by Geonn Cannon
He flinched. “Or?”
“Or you decide to come out on your own. You own up to all the stuff you posted as a cover. More importantly, you apologize for anyone you may have hurt by using that language. A popular athlete like you talking like that? You probably hurt a bunch of people just to keep your secret. That’s not right. You probably hid to protect your career, right? Well, you’re in Seattle now. The lie is going to do a lot more harm than the truth that you’re gay.”
“I’m not gay.”
Ari rolled her eyes. “Dude…”
“I’m not gay. I’m bisexual. It’s a different thing, right?”
“Oh. Yeah, it is.”
He sniffled. The rain was dripping out of his hair and trickling over the slope of his forehead. “Couple years ago, I was playing for a San Diego team. I asked them for a hot spot, and some fans thought it would be funny to send me to a gay nightclub. I didn’t care. Drinks are drinks, dancing is dancing. What the hell. But I was nervous. I felt out of place. I was afraid everyone would think I was making fun of them, you know? But one guy saw I was having a hard time and came over to make sure no one was teasing me. Weird, right? Big guy like me?”
He chuckled and rubbed his hand under his nose.
“Anyway. He looked out for me the whole night. He made it great. And it was the first time… I mean, you know I’m the enforcer. It’s my job to look out for the team. I make sure no one gets hurt. No one takes penalties. No one has to suffer because I take their licks for them. That night with Bry, that was the first time anyone had been looking out for me. I didn’t want to let that go. At first I was just calling him up to get drinks. Hang out. Then one night we’re at my place and I realized I’m not worried about him making a move on me. I’m worried that he might not. So I made a move on him.”
Ari smiled. “Sounds like a good guy.”
“He told me that my feelings didn’t mean I was gay. He explained I was probably bisexual. I always thought that was just the same thing, but now I know better.”
“And he puts up with the cover? The pictures with all the women, the hate speech?”
Dubov nodded slowly. “I panicked. I went overboard trying to be the straightest guy possible. I don’t even notice half the time until he calls me out on something particularly bad. He hates that Twitter bullshit, but he always tells me he understands. He knows it’s for my career. My public persona.” He put his hands over his face and rubbed. “I guess that’s just another way he’s looking out for me, after all this time.”
“Maybe it’s time you look out for him.”
He took a deep breath and looked around the diner. “I’ve said a lot of bad things. I cried sometimes when I posted it. I had to use a completely different voice just to get the courage to post them. How am I ever going to live that down?”
“It’ll take a while,” Ari admitted, “but own up to it. Seattle can be a forgiving place if you’re sincere with us.”
“Are you gay?”
“Yeah, I am.”
He nodded slowly. “Bry says he can tell, but I can’t. I got no reason to spot the gay guy in a crowd since I have him.” He grinned and Ari could suddenly understand why women found him attractive. There might be some broken hearts throughout Seattle when he made his announcement, but they’d get over it.
“I know you probably can’t do too much before the official announcement of the team roster,” Ari said, “but at least tone down the bigotry and the hate? We get enough of that from the real bigots, we don’t need to be doing it to ourselves.”
“You got it.”
“I’m going to leave you alone now. You probably want to think about what you’re going to say to Bryan when you get home.”
“Probably should.” She started to get out of the booth. “Thanks for the root beer.”
“Sure. I’ll add it to your boss’s bill.” He chuckled and bobbed his head. Ari hesitated next to the table. “Can I ask you a question?”
He looked up at her and shrugged.
“Where were you last night?”
Dubov said, “Bryan had a work thing all day yesterday. When he got home he was stressed out, so I made him dinner and we watched a movie.”
Ari tried not to look disappointed. “Another question. Your teammates… are there any of them you don’t trust? Anyone who might seem a little… shady or unreliable?”
He narrowed his eyes, confused rather than defensive. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Are there any you might hesitate to stand up for if they got into trouble?”
“It’s my job to protect everyone on the ice, Miss Willow. If they’re in a Totems jersey, then I’ll lay down in front of the Zamboni for any one of them. No questions asked.” He hesitated and sucked his teeth. “But off the ice…? I guess if I saw Lindholm or Aulie getting mugged, I wouldn’t cross the street to pull the guy off ‘em.”
Two members of the Newton Five, Ari noted. She took a card from her wallet and placed it next to his glass. “Thanks, Mr. Dubov. Give me a call if you think of anything else?” He nodded. “And good luck with Bryan. He sounds like a great guy.”
“Sure. Maybe it’s time I start showing him, huh?”
“That sounds like a great idea.” She touched the brim of her hat with two fingers. “You have a good night, Tyler.”
“You too.”
#
Ari went home so she could give Dale some tender loving care. All the years of post-transformation massages had more than earned her a full-time nurse, and Ari was prepared to wait on her hand and foot. She stopped at Safeway to get a pint of Dale’s favorite ice cream and took it home to her. Dale thanked her with a kiss and allowed Ari to form a nest for her on the couch. Once she was settled in, Ari sat on the floor with the laptop so she could watch game footage of the people she was supposed to be investigating. Her work would be meaningless if they behaved in public but played like assholes.
“Oh, see that file on the desktop?”
Ari minimized the window. “Which?”
Dale reached over her shoulder to point. “That. When you told me about the five guys meeting at the ice rink, I decided to see if they had any connection with each other. I looked back over their careers to see if anyone’s time on any team overlapped with anyone else’s.”
“Damn, sweetie. How long did that take?”
“Time was meaningless today. Just a long boring slog of minutes I had to fill. I hate being sidelined. But it did take a while, so I want proper appreciation from you.”
Ari twisted around and stretched to put a kiss on Dale’s cheek. “Thank you, Miss Frye.”
“You’re welcome. I’m not sure if it’ll be any help. Aulie and Lindholm were on the Penguins together, but only for about half a season. Oborin was on the Flyers, which was the team where Muldoon made his name all those years ago, so there’s a chance they ran into each other there. But none of the others have any crossover.”
“I’m still glad to have it.” She clicked back to the game videos. She watched the benches to see if any of the Newton Five gravitated toward each other. “Who chose the team? Like was there a person who came in and said ‘get me Oesterle and Aulie’?”
“There’s a draft,” Dale said.
Ari started to get up. “Do you need a blanket?”
Dale chuckled and put a hand on Ari’s shoulder. “No, there’s a draft where the teams pick the players. They take turns choosing players based on a lottery system.”
“So it’s like choosing your team on the playground.”
“Yes, puppy, it’s exactly like that.” She stroked the top of Ari’s head.
Ari said, “Don’t patronize me, woman.”
Dale laughed and threaded Ari’s hair through her fingers. “Seriously, you know nothing about sports. How do you even call yourself a lesbian?”
“I have other areas of expertise.”
“Name one.”
Ari put down the laptop with the game tape still running. She lifted
the blanket covering Dale’s lower body and Dale laughed as her skirt was moved out of the way. She pressed her back against the couch cushion and settled into a more comfortable position as Ari wormed her way between her legs. She sighed, closed her eyes, and smiled as Ari proved her status as an expert where it counted. She rested one hand on top of the lump Ari’s head made in the blanket. She turned her head to the side and, when her eyes opened briefly, she saw something on the laptop screen.
“Puppy, stop. Ariadne… stop…”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing with that.” Dale pointed at the computer. “Look. Look, maybe it’ll show him again…”
Ari sat up and retrieved the laptop. “Well, it’s recorded, babe. We can just rewind it.” She licked her lips, face still flush, and tried to focus now that her mind had so dramatically jumped tracks. Dale pointed when she had gone back far enough and Ari hit play.
“Hold on… I’m not sure where exactly he… there! Pause it on him.”
Ari froze the image on a shot of the team’s bench. Dale pointed at the boulder-shaped man in a charcoal-gray suit standing behind Kristof Oborin. He was watching the game with his arms crossed, face fixed into a scowl. He had a receding hairline, a wide jaw, and features that made Ari think of a grumpy bulldog. Ari was fairly sure she’d never seen him before, but Dale jabbed her finger at him again.
“Who is that?”
“I can look up the coaching staff. Which, uh… which team is the red ones?”
Dale sighed.
“Hey, I just proved my gay credibility.”
“Half-proved…”
“You’re the one who told me to stop.”
“The ‘red ones’ are the Blackhawks,” Dale said, smirking as she rubbed Ari’s arm. “This is the 2014 season.”
Ari searched for the team’s staff and clicked on the official homepage. The man Dale had identified was the second photo in the lineup.
“Vince Halphen, the Blackhawks’ assistant coach.” She looked at Dale. “You’ve seen him somewhere before?”
“He was at the restaurant last night. He was sitting at the bar for the last part of our meal, and he got up and left around the time we got the check.”
Ari said, “You remember that?”
“He…” She hunched her shoulders and ducked her head shyly. “He looks like a stuffed animal I used to have. I noticed because of that. But he was definitely there, watching us.”
“And he left right before we did.”
“He saw us getting the check, so he would’ve known we were about to leave.”
Ari said, “He wasn’t listed in any of the paperwork I got from GG&M. He might not be involved with the Totems. He could just be… visiting.” She couldn’t make herself sound convincing. “It is pretty suspicious that he and Oborin are both here at the same time. But maybe that’s just our own perception making it seem suspicious.”
“I don’t think so,” Dale said. “I think he’s involved. I’m taking it another step and saying that he was watching us and waiting to see when we’d be on the street. I think he was the one driving the truck that tried to run us down.”
Ari glared at the man’s smiling face. “Well, then I think tomorrow I’m going to find Mr. Halphen and have a little conversation with him.”
Chapter Eight
Ari was standing beside the bed in boyshorts and a tank top when her phone rang. Dale was closer to the charger so she pulled the plug and tossed it underhanded to her. Ari caught it and checked the screen before she answered.
“Good morning, Cecily.”
“Willow, I want you to speak with you in my office this morning. Sometime before lunch. What time works for you?”
Ari pinned the phone against her shoulder and stepped into her jeans. “Can’t do it. I have an appointment that might take all morning.”
“Cancel it.”
Ari smirked. “Sorry. Hopefully whatever your thing is will wait.”
“My thing won’t wait, Miss Willow. When we made this arrangement, you agreed that any cases I brought you would take precedence over what you were working on at the time. If you choose to break that agreement, then—”
“Hold on,” Ari said. “I’m doing that. The case I’m working on was brought to me by someone at your firm. I dropped everything and I’ve been focusing entirely on that, just like we said I would.”
Cecily was silent for a moment. “Who brought you the case?”
“Eric Wiseman.”
“Hold.”
Ari rolled her eyes as music began playing. “Unbelievable.” She watched as Dale maneuvered herself off the mattress with the crutch. “Do you need help?”
“No, I want to get the hang of this. I’ll get good at it by the time I’m healed.”
The music cut off as Dale limped into the bathroom. Cecily said, “It would seem you are correct, Miss Willow. I apologize for the miscommunication. Continue on your current investigation.”
“Sure.” Ari hung up and dropped the phone on the bed. “Are you okay in there?”
Dale called back, “Making it work!”
They’d agreed that with Dale’s injury, it would be too hard for them to share the shower. It would be difficult enough for Dale to position herself so the bandaged ankle was out of the stall without worrying about a whole other person. Ari went to the bathroom door and bumped it open as she buttoned her shirt.
“Are you going to work from home again?”
Dale poked her head around the curtain, her hair a wet, spiked mess. “I was thinking about driving in to the office, just to see how irritating this damn crutch makes things. Why?”
“If you were going to stay, I could take the car. But I can wait until you’re finished and drop you off. I have plenty of time.”
“You sure?”
Ari nodded. “Just promise me that if the office is too much of a hassle, you’ll either call me for a ride or Uber home.”
“I promise.”
Dale disappeared back behind the curtain and Ari went out into the living room. A thought occurred to her and she went up the stairs to the door between their apartment and the main house where Neka Teller lived. She knocked, unsure if Neka had headed off to classes or work, but Neka answered quickly. She was dressed in sweats and had earbuds hanging off the collar. It was strange to think of her as a landlord, since she was so much younger than them. She was a student at the University of Washington and currently in the process of building her own boat from the ground up.
“Hey, Ariadne. What’s up?”
“Hey. Sorry to bother you. I was just wondering if we could inconvenience you for a while. Dale hurt her ankle, so showering is going to be tough until—”
Neka interrupted her. “My bathtub! You want to borrow my bathtub? Of course. I broke my leg a couple years ago. Showering was all but impossible. I can’t imagine trying to shower in that stall downstairs. You guys have a spare key, so whenever you need it. I mean, if we’re home—”
It was Ari’s turn to interrupt. “We’ll obviously knock first. But thanks, Neka, I really appreciate it. I know Dale will, too.”
“Absolutely.”
“I’ll let you get to your run.”
Neka nodded. “You guys have a good day.”
Ari went back downstairs. Dale was out of the shower and partially dressed. Ari explained to her about the arrangement to use Neka’s bathroom and Dale sighed. She rolled her head back, eyes closed, and sighed with relief.
“That’s amazing. Thank you, puppy.”
“Sure.” She bent down and kissed Dale’s hair. “Frozen waffles or picking something up on the way in?”
“Picking up something else. I want some coffee.”
“Works for me. I’ll get everything together.” On her way out of the bedroom, Ari called over her shoulder, “You look really good in my shirt.”
“This is my shirt.”
“You bought it for me, though. Right?”
“It looks better on me.�
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Ari grinned. “Can’t argue that.”
She hadn’t lied on the phone with Cecily; she planned to drive out to Tukwila where Vince Halphen lived and where the Totems would have their arena. Rink. Arena?
“Baby,” she called, “is hockey in a rink or an arena?”
“Arena.”
They picked up breakfast on the way to the office, with Ari waiting in line and bringing Dale her order, and then Ari headed out for Tukwila. She tried to put all the pieces together as she drove south. She hadn’t seen Halphen at the restaurant, but she trusted Dale’s word as much as her own. If he was in Seattle, he had to be taking a high-level job with the Totems. He would be the assistant coach under Muldoon, most likely. So Muldoon and Halphen, with Aulie, Oesterle, Lindholm, and Oborin were involved with something big. Big enough to attempt vehicular homicide, and yet not so big that it would show up even after she and Dale started looking for it.
Tukwila was a relatively small suburb of Seattle, but every road and railroad seemed to congregate there before pouring into the big city. Boeing Field was the crown on the city’s head and SeaTac was nestled between them and Puget Sound. The convenience was most likely the reason they’d been chosen as the Totem’s new home.
Ari found the apartments where Halphen lived, a pretty enough group of dun-colored condos that looked disturbingly similar to some cult compounds she’d seen on the news. As nice as it might have been, it was still a far cry from Muldoon’s estate in Medina. Her plan was to get into Halphen’s apartment so she could get a whiff of his scent. Hopefully she could compare it to the miasma she’d gotten when she found the abandoned truck. But if Halphen was the driver, she had to be very careful not to be seen. She parked where her car couldn’t be seen from the condos and walked back, tucking her hair under a baseball cap before pulling her hoodie up over it. The weather was just cold enough to justify the outfit so she wouldn’t seem overly suspicious as she approached the property.
Ari used the trees for cover as she approached. Halphen’s registered vehicle, when he wasn’t stealing trucks to run down pesky detectives, was a beige 2010 Honda Insight. She didn’t see a vehicle matching that description so she had to assume he wasn’t home. A quick pass revealed his entire unit seemed to be abandoned for the workday, so she risked a quick stroll through the interior to figure out which unit belonged to her quarry. His mailing address listed his unit as Number 5, so all she had to do was figure out the numbering system. Once it was located she went back outside and climbed over the waist-high railing onto his deck. Halphen had a barbeque grill which reeked of charcoal and ruined meat standing guard over a rusted bicycle and patio furniture that looked like it had been passed down through at least four generations.