"The Transgenic Falcon"
Chapter Nineteen

When we arrived at the Eolin-I lab there were signs of an all night blitz everywhere. Rumpled clothes and lab coats on the scientists, empty cups that had held caffeine bearing drinks were stashed here and there around the consoles. A cursory check showed most of the people had bloodshot eyes.

Everyone there looked like they had been worked to a frayed edge, except, of course, Simone Ferguson. She had her hair slicked down tight; her lab coat was perfectly white and starched. Underneath the coat she was wearing at tightly tailored dove gray suit, finished by a purple silk shirt underneath. My mental ‘of course’ had been informed by the video I’d watched. It just goes to figure a dominatrix would be very aware of image, and how control flowed from presenting a perfect image at all times. That her sexual drives bled through to her daily life made her more human to me. It also gave me a good path to follow in trying to spin her up.

She was facing away from Belinda and I as we came in, haranguing a small group of her subordinates.

“No! I want you to run them yourself. I don’t trust that meat-cutter Simpson to replace his ass with both hands, a flashlight and a map!” Simone told them, “Now get cracking, I want that data in three hours and not a minute more!”

From the looks on the faces of the ones not directly under Ferguson’s burning glare this was a unreasonable request. However, no-one was willing to speak up and face further wrath from their boss. The scientists scattered and Simone turned around to see us standing there. Her expression was not one of fond affection.

“Mr. Hunt, what are you doing here?” she asked.

“We have some questions we need to follow up with you on.” I explained, my voice a little hard. I didn’t want to give the impression we were here for happy fun time, I wanted her off-balance.

“Well, as you might guess, this is a very busy time for us. Why don’t you get with my assistant and schedule a time?”

“No, that will not work. We need to talk, and it needs to be now. I don’t know if you have forgotten, but we are trying to track down a killer.”

“Yes, I am very aware that someone has killed six of my charges and Dr. Cho, Mr. Hunt. Why do you think we are so busy? Now if you’ll excuse me, I do have work to do,” Ferguson said and tried to brush past me. I grabbed her by the upper arm, locking her in place.

“You have two choices here, Simone,” I said as our glares locked, “You can take a few minutes to speak to us, or I’ll have Johnny Round come by and arrest you for obstruction. Then we’ll all talk at the police station. If you take the first option you get back to work in short order. If you take the second, well, it might be some hours before they get around to letting you go. Do you think your team can do as good a job without your direction?”

It’s mean to put a question like that to someone so involved in the idea of control. But I wasn’t in a great mood this morning, and I did need to grill her about Cho and why she failed to mention they were an item. She didn’t answer right away, just tried to stare me down with those hard brown eyes of hers. She shouldn’t have bothered. The last time that trick worked on me I was still sleeping on Spider-Man sheets.

“If it will get you out of my hair, fine.”

“Is there somewhere we can talk in private?” I asked, accepting her surrender.

Simone nodded, turned, and led us to her office. No one looked directly at us but we were the subject of near unanimous side-long glances. After carefully closing the door, Simone sat down behind her desk. I folded into one of the chairs in front of the desk. Belinda stood to one side, like I had asked her to.

She’d been happy when I told her that she was going to play the bad cop in this interview, right up until I explained that she was to stand, look angry, and say exactly nothing. I was willing to let her help, but I wasn’t sure enough of where her loyalties lay to let her talk at this point. Besides, she was going to get the same shock Simone was. I wanted to be able to see her reactions without looking directly at her. Oh, what tangled webs we weave.

“So, you have my full attention, Mr. Hunt. What are these questions you so desperately need answered?”

“Well, you could start by telling me why you didn’t mention your affair with Dr. Cho. I know you were his dominatrix.”

A slow smile crept across Ferguson’s face. She leaned back a little and raised one perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “And how did you replace that out?”.

“Cho recorded his conquests. I found the files, and guess who was there? You, big as life, and twice as leather clad.”

I saw a little of the overwhelming confidence Ferguson wore like armor crack, but she rallied. I shot a quick glance to Belinda, who had paled just a touch. Yeah, she was putting two and two together.

“What a naughty boy dear Constantine was,” Ferguson said, “Tell me, Mr. Hunt, did you like what you saw?”

“Not particularly,” I countered, “The leather was nice, but having my tally-whacker hit with a riding crop while I’m insulted isn’t my thing.”

“Oh, but how do you know until you’ve tried it?” Ferguson purred.

I’m a detective, so I don’t get side tracked very easily. “The point is; anyone in those videos is a suspect. Your failure to tell us you were involved with Cho is suspicious. Where were you on Tuesday night, between 7pm and 3am?”

“Where do you think I was? At home.”

“Were you alone? Can anyone verify your whereabouts?”

Ferguson sighed, “Unfortunately no. Even a strict Mistress needs a night off now and again. But really Mr. Hunt, you can’t think I murdered Cho, can you? Six of my Eolin-I died along with him. It has the possibility of ending this project. Why would I do that to myself?”

I shrugged, “Maybe it was an accident, or maybe you killed the Eolin-I on purpose to throw off any investigation.”

“Even if that were true, do you think I would kill someone over making a secret video of us? I might punish them particularly strongly, but it’s hardly worth killing over.”

“Oh, really? Even if Cho threatened to expose you, put it on the internet? That kind of thing could really cripple a career.”

“Possibly Mr. Hunt, but then again possibly not. It might simply lead to more subs wanting to labor under my whip.”

I ignored the quip. “How long were you and Cho involved?”

“A few weeks; maybe two months or so.”

“And you were his dominatrix the whole time? I from what I saw that was quite a departure for Cho.”

“Never underestimate the joys of submission, Mr. Hunt. For those who are controlling in their own right, it can be a revelation. Constantine was exactly the right amount of jaded to be perfect to dominate.”

“I can’t help but notice that you don’t seem too broken up about his death. That’s a little odd, don’t you think?” I asked wanting to put her off guard.

“Just because someone doesn’t wear their emotions on the surface doesn’t mean they aren’t there. I am sad that Constantine is dead, of course, but it is not like we were starry eyed teenagers.”

“Did you ever fight?”

“No, never. I don’t put up with that kind of thing from my subs. If they get too independent, I replace another.”

“That covers your love life, but says nothing about your professional interaction. Cho was known to be hard to get along with. You said you didn’t like the fact he visited with the Eolin-I and petted them. Are you sure you didn’t have arguments about that?”

“Being annoyed and being willing to kill are two very different things. Surely a detective of your stature knows that?”

“So, that’s a no?” I asked.

“It is a no, feel free to interview any of my staff, they will tell you the same thing; Cho and I disagreed on his familiarity with the Eolin-I, but it was just a disagreement. Now if you’ve quite finished with your questions, I do have a project to try to save…?”

“Yes, that’s all for now, Dr. Ferguson. Since we seem to be having to spell things out, don’t leave the acrology and hold yourself ready for any more question we come up with.”

Both Simone and I stood up. “By the way, thank you for giving my team access to your database about the Eolin-I deaths.”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Hunt. You might replace it hard to believe but I want to replace the person who killed Cho and the ’lin-I as much as you do.”

We all walked out into the main lab area. Simone was immediately snagged by one of her people leaving Belinda and I alone. I stopped at random to ask a couple of techs about Simone and Cho and got the story she told me I would. They might have difference of opinion, but no fights or power plays.