Intimate Relations, Rebecca Forster [best ereader for manga .txt] 📗

behind Karyn. She clicked on the first file folder. It was labeled Lips. The screen pulled up a close-up video of Roxana Masha Novika's beautiful, naked lips. The picture was so close they could trace each delicate vertical line. There was a dusting of blonde down on her upper lip. When her lips closed in a certain way, there was a small dimple on her cheek.

Roxana formed words, silently at first and then they heard her voice when she repeated them.  That voice was both sultry and innocent. It was rich the way the heady scent of a rose is tempered by the sharp thorns. Finn sat up straighter. Cori leaned forward. They glimpsed her teeth, the front ones slightly larger than they should be, but charming nonetheless. They saw her tongue as she formed each word. The languid lull of her voice was seductive. No one would ever hear her speak again, but they were hearing her now.

I...

I want...

I want you... 

I...

I love...

I love you...

Finn glanced over his shoulder at Cori. It took her a moment to tear her eyes away from the screen. Karyn swiveled in her chair.

"What did I tell you?" she said. "Crazy."

"What in all the heavens is this for?"

Finn had traded places with Cori. He now sat on the stool and Cori leaned against a wall. Karyn had pushed her chair back, and put her feet up on the edge of the soundboard. She was close enough to the keyboard that she could maneuver the cursor. She had stopped clicking the file folders in order. Each represented a different body part.

Some were more interesting than others. It was Cori who had cried uncle after watching five minutes of Roxana's elbow flexing. They had fallen silent as they watched her brown eyes. Over the course of the video, as Roxana turned at different angles, those eyes became hazel and gold and then brown again. Her lashes were long and thick.

"She looks like she's doing some kind of exercise," Cori said.

She and Finn had seen the battered pulp of this woman's face at the crime scene. For Cori it was hard to reconcile what she was seeing on the screen with the horror of Roxana on the coroner's table. They both started when Karyn snapped them out of their trance.

"It kind of is."

"What?" Finn said.

Karyn turned her head so the detectives could see her move her eyes in the same way Roxana had. Her gesture was at once mechanical and graceful. She stopped after a second.

"It kind of is like an exercise. It's for the editor," Karyn said. "This way he can choose a different angle, or a different look when he edits the film."

"So you think she was making a movie?" Finn asked.

"I don't know." Her fingers tapped out a little tune on the arms of the chair. She tipped her head one way and then the other.  "Honestly, I've never seen anything like this. The lips I get. The eyes. But elbows? Toes? Fingers? She has a good ten minutes on her kneecap. That's just over-the-top."

"This whole thing has been weird from the beginning," Cori said.

Karyn dropped her feet and pulled the chair up close.

"You haven't seen anything yet," she said. "But I'm not sure you want to see it."

The cursor hovered over a file labeled vagina. Karyn waited for their decision. Cori shook her head, and held up her hand. Finn said:

"Sure, we've seen enough for now."

They would open each file eventually, but screening something this intimate in Roxanna's own house didn't feel right. For Finn it was hard to reconcile the physical beauty of this woman and her lovely voice with the person she was in life. He would have been led astray by her as would any man. But there was a difference between being led astray and being overwhelmed by such passion that you would want to destroy her. What was it that drove such a person to kill? The discovery of her callousness? Or was it that Roxana shared herself with millions of people she didn't know? Perhaps it was her greedy heart? Or maybe it was rejection? Rejection was the greatest human hurt of all.

"I've got something interesting here," Cori said.

Finn turned to see her pulling a metal box from a desk drawer.

"You want me to shut this down?" Karyn asked, as Finn joined Cori.

"Unless there's something else besides her body parts on there," Cori said. "Any other files? Ones that aren't video or audio?"

"Like emails and stuff?" When Cori nodded Karyn said. "Sorry, she had a laptop for that."

"With a silver decal of a woman on the front?" Finn asked.

"Yep," Karen said. "That's the one."

"Can you see if you can find it?"

"Sure, but I've gotta run in about twenty minutes. I've got an audition for a soap."

Finn and Cori thanked her for her help and had her write down her contact information. She went off to search for the computer, as Cori opened the fireproof box.

"Bingo." She smiled. "Paper trail."

Cori handed him a packet of paper. It was folded in thirds, and bound in pale blue cover stock. White string wrapped around the pouch and was secured around a grommet. Finn opened it and started to read while Cori continued to sort through the other contents of the box.

"I've got a key, and I've got codes," she said. "I told you she wouldn't use banks. She's got a code for ADA, Ethereum, and Bitcoin."

"And I've got a contract," Finn said. "It is drawn up by the same corporation that sent Sam on his errand.  And look who else is mentioned in such a fine legal document. Mr. Enver Cuca."

 Finn held out the papers for Cori to see. Before she could react, Karyn was back.

"Hey you guys I'm out of here. Been really good to meet you."

Before she took her leave, she cast them a naughty look and pulled the computer from behind her back. She gave it a merry little shake.

"Look what I found."

On the front of the