Otter Under Fire (11 page)

“…have all the permits and licenses,” Debra said, “If I can go back into the store, I can show you.”

“We got a call that this was a drop house and you were part of a human smuggling operation.” The officer in charge said.

“Not even close,” Tempest said. “We were having a slave auction for charity and it’s registered with the city. The slaves are volunteers. You can come in and talk to everyone if you like.”

“This would be a lousy drop house as it’s a place of business.” Debra said, “People are in and out of here all day long.”

“Otter, is that you?” A surprised male voice said behind her.

She turned to see Joel, apparently with a couple of friends. They were in the crowd of people that came out of the restaurant next door.

“One of Tempest’s clients,” she said, “apparently there was some misunderstanding. Some smart ass called in with a fake tip.”

“Nice outfit,” he said with a grin.

“Borrowed from another one of Tempest’s clients, I’m thinking of keeping it, adding a cape and vampire teeth and using it for Halloween before I give it back. Do you think it would be cute if I had Spooky on a leash while I was in costume?”

“I think it would be very cute and you look formidable.”

“Actually my feet are killing me. I was just about to see if Tempest and Annie were ready to go home.”

“You didn’t bring your car?” Joel asked, scanning the lot, which was strange Otter thought, as he didn’t know what kind of car she drove.

“Does it look like I can drive with these things on?” Otter asked waving toward her feet. “I’d probably lose control of the car and kill someone. Tempest drove us.”

“We were just finishing dinner,” Joel said. “And it looks like Tempest will take a while. Maybe I can give you a lift.”

“Annie too?”

“Sure, just let us go in and straighten out our bill and we’ll be right back.”

Otter went back to find Annie and tell Tempest that she was ready to leave and had a ride. Annie decided she wanted to stay a while longer and Tempest promised to get her home. The police were getting ready to leave and told her she could go. Joel was waiting when she stepped back outside.

“Annie decided to stay. I think she’s afraid she’ll miss something.”

“OK, then let’s go,” he led her to a sleek convertible with a gun metal finish.

“Nice car, but where are your friends?”

“They came in their own cars. You’re stuck with just me.”

Otter got into the car and sitting down was heaven. Her feet were beginning to throb. It occurred to her that she didn’t know Joel that well, but it felt so good to sit, she didn’t care if he was an ax murderer. She might care a little later, she told herself, but right then it was immaterial. She caught him glancing appreciatively at her cleavage and figured that if he decided to do something crazy, she had a bargaining chip of sorts.

“Your friend Annie is a very interesting lady,” Joel said as they drove out of the lot.

“That she is. You know she has a huge martini glass with a plastic olive in it on her desk and she drinks her mineral water out of it. One of the managers tried to forbid her from having it out in the open, but so many customers got such a kick out of it, Michael said she could keep it.”

“Somehow I’m not surprised; she looks like she has a lot of character.”

“She is a character. Hey, thanks for giving me a ride. I really didn’t want to be there for much longer. Knowing Tempest she’ll be there until dawn.”

“Happy to be of service,” He smiled at her for a moment and looked back at the road. “Listen, would you like to meet for dinner sometime in the next few days? I know a great little Chinese restaurant not far from where you live.”

“Depends on what day it is. I have a few meetings this week. If you give me the pertinent details, I’ll let you know if I can be there. It’s been a while since I had Chinese food.”

“How did you like the fetish ball?”

“I don’t understand it really,” Otter said looking up at the car roof. “I don’t understand people who so willingly give away their freedom like that.”

“That’s an interesting way to put it.”

“If something turns you on, that’s one thing, but to give your free will to someone who can do what they like with you is beyond my comprehension.”

“Now that you mention it, it is a little strange.”

“It’s like people that move into neighborhoods with a homeowner’s association.”

“Wow, I sure didn’t see that comparison coming.”

“It’s giving up personal choice, giving that privilege to someone else.”

“OK.”

“I’ll bet nobody in that ballroom tonight was less than second generation American. Nobody there had to flee a dictator or an oppressive situation.”

“That would be an interesting study,” Joel said, flashing a grin at her.

“It would make quite a paper. Some anthropologist should take that on. How many migrants who fled an oppressive government move willingly into an HOA neighborhood or become a sex slave.”

“The next anthropological student I meet, I will suggest it.”

“Yeah, me too,” She stretched her legs, “Another good study would be ‘The crazy things one does for friendship.’”

“I’m sure Tempest appreciates what you do for her.”

“Oh, she does. I give her grief about it once in a while, but it does get me away from always thinking about metals and engineering.”

“Do you ever have her get in on the engineering?”

“I run ideas by her once in a while. She’s a good sounding board.”

They drove up in Otter’s driveway. On the front porch was a large cardboard box under the porch light.

“Somebody left you a gift.”

“It’s probably for Tempest. Her clients are always leaving things for her to test or try.”

“So let’s go look,” Joel said putting the car in park.

“Give me a minute; I’m steeling myself up to stand in these things again.”

Joel strode around the car, across the front yard and up the sidewalk. He picked up the box.

“It has your name on it.”

“Just my name, no address or return label?”

“Looks like it.” He brought it over to the car, where she was gingerly beginning to stand. “It has some heft to it. Looks like someone brought it themselves, it wasn’t sent by a delivery service.”

He held out his left arm to help her walk to her garage. She hobbled to the door and flipped up the lid to the hand scanner and waited for it to read her finger and palm prints. Joel lifted an eyebrow in surprise as the garage door opened and the light came on inside. Otter smiled at him.

“In case I forget my key.”

“Impressive.”

A similar scanner was at the door from the garage to the house. The lock clicked quietly and the door opened on its own.

“It’s great for when you have arms full of groceries.” She said as she stepped inside and a light came on automatically.

“I imagine it would be. What do you do if there is a power outage?”

“Not likely to be a problem as these are on a solar circuit, but in case it goes haywire, I have a way to override it.”

“I’m sure you do. What other gadgets do you have in this house?’

“A few here and there, but I can’t give all my secrets away.”

“Just knowing you have more secrets makes you more intriguing.”

“Yeah, I’m a regular Mata Hari.” Otter said as she walked in pain into her house. Joel laughed.

“Where would you like me to put this box?” Joel asked. The garage door led into a laundry room, which led into a small sitting room.

“Just put it on this table,” Otter gestured to a tall display table against the back of the small couch. He sat it on the table and looked at her expectantly. She looked at the label, which only had “Mackenzie” written on it in block letters. She started working at the tape, but Joel brought out a pocket knife and slit the tape open.

Spooky jumped on the table to see what they were doing. He pawed at the lid of the box in excitement, because he loved crawling in boxes. Joel scratched him under the chin which was Spooky’s second favorite thing in the world.

“Hey buddy, nice to see you again,” he said.

“He loves being in the action,” she said as she worked the box open.

The first thing they saw when they opened the flaps was a large stuffed dragon. Under that on the bottom of the box was a laptop. Otter picked a protesting Spooky up and put him on the floor before he took a nose dive inside. She took out the dragon; it had a dog collar on it with the word “Jabberwocky” on it. It also had a charger draped across its back.

“What in the world...”

“What do you think it is,” Joel asked.

“Other than it’s a stuffed dragon and a laptop, I can’t really say,” Otter said as she looked at the dog collar. “Jabberwocky is one of my favorite poems. Weirdly enough, I told Clark that once. This must have come from him somehow.”

“And why would you think that?”

“Because he and I had a running joke, years ago he was teasing me about how women liked romantic, flowery poetry and I told him my favorite poem was called Jabberwocky.”

“OK, so what was the big deal about Jabber-whatever?”

“Do you know the poem?”

“Can’t say that I do,”

“Look it up on the internet,” she said. “It was written by Lewis Carol—the same guy that wrote Alice in Wonderland.” She took the laptop out of the box and Joel put the empty box on the floor—much to Spooky’s delight. Otter put the computer on the table and tried to turn it on. It was dead; she couldn’t get it show even a glimmer of life.

“Looks like we need to charge the battery,” She said looking the outside over like she expected a secret door.

“Well conveniently there is one draped over the dragon.”

“I’ll plug it in tonight and see what happens in the morning.”

“This Clark sure liked his riddles.”

“This is kind of in character for him. He liked the dramatic and he was always making obstacles that prevented people from getting something accomplished. This is exactly like what he would do.”

“Hopefully we figure out what he was trying to say before we die of old age.”

“Little prick,” Otter muttered “Why didn’t he just tell me what he had? Something like: ‘Hey Otter, if something happens to me, I have a list with a code and it means that John Smith is a cold blooded killer.’”

“His killer might be looking for all of his evidence if he has any,” Joel pointed out reasonably. “If you are having a difficult time, you know that whoever Clark was worried about is having more trouble than you. You keep getting stuff dumped on you; I doubt the other person has the same advantage.”

“There is that,” Otter agreed looking at the tag on the dragon. “This is just a gold engraved tag you can get anywhere. The pet stores even have kiosks where you can pick your tag, type in the animal’s name and put your money in. It spits out a tag in a couple of minutes.”

“There’s nothing else on it, no codes or anything?”

“Nope,”

“It sounds like a lot of people didn’t like him and out of that number we can figure out how many actually want him dead.”

“Right now, I’m one of them,” Otter said, “He’s getting on my nerves more now than when he was alive. I need to do something and I need to figure out what to do next.”

Joel’s phone signaled and he looked at the readout. “I have to go, they need me at work.”

“Wow and I thought I had crazy hours.”

“Get some sleep,” he said and kissed her on the forehead. “We can talk more about this later. I will call you as soon as I can.”

“OK,” she walked him to the door to the garage, “It’s Saturday night and the crazies are on the road, be safe.”

“I will.” Then he was gone.

Otter sat in one of her easy chairs and began the thirty minute process of unlacing and taking off her boots. Fortunately she was helped by Mouse, the clothing expert, who assisted by playing with the boot laces. They were some hot looking boots she had to admit as she picked them up and carried them into the bedroom. The bustier took another 20 minutes; she took off the makeup and the leather pants and got into the shower. Once she was in her night shirt, she double checked to make sure the house was secure, fed the cats and went to bed.

She thought about Joel. He was pretty nice so far. He liked cats and seemed genuinely interested in her, but what was with the kiss on the forehead? She sighed to herself. It looked like Joel was going to be another guy that was going to be a buddy not a potential boyfriend. How did that keep happening?

Of course the stupid murder didn’t help. She was turning into The Woman with a Fascinating Problem. She was just going to have to soldier up and get the thing solved. Otherwise it will keep hanging around until someone else got killed or it swallowed up her life.

She would call Susan in the morning and see if she would come and see the dragon and lap top. That someone would leave them on her front porch was a little unsettling. Maybe it would be of interest to somebody who can do some official investigating. She could poke some places and see what she could find in the meantime and maybe give the police even more.