Fox Hunt (Fox Meridian Book 1) (22 page)

Coming to a stop as her hand hit the far wall, she turned and pulled herself out of the water. His eyes followed her as she walked around the pool and then to the door. Nothing was said, but he followed her. She could feel him behind her, masculine heat slowly closing the distance as she walked down the corridor and into the lounge. She stopped in the doorway, hands on the frame on either side of her chest, knowing he was right there, right at her back, and the heat was becoming unbearable. His hands slid over her hips, she felt his chest, no shirt, against her back, and her breathing turned ragged. Fingers slid over wet skin, gliding over her taut stomach, brushing over the undersides of her breasts. She let out a soft moan and then a gasp as he caught her nipples.

‘Here or the bedroom?’ His voice was rough, eager. He was as needful as she was and she
really
needed him.

She pushed forward and his hands slipped off her, but she dropped to her knees on the plush carpet and he seemed to pick up on her answer quickly enough. On all fours, she arched her back and waited what seemed like an eternity and then he was sinking himself into her. She groaned and pushed back, and his fingers dug into the flesh of her hips and held her there as he began thrusting into her, controlling the pace and making the motion deep and just slower than what she wanted. Her body was burning; a core of white heat was building between her thighs as he drove into her. There was screaming and she thought, perhaps, she might have come, but she knew that was not the climax: not even close.

His hands shifted, climbing her body to clasp her breasts. The little orgasm had hit him too, her muscles pulsing around him. She had him now, and they both knew he was close as he began to drive harder. His fingers pinched her nipples, wringing a cry from her throat, and she thrust back at him, heard his breath catch, felt him filling her and the white-hot flow of release flooding out through her body from where they joined…

28
^th
January.

Fox opened her eyes, wondering for a second where she was. Then the memories flowed back in, all of them, including what she had spent the latter part of the evening doing with the man lying in bed with her. She knew he was there, could feel him taking up space in her vicinity, but he was not lying close to her. She slipped from the bed without disturbing him and went to the shower in the bathroom.

The water hit her face, washing away the weird feeling of unease that was sitting in her stomach. She had a feeling that it was something to do with Sandoval and their night of rampant, and it
had
been rampant, sex, but she could not quite work out what was wrong. It had been good sex and she had no conscious regrets…

Kit’s image appeared in-vision, a still indicating an incoming call. She connected it as she picked up the soap. ‘Were you monitoring me to see when I woke up?’

‘Yes, Fox,’ the AI replied and the urgent tone in her voice suggested there was a reason. ‘Forensics passed on the sampled DNA from the Ross crime scene and I ran the genomes against known suspects. I got one hit, Nathan Shark. Maglev transport records have him travelling to Boston on the twenty-third, arriving at nineteen-hundred. He was on a returning train at fifteen-hundred on the twenty-fifth.’

Fox frowned at the wall. ‘How does that match up with time of death?’

‘Precise time is difficult to estimate given the delay in discovery. It is just possible that he could have killed her and left, but Mister Shark does not fit the physical profile of the killer.’

‘No, he doesn’t. I’m a little out of touch here, but has the news of Elaine Ross’s death reached New York?’

‘There were reports on a number of IB channels last night.’

‘Right. Have HQ find out where Shark is. I want uniforms ready to arrest him if he tries to leave New York, but they are to remain unobserved otherwise. I’ll talk to him myself. I’ll be back in town in… ninety minutes.’

‘Of course. Fox, your biomonitoring systems are detecting some unusual neurochemical factors, including heightened dopamine levels.’

‘Huh. Must be from having real sex for a change. Be back soon.’

New York Metro.

Nathan Shark lived in one of four apartment blocks on the west shore of Little Neck Bay, sandwiched between the water and the BQ-line maglev track. Not bad for transportation services, even if he had to change for the LI-line which went into Lexington Tower. It was a good-quality, mid-range block, like Fox’s, but with a better view. Pretty much where Fox expected to see an upwardly mobile media executive.

Shark’s apartment’s biomonitor records indicated that he had not left the building since the previous evening. Fox put a message through to him at eight a.m. requesting an interview, and then she and Sandoval waited in the building’s main lobby for a response. It took ten minutes before she got a reply, and that was an acknowledgement.

‘You stay quiet,’ Fox said as they rode the elevator up to Shark’s floor. ‘Your first meeting with him did not exactly go off well and, if he isn’t our killer, then he just lost someone he had a personal relationship with.’

‘I do know what tact is,’ Sandoval replied, ‘but I’ll leave the talking to you.’ There was a small shrug. ‘He’s probably more likely to open up to you anyway.’

Shark opened the door, peered at Fox and then back at Sandoval, grunted, and then backed up to let them in. He had definitely looked better. He was dressed and looked as though he was going into work, but Fox could see the heavy make-up under his eyes to disguise the bags and darkening of the skin. He had slept badly. His shoulders were slumped as he trudged back to the little breakfast nook on one side of the room to get coffee.

‘I assume you know why we’re here, Mister Shark?’ Fox asked.

‘You figured out I was Elaine’s mystery lover,’ the producer replied. ‘So now you figure you can accuse me of killing–’

‘You’re not a suspect in her murder.’ The flat statement made him look up, frowning. ‘I need to know why you were keeping it secret, exactly when you left, what you know of Miss Ross’s plans after you left…
Anything
you can think of which might help us find her killer.’

‘I’m not a suspect?’

‘You don’t fit the physical profile we have and we’ve been through your financial records already so we know you haven’t been hiring killers.’

‘Oh. I… Would you like some coffee?’

‘Thank you, no. I’m a little hyper this morning for some reason. When did you leave the resort, Mister Shark?’

‘Uh, it was about two in the afternoon on Sunday. I took an autocab. You can trace that, right? I paid by credit transfer.’

Fox passed the request for verification off to her VA. ‘We can. Do you know what Miss Ross was planning for the rest of the afternoon?’

‘There was a beautician appointment at four-thirty. She liked to relax, meditate for a while, after I’d gone, but she generally made sure she went for a bit of a tune-up before leaving Wolfeboro.’ He paused for a second and then added, ‘I’d have thought the reason for the secrecy was obvious.’

‘Rival productions, rival channels.’

He nodded. ‘We met before she got the part, but we were living in different cities. She used the Retreat and thought we could go out there at the weekend without the gossip columns getting hold of her new relationship. Then she got the Tasker part… Neither of us wanted to give up what we had together. Neither of us could afford to drop our careers. So we hid it, even though we wanted more. And now… This suggests it’s someone at IB-Nineteen, doesn’t it? Mystery and Mayhem have lost the scriptwriter
and
star of their lead show.’

Fox gave a shrug. ‘Honestly, Mister Shark, this just confuses things more. I think someone
wants
me to think that this is related to IB-Nineteen, but there’s too much that doesn’t make sense. Someone seems quite determined to implicate you in this as well. If you can think of anything else which might help, contact me immediately. And I think you should take the day off.’

‘Can’t,’ Shark replied. ‘There’s a big meeting at the office about how best to handle Elaine’s death. Not sure how I’m going to get through it, but I don’t have any choice about being there.’

‘He didn’t seem terribly broken up about it,’ Sandoval commented once they were back outside and headed down.

‘He didn’t sleep last night and he wasn’t kidding about the meeting. You need to get your eyes checked. Didn’t you see the make-up under his eyes? Not that that’ll fool half the people he’s wearing it for.’ She caught herself clenching her fists and willing the elevator car to go faster. ‘Damn, but I’m wired for some reason. Go back to HQ and start reviewing everything we have on IB-Nineteen.’

‘Sure, but you said yourself it’s probably nothing to do with them.’

‘Yes, but prioritise anyone who might wish to do both channels harm.’

‘Okay. What are you doing?’

‘I said I’d stop off and thank Jackson and Terri for letting me borrow the vertol, and then I forgot. And I have another case related to them I need to check up on.’

~~~

‘Your pupils are dilated,’ Terri commented as Fox stepped off the elevator.

Fox pushed an eyebrow up. ‘Well, I had sex last night.’

Terri smirked. ‘Must be it. Flight said you came in an hour ago. I thought you’d stop off on the way through, not come back for a visit.’ She turned and started through into the solarium and Fox followed.

‘Something came up in the homicide case I’m on and I needed to rush. And that kind of pushed dropping in here out of my mind. But I did need to drop in and check up on the Hunt case anyway so I figured I’d take the excuse to come back and leave the drudge work to my assistant.’

‘Kit?’

‘No, my
human
assistant. I’m not giving boring crap like that to Kit.’ Terri giggled at that, and Fox was reminded of something else she had meant to ask. ‘There’s nothing actually
stopping
Kit from engaging in… interpersonal relationships of an intimate nature, is there?’

‘You having feelings for your agent I should know about? Because if you are, good, my chances are going up.’

‘I am not. She met someone online, helping me with the casework, and he’s clearly interested in her, and she’s clearly interested in finding out where that might lead. I said I’d check there were no blocks on her behaviour.’

Terri glanced back as she turned for her father’s office. ‘She’s developing quite nicely, but keep an eye on her. If there are any possibilities of instability in her program, I’d like to know so we can patch it. And, no, there are no blocks on sexual behaviour in her programming. I’ll send her a couple of modular skill packages that might help. Actually, there are a couple of others which could be useful to you. I’ll send her a set. She won’t be able to run them all at once, but she shouldn’t need to.’

‘Thanks.’

‘And if you keep acting skittish and these little memory lapses continue, check with a doctor.’

‘Yes, Mom.’

‘You’re older than I am. Poppa, tell Fox she’s being mean to me.’

Jackson Martins lowered his head from where he had been absently staring at the ceiling and looked around. ‘Play nice, children, or it’s straight to bed with no supper.’

Fox grinned at him but waited for the office door to close behind her before speaking. ‘I came to ask about the Hunt case. And thank you for the vertol loan. That was really useful and good fun.’

‘My pleasure. MarTech is always ready to assist law enforcement in the pursuit of their duty and all that good PR bullshit. I’m expecting something from the Palladium people on Luna tomorrow. I’ll send something to Kit when I do. If it’s nothing much I’ll send the report, but I got the impression they found some things which might be better discussed in private.’

Fox’s brow wrinkled. ‘Oh… great. That’s not ominous at all.’

‘Just trying to keep your life interesting, Fox.’

‘Thanks, I could do without.’

~~~

‘I have received a package of skill modules from Miss Martins,’ Kit said as Fox undressed.

‘She said she was going to send something over. Something to help with Vali.’

The kitsune’s cheeks coloured. ‘There was a package designed for use in erotic simulations, yes, but she also sent some modules on psychology, sociometry, and a few other things which should be useful when assisting you in your work.’

‘Uh-huh.’ Fox flashed her agent’s image a grin. ‘And you’ll learn these skills yourself by using the modules?’

‘I will, eventually, be able to dispense with the assistance if I am able to employ the techniques in the packages successfully. You seem to be dressing for exercise.’

Fox finished pulling on a pair of shorts and reached for a T-shirt. ‘I’ve been feeling… twitchy all day. I’m going up to take a run along the Esplanade and see if I can burn this off.’

‘Your dopamine levels are fluctuating oddly. They are now somewhat lowered, which can result in issues with concentration.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes. When I noticed the increased levels this morning, I devoted a few cycles to determining possible effects. I did note that dopamine can have an effect on libido, so perhaps it was the sex. Detective Sandoval, I assume?’

‘Yeah. It just kind of happened.’

‘You have been saying that the real thing is better than virtual sex.’

Fox nodded and tightened the laces on her shoes before getting up and starting for the door. ‘Yeah. I did say that, didn’t I? Weird thing is I’m not entirely sure whether it was or not.’

29
^th
January.

Fox looked up at the image on the wall of Jackson’s office. ‘That,’ Jackson said, ‘is Daniel Caravel. He was a NIX analyst in twenty-fifty-five, and then he dropped off the map early in fifty-six.’

‘Okay,’ Fox replied, peering at the image. She could not remember ever having seen the man before. He was attractive, fairly compact. Thick, black hair capped off a pale-skinned face with sharp, blue eyes and a small nose. He looked like a fit desk jockey.