Preface
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Sorry, almost no sex in this part. Mostly some exposition, introducing Megan's office staff. And Penny getting to play in Megan's personal office.
I'm also introducing a notational convention. When Megan talks to other people with powers mind-to-mind, it will be illustrated like this:
["What did you mean?"]
*****
Monday, June 30, 2014, A day of discovery
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We were having breakfast together. I was... well, uncomfortable about what had happened last night. She, on the other hand, was exuberant about it. And trying to suppress it because she could tell how I felt. She was in her robe, without her cat things. I was dressed for work in a skirted suit. We were talking about my house, and the topic came around to owning things. And I recalled that one of the few things she'd come to me with was her license. And it was going to expire soon.
"Penny, why don't you come into town and renew your license? Come by my office after and we'll go to lunch."
"How would I do that, Megan? I don't have money. Or a car."
I reached into my purse, "Well, money isn't a problem." I handed her a hundred dollar bill.
"And you can take my other car. Well, my other regular car. Not the sports car. Look for the Cadillac keys in the table by the garage door."
She sat there looking at the money, holding the bill in front of her face with both hands. She lowered the bill just enough to peak over it at me.
"Money is this easy for you?"
I wrote down the name and number of my mechanic and slid the note across the table.
I asked, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, you can just hand me a hundred dollar bill without thinking about it?"
"Yes. I'm pretty well off, Penny."
She put the bill down and put the note on it, and folded her hands on top of both. She didn't seem inclined to say anything else.
I said, "The car has been sitting for a while. If it won't start, call my mechanic," I tapped the note, "Tell him you're my assistant, and he'll come get it going."
She asked, "I should tell him I'm your assistant?"
"Well, if you're getting my car fixed for me, you're assisting me. Right?"
"Whatever you say." She looked at me for several seconds. "How do you get a mechanic to make house calls?"
"I pay well, my family has given him, and his father before him, our business for decades and I send business his way. And finally, I got his son out of a terrible jam once. He goes out of his way to keep me happy."
"I see. 'Your assistant.' Megan, what's your name? And where are we?"
I stared at her. "You want to turn your life over to me and you don't even know my name?"
"Why would I care? I wouldn't even know your first name if you'd let me call you 'Mistress'."
"I'm not sure I'm ever going to understand this, Penny. My name is 'Kelly'."
She took the pen from my hand and wrote slowly, in very neat block letters while she mouthed "Megan Kelly." Then added our address and my office address as I recited them to her.
My first impression, watching her write so slowly and mouthing each letter as she did, was that she had some kind of diminished capacity about writing. But I then saw that her printing was very precise and actually quite pretty. Every letter was formed perfectly and there was just enough variation to make it quite attractive.
And there was something very familiar about that lettering. It was distinctive. The back of my mind was telling me that I'd see it before and should know who she was just from seeing it. I looked up at her and, again, had a similar feeling about her face. I should know her.
She interrupted my thoughts with, "I should get this address on my license?"
"This is where you live. For now, anyway. But use another address if you prefer."
"OK, Miss Kelly, I'll see you this afternoon."
"That's almost as bad as 'Mistress,' Penny."
She gave me one of those smiles, the ones she used when she was essentially saying, "Yes, I know."
We had a morning routine now. She followed me out to my car. If she wasn't being a kitten that morning, she carried my briefcase, opened the door and, after I sat down, reached past me to put the case on the passenger seat. Kitten or not, she always showed me her breasts when she gave me a solid, but closed mouth kiss. I'd stopped resisting the kiss. In fact, I found that I looked forward to it.
"You'll be in this afternoon?"
"Yes, Miss. Kelly. I'll be in your office, ready to service you any way you need, right after I get done with the registry."
I let it go, but she'd done her damage. I was wet. Again. And there was no doubt I was going to have to deal with it when I got to the office.
She stood, said, "I'll see you this afternoon," and shut the door.
I tossed greetings at my staff as I came through the outer office, into my private office, and into my private washroom. Where I pulled down my panties, pulled up my skirt, and "did" myself quickly and efficiently. Then, again, more slowly. And every time I closed my eyes I saw Penny crawling towards me across the floor of my bedroom.
I put myself together and stepped out of my office to inform my receptionist, Arthur, that I was expecting Penny Connors this afternoon and she should be told to go right in.
He asked, "Penelope Connors?"
Everyone in the room looked up. I thought, "What the hell?" but said, "Yes. Do you know her?"
Someone said "We got THE Penelope as a client?" Another asked, "Where the hell has she been all this time?"
I looked at them with a blank expression.
Arthur said, "Penelope? The artist? Used just her first name? Wild hair and makeup? She was on her way to being one of the biggest things, man or woman, in painting in decades? Disappeared without a trace three years ago? You must remember. You had us all attend one of her openings as an office night out."
I gasped as it all came back to me. It couldn't be the same woman. Girl. She's referred to herself as a girl almost exclusively back then. And Penny did too. That must be significant to her, but I had no idea why.
I said, "It seems unlikely it's the same woman. I found her... well, never mind where I found her."
I turned part way around, "Thomas, dig me up a picture without the makeup."
He said, "I'll try boss. But you know she was pretty paranoid about being seen without makeup."
"Do what you can."
I turned to my office, then turned back.
"Not a word of this outside the office. And don't fawn over her when she comes in. If this is really her, and I'm not sure it is, she hasn't mentioned it to me in all the weeks I've known her. I don't want her scared away."
I went into my office. I had no fear they wouldn't do exactly what I said. If I couldn't trust people, I got rid of them. And these people had been with me a minimum of two years, some since I'd opened the office ten years ago. We'd handled some very famous people and nothing ever leaked to the press from this office.
I sat at my desk for a some time thinking. And the more I thought, the more I was sure it was her.
My God, I had one of the most famous artists of recent history crawling around my house playing at being a kitten. And she wanted to do it all the time. She'd apparently been doing it since she disappeared. The intercom beeped.
I flipped the switch, "Yes?"
Arthur said, "Ms. Connors on line one, boss."
"Thank you." I picked up, "Yes, Penny?"
"Hey, the line at the registry is amazing. I'm going to be until at least one thirty. Probably closer to two. Is that OK?"
"Yes, let's get this out of the way. Unless crowds bother you."
"So long as they're not focused on me, I don't mind. The car started fine, by the way."
"I'm glad you didn't have any trouble. All right. I'll see you in a while."
She made a kissing noise and hung up.
I reflected on her comment, "So long as they're not focused on me."
I sat there staring at the phone for several seconds, the flipped the intercom back on.
Margo answered, "Arthur's talking to a client, boss. Can I help you?"
"Yes. Tell Thomas to also look into what he can about why or how Penelope dropped out three years ago. Facts, theories, speculation. Whatever. I don't want him to prepare a report. I want him to brief you, me and Arthur in person. He's got half an hour. She'll be here in an hour or a bit more. And Margo, if anyone can't keep a poker face when she gets here, I want them out of the main office before she arrives."
"Will do, boss. It's really her then?"
"Yes, I'm pretty sure it is."
She clicked off.
Margo and Arthur were no problem. I think they'd face the arrival of Satan by asking if they could hang up his cape and would he like something to drink? Some of the others would have trouble not showing that they knew who she was.
A minute later my computer beeped. It was a high school year book picture of "Penny Connors." Small, grainy, and her.
Thomas, Andrew, Margo trooped into my office thirty minutes later.
Thomas began, "Boss, there really isn't anything certain. The rumor I'd give the most credence to is that she had a melt down at an opening in Chicago. Basically went catatonic. Was taken away in an ambulance, then her publicist try to hush it all up. If that's true, they did a pretty good job. Nothing in the papers, noting on any police blotters I have immediate access to."
"The only hard evidence I can find is an ambulance bill from the gallery where her show was to a nearby emergency room. The name of the patient is 'Maria Connors.' Penelope's middle name is 'Maria.' The other prominent rumor is that she was mugged and killed. She tended to go dangerous places for her ideas.
"On a scale of one to ten, I'd give the melt down story a seven or eight. If she wasn't going to be here in an hour, I'd have given the "killed" one maybe a two. If anyone really thought she'd been killed it would have been all over the papers."
"If you want to know more, I think we're going to have to send an investigator out there."
I sat thinking, watching them watching me. They waited a minute or so before interrupting me.
Margo asked, "What do we do next, Boss?"
I decided, "Nothing. You can all drop it for now. Let me try just asking her.
Andrew, "She is a client, isn't she boss? Should we start a folder on her?"
I looked at him, then the rest of them.
"No, she's not a client. Yet. She living at my house for the time being."
Thomas showed his surprise. But, as I'd have expected, Margo and Andrew just nodded that they understood, though they obviously didn't. How could they when I didn't?
I continued, "Assume she's my friend and a potential client. That's all, thank you."
They filed out and shut the door after them.
Well, I had an idea. My mother's hobby was art, and in fact, she had been the one to suggest I take the office to that night out at the showing of Penelope's work.