Stormy Waters: Book 10 in The Dar & Kerry Series (30 page)

Dar looked at Kerry, Kerry looked back at Dar. They both looked across the counter at the reporter. "What?" Dar's brow creased. "I haven't told you anything." She glanced at Kerry. "Have you?"

"Um...no, I've only cursed at her so far." Kerry shook her head. "What are you talking about?" She asked the black woman.

"Oh, don't play that game with me." Cruicshank said. "You are two smart cookies, and it's way too late to pretend you don't know what's going on." She put her hands on her hips. "So let's drop the act, okay?"

Dar picked up her glass, poured more milk into it, and then wandered out of the kitchen shaking her head. She walked right past the reporter and went over to the couch, dropping into it and extending her legs out across its surface. "What do you think, Ker?"

"What do I think?" Kerry put the milk back into the refrigerator. "I think she got stung by a bunch of jelly fish. Want me to call 911? Hallucinations will be next." She leaned on the counter. "Lady, you're nuts.?"

"I'm nuts?" The reporter's eyes widened.

"We have no idea what the hell you're talking about." Kerry told her in a confidential tone.

Cruicshank looked from one to the other. She pointed at Dar. "You told me from your perspective this whole bid was just business. Right?"

"Right." Dar acknowledged.

"So, then tell me, Ms. Roberts, how professional it is that your father's been working at Telegenic's ship, causing trouble?"

Uh oh. Dar outwardly refused to react, not even to let her eyes flicker over to where Kerry was standing. "My father?" She mused. "My father's a retired naval officer who takes odd jobs on the waterfront to keep busy,? she said. "I find it hard to believe he was causing trouble."

Kerry had to strain not to smile, despite the shock of the words.

"And he just so happened to take one there?" The reporter asked sarcastically. "Just like your..." She turned and looked at Kerry, "assistant just happened to attack your competition at a restaurant?" A snort. "Give me a break," she said. "This is all about personal issues, and you've got as many as anyone else does."

"Actually." Kerry chose her words carefully. "Your friends at Telegenics were trying to get me to come out with them so they could attack my partner here." She circled the counter. "I got called out of town on business." Her smile was icy. "And my assistant was being courteous in letting them know I wasn't going to make it."

"With a chili bowl? I think an email would have been enough." Cruicshank shot back.

Kerry half shrugged. "Your friends were...very professional, sitting in a hamburger shack dissing us at the top of their voices. My assistant took exception to that. I don't blame her."

"Honey, that ain't how I heard it."

"My assistant is eighteen years old, and she was with her mother." Kerry sat down on one of the counter stools. "I believe what they told me." She shrugged slightly. "But for that matter, if Dar and I did react in any way, it was because they were pushing us to the wall."

The reporter looked around the cabin. "I just don't believe that. You know what I think? I think they're right. All those people are up there working their butts off to make this happen, and you two are here in your...love shack."

She turned and walked to the door. "Call the cops. See if I care." Her voice was now cutting. "But let me tell you, ladies, I know exactly how I'm going to play this story, and for you...it's not going to be pretty."

Cruicshank turned and left, slamming the door behind her.

There was a brief silence in the cabin, as the two partners regarded each other. Finally, Dar shifted her position, rolling onto her side and propping her head up on her hand. "Love shack." She mused. "I like it."

Kerry rubbed her eyes. "Dar, this is not funny."

"No." Dar agreed. "But what in the hell are you going to do, Ker? Dad was doing exactly what she claimed, and we're here." One shoulder shrugged. "And the battling burritos did what they did. It's all in the spin, and she's got the turntable."

"Nice." The blond woman trudged over and sat down on the couch next to Dar. She let her hands fall slackly between her knees and extended her bare feet across the carpet. "So, now what?"

Now what. Good question. Dar really had no idea now what. "I just don't get what the big deal is about us being up here. It's not like you and I are running the cables." She temporized. 'What's that all about?"

Kerry pondered. "They're control freaks, so they think everyone else should be too?" She thought a moment more. "And, well, you know hon...I can remember projects where you were a little like that too."

She peeked at Dar to gauge a reaction, but got a mildly bemused expression in return.

"I know." Her partner nodded agreeably. "But I got over it. You helped me, matter of fact. I sniffed around one of yours one time too many, and you told me what I was going to die of."

Kerry's head dropped forward a little. "I did no such thing."

Dar's lips quirked. "Well, not in those words, no." She admitted. "But you did."

"I did?" Kerry thought back, trying to recall the momentous occasion. Had she really told Dar to back off? Then the memory surfaced, and she exhaled, picturing a scene in Dar's office with her pushing a set of colored project folders across her boss's desk.
One of us really needs to own these, Dar.

Dar had cocked her head to one side, she remembered, and then casually pushed them back across the desk with a smile.

No, not quite in those words. "Okay, you got me." Kerry admitted. "But I don't get why it matters to them. After all, if we're slacking off, isn't that better for their side?"

"Mm."

"And, she told me she had information that would be to our advantage." Kerry suddenly remembered. "Was that just to get inside this place and have her say? I don't get it, Dar. This isn't adding up."

"No." Dar curled her body around Kerry's and wrapped an arm around her for good measure. "I thought that woman had a more balanced viewpoint. Something happened," she said. "Either she bought into Michelle and Shari's pitch, or something else happened that made her turn around. I know she was probably playing me at lunch, but I really..."

"Hrm."

"Really. I didn't get that vibe." Dar shook her head. "I got the feeling she was trying to find the other half of the story."

Kerry sighed. "Wonder how dad got outed? Maybe in retrospect that wasn't the smartest thing we ever did, asking him to go in there."

"Eh." Dar turned her head as her cell phone rang. "That's probably him. I'll ask." She picked it up and answered it, surprised to see the office's caller ID instead. "Uh oh." She flipped it open. "Yes?"

"Oh, Ms. Roberts? Good...this is the security desk." The voice answered, sounding relieved. "Listen, I have the security guy at the pier on the line; he needs to speak to you." There was a click, then another line was connected.

"Hello?" Dar ventured.

"Uh...oh, hi. Is this Ms. Roberts?"

"Yes."

"This is Steven at the pier, ma'am. We've been trying to call Ms. Stuart, and there's no answer. ?

Dar looked inquiringly at Kerry, who sat up and peered around like a startled meerkat searching out her cell phone. "She's here. What's the problem? You need to talk to her?"

"No, well...it's not..." The guard seemed unsure. "It's the port, ma'am. They're going nuts here. There's television cameras and all kinds of stuff all over the place, and I think they're asking everyone to leave."

"Huh?" Kerry took the phone. "Steven, this is Kerry. What's happening? Was there an accident?"

"No, ma'am. But some kind of government people are here, and boy, they've got this place lit up like a Christmas tree for sure. I think they're looking at the ships. Something's wrong, I guess. They won't tell us anything."

Kerry held the phone out a little, and lifted her free hand in question.

Dar was at a loss. "Okay, well?" She rubbed her jaw.

"Did they make all the workers leave the ships, Steve?" Kerry asked. "Are our contractors still there?"

"No, oh, wait. Hang on." The sound became muffled then came back. "Ma'am, one of my guys just came in to relieve me and he said he heard it's an environmental thing."

"Environmental." Kerry repeated. "Okay, but are they asking you to leave the pier?"

"No, ma'am, apparently what some of these people want is for the boats to leave the pier." The guard now sounded much surer of himself. "It's not about us at all."

"Phew." Dar exhaled. "At last, something that has nothing to do with us, for a change."

"Yeah." Kerry agreed. "Okay, Steve, you guys just sit tight near the office, okay? If they make everyone get out, give me a call." She paused, "Wait, give Dar a call because my cell phone's AWOL at the moment."

"Okay, ma'am, will do." Steve replied. "Sorry to bother you."

Kerry hung up the cell phone. She got up and started roaming around the cabin, searching for her own. "Where in the dickens did I put that thing, Dar? I know I had it when we got here."

"Sounds like Quest's got a real problem on his hands." Dar put the phone down and rolled to her feet, joining in the search for the missing cell. "Something he can't blame us for."

"For a change." Kerry paused, then slapped herself on the head. "Damn it, I left it on the bike." She groaned in disgust. "Be right back." She disappeared through the front door with Chino chasing after her.

A knock came at the back door. Dar scrubbed the fingers of one hand through her hair and went to answer it, wondering if it would be their reporter's boatmen, the coast guard, the cops, or the National Enquirer. Nothing would have surprised her at this rate.

She opened the door. "Yes?"

"Okay, listen." Pat said. "Can we start over?"

Well, almost nothing.

PROBLEMS FOR THEM tended to be rated by the number of pots of coffee they required while solving them. Kerry pressed the button to start pot number two while she listened with half an ear to what Dar was saying in the living room.

"Let me get this straight." Dar rubbed her temples. "You came down here because Shari and Michelle convinced you that we were trying to screw up your filming project by deliberately making them look bad."

"Right."

"And we didn't do anything to change that idea."

"No."

Dar folded her hands and rested her chin on her clasped fingers. "So why are you here? Just write your story. They're struggling good guys; we're monolithic bad guys trying to squash them--makes for great television. Go for it."

Pat got up and paced. "You know, I really want to go for that." She used her hands when she talked, her fists clenching and unclenching. "It's a great story, you're right. Make great television. Just what my boss was looking for."

Dar's ears pricked. "Your boss."

Kerry brought the new pot of coffee in, setting it down on the tray quietly and taking a seat next to her partner.

"My boss, really wants this show." Pat agreed. "Something new, you know? Yeah, it's travel related, but it's also got a big human angle, and people like that."

"Mm." Dar nodded. "But?"

"But." The reporter repeated softly. "But you know..." She turned and faced them. "Sweet as this story is, the good guys in it aren't the people I want my boss to see." Hesitating, she finally shrugged and went to the seat across from the couch, sitting down on it. "You're not the only ones with a personal agenda here."

Kerry blinked, positive she was missing something. A quick glance at Dar's profile clued her in to the fact that her partner wasn't.

Dar's head lifted, the entire expression on it shifting from bewilderment to understanding from one breath to another. "You want your boss to see how we work." She indicated Kerry and herself.

Pat nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Because let me tell you, those other two have tried their damndest to convince me that you two are as dysfunctional as they are, and believe me, they're a pair of head cases."

"Dysfunctional?" Kerry frowned then turned her head to face Dar. "We never malfunction, do we?"

A wicked twinkle appeared in Dar's very blue eyes. "Not that you've ever mentioned to me, no." She drawled. "And I've got no complaints."

Kerry looked puzzled for an instant, then she reached over and tweaked Dar's nose. "Wench." She shook her head and faced Pat again. "I don't understand how they'd give you that impression."

Pat's lips twitched. "Whole lot of talk,especially that Shari. She's got a lot to say about you." She looked at Dar. "And it sure isn't complimentary."

"That's just because Dar keeps kicking her butt every time they square off." Kerry snorted. "Shari should learn better business tactics."

The reporter leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees. "It's not business she's talking about."

"Ah." Dar chuckled shortly. "Let me guess--Shari's painting me as a half unstable megalomaniac with twisted personal issues stemming from my upbringing."

"What?" Kerry barked.

"Who beats her girlfriend," Pat added crisply.

Dar just snorted. Kerry gave an excellent impression of a boiling teakettle without stirring a muscle as Chino trotted over and pushed her head against her shorter mother?s knees. "Boy, does she have her lines crossed." Dar shook her head. "I'm not the Tasmanian devil in this relationship."

"I'm gonna cross her lines." Kerry got out from between clenched teeth. "Has she really been telling people that?"

"Well, she had me half buying it, and to be honest, that's the real reason I came down here." The reporter admitted. "You can act however you want in the office, but like you said, this is not your office, and it's off the clock." She looked around. "And this ain't no movie set."

Dar scratched her nose and produced a brief smile. "No, it's not."

"Dar, do you think that's where all that crap in the office came from?" Kerry turned and looked at her. "From Shari? Is that possible, that she fed all that BS to someone inside?"

"That would be the obvious choice." Dar sat forward and started pouring herself another cup of coffee. She very gently nudged Kerry's bare foot with her own. "But you never can tell. Could be the other way around."