Black Tie Event

Chapter Eight

When Allison and I got back to our room, I promptly shut the door and began beating her with the nearest object, which happened to be a large leather bound book.

"Ouch!" Whack.

"Kim!" Whack.

"What--" Whack.

"The--" Whack.

"Fuck! Kim!" She yelled, clearly using the strength she'd obtained in the academy to push me off of her and onto the ground. She pulled her badge on me. "Do you want to be charged with assaulting a police officer?"

"What the fuck was that?" I demanded. "What happened to look and don't touch?"

"Oh," she realized, laughing a little bit. "That's why you're beating me."

"Yeah, that's why I'm beating you. I can not believe you."

"Yeah," she said again, not really caring. "You're welcome."

"Fuck you! Do you even know how hard that was?"

"You didn't seem to mind. The only things that were hard were your--"

"Stop," I warned, loudly. "Please, whatever you do, do not say that."

"Well, you know what I'm saying," she said, sitting down on her bed and undoing her heels. "Don't try to say you weren't enjoying it."

"Of course I was enjoying it," I whispered harshly. "But I wasn't supposed to be."

"Hey, she certainly was. I believe this falls into the category of 'not so straight she can't be turned.'"

I sighed. "I really hate you."

"Yeah, I know. Look, can we compare notes on today?"

"You took notes?"

She rolled her eyes. "Mental ones."

I shrugged. "What have you got?"

"It's kind of hard to investigate Collin Shaw when Collin Shaw is never home. I think I've spoken to him twice today."

"But we can work with what we have," I said. "We don't have to investigate the suspect right now. We can investigate the effects of the assault charges. And to do that, look what we have at our disposal: Lucy, and Cora, and you never know, maybe Ana."

"Not a bad point," she admitted, for the first time since I'd met her, giving me some credit. "Did you get a read on the wife?"

I sighed, thinking about Anneliese. "Yeah," I finally said.

"And?"

"She's beautiful."

Allison covered her face. "Kim."

"And," I tried to cover my crush with some semblance of my actually working, "I think it's suspicious that we were never told that Collin Shaw was married. I also don't understand why a married man would keep slutty housekeepers around, even around his wife."

"He has a lot of single friends that he has to keep happy," she reminded me.

"Even still," I said. "There's something we're not getting."

"Also," she said, keeping to her agenda. "I want you to look into Shaw's files, computer, whatever you've got. Find his tax returns, and make sure everything's in order. I trust you know how to do that."

"Beckett, I do that in my sleep," I said brashly. "But how do you suppose I'm going to get in there?"

"Well, Shaw and his wife are out. Lucy is drunk off her ass, and Cora's probably off having wet dreams about her first lesbian experience. Sounds like the perfect storm."