Misdirection Mambo
Or, The Spy Who Loved Me
I'd been suspicious of what was going on out at the Richmond Ranch for a while. After the bombs, I was, naturally, more in-tune with the world around me, on heightened alert, so I started noticing things other people dismissed. I'd been friends with Stanley Richmond since we were kids, but when it's your job to investigate crimes, it's your job not to rule out any of the suspects. I started noticing things, especially after the bombs, and especially after that Mimi Clark showed up in town, out of the blue. I noticed how protective Stanley was of that barn. He'd pretend we were buddies, laughing and joking, but he always found an excuse to keep me from going anywhere near it. And the way he always had a reason why he had to stay there, no matter what was going on in town. And the way he watched her. There was something going on between them, and I was sure it wasn't anything as innocent as the romantic hijinks Jimmy would suggest if I brought it up.
I pondered it for a while, sorting out the details in my head, before I made my move. It was my duty to protect our town, to find out what was going on, regardless of any loyalty to my friend or danger to myself. I drew up a warrant to search the property, knowing I would have to execute it on my own. There was no need to bring Jimmy into a possibly deadly situation. He's a good friend and he's good at small town policing, stuff like helping lost kids find their parents at the grocery store or warning neighbours to stop fighting over property disputes, but he's not cut out to handle delicate investigations that the whole future of our country could depend on. Plus, there's his wife, Margaret. She'd kill me if anything happened to him while he was with me. So, I told him I was going to deliver a parking ticket, and I drove out to the Richmonds' alone.
It was a breezy fall day, and so unseasonably warm, I could feel my shirt clinging to my back. Things were quiet when I got there. There weren't any animals running around, Bonnie wasn't sulking on the porch with her non-functioning Blackberry, and Stanley didn't come out to greet me. I couldn't even see his truck. I decided to knock on the front door, just to keep things kosher, before going over to the barn.
I knocked twice, feeling just a little thrill of anticipation as no one came to the door. I'd been imagining the contents of that barn for many nights, and it seemed almost too simple that I was about to get into it, free of obstacles, but I started to step back. I was almost off the porch when I heard the front door sliding open. I looked back.
Mimi Clark stood in the doorway. I wasn't sure why, but the sight of her threw me. I'd only ever seen her in a snappy business suit. That day, the heat must have been getting to her too. She was wearing the tailored pants still, but she'd lost her jacket. Only a thin-strapped, low cut, lacy top clung to her torso, and I could see beads of sweat where it dipped down between... "Can I help you?" she asked.
I took a step closer to her, though I felt my stomach doing a flipflop. "Yes, ma'am. I'm here on official sheriff's department business."
Before, she'd been standing with her arms crossed, but now she let them fall loosely to her sides, lifting one hand to fan herself. "Is that so?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "What seems to be the trouble, deputy..."
"Kohler," I said, as business-like as I could. "I'm here to execute a search warrant."
"Search warrant?" she asked with a low chuckle, still fanning herself.
"Is Stanley home?" I asked, leaning to try to see past her, into the house.
She leaned too, blocking my view and looking right into my eyes. I swallowed. "He's out," she said. "You'll have to make do with me."
I fumbled with the paper in my hands. "Well, I'm going to have to search the barn. I think you'll see that everything's in order, in there." I pressed it into her hands, and she let her fingers brush against my hand before she pulled the search warrant away, holding it behind her back. My eyes followed it until I couldn't see it anymore, and I was left contemplating the curve of her side.
"Deputy Kohler, would you like to come inside?" she asked, and I quickly looked back up at her eyes. Her eyebrows were raised, her lips gently parted.
I glanced around quickly, feeling her eyes on me the whole time. "I think I'd better get to work," I said quickly.
She tilted her head. "What's your hurry, Deputy?"
I shifted my feet on the porch. "I've got to get out there, before..."
"Stanley won't be back any time soon," she said soothingly. "It's just us. Don't worry."
"I - I'm not worried," I said, trying to take a step back. "I just need to look in the barn, and then I can be on my way."
"What's so interesting about that barn?" she said with a giggle. She leaned towards me.
I stood up to my full height. "I'm just doing my job, ma'am."
She giggled again, patting a hand on my chest as if to steady herself. I hoped she didn't notice my sharp intake of breath. "And you do such a great job, protecting the town. You work hard. Why don't you take a break?" She took my hand in one of hers. "It's so hot outside. Aren't you hot?"
I could indeed feel the sweat dripping down the back of my neck, but I tried to stay professional. "I - just a little."
She nodded, gripping my hand tighter in both of hers. "Why don't you come in for some lemonade? Or some Tang?"
I wanted to resist, but she was just so persuasive, tugging my arm, letting out a sultry laugh, and I figured it might be a good idea to capitalize on this situation. I mean, after all, it would probably be my only chance to get her alone, and maybe I could get some information out of her, while her guard was down. As I followed her down the hall and into the kitchen, she literally let her hair down, pulling it out of the tightly wound knot and shaking it loose. I looked around the kitchen quickly. Nothing seemed much different from my other visits to the Richmonds'. My thoughts were distracted when the jazzy sounds of a trombone filled the air.
I spun around. She was standing over an old record player. "You don't mind a little music, do you?" she asked, her hand caressing the sides of the phonograph.
"No, it's...good," I said, watching her stand up to her full height. I'd only met Mimi Clark a few times before, and in fact, we'd never actually been formally introduced. I knew she was an attractive lady, but I'd never taken time to really consider her. I'm not sure why, I just always felt an instinct in the back of my mind that it would be better not to spend a lot of time thinking about Mimi Clark. Now, it was impossible not to look at her, and she filled my thoughts so that I could barely remember why I'd come in the first place. Her legs went on forever and those designer trousers clung in all the right places. She moved her hips like she knew they had the power to drive me wild, and she laid her hand on her heaving chest so casually, as if she didn't know I was imagining my own hand against her moist skin. I tried to remember again if I had come there for any reason other than to take in the delicious sight of Mimi Clark. The barn...the warrant.
"So Mimi, you've been living here for a while now," I sputtered out, as she came towards me, moving gently to the music, her eyes locked on mine. "Ever seen anything unusual?"
"Unusual, how?" she asked, now so close I could smell her sweet, hot breath.
"Anything that seems off. Could even be little things. Or instincts, even. You know, women especially can usually tell a lot based on instincts." I could hear my heart beat pounding in my head as she leaned to whisper in my ear.
"I think you're right." Her breath made my neck tingle. "And you wanna know what my instinct is telling me about you?"
I let out a breath as I felt her hands touching my chest, sliding up to my shoulders, and I barely stammered out "What?"
She held onto my shoulders, looking me up and down. "You're a good guy. You just want to help people. I can feel it. You know how sometimes you can just feel something?" She chuckled, leaning against me, and I definitely felt something. I backed up, hitting the wall. Mrs. Richmond's collection of spoons rattled overhead. "That's why you became a deputy, isn't it?" she breathed.
"I wanted a job where I could work for the town and I failed a fire drill once in high school. I ducked and covered instead of evacuating. I - I panicked," I choked out, "and the fire chief wouldn't hire me after that." Her face was inches from mine, her eyes boring into me, and I wondered if actual steam was issuing from my ears. She laughed again, and licked her lips. "That's sooooo interesting," she crooned.
The feel of her smooth curves pressed up against me was dizzying, but I was reminded of my duty to the town. I tried to extract myself, sandwiched as I was between her and the cheerful yellow wallpaper. She tried to lean closer to me; I stumbled sideways, inadvertently pulling her along with me. She regained her balance first, even though I looked down and noticed she was wearing a set of killer high heels. She steadied me, one hand gripping my arm and another touching the small of my back. "Careful, there," she cautioned breathily.
She was smiling, and holding me in a strange sort of dip, and I was looking back into those eyes that went as deep as oceans, and I thought to myself that careful was long past. The barn, I reminded myself again. The barn. I stood up, and her hand dropped from the small of my back, slowly, but not without grazing as it fell. "I want to know if you know about anything interesting. Going on. In this house." I tried to fix her with my sternest look. She was smiling, her eyes flashing, her freckled skin heaving up and down.
"I can think of one thing," she whispered, and for a split second, I could see what she was going to do before she moved. I was powerless to stop her. She surged forward, enveloping me with her body, in one swift movement, and quickly and forcefully claiming my mouth in one white hot, blinding kiss.
She left me gasping when she finally pulled away, and all I could do was gape at her in shock. She kept her eyes directly, provocatively locked with mine, her lips formed a small smile, and one eyebrow cocked expertly in a question. Hadn't I expected this all along? Didn't I know, from the moment I stepped inside, that she was too hot to handle, but I'd try to anyway? What was I still standing around for?
She'd lit a fire in me, a hungry beast within was howling that it could almost taste her, and she was running her hands up my chest again, but the part of me that had sworn to do my duty, for the good of the town, still managed to squeak out a protest. "But, I'm on the job!"
She gave a small shrug, a low laugh, and whispered, "So am I."
"What?" I stammered.
She pounced then, encircling my shoulders with her arms, wrapping her legs around me, and descending on my mouth in a kiss that made the first one seem like a seventh grade game of spin the bottle. I staggered back a step or two with the full force of her, but I held on and kissed her back. The barn, the warrant, the town, and my oath disappeared and everything in the world was Mimi Clark.