part six: Mixing Business With Pleasure
As he walks toward his desk, he hears Jill giggle. “You should’ve worn a turtleneck today, Leon,” she teases.
Leon self-consciously raises a hand to his neck. Forgot about that...
"Like you and everyone else wouldn’t have guessed anyway.” he huffs. D had used some concealer on him to hide the bruise on his face, but apparently hadn’t cared to hide the hickey.
Jill laughs. “So what about your new girlfriend? Anyone I know?”
“Not exactly a girlfriend, but yeah, it‘s someone you know.”
“Really? Who?”
“None of your business.”
“Don’t give me that. Who is it?”
“Give it a rest, Jill.”
“Oh, come on Leon. This is going to drive me nuts until you tell me.”
“No! If I tell you, everyone in the office is going to know.”
Jill looks offended. “You know me better than that! You also know I’m not going to give up until you tell me, so you might as well save yourself some trouble.”
“All right, all right. Come closer so I can whisper it to you.”
She sits on his desk and leans over. “It’s D.” Jill nearly loses her balance from the shock. She recovers quickly, though.
“Wow, I knew you two were getting to be good friends, but I never thought of you as the type to play both sides of the field.”
“Hey, keep your voice down, will ya?” the blond detective is starting to blush a little.
“It’s always the good looking guys, too.”
“You think the Count is good looking?’
“Are you kidding? He’s gorgeous!! Don’t you think so? I mean, you’re the one involved with him after all.”
“Well, yeah, but I wasn’t sure that women liked effeminate men.”
“Trust me, some of us do. A lot.” She leans toward him again. “So, what was it like?” she whispers conspiratorially.
“What?!! What do you mean, what was it like?!”
“What was it like, doing it with D? With another man?”
“I am NOT talking about that here.”
“Fine, we’ll go somewhere private at lunch. Speaking of which, you still owe me.”
Leon shakes his head. “I had no idea you were such a pervert.”
“I had no idea you were, either.” she grins and winks at him.
He sighs and opens the folder lying on his desk. He groans inwardly as he sees the photos inside. “Oh man, not another broken contract.”
“Not this time, Leon. This wasn’t a customer of the pet shop.”
“Thank heavens. So what did this?” he asks as he flips through the report.
“No one knows, and nobody has any leads.”
“Great. I might go by the pet shop anyway; D might be able to shed some light on this. By the way, how do you feel about having lunch at D‘s?”
“Sounds fun.”
“Hold on, I’ll give him a call.”
Later, at the pet shop, the three are sitting around the table laden with food and goodies. Jill and D are talking animatedly, laughing occasionally, but Leon is turning all shades of red and looking thoroughly embarrassed.
Finally, Jill stands up.
“Well, it’s been fun, guys, but I need to get back to the office. Have fun at the crime scene.”
“It was a true pleasure.” D says.
Jill giggles and kisses them both on the cheek before she leaves. Leon is extremely grateful that his face is already as red as it can get. As she leaves he turns to D.
“I can’t believe you told her all that.”
“You did say she was discreet.”
“That won’t keep her from teasing me about it every chance she gets.”
D smiles. “Still, it is a pity that you had such a charming friend and didn’t introduce us sooner.”
“Well, I...”
“And she brought such a delicious treat as well.”
“Yeah, she’s actually the one who’s usually reminded me to bring you something when I visit for the past two years.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, well, I forget sometimes, you know.” They kiss briefly before leaving the shop and then head out to Leon’s car.
The picture in the file didn’t do justice to the grisliness of the crime scene. Although the body has been removed, the floor and walls are still splattered with a good amount of blood, and Leon has no desire to examine any of the little chunks lying around. “Ick,” he says, not able to think of anything better to say. He starts to feel bad about bringing D into this, but his lover hadn’t been able to tell him much from the pictures, other than it looked like a very large, very vicious beast had gotten the man.
He shouldn‘t have worried. D is completely unfazed. “Lee, look here.” D gracefully picks up a scrap of paper.
“Hey, be careful! We can’t be putting our hands all over the evidence, you know!”
D ignores him, and starts putting pieces together. “Look, these are pieces of a ward, maybe several.”
“A what?”
“A talisman, or spell, meant to defend oneself against supernatural attack. I believe the deceased had placed these on the door, in hope that they would protect him.” He indicates the remnants of the door, which now looks more like a pile of firewood.
“So I guess we can rule out a supernatural attack, huh?”
“Not necessarily. These are not true wards; they lack the power to hinder even the weakest of spirits. The victim most likely did not have the knowledge to discern a true spell from a fake one.”
“Well, if he was scared of being attacked by spooks, that means that there was someone threatening him, which definitely makes this a homicide. And his killer is no doubt someone who deals in the occult.” he looks at his companion. “D...”
“You think that I did this, Detective?” D looks hurt.
“Wha..no! I just wanted to ask you about if you know anyone in Chinatown who deals in the occult that could do this. Besides, I know you have an airtight alibi.”
“And will you be writing said alibi in your report?” D’s tone of voice is mischievous.
Leon colors slightly. “That’s not funny. If I do, I’m going to be leaving out a lot of details, that‘s for sure.” D chuckles softly. The American continues, “Look, none of Mr. Dead Guy’s acquaintances knew of him having
any enemies. I’m going to look through his office to see if I can find anything.” D nods, and his friend runs upstairs.
The count wanders around downstairs, all of it looking as if a typhoon had blown through. His eyes
light on an empty stand. He looks at the inscriptions on the bottom. Leon is still sorting through papers when he walks in. He leans over Leon.
“Perhaps we should find out what this belonged to.” he says, showing his discovery.
“Gah!” Leon jumps, not having heard the other come in, as usual. Recovering, he looks at it. “Did you look already?”
“Yes, but I did not find anything.”
Leon scratches his head. “So you think this was a robbery?”
“Not exactly, but I do think theft may have been involved.”
Leon thinks for a moment. “I’m not following you. Are you saying that Mr. Chan stole something, and the owner sent something really nasty to get it back?”
“Perhaps. But it is hard to say without knowing what is was that had been stolen.”
“Or who did the stealing. Let’s see, the victim seemed to have a large collection of artifacts. Let me see if he kept any records of them...ah ha!” He pulls out a folder and starts flipping through it. “Here, does this look like what were looking for?” It was a receipt with a poor quality photocopy stapled to it.
“Yes, I believe so.”
“So much for the theory that Mr. Chan stole it.“ Leon squints and looks harder at the Xerox. “Is that an egg?” he asks. “It would explain much, if it were,” D says, “I cannot tell from this what kind of egg Mr. Chan purchased.
“We can always go to the place where he got it, “ Leon says, indicating the address on the top of the sheet.
“I do need to get back to the pet shop soon, Lee.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I think I can handle questioning the owner by myself.”
“Do be nice, Lee.”
“Hey, I’m not as bad as I used to be...” He takes D back in his car then goes to visit the art gallery. He returns to the pet shop after work.
D greets him at the door, looking like a fine life-size porcelain doll. As always, his cheongsam hugs his figure in all the right places, accentuating his tall, slender frame. Leon hands him one of his favorite sweets and gives him a warm, sensuous kiss. Then he pulls away, gently running his fingers through the Count’s silky hair, enjoying the feel of the soft strands running across his skin. D responds by pressing himself closely against his lover, winding his arms around his neck.
“So, did you find anything?” D asks, breathing into Leon’s ear.
“Not much,” Leon admits, as they head toward the couch. “The guy who sold Mr. Chan the egg, or whatever it was, was a pretty old guy and died of a heart attack not too long ago. The lady I talked to there didn’t know
anything about it. The only thing useful I got out of the trip was this picture I found while she was off taking care of her baby.”
D’s eyebrows raise slightly at the mention of the child. “May I see it?”
“Go ahead. I was thinking of taking it to an art expert to get it identified.”
“There is no need, Leon. This is not a sculpture. It is an egg of a very rare species, one I thought extinct.”
Leon looks at the iridescent colors of the object. “That can’t be natural.”
“But it is, Lee. The markings are very distinct. Also, the eggs of this reptile take over a hundred years to gestate. I would imagine that this one was stolen from its original owner long before it ever fell into Mr. Chan‘s hands. He was just the one unfortunate enough to have it when it‘s true owner finally tracked it down.”
Leon groaned. “’True owner’ meaning the egg’s mommy? You’re telling me Mr. Chan was killed by a big mean momma lizard?”
“Yes, that is what I am saying. I imagine she tried to retrieve it peacefully at first, but he refused. He put up the wards to try to keep her from taking it by force, but as I said, what he used was worthless.”
“D, even if you’re right, I can’t put any of this in a report, you know that.”
“You asked for my help; this is all I can give.”
Leon sighs and leans back on the couch in defeat. “Perhaps I could distract you from your difficulties with the case, hmm?” D asks suggestively.
“Please,” Leon responds, and pulls the other man to him...