Case 92

by Shiralyn J. Lee

  “Were any of these women connected?” I asked her.

  She gazed at me, pausing before she continued her speech. “They were members of a sex club. We discovered this yesterday afternoon when Taylor and Mandy’s cases were brought to my attention.”

  “What sort of sex club?” I asked her.

  “We know that Taylor was highly promiscuous, a sex addict as well as a heroin addict. She would allow members to act out their sexual fantasies on her in exchange for drug money. Mandy was no different. She’s the reason that we found out about this club. She was actually a member of several of these clubs and let it slip to one of her friends that she was earning good money in exchange for sexual favors.” She opened the file that was on her desk.

  “Are we going after the members of these sex groups?” I asked.

  “The person of interest has a connection to all of these women. They’re smart, intelligent, maybe have an outgoing personality. They know how to gain the trust of these females and convince them that it is time to die,” she reported.

  Her student was writing notes as we all spoke. It irritated me that Rosa lacked the intelligence to introduce us properly.

  “Who is this?” I blurted out in annoyance—pointing at him.

  “This is Simon. He’s one of the students that I mentor and he has the highest grades in my class. I’m further educating him, is that okay with you, Paige?”

  He looked around at everyone. “Hello,” he said quietly.

  “If you look at the pictures in the files that I just passed around, you’ll see that all of these women were discovered exactly the same way. They basically died during orgasm. Clean sheets were always found in a pile on the floor. They were washed and dried, removing any traces of sexual fluids. Would a male do this? Possibly. But we knew almost immediately that we were looking for a female suspect.”

  “So she has a hygiene fetish, she can come and wash my sheets if she likes.” Emily kidded.

  Rosa gave Emily a stern look. From my own personal experience with her I knew that she was not the joking type. She was serious about her work and to ridicule it in any way was a poor choice in judgment.

  When she had finished filling us in with her analysis on the suspect we all got up to leave. As I got to the doorway Rosa called me back.

  “How have you been, Paige?” she asked.

  “I’m good. Kate’s been through hell, but she’s getting better every day.”

  “Hell?”

  “She was taken against her will, Rosa. I had you on my mind whilst she was going through the worst fears that anyone could face. I fucking let her down because of you, do you understand that? You should, it is your profession after all!”

  Rosa sat back on her desk—taken by surprise. “I had no idea.”

  “That’s the problem. You were the same when we were together, never around long enough to know what was right in front of your nose,” I sneered. “You’re married to your fucking job, Rosa. Thanks for the reminder.”

  Emily peered in through the door and called me. “Hey Paige, are you coming?”

  ♦♦♦

  We were on our way to the supposedly secret sex club. Apparently Raven Black had been running this assembly of fetish services for a number of years. Using her house that was located near Diamond Valley Lake, she would privately invite a selection of her wealthy friends. They would pay a vast amount of money to fulfill ‘chosen’ sexual acts of their preference. Raven would then find a match for these requests and the chosen girl would act it out for them.

  The driveway from the road up to the house was long and the tires created a dust-trail as we drove along it. Edged with maple trees and acres of ground, it was positioned with a totally private setting. Its size was practically that of a mansion. Covered in white paneling and surrounded by tall trees in the back and a swimming pool on the far side, I could see how easy it was to hold these fantasy parties and keep the neighbors completely in the dark about them.

  I knocked on the door. Raven Black answered it in person. I’m not sure what I was thinking but I half-expected to meet a woman dressed in a long silk gown, black hair secured tightly around her head and a cigarette hanging from her lips. Instead a woman in her mid-twenties, wearing a yoga outfit and physically fit answered the door.

  “Ms. Black?” I asked.

  She stood poised in the doorway. “Yes. How can I help you?”

  “I’m agent Bleu and this is agent Swanson. We’re from the…”

  “FBI. Yes I know. I was expecting you, or rather, I was expecting to see a sexy male agent on my doorstep.”

  I raised my eyebrow at her contempt. “May we come inside?”

  “Certainly. This way.” She led us down the hallway, through the kitchen and out to the veranda.

  “This is very nice, Ms. Black. It must take quite a lot of money for the upkeep of this place.” Emily commented as she took a good look around.

  “My sweet innocent darlings. Let’s cut the chase, shall we. My clients, and their name’s shall remain confidential as far as you’re concerned. They pay well-enough for a taste of oral sensations. That’s a nick name that we’ve given ourselves.”

  “We pretty much don’t care about your client’s confidentiality at this moment in time, Ms. Black. If we feel the need to pursue your members, then we will,” I told her firmly.

  “Good luck trying to get that out of me,” she snapped back.

  “We can always keep a surveillance team outside. I’m sure that your so called clients would mind that,” Emily told her.

  “Survey all you like. If you think that will put a stop to our meetings I can inform you now that you are totally misleading yourselves.” She lit up a cigarette and sucked hard on it—blowing the smoke in my direction.

  “We have a list of names for you. Please tell us if you recognize them. Taylor Connor, Mandy Freeman, Tina Smith, Louise Hicks, Amber Martin, Jessica Crawford, Stephanie Lockhart?”

  Raven immediately stopped smoking and stubbed out the cigarette. Mandy Freeman, you say?”

  “Yes. Do you recognize her name or any of the others?” I asked her again.

  She sat down in a large rattan chair in the corner—we remained standing.

  “Of course you do realize that I am answering these questions freely and with absolutely no reason to have any other connection to these girls other than hiring them for one night.”

  “Whatever you can give us, Ms. Black,” I responded calmly.

  “I know Mandy Freeman. She told me her real name as she was leaving. A few weeks ago, let’s say that she performed an act, I took her into my office. She was a chatty type of girl but her eyes were filled with sadness. I asked her if she’d like to be contacted again in the near future as she fitted the criteria for something that I had in mind.”

  “Can you tell us what that criteria need was?” Emily asked.

  “No! But I can tell you that she gave me her card. I still have it in my office. Wait here, I’ll go and get it and no snooping, I have cameras fitted everywhere.” She left the room lighting another cigarette as she walked.

  “It makes you wonder just exactly what these girls were getting up to for this money,” Emily whispered.

  “That’s exactly what we’re going to find out.”

  Raven returned wafting a business card around in her hand. “Here, this is Mandy Freeman’s business card. She was some sort of wiz with computers. But she was selling her company as she’d been given some devastating news shortly before I met her.”

  “Did she tell you what that news was?” I asked her.

  “She was terminally ill. The doctor had diagnosed her with cancer. Apparently she was getting her finances in order so she could work out her will.”

  “What about the other names, do you recognize any of them?” I asked.

  “It’s extremely rare for any of these girls to give their real names, why should they? My clients attend under false identities.”

  We showed her pictu
res of the girls. It was as though someone had just stabbed her the back.

  “I take it that you do know who these girls are?” Emily asked.

  “If these girls are dead, it has nothing to do with my club or anyone who attends it. I can assure you of that,” she demanded.

  “No one’s accusing you of anything, Ms. Black,” Emily remarked.

  “I know these girls. Every one of them, they come to me through an anonymous source” she informed us.

  “Anonymous? So someone is recommending your services to them? That means that you have some sort of unknown connection. I think it’s time to stop playing games with us, Ms. Black. Your clients, there is a way that they contact you?” I asked her.

  “I have an email account. It’s specifically used for clients to contact me.”

  “Show me!” We followed her to her office, where she opened up her laptop and showed us the emails that had been sent back and forth. I scrolled through the messages and found some very disturbing requests. “Emily, we need a copy of all of these emails.”

  “You can’t do that. They’re private, my clients must have complete confidentiality.”

  “And you think you can stop me because?” Raven pursed her lips tight. “No, I didn’t think so. Unplug the laptop, Emily. It’s coming with us, Raven Black, any complaints—take it up with my boss, his name is Mike.”

  “You’re going to regret that. I’m not scared of your bullying tactics. You Feds think that you are above everyone when you’re just a bunch of dicks in suits.”

  Emily wrapped the cable around the laptop and tucked it all under her arm. She brushed past Raven, cutting her a sly look. “Don’t ever underestimate us, Raven. We do our job for a reason, perhaps that’s something that you’ll never comprehend but at least we can sleep at night knowing that we weren’t the cause of someone’s death. Perhaps you should give some criticism to what you do—making money from girls who are vulnerable, is that something to be proud of?”

  Raven crossed her arms over her chest—her facial expression was that of someone who clearly felt more remorse for having a material object confiscated from her than feeling any type of guilt as a contributor to the deaths of these girls.

  ♦♦♦

  Emily placed the laptop in the trunk of the car and opted to drive. “You were a bit harsh back in there,” she said starting the engine up.

  “She got what she deserved. Besides, I didn’t get much sleep last night. Kate’s too scared to be alone in the house and now Rosa—”

  “Ooh, Rosa. So are you getting the old heart pangs back for her?”

  “You know, it’s a good job I know that you’re kidding. God, I can’t believe that I now have to explain to Kate that I’m working with Rosa. She’s going to flip.”

  “Then why cause yourself any unnecessary agro? Don’t tell her and hope that she doesn’t find out.”

  “It’s Kate. Do you really want to go there?”

  “You have a point.”

  Chapter Four

  Entering the lobby, Victor was sitting at his desk and talking on the phone. He covered the mouthpiece with his hand and gave me his usual nod and daily smile—followed by, “Good morning Miss. Bleu.” I nodded back and continued to the elevator.

  Reaching my floor, the doors slid open and as I stepped out Cheri Bourque came trotting toward me. “Hold the door,” she squealed. Her skirt too tight around her legs for her to run properly, she scurried over the marble floor—her stilettos irritatingly tapping. I was confronted with a low cut chiffon top filled with breasts the size of chickens and a mouthful of her strong perfume as she brushed past me and entered the elevator. Before I could walk away she stopped the door from closing. “You don’t think much of me, do you, Paige?” she said.

  I turned around to look at her and smirked. Did I really have time for this? It was bad enough having a girlfriend at home that I had to explain myself to and an ex-girlfriend that I now found myself working on the same case who seemed to think that I owed her. “I don’t think much of you? How would you know what I think?”

  “You look at me with disgust in your eyes. I see it, I’m not some stupid ditzy idiot who doesn’t notice these things. Do you honestly think that I would be working here if I was stupid? Think about it, Paige! And don’t think that I didn’t know about your little bets about me. Perhaps there are some situations that need to happen in order to find out information. Do you honestly think that I enjoy fucking married men, had not one of you considered that I may be working on something that none of you were EVER going to be privy to? Your private detective didn’t think to delve too far into my background, did he? All of you were only interested in whether I was fucking Jeremy Dorn or not. Well I was!! Screw you, Paige, screw the lot of you for thinking that you’re all better than me when I have more intelligence than the lot of you put together!” Her face had turned a deep shade red and her breathing had enhanced from her anger. With her eyes wide, her nostrils flared, she pressed the button for the door to close.

  At least now I understood why Mike had kept her on the books for so long. The sneaky bitch has been snitching on Jeremy Dorn. I continued along the hallway to my office, where before reaching it, I noticed that the door was wide open. This was my personal office and I held the key.

  “Instead of standing out in the hallway, I can only assume, looking bewildered. Why don’t you come in, Paige?” Rosa called from inside.

  I closed the door behind me—removed my jacket and hung it over the back of my chair and then proceeded to sit behind my desk. “I don’t care much for people gaining entry into my office when I’m not here, Rosa. What do you want?” I opened my laptop and hit the start button, making sure that I didn’t maintain eye contact with her.

  “You can’t avoid me, Paige. We’re working together, here, on a case. Can’t we get along, please?” She pouted her lips and batted her eye lashes.

  “Just fuck off, Rosa. I hate that I’m forced to work this case with you. I hate that you’re here and now I have to explain that to Kate.” I closed the laptop and got up out of my seat. Feeling restless, I walked over to the window—my arms folded across my chest and my back to her. “I also hate that I loved you and that you broke my heart. I hate that I turned into a cold hearted bitch after we…after you destroyed what we had.” I stared out of the window, not paying any interest to the surrounding buildings or the street below.

  I hadn’t heard Rosa get up out of her seat. She stood behind me—silent. Her hands made their way around my waist and she pushed herself up against my back. I felt lost—almost numb. She rested her face on my shoulder and snuggled into my neck. Just for one short instant I felt safe. I had dropped my hard-ass image and allowed her into my vulnerability—god I was tired of this act. Tired of taking care of everyone else around me and not having someone to just sweep me off my feet and make me feel as though I didn’t have to be in control all the time. That was what I had with Rosa. Before I even knew what was happening, I turned around sharply and grabbed her face with both of my hands and without a word, I kissed her hard. She pressed me up against the window—her hands forcing the zip down on my pants and then then aggressively finding their way between my thighs. I couldn’t breathe, my mind was filling with crazy reminiscing images of when we used to fuck. I unbuttoned my shirt and pulled it out from the waistband and then whipped it open to reveal my bra. She lunged in with her mouth and began to kiss and bite at the bare skin. I wanted her badly—she was like an addiction filling the emptiness that I felt. She raised my arms over my head and held them firmly at the wrists against the cold pane of glass. “Fuck me,” I cried. Her hand tugged at my pants—slipping them down my legs but just as she was about to pursue any further, there was a knock on the door. I snapped out of my susceptible frame of mind and immediately shoved Rosa away from me. I was horrified at myself for allowing this situation to get as far as it had.

  The knock came again. “Miss. Bleu, are you in there?” a young woman’s voice c
alled from behind the door.

  “Wait outside!” I snapped at her. I hadn’t recognized her voice.

  Rosa stood in front of me—the expression on her face was one of triumph. “I knew you wanted me,” she said smugly.

  I pulled my pants up and brushed past her, fastening my shirt up as quickly as I could and tucking it back into the waistband. I tidied my hair and re-composed myself before opening the door.

  A rather embarrassed looking girl, in her early-twenties, stood with an envelope in her hand. “This is for you, Miss. Bleu.”

  I snatched the envelope out of her hand. “Who are you?”

  “I was hired yesterday. Juliana.”

  “Hmm, okay. Did Mike hire you?”

  “Yes.” She turned to walk away but hesitated and turned back. “I made sure that no one could see you in your office, with it having a lot of glass and the door being glass…”

  “Really? And just what do you think that you saw, Juliana?”

  She looked even more embarrassed and I wasn’t even sure why I was pressing her so hard for information. I had acted a fool and anyone could have seen us. Juliana had saved my ass and not just in my job but for Kate’s sake too.

  “Nothing, I saw nothing.” She walked away—her head bowed low.

  I called after her. “Juliana, wait.” She turned around. “Thank you.” A smile crossed her face and then she continued to walk away. I closed the door behind me and seeing that Rosa was about to step toward me—probably thinking that we were going to pick up where we had left off, I darted over toward my desk and stood behind it. Without looking at her I opened my laptop back up and sat down in the leather chair. “You had better leave. And in future, unless it’s business, I don’t want to be in the same room as you, let alone talk to you. Is that clear?”

  Rosa tidied herself up by smoothing down her clothing and picking up her purse, she calmly headed for the door. Holding the handle she looked back at me. “I know you well enough, Paige. Perhaps too well and that’s why I hardly have to make an effort for you to break your egotistic rules about being faithful with Kate.”