by Melissa Good
Kerry rubbed her face. “Oh my god.” She laughed helplessly, as they closed in on her, and hands touched her arm and patted her back. “Wow.
I have no idea what to say here.” Laughter. “I’ve never had a surprise party before. Thank you, guys. This is amazing.” A smile spread across her face. “Totally amazing.”
Then she spotted Colleen lurking in the back and she put her hands on her hips. “Hey. Waitaminute.” She pointed at her friend. “Didn’t I just talk to you?”
Colleen held up her cell phone and grinned, then pointed. “I brought 452 Melissa Good the Corona.” She came over. “Sorry, Ker. I know you wanted to be low key but…”
“Well,” Kerry looked around and laughed helplessly, “so much for that. At least I didn’t have to plan it all.”
“Nope,” Colleen agreed, clapping her on the shoulder. “Vacation did you good, Ker. You look great. Look at that tan, wouldja?”
Kerry ran her fingers through her hair a touch self-consciously.
“Yeah. I scared myself in the mirror this morning.” She joked. “It was great though. We had a fantastic week.”
“About time,” her friend told her firmly. “G’wan and enjoy the party.” Colleen gave her a little bump.
A buzz of voices surrounded her and Kerry just shook her head, moving further into the room and murmuring thank yous to people who came up to wish her a happy birthday. She wandered over near the cake and glanced at it, then laughed uncontrollably. “Oh my god. Who did that?”
The frosting was ocean blue and green and someone had, somehow, crafted an entire darn tropical reef, complete with little fish and what looked like a lobster. It was gorgeous. “I can’t eat this,” she yelped. “Look at that angel fish. It’s almost real.”
A soft throat clearing caught her ear and she turned to see Dar standing behind her, reviewing the cake diffidently. “My mother is gonna be really ticked off if you don’t at least try it.”
“Your…” Kerry glanced at the cake, then back at Dar. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it.”
Dar chuckled.
“Can’t believe what? That she has a mother?” Eleanor gave Dar a sweet smile. “We couldn’t either.”
“No, no. I’ve met her mother. But…” Kerry laughed and just shook her head. “Thanks, guys. This is incredible.” She stole a tortilla, scooped up some salsa, and munched on it as everyone mingled and grabbed food and drinks. “And you,” she muttered in a very low voice to Dar, “are so busted.”
“Ah, ah. Not me.” Dar shook her head solemnly. “I found out about it when I got back to Miami. I had nothing to do with this.”
Kerry pointed mutely at the cake and lifted her brows.
Dar shrugged. “Apparently they found out this was going on and Mom offered.”
“Ahem. Excuse me folks.” Maríana had taken control of the mike at the nearby podium. She tapped the mike for effect, making a squeal as her nails hit the screen grid. “Whoops.”
“Hey Mari, maybe we can find a geek somewhere around here to help you with that.”
The Personnel VP shaded her eyes with one hand and made a production of scanning the audience intently. “Don’t see any here.”
A round of laughter echoed.
“Anyway,” Maríana cleared her throat, “as a representative of com-Eye of the Storm 453
pany management I just wanted to wish Kerry a happy birthday.”
Cheers. “And to welcome her back after her vacation.”
“Thanks,” Kerry said from where she’d just cornered a Corona and taken a sip of it. “This is really nice and I’m amazed at the effort you guys put into it.”
Cheers.
“Ahem.” Mari regained control of the audience. “As long as we’re all hanging around here, I might as well take the opportunity to give Kerry her official birthday present from ILS.” She held up a small, thin item wrapped in gold paper, with a blue bow, and tiny, embossed company logos all over it.
Everyone quieted and turned to watch as Kerry, visibly blushing again, put her drink down and walked forward to take it gingerly from Mari’s hands. “Um…thanks. I didn’t expect anything from the company.”
“Well, sometimes we just have these things lying around. So…” Mari shrugged and leaned on the podium. “Go on and open it.”
Dar moved silently up behind Kerry and stood there watching, her hands folded in front of her.
“Well,” Kerry peered around, obviously embarrassed, “I mean, okay, sure.” She cleared her throat and carefully removed the ribbon. “Oh, isn’t that cute?” She admired the embossed logos, then tucked the ribbon under her arm and continued opening the wrapping.
It was a very flat, heavy something, whatever it was, and she found her curiosity piqued, trying to imagine what it was. A base for her PC? A paperweight for her desk? A bookend? She peeled the tape off and eased the wrapping back, very aware of the expectant silence around her. A hint of brassy metal appeared and she opened the other side of the paper, then flipped it over and exposed the front.
She blinked three times.
Vice President of Operations, Kerrison Stuart.
“Urk.” Kerry uttered a tiny noise, then her knees unlocked and she almost went crashing to the ground in pure surprise. A powerful hand gripped her arm and held her up, and she just swayed, glad of Dar’s close presence. “Oh boy,” she whispered, “I wasn’t expecting this.”
José cleared his throat and stepped forward, sticking a hand out to her. “Congratulations, Kerry. I am glad you will be on the team with us.”
Kerry returned his grip, as a rush of blood returned to her head after her heart seemingly stopped for a minute. “Thank you.” Holy bleep. She and Dar had discussed the possibility, sure. When Dar had given her that damn evaluation, and she’d agreed that it looked like she felt comfortable with it but…
After what she’d gone through in Washington, she’d figured that was on indefinite hold.
“Yes, congratulations, Kerry, for a purely selfish reason, of course.”
Eleanor also shook her hand. “You have no idea how much more pleasant you’ve made my work here.” She gave Dar a smile over Kerry’s shoulder.
“Not to mention you freed up the uber-nerd here to finish our new net-454 Melissa Good work.”
“Um, thanks, I think,” Kerry murmured.
Duks was next, studiously patting her shoulder. “Do not worry that you have big shoes to fill, Kerry.”
“I wasn’t.” Kerry chuckled. “Thanks. I’m glad I’ll get a chance to work more with you guys.”
“Congratulations.” Maríana now smiled at her. “It was well deserved.”
“Hey Kerry.” Mark snapped yet another picture. “This is gonna look great on the front page of the department newsletter.”
Kerry winced. “C’mon. I must be as red as a lobster.”
“We’ll just tell ’em it’s sunburn,” the MIS Chief replied cheerfully.
“Hold the plaque up, huh?”
Dar settled back against the wall, enjoying her partner’s position in the very center of the spotlight. Kerry’s smile just kept getting bigger and bigger, and Dar felt a distinct sense of pleasure as she listened to the crowd’s comments and watched them cluster around the new VP, chattering and congratulating.
Yeah. It was a pretty damn good day after all. She snagged a Frito and scooped up some chili dip.
Chapter
Forty-nine
KERRY WAS CURLED in the passenger seat of the Lexus, watching both Dar’s profile and the city lights flash by as they headed over the causeway towards home. Dar kept smirking to herself, a little tensing motion of her lips, and Kerry suspected she was remembering the high points of her party.
That was okay. Kerry was too. It had lasted longer than she’d thought it would. “Hey, Dar?”
“Hmm?” Dar glanced at her, then returned her eyes to the road.
“Did you really not know anything about the party?”
Dar’s nose twitc
hed. “Well,” she chuckled softly, “I got this phone call two weeks back asking me what your favorite foods were. Figuring there wasn’t a Kerrison Stuart Cooks! videotape in the works, I pinned the caller to the wall and tortured the details out of them.”
Kerry muffled a laugh. “That explains the Snowballs. I was wondering about that, because I’m damn sure I never told anyone but you that I liked them.” There had also been chafing dishes full of Thai foods and a conspicuous presence of chocolate scattered around. “God, I’m stuffed.”
“Did you have fun?”
“Yeah. It was really nice. I was surprised at how many people were there.” Kerry mused. “I can’t believe they brought gifts and stuff.”
Dar turned into the ferry terminal and pulled onto the boat. “Why?
Kerry, people really like you, for one thing, and for another, they’re damn grateful they have you to deal with and not me.”
“Dar, that’s not true,” Kerry protested, but her partner didn’t look distressed at her statement.
“Would they hate to lose me? Sure,” Dar agreed readily. “Everybody knows the company is better off with me doing what I do. But they’d rather work with you. Which is fine, Kerry. That’s exactly what I intended when I made you my assistant. In fact, I commented to Mari at the time that it might reduce her personnel complaints.”
“Just so I could generate other kinds of personnel complaints,” Kerry remarked wryly.
“No one complains about you.” Dar shook her head.
“Well, not many people complain about you anymore, either,” Kerry shot back. “So there.”
456 Melissa Good Dar was quiet for a moment, deep in thought. “Yeah,” she finally said, sounding surprised. “You’re right. They haven’t been.”
Kerry settled back in her seat, satisfied. She was quiet for a minute, then looked at Dar. “I don’t have any other surprises waiting for me, do I?”
“At home?” Dar smiled. “No…well…” She chuckled. “I don’t know.
Maybe a box or two.” She squeezed Kerry’s knee. “I saved mine for tomorrow, but I think my folks might have dropped by something.”
Kerry wrinkled up her nose in a smile. “This is so cool,” she admitted. “At home, after about…age eight or so, I guess, we got gift certificates to various department stores, which my mother took and used to get things she thought we needed.”
“That’s no fun.”
“No,” Kerry agreed. “I used to save up my allowance and go out and get myself one thing, a toy or whatever, that I wanted.” She considered.
“I remember the year I got myself an Erector Set. My mother was so pissed off at me. She took it away and gave it to Mike, who turned around and gave it back to me, of course. I kept it under my bed and played with it when she was out shopping.”
“An Erector Set? What problem did she have with that?” Dar asked in a puzzled tone.
“It was a boy toy.”
“Your mother needs an injection of the late twentieth century.” Dar snorted. “I don’t want to tell you how many expansion sets I had for mine.”
Kerry smiled. “Did you make anything significant?”
Dar pulled into her parking spot and turned the Lexus off. “A mechanical system to turn off and on the lights, the stereo, and adjust the sound in my room.” She got out and popped the back hatch to retrieve Kerry’s gifts. “And a car that got my sneakers from my closet.”
Kerry giggled so hard she had to lean against the Lexus’ door.
“I did one that unloaded my mother’s acrylic paint tubes and moved them into the garage, but that didn’t last long.”
Kerry slid down to the ground, holding her sides.
“Then there was the dog,” Dar went on. “I gave up trying to get its tail to wag, though. The little motors just wouldn’t start and stop when I wanted them to.” She lifted the box out of the back, then paused, as her abused muscles protested. “Ow.”
“God, sorry.” Kerry hauled herself up off the ground and hurried over to help. “Sorry, sorry. I keep forgetting your back.”
“Me too,” Dar admitted, wincing.
“Well, the most extensive thing I made with mine was an amusement park,” Kerry told her, as they edged up the stairs with their burden. “A Ferris wheel and a merry go round. I even found little plastic horses for the carousel.” She keyed in her code, then grabbed the knob and pulled the door open. “Whoa, whoa. Easy, Chino.”
“Rooo!” The Labrador hurtled out, nearly knocking her owners over.
Eye of the Storm 457
“Easy, easy.” Dar laughed, as she maneuvered past the excited dog and got into the condo. They put the presents down on the dining room table, and Dar continued on into the kitchen. “I’m going to put some coffee up. Turn the TV on, willya?”
“Sure.” Kerry trotted to the TV and did just that, then sat down on the loveseat to pet Chino. “Hey, honey. How are you?”
“Agurff.” Chino mouthed Kerry’s hand enthusiastically.
“Here.” Dar returned from the kitchen, with a handful of mail.
“Looks like you got some cards.” She handed over five or six envelopes, then dropped down onto the couch to leaf through the remainder. Idly, she reached a hand out to scratch Kerry’s back, and the blonde woman leaned back, settling into the curve of her arm.
“Dar?”
“Yes?” Dar opened a letter one handed, scanning its contents. “Oh.
More stock options. Great.”
“Thanks.”
“For what?” Puzzled blue eyes gazed at her. “Getting you your mail?”
“Just thanks.” Kerry gave her a one armed hug, then stayed curled up where she was to open her cards. “Oh look. Baby pictures.” She showed one of Angie and the new baby. “He’s a lot less wrinkled now, huh?” She turned the picture over and drew in a surprised breath. “Oh, Dar. Look.”
“Hmm?” Dar inclined her head to read the black penned inscription.
“She named him Andrew?” Her voice rose.
“Yeah.” Kerry laughed in delighted. “Wow. That is so cool.” She put the picture down and opened the next one, a funny card from Michael.
“He’s so strange sometimes.” She lifted out a golden red leaf. “He sent this because we don’t have season changes.”
Dar snickered.
“What else? Oh, this must be from Aunt Penny.” Kerry smiled, seeing the creamy white, heavy paper. She opened the top and pulled out a card. “I sent her a picture of us, by the way.” She opened the card. “Oh, hey, she’s going to be here in Miami and she wants to come see us.”
“Huh.” Dar cocked her head. “Interesting handwriting.”
“She wants to meet you.” Kerry gave her a gentle elbow.
“Uh oh.” Dar stifled a yawn.
“Nah. She’s really nice. You’ll like her.” Kerry tucked the card away, then opened the last envelope, pulled the sedate, gold foil card out and opened it.
“I’m sure she is,” Dar answered absently. “You want to take her out on the boat?”
There was no answer.
“Ker?” Dar peered at her partner.
Kerry swallowed and tilted the card in shaking fingers so that Dar could see it. “It’s…it’s from my parents.”
Dar blinked. It was a simple card, with only “Happy Birthday” in 458 Melissa Good ornate script in the center, and “mom and dad” written in. “Huh. How d’you like that?” She smiled and gave Kerry a hug. “Does that make you feel better?”
Kerry just stared at the card, turning it over in her fingers and shaking her head. “I don’t know what I feel,” she answered softly. “Bewildered. Amazed.” She paused. “Relieved, maybe.” Kerry thought about that. “Yeah, relieved.”
Dar felt her partner’s body relax and she did as well. “I’m glad.” She nuzzled Kerry’s hair.
“Me too,” Kerry replied, feeling a weight lift off her shoulders. She tipped her head back and caught Dar’s lips. “Now I can start to leave th
at behind. Who knows? Maybe one day we can all sit down and talk.” She regarded Dar’s face thoughtfully. “Maybe meeting your folks and seeing how accepting they were helped.”
Dar’s eyebrow lifted. “Could be.” She glanced at the television screen as she caught a familiar scene. “Hey.” She nudged Kerry, who turned the volume up.
“And this late breaking news bulletin. The FBI announced, just a few moments ago that it had concluded its investigation into the explosion at District Memorial Hospital. Here’s the announcement as it happened.”
“Oh. That’s the FBI guy Dad spoke to in the back there,” Kerry whispered, pointing.
“Hmm.” Dar nodded.
An older FBI agent stepped up to the podium and cleared his throat.
Behind him, an easel was set up with a diagram of the hospital on it. “Our investigators have searched thoroughly, and what they have determined was this.” He picked up a pointer. “The explosion started at this point, in the hospital kitchen. We’ve determined that the natural gas storage tanks ignited, and sent a firestorm through the pipes up the utility stack here.”
“Huh.” Dar blinked.
“Then, because these pipes run concurrently with the oxygen pipes, when the gas pipes overheated and blew, the oxygen lines went also. That sent off multiple explosions here.” He pointed. “Here, and here.”
Another tap. “Ending up igniting the gas storage areas right around the operating theatres.”
“Wow.” Kerry drew in a breath. “So it wasn’t a bomb.”
“The FBI is satisfied that, pending further investigation into what ignited the gas tank in the kitchen, that it appears to us that no criminal act has taken place here, beside the design flaw that allows the two types of gas pipes to exist in the same space.”
“How do you like that?” Dar murmured.
“Yeah.” Kerry exhaled. “I’m glad.”
“Mmm.” Dar studied the screen pensively, unable to disagree.
BUZZ.
Dar opened a sleep fogged blue eye and peered at the clock in out-Eye of the Storm 459
rage. “Who in the hell is calling here at three a.m.?”
Buzz.