Part 34 (1/2)
Cyrano had obviously been sitting there, waiting for the firefly-yet had not moved when it came. He would not have been sleeping-unless the monster had the ability to put its prey to sleep. Had the gas mask malfunctioned? Frank didn't know how effective it would be against pheromones, yet presumably Cyrano had been a.s.sured that it was. In any event, an erection wouldn't have put him to sleep, it would have alerted him.
About all Frank could conclude was that it wasn't smart to await the firefly alone. It had never taken two people together, or taken one in the alert presence of another. So far.
He came to the house and stopped. Geode emerged, and after a moment, the woman. She was calling herself Jade now, instead of none; May had explained about that. She did look duller, not nearly as pretty as she had two days ago.
”It got him,” he said simply. ”I buried the bones. Need help to hide the truck.”
Geode nodded. ”I'll go.”
”Wait,” Jade said. ”You will have to take it a long way, so that when it is found it won't be a.s.sociated with this region where people have already disappeared. If anybody sees you, that's trouble. Someone else should do it, and come back with Frank.”
Was she trying to be difficult? ”We don't have much choice or time,” Frank pointed out. ”Or personnel. Who were you thinking of?”
”May.”
Frank paused, surprised. Of course May could do it! ”Yeah, I suppose so, if she's willing.”
The woman merely looked at him, and abruptly he knew that she knew everything about him and May Flowers. That was why she had suggested it. She was giving him an excuse for time alone with May.
He turned back to his car. ”Thanks.”
Jade only smiled faintly. She seemed self-satisfied about more than that, despite her duller appearance, and he could figure only one reason why: she must finally have landed her man. Odd that she had done it while looking worse instead of better.
As he drove on, he pieced that minor mystery together. The firefly had fed again, and they all knew about its use of pheromones. Geode and Jade were touring the Middle Kingdom Ranch together now; the woman had fastened on him with rare tenacity. They had checked on Cyrano; he knew that, because they had advised him, so he could be on the scene to solve the riddle of the firefly, according to the deal he had made at the outset with May. The fact that he had found Cyrano's body instead didn't matter in this connection; it only confirmed that they had been right, and that the firefly had come to the cabin that night. The ambience of s.e.x, as it came in to feed, must have been horrendous. If the little bit left on the corpse was enough to give him a continuous erection, what of the firefly itself? So they had pa.s.sed that region, and smelled the approaching monster, and-you bet they'd made a night of it! Now they were happy but worn out. Mystery solved.
Which reminded him of May. d.a.m.n, he wanted that woman again! Maybe it was a thinning cloud of pheromones in this region, causing s.e.xual reactions all over. But mostly it was May. She was no s.e.xy young beauty, but that really wasn't his type anyway. Sure, he'd watch the pert figures on TV, but that was the stuff of fantasy. Reality was a woman he could relate to, and that had turned out to be May Flowers. He never would have predicted it, but it was so. Maybe it was that he knew she didn't give any part of herself to any man lightly. He could hardly blame her, after the marriage she'd had with that thug. But she was competent and knew her own mind, and if she saw something in him, he sure as h.e.l.l saw something in her. He had never figured himself for a two-timer, considering that his wife had never given him cause, but there it was.
So he would ask May to help him with that van, because he wanted to be with her again. She would accept, for much the same reason. Jade Brown had understood that much perfectly.
He stopped at a pay phone and called her. Quickly he explained the need, and as quickly she agreed, no questions asked. He arranged to pick her up around the corner from the hotel, so as not to be obvious; neither one of them wanted that sort of publicity, and small towns had big eyes.
He drove her out to the cabin, updating her on what he had done. Then she got out and took over the van. They had decided to leave it in a large parking lot in another county, near a train station; with luck, it would be weeks before anyone realized it was deserted. Some pa.s.senger trains still ran, but often late, so there were always cars parked in the vicinity. What he didn't say was that he was hot for her again, for whatever reason; they did have work to do, so it wasn't the time.
She drove the van up to Ocala. Then, a few minutes behind her, he drove to the station and through the lot, pausing only long enough at a deserted corner for her to appear and get in. He doubted that anyone had seen them. He moved by another route back down to Citrus County, not wanting to attract any possible attention from anyone who might know him.
Then he glanced at her. ”This may be way out of line, but-”
”Of course, Frank,” she said, understanding perfectly. No cutesy games about her; she was all business, even in pleasure, and right now he really appreciated that.
”You know you don't have to,” he said, though his erection was there, as it had been intermittently the whole time.
”With you, I want to.” She laughed. ”That is a compliment, because I never wanted to before. In all my years with Bull, it was never voluntary on my part. It was obligation, and then fear. I did anything to keep him from getting angry. I thought I'd never have any use for s.e.x, other than as self-defense. But now, knowing you want me, I want you. I was thinking about you the whole time I drove that van, foolish as that may have been.”
He pulled into a side road, and drove until they came to a lonely turnaround. ”This sort of thing isn't much, in a car.”
”It's enough.” She pulled down her panties, lifted her skirt, and hauled herself up off the seat, giving him room to slide into the pa.s.senger seat beneath her as he got his trousers down to the knees. Then she sat on him, much as before-and as before, he climaxed almost as he completed entry. There was something about her fleshy thighs and soft posterior against his legs and belly, and the audacity of doing it like teenagers in a car, with their clothing not even off, just pushed aside enough, that triggered him instantly. Even the d.a.m.ned discomfort of the jammed situation contributed, making it seem forbidden and therefore more exciting.
”Oh, no!” he groaned, chagrined again.
But she was laughing. ”I never thought I was s.e.xy, but you certainly make me feel that way!”
”Must be the position,” he muttered.
”Or the pheromones,” she said cheerfully.
”Look, I'm spent, but there are ways to-if you want me to-”
She squirmed around so that she could bring her mouth to his, kissing him. ”It's enough,” she repeated. ”I wanted to make you happy, and I think I have done so in the most efficient manner.”
”You really don't mind?” he asked incredulously.
”I really don't mind. Just hold me.”
That he could do. So, awkwardly and not yet disconnected, they embraced, and kissed again, more deeply. Then, oddly, he felt her reaction.
”I sure see something in you,” he said squeezing her, ”but I'm d.a.m.ned if I see what you see in me.”
”What you have in me cannot be seen at the moment,” she remarked. ”As for the other-you're a gentle man.”
”I'm not a gentle man! I run people in all the time, in my business.”
”Yes, you are gentle-where it counts.”
”If you mean I'm not like that wife-beating husband you had-”
”Exactly.”
”But he was a freak! Only criminals are like that. The average man condemns that sort of thing just as I do.”
”But you're the one I encountered.”
”It's thin, very thin,” he said. ”Just because I don't beat up on women is no reason to-”
But she cut him off with another kiss. He decided not to argue further. She had to have more reason than that-he hoped. Perhaps she did, for again he felt her reaction around his member, which had not diminished far yet. She was, after all, getting something out of it, in her way. He was glad.
In due course they straightened out and he started back toward town. They had succeeded in hiding yet another depredation of the firefly-but it would be impossible to keep the lid on much longer if they didn't get rid of the monster. Inevitably it would take a regular townsman, and then all h.e.l.l would break loose. They both knew that.
He dropped her off near her hotel, then went to swap his car for the deputy car. He had his regular job to do too, and it was getting harder to answer questions about his time.
* 40 - MAY RETURNED TO her room, more satisfied than she felt she had a right to be. It remained a new experience for her to turn on a man to such a degree that he lost control-and to have him be apologetic for that. Never in all her years with Bull had that been the case, and it was exhilarating now. Who would have thought that it could happen when she was a too-solid forty! It was the stuff of dreams. But apart from that she did like him, and it did please her to please him, so she had not deceived him. She was in love late, but in love. The future was at best murky, but the moment was wonderful.
Actually, she had gotten a kind of satisfaction from the act itself. It could not have been an o.r.g.a.s.m in that little time, yet she had thrilled physically as she felt him spurting up into her, and their continued contact had allowed her pleasure to last, perhaps even to increase. Maybe the sheer audacity of it, of pulling up her skirt like a wh.o.r.e in a car, in daylight, and jamming down on his member, had excited her to the point of a reaction. She had wanted that s.e.x, and had reveled in it, though this was completely unlike her. In a private room, in darkness, she could have been properly receptive, but in that car-that was amazing. Now she felt warm there, satiated. Had she realized, she would have told Frank that, and pleased him even more.
But the larger situation was dubious indeed. Frank was right: it had been only sheer luck and grit that this thing hadn't blown wide open yet. Now the firefly had taken Cyrano, and their best chance to destroy it without notoriety was gone. What were they to do? If this thing blew open, Mid would fire her and Geode, and Frank would lose his job, and they would all be in dire straits.
Well, there was no help for it: she would have to call Mid and let him know. She should have called him in the morning, but had wanted to get the bases covered first. She did not relish this at all. Therefore she did it immediately. With luck, she would get the answering machine.
Mid answered directly. ”You hid the body?” he asked.