The Stranger Behind My Orgasm

Abigail

The yellow tape on Cole’s house was still up, billowing in the cool evening breeze that whipped at it.

I leaned forward against the dashboard, narrowing as I stared through the windscreen. Why were the police investigation tapes still around the building?

"I thought they already concluded that it was a robbery," I grumbled.

"Mm." Annette was seated in the passenger seat, clicking her tongue as she tapped rapidly on her system.

Long green and red codes marred the dark computer screen. She was hacking into the surveillance street camera on the street adjacent to Cole’s house. The one directly opposite it had been destroyed, the murderers were smart, I’ll give them that.

"So why is the tape still there?" I leaned back in my seat. "Are they keeping the case open?"

"Or keeping people out," She shrugged.

We had parked two blocks down, between a delivery van and a beat-up Honda that hadn’t moved in what looked like months, considering all the grime and dust that covered it.

Parking near Cole’s house would only draw the attention of whoever was watching that house.

God, now I was as paranoid as Cole.

But I had to be. He was the most paranoid man I ever met in my life and he was dead. If anything, I had to be even more paranoid than he was.

The people who killed my parents would definitely kill me too. They didn’t know I was linked to Cole yet and he must have died protecting that.

The street around us was quiet. There was a man walking his little poodle dog, two kids on bikes at the far end.

"There done, I’m downloading the feed now," She announced, leaning back and cracking her fingers. "So, what’s the plan to appease your boss?"

Appease? That brute was not going to be easily appeased. "I’ll work harder,"

"Really, Abby? You’ll let him work you to the bone?" A bemusing smile danced on her lips.

"I hurt him," I mumbled. "I’ve never seen that torn look on his face before so yeah, I’ll work hard, get shouted at, repeat until he gets tired of being angry."

She clicked her tongue. "Or," she drawled, "You walk in tomorrow morning, sit on the edge of his desk, and let the tits do the talking." She gestured at my chest.

"The man could not resist you in any form, acting like you seduced him or some shit like that. It was a mutual decision. Flash him those tits, jiggled it a little and bam, problem solved."

A laugh cracked out of my lips. "With how mad he is, I’m pretty sure he would stamp you’re fired on them instead."

"With his sexy lips though."

I pressed my lips together trying to kill the laugh bubbling up my throat but I failed completely.

"There’s the laughter I’ve been dying to see for days," She grinned, nudging my shoulder with hers. "It sucked to see you all gloomy you know? I know things aren’t looking up right now, but it’ll all turn out fine."

"Thanks Annie,"

Her head tipped towards the laptop screen and she grinned. "Now praise me like the queen I am, because I just got you, your CCTV feed."

"All hail Annette Conquistador!" I did a mock bow before, leaning closer to watch the screen.

We finally found footage on the night Cole died. The angle was a bit wonky, but the feed was quite clear enough.

Cole rushed out of his car, yanking the door open. He glanced over his shoulder frantically before locking the door. The man appeared some minutes after, heading straight to Cole’s door.

It was him. The henchman. He knocked and hid. When Cole opened it, he immediately pushed his way in and just then the camera cut off and went black.

"He wiped it," Annette muttered.

"I knew it was him," I gritted through my teeth, digging my nails into my palm in anger. "Can we run his face through the face search so we can find out who the fuck he is at least."

The results came back in patches, pulling from traffic cameras all over the cities. The man’s face appeared in seventeen different locations over the past six weeks.

"Annie." I pointed at the cluster of his location tags on the screen. "Where is that?"

She zoomed in on the location tags, pursing her lips together.

"It’s that place the government keeps trying to reconstruct but can’t seem to finish. Hasn’t it been like ten years or something since that industrial place was supposed to be redeveloped?"

"Fifteen," I gasped, grabbing her arm. "That’s the place my parents’ company was. Lander corporation! I saw when I was searching some weeks ago that they stopped working fifteen years ago because of a fire."

"So why’s our guy spending all his days at some ruined industrial site?"

"Because he’s linked to the company where my parents worked for. Oh my god," I gasped, dragging a hand down my face.

"Cole had said it was all linked together. What if Lander was still operating, not just publicly?"

"Like some underground secret operation?" Annette whistled. "That’s very possible."

"And why would the henchman claim Cole’s phone? He could have had it destroyed. He must have known there’s something on it that he had to protect." I added, twisting my lips spitefully. "Maybe he’s the bastard who killed my parents."

"He looks a bit too young though. Wasn’t that fifteen years ago?"

That was true. Whoever it was would have to be at least over thirty now.

So where exactly did this lead us? I knew now that the henchman looking dude was definitely connected to my parents’ murder. The best thing would be to find out who he really is and what the hell he keeps doing at a place that is supposed to be out of function.

"I have a crazy idea,"

The smug grin on her face vanished immediately replaced with a frown as she narrowed her eyes at me. "How crazy? Is it Skinny Lee crazy or full bat-shit crazy?"

"We find the henchman," I mused, rubbing my palms together.

"Uh-huh,"

"And we plant a tracker on him."

Annette’s eyes slowly widened and she burst into laughter so suddenly she nearly dropped the laptop.

"So bat-shit crazy then," she wheezed, grabbing the screen before it slid off. "You do realize this is dangerous as fuck, Abby. How the hell are we supposed to pull that off?"

We would find a way. Where there was a will, there was a fucking way. The universe wasn’t about to go all gloomy on me when I was this close to finding the people who put my parents in poor Cole in the ground.

"Do you have a tracker or not?"

She wiped her eyes, took a deep breath before beaming at me. "I have two."