All Acts Of Pleasure: A Rowan Gant Investigation by M. R. Sellars

until I can get there and get a read on the
situation.”
    “Whatever it is, the one behind it has got to
be Albright,” I mumbled. “She’s a bureaucrat with a badge and she
hates both of us. She’s tried to pull stunts before, and I can just
about guarantee you she’ll do whatever it takes to make this
stick.”
    “Well, whoever it is, they’re playing
for keeps. Warrants aren’t issued on whims. They’ve got something they think is damaging, or
she wouldn’t be in custody right now.”
    “Okay, so what about it being Friday? What’s
up with that?”
    “The courts are closed over the weekend,
Rowan, and it’s…” she paused for a moment. “…It’s already after two
in the afternoon. Given the nature of the arrest, I seriously doubt
I’m going to be able to do much in the way of getting an emergency
bail hearing. Unless there was a bail amount on the arrest warrant
already.”
    “I don’t remember seeing one.”
    “I’m not surprised. It would be pretty much
unheard of in a homicide case, and with this being a high profile
double murder charge…so, anyway, what it all means is that I’m
afraid Felicity is going to be spending the weekend, at the very
least, in jail. To be honest, Rowan, probably longer. Bail in a
homicide case like this is going to be unlikely, and even on the
off chance we can get it set, it will be exorbitant.”
    “I don’t care. I’ve got money.”
    “We could be talking millions, Rowan, and
even though you’ll only need ten percent in cash, it could mount
up.”
    “I can cash in our IRA’s if I have to.”
    “I understand, but remember it could all be a
moot point. Like I said, bail might not even be an option depending
on what they have.”
    “Dammit!” I spat. “You aren’t telling me what
I need to hear.”
    “Actually, yes I am. I’m just not
telling you what you want to
hear.”
    “Yeah. Okay. Fine. So what now?”
    “Now, I need to ask you a question.”
    “What?”
    “You aren’t going to like it.”
    “Yeah, so why should my day suddenly start
getting better?” I returned sarcastically. “What’s the
question?”
    I heard her take in a deep breath, and a
second later she hit me with the last thing I expected. “Is
Felicity guilty? Did she kill those men?”
    “Hell no! How can you ask me that?! What
happened to being on my side?!”
    “It’s my job, Rowan. I have to know what I’m
up against and whom I’m defending. You’re absolutely certain she’s
innocent?”
    “Yes,” I returned harshly. “And don’t ever
ask me that again.”
    “I won’t. Not you. But you need to understand
that I’m going to have to ask Felicity the same thing.”
    “And you’ll get the same answer.”
    Here we had a slight problem. And, that
problem came in the form of the fact that I wasn’t entirely sure I
was telling the truth with that last comment. The night Felicity
had been taken into custody at the East side motel, the suspicious
fingers were already being pointed and the investigation underway.
When I discussed it with her, she had told me that she wasn’t even
certain in her own mind that she hadn’t committed the crimes.
The Lwa possession had caused
substantial blocks of time to be missing from her memory, and that
frightened her. It didn’t do much for me either, but I still knew
she was innocent. Why, when the police apparently had evidence to
the contrary, I couldn’t say; but the fact remained that I knew it
beyond any doubt in my mind.
    Unfortunately, something else I knew was that
my wife was still harboring distrust in her own sanity. And,
because of her personal history within the bondage and D/S
subculture, she was finding it easy to convince herself that
perhaps she really was the killer. The truth was, when Jackie asked
her the question, she was very likely to say, “I don’t know.” What
was even more frightening was that it was going to be a bit before
Jackie got there. Given Felicity’s mental state, depending on what
she