Twist (Siren Publishing Allure) (21 page)

Rolf nodded and turned to Officer Pole. “We had a rotten enough day without adding abuse to the mix. I guess the stress brought on a nightmare. I would never hurt Lana or any other woman for that matter.”

“That is not what Miss Barnes says.”

“Who is that?”

Lana groaned. “Mona. Her last husband was named Barnes. What did she say? Rolf didn’t do anything to her.”

“She claims that he verbally abused her and then grabbed her, shoving her out of the house.”

“
What
? We had an argument, but when she left, Rolf and I were sitting on the floor laughing. More aptly, we were both so exhausted that we got a case of the giggles. Mona is pissed because I just informed her that she is no longer executor of my affairs. In all honesty, I don’t really trust my stepdaughter. My late husband was the one who made her executor in the first place.”

“You were married before? Where is he?” asked Officer Rinds.

“He was killed by a drunk driver on the highway.”

“How long ago was that?”

Lana had the feeling that he already knew the answer. “Just under two years ago.”

Rolf took her coffee cup, taking a sip. He grunted, and she stuck her tongue out at him. “Make your own if you don’t like mine.”

He took the cup and went to sit at the table. Lana turned and put another pod in the slot, brewing another cup. She turned back to the officers, who were staring at her. “Well, why are you holding Enar’s body?”

“We contacted his doctor, who says that he hasn’t seen Fredek in over a year. He does confirm that Fredek would have died without treatment but said that if he had taken it easy, as he was instructed to, he shouldn’t have died so soon,” replied Officer Pole.

Lee turned to her. “Our brother did what he wanted, when he wanted. There are many things in his past that left him with no desire to take life easy or take experimental drugs, which was what the doctor was suggesting. There is nothing suspicious about his death.”

“That will be for the coroner to decide. He is on vacation until next week. We will contact you after we receive his report.”

Lee stared at her. “You are going to make us wait over a week to put his body to rest? That is ridiculous. Bring in another coroner.”

“We are not at liberty to do that,” replied Officer Rinds, his expression snide. “You will simply have to wait.”

Lee walked over, snatching the phone from the cradle. He dialed a number. “Hey, Luke, this is Lee…Fine. Can you do me a favor? The Ridgefield police department needs a competent coroner to perform an autopsy on my brother. Their coroner is on vacation and we really don’t want to wait a week to get his body back. Is there anything you can do?” He listened a moment and then nodded. “Thank you.” Lee hung up the phone. “I play racquetball at the gym with Senator Luke Macy and he will be sending a coroner over to do the autopsy on my brother this afternoon. I presume you will release his body once you get your report and we can plan his memorial gathering for two days from now and put his body to rest. Is there anything else?”

The anger in Officer Rinds’s eyes was a tangible presence. “It must be nice to have pull in high places. Mrs. Manard, you will accompany us to the hospital so that we may rule out your stepdaughter’s claims of abuse.”

“I don’t think so. I already told you. Mona is a self-centered, money-grubbing, pissed-off bitch. I am not being drugged or abused. I will not have you accusing Rolf, or Lee for that matter, of abusing me, because it is a complete and utter fallacy. As I told you last time you were here, if you care to push the issue, you can talk to my attorney.”

He jotted something in his notebook and then closed it. Leaning on the chair, he staring at her, obviously having no intention of leaving. Lana picked up the phone, dialing. “Hello, is Grace in? Yeah, I’ll hold.” She waited, her eyes locked on Officer Rinds.

Grace came on the line. “Hello?”

“Grace, this is Lana. Do you have a minute?”

“Of course. What’s up?”

“Enar passed away two days ago.”

“Oh, Lana, I’m so sorry. How are you holding up?”

“I’m okay. The problem is that the Ridgefield police, or more aptly Officer Rinds of the Ridgefield police department, is insinuating that I allowed Enar to die or influenced his death. Now to make matters worse Mona filed a report that I was being drugged and abused. I have told them that no such thing is happening, but they have told me that I have to go to the hospital. I’m refusing. I’m thinking that this is now bordering on harassment.”

Grace groaned. “I know of Officer Rinds. He is a son of a bitch. Is he there?”

“Yes, he is.”

“Let me speak with him.”

Lana handed him the phone. Officer Rinds was silent, his face paling as he listened. He handed her back the phone, walking from the house.

Lana put the phone to her ear. “Thank you.”

“You are very welcome. When is the ceremony?”

“We are having a private gathering at the house, hopefully in two days. I will let you know.”

“Take care, Lana.”

“Thank you, I will.”

She hung up the phone and Officer Pole stared at her. “Who was that?”

“Grace Savin. She works for the mayor’s office and is also my attorney. She took care of some paperwork for Enar and me and she is perfectly aware of his final wishes. Will there be anything else?”

“I don’t think so. I will call you as soon as your husband is cleared. Please be careful not to get hurt anymore.”

“I will try,” Lana replied without amusement. “Have a nice day.”

They waited until the door was closed and then Lee groaned. “I have such a headache, and that didn’t help. Lana, your neck looks vicious.”

“What I told the cops was the truth. He didn’t do it on purpose or anything.”

“Losing your mojo, brother?”

Rolf chuckled. “I haven’t had a chance to get that far yet.”

Lana stared at Lee, her mouth open to display how appalled she was. “What makes you think we have fucked?”

“I’m actually stunned that you haven’t. You are both sexually oriented people. What’s stopping you?”

“Your brother only died two days ago.”

“So what? He wouldn’t want you to wait. Why are you?”

Rolf stared at Lee. “When have we had time to fool around? The night of the day that Enar died, Lana slid off the bed and ended up with one of those fancy coffee cups in her rib cage. Then we had to get you, followed by your house, and then taking you to the doctors. Last night Lana passed out and then I passed out.” He got up, lifting Lana and sitting down with her in his lap. He snatched the ice from the table, wrapping it around her throat.

Lee grimaced. “Sorry. I feel like a total ass. Why don’t I go shopping alone and you two stay here and enjoy yourselves?”

Rolf kissed the back of Lana’s head. “I didn’t mean to make you feel worse. It has just been a bitch of a day and I just got out of bed. If anything, I’m a little too stressed to want to play with Lana. I would probably hurt her at this point, and then I would feel bad about that also. Let’s just go shopping. Maybe when we get back I will have calmed down.”

“I hate to ask this, but how am I going shopping with my neck looking like a purple handprint?”

Lee stood, groaning from the effort. He walked into the bedroom and came back out a few minutes later. “This should do it.” He dropped a clean pair of black leggings on the counter with a black shirt and a black-and-purple silk scarf. “The shirt should hide any blood if your side starts bleeding again. We should really take a look at that.”

Rolf pushed her to her feet and stood, tugging off her shirt. Lana hadn’t bothered to put anything underneath and she grabbed for the fabric, holding it over her breasts. Lee chuckled. “Nothing I haven’t seen before.”

“Thank you for reminding me.”

She screamed when Rolf unexpectedly picked her up and deposited her on her side up on the table. “What’s wrong with you?” asked Rolf.

“I’m used to you picking me up, but not like that.”

He laughed, peeling off the bandages. “This looks really good. Even the deeper ones where I had to scrape the glass out are healing well.”

Lee examined her, poking at a few of the wounds. “That looks like it hurt.” Lana nodded, and Lee frowned. “Wow, you are lucky. I’m surprised it didn’t do more damage. It could have broken into big pieces and impaled you. It’s not like you have much meat on your ribs to protect you.”

She hadn’t thought about it, but he was right. “I guess it was just that the porcelain or china or whatever it was happened to be thin enough to shatter. I think my bathrobe also protected me some.”

“Probably, or your guardian angel was really on the ball.”

“Yeah, if Enar is my guardian angel.”

Lee stared at her, his expression guarded. “Why do you say that?”

“Why do you look so freaked out? He’s here. I have felt him and in my dreams I have conversations with him.” A smile creased her lips. Most people would be mortified that their dead husband’s spirit was hanging around or coming to them in dreams. Lana thought it was wonderful. His short visitations often answered her questions and the chilly feel of him was rather comforting.

“I didn’t know you believed in ghosts.”

“That is a very general term, but yeah, why not?”

“I saw him last night. I thought it was because of the drug. I know I was awake.”

“Cool. Did he say anything?”

“No. He just smiled and drifted around the room before disappearing. It freaked me out.”

“I only see him in dreams.”

“Me, too,” said Rolf. “Why don’t you get changed and we can get this shopping trip on the road. Then lunch is on me.”

* * * *

They went to six stores, picking up stuff for Lee’s house. They arranged for it all to be delivered over the next few days and then went for lunch. Late in the afternoon, as they were heading back to the house, Lee got a call from the funeral home. They asked if there would be a viewing and Lee said no. He was then informed that the cremation would be done the next day and they could pick up the remains on the following morning. As they walked into the house, Lee called the caterer. Lana looked at the answering machine and groaned. “Twenty-six messages. I presume that invitations have been received.”

She hit the “play” button. Rolf tugged her into his lap, and she gave him a quick kiss as she listened to the first message. “Lana, it’s Marge. I’m so sorry to hear about Enar. Please let me know when the gathering is.”

“Queen Twist, it’s Reg. Sorry he went down so fast. You must be devastated. Let me know when. Take care.”

“Mistress Twist. Hey, this sucks. He will be missed. Hope it won’t stop you from dropping by. Call me with a date. Oh, this is Logan. Sorry.”

Rolf reached over, turning the machine off. “What’s with the Twist shit?”

Lana laughed. “Those are people from Club Trist. They call me Twist because of the way I twist a whip to make weird designs on people’s skin. I’m a commodity in demand.”

“Designs?”

She flipped open her phone, showing him some of the photos of the backs of people she had taken a whip to. Rolf squinted, examining the detail of the patterns. “How do you do that?”

“I don’t know. Enar handed me a whip and I did the crosshatch pattern in the fourth picture. I have been doing it ever since. I look at the person’s back and then kind of zone out as I see the design forming. We stopped going to Trist about two and a half months ago, but before that, Enar liked to sit and watch. I did a few circular ones, but those are harder.”

He tilted his head slightly, raising his eyebrows in consideration. “I would like to see that sometime. You know it will never happen with me.”

“I know. I never twisted things on Enar either. I didn’t want to. On our terms, he was master of the dungeon and mostly in our bed. Other times, we played equals. At the club, I was in charge, but not with him and everyone knew it.”

“Sounds perfect, except I like it when the woman takes the initiative on occasion. Well, I like it with plain vanilla sex.” Rolf shrugged. “I played master for so long that I like to let that go once in a while. I am always in charge in the dungeon.”

“Enar always blindfolded me. Are you going to?”

“Maybe. We can discuss the details. What are your safe and stop words?”

“Safe is Thor. Stop is willow.”

“Okay.” He boosted her to her feet. “Why don’t you finish listening to the messages and call people back? I’m gonna take a shower.”

Lana got a notebook and a pen, along with the address book for the phone numbers. She began the tedious task of returning phone calls.

* * * *

They ate a quiet dinner that Lee and Rolf prepared as Lana was calling people back. She set the gathering up for three thirty in the afternoon, knowing that around four the sun hit the fountain perfectly to make the water sparkle. After the calls were done and dinner was eaten, Lana took a long, hot shower, her tears mixing with the water. Other than the miserable walk home from Lee’s house, it was the first time she had been truly alone, and the solitude brought with it memories and grief. Rolf stepped into the shower, wrapping his arms around her. “Lee said that you normally take short showers. When you didn’t shut the water off, we got worried. Are you okay?”

She sniffled, nodding slowly. Rolf lifted her chin, smiling. “You are full of shit.”

Lana couldn’t help but smile back at him. “We gathered many memories in a single year. Quite a few of them were made in this shower.”

“I thought of that when I was in here earlier. I was kind of hoping you would join me, but I knew you wouldn’t.”

Lana reached up, stroking his face. “I really want to be with you in here, but not tonight.”

“I was mainly worried about you. I figured your emotions would crash and burn once you were alone. Are we getting out, or do you want some more time to cry?”

“I think I’ve wasted enough water.” She reached over and shut the lever off. Rolf stepped out, offering her a hand and then holding up a towel for her to wrap herself in. “Are you always this sweet?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “I can be. I can also be an asshole. Ask Jessica.”