembling voice. “Please, if you could tell me what he said the last time you saw him.”

  “You didn’t see him after he left work that night?” Otter asked sharply, “He said he was going home.”

  Tonya looked down into her lap. “Well we were having problems and he moved out of the house. I hadn’t seen him for several days.”

  “I see.”

  “We were working it out,” she said defensively, “it’s just that he and I didn’t see eye to eye on things and I had some problems with the path that he had chosen to take.”

  “You knew
about the blackmail list then?” Otter said casually. The flicker in Tonya’s eyes told her the truth. “You did know.”

  “It wasn’t a blackmail list.” Tonya said defensively, “Clark kept it to help people; he called it the Sword of Christ project. He saw himself as a savior that would separate some people from the bad things they did.”

  “And forcing people to do things against their will was helping them in what way?”

  “I said we didn’t agree on this,” Tonya murmured. “I didn’t understand why it was so important to him to meddle in the lives of other people.”

  “Maybe because he enjoyed the power it gave him,” Otter suggested. “He could have his own little fiefdom among his circle of acquaintances and he could dictate their lives according to his little plan.”

  Tonya shook her head, tears running down her cheeks. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He was such a good man.”

  “He hurt people, Tonya.” Otter said gently, “And I got the impression that he wanted to tell me something when he came to my office that day. I’ve been wondering what it might be.”

  Tonya just shook her head.

  “So after I found the list, it got me thinking. Why wasn’t I on it? He pushed hard for me to be in charge of the shop. It wouldn’t have made any sense if he didn’t think he could manipulate me in some way.”

  “No, don’t think that Mackenzie! Clark liked working with you. He knew that you would be great in that position and in his mind you would be the best candidate once Ron Defray was taken out of the way.”

  “So I wondered if what he wanted to talk about is what he thought he had on me. He would have been gravely disappointed. Even if he thought he had something, I wouldn’t have stood for it. I’d have taken him to Mitch immediately.”

  “Oh Clark knew that about you, Mackenzie,” Tonya said, “He respected how much you could have done to his project.”

  “He had four pages on Annie.” Otter continued.

  To Otter’s surprise, Tonya burst out laughing.

  “He was so frustrated with her,” she said, still giggling. “When he showed her what he had, she was so proud she asked for copies. She wanted to show her family.”

  “Sounds like Annie,” Otter chuckled.

  “She started to tell people about her pages, so he told her that it was a gift and to not tell too many people or everyone would want one.”

  “And she was OK with that?”

  “She stopped talking about it, and that’s all he wanted at that point.” Tonya said. “I don’t know what she thought about the whole thing.”

  “I still don’t understand why you didn’t put a stop to it?”

  “Because I didn’t know the extent of what he was doing—I didn’t,” she said seeing Otter’s skeptical look. “He knew I disapproved, so he didn’t talk about it a lot with me.”

  “But you knew enough to go to Michael with it.”

  “Then he would have lost his job and we needed the money. We ended up separating over it in the end.”

  “He had lung cancer; do you think it’s possible the cancer traveled and he had developed a tumor in his brain that made him think like this?”

  “I hadn’t thought of that. If I had, I would have asked them to look. Do you think it possible that my Clark was sick?”

  “I don’t see why not. If he suddenly saw himself as a savior by blackmailing people, it would certainly be a clue that his brain wasn’t right.”

  Tonya sighed a little sadly and looked down in her lap. “The last time I saw him, he was eating in a little diner not far from his hotel room. I was going to go in and talk to him, but a blonde woman got into the booth across from him and I turned and walked away.”

  “He was with a blonde? What did she look like?”

  “I really didn’t see that much. She was a little stocky and her hair was pretty long. Other than that, I didn’t see that much.”

  “OK, thanks for taking the time. I need to go.”

  “I know you’re angry with him, Mackenzie, and I don’t know how this all will turn out—but I loved him. He and I were married over 25 years. I miss him so much, it hurts.”

  “There’s another thing about this blackmail list,” Otter said.

  “I wish you wouldn’t call it that,” Tonya pouted; it makes him sound like a horrible person.”

  Otter stopped herself from commenting. She was trying to get information, not piss the woman off.

  “There are more than 200 names on the list,” Otter said as Tonya went white, “Not all of them are from AzTech. Some have to be from people he knew elsewhere. Maybe they are from your church, maybe they are your neighbors, but there are a lot more than just people he knew at work.”

  “I—I need to see the list,” Tonya stammered, “I need to see who all is on it.”

  “I gave it all to the police,” Otter lied, “I don’t have it anymore.”

  “You gave it to the police! Why did you give it to the police?”

  “What if Clark didn’t take his own life? What if he made someone angry enough to kill him?”

  “Now you listen to me, young lady,” Tonya bristled and pulled herself up to her full height, “The police and the coroner said he killed himself. Who are you Miss Smarty-pants to come along and say different?”

  “So you accept that Clark committed suicide? You think that was in character?”

  “You know, I think it’s time you left. You’re poking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

  “Kind of like Clark, when you think about it,”

  “Your motives are nothing like his.”

  “There’s something you and I can totally agree on.”

  Tonya glanced out the window. “I think it’s time you leave.”

  “OK,” Otter shrugged. “Suit yourself. If it were my husband I’d want to know the truth, but that’s just me.”

  Tight lipped, Tonya McCartney walked to the front door and gestured Otter out. As Otter reached the front porch, she noticed Jeremy Redding drive up and park across the street. The day was just going to get more interesting for Tonya, Otter thought. It was too bad that she couldn’t be there to see what happened.

  As she passed the young man she murmured, “Sorry Jeremy, I’ve already pissed her off.” She slipped him her business card. “Call me if you need to.” Jeremy nodded and headed toward the front door, Tonya simmering at them both.

  As she drove away, Otter thought about Tonya McCartney. Having Tonya verbally attack her was a little like being savaged by a baby bunny—it was not something she did well. She wondered if the emotion behind Tonya’s outburst was anger or fear—maybe both.

  When Otter got back home, Tempest was back so they had lunch together. Tempest put together some left over party food for herself, but Otter decided on a small steak and a salad and some iced tea. She told Tempest about her meeting with Tonya.

  “What a horrible woman,” Tempest said. “She didn’t care about all the people her husband was screwing with, all she cared about was the money.”

  “Well Clark was unemployed for over a year,” Otter said, “I’m sure she had some serious back bills to contend with.”

  “Didn’t their church help them out? Mormons are known for that kind of thing. They don’t usually let a church member lose everything.”

  “Must have, they still have their house and vehicles, so they had something. I don’t know them that well, so I couldn’t tell you.”

  “And he had four pages on Annie? This is your friend, Annie?”

  “So it seems.”

  “And she thought it was something to be proud of--four pages of blackmail evidence?”

  Otter laughed. “Her reaction must have shocked him. I’d bet that he wasn’t expecting that.”

  “Annie sounds a lot like my mother,” Tempest said darkly. “I can see Mom doing the same thing.”

  Otter could too. Currently, Viola Blackthorn Claremont, Tempest’s mother, was on some kind of spiritual trip in India and the
y didn’t expect her back until around Halloween.

  “Oh and speaking of Annie, she wants to go to the fetish ball with us tonight.”

  “Of course she does! Why not, things couldn’t get any sillier.”

  “She also wants to know if there is a slave auction, and if they take credit cards.”

  “Otter, you know I’m a reasonable woman. There is no way she wants to buy a sex slave.”

  “She plans to have him paint her porch and she’s ok with him wearing just a G-string.”

  “Very democratic of her,” Tempest said thoughtfully, “You know that’s not a bad idea. It would be an excellent way to punish a bad slave.”

  “Advertising slavery is a bad marketing decision in my opinion. It could bring on all kinds of negative publicity. I’m surprised that they are considering it.”

  “Well it’s role playing, isn’t it? It’s not like we raided North Scottsdale, kidnapped them from their golf games and are forcing them into slavery against their will.” Tempest shook her head and sighed. “I guess if she wants to come, she can. It’s a free country. I just don’t know what they will make of her.

  “Does she have appropriate attire, do you think?”

  “I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.” Tempest said.

  Otter and Tempest sat thinking about that image.

  “She can wear whatever she wants to wear,” Tempest decreed. “I’m going to tell myself it doesn’t matter.”

  “We’re just on a fact finding evaluation anyway,” Otter said. “It won’t matter to this client’s future plans.”

  “That’s true. We’re to check out the displays and the booths and give them advice about the best way to market merchandise and services. I don’t expect us to be there any more than a couple of hours.”

  “OK, I’m good with that.” Otter said, finishing up her salad. “But I sure would like to know why the soda fountain guy was here this morning. He looked rather drained of energy.”

  Tempest opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

  “Not that it’s any of my business,” Otter said as she took her dishes to the sink, “but good soda delivery guys are hard to find. He’s also a nice guy, and you don’t do nice guys all that well.” She opened a cupboard and got some treats out for the cats.