Laying Ghosts (Dolly Games)

by Derek Murphy

Carl slammed into the office, furious with Thomas and Michaelson for their view of Julie’s interrogation procedures. He had managed to smooth things over with them, but felt that for everything they had accomplished on this case, the two police detectives should be thanking them. He glanced at the receptionist’s desk where Julie was desultorily working on another of their cases and he simply grinned mirthlessly and continued on into his office. Before he was in his chair, Ike popped his head in.

  “Sounds like Steve and Harry didn’t like us messing around in their case. Are we going to be okay?”

  Carl jerked his jacket off and threw it on the back of his chair, nodding his head. His face was warm and he knew that if he hadn’t already been dark, his face would appear red. He could feel the burn on his ears, like the summer sun shining on them. Only, this was very late summer, the weather was beginning to cool off and he was inside, out of the sun. He had been angry before, but not like this. He was beginning to think about cultivating another couple of detectives at the department; Steve and Harry had begun feeling put upon because of his agency’s luck and expertise in solving cases they were working on. He couldn’t say that he blamed them exactly, but if they were good at their jobs, they wouldn’t have to feel embarrassed by Carl and his partners.

  Ike asked, “So, what’s the plan now?”

  As he settled into his chair, Carl drew a deep breath, holding it for a second before letting it out slowly, feeling the tension begin to drain away.

  “I don’t know, Ike. They can’t find Nelson’s mother. They’ve got Missy Cuthbert, but she’s small-fry where they’re concerned. They want the woman behind it all.”

  Frowning, Ike said, “Small-fry? Where the hell do they get that idea? She was in on the planning, she helped to execute every step, and she was involved in the attack on Mrs. Webster. It doesn’t matter if Mrs. Webster was in on the scam or not; she died as a direct result of what Cuthbert and Nelson did. Did they at least give us credit for breaking that part of the case?”

  Carl slammed his hand on the desktop and breathed deeply as the stapler, paper-clip cup and pens jumped on his desk, rattling for just a second.

  “They held a press conference as I was leaving the station-house. They blamed us for muddling the case so that they were late getting Missy in custody and allowing Ginny Nelson to get away. They’ve got the airports covered, and train and bus stations under surveillance, but expect that she is lying low here in town until she can arrange to get out of town. They say that if it wasn’t for their quick action, we would have allowed her to get away scot-free! They even intimated that our penchant for high profile cases got in the way of our investigation. That we were so invested in the Webster case that we didn’t see the obvious connection to the Nelson case!”

  Ike moved to sit in the chair opposite him.

  “Come on, man! Don’t let them get your goat! We heard the same kind of shit when we broke the Dolly Dagger case for them. They’re just trying to cover their asses.”

  Still fuming, Carl rummaged in his jacket pocket and removed a crumpled sheet of legal paper. Sliding it across the desk to his partner, he said, “Chip and Erica Nelson are suing us. They say we’re responsible for their false arrest. They’re basing their case against us on what Steve and Harry said in the press conference. Chip Nelson says the switches and servos we found on his yacht were part of an engineering improvement he was personally working on for the company.”

  Unfolding the paper, Ike read for a minute, then with eyebrows raised, said, “If we don’t win this, we’re going to have to pony up everything we’ve got. We might not be ruined individually, but the agency might go down in flames.”

  In the outer office, the phone rang but Ike and Carl disregarded it, knowing that Julie was there to answer the phone.

  “Read it again, Ike. As the managing partner, they’ve named me personally in the suit.”

  He was silent for a minute or so until he said, “If I take sole blame for it, we might get out of this with a settlement. How do you feel about hiring me on a case-by-case basis? I wouldn’t be able to stay with the agency. I’m sure that would be a part of any settlement we made.”

  Ike shook his head. “We aren’t throwing you under the bus, man. Forget that shit.”

  “Anyway, we’ve got an appointment with Devlin in the morning. He thinks he can win this, but says we need to be prepared to give up some things. He isn’t going to be cheap.”

  Ike shrugged. “Well, we’ll pay what we need to. We’re not taking the blame for what happened. Once everything comes out in court, it’ll be evident that we kept Steve and Harry in the loop on everything we did.”

  Darkly, Carl said, “Yeah…”

  “On top of everything you’ve had to put up with regarding Marta’s death, this can’t be easy for you, man.”

  Almost angry, Carl said, “Marta’s not dead!”

  “Okay, man, okay! I just don’t understand why you can’t see what everyone else does. If it helps you to think she’s still alive, I’ll shut up about it.”

  Turning to his pc, Carl opened the files they had copied of everything they had done on the two cases and began making another copy of it all. Maybe he was paranoid, but he wanted to make sure there were copies of everything. If what they had was destroyed or stolen, they wouldn’t have a leg to stand on in court.

  Julie poked her head in the door and tapped on the facing with a knuckle. When they looked up at her, she said, “I’m going out for pizza. Everybody want the usual?”

  Carl nodded and Ike said, “Yeah. Hey! Who called?”

  A shadow seemed to cross her face as she said, “Wrong number.”

  He said, “Okay. Why don’t you get some extra sauce for us to dip the crust in?”

  She nodded and began to turn for the outer door, but Carl stopped her.

  “Hey! We don’t even know if it’s safe or not. Ginny Nelson could be out there just waiting for us to slip up. We screwed up her plan and I’ll bet she wants payback.”

  Ike said, “Forget it, man! She’s probably holed up somewhere. She won’t take a chance on getting caught just to get one of us.”

  Carl looked back and forth from Ike to Julie and finally said, “Yeah, okay. Just be careful. If you see anything that looks the least bit suspicious, call us and we’ll be right there.”

  She nodded and turned away and for just a second, he thought he saw a guilty look on her face. His mind waved it away, thinking that she probably felt that she had been enough of a burden on him because of what had happened with Missy Cuthbert at her apartment and then the later attack with the stun gun.

  * * *

  Feeling that she would burst if she didn’t get out of the office after the phone call, Julie heaved a sigh of relief when she stepped out onto the street. The call had been alarming for her; she didn’t want to relay the information to Carl. Just as she had begun to feel that she might have a chance with him, this had to happen. The call was only minutes in the past and so, fresh in her mind. When she answered the phone, Marta’s voice had been there.

  “Julie, can I speak to Carl?”

  “I’m sorry, he’s busy and can’t be bothered just now.”

  “Very well. Tell him that I’m nearly there. My cousins sent some men after me but I’ve managed to neutralize them as threats. Tell Carl that I’ll be there tonight and to meet me at the yacht at ten o’clock.”

  “Okay. I’ll do that. I can’t promise that he’ll be able to get away; we’re pretty busy right now. A big case has been giving us trouble.”

  She could almost hear the smile in Marta’s voice as she said, “I’m sure he’ll want to see me. I have so much to tell him, so much to give him.”

  Hurriedly, Julie said, “Yeah, okay. I’ll tell him. I’ve got to go, it’s pretty hectic here. Bye.”

  She had been shaking as she hung up the phone and sat for a few minutes trying to decide what to do as she calmed down. If she told Carl that Marta called, he would drop everything and go
to her, leaving Julie in the cold without a chance in hell of making him see how much she wanted him. If she didn’t tell him, he would hate her when he found out about it. Then her mind made what she believed to be an intuitive leap; if she didn’t tell him and they managed to make the connection she hoped to make soon, he would love her too much to be angry for very long. Julie was just irrational enough to believe what she was thinking and so, set about making her wish come true.

  Which left her on her way to the pizza joint just down the block from their offices, with no plan in place. She walked slowly down the street and entered, placing her order in a distracted manner and sat to wait for it, sipping the soft drink she had ordered with it. When the pizza was ready, she finished her drink and dropped the cup in the trash bin beside the door before picking up the pizza.

  She walked slowly back to the office, her mind a million miles away, not sure of what to do now, and was jostled by a bike messenger who cut things a little too close when passing between her and another pedestrian. The messenger continued on without so much as a shouted, ‘Pardon!’ and the other pedestrian clucked his tongue as Julie stared down at the upside down pizza box on the sidewalk.

  “Shit! Fuck! Hell! God-damn-it! Look what that son-of-a-bitch did!”

  She looked up at the other pedestrian who was watching her impression of a Tourette’s patient, simply shaking his head before stepping away. He kept looking back as though he expected her to chase him down to help pay for the ruined pizza. Then the idea came to her.

  Scooping up the pizza box, she righted it and hurried back to the office. Once inside the building, she stopped inside the bulkhead doors and looked both ways to make sure no one could see her. She walked to the ranked mailboxes and twisted at the waist, smashing her shoulder into the mailboxes hard enough to leave a bruise. It was a nice touch that one of the little catches left a fairly deep scratch on the top of her breast and she dug a nail into the top of the scoop-neck t-shirt she wore, pulling to the side until she had started a fair-sized tear in the material. The stretchy material was bagged out in the direction of the pull, leaving the impressions of fingers on it and she smiled to herself as she thought, “This couldn’t be better!”

  Darting from the bulkhead, she ran across the foyer and raced up the stairs, arriving on their floor suitably out of breath. Hurrying to their door, she hurried too much getting it open and inadvertently hit her forehead and cheekbone against it, seeing stars for just a moment. As she spilled into the outer office, she could see into Carl’s office and saw the surprised looks on the two men’s faces.

  Dropping the pizza on the outer desk, she ran toward Carl and ran into his arms just as he rose from his chair.

  As he patted her back, stroking a little, he asked, “What’s happened, Julie?”

  Ike said, “Probably had an accident.”

  She found herself getting angry at how Ike tried to blow off what might have happened and found actual tears coming to her eyes, whether from the pain of her shoulder and head, or from the injustice of his assumption, she didn’t know. Burying her face in Carl’s chest, she sobbed and clutched at him.

  He gently shook her, pushing her out away from him so he could see her face.

  “What happened?”

  She found herself choking a little as she said, “That woman! Nelson’s mother! She grabbed at me and tried to drag me into her car!”

  Feeling shameless, she knew that if they stopped to think about it, she was several inches taller than Ginny Nelson and possibly outweighed her by ten pounds. The smaller woman wouldn’t have had a chance of dragging her anywhere without help. Of course, she had used a stun gun on Julie before; she could just as well have used one again.

  Ike picked up the phone and dialed 911, waiting as the phone rang on the other end. She heard him speaking low into the mouthpiece and felt a moment of guilt at causing a false claim of seeing the woman to be made. She knew it would draw needed personnel off from the hunt for her, but felt that it wouldn’t hurt anything; Steve and Harry were competent investigators.

  She ducked her head into Carl’s chest again and he lowered his face to the top of her head, speaking low as he comforted her.

  “There now, it’ll be alright. Now that we know what part of town she’s been in and that she’s been on the move, it won’t be long now. I should’ve kept you here and gone for the pizza myself. I knew it wouldn’t be safe for you to be out alone. Not yet.”

  Ike finished on the phone quickly and hung it up, saying, “They’re sending Steve and Harry over right now. They’ll take your statement and then Carl can take you home with him again tonight.”

  He walked into the little kitchen area and brought back a bag of frozen peas for Julie’s forehead and shoulder. She looked at him as he handed it to her.

  “What do you keep this for? It’s not like we can actually cook a meal here.”

  Lifting the torn section of her t-shirt, he slipped the bag under it, next to the skin, saying, “I never know when I’m going to come back to the office all beat-up, y’know? It saves a trip home.”

  Turning back to snuggle in Carl’s arms, she ducked her head so that neither of them could see her eyes. She felt guilty, but pleased with herself. All she had to do now was get the interview with Steve and Harry out of the way so she could get Carl back to his apartment where they could be alone.

  * * *

  As she patted herself dry, Julie stared in the mirror and felt a thrill of anticipation run through her. The interview with Steve and Harry had taken much longer than anticipated and Carl had gone to bed after she excused herself to take a bath. Now, she just had to figure out a natural way to get into his bed. With the prospect of tricking him into making love to her confronting her now and no way to avoid it, she felt ill at ease and guilty. She could still tell him about Marta’s phone call. It was just half-past ten. He could make it over to the marina in just fifteen minutes and finally be reunited with the girl he loved. Stubbornly, she finished drying off and slipped the clean t-shirt he had given her to sleep in over her head, sliding her arms through the sleeves. Smoothing it down over her body, she pressed the over-sized garment to her, delineating her curves. She could have picked something to sleep in up at her apartment when they stopped for a change of clothes for her, but she felt that if she grabbed something sexy to sleep in, he would be suspicious. No, it was better if the entire event appeared to be spur-of-the-moment.

  She opened the bathroom door and walked to the spare bedroom he had set aside for her use as thunder pealed outside the windows. Another storm. Great… Julie had never liked storms, trying her best to sleep through them her entire life, but this area of the Pacific Northwest got more than its fair share of rain and storms.

  Turning down the bed, she slipped into it and was just reaching for the lamp on the bedside table when a flash lit up the exterior and thunder instantaneously crashed just outside. The lights went out and as the thunder rolled, shaking the entire apartment building, an idea flashed into her brain like the lightning that spurred it.

  Tossing the covers aside, she made her way to Carl’s bedroom as quickly as she could, bumping into the door and walls on her way. Pushing the door open, she saw his bed limned in the flash of another lightning strike and darted toward him. Her knees hit the bed and she fell, full-length across his legs, surprising him.

  As his hands found her, she clutched at him.

  “Carl! I’m so scared!”

  She didn’t need to see his face to know he was frowning and trying to make the best of the situation as his hands went to her back, patting her in comfort. She was sure that he would rather she spend the night in her own bed, but she wasn’t about to let this chance slip away.

  “You’ve been through the storms we get up here before, Julie. What’s so scary about this one?”

  She made her voice small and little-girlish as she said, “I’m afraid Ginny Nelson is still trying to get at us, Carl. Can I sleep here? Please? I don’t want to
be alone.”

  She felt his sigh as his chest rose and fell, but heard nothing. After a moment she felt the rumble in his chest as he said, “Okay. But you need to get some sleep. So do I. We had a long day and tomorrow will probably be just as long.”

  Cuddling into him as he lay back against his pillow, she lay quietly, waiting to hear the cadence of his breathing change as the storm raved outside. An interminably long time later, she felt him relax in his sleep and move his legs restlessly. Slowly, she moved one of her legs and lifted it until it was across his lower body and she felt his manhood, under his pajamas, lying flaccidly against his leg. She wanted to catch him during one of the periods in which men grew an erection in their sleep without waking, sure that it would be the best time to catch him at his weakest.

  She waited nearly an hour, growing tired of lying still with him pressed against her and a spot between her shoulders began to itch. It was at that moment that she felt him stirring and felt him pressing against her leg. She waited a little longer until she was sure he had reached his potential and shifted her leg to allow him full range of movement. Tugging the t-shirt up to bare her lower body, she pressed herself against his hip, her hand moving to his stomach, moving lower to dip under the waistband of his pajamas.

  Her stomach quaked a little as she grasped him and she realized that she was almost at the point she had wanted to be for two years. She felt him move a little, pressing himself forward in his sleep as the sensation of being touched roused his sleeping lust. Tempted to slide up over him, she hesitated. If he awoke with her over him, he might realize that she had used a ploy to get him where she wanted him to be. She nevertheless opened the fly of the pajamas to free him.

  Finding it difficult to do, she released him and rolled quickly over onto her other side, backing up against him and was gratified to feel him stir in the bed to follow her, settling on his side to spoon her. She felt his member pressed against her lower back and buttocks and wiggled just a little in an attempt to arouse him further.