The Lady in Blue Ch. 12

That was more than I could take. I gripped the rail tightly and looked down at the deck below as I felt the universe contract around me. My last coherent thought was astonishment as I saw a Japanese couple by the bridge taking my picture while my cock exploded, and I could feel and hear Lisa swallowing my seed as I blasted off like a rocket ship. My knees weakened, but I managed to keep from collapsing as she squeezed her lips tightly around me and slowly withdrew, forcing the last few drops out and onto her tongue.

With a satisfied smile, she tucked me away and zipped my pants. With a soft pat on my groin, she stood up and slid an arm around my waist and waved at the Japanese couple. That sparked a few more photographs.

"That, my love, is better than Hawk." She stuck her tongue out and I saw the thin coating of my own seed on that sweet, pink tongue. An offering.

I kissed her deeply, tasting myself. After a moment, I drew back, still in her embrace, with my arms holding her tightly. "You taste much better but thank you for sharing."

Lisa giggled and together we waved at the friendly tourists' last picture before we climbed back down. "So, how didyou like your day in the spotlight?"

"I like being anywhere with you. Together." I replied. "Thank you." I kissed her deeply and then we made our way up the walk to the bridge, nodding politely at the confused looking tourists.

Lisa smiled and bowed to them. "Ted, why don't you go look over the bridge for a minute."

As they bowed back to Lisa, I smiled with my own confusion and went into the bridge. Unlike the exterior, the instruments here gleamed. I started looking around for any place that could hide something.

I was mostly finished looking when Lisa came in and smiled brightly at me. "Find anything?" At my shaking head, she nodded. "I wouldn't think it would be in plain sight or in a common area. We need to head below decks and get out of the tourist area if we are going to find anything."

"Are you going to tell me what that was all about?" I asked bemusedly.

"Nope," she saucily replied. "Maybe one day. Come on, champ. Lets go find the goods and get the bastard, whoever he is, nailed."

The gangway into the interior of the ship smelled even worse than the exterior. I could hardly imagine how the sailors could stand it on those long cruises. The smell of machines and men long gone commingled into a thin soup that colored the inside of the ship in my senses. The gangway went lower than this next deck but was closed off by a steel mesh door. A door with a lock.

Lisa slipped in front of me and tried the bigger of the keys and the lock clicked open. "Bingo! I win the big jackpot! Woo Hoo!" She opened the door and we slid inside. Lisa pushed it shut behind us. "Better safe than sorry. Come on."

The passage below was dark but work lights were strung along the length of the corridor. I found the switch and flipped the lights on. The close fitting corridor ran from the front of the ship to the back. Pipes of unknown purpose were above our heads. Walking required being careful if I didn't want to bang my head on the pipes.

Lisa struck out to follow the pipes to the back of the ship. "Let's start in back and work our way forward." Closed hatches led to rooms on the left and right, but she ignored them. The hall ended in another closed hatch. We both looked at it for a moment before we figured out which way to turn the wheel to unlock it.

The door opened with a metallic groan that seemed to echo through what must have been the entire ship. It sounded loud enough to wake the dead. Lisa stared at me with wide eyes as I held my breath. No other noise seemed to indicate anyone had heard it, though.

When our hearts slowed down, we slipped through the door and into the room beyond. The ceiling soared above our heads and huge engines filled the room.

"Wow, the engine room. There must be a million places in here to hide something," I said. "Let's split up and look. I'll take the right side and you take the left." At her nod, I slid into the shadow of the area to the right and we began searching.

After fifteen minutes, I was grimy and greasy. I was also empty-handed. The only spot left on this side was a crawlspace at the very back, in a pool of darkness. My skin crawled at the thought of sticking my hands or body in there, but I sucked it up and reached into the inky blackness. There was something in there, something wooden. I felt a handle and pulled it out. A flat wooden box with a shiny, brass padlock.

"Lisa! I found it! I'm coming out!" I shouted.

The box was not easy to move. It had some real weight to it. With having to crawl and pull it at the same time, it took a few minutes for me to get it out and into the open. I stretched my aching back and turned to the interior of the room. I frowned. Lisa was nowhere to be seen.

"Lisa?" I called out again.

"Right here," an unknown male voice said as he thrust Lisa out in front of him, a pistol pushed into her back. "Don't be stupid," he said with what sounded like an educated voice. The man was not unknown to me. Lisa and I had seen him taking money from the DA in the tape earlier today. "Open it."

"I don't have the key," I said. "How did you get in here?"

"Not that it matters," he said with a chuckle that chilled me, "but I picked the lock. Give him the key, Miss Davis." He emphasized the order with a sharp jab of the pistol to her back.

Reluctantly, she pulled the keys from her pocket and tossed them onto the deck in front of me. They jingled loudly in the deep silence that surrounded us.

My eyes flitted to the left and right, looking for a weapon of any kind. Nothing. With a sigh, picked up the keys and unlocked the padlock.

"Why all this? You have us now, at least tell us why before you do whatever you're going to do," I said.

"How melodramatic. You don't know me so I don't have to kill you. I'll be taking the evidence with me so it would just be your unsupported word. I have the tape you were so kind as to leave in your car for me. I'll take that, lock you in and we all walk away from this," the old man said. "Open it."

"Is that why you killed Calvin?" Lisa asked with a choked voice. "Why you would have killed me? Why you almost killed Ted?"

The man laughed a menacing, sinister laugh. "Do you think this is some kind of mystery story where the villain will tell you all his secrets in some final confrontation? Spare me. Accept that your friend needed to die because he knew too much and wouldn't back off. I advise you to not make the same mistakes as he did. You are much too pretty to die so young. Open the case before I change my mind, Mister Stansbury."

Lacking options, I pulled the lock off and opened the wooden lid. Inside were several items. Three videocassettes, what looked like a bank ledger and a computer CD in a case. I looked back at him. "Send her over and I give you the stuff."

That earned another laugh. "You think you are calling the shots, Mister Stansbury? Think again. Slide the contents over here and I will leave you a live woman. Do you understand me?"

I sighed and pulled out one of the videotapes and casually tossed it into the wall behind him. It clattered loudly and made him curse.

"Do you want me to shoot your girlfriend? Don't try that again!" He slid back and away from Lisa. "Walk forward, Miss Davis. Go to your friend."

Lisa locked eyes with me and started forward. The man slid back and to the wall. He watched us and I waited. His eyes flicked down and he bent to get the tape.

While he was reaching, I slid the computer CD out and onto the floor beside the box. A risk but worth it, I thought. When he had the tape and was again looking, my hands were on the box and Lisa had stepped between him and the secreted evidence. I didn't want to, but I gave up the rest of the evidence. He slid them into a small bag over his shoulder. I must have missed it in the dark, against his dark clothes.

"Show me the inside of the box," he commanded. I tilted it up for him.

He picked up the things I had slid out to him and backed toward the door. "I'm glad you saw reason. This could have been much more difficult." He opened the hatch and backed out. From outside the door, he reached down and picked up what looked like a wine bottle filled with some fluid.

"Too bad for you that I am not a very honorable fellow, eh?" He smashed it to the floor in front of the hatch and I rushed forward a few steps.

The pistol came back up and I threw myself to the side. The gunshot was incredibly loud in the closed off, metal room. I covered my head as the round bounced through the room. Thank god we weren't hit.

He pulled something out of his pocket even as I scrambled to my feet. I heard Lisa running to the side behind me. It was a lighter. With a flick that seemed to take an hour, he brought the flame to life and it fell in a slow tumble. The smell of gasoline was growing very strong. Then the floor ignited in a flash and half the room was on fire.

Laughing almost maniacally, the man slammed the hatch and it locked. The sound of something metal against the door could be heard, probably jamming the hatch.

I turned and Lisa scrambled back with me, snatching up the CD. "What do we do?" she screamed. "We're going to burn alive!"

Desperately, I looked for an alternate exit but there seemed to be none. There was another hatch, but it was padlocked from the inside. There was also a set of metal steps that should lead to the deck above, but it was disassembled and laying on the floor. A lot of the smoke was being drawn to vents in the roof, but the flames and their heat kept advancing.

We were trapped.