Chasing Robes & Shadows

"Uh, umm...," was all Bonnie managed. Then she noticed as Alexa slowly approached with that 'I'm not really spying on you' expression.

"Well," Bonnie forced herself to keep her distance, "what does she like? What size is she?"

"Tall, she's got some, you know, big...," he quickly held his hands well in front of his chest.

Just as Bonnie's expression hardened he winked his uninjured eye that was out of sight of Alexa, then he made a show of leaning to read her name tag.

"But well I bet she'd like the same kinds of things you'd like, uh, Bonnie. I'm Jake."

"Yes, I'm sure I can help," Bonnie smiled, Alexa looked disappointed but another pair of customers entered and she moved to greet them.

"This way," she led him toward the lingerie section, ok, if this was for real, she'd always wanted something slinky and lacy... but it wasn't something she'd ever steal for herself. And it had the advantage of being as far from Alexa as it could be.

"Where've you been, Wolfman," she wasn't happy with the pleading tone in her voice but she couldn't help it.

"Sorry, Bonnie not Parker," his voice was soft, seemingly apologetic, not a tone she was used to hearing from anyone but especially from guys, "but Jed wanted us all underground. Way underground, after the Church fire. Anybody in this city looking to buy this week's been left high and dry. No one's been on the street. I told him what his brother did, but only about how he fought the black robes, not all of what happened before. Told me it was my debt, not his."

They're... weird," she said, then shrugged and brightened as she held up a lace teddy that was her size and smiled.

"I think this would make your girlfriend quite happy," Bonnie held it against the front of her torso, "yes, and I think it would fit quite well."

Jake looked around, grabbed a couple of g-strings. Smiled.

"I think these would go nicely with that, eh?"

She shook her head and took the g-strings, returned them to the pegs and pulled down two pairs of the right size.

Her size. Not that she'd ever worn one, but what the hell.

"You're going to BUY these?"

"What do you take me for? A thief?"

His wounded expression lasted all of a second as she led him toward a register.

"But, really, I am. Jed splashed some cash on us for making us sit around. I'm going to take my girl to Some Other Place for dinner."

She stopped, a querying look on her face.

"What time you get off?"

She smiled.

"Oh, hey," he stopped them, "these are nice blouses. This red one..."

Bonnie clenched and unclenched her butt cheeks as she slid out of Jake's car a half a block from the restaurant. Jake had met her outside the back door to the shop with the clothes he'd bought from, and for, her and she'd changed in one of the public restrooms at Streetcar Square, hadn't wanted Alexa to know what was up. She'd always thought she had a nice little ass, and the g-string meant no lines, but it was... weird. Yeah. Weird feeling, her butt cheeks against her slacks. But that and the teddy and the blouse meant she felt sexy and cute.

He came around the car and she took his hand.

She was on a date. With a boy. Going to a real restaurant, not a burger or pizza place.

She could get used to this.

"Wolfman?"

They were just inside the restaurant waiting to be seated when they heard a woman's voice. They both turned. The speaker was a black woman, taller than both her and her date. She was with another woman, about the same height as her friend, dirty blonde, both of them in their thirties or so. Old.

Bonnie's jaw worked silently for a moment.

"You...," she said.

"You're Bonnie," the blonde woman said with a sad smile, "I'm glad to see you're doing well. You're looking good."

Jake scrunched his face as he looked at the blonde, but his face didn't betray recognition. He looked at Bonnie.

"She was with Peter, helped drag me out of the Church. And..."

She stopped, Joyce nodded.

"Oh," said Jake, "you know Peter?"

"My student, years ago, I was his teacher."

Bonnie's and Jake's eyes both went slightly wide at that. Then Jake looked at the black woman.

"Brenda..., right?"

"You got it," she glanced around, the four were alone in the entrance, the maître'd was directing traffic in the dining room, "been wondering, you got any, you know, stuff? Been a tough week. We both need some."

"Um, hey, well, maybe... but, we're having..."

How about this," Brenda said to Jake, "I'll buy all of us dinner tonight and you'll get me whatever you've got..."

She turned just as the maître'd arrived.

"Table for four ok, Sharon?"

"Sure, Brenda, can do. This way." She grabbed four menus and turned to walk, halted then moved again.

Bonnie looked at Jake but he shrugged so they followed Sharon with Brenda and Joyce after them.

Bonnie had what she was certain was her third glass of wine. Or fourth? Whatever. She wasn't paying. And since Jake wasn't either, he could take her out tomorrow night!

This Joyce wasn't a teacher anymore, she and Brenda worked in an office downtown, typing, filing... Kissing asses of lawyers or accountants or whatevers. They apparently liked to party, this Brenda had bought from Jake a couple of times recently. Bonnie looked at Joyce's face, at Brenda's. They were pretty but both of their faces had a slight roughness now that makeup didn't completely erase. Was that their partying? Bonnie knew what too much of that had done to her mother, a decade older than these two but had anyone thought her a decade past that it wouldn't have been a surprise. Joyce implied that was why she didn't teach anymore. Had quit before getting fired.

That was the kind of fuck-up that Bonnie understood. A round of laughter from someone's joke and Joyce looked at Jake then her.

"Bonnie, Jake, so what was the deal with Adam and Eve from the fire?"

"Oh, well, nothing rea---," Jake started.

"Biggest cock you'd ever see," Bonnie's voice had the slightest slur, "don't know how he got that thing inside of her! But she liked it. They were in a circle around them as they fucked. Before they got killed."

"Killed? By the black robes?"

"No," Jake said, "didn't see that."

"Then, how?" Joyce's voice wavered with the question.

"I knocked over the fire when he had the big knife, he was gonna cut Adam," Bonnie slid a finger across her throat before she pulled Jake's hand off of her thigh and held it with both of hers as he made some sort of sound in his throat, "caught a bunch of the robes on fire, like half of them."

She pulled his hand to her chest.

"We ran, floor collapsed, got separated. Thought my boyfriend was a goner until we were outside."

"There were two black robes after you, Bonnie, they didn't make it out."

"That one, the leader, was the one that almost got me but Peter got him. But didn't really see the other faces."

"Okay. Jake, did you see any?"

He looked at Joyce, exhaled slowly before he answered.

"Saw one, a woman but just from the back, her hood was down and she was blonde, like all these bitches around this City. Think that was real, but dark red stripes in it," he shrugged, "heard her yelling. I know she's local, had that voice like them too. She didn't see me, she just wanted out like everyone else. Hurt my leg when the floor went, landed on some big dude who took a swing. That's the eye, I just ran, couldn't see after that. Too much smoke. Got lucky and followed a crowd out a window. What was your story, Teach?"

"I'd gone with some friends, buy some gear. Me and Peter were just dancing. Total surprise to run into him. Peter wanted to find his friend when it all went down but then he saw Bonnie running. Do you two know anything about that crowd you guys came with?"

"Just weirdos," Bonnie snorted, "that old one... what a face! The other guy was just some other college boy, friend of Peter's."

"She didn't know about the Church??"

"Nah, not a peep but Wolfie's friends took his car. We told Peter we needed a ride. He tried to blow us off but that old woman wanted to see the place after my Wolfman mentioned it, so well, we got our ride. She was in charge. Weird accent, never heard anything like it. Blew 'em off soon as we got there but I'm surprised Peter was with you, she was all over him at that other party."

Joyce shrugged at that, Peter had been cagey in their talks between bouts of sex but she'd had the feeling something like that had happened. She well knew he had an eye for older women. Especially women with heterochromia. Even if they were elves. Or cats. Or whatever she'd been...

"When did you guys get there? I'd been there a while before Peter found me, we had, oh, not quite an hour before the fire."

"No watch," Bonnie laughed as she held up her left wrist then flicked it, "I'd lifted a couple of idiot college boys' wallets so they bought us some good stuff soon as we got there then we went in the back and... well... We were there when we saw the black robes and snuck upstairs."

"What about that strange woman's driver?"

"Seemed attractive, nice dark hair, big tits," Bonnie slurred, did as Jake had earlier and held out her hands well in front of her chest, "well, both of 'em had big tits. But lots younger. Normal voice."

"Local," Jake said, "knew her way around. But even if she hadn't had the mask pretty sure no one I know."

"But you know what pisses me off," Jake continued, "I can't say any of my real friends died, but hey, there were a few I knew and didn't dislike all that much. But the papers, the TV people, don't care about them. It's like, no 'real' people died... Just people... like... us. So who really cares. Just took care of wrecking the place like's supposed to happen."

He finished the last half glass of wine in one fast gulp. Bonnie squeezed his hand, leaned her head on his shoulder.

"At least we got out," Bonnie said softly, "thanks to Peter and Joyce here. Well, I got out because of them."

Jake nodded, mouthed 'thanks' to Joyce.

"Well," Brenda said slowly, she'd been silent a long time, "ready to go? I'll get this and then... we still on? You okay to drive, Wolfman?"

Jake snorted.

"Yeah, to both. I need to be a lot more fucked up than this to not be able to drive."

Bonnie leaned into Jake as they stood next to the passenger door of his car and waved to the two women as the black woman drove them away, having collected a small bag of grass. He had more hidden in the car but she'd not argued when he'd pretended that little bag was it.

"Bonnie, babe," he kissed her cheek, "you gotta learn to hold your tongue when it's not just 'us.' I've sold a couple times to that Brenda, and I know that Joyce saved, helped save, your life. None of that means we give our life stories..."

She twisted and put her arms around his waist, she only needed to lean her head back a bit to look him in the face, she was small and used to looking up to people. He wasn't big but even though he held her loosely she could feel his wiry strength. She liked being in his arms.

"Oh, cops?"

Jake snorted.

"Pigs probly give us medals for burning the place down. But if the Mongrels found out we were in the back... what we started..."

"Yeah. Shit. You mad at me, Wolfie?"

"Nah, Bonnie not Parker, just be more careful. Especially if, if we're with Jed or Tommy. Or Gail. Especially with Gail. Remember she's not your friend, she's not anybody's friend. But, now, you going to invite me over so I can see you in that teddy and that little g-string and nothing else? 'Specially if you got any of that powder left..."

"Not shoving it up your cock again, if you're asking," she kissed him on the mouth, "want to come over?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

Intuition

Joyce replayed the previous night's dinner conversation with the young drug dealer and his little light-fingered friend. The timing of them and Peter and Anna and the rest arriving fit with the camera issues. Peter had shown her Anna and her muscle but that next day when she and Brenda and the rest of the team had studied the pictures that odd woman and her posse weren't in any of them. And Peter had said they'd all escaped out the front door.

Again, none of them captured on film. More than that, the cameras, stupidly simple tools, hadn't worked at just the right times. And only those times. Well, they'd worked but the photos were just fuzz. The fuzz had infected their side door as well so nothing had caught her and Peter carrying Bonnie out. Whatever the cause, it hadn't affected the end where the fire had started.

Intentional? Hell of a coincidence if not. But if it was intentional... what did THAT mean? She pushed those thoughts down.

"We need to talk, detective," she whispered into the seated man's ear as she leaned behind him.

Jim Pearson turned as he pushed surprise to a hopefully feigned outrage as he snorted.

"Walk?" Shaw's voice stayed low. She was in jeans and a loose blouse that gave him just a flash down it as he turned, her badge held by a lanyard around her neck.

Pearson's nod was barely perceptible but Joyce shuffled back as she straightened, gave him room to stand.

"Hank," the chubby man at the desk across from Pearson's looked up, his girth and stringy hair always fooled people into thinking he was the older man, "want a cup of Postum? Won't be long, need to handle something."

"Only if it's 75% bourbon."

"Your blood's 90% bourbon, would be a step down. And what would your Bishop say, heard you talking like that?"

The seated man snorted.

"Long as I'm sharing, his lips are sealed, he's the one checks the waste bins," Hank Smith said before he waved and went back to the papers on his desk.

The pair walked down a flight of stairs and into a small commissary that sold coffee, soft drinks and sandwiches. There was a large cafeteria in the building but it was open to civilians with reasons, voluntary or not, to visit the building and by habit and training Joyce and her teammates avoided it unless it was to appear they were on the wrong side of the law. They each filled a cardboard cup with coffee, Shaw added milk to hers and Pearson nodded back at her as he walked past the cashier. She shook her head as she dug some bills out of her pocket.

"What's up, Shaw? Bust any perverts lately?"

"You're not in jail, so I haven't gotten the ringleader."

"Touché."

They walked slowly along the hallway, sipped at their coffee.

"I might have something on one of those missing persons reports on yours and Hank's desks. And maybe something else too."

"Who says I have any? Those are hush hush, and if they were in the Church, faces aren't any use. Just teeth."

"You've said I could make detective... You know I'm good. One of those out of state reports, that Nevada state legislator? I saw him. He's dead."

She didn't know if Peter's clubbing him with a pipe had been sufficient to deliver him to that state. But the flaming roof's fall made it certain. And likely erased other evidence.

Pearson stopped, sipped his coffee but didn't look at her.

"Why are you talking to me? Richardson's your commander."

"I... I can't tell him. Like you said, there are no reports. Well, not of him, he's never been in the news here and no one outside of Carson City has ever heard of him."

Now Pearson turned and looked at her, there was no anger in his voice but his eyes held questions.

"I understand the quandary. Ok. Tell me where you saw him and I'll drop some hints to the coroner's team. Intuition."

"He was with a woman... show me all the pictures and I can tell you which one. They were next to each other. Tried to kill a young woman but, well... they didn't."

He raised eyebrows and opened his mouth to speak but her expression stopped his quick response.

"Flaming roof was karma, I guess. Their intended victim got out. And the rest, concentrate in the back. But, you probably are already."

"Shit, Shaw. I don't know what your role was but I... well... Ok, any reason why?"

"Call it women's intuition. It's known to be better than men's."

He exhaled a laugh.

"Bring me and Hank doughnuts and me a coffee and that Postum shit Hank drinks at 3:00 p.m. I might just have the pictures fanned out across the desk. Put the doughnut by her picture, before I hurry and cover them."

"Cops and doughnuts. Bit of a silly stereotype, eh?"

"Every stereotype has that glimmer of truth."

Thin Air

[Late May, 1981]

Joyce Shaw's eyes popped open when three things happened in rapid succession as she sat in the booth at Lamb's Grill. A newspaper landed on the table in front of her, struck the saucer and caused the half-empty coffee cup on it to rattle. Arms were thrown around her shoulders and gripped her. And lips landed on her cheek and gave her a firm, wet kiss.

Brenda desPlain smiled as she released her friend and swung around the table to sit quickly across from the blinking woman.

"Oh, Joyce, you look like shit this morning!"

"You spend YOUR whole night in fishnets and not much else, meeting entirely the wrong kind of men... Mostly 'religious' men, pick up hookers every other night, church with wifey and kids on Sunday. Way too many nights lately... Was nice having the Mongrels mostly cooped up in the old Church, now, them and their hookers are all over."

"Well---," Brenda went silent as the waitress arrived with a carafe and filled the mug already in place in front of her, "thanks!"

"Ready to order you two?"

"Give us a bit, Val," Joyce said, the waitress nodded and walked off to find other mugs to refill. Thursday's breakfast rush was over and Lamb's was mostly empty until lunch. Other than the two undercover police women the few patrons had likely dined at the downtown fixture's grand opening multiple decades ago.

"Heard you guys had a hell of a bust last night, load of heroin?"

"Pure stuff but like you said with the Mongrels, it's all over the place now...," Brenda's mood started almost cheerful but the emotion drained before she said softly, "and, hey, flip that over. Only worse news."

"Huh?"

Joyce furrowed her brow as she flipped the paper over and scanned until she saw the pictures in the lower right quadrant. Her mouth went to an 'O' and her eyes moistened quickly.

Brenda stayed silent a few moments as Joyce quickly gathered in the key details. She looked up.

"That's your boy, right? The one I saw you with that night? You never told me his name..."

"Yeah. It's him. He..."

"You spent the night after the Church fire with a gangbanger's little brother... No wonder you wouldn't tell me his name and kept it from Richardson."

"He's gone? Disappeared?"

"What it says. That's yesterday's paper. I talked to Anderson in missing persons. Reported on Monday by housemates, they last saw them Saturday morning. Since, nothing. He thinks they just ran away."

"Bullshit," Joyce spat, "he wouldn't do that. But hell, I've been on shifts for two weeks... Haven't seen a paper, nothing. Damn."

"What about that girl?"

"'Carole Dzhavo,'" Joyce read, looked at the young woman's picture, "I'm pretty sure she's the one he mentioned the night we were together..."

"Um, you talked about his girlfriends?"

"We had to rest a couple of times," Joyce laughed but it had a sad tone, "I mean, he was young... and had plenty of stamina, but... I'm not so young!"

Brenda just smiled and shook her head. "You were walking a bit, oh, strained that next morning!"

"And that long since I last...," she sighed, "anyway. Anderson said they're barely even looking? Anyone look at his brother?"

"He said they asked, dude was surprised. Claimed he knew nothing. But I'll run into that Wolfie pretty soon, sure I'll get something out of him. But, it's not Jed's deal. Peter didn't have anything he'd want."