Bridge Between Worlds

© 2000, 2023 J Rydher

Lacey and I discussed what to do next. She was clearly still shaken by our dream with Marilyn, so I knew sitting around and ruminating wasn't going to help us any.

"All right, how about I grab a quick shower, we pick up some breakfast and head over to your place so you can change as well and then you come with me to Robert Kent's office?"

"Robert Kent? Why don't we just go drop in on the President?!"

"Well I never told you this, but about a week after Sue and I broke up, I kind of hooked up for a couple of days with someone I met at O'Reilly's."

"Who?"

"Gina Torres"

"Gina Torres?" The stunned look on Lacey's face added impact to her retort.

Everyone knew Gina Torres was Kent's mistress in the early nineties and was made a vice-president of his corporation in order to buy her silence. She went from middle management to the executive office in the blink of an eye. The one thing that Kent wasn't aware of was that when Gina had a few drinks in her, she wasn't so silent. I learned a lot over those couple of days I spent with her. Let's just say she had a tendency to drink too much on numerous occasions.

Lacey's speech was tinged with an acidic tone as she continued.

"Gina Torres, that little tramp? And you never told me?! You tell me everything. Well after the events of today, I take that back. Despite your "fling", how do you propose to get into the building?"

"I helped Gina out a while back and let's just say one hand washes the other."

Lacey put her drink down and jumped to her feet. "Joe Joe...don't just sit there, get your ass in the shower, we've got work to do!" Our star reporter had her mind back in gear.

We arrived at Gina's office shortly before 8 AM. I had heard in recent months that Gina had cleaned up her act and begun to take her job seriously. She may have achieved her status in an improper manner, but now that she was in the upper echelon of the company, she was going to prove that she belonged. Sure enough when Lacey and I arrived at her office, she was busily working away in her office. Her secretary was not even in yet. I tapped on the door as we stepped through.

"Good morning Gina."

"Joe? Joe Ryan, what are you doing here?" The tone of her voice and the look on her face made us feel immediately unwelcome.

"My co-worker Lacey and I just wanted to talk to you a little about the Barkley Diamond Company."

"Are you crazy? You come into this building and expect me to just flap my gums for you? Get out of here before I call security."

"You mean Butch? I already brought him coffee and a bagel." Butch was on the job for 25 years before a gunshot wound ended his career as a police sergeant. He was stationed at a precinct near O'Reilly's. Over time we had become good friends. I even used to take his grandson to ball games. It always puzzled Lacey that I seemed to know everyone.

Gina continued her tirade. "Fine, if you don't get out I'll call the police."

"All right, all right were going."

Lacey almost went nuts. "What the hell are you doing?" she whispered. I quickly quieted her.

"Well you take care of yourself, Lee". Gina's yell of "wait" stopped us in our tracks.

"You son of a bitch. You don't come in here..."

"Gina, remember you owe me one, one very big one."

The anger began to disappear from her face and resignation took over. "All right, but not here. You stop by my house tonight around 9 and we'll talk then."

"Sounds good, see you then". As Lacey and I headed out, Gina had to take one final shot. "You were a lousy fuck by the way."

"Well Gina, I guess YOU would know."

When we left the building Lacey quickly inquired as to the little banter that had just taken place between Gina and me.

"Why did you call her Lee and what was that little tete-a-tete as we were leaving?"

"Before she became Kent's secretary, she was fifteen-hundred-dollar a night call girl."

"Ah, that's why the little barb as we left. Was she...um, any good?"

"Lace!"

"Sorry, you know I am in inquisitive person. So...was she?" We both laughed and got in the car to head back over to the office.

Doing my best Cary Grant impersonation, I said "All right Lacey my dear. I'm going to drop you off and then head back to my hacienda."

"John Wayne, right?" Lacey always could cut you to the quick.

"Very funny. On the serious side though, do you still keep in touch with that Fed you used to sleep with?" I was pretty good at gamesmanship too.

"Touché, you brat. Teddy Lyle, yeah as a matter of fact I had lunch with him a couple of weeks back. Why?"

"See if you can use that charming personality of yours to get access to the FBI records for Barkley's murder."

"You are officially calling it a murder now?"

"A twenty-three year-old doesn't generally drop dead, Lacey. Died of natural causes? Come on. She was in perfectly good health up until that night. I don't know how or why, but she was murdered."

Lacey nodded her head in agreement. "What about the picture of her brother. What do you think it means Joe?"

"That one I don't have a quick answer or theory for other than it must involve him in some way. Maybe it was some way of protecting him." "I'll try to find out some info on him, but for now let's assume the Kent family did Marilyn in. Let's concentrate on getting more information there. I'm going to stop back at Kent's office and talk to Butch. Maybe he can make a few police reports to come out of the vault."

We pulled up to the office and as Lacey started to get out of the car she turned back. "Be careful, Joe Joe. I don't know what's going on, but to say this whole thing is scaring me would be an understatement."

She kissed me on the lips and walked inside. I ran my fingers over my lips. There was something different about that kiss. It felt so incredibly warm and loving. I ran my tongue over my lips so that I could taste her lips again.

I sat there thinking about Jeanette Lacey and I could feel my cock begin to strain inside my pants. I quickly cleared my head. What could I be thinking? I had enough on my plate right now. Now was the time to concentrate on this story. I had already phoned Bill and told him to hold off on his plans for printing the story so soon. After hearing my clipped version of what was going on, he agreed. Now it was time to find some answers.

When I got home around 4:30, there was a package waiting for me at the door. I opened it up and found that Butch had come through big time. Inside were copies of the police reports from the evening of Marilyn's murder. Based on the fact that these were stamped as permanently sealed, I owed Butch a helluva lot more than a bagel and coffee.

It appeared that some of the report had been altered. After skimming through everything, I got a magnifying glass out to try to figure out what had been changed on the police report. There was one word in particular that I couldn't figure out. I looked like the 2nd letter was an 'o' and the last two were 'on'. I couldn't tell however what letters were before, after, or in between.

I decided that maybe this time taking a nap might be productive. That Marilyn might just give me my answer. Marilyn appeared to me as she always had except this time she was not smiling. Tears streamed down her cheeks and she was wailing mournfully. Her arms were wrapped around her body. I tried to reach out and grab her, but realized I couldn't. I suddenly realized that small white flowers within finely cut leaves covered the ground. I reached down to pick one up and Marilyn screamed No!"

I woke up immediately. A glance at my watch showed that I had only been sleeping for a few minutes. I hurried over to my laptop and started up the web browser. I quickly went to a search engine and began doing a search on plants and flowers. After an hour, I found what I was looking for. The white flowers in my dream looked innocent enough, but they were hemlocks. Marilyn Barkley had been screaming out a warning to me.

I sat back in my chair and pondered my discovery. There was no question in my mind. Marilyn Barkley had been poisoned. That would explain the lack of a struggle. Shit! I ran back over to the coffee table and picked up the police report again. When you are looking for a word and you know what to expect, it magically appears. The word altered on the report had to be poison.

Why the whole cover-up though? The Barkley and Kent families wielded as much power and influence as the Rockefellers. It would be easy for someone to cover things up if they threw enough money and threats around. Bill had mentioned that Barkley's old man was too broken-hearted to continue running the company. The company had been Barkley's life, at times to the chagrin of his wife and children. Was he really too broken-hearted or was he forced out?

I picked up the picture of James Barkley. What had happened to him? There was barely a mention in the years following the murder, and what was written was nothing concrete. The biggest problem with this case was that there probably wasn't anyone still alive that was old enough at the time to provide useful information.

I decided to take a hot shower to relax and grab something to eat. It was almost 8 PM. I'd have to leave soon to pick up Lacey and head on over to Gina's apartment. I had the feeling this was going to be a long night.

As I stood under the hot stream of water, I thought back to when I originally knew Gina Torres. She and I had met at fundraiser for a local charity. I was splitting my night between business and pleasure, covering the story for the newspaper as well mingling. Gina was introduced to me as someone moving quickly up the ranks at Kent Inc. At the time I had no idea what her background was. She was quite charming, and filled out her Nicole Miller dress quite well.

Many drinks later we ended up back at her apartment. A very modest abode compared to her current living quarters. I had barely walked through the door, when she unzipped her dress and let it fall to the floor. Her black satin bra and panties revealed an incredibly toned, gorgeous body. As I followed her back to her bedroom, she unhooked her bra and it slid down her side. I caught her panties as she tossed them over her shoulder to me.

Her dark complexion, medium stylish brown hair, brown eyes, and hard body woke my cock from its slumber. As soon as I removed my clothes, she pounced on me like a ravenous wolf.

"Give me that cock, I want to taste it". She grabbed me roughly and shoved my cock into her mouth, immediately taking it all the way to the back of her throat. The sensation almost knocked me off-balance. She vigorously sucked on me while her hands played with my balls. Several times she stopped and let the saliva run out of her mouth, down all over the head and shaft of my cock. Strings of precum and saliva created a bridge between the tip of my cock and her mouth. She moaned and groaned as she sucked me. She was thoroughly enjoying what she was doing. Needless to say, so was I. She then stroked the saliva all over my cock to get it good and wet.

Her aggressiveness was turning me on more and more. Gina continued to moisten my cock until finally she pushed me onto my back. She quickly mounted me and began riding my shaft with all of the energy in her body.

It was pretty obvious, she needed to get laid and I was the cock she happened upon that night. The way my social life had been going, I was happy to oblige. As she rode, she cupped her more than ample breasts in her hands, at times pushing her nipples up to meet her tongue. My arousal heightened each time she sucked one of her dark nipples into her mouth.

After she came a number of times, she turned around and slid down on my cock, her back facing me. She braced herself by placing her hands high up on my thighs. She arched her back as each orgasm flowed through her. My cock was ready to burst as Gina slid off it and turned facing me. She once again grabbed my cock firmly in her hands and stroked it quickly till my sperm burst through the opening and shot out, falling into her open mouth. As is for emphasis, she swallowed slowly, savoring every bit of what I was feeding her.

After grabbing something to eat, we had both nodded off. I was woken up by the sensation of my cock being aroused. I opened my eyes to see that Gina was slathering the head and shaft of my cock with some kind of lubricant.

Gina turned to me when she saw I was awake. "You just relax baby. You're in for a real treat."

Before I could answer, Gina positioned herself over my cock and began to slowly insert the head inside her ass. We simultaneously moaned as pain and pleasure struck us at once. Soon Gina had taken in three-quarters of my member and started grinding down on it. She leaned forward, bracing herself on my arms and began to ride up and down on my cock.

"Joey, I want to feel you cum deep inside my ass. You love this tight ass, don't you?"

I was in total agreement. "Yes, yes," I repeated again and again. Gina took a vibrator out and started "toying" with her clit. Her orgasms were quick and often. Finally, as she sensed I was nearing ejaculation, she touched the tip of the vibrator on my swollen balls. I let out a loud groan and came deep inside her taboo opening. It was like nothing I had ever felt. Not until my "meetings" with Marilyn.

The pattern repeated itself many times over the next two days until I awoke one morning to a note that basically said, "You were great, off to Dallas on business...have a good life".

Not to my surprise, I find myself hurt by the way Gina took off. Even though I knew that she was just in it for the sex and I went right along with it, I still started to have feelings for Gina. Falling hard and fast for a woman had become a repeated pattern in my life and it was no different even for a cold fish like Gina.

Lacey was the only woman that I had slept with that hadn't affected me in that way. At least that's what I told myself.

I never saw or heard a peep out of Gina Torres again for two years. That's when an investigation into Kent Inc.'s proposed buyout of a manufacturing company turned up Gina's sordid past. The phone rang in my office one day and lo and behold it was Gina. She spoke as if I had just seen her the day before, not two years earlier. After much pleading, crying, and begging on her part, I told her I would eliminate any mention of her past in the story. I'm not sure why I agreed to it. Maybe because I got my rocks off for a couple of days. To this day, I'm still not sure. After I told her I would quash the information on her, Gina said, "I owe you one". Now was the time to collect on Gina's IOU.

Lacey and arrived at Gina's house a few minutes before nine. We found a note on the front door telling us to come around to the back. As we walked through the wooden gate to the rear of the house, I saw that Gina Torres hadn't changed much. She was still working angles. Sitting nude in her Jacuzzi, it was obvious she wasn't expecting Lacey to be with me.

Her tongue confirmed it. "What is she doing here?" she said and motioned with her head towards Lacey.

"I told you she's working on a story with me. What are you doing in there? Odd way to meet a reporter."

She directed her next words towards Lacey "Did he tell you we fucked?"

"Not in so many words, but yes. Seems like you've fucked a lot over the years Ms. Torres." I had to stifle a laugh in response.

The anger brewing in Gina was hotter than the water in which she now lounged. "Get her out of here or we have no meeting."

I immediately took control of the situation. "It's not going to work that way Gina. I got you off the hook once, but that hook can be easily baited again." I tossed her robe to her and said, "We'll be in your living room." With that Lacey and I went through the back entrance, smiling at the frustration and anger we knew was boiling over inside of Gina.

Gina entered the living room sans the robe I handed her. She sat down on a very expensive leather couch, droplets of water from her body and hair falling on its surface. Slowly she pulled her legs up alongside her body, giving a brief glimpse of her private area in doing so. Her display and the thought of how her hardened nipples once felt in my mouth were not easy to ignore. My saving grace was that I knew this was Gina's ploy.

Gina may have still had her street smarts, but now she was showing another side of herself. A more intelligent and possibly more dangerous side. Like a cornered animal, she would do anything to protect her image and her career.

I glanced over at Lacey and rolled my eyes. I then picked up the conversation where we left off outside. "Ah, glad you could join us Gina. Very nice digs. You've come a long way since Culbert St."

Culbert Street was located in one of the seediest parts of town and had one of the highest crime rates in the city. "Yes, I have and I'm not about to blow everything I have worked for. And yes, I have worked for it. I may not have gotten where I did the conventional way, but I'll be damned if I am going to have it taken away from me now."

"I don't plan on ruining what you have Gina. I just need some answers and based on your past relationship with Robert Kent, I think you are the person who can give them to me."

Lacey spoke up. Gina might act tough, but Lacey was tough. "Basically what my partner is saying is that while you were fucking Kent there's a good chance he told you some things about the Kent Company."

I swallowed hard at that remark. The last thing I needed was a sarcastic catfight. Gina answered pointedly, "I got the gist from him, thank you!"

I quickly jumped back in, this was my ball and I was going to run with it. I filled Gina in on the story we were writing, about Marilyn Barkley's murder, the mystery surrounding it, and about how unusual it was that we couldn't gain access to several records involving the case.

After a couple of hours of playing cat and mouse with this extraordinary Puerto Rican con artist, something finally struck a chord. She started talking about how Kent had screwed her out of money the last few years. Losing money is always a good way to get someone to talk. She spoke of hidden bank accounts, insider trader, unpaid taxes, just about anything the Feds would be interested in. But, nothing to do with Marilyn Barkley's murder.

Then it happened. I asked her if Robert Kent had ever mentioned anything about the murder. She thought about her answer for a moment, and then said it. "It may have just been talk, some misplaced bravado, but...he killed her."

I excitedly said, "Jacob Kent?"

Gina paused and her answer hit me like a ton of bricks. "Barkley killed her."

"What do you mean Barkley killed her? Why would Barkley kill his own daughter?"

"Not Theodore Barkley, James Barkley." I sat back in stunned silence. "Robert and I were doing cocaine for hours one night and he suddenly just came out with it. Barkley killed his sister. Then he started laughing like crazy. I figured it was just the drugs talking. I didn't even know who James Barkley was."

I just sat there absorbing everything I had just heard. I felt like I was on sensory overload. How could I have missed that angle? Had my dreams blocked my intuitive instincts? That's why Marilyn had given me the picture in the dream. Her own brother had murdered her.

A thought popped in my head and then I said it out loud. "They knew. The money grubbing bastards knew." Lacey had about the same expression I did, but was still puzzled.

"Just so we are sure that we're talking about the same thing, who knew and about what?"

"Jacob Kent knew that James Barkley killed his sister. There's no way that Theodore Barkley would ever of have sold his diamond company. He put it ahead of his family.

Lacey's eyes grew wider. "Unless he had to!"