ToServeAndProtect

by KyAnn Waters

  Chapter Fourteen

  Tyson reached for the phone. The alarm clock glowed 5:16 a.m. The comforter and sheets lay crumpled on the floor, and Dawn slept naked beside him, her firm bubble butt pressed against his hip. Her airbrushed tan still looked pale against his dark, well-worked body.

  “Jones,” he said as quietly as he could.

  “You’ll have to leave her,” Richard Jasper said with a laugh. “Feds are climbing all over us. They want everything we got on the investigation. Seems the Marino’s are out for blood. Every lead the feds have brings them back to Dr. Porter.”

  “Be there in twenty.” He hung up and grabbed his pants. “I won’t be long.”

  Dawn rolled over and lazily opened her eyes. “I’ll wait right here for you.” She hugged the pillow.

  Tyson pulled the sheets up. “Don’t answer the phone.”

  “Afraid your girlfriend will call?” she snapped then burrowed beneath the covers. “I’ll tell her you’re busy.”

  “I will be…with you as soon as I get back. Stay in bed.”

  Tyson felt tension building in his neck and shoulders as he made his way to the station. He stalked into the building. Richard was the first person he saw. “Couldn’t we do this later in the morning?” he asked irritated and strode to his desk.

  “Evidently the feds have surveillance on the Marino’s. Their intelligence says all three brothers are on a plane bound for Los Angeles.”

  “Dustin and the princess.”

  “You got it. They think she knows something. You better talk with the captain because you aren’t going to like the theory the feds have come up with.”

  Tyson knocked on Captain Baird’s office door then entered. “Detective Jones, agents Peters and Cole. They’d like to have a talk with you about McKenna Porter.”

  Tyson shook hands with the two federal agents and then sat down. “I’ll tell you everything I know.”

  “We’re interested in your opinion of the case.” Agent Cole stated.

  “Basically, we’ve got a few pieces to a puzzle,” Tyson said. “The problem, we got more than one puzzle. So far we can connect the Marino’s to Dr. Porter and his research, but we can’t make a connection to the murder. And we can’t exclude McKenna Porter as a suspect. Nothing fits.”

  Agent Peters said, “We feel the note left for Ms. Porter proves Dr. Porter told her about his activities. If she knew he was embezzling money not only from the Marino’s but also from Ronac, perhaps she threatened to expose him if he didn’t come forward.”

  “If your theory suggests she had nothing to do with the murder,” Captain Baird asked, “why would she threaten to expose him and then kill him?”

  “Our profile of the case suggests the daughter had nothing to do with the murder,” Agent Cole stated. “I suspect her story is exactly as she told you with the one exception of the note. She knew what Dr. Porter was up to.”

  “She’s lucky she wasn’t in the house at the time of the murder,” Peters added. “She very likely would’ve met the same fate.”

  Agent Cole clasped his hands together. “The Marino’s are on their way to Los Angeles. Detective Pearce is going to need assistance.”

  Tyson stood. “Dustin can handle it. All he needs is a heads up that the Marino’s are on their way.”

  “All the same, Tyson,” the captain said. “See if Pearce can speed it up and get the hell out of there. I want him back on our turf where we can protect Ms. Porter. And Tyson,” he said as Tyson was walking out the door. “Great work.”

  “Thanks.” He closed the door and went to his desk.

  Richard pulled up a chair. “So what do you think?”

  “If the princess has been playing games all along.” Tyson leaned back in his chair. “Dustin is going to be pissed.”

  * * * * *

  Dustin and McKenna stopped for bagels with cream cheese smears for breakfast before driving to Torrance to look up Elliot’s girlfriend.

  “I can’t believe how scared I am. What’s she like? What does she do? Did they work in the same field? Elliot never dated. I mean, I’m sure he had relationships, but I was never privy to the details.” She twisted her lips into a smirk. “I thought my mother was the love of his life. Maybe she just made him hate women.”

  “We’ll discover what else they were. What we know is they were secretive about their relationship. I have to wonder why?”

  McKenna thought back to her father. It wasn’t hard for her to reason why. Since his death, she had learned more details about Elliot Porter than she’d ever known. She didn’t like him. All she’d ever wanted was a family like Dawn had. Whether out of spite or selfishness, he had denied her a mother to confide in and a father to lean on. She bowed her head and twisted her mother’s ring on her finger. Her mother had gotten out easy. If she had lived, McKenna had no doubt Elliot would have punished his wife every day for her infidelity. After all, in his own way it was exactly what he had done to her. “I keep thinking about Roslyn. Another woman hurt because of Elliot.”

  “He was murdered. You can’t blame the pain she’ll feel on him.” He stopped at a red light and glanced at McKenna. Then he turned right. “Who knows, maybe Roslyn killed him.”

  Dustin pulled into a quiet neighborhood at the base of Palos Verdes Peninsula. Pastel colored stucco houses all of similar design sat back from the street. Vinyl fences and painted mailboxes—this was middle class America.

  Dustin drove slowly, looking for her address. “Here it is.” He pulled into the driveway and set the parking brake. “Are you ready?”

  “Oh, yeah.” This time she waited for Dustin come around the front of the vehicle and open the car door for her. “Thank you,” she said, swiveling her legs and stepping out.

  Yellow marigolds bloomed brightly in the beds along the walk. A welcome mat on the front porch and a wooden plaque with The Meadow’s carved into it hung by the front door underneath the porch light.

  McKenna pressed the doorbell. They waited for a minute or two. “Maybe she’s at work.”

  Dustin walked to the end of the porch and peered into the garage. “No car, damn.” He walked around the side of the building and tried to find a window without blinds so he could see inside.

  “She’s not home,” a small voice called from the other side of the hedge. A little woman with a wide brimmed straw hat on her head and a garden trowel in her hand came around the corner.

  “Excuse me,” McKenna said, walking across the driveway.

  “I said, you can quit knocking and ringing her doorbell. She’s not home.” The little woman folded her arms under her drooping breasts. “If you tell me who you are, I might know something about it.”

  Dustin presented his badge. “We need to speak with her.”

  The woman’s lips formed an O. “She’d been gone at least a week. Kind of funny if you ask me. One day she’s happy and talking about putting in some kind of fancy bathtub in the backyard. I told her the next thing you know, kids will be breaking into her yard having orgies. All young people think about is sex. Have you watched TV lately? All I see is this one trying to get in bed with that one. Damn disgraceful. In my day, you couldn’t swear on television. I Love Lucy, now there was a great show. Don’t you agree?” she asked McKenna. “You never saw Lucy and Ricky in bed together.”

  McKenna smiled. “I especially liked the episode where Lucy smashed grapes into wine with her bare feet.”

  “Young people,” she said shaking her head. “At my age got nothin’ to do but sit around watch TV and wait to die. I told my Edgar before he died last year, I will not get a new refrigerator. I’ll be dead before I break it in. Then the old thing goes kaput and I had to buy one anyway.”

  “Do you know when Ms. Meadows will be home?” Dustin asked, finding an opportunity to interrupt.

  “Well, that’s what I was getting to before you interrupted.” She turned to McKenna. “Is he always impatient?”

  “Yes.” McKenna glanced at Dustin and chuckled. />
  “Anyway, with all the smut on TV not much else to do except watch out the window. Rosie always had a smile for me, but last week she was really testy.” The old woman looked affronted while she spoke. “Told me to get in my house and mind my own business. I’d never been so insulted. Why, all I did was ask her where she was going. I mean, who moves out in the middle of the night? Her car was full of clothes, and I know she wasn’t going to the laundry-mat.”

  “Moved out?” Concern laced Dustin’s tone. “When?”

  “Oh, she tried to tell me she was just going on an extended vacation, but when the truck came the next morning, I knew she was lying. Was a day a person wouldn’t talk to elderly folk with such disrespect.”

  “A moving van or a pick up truck?” Dustin questioned further.

  “One of those moving companies that advertise cheap rates. You know the ones that take longer because they take your stuff along with someone else’s. Bradford Moving, I think the name was.”

  “Any idea where she went?”

  The woman shook her head. “I can’t say for certain she did move because the moving men didn’t take her furniture. You tell me, who takes big moving boxes on vacation? I figure it’s a matter of time before she comes for the rest of her things. Her landlord isn’t going to be happy about it either. Good renters are hard to find. Rosie lived here a long time. The landlord owns that house next to hers.” The woman pointed. “And I was talking to Mrs. Sapwoods and she told me that Rosie paid up her lease. Now you tell me, does that sound like someone who’s coming back?”

  “Thank you for the information,” McKenna said, disappointed. Dustin gave her a bit of comfort by putting his hand on her lower back. “You never asked why we’re interested in Ms. Meadows.” McKenna took a step closer to the woman. “She’s a friend of my father’s. I’m afraid I have terrible news. Of course, I’d want to talk to her in person.” She reached into her purse for a scrap of paper and a pen. “If she happens to return, would you give me a call? Our hotel isn’t far from here.”

  “Oh, dear.” The old woman put her hand over her mouth. “There was only one man in Rosie’s life. I always thought he was too old for her, but you young girls seem to go for older men.” She glared at Dustin.

  “I never met Roslyn. How old was she?”

  “Oh, I think it was her thirty-sixth birthday back in April. She went on some fancy cruise to Mexico with her boyfriend. Oh, I hope that wasn’t your father.”

  “Dr. Elliot Porter. He was murdered a few weeks ago.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry for you, dear.” She put her hand over her heart. “Rosie’s boyfriend couldn’t have been your father, I saw him last week. I can’t remember his name, but I know Elliot Porter doesn’t sound familiar.”

  “Does the name Marino ring a bell?” Dustin asked.

  The old woman’s face lit up. “Well, yes, it does,” she said excited. “Why my Edgar’s favorite team was the Miami Dolphins. He was disappointed Dan never got a championship ring before he retired.”

  “Thanks for your time.” Dustin waved and turned toward the car. McKenna followed him.

  “Great.” He held the car door open for McKenna.

  “I thought she was sweet.”

  “I’d move if she were my neighbor. No privacy. I’ll bet she’s got the scoop on everyone within a six block radius.”

  “Lucky for us she does.” She pushed her sunglasses up on the bridge of her nose.

  “I know. We’re running out of leads.” A particularly disconcerting notion to the detective. He would’ve preferred having a peek inside Roslyn’s house, perhaps even pillaging through her trash for a while. With the CIA living next door, he’d have to wait for the cover of darkness.

  * * * * *

  Dawn stretched and blinked against the bright, summer sun streaming through Tyson’s bedroom window. She immediately became aware of two things, she was naked and she was starving. Slipping on Tyson’s discarded dress shirt and her panties, she went in search of sustenance. Passing through the living room, she turned on the stereo and danced her way to the kitchen.

  Opening cupboards, she searched out any kind of sweetened cereal. She found a box of bran flakes and a cylinder of instant oatmeal. Neither sounded very appealing. “At least he has coffee,” she said as she scooped grounds into the brew basket.

  While the coffee brewed, she made buttered toast out of whole wheat bread with sunflower seeds. Then opened the patio doors and had her breakfast in the sunshine. Closing her eyes, she sighed heavily. A few moments passed and she realized she wasn’t alone.

  “Any morning after regrets?” she asked and cracked her eyes open.

  Tyson stood at the door watching her. “Only that you’re not still in bed.” He sat in the chair next to her.

  “You’re out of cereal. All I found was some bran crap. If the old saying is true that you are what you eat, you’re in trouble, pal.”

  “It’s not or you’d be munching piss and vinegar.”

  She stood with her cup. “Coffee?” He nodded and followed her into the house. “I had fun last night,” she said while pouring him a cup.

  Tyson sat at the table. “I enjoyed myself.”

  She put the coffee in front of him. “Good, then we’ll do it again sometime.” Gravitating to the heat in his eyes, she stepped between his thighs.

  “Tonight?” He cupped her buttocks in his palms.

  “Okay, but we need to go to the grocery store. I eat cereal for breakfast. You can pick. Cocoa Puffs, Frosted Flakes, Captain Crunch, I don’t care.”

  He put his hands on her waist. “Don’t you worry about getting fat?” His fingers slid inside her panties, touching her heat, then parting her wet sex.

  “You can help me work it off.” She put her hands on his shoulders letting her lime green colored fingernails run along his thick muscles.

  “Are you going to ask me where I went this morning? Women usually get curious when a lover abruptly leaves.” His finger slipped inside to the first knuckle.

  She moaned, and he plunged all the way in. “Oh, god.” Her head fell back, and her hips thrust forward. “So you’ve had experience leaving women in bed?”

  “I think we’ve both got a fair amount of experience with the fine craft of dismissing a one night stand.” A second finger worked into her tight, wet core.

  “So now I’m a one night stand?” Her rapid breaths matched his stroke. “I thought we had chemistry.”

  “Yeah, enough chemistry to blow ourselves up.” He curled his fingers, searching for the sweet spot to make her come. He grazed his thumb over her clit. Faster, yet keeping his touch to her nub gentle. Cream slicked his fingers.

  Her nails dug into his shoulders. She widened her stance and bucked against his palm. “Oh, shit.” She careened into her orgasm. Internal spasms milked his finger, sucking him deeper. She rode a tide of ecstasy, smiling as she came.

  “Oh, baby.” He plucked her nipple with his lips through the thin fabric of his shirt. Tyson’s name floated on her lips as she floated back to earth.

  “Oh, that felt good.” She bent forward and kissed him. Lips parted, and his velvety tongue slid against hers.

  Then he pulled away. “So do you want to know what I know?”

  Dawn stepped away and sat in the chair. “You wouldn’t be offering information unless it has something to do with Dustin and Mickey. Damn it, Tyson, you’ve been home ten minutes. Tell me!”

  “Good news or bad news?” he said, knowing she would get angry.

  “Do you enjoy watching me fire up?”

  “Yes. You’re sexy when you’re pissed. A hot little bitch.”

  “You want to see hot and bitch? If you’re joking about bad news,” her fists clenched at her side, “I swear I’ll break every nail clawing your eyes out.”

  “I could arrest you for threatening a police officer.” He caught her hands as she lunged for him. “Now you can add assault.” The shirt she was wearing fell open. “Nice.” He held her wr
ists together with one hand and ripped the shirt open with the other. “With this body, try me. I’m bribable.”

  Dawn became pliant in his clutches. When she felt him loosen his grip, she brought her knee up and aimed for his groin, making contact with his inner thigh.

  “You are a little bitch!” he said and then laughed, toppling her to the ground. He pinned her to the carpet, holding her down at the wrists. “I must be sick,” he said, shaking his head. “Why is it I want you most when you’re mean and nasty?”

  “Because all your other women think you’re a god because you can make them come. I’ve had better.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “You’re full of shit.” She struggled and squirmed against him. “Tell me about Mickey.”

  “We’re no longer investigating the princess for her dad’s murder. She’s off the hook.”

  Dawn’s breath caught and her chest tightened. Tears burned her eyes. She turned her head away, and Tyson let her go.

  “Unless we get some new evidence—”

  “You won’t find anything incriminating Mickey,” she interrupted, then furrowed her brows and slugged Tyson in the shoulder. “So what’s the bad news?”

  “Dustin’s going to have company. The Marino brothers want to have a little talk with the princess. Only the Marino’s aren’t known for talking. I left a message on his cell, but he hasn’t returned the call. Have you heard from the princess?”

  “Not since she arrived in LA.”

  He grabbed Dawn by the ankle and pulled her closer. “I need you to tell me the truth. This is serious, Dawn. I know you’ve no qualms about lying to my face.” He ran his hand up her calf. “Did McKenna know what Elliot was up to?”

  “No,” she said emphatically. “I swear.” Using her finger, she traced an X over her heart. “Cross my heart. She’s wanted to be honest with Dustin from the beginning. I’m the one who convinced her to lie, and now she’s invested.” She smiled. “Mickey hasn’t been invested in a lonnng time. If you know what I mean?”