Leather Maiden

30

After work I went over to Belinda’s and we made love and lay in bed talking, sniffing a candle that this time smelled like fresh-baked bread. I had to get me some of those candles. Maybe they would cover up my dead rat odor. Most likely I would just sit around the house hungry. I wondered if they had a chili candle, an enchilada candle. French fries maybe.

“How did Oswald take it?” Belinda asked. Between thinking about candle possibilities, I had been telling her about my meeting with Timpson, the fact that the boss had put me on the murder and kidnapping case.

“Like I had planned it. He was pissed.”

“How do you feel about it?”

“I like writing the columns, but this kind of stuff has its dark sort of charm.”

“It’s a big thing for our little paper.”

“Yep.”

“Cason. Something is bothering you. And even in my profound insecurity, I don’t think it’s me. Is it Gabby? Caroline? The stuff with her and your brother?”

“You know, funny thing is, I haven’t thought about Gabby all day. That’s the first time she’s come to mind in a while, and only because you mentioned it.”

“Me and my big mouth.”

“No…No. I think I’m getting better. Far as she’s concerned anyway. As for the rest of the stuff, yeah, I’m thinking about it. I have also started counting things again. There are eighteen thousand little black marks in your ceiling tile.”

“I hope you weren’t counting them while we were making love.”

“Only when you were on top.”

“Ha. Ha.”

“No, you took a little nap after we finished, either because you were so deeply satisfied with my manly abilities, or because you were bored, and that’s when I counted them. It’s something that hits me now and again when I’m stressed: the urge to count, to know exact numbers. I can’t explain it. But I want you to know, I did think about you a lot in between the dots.”

Belinda shifted in bed so that her pelvis was touching me. I could feel her pubic hair on my leg. “Anything else on your mind?” she said. “Now that you’ve got the dots out of the way.”

“World peace.”

“You shit.”

“Actually, something just came to mind when you moved like that, and in favor of honesty, I have to say it wasn’t world peace. It was another kind of piece.”

“You know what I mean,” she said, slapping at me. “Is there anything you want to talk about?”

“And you know what I mean. But, yeah, there is something else. Belinda, I may be an idiot, but I do have something to talk about, and I know it’s probably rude to say it, but I tell you this, you got to promise it stays between you and me. For now. Maybe forever. You know part of it, but I want to tell you the whole of it.”

“Is this a big moment in our relationship?”

“I think it is.”

“Then great,” she said. “Sure. What is it?”

I told her all of it. About Ernie and Tabitha, the DVDs, how they tried to blackmail Jimmy, about us taking the DVDs away from them, the fact that I hid them. I told her about being in the murder house. I told her about Jimmy planning to take Trixie out of town, have my parents meet them at the lake house. The only thing I held back was where I put the DVDs. For some reason, I thought that was something she ought not to know.

When I finished my story, I said, “I’m not even sure I should be seeing you, Belinda. Someone has my number, and anyone around me could be in trouble.”

“I’m not scared…Well, not that scared. I’m not going to stop seeing you.”

“Go slow,” I said. “I’m trouble on the hoof, even when I don’t mean to be.”

“I’m here as long as you want me around. Tell me what we need to do, and I’ll do it.”

“Timpson may not like it.”

“Timpson can go screw herself,” Belinda said.

“My, aren’t you rowdy. Come to think of it, she said I could use whatever resources I needed at the paper, suggested I take Oswald.”

“I bet he doesn’t have bread-scented candles.”

“I bet you’re right,” I said. “I think Timpson will go for it. She can get someone else to work the front desk.”

“When do you tell her?”

“Immediately.” I shifted and pulled her to me. “Well, almost immediately.”