PLAYING FOR KEEPS

By

FLEXMAN

 

This story was inspired by Blacknite13 excellent story “Turning The Tables.”  In my humble option, it’s the best story he’s ever written. It’s very creative because he thought outside the box and redesigned Mr. X’s characters.  I also liked his main character detective Mick Stone.  My story is not as good as his, but I hope it entertains.

 

These characters, with the exception of Nick Powell, belong to Nightwing 316.  Brenda Wade belongs to Mr. X.  This is a not for profit story.  No one under the age of 18 should read it.  Send all comments to Flexman3@hotmail.com.

 

 

 

 

My name is Nick Powell, I’m a private detective.  I left the police force because there were rumors I was on the take and keeping stolen items I recovered.  All true, but I was never actually caught, just suspected.

Now I work for crooks and mobsters, been involved in insider trading and industrial spying, blackmail, as well as some major thefts and the fencing of stolen merchandise.

I’m really a crook playing detective.  I’m in it for myself, but it has always paid off for me.  On the surface, all I have to my name is this three year old Ford Mustang and a bank account with a couple of thousand dollars.  I live in a rented apartment and work out of a rented office.  All outward appearances say I’m just a two bit detective barely making a living but that’s just window dressing.  In reality I’ve been very successful.  I have two million in an overseas numbered bank account, another four million in real estate around the city, all under dummy corporations, and I also have a piece of several successful businesses, mostly clubs, bars, motels and a used car dealership.  I’m doing very well, but no one, including the IRS or the SEC, can trace it back to me.  I figure in a few more years I’ll be able to retire and live well overseas somewhere.  I’m only thirty-eight, still too young to retire, especially when I have so much more money to make.  You got to admit, it’s a lot better then some honest cop retiring on a cheap pension.

I weigh two hundred and five pounds and I have been lifting weights all my life.  My bench maxes out at four hundred and twenty pounds, my squat at five thirty and deadlift at six hundred, all without the use of steroids.  I can also bench two hundred and twenty pounds twenty six times.  I fought golden gloves when I was younger and wrestled well in both high school and college. I have a black belt in Ju-Jitsu. In short, I’m very good at fighting and I’ve been in a lot of fights. 

 

One year ago:

 

It was around ten at night and I was hanging out at the Regency Hotel over on Langston Avenue.  I was there to gather evidence on a woman named Ellen Stanton.  Ellen’s husband suspects she’s cheating on him and he’s planning to divorce her.  He’s right, she is.  Ellen and her hubby live in Delta City.  She’s visiting Star City on business and she is not alone.  Ellen is in her early forties, she’s hanging out with a college student in his early twenties.  They went to a lavish dinner in Pietro’s, one of Star City’s most expensive restaurants, and now they are in her suite here in the Regency.  I have the whole evening well documented and photographed.  The head of security here in the Regency is a buddy of mine.  We use to be on the force together.  He almost got brought up on charges for shaking down hookers in Hell’s Garden.  I manage to make the evidence disappear so the charges were dropped.  He had to leave the force, but it was with a clean record, so he landed this cushy job here in the Regency.  He owes me.  The security cameras in the lobby show Ellen and her college student coming in to the lobby arm and arm.  Another camera shows them making out in the elevator, and the hallway camera shows them going in to her room together, complete with the time.  My buddy will make sure I get copies of those videos.  The only thing I’m waiting for is to see when the college student comes out.  That will seal the deal.  He’s already been in her room for two hours.  It will be very hard for her to claim he was in there all this time with her just playing a friendly game of checkers.  Don’t get the wrong idea, I’m not working for the husband, I’m working for myself.  Ellen is a VP of marketing at Wade Industries.  Wade’s coming out with some new MP3 player next year.  A competitor in Europe, called La Chira, wants to look at the specs for this new player.  They’re willing to pay me two hundred grand to get it for them.  Ellen doesn’t know it yet, but she’s going to get it for me.  If she doesn’t, all my evidence will go to hubby for his divorce case.  This is not a community property state; evidence of infidelity will figure big in to a judgment against her and with what I have, she’ll get reamed in the divorce settlement.  To make matters worse, Brenda Wade, the chairwoman of the board and CEO of Wade Industries doesn’t like scandal.  She values good reputations.  She’s not going to tolerate a messy divorce of one of her top VPs splashed all over the papers, especially when she finds out that Ellen used the corporate credit card to pay for her intimate dinner at Pietro’s.  She probably put it on her expense report as entertaining a client. I’ve heard of Wade firing execs for a lot less.  So yeah, Ellen will deal and get me a copy of the specs.  She’s going to want to save her assets, job, and reputation.

Anyway, I was at the bar, nursing a Jack on the rocks, and waiting for the college student to leave Ellen’s room. The bar was quiet, not too many people hanging around. I noticed a couple at the other end of the bar. They didn’t look legal, but the bartender carded them, which means they’re older then they looked or they had some pretty good fake IDs.  The guy was a stocky football player type with broad shoulders and a thick neck.  He had blond hair, blue eyes and was dressed in a sports jacket, matching slacks and a white shirt.  The girl was model thin with very generous breast.  She was also a blond with perfectly cut, shoulder length hair.  Her skin was clear and she was very good looking.  You might say she was stunning.  She was wearing a black cocktail dress that accentuates her breasts nicely and showed off her great legs.  It’s amazing what you can tell about people just by watching their body language.  Take these two for example.  He’s been drinking and was horny.  He had his hands all over her.  You can tell he’s asking her to check in to a room for some fun and games.  She was a different story.  She only drank a little and she wasn’t interested in going anywhere with him.  She kept repulsing his advances and everything about her body language said NO!  I’m not sure what line she was using on him; the ‘I’m not that kind of girl’ or ‘I just want us to be friends’ routine.  Either way, after several minutes of wrestling, she had enough and walked out.  He sat there for a minute.  At first the look on his face was disappointment, and then it quickly transitions to anger.  He pulled his wallet out, threw a couple of bucks on the bar and walked out.  I’ve seen this act before; he was going after her and it was going to turn ugly.  I paid my tab and walked out.  I went outside to the parking lot and looked around.  They were at the far end and it had started.  He was all over her, his body pinning her against a car, with his hands on her tits and between her legs.  She’s trying to push him away and reason with him and wasn’t having any luck with either.  She was trying to get away from him but she was securely trapped between him and the car and now he’s trying to take her dress off.  I got closer to get a better look.

OK, you’re probably wondering why I was just standing there watching the whole thing and not doing anything about it.  Let me tell you something, if you were to take a survey among cops, asking them what kind of call they hate the most, I bet the overwhelming choice would be domestic disturbance.  Why? Because you never know how the victim is going to react.  You can arrive at the address; witness the husband beating the living crap out of his wife, pull him off and go to arrest him and end up getting hit in the back with a frying pan by the wife.  The hubby may be kicking the shit out of her, but he’s still her man and she will not tolerate anyone hurting him.  A lot times the wife won’t even press charges. It’s stupid, I know.  This is a similar situation, if I’d move in and rescued her; there is a good chance she might sided with him.  She’ll tell the cops she and her boyfriend were just talking and I happen along and beat him up for no reason.  That’s what happen to an off duty patrolman who got in to a similar situation while I was on the job.  He almost got kicked off the force.  If that happens to me here I could lose my license.  So, I waited.  What was I waiting for?  For a look of fear in her eyes.  I’m waiting for the exact moment when she realizes she is not in control of the situation and something very bad was going to happen to her.  At the moment, all she was doing was trying to push him away and reason with him. She was acting like this was all some big misunderstanding and all she had to do is convince him she’s not interested and he’d back off, apologize and go away.  You might say she was in a sort of denial.  It took another three minutes before I saw it, but there it was.  It went fast from just plain garden variety fear to the beginnings of stark terror.  Then, I went in.  I walked up to him from behind and nailed him with a perfect shot to the kidneys.  His head goes back, bad look of pain on his face.  I grabbed his hair with my left hand, pulled him off of her and hit him hard in the solar plexus, knocking the air out of him. I then slammed him face down across the hood of a car and lock his arms behind him.  I cuff him and while still holding him face down on the car hood, I pull out my cell phone and flipped it open.  Before I call it in I looked at her.  She was shaking, breathing fast, skin is flushed.  She was also sobbing.  Her eyes were wet and red.

“I’m calling the cops,” I told her.  “They’ll be here in about two minutes.  Are you going to be able to make a statement?”

 

She looked at me for a second and then started shaking her head.  “No cops,” she said.  “Please let him go. No cops,” she repeated.

 

“Why not?  He tried to rape you and I’m a witness.  If you don’t report him, he might do it to someone else.”

 

She began sobbing louder.  “Please, my mother doesn’t know I’m here.  If she finds out, she’ll lock me in and I’ll never be able to go out again. Please no cops.”

 

There was no point in arguing, like I said, I’ve seen this act before.  She was too worried about what mommy will think and she was also anxious to get this over with and put it behind her.  If I had let the twept rape her she might be more incline to do it or I would have forensic evidence to use, but the fact was he didn’t rape her so all she wanted was for it to end.  I put away my cell phone, took out my Glock and flipped him around, so I was facing him.  He was still in pain and disoriented.  I shoved the business end of my Glock in his mouth.  Now the look of stark terror was on his face.  Having a gun shoved in your mouth will do that.

“Listen up Loverboy,” I said.  “Today is your lucky day.  If the lady had decided to press charges, you’d be going away to a bad place where bad men with massive muscles and lots of tattoos would flip cards to see who will be the first one to shove their cock in your mouth and which one will be the first to stick up your ass. They would be also deciding who gets to call you his bitch, but I guess you caught the lady in a good mood.  Here’s what’s going to happen, you are going to run, not walk, but run home.  You are never going to talk about this and you are never going to go near this nice lady again.  If you do, you will see me again and they will never find your body.  Do you understand?”

That’s the moment I smelled it; the unmistakable aroma of urine.  I looked down and saw a puddle forming by his right leg and a wetness stain running along the inside of his pants leg.

“Do you understand?”  He just looked at me with that fear on his face.  “Nod your head stupid.”

He did. I again turned him over hard, uncuffed him and threw him to on the ground.  He laid there for a minute, then looked back up at me, not sure what to do.  I smiled at him.  “You still here?”

That did it.  He got up fast and took off sprinting.  The man was fast.  I put away my cuffs and holstered my gun.  The girl was still shaking and sobbing.  I walked over to her, picked up her purse and handed it to her.

“You should go home.  I’ll call you a cab.”

 

“No, not yet,” she whispered.  “I don’t feel well.” 

 

She was right; she looked like she needed to calm down.

 “So what’s your name?” I asked her.

 

“Tiffany,” she answered.

 

“Tiffany what?”

 

“Tiffany Chaste.” 

 

“So how old are you, really?”

 

“Eighteen,” she answered. I took her back in to the hotel and she disappeared in to the lady’s room for almost fifteen minutes.  When she came out she looked better.  She had fixed herself up.  I took her back in to the bar and ordered her coffee.  Ten minutes later I saw Ellen Stanton’s college boyfriend walk out of the lobby.  Ten minutes after that my buddy showed up with my copy of the hotel surveillance tape.  He gave me the tape and I gave him two one hundred dollar bills.  We shook hands.  I went back to the girl.  “OK, I’ll drive you home.”

 

We went out to the parking lot and got in to my Mustang.

“Where to?” I asked her.  She gave me the address.  I started the car and drove out of the parking lot. We rode in silence for a few minutes and then she started talking again.  “I forgot; I didn’t thank you for saving me.  You’re not a cop.  If you were you would have arrested Pete.  So what are you?”

 

“Private,” I said.

 

“Like on TV?”

 

I laughed.  “Yeah, something like that.”

 

“Well, thank you.”

 

We continued to ride in silence until I noticed something.

“Tiffany, what kind of car does Pete drive?”

 

“A Miata, why?”

 

“Anyone else interested in you?”

 

“No, why?”

 

“Don’t look. We’re being followed.”

 

She almost looked, but caught herself.  “Are you sure?”

 

“Yeah.”  It was a brown four door Toyota Camry.  “All right listen, there’s a Chinese restaurant up ahead.  I’m going to park in the lot and go inside.  You stay in the car and wait for me.  OK?”

 

“Should I be worried?”

 

“No, don’t worry about it.  I just want to see who it is.  Keep the windows up and the doors locked.”

I turned in to the parking lot and parked near the entrance.  I again assured Tiffany not to worry and made sure the car was locked up.  I went in and straight to the back of the store.  This restaurant has two entrances, one in front that I came in and one in the back.  I went out the back and went around the building.  I edged a look around the corner and saw the Camry.  It had also entered the parking lot and was now waiting.  The driver was staring at my car.  He was so focused I was able to get closer, close enough to see who it was. 

Ok, I know him.  His name is Stan Donner, he use to be a cop.  I never worked with him but we were both out of the One Nine precinct a few years ago.  He was working plain clothes vice and he was not very good; too lazy, always trying to get by. His arrest record was garbage. Eventually, it was suggested to him that maybe he should consider another line of work.  He resigned.  I heard he got his license and now works private for some agency.

I walked up to the passenger side and knocked on the window.  He turned and looked at me.  He looked surprised.

“Let me in,” I said.  He hesitated for a second and then released the door lock. I sat next to him and shut the door.

 

“I thought that was you, Powell.”  Donner was in his mid-forties, soft in the middle, thinning brown hair, brown eyes and a protruding forehead.

 

“So, why you following me Stan?”

 

“I can’t tell you, you know that, client confidentiality.”

 

“Someone is paying you to follow me?”

 

“I wouldn’t worry about it.  It’s not you.”

 

“The girl?”

 

“There’s no one else in your car, is there?  By the way, that was a very nice thing you did, helping the girl out like that.  That guy looked awful big.”

 

“Oh yeah? And where were you while the girl was getting molested?”

 

“I was there; you just got to him first.  So, why didn’t you call it in?”

 

“Girl didn’t want me to.”

 

“Yeah, I know how that is.  The feminist always scream about the cops not doing enough and when we do, they never want to testify.  You took a chance.  Not reporting a crime can get your license pulled.”

 

I looked at him and smiled.  He was not too bright.  “So, I take it you reported it?”

 

He froze for a second, not saying anything.  “Well no.  I didn’t think that would have been a good idea.”

 

“Why’s that?”

 

He shrugged.  “It’s just that the guy’s name is Pete Kendrick.  He’s father is a big wheel in the financial district.  He’s rich, real rich.”

 

“I see.  So if you report him you’d have to testify at his trial.  The old man hires a big time criminal lawyer to defend his kid and your illustrious record on the job will come out.  Things you don’t want the agency you work for to find out about.”

He didn’t say anything.  “You know your out on a limb, don’t you?” I continued.  “You have to write up a report about your surveillance tonight.  How are you going to explain you not reporting an attempted rape incident?”

 

“I was going to leave the incident out of my report.  It hasn’t been reported, so who’s to know.”

 

“Yeah, you might be right, but if the girl changes her mind and decides to start talking you’re going to have a big problem.”

 

“Shit! I didn’t think of that. You think she’ll talk?”

 

“She’s eighteen; you never know what they’ll do at that age.  I could talk to her, at the moment I’m her hero, so I do have some influence, but before I put myself out there I want to know what I’m getting in to.  I need to know who your client is.”

 

He hesitated, going over it in his mind.  Finally, “It’s the girl’s mother.”

 

“The girl’s mother hired you to follow her?  What is it, she doesn’t trust her daughter?”

 

“Don’t you know who the girl is?”

 

“She said her name is Tiffany Chaste.”

 

“That’s right and her mother’s name is Victoria.”

 

“The lawyer?  I didn’t make the connection.  What’s she worried about?  Someone will kidnap her daughter?”

 

“I doubt it.  My instructions has never been to look out for that, just to report what the girl does; who she hangs out with, if she’s getting in to any trouble, things like that.  I get the impression she’s the overprotective type.”

 

“Why, does the girl have a history of getting in to trouble?”

 

“No, just the opposite; she never gets in to any trouble.  Tonight’s the most interesting thing that ever happened to her.  The mother always keeps her on a tight leash.  Like I said, she’s the overprotective type. Sometimes I feel sorry for the girl, she never has any fun.”

 

 

 

“Do you believe this shit!” Tiffany screamed.  Donner and I agreed that he would leave the attempted rape out of his report.  I got back to my car and told Tiffany that her mom was having her followed.  She was not happy.  “That bitch is having me followed.  Do you believe this shit!” She repeated.  “I live like a fucking prisoner.  She never let’s me do anything, I might as well be in prison.  I’m fucking eighteen years old and I’ve never done anything.  It’s pathetic.”

 

“I don’t get it.  You’re eighteen, if it bothers you so much, why don’t you move out?”

 

That stopped her cold.  She went silent for a minute and then she quietly said, “It’s not that simple…..It’s complicated.”

 

I smiled.  “In other words, mommy controls the money and you don’t feel like getting a job.  What’s the matter, waiting on tables or stacking shelves not your thing?”

 

“I start college in the fall.  If she doesn’t pay I don’t go.  No unskilled labor job paying minimum wage is going to cover that.”

 

“So stop bitching and put up with it.  If you want to go to college putting up with mommy is the price tag.”  That shut her up.  We rode in silence for while.  She looked like she was deep in thought.  Then she turns and looks at me; like she’s looking me over; sizing me up.  We get to her block and I stop.

“Not yet,” she says.  “Drive around awhile.”

 

“Why?”

 

“I need to talk to you.  I have a proposition to make to you.”  I stare at her.  She smiles.  “A business proposition.”  I didn’t move.  “Trust me; you’re going to want to hear what I have to say.  Just drive around the neighborhood, if you’re not interest you can come back and drop me off.”

 

It was probably a waste of time, but what the hell, you never know.  I stepped on the gas and we drove past her house.  I got a mile away before she started talking again.

“I’ve been thinking; you’re right about what you said.  If I want my mother to pay for college I have to put up with her, but that doesn’t mean the situation can’t be improved.  I call my allowance gum money because that’s about all I can afford to buy with it.  If I can get more money from her my situation would improve dramatically.  Problem is she’s not willing to give me more.  She’s says I’m not mature enough to handle more money.”

 

“So what’s that have to do with me?”

 

“What if I told you my mother has a secret?”

 

“Everybody has a secret, Tiffany.  That’s how I maintain the high standard of living I’ve grown accustom to.  Being a lawyer, your mother probably has more then most.”

 

“This is a big secret, that she’ll pay big time to keep it quiet and it has nothing to do with her law practice.  You handle the blackmail, charge her a monthly fee for your silence and we split it fifty, fifty. Deal?”

 

I was dubious.  She didn’t strike me as the devious type.  “It all depends on what you have.”

 

She hesitated for a minute.  “My mother is one of those costume heroines.  The one they call Puritan.”

 

I almost hit the breaks.  I stared at her.  Is she serious?  “How do you know this?”

 

“A couple of months ago I was looking in her closet and I found her costume.  I recognized it, yellow cape, purple body suit, boots, mask and a wig. The costume disappeared the next day and I didn’t say anything, but two weeks ago I saw it again, only this time, it was a different costume, a body suit, no cape, but still the same wig.  I looked it up on the web, Puritan changed her look.  The new costume again disappeared the next day.”

 

“Not to ask a stupid question, but how do you know your mother wasn’t going to a costume party or likes to pay dress up with her boyfriend?”

 

“My mother doesn’t have a boyfriend.  I don’t think she even dates, least I never seen her.  I’ve never even met my father; she always told me he died after I was born.  I always got the feeling she was bullshitting me. Besides, my mother has always had a strange schedule.  Two or sometimes three times a week she comes home to check on me and then she leaves and doesn’t come back until late in the morning.  I think that’s when she plays heroine.”

 

It sounded to me like she was looking for something that wasn’t there. 

“There are a lot of possible explanations for that having nothing to do with your mother getting dressed up in a mask and going off to fight crime.”

 

“Does that mean you’re not interested?” she asked.

 

“Have you told anyone else about this?”

 

“No, only you.”

 

“You sure?”

 

“Yes!”

 

“I think I should explain something to you.  There’s this guy who calls himself Master Blaster.”

 

“Stupid name.”

 

“I agree, but he’s a big man in this town; controls all the rackets and has about a hundred guns working for him, so he can call himself anything he wants.  He has it in for these masked vigilantes; he’s offered a million dollars to anyone who gives him Solar Woman’s secret identity.  For some of the other heroines, like Ebony Avenger or Puritan, it’s only half a million.  That’s still a lot of money.”

 

“Hey, I don’t want to get my mother killed, I just want to get some more money from her.”

 

“He wouldn’t kill her; he’d turn her in to one of his hookers.  After he and all his men fucked the hell out of her, he’d turn her over to one of his pimps and put her out on the street or in to one of his many whorehouses.”

 

“I don’t think I’d like that either.”

 

“I know you wouldn’t because you’d be right there next to her turning tricks.  To control her, Master would have to use the person your mother cares most about, you.  I figure he would have you kidnapped too.  So you’d lose your house, all your mother’s assets, she wouldn’t be a lawyer anymore and you won’t be going to college.  You’d both be sucking stranger’s cocks all night for the rest of you’re lives. All the money you make goes to the pimp and you’d be virtual slaves.”

 

She looked scared again.  “Why are you telling me this?”

 

“So that you understand when I tell you not to repeat this to anyone. Not you’re best friend, not your boyfriend, no one.  I’m not going to turn her in but anyone else might have a tough time resisting half a million dollars.  You might think your best friend could be trusted, but maybe her father is having business problems and needs money or maybe her father took off and left her and mommy with nothing, or maybe there’s no money for her to go to college.  A person in that situation might find a shot at half a million bucks too tempting to pass up.  So unless you are anxious to join the world’s oldest profession, don’t ever repeat what you just told me to anyone. I don’t care how well or how long you’ve known them.  Understand?”

 

She slowly nodded.  “When’s the next day your mother usually takes off for the night?”

 

“The day after tomorrow.”

 

“All right,” I continued.  “I’ll look in to it.  Give me a couple of weeks to check it out.  If you’re right, then you have a deal.  We’ll split the take half and half.”

 

She smiled at me and looked real happy.  If she was right, I’d have a bigger reason to be happy then she would, because I had bigger plans then just tapping her mother for money.

 

 

The next day I worked the Ellen Stanton case.  I presented Ellen with the evidence against her.  She was scared, her whole world was tumbling down, she’d play ball.  No matter how she tried to refuse, she had no choice and she knew it.  She agreed to get me the specs for the new MP3 player.

The following day I set about tailing Victoria Chaste.  I hope I wasn’t just wasting my time.  There are only two right ways to follow a vehicle.  The first requires a team.  Multiple cars constantly changing position to make sure she never saw the same car behind her more then once.  You could also have cars paralleling her on the streets to either side ready to pick her up in case she turns.  All cars are in constant radio communications with one another, coordinating the whole show.   This was not an option for me because I usually work alone.  I didn’t want to bring in help because it would cost me and I wasn’t sure this wasn’t a waste of time.  That left method numbers two; plant a tracking bug on her car.  This was a little tricky, because you have to keep the right distance from her.  The bug told you where she was and which direction she was driving, so you didn’t have to keep her in sight.  The problem is if you get too far behind her and she decides to park the car and walk, by the time to close the distance she could be out of sight and you lost her.  In this case keeping the right distance is as much an art as it is a science.

I got the make, model and license plate of Chaste’s car from a friend at the DMV.  Partners at Chaste’s law firm have designated parking space, so I had no trouble finding her car.  According to Tiffany, mommy would leave work today at five.  I planted and activated the bug about fifteen minutes before five.  It had a battery life of about thirty hours.  Promptly at five, Chaste left work and drove home.  She got there at five-thirty.  An hour later she got back in her car and pulled out of her parking lot, I followed.  The game is on, or in the immortal word of the patron saint of all private dicks, Sherlock Holmes, “The game is afoot, Watson.”

I tailed her for almost thirty minutes.  We were heading for the docks area.  She pulled in to a parking structure on Delancy Street, about two miles from the docks themselves.  I gave just enough space for her to get up the ramp and turn the corner before I drove in.  I parked fast, took my back pack and locked my car.  I was lucky; she was wearing thick, high heels that made a distinctive sound in the cavernous parking structure, so I could hear her on the level above me.  I was able to gauge which stairs she walked to.  That told which exit she was coming out of.  I beat her to it and waited outside, out of side, in a doorway.  The area was mostly warehouses and offices that did their business from the activities of the docks.  The area was deserted now and it was dark.  This made sense because these heroines operated mostly at night, in the dark.  I guess that’s why they call themselves the Dusk To Dawn Group. 

She walked for about a block and I saw her go in to this nondescript brick building that took up half the block.  I took down the address and looked over the building; two entrances on opposite streets, a garage door in the middle, very few windows and they were all painted over.  There were no signs or anything to indicate what this building was used for or who occupied it.  It would be so much easier if there was a great big sign that said Heroine Secret Headquarters.  This was going to be the worst part of the detective business, the stake out.  In other words, I was going to have to wait, but wait for what?  I had to admit, this was an odd situation.  What was she doing here? I couldn’t come up with a reasonable explanation.  There was an alley direct across the street, opposite the garage door.  I made sure it had no residents, like homeless winos or junkies and decided to wait it out in there.  It was dark and it gave me excellent cover. I was lucky: I didn’t have to wait very long, only about twenty five minutes before I hit it big.  The garage door opened and out she came, Puritan.  I studied pictures of her on the web last night and there she was in her new costume, the one without the cape, tearing out of the garage in a sleek, tricked up motorcycle.  I had my infrared camera and snapped some pictures of her and she rode down the street.  That was not all.  Right behind her, in a sleek, blue sports convertible car, two masked women came out and turned in the opposite direction then the one Puritan went.  I snapped pictures of them as well.  The driver had blond, shoulder length hair; the passenger had shorter brown hair and looked younger.  They both wore capes which flapped in the wind. I didn’t just study Puritan last night; I also looked up the rest of the Dusk To Dawn Group.  I knew Solar Woman and her partner Comet Girl do not wear capes.  The only other costumed heroines that operate as a pair in Star City and still wore capes was Ms. Confederate and Southern Girl. Those two fit the description.

I couldn’t believe it, Tiffany was right.  I hit the big casino.  Deep down I always felt this was some teenager’s wishful thinking to get back at her mother for being too strict.  Well, she got her back big time.  I waited for another hour, no more heroines came out.  So what now?  How do I play it? I staked out the place for the rest of the night.  Puritan came back a little after four in the morning.  The other two returned about fifteen minutes later.  I, of course snapped pictures. After about twenty minutes, they came out.  Victoria Chaste and the other two came out in civilian clothes, with no masks or wig and headed for the parking structure.  I snapped close up shots of their faces.  I then followed them from a good distance.  I wanted to get the license plate of the car the two other women were using.  No such luck, the other two women had a cab waiting for them by the entrance to the parking structure.  They made their goodbyes with Chaste, even kissed affectionately, got in to the cab and drove off.  No way to get to my car and out on the street to follow before they were out of sight.

The next morning I popped the disk in the computer and printed up pictures of Chaste and the two other women.  I didn’t recognize the other two women, no idea who they were other then they are Ms. Confederate and Southern Girl.  Maybe I’ll have better luck tonight.  

Yes, I did; big time.  I got there about seven and set up my stake out. They arrived together at around seven-thirty; four women; three white, one black.  Two of the women looked to be in their early thirties and the other two in their late teens, early twenties.  Naturally, I zoomed my camera in close and snapped shots of their faces.  Twenty minutes later the garage door opened and a blue sports car came out.  Solar Woman was driving and Comet Girl was right next to her.  A motorcycle came out right behind them, Ebony Avenger was on it.  I waited for the forth woman to come out.  The garage door closed and no one else came out.  Fortunately, from where I was I had a good view of the building.  I spotted her standing on the roof wearing a cape and holding something in her hand that glowed.  For a second it looked like she was jumping off, but she flew instead.  Now there’s something you don’t see everyday.  I had two observations, aside that I had seen Solar Woman and Ebony Avenger without their masks.  First; both of the older women looked familiar; I definitely seen them somewhere before. At the moment I couldn’t remember where but I only looked for about a minute while I took their pictures.  Second; Comet Girl is blond, none of the four women I photographed were, of the two younger women, one had long red hair and the other had short dark brown, so that means at least one of them is wearing a wig.  Next morning I processed the photo and had a better look.  I was shocked.  Jessica Armstrong, the mayor, is Solar Woman and Moira Jones, the newsgirl on TV, is the Ebony Avenger.  This was getting better and better.

The third night of the stake out yielded more goodies.  Jessica Armstrong and the younger girls with the short brown hair were back.  Two different women were with them.  One was an oriental woman in her early twenties; the other was a blond woman in her early thirties.  The blond also looked familiar as I snapped my pictures.  From there the routine was the same.  The garage door opened and out comes Solar Woman and Comet Girl in their blue sports car convertible.  Behind in a slick green cycle is the Green Hornette and from the roof a figure flies’s off.  The only thing out of the ordinary is the woman on the roof looked very different than the woman who went in, more full bodied and much more gigantic tits. Next morning I remembered who she is.  Her name is Samantha Smart, one of the richest women in Star City.  This was looking better and better.

 

 

“That’s my aunt, Lyn, she’s my mother sister,” Tiffany explained.  “Her full name is Ashlyn Hamilton.”

I showed her the next picture.  “That’s my cousin, Nan. She’s Lyn’s daughter.  Why did you take their picture?” she asked.

“I’ve been following your mother and photographing the people she meets,” I answered.

“Oh well, they’re just family.”

“Yeah, so I guess it’s nothing.  How about this one, recognize her?”

She smiled.  “It’s still nothing, that’s my other cousin Chloe.”

Is she Lyn’s daughter too?”

Her smile grew larger. “No, and I’m surprise you don’t know who she is, you being an ex-cop.”

“Why?”

“Her full name is Chloe Hamilton, she’s the police commissioner’s daughter.”

“No shit.”  That was unexpected.  The way Commissioner Hamilton always railed against these vigilantes, he’d probably have kittens if he found out his baby girl was one of them.  Of course, I wonder what he’d think if he found out the mayor and the top news girl were both heroines too.  I had to wonder about Tiffany.  Her mother, aunt and both cousins were heroines and she didn’t have a clue, least not until finding her mother’s costume. I showed Tiffany the pictures of the red head and the oriental woman, but she had no idea who they were.

“So, is my mother Puritan?”

 

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Cool, so when does the blackmailing start?”

 

“I’ll approach her next week.”

 

“Great,” she beamed.  “Let’s see how she likes being put under a microscope all the time.”

 

I identified the two remaining heroines by the end of the week.  I manage to get the license plate of the Green Hornette’s civilian car and run it with my contact in the DMV.  Turns out she’s a cop named Midori Lee.  The red head didn’t own a car.  One night Jessica Armstrong gave her and Chloe Hamilton a lift home.  She dropped the red head off at some low rent apartment building.  The next day I showed the fat little toad of a super of her building her picture and for twenty buck he told me her name is Isabelle Casta. I then found out she just a waitress at some cheap dinner; not very impressive.

So the plan is set. I had no intention of screwing Tiffany out of what we agreed on.  I plan to give her half of any money Victoria Chaste pays me.  What she didn’t know was her mother wasn’t the only one I was going to hit on and it wasn’t only money that I wanted.  I selected four of them; Jessica Armstrong, Moira Jones, Samantha Smart, and of course, Victoria Chaste.  I picked them because they had the most money.  Armstrong inherited a ton of it from her father, Chaste and Jones had very high paying careers and, as I said, Smart was head of Smart Industries, making her one of the richest women in city.  The others were not worth the effort. Chloe was still in high school, Lee had only been a cop for a little over a year and was at the bottom of the pay scale, besides, I’d never blackmail a cop, I use to be one and the loyalty is still there.  Any money Ashlyn Hamilton paid would eventually involve her husband finding out and that’s a headache I didn’t need. Casta didn’t have any money; she was just a wage slave who lived paycheck to paycheck.  She’d be better off being a bad guy.  As the Mystique Maiden, with her power, she could get rich and there wasn’t a thing anyone could do to stop her.  What a loser.

The rest of the week went well.  Ellen Stanton came through with a copy of the specs for Wade Industries’ new MP3 player.  The agent for the European company examined them and pronounced them the real thing.  Two hundred thousand was transferred in to my account in the Caymans and I turned the plans over to them.  Everyone’s happy.

I prepared three sealed packets of the photographs and all other material I gathered on the Dusk To Dawn Group.  I turned them over to three different lawyers that I knew were reputable and that I never did business with before. There would be no way to trace them to me.  Their instructions were if I didn’t contact them in twenty day they were to mail the packets unopened to a certain address.  The address belonged to Master Blaster.  I kept another set of photographs for myself.  I needed it for demonstration purposes.  I then made appointments to see Mayor Jessica Armstrong, Moira Jones, Samantha Smart and Victoria Chaste at their private offices.

 

One Year Later:

 

            The two dealers moved from the corner where they operated in to the alley.  They were counting the cash before they split it and called it a night.  The smoke bombs exploded around them.  In quick time they were enveloped in smoke, choking and coughing their guts out.  The smoke cleared but their throats didn’t as the coughing continued.  She chose that moment to attack.  Neither man, gagging, was able to defend themselves.  Ebony Avenger took out the first one with a series of hard kicks, one to the gut, the second to his face.  He went down quickly.  The second man tried to turn away, but she nailed him with a series of combination to his head and a kick to the side of his knee, sending him to the ground next to his partner.  Ebony Avenger quickly searched them; no drugs on them.  Dam! They all ready sold off their stash for the night, so they had nothing on them.  That meant she couldn’t bust them.  She did take all their money, no way these two bastards should be allowed to profit from the selling of their poison.  She kicked them both in the balls.  That bought them around.  She stomped her foot on the face of one of dealers.

            “Listen up scumbags,” she announced.  “I’m watching this corner.  If I see either of you two selling your poison again I’ll bust you and tell Master Blaster that tonight’s take is mine now.  See how he likes getting that bit of news when he asks you where his cut is.”

            She disappeared as quickly as she appeared, like smoke.  She made it back to her cycle.  Speaking of bastards, she thought, as she checked her time piece, it was almost that time.  She felt excited and hated herself for it.  She mounted her cycle and took off at high speed.

            The motel was across town on the outskirts.  Despite its location, it did good business, mostly from hookers and their johns.  It galled her to have to come to a place like this.  It made her feel like a hooker, but in a sense that’s exactly what she was to him, a free hooker, or better yet, a hooker that paid him.  The room was in the back. She parked her cycle in the dark corner and activated the security system.  She opened the compartment and took the large white envelope.  For a minute she thought about putting the money she took from those pushers in there, but it was pointless, he frequently came out after it was over and searched her cycle, just to show her he could and there was nothing she could do about it.  It was the same when he came around to her condo.  He went through her draws and closets and looked over her things.  He made her have sex with him on her bed and made her take showers and baths with him in her bathroom.  He would sit at her dinning room table and make her crawl naked underneath and suck his cock. It was all about power.  He wanted her to know he was in control of her life and she could deny him nothing.

            She walked up to the door of the corner room, it was unlocked.  She walked in and locked the door behind her.  The room was dark, but the small light on the side table came on, providing only small illumination to the room.  He stood in the corner leaning against the wall.  He wore a gray tee shirt that showed off his powerful upper body, jeans and sneakers.  His gun was holstered to his belt.  For a minute she felt angry enough to kick him in the face, but knew that would be foolish, not just because of the photos and information he had to blackmail her, but because it wouldn’t work.  He wasn’t like the assholes she usually fought on the street, he knew how to fight.  She had once seen him take out a couple of thugs and frankly, she wasn’t sure she could beat him in a fight.   Instead she mumbled that word bastard again, which only amused him.  She showed him the envelope, which contained her monthly payment, and dropped it on the dresser.  She then showed him the money she took from the dealers and dropped it on top of the envelope. 

            “You had a good night,” Powell commented.

 

            “Its drug money,” she answered.  “I wouldn’t want to soil myself by using it.  I imagine you have no such problem.”

 

            He smiled again and shrugged.  “Money is money.  It’s only a tool; in itself it has no moral significance.”

 

            “Not to you perhaps.”

 

            “You’re wasting time, strip bitch.”

 

            It was so strange.  She hated when he disrespected her like that, but at the same time it got her so excited.  She could not help herself.  She took her wrist bands off first, then her gloves.  Her top came off next, letting her massive tits tumble free.  They impressed him, she could tell the way he looked at her.  For reasons she could not understand that pleased her a lot. She sat on the bed and removed her boots, stood up and unzipped her shorts and removed them and her thong.  She removed her mask last, just the way he liked it. 

            She stood there, his eyes going up and down taking in her naked body.  He looked like he really appreciated her.  It was funny, they’ve been meeting once a week for a year, sometimes more, when he insisted she go away with him for the weekend, and he still looked at her like it was the first time.  She hated him, but strangely, found him gazing at her so sweet.  It made her feel so beautiful.  Then came the part she’d been thinking about all day; he took his clothes off.  First he removed the holster from his belt and put it down on the bedside table. Then the tee shirt came off, showing off that delicious upper body.  He’s big, but not big like some over ripe bodybuilder on steroid and oh so hard, like steel and, of course, those abs; those flat, ridged, hard abs, which gave her all those wet dreams.  She wanted to put her hands on them so desperately.  He removed his sneakers, socks, jeans and underwear.  Now she couldn’t take her eyes off his massive cock, all ready beginning to inflate. He walked around the bed and up to her.  They stood close, facing each other.  He put his hands on her waist; she instinctively wrapped her arms around his wide back.  Her breast squeezed against his deep chest, his cock teasing her wet pussy.  They kissed, dueling tongues, alternately dancing in each others mouths.  Moira Jones felt warmth engulfed her body; a feeling of contentment she had rarely ever known.  After several minutes of standing there kissing, he swept her off her feet without breaking his kiss, walked her to the bed and laid her on it.  He got on top of her and skillfully massaged and manipulated her fat tits while continuing to kiss her.

           Mmmpphhh!” Moira moaned while she kissed Powell full tongue and enjoyed his expert handling of her sensitive tits.  She could feel them throb and swell as her nipples grew hard as stones now.  He moved from kissing her mouth to running his tongue down her neck and on her ears. Moira let out a gasp when she suddenly felt his other hand on her crotch.  He knew how to manipulate that even better then he knew how to handle her tits; his finger always touched the magic places that sent waves of pleasure pulsing through out her body.  This time was no exception.  His fingers were all ready inside her wet pussy expertly manipulating her, making her hotter and wetter.  In no time she was squealing with complete abandonment.  Her first orgasm hit her suddenly.  “AAAAAHHHHHH!”

            He didn’t let up; continuing his assault on her body.  He began sucking and squeezing her swollen tits. Her clit was also very swollen and his fingers found their way around to it too and it drove her crazy with lust and pleasure. She couldn’t stop cooing.  “Oh, yes, yes!” she kept repeating. Her hands were buried in his hair.

            “Fuck me all ready,” she pleaded.  “Please, fuck the hell out of me!”

 

            “How bad do you want it, bitch?”

 

            She knew what he wanted and, as terrible as it sounded, she actually enjoyed giving it to him.  She couldn’t understand why begging for it got her so hot. “I want it so bad.  I’m your cock slut, your private fuck toy. I need your cock meat in me so bad, please, I’m begging you, please fuck me.”

            Powell withdrew his fingers from her pussy and lifted her legs straight up; she liked this position with her feet up in the air.  Powell placed the head of his thick cock on her pussy and slowly inserted it until it was all the way in to the hilt. 

            “Oh yes, yes, yes! It so thick, yes!” she cried with delight.  She bought his face down to hers and they kissed long and hard.  Powell began to pump away hard with the long strokes he knew she loved, going as deep as he could.  When they finally broke the kiss he moved down to her tits.  He sucked, chew and gently bite her tits.  It drove her even crazier with lust as she arched her back pushing her tits in his face. 

            “AAAAAHHHHH!” she screamed.  She began to grunt as Powell rode her hard, just the way she needed.

 

            “What are you?” He asked her.

 

            “I’m a fucking whore,” she answered.  “A cock loving slut.  Ah, harder, harder! I need to be fucked, I need it!”

 

            “OH! OH! OH! AAAAAAWWWWW!” she screamed louder as the second orgasm of the night hit her.

 

            “You all done?” Powell asked as he kept pumping away.  “No!” she yelled.  “I need more, please.  I’m a cheap worthless fucking whore. I’m only good for fucking, so fuck me!”

            Powell continued at a frenetic pace.  Her next orgasm hit a couple of minutes later and it was earth shattering.  She almost went out of her mind, as this time Powell shot his load of hot cum in her. Then she passed out.

           She woke up a few minutes later.  He was lying on his back; she was lying next to him, her head resting on his chest, her leg over his leg.  Again she experienced that feeling of warmth and complete contentment.  She held him in utter contempt.  He was an unscrupulous blackmailer and who knows what else, but he bought her such pleasure and made her feel so good.  She found herself thinking about him constantly throughout her day.  She constantly longed for his touch. He was strong, so powerful. She hated when she debasing herself, calling herself a whore and slut to give him a thrill, but found it turned her on and made the sex so much more intense, she couldn’t stop if she tried.  She knew she wasn’t done for the night, without being ordered to; Moira gently kissed his face and moved down to his crotch.  He cock had to be cleaned, so she proceeded to give his a blowjob the way she knew he liked it.

            She had another orgasm when they showered together.  They got dress.  As she looked in the mirror, adjusting her mask, she wanted to know if they’d be together this weekend but didn’t dare ask, anymore then she could ask him when would be their next time.  He didn’t mention it.  He put her envelope in his jacket pocket and stuffed the pushers’ cash in his jeans pocket.  He smiled at her.

            “So long Bimbo,” he said.

 

            “Fuck off,” she answered.  That made him laugh.  She left the room first and head for her cycle. He walked to his mustang.  She drove out of the parking lot first; he was right behind her, turning in the opposite direction.

            She didn’t know what she could do about him.  If he gave his stuff to the press or to Master Blaster, her life as she knew it, was over.  What was worse, she wasn’t sure if she really wanted to do anything about him.  She was disappointed he hadn’t ordered her to go away with him this weekend.

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED