Planet of the Creeps by D S Whitaker

Author:D S Whitaker [Whitaker, D S]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781734259520
Publisher: DS Whitaker
Published: 2020-01-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Half the truth is often a whole lie.

-Ben Franklin

She’ll calm down.

She always does.

Lance returned to his office. He read over the transcripts from the previous week. Mahmood always had a summary page but the statistics weren’t meaningful. The women’s stories were much more illuminating.

Contestant Donna Martin had three dates—numbers ten, eleven and twelve—this week. Donna was a successful interior designer and single mother. She was smart, sophisticated, but came off a little cold. She seemed to interrogate her dates.

When he read about number twelve, his heart stopped. He said that to her? Suck on some helium and lighten up? Wait. Another police report? Fuck. Her date put a roofie in her drink? Thank God John spotted it. That guy has laser vision.

“That does it!” Lance screamed.

June came running in. “Sir, what’s wrong? Are you ok?”

“Call a meeting. Now. Laura, Mahmood and everyone else working on Love Is in the Air. Large Conference room. No excuses. Call John Miller. I want him here too. Buzz me when they are all seated.”

It took about twenty minutes but the room was filled. The team was clustered around, talking in whispers with confused looks.

Lance walked in and slammed his hand on the conference table. Everyone turned.

“People! Shut up. Sit down. John, thanks for getting here so quickly.”

“No problem boss,” John said.

“Everyone. For you that don’t know him, John Miller is with Miller Personal Security. He’s a freelance security specialist and he and his team have been monitoring the contest at Valentino’s. John, would you tell the group what happened to Miss Martin last week?”

Laura interjected, “Lance. We took care of it.”

“John, go ahead,” Lance said.

“Miss Martin was on a date. I was listening, like I always do, but I also keep an eye on things from a distance. Mr. White, her date, was a bit rude to her. Nothing threatening as far as I could tell. I’ve heard much worse in the last few weeks. Anyway, she got up to use the ladies’ room and I saw him fish around in his coat pocket. He pulled out a bottle and a pill. I thought he might be taking his own medication. Instead, he dropped a pill into Ms. Martin’s glass. I pulled Mr. White away and held him until the police arrived.”

Lance barked, “Who vetted Mr. White?” He looked around. No one volunteered.

“Cowards. Fine.” He pointed, “Mahmood. Stand up. You’re fired. Go clean out your desk.”

Mahmood cried, “What? It wasn’t me.”

“You were in charge. I told you.”

An intern raised her hand. “Sir, I’m Tina. I did the vetting. Mr. White didn’t have an arrest record. I talked with his boss and his sister. They said he was an upstanding, responsible, decent guy. He goes to church every week. Does volunteer work occasionally. Habitat for Humanity, they said.”

Lance walked over to Tina, his hands on his hips. “What about his relationship history? Women he’s dated in the past? What did they say about them?”

Tina kept her head down, staring at the table. “His sister said he didn’t talk about his dating life very much.

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