Playing Their Parts

At last her words seemed to get through to her partner. Stone stopped dunking Yarrow and let him sit up, trembling and shaking, beside the toilet bowel.

“Good,” Cassie kept her voice firm and calm, though seeing a gun pointed at her partner’s head was making her stomach squeeze itself into a nervous fist. “Now, Stone, you let go of Yarrow and Brutus, you’re going to hand me your gun.”

“The fuck I will,” the bodyguard snarled sullenly.

Cassie poked him harder with the muzzle of her own weapon.

“Hand it over,” she said pleasantly. “If I find out you have a permit for it, I’ll even give it back. I just don’t want it pointed at my partner’s head.”

“Do what the nice detective tells you, Brutus.” Frank Yarrow grabbed a swatch of toilet paper and blotted his face. “The sooner we talk to them, the sooner this will all be over.”

At last, to Cassie’s deep relief, Brutus pulled the gun away from Stone’s temple and handed it to her, hilt first. She snatched it and took a step back, putting herself out of reach while she kept her own gun on the bodyguard and Yarrow.

“Okay now, slowly, we’re all leaving the bathroom,” she ordered. “Stone, come on—let Yarrow up.”

Stone’s eyes flashed but he released his grip on the porn producer’s collar. Yarrow climbed shakily to his feet and then all three men shuffled out of the bathroom.

“May I suggest we have a seat in my lounge?” Yarrow recovered quickly. He looked remarkably composed for a man who had nearly just drowned in his own toilet. “We can talk in there. It’s much more comfortable.”

“That will be acceptable,” Stone growled. “As soon as we search your premises for The Beast.”

“Go right ahead. I told you from the start you could.” There was a glimmer of resentment in Yarrow’s eyes but he kept his voice low and controlled as he spoke to Stone. He reminded Cassie of a man who’s being very, very careful around an animal he knows is vicious.

Cassie had to admit she felt shaken herself by Stone’s behavior. In their entire two years together, he had never lost control—not once. They had played good cop/bad cop before, of course, but Stone was already so scary all he had to do was stare at a perp to be the bad cop. Seeing him grab Yarrow and nearly drown the man was deeply unsettling.

“You okay?” she asked her partner, as they began their sweep of the house.

He nodded shortly.

“Forgive me for breaking my word to you. I was…upset.”

“I’d say that’s an understatement,” Cassie murmured. “Anyway, we can talk about it later. Work first.”

He nodded briefly. “Work first.”

They did a once-over of the house and didn’t find a trace of The Beast. They did find a fully functional BDSM dungeon, however, in a room which appeared to have been built on specially to the back of the house.

“Guess we know where The Beast got his props,” Cassie remarked.

“I see you’ve found my little playroom, Detective.”

It was Yarrow, standing in the doorway—well back from Stone, Cassie noticed. He had taken the opportunity to change his shirt and dry his hair and get himself yet another bright green drink.

“Playroom, huh?”

Cassie walked in and examined an empty spot in the room, against the far wall. There was an indentation in the carpet there, as though some heavy piece of furniture had been moved.

“Want to tell us what was here?” she asked, turning to Yarrow. “A St. Andrew’s Cross, maybe?”

“I see you know your bondage equipment, Detective—most impressive.” Yarrow nodded. “Yes, that is where my cross stays most of the time. At the moment, however, it’s in South Tampa at the site of a little movie I’ve been filming.”

“Would that be on Bayshore Avenue?” Cassie asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Why yes—I take it you’ve been there and seen it?” Yarrow asked.

“The last time we saw it, a dead female was strapped to it,” Stone growled. “She had been cut to ribbons before her neck was broken. Do you care to explain that?”

Yarrow took another step back.

“As I told you, I’ve been working from home all day. Brutus can corroborate my story, as can several of the girls who work for me.”

“We’ll need a list,” Cassie told him. “And we need to know everything you can tell us about the man calling himself ‘The Kindred Beast.’”

Yarrow spread his arms.

“As I said before, officers, I’ll be completely cooperative. There’s no need for any violence,” he added quickly, when Stone took a step towards him.

Cassie frowned. Clearly this guy had run afoul of the law before but she found it suspicious just how eager he was to give up the goods. Anyone else would have been screaming “police brutality” after Stone had baptized him in the crapper but Yarrow hadn’t even voiced a complaint.