bedpan.
I returned to the sitting area and smiled at Mistress Layla. “The rings look very solidly anchored. The exposed brickwork is a nice touch.”
“Thank you. My dungeon always gets compliments.”
A fair amount of cops might have made snidecomments or tried to be funny, but Harry and I always tried to treat folks with respect. One, it was the right thing to do. And two, over the years it had given us a solve rate that was the envy of our peers.
“You say you’re working, ma’am?” I asked.
I saw a glance flick to the closet down the hall. She didn’t try to hide the look.
“Yes.”
“This won’t take long. We’re checking into a for-hire situation. A man hired a dom to ball-gag him, suspend him by his ankles, give him a plugging and a whip job on the back and buttocks.”
Mistress Layla stubbed out the cigar in a crystal bowl. “Your presence tells me the man must have been robbed. Or hurt.”
“He was…injured,” I said, realizing how little we could say without revealing the victim was Richard Scaler.
“We’re trying to find out how it all went down, ma’am,” Harry said. “There’s no indication that anyone is in trouble. I want to stress that. This is purely a gathering of loose ends.”
“Good to know,” she said. “Where did this, uh, event happen?”
“I can’t tell you,” Harry said.
A small smile. “When, then?”
“In the past week.”
“You want to see my appointment book, gentlemen? No names, but times. If someone was hurt, it wasn’t me. My clients don’t get anythingbut what they need, which is a little time out of themselves. I’ve made my reputation on creating imaginary situations where humiliation and fear prevail, but safety is a word away.”
“I believe you,” I said. “You ever work anywhere but here?”
“Not often. All of my materials are here.”
“Have you worked off-site in the past two weeks?”
“Not in months.”
I felt she was telling the truth, further strengthened when Mistress Layla consented to giving us her fingerprints. We wiped down a Coke can, she gripped it, dropped it in an evidence bag. We’d compare them to the hundreds of prints and partials found inside the cabin, but I didn’t expect a match.
She frowned in thought as I zippered the bag.
“Did you say the client was upside-down, Detective?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Gagged?”
I nodded. “With hands bound tight behind his back, a double knot.”
She leaned back in the loveseat, tapping her chin like an engineer presented with a structural anomaly.
“That’s not too common, being upended. It drains blood from the sexual organs and diminishes pleasure. Add the gag and bindings and it’s a position almost too helpless for most people.Tied to a bed or wall or using a harness suspension is one thing, but everything is disoriented when you’re upside-down. There must always be the knowledge that the… event can be turned off in an instant. That’s the difference between pleasure and terror.”
I said, “Tell us about your competition, Mistress. I don’t expect you have many peers.”
She nodded at the compliment. “You’re very kind. My colleagues are few in number, ranging from Pensacola to Biloxi. More in New Orleans, of course.”
“We need names, ma’am. If you’d be so kind.” She raised a penciled eyebrow. “You’ll not mention my name in your travels?”
“It would be intolerably poor manners.”
She smiled and nodded, found a pen, wrote for a minute and passed us the names, a half-dozen. We walked the hallway to the door. I paused at the closed door along the side, pulled it open. Inside, on the floor, crouched a naked man in his forties, one hand in his lap. I know a two-hundred-dollar haircut when I see one, and I was seeing one.
“Hello,” I said. “You’re under arrest.”
The man looked up, breathless with fear and excitement.
“This is part of the act, right?” he whispered.
“Yes,” I said. “Isn’t Mistress Layla
I returned to the sitting area and smiled at Mistress Layla. “The rings look very solidly anchored. The exposed brickwork is a nice touch.”
“Thank you. My dungeon always gets compliments.”
A fair amount of cops might have made snidecomments or tried to be funny, but Harry and I always tried to treat folks with respect. One, it was the right thing to do. And two, over the years it had given us a solve rate that was the envy of our peers.
“You say you’re working, ma’am?” I asked.
I saw a glance flick to the closet down the hall. She didn’t try to hide the look.
“Yes.”
“This won’t take long. We’re checking into a for-hire situation. A man hired a dom to ball-gag him, suspend him by his ankles, give him a plugging and a whip job on the back and buttocks.”
Mistress Layla stubbed out the cigar in a crystal bowl. “Your presence tells me the man must have been robbed. Or hurt.”
“He was…injured,” I said, realizing how little we could say without revealing the victim was Richard Scaler.
“We’re trying to find out how it all went down, ma’am,” Harry said. “There’s no indication that anyone is in trouble. I want to stress that. This is purely a gathering of loose ends.”
“Good to know,” she said. “Where did this, uh, event happen?”
“I can’t tell you,” Harry said.
A small smile. “When, then?”
“In the past week.”
“You want to see my appointment book, gentlemen? No names, but times. If someone was hurt, it wasn’t me. My clients don’t get anythingbut what they need, which is a little time out of themselves. I’ve made my reputation on creating imaginary situations where humiliation and fear prevail, but safety is a word away.”
“I believe you,” I said. “You ever work anywhere but here?”
“Not often. All of my materials are here.”
“Have you worked off-site in the past two weeks?”
“Not in months.”
I felt she was telling the truth, further strengthened when Mistress Layla consented to giving us her fingerprints. We wiped down a Coke can, she gripped it, dropped it in an evidence bag. We’d compare them to the hundreds of prints and partials found inside the cabin, but I didn’t expect a match.
She frowned in thought as I zippered the bag.
“Did you say the client was upside-down, Detective?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Gagged?”
I nodded. “With hands bound tight behind his back, a double knot.”
She leaned back in the loveseat, tapping her chin like an engineer presented with a structural anomaly.
“That’s not too common, being upended. It drains blood from the sexual organs and diminishes pleasure. Add the gag and bindings and it’s a position almost too helpless for most people.Tied to a bed or wall or using a harness suspension is one thing, but everything is disoriented when you’re upside-down. There must always be the knowledge that the… event can be turned off in an instant. That’s the difference between pleasure and terror.”
I said, “Tell us about your competition, Mistress. I don’t expect you have many peers.”
She nodded at the compliment. “You’re very kind. My colleagues are few in number, ranging from Pensacola to Biloxi. More in New Orleans, of course.”
“We need names, ma’am. If you’d be so kind.” She raised a penciled eyebrow. “You’ll not mention my name in your travels?”
“It would be intolerably poor manners.”
She smiled and nodded, found a pen, wrote for a minute and passed us the names, a half-dozen. We walked the hallway to the door. I paused at the closed door along the side, pulled it open. Inside, on the floor, crouched a naked man in his forties, one hand in his lap. I know a two-hundred-dollar haircut when I see one, and I was seeing one.
“Hello,” I said. “You’re under arrest.”
The man looked up, breathless with fear and excitement.
“This is part of the act, right?” he whispered.
“Yes,” I said. “Isn’t Mistress Layla
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