Deep Blue Ch. 09

PUBLIC BETA

Note: You can change font size, font face, and turn on dark mode by clicking the "A" icon tab in the Story Info Box.

You can temporarily switch back to a Classic Literotica® experience during our ongoing public Beta testing. Please consider leaving feedback on issues you experience or suggest improvements.

Click here

Outside I met the others on the trek back to the dressing room. They all looked like they'd had a good time, most especially Hawk. I leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

"You look like you feel better," I said as I pulled back with a smile.

"I take it all back," Hawk declared. "This girl stuff is great. My back feels almost normal. The woman massaged it and then called in an acupuncturist to relieve the pain and cramping. Even my skin feels good." She grinned at me. "Who the hell would've ever figured that rolling around in the mud had such benefits? Maybe little boys aren't as dumb as they look."

I laughed. "Somehow I bet the mud here has ingredients not found in your normal mud. I'm so glad you're feeling better."

"I could take the Right Reverend and give him the first two swings. After lunch," she amended. "I'm starving."

In the dressing room, the girls opened their lockers and started dressing, but when I felt for my key, it was not pinned to the robe. "Crap. Be right back," I said.

I went to the massage room and looked around but didn't find it. Then I went to the mud room we'd used. I quietly opened the door and found it occupied with a new group of women. I slipped quietly inside and looked around the floor. The women didn't react to me because they couldn't see me. Then, with a silent cry, I spotted it lying on the floor beside my table. It looked like the clasp had come open and it had fallen off.

With it in hand, I triumphantly made my way back to the dressing room and hurriedly dressed. Everyone was waiting for me in the lobby as I rushed up.

"Sorry," I panted. "My stupid key fell off in the mud room. Let's go eat."

As we rode the elevator down toward the dining room, an announcement interrupted the soft music. "Shauna Hawkins, please call 1356 on any ship's phone. Shauna Hawkins, 1356. Thank you."

We all looked at Hawk in surprise. She grinned at us. "With any luck at all, it's show-time."

There was a courtesy phone outside the elevator when we arrived at our deck, and Hawk snatched it up and dialed. "Hawkins."

I could hear the angry buzzing of a male voice but not the words. It must have been good, because Hawk grinned at me.

"I'm sure you don't mean that, Lieutenant de Luca," Hawk almost purred. "There's no need to take this so hard. I'm sure that we can work together on this."

De Luca's voice got louder and individual words became understandable from the noise as Hawk put a few inches between the phone and her ear. Words like "no way in hell" and "over my dead body." All in all, not promising.

"Look," Hawk said in the same pleased tone she'd been using. "You probably need a few minutes to calm down. All that yelling is probably bad for your blood pressure. I'll eat lunch and then come by your office. Ciao." She hung up before he could respond, grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

"You sure know how to win friends and influence people, Hawk," I said dryly. "What did he say? What's going on?"

She shrugged eloquently and kept grinning. "Damned if I know what that was all about. All I picked out was him shouting that there was no way in hell that he'd ever let something happen. Over his dead body. The usual kind of stuff. We'll have to wait until after lunch to find out."

"Well you can bet your sweet ass that I'm not letting you meet him without someone to pull him off you if he snaps," Gretchen said. "I'm going!"

"Okay," Hawk agreed readily. Too readily.

Gretchen narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "What are you up to?"

"Me?" Hawk asked innocently. "I'm just off to have lunch. Come on, girls." She started toward the dining room at a slow waddle. Gretchen pestered her every step of the way but Hawk was adamant and refused to elaborate.

Once we seated ourselves, Hawk set the pace of the meal and that pace was dead slow. She ordered us appetizers, soup, then the various entrees, dessert and finally coffee. By the time we were done with lunch almost two hours had passed. Hawk met every attempt to speed up the process with a grin and told us to "slow down and enjoy life."

Hawk looked at her watch. "Well, I think we've made him wait long enough. Gretchen and Lisa, you're with me. Can you other girls entertain yourselves for just a bit? I don't think a crowd would work here."

They looked at each other and consulted briefly. "We'll go check out the casino," Jo said. "Then we'll check back at the room to see if you're back."

"Perfect," Hawk said. "Come on."

Gretchen and I followed her to the elevators. "Hawk, what are you doing? What will keeping him waiting this long gain you?"

"Dominance," Hawk said with a smile. "Whatever the news is, he's already royally pissed, and just running at his beck and call sends the wrong signal. If we get off on the wrong foot, then..."

"Wrong foot!" Gretchen interrupted incredulously. "I can't believe you can say that after you hung up on him and made him wait two hours. I won't even mention what I heard you say to him last night." Hawk started a bit at that, and Gretchen gave her a wolfish smile. "Yes, I heard you, Hawk. I was hurt, not dead. Regardless, my point is how could you be on a more wrong foot after all that?"

Hawk laughed delightedly. "I'm happy to finally be able to repay you for all your 'honey attracts more bees' lessons, sweetie, and share some human nature with you, in return, dear. Once you've tossed out the honey jar and gotten into a pissing contest, you have to set the stage and show the other guy who's boss up front. Otherwise they'll undermine you every step of the way. If I let him think he can yank me around then he will. Now, unless I'm sadly mistaken, he'll be angry, but he'll end up accepting that I'll do what I can without his permission. In this case since I'm never going to be his friend, I have to settle for forcing him to let me do my job."

"If you say so," Gretchen said uncertainly.

"Hawk's right," I assured Gretchen. "Cop's are very oriented for territory and pecking order. Just asking nicely wouldn't get her anything but a loss of respect."

"Okay," Gretchen said with a shrug. "Where're we going?"

Hawk reached over and pushed a button. "I checked where his office was just in case I needed to come harass him," she said with a large smile.

-----

Hawk presented us at the front desk of the ship's security department and the uniformed woman quirked a smile at Hawk as she pointed back to one of the offices, obviously trying to suppress a grin. Hawk didn't bother suppressing anything and grinned at her. "Ignore any and all screams as well as smashed glass. This promises to be an eventful meeting."

The woman whose nametag read "Collins" couldn't repress a laugh at that and waved us in. The several dozen people in the main room watched us go to the door labeled "Chief Investigator" with a mixture of dread and awe.

Hawk rapped on the door once but didn't wait for a response before she opened the door and bustled inside. Gretchen and I followed her in.

The office was of decent size and certainly wasn't plain. A couple of plants and some knick-knacks brightened a drab white set of walls. The wooden desk looked new, though it had more than a few things scattered across its surface.

However, Lieutenant de Luca dominated the room from his seat behind the desk. He speared Hawk with an icy glare that would have frozen a dozen jaunty troublemakers where they stood.

Hawk, however, was apparently less than impressed. She dropped into one of the chairs without invitation, and for a second I was afraid she was going to prop her feet on his desk. Thank God for her belly stopping at least that provocation because just the rest of her behavior seemed destined to make de Luca pop a blood vessel.

"Sorry we took so long," Hawk said insincerely. "You know how long it takes a woman, especially a pregnant woman, to do anything."

"Is there a purpose to this?" de Luca ground out, visibly reining in his temper.

"Absolutely," Hawk said cheerfully. "This is your first clue not to yell at me like I'm your bitch." Her eyes hardened and she leaned forward. "Treat me with respect and you'll get respect in turn. Fuck with me and I'll fuck you back. You want to try that phone call over, or should I just get used to being this way? Take your time."

I watched the vein in his temple throb and his eyes slowly bulge in his head. I hope he didn't have an aneurysm.

He clenched his fists and slowly, ever so slowly, forced himself back from the edge of violence. Deep breath followed deep breath until his towering rage was caged and only cold anger remained in his eyes.

"Since I have no choice," he said icily, "I suppose I'll take the do-over. I apologize for my intemperate words."

Rather than continue to bait him, Hawk only nodded. "Accepted. And I'm sorry that I've disrespected you on your turf."

De Luca looked surprised for a moment, took another deep breath and nodded again. "I don't know whose chain you pulled, but it looks like you're going to get your way, Detective Hawkins."

"Why don't you tell me exactly what that means," Hawk prompted him as Gretchen and I slowly sat in our own chairs, now that we were relatively certain there wouldn't be blood shed.

"You don't know?" he asked with evident disbelief. "It's everything you were demanding and more. The Captain came here in person to tell me. Imperial Lines have hired you as a 'Special Investigative Troubleshooter.' Someone at corporate pushed this down my throat, and I damned well want it on record that this is being done over my objections and against my advice." His tone grew more belligerent toward the end and he was glaring across the table again.

Hawk seemed unperturbed by his evident anger. "And just what does it mean to be a Special Investigative Troubleshooter?"

"It means," de Luca spat, "that you have the legal authority to investigate any crime aboard any Imperial Lines vessel. And, as much as it pains me, my department will assist in whatever ways we can."

"Now we're talking," Hawk purred. "The first order of business is to find out if Skip really took a swim. I assume you've started a search of the ship?"

"The crew is doing a walk-through of the common areas," he admitted grudgingly. "It should be complete in an hour. That won't do any good if he is in a private room, of course."

"What about his room?" I asked. "Has anyone checked to see if he is there?"

"Not yet." He said without elaboration.

Hawk rolled her eyes. "Come on," she rumbled. "This isn't some minor crime we're talking about. He is either dead, in a world of hurt floating in the water or this is all just an exercise and he's safe and sound somewhere on this ship. Let's eliminate the ship. Page him on the loudspeakers and let's check his room to be sure he isn't there. If he isn't found I want the ship searched fully and that includes every cabin."

"People are retiring for the evening," de Luca said with a scowl. "I will not have them disturbed at this hour."

I expected Hawk to tell him to do it anyway but she just nodded slowly. "It won't make any difference in the end, I suppose, but the search of the public areas will just have to be done again. Fine, let's at least see if Skip's cabin has been disturbed."

De Luca gave in ungracefully. With a shrug he stood up and we followed him out of the office. The staff was still watching us with apprehension and a bit of awe. I suppose no one came in here and overruled the boss.

The trip to Skip's room only took a few minutes. I was glad now that Ted had talked me out of just going in. This way was better. It preserved the evidence if it was a crime scene.

With a swipe of his master key de Luca opened the door. When he opened it we all could see it was a disaster zone. Someone had taken drawers out of the dresser and the contents were scattered everywhere.

12
Please rate this story
The author would appreciate your feedback.
  • COMMENTS
3 Comments
TelozTelozover 13 years ago
Me too!

What s/he said!

goodwillmagicgoodwillmagicover 14 years ago
OUCH

Laughed so hard at Hawk's antics that I fell out of my chair laughing. I am soooo hooked on thise series and can't wait for more. Already added you to my favorite authors.

bornagainbornagainover 17 years ago
GREATR GOING WINE MAKER

WINE MAKER THAT WAS EVEN BETTER WHEN IS HAWK GOING TO HAVE THAT BABYSHE SHOULD BE HAVING IT SOON

Share this Story

READ MORE OF THIS SERIES

Deep Blue Ch. 08 Previous Part
Deep Blue Series Info

Similar Stories

Autumn Surprise Mother falls for daughter's friend.in Lesbian Sex
Explanation of Love 01 "You can't hurt me," she said.in Lesbian Sex
Your Heart's Desire A college student falls for her professor.in Lesbian Sex
Hidden Beauty Kaden and Jess find love beyond what the eye can see.in Lesbian Sex
Cheerleader Submission: A Love Story A female coach and a shy sub cheerleader fall for each other.in Lesbian Sex
More Stories