The Simpatico Series Box Set (3 books in 1)

by Dermot Davis

  When Andrew emerged from the shower he was surprised to find Fiona absent from her chair. The book she was reading looked like it was thrown to the floor. “Fiona?” he called. Finding her in her old bedroom, he looked shocked to see her packing a suitcase. “Where are you going?” he asked, wondering to himself if he had forgotten a trip she may have mentioned.

  When she continued what she was doing and failed to respond, he went to her and grabbed her arms to stop her packing. “What’s going on?” he asked, hiding his panic. “What are you doing?”

  “Let me go,” she said with clenched teeth as she pulled her arms free and continued to pack.

  “What?” he asked, freaked out that he had never seen her act that way before. “Did something happen? Talk to me?”

  “This is not working out,” she then said, still focused on her packing. “For me.”

  “What’s not working out?”

  “This, everything,” she said. “I’m not sticking around to watch you turn into my father. I tried, Andrew, I really did. I gave it my best shot but there’s only so much I can do not to explode every time you… oh, forget it,” she then said, like it was all gone to hell and talking about it wouldn’t make things any better.

  “Where are you going?” he asked as she lugged her small suitcase out of the room.

  “I’m going to preserve whatever of myself that’s left,” she said with firm resolution. “I’m going back to the desert.”

  “You’re what?” he asked, like she had gone stark raving mad. “You’re running back to ponytail Cassidy?” he asked, unable to stop himself from mocking. “Isn’t he a bit old for you?”

  “I’m not going back to the desert to see Arjuna, you jerk,” Fiona said as she whisked herself out of the house and opened the door of her car. “I’m going back to the desert because I heard the hawk call my name.” Closing the car door, she fired it up and kicking up gravel, she took off and was gone from his sight in two shakes of an instant.

  “What?” Andrew asked out loud, looking off into the distance where she had just vanished out of sight. “The hawk what?” he asked, now realizing that he wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing.

  As if trapped in a daze of incomprehension, Andrew spent the rest of the evening expecting the door to fly open and see Fiona come back running in with a wild explanation of how she had just suffered a lapse in her sanity. With so many of his voicemail calls to her gone unanswered, he decided to give his speed dial a rest for fear that he come off sounding like a crazy person.

  Attempting to cheer himself up, by exploring further what his new mansion had to offer, he selected the oldest wine he could find in the wine cellar and had the house help cook him the most fabulous steak dinner before they left for the day.

  Once finished with his sumptuous meal, full wine glass in hand, Andrew surveyed his domain. Checking up on the landscaped grounds and the correct placement of the potted plants, statuary and mood lighting, he made a mental note of what needed further refinement. Returning to his house, he observed the marble staircase with a critical eye and wondered to himself if the stairs might look better with some judicious plush carpeting.

  Refilling his wine glass in the kitchen, on his way up to the main verandah, he stood out on the balcony and observed the crescent moon. All lit up, the house and gardens looked amazing. Wishing to feel as ecstatic as he sorely wanted to feel, he repeatedly attempted to ignore the empty feeling that he felt inside. Master of his domain, surrounded by riches and finery, he should feel on top of the world. He should feel like a king.

  Draining his glass of the last of the oldest and finest vintage that his vast wine collection had to offer, Andrew threw the empty glass as hard and as far as he could throw it. It came to a smash and shattered into myriad little pieces that sparkled in the artificial lighting beside the net of his immaculately maintained tennis court. “Fiona!” he yelled into the empty night.

  “F I O N A!” he yelled in despair, as if his heart and soul had been ripped from his body, until his lungs discharged themselves of all breath and his body collapsed onto the Italian-imported tiled floor of the Byzantine-styled, Greco-Roman balcony.

  ###

  * * *

  SOUL LOVE

  Together Forever

  by Dermot Davis

  * * *

  SOUL LOVE

  Chapter 1

  The view from the forty-second floor of one of LA's tallest skyscrapers should have been astonishing. Andrew stood by the window of his new office and wished to the very core of his being that he could appreciate his new life and world. Looking off into the distance he could see the Pacific Palisades and the outline of the cliffs above the ocean, where he had often enjoyed some magical picnics with his one true love, Fiona. He so wished that he could be with her, there in that moment, just as the sun was rising in the sky and the crested waves of the ocean began to sparkle. He could almost feel the fresh sea air on his cheeks as he closed his eyes and imagined her feeding him some fresh strawberries that she would have bought that morning at the farmer's market.

  He could see her beautiful face now, in his mind's eye, her strawberry blonde hair flowing, her blue eyes twinkling, as she smiled and looked at him so tenderly. He could hear himself say something funny; something intended to make her smile and to, hopefully, make her laugh. He remembered that her laughing face would brighten up, not just his world, but every living thing around her, for that was her effect on all and sundry that were fortunate to be present within Fiona’s orbit.

  Looking to the furthest that he could see inland, he was disappointed that his view did not extend to the desert and to where she might now be residing. He couldn't imagine the woman that she must have had to become, since leaving him and Los Angeles. What changes must she have made, in order to adapt to a life in a desert, a dry, barren world inhospitable to human habitation? How could a formerly pampered girl like Fi survive in such an alien world? A girl that had never known any hardship in her entire life; a girl who had been born into the lap of luxury and adored and coddled since her birth?

  The sky brightened with the golden rays of the sun and turned salmon pink and golden orange as the sun rose higher in the sky. Was his true love really living in the desert or did she merely stay there a short while—a day, perhaps—before moving on to... heaven-knows-where?

  Checking the current time, Andrew estimated that if he left within two hours he could be in Twentynine Palms, in San Bernardino County, long enough to have time to search for her before sundown. He had been there so many times before, it had almost become his thing to do at the weekend. Saturday or Sunday were the only days that he could take time off from his intolerable workload at the office but he knew that if he kept showing up there, one day he would get lucky. Either someone would talk and decide to finally help him out or, best case scenario, he would happen upon his love, in the flesh.

  Expecting a call from Janice to inform him when Abigail had arrived for their meeting, he made some last minute preparations for his impromptu sojourn to the desert. "Abigail will see you in the board room, Mr. Cox," Janice's voice on the speaker-phone soon broke the silence.

  "I'll be right there," he answered as he gathered his notes and retrieved his suit jacket from behind the back of his chair. Because it was a Saturday, only a handful of staff manned the phones in the central mosh-pit of frenzy that he had finally come to accept as a necessary function of the business. He walked down the hall, not noticing that he cut a sharp figure in his impeccable business suit, his closely cropped glossy, dark hair and brown eyes framed by long dark lashes, as he walked past the reflective glass. He was entirely ignorant of the effect that he had upon his female coworkers and subordinates, and wouldn’t have wanted to know. Fiona was the only woman that he longed for. Having long ago dispensed with the nervousness and anxiety that he used to feel prior to entering the conference room, Andrew knocked gingerly on the door before entering without concern.

  "Andrew, how are yo
u?" Abigail greeted him in her customary cheerfulness. It always amazed Andrew that no matter how stressful her job appeared to be nor how much bad news she seemed to be dealing with on a daily basis, the head of the organization and the Order of the Wise Serpents always appeared peaceful within and pleasant to all around her.

  "Can I order you a beverage? A coffee, perhaps?"

  "No, thanks, Abigail," Andrew demurred as he coolly kissed her cheek in greeting. "I was well past my coffee quota for the day about two hours ago. How is everything?" he asked casually as he sat beside her at the huge gleaming mahogany conference table.

  "Every day is a challenge, Andrew," she answered breezily. "Thank heavens, eh? Gives us all something to do and a reason to get out of bed in the mornings, don't you think?"

  "Yeah, I guess. Better than boredom, I suppose."

  "So, where are we with things?" she asked in a tone that suggested that she was done with the pleasantries.

  "Uh," Andrew hesitated, looking through his notes. "Anything specific?"

  "Let's start with the list; how are we doing on that?"

  "Yeah, slow going, I'm afraid," Andrew answered weakly. "I've gone through most of Simon's computer files; those that I could access, anyway, and although I am compiling an initial list of names, I can't be sure at this stage what exactly they were involved with, whether it was legitimate business or otherwise. I'd need to take that to stage two, as we've previously discussed."

  "I see," Abigail said, sounding disappointed.

  "I've been working flat out, pretty much here from early till late—"

  "Yes, yes," Abigail interrupted. "No one's calling you a slouch. I'm disappointed that we can't have more people working on this; people whom we can trust. But, never you mind, you can only do what is humanly possible, of course. The fact that I need a quick resolution, so I can leave this... never mind," she then said with a smile. "I was going to say this godforsaken country but that wouldn't have been fair to the lovely people, like you, that I have been fortunate to meet here. Not used to your ways, that's all," she said with a chuckle.

  "Probably too informal for your liking, maybe," Andrew proffered.

  "Yes, indeed," she said, looking over her notes. "So, you don't have anything at this stage?" she then asked pointedly. "You can't provide even one name?"

  "Not convincingly, no," Andrew answered, his eyes remaining on his notepad. "No one that I can name beyond reasonable doubt."

  "Well, keep digging. Simon's not coming back anytime soon, so we've got full access to everything he has been involved with these past decades, and yes, I understand that he used encryption and code names for protection but we should still be able to uncover his devious plots and reveal the guilty parties. We need to be imaginative as well as hard-working. Let's move on to the employees of the department," she then said, shuffling though the mass of papers before her. "No one here is wise to your real purpose here, I'm assuming?" she asked, looking up at him.

  "No. They think I'm taking over from Simon as department head. They may resent me but nobody has acted in any way suspicious."

  "Very good, let's keep it that way. Never get into something that's over your head. They challenge you on something that they expect you should know in your capacity as department head, you defer them to me or better still, simply tell them to get back to work and not waste your valuable time."

  "Got it," Andrew said with a grin.

  "You're very capable, I know that; that's why I put you in that position."

  "Yes, ma'am," Andrew said, grinning.

  "And you know better than to use that term around me, young man," she chided playfully. "Horrid Americanism," she said, looking like she had a bad taste in her mouth. "Unless you're addressing the Queen herself, the term is never used where I come from."

  "Yes, ma'am," Andrew said with a chuckle.

  "Oh, please," Abigail said, unable to stop the grin from forming on her face. "Of Royal mind, perhaps but not of Royal blood, I assure you," she said coyly.

  The continued to go over paperwork and an itemized to do list. Taking longer than he expected, Andrew finally wrapped up his meeting with Abigail and returned briefly to his office to put away some files and shut down his computer for the day. The sun had already reached its zenith and was now falling slowly in the still bright sky. As it was Saturday, Andrew knew that the traffic going east would be light, so he reckoned that he could still make it to the desert with enough time to ask around a bit and look for his beloved Fiona.

  Driving with the Mercedes top down on a glorious afternoon while listening to the latest album release by The Stokes did little to raise his mood, as he contemplated yet another day without knowing the whereabouts of his one true love. Living in a blue funk ever since her departure, he had discovered that there was very little that could cheer up his low mood. He had tried many things, in his attempt to divert himself from the empty feeling he felt inside ever since her leaving, but nothing ever worked. Even when he had many times drunk himself into a stupor, he still woke up with an ache in his heart that felt larger than the state of Texas.

  Andrew didn't hold out much more hope of finding her on this occasion than he had at any time in the past as he parked his Mercedes outside the coffee shop in the tiny, funky desert village. Feeling overdressed in his expensive suit, he chided himself for not taking the time to change first into something more downscale and casual. People judge other people by their appearance and, whereas wearing a perfectly well-fitted, tailored suit worked for him in most circumstances, in the rural outpost that he now found himself, it was his youthful elegant sense of style that put him at a disadvantage. Outliers in hick towns seemed to respect casual grubbiness over elegance, he decided. Go figure.

  Despite the fact that there were just a few stragglers hanging about, the coffee shop, as usual, looked grungy and didn't seem to have a problem with the numerous visiting houseflies that buzzed with reckless abandon about the place. "What can I get you?" the girl behind the counter asked with a cheerful smile that belied her life circumstance of living in an isolated desert town full of losers.

  "I'm looking for someone," Andrew said as, not for the first time, he pulled out a photograph of a fresh-faced and smiling Fiona and showed it to the girl. "She lives around here but I've lost her address," he explained as the girl took a good look at the photo.

  "Yes, that girl looks familiar, alright," the girl said as Andrew stood taller with the joyful news.

  "You've seen her before?" Andrew asked, brightening inside.

  "Yes, you showed it to me last time you were here," the girl said but Andrew couldn't tell if she was being innocent or playing smart. "You still haven't found her?" she asked with the same annoying smile.

  "Apart from this photograph, you've never seen this girl?" Andrew asked, watching the girl's eyes closely.

  "As I say," the girl said but didn't finish her sentence as she turned and straightened up some pastries in the display cabinet. "You don't want to order anything?" she then asked, as if he should have a real reason for still being there.

  "You have anything that a fly hasn't landed on?" he asked sourly. "Yeah, didn't think so," he then said when the young girl hesitated, perhaps not fully understanding his question.

  Walking to the four other people sitting in the coffee shop, Andrew showed them the photograph and asked each of them the same question: "Have you seen this girl?"

  Like many before them, as each of the coffee shop patrons answered in the negative, Andrew would sometimes follow up by assuring them that he was not a cop and, if they paused with a doubtful expression, he would ask them to take a better look and imagine her with different clothes or a different hair color or hairstyle. Of all the strangers he had asked, he had yet to get a definitive yes or any kind of lead.

  As he left the coffee shop, the young man looked to his right and then to his left to get a read of where he should next continue his search. He sensed that he should turn to his right but he didn't see m
uch activity in that end of the street, so he turned left, instead. As he walked into a small grocery store, he missed seeing Arjuna, who had exited a barber's shop at the other end of the street. Stopping whomever he could in the tiny market, Andrew held up the photograph and hoped for a positive look of recognition on each person’s face. He was disappointed, when his hopes were dashed.

  Leaving the grocery store no wiser than when he first stepped in, Andrew again looked up and down the street. This time he did see the back of a recognizable figure, a man that he recognized who had long silver hair pulled back into a ponytail.

  Arjuna was approaching his truck when he heard his name being called from behind him. Turning to see Andrew, he smiled. "Well, well, I remember you, hot shot," he said to an approaching Andrew. "What can I do you for this time?"

  Pulling out his photograph, Andrew held it up towards Arjuna's face. "I know you know where she is," he said, thinking, really hoping, that he had just hit the jackpot. "She came out here to do that vision quest thing and she told me all about it. I just want to know where she is, that's all."

  "What she sees in you, I do not know," Arjuna said as he turned towards his truck.

  Running to head him off, Andrew blocked his path. "You know where she is, don't you?" he asked pointedly. "Is she staying with you? In the desert?"

  "What is your problem?" Arjuna asked as he tried to pass the young man but was again blocked by Andrew's body.

  "You don't tell me, I could just follow you. I could follow you, wherever, whenever, I don't care," Andrew said with an air of desperation that Arjuna merely smiled at.

  "I'll tell you what," Arjuna said as he looked down the street and then back at Andrew. "Why don't you loosen that tie of yours and you buy me a coffee. What do you say?"

  "Deal," Andrew said, watching Arjuna closely, in case he was playing a trick.