To hell with it. This woman in front of her was what mattered, not a bug eyed nerdy boy standing by watching. “Dar?”

Dar leaned back until she rested her head against Kerry’s stomach. “Yes?” She tipped her eyes up and looked at Kerry.

“This could be a ranking fubar, Ker.”

Kerry managed a smile. “You’ll handle it. We’ll figure it all out. Mark’s provisioning process is a solid one. I’m sure we can find an angle.”

Dar’s shoulders relaxed, and she nodded. “I’m sure we can.”

She typed a note into the console. “I’ll have him put that data dump somewhere so I can check it out tomorrow. Maybe I’ll get some clues from that.”

Despite their stated optimism, Kerry knew they were both crossing everything they could.

HANDS CLASPED BEHIND his back, the tall, dark haired man paced back and forth across Senator Stuart’s home office.

“Roger, I appreciate what you’re saying, but how can you be sure it’s real data? You said someone just gave it to you? I don’t under-Thicker Than Water 23

stand.”

“You don’t have to understand.” Roger glared dourly at him.

“Just look at it. Look at the names and the numbers, and you tell me, Bradley, you tell me if it’s real or not.” He threw a stack of papers on the desk towards Bradley.

Bradley picked them up and studied them, impatiently at first, then slowly turning the pages. He paused, then sat down in a chair across from Stuart and stared at the writing. “Dear God.”

Roger leaned back in his chair. “So you tell me, Bradley,” he repeated with deep sarcasm, “do we have a problem?”

Bradley looked up. “We have a problem. Roger, we need to pay off whoever got this to you and fast.” To his surprise, Roger laughed. “I’m not joking.”

Stuart got up and started pacing. “Oh, but you are; you just don’t know you are. The source I got this from not only can’t be bought off, I wouldn’t even try it.” He turned and pointed. “What I want to know is, how is it that someone,” he stared pointedly at Bradley, “was so god damned stupid as to put incriminating information in something so accessible? Tell me that, Bradley?”

“Sir—”

“Tell me why details about deals neither of us officially knows anything about are sitting in a military database in the sticks!”

“Sir.” Bradley held up a hand. “Let me get Stevens and Perlamen in here; maybe they can make sense of it.” He went to the door and called out, “Gentlemen, we need you.”

The two men entered, faced with the angry senator on the other side of the room. “Sir?”

“They can’t explain it. You can’t explain it.” Roger’s voice rose. “No one can explain it, because I’m surrounded by idiots!

The irony of it all is that the goddamned bitch who gave me this crap makes you all look like mental midgets.”

“Sir, take it easy, please,” Bradley begged. “I’m sure there’s an explanation. Someone must have—”

“Idiots!” Stuart bellowed. “‘It’s a simple deal, Senator.’ Isn’t that what you told me? Just some surplus military garbage being traded, nothing important. You stupid son of a bitch, did you see what’s in that data? Idiot! Idiots! All of you!”

“Sir!” Perlamen said. “We can incriminate—”

“We’re all incriminated, you jackass!” Stuart yelled at the top of his lungs. “This is not in the hands of any friends of ours. For God’s sake…For God’s sake…” He clutched his head. “Ah!”

“Sir?” The men rushed forward. “Sir!”


Chapter

Three

“UGH.” KERRY SLID down into the hot tub and cradled her neck on its edge. “Thank God that’s over.”

Dar had her eyes closed. “Yeah.” She squirmed around, taking advantage of the heavy jets of water. “Thank God it turned out to be a firmware glitch, not a stolen file. Even if it took us most of the night to figure it out.”

“Mm.” Kerry turned her head, captured her straw, and sucked in a mouthful of peach iced tea. “It’s not quite ten. We’ve stayed later.”

Dar tangled her legs with Kerry’s and exhaled. “Uh huh. Glad we didn’t have to. I’m tanked.”

“Fish tanked?” Kerry snickered, splashing her a little.

“Wench. Get your snorkel ready.” The cordless phone rang, and, after giving it an evil look, Dar picked it up and answered it.

“Hello?”

There was silence, then a gasp. “Um…um…can I talk to Kerry?”

Dar’s brow creased. “Sure.” With widening eyes and a shrug, she handed the phone to Kerry. The voice had sounded very young.

Kerry took it and put it to her damp ear. “Hello?” Dar sidled over and pressed her head against Kerry’s to listen.

“Oh, Kerry, hi.” There was a sharp intake of breath. “I’m really sorry to like, bother you this late and all that, but—”

“Lena?” Kerry’s mental recognition kicked in. “Is that you?”

There was silence for a breath. “Yeah.”

“Hey, folks have been looking for you,” Kerry said. “Where are you?”

Lena hesitated. “Um…not in a good place.”

Dar nestled closer and listened.

“What’s ‘not a good place’? Are you in the hospital?”

“No,” Lena muttered. “I’m in jail.”

Dar’s eyes widened in surprise. She and Kerry exchanged Thicker Than Water 25

startled looks.

“In jail? What are you doing there?” Kerry sputtered. “What did you…?” She half turned and pushed the wet hair out of her eyes. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Lena sounded tired. “It’s just really stupid, you know? My folks clued into like, me being gay, and they grounded me.”

“Grounded you?” Kerry’s voice dropped in pitch. “Did they think that would fix it?”

“Fuck if I know,” Lena replied glumly. “A window got busted in my old man’s car, and they called the cops on me.”

“Ah.” Kerry’s eyes narrowed slightly. “You need help getting out?”

Lena was very quiet for a few seconds. “You’re the only person I know that doesn’t make minimum wage. My folks told me to rot in here.”

Blue and green eyes met. “We’ll be right down there. You at the main jail? The one off Flagler?”

“Yeah,” Lena whispered. “Thanks, Kerry.”

“No problem. Take it easy until we get there.” Kerry hung up and put the phone down. “Stupid son of a b—” She was stopped with a kiss. “Damn it, Dar. What the hell is wrong with people?”

“I don’t know.” Dar wiped a bit of water off Kerry’s cheek.

“But we’d better get dressed and go bail your little buddy out.

Then we can worry about her dimwitted genetic contributors.”

“Pah.” Kerry sloshed out of the tub, grabbed a towel, and handed Dar hers. “Poor kid. How could they let her be taken down there? She’s probably scared half to death.”

“She the one with the tattoos?” Dar asked.

“Yeah.”

“Mm. And the nose ring?”

“Yeah.”

“She’ll be fine.”

They walked into the condo and were halfway across the living room before Kerry stopped and turned with her hands on her hips. “Do you know this from personal experience?”

Dar rubbed her face and just kept walking, a faint chuckle escaping her.

“Oh, I can’t wait to hear this story.” Kerry followed, with a chuckle of her own.

THE DADE COUNTY primary jail was, as most jails are, a supremely depressing place. The walls were institutional beige, and the floors were repeatedly shined heavy tile. Kerry was 26 Melissa Good sharply aware of the glances thrown her way as she entered and was glad of Dar’s light touch on her back as they walked across the starkly lit lobby to the processing desk.

Thick, bulletproof glass protected the woman seated behind it and it took a moment before she realized someone was there and looked up. “Yes?”

Ew. Kerry exhaled. “A friend of ours is in here. I’d like to see about getting her out.”

The woman looked at her, then pushed a pad across the desk and through the small opening in the glass. “Name?”

Kerry glanced at the pad, then fished in her purse for a pen.

She realized she didn’t know Lena’s last name at the same time Dar handed over her favorite heavy, silver-cased ballpoint.

“Thanks.” Kerry scribed the first name, then hesitated. “I’m sorry.

I only know her first name.”

“Real good friend of yours, huh?” The officer took the pad back and studied it. “Could be worse; could be Maria. Lemme go look.” She ripped the top sheet off the pad, got up, and disappeared into a cluttered area full of files and tall cabinets behind her.

“Hm.” Kerry rocked on her heels. “I feel pretty stupid about that.”

Dar shrugged, laced her fingers together behind her back, and glanced around the lobby. “Hasn’t changed much.” She accepted Kerry’s curious look. “After I…” Dar paused and inclined her head. “That little incident at the club I think you mentioned once.”

“Ah.” Kerry did, indeed, remember. “They brought you here?”

“I was pretty young,” Dar said. “They wanted to make sure one of the jackass’s friends didn’t come after me. They called Dad and he came down to pick me up.”

Two officers with an obviously inebriated young woman slung between them pushed by. Kerry moved out of the way and ducked as the woman wildly swung an arm. “Whoa.” Dar pulled her to one side and hovered protectively over her. Kerry decided a distraction was appropriate. “So, Dad picked you up, huh?”

Dar’s nose wrinkled at the sudden stench of vomit. “Yeah.”

She took another step backwards, tugging Kerry with her. “He was, um…”

“Proud.” Kerry tried to breathe through her mouth.

“Well…”

“Paladar Katherine Roberts, I can just stand here and picture your father coming in here to get you. I bet he made every cop who was there tell him what you did.”


Thicker Than Water 27

Two men, arguing in loud, strident Spanish, brushed by. They had badges on chains around their necks. Another yelling man, pointing a finger at one of the detectives, approached. The detective slapped his hand and yelled back.

“Hey!” The clerk had returned to her desk, and now she used the microphone. “Take it inside!”

The three men gave her a look, then shoved through a worn, wood paneled door off to one side, which opened into a large room filled with desks and papers. The clerk watched them, then looked up, made eye contact with Kerry, and curled her finger inward.

“Officious little—”

“Dar.” Kerry patted her lover’s leg. “C’mon, let’s get this over with.” She led Dar over to the counter and rested her elbows on its chipped Formica surface. “Find her?”

“Yeah.” The woman shuffled some papers. “You a relative?”

“No. Just a friend.” Kerry moved a little closer and tilted her head to see the officer’s nametag. Funk. Hm. “She had a little trouble with her folks.”

“No kidding,” Officer Funk said. “All right. The bail’s a thousand dollars.”

Kerry saw the officer’s eyes lift to her and she suspected she was waiting for a reaction. Kerry smiled pleasantly. “Okay. Do you take checks? Credit cards?” She waited a moment and there was still no reaction from the officer. “Animal pelts?”

“Cash,” Officer Funk replied. “Ten percent.”

Dar removed her wallet from her hip pocket and sorted through its contents. She removed a hundred dollar bill and tossed it onto the counter. “There.”

Kerry opened her mouth to object, then realized she didn’t have that much cash on her. She pushed the bill closer to the officer. “There.”

They stood there while the paperwork was completed, what looked like an eight or nine part form along with a sheaf of other documents. “I didn’t have to sign that many things for my new car,” Kerry commented idly.

“You weren’t buying it from Dade County,” the officer muttered. “All right. Jack, c’mere. Get me this one from the holding area.” She thrust a piece of paper behind her, and it was taken by a shorter man in uniform, sporting a thick, dark mustache. “This is your receipt.” She pushed a form to Kerry. “She comes up for a hearing in ten days. Make sure she’s there, or you’re in the hole for the other nine hundred.”

Dar leaned forward. “What is she charged with?”

The deeper tones caught the officer’s attention and she looked 28 Melissa Good up to find Dar’s piercing eyes pinning her. “Destruction of property.”

“What did she break?” Kerry asked.

“Car window.”

Dar’s brow creased. “Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just pay for the damn window?”

Officer Funk shrugged. “Her parents pressed charges. Guess they figured the kid couldn’t pay.”