Sting of the Scorpion Ch. 04

"Hey baby." Cindy said. "I'll be out in a minute." She shut down the computer and went out into the living room.

"Oh my God." Jenna said upon catching sight of her affianced in the peach teddy. "You are one hell of a sight for tired eyes."

"Thank you." Cindy said. "I need a drink. Want one?"

"You bet." Jenna said. Cindy poured two bourbons, and they sat together on the sofa. Both gulped down their drinks, so Cindy just brought the bottle to the table in front of the sofa.

"The good news," Jenna said, "is that Don gave Sharples that child trafficking assignment, and now Sharples totally preoccupied with it. He actually is working like a dog, and not fucking up any Vice cases. I almost went in to fuck Don's balls off as a reward, but he wasn't at work today."

"Yeah, he was closing on the new Cabin today." Cindy said, ignoring the part of Jenna's comment about fucking Don. "I think the housewarming party is next weekend, and we're both invited."

"Oh!" Jenny said. "That reminds me." She rummaged through her purse and brought out an envelope. "This came in the mail, for us."

Cindy took out the card and read it. It was an invitation to Lashes & Lace for Friday night, the next night, as the 'special guests' of the owner, Rita. A handwritten note from Rita said that it would be a special evening, and that Cindy would learn all about the widow she was seeking.

"Have you ever been there before?" Cindy asked Jenna.

"Nope." Jenna said. "And I'm not sure we should be seen in that place."

"Oh... we're going." Cindy said. "It'll be okay; Don and Laura have gone several times. And Rita has some information for me. So... what didn't go so well today?"

"KSTD," Jenna said, "and that god-damned lawsuit over the Burke tapes. Krasney took me off of every other case and made me the primary counsel for the County and the Council. And Gor-don has been less than helpful on it; he wants the tapes to come out. Told me that to my face."

"Why haven't you fired that punk?" Cindy asked. It wasn't the first time she'd asked.

"Because he's normally good, he normally has inside info on things in the Punk world, and because his dick is bigger than anyone else's... except Myron Milton's." Jenna was bisexual, though mostly she was hot for women, and Cindy in particular. But while Cindy didn't care for cock, Jenna wasn't past indulging in some hard male meat from time to time.

"You'd fuck that excrement and then come home to me?" Cindy asked acerbically.

"Would I do that to you?" Jenna asked. Cindy was not fooled but said nothing as Jenna continued: "But I might tease him. But enough about Gor-don. Krasney is worried about the tapes, but Sheriff Allgood is about to come out of his skin over it. He's not himself at all." Cindy said nothing, knowing fully why Daniel Allgood was so uptight over the tapes, his wife being Cindy's business partner.

"Are we going to win or lose that one?" Cindy asked.

"Oh, KSTD will never get those tapes, nor the computer files on the servers." Jenna said. "The Chief says he'll go to jail before turning them over, and Myron was overheard saying he's already planted the virus to wipe out the data if need be. I don't know if that's for real or a bluff."

"It's for real." Cindy said. "I personally authorized and ordered Myron to do it."

Jenna stared at Cindy a moment, then said "Wow. You guys don't play."

Cindy said "That's because Commander Donald Troy has not said a word about this... and nothing scares me like Don keeping something to himself. I know he'll go in and wipe out that data himself. He and Myron, and maybe Mary, are the only people capable of doing it. Like you said, Don won't play; he'll destroy the data, no virus, no 'plausible deniability', if push came to shove. If anything, we have to make sure he doesn't take the fall. Too much is at stake."

"Wow." Jenna said. "You're really loyal to him, aren't you?"

"Yeah." Cindy said, then sighed. "Yeah, I am. And I don't mind. It's like our radio station's Sports announcer always says: 'I have seen enough to know that I have seen too much.' And from what I've seen, we need the Iron Crowbar or things will go to hell in a handbasket. And if I can help him, that's what I need to be doing."

Jenna said nothing. Cindy refilled the glasses. "To the Iron Crowbar." Jenna said. They clinked their glasses together and drained them.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The next morning I woke up around 4:15am, feeling something wasn't right. I got up and looked around the house. Nothing was out of place... except Bowser was wide awake and began following me around. He was anxious, as well, and was sniffing around as if he expected to find something that wasn't right.

After petting and playing with Bowser a few minutes, I went upstairs and showered and shaved, then dressed. Letting Laura sleep, I quietly left the house and drove to Headquarters in my SUV. Instead of my normal route, I went a bit further south, and ended up driving down College Avenue, past the Presbyterian Church on the left just a block away from University Avenue, then First Baptist Church on the right and the Catholic Church on the left, then the Methodist Church on the left. They should've named this street Church Street, I thought to myself. The Presbyterians had started the University, as was the case of a surprising number of colleges in the Nation, but the First Baptist Church was by far the largest denomination.

I continued down the street into Courthouse Square. It was desolate, lit by a few streetlights and the lights that lit up City Hall on the west side and the County Courthouse on the east side. No old ladies in the park. Nobody else, either.

At Headquarters I checked in with the Duty Desk officers, glad to find them wide awake and doing their jobs. After talking with them for a few minutes, I went to my office. The door was locked, so I unlocked it with my key, but did not turn on the light. A lamp on the desk was on, and that was all I needed as I powered up the computer.

I then noticed the glint of golden light reflected from the lamp. It had come from the matchstick Trojan Horse that was sitting on the bookcase where it normally did. To my shock, there was a necklace around the Horse's neck.

So that's why I was feeling that Disturbance in the Force, I thought to myself.

I checked to make sure the capsule inside the Horse was undisturbed; it was still embedded on the inside of the Horse's neck. I then studied the necklace. The pendant hanging on the thin gold chain was a gold character, an "m" with a arrow-pointed tail at the end. It was one of the signs of the Zodiac, which happened to be my own sign, but I knew what the real meaning was:

It was the symbol for Scorpio... the Scorpion.

To be continued.

Dear readers: not much to solve, but can you see the web being weaved here? So, who or what is the Scorpion? What's going to happen to Wargrave? Will the Consultant of Crime save Wargrave? And how does Don know the name of that woman? Solutions, such they are, as well as hot housewarming sex, to come in the next exciting chapter.