Mike & Karen Ch. 24

Trilby, Tunde, Valentina, Ari, Jeanie, Dave, and Tatyana all raised their hands. From where she was sitting, Alexa noticed people raising their hands and did the same, thinking she was clearly supposed to. Alex looked at her and shook his head, so she lowered her hand and promptly zoned out again with a smile. Everyone was so pretty today!

"Jeanie," Karen said, focusing on the dizzy brunette. She swallowed loudly as everyone shuffled away from her, and she suddenly felt very exposed. She waved nervously at the woman who scared her more than anything, even chess pieces. "Let's get this over with and start with you, God save us all..."

Jeanie stepped forward, trying not to sweat. She seemed to recall a story from the Bible about an Israelite thief getting picked out from among his tribe, narrowing down the choices until they found him and killed him. Which book was that? Exorcist?

Karen looked at her over the rim of her sherry glass as she took another sip. "Now... front to back, explain to me exactly how you're involved in this little fiasco. Spare me no details."

The brunette drew a deep breath as she tried to collect her thoughts. She didn't dare screw this up. "Well... I was out on the front lawn, trying to figure out how much green fingernail polish it would take to re-colour your grass..."

Everyone just watched her intently. Karen took another sip of her sherry, her eyes never leaving Jeanie's as she sat there, one leg crossed over the other.

"And that's when Lem came along, looking for the bag."

"Who?" Karen queried.

"Lem," Jeanie iterated. "I think that's his name. Lem? Lev? Len?"

"His name aside, Jeanie, who else was he? Where was he from?" Karen pressed.

"He, uh... he's your neighbour's cabana boy or something," Jeanie offered, shrugging. "I didn't pay too much attention to his title, y'know?"

Karen frowned as she lapsed into thought. "Do you mean Les, Nancy's gofer? The narcoleptic one?"

"Yeah, that's him," Jeanie said, nodding, glad Karen had figured out what she meant. Total smartie! "Ugh, don't ask me how I found out about that last necrotic part."

"I'm afraid to even ask," Karen muttered, shaking her head. "But do go on."

Jeanie shrugged. "I pulled him into the library, because that's where the bag was, right? I gave it to him to take back."

"Which he did immediately," Karen posited.

Jeanie didn't say anything for a split second too long.

"So there was a new, warm male appendage in my house, and you felt the need to impale yourself on it, am I correct?" guessed Karen dryly, already knowing the answer.

Jeanie blushed and nodded. "That's how I found out about his epileptic condition."

The bronze-haired woman pinched her eyes. "You engaged in coitus until your partner fell unconscious while you were spiked to them? Have you no shame, woman?"

Jeanie looked at the floor. "I... I didn't know he was taking a nap, the lights'd all gone out by then. When I turned on my flashlight, I thought I'd killed him."

"This is just like you were telling me about the cottage in Buckhorn, ja?" Freja butted in.

"So against all odds, you revived him and sent him on his merry way, with the attaché case in hand, right?" Karen suggested. It might have been leading the witness, but at this point, she didn't care.

Jeanie nodded. "Yeah. He wanted the bag, I gave it to him."

"Except you gave him exactly the wrong bag, LeTourneau," Karen said, controlling her voice. She took another sip. "He was supposed to collect my underwear, but he got the Sargon, and..."

Karen paused as something occurred to her, causing her eyes to widen. Jeanie was her daughter in this fiasco! How on earth had she let Nancy's courier believe that she was Karen's child? The less said about this, the better!

"Back in line, Beverly Aadland," Karen instructed, done with this part of the interrogation before too much was revealed. Even her nervous system and self-esteem had limits. She took another sip of sherry and sighed while Jeanie slunk back into the knot of humanity behind her. "Who wants to roll the dice next?"

The room was, predictably, silent. Karen looked back and forth between the members of the assembly and fixed her unnerving gaze on one. "Ari. You're up."

The cyber-guru walked forward, his normally casual demeanour burned away under Karen's laser scrutiny.

"Do I need to explain about the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" Karen asked.

Ari shook his head, not enjoying the feeling of the sweat gathering in various crevasses around his body and staining his new shirt. "So, ummm... I guess I thought I was giving the jewelry to the guy from the ROM, but I... gave him your underwear?"

"And how, exactly, did this happen?" Karen asked. Ari really wanted his employer to stop looking at him, those eyes were giving him a headache. How could anyone last longer than three seconds?

"It was here in the library, on that table," he replied, pointing to one of the long tables.

Karen looked at Trilby. "Weren't you on duty in the library?"

Trilby blushed. "I... yes."

"Without you noticing anyone putting it there."

"I was dusting up on the third level," Trilby admitted. "I thought I would see and hear anyone come in, y'know? Not everyone's as sneaky as your husband and your son. They just show up outta nowhere and give you a heart attack."

Val, Andrea, and Marie all nodded in the affirmative.

"Anyway, I put the bag where you said, and then came to find you," Ari continued.

"And Trilby went about her work blissfully unaware of its presence," Karen pointed out, tapping her sherry glass against her knee and looking at Trilby again. "Were you inside a bookcase, girl?"

Trilby shrugged uncertainly. "I... didn't know I wouldn't hear anyone coming in, ma'am. And nobody told me they were there."

"Hey, now..." Ari protested, getting ready to argue his innocence since Trilby seemed intent on dragging him under the bus with her. Bickering started, and didn't end until Karen snapped her fingers loudly, silencing them both with the baleful look in her eyes. She was in no mood for pointless bickering. The two blushed and stood still, their hands behind their backs. Finishing this day with skin on your body wasn't a sure thing yet.

"It's like you're trying to make yourselves extinct..." Karen muttered, finishing her sherry before looking at her seneschal.

"Once you informed me I went into the library to retrieve the item," the Russian woman explained.

"And yet now, somehow, Nancy has the coprolite," the matriarch said flatly.

"As improbable as that seems, ma'am, it does appear to be the truth," Tatyana confirmed.

"Oh, don't mangle Doyle at me!" Karen groused, scowling while thrusting her now-empty glass out to the side just in front of Tunde. The young man looked down at her hand.

"Take it," Dave whispered from Karen's other side and just behind her.

Tunde took the little glass from her hand.

"Fill it, dopey!" Dave said tightly. Tunde flinched in abashment, making a noise before hurrying off. Karen interrogated Valentina and Dave next before taking a deep breath.

"Let's review, shall we?" Karen said in measured tones as she stood up, her eyes still locked on the assembly like golden homing lasers. "I did indeed ask you lot to keep your eyes out for these bags, and to bring them to my attention immediately, yes?"

Everyone nodded.

"I am glad to hear that," she said, walking back and forth slowly in front of them, looking at the floor with her hands behind her back. It was at moments like this when her time as an officer in the military was so apparent. "Because I would hate to think that you all held me in such callous disregard as to simply not pay attention to the instructions I was giving you."

They were all beginning to visibly sweat. Even the unflappable Tatyana could feel her collarbone getting moist.

"Let's get one thing straight," Karen said in a quiet but firm voice. "Until all three bags have been distributed to their proper recipients, firmly in my hands, nobody is to leave the premises, or disappear into some dark recess or nook in this place. If you come into possession of one of these bags, inform me immediately, and then you are to hold onto it like grim death until such time as I personally relieve you of it. Do I need to repeat myself? Is anyone unclear on what needs to happen?"

Half the crew shook their head, the other half nodded. Alexa was staring blankly at the lights on the ceiling.

"Dismissed."

The crowd turned and evacuated the hall in a rush, with Valentina even forgetting to curtsy before stampeding out the door. Alex untied Alexa's shoes and led her out by the hand. Left by herself, Karen sighed and slumped back down in her chair, closing her eyes and massaging her temples. She had less than an hour before the bishop arrived, and she couldn't account for the whereabouts of her underthings. She wouldn't be surprised if she found them as new upholstery on the furniture in the Bishop Hooper study once she brought his Excellency in there. That just seemed to be the way her day was going.

Tunde trotted into the library, holding a refreshed glass of sherry and paused, looking around in mild confusion. "Where is everyone? You didn't kill them all, did you, ma'am?"

"Not yet, but the day isn't over, Tunde," Karen almost moaned, leaning back in her chair and keeping her eyes closed.

"Oh," he said somewhat awkwardly, not sure what to make of her statement. "I have your drink for you."

"I don't want it anymore," she sighed, shaking her head and pointing to the other chair nearby. "Sit down here."

Tunde paused warily before acting on the instruction. He remembered back in Tongaat that female black widow spiders would eat the males if they got too close. He'd watched it happen once as a child, and he'd lived in fear of having his head eaten ever since. His employer wasn't looking, so Tunde put the glass to his mouth, tilted his head back and drained it before putting it aside. Maybe it would calm his nerves. He lived in awe of Karen Gordon, but she also scared the Hell out of him.

He sat in a plush chair next to her, easing himself into it while the bronze-haired matriarch stared silently at the opposite wall, one leg crossed over the other. He said nothing for some time, trying not to fidget. He didn't quite know what he was doing here, nor was he exactly sure he believed her that she hadn't killed and eaten all his co-workers. He hadn't seen any of them on his way back here, after all.

There were no telltale blood stains on the floor, walls, or ceiling. At least his death would be clean and quick.

"I am still not clear on how all this came to be," he confessed finally, looking at the attaché case sitting at her feet. "Are you sure that your underwear was in that bag?"

"Yes, and Dave gave it to the courier to take to the Nancy."

"Then your neighbour now has it, and needs to bring it back, right?" Tunde reasoned.

"No, Tunde, the courier brought back the bag with the coprolite but he should have brought the other bag," Karen growled.

"Which other bag?"

"The one with the underwear that went to Langstaff. Nancy got the coprolite instead."

He tried to parse all this out. "So... who gave your neighbour the coprolite instead of your underwear?"

"Either David or my daughter."

"How come nobody has heard of this daughter of yours?"

"Because I don't have a daughter!" snapped the matriarch, turning in her chair to look at him. "What is so difficult to understand about this?"

Tunde thought it through, putting it all together. "So your daughter isn't your daughter, and the jewelry which used to be the coprolite is now your underwear."

"You've got it!" Karen said, pleased somebody finally understood.

"I've got it!" Tunde crowed in triumph before pausing and then seeming to almost fold over in despair, his face in his hands. "I don't even know what I'm talking about!"

Karen quietly sat back in her chair, staring at the far wall and saying nothing. Tunde continued to hold his face, murmuring to himself in isi-Zulu.

The sherry wasn't helping.

***

A while later...

Dave grunted as he walked through the foyer, a thirty-kilogram back of patent flour on each shoulder. He wasn't as young as he once was, and there was some effort involved. His back was already sore from all the work scrubbing Theresa's kitchen, and this new load wasn't helping. But Theresa needed this flour from storage in the basement. Somehow, the crazed Freja girl's experiment had ruined the chef's entire stock, even though apparently less than two kilograms had been directly involved.

Little lunatic. If she was my daughter, her ass would be so red right n-

The doorbell rang and he paused, looking across the open space of the foyer at the doors, hands holding his loads in place on his shoulders. The doorbell continued to ring. He looked around in irritation as the ringing continued, but nobody came.

"Oh, don't worry," he called out, his gruff voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'll get it..."

Dave groaned as he bent at the knees and slumped the two heavy sacks off his shoulders, placing them carefully on the marble floor before rising and then heading over to the door, where the bell was still ringing.

He opened it and gave the intern named Howard an unimpressed look. "Well, well, the man who started it all."

"Excuse me?" the smaller man said rather nervously.

"Get in here," Dave said, stepping aside and cocking his head to indicate the man should come in so he could shut the door. The intern came inside and smiled wanly.

"So, um..." he began. "Apparently I brought the wrong bag earlier and Tina was supposed to pick up and bring back another bag and didn't."

"You referring to the underwear or the petrified shit?" Dave asked somewhat sarcastically, not caring what the answer actually was.

"Er..." the intern faltered, looking at the floor. "My instructions are to ask for someone named Tatyana."

"TATYANA!" Dave bellowed, turning his head to project his voice into the manor, making the intern jump in fright. "What?" Dave asked, frowning at the smaller man, who had gone rather pale.

The quick clack of heels preceded the seneschal walking briskly into the foyer, her eyes rather wide. "David?"

"Look who's shown up," Dave said, tilting his head at the intern. "Where do you want me to stash him?"

Tatyana considered. "Well, Mrs. DeBourne is refreshing herself, which is not surprising considering the morning she's had. I somehow doubt interrupting her is a safe option."

No, but it's probably a view worth dying for... Dave thought. He wasn't immune to the appearance of the Blackwell sisters, after all. "So what, then?"

"Mrs. DeBourne shouldn't be long, she still has much to do, getting ready for the bishop. I guess I'll go upstairs and see if she is available to give you the Sargon."

She turned and headed off, up the grand staircase. She might not have wanted to interrupt her employer, but she intended to be as near as possible for when Karen was done with her ablutions.

"Let me show you the door," Dave said, giving the intern a mean smile before jabbing his finger at the egress. "There's the door!"

The intern sheepishly made his way out the door to wait in his car, with Dave closing it behind the man before returning to his sacks of flour.

"Gotta love the crust on some people," he grumbled, hefting the two sacks onto his shoulders before proceeding to the kitchen. "Throwing off my whole itinerary..."

Upstairs...

Karen was clutching the sides of the tub, restraining a groan as she felt the jet battering her pussy. It may not have been especially appropriate to be trying to achieve a climax before a meeting with the bishop, but Karen needed some stress relief, now. He head was thrown back and her eyes were closed, reveling in the sensation of her favourite jet in the tub now massaging her womanhood, sending her toward a badly needed charge of endorphins.

Karen bit her lips and arched her back, gyrating her hips, her fingers flexing on the sides of the tub. She squirmed and flexed her muscles, stimulating herself even more as the water did its magic. Her worries started to melt away while she lost herself in the growing haze of pleasure that was bubbling up from her core and spreading through her limbs.

She yelped in shock as the water in front of her almost seemed to burst and Alexa appeared suddenly, gasping loudly and splashing water everywhere. Karen's eyes were wide as she almost vaulted backward out of the tub, but her arms and hands seemed to have locked in place, preventing her escape.

"Alli!" she managed to rasp, her heart thundering in her chest. She couldn't tell if she peed herself. "How... where did you.."

"Hiiiiiiii..." the younger girl droned in a lyrical tone, her eyes glinting and focused on her sibling. "Y'miss me?"

"How... how long have you been under there? How did you get away from Alex?" Karen asked, her whole body throbbing, her impending orgasm forgotten.

"Iono," Alexa replied, shrugging and staring at her sister's tits. "Just wanted to say hi to my big sissy."

Karen shook her head, trying to clear it. How had she not noticed Alli getting in the water? Had she been so far gone in the throes of pleasure that a blonde amazon crawling in with her didn't at least dance on the edge of her attention? She was in worse shape than she thought.

And she was going to throttle Alex.

"Alli, the bishop's coming, we need to get you dry again," Karen stated, wondering where the Hell her child was. He'd been given one job. One!

"Why I gotta be dry when you're not?" whined the younger girl with a lopsided pout.

"I'm just... I was just.. getting ready to..." Karen stuttered somewhat lamely.

"Oh, I know what you were doing, sissy," Alexa purred, moving closer with a sly smile on her face. "An' I got in to help."

"Alli, we don't have time," Karen protested, trying to back up in the tub, but already wedged against the wall. "The bishop is coming and-"

"Why should some dumb ol' bishop be the only one that's cumming?" Alexa interrupted, leaning into her sister now, their breasts squashing together and her face inches from Karen's. "I can make us do it easy, y'know?"

"Alli, we- gnnnnnnnnnn," Karen groaned, shivering as her sister swooped her head down and greedily sucked one of the older woman's nipples into her mouth, rolling her tongue around it. Karen's need to orgasm, banished seconds ago, was back with a vengeance. "Alliiiiiiiiiiiiii..."

"Mmmmm, don' worry, Kar," Alexa mumbled through a mouthful of tit. "I'll make you cum harder'n any ol' bishop."

Karen bit her lip and her eyes looked up at the ceiling, desperate for release. Her arms and hands were shaking and she was gripping the marbled rim so tight she thought it might crack. Sparks of pleasure lanced through her body and she found her will to resist her devilish little sister's molestations crumbling. Her legs were parting themselves almost against her will, and she let out an un-ladylike sound when Alexa's hand found her needy womanhood. She couldn't stop herself from pressing up with her hips.

She also couldn't stop herself from shrieking in shock when Alexa's free hand turned on the jets full force and the water blasted Karen's pussy without warning.

Outside the master suite...

Tatyana normally wouldn't spend her time waiting like this, but these circumstances were rather exceptional. Not only did she not want to interrupt Mrs. DeBourne in the middle of some badly needed relaxation (after the day she'd had so far), but the orders given about the priority concerning these bags had been very specific. Mrs. DeBourne was to be told at once when any of them had come into the possession of any member of the staff, and brought to her immediately, no questions asked.