Otter Under Fire (8 page)

“Yeah, I know.”

“So if he was murdered, the killer didn’t know about the policy.”

“Maybe it was Dolan in welding.”

“Dolan! Yes that’s what I forgot to show you.” Greg picked up the box of Clark’s property and dug around in it. “I saw something else in here, I thought you might like to see. Maybe you would know what to do with it.”

With a cry of victory, he grasped an object in the box and handed it to her. It was a large hunting knife, well over the legal limit. It looked ancient. Carved in the worn and dirty handle was the name “Dolan”.

“I hated the son of a bitch, Otter, you know that.” Dolan said, swinging his welder’s helmet gently from side to side. “I’m glad the motherfucker’s dead.”

“Why did you hate him so much?”

“You know what he was like. He would screw with people and try to catch them doing something wrong, and then he’d lord over you. He caught me smoking out back by the tanks and he held it over my head until he died. Oh shit, I didn’t mean to tell you that.”

“You were smoking by the tanks? The tanks full of explosive gas? Those tanks?”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t stupid,” he muttered. “I was on my last puff and I was a hundred feet away from the gate into the storage yard. I don’t think it was a serious risk, but he was there and he caught me. He threatened to have me fired for months.”

“Shit Dolan,”

“And you won’t fire me cuz you didn’t see it. You might write me up for it,”

“I might at that,”

“But it was months ago and I won’t do it again. You might say you gave me my verbal warning and let it go at that.” He grinned at her hopefully.

“What else did he do? I know you don’t hate someone that much over one little incident.”

“Years ago, he took something of mine,” Dolan choked a little, “and he destroyed it. It nearly killed me. It belonged to my grandpa, and some said it belonged to his pa. I brought it in to show the guys and he confiscated it. He said he would destroy it and I was lucky he didn’t turn me into the police. I was on probation back then. He could have gotten me in serious trouble.”

“So you threatened to kill him.”

“Yeah, I guess,” he said sheepishly, “but I didn’t. I’ve been clean for years and have a nice family now. Michael gave me a second chance when I got out of prison you know that.”

“Yes, I do,”

“And I wouldn’t do anything that would give Michael any trouble. I owe him.”

“Does this belong to you?” Otter took the knife out of the box she was holding. She sure didn’t want to be seen carrying it through the shop.

Dolan froze for a moment as he stared at the knife. Then tears welled up in his eyes.

“But he told me he destroyed it. He said he put it in the salt pot and melted it down.”

“Dolan you’re a welder. You know the salt pot isn’t hot enough to melt steel. It would have burned off the handle, but the blade would have been ok.”

“I know, and me an’ George dredge the salt pot one night to see if we could find it, but it wasn’t in there. Where did you find it?”

Otter handed him the knife, handle first. “It was in Clark’s office. Apparently he kept it in his desk.”

“Motherfucker,” Dolan sighed, “if he wasn’t dead already, I’d kill him now. Can I have this back?”

“Put it in your locker, take it home tonight and I don’t ever want to see it in this building again.”

“Otter, you’re all right. Thanks, I owe you one.”

“I’ll be back later for you to sign the log for your verbal warning,” Otter said, “in case anyone wonders what we were talking about.”

Dolan’s face split into a wide grin. “I’ve always thought you were the best boss here, Otter. You’re right; I’d rather the guys didn’t know that Clark was able to fuck me over.”

“It’ll be our secret.”

“But I won in the end, didn’t I?”

“I suppose so.”

As Otter walked back to her office, it occurred to her that she had just eliminated her main suspect. A further thought occurred to her that if Clark screwed with one of the guys, he probably screwed with others. Maybe he fatally screwed with the wrong one.

Joseph had been free for a couple of hours for lunch and Tempest was in between clients. So they met in a little motel off the I-17 for a hot, passionate encounter. They rained kisses on each other and ripped each other’s clothes off almost before they got the door shut. They frantically embraced in a desperate attempt to finally attain a satisfying climax after all their frustrating attempts of the past few weeks.

The heat of their need could have peeled the paint off the walls as they moved together to heighten their excitement. They panted, they groaned and she found him hard as a rock.

Still, Tempest had her agenda and she was not going to stray from it. They had a limited amount of equipment since she had had only 15 minutes notice. So she had a ball gag, some handcuffs, the mask, the whip and a few vibrating toys. She also had a lust capable of incinerating paper 500 feet away.

She took charge because they had so little time. Joseph was handcuffed, blindfolded and gagged in a matter of seconds. She would
make
him do her bidding.

Fortunately, she had just enough time to take him to emergency before her next appointment.

It took the better part of the day, but Otter finally found it. Clark the bureaucrat had a list for everything. He had it saved in his spreadsheet files under “projects”.

His blackmail/screw with people list.

It was neatly titled “Christ’s Sword Project” and there had to be more than 200 people on that register. Each name was catalogued alphabetically with dates of offenses and actions taken. Clearly he didn’t blackmail for money. His brand of extortion was more about power and manipulation. People who were under his petty monarchy would have no choice, but to do as he said. And it was interesting that not everyone in his little fiefdom worked at the shop.

More interesting yet was who was not on his list. Michael wasn’t, Mitch wasn’t and neither was Gonzo. Much to her surprise, Defray wasn’t on it either. Otter knew she wouldn’t be, but she checked just in case.

So it begged the question of why Clark wanted her to be in charge of AzTech. He didn’t have anything on her and he couldn’t manipulate her. Unless he thought he could get something. That worried her a little. What could she have done that a blackmailer could use? Why didn’t he just try to get one of his people promoted?

“So you found it,” a voice said behind her.

“Yes, I did,” she said. “I’m surprised that you didn’t.”

“You have a lot less people looking over your shoulder than I’ve had lately,” Greg said, closing her door. “Mitch and Michael wanted to go over all the files to make sure I gave you everything.”

“You know you’re on the list.”

“Yes,” Greg said.

“How did Clark find out?”

“I have no idea. He called me into his office one day and told me what he knew.”

“I knew he was an asshole, I had no idea to what depth.”

“I married her you know.”

“It’s really none of my business.”

“You’re my friend; I want to tell you, I don’t want you wondering.”

“OK,”

“She was 16, I was 18 and she got pregnant, and we were so not ready for a baby.”

“I see, and in Arizona, you could go to jail.”

“Yeah, I would have been labeled a sex offender for the rest of my life since she was under age.”

“That sucks,”

“So she told everyone that the father was someone else who was also under age and I gave her the money for the abortion.”

“The other guy was ok with this?”

“Yeah, he was a local kid, I don’t think he cared.”

“You paid him too, didn’t you?”

Greg sighed. “I did.”

“That’s probably how Clark found out.”

“Yeah, it probably was, now that you mention it. Anyway, she and I broke up after that, but I missed her and persuaded her to give me another chance. A few months later, we started seeing each other again, and we got engaged a few years later. We’ve been married 15 years.”

“Then Clark rears his ugly head.”

Greg chuckled. “That’s a good way to put it.”

“None of this is still any of my business. You didn’t have to tell me.”

“Yeah I did, and all the people on that list? You are going to have to let them all know you have it and they don’t have to worry anymore.”

“I don’t want this responsibility.”

“That’s kind of too bad. You got stuck with it.”

“Thanks a lot, Jerk.”

Greg grinned at her.

“So what did he want from you? It doesn’t seem to be money.”

Greg’s grin widened. “He wanted me to let him know confidential purchases of equipment and give him employee passwords.”

“Did you give them to him?”

“Boy did I ever. A skewed version,” The grin flashed again. “He thought he was getting a lot more than he was.”

“Even the passwords?”

“I can create files for fake passwords. He thought he was looking at confidential information, but he was looking at imposters.”

“That’s a lot of work.”

“Actually, it was fun screwing with him. He was a pompous, puffed up, sanctimonious asshole.”

“And now I have his blackmail list.”

“Yes, you do.”

“The problem is, what if one of these people is the killer? They aren’t going to be too happy that I have this.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Well, I’m talking to a cop tonight. Maybe she’ll take it off my hands.”

“Smart plan, but what about…”

“Statute of limitations,” Otter said. “They can’t arrest you for something that happened 20 years ago without any proof.”

To Otter’s surprise, the waterfall was finished when she got home. The flames on the top flared, the fog misted out of the proper nozzles and the water cascaded into the pool at the appropriate angle.

“It got finished just in time for our party,” Tempest said, joining Otter in the back yard. “It looks so cool.”

“They didn’t ask for more money?” Otter asked curiously.

“No, as a matter of fact they seemed to be in a hurry. I got the impression that they wanted to be done and out of here before you got home.”

“Hmm, odd,” Otter said. “I can’t wait to show it off at the party tonight.”

“Me neither,” Tempest said. “Hopefully tonight will be a lot more successful than today.”

“Oh?” Otter said turning to her friend, “What happened?”

“Joseph and I had a couple of hours to spare today,” Tempest said, “and we met in a little motel not far from here.”

“Oh Lord, what happened this time?”

“I decided to take charge, since we didn’t have a lot of time.” Tempest began, “and I was doing some serious exciting stuff with this little vibrator I brought. It’s little, but it’s really powerful.”

“Sounds simple enough,”

“Then I lost it.”

“You dropped it?”

“No, I lost it. It got sucked up inside him somehow. I tried to get it out, but eew.”

“Oh my, and then what?”

“He freaked out. I kept telling him that it could only come out, it wasn’t going to crawl up inside him, but I wasn’t so sure after it was sucked out of my fingertips. And the damned thing was on full power and buzzing up his insides.”

“But everything is ok now?”

“I haven’t heard. I took him to emergency on my way to my next meeting. I think he broke up with me on the way to the hospital.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s ok. There are plenty more where he came from.”

“You seem pretty calm about this.”

“Only on the outside, Otter, only on the outside,”

“Well, you can dance, eat and drink away your frustrations tonight at the party.”

“Oh, look at the time,” Tempest said, “Both Susan and the caterers are on their way. We should probably go get ready.”

With a last admiring glance at her waterfall, Otter went in the house and got her shower. She put on an azure sundress, worked her thick brown hair in a long French braid, wreathed her face in curls with a curling iron and put on a pair of silver sandals that had crisscrossing straps all the way up to her knees. With complimenting sapphire jewelry she had made herself, she rather felt like a goddess.

When she came out of her side of the house she saw Tempest and Otter had to laugh. Where Otter possibly looked like a moon goddess, Tempest looked like the goddess of a volcano. Her sleeveless dress was fiery rust silk, her jewelry was gold. Her long black hair was done up in a Grecian style that trailed down her back in a riot of curls and a gold circlet with a carnelian rested over her brow. Her sandals were gold and accented with multi-colored gems.

“Don’t we look beautiful?” Tempest exclaimed. “We’re goddesses in our temple!”

Then the doorbell rang and heralded the beginning of the evening.

The three of them sat in the living room around the coffee table while the spicy scent of party food wafted from the dining room.

Duke lay off to the side, head wrestling with Stella
[7]
the cat to their mutual delight.

“So what do you have to show me?” Susan asked while nibbling on a loaded nacho. She wore a lavender floral sun dress and white leather sandals that highlighted her delicate femininity. Otter smiled to herself. She had seen that delicate blossom of femininity put her fist through a wall at numerous competitions. It probably paid to have some camouflage in her circumstances, she mused.

Otter brought out the appointment book, copies of the articles on Marvin Jones and a copy of the blackmail list. She told the story from the beginning and explained how she got involved and why she was beginning to worry about her own safety.

“So I was hoping,” Otter said to Susan, “that you could give me some help or tell me which direction to go.”

“Wow, Otter you guys just gave me a load of trouble.”

“We know.”

“The case is closed already, which makes it difficult to open it back up.”

“There must be something we can do,” Tempest said, “Otter could be in danger.”

“And I’m not in Homicide and I’m not even to the rank of detective yet, so I have limited influence on this.”

“So you can’t do anything?’ Otter asked, disappointed.

“I didn’t say that. I can talk to my commander; I have a couple of friends who are in homicide in the Phoenix police force. I’m not making any promises, of course.”

“Of course,” Tempest said.

“There’s another interesting thing in this appointment book,” Otter said. “Clark had plans to go shooting with someone on the day he died. I’ll bet that his hand was checked for gunpowder residue, but he would have been covered in it. That probably helped determine he killed himself.”

“Maybe,” Susan said. “I’ll rattle some cages and let you know.”

“I’d appreciate it. And would you take the appointment book? I don’t want to have it in my possession.”

“Yeah, I’ll need to take it. I’ll have to show it to my commander.”

“Thanks,”

“Joel is coming over tonight; you might want to tell him, too.”

“Since he works with the coroner, he might have some insights.”

“He’s a lot more than that,” Susan said, “He’s only a coroner’s assistant right now because he’s interested in it. It’s not what he does for a living.”

“Wow Otter, he sounds a lot like you,” Tempest said.

Otter chose to ignore her.

Right then, the doorbell rang at the same time, the caterer came into the room with a question and the conversation had to stop. Otter could see out the door that the guests were arriving and she decided that it was time to put Mouse’s butterfly wings on her and turn on the special effects for the waterfall.

The buffet was displayed on long tables around the dining room. There was pulled pork, brisket, enchiladas and tacos. They brought their famous mole
[8]
sauce brimming with chocolate and spices; there was enchilada sauce and salsa verde to tempt a wide range of tastes. Tempest had fired up the frozen margarita machine and there were tubs of ice packed full of soft drinks. Spooky was in position waiting for guest to arrive and feed him to his heart’s content.

Otter turned on the waterfall, which imitated a Mayan temple. Water came down the steps of the small pyramid. On either side of the small staircase were serpents or dragons and more water poured artistically from their mouths into the pool. Fog puffed out of the serpent’s nostrils and surrounded the temple in an otherworldly shroud. At the top of the water feature were two flaming torches on either side of a decent sized platform which held…Duke. He posed at attention as if he was waiting for a photographer to finish fiddling with the camera. The fog swirled around him and the torches lit him into masterful silhouette.

“I think that dog knows exactly what he’s doing.” Susan said. “But I’m going to get a picture all the same.”