Even Lovers Drown CH 11

A few days later, Olivia agreed to meet with Leila Davis. In light of her circumstances, she was understandably nervous about coming to OPA offices, so Olivia had Abby arrange a meeting for them at the Corcoran Art Gallery since every Wednesday evening, the art gallery featured an open reception and exhibition event, complete with light foods and drink. Any number of people could be there without any direct implication of anything other than enjoying the art exhibits.

Quinn, Huck and Harrison were also there, but each had arrived separately. Not surprisingly, Huck had volunteered for exterior surveillance duties, while Quinn and Harrison were circling through the crowds, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

Olivia and Abby quickly found Leila Davis in their prearranged designated meeting place in one of the smaller exhibit rooms.

The exhibit tonight was featuring photos and artwork of women in power; Olivia had thought it appropriate. It took a multiple of factors to feed her gut and help her make the decision as to whether or not to take on a new client. Whenever she had the luxury of observing them without them knowing it, she took it.

So when they reached the pre-arranged art room, she laid a hand on Abby’s arm so that they could check Laila Davis out, unnoticed. Olivia would be asking Abby about her impressions later.

Looking slightly different from the work picture they had acquired,  tonight Leila had chosen to wear her hair down, her locs tumbling down past her shoulders in soft waves. She was simply dressed, in black slacks and shirt, with a gray cape swirled about her shoulders. The only thing that was outstanding about her was the brooch pinned at her right shoulder. That surprised Olivia somewhat; it looked like it could be an art piece all on it’s own.

She appeared to be studying the wall-sized mosaic of Hilary Clinton, the former Secretary of State, hard enough to be lost in it.

“Stunning, isn’t it?” Olivia murmured as she came to stand beside her. Without looking directly at her, she nodded a greeting. “Ms. Davis.”

“You’re Olivia Pope.” the other woman said before Olivia could finish her introduction. “I know who you are.”

The younger woman nodded a greeting to Abby before she turned to face Olivia; there was a trace of fear in her eyes. But anger too. Olivia liked that. If Leila Davis was a fighter, it would be a help.

“So, do you think you can help me?” she asked.

Olivia made a motion and they started walking around the perimeter of the room, stopping every now and then as if they were studying the art. “That depends.” she said.

“On what?” Leila asked.

“It’s very important that our clients be absolutely honest with us. Anything you hold back could make our work for you harder - if not impossible.”

Abby added to what Olivia said. “To get at the truth, we may need to examine your life in more detail than you might find comfortable. So if you have any surprises we need to know about, now would be a very good time to tell us.”

Leila looked around at the drifting clusters of people. “Now?” she asked uncertainly.

“Not this second, necessarily, but this is why we suggest that you come to our offices where we can insure your confidentiality.”

Leila still looked doubtful. “I’m sure that your people have told you about my predicament; so if someone is watching me, then wouldn’t they see me going to your place of business? What happens then?” She tried not to look around them. “What if whoever it is is watching me right now?”

“Have they ever made contact with you when you’re just out and about?”

“No, just when I’m home.” Leila said. “The fact that they could break through my firewalls..”

“No doubt disturbs you.” Olivia finished the sentence for her. “Since I have it on very good authority that your technological skills are considerable - seeing how you have an alpha-zeta rating, isn’t it? - I can see why you’re uneasy.”

Leila Davis looked startled for a moment, hearing her classified ratings being discussed so easily then set herself to relax. “You’ve done your homework.” It wasn’t a question, but an acknowledgment.

That earned her another point in Olivia’s book. Her gut was beginning to approve of this one.

“Due diligence.” she answered. “And for your own reassurance, let me tell you that I think that it’s safe to say that your safety and security are probably fine here - my people are here keeping an eye on things just to be on the safe side and so far we’ve seen nothing out of the ordinary to be concerned about.”

At Olivia’s words, the other woman relaxed her guard just a little.  “And it there were?”

“We’d handle it.”

Leila seemed to pause and think about Olivia’s words for a moment before she nodded. It seemed OPA had passed a test of their own.

The three women walked on to the next exhibit, but something subtle had changed between them - a silent agreement had been reached.

“Do you have a business card on you?” Abby asked her.

The other woman nodded yes.

“Good, give us one.”

Puzzled, she fumbled in her shoulder bag and handed a card to both women. Abby pulled out one of her own and nodded at Olivia to do the same. Olivia picked up on what she was doing immediately and did what the redhead asked.

Abby explained. “Just on the off-chance someone is watching us, all they’ve seen is three women meeting at an art gallery and exchanging business cards. We’re just networking.”

Olivia finished the thought aloud. “Now, we can call you openly and ask for a consultation. After all, you come highly recommended by those that know of you and it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that we would call you in for security consultations.”

That made the other woman sigh a little sigh of relief. “I think that might work. All of us in R & D are known for taking side jobs. As long as they don’t create conflicts of interest, they’re usually not made a big deal of.”

She smiled a bit. “We’re geeks and it’s sort of understood that we like to play in different sandboxes. You’ll be vetted of course...”

“I doubt that this will be a problem. We have a guy...”

Leila smiled. “I had no doubt that you did. We’re allowed to step outside our jobs to a certain extent.”

Her lips twisted in a wry grin. “They indulge us techie people to a point. They know we can’t resist playing outside the sandbox. Simple jobs, like security phone lines and data streams, optic refinements...” without thinking about it, she started rambling off in tech-speak. She did catch herself and had the grace to look embarrassed.

“Not to worry. Abby said with a grin. “There’s somebody we know who’s going to love meeting you.”

Olivia found herself satisfied that Leila Davis knew what was going to be required of her and was willing to accept it. After that, there was no reason why OPA shouldn’t be willing to take her case.

There would be a final discussion between her and the rest of the team as well as their initial meeting with Leila Davis at the OPA offices. But until then, there really wasn’t anything left to discuss, so the meeting came to a quick ending.

Abby, using her skills as an investigator, was the one to instruct Leila not to leave right away, but to instead let herself drift with the crowds for a little bit. She even went so far as to advise Leila to maybe even strike up some idle conversation with some of the other people there as she mingled among the rest of the attendees of the exhibit.

Leila nodded and took herself away from them.

After she had gone, Abby and Olivia made a point of following the same protocol.They took their time strolling about the entire exhibit, and even managed to enjoy themselves a little.

Olivia did remark that she’d found herself pleased to have seen that some of the anxiety in the other woman’s eyes had seemed to be a little less evident than when they had first met.

“What did you think?” Olivia asked Abby as she drove her back to OPA. Everyone else had already left for the night, but since Abby had ridden to the Corcoran with Olivia, her car was still back at the office.

“She’s telling the truth as far as I can tell.”Abby said. “The look that was in her eyes - well, can I just say that I know that look a little too well. She’s not faking it.”

Olivia nodded; the fact that Abby wound have been able to spot such B.S. a mile a way is why she’d asked Abby to accompany her in the first place. Not that Abby wasn’t a crack investigator on her own, but her painful past with her own stalkerish and abusive ex-husband gave her that extra radar that Olivia knew she didn’t have.

It’s what made OPA such an efficient firm; ll of them brought their own experience to the table and that was what had made them the success they were today.

Olivia made her decision. “If we’re lucky, it’s just some hotshot higher-up in her department with the hots for her. She’s beautiful enough - different enough from the usual geek mode that it could happen. All we have to do is uncover him, go digging in his closets for just enough dirt to bury him if necessary, then tell him to play nice and back off.”

Abby grinned. “A nice, fun case, then. We haven’t had enough of those lately. Instead, we’ve had a little too much doom and gloom of late.”

Olivia cast a sideways look at her; of course Abby would call this fun. Taking down an obnoxious unwanted suitor who was willing to use his power to take what wasn’t offered. She tried not to grin, but she couldn't say that she didn’t agree.

“Watch,” Abby promised. “We’re going to have fun with this. We deserve some fun.”

Fun, indeed.

We’ll see, Olivia thought.