Temptations - The Complete Series Page 10

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Fall in love? I hardly know him.” Even as I said that, though, I wasn’t convinced that I meant it. I might have just met him, but, there was no doubt about it, there was something there between us. It was an unspoken understanding. I felt that he got me, and I got him. I didn’t know exactly why, but that was just what I was feeling.

  “Would you let me finish? If he falls in love with you, then he’s going to show some vulnerability. There’s no better way to get to a truth that somebody is hiding than to make that person fall in love with you. People tend to spill secrets to the person that they care about. It just kind of happens that way with intimacy.”

  “Malcolm,” I began. “First, you send me up there to try to use my psychic powers to get the truth out of him. Now you want me to use sex to do that. Why don’t you use, you know, the evidence and things like that to try to get to the bottom of the whole affair? What a concept – an attorney using evidence to get at the truth.”

  “Because the evidence is ambiguous, at best, in this case. Let’s face it, the guy had motive to kill Jordan. His fingerprints were all over that lab. Granted, it was because he worked in that lab, too, but it doesn’t help that his fingerprints were the only fingerprints found, with the exception of Jordan himself. That lab had more security than Fort Knox, so it would be next to impossible for a random person to get in there. And the videotape of the murder is missing. There’s video surveillance of that lab, but there’s about a half hour missing, and, of course, the missing part of the video was the part where Jordan was murdered. Our guy would have the best access to the video, and he would be able to edit it better than anybody else.”

  “In other words, it’s not looking so good for Slade.” Malcolm suspected that Slade was guilty, and that pierced my heart. I knew that I was emotionally invested in Slade, already, and I couldn’t possibly provide an unbiased representation of him.

  “Listen, of course it’s not looking good for him. It hasn’t been looking good for him since the beginning. We have to go with a SODDI defense, but the bad part is that we have no idea who that other dude might be.”

  SODDI meant “some other dude did it,” which was always the major way that murder suspects are defended. It was imperative that we find the “other dude” who did this, and I knew that Malcolm had his own investigators on the case. He wasn’t going to just let the police do their work, because the police seemed to be fixated on Slade, to the exclusion of all others. That’s what happened in high profile cases, unfortunately – the police decide early that a certain person did it, and they look at all the evidence in the light that would support that theory, and dismiss evidence that didn’t. It was called “confirmation bias” or “tunnel vision,” and, unfortunately, it was just human nature. It was only human to look at evidence with a jaundiced eye, supported by prejudice or some other unconscious process. Unfortunately, the confirmation bias tended to be exacerbated in high-profile cases such as this one, because the cops were dying to bag a big kahuna.

  I bit my lip. “I could help with that,” I said, and then immediately regretted opening my mouth. I was going to volunteer to do something that was dangerous for me, more than dangerous. It was going to be something that could very well damage my psyche beyond repair, and could plunge me into the darkness that I felt for the first 25 years of my life. I was going to volunteer to try to commune with the dead guy, and, once I did that, I was afraid that the gates would open, and I wouldn’t be able to silence the spirits again. They had left me alone for 3 years, and, for 3 years, I was actually able to try to find some peace in my life. It was a hard-fought peace, buoyed by hypnotherapy and constantly trying to fixate on something healthy.

  I was going down the rabbit hole. I not only was drawn to Slade for reasons that weren’t entirely healthy – I felt that he was a dominant, and I desperately wanted that – but I also, possibly, was going to open up the spiritual floodgates. That would spin me completely off my axis.

  But, at the same time, I wanted to do it for Slade. I had no idea why, but I was willing to sacrifice for him. I felt, for some odd reason, that I would go to the ends of the earth for him.

  “Oh,” Malcolm said. “What do you mean, Serena?”

  “I can communicate with Jordan. All that I need would be an item of clothing from him. If you could get that from his widow, I can try to find out what happened to him by communicating with him directly.”

  Malcolm nodded his head slowly. “That sounds fantastic. But how will I be able to get that from his widow? I can’t very well subpoena it. A court would quash that subpoena in a heartbeat, unless we happened to find a judge who believes in spirit empathic abilities, which would be a long-shot, to say the very least.”

  “I could always just ask the widow. I could explain to her why I need it.”

  “You can’t just go and ask her. She would think that you were nuts.”

  “How do you know this? She might believe.”

  “Listen, his widow is a scientist. A scientist tends not to believe in things like psychics and spirits and all of that. I would be extremely surprised if you get somewhere with this woman.”

  “I know that, but perhaps she would give me an article of clothing to humor me. Maybe there’s a doubt there in her mind that there’s no such thing as a psychic or a spiritual empath. She has nothing to lose, after all.”

  “Well, I suppose. She is coming into the office this week. I can certainly ask her then. She’ll laugh at me, and then that will be it. And we’ll be back to square one – trying to find out who did this to Jordan. Right now, Slade is the only suspect that the police have. Our investigators are trying to find out more, but this Jordan was a private guy. He was also extremely secretive. He kept almost everything from Slade himself, as far as what he was working on. We’ve reached a dead-end so far on finding out another suspect for this murder.”

  “We’ve got nothing to lose, then.” I started to relax. We were getting away from the issue of my continuing a relationship with Slade, and I didn’t want to revisit it. We were on a much more comfortable path, talking about the case. “I’ll see if I can ask her about the clothing when she comes in to see us.”

  “Yes,” he said. “Now, Serena, you need to tell me the truth about your relationship with Mr. Bridgewell. I would encourage you to keep seeing him romantically. I will not tell anybody at the office about it, of course that goes without saying. But it could very well lead to us breaking the case.”

  I shook my head. “I thank you for your permission, but I’m not interested in him anymore.” I was lying when I said that, of course. I was lying to him, and I was lying to myself. Truth be told, I craved him. I craved him like I used to crave the feeling of the belt on my back. Like I used to crave the feeling of my nipples being clamped. Like I used to crave the exquisite pain and helplessness of being tied to a St. Andrew’s Cross, while being slashed with a cat-o-nine tails. I wanted that feeling of not being in control at all. Of having a total loss of control.

  I had to overcome that feeling, though. I knew that.

  I had to stay away from Slade, whatever it took. When I saw him again, I would treat him professionally, and wouldn’t go there with him ever again.

  Chapter 11

  That evening, when I went home from work, and I picked up my dogs, I got a phone call. I picked up, and Slade’s voice was on the other end. “Serena,” he said. “Meet me in Del Mar. I have a surprise for you.”

  I took a deep breath, and closed my eyes. “No, Slade, I can’t meet you. I’m sorry. I told you at your house that I can’t see you like that anymore.”

  “Meet me at….” He gave me an address that I didn’t recognize. “Be there in an hour. Be there, or suffer the consequences.”

  I had no idea if he was joking about that last comment. But I was intrigued. “I’ll be there,” I said.

  And then I called Michael. I wanted a buffer when I saw Slade again. If I brought Michael with me, then there could be no chanc
e that I would be in bed with Slade that evening. After all, he invited me to a place that could be a house. I didn’t know if Slade owned a house in the San Diego area, but it wouldn’t surprise me. And I had no desire to see Slade in a private home. That would be a recipe for disaster. At any rate, I doubted that I could stay out of his bed if I met him in a private home.

  “Hey, Serena,” he said. “What’s up?”

  “I was hoping you might be free this evening.”

  “I’m not, but Donny is. He’s just sitting around the house right now, binge-watching Orange is the New Black. As usual.”

  “I’ll call him.”

  “Later.”

  I then called Donny. “Hey,” he said when I called. “When you gonna be home? I’m starving for some vegan nachos. I don’t know how you make those, but they’re like crack. Not that I know what crack is like from personal experience, of course.”

  “I’ll make those for you special, and I’ll do your laundry if you do one thing for me this evening.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Come out with me to meet this guy in Del Mar.”

  “You need a wing man, or you need a buffer? It’s not another Internet date, is it? The last time you dragged me to meet a dude you met on the Internet wasn’t exactly the time of my life. No offense.”

  I laughed in spite of myself. I did drag Donny along to meet a guy, because I wasn’t sure about the guy. Turns out I wasn’t sure about this guy for a good reason, because that date was a total drag. Donny had dinner at a different table, and I called him while my “date” was in the restroom. I told my “date” that I was sick, and then Donny and I high-tailed it out of there and had drinks at a bar in the Gaslamp. The evening started out rotten, but I had to admit that it was fun afterwards. Donny was a funny guy, and I always had a good time with him.

  “I need a buffer, but it’s not what you think. This guy is….” I had no words for how I felt about Slade. I barely knew him, yet I felt more strongly for him than I had about anybody ever before. I couldn’t explain it, even to myself.

  “Is what?”

  “I’m just very attracted to him, that’s all. And he’s a client of our law firm, and I just can’t go there. I’ll come and get you, but please be ready when I pull up.” I felt anxious that I was going to be late meeting Slade, and, for some reason, I knew that he wouldn’t be pleased. I wanted to please him. It was imperative to me that I please him.

  “Okay,” he said. “Why not? I got nothing else going on around here. Buy me dinner tonight, or sometime this week, and I’ll be there with bells on.”

  “Great, thanks,” I said.

  I picked up Donny, fed the dogs and put them in their kennel, and then we headed up to Del Mar. I had my GPS on, and it was leading me to a nice neighborhood, not that there were any other kind in Del Mar. This was a seaside community where the well-heeled San Diegans lived. It was difficult to find a single-family home that sold for less than a million dollars in this area. Some homes were less than a million, but they tended to be townhomes and condos, and even those were hardly ever found less than $600,000. It was a highly desirable area of town; that was for sure.

  I finally got to the home where Slade was supposed to meet me. It was in a residential neighborhood and was close to the ocean. The home was large, with two stories, and it was a modern stucco home with a Spanish tile roof and was surrounded by palm trees. I walked in with Donny. Slade was in the kitchen of this home, which was empty, making some kind of salad.

  I was absolutely confused, but this home was gorgeous inside. Twenty foot ceilings, a skylight, Spanish tile in the foyer, hardwood floors in the living area. Granite countertops in the enormous kitchen which opened up into a sun room, which, in turn, opened up into a large backyard with a pool. It also had a large formal dining room on the main floor.

  I looked at Slade, and he saw me, his face lighting up. Then he looked at Donny, and his face fell. He returned to making his salad, without greeting me.

  I concentrated on what I was feeling from him, and he was clearly angry. I closed my eyes, and I could feel that anger flashing through me, white-hot. At first I was confused on why he was angry, and then it occurred to me – he was angry that Donny was there with me.

  But, to look at him, you wouldn’t know that he was that angry. He wasn’t looking at either of us, but, to an untrained eye, it simply looked as if he was very into making that salad. He was chopping up a cucumber and an onion, and was sprinkling on herbs, salt and pepper. He was even humming a tune that I didn’t recognize at first, but I soon recognized as Creep by Radiohead. His knife made quick work of chopping up some more vegetables, including bell pepper, carrots and a tomato.

  I finally broke the ice. “Well, well, well. I guess that you’re not so helpless. I’m surprised that you didn’t get Marina to come down here with you and do this for you.”

  He looked up at me. “You’d be surprised on what I can do in the kitchen. Granted, I usually have Marina make food for me, but that’s only because I work so much that I need help in that area. And, when you were there with me, I was interested in talking with you, not cooking. But I can cook more than you think.”

  I smiled. “I was only teasing you.”

  A smile edged around the corners of his eyes. “I know that. Besides, making a salad isn’t exactly a huge feat.” Then he looked at Donny questioningly.

  At that, Donny extended a calloused hand. Slade shook it firmly. “I’m Donny, Serena’s roommate for the time being.”

  I closed my eyes, and still felt the anger that was emanating from Slade. I opened my eyes, and saw Slade shaking Donny’s hand with a smile.

  That concerned me, to say the least. Slade was an expert at covering up what he was feeling. That wasn’t a good sign, because if he could be deceptive about something as simple as this, who was to say that he couldn’t be deceptive about everything?

  I also felt jealousy coming from Slade, and I smiled. I was flattered that he was jealous, to be honest.

  “Well,” Slade said. “I made more than enough food, so Donny, you’re welcome to join us.” That was what his lips were saying, but, inside, he was clearly seething.

  “Cool,” Donny said. “Whatever it is you’re making, it smells fantastic.”

  Slade shrugged his shoulders. “It’s just spaghetti and vegan meatballs. The sauce is authentic, though. My mother is Italian.”

  It struck me that I had, up until that very moment, known nothing at all about his family. “Tell me about your mother,” I said to him.

  “Later,” he said. “For now, let’s eat.”

  We all went out onto the patio, which had a table and four chairs. It was the only room in the house, however, that had any furniture in it at all. There was a vase of flowers in the middle. Slade brought out a bottle of wine, and he poured each of us a glass.

  I sipped the wine, and observed the food. The spaghetti looked scrumptious, to say the very least. He also made garlic bread. “That garlic bread is made with non-dairy butter,” he said to me. “I picked it up at Whole Foods.”

  The food was as wonderful as it looked. “Well, Slade, I think that you mastered the art of making marinara sauce. This dinner is amazing.”

  “Thanks,” he said.

  We ate in a strained silence for a little bit, until Donny piped up. “I don’t want to be rude,” he said, “but I wanted to give you my sympathy, dude, about what you’re going through.”

  Slade glanced at me. “What do you know about me?”

  “I don’t know that much, but a friend of mine watches Anna Place all the time. She really has it in for you.”

  Anna Place was a southern blonde woman with a nightly show on CNN. She was loud, aggressive, pushy, and proclaimed guilt until proven innocent. She also was nasty in how she engaged in lurid speculation about her victims, right there on air. She invited “experts” on her show, all of whom engaged in a breathless analysis of the case, all of whom also proclaimed Slade
guilty. Anna disgusted me, to be perfectly honest. She hurt people all the time, and was constantly just on the verge of a huge slander lawsuit.

  Slade rolled his eyes. “Anna Place has me already on the gurney with a needle in my arm. I don’t listen to her.”

  “Well, even so, I feel for you, dude. I couldn’t imagine being put through the ringer like that night after night.”

  “I appreciate that,” Slade said. Then he turned to me. “You haven’t heard what dear old Anna is saying about me, have you?”

  I shook my head. “No. I haven’t wanted things in my head that might prejudice me. Listening to her would definitely prejudice me. She certainly does tend to go after people she hates, like a dog after a bone, and, even when she turns out to be wrong, she never apologizes. I don’t know how she gets away with it. I really don’t.”

  Actually, I did know how she got away with it. She was always on the verge of slander, but never quite crossed it. She engaged in plenty of dirty speculation, and her expert witness guests were careful to tell the audience that they are not connected to whatever case was being discussed, but nobody actually told lies about their subjects.

  “Good,” he said, as he helped himself to some more spaghetti.

  “I wouldn’t worry about what she says,” Donny said. “She’s kind of a stupid bitch.”

  Slade grinned and nodded his head at that one. “Understatement of the year. Marijuana is being legalized in more and more states, and it’s been fun watching her head pop off about that.”

  Indeed, Anna had been one of the more vocal critics of legalizing marijuana. The fact that Slade was growing marijuana legally on one of his farms was probably one of the reasons why she was so out to get him.

  Donny laughed and raised his glass. “Ain’t that the truth. Just wait until the federal government legalizes it. She’ll really have a Defcon fit.”

  I finally asked Slade the question that was on my mind. “This house is pretty empty. Is this house yours? Did you just buy it?”