Everyone's Dirty Little Secrets (4 page)

She might cut him
off
for this little escapade. 

Or so she says.

But he and Jason both know it’s a bluff.  Because Jason’s military past isn’t just useful for flying choppers. 

His experience working cybercrimes for the government comes in handy on the other side of
the law. 

W
hen you need a little dirt.

So there’s a knowing grin between them when he talks about Siobhan paying the bills, or threatening not to.
  The helicopter rides are how they hide the payments to Jason.

H
ow they spied on the cops for Dressler.  From above, and from within their computers.

And how Dodge started to see the patterns in the traffic.
 

How he got the
i
dea.

That order
causes more chaos than it prevents.

And
today, he
got the money shot.

Unable to reach Siobhan on her cell, he tries the office.

*****

Jaime stretches her body out in Siobhan’s chair, commandeering her office while she’s gone.  Siobhan would have her hide
for this
.  But she’s not going to sit in a cubicle staring at walls when she can have Siobhan’s view.  She’s not doing any work.  She’s surfing
the
Internet, playing
games
on Fa
cebook, texting pictures to
friends of her sitting in the plush leather cha
ir, feet kicked up on the desk.

When the phone rings, she answers it.  It’s her job, after all.  And it could be Siobhan.  She doesn’t want to be taken by surprise if Siobhan makes it back from the City early.

She’s surprised - pleasantly surprised - to hear Dodge on the other end.

“Jaime,” he says.

He is almost shouting, the thumping of a helicopter pounding in the background.

She loves the deep tone
of his voice, thinks about
holding him while he says her name like that, feeling it resonate through her.

“Yes, darling?” she asks.

He is silent for a moment.  “Is Siobhan in?  I have to come into the office, and thought I’d try to catch her for lunch.”

Jaime snarls a little inside, but she’s careful there’s no bite in her voice.  “She’s not here now, but she should be back by lunch.  Why don’t you come on in, and I’ll try to reach her for you?”

“Sounds good, Jaime - thank you!”

“
My pleasure
.”

He hangs up, and she pushes the receiver button down with her finger for a moment, thinking, before lifting it again and waiting for the dial tone.

*****

Siobhan is on the train back from the City when she feels her BlackBerry vibrating once more.  If it’s Dodge again, she might answer it just to give him hell.  She ignored his last call, not wanting to make it easy for him to cancel showing up at the office this afternoon, which she knows he inevitably will.

Besides, she can’
t stand shouting
so he can hear her over the helicopter.

She knows he took a helicopter out again that morning.  His antics amuse her, but she has to get angry with him for disregarding her, and right now, she’s working while riding back
to the office
and doesn’t want to get distracted by Dodge’s tomfoolery. 

She checks the BlackBerry, and it’s Jaime.  She takes the call.

“Hi Siobhan,” Jaime says.  “I’m sorry to bother you.”

“No problem,” she tells Jaime.  “Everything alright?”

“Oh, yeah,” Jaime assures her.  “Dressler called, though, and wants to do lunch
.”

Siobhan thinks for a moment, she wants to make sure she’s free when Dodge comes
– if he comes
.  She really has something she want
s him to work on.  He’s quite
goo
d at what he does
.
 

Maybe too good
– at least
at digging up dirt on the local police for Dressler that last time. 

Sheriff Broonzy still hasn’t quite gotten over that.

“Have you heard from Dodge, by any chance?” she asks.  She still d
oesn’t want to have to call him back yet.

“I did, actually,” Jaime says.  “He’s coming by later this afternoon - he said he’s on some assignment
right now
.”

Siobhan grunts internally.  On an assignment.  She shakes her head.

“So I think you have time for lunch,” Jaime continues.

“OK, that’s fine then,” Siobhan announces.

“Great!  He made a reservation at Maxine’s, looking at the park.  You’ll probably have to go straight from the train station.”

“Alright, thanks Jaime,” she says, before hanging up.

She doesn’t know whether to laugh or scream at Dodge, but she can’t help herself
and allows herself to smile.

For
now.
             

*****

Dressler strikes a kung fu pose.

Snorts a line.

He’s not sure what has him more excited.

The dirty things he told that secretary Jaime he wants to do to her, while she just smiled over the phone and took it.

Or the dirty things he’s going to do to Siobhan after their lunch meeting.

He’s surprised Jaime called to schedule it.

That Siobhan wants to meet.

He has her on retainer, but he’s been good since the whole drug dealing debacle.

Since has father damn near cut him off.

She feeds the news a couple of positive stories about him, or the family
,
every few weeks.

But nothing’s going on
like the scandal she put to bed for him
.

Thank God for her slacker
husband digging up that shit on Broonzy.

Dirty, dirty cop.

Dirty secrets.

Dirty town.

Dirty streets.

He’d like to chop t
hat punk Dodge right into next week, right out of the picture
-
s
o he could jus
t have at Siobhan, he fantasizes, as he executes
a perfect
oi-zuki punch toward his own face in the mirror.

That karate lesson continues to pay off.

Siobhan
is
one sweet babe.

He just needs to get her husband out of the way.

Though, really,
he appreciates what Dodge did.

What Dodge does.

Dressler couldn’t have hoped for that kind of blackmail material.

Maybe it’s just better now if Broonzy keeps his job now.

D
ressler’s got him in
his
back
pocket at this point.

Hell, he could
even
keep running coke through the strip club if he wants.

Not that he needs the money.

Daddy’s rich.

He just likes having the strippers in debt to him.

If he doesn’t need the money, he doesn’t need the hassle, he tells himself.

Besides, he’d give up all those strippers for one crack at Siobhan.

Or even her secretary.

Or both together.

So he keeps her on retainer.

And now she’s calling him up for lunch.

Maybe it’s time he drummed up a little more trouble.

Give her an excuse to start working for him more.

He
wants to make her work.

Time for another scandal, he thinks, spinning on his pivot foot to deliver a perfect roundhouse into the mirror.

Time for another scandal.

*****

The building where Siobhan leases the office
space is a modern brick monolith
downtown, a testament to new money
in an old town
nestled in the Hudson Valley.  Antique stores
and apple orchards
sprawl
in spitting distance of the capital of the world.