BODY COUNT: Killers (a novel): Chapter 29. The Showdown

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Blake drove to June Warner’s house. He had given some thought to confronting her in the parking lot of A.P.S., but then he thought better of it. At home, she would be more at ease and less likely to fire him on the spot.
    It was 6:15 when he pulled up. The late November sun had set, but the streets lights lit June’s house just fine, and there was no sign she was home. He took out his phone but then remembered that his number was blocked. Not wanting to be in her way, Blake parked across the street by the curb and settled in for the wait. He wondered how much the big homes lining the street cost. Each house had a beautifully manicured yard, and the third house down had hedges shaped like animals. He thought about walking down and snapping photos of the hedges, but in the dark somebody might shoot him, and, anyway, at that moment, June pulled into her drive.
    Blake got out and walked toward her car. She came out like a bobcat charging from a cave. “What the hell are you doing at my house? Did my letter not make it clear that I want no contact with you?”
    Blake had reached to within a few feet of the back of her car and her fury made him step back. “Please, calm down, Ms. Warner. We need to talk. I thought that here, away from A.P.S., would be a good place.”
    June slammed her car door. “You thought wrong, Mr. Harris. Everything I had to say was in that letter. I suggest you go back and read it.”
    She headed toward her door and Blake stepped around her car. “June, I don’t blame you for being mad, nor do I blame you for wanting to distance yourself from us, but we’re in a messy business, and shit happens. However, the way you’re going about all this won’t work. The very thing that enables our unit to operate effectively has been its freedom of movement.”
    Her hand was on the front doorknob. “I was screamed at by the Police Chief of Memphis, and the Mayor threatened a lawsuit. Don’t you dare come to me about freedom of movement! If I hadn’t pushed David Gibson so hard to start this pilot program, I would close the entire thing down.”
    She opened the door and stepped in, but before she could close the door, Blake shouted, “What about your son, June? Have you forgotten that he’s the reason any of this exists? If we can’t come to some kind of a workable arrangement, the team will walk and that’ll be the end of it.”
    Blake watched June’s shoulders droop and felt sorry for using her dead son in his argument, but he doubted Tommy’s killer would be caught without his team. He was sure she knew that – after all, it was her idea to create the team in the first place. She just needed reminding how important the team was to her.
    She slowly faced him. “Come in and we’ll talk.”
    Blake followed her inside. She walked into the kitchen, telling Blake, “Take a seat in the living room. I need a glass of red wine. Do you care for one, or maybe a beer?”
    “No, thank you, I’m good.” He walked into the living room and sat down in the chair across from the couch that he had been offered on his first visit. He was going over in his head what he would say to convince her they could still work together. But as mad as she was, he doubted he could convince her of anything. By the time she entered the room Blake had moved on in his mind to what he would do for the rest of his life, now that he was unemployed.
    June took her seat on the couch and imbibed a large amount of wine before setting the glass on the coffee table in front of her. “You’re right, I did overreact. However, that doesn’t change the fact that we can’t be seen as working together.”
    Blake took a deep breath. She was going to talk, so maybe something could be worked out after all. “June, I understand the problem you’re facing. We need to get off of A.P.S. property. Anyway, the only thing we really need is access to its computer.”
    She took another drink of wine. “That would be a problem if you move out of the building. We have a closed network. Access to the computer has to be over our internet service, and there’s no way I can give you that access. It’s for security business only.”
    Blake was lost. “We’re hooked into it now – I don’t understand what the difference would be.”
    June finished her wine and stood up. “Are you sure I can’t get you something?”
    Blake followed her into the kitchen. “Maybe a beer.”
    She refilled her glass and pulled a cold can of beer from the refrigerator and handed it to Blake. “Your system is hard-wired into our computer. We can limit access that way. You have use of otherwise unused space where your program is stored and that’s as far into our system as you can go. However, to allow you internet access to the system would open up everything to you, and I can’t do that.”
    Blake thought for a moment or two before he asked, “What if we move out and leave Peter and Mary behind? You can have Ms. Hunt monitor us from there, as long as she stays out of our way. For anybody else’s information, we work for Homeland Security and are not tied to A.P.S. in any way.”
    June was leaning back on the couch feeling the glow of the first glass of wine, not remembering or caring whether she had eaten anything during the day. “Peter and Mary can’t work in the field. They’ll have to be carried as working for Mandia.”
    Blake raised the cold can to his mouth and emptied about half of it before he put it down. He smiled at June. “I think we have an agreement.”
    June brightened a little. “Where would you set up shop?”
    Blake looked at his beer can. “There’s a closed bar on Airways just past the A.P.S. property. I have some savings – I think I’ll go into the bar business.”
    June nodded and set her glass on the table. “I need you and your people to clear your stuff out and turn in your passes and I.D.s by tomorrow.”
    Blake sensed he was being dismissed, so he stood and put out his hand. “Thank you, June. We’ll be out of your hair by tomorrow afternoon at the latest.”
    She took his hand and pulled him close. At first, the kiss was light and Blake wondered if it was just a friendly gesture. Then her tongue found his, and it was no longer friendly or a gesture – it was pure passion.
    They sank onto the white rug, she pulling his shirt off and he gathering her skirt up around her waist. He didn’t even notice the short stab of pain from the wound in his side. He slipped his hands into her pantyhose and panties and pulled them to her ankles. Not bothering with both her legs, he pulled everything off one foot and then dropped his pants.
    He entered her like a bull charging a matador. There was no gentleness, no sweetness, only animal lust. He completed a couple of strokes and she rolled him onto his back and mounted him. They were fighting a battle as old as time itself, and when it ended there were no victors, only two spent warriors. They lay apart, both trying to regain their breath.
    At last June said, “God, I needed that.”
    Blake tried to speak, but it was taking him longer than June to get enough air into his lungs to say anything. He watched June pull the pantyhose off her other foot and stand up. She smiled down at him. “Thank you, Blake, you’re a dear man.”
    She walked to the stairs that led to the bedrooms and Blake began to gather his clothes to follow, but she stopped at the first step and looked back. “When you go out, make sure the door locks behind you.”
    Blake sat for a while in his car wondering what had just happened. Then, with a smile, he started the car. On the way to Mississippi, he called Peter and gave him the highlights and asked him to call everybody and have them come into the office in the morning.

Copyright © 2019, 2020 by Ed Rogers