Read Online All Acts Of Pleasure: A Rowan Gant Investigation by M. R. Sellars - Free Book Online

her
darkroom and probably wouldn’t be able to answer it. In reality,
most of her work these days was digital and didn’t require the
somewhat antiquated processes of chemicals and light sensitive
papers. However, I had the impression that my wife was finding the
familiarity and closeness of her analog workspace a comfort in the
wake of her recent experience. Put simply, she was hiding from the
world, and while I was willing to condone it for a brief period, I
wasn’t going to allow her to do it forever. But, at this particular
moment, I wasn’t going to press the issue.
    I tossed the book back onto the pile and
pushed away from my desk. I found that I had to skirt around
Dickens, our black feline, who had elected to take a nap almost
immediately in front of the office door. He opened one yellow eye
and regarded me silently as I stepped over him, but other than that
he didn’t even twitch.
    I was making my way down the stairs when the
doorbell pealed once again in a rapid staccato.
    “Hold on!” I yelled, not that I really
expected anyone outside to hear me. “I’m coming, I’m coming…”
    I skipped the last couple of stairs near the
bottom, making the turn at the landing, and almost jogged across
the living room. With a quick turn of my wrist, I unlocked the door
and swung it open.
    My friend, homicide detective Benjamin Storm
was standing on my front porch, along with someone else I thought I
recognized as a member of the MCS but to whom I couldn’t place a
name. Neither of them looked particularly happy, but I didn’t need
to see their expressions to know something was wrong. The warning
signs had been there for a while now. I had just been too absorbed,
and even more unwilling, to pay attention to them.
    Ben reached out and pulled the storm door
open, looking at me quietly for a heartbeat or two before saying,
“Do you mind if we come in, Row?”
    I definitely didn’t like the sound of his
voice, and my skin started prickling once again.
    “That depends, Ben,” I replied evenly. “Do I
have any choice in the matter?”
    He reached up and smoothed his hair back,
looked down at the porch briefly, then back up to my face.
“Actually… No.”
    “Do I need to call our attorney?” I
asked.
    He returned a shallow nod. “It’d be a good
idea, Row.”
    What transpired in the fifteen minutes
following that simple statement set a series of events into motion
that, if they didn’t kill me, would undoubtedly leave an indelible
scar upon my life, and the lives of those I loved.
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER 4:
     
     
    “Dammit, Ben!” I screamed. “Talk to me! Why
won’t you tell me what the hell is happening here!”
    “Rowan, you know damn good ‘n well what this
is about!” my friend shot back. “A dead federal judge and a dead
copper.”
    “Bullshit! Politics is what it’s about,” I
snarled at him. “Who’s behind this? Albright?”
    I almost gagged on the name of the cop whose
life’s mission seemed to be anything that involved making my very
existence unbearable. Captain Barbara Albright, self-appointed
leader of the “God Squad.”
    Of course, there you had it, plain and
simple.
    When you took into consideration the fact
that she was an old school, fundamentalist Christian with a badge,
and I was a Neopagan Witch who consulted for the police department,
we were bound to clash. The problem was, it was even worse than
that. In plain truth we weren’t just at polar opposites; in many
ways we seemed almost to be one another’s arch nemesis.
Unfortunately, she tended to take that idea very seriously and more
often than not would push things way too far.
    She had already interjected her opinions and
views into the current investigation, casting aspersions on both
Felicity and me. Out of all of my detractors, she had been the one
I most feared would skew the investigation. Given how vocal she had
already been, it stood to reason that she would be behind this
action. However, in my estimation, her