59
“Good night, Stanley,” Tish said sweetly and he nodded in a daze.
Dayshia’s kiss caught him completely by surprise as it was so quick and intense then she was disappearing down the hall to the living room. He turned back to the door and into a deep and sensual kiss from Sandy. God! She felt, and tasted, amazing!
As the kiss parted, a lock of her hair reached forward to stroke across his lips. Sandy didn’t even appear aware of this as she was looking him in the eye with a smile.
Then she stepped back, closing the door and he was out in the hall. He made his way to the elevator and up to his floor. He let himself in and locked up. He had to lean back against the door to catch his breath.
He wasn’t at all sure what had just happened… but his body sure liked it. He stripped off his clothes and got ready for bed.
But sleep wasn’t quick to claim him tonight.This belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.
Back in Sandy’s condo the three women were busy grinning at each other.
“He’s a pretty good kisser! A little gentle for my tastes,” Tish sighed.
Something about that comment triggered a recollection for Dayshia. She looked to the statue again. “Three fingers.”
Sandy’s head whipped around to stare at her friend. Her mouth dropped open in shock.
“Bigger muscles. Much bigger,” Tish sighed, looking at the art piece too, now.
Sandy stared at her as well. “Long brown hair,” she said quietly and her friends nodded, Tish with a dreamy smile and Dayshia with wide troubled eyes.
“And an absolutely monstrous cock!” Tish giggled.
Dayshia had reached her limit. “How the hell are we all seeing the same image!?! I know I’ve never seen this… Satyr… Faun… thing before in my life! Yet now it’s front and center in my mind!”
“What happened?” Sandy asked.
Dayshia shook her head. “Your crazy hair got all charged up and Stanley put his hand right into it! I grabbed his arm-”
“I grabbed the other one!” Tish blurted with a grin.
“Next thing I knew I was… feeling… really good!”
“Me too!” Tish sighed.
“I felt incredible! My whole body did!” Sandy sighed. “Stanley put his hand into my hair?” she asked quietly.
Tish had a sexy smile on her face as she recalled Stanley’s reaction. “I think it felt really good for him too!”
“That’s when I saw the… Faun!”
“That’s when I was remembering it!” Sandy said with wide eyes.
Dayshia blinked at her friend. “No… no, that’s not possible,” she said as she shook her head.
“Hey! Crazy shit happens!” Tish said with a shrug. “Maybe something about that static charge let us all synchronize our minds for just a second. That’s all the time it would take to share an image.” She raised her hands. “I’m not saying that’s what did happen. I’m just suggesting that maybe it could have happened that way.”
“I don’t believe in telepathy or any of that other mystical shit!” Dayshia growled.
Tish held up her hands in surrender but smiled. “I’m just offering a potential explanation.”
“There has to be a more reasonable answer,” Dayshia insisted.
“Come on, let’s head out and on the way we’ll try to come up with answers your silly rational mind will accept,” Tish said with a grin. She gave Sandy a hug as did Dayshia and they headed home.
Sandy tidied up the packing peanuts and realized she’d be sending the sculpture back. The differences between it and the image of the Faun in her memory were too annoying to let her keep it.
She’d send it back in the morning.
As she prepared for bed she thought about that amazing feeling she had when Stanley touched her hair. A new wave of tingles, gentle this time, trickled from her scalp to her toes as she smiled and hugged herself. She twirled a lock of her hair around a finger as she laid back on her pillow. She had warm thoughts of Stanley as she recalled their kiss tonight. He seemed pretty tipsy. She wondered if he’d remember in the morning. She doubted she’d ever forget. Tish was right. He was a good kisser!
Detective Harmon scowled at the polished concrete floors. He’d spent all of his Saturday trying to get an address for this business and then most of his Sunday trying to reach the super of the building to get him inside when he discovered the business seemed to be shut down.
“Geezus! I wish my place was this fucking clean!” Morris growled.
The building super looked between the two angry detectives. “Is there a problem with how clean it is? The previous tenant moved out and removed the leasehold improvements they made as per their leasing agreement.”
“Do they normally scrub and polish the concrete?” Morris asked.
“No… never.”
“When did Ulysses Global Investments close up shop?” Harmon asked him.
“I don’t know. Maybe… ten days ago? I got a message from the owner saying he was breaking the lease. A few days later I came by and found it like this. I wish all tenants were this good about cleaning up when they left,” the super said.
“Do you have an address for the owner?” Harmon sighed.
“Mr. Ulysses? No. The only address I had bounced his mail back to me. I always contacted him here but his checks always cleared at the bank,” the man responded.
“Geezus, the guy’s name is Ulysses? Sounds like a tool.” Morris grumbled.
“Are all the floors like this?” Harmon asked.
“The company only used the ground floor, the second floor and the top floor though they rented the whole building,” the super explained. “The other floors are as clean. Like I said, a good tenant.”
“Shit.” Harmon sighed. Another dead end. He wanted to go back to speak to their witness. See if the name Ulysses rang any bells with him. If that didn’t work maybe he’d let Morris get the truth from the little guy.
He sighed as he knew he wouldn’t really do that but he was starting to taste the rot in this case. It was turning his gut. This scrubbed clean building set his instincts off. They were telling him that, like the original scene of the kidnapping, someone died here.
Someone was keeping secrets. He wondered exactly how much Mr. Garin knew.
Stanley relaxed back against his sofa after handing Marisa a cup of tea. She’d brought him some dinner and they’d enjoyed the meal.
He’d brought her up to speed on the events of Sandy’s party, omitting the kissing, and she was wearing a concerned look on her face.
“The magic isn’t fading,” she murmured quietly.
“What happens if she draws attention to the fact that her hair actually does have a mind of its own?” Stanley asked.
Marisa’s face showed her worry quite plainly so he inferred something bad might befall his friend to silence her.
“Shit! How do I warn her to keep it quiet without giving anything away or making her want to know more? This is my fault!” Stanley exclaimed.
“It’s more my fault than yours, Stanley.” Marisa said sadly.
“Then what are we going to do about it!” he asked.
“There isn’t anything we can do about it. We aren’t magic wielders. We can’t take the magic away. Saying anything to her is just going to make matters worse for her. If she shows up on the Hidden Races Council’s radar as a problem… steps will be taken.”
“If we’re not wielders maybe we could ask a wielder to nullify the effect on her hair for us!” he said excitedly.
“Who? Walter? You must have picked up on how he feels about Humans. The Fae? Not fans of Humanity either. Their solutions would involve violence of some kind,” she sighed.
“What about Baba? I could ask her!” he blurted.
Marisa gave him a sad smile. “Do you really believe she would make this kind of effort for a Human? How do you think she feels about Humanity?”
Stanley recalled her expression when she told him his parents had been murdered by humans. She’d been testing him but he didn’t know for what.
“She’s human-”
“She likely was… once. A very long time ago. I don’t believe she holds any connection to the race anymore,” Marisa said softly.
Stanley surged to his feet in frustration. He needed to do something!
Marisa leaned forward to catch his eye. “There’s also the matter that the magic which… changed Sandy isn’t the old magic. It’s stronger. Feeling my connection to it I can feel how weak the old magic has become. I doubt the current wielders would be able to do anything to suppress or control it. Their solutions, again, would be more permanent.”
“Fuck! I hate all this secrecy!” he barked.
“You understand its importance though, right?” she asked cautiously.
He sagged back to the couch. “Yes,” he said in defeat. He was just one man. What could he do?
There was a loud knock on the door. Marisa shared a look with Stanley. He rose to his feet. Marisa joined him as they walked to the door.
“I’m not expecting anyone,” Stanley said quietly.
He reached the door and looked through the peephole.
“It’s the detectives!” Stanley said as he pulled the door open. The two men were not smiling.
“Mr. Garin. We have some additional questions,” one said as his partner was openly checking Marisa out. Stanley bristled until he felt her hand on his shoulder.
“Come in officers,” she said, gently pulling Stanley back to the living room.
They closed the door and followed them in.
“And you are?”
Stanley recalled this one was Detective Harmon.
“I’m Marisa Villamor.”
The detectives’ eyes locked on her. “Villamor of VRL’s Villamor?”
“My aunt, Camila Villamor, is the CIO. I’m Stanley’s Executive Assistant,” she said with a smile.
The other detective snorted and Stanley gave him a frown.
“We went to the address you gave us Mr. Garin but the site had been professionally cleaned. There was also already a crew repairing the damage. Paid for by ‘Ulysses Global Investments’.” The detective was watching Stanley’s reaction
“You seem to know that name, Executive Ass-istant Villamor,” Detective Morris said with a greasy smile.