A Murder State of Mind Boxed Set Read online

  “Makes me hungry just thinking about that barbecue.” Kelly smacked his lips. “You can consider that a promise. As soon as the cops have finished their work and everything’s out in the air I’ll call your girl and set up a date and time.”

  Before pulling out of Tickle Me Pink’s parking lot, Kelly took out his cell phone and called Gillian. “What do you say to my stopping by Luigi’s and picking up dinner for two?”

  “I’d say you will be entitled to a huge reward. Especially if that dinner includes a bottle of Chianti.”

  “The lady’s wish is my command. I’ll be there in half an hour.”

  Ten minutes later Kelly stopped at Luigi’s Deli on Forest Park, selected two orders of cannelloni with Italian sausages, a bottle of Chianti Classico and a loaf of freshly baked Italian bread. He’d have to leave for Tickle Me Pink about midnight, but there’d still be a couple of hours to kill after dinner and considering how scarce personal time had been for the couple, Kelly figured they wouldn’t have any problem figuring out what to do with themselves until it was time for him to leave.

  Chapter Nine

  This isn’t me being a prude or anything but I think that the explicit sex in these are over the top. They are your books but I would tone it down. There are several scenes in this book and they are all explicit. It’s up to you but I would cut out some of the scenes or make them more implied than explicit."That was wonderful." Gillian wiped her mouth with her napkin and picked up her wine glass. “I’m so full it’s a good thing I’m not wearing my jeans because I’d probably have to unzip them.”

  Across the table Kelly placed his fork down on his plate, and lifted his wineglass to hers. “Got any ideas on how we might work off some of that pasta before we both have to consider new wardrobes?”

  Gillian stood and reached for Kelly’s hand. “Why don’t we take these wine glasses upstairs and I’ll see if I can think of anything.”

  In the bedroom, Gillian stripped off the simple cotton dress she’d been wearing and laid it, together with her bra and panties, on the stand beside her queen-sized bed and lay down on her back.

  “An invitation not to be refused.” Kelly dropped his jeans and briefs on the floor and slid onto the bed. Leaning over, his eyes took in her golden hair fanned out across the pillow, her blue eyes smiling into his and her slim golden limbs, with perfectly formed un-siliconed breasts and warm pink nipples standing stiff with arousal. “Delicious.” He bent his head and fastened his lips over one nipple while he gripped the other and gently kneaded it between his fingers.

  "I’m so ready for you." Gillian opened her legs and Kelly moved between them until his manhood probed her mound.

  “And I for you,” he breathed, entering and filling her.

  “Oh yes.” She wrapped her legs around his back and tightened her muscles as she joined him in the universal dance of love.

  * * *

  It had taken every ounce of willpower Kelly possessed to drag himself out of Gillian’s queen-sized bed and into the night, to visit the kind of bar that didn’t now and never had held the slightest interest for him.

  In the first place, he liked his women wholesome and healthy, something you seldom found in the dim environs of shady nightclubs, and in the second place, he was definitely not partial to silicone. The old adage that any more than a mouthful was a waste might be a crude way to describe his preference for compact healthy female breasts, but the description, tasteless as it might be, was apt enough and one he’d definitely make sure Gillian never heard come out of his mouth.

  The White Turtle turned out to be an old Southern mansion set way back from the road at the end of a tree lined drive. The mansion had obviously been restored to its former glory and judging by the brilliant glow lighting the mansion and all the surrounding outbuildings and gardens, it sure fit the profile of a private membership club. Real cozy, Kelly thought. If we’re on the right track then sure as hell the upper story of this place has been converted into private bedrooms.

  Taking out his cell phone, Kelly got Gus on the line. “This place sure fits the bill for one of those private membership clubs. It's just past the Radium Road turnoff of Highway 287. It’s secluded and sits well back from the road. There’s a gate, where I’ll probably have to show the card Buddy gave me. No sign of any other security, but they wouldn’t make that obvious in any case. If the operation is anywhere near as complex as you think it might be, then they’ll probably have plenty of muscle inside and out of sight.”

  “Okay, I know the area. There’s a side road just beyond you, we’ll get prepared for a raid whenever you say the word. Just press speed dial on your cell and that’s to be our signal. Make sure you don’t hit it by mistake, because once I get your call we’ll light that place up like the fourth of July.”

  “Good. I’m going in now.”

  Kelly hung up the phone and pulled up to the gate, stopped his truck and rolled down his window.

  “Do you have a membership card?” a metallic voice came over a loudspeaker.

  “I’m a guest of Buddy Thorpe. I have one of his cards for introduction.”

  “Drive through and around to the right side of the building. You can park there and someone will meet you at the door on that side.

  The gate opened and Kelly drove through the gates and down the long driveway. There were about a dozen cars in the front lot, not full by any means, but Kelly followed instructions and pulled around to the right side of the building.

  An unobtrusive door near the back of the building stood open wide enough for the head and shoulders of a small Asian woman, who waved at Kelly when he got out of the truck and signaled for him to come down to that door.

  The woman asked for his card, took it to a computer, entered what Kelly presumed was the number printed on the back of the card, and returned the card to Kelly.

  “Follow me. Someone will come and get you shortly. Do you care for a refreshment?”

  “Nothing right now. Thanks.” Kelly smiled and the girl opened a door and motioned for him to enter.

  Inside Asian screens had been strategically placed to shield patrons from the direct gaze of each other. The room was heavily draped with red and gold wall hangings and a humidor sat beside each overstuffed chair. Cigar smoke and something else—opium maybe—hung in the air.

  Kelly followed the Asian girl to a chair and sat. Kelly had seen the outline of at least two other patrons, but nobody spoke. Minutes passed, and Kelly thought about his next move.

  He didn’t want to signal Gus until he had positive proof of what the operation was selling. He needed a cover story, good enough to get him accepted as a customer, but not so good that he’d find himself having to take a girl into a room himself. In order to make a solid case for child endangerment and juvenile prostitution, Gus needed the testimony of a patron who actually had sex with one of those kids.

  Of course that meant that the patron was going to have to be given immunity in exchange for his testimony, and that stuck in Kelly’s craw. He’d been around long enough, though, to know that sometimes you had to throw some of the little ones back if you wanted to nail the big ones. They didn’t really know if this club had any connection to the pictures found in Sam’s locker, but it was a reasonable assumption that if the owners were involved in juvenile prostitution they wouldn’t turn their noses up at the extremely lucrative child pornography market.

  Involuntarily Kelly clenched his fists—those girls were the real victims, but right now he needed to keep his focus. He wasn’t sure what, if anything, he’d be able to find out about Sam and his connection to this place, but for now he’d be satisfied just finding out how the operation worked. Once he had observed and could testify that the club was running an underage prostitution ring under the guise of a membership club, Gus could come down on them hard, and any connection Sam had with the organization would become a bargaining chip between the beleaguered owners and their lawyers, with Sam most certainly coming out the loser.

&
nbsp; Of course this could all be a big coincidence. Angelina could have misinterpreted the conversation she’d overheard, or dazed from the concussion she might be putting together snatches of things she’d heard from different people and at different times. Concussions were known to scramble brains, so it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that her memory had patched together a whole series of unrelated statements into what seemed like the same conversation.

  Kelly yawned and stretched out his legs. Tough climbing out of that bed and having to sit in this overly warm room and keep himself awake.

  Keep your mind on the matter at hand. He forced his thoughts away from Gillian and the bed and back to what he’d read in Angelina’s statement.

  Certainly Dr. Martin seemed to be innocent of any involvement. That didn’t mean that Sam and one or two of the other boys weren’t having a conversation about underage girls and a club where you could get special treatment, after the doctor left them, and when Angelina overheard their conversation she just assumed the doctor was still there because he’d been with the boys when she saw them talking together earlier.

  Getting up and crossing the room, on the pretense of looking for a bathroom, Kelly stuck his head through the door and an Asian girl padded over to inquire.

  “Wait not much longer,” she reassured him. Kelly smiled and spoke in a lowered voice.

  “I’d appreciate a men’s room.”

  “Oh. Is back inside. The door by the window.” She pointed towards the left, and Kelly nodded and stepped back through the doorway.

  Under the guise of looking for the door the girl had indicated, Kelly managed to get a glimpse of the other two customers in the room. One, a middle-aged Chinese businessman in his 40s and the other an elder statesman type with steel grey hair and one of those waxed mustaches popular in the 1930s.

  To keep his inquiry legitimate, Kelly crossed to the door in question, entered, waited a few moments, flushed the toilet and washed his hands. When he returned to the sitting room the Chinese business man was gone.

  I better come up with something plausible in a hurry. Kelly needed an explanation for his presence that would allow him to ask questions—and get a look at what was on offer inside—without actually putting himself into a room with an underage girl.

  A different girl entered the room and escorted the old guy through a back door.

  Guess I’m next. While sitting there pondering the situation Kelly had come up with what he hoped was a workable plan. Things seemed to be moving faster now, so he’d likely get a chance to test his idea very soon.

  That proved to be exactly the case when a couple of minutes later the girl who had taken the elder statesman away came back through the same door and approached Kelly.

  “My name is Mia.” She held out her hand.

  “Kelly McWinter. Nice to meet you ma’am.”

  “You are a guest of Mr. Thorpe, yes?”

  “That’s right little lady.” Kelly turned up the wattage on his smile and thickened his Southern drawl. “Buddy ‘n me go way back, and when I went to see him with a little problem he suggested this place.”

  “Ahhh, I see,” the girl gave him a knowing smile. “Gentlemen with problems often find us very helpful.” She’d jumped to the conclusion that Kelly was suffering from impotency, just as he’d hoped she would. Now to work that angle. If he could convince her that he’d been having fantasies about an older man making it with an Asian school girl, and that fantasy was the only thing that gave him any sexual release.

  “You follow, yes?” The girl stopped in front of a Gone with the Wind style staircase and indicated that Kelly should follow her up.

  As he climbed, Kelly went over his story. It was going to be tricky getting permission to watch another girl with one of their customers. Undoubtedly their members had an expectation of privacy, but Kelly had come prepared to pay for any little favors he might be able to wheedle out of the staff. It was worth a try. If that didn’t work, he’d have to settle for accepting a school girl—he’d hold out for that to make sure they gave him one of the young ones. When he got her into the room, if she spoke any English he might try to explain, but if not, he’d make the call to Gus and hang onto the girl at all costs. His testimony wouldn’t be as good as that of a patron who had actually used the girl, but it would be better than no testimony at all, and with luck they might get the girl to name some of the men.

  * * *

  “You wait.” The girl held open the door of a Victorian era sitting room.

  Kelly tentatively sat down in the fancy looking, heavily carved chair that sat in front of the ladies writing desk, and waited. A door on the side of the room opened and a woman of indecipherable age entered. She had her face painted that ghostly white favored by Oriental opera stars, and her jet black hair fastened high in a double bun and lodged with two carved wooden hair sticks.

  The woman took at seat behind the desk and sought Kelly’s eyes.

  Shifting straight in his chair, Kelly met her stare. “Howdy ma’am,” he drawled, “I guess you must be my hostess.”

  The woman nodded, still unsmiling and opened a folder that had been placed on the desk.

  “You seek a companion?”

  “Well, uhm, yes ma’am,” Kelly blushed and dropped his eyes. “You see, I’ve uh, got this little problem.”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s embarrassing, but I guess you’ve heard it all before.”

  The woman bobbed her head up and down and waited for him to continue.

  “It’s the dangdest thing. I can’t seem to get anything done when I’m with a woman. I’ve tried lots, and every time it’s the same thing. We get it going, I’m in the preliminaries, she’s ready and prime, and as soon as I go to drop my pants little Willie shrivels up like a boiled peanut. The only thing that gets me hard enough to give myself a wank is looking at pictures of old guys getting it on with school girls.” Kelly coughed and tried to smile, but the woman stayed stone-faced, and Kelly cut the smile.

  “You want a school girl?”

  “No, well, yes, maybe, but what I really want is to watch the same kind of action that I’ve been seeing in the pictures, and then, if it gets hard, I’d like to maybe join the couple and see if that might work.”

  The woman shook her head. “Our customers demand strict privacy.”

  “Yes ma’am. I respect that. Like I said, I know this is unusual, but I’ve come prepared.” Kelly reached into his pocket and pulled out a thick wad of bills, with hundreds showing on both sides. “Perhaps you could talk to one of your customers?” He held out the money.

  “I’ll see. Wait here.” She grabbed the bills and left the room.

  I figured them Franklin’s would get Miz Frigid Face moving, Kelly chuckled silently.

  About ten or fifteen minutes had passed when the woman stepped back into the room.

  “Come with me.”

  Kelly stood up and followed her down the hall, up a flight of stairs and down another long hallway. She stopped in front of a red padded door and turned to Kelly.

  “Inside you will sit in front of the window and watch. No speaking while there is filming. After, I’ll come back inside and if you like, we will discuss the next part of the arrangement.

  She’s got a taste of the money and figures there’s more where that came from, Kelly calculated.

  “About the film,” he motioned towards the camera aimed at the window. “Will it be available?”

  “We will discuss after.”

  Ahh, another dip in the wallet. Won’t she just love it when Gus grabs up all these goodies.

  Kelly nodded and took his seat in front of what he assumed was a one way mirror.

  “Remember, no noise.” The woman pointed at his crotch, and Kelly gave her a sheepish grin.

  A sloppily fat man in his late fifties or early sixties, wearing a red velvet dressing gown entered the room, dropped the robe, and spread-eagled on the bed.

  Gross. Kelly shuddered.
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  A minute later the door opened and a dainty little Asian girl entered the room. Dressed in a tiny bra and even tinier bikini panties, she looked to be about twelve.

  The girl approached the man on the bed and stopped. He lifted a finger and motion her forward.

  Kelly stiffened and reached for the cell in his pocket.

  Inside the room the girl stepped forward and lard ass grabbed the front of her bra and yanked it off. Instinctively the girl covered her breast, and the bastard slapped her hands away.

  “Son-of-a-bitch.” Kelly pressed the button that would bring Gus and his entourage.

  Turning back to the window, Kelly stifled an urge to dive through and rescue the girl. The man had both arms wrapped around her waist and appeared to be struggling to lift her onto the bed.

  Stupid bastard. She wouldn’t weigh more than 90 pounds soaking wet. Desperate to stop what was going on in the next room, Kelly grabbed the film out of the projector, and shoved open the door. To hell with this shit. Gus would have to get enough off this tape to make his case or break the asshole in the room. No way Kelly was letting that sick pervert go any further with that kid.

  * * *

  Hours later, after giving instructions to his team regarding the parties rounded up in the raid on the house, Gus joined Kelly in the front seat of Old Blue.

  “How you holding up?”

  Kelly shook his head. “There isn’t much I haven’t seen or had to handle, but that one got me. I tried to get as much as I could on tape, but no way in hell could I sit back and let the monster take that little girl.”

  Gus nodded. “I appreciate that Kelly. As soon as the perp found out that you were an undercover cop, and we had everything on tape, he couldn’t sing fast enough.”