Involved part 5
Involved Part 5
Olivia was woken by the shrill tones of her cell phone the next morning. Groping in the semi darkness, she noticed it was 5.45am. Far too early when you hadn’t managed to get to sleep until the wee small hours.
“Persephone? I thought you were going to ring me.”
Sometimes Olivia really disliked Hope.
“Hope, why are you always so damn perky in the mornings,” she growled.
Hope just giggled. Her sweet nature was a little grating at times. Particularly at early times.
“Well I thought you might be seeing that woman again today, so I wanted to catch you before you left.
Olivia glanced out at the still dark sky. “Yeah, lucky you caught me.” She muttered sarcastically. “Look Hope, I’ll meet you at the diner on Queen Street at 9, you’re buying the coffees.”
She was determined to get a few more hours sleep. However, Olivia had arranged to meet up with Alex at her office at 11am and now she was awake, the prospect of spending time with the former blonde swept any sleepy thoughts away.
Ten minutes later she was in the shower, cursing self-righteous early birds, but whistling rather happily all the same.
Jessica McNeill’s morning was going slowly. At the best of times, she found the corporate law field a bit of a bore, but now that Olivia was back in her life, in such a delightfully unexpected way, she just couldn’t keep her mind on the contracts she was supposed to be re-drafting.
Checking her watch for the fifth time in the last half hour (still only 9.47am) she abandoned the document in front of her. It wasn’t due for another three weeks and to be honest, she was making a real mess of it anyway. She just couldn’t seem to concentrate on one of the duller aspects of the law today for some odd reason. She grinned to herself.
Might as well be prepared, she thought as she pulled out the first of the Holts Pharmaceuticals files she had collected from storage first thing this morning. There were several boxes full of folders and papers, some filed by the previous attorney, and nowhere near as well organised as Jessica McNeill’s paperwork.
Taking a sip of her rather tepid coffee, she began to read.
“We hit it off pretty well actually,” Olivia said with a smile. Hope smiled over her tea-cup.
“Oh really? Wow Persephone, I never knew you went for the ladies.” She was smirking now.
“I’m…open to possibilities I guess,” Olivia said thoughtfully.
“So are you seeing her again?”
“Yes, I’ve got another appointment for 11 o’clock, then I’m going to take her to lunch.” She grinned.
“So what on earth did you talk about Persephone? You didn’t give anything away did you?”
Olivia gave her a scornful look. “Of course not. I’m not an idiot Hope. I got her to tell me about herself, where she went to school, her family. Stuff like that.”
“I went to school in Colorado, environmental science. I just loved it...” Hope was off on one of her rambling monologues. “I discovered there were more people like us out there, joined my first animal rights group, liberated my first animals, got arrested for the first time...” she sighed.
“Right…happy days huh?”
Olivia sipped her coffee appreciatively. No lily livered herbal teas for her, even if she was supposed to be an environmentalist. Hadn’t these people heard of Fair Trade and supporting coffee growers in South America? It was her civic duty to drink coffee. That was her story anyway.
“So what about you Persephone? Where did you go to school?” Hope asked suddenly.
Olivia froze. She had absolutely no idea where Persephone went to school or even if she did.
“Oh, er…hey, look, it’s T-Bone,” she said gratefully as the scruffy young man slinked into the diner. That had been close.
“Morning Hope. Morning lover girl,” he grinned. “I hear you were a big hit with Ms Super Duper Lawyer yesterday.”
He slumped into the booth beside Hope, casually sliding her tea over and taking a large gulp.
“You heard?” Olivia asked warily.
“Yeah, my pal Marco is a waiter at the restaurant you went to. Said the two of you were very chummy looking. Fast work there stud.”
Olivia thought back over her and Alex’s actions last night. You really never can tell when someone, a friend of a friend of a friend, might be watching, she decided.
This whole situation had the potential to be such a disaster. Despite wanting to spend time with Alex, Olivia thought she really needed to get things sewn up as quickly as possible.
Standing abruptly, she tossed back the rest of her coffee and gathered her coat and bag.
“Well we have an appointment soon, which I’d better get to.”
T-Bone rose as well, and leaned towards her, talking in a quiet and suddenly more serious tone. “Listen Persephone, we haven’t got any time to waste here. Get that information or get her keys as soon as you can. OK?”
With a quick smile and nod, she escaped from the intense young couple, striding anxiously out to her car.
“Ms Ryan is here,” announced Cathy, shortly before 11 o’clock. Alex knew it was before 11 o’clock because she’d continued to check all morning, wishing she could speed up time.
“Show her in Cathy,” she said coolly, “and hold all my calls please.”
It hadn’t all been some wonderful dream, Olivia really was here, Alex said to herself as the detective sauntered into her office. Her usual sexy swagger was curtailed by the rather dashing charcoal grey suit and black heels, but Alex wasn’t complaining. Actually the businesswoman look was starting to grow on her.
“Good morning Ms Ryan,” she said with a huge smile.
“Ms McNeill.” Olivia acknowledged as Cathy fluttered at the doorway.
“That’ll be all thanks Cathy.” Alex dismissed her, trying to sound as much like her normal rather terse self as possible.
“You know,” Alex said after a moment, “I’d half convinced myself you were a figment of my over active imagination.”
Olivia gave her a slightly pained smile.
“I know. It’s rather surreal isn’t it?” She couldn’t help running her eyes over her favourite legal professional, appreciating her beauty and grace once again.
“Listen Alex, there was someone watching us at the restaurant last night,” Olivia blurted out. “Some friend of T-Bone’s..”
“T-Bone? Who on earth is that?” Alex interrupted.
“He’s one in the environmental group I’m with, sort of the leader. He’s the one that worries me the most, the one who is most likely to turn out to be dangerous I think.”
Alex considered Olivia’s statement. She’d not really thought about this assignment of Olivia’s as that serious, being so caught up in the excitement of seeing her again. Stupid really. She’d hardly have given up her job, albeit temporarily, unless there was a real risk.
“Anyway,” Olivia went on, “I think we were ok, but we have to be really, really careful Alex. For a start I probably shouldn’t call you Alex,” she said half to herself.
“Olivia, you really think we’re being watched? Now?”
Olivia sighed. “No, we’re probably safe here, but anytime we’re in a public place, we have to assume there may be someone watching or listening.”
“So what should I call you Liv? What’s your name with these people anyway?”
Olivia looked pained for a moment. “I took on the identity of this woman who had a link to the organisation. I’m Persephone James.”
Alex tried not to smile.
“Nice.”
“Shut up!”
“What? All I said was nice.”
Olivia met her eyes and couldn’t suppress a small smile herself.
“Yeah, you can laugh Cabot. I’ve been stuck answering to it for the past few months.”
“Hang on though, you made the appointment with me under a different name. Maureen Ryan wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, it’s getting hard to keep track of all these damn names,” she growled. “Look I just don’t want us to slip up and put either of us in danger Alex.” She paused for a second or two. “But I don’t know if I can call you Jessica.”
Alex stepped closer to squeeze her arm. She was quite pleased with herself that she had resisted rushing up and hugging her on sight anyway.
“How about we avoid names altogether… sweetie.”
Olivia grimaced. “Alex, as far as my group know, we met yesterday. I think they might get suspicious if we start on pet names already.”
“Yes, but aren’t you supposed to be persuading me to fall under your spell? How am I supposed to do that if we’re still calling each other Ms Ryan and Ms McNeill?” She was running her hand up and down Olivia’s arm playfully.
Olivia felt a tension headache coming on. She turned away and threw herself inelegantly onto Alex’s couch, leaned back and closed her eyes. Feeling the cushions sink as Alex sat beside her, she turned her head to see the concerned look on Alex’s face.
“God Alex, this is just a nightmare.” She sighed.
Alex was quiet for a rather long time. So Olivia thought this was horrible did she? Alex hadn’t felt as alive as this in years. Damn the complications, they were together. That was the main thing. She was able to spend time with the woman who had been on her mind more than anyone else in the past 4 years. Who the hell cared about what they called each other.
“Olivia, all I know is you’re here with me. You’re like the answer to my prayers, if I believed in that sort of thing. We’ll be ok.” She took the detectives hands in hers, unable to resist dropping her head to place careful kisses on her knuckles.
“God Alex,” Olivia breathed.
“Look Liv, we’ll be careful. We’ll work it out.” Alex noticed the fine worry lines creasing her forehead, the anxious look on her face. But she could also see a deeper, unnamed emotion there, a look that she was sure was mirrored on her own face.
“Anyway, there’s no way I’m calling you Persephone,” she grinned. “Far too much of a mouthful. And pretty much impossible to shorten,” she mused. “Purse? Phoney? Seffie?”
Alex was glad to see the smile she was after. Olivia was far too tense.
Olivia squeezed her hands, before standing to walk over to the window, peering out. She turned and leant against the glass, regarding Alex affectionately.
“I still don’t like the risks we’re taking Alex, I think we need to go through those files and see if we can work out what the group are after.”
“I pulled the files first thing this morning. But I have no idea what we are looking for Liv.”
Olivia sighed. “Well, anything that might indicated lab tests on animals I suppose. Orders, invoices?”
“I’m an attorney not an accountant Liv, I don’t have that sort of paperwork,” she huffed.
“Well what about permits, applications for licences, I don’t know Alex, you’re the lawyer. What sort of things might indicate they are up to no good?”
Alex thought for a moment. “Well whatever it is, it’s from before my time. I’d have remembered anything like that. I made a start this morning but I haven’t spotted anything suspicious so far. Guess we’d better make a start on these other boxes.”
She indicated a pile of about 6 boxes, stacked behind the sofa. “I got them first thing, before Cathy came in.”
Olivia grinned at her. “OK then counsellor, I guess we’d better get going.”
Olivia was woken by the shrill tones of her cell phone the next morning. Groping in the semi darkness, she noticed it was 5.45am. Far too early when you hadn’t managed to get to sleep until the wee small hours.
“Persephone? I thought you were going to ring me.”
Sometimes Olivia really disliked Hope.
“Hope, why are you always so damn perky in the mornings,” she growled.
Hope just giggled. Her sweet nature was a little grating at times. Particularly at early times.
“Well I thought you might be seeing that woman again today, so I wanted to catch you before you left.
Olivia glanced out at the still dark sky. “Yeah, lucky you caught me.” She muttered sarcastically. “Look Hope, I’ll meet you at the diner on Queen Street at 9, you’re buying the coffees.”
She was determined to get a few more hours sleep. However, Olivia had arranged to meet up with Alex at her office at 11am and now she was awake, the prospect of spending time with the former blonde swept any sleepy thoughts away.
Ten minutes later she was in the shower, cursing self-righteous early birds, but whistling rather happily all the same.
Jessica McNeill’s morning was going slowly. At the best of times, she found the corporate law field a bit of a bore, but now that Olivia was back in her life, in such a delightfully unexpected way, she just couldn’t keep her mind on the contracts she was supposed to be re-drafting.
Checking her watch for the fifth time in the last half hour (still only 9.47am) she abandoned the document in front of her. It wasn’t due for another three weeks and to be honest, she was making a real mess of it anyway. She just couldn’t seem to concentrate on one of the duller aspects of the law today for some odd reason. She grinned to herself.
Might as well be prepared, she thought as she pulled out the first of the Holts Pharmaceuticals files she had collected from storage first thing this morning. There were several boxes full of folders and papers, some filed by the previous attorney, and nowhere near as well organised as Jessica McNeill’s paperwork.
Taking a sip of her rather tepid coffee, she began to read.
“We hit it off pretty well actually,” Olivia said with a smile. Hope smiled over her tea-cup.
“Oh really? Wow Persephone, I never knew you went for the ladies.” She was smirking now.
“I’m…open to possibilities I guess,” Olivia said thoughtfully.
“So are you seeing her again?”
“Yes, I’ve got another appointment for 11 o’clock, then I’m going to take her to lunch.” She grinned.
“So what on earth did you talk about Persephone? You didn’t give anything away did you?”
Olivia gave her a scornful look. “Of course not. I’m not an idiot Hope. I got her to tell me about herself, where she went to school, her family. Stuff like that.”
“I went to school in Colorado, environmental science. I just loved it...” Hope was off on one of her rambling monologues. “I discovered there were more people like us out there, joined my first animal rights group, liberated my first animals, got arrested for the first time...” she sighed.
“Right…happy days huh?”
Olivia sipped her coffee appreciatively. No lily livered herbal teas for her, even if she was supposed to be an environmentalist. Hadn’t these people heard of Fair Trade and supporting coffee growers in South America? It was her civic duty to drink coffee. That was her story anyway.
“So what about you Persephone? Where did you go to school?” Hope asked suddenly.
Olivia froze. She had absolutely no idea where Persephone went to school or even if she did.
“Oh, er…hey, look, it’s T-Bone,” she said gratefully as the scruffy young man slinked into the diner. That had been close.
“Morning Hope. Morning lover girl,” he grinned. “I hear you were a big hit with Ms Super Duper Lawyer yesterday.”
He slumped into the booth beside Hope, casually sliding her tea over and taking a large gulp.
“You heard?” Olivia asked warily.
“Yeah, my pal Marco is a waiter at the restaurant you went to. Said the two of you were very chummy looking. Fast work there stud.”
Olivia thought back over her and Alex’s actions last night. You really never can tell when someone, a friend of a friend of a friend, might be watching, she decided.
This whole situation had the potential to be such a disaster. Despite wanting to spend time with Alex, Olivia thought she really needed to get things sewn up as quickly as possible.
Standing abruptly, she tossed back the rest of her coffee and gathered her coat and bag.
“Well we have an appointment soon, which I’d better get to.”
T-Bone rose as well, and leaned towards her, talking in a quiet and suddenly more serious tone. “Listen Persephone, we haven’t got any time to waste here. Get that information or get her keys as soon as you can. OK?”
With a quick smile and nod, she escaped from the intense young couple, striding anxiously out to her car.
“Ms Ryan is here,” announced Cathy, shortly before 11 o’clock. Alex knew it was before 11 o’clock because she’d continued to check all morning, wishing she could speed up time.
“Show her in Cathy,” she said coolly, “and hold all my calls please.”
It hadn’t all been some wonderful dream, Olivia really was here, Alex said to herself as the detective sauntered into her office. Her usual sexy swagger was curtailed by the rather dashing charcoal grey suit and black heels, but Alex wasn’t complaining. Actually the businesswoman look was starting to grow on her.
“Good morning Ms Ryan,” she said with a huge smile.
“Ms McNeill.” Olivia acknowledged as Cathy fluttered at the doorway.
“That’ll be all thanks Cathy.” Alex dismissed her, trying to sound as much like her normal rather terse self as possible.
“You know,” Alex said after a moment, “I’d half convinced myself you were a figment of my over active imagination.”
Olivia gave her a slightly pained smile.
“I know. It’s rather surreal isn’t it?” She couldn’t help running her eyes over her favourite legal professional, appreciating her beauty and grace once again.
“Listen Alex, there was someone watching us at the restaurant last night,” Olivia blurted out. “Some friend of T-Bone’s..”
“T-Bone? Who on earth is that?” Alex interrupted.
“He’s one in the environmental group I’m with, sort of the leader. He’s the one that worries me the most, the one who is most likely to turn out to be dangerous I think.”
Alex considered Olivia’s statement. She’d not really thought about this assignment of Olivia’s as that serious, being so caught up in the excitement of seeing her again. Stupid really. She’d hardly have given up her job, albeit temporarily, unless there was a real risk.
“Anyway,” Olivia went on, “I think we were ok, but we have to be really, really careful Alex. For a start I probably shouldn’t call you Alex,” she said half to herself.
“Olivia, you really think we’re being watched? Now?”
Olivia sighed. “No, we’re probably safe here, but anytime we’re in a public place, we have to assume there may be someone watching or listening.”
“So what should I call you Liv? What’s your name with these people anyway?”
Olivia looked pained for a moment. “I took on the identity of this woman who had a link to the organisation. I’m Persephone James.”
Alex tried not to smile.
“Nice.”
“Shut up!”
“What? All I said was nice.”
Olivia met her eyes and couldn’t suppress a small smile herself.
“Yeah, you can laugh Cabot. I’ve been stuck answering to it for the past few months.”
“Hang on though, you made the appointment with me under a different name. Maureen Ryan wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, it’s getting hard to keep track of all these damn names,” she growled. “Look I just don’t want us to slip up and put either of us in danger Alex.” She paused for a second or two. “But I don’t know if I can call you Jessica.”
Alex stepped closer to squeeze her arm. She was quite pleased with herself that she had resisted rushing up and hugging her on sight anyway.
“How about we avoid names altogether… sweetie.”
Olivia grimaced. “Alex, as far as my group know, we met yesterday. I think they might get suspicious if we start on pet names already.”
“Yes, but aren’t you supposed to be persuading me to fall under your spell? How am I supposed to do that if we’re still calling each other Ms Ryan and Ms McNeill?” She was running her hand up and down Olivia’s arm playfully.
Olivia felt a tension headache coming on. She turned away and threw herself inelegantly onto Alex’s couch, leaned back and closed her eyes. Feeling the cushions sink as Alex sat beside her, she turned her head to see the concerned look on Alex’s face.
“God Alex, this is just a nightmare.” She sighed.
Alex was quiet for a rather long time. So Olivia thought this was horrible did she? Alex hadn’t felt as alive as this in years. Damn the complications, they were together. That was the main thing. She was able to spend time with the woman who had been on her mind more than anyone else in the past 4 years. Who the hell cared about what they called each other.
“Olivia, all I know is you’re here with me. You’re like the answer to my prayers, if I believed in that sort of thing. We’ll be ok.” She took the detectives hands in hers, unable to resist dropping her head to place careful kisses on her knuckles.
“God Alex,” Olivia breathed.
“Look Liv, we’ll be careful. We’ll work it out.” Alex noticed the fine worry lines creasing her forehead, the anxious look on her face. But she could also see a deeper, unnamed emotion there, a look that she was sure was mirrored on her own face.
“Anyway, there’s no way I’m calling you Persephone,” she grinned. “Far too much of a mouthful. And pretty much impossible to shorten,” she mused. “Purse? Phoney? Seffie?”
Alex was glad to see the smile she was after. Olivia was far too tense.
Olivia squeezed her hands, before standing to walk over to the window, peering out. She turned and leant against the glass, regarding Alex affectionately.
“I still don’t like the risks we’re taking Alex, I think we need to go through those files and see if we can work out what the group are after.”
“I pulled the files first thing this morning. But I have no idea what we are looking for Liv.”
Olivia sighed. “Well, anything that might indicated lab tests on animals I suppose. Orders, invoices?”
“I’m an attorney not an accountant Liv, I don’t have that sort of paperwork,” she huffed.
“Well what about permits, applications for licences, I don’t know Alex, you’re the lawyer. What sort of things might indicate they are up to no good?”
Alex thought for a moment. “Well whatever it is, it’s from before my time. I’d have remembered anything like that. I made a start this morning but I haven’t spotted anything suspicious so far. Guess we’d better make a start on these other boxes.”
She indicated a pile of about 6 boxes, stacked behind the sofa. “I got them first thing, before Cathy came in.”
Olivia grinned at her. “OK then counsellor, I guess we’d better get going.”