Chapter 29

Devlin knew she really should have expected it. Krissi was attentive over dinner, supportive, talking through everything that had happened that morning at the Athletic Club. Talk gave way to hugs, hugs gave way to touching, and soon they were in the bedroom, shedding their clothes. The only rational thing Devlin remembered doing before falling into Krissi's arms, was setting the alarm for 9:30.

She struggled up out of the haze of pleasure, her body alive and heavy at the same time. She felt like she was drifting on a golden cloud, wrapped in a million feathers. Her skin was electric, and even the touch of the sheets as she slid off the bed were almost too much. She forced herself to continue, though, groping around in the darkened room for her clothes.

"Do you have to go?" Krissi murmured from the bed.

"I have appearances to keep up," Devlin replied. She gave up on her panties--in the dark it was impossible to tell hers from Krissi's. She found a bra, it didn't feel right as she put it on, but she couldn't find hers, and Krissi almost never wore a bra when she was home. As for the rest... she found a tee-shirt and sweater that were probably hers, and she remembered leaving her jeans by the door. Socks--she had left them with her boots in the living room.

She dressed quickly. If she hurried she could join the crowd leaving the library when it closed, and nobody would think anything of it. Of course she had told Connie she was going on a study date, so if she was a few minutes late nobody would really say anything.

Krissi, wearing her short little robe, stopped her at the front door for a good-bye kiss. "I know you've really got some doubts about this," she whispered, resting her fingers on Devlin's cheeks, "but I don't. Even if we don't ever do this again, thank you for tonight."

"Yeah, you're right, I've got some questions," Devlin admitted, "but..." She kissed Krissi's fingers. "I should thank you." After a kiss, and a second that was a lot hotter, she had to break it off. Either that, or join her friend in the bedroom and to hell with what the other girls thought of her.

"What about tomorrow night? Still want to go?"

Krissi nodded. "I've been looking forward to it."

"Have you told Steve?"

"No, I haven't. He can't make it, he has some sort of family thing in Peoria."

"You are going to tell him, aren't you?"

"When it seems right. How do you tell your boyfriend you like to go to parties where you have sex with strange men? I haven't figured that out, yet."

Devlin chuckled. "Yeah, I know what you mean." She sighed and slipped her fingers from Krissi's. "I've got to go. I'll call you tomorrow afternoon."

"I won't say I'll be waiting by the phone, but I figure we should leave here about 5:30."

"Sounds good." Devlin brushed one last kiss across Krissi's pale lips, wrapped her muffler a little tighter, and slipped out the door.

Within a block she realized she had Krissi's bra on. It dug in the wrong places, the seam over her nipples was driving her nuts, and she felt like she was going to burst out of it. And her jeans were rubbing her in exactly the wrong places. Her sex was tender enough from Krissi's ministrations, she didn't need the roughness of the denim on top of that. She picked up the pace. The only relief was going to be getting out of these things.

"Good date?" Connie asked when Devlin got back to her room. She was sitting at her desk, wrapped up in her robe and slippers.

"It was fun," Devlin replied as she hung up her coat. She wondered if she smelled of sex; probably, and she'd better clean up. "I was freezing on the walk back, though, so I think I'll take a shower."

She undressed quickly... she was right, this was Krissi's bra. It was a soft-cup, and her own bras had underwires. It was also smaller: she wore a 34DD, and a small 34 at that. Krissi's bra was a 36C. No wonder it had felt both loose and constricting. She made a mental note: the next time she and Krissi did this she'd have to leave her clothes some place where she could find them afterwards. It was all right fumbling around on the floor when she was with Danny, but it was easy to tell her clothes from a man's; not so with another woman.

After she got back from her shower she told Connie what had happened that morning. That brought Alexa and Becky in, and she had to go through the story one more time. After a lot of talk she finally called it a night. It was past midnight, and she decided to skip her morning work out. Besides, she'd get enough exercise at Emma's this weekend.

Denise O'Connor found her as she emerged from her last morning class. "Going somewhere?"

"Lunch comes to mind," Devlin said. She paused at the door of the building; mixed snow and rain were whirling down out of the sky, and the weather forecasters were talking about a couple of inches of snow that night. "I slept in and skipped breakfast this morning."

"The Manager of the Athletic Club tried calling you on your cell phone. He has an offer for you."

"I suppose. It'd better be a pretty good one." She'd reported what had happened to the head office in Chicago, and the company lawyer was supposed to be here today to talk with her. She took her cell phone out and turned on the ringer--two missed calls, both from a number at the Athletic Club.

"He says he has a place where you won't be interrupted by strange men bursting in on you with cameras."

"They'll just steal some keys or pick the lock, or whatever it is they did."

"They had copies of the keys, but I'll get into that in a moment. The room is a storage room off of the Women's Locker Room. Apparently they've been using it for spare towels and things like that. I took a look at it. The room is about the same size as the room you were using. About the only thing that might be a problem is the humidity from the showers."

"Any outside windows?"

"No windows, but there is a vent."

"I'll have to look at it." Devlin pushed through the door, flinching as the wind bit at her face.

"I said I'd mention it to you," Denise said. "Now let's find some place warm, and I'll tell you where we are with the investigation."

"Okay, for that I'll spring for lunch."

Denise shook her head. "I'll pay, City Regulations. If you bought me lunch it might seem improper, especially as you're part of a criminal investigation."

"I'm part... but I didn't do anything wrong."

"No, you're the victim. But the Regulations are clear. They're stupid, but they're clear. Now come on, let's find some place warm."

They ended up in the restaurant across the street from the Athletic Club. "I swear I should establish a tab here," Denise said as they sat down. "The soup of the day," she told the waitress. "And coffee, no cream or sugar."

"The same," Devlin said. She leaned forward after the waitress left. "All right, what can you tell me?"

"His name is Tony Armand. He's a PI from the Chicago area, well, a PI-in-Training. He's a partner and student of Jack Roget, our other guest. Tony told us that he and his boss were paid $25,000 to get pictures of you in bed with someone. They've been following you for about three weeks. They were the two who burst in on Sue and Dan Mitchell."

"Did he say who was paying them?"

"He said he didn't know, and I'm inclined to believe him. Jack Roget has a reputation for playing his cards pretty close to the vest. When we searched their hotel room we found pictures of Sue and Dan Mitchell. That's led to a new set of charges. If convicted, they're both looking at some serious jail time. The only thing that might reduce their sentence is if they identify whoever paid them."

Devlin tried to think of who that could be, but nothing came to mind, and she said so.

"We're continuing to investigate. Anna and I have a search warrant, and tomorrow we're going to Chicago to execute it. Maybe we'll know more after that."

Their soup came and they ate in silence. "You said they copied some keys," Devlin said after a bit. "How did they get the originals? Did somebody give them the keys?"

Denise nodded. "From what Tony Armand said, Jack knew somebody who worked at the Athletic Club. The guy was a janitor, and he got them a set of keys that lets them into any room in the place. We got those when we arrested Jack Roget."

"So they could get into this new place the Manager wants me to look at."

"Conceivably, yes, aside from the difficulty of getting through the Women's Locker Room. Since there are attendants in the locker room 24 hours a day, that presents a few practical difficulties."

"Attendants. Huh. That would be like guards."

"Not in so many words, but it would take a brave guy to try that little stunt."

Devlin's cell phone rang. With an apologetic smile, she answered it. "That was the company lawyer," she told Denise. "She's just north of town on the freeway--she didn't want to fly down because of the weather--and she's wondering where we can meet."

"This is as good a place as any," Denise said. "Don't worry about the tab, I'll get it and get out of here. I have some other things I have to do today."

"If this place checks out," Devlin said, "tell your friends on the police force that I'll reschedule them."

"They're looking forward to it. Too bad we got interrupted like we did."

"Yeah, well, it happened."

"Cheer up, Devlin. With these guys out of circulation--"

"Until they make bail."

"Well, until then, yeah, but you shouldn't have anyone stalking you."

"I wish I knew why. Who wants pictures of me in bed with someone? And why?"

"There's a world of perverts out there," Denise said. "Last year we busted this guy who paid thousands of dollars to get pictures, and movies if possible, of 19 year-olds having sex with older men. This could be something like that, though why they fixed on you is a mystery."

"My bosom? One of the girls in the dorm said her ex-boyfriend had a thing about looking at girls with big boobs. Sherrie isn't built like that, and when she caught him naked in front of his computer, masturbating while watching a video of some girl with implants, you can imagine her reaction."

"I've never seen the appeal of something like that," Denise said. "But you could be right. Except for a couple of exotic dancers, you have one of the largest bosoms of any woman I've met."

Devlin laughed, a forced bark. "If men only knew what a pain they can be when they're this size."

"At least you have them," Denise said. "Keep that in mind."

"Sorry. Some days I'm just crabbier than others."

Denise got her things together and put on her coat. "I'll call you on Monday or Tuesday. Let me know how it goes with that room." She waved and headed to the cash register. After a little pointing, the waitress nodded.

"Anything else?" the waitress asked when she came over.

"Just refills on the coffee. And somebody'll be joining me in a bit. She'll have a separate tab."

"Sure." The waitress topped off Devlin's coffee and headed to the next table.

Twenty minutes later the company lawyer showed up. "I'm Trisha Farmer," she said as she settled across from Devlin. "And I remember you from last summer." She shrugged. "Well, I remember your hair."

Devlin flicked it self-consciously. "I suppose I did have longer hair than anyone else in the office."

"And much better kept, too." She dug some papers out of her briefcase. "I got a copy of the police report. I thought we could go look at the place after lunch."

"I've already eaten, but I can soak up some more coffee while you eat."

"Good. I skipped breakfast this morning, and I'm famished."

After lunch they took a look at the room--the crime scene tape had been taken down and the door was locked, but Devlin's key let them in. Afterwards they met with Robert Soleit, the Operating Manager of the Athletic Club.

After profuse apologies and some discussion as Trisha pressed for the details as he understood them, Mr. Soleit had his Admin show them the room he was offering.

It was just as Denise described it, about 12 feet by 15 feet, and lined with shelves filled with towels. There was a vent in the far corner--Devlin checked to make sure nobody could see anything through it--and room for a table and several chairs.

"It's a little cramped," Trisha said when they'd returned to Mr. Soleit's office, "but I'm sure we can come to some reasonable rate on it. There'll have to be a few changes."

"Such as?"

"A lock on the door. Not because somebody might break in, but some of my company's property will be in there and we wouldn't want it to walk out. I wasn't thinking of the computer so much some of the samples."

"Ah, yes, understandable. There is a lock there, but we'll have it changed. We'll keep the master in our safe, and issue one to Ms. McCabe." He held up his hand. "And before you ask, we've reviewed our security procedures and will have much better control of the keys in the future."

"Is the room acceptable to you, Devlin?" Trisha asked.

"It needs a dehumidifier, but other than that, and better lighting, it would work. Certainly my customers would feel secure."

Trisha smiled. "We'll require a dehumidifier and improved lighting, Mr. Soleit. Other than that, of course, is the price. Our position is that this was very stressful and severely impacted our business relationship with the Athletic Club. We were thinking that the Athletic Club will have to do a few things to encourage us to continue doing business with it. For instance..."

Devlin sat back and watched as Trisha and Mr. Soleit went back and forth, dickering for a price. For all of their kind words and smiles she soon saw she was a babe in the woods compared to these two. It was entertaining and educational at the same time.

Krissi slid into the car and tossed her overnight bag in the backseat. She had her laptop with her, and kept that on the floor at her feet. "All buckled up," she said as she settled back in her seat.

As they pulled onto the freeway, Krissi giggled. "Sorry about the mix up last night."

"Mix up? Oh, you mean the bras."

"I didn't realize what had happened until this morning. I could barely get it fastened."

"Yours felt like it was hanging on me," Devlin said. "I'll get you properly fitted next week some time." She told Krissi about the room off of the Women's Locker Room. "It should be perfect," she concluded.

"Well, at least you won't have any strange men barging in on you. Do you have any idea who they were or what they wanted?"

"Pictures of me in bed with someone. It was just lucky they didn't get them." She sighed. "If they make bail I suppose I'll have to start watching out for them again."

"Bastards," Krissi said without heat. "Well, right now they're locked up. That means this weekend should be nothing but fun and games."

"Are you sure you'll be all right tomorrow?" Devlin asked. "I'll be busy most of the day at my mother's."

Krissi patted her laptop. "That's what my laptop is for. I'll stay in a coffee shop and write, or maybe the library. I'll see how much distraction there'll be. In either case I'll call you about 5:30."

"Have to get back to campus," Devlin said, deadpan. "Part of that social life my mother has been after me about."

"If she only knew." Krissi laughed. "Oh, well, if my mother knew I'm sure she'd have a coronary. After all, I'm supposed to be pure and virginal."

"And when was the last time you were?"

"I'm not saying. Oh, the virginal part is easy, my freshman year at ISU, but I'm not talking about the pure part."

"Me, neither. So, my troubles aside, what did your editor and agent have to say?"

"Well..."

It was a typical Friday night at Emma's. After she changed--she thought she'd try the short little skirt that would better fit a girl a third her age, it barely hit the top of her thighs in front and didn't cover that much in back--she circulated around, flirting a little, and seeing who interested her. In the end she had sex with Emma's husband Tim; they hadn't done it for a while so it seemed new, and two other men, the last of whom pulled out at the last second to cum all over her boobs.

He'd lasted more than long enough to give her a great climax, so she wasn't disappointed. There weren't any tissues in the room, so she decided to wear this evidence of male passion to the bathroom. While she was standing in the inevitable line she was surprised when the brown-haired woman in front of her began scooping up the guy's jism and licking her fingers.

"I guess that saved me the trouble of cleaning up," Devlin told her when the woman had tracked down the last drop. She'd been worried that the woman would want to lick or kiss her, but the woman had just used her fingers.

"I love the way he tastes," the woman replied. "I gave him a blow-job a couple of months ago, and his wife hasn't wanted me near him ever since."

"Must have been some blow-job."

"He thought so." The woman sighed. "I want to do more than that, but you know how it goes. Some people get weirded out by this whole scene."

"They may have some jealousy issues," Devlin said. She decided she wasn't going to wait any longer, the line might be shorter elsewhere in the house.

After her shower she found Krissi relaxing in the hot tub, a pleased smile on her face. "Ready for bed?" she asked from behind.

"Um, I think so." Krissi climbed out of the tub and began toweling herself off. "Have fun tonight?"

"Pretty much. You?"

"Met a dreamboat. I'll probably fantasize about him for the next two weeks." She held out her hand. Hesitantly, Devlin took it and they headed upstairs to find a place to sleep.

"The mattresses in here probably have wet spots the size of Lake Michigan," Krissi murmured when they found a bedroom that wasn't being used. It smelled strongly of sex, though.

"The one I was using sure must have." Devlin felt the mattresses in the corner. "This one seems okay."