hair, which tickles my legs, as she tongues my vagina. She inserts her fingers and the pleasure moves in waves up through my chest. Julie kisses along my tummy, up to my chest, where she sucks my hardened nipples and squeezes my breasts together, rubbing her lower lips on mine. Amidst waves of pleasure I pass in and out of the dream state.
The next day I had a one-on-one meeting with Stafford in his office. He held up a local newspaper, flipping through it, as I entered. There was a long silence before he finally spoke.
“Someone’s coming for me. First, the dead real estate agent. Now two girls who were at my party are very sick. Looks like some kind of poisoning. I’ve seen it before in Eastern Europe. Someone’s trying to get me in trouble, but I don’t know who.”
He seemed shaken.
“You were close to the girls?” I asked.
“One of them I’ve only recently met. The other’s the wife of a past business associate. I don’t even know her.”
“You want me to spy on anyone connected with both of these girls and figure out what’s going on.”
I said it as a statement of fact.
“Yes and no. I want you to spy, but not on anyone close to them. It wouldn’t be anyone close to them who did it. It would be someone or a group unknown to them.”
“I see.”
“Do you?”
“You want me to find out who it could be.”
“Yes. But I don’t, as yet, know how to go about determining that.”
“We’ll have to start with groups of suspects and narrow it down.”
I couldn’t believe my luck—the fact that he was coming to me to solve this.
As if in answer to my thoughts he mused, “You’re the one who is solely responsible for a new kind of security I’m finding myself more and more in need of. I want you to go to work immediately on this one. You may assemble a small team if you like. Drop the other task I’ve given you about the two gentlemen from the beach and pursue this—don’t drop it altogether, but put it aside for now. Understood?”
“Sure. One question.”
“Shoot.”
“Have you had any more interaction with local law enforcement? Anything at all to do with this?”
“No, nothing. I haven’t heard from them yet.”
“But you expect to…”
“I’m not really sure. We’ll see.”
That night we ate in a dining room several floors up in the villa. The last remaining light of day fell into the room that was otherwise lit by only a few candles around the table. Wonderful French dishes were served, from cassoulet and canard to tartare de boeuf . Bottles of Beaujoulais Nouveau were poured. Stafford was very friendly toward Julie who was surprisingly shy in the course of the evening. He was inquisitive about her background and how we knew each other, as well as her interests and where she’d traveled.
“I hope you come down and spend more time with us here. Also come visit next time we’re in Augustine,” Stafford called out to us as we left.
We were all tipsy and I looked forward to snuggling up with Julie.
In the room I rolled a couple joints with a new strain I had been given by Anna. It was called California One Time and it crept up slowly before delivering a hard punch with dizzying impact. We watched Daughters of Darkness as we fell asleep.
Chapter 14
The Eleutheran
October 28, Eleuthera Island, Bahamas
AVA MADEIROS DIES IN HOSPITAL OF MYSTERIOUS ILLNESS
Colombian model Ava Madeiros has died in hospital on the island of Nassau after being admitted 17 th October. Reportedly all her hair had fallen out, and she became increasingly nauseated and unable to eat up to the time of her death yesterday. Her mother and father stayed on Nassau for the last two weeks. No announcements have been made yet as to her funeral. The matter is still under investigation by local authorities.
Sophia Durant’s Diary
October 30, Eleuthera Island, Bahamas
I experienced the mixed feelings of being relieved and mildly shocked on reading the