Chapter 15
Sam stared at the dolphins as they swam at the other end of their tank. Whatever happened to them had scared them enough to keep them away from him. He'd never seen them act like this before. They only chattered at him when he tried to offer them fish and even then Dolly refused to come near him.
Dejected, he decided to look at their other tank. When he arrived he couldn't figure out what was wrong— other than the fact that it was completely drained. He couldn’t see any damage to the large pool. He wondered if someone had drained the tank while the dolphins were still in it, but that took hours to do. Surely the security cameras would have seen something.
One side of the tank had a gradual decline built into it, allowing someone to walk right in. Was the tank damaged in some other way? Sam couldn’t see any damage. . . .
As soon as his good foot hit the incline, it slipped out from underneath him. Sam’s ass struck the smooth surface of the incline.
“Mother fucker!” Sam screamed. He rolled onto his side, holding his tailbone. The pain was excruciating.
“That was actually fun to watch,” a snide voice echoed in the room. Through the tears springing to his eyes and the agony in his ass, Sam tried to figure out where he knew that voice. “Decided to come back to the scene of the crime and cover your tracks, huh?”
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Sam demanded as he looked at the other man. This was the first time he’d seen Officer Jenkins out of uniform but there was no mistaking that sneer. Anger flooded through Sam as he realized he was lying on the ground holding his rear while the asshole cop laughed above him.
Sam rolled onto his stomach, and tried to sit up. But when his hands pushed against the floor, they slipped. He had to move fast to keep himself from face-planting into the floor.
“Son of a bitch!” Could things get any worse in front of this prick? Looking at the other man, Sam had to fight hard not to charge him and beat the ever-living shit out of him. Once he figured out how to get up, that is.
Jenkins’s eye glowed with glee as he watched Sam’s torment. Sam wanted to scream and pulverize the man, while deep inside he wanted to cry. He was helpless in front of a man he despised.
Maybe this is what he deserved though. Things had been going well with Tamara, so maybe this was just the universe balancing things out. If there really was a God, he’d never paid Sam any favors.
“That’s okay. Don’t stand up for me. You’re right where you belong: on your knees.” Jenkins chortled some more as Sam tried to stand, but the pain in his tail bone sent him back to his knees.
“What do you want, Jenkins?” Sam demanded, trying to make the man’s name sound like an insult.
“From you?” Jenkins laughed some more. “Nothing. Unless you want to confess what you did here. I saw the way those fish were avoiding you.”
“They’re not fish! And I told you I didn’t do anything,” Sam said through gritted teeth. Why was this man so hell bent on finding Sam guilty?
“Yeah, yeah. You’re slut gave you an alibi.” Jenkins looked around for a second. “By the way, where is your little whore?”
“Her name is Tamara, and this is harassment. You’re not even in uniform. You’re trespassing. Get out Jenkins, before I call security.” If only his ass didn’t hurt so much, he’d show this off-duty ass-hat a thing or three.
“Calm down,” Jenkins replied, but the smile never left his face. “Like I said, I was just—“
“What the hell are you doing here?” Tamara’s voice rang out. Both men turned to look as Latoya led her into the room. “Didn’t you get suspended?”
Jenkins had been suspended? That would explain why he was out of uniform. Which also meant he was here unofficially.
“There’s the little tramp.” Jenkins leered at Tamara and Latoya. For some reason he was holding his chest. “And it looks like she brought a friend. Tell me, Sam. How much does she cost per night? Maybe I’ll show her what a real man can do. Is it extra for the black whore?”
That was the last straw! It took a great deal more effort than Sam would ever admit to get to his feet. His rear screamed at him to get back down as his knees wanted to buckle. He did his best to ignore it. This man had crossed the line. It was one thing to insult him, but to insult Tamara and Latoya like that was too much. He took a careful step towards Jenkins, flinching at the pain, but forced himself to take another.
“Get the fuck out of here, before I beat you down,” Sam commanded.
“Ha! Like a cripple like you could even lay a hand on me. Besides, I’m a cop, remember? Touch me and I’ll have you behind bars quicker than you can spit.”
“It sounds to me,” Latoya interjected for the first time, “that you’ve been suspended and are here on private property, harassing one of my employees. I can tell that you’re trying to provoke Sam into a fight. If I were to call your precinct right now, what would they tell me about you being here?” Sam’s boss pulled out her cell phone and waited for Jenkins’s answer.
“It doesn’t matter,” Jenkins tried to laugh again, but Sam could tell it was forced this time. “I saw all I needed to see. I know you’re guilty, Sam. All I need to do now is find the evidence.”
“Come back with a warrant next time,” Latoya demanded, but the disgraced officer was already walking away.
Sam waited until Jenkins was out the door before hobbling over to a railing by the tank and relieving some of the pressure on his bruised tail bone.
“Are you alright?” Tamara demanded as she ran to him.
“I take it you know him?” Latoya asked before he could answer Tamara. “I think I remember him. He’d been really interested in you when he found out you worked here.”
“You could say that,” Sam answered. He didn’t want to admit to his boss that Jenkins had been the first cop called on a domestic abuse call. Apparently putting a few holes in the wall with his fists while arguing with his ex when she still lived with him was enough to put him on Jenkins’s permanent shit list. He'd never laid a hand on a woman, even his ex, but that wasn’t good enough for Jenkins. Of course, Sam never liked the way Jenkins looked at his wife, either. That had been a few years ago, though, and Jenkins never passed up an opportunity to harass Sam.
“What happened to you?” Tamara pressed.
Sam turned and pointed at the tank, and recalled how slippery it had been. He’d swam in this tank countless times, and it had never been slippery like that. He did his best to hide how much pain he was in as he bent over the side of the tank. He couldn’t stop the groan of relief, however, when the pressure was taken off his injury. He ignored Tamara’s pointed glare as he ran his hand along the inside of the tank.
“When I came in here, the dolphins were suffocating,” Latoya informed him. “I don’t know what it is, but it took a couple hours to clean the dolphins before moving them into the clean holding tank.”
“What did the cameras see?” Sam asked next, glancing at one that was pointed directly at where Sam crouched.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? They had to have seen something,” Sam protested.
“I wish,” Latoya lamented. “They glitched and didn’t come back on until I got here.”
They glitched? Sam thought. That’s unlikely. For a moment he wondered if Latoya was the culprit, but immediately dismissed it. If anyone cared more for the dolphins than Sam, it was Latoya.
“What is this stuff?” Sam asked, rubbing whatever coated the tank between his fingers. Whatever it was, was clear and very slippery. He already had some of it on his clothes, but when he tried to wipe it off on a clean patch, it didn’t want to come off.
“Don’t know. I was afraid it was going to kill the dolphins before we managed to get it off them. It sat right on top of the water. You might as well throw away those clothes. I couldn’t get any of it off of mine.”
“Who would want to hurt the dolphins?” Tamara asked.
“That’s the million dollar question,?
?? Latoya answered. “Whoever it was, wanted them to suffer. I couldn’t find anyone here when I came in. Every time the poor things came up for air, their hole became a little more clogged, slowly suffocating them.” Latoya scrutinized him for a moment before adding, “You’ll want to shower before you drive home. I’ll leave you two alone.”
Sam was too shocked at the implications of Latoya’s statement to respond. She’d leave them alone? To shower together, there was no doubt about the look she’d given him.
“You told her?” Sam demanded as soon as he could find his voice.
“No!” Tamara objected. “She knew. I don’t know how, but she did.”
Sam shook his head, unsure whether or not to believe her. Latoya was sharp as a tack, he knew, but to ferret out that Tamara and Sam were sleeping together boggled his mind.
“Can you walk?” Tamara asked. “This stuff makes you smell weird, and I can’t wait to get your clothes off.”
Sam sniffed the fingers with the slippery substance but couldn’t smell anything.
“I’ll manage,” he told the young woman. He tried not to groan as he got to his feet. His ass hurt worse than fresh meat in prison!
Once Tamara got him back to the showers, however, she had a way of making him forget the pain. Her hands seemed to work magic as they helped scrubbed his body.
Latoya was correct. Whatever that stuff was, it was a pain to get off. Tamara had some fun and interesting ways to make sure he was clean. There wasn’t a spot on his body that she didn’t explore, all in the name of cleaning him. She even used her mouth in places and ways to take his mind off of their problems. By the time they stepped out and dried off, Sam had all but forgotten Jenkins’s visit.
Sam had to put on some of his work clothes, not wanting to get that stuff back on him now that he was clean. The clothes he’d worn there were resting in the dumpster. Luckily, Tamara hadn’t gotten any of it on her.
“Latoya told me I could start working tomorrow,” Tamara told him as they headed out to his car.
“What did you two talk about?” Sam asked, still dazed about the way his boss had acted. She had always been kind to him, but had also struck him as very straight-laced. Was she so stressed about the dolphins and the attack on them that she was becoming unhinged?
Sam put his worries about his boss behind him as he put his car in gear and began driving home.
“Why haven’t we eaten pizza before?” Tamara asked, ignoring his question.
“Pizza is not very—“ Sam stopped speaking as his foot pressed on the brake and nothing happened. “What the. . . .” He pumped the brake a couple more time with the same result.
Panic welled up in his breast as he realized he was no longer in control of the vehicle. He jerked his head up and saw the stoplight was red and the intersection was full of cars caught up in gridlock.