Stormy Waters: Book 10 in The Dar & Kerry Series

Chapter Fifteen

THEY MET ON the dockside shortly thereafter. Kerry sucked down the last droplets of her guava juice and dropped the empty container in the garbage outside the terminal door as she followed Dar across the sun bleached concrete.

A semi-circle of people were already out there. She spotted John's tall form and Quest, and several people she didn't know, along with the camera crew, which she did know. They all looked up as Dar and Kerry joined them, the strangers appearing a bit skeptical as they were introduced.

"Well, fine," a tall, thin man with an EPA badge said. "I was hoping...well, anyway. Here is what caused the accident." He held out a cardboard box and opened the flaps. A waft of sewer smell drifted out, and the group cautiously peered inside.

A grayish brown ball covered in gunk rested on the bottom of the box, a tangle of what Kerry identified as shielded cat 5 cable along with a snarl of the white cording that came in it to separate the strands. She looked up at their cable contractor. "John?"

The big man stepped forward and took the box, examining its contents. "Well, it's the stuff we're using, yeah," he admitted. "Looks like crap."

The camera man focused in on him, gaining himself a suspicious glare from the contractor.

"What does that mean?" Quest asked.

John looked at him. "It's ends left over after we finish a run. Got it all over the place the way we've been working," he explained.

"So one of your people did this? Dropped it in a toilet?" Quest asked, sharply.

John snorted. "I doubt it. Coulda been anyone, stuff's all over the place."

"That's true," Kerry agreed quietly, watching the EPA man from the corner of her eye. "That pipe was down the hall from one of our wiring closets, which was open."

"But," the EPA man objected, "It makes no sense for anyone to be carrying it around except for one of your workmen, does it?" He addressed John. "I mean, one of the other contractors would be carrying some of their supplies, tape, or electrical wire, or that sort of thing."

John shrugged. "Why would anyone be hauling a handful of that crap around?" he asked. "But I don't have anyone stupid enough to drop a ball of it in the toilet. Cigarettes, maybe, but not that."

Dar advanced and took the box. She looked at the ball of wire, noting its egg shape, and the tight wrapping around its middle that showed shredding from its travel through the pipes. With a grunt, she handed it back. "Could have been anyone," she said. "Or, who knows? Maybe one of John's guys left it on a sink somewhere and it got knocked into a bowl."

Quest snorted.

The inspector took the box back. He regarded the ball for a moment, then shrugged one shoulder. "That could be," he conceded. "We'd thought maybe someone did it on purpose, but you know, what you just said makes a lot of sense. I can see it."

Dar studiously did not look at the camera. "All those guys are working up there. I can't see someone doing this so they'd get covered in cr...sewage."

"Huh. Damn straight," John said.

Quest sniffed. "Maybe," he grudgingly conceded. "But now what? You're holding up my whole project in there!" He turned his aggressiveness on the EPA inspector. "So it was an accident, like Roberts said. When can we get back in there?"

"Twenty four hours, Mr. Quest. As I told you. Accident or not, you've got bio organisms in there, and they have to be fogged and sanitized. You don't want to get sued for getting people sick, do you?" The EPA man warned.

The camera swiveled to focus on Quest. From the look on his face, he was trapped and he knew it. "Of course not," he said. "But I want to get these guys back in there not a moment past twenty four hours. Can you guarantee me that?"

The camera moved back to the EPA man, who straightened a little. "Ah..."

"Or is it going to be one of those government things, were twenty four hours pass, and you all go out to play golf?" Quest pressed him. "I'm all for safety. I'll put this in your hands, but I need to know you're not going to screw me over for it."

Put on the defensive, the EPA man took a step back. "Well, in general, I suppose we can..."

"No general." Quest insisted. "I need to know. A lot of money's riding on this. You want to be responsible for that?"

"Of course not," the EPA man said. "Very well, we... I will guarantee you can be back inside that vessel after the twenty four hour decontamination process is complete."

"Okay." Quest seemed satisfied, holding his hand out for the man to shake. "We've got a deal then. I'll have these docks cleared."

The EPA men made a quick getaway, escaping the sun as they ducked through the gate and left the pier area.

John turned to Dar and put his hands on his hips. "Well, we lucked out. We'd just finished the last room when they rang the bell." He told her. "So..."

"Good work, John." Kerry congratulated him quietly.

"So what are you going to do, Roberts?" Quest interrupted. "I can't change the deadline." He turned and looked at the ship. "This thing'll never be ready."

Privately, Dar agreed completely. But she was aware of the focus on her, as the round camera eye swept across them. "Well, Peter I can't speak for your other contractors here, but my view is, we'll wait for the ban to be lifted, and do the best we can."

"Hmph." Quest made a grunting noise.

"We've gone to the wall on this project, and I'm not ready to drop it now," Dar continued. "If we run out of time, we run out of time, but we're going to be in there until the clock goes off."

Kerry folded her arms, content to let her partner shine in the artificial halogen spotlight.

"Bad luck," the cameraman commented quietly.

"Just another in a long series of challenges." Dar gave him a brisk nod. "Excuse us. We're going to see about securing the gear in there." She touched Kerry on the shoulder and turned to head back toward the terminal. John followed, and behind them they heard Quest and his entourage trooping back off down the pier.

Dar opened the door for them. "Jesus."

"That man figured to nail us with that thing, Dar!" John griped, as he passed in front of her, followed by Kerry. "All my guys in there busting their tails and I get that?"

Dar entered behind them. "John." She paused, waiting for him to turn. "Did you take a good look at that wire plug?" she asked. "That wasn't a bunch of scrap. That was tied up to be a bundle like that."

Kerry leaned on the wall with one hand. "What are you saying, Dar?"

Puzzled, John nodded his head. "Yeah. What are you saying? Someone did it on purpose after all?"

Dar glanced around, noting the techs still moving about the room. She waved them over toward the back corner, and waited for them to follow her. "After everything we've had to go through on this, I find it very hard to believe something like this happened naturally." She stated as they reached the back wall. "John, I'm not saying for a second it was one of your guys, but I don't think it dropped off a sink either. Can you ask all of them if they might have left a ball of the damn stuff anywhere?"

The contractor scrubbed his jaw, then nodded. "Sure, Dar. I'll ask 'em, but we were out of that area since eight a.m. Doubt any of 'em would remember. Some of the guys have gone home already, but I'll see what I can do."

Kerry blinked. "None of your guys were up there recently?"

"No." John shook his head positively. "My super keeps a close eye on 'em. Nice guys, good wire pullers, but they're lazier than hound dogs in summer most of the time."

"Huh." Kerry nibbled on the inside of her lip. "Someone wearing your company shirt was in that wiring closet when we got there."

Dar folded her arms and leaned against the wall, her head nodding slightly.

"Yeah?" John sounded honestly surprised.

"He was in there. We surprised him when we came in," Kerry said. "He was kinda rude," she added. "I made a mental note to talk to you about it. He was a tall guy, with brown hair, kind of curly, and he hadn't shaved recently."

John exhaled. "Could be half of 'em," he admitted. "Okay, let me gather 'em up and talk to 'em. See if any of 'em remember seeing you. I won't say why," he said. "Still doesn't mean he did anything."

"No, of course not," Kerry agreed. "But maybe he can confirm how the wire got near those pipes."

John grunted and nodded, then turned and walked across the room, heading for the front doors.

Kerry leaned against the wall next to Dar. "You really think it was on purpose?"

Dar nodded. "Yeah. Scraps are one thing, but that was wrapped so that it would fit down the pipe." She leaned against Kerry's shoulder. "It's just too coincidental, Ker."

Was it? Kerry pondered. "Or are we just getting paranoid?"

Dar studied the far wall briefly, then chuckled. "Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get us." She pushed herself upright and laid an arm over Kerry's shoulders. "C'mon. Let's go sit down and figure out where we go from here now that we lost an entire day from our schedule."

Kerry circled Dar's waist with her arm as they walked, both of them slowing as they spotted their erstwhile friend reporter Cruicshank near the door, complete with a few of her camera people. "Oh, poot."

The reporter came forward. "Hello, ladies," she greeted them. "Now that the stakes have risen again, care to share a few words with me?"

Aware of the camera's red light turning on and focusing on them, Dar didn't so much as twitch, or remove her arm from Kerry's shoulders. "Sure," she replied amiably. "We've got plenty of time right now."

The television light turned on, framing them in silver. In the shadows beyond them, the techs paused, gathering to watch curiously as the reporter closed in, and opened her note pad. "Great. Tom, give me about sixty seconds, and then roll, all right?"

"Right."

Dar noticed the Herald reporter arriving too, taking a seat on one of the folding tables back out of the way and just watching.

One dark eyebrow curved up, and Dar's brow puckered in thought.

"All right, Ms. Roberts." Cruicshank began. "Now we have a situation where all of a sudden, you're the underdogs. How does that make you feel?"

Dar exchanged looks with Kerry. Then she looked back at the camera. "I'm not sure we haven't always been the underdog in this," she commented with an easy smile. "Are you?"

Cruicshank looked up from her pad, pausing for a reflective moment. "Interesting question."

"Isn't it?" Kerry murmured.

"OKAY, SO NOW WHAT?" Kerry sat on a desk, swinging her feet a little. It was late afternoon, and the chaos had finally settled down. Cruicshank had left, the reporter had left, and she and Dar were alone in the small office.

Dar was lying on her back on the spare desk against the wall. "Let's take everyone out to dinner," she replied, her eyes closed. "Do some team building for the hell it's going to be from tomorrow on."

Kerry studied her denim covered knees. "Okay," she said." Someplace around here? Hard Rock, maybe? Or Bubba Gumps?"

"Hooters."

"Dar."

A blue eye opened. "Too politically incorrect, huh?"

"It's one thing for us to go to lunch there," Kerry said. "But taking the staff? Hon, there's two or three women in the team out there. How comfortable would that be for them?"

"Mmph." Dar grunted. "Yeah, I get you. Call Hard Rock. See if they have that side room available. What do we have, thirty?" Privately she doubted anyone on their staff would really mind, or kick up a fuss, but you never knew with people.

It didn't pay to take a chance, and she was a little abashed that Kerry had found it necessary to remind her of that. "Sorry. I was just in the mood for chicken wings," she added sheepishly.

"And a nice cold draft beer, yeah. But I'm sure we can get that somewhere else." Kerry got up and sat down in the desk chair instead, calling up a browser. She typed the restaurant's site in and got back a list of addresses, from which she selected the Bayside one.

Pulling out her cell phone, she dialed the number. "Did you say thirty?" She paused and held her hand over the mic. "With us?"

"Yeah." Dar nodded. "Twenty nine, something like that. Just say thirty."

"Gotcha." Kerry cleared her throat gently. "Hello, I'd like to speak to someone who can help me with a group reservation." She listened. "For thirty people." Listened again. "That's what I thought. I'll hold. Thanks."

Outside, their team was still getting gear ready for installation, soft clanks and thunks audible along with a low buzz of casual chatter.

Despite the problems with the ship, the atmosphere was one of efficient industry, and walking through the crowd Dar hadn't heard any griping at all.

Nice. Dar waited to hear Kerry say the words "You do? Okay. I'd like to reserve it." Sticking her head out, Dar observed the activity, then she sauntered out into the center of the large room and stood there, putting her hands on her hips.

She didn't need to say anything. One by one, the techs all stopped what they were doing and focused on her, the chatter in the room subsiding to nothing in about thirty seconds. Dar waited a few seconds more, then cleared her throat. "All right folks. You know what the story is. We're dead in the water until tomorrow, and then we're way behind the eight ball."

Thirty sets of eyes were pinned on her. "Better we bust our ass tomorrow than have to hang out in there today," Mark commented. "Man that stunk."

The two techs who'd been with Kerry nodded their heads vigorously. "Yeah, and working in the dark, that sucked too!"

Dar waited until silence fell again, then she resumed speaking. "It's going to be a tough couple of days. There'll be company support there while we're doing it, but before we start, I'd like you all to come over to the Hard Rock and be our guest for dinner tonight."

She could feel the shock in the room, as she flicked her eyes over the faces and caught the reactions. Surprise, certainly, and then muted delight. Dar smiled at them. "So get this stuff locked down, and we'll head on over. Okay?"

"Yes ma'am," Mark responded quickly. "You don't need to ask us twice...right guys?"

"Yeah."

"Heck yeah."

"For sure!"

Satisfied, Dar lifted her hand in acknowledgement and then walked back toward the office. She discovered Kerry inside, sprawled in the desk chair, spinning it idly. "We all set?"

"Uh huh." Kerry agreed. "We got the back room, and they're throwing in dessert free as long as everyone orders an entrée."

"No problem." Dar caught the back of the chair and stopped her partner's revolutions. "Not with this bunch. They're not the ice tea and carrot appetizer crowd."

Kerry gazed up at her with a wry expression. "Dar, I used to be one of the ice tea and carrot appetizer crowd."

"Nah." Dar looked fondly down at her. "You were a poser."

"A poser?"

"A poser." Dar leaned on the chair back. "I knew that the first time we had dinner together."

Kerry's face crinkled up into a grin. "Rats. Outed by a slab of cheesecake and a chicken wing."

Dar gently scratched the top of Kerry's head with her fingertips. "Did you check with the office? Everything calm there?"

Kerry gave the trackball on the desk a roll, exposing her email inbox when the screen saver cleared. "Couple of things. Three of those leads we got out of your hacker challenge turned into requests for pricing." She pointed. "Not really huge accounts but look...this one's in an area we haven't been involved in yet."

"Hmm." Dar studied the screen.

"I'm assigning someone to put together a design," Kerry said. "And I got a note from our friends in New York..." She clicked over. "They're opening another office in Hong Kong. They want pricing for infrastructure."

"Yeah?" Dar sounded quite surprised. "You got a note from Meyer?"

Kerry cocked her head. "Um...no, matter of fact. Hang on. "She rolled back a page. "Here...new name. Ellen Durst. Maybe he got an assistant?" She scrolled through the message until she reached the signature line. "Oh. No, I guess she's the VP now."

"Huh." Dar sniffed. "Hope Stewart didn't get booted. We're in deep kimchee if he did."

"Would she be asking us for pricing if Meyer took his place?"

Dar perched on the desk, getting her weight off her injured foot. "We're their current vendor." She mused. "So stands to reason... I don't know, let's find out." She pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number. "Hi. Stewart Godson, please."

Kerry leaned an elbow on the desk and watched Dar's face as she waited. She put her other hand on her partner's knee, rubbing gently in a circle with her thumb. It would be chilly in the restaurant, she suddenly remembered. They'd have to stop and get Dar something with more sleeves.

"Yes, thanks. It's Dar Roberts, from ILS." Dar supplied the secretary who intercepted the call. Now, either she'd be put off, or...

"One moment, ma'am, I'll put you right through." The secretary came back on the line, then bland hold music replaced her for a second, before a click sounded and a voice came through.

"Hello, there, Dar!"

Dar exhaled in relief. "Afternoon, Stewart." She glanced at Kerry, who gave her a thumbs up.

"What do I owe the pleasure of a call to?" Godson asked. "I was about to close up shop here and get on home. Don't tell me we've got problems!"

"No, no, not at all," Dar reassured him. "I just..." She hesitated. "Just was wondering how things were doing, with your program. It's been a week, now."

"Oh!" Godson cleared his throat, and apparently sat back in his chair based on the squeaks coming through the phone. "Everything's great! You have no idea how happy everyone is. It's been wonderful. First week in a month I've been able to get anything done without getting a phone call every ten minutes complaining," he said. "So rest assured, everything looks great from this end. How's it with you?"

Dar blinked. "Me? Oh, it's just been a typical week here, you know, Stewart," she replied. "Usual problems, usual weather...the odd pile of crap hitting the...um...fan." A smile appeared, as she watched Kerry first cover her eyes, then throw the back of her arm across them in a very theatrical gesture. "Glad things are going well. Listen, Kerry tells me you're putting in a new office in the Far East?"

"Yep." Godson sounded very, very smug. "Business has increased so much, partially due to my new system I might add, that we're branching out. Good stuff huh? Oh!" He ended the sentence with an exclamation. "Hey! You remember that guy of mine, Jason?"

Ah. "Sure." Dar drawled.

"You know that fella up and left last Friday? No notice at all, just picked up his papers and walked out. Said he had a better offer. What do you know? You were right! Shoulda listened to you right then, Dar!"

Kerry's eyes widened and she leaned forward a little as she listened. "Holy pooters!" She mouthed.

"Ahhh...yeah, he was a stinker," Dar remarked, her eyebrows hiked up to her hairline. "Any idea where he went? Not that I care."

"Nah." Godson said. "Didn't ask, he didn't tell, good riddance! I took a page from your book and decided maybe a gal would work better for me in there, and you know, it's been a week but Ellen's just been crackerjack. Good people! Matter of fact, can't wait for her to meet you. We were talking about you just yesterday."

Dar relaxed, one nagging problem taken off her conscience. "Well, that's good to hear, Stewart. Glad you got someone in there who we can work with. I wasn't looking forward to renegotiating our contract with Mr. Meyer. Hope whoever he went to work for fully appreciates...his...ah...style."

Godson chuckled. "Ellen's sharp, and would you know? She's a fan of yours. So you've got no worries, right? Anyhoo, time for me to head off to the little missus. Anything else you need to talk about, Dar?"

"Nope, just checking in. We'll get you those prices by end of the week, Stewart. Good luck on the new space, and congratulations."

"Thanks!" Godson replied. "Life's good! Take care, Dar! Give Ms. Stuart my hellos too, willya? Bye!"

Dar folded the phone up and tossed it, reversing her hand and grabbing it out of mid air as it fell. "Well, that's good news," she said. "I really thought we were going to get bit in the ass by my cantankerousness this time. Guess we got lucky."

Kerry patted her on the leg. "We have to sometimes." She got up, leaning over to log out of the computer. "Wonder where that little bugger went? Hope it's not to another of our customers."

Dar shrugged, getting up off the desk and waiting as Kerry turned the PC off. "I'll do a search later and see if he joined another public company." She put her hand on her partner's back as they walked out of the office, flipping the lights and closing the door behind them.

KERRY PUT HER MUG down and leaned back, chuckling a little at Mark's joke from across the table. She was on her second beer, and her plate held the scattered remnants of a relatively decent rack of spare ribs. Dar was sprawled in the chair next to her, long legs extended under the table as she nodded in agreement to what Mark was saying.

"I remember that," Dar said. "The entire building was overrun by red ants, and everyone ended up sitting on top of the network racks to get away from them." She reminisced. "Damned glad I missed that one."

Everyone chuckled.

"Yeah, you'd just gotten kicked upstairs," Mark said. "We sure missed you."

Kerry watched her partner from the corner of her eye, seeing the look of muted glee appear in her eyes, as her lips twitched into a grin. "I bet you did." She leaned on her chair arm. "There's nothing as comforting to have on a tough project as this thing." She indicated Dar with her thumb. "I can attest to that."

"Thing?" Dar leaned on her own chair arm and gave Kerry a raised eyebrow look.

"Ms. Roberts?" One of the techs spoke up shyly. "Is it true the fellow in charge on the boat is your father?"

Dar tore her attention from her partner, and picked up her glass of wine for a sip. "It's true," she said. "Some of you guys have met him before."

"Absolutely," Mark agreed. "He's a great guy, and he tells the funniest st--"

Dar looked at him.

"Stories about boats." Mark redirected his speech. "Really funny."

Nervous grins all around. "I think some of those contractors are scared of him," the first tech commented. "I heard them talking about him when they were out in back of the building using the pay phones."

Dar felt a little uncertain, unused to talking about her family in front of her staff. "Well, he doesn't take much crap."

"Gee." Mark took a swallow of his beer. "Wonder who that sounds like."

The tableful of techs chuckled again, this time a little less nervously when Dar joined in, lifting a hand in silent self deprecation. "Yeah, I come by it honestly," she assented. "But he's also retired Navy...he was a SEAL...that takes it to a different level sometimes."

"A SEAL?" One of the techs whistled. "Wow."

"That's pretty cool," another said. "I was in for six years. Those guys are tough."

"I was helping check off those switches that came in yesterday," one of the female techs spoke up shyly. "I was a little creeped out with those guys in there. They were making all kinds of comments, but then he came into the loading area and shut them all up." She looked over at Dar. "That was really cool."

Dar smiled.

"Dad's got a lot of old fashioned chivalry in him," Kerry spoke up. "One of those guys who's totally not embarrassed to open doors for women, or give them seats on a bus, you know?"

The men all looked a little embarrassed, themselves. "I, um..." The tech next to Mark cleared his throat. "Don't think girls like that stuff anymore. It's like, chauvinism, isn't it?"

Everyone looked at Kerry, to see what her answer would be. She took a sip of her beer, giving herself a moment to think about it. "Hmm." She pondered the complex ideas behind the question. "Opening a door for someone really isn't anything but a courtesy. I think--"

"I open doors for you," Dar commented.

"I think it depends how you were brought up," the woman tech spoke up suddenly. "It's like your parents teach you one way or the other. My mother was a big time radical feminist, and she always said it was condescending when men treated her like that."

"Yeah, my mom said the same thing," Mark agreed. "You open a door for her and she'd slam it in your face."

Everyone chuckled. "Well, I come from a very traditional family," Kerry said. "Though I think my father would have paid someone to be chivalrous for him if he could have gotten away with it. We were always treated like ladies, and let me tell you...it gave me a hive."

Everyone peeked at Dar next. "My mother's a pagan," She supplied agreeably.

Silence. Everyone looked at Dar in surprise, except Kerry. "Well, she is." Dar shrugged. "She's about as nontraditional as you can get, but she loves it when my dad does stuff like that for her."

"Really?" Mark asked.

"Yeah." Dar drained her wine glass and set it on the table. "But then, my dad doesn't do it for show. It's just how he is."

"And just how you are." Kerry gave her partner a fond look. "Daddy's girl."

Dar blushed slightly, almost invisibly in the reddish lamplight. Her eyebrows twitched, and she glanced at the rest of the table before looking back at Kerry.

"Well, my old man didn't give me anything but a hairy back." Mark broke the silence, drawing attention back to himself. "And probably a bum ticker," he added. "So it's a crap shoot, but like, you really can't win because if you do nice stuff like that, you got a fifty-fifty shot at best that the girl likes it, you know?"

Two of the guy techs nodded. "Yeah," one said. "My girlfriend is like this independent chick, yeah? She's pre-law, works in a woman lawyer's office, pro abortion, all that stuff, and I find out last week she really wants to get married, stop working, and have kids."

"Oh, god." The taller, blond female tech covered her eyes. "My husband hinted to me last night he'd like to have kids."

"So let him, Barb," Dar drawled. "He can stay home and take care of 'em."

Everyone laughed. Barb leaned forward, resting an elbow on the table. "That's really something women in our industry have to deal with that you guys don't," she said. "I've been turned down for jobs because I might start breeding. You know, that sucks. If you're a guy, that doesn't happen."

"Hey, we breed." Mark protested. "I've had to give plenty of guys' time off to go take care of their kids."

"Three months?" Barb asked him.

"Well..."

"It's hard enough to keep even in this business as it is, being female," Barb said. "Nobody thinks women belong in technical fields, even today." Her eyes tracked briefly to Dar and Kerry. "I have to tell you, you guys were the reason I even applied here."

"We take flack," Kerry responded quietly. "There are a lot of people out there that don't think Dar and I should be doing what we're doing, and it takes a lot more effort than you think to get past that."

Mark looked between them. "You guys are making me feel like a jerk, just because I got a Y in the big ol' chromo-dice throw." He protested. "Hey, it's not our fault! I hire most of the women who apply. They are just really, really few and far between!"

Barb leaned back, and nodded. "Mark, I know that. You should see the looks I get from other women when I tell them what I do. You'd think I was telling them I was a car mechanic."

Dar chuckled wryly. "Well, given what my other choice of profession was, my family is very glad I picked this one," she said. "But I'd have made a lousy sailor anyway."

Mark leaned back. "No offense, DR, but that would have been a big waste of brain cells."

"Yeah," Barb agreed. "That's for sure."

Dar shrugged modestly.

Someone approached, and cleared their throat gently. Dar looked up to see their reporter friend Elecia standing there, hands behind her back and a diffident expression on her face. "Ah. Evening."

"Hi," the woman said. "I know you probably think I'm stalking you all, but I happened to be having dinner over there." She pointed to a corner of the restaurant. "Mind if I ask your group here a few questions?"

Dar studied her briefly, then shrugged and turned back to the table. "You guys mind talking to a reporter?"

Various reactions, ranging from wariness to outright alarm faced her.

"Hey, relax." The reporter chuckled. "I'm from the Herald, not Panic Seven," she said. "I'm doing a story on the work you all are doing at the pier, and I just had a few questions about some of the things you were talking about."

Kerry still had her doubts. She knew Dar respected the woman, but after their experiences of the past few weeks, no reporter seemed trustworthy to her, if any ever had. "You know, Ms Rodriguez, these folks have worked really hard the past few days, and they're going to have to work even harder in the next few. Is it really fair to disturb them during a moment of peace, here?"

Rodriguez studied her. "You know what being a reporter is like, Ms. Stuart," she responded conversationally. "It's like being addicted to everything. You never have enough. You always want more, more, more...every question brings up another question."

Kerry merely waited, giving the woman her best incomprehensible stare.

The reporter looked at Dar, who folded her hands over her stomach and refrained from comment. Then Rodriguez shrugged. "No, it's not fair, and my husband's going to kick my ass since it's the first time I've seen him all week." She turned to the table. "Some other time, ladies and gents. Good luck, by the way."

With that, she turned and left, walking down the small flight of steps and sliding into a half hidden banquette table near the window.

Everyone was silent for a few moments, then Carlos, who'd been in the closet with her that day, cleared his throat a little. "Thanks, Kerry," he murmured. "This whole news and filming stuff is kinda getting old."

"Tell me about it." Kerry sympathized. "We've had these people in our faces for weeks." She glanced after the reporter, then looked at Dar. "You want to go talk to her?"

"Nope." Dar seemed content to stay right where she was. "I hear a hot brownie sundae calling my name." She tapped her thumbs against each other, and looked around the table. "Anyone else interested?"

The atmosphere relaxed, and everyone leaned back, sharing dessert menus as the serving staff cleared the table of their dinner plates. Kerry waited for the buzz of conversation to rise, and then she leaned closer to Dar. "Was that a mistake?"

Pale blue eyes turned her way, warmed from within as they met hers. "For them? No," Dar answered.

"For us?" Kerry persisted.

Dar shrugged. "Nah."

Kerry frowned. Dar reached over and smoothed the furrow in her brow with her thumb, then she ruffled Kerry's hair.

Oh well. Kerry silently exhaled. Just another pass of the dice.

To be continued...