by Geonn Cannon
“Puppy?”
“I’m heading out. I didn’t want you to worry if you woke up without me.”
“Okay. Run?”
Ari said, “No, I have to meet…”
“Oh. Right. Okay.” She sat up and kissed Ari’s lips. “Good luck, puppy.”
“Thanks. Go back to sleep.”
She tucked Dale in and left the house. She shouldn’t have been surprised when she discovered Cecily Parrish lived on Mercer Island, but it seemed ridiculously affluent even for a lawyer of Parrish’s apparent heights. Ari crossed the bridge from normal rich to celebrity rich, passing the homes of Seahawks and computer geniuses in search of the address she gotten from the internet. She found the house at the end of a long dead-end drive that plummeted down toward the shore. It was mostly invisible from the road, as it was meant to be seen from the water, but she eventually found the right number and parked behind a BMW.
She saw three other luxury cars parked in front of the house in a lot the size of a tennis court. Either Parrish was a collector, or she had guests. Either way, Ari couldn’t waste time. She rang the doorbell and looked out over the water that made up Parrish’s side lawn. The sun had started to rise, and Lake Washington was tinted a beautifully rich yellow. Or maybe the water was always colored gold when viewed from Mercer Island. It was hard to say.
The door opened and, instead of Cecily Parrish, Ari found herself facing a blonde with tousled hair, wearing a sloppily-buttoned dress shirt with apparently nothing underneath. She leaned against the doorframe and smiled.
“Hi.”
“Uh. Hello. Is this Cecily Parrish’s residence?”
“Mm-hmm.” She stepped back and opened the door wider. “C’mon in, beauty.”
Ari entered with some trepidation. The entrance led to a kitchen, where the remnants of a catered party remained in a cluster of empty packaging and rows of empty or half-empty bottles. The living room spread out to her right, a massive space with a wall of windows that looked out over the lake. One naked couple, gender undetermined, was lying together on the couch, and a woman who had been covered by a sparkling silver dress was curled up on the floor in front of the fireplace. The blonde who answered the door moved with the heavy-footed clumsiness of someone who was half-awake and still a little drunk from the night before.
“What’s your name?” the girl asked.
“Ariadne.”
“Wow.” She blinked slowly. “That’s an awesome name. I’m Rebecca.” She pressed her lips together and swayed a little. “Wanna party?”
Ari said, “I think I’ll just see Cecily.”
“Okay,” Rebecca said, sounding a bit sad. “I’ll go get her.”
Rebecca turned and weaved to the stairs. Ari remained where she was, nearer the kitchen than the slumbering threesome in the other room. The house smelled of sex, much more sex than the five people she knew were in the house could’ve achieved on their own. It must have been one hell of a party. One of the sleeping people on the couch woke up and looked at her.
“Oh. Hey. Ariadne, right?”
It took her a moment to recognize the man she’d briefly met in the GG&M break room. “Oh. Yeah. Denver. How’s… it going?”
“Pretty good.”
“I can see that.”
He grinned. “Are you here to—”
“No. No, no, no. Just dropping by.”
“Cool.”
“I thought you said you were asexual.”
His grin was lopsided. “Yeah. I’m not sure what happened.”
“Okay then.”
“Yeah. Well. Nice to see you again.” He put his head down and continued snuggling with the other person, whose gender was still unknown.
Rebecca returned in less than five minutes, followed by Cecily Parrish. She was wearing a short salmon-colored robe that left nothing to the imagination. The puffiness of her eyes indicated she had just woken up, but she moved with the same poise and self-assuredness that she’d had in her office. Ari noticed that, barefoot, Parrish was a few inches shorter than she was. Rebecca let her gaze linger on Ari before she went back into the living room and curled up next to the woman on the floor.
“Miss Willow. I don’t remember issuing you an invitation to my home.”
“You didn’t. And I didn’t, ah…” She gestured vaguely toward the living room. “I didn’t know I would be interrupting… um…”
Parrish smiled at the people in the living room. “It was a bit of an unintentional bacchanal. I won a case. I was feeling celebratory.” She reached up and touched her own eye to indicate Ari’s shiner. “You seem to have had an interesting couple of days.”
“You could say that.”
“Are you here to accept my offer of employment?”
“No. I’m willing to work with you on a case-by-case basis. But I keep Bitches, I keep working my own cases, and I keep Dale. The only difference is that every now and then I’ll take a job from you.”
Parrish said, “That is nowhere near what I offered. Why would I agree to that?”
“Because I’m about to hand you the case of the year.”
“It’s December.”
“I meant next year.”
Parrish crossed her arms and lifted her chin slightly. “I’m listening.”
“Michael Irwin is a rapist. I have videotaped evidence proving it, I have the victim, and, with your help, I’ll have someone who works for him ready to corroborate everything.”
“The state senator,” Parrish clarified.
Ari nodded. “The very same.”
“It’s cut-and-dry rape?”
“The tape makes it abundantly clear. The woman in question works for his campaign. I’ve already spoken with her, and she’s willing to take this as far as it has to go. Irwin threatened a private investigator named Clark Wilcox and scared him enough that he committed suicide. I don’t know how far he would go to keep this quiet. That’s why I didn’t just mail the flash drive to the first news station I could think of. I have the guy who does his dirty work dead to rights on breaking and entering and assault. I want you to make a deal in exchange for Irwin.”
“You must have great confidence in my abilities.”
“You made me look like a fool. So…”
Parrish smiled. She drummed her fingers on her biceps and then turned toward the living room. “My apologies, lovely people. Mommy has to work, so I’ll have to ask you all to get dressed and go back to your own homes.”
The four people moaned and groaned in what Ari assumed was an echo of the night before.
“Yes, yes, I know, but my infamous Christmas party looms. Thank you for everything. You were all wonderful.” She turned her attention back to Ari. “Today will be a dry run. We’ll see how we like working together. If it works out, I’ll entertain your counteroffer. Deal?”
Ari nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
“Excellent. Let me get rid of my guests and we can begin.”
“I thought…” She gestured at the people currently getting dressed in the living room.
Parrish winked at her. “My favorite guests are upstairs.” She started for the stairs and then stopped, turning with her hand on the bannister. “Oh, and if you do enter into my firm’s employ, you and Miss Frye are both invited to the Christmas party.”
Ari coughed nervously, looked into the living room, and went to wait in the kitchen. She hoped there weren’t any naked people in it.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ari didn’t expect the reproachful look from Diana when she arrived at the police station, and she expected even less how ashamed she would feel. It was like she had disappointed her mother when Diana stepped forward and silently examined the bruise around her eye.
“It looks worse than it felt.”
“According to your statement, he threw you down and hit you three times in the face.”
Ari said, “Well.”
“Are you okay?”
If she had sounded pissed off, Ari would h
ave responded with an off-hand joke or some casual comment about being a badass. But the concern threw her a little.
“I’m fine,” she said. “Dale took care of me.”
“She’s a saint, that woman. Lucy absolutely adores her. If things ever go south between the two of you, Lucy and I are taking her side.”
Ari laughed. “That’s probably going to be the right side to be on.”
Diana motioned for Ari to follow her. “We’ve got Zahn waiting in interrogation. He’s been asking for a lawyer since we brought him in last night.”
“He can have one. I brought my own.”
“I heard. Cecily Parrish? She’s a shark.” She looked down at Zahn’s file. “Insanely hot, though.”
Ari said, “That’s what everyone seems to think…”
“We’re going to need a shark against the monster Zahn has. He’s been brought in multiple times, but nothing has ever stuck to him.”
“Now we have him on breaking and entering, we have him on assault…”
“And from what Dale explained, you’re planning to let him walk on all of that.”
“Bigger fish, Detective Macallan.”
Diana sighed and shrugged. “If you say so.”
She led Ari into the interrogation room where Zahn was waiting with his head down. He sat up when the door opened, glancing at Diana before he locked onto Ari.
“Are you the girl I beat up last night?”
Diana took a seat. “Well, there’s the confession business out of the way. Thank you, Leonard.”
Ari said, “How’s your throat? Your voice is sounding a little rougher than the last time I heard it. You okay? You need a lozenge or some water?”
He smirked.
Diana’s phone buzzed, and she looked at the screen. She typed out a response as she spoke. “You’re a frequent guest of this establishment, Mr. Zahn.”
“Yeah. You pick me up and bring me here, then let me go home. You’re like an Uber that shows up at random intervals and never takes me where I want to go.”
“This time I think you’ll be missing the second part of your round trip. Breaking and entering. Assault. You still haven’t produced a permit for that weapon we found on you.”
“And you still haven’t produced my lawyer.”
Diana said, “His offices weren’t open when you decided to break the law. We had to wait for business hours. But we do have a lawyer present.”
The door opened and Cecily Parrish stepped in. The robe was gone, Ari was sad to see, and was replaced by a dark red suit over a white surplice blouse.
Ari said, “Wow, nice timing on that.”
“I got a text saying she was here. I told them to send her on back.”
Cecily stood at the head of the table between Diana and Zahn. “I’ll be frank, Mr. Zahn, you’re barely worth my time. The charges they’re holding you on are penny-ante. If they held you for a few hours, the further offenses I’m certain they’d certainly find would also be of little interest to me. I don’t want you. But I am more than willing to fight and get the maximum sentence on each and every charge they pin on you unless you cooperate.”
Zahn wet his lips and repositioned his hands on the table in front of him.
Diana said, “We want Michael Irwin. We want you to testify against him about hiring you, about the video, about the threats he made toward the people who had the video. The way we see it, Irwin just told you to make the threats. Actually following through on them would’ve been your job. Your contacts. So if you’re the one making the story public… well, I doubt you would sic those dogs on yourself. So in exchange for the video, we can make sure your record stays as squeaky clean as it was before all this unpleasantness.”
Zahn said, “The only problem with that is, I don’t actually have the damn video.”
Ari took a flash drive out of her pocket and placed it on the table. Zahn stared at it.
“So,” Cecily said, “you can either go to prison and I can start gathering evidence of every law you’ve bent or broken in the service of your clients, or you can give me something juicier. You can give me Michael Irwin and I’ll forget I ever heard your name. You can go back to sweeping messes of the rich and famous under their Persian rugs.”
The door opened and a man in the most expensive suit Ari had ever seen entered. He looked annoyed and rushed, resting his weight on the ball of his foot as if he was just ducking in before sweeping back out of the room in a single motion.
“Leonard, stand up and come with me, please. Detective, I hope you miss the uniform, because I’ll have you back in it so fast—”
“Hello, Joseph.”
The man lost all momentum when Parrish spoke those two words. He looked away from his client and focused on her, straightening his posture and staring at her. She smiled coolly at him, one hip cocked. Her arms were still crossed. Ari found herself unbelievably aroused and, judging from the way Diana shifted in her seat, she was feeling something as well. Ari was perturbed; she had to find out what this woman’s deal was.
“Miss Parrish.”
“Sit down. Your client was just about to accept a deal.”
Joseph moved around the table and pulled out the chair across from Ari. He sat down, all of his bluster fading. Parrish looked at Zahn.
“I’m waiting for your answer, Mr. Zahn. I’m not a patient woman. This is a very generous offer, and it will go away faster than you would believe. Shall I begin a countdown?”
Zahn looked at his lawyer and exhaled sharply. “No need for that. I know when I’m beaten. More importantly, I know what I was protecting Irwin from. Fuck him.” He reached out and put his hand on top of the flash drive. He pushed it from the position in front of Ari to a spot in front of Diana. “I officially hand this over to the Seattle Police Department as part of my deal.”
Ari said, “Oh. That’s not the actual flash drive. I wouldn’t be stupid enough to bring the real drive in here and just leave it on the table.”
Parrish said, “The symbolic part of the deal is made. For now, if Miss Willow would kindly give me her seat, we can hammer out the actual details. Ariadne?”
Ari stood up and let Parrish take the chair. “If you guys don’t need me for anything else, I’ll just step out.”
Zahn said, “It was nice running into you, gorgeous.”
Ari turned and winked at him. “Just remember who had to be pulled off whom. I’ll see you around town, sweetheart.”
#
Ari waited at Diana’s desk until she and Parrish reappeared. Zahn and his lawyer made a hasty retreat, neither of them looking very happy with whatever had transpired. Parrish, however, looked like a lion who was walking away from a pile of bloody bones. Ari stood up as they approached, and Parrish smiled at her in a way that was only a little disconcerting.
“The deal is complete. Zahn will testify to every conversation he had with Irwin. Combined with the video you handed over this morning, Michael Irwin’s campaign is about to crater in a big way.”
Diana said, “I wish I could say that was good news, but damn it, I liked the guy. He’s a monster. I know he’s a monster, and I can’t wait to see him rot in jail for what he’s done. But that doesn’t change the fact that until this morning, I wanted him to win.”
Parrish shrugged. “It’s still very early in the campaign. The same people who put Irwin on top will just find another candidate to take his place. The only thing you’ve really done is give the pundits two big stories to talk about: the fall of one politician and the rise of another. It should keep them busy until January, at least.” She looked at Ari. “Walk me out, Miss Willow. We have much to discuss.”
Diana waved her off. “Go on. We can catch up later. Be warned, I plan to scold the hell out of you for some of the stunts you pulled during this case.”
“I’d expect nothing less, Detective Macallan. I’ll see you for Christmas.”
She followed Parrish out of the station. There was an open area in front of the building, larg
er than a sidewalk and smaller than a plaza, and Parrish waited until they reached it before she spoke.
“Canidae.”
Ari tried to keep her reaction neutral. “Can a dee what?”
Parrish said, “I’ve been doing some research since our last encounter. There are only a handful of creatures in this world who are affected by me the way you were. It took me some time to separate fact from fiction and determine which of them actually existed. Once I had that list, it seemed painfully obvious. The dog collar, Bitches Investigations. You are a canidae, crudely called a werewolf.”
“And what would that make you?”
“Succubus.”
Ari raised an eyebrow. “Really.”
Parrish smiled. “You may have noticed an unexpectedly elevated sense of arousal around me.”
“I noticed your parties seem a lot more fun than most lawyer parties I’ve heard about.”
“Hm. Yes, it was a wonderful night.” Her mind wandered, but she snapped her attention back to Ari. “You were in my office. You saw the red picture in the frame. That was what affected you.”
“What was that?”
“It was a focus. I had a very acrimonious meeting that afternoon. I wanted my appeal to be as strong as possible. An ordinary person wouldn’t have been affected any more than they would by a paint swatch. But canidae… there’s a bit of a bleed-through with your kind. Don’t be concerned about consent or anything like that. I assure you that my abilities only heighten latent feelings.”
Ari said, “So you’re like a few shots of whisky. Just enough to get past the hang-ups, not enough to regret it in the morning.”
“A few shots of whisky…? You must be a fun date.”
“No complaints yet.”
Parrish tugged her suit jacket into place and smoothed out the wrinkles. “Arresting Michael Irwin will be a very big deal for the firm. The publicity alone will be astronomical. That’s enough to earn you a probationary period. You’ll keep your agency. You’ll keep Miss Frye. Occasionally we will come to you with a case that you can accept or refuse. But if you accept a case from us, it will be your top priority. You will work on it and nothing else. For this, you will be handsomely compensated. Say, twice your standard rate.”