Black Shadows

by Simon Swift

  This was what I called an apartment! It was a large, open-plan, loft style flat with beautiful polished wooden floors throughout. There was an oriental rug in the hallway and several others scattered around the place. The walls were painted a deep crimson and decorated with various pieces of abstract art. There was a famous Kandinsky and a Monet in matching, gold frames. The kitchen was on your immediate left as you entered the apartment and there were two doors at the far end. The rest was living space, with a comfortable looking sofa in the center and a dining area to the right. There was a balcony, which looked out over Manhattan. At this time of night the views would be fantastic.

  I must have lost myself a little in the sheer elegance and beauty of the place. For the next thing I knew there was a gun pushing against the back of my head...

  "What the hell do you think you are doing?" came the voice of a woman. "Turn around! Slowly," she instructed.

  I raised my arms and slowly turned around. I smiled hiding my surprise the best I could.

  She was even more beautiful up close. She was still wearing that slinky, red evening gown. She looked a little scared which made her even more beautiful. Her shoulder-length, flaming red hair framed her pale, delicate high-cheek boned face. Her eyes were green and fiery, her lips full and very red, her nose small and perfectly shaped, her cheeks soft. And her trigger finger was ready.

  "You don't want to do anything hasty sweetheart," I said and lowered my hands.

  "Is that right?" she answered, whilst lowering the gun and forcefully pushing me back onto a sofa.

  "Put the gun away. I don't like women holding guns, you never know when they're going to pull the trigger."

  "Who are you?" she asked. "You don't look like a burglar? And why have you been following me?"

  "The name is Errol Black and I haven't been following you. I-"

  She laughed, "You're the Private Investigator? You are the famous Errol Christopher Black. Christ, I had heard you were good."

  "So had I. Maybe we both heard wrong."

  "So Claudia took my advice. I am pleased about that. However, I don't think my sister is paying you so well to break into my apartment."

  Now I was stunned.

  I shook my head. "I don't know why the hell your sister is paying me," I said to mask my surprise. "But I sure as hell plan to find out. Come on put the gun away, I'll pay for any damage." I reached for my Private Investigator's license and showed it to the lady.

  She took it and smiled. The whole room lit up. She then put the gun on the table and went over to a drinks table by the window.

  "Why don't you sit down, Mr. Black..."

  "I already am," I said. "And you can call me Errol."

  "Errol, would you care for a drink? I should introduce myself. My name is Marlow. I can quite confidently say that I am Claudia's best friend in the whole world."

  "Pleased to meet you Marlow, I'll take a brandy on the rocks, if I may."

  She poured a large one and one for herself and brought them over. I took the drink and kissed the hand that she offered me.

  "Are you real sisters?" I asked.

  Marlow smiled and took out a cigarette. "Not blood sisters no, although we may as well be we couldn't possibly be closer."

  I lit the cigarette for her and lit one for myself. She inhaled deeply and blew out a thick stream of smoke through her vivid red lips. "You must understand this, Errol. Whatever you have seen tonight is not what it seems. I am not in any way involved with George Ferriby."

  "I see?"

  "Not in any romantic sense, no. George Ferriby is a bad man." She said his name through gritted teeth. "He is a womanizer and a scoundrel. He is involved in so many scams I am surprised he can remember who he had told what. In short he is no good for my dear Claudia."

  I took a drink. "I suppose you have told her this."

  "So many times, but it makes no difference. Lovely, sweet and beautiful though she is, Claudia is an absolute disaster when men are concerned. She can't see what is in front of her."

  "So that's why you put her up to hiring me?"

  Marlow finished her cigarette and immediately lit another. She looked me right in the eyes as she smoked it quickly, shivering as she exhaled.

  "I didn't expect you to take photographs or do such a thorough surveillance job. I just... I guess I just wanted you to tell her the truth about that scoundrel. Claudia is such a lovely person."

  I finished my drink and crunched the ice in the bottom of the glass.

  Marlow finished hers and then re-filled them both. She sat next to me on the sofa and sighed. She was close enough for me to feel her warm breath on my cheek. Close enough for me to smell her perfume and musky scent. Close enough to give me a raging hard-on.

  "So where do we go from here?" she said and put a hand on my neck, ruffling my hair. "You still haven't told me how you got here. I never let George come here." She looked at me with a puzzled face that I just wanted to kiss. "How did you find my flat, Errol? And just why did you break in? Surely that's not part of the job?"

  I tried to compose myself. "My being here has got nothing to do with Claudia."

  She looked even more confused and glanced briefly at the gun on the table, but continued to play with my hair, running her long fingers through it and then down my neck.

  "It isn't?"

  "Tonight has been a bad night," I said, taking her hand in my own and kissing it softly. "A man has been killed. A man, who was a friend of mine. On top of that there has been a real unsavory character tailing me most of the day. I managed to turn the tables on him and he made a telephone call. You want to know where?"

  She nodded her head gently but her eyes looked worried.

  "Here."

  "Oh Errol," she said in a frightened, high-pitched voice and stretched out both her arms to snuggle up to me. I put my drink down and held her. She was trembling when she said, "I may be in great danger. Who is this beast, did he follow you here?"

  I gave a short description of the young punk that had followed me and softly stroked her hair. She let me go for a moment and I stood up and walked to the window, pulling the drapes aside and looking down.

  "I don't think so. He disappeared tonight about the same time that you and Ferriby vanished."

  I watched her nervous face and rejoined her on the sofa. She still looked frightened, but quickly regained her composure, again playing with my hair, stroking my neck, and brushing her body lightly against mine.

  "Why would he telephone here?" I asked, but she didn't have an answer. Not a verbal one anyway. Instead of speaking she stood up facing me and reached for the straps of her gown. She pulled it down painfully slowly over her breasts; until they could be held no more and burst free. Her nipples were pink and erect, as big as golf balls, but softer to touch. They invited me to do exactly that.

  She slowly wiggled out of her gown, letting it drop first to her knees and then to the wooden floor and before I could move her panties had also gone.

  She now stood before me, her milky body, with large, firm breasts facing skyward and long, straight legs with a red, well-pruned pubic patch proudly on display. She took a step forward and straddled me, her breasts an inch from my mouth, begging to be kissed. I gratefully accepted the invitation as her hands did their work, skillfully undressing me until we were both naked and aching with desire.

  I lay back and opened my eyes wide, feeling her fingertips, as light as butterflies, brush quickly across my chest, down over my abdomen and then lower. She moved them in circles slowly then quickly, softly then harder until she found what we both wanted her to find and she gripped me tight as she lowered herself down.

  I awoke in a huge, king-size bed. It was draped in purple silk sheets, with heart-shaped pillows and a black lace trim. The dame was cuddling up to a rather cute, black cat on the Oriental rug in front of the warming, open fire.

  She smiled beautifully at me across the room.

  "Sleeping beauty awakes," she said and then let ou
t a throaty laugh. "You must have needed that."

  She was right; I had slept better than I could remember. Last night had released all the tension of the day. By the time we moved into the bedroom all we could do was sleep and it was lovely, blissful, deep sleep.

  The dame let go of the cat and sat on the edge of the bed.

  She was wearing a small silky dressing gown, showing off her impressive curves in all their glory. She reached over and gave me a kiss gently on the lips. The cat instantly stood up and strutted out of the room, sensing that maybe he would soon be a crowd. He stopped at the door, looked at me with his big, sad eyes and then left.

  "How about some breakfast, Errol? I cook a mean bacon and eggs," she said, smiling.

  "That would be swell, darling," I replied. "Maybe I could take a shower whilst you get it together."

  She nodded and left the room. While I was washing myself, I thought back to the situation I was really in. It would have been cute to think that this broad was simply knocked over by my natural charm, but I had my doubts. She quickly turned on the charm when the questions I asked got a little bit difficult. I guessed she was playing for time and for the moment I would allow it. If I could find out about the punk another way and still get to sleep with the beautiful Marlow it was fine by me.

  She came back minutes later with two plates of food and we ate breakfast in silence. When we had finished she sat with her back to mine and started to brush her long hair.

  "What will you tell Claudia, Errol?" she said without looking around.

  "I'll tell her the truth," I said, and waited for her to turn and look at me with those big, puppy eyes. "That her fiancé is a no good son of a bitch. That he is cheating on her now and will continue to do so, regardless of whether he knows she knows it or not. I will offer her my services to give him a good beating if that's what she wants, although I doubt that it is. And when that is all over I will send her my bill and walk back out of her life."

  I smiled at Marlow as sweetly as I could. "Unless you invite me back in it."

  She smiled warmly at me and walked back to the bed, sitting right by my side. I reached out a hand and she kissed it all over before guiding it between the joins of her dressing gown and to the swell of her breasts. I took a nipple between my fingers and felt it harden. Minutes later we were both naked again and sharing each other intimately.

  When we had finished Marlow snuggled up to me, nestling her head in the crook of my arm.

  "You know if you are in any kind of trouble I'd be only too willing to help," I said. "You could talk to me about it."

  "You're so sweet Errol, you really are," she replied.

  "But you don't need my help?"

  "No." She paused. "Not yet anyway, but thanks for the offer."

  "Just remember it's always there. Now, how about lunch today?"

  "I'm sorry, I can't."

  She ran her fingers down my chest, softly over my belly and down to my softening penis. "I could make dinner though, why don’t I give you a call."

  "That would be great darling," and I gave her both my office and home numbers.

  I lay back and relaxed as my erection wore off. I thought a little about Dyke, but mostly about Claudia. She wasn't going to like what I was to tell her but I could not do anything about that. It was for the best, I was sure of that much.

  I entered my own office block to find Ava busily typing away. She would usually not even look up and acknowledge my arrival, but on this occasion she immediately stopped what she was doing and looked me right in the eyes.

  "Anything I need to know, precious?" I asked, pre-emptively.

  "Errol, what's going on? That bitch was so hard, as if she didn't even care. No tears, no surprise, nothing-"

  "Different people take different things, different ways. You know that, angel. I appreciate you breaking the news, now is there anything I should know, anyone been in here?"

  Ava slammed her hands down on the desk and let out a shrill shriek.

  "You always do this, Errol. You always cut yourself off. Something’s going on. Have you ever considered the fact that someone may be able to help you? Maybe you can't do it all on your own?"

  I ignored Ava's outburst and proceeded through the outer office and into my inner-sanctum. It wasn't unusual that she would go off like this, and we both got quite used to it. This time, however, she followed me right through, prompting me to look up as I poured myself a Remy Martin.

  "Are you and Maggie having an affair?" she asked me right out. Very unlike Ava, no messing about, nothing. A simple, straight question. Of course, she was not to get a simple, straight answer.

  "Can you get in touch with the florist, send a nice bouquet to the Spanner household? There probably won't be much of a funeral, but at least we can send our respects."

  I sipped at my champagne cognac and put my feet up on the desk.

  "Errol, how could you do it? I know what you're like... for God's sake I ought to." she paused a moment, her beautiful face a mace of anguish. "He was your friend, did that mean nothing to you?"

  I sighed deeply and finished off the cognac, instantly pouring another. "I don't need this right now. Come on sweetheart, not now. I've just got here, I haven't had much sleep and there’s a lot of things I gotta do. Let's drop it, eh?"

  At that, Ava left the room and went back to her typing. She returned a few minutes later. Now wearing a more conciliatory, calm look on her face, she held out her hands. I looked up to her and shone out a wide smile.

  "Okay, I'm sorry," she offered and sat right on the end of my desk, "Maybe I went a little over the top. I know, it's none of my business, but I do still care, Errol, you know I do."

  "Come here precious," I urged and gave a good, friendly hug. "You're the best, you know that. I need you, but I need your support more than anything."

  She smiled a little embarrassed and stood back a few paces. "Tim paid you a visit, yesterday afternoon. He brought that new Lieutenant with him. They didn't say much, just that you should keep in touch. I don't know, I got the impression they wanted to suggest something but thought better of it when they arrived. Maybe they wanted to say it face to face."

  "Huh, that'd make a change. You told them I was out on business, and didn't have any idea when I'd return?"

  "Sure I did."

  "Good girl, what time is it?"

  Ava looked at her timepiece and sighed, "Five to-"

  Before Ava finished her sentence the telephone rang. I waved as Ava left the room, and then picked up the handset.

  "Yes."

  "Yes. What kinda way it that to answer the telephone. You won't get any business answering yes."

  It was Jake Wiseman, my brief. One of the most important people a private detective can possibly know. He’s got me out of more scrapes than I cared to remember.

  "Jake, I take it you've heard the news?"

  "Yeah, I've heard the news alright. I thought I better warn you, that new Lieutenant's been sniffing around. He wants a result on this one. Says he's no longer prepared to right the Dragon off as a no-go area."

  "What business is that of mine?"

  "Oh, don't worry Errol, he's not implying anything, nothing like that. I think he's more outstretching a hand of compromise, a gesture of goodwill between his boys and yours. He knows as well as I do that if anybody's gonna get to the bottom of this it's gonna be you. He just wants a little co-operation, you know?"

  "You know what he can do with his co-operation, Jake? It only works one way and that's not acceptable. Anyway they get in the way, they mess things up. I hope you told him that."

  "Sure I did Eezy, sure I did. If that were all it was I wouldn't have even bothered you. I just thought you better know this. If you continue to brush him off and get his back up, he's prepared to dig up some pretty smelly shit."

  I sighed. "He's got nothing on me, I'm clean."

  "For one, he knows you've been messing around with Maggie Spanner. There are a few unsavory rumors about that
, but nothing I can't handle. More importantly, he also knows that your license is coming up for renewal soon. He didn't say anything directly but it appears that he's got some influence in that department, you know what I mean? Any rumors or allegations floating around, however ridiculous and unbelievable they are, they’re not gonna be a help."

  "Whatever you have to do Jake, sort it out! Get him off my back and keep me clean. I’ll sort this mess out as quickly as I can, but I'll do it on my own, certainly without the help of Lieutenant fuckin Beech!"

  "I'll do my end, Errol. Don't worry. Just try and keep a low profile, you know. No more walking into homicides, not this close to home not anywhere."

  I said goodbye to Jake Wiseman and replaced the handset. I didn't need pressures like this and was feeling a little agitated. I'll show him where to shove his co-operation.

  I calmed down a little and wrote out a report for the Claudia/Ferriby case. I took it through to Ava and asked her to drop it off discreetly at the house in the East Village. I would call by myself tonight to answer any questions and help out in any possible evictions, which may happen as a result.

  The morning passed by quickly. I did a bit of work from the office, ringing round a few people. I considered the Ferriby case closed and now until something else came up I would spend my time looking into the murder of Detective Dyke Spanner. We argued frequently, sometimes violently. He was a cocky, know-it-all son of a bitch and I guess so was I. Still, we managed to keep in touch, go for a bourbon once in a while. He certainly had his good points; they were just well hidden that was all.

  For months it had been quiet at Black & Wentz, not a sniff of business above the usual mundane telephone jobs that barely paid the rent. A couple of weeks ago I was paid a visit from my landlord's "friend". He was concerned that he was being taken for a fool, that I was assuming he was a soft touch. It was only a friendly visit, of course, just to let me know that if I didn't pay up he was going to start breaking a few bones. I sent him packing with a thick lip.