Unexpected Visitors
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At the moment when Cheryl and the girls began their game of Truth or Dare, Gwen was entering her home with a bag of groceries. She had stopped on the way home to pick up a few things.
When she saw the silhouette of the large man sitting in one of her dining chairs, she dropped the bag. The sound of eggs breaking seemed to fill the room for a brief second, then silence.
“I have a few questions to ask you.” It was Mitch. He reached up and turned on the reading lamp beside the chair. Both the chair and a lamp had been moved from their usual places so that Mitch could see her enter. She stared into his face, wondering if she would ever be seen again.
Mitch took out a .45 handgun and pointed it at Gwen. “Now, Ms. Fremont, private detective, suppose we dispense with the bullshit about you being some lady pimp wanting to expand your business.”
Gwen stared at Mitch, but all she could see was the dark hole at the end of the muzzle of the handgun. It looked like a long, dark tunnel that led to eternity. It held her, spellbound with fear.
“Ms. Fremont, you there?”
Her eyes jerked up to look at his face. She felt oddly surprised to see Mitch there. “Yeah. I mean, yes. I’m okay.”
“Have a seat,” Mitch said, indicating a second dining chair, which had also been moved. “Make yourself comfortable,” he added, as if he owned the house and Gwen was a guest. The dining chair faced Mitch from an angle to his right about ten feet from where he sat.
“So,” he continued, “what was the real reason you wanted to, well, do what you did?”
“You know I can’t divulge information about that,” Gwen said.
Mitch had seemed pleasant until that moment. He leaned forward and his eyes got hard, along with his voice. “Listen, lady, I’m going to divulge a bullet into your brain or you’re going to tell me everything about this case. Do you understand?”
Gwen considered trying to run for it, but as her body tensed to flee, she noticed Mitch’s chauffeur out of the corner of her eye. He was now blocking her only escape route from this boxed in room. She had no idea where he had been when she entered, probably hiding in the coat closet until she walked past it to sit down so he could do exactly what he was doing now — keep her from running.
“So I will ask once more,” Mitch continued, his voice calm again, as if he were asking her if she wanted some tea. “What was the real reason you approached me looking for a partnership with Mr. Craven?”
Gwen realized she had no choice. Mitch had probably been the one to kill Kinsey and maybe even Cindy. He would have no qualms about killing her. She could disappear just like Cindy. She would have to tell him and hope he wouldn’t kill her when she’d finished. She had never felt fear like this before. Until that day, she had never felt her life was in danger because of her job. The movies and TV made it look as if private detectives had their lives threatened on a daily basis, but that wasn’t true. She’d been in this business for seven years, and this was the first time she felt truly in danger of being killed. Oh, she’d had cheating husbands threaten her, but she knew those were the empty threats of bullies.
This was different. Mitch wasn’t a bully trying to scare her. He was a man who killed other people.
The fear welled up in her and she felt herself begin to cry. At the same time, Gwen’s bladder let go from fear and she felt the urine running down to the chair and onto the floor. Mitch just glanced down at the growing puddle and said, “Well?” Obviously, he’d seen this happen before.
“Are you going to kill me?” she asked, barely able to control the shaking of her voice.
“Not if you convince me I have no reason to,” he said. “So tell me what I want to know.” Now his voice gained an edge of impatience.
“I was hired to find out what happened to Cindy.”
“Who’s Cindy?” Mitch asked. The frightening thought that he’d killed so many people he had lost track of their names shot through Gwen’s mind.
“One of the call girls Mr. Craven had working for him.”
“Oh, that Cindy,” he said. His glance moved to focus his mind on a distant memory then returned to Gwen. “Why are you looking for her?”
“She has a daughter who would like to know what happened to her mother,” Gwen said. Even in her fright, she felt the anger rise in her that someone would deprive a child of her mother and allow the child to grow up wondering what had happened.
“Don’t tell me the daughter hired you. She’s only, what now? Ten, eleven?”
It surprised Gwen that this man knew so much about Jenna. Had they ever met? “No, Jenna didn’t hire me.”
“Then who did?”
“Please don’t hurt her. She just wants to know if Cindy is dead or alive.”
Something in Mitch’s face changed. “Kayleigh hired you?”
Gwen was shocked he’d figured it all out so easily, but she managed a nod before saying, “She means nobody any harm. She just wants to know for Jenna.”
Mitch sat in thought for a moment.
“Kayleigh.” The word had been spoken to nobody. It sounded more like a sigh than a name. Mitch looked at Gwen. He seemed to make a decision. She hoped it was in her favor. He let out a deep breath and said, “Tell Kayleigh that Cindy’s alive, but she needs to stop looking for her because she won’t find her. And if she keeps searching, she won’t like what happens. And neither, may I add, will you.”
Hope re-entered Gwen’s life. If she was going to deliver a message to Kayleigh, she’d have to live. Not only that, but Mitch knew Cindy was alive.
“You’re sure she’s not dead?”
“Positive. Listen, I wouldn’t tell you shit but Mr. Craven sorta owes Kayleigh. This is that payback.”
“Why can’t we know where she is?”
“Because I fucking said so!” Anger had burst back into his voice. “I will tell you this. She belongs to someone else now, and that someone would not take kindly to some nosy bitch sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. This guy paid Cindy’s debt to Mr. Craven, and he gave the guy Cindy in return. It was a business transaction. She’s alive and fine, but trying to find her will result in her not being alive and fine, along with whoever is snooping around.”
“Okay, I get it,” Gwen said. “I’ll tell Kayleigh what you’ve said.”
“Good. Now, my friend and I are going to leave. If you contact the police about my little visit here, the next time we meet won’t be so pleasant. Understand?” Mitch arched his brows to emphasize the point.
“Perfectly,” Gwen said.
Mitch stood and he and the chauffeur left through the front door.
Gwen broke down in sobs of relief as the fear dissipated.
After showering and putting on fresh clothes, she cleaned up the mess left behind by her bladder and the bag of groceries. Then she went to her bedroom, where she unlocked a cabinet and removed from the recorder marked “Front” the VHS tape that covered the past few days. It was set to take a single-frame picture every seven seconds. She replaced this tape with a new one and pushed the old tape into the VCR. She rewound the tape just a small bit and pressed play, watching for the images of Mitch and the chauffeur to show up. She didn’t care about the chauffeur. She mostly just wanted Mitch. She prayed she had a good shot of him.
She had decided to put the hidden security cameras in so that they would take a picture of anyone approaching her front or back door two years ago. It had cost more than she’d wanted to spend at the time, but it was worth it. Ornamental wrought iron flowers hid the lenses. Even she had to look very closely to even notice there was a camera lens there.
After a moment, the image of Mitch filled the screen. There he was, and she was in luck. The picture showed his face clearly. Now she had a picture of Mitch to show Kayleigh. Gwen wanted to see if her client knew him. If she did, she might be able to shed some light on what could be done about him, if anything.
Before leaving, she called Kayleigh’s home, but there was no answer. She debated leaving a message. If Mitch went there, he might listen to it, but she figured she had no choice.
“Kayleigh, it’s Gwen. When you hear this message, lock your doors and don’t answer the door unless it’s me. Don’t let anyone in at all. I’ll be right over to explain. I’ll wait for you in your driveway if you’re not home when I get there.”
Going to her front door, Gwen checked through the window beside it to see that nobody was watching her house before she opened the door to leave. She needed to get to Kayleigh’s as soon as she could.
*******
Kayleigh drove up her driveway after stopping for a drink on the way home from dropping Cheryl and Jenna at Marie’s and parked in her usual spot. Letting herself in, she went into the kitchen and noticed the phone’s message light blinking.
At first she didn’t want to listen to it until later. She longed to take a hot shower and masturbate to images of what was happening that night at Marie’s. Sometimes she was envious of her daughters. She thought of Jenna as her own now, despite the fact her real mother might be alive somewhere, but as time passed, she doubted that to be the case. Every day seemed to make it more likely that Cindy was dead, her body destined never to be found.
Now, however, she wanted to get that hot bath and imagine. She wanted to fantasize that she was seventeen again and at a party that included young girls. She’d been fortunate enough to have done just that when she was younger, but she was almost thirty now, and she knew the teen slumber parties no longer included her.
The blinking light on the recorder seemed to call to her, though. For some reason she felt maybe she should at least listen to the recording before having a night of solo sex. She’d ask her sister Emily to spend the night, except she was out of town until next week.
Giving in to the blinking light, she pressed the button and listened to the sole message that had been left four minutes before she got home.
It was from Gwen, and the urgency as she told her to lock her doors shot a chill up her spine and raised goosebumps on her arms. She could hear the fear in Gwen’s voice.
Running to the front door, she locked it, hoping she wasn’t locking herself in with someone rather than locking a criminal out. Taking a butcher knife from the kitchen, she began going from room to room, opening closets and peering around corners. She didn’t know what had caused the urgent warning in the phone message, but the thought of Kinsey kept nagging at her, giving the warning more power.
She was startled by the doorbell, jumping in fright and letting out an involuntary yelp of fear and surprise.
Going to the door, she listened for a moment before peering through the peephole in the door. “Are you alone?” she asked through the door.
“Yes, let me in. It’s important.”
Unlocking the door, she let Gwen enter before bolting it shut again.
“What the hell is going on?” Kayleigh asked.
“Cindy’s alive.”
Kayleigh froze at this news. It was as if she was operated by electricity and the power had been shut off. She stood there, staring at Gwen. She couldn’t believe what she’d just heard.
“Are you sure?”
“That’s what Mitch said.”
“The guy you met who left you half-dressed on an on-ramp to a freeway?”
“Yes. And I have a video with his picture on my home security system. Do you have a VCR?”
“You’re kidding, right? With my job? It’s a necessity.”
Kayleigh led Gwen to the VCR and they plugged the tape in. Immediately, the picture of Mitch filled the screen.
Kayleigh froze again. Shit, this can’t be happening, she thought.
Gwen turned to Kayleigh and stopped short herself at the sight of Kayleigh’s shocked expression. “You know him?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
“I’ve met him. Once at a party.”
“Do you know who he is? He says his name’s Mitch, but I doubt that’s his real name.”
“You’re right. His name is Mark,” Kayleigh said, her voice sounding far away as if someone else were speaking.
“What does he do for Mr. Craven? Is he, like, his right-hand man or something?” Gwen asked.
“No, he doesn’t do anything for Mr. Craven,” Kayleigh nearly whispered. “He is Mr. Craven.”
Gwen was stunned. She thought he was not exactly who he said he was, but she never suspected he was the man himself. She felt as if she were in a sequel to the movie The Usual Suspects, where the scared flunky turned out to be the professional killer everyone was looking for, even though Mitch was no scared flunky.
“Holy fucking… are you kidding me?! He’s Mr. Craven?!” Gwen asked. Her face registered how stunned she was by this news.
Kayleigh just nodded.
“Well, I guess that makes some sense anyway,” Gwen said, remembering that he had mentioned that Mr. Craven owed Kayleigh a favor.
“What do you mean?” Kayleigh asked.
“He said something about owing you a favor. What was that all about?”
“Oh,” Kayleigh said, considering her answer. “Years ago, I introduced him to the person now known as Lynnette Baxter. He’s made a ton of money off of her talents.”
“Isn’t she the one who can lick her own pussy and ass?”
“Yeah.”
Gwen chuckled for the first time since walking into her home that evening. “Do you know how often I’ve wanted to be able to do that?”
“Join the club, girl,” Kayleigh said before quickly changing the subject to the matter at hand. “So what did he say about Cindy, exactly?”
Gwen filled Kayleigh in on the details of their meeting.
“So she’s alive and being pimped by someone else?” Kayleigh said.
“That’s what it sounded like.”
“Do you think he meant it… what he said… about not trying to find her or we’d die?” Kayleigh asked.
“Oh, yeah. He meant it. Definitely.”
“So you think we should drop it? Do you think she’s safe with this other person?” Kayleigh said.
Gwen looked at Kayleigh, basically one of her employers. At least she was until this moment.
“Yeah. As hard as it is to say, yeah. I think you should drop it. I know I am. About whether or not she’s safe, I suppose she’s as safe as she’s going to get. At least she’s still alive, and it’s been three years.”
“So you’re saying if I want to continue, I’ll have to find another investigator?” Kayleigh frowned, her brow furrowing in displeasure.
“Sorry, but yes.” Gwen paused before continuing. “Kayleigh, he scared the shit out of me. He literally scared the piss out of me. I peed myself sitting right there in front of him. He just watched me do it and continued the conversation as if nothing had happened. I got the feeling he’s used to scaring people that badly.”
“Okay. I’ll take your advice and cool it for a while. He must be in contact with this other person who now ‘owns’ Cindy. I could see Mr. Craven asking how she’s doing, if the guy is happy with her, that kind of thing,” Kayleigh said.
“Listen, she’s not doing anything she wasn’t doing before,” Gwen said. “She’s just doing it for someone else now. Something tells me if she can negotiate her release from whatever is making her have to stay, she will show up here. I wouldn’t be surprised if she does show up one day.”
“I suppose so,” Kayleigh said.
It had grown dark outside. The two women eyed the night with suspicion and a dose of fear.
Then Kayleigh turned to Gwen. “I’m alone tonight. What about you?”
“Yeah,” Gwen admitted, hoping this was going where she thought it might. “Nobody in my plans,” she said before adding, “yet.”
“You wanna spend the night?” Kayleigh asked. “Cheryl and Jenna are at Marie’s slumber party.”
“Yeah, I took Carmen by Marie’s before going home to my nightmare. I’d like to stay if you don’t mind. I’m afraid if I go home, I won’t get a wink of sleep worrying about him coming back. At least here, if I stay the night, there will be a better reason not to sleep.”
“Right. We can have our own slumber party,” Kayleigh said. “But I am jealous of my girls. They’re with four other girls ranging in age from twenty to ten.”
“I wonder what they’re doing right now?” Gwen said, gently pulling Kayleigh into her arms.
“Right now?” Kayleigh said, smiling at Gwen and noticing the sexy pout her lips naturally had. “Probably coming.”
“Maybe we should catch up,” Gwen said, and kissed Kayleigh, plunging her tongue into the porn star’s mouth.
Kayleigh moaned with need, and the two worked their way to Kayleigh’s bedroom, scattering clothes along the way. When they finally arrived at the side of the bed, they were naked.
And very horny.
“Something just occurred to me,” Gwen said.
“What?”
“Facing death can put you in serious need of orgasms.”
“That’s true. So… let me give you a few,” Kayleigh said, pulling Gwen on top of her as they tumbled onto the large bed.
The two women made love to each other until they finally fell asleep, exhausted.
*******
The slumber party had been an enormous success, if you counted success by the number of orgasms we had. It occurred to me that Jenna may have actually achieved the dozen climaxes she had hoped for.
When we pulled into the driveway, Sara said, “Wow! I’ve driven by here before lots of times and wondered who owned it.”
Moments later, Jenna and I had said our good-byes and entered the house. I had to use my house key to get in, which was unusual because Mom’s car was there, so I knew she was home.
“Mom?” I called as we entered the foyer.
“In the kitchen,” came the reply and Jenna and I went there.
“Why was the door locked?” I asked. “You usually have it unlocked when you’re home.”
Mom looked at me and I knew something serious had happened. First, she went to the front door and locked it again. Then she sat Jenna and me down and told us about what had happened to Gwen the evening before. Jenna was beyond thrilled to find out her mother was alive, but we were sad that she was basically being held against her will. However, the idea that someone could decide to come after us or hurt Mom scared us.
“Can’t we get the cops involved?” I asked.
“No, baby. If we do, some really bad things could happen not only to Cindy but us as well.”
Mom had mentioned the picture on the video, which she still had, so I asked if we could see it.
“Yes. I asked Gwen if I could keep it until this afternoon so I could show you two. That way you’ll know never to answer the door if he comes here,” Mom said, and we went to the den to look at the guy’s picture.
When Mom brought it up, she said, “That’s Mr. Craven. Actually, I still work for him because he owns the production company–” Her sentence ended there because that was when Jenna screamed.
“That’s him!” she shouted, pointing an accusing finger at the TV screen.
“Who?” Mom asked, but I already suspected who she meant.
“The man!” Jenna yelled, and ran from the room, crying and shouting, “The man who raped me!” as she left.
Continue on to Chapter 40
wow Cheryl , as hot as chapter 38 was this was a very good chapter the other way, like reading a good mystery. xo Kim and Sue
Very interesting! Enjoy the way you write!
Thank you!
Looking forward to more!
Larry
Sue and Larry, Thank you both!! I’m happy you are enjoying this. Look for chapter 40 to be up soon!
Holy crap! I wasn’t expecting that ending. I am finding it very difficult to put this book down, so to speak.
Just keep reading… 🙂
Wow, tension and drama follow the sex…..
Maybe Gwen’s services will be needed again after all, as well as her body!!!