The Investigation Ch. 02

I drove to a shopping mall which I had seen before. Thankfully, it had a bookstore where I found a Cleveland city magazine. After leafing through the magazine's restaurant reviews, I made a reservation for Sunday night. My next stop was a mall jewelry store. I don't know squat about jewelry, but I was able to find a single-strand gold necklace and a pendant with a small diamond to put on it. While the price was at the low end of what I saw in the store, it was, for me, quite expensive. There was a big difference between spending government money in Florida and paying for something from my own pocket.

I lucked out again at the grocery store. Right across the street was a florist. I wanted roses delivered to the house Sunday morning. I was told that could not happen. After some serious negotiations, I got my delivery, at about triple the usual cost.

I had bought some, hopefully, fresh fish which Liz and I were able to fix for Thursday dinner. We spent the evening sitting together naked on the sofa drinking wine and laughing at a TV "police drama."

Howley called just after I had brought back Liz's coffee Friday morning. (Did I think to get coffee at the grocery? No.) We put her on speaker to hear her confirm that we were to return to the resort the following Thursday. The three of us spent another couple of hours trying to come up with a way to make this next visit more productive than the last. We still had no good ideas. Liz called the resort to make the reservation. Liz and I carried on the discussion about the case through the afternoon, through dinner, and well into the night. We both went to bed tired and frustrated.

When Saturday dawned bright and clear, we decided to take a day off. After looking at her laptop, Liz said, "Hey, the Indians have a day game against the Twins today. You want to go?" Among the many things I loved about Liz was that, like me, she was a sports fan.

"Can you stand being clothed that long?" I asked.

"I'll make the sacrifice," Liz replied. We spent a fun afternoon watching the Indians' pitching staff befuddle Minnesota's hitters. Back "home," Liz and I together concocted a pasta dish for dinner.

After dinner was cleaned up, Liz gave me a naughty look. "I don't feel like TV tonight. Have you ever done doggy-style?" Liz led me upstairs. Since we had no clothes to take off, she just got on the edge of bed on her hands and knees. I was more than sufficiently aroused just watching her spread herself open to me.

Liz was sleeping in my arms when I heard the doorbell Sunday morning. Trying not to wake her, I got up and grabbed a twenty and my shorts. While I'm sure that the pizza delivery guy had enjoyed seeing Liz nude at the door, I doubted that the florist wanted to see my naked dick on a Sunday morning.

Liz was awake as I came back into the bedroom carrying the roses in their vase. "What's that?" she asked.

"Happy Birthday," I said.

"How did you, oh, Howley told you. Thank you Harry, very much."

It hadn't been my intent, not really, but the flowers induced another extended bout of lovemaking.

When we were sated, we spent a few more hours talking about the assignment. I had neglected to get Liz's coffee that morning, but she didn't say anything.

I had to push a bit to get Liz to get dressed for our dinner reservation. It was worth the effort. She came downstairs wearing a simple, lightweight black dress that showed her marvelous figure well. She had done something with her hair and used just a touch of make-up. The effect was powerful. Liz looked absolutely stunning.

Dinner was wonderful. The food was excellent (at the prices it should have been). We shared a lot of laughter. Liz and I had become very close very quickly. We obviously liked each other a great deal. I thought that we strengthened our bond that night while acknowledging to myself that was probably just my wishful thinking. Always in the back of my mind was the knowledge that, when the assignment was over, so was my reason to be around Liz. She'd go back to Buffalo and I'd crawl back to Indy.

I had put the narrow box from the jeweler in my jacket pocket while Liz was getting ready. I pulled it out in the restaurant while we were having after-dinner coffee. Liz took the box from me casually, thinking, I believe, that it was a joke gift. When she opened the box, her large eyes went wide. She looked at me and back at the necklace. Her mouth opened, but no words came out. Finally, she took the necklace out of the box and fastened it around her neck. It was pure coincidence, but the gold and small diamond worked very well with Liz's simple black dress.

Liz asked me, "How does it look?"

"I'm not qualified to opine about jewelry," I said, "but the lady wearing it looks very, very beautiful."

Liz leaned across the table and kissed me. "Thank you very, very much Harry."

Seatbelt laws be damned, Liz sat right next to be on the drive home. Oddly, to me at least, the house we were using had no garage. Instead, I parked on an asphalt apron on the west side of the house. It was well after sunset, but a half moon provided sufficient light. As you'd expect on a Sunday night, there were lights on in some nearby houses, but no activity outside.

Liz got out of the car, went up on the front porch, and unlocked the door as I walked onto the porch. Then, she stopped, turned back to face the street, and looked around. "Do you see anyone?" she asked.

"No," I replied.

"Neither do I, "Liz said. She slipped off her shoes. She turned her back to me and said, "Zipper please."

I drew down the zipper on the back of her black dress. Liz shrugged her shoulders so that the dress came off of them to her front. She lowered the dress down her legs and stepped out of it. I unhooked her bra for her and she shrugged that off. She put the dress and bra in the chair I had used on Thursday while waiting for her to finish with Howley.

Liz wriggled out of her panty hose and draped them over her dress. Pushing a hand down each of her sides, she pushed her panties to the floor and stepped out of them. She was now nude except for the necklace. In the partial moonlight, she looked more beautiful than anyone or anything which I had seen before.

I kicked off my shoes, put my jacket over the chair, and quickly stripped off my shirt, socks, pants, and boxers. Liz took my hand and we walked naked through the front yard to the sidewalk. She turned to her right and we walked to the end of the block and back. One car passed, but I don't know if they saw us. I followed Liz back onto the porch. She picked up our clothes and carried them inside. Stopping only to take off her new necklace, Liz led me through the house, into the back yard, and out onto the lawn.

In the middle of the back yard, Liz stopped. She stepped around to face me and reached down to stroke my dick. Once she had me a little hard, she knelt down in the grass and took me in her mouth. The blow job was foreplay. Once I was very hard, Liz pulled her head away and lay back in the grass with her legs spread. I knelt down between her legs, then got on all fours and walked myself above her. Liz gently wrapped a hand around my dick and guided me into her.

Making love in the grass was a new experience for me and, I think, for Liz. We took it very slow, savoring our time connected under the moon. While we took a long time to work up to orgasm, when it came it exploded. Liz is occasionally a screamer, and definitely was that night. I came so hard that it actually hurt a little and made me light-headed. As I lay collapsed in Liz's arms, I was sure that I heard someone clapping. Just coincidence no doubt.

We awoke late again the next morning. Once we had showered off and gotten to bed, we had fallen asleep in each other's arms. I woke up first and just lay there looking at Liz's face and feeling the warmth of her body. We she finally opened her eyes and focused on me, I saw a look in her face that I'd never seen before. The best description I can give is a mixture of contentment, desire, excitement, and affection.

We just looked at each other for quite some time. Looking at Liz and holding her is a special experience. Finally, Liz said, "Harry, thank you. Thank you very much. That was the best birthday I ever...."

Liz was cut off by the telephone, the landline into the house. That was odd and a little alarming. Only Howley and one or two other people at the Agency had the number and Howley always called on one or the other of our cell phones. What the hell was up?

I answered. It was Kate Howley. "Harry, is Liz there?"

"Yes."

"Can you get her on the line too?"

"I think that she's in her bedroom. I'll knock on her door. We can go downstairs and put you on speaker."

"Would you please?" Howley asked. I put the handset on mute and told Liz who was calling. We got out of bed, naked, and went downstairs.

I punched on the speaker phone. "Special Agent Howley, are you there?"

"Yes Harry. Liz, are you there?"

Yes Ma'am," Liz responded.

"I'm calling to tell you that Operation Tarpon is over."

"What happened?" I asked.

"We got that conclusive evidence we were talking about that your John Smith isn't our guy. Our guy was found Friday night in a barn outside of Asheville. The barn had about $ 2 million worth of heroin stashed in it. Our guy and a couple of his colleagues each had about 25 bullet holes in them. It looks like a new supplier wants to take over that territory."

Howley went on to give us the details. The bottom line was that one of the shooting victims was definitely identified as a John Smith who was also born in Asheville in 1963. The real owner of the barn holding the drugs was that John Smith's brother-in-law. One of that Smith's underlings, apparently scared by the shootings, had surrendered to the North Carolina police and given a pretty full account of that John Smith's little drug empire, and his story was checking out. Howley e-mailed a photo of the deceased John Smith. He actually looked enough like the man we knew to be a brother.

Howley concluded, "So, you were correct that the nudist John Smith in Florida really just deals boats and not drugs. Congratulations on seeing that when a lot of more senior agents did not. You both did excellent work. Foley will put evaluations in your files saying that you did outstanding undercover work in unique and adverse circumstances. I'm sure that you both understand that we do not want it known outside the Agency, nor within it for that matter, that we assigned two agents to go undercover at a nudist resort."

"Of course," I replied. "Naturally," Liz said.

"You are entitled to time off after an undercover assignment," Howley said. "Why don't we say that you will be expected to report to your assigned field offices two weeks from Wednesday, July 5. Is that ok?"

In unison, both a little dazed, we said, "Yes. Of course. Thank you."

"Well, again, good job, and thank you," Howley said. Then she hung up.

So, there it was: the end of the assignment and effectively the end of Liz in my life. She was stationed in Buffalo while I was station in Indianapolis. I knew that we'd try to keep something going, but I also knew that we'd get too busy and would be too far apart for it to work.

After a few minutes of silence, Liz said, "We really ought to tell John and Karen. They have a right to know that they were being investigated and have been exonerated."

"Howley didn't tell us not to tell John," I said. I reasoned further that, "He has no incentive to tell people about this because it hurts him. Some people will always think that, where there was smoke, there must have been fire."

Liz picked up the phone and dialed. When it started ringing on the other end, Liz put it on speaker.

"Hello," John Smith said.

"John, it is Liz and Harry," Liz said. "How are you? Did I call at a bad time?"

"No, this is a fine time. When are you two coming back?"

"John," I said, "Is Karen there?"

"No. She's out. Why?"

"We have something that we need to tell you. We were hoping to tell you both at once."

John was concerned now. "What's up? You can tell me. I'll tell Karen."

"This is going to be awkward," I said.

"How so?" John asked.

Liz bit the bullet. "We haven't been entirely truthful with you and Karen. Neither Harry nor I are out of work. We're both Federal drug agents. And we're not married."

"What the fuck?" John responded.

Liz and I told John the whole story, including the bloody details of his exoneration.

When we were done, John said, "Well, I'm glad that the SOB is dead. I don't have much use for heroin dealers. I'm glad that you told your bosses that I'm not a drug dealer, if you really did. But, I'm really upset to find out that everything you two told us was a lie."

"John," Liz said, "not everything was a lie. Our names really are Liz Carden and Harry Stone. We do like you and Karen very much. We are grateful for the kindness and generosity you showed to us. We are also grateful for you introducing us to the clothes free life. We're both naked now as we are talking to you."

"Well, ok," John said. "Thanks for calling." John hung up.

"That went well," I said sarcastically.

"You can't expect him to be enthused to learn that he was the target of a federal drug investigation," Liz said. "Or to find out that we lied to him. We did lie."

Figuring that I might as well burn all the bridges from this assignment at once, I said, "Where does that leave us now that the Operation is over?"

The look on Liz's face suggested that she hadn't really focused on that aspect yet. "We've got two weeks off. I hope we're spending that together."

"I hope so too," I said. "But, after that? We'll be back in our respective offices, hundreds of miles apart. We'll be back to the extra hours and weekend work. How do we sustain a relationship through that?"

"I don't know," Liz said.

I decided that I might as well go down in flames completely. "Liz, I realize that we haven't known each other very long. But, I think we've known each other intensely enough that we know each other much better than couples who have been together for years. I probably shouldn't say this, but I love you."

Liz smiled, twisted her butt towards me, and said, "What you really love is my bare ass." Thankfully, her smile and tone said that she was teasing.

"That too," I said. "Uh, I wasn't going to do this quite so soon, and I was going to be better prepared, but, the timing got taken out of my hands. Uh, will you marry me?"

Liz's face showed genuine shock. I knew in that instant that this was going to be a really shitty day. I kept staring at her, hoping for some evidence that I hadn't just made a complete ass of myself and pissed her off.

Liz was thinking. Her face went through several apparent emotions. Finally, I saw the gleam I'd seen in her eyes a few times in Florida. "Yes Harry, I'll marry you."

"What!" I yelled. "You're not kidding are you?"

"No Harry, I'm not kidding. I've fallen for you pretty hard too. I am sure that we will make it work. I love you too."

I had an adrenaline shot like I'd never had playing football. I started blathering at a hundred words a second about what we needed to do next and how our life together would be so wonderful.

"Harry," Liz smiled, "we'll deal with all of that. The first thing we have to do is vacate this house. If we get packed soon, we can take your car and be in Buffalo by mid-afternoon. I kept my apartment. We can stay there while we sort out what we are doing. I'll take you over to Syracuse and introduce you to my parents."

It took us just over an hour to get dressed, packed, get our things in my car, secure the house, and call Howley for instructions about the keys. We were literally walking out the door when Liz's cell phone rang. She answered, then looked at me and said "It's John and Karen."

I gestured towards the house. Liz understood me and said into the phone, "Can I call you right back? I want to use the speaker phone so that Harry can hear." A second later, Liz said "Thanks" and ended the call.

We went back inside and Liz dialed John on the landline speaker. "When John answered, he asked, "Are you there Harry?"

"Yes I am," I replied.

John said, "Karen came home not long after you called this morning. I told her what you had told me. Frankly, I was pretty pissed off at both of you. Karen saw things differently."

Karen interjected, "I told John that you were just doing your jobs. I also told him that we were lucky that the Government sent you two instead of people who were going to report only what their bosses wanted to hear. I said that it only made sense that you told your bosses that you didn't think we are drug dealers. Otherwise, regardless of what happened in Asheville, we'd still be under investigation and, in that case, why would you call and tell us that we had been investigated. Finally, I told John that I was sure that you had adopted our life-style. I saw too much from you two that even the best actors couldn't fake."

"Any way," John said, "I'm sorry to be rude this morning. It isn't every day that I get told that the United States Government was trying to put me in prison. I suppose that your operation is over. Do you get any time off?"

"Yes," Liz said. "We're off until July 5."

Karen asked, "Would you two like to come back down here?"

Liz said, "Oh shit! I forgot about the reservation. Uh, actually, we booked at room at the hotel again starting Thursday."

John laughed. "I'm assuming that the taxpayers won't be picking up your tab this time. Cancel that reservation. We've got an extra bedroom. You can stay with us for free. If you can get down here by Thursday, we'll go boating over the weekend. Some friends of ours have a private beach on North Captiva Island. They're having a party there Saturday. It is a few hours by boat from here. We can leave Friday, take it easy, anchor off of North Captiva on Friday night, and party on Saturday. If you want, we can take you around the Gulf Coast a little."

Karen added, "On the boat, we usually strip off as soon as we're away from the dock. Just bring something as a cover up in case we dock for fuel or supplies. The Marine Patrol stop people for inspections every now and again, but they don't care if you're naked."

Liz looked at me. I nodded my head. Liz said, "Thank you both. That sounds great. We'd love to. We have to get out of here today and we're going to my place in Buffalo. I'll have to see about flights to Tampa. I'll call you when I know exactly, but we'll be there Thursday. If you need to call us, both of our cell numbers are still good but this number isn't."

John and Karen together said, "Great!" Karen added, "We're looking forward to seeing you again, and I mean that in both senses." She laughed.

I said, "John, remember this morning we told you that we are not married?"

"Yes. I remember that," John said, his tone guarded again.

"Change that to not married yet," I said.

Karen responded, "Congratulations!"

John said, "You're a smart man Harry."

"Just damned lucky," I replied.

Liz and I talked about the mundane mechanics of joining our lives together on the drive to Buffalo. The result of that conversation was that we really were very compatible and we appreciated each other even more. We still didn't have a plan, though, about our jobs. I thought that I should resign rather than ask Liz to give up her career. Liz thought that there had to be another solution.

Liz's parents, Mike and Diane, came to Buffalo to see us Tuesday afternoon. Mike and Diane are tremendous, and very interesting, people. I'd like to tell much more about them, but that goes too far off track. Obviously, Liz had some explaining to do as her parents had never heard of me and were now being told that I would be their son-in-law.