Love Is The Bond: A Rowan Gant Investigation by M. R. Sellars

asked. Just forget it.”
    As if she hadn’t even heard him, my wife
continued her unabashed disclosure of how we’d spent our morning.
“Of course, since I was sitting on top of him, holding him down,
and…”
    “Jeez, Row, I said I didn’t wanna know this
stuff,” Ben appealed to me, cutting her off.
    “I tried to stop you,” I told him.
    “Well, ya’ didn’t try to stop her .”
    “Aye, like he could,” Felicity replied. “Now,
can I finish the story?”
    “I wish you wouldn’t,” my friend said.
    “It’s just sex, Ben,” she stated.
    He shook his head. “Apparently not, if you
were… If it was…”
    “Kinky?” she asked.
    “Jeezus fuckin’ Christ, yeah… ‘Zactly…
Besides, with you two… It’s like… Like… I dunno, like hearin’ your
parents talk about doin’ it.”
    “Come on. We aren’t that old, Ben,” she
admonished. “At least, I’m not. You’re both older than me,
then.”
    “That’s not what I mean and you know it…
Shit. Can we just move on ta’ somethin’ else, please?”
    “You’re embarrassed,” Felicity stated with a
grin as she took her glasses off and cocked her head to the side.
She was thoroughly enjoying the fact that she had him squirming.
Maybe even a little too much.
    “So what if I am?” he replied.
    “It’s funny.”
    “No it ain’t.”
    She nodded vigorously. “Aye, but it is.”
    “Listen, does this even have anything at all
to do with what I came here ta’ show you?”
    “Actually, I think it does.”
    “How?”
    “Well, when I think about it, it all makes
perfect sense.”
    He looked over at me as if seeking help. I
just shook my head as I set a full coffee mug and the sugar bowl in
front of my wife then said, “Leave me out of it.”
    I was pretty sure I knew where she was
headed, and she was correct, it did make perfect sense. Still, I
wasn’t about to get in the middle the conversation. Not yet,
anyway.
    “Jeezzzz… I know I’m gonna regret this…” he
began as he looked back at her. “Damn… Okay, what makes sense?”
    “Why I connected so easily with the sexual
energy in that room,” she replied.
    “Well yeah, it’s ‘cause you’re a Twilight Zone freakazoid just like
Rowan,” he told her.
    “Not funny.”
    “It wasn’t a joke,” he said. “Besides, it’s
just about as funny as me bein’ embarrassed. Anyway, what’s the big
deal? I thought Row felt it too.”
    “I did,” I offered. “But, that’s just it. I
felt it. Felicity, on the other hand, really connected. Up to and
including channeling it.”
    “You felt it yourself,” Felicity told him
flatly.
    “I dunno about that,” he replied. “Like I
said, it’s pretty obvious what goes on in a place like that.”
    “That’s beside the point,” she returned. “You
felt it whether you realized it or not.”
    “Okay, I give. How do ya’ know that?”
    “You were flirting with me when we arrived,”
she returned.
    “I’ve flirted with ya’ before,” he huffed.
“It’s just, ya’know, friendly… Well, you know what I mean.”
    “Aye, but you were flirting with me at a
crime scene, Ben. Heavily.”
    “Jeez,” he mumbled. She had him more
flustered than I’d ever seen. “Listen, I’m not doin’ the
hocus-pocus, that’s you two, so give it a rest. Now let’s get back
ta’ what you were originally sayin’… If I’m understandin’ the deal
here, you mean because you’re female and the killer is prob’ly a
whor… hook… Fuckit… a prostitute, you tapped into this shit?” His
words were half-statement, half-question.
    “That aspect of her profession has nothing to
do with it,” she replied. “But yes, I think the killer was a
woman.”
    “Lemme ask ya’ this, how’d’ya know it
wasn’t some kinda gay thing?” He waggled his fingers before her to
represent something mystical. “Wouldn’t that make for some
girly Twilight Zone shit
too?”
    “Ben,” she snipped. “That’s simply rude.”
    “I’m just