Chapter 6
HARLOW
"That was exhilarating," I said as the last of the staff left and I closed the door behind them.
"We can call that a rousing success," Boner declared. "Everyone had a great time and the food was amazing."
"So good," Cass agreed, sucking down the last of his milkshake.
"The sauce could have used a bit more basil," Jules remarked.
"I disagree." Archer propped his elbows on the table and rested his face on his hands. "It was perfectly balanced and flavorsome."
"Did you swallow an encyclopedia, or fuck one?" Jules asked.
"While eating a small amount of paper isn't bad for you," Archer said, "an entire encyclopedia would give me a stomachache. As for the logistics of fucking one…"
Jules waved a hand in front of his face. "You know what? Forget it. I should have known you'd take it literally."
The side of Archer's mouth twitched, his version of a grin. Amused that he'd scored points off Jules.
"How much paper do you have to eat to make yourself sick?" Cass asked. "Asking for a friend."
"I'd say you have some fucked up friends, but that's obvious," Jules told him.
"You're here with us too," I reminded him.
Boner pointed a finger right at his nose. "Don't tell me you're not enjoying yourself because we all know you'd be lying. You're having as good a time tonight as the rest of us. You just don't show it the way some of us do."
Jules grunted in response. "It was okay. I've had worse nights."
"And worse company." Boner gave him a 'come on' gesture to admit we weren't that bad.
"That too, I guess." Jules said as he scrubbed a hand over his face. "Should one of us be following Getzoff?
"Are you volunteering?" I asked gently.
The detective and his sister were one of the last to leave. He gave me a long look before he followed her out the door. The hairs on the back of my neck hadn't settled down again yet.
"We should stay away from him until I do a background search on him," Cass said before Jules could respond.
"It's a good idea to know your enemy before you go after them," Boner agreed.
"We don't know that he's our enemy," I pointed out. "He could just be a creep." He wouldn't be the first or the last.
"He's my enemy," Boner said. "Anyone who looks at you the way he does, and isn't sitting at this table, is on my shit list."
"Okay, but there's a difference between being jealous and going after someone because they're a bad person," I said.
"Are you saying I'm not on your shit list?" Jules said to Boner.
"I did say that, didn't I?" Boner tilted his head to the side and frowned thoughtfully. "What's the next step up from shit list? Acquaintance list?" His eyes shone. Clearly Jules was higher than that, but he too couldn't resist scoring points off him.
"Can you all just be friends?" Cass said softly. "It wouldn't kill you."
"It might," Boner said cheerfully.
"Have you forgotten I saved your ass when Solomon Danforth had you tied to a fucking chair?" Jules snapped. "Next time, I'll leave you there."
"And if you're ever—" Boner started.
"Enough," I insisted. "No one is leaving anyone tied to a chair without their consent."
"So…with their consent is okay?" Boner asked.
Of course that was what he took away from it.
"Whatever you want to do, with consent, is up to you," I said. "Are you trying to tell me you have a chair kink, Edward Bonegard?" I arched my eyebrows at him. “Or bondage?”
Boner sighed. "Honestly, before that night I would have said I'm open to anything and everything.
Now, the idea of being tied up to a chair isn't all that appealing, believe it or not.
" He glanced down toward the top of the table, his eyes glazed.
That night must have been more traumatic than he let on.
He kept it hidden behind his usual cheerful demeanor, pretending he was okay when he wasn't.
I put a hand over his and squeezed. "I believe it," I said gently. "It must have been scary."
"Part scary, part boring as fuck," Boner agreed. "If it wasn't for Archer, I might still be attached to that chair, waiting for someone to find us all. Our corpses half-rotten. Bugs eating us. Our…"
"All right. We get the picture." I said quickly, putting my hand up in front of my face.
That was a visual image I didn't need in my brain. I knew one day we'd all die, but I didn't want to think about lying dead in an apartment for six months, no one knowing we were there.
Although, was that possible?
My staff would notice if I didn't turn up to work. So would Boner's. Someone would come looking for us. Would they have found us in Archer's place? The whole idea of staying there was so no one knew where we were. No one but people I thought I could trust.
"If you don't have me cremated when I die, I'm going to haunt you," Jules said to Cass.
"Same, bro, same," Cass said back. His skin looked slightly green. Evidently thinking of himself decomposing like that was sickening for him, too.
"So, you had a suggestion for a playdate after the opening?" I said, directing the question to Boner, hoping to put the grisly thoughts behind us.
"I did," Boner agreed, pouncing on the change of topic with glee. As glad as the rest of us to move on to someone else's grisly death instead of ours.
Boner pulled out his phone and opened the screen. "Lionel Gammage was a teacher…"
"Someone beat us to it," I said, although the words were redundant.
Lionel Gammage lay on the floor in the middle of his apartment, eyes open and staring.
"Not by much." Archer crouched beside him to take a closer look at the blood pooled around Gammage's open throat. He placed a hand on his wrist. "He's barely started to cool."
"So what you're saying is we snuck up a fire escape and into this guy's apartment and barely missed whoever murdered him?" Jules asked, lingering near the window.
"They might still be here," I pointed out. A fact which immediately put everyone on edge.
"I'll take a look around." Boner slid out his knife and made his way through the apartment. Looking behind doors. Inside closets. Even under the bed.
"There's no one here. No one else here," he amended, as if we were about to be smartasses and correct him the same way he would have done if it was one of us speaking.
He put his knife away and grimaced down at the dead man. "I have to admit, this is disappointing. This isn't the date I promised my woman."
I put an arm over his shoulders. "It's okay, it's the thought that counts. At least someone took care of him."
"Yeah, but who?" Cass picked up Gammage's phone and started to look through it.
"We might have some competition," Boner suggested. He actually seemed to like the idea.
"We're not starting a game between us and another killer," I told him.
"We aren't, but what about them?" The Englishman gestured toward Gammage. "They're the ones who started it."
I gave him a stern look. "This isn't the playground. We can't run off to teacher and say, 'They started it.'" I raised my voice to a child like pitch.
"Who do we run off to, then?" Boner asked, grinning.
"I vote we get the hell out of here and call this one in to the cops," I said.
"Too late." Archer pushed himself to his feet. It wasn't until he was standing that I realized what he was referring to. The sound of sirens was common in the city, but these seemed to be heading straight toward us.
I could put it down to paranoia, but the sound made me want to bolt.
"One 'getting the hell out of here' coming up," Boner said.
Jules was the first to climb back out of the window and start down the fire escape. The other three herded me toward it, all but pushing me out before they followed me. We barely made it down to the ground before a couple of police cars rounded the corner and stopped in front of the building.
Keeping to the shadows as much as possible, we moved away, only stopping when we got a safe distance. I glanced back over my shoulder as an all too familiar figure stepped out of one of the cars.
"Isn't that interesting?" Boner said slowly. "What are the statistical possibilities of Detective Getzoff being here right now? He glanced over at Archer.
"Small," Archer said simply.
"How the hell did they know?" Jules whispered. He glared at Boner. "You were the one who brought us here."
"I did. But I'm not crazy enough to put myself in harm's way," Boner said. "And I wouldn't risk Harlow. Or the rest of you."
He glanced at Cass for a moment and gave him a quick smile. They hadn't discussed what was growing between them, but it was obvious to anyone who looked. They were adorable together. I was all for them exploring all the possibilities.
"Thanks for bringing me along for the ride," Getzoff was saying to one of the other cops. "That tip-off sounded suspicious as hell."
The uniformed cop gave him a glance and a shrug, irritated. Not caring about the detective's gratitude. He was here to do his job, and evidently he was about to get his toes stepped on. I'd be annoyed too. They disappeared into the building.
"Who tipped them off?" Jules asked.
Cass was tapping away at his own phone. "I can't find any evidence of cameras. It's possible Gammage screamed."
He didn't look like he believed that. Neither did I, to be honest.
Someone could have been watching. I saw no sign of anyone peering between their curtains or standing out on the street pointing fingers. If there were, they would have drawn a crowd by now. Either on the street or with people watching out their windows. Who could resist a spectacle like that?
"It's possible the real perpetrator called in the tip," Boner said.
"Right," Archer agreed. "That's possible for two reasons. One, he wanted the attention from the police. That's common with serial killers; they like to be noticed."
"Called out," Boner muttered.
"The other possibility is they're messing with us," I concluded. I rubbed a hand over my forehead, then massaged my temples.
"Only if they knew we'd be here." Jules looked accusingly at Boner again.
"I didn't tell them," Boner insisted. "Gammage was facing a raft of charges. It's possible someone intercepted the same information I did. I mean, we can't be the only ones trying to do the right thing around here, right?"
None of us had the answer to that question.
"How many coincidences can a person have before it's not a coincidence anymore?” I asked. "Whatever we do, Getzoff turns up. Or something happens that brings him into our proximity. What are we missing?"
Had someone betrayed us again? Was it one of the men standing close to me? One of my new staff? I couldn't rule out the possibility Hypnos or Zeus found us and were playing cat and mouse with us, laughing their asses off as we stumbled around trying to figure out which way was up.
"I'm missing having private time with my woman," Boner said adjusting his blonde man bun. "Let's get out of here before they start searching the neighborhood for a killer."
Jules snorted at the irony, but was quick enough to follow us away from the crime scene.