Ridley Pearson - Middle Of Nowhere

"Number forty-two," she repeated, running her finger down the column that indicated which inmate in the private commerce program had placed the phone solicitation. "Brumewell!" she exclaimed excitedly, matching a phone number. "Number forty-two did Brumewell too." She was radiant when excited like this, one of those people who generated an electricity, a palpable, physical, sensuous energy that sparked across the table and infected Boldt. He felt that energy run wildly through him-though he didn't like where it landed, where he felt it the most. He shifted in his chair, relieved at the approach of the waiter. They both put the faxed pages aside.

They ate their salads slowly and in silence. He felt like skipping the main course. He wanted to get back to the faxed pages.

Boldt caught Daphne's eye, read her mind. "It's all right that we enjoy ourselves," he suggested, trying to sound convincing. "No harm in that."

"No harm whatsoever," she echoed, though clearly not convinced.

Another minute passed before he spoke. "The thing about us-"

"Yes?"

"The silence isn't uncomfortable."

"No."

"It's fine. It feels good, even."

The salads were withdrawn, replaced by pewter domed entre?es. As the lids were whisked off in unison, rosemary and garlic stirred the air.

"It's comfortable is all," he said, once they had been left alone.

"That's not all, and you know it," she replied.

"No, maybe not," he conceded.

"We've been there, Lou. And we've had plenty of opportunities since then to revisit, and we don't, which is good, I think."

"You think or you know?"

"Her illness… The cancer-it pulled you two even closer together."

"Yes, it did," he agreed.

"It's making the most out of a bad situation. You two did that. It's admirable."

"Thank you," he said sincerely. "It doesn't mean I care for you any less."

She reached out across the table and took his hand in hers. "I know that. And it goes both ways, you know."

Their eyes met, smiling. He lifted his water glass. "To private commerce caller number forty-two. I'd say we've got a suspect."

"I'd say we'd better get through the rest of that list tonight. If we can connect Mr. Forty-two to more of the victims, our case is only that much stronger."

"Agreed."

"My room? Or yours?"

"Yours, it's bigger," Boldt answered.

She pushed back her chair and excused herself without looking at him, and hurried across the dining room in that graceful movement of hers.

When she returned, he felt her urgency to leave the table.

"How about one dance before dessert?" she asked.

A jazz trio in the hotel bar. Boldt had tried to block out the music because it could so overpower him and demand his full attention. So could a dance. He was thinking it was a bad idea.

She added that she'd taken care of the tab, charging it to her room, making it impossible for him to stall.

"Why not?" he said, his mouth working against his better judgment.

A mistake. Boldt knew it the moment he put his arm loosely around her and felt the warm indent of her back in the palm of his wide hand. Secrets were lost in such moments. Kingdoms fell. With Daphne in heels, they stood nearly the same height. She pulled herself closer and their chests made contact. "Okay?" she asked, her breath warm on his neck.

"You know what I think?" she asked, this time in a hoarse whisper that sent chills down him. Their hearts beat contrapuntally.

"Extraordinary," he said, marveling at the sensation.

She placed her head gently on his shoulder, and answered herself. "I think this is dangerous."

"Feels that way to me," he admitted, not letting her go.

"Song's over."

So it was. He hadn't noticed. Only the one song, or had they stayed out there longer? He took her by the hand and led her off the dance floor.

They walked together down the long corridor of rooms. She used her electronic key to open the room door and Boldt found himself reminded of the prison's security. She leaned a shoulder against the door and it opened. "This is all right? Right?"

"Right," he answered, not taking his chance to back out. The faxed pages bulged in his coat pocket.

She reached up, lightly stroked his cheek, then playfully took him by the necktie and said, "Into my room, big boy."

But her words were lost to the kiss that Boldt delivered more out of reflex than conscious decision. He kissed her on the lips, not the cheek. Right there in the hallway; she, holding his tie. Brief, but delivered like he meant it.

The kiss stunned her, but she didn't falter. She pulled him through the door by the tie, turned once inside and returned that kiss with all her enormous powers. They kissed hard and hungrily, a kiss that had fermented for years.

His fingers worked the tiny buttons to her blouse, the silk melting away and exposing her chest as she unknotted his tie. A car backfired, and they both froze intuitively, and then, looking at each other in the early stages of undress, one of them started to laugh and the other followed until the laughter grew, by which point her blouse was buttoned and her face red behind a girlish blush.

"Maybe we go through the fax tomorrow morning," she suggested nervously.

Boldt felt awkward. Devastated. "I-"

"Don't say anything," she pleaded, placing a warm finger to his lips and holding it there too long. Her blouse was buttoned incorrectly. His shirt was partially open, his tie hanging from his button-down collar.

The Jefferson County Corrections Facility appeared somehow otherworldly as they approached, the sprawling sand-colored facility surrounded by silver waves of razor wire, all of it pushed out into the scrub of high desert. The ride had been unusually quiet.

Daphne rolled a Starbucks cup between her palms, as if warming them. It was eighty degrees outside the air-conditioned car, the sky a blue found only in the mountains.

Boldt felt a little blue himself. He found it difficult to focus on the investigation, which was, after all, the purpose of the trip. This, despite the fact that before going to sleep he had connected inmate 42 with another four of the burglary victims' phone numbers. He and Daphne were on their way now to have a little chat with number 42.

Boldt turned left onto a long gravel road that led toward the shimmering facility. Dust rose behind the rental in a growing plume that colored the sun. He said, "Listen, Daffy. I've thought about that kiss for a long time. Now that it's behind us, maybe we can make it another five or six years."

"No harm, no foul?" she questioned.

"I don't want you mad at me."

"Is that what you think?" she asked. "You know, for being such a good detective, sometimes you don't have a clue."

"True story," he said.

He mugged a smile for her, squinting eyes giving him away. He pulled the car up to the first of three guard booths, and slipped his ID wallet out of his blue blazer. Daphne did the same, and the conversation ended.

Boldt and Matthews sat across a speckled vinyl tabletop in an employees' cafeteria. Boldt read from the folder in front of him. "Inmate number forty-two, as listed on the phone solicitation sheets. David Ansel Flek-no 'c.' Serving a three-year sentence-get this-for grand larceny. He's been part of the private commerce telemarketing program for the past eight weeks."

"Right about when our robberies started," Daphne said.

They had half the connection: Flek had been the telemarketer who had spoken to each of the burglary victims. Before interrogating Flek, they needed the other half: contact with the outside. They awaited the warden.

When the man arrived, Boldt noticed that some of his military composure had worn off. He understood the implications of all this for his facility. Nothing less than his job was at stake. Yet he was on orders from Etheredge to cooperate-a private facility refusing to cooperate with law enforcement would sound a death knoll for state prison contracts.