by Lynn Galli
Good for her. Screw work ultimatums when love was on the line. Especially a love that came about between food vendors in an airport that was nowhere near their original destination.
After gathering a few more details, I bid them goodbye. I’d been lucky to sneak them in before they left town tomorrow. They probably had another haphazard flight path back to New Orleans through Cleveland or some other out of the way airport. At least they shouldn’t run into another weather system that forced them to sleep in airport chairs and eat heavy fast food.
As I approached the bar, I heard a familiar voice speaking from the group to my left. “Hey, she’s hot, she’s new, she’s famous, and no one but Iris has had her yet. Of course, I took a shot.”
My ego showed up and guessed they were talking about me. I didn’t think I was hot or famous, but I was still new and somehow people think Iris has bedded me. I recognized Greer, of the Wallet Stealers, along with a few other regulars, and Cyrah, the one who’d been talking. Over the weekend, we’d run into each other at a barbeque Nykos and Mariah hosted. She’d asked if I wanted to chat over a drink, but Nykos was in the middle of introducing me to hundreds of people. As hot as she was, I wasn’t upset to have missed out on the chance to get to know her better at the party. I had a much better time hanging out with the hosts, Helen and Joe, and Iris and Lane.
“You don’t have a chance,” another voice said.
“You’re just jealous because your phone swipe didn’t net you anything.”
“I didn’t swipe her phone,” Greer sulked.
“You swipe everyone’s phone. How else can you cyberstalk them?” another voice said.
It amazed me how often people didn’t bother to look around before they start talking about someone. Lane caught my eye and smiled. Her eyes flicked to the group, and the smile stretched wider. Great, she’d overheard as well. She made an obvious throat clearing sound, and all heads turned in my direction. Only two of the faces looked guilty. The one belonging to the woman who perpetually wore the 1950s’ garb grinned broadly. Three others slinked off to avoid being caught up in whatever they thought might happen when confronted with the object of their gossip.
“Hey, Vega,” Greer greeted as if we were buddies. I’d called her out on stealing my wallet the last time I saw her. She looked appropriately shamefaced at the time, but apparently, she now thought we were back on equal ground.
“You ready for that drink you promised me?” Cyrah asked, stepping to the front of the crowd.
I glanced back and caught the delight on Lane’s face. At least she was finding this amusing. Everyone in the group waited on edge for my response. I couldn’t put my finger on precisely why I felt like being a bitch. Maybe it was the sweet love-blossoms-between-airport-fast-food-vendors story I’d just heard, or maybe I wasn’t a fan of feeling like a prize to be won instead of a person. “You sure you want to have a drink with me or just the famous fresh meat that no one but Iris has had?”
Wannabe James Dean guffawed. A true guffaw, bending at the waist to hold her stomach. Greer looked triumphant. Cyrah looked apologetic, which made me feel bad that I’d had fun at her expense.
“What have I had?” Iris asked from behind us. Now, I was guilty of not looking around before talking about someone else. Not that it was a bad thing I’d said, since it wasn’t true and I’d only been trying to make a point.
“Me.”
The grin she wore slipped momentarily, and I could feel my cheeks warm. Damn, I’d somehow forgotten about the kiss for ten seconds. The colossally bad kiss, as she’d put it. I should sign up for kissing lessons. Classes must be available for all those people who suffered kissing setbacks like me. Instructions on how to push through the yips to get back to amazing kissing. Yes. I’d be on the lookout for those. I wanted my next kiss to be amazing. It certainly couldn’t be any worse. Either way, I probably shouldn’t be joking about her having had me.
Her eyes flicked to the group, noticing their eagerness. Her grin came back, and she played along. “Right.”
“Not all that new, then, am I?” I said, turning back to Cyrah.
She held up her hands. “Listen, I didn’t mean…we were just gabbing. You know how it is.”
I gave her a long look. She was nice enough, and it wouldn’t do to piss off every lesbian in this place if I ever wanted to date in this town. “I do. I was pulling your leg.”
“Oh,” she sounded relieved. “The drink, then?”
Another mental sigh before I agreed. A drink wouldn’t hurt anything. She’d probably just been showing off for her buddies. She might turn out to be really decent.
Lane smirked as I placed our drink orders while Cyrah went to secure a table. Iris’s head shook but a tiny smile pulled at her lips. “When did this ‘having you’ take place?”
“Ask them.” My chin tipped at the now dispersing group. “Or Riley’s group because they seem to think the same thing.”
She scrutinized me, amusement twinkling in her eyes. “I should really go find out if it was memorable.”
I glared and shot back, “It was memorable.”
“Our imaginary night that never took place?” Iris teased, and Lane started laughing.
“Memorable,” I barked and stomped, well, walked away toward my semi-date for the evening.
31 |
Bike shopping was serving as my mid-morning break today. Since I’d been spending most of my mid-morning breaks bike riding, I couldn’t keep borrowing Helen’s bike. Remembering the couple with the bike shop, I looked up their address and headed out for a little shopping.
Several recommendations later, I was about to take a test ride in the store’s parking lot when a text came in. Normally, I would have ignored the text since the cute saleswoman was giving me all her attention. Flirty good attention. Ignoring texts was the polite thing to do, but I had this feeling. The kind of feeling that said this was not something to be ignored.
“Excuse me a sec,” I said to the bike cutie and fished out my phone from the light jacket I’d had to tie around my waist halfway to the shop when this odd city couldn’t figure out if it would stay warm all day.
YOU BUSY? NEED A FAVOR.
That feeling flared again as I read Iris’s text. This wasn’t a favor to put off.
NOPE. WHAT’S UP?
LANE NEEDS TO COME DOWNTOWN.
A RIDE?
AN ESCORT. FOR A LINEUP. SAYS SHE’LL TAKE A BUS BUT WANTED TO CHECK W/YOU.
They’d found him. My heart pounded. They, more likely, Iris, found him. Lane must be freaking out. I didn’t doubt that she could make it to the police station by herself, but this was big.
I’LL GO GET HER.
SHE MIGHT
I waited for more, but Iris apparently couldn’t find the right words to describe how her best friend would be reacting to this.
ON MY WAY. I’LL BE PERSUASIVE.
I turned back to the cute saleswoman. “Sorry, bit of an emergency. You on tomorrow?”
She flashed a smile that was both hopeful for the commission and disappointed that she hadn’t closed me. “Sure am. Ten to four, ask for me.”
“Will do.” I was already at my car when my phone beeped again. I glanced down and read the two simple words of thanks. Like she even had to say anything.
Minutes later, Lane answered my buzz up to her apartment. Hope painted her tone. She was probably thinking that Iris had broken away to come get her. At hearing my voice, she adopted a fake casual tone. “I’m headed out, actually.”
“I know. Iris texted.”
There was a long pause. “She shouldn’t have.”
“Lane, please. Just come down.”
She didn’t take long to come down from her apartment. She looked hesitant and shaky but determined. “I can handle this.”
“I know you can.”
She waited for me to turn and go back to my car, but I didn’t budge. “You don’t have to go with me. I told Iris I was fine.”
“Lane.�
�� I reached out to grasp her hand. It was a nice hand, soft, with long fingers. I curled mine around it with a slight squeeze. “Let me be here for you. That’s what friends do. If I could have dragged you into my last editors’ meeting for support, I would have done it.”
She studied me, a ghost of a smile forming. “Editors. That’s asking too much.”
“That’s why you weren’t strapped into the airplane seat next to me. This,” I waved toward my car, “is a ride downtown. Iris is meeting us there, and in no time, we’ll be right back here.”
“Sounds too easy.”
I turned serious. “We’re going to be with you every step of the way.”
Her brown eyes glistened as she nodded and walked to my car. “Is this new?”
I recognized her need for distraction and played along. “New enough. Couldn’t keep writing off a rental for those days I needed one. Joe went with me. Started drooling the second I told him I needed a car and had no idea what to get.” He’d taken me to three too many dealerships, but we’d found the perfect used coupe that looked brand new.
She turned to face me when I slipped inside. “I’m glad you decided to stay here.”
My hand grasped hers again. “Me, too.”
Once we got to the station, Lane’s tension ratcheted up. We’d kept the conversation light on the ride rather than getting into what Iris had told her on the phone. I was there for moral support only. My curiosity could wait.
Iris came through the security door with a shorter woman dressed in a badly wrinkled linen suit. They both looked exhausted. No doubt they’d caught him last night and spent many hours questioning him and organizing a defense-proof lineup. She nodded at me and waved Lane over for an introduction. Seconds later, they disappeared behind the security door.
I plopped onto a bench in the lobby. The building was newer, damn nice for a police department. People-watching helped me refrain from biting my nails. Lane had been nervous enough in the car. I couldn’t imagine her fear at having to see this guy in a lineup.
Before my nails were bitten to the nub, Iris resurfaced from behind the security door. Her expression this time was unreadable. She waved for me to follow her outside.
“How’s Lane?” I asked when we’d cleared all the people clusters around the building.
“She’s coping.”
I wanted to wait for more, but I’d been waiting long enough. “Did she pick the right guy? Can you tell me without jeopardizing the case?”
She glanced back and forth, making sure we were alone. “She picked the guy we brought in last night, yes. It was a good identification. His lawyer doesn’t have a prayer of throwing it out based on the usual crap.”
“What’s the usual crap?”
“When only one suspect in the lineup is wearing a hoody like the guy who committed the crime. Or when only one suspect has a goatee and everyone else has a full beard. Anything that differentiates our suspect from everyone else in the lineup.”
Too bad I hadn’t met Iris when I’d written that article on police procedures years ago. She would have been a great help. Instead, all the officers I called thought I was going to report on the police brutality charge they’d faced the year before and weren’t very forthcoming.
“So today’s lineup was good, defense wise, and Lane picked the right guy.”
“She and last night’s victim, yes.”
I made a noise with my mouth that indicated surprise and repulsion that he’d attacked someone else last night. “Oh.”
“Yeah. She was worried she wouldn’t recognize him. It’s been months. That’s always an issue when the defense attorney watches the lineup. If she showed any hesitation at all or said she wasn’t sure, they jump all over that in court.”
“But she didn’t.”
Iris released a short breath through her nose. “No. She didn’t. Neither did the woman from last night. We’re getting two other victims in later. The others couldn’t give a specific description of him at the time, so we’d rather stick with the ones who were sure they could identify him if they saw him again.”
“Is there DNA?” As much as DNA evidence would clinch the case, having it there made me sick to think about.
“No sperm, but skin scrapings and blood. Those tests take a few days.”
I took that in, trying not to let my mind wander to how blood and skin scrapings would have gotten there. “Did you or linen suit catch him?”
“We, Daphne and I, came across him and the victim. He ran for it, but we called two others and converged on the guy a block away. Daphne was on him and cuffing him in a second. We interrupted him before he could do more than bruise the woman from last night.”
“Thank God,” I said.
“I know. If not for Lane’s identification, we’d only have him on attempted rape. If we can get the other two to identify him, he’s looking at a serial rape conviction along with assault. Based on the injuries he inflicted, we might even try for attempted murder to get him to plead.” She released another calming breath. “All the criminals we’ve tracked, none meant as much to me as catching this guy did.”
“It’s all thanks to you.” My hand rested on her shoulder for a comforting squeeze.
“I was beginning to give up hope. He’s been targeting lesbians from the gay bars on Capitol Hill. We were within blocks of the other three attacks since Lane. That’s been killing me for months.”
“Iris, you’ve done everything you can.” My other hand came up to grip both shoulders. “These detectives and officers volunteering their time to patrol that area, that’s down to your influence. This guy is done because of you.”
“Everyone, really. I owe them all drinks for a month.”
“I’ll chip in for that.”
She gave me a soft smile. “Thanks for being here. Can you wait for her to finish her statement? I’m stuck going through mine and wrapping things up.”
“Absolutely. I’ll be ready whenever she is.”
“And can you—”
“Yes, I’ll be pushy and invite myself in if I have to. She shouldn’t be alone.”
Iris leaned in to put her arms around me. The whole of her body caressed mine and felt really good. Relief and celebration and a little gratitude all wrapped up in one delicious hug.
Well, we weren’t bad at hugging. At least there’s that.
32 | Kelly & Vic
Bright blue eyes twinkled at me. Mischief danced in the woman’s expression spurred on by the look of complete disbelief on my face. “Hard to believe, isn’t it?”
My eyes bounced between Kelly and Vic. I wondered if they were pulling my leg. In all my years as a journalist, all the interviews, all the stories I’d listened to, never once had I come across someone with long-term amnesia. I’ll say that again: AMNESIA. It wasn’t just the can’t-remember-what-happened-right-before-my-traumatic-event kind. No, this was the real no-memories-from-this-point-backward kind.
“Nothing. You remember nothing?” I repeated my earlier question.
“Not one thing. Skied right into that tree, or so they tell me, and nada.” Her blue eyes twinkled again, unaffected by the fact that she had no memories from before she’d turned thirty-one.
Her partner, Vic, was a muscular brunette with lips so full it looked like she’d used a suction cup to plump them up before arriving. Other than the full lips, not much else was feminine about her. Sheer short hair, sleeveless t-shirt that showed good muscle tone and cargo shorts that displayed unshaven legs. Not just an oops-forgot-to-shave-this-week-before-I-decided-on-shorts-tonight look, this was a statement that said she didn’t succumb to the patriarchal view on the subject of shaving. I was all for equality and flying in the face of how men think women should look and act. All for it. I just really enjoy running my hands over smooth, non-hairy skin. That was one of the many benefits of dating women. Whether the skin belonged to me or someone I was seeing, I liked it smooth. During the winter, go ahead, take breaks from daily or weekly shaving routines.
I certainly did, especially if I wasn’t in a relationship. But when spring rolls around and shorts or swimsuits are the daily attire, meet a razor every once in a while. Just my preference. Others, like Kelly, obviously had a different perspective on the subject. Since she was in a committed relationship and I wasn’t, this peculiarity of mine showcased how picky I could be when trying to find the right woman.
“Where do you come into the story?” I asked Vic.
“I was an EMT on the mountain. We got her strapped in on a sled and brought her down with a snowmobile. She was in a coma for four days. I’d go back to the hospital every night just to check on her. When she woke without knowing who she was, it freaked everyone out.”
“She was the first person I saw.” Kelly snuggled into Vic’s embrace. “She was so nice and soft spoken. I didn’t realize until the doctor finally joined us that I couldn’t remember my name.”
Vic smiled a really nice smile with those full lips. “I started spending all my evenings in the hospital.”
“I don’t know what I would have done without Vic. It got so frustrating when the doctors kept trying to get me to remember.” A touch of the frustration she must have felt crinkled her brow.
“Was your family there?”
“I’d gone up for the day on my own and my phone got ruined in the crash.” Her shoulders shrugged, taking on that unbothered posture again. “The hospital had my ID and insurance card. That’s all we could work from.”
“Must have been scary,” I prompted because the ever chipper blue-eyed brunette wasn’t fazed by anything.
“Frustrating mostly. I was happy to be alive. The doctors said my memory could come back, but they kept trying to force it back right away.”
Vic rubbed her hand along Kelly’s back. Her calm nature probably helped with Kelly’s initial frustration. “She’d figure it out sooner or later. I just tried to be supportive.”
“You were, baby.” She kissed Vic’s cheek.
“How was the mystery of your background solved?” The grip on my pen tightened. If I was doing an amnesia story, I wanted to get every detail.