Unknown Diners

Chapter Fifty-Four

After their morning exercises and a long shower, Lorne and Catherine were busy at their computers as the sun peeked in at them through the balcony windows. "Seems he's still disbarred. Nowhere among the lists of lawyers. Maybe didn't reapply."

"Or his application wasn't approved."

Lorne laughed. "Have to be much more corrupt than him not to be welcomed back into... But that's into lawyer joke territory."

"He might have stayed back east." Catherine lifted her eyes from her screen and turned to look at Lorne. "Have you searched the Quebec and Ontario lists? The Maritimes? The Prairies?"

"Yeah, searched those too. Nothing. I've Googled him, but all I can find is the 2003 stuff. His trail dies after that."

"Could have changed his name."

"Good thought." He checked the time on his computer screen. "Too early to phone E Division. I'll do that when I call for access to his hard drive archive."

"Hard drive archive?"

"The child porn evidence. From the charges on his record, it seems his computers were seized. Justice should still have the data that was used as evidence of the child porn."

"Complicated twists and turns you follow." She tipped her cup to peer in, then smiled at him. "More coffee? Breakfast?"

"Both. And a hug." They got up and merged.

"How about I do a big frittata?"

"Great. What can I do?"

"Stand around so I can ogle at you." She wiggled closer. "You're real eye candy for me. You could pull more espressos while you're at it."

As she diced the red pepper, she paused and looked up at him. "Your blog. The hits. Responses. You should check what's happening with it."

He activated his computer, opened his Blogger and clicked Stats. "Look at this, it's gone crazy." He swivelled the computer around toward her. "Over seven hundred thousand already today."

"That can't be today." She leaned closer. "My fuck! It is! Over two million on the week. What is it? Not two days yet. Fuck!"

He walked around the island to stand beside her and clicked to Twitter. "God, #Hypocritic is at the top of Trends."

"There, number two, #DiningFraud."

"Let me change the location — it's set on Current." He clicked Change and selected Canada. "Wow! No difference I'm the top two. It appears we've been missing the action."

"It seems also as if people were suspecting something. Most of them are too insecure about their own tastes to say anything." She looked at him and shook her head. "You've certainly opened the floodgates."

"How's your response?" He reached across the island, picked up her computer and put it in front of her.

She opened her Blogger and clicked Stats, Overview, and they looked at the graph. "Not millions, but I've never before topped a hundred thousand."

He clicked back to his Twitter and changed the location back to Current. "Look here, #MysteryDinner number seven in Trends."

"That's in Vancouver. How's it in Canada?"

"Not in the top ten. Yet."

"What do you mean, yet?"

"I've two spare Twitter accounts I can use to point people from my blog to yours and vice versa. It shouldn't take long." He smiled at her. "It's called marketing."

"I wonder how Bottom Line is liking the attention. I'm sure he wishes he hadn't killed us. Now he has no way to stop this."

"Except to crash the servers. Robotham says he's bigger than us." He looked at her and chuckled. "But Google's Blogger is much bigger than he'll ever be."

"You're pretty sure it's Robotham, aren't you?" She turned back to her dicing.

"Too many things pointing at him. Corruption, child porn, his knowing me. Be interesting to see what his other kinks are."

"Other kinks?"

"Yeah. The criminal record. Possession and distribution, but not making or accessing child porn. There has to be something else, another reason he had kiddie porn."

"What about George, Nutcracker? Fuck, I still go queasy when I think of that."

"I'm sure he disappeared from Molly's soon after they realised we'd found the GPS thing."

"Yeah, you're right; he wouldn't stay around."

"I can go back through my files to find his trial, but I thought the paedophilia unit would locate him easier. We'll likely find him through Bottom Line as we dig." He glanced at the clock. "I'll do that after breakfast. What can I do?"

"You can crack and beat the eggs while I sauté this. Five should do it. Seven or eight grinds of pepper and throw in a smidge of dried tarragon. No need for salt; the ham will add enough." 

"A bit of water to steam and add fluffiness, that okay?"

"Exactly what I do. We're so much alike."

He stepped across to her and ran a hand up her thigh, paused on her mound and then continued up to her left breast. "Yes, but we've marvellous differences."

She trembled and turned to hug him, and they stood swaying and mashing bodies. After a minute or so, she sighed. "Well, there's another fresh pair creamed." They kissed, then continued their beating and tossing.

After breakfast, they returned to their computers, Catherine continuing through lip stretching images while Lorne phoned E Division headquarters. He was on his second call when she whooped and waved her arms.

He glanced over at the screen she had turned toward him, smiled and grabbed her hand. "I have to go. Something's come up here. Anything else?" He paused to listen. "I'll watch for it, thanks." He clicked off.

"My God, she could set-up a scrapyard with all that. What's she do at airports?" He laughed. "She probably enjoys the personal searches."

Catherine clicked back to the previous image. "Here's her tiger, her pussy cat. I'd say it's intimidating."

"CynCat. Good screen name. Plays on Cynthia, sin and her pussy cat. God, what a mess she's made of herself." He took Catherine's hand, pulled her up, and they hugged. "Not so hard to track down these people, is it? They want to show off."

"The hard part is choking back the sick."

"Yeah, let's hope we're nearing the end of it." He lifted her up by the waist and kissed her, putting an arm under her butt to hold her as she clung to his neck and wrapped her legs around him. They locked in a deep kiss.