The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

A gust of wind blew down the street, and Roxy instinctively closed her jacket over herself. She was already walking with her head hung low, concealed under a shawl. In spite of her nervousness, she was thankful that it was as dreary out as it was. It gave her an added sense of anonymity. And, with any hope, nobody other than her companion would see what she was about to do.

As they approached the entrance to the building, James looked at Roxy and said, “You know...”

“Yes, I know. I don’t actually need you here with me. But I appreciate it anyway.”

James sighed. “I’m ... I’m just glad you trust me.”

Roxy said nothing in response. She wasn’t sure it was trust, but at the same time, it was as good a word as any, considering how few people she felt she could really talk to lately.

Within a few minutes, Roxy and James were in a conference room, preparing to talk with two police detectives. All four of them had bottles of water.

Sally started the discussion. “I’d like to thank you for coming in here. I hope you don’t mind going through a few formalities before we get started. First off, this is not a formal deposition, however we’re still going to record this conversation for evidence. Depending on how the investigation proceeds from here, we may call you back in either for a deposition, or to testify in court. Or both. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Roxy said, quietly.

Paul pressed a button on the tape recorder. “Today is Tuesday, June 14. Present in this room right now are Roxanne Marie Pierce, represented by James Larson, Esq. This interview is being conducted by Detectives Paul Baxter and Sally Winfield. This interview is the result of the fact that Mr. Larson contacted the precinct last Thursday to inform us that he had a client who had information pertaining to criminal activity. Said criminal activity is not related, as far as we are currently aware, to any existing ongoing investigations. At this stage, it’s not clear the scope and breadth of such activity.”

James looked at Roxy and smiled. There was something about his style, his mannerisms, the slightly gray hair and disarming glances. Terrified though she was, she knew that this was something she had to do. If nothing else, James would help her get through this.

“All right, Miss Pierce,” began Sally. “For the record, would you please tell us about the sequence of events that led you to contact Mr. Larson here?”

Roxy took a deep breath and said, quickly, “Please. Call me Roxy.” She paused and glanced up at the ceiling. “Where do I begin? I, um, I guess it started when I bought my own house, well not a house; it’s a condo not far from here. That was... about nine months ago or so.”

She paused to look at her lawyer, who nodded his head but otherwise said nothing.

“You see, I had an inheritance my mom had controlled until I turned 25, and then, she turned it over to me and I bought this condo. After I bought it, I started to think about what I could or should do about my overall finances. You know, make sure I didn’t lose the house or anything like that, but at the same time making sure I was being responsible with my money.

“So I was talking to my sister one weekend.”

“Your sister?” Paul asked.

“Yes. Her name’s Tiffany, and she’s a little bit more than a year older than me. We have lunch together about every other weekend, you see, and, well, I mentioned that I was wondering what I should do about money and all and she told me about her financial advisor.”

“A financial advisor...” the detective mumbled to himself.

“It turned out that Tiffany’d been talking with someone for a couple of months at that time. Her name is Patti Sims. Tiffany said she specialized in helping women with their financial needs.” Roxy looked down at the floor and fell silent.

“Miss Pierce, I mean, Roxy, is everything all right?” Sally asked.

“Yeah. I just... I remember thinking at the time that this was a sign that my sister was growing up. You see, I was always the responsible one and she was a bit more of a, I guess you could call her a wild child, you know? I even teased her about it. I asked her if she was doing this to get her breasts enlarged like she’d been talking about since she was, like, fourteen.”

“What did she say?”

“She laughed and said that was exactly how it happened.”

“Did this give you a sense of confidence in this financial advisor?”

“Well, not really. But before I could say or do anything else, my sister said that Patti had actually tried to talk her out of the procedure. But...” Her voice started to trail off.

James moved his hand closer to Roxy’s, suppressing the urge to actually touch her. However much he wanted to, he knew that this wasn’t the right time or place to do anything else. This was the last place where he wanted to be seen as abusing his power, in spite of the fact that he had hoped that someday Roxy might be more than just another client to him.

She noticed this move and smiled. “At any rate, we, that is, my sister and I had a good time at that lunch, and she gave me Patti’s business card.” She reached into her purse and put a business card down on the table.

Paul picked the card up and eyeballed it. “What did you do then?”

“Well, I looked at it. The office was certainly close enough, being in Chrystal Heights and all. So I thought about it and thought about it. By the end of the weekend, I decided that it wouldn’t hurt to call. Worst case scenario would be that I’d still need someone to help with my money situation, right?”

“Right.” Paul nodded.

“So I called Monday morning and arranged to meet with Patti. She asked me what time I got off from work, and I told her 4 pm. I heard some rustling on her desk, probably to check her calendar, or something. Then she said that she’d be in the office late. When she asked if I wanted to come into the office to meet with her that night, I hesitated a minute before I finally decided to go through with it.”

“So you went there that night?”

“Yes. I showed up at about 5:30. Since it was after hours, the parking lot was pretty much empty. I went into the company’s suite.”

Paul glanced at the business card Roxy had handed him earlier. “That would be Bain Webster Financial Services?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem. Anyway, the office was very comfortable. At first I didn’t see anyone in the office so I started pacing around the waiting room. You know, looking at the artwork on the walls, watching the fish in the tank. Checking out the magazines they had on the table, the potted plants, the usual stuff you do. There wasn’t any bell or anything for me to ring to let someone know I was there, and I was actually fine with that.

“It wasn’t long before Patti came up to the waiting area and saw me. I don’t know if she just happened to head there to see if I was there, or if she knew I had come in or something. She smiled and held out her hand to shake mine.”

“What was your first impression of her?” asked Sally.

Roxy brushed the hair out of her eyes and sighed. “I didn’t dislike her. She struck me as really smart. There was something about her style that didn’t totally put me at ease, though. Maybe it was the fact that she didn’t seem that much older than me. It actually intrigued me more that Tiffany actually trusted this lady. That was enough to keep me there, ya know?”

“Makes sense,” Sally mused. “So you met Miss Sims. What did she say or do?”

“Well, she told me that she’s a certified financial planner and that she can help make sure my goals are met. She laughed a little bit when she said that, since her degree was in psychology.

“Then she said she’d give me the best financial advice out there on a one-to-one basis, but she also gives seminars for women who want to take a more active role in their personal finance.”

“Seminars?”

“Yes. She asked me if I wanted to watch a short video of one of her seminars. I looked at my watch and decided I could make the time for this.”

“What happened next?”

“So I sat down and watched this video in her office. It was basically Patti talking about mutual funds and estate planning, retirement planning and all sorts of other things that I don’t really remember very well. It was in some kind of lecture hall or something. It looked like it was recorded in front of a live audience.”

“Was there anything else about the video that stands out to you?”

Roxy looked away for a moment, took a drink of water, and answered. “Not really. The whole video was kind of a blur to me. It seemed like a relatively short video. You know, maybe five, ten minutes long, tops. But by the time it ended, it was already, like, almost seven.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Is it possible you fell asleep or something during the video?” asked Paul.

“If I did, then the parts of the video before I fell asleep and after I woke up moved pretty smoothly into one another.”

“Was that the only thing unusual about the video?”

“The video itself, yes.”

“But... Was there anything else unusual?”

Roxy looked up at the her lawyer. “I’d really rather not. It’s...”

James smiled at her. “You don’t really have to answer, Roxy, but the more information you can provide, the more they’ll have to investigate.”

Roxy let out a deep sigh and said, both quickly and relatively quietly, “My underwear felt funny. Kind of, you know... Sticky.”

“Did you tell anyone this at the time?” asked Sally.

“No. I was too embarrassed.”

“So what happened then?”

“Well, Patti and I started talking a little bit. About my goals. About my sister. She asked me if I wanted to get my breasts done like Tiffany did, and I said that I didn’t. Patti laughed and said that my sister couldn’t be talked out of it. At the end of the day, she seemed like a nice enough person, so I agreed to have her be my financial advisor. We filled out the paperwork and I said I’d return with some money to open up an account.

“She told me when she’d be having her next live seminars and I said that I’d stop by on the day of the next session to open the account itself. She also said—this might have been before, not after the video, but I don’t really remember. She said that everyone who attends one of her seminars will get $100.00 deposited into their account within a week.”

“So when was this seminar?” asked Detective Baxter.

“About a week or so later.”

“Did anything interesting or unusual happen after that meeting but before you showed up for that first seminar?”

“Not really. Only that my sister said she’d be going to that seminar, too. She commented that she really liked going to these meetings and that, if she had her way, she’d go to one every day.”

“Very well then. Tell us about the day of the seminar.”

“Well, my sister came over to my place and we drove together to the office. There was a crowd of people—all women—in the waiting area and we were asked to sign in. Eventually, Patti came in and led us all to a room. We all sat around round tables with finger foods and flowers and all. It was a very nice setup. More like a dinner than a seminar, or at least the first course of one.

“So Patti gets up to the front and starts talking. She’s got this slideshow going on behind her and she’s talking and talking. I can’t really say I got much out of her talk, but it went by pretty quick. The next thing I knew, she was finishing up and nearly two hours had passed. I would’ve guessed about ten or fifteen minutes, but not two hours.”

Paul straightened himself in his chair. “Did anyone else think it was strange that so much time had passed?”

“If they did, they didn’t show it. Not even Tiffany.”

“Did you talk to anyone after the seminar?”

“Well, my sister.”

“What did you talk about?”

“She mentioned that she was nearly halfway to where she needed to be to get her breasts enlarged. A couple of other girls chimed in and congratulated her on that. Easily two or three other girls were saving for the same procedure and they all started giggling.”

“How did this make you feel?”

“To be honest, I looked down at myself and started wondering if maybe I could add a cup size or two. It seemed so wrong to even think about it but I couldn’t not think about it, ya know?”

“Did you say anything?”

“No, but ... I was starting to feel...” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Excited.”

“Excited?” asked Sally.

Roxy covered her face and nodded her head.

“Do you mean that you were excited about saving money or excited in another way?”

“Ummm...” Roxy looked up and caught Sally’s eye, hoping that, woman-to-woman, the answer wouldn’t require any additional explanation.

Picking up on this non-verbal cue, the detective smiled. “So you had been promised $100.00 in your account if you attended the seminar. Did you receive the money?”

“Yes. Plus I was told that I’d get another $100.00 for each additional seminar I attended. No wonder the seminar was so popular!”

“I can imagine,” mused Paul. “How many people would you say were at that seminar?”

“Probably about 25 or 30 or so.”

“So you’re saying that, as a result of this one seminar alone, some twenty five hundred or three thousand bucks got distributed to her customers’ accounts?”

“Pretty much.”

“Any idea where that money came from?”

“No clue. That’s another thing that struck me as unusual. And if this woman does two or three seminars a month, that’s a lot of money to be coming from who-knows-where.

“So the next time I talked to my sister, I asked her if she knew where the money came from. She said she hadn’t really thought about it. But she just figured it was money Patti had made on her own investments and that she was passing it on to her customers.”

“Did that satisfy you?”

“Not really, but something made me decide not to worry about it. I didn’t have any better explanation and, well, at the end, what difference did it really make?”

“So what happened then?”

“Well, Patti had another seminar and I decided I could use the added money, so...”

“So you went,” confirmed Paul.

“Of course. I went with my sister. A seminar or two after that, my sister said she was nearly there, with almost enough money for that enhancement she’d been wanting for so long. And the more I thought about it, the less wrong it felt to me that I should get implants, too. So that’s when I started hanging out with other girls who’d been going to Patti for financial advice. And we all wanted to get bigger boobs.”

“I see,” commented Paul.

“So what made you decide you wanted to come and see us?”

“It was one of my coworkers. I’d been kind of crushing on him for a few months and, well, he made a comment about how I’d gotten more giggly lately. He overheard me talking about getting implants and he said that he didn’t think I should go through with it.

“At first, I was upset with him, you know, ‘cause it was my body and my choices, but then he gave me this piercing look. You know the kind of look some guys have, right? He asked me what happened to me, and that he didn’t like the way I’d been changing.”

“Ouch!” Sally commented.

“Yeah, I know, right? And this was a guy I’d liked for a while, too. So I started to think about things. It felt kind of like waking up out of a dream. The seminars really hadn’t changed. I couldn’t keep track of time, and I was feeling some kind of arousal after them all... That’s when I started to think something was, well, off.”

“So what’d you do?”

“I’ve got this thing on my phone that you can set to go off at a certain time. It basically makes the phone ring so that you can pretend to get a call when nobody’s really calling you. It’s a great way of getting out of a bad date or otherwise cutting something short when you need an excuse to cut it short without hurting someone’s feelings.”

“That’s so ... deceptive,” mused James.

“I know. It’s awful. I’ve used it on bad dates before. You know, go off to the bathroom and set it, then my phone rings and it looks like my sister or my mom or my boss or someone’s got some major problem and I have to leave and I’m really sorry and I can kind of just book out of the place and all, ya know?”

The two detectives and the lawyer all chuckled at this.

“So I set the phone to ring—well not ring, vibrate—a little bit under an hour into the seminar, just to see what would happen. And...”

“Before you tell us that,” interrupted Paul, “is it safe to assume you didn’t tell anyone you were planning on doing this?”

“That’s right. Nobody knew. I knew I couldn’t tell my sister. And a couple of my coworkers had started going to these seminars too. Did I mention that I got some money for referring friends, too?”

“You did now,” remarked Paul, scribbling franticly in his notebook. “So tell us, what happened when your phone went off?”

“Well, that’s the thing. It went off but it only barely registered that it was ringing. I set it to vibrate pretty hard, and tucked it into my jeans pocket. And I barely felt it.”

“But you did feel it, yes?”

“It was a disorienting feeling, but yes.”

“Disorienting?”

“Yes. I felt the vibration around my feet.”

“Not on your thigh?” asked Sally.

“Nope. I felt it just off to the side of my right foot. Barely.”

“But that would mean...”

“That I wasn’t wearing my jeans. It took me a while to realize that if my jeans hadn’t been so close to my feet in the first place, I wouldn’t have felt my phone at all.”

“Why weren’t you wearing your jeans?” asked Paul, tentatively.

She turned to face her lawyer. James gave her a serious look and said, “This is why we’re here. Go on.”

She looked at the table, actively avoiding eye contact with the two detectives. After glancing around in several directions, she finally decided to direct her response to the tape recorder. In a somewhat muted voice, she said, “I was having sex. I don’t know who with, but I was on my back and he was moving in and out of me.”

“Really?” asked Paul.

“Yes.”

“What did you do when you realized this?”

“It was so strange. So disorienting, I wasn’t sure what to do. I felt tired and weak but really horny. And my mouth was wide open and I was, well, making sex noises. So I kept doing that because it felt so good, but I still wanted to figure out what to do.

“I turned my head to see what I could see, but the room was too dark and there wasn’t really much for me to see. I heard the sounds of other people having sex, too. I didn’t actually reach for my phone, by the way. That would’ve given something away.”

“Wise move.”

“I kind of flailed my arms around a little bit but then I just ended up digging my nails into the guy’s back.

“I’m sure this sounds really weird, but... Even though I was disoriented and scared, I really enjoyed it too. And the more I made those noises, the more detached I felt from my fears and my anxiety. I knew it wasn’t right, but I really didn’t ... I don’t know; I guess I didn’t mind it either.”

“Interesting,” mused Sally. “You did a really brave thing there and it’s amazing that you didn’t give it away that you knew what was happening.”

“Thank you. Anyway, about ten more minutes or so after I woke up, I heard ... I guess it sounded like an old clock chiming. It was loud, hollow, and metallic. Not long after that, the guy who was ... who I was with, he ... he, um, he finished up. I felt him pull out, and stand up. I heard footsteps and knew he was leaving me. I didn’t want to move yet, so I just stayed where I was. I really wanted to rub myself a little bit to see if he was wearing a condom or something, but again, I suppressed my instincts.”

“You brave, brave girl,” Sally cooed.

“Then I heard Patti’s voice. She said something to the effect of ‘All right, girls. Get your clothes back on and come back into the meeting hall.’ So I found my clothes and put them on. Out of habit, I checked my phone to make sure nobody had really called me. I found the door. As it turned out, there were four other girls in that room with me, but they were separated from me by curtains. Tiffany was one of them. She had this completely blank look on her face; it was kind of disturbing, actually.”

“I’ll bet,” said Paul.

“Anyway, we lined up by a door that the girl in front of me didn’t try to open. After a few minutes standing by the door, it opened and we more or less marched back to our tables at the seminar. We all walked back to the same table and I sat down in my chair.”

“Patti moved to the front of the room. I remember her exact words: ‘I have good news tonight, ladies! We’ve got several people who are here tonight for their fifteenth seminar. That means that they’ll be able to get those bigger boobs. If you’re one of them, please stand up.’

“Actually, I take that back. She used the word ‘tits’ and not ‘boobs’. I always hated that word, but, well... At any rate, my sister was one of the girls who stood up. Everyone in the room started clapping.”

Sally stood up and started pacing around the room. She looked at her partner before facing Roxy again. “This is ... weird. You were the only one who actually knew what she was doing? How did you feel?”

Roxy turned back to her lawyer. Gesturing him to move closer to her, she whispered in his ear, “If I tell them the truth, I can’t get into trouble for this, can I?”

He smiled and said, in a low, reassuring voice, “Don’t worry about anything, Roxy. You haven’t really done anything illegal, and I can’t think of anything that could get you into trouble here.”

Paul picked up enough of their conversation to feel compelled to speak. “James is right, Roxy. I don’t know what you’re thinking, what you’re afraid to say, but, based on everything you’ve told us thus far, nothing would give us anything short of a desire to want to raid this woman’s home and place of business in hopes of putting her behind bars for a long time.”

Sally put her hand on Roxy’s. “You’ve been so good. This evidence, if it pans out, is amazing. Thank you for everything you’ve done and said so far.”

“You’re welcome and thank you.” Roxy took a deep breath and calmed down enough to feel comfortable continuing. Wiping her eyes, she said, “I remember thinking so many different things at once. That I really enjoyed the sex, even if I didn’t know who I was doing it with. That the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to get bigger boobs myself. That I was feeling a little bit jealous of my sister. And I thought about how wrong all of those feelings were, but I didn’t really care, ya know? And if I’d be getting money for being here, does that make me any different from a hooker?”

There was a long silence. When neither detective spoke, Roxy decided to continue. “So anyway, my sister sat down and the lights in the room got really bright. Or at least, they got brighter and it took my eyes a minute to adjust. Then a bell rang. It reminded me a little bit of the bells that they had to mark the end of a period in high school. Everyone at my table seemed to wake up when it rang. Then Patti went back into talking about stock options and annuities and the stuff of actual financial advice. To me it was kind of jarring, but I remembered that this was pretty much the last thing I heard before my phone went off, so...”

“And I take it nothing else happened the rest of the seminar?”

Roxy shook her head. “No. It ended about ten minutes later and we all left. My sister said that was probably the best one she’d been to.”

The two detectives looked at each other. Sally started to speak when Paul silenced her. “Sally, if you don’t mind, I’d like to...” He turned to face Roxy. “And how long ago was that seminar?”

“Three weeks ago.”

“Have you been to any seminars since?”

“Yes. One. And I didn’t do that trick with my phone again.”

“I don’t blame you.”

Sally looked at her partner. “This is really good stuff, Paul, but how do we get some concrete evidence?”

“We can’t send someone in undercover. We’d have no reason to think that an undercover agent would be able to remain conscious during the whole video or seminar. That video is probably the most troubling of all. That’s where the whole thing started.”

“Yeah,” Sally agreed.

Paul started pacing around the interrogation room. “I have to assume that there’s some technology in the video that trains anyone who watches it to react ... It’s almost pavlovian, ya know? Then the trigger is hit during the seminars and all of the girls go off to... You know... This sounds almost like a prostitution ring of sorts. If a hundred bucks is deposited in the girls’ accounts, maybe Patti Sims is charging the johns a certain amount, a hundred of which goes to the girls and the rest goes into her own pockets.”

“A hypno-prostitution ring?”

“And Patti Sims is the madam.”

“So how do we prove it?”

James leaned in closely over the table on this point. “That’s what I’d like to know.”

“Well, we can’t bug anyone on their body directly. Not if they’re going to take off their clothes,” began Sally.

“But we know that they didn’t confiscate anyone’s cell phones either,” added Paul.

“I wonder if the guys over in the lab...”

“They do! Remember that one case that the guys in Narcotics have been bragging about for over a month? They busted someone because they had used a modified cell phone to transmit the evidence back to the precinct?”

“That’s right! What did they do?”

“Roxy,” said Paul. “Do you have your cell phone on you?”

She stood up and pulled her phone out of a pocket in her jeans, handing it to him.

He examined it for a few minutes and laid the phone down on the table.

“When’s the next seminar?”

“Tomorrow night.”

“You planning on going?”

“I think it might look pretty suspicious if I don’t.”

“Will you guys excuse me for a minute?” The detective opened the door to the interrogation room and disappeared down the hall.

Detective Baxter ran back into the interrogation room about fifteen minutes later. He paused to catch his breath as he placed a small, rectangular piece of white plastic on the table. “Do you think you’ll need to use your phone again before tomorrow night?”

“Um...” Roxy looked at James, who shrugged. “I’m... I’m not really sure, actually. I usually call my sister to tell her I’m ready to go to the seminar, but other than that...”

“Great. I just turned your phone into a listening device. To turn it on, press the star key and then the number one. To turn it off, press star-two. It’ll pick up anything you can hear. I just tested it myself. The only downside is I don’t know that it’ll work as a phone. Or at least, what people will see if you try to use it to call or text someone. Can you go a couple of days without using your phone?”

“I guess so.”

“After the seminar, just swap out the SIM card in the phone for this one, and you phone will be back to normal.” He held up a bag with a small rectangular piece of plastic.

Roxy stared at the detective. “Um. I’m sorry. I don’t have a clue what you just said.”

Her lawyer laughed. “The SIM card is how your phone knows you’re you. It’s what communicates to the cell phone tower that it’s you who’s using it. If you want, I’ll swap them back after the seminar.”

Roxy smiled and said, “Thanks.”

Paul handed the bag to James, who took it, confirmed that the detectives had no other work for Roxy, and left with her.

James and Roxy left the precinct in silence.

As they neared his office, he felt he wanted to tell her that everything would work out all right, to tell her how much he respected her for her bravery, but instead, all he managed to say was, “It’s been my pleasure representing you. I’ll stay as long as you need me to. How long do you think you’ll need me?”

Roxy pulled her coat tight around her shoulders. The weather hadn’t improved since they first walked into the precinct. “Um, I think I’d appreciate it if you stayed with me... You know, for moral support ... At, um... At least until the trial is over. There will be a trial, won’t there?”

“If they can collect enough evidence, the only thing that would prevent a trial is if she pleads guilty.”

Roxy looked up at her lawyer and pouted slightly.

“And you’re probably going to need to testify, too.”

“Then today was a good preview for my testimony, huh?”

“Yes, I think it was.”

The following day, after Roxy got home from work, she pourced herself a cup of coffee and called her sister using her landline phone. “Hi, Tiff. Did you have a good day at work?”

Tiffany said, “Not terrible. It’s always easy to get through a day at work when you know there’s a financial seminar that night.”

“I hear you. You about ready to come over?”

“Sure! I’m on my way!”

Roxy hung up the phone and looked for a way to kill the time. She surfed through the channels on her TV in an attempt to calm her nerves.

She had nearly finished the cup of coffee when the doorbell rang.

“Be right there!” Roxy called out.

Tiffany’s voice, on the other side of the door, came back as a girlish giggle. “Take your time!”

Roxy downed the last sip of her coffee, placed the mug down on the counter in the kitchen, and walked to her front door. Reaching into her pocket before opening the door, she activated the transmitter on her phone. Now was as good a time as any, she figured.

Swinging the door open wide, Roxy smiled at her sister. “Something looks ... different about you today. What am I missing?”

Tiffany cleared her throat and cupped her hands under her breasts.

Roxy laughed. “I’m just teasing you. When’d you have it done?”

“Saturday. Dr. Crespo said that I was an amazing patient and he wished more of his customers were like me.” Playing with her breasts a bit more, she said, “I feel like such a bimbo! But it’s so cool. Went out for drinks Saturday night and I swear, I didn’t have to pay for a single drink. It seemed like every time I turned around someone was trying to get my attention.”

Tiffany grabbed Roxy’s hand and said, “Here! Feel them!”

Roxy, feeling slightly awkward, gently pinched and squeezed at one of her sister’s nipples.

Before Roxy could say or do anything else, Tiffany squealed, “Feels natural, doesn’t it?”

“Uh... Yeah.” Roxy found herself wondering if any cops who were listening, might think of Tiffany as more ditzy than she really was.

Whatever else the case was, Tiffany’s breast augmentation was complete and, if the two of them didn’t hurry, they’d miss the seminar.

Roxy smiled and said, “I’ll drive tonight.” Seeing as how her sister didn’t seem to want to stop feeling herself up, she mused that her sister was lucky to have even gotten to the apartment without getting into an accident.

Tiffany pouted for a moment before conceding. “Well... If you insist...”

“I do.”

Once they were on the road, Tiffany asked Roxy, “So, when’re you getting your boobs done?”

“Probably in a couple months or so, I guess. I need about four hundred more bucks before I’ve earned enough. I think it’ll be worth it, though.”

“Oh, yeah! You can’t imagine how much my life’s gotten better in, what’s it been?” She started counting on her fingers and giggling. “Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, today... Four days since I’ve had it done.”

“Did it hurt?”

“No, they pretty much knocked me out to do it. When I woke up, I was more itchy than hurty, ya know?”

“Uhm... Yeah, I guess I do. Well, you look great!”

“Thanks, sis!” Tiffany started playing with her breasts some more. The two of them didn’t say anything else until they got to the seminar.

Once they arrived, they hung out in the lobby, chatting amiably with the other girls who were waiting for the seminar to begin.

Tiffany looked at one girl and asked, “Do you know what tonight’s seminar is about?”

“I think it’s about the laws of finance.”

“Oh. That’s ... a good topic.”

Back at the precinct, the two detectives were in the lab with Roxy’s lawyer, listening to the conversation.

“If she’s nervous,” commented Sally, “She doesn’t really seem so to me.”

“I wonder if her sister’s always been this ... flighty.” asked Paul.

James spoke up. “I don’t think so.”

Someone on the recording said, “It’s starting” and the three of them stopped talking. There was a smattering of voices saying “Shhhh!” before the only sound coming through the computer was the sound of footsteps. Once the footsteps stopped, some intermittent whispers came through the surveillance equipment, but that was silenced by the sound of a woman speaking.

“Good evening, ladies! I’m glad you all could make it tonight, especially after the nasty weather these past few days,” a woman’s voice said. Her voice was magnified by her microphone, which came through in the lab so loud that Paul quickly reached for the volume controls on the surveillance equipment.

“That must be Patti,” mused Paul aloud.

“At any rate, welcome to the next in my series of financial planning seminars for women. If you haven’t already done so, please sign in; otherwise we won’t be able to credit your accounts. Although we know you’re enriched by information we provide in thee seminars, I suspect that some of you might want the added money, too.”

There was some scattered laughter in the auditorium.

“For those of you who have been here before, we are going to take a slightly different tack in tonight’s lecture. In the past, we have discussed investment strategies and different investment products available to you. Tonight, we’re here to talk about some of the laws that dictate what I must do and what I may not do. I hope that this is an enlightening speech.”

There was a slight bit of movement that came through the computer.

“Most of our laws today stem from reforms that were put into place by President Franklin Roosevelt, when he took the oath of office of the President, in 1933. At the time, we were in the midst of what historians call The Great Depression. Does anyone know what caused the Great Depression?”

After a short pause, Patti said, “Yes, Ruth!”

A woman’s voice called out, “The stock market crash in 1929.”

“That’s correct, Ruth, but do you know what caused the stock market crash?”

For about five seconds, the two detectives and the lawyer heard nothing but silence.

Patti broke the silence. “The 1920’s were a decade of excesses. The economy grew at a nearly unprecedented rate. I’m sorry to say, though, that not all of that economic growth was the result of honest, fair, and reasonable practices. When those practices ceased to be sustainable, the stock market fell. As more and more bad practices came to be exposed for what they were, it created ripples in the economy. At one point, as many as one out of every four Americans who were otherwise capable of working, was out of a job.

“Keep in mind, the great depression wasn’t local to just the United States. It was felt around the world. In Germany, crippling economic problems stemming from the end of World War I, caused such dramatic inflation, that some people would have to spend their entire life savings just to buy a loaf of bread. But I really just want to talk about what happened here in the US.

“So FDR rolled out his new deal. There were basically three pieces to the new deal. First, was programs that were designed to create jobs. Countless programs across the country to get the country back up and working again. Next, came laws designed to prevent the excesses of the 1920’s from happening again. Finally, came the creation of government agencies to regulate both investment companies and businesses, to ensure that they are in compliance with those laws. The best known of these agencies is the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC.”

A low murmur of comprehension echoed in the police lab.

“Now, if you’ll take a look at this next slide....” began Patti. Her voice trailed off into silence.

The detectives looked at each other in uncertainty for about a second until the silence was broken by a loud noise that sounded like a combination of an old-fashioned alarm clock, and the siren of an ambulance.

The noise faded away. A moment later, a man’s voice came through the surveillance machine. “All right ladies. Now’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. You will find the information about your dates for this evening at the front table, as usual. I’ll call you up one table at a time.”

“Who’s that?” whispered Sally, who, after she said her words, wondered why she was whispering.

“No idea,” whispered back Paul.

“Do you think that sound is what triggers their trances?” she asked, in a more normal voice.

Paul shrugged.

The three of them redirected their attention to the lab computer. After a moment, the man’s voice called out “Table two!”

There were some scattered footsteps, but, as far as anyone could tell, Roxy wasn’t yet moving.

As the footsteps died away, the man called out, “Table three!”

Some rustling noises gave the three of them the impression that this was the table where Roxy sat. They heard footsteps and the rustling of papers, but no word was spoken.

After some nondescript sounds that they all chalked up to the Roxy and the other girls at her table picking up the information about their respective ‘dates’, followed by a buzzing noise and then a creak of a door hinge, Roxy spoke. “You must be Don Nettles. I’m Roxy. What can I do for you tonight?” Her voice was playful, sensual.

Don stammered, “I, um... I... Well, you see, uh... Roxy is it?”

“Mmmm hmmmmmmmm”.

James looked at the two detectives. “She sounds like she’s enjoying teasing him. But she doesn’t sound anything like the Roxy who hired me or who came here a couple of days ago.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” remarked Paul.

Roxy spoke again. “It’s okay to be a little bit nervous. But I promise. I won’t bite. Unless, of course, you want me to...”

Silence came through the computer once again. After a long pause, Roxy said, “Here. Would it make things easier if I got undressed for you?”

If she hadn’t mentioned what she was doing, both of the detectives would have been able to interpret the rustling and whooshing of air that came through the equipment as her getting undressed. Don occasionally said, “That’s nice. Yeah. That’s good.”

“I’m here for you, Don, if you want to come and take me.” By this time, Roxy’s voice sounded distant. It was clear that her phone was no longer on her person at all. After a few moments, she started to moan. “C’mon, Don! Can’t you see how much I want you?” Her voice sounded breathy, almost eager.

“Yeah, that’s it! Right there, Don. That... That’s real good! Oh, yeah...”

“You’re very pretty, Roxy,” said Don. His voice now sounded nasal, as though he were suppressing some very heavy breathing.

“Thank you, Don. I’m glad you like what you see,” taunted Roxy in response. “Now, may I see a little ... more of you?”

A rustling sound came through the surveillance equipment. The detectives heard a low thud that was louder than they had expected.

“He must be getting undressed and that was his clothes hitting the floor near hers,” mused Paul.

“Now, Don, why don’t you tell me how you want me...”

“Right there,” he panted.

Roxy started to moan slightly as she teased, “Come and take me, then. I’m all yours.”

Roxy’s voice broke as her words melted into a high-pitched set of squeals and moans of pleasure.

“Do we need to listen to this?” Sally stood up and spoke to the room as a whole. “I mean, we all know what’s going on there, don’t we?”

“I suppose you’re right,” answered James. “It already feels like an invasion of someone’s privacy. We don’t need to make it any worse.”

“I agree,” said Paul.

The three of them decided to go to the break room for some coffee.

Over their cups of coffee, Paul looked at James. “Did Roxy say anything to you about a man in this whole process? I mean, other than the guy she was having sex with?”

“No.”

“I wonder who he is...”

Sally chimed in. “I’ll bet that when we find out who he is, we’ll come close to cracking this case. We’ve definitely got enough evidence to subpoena financial records now. Find out how the money’s getting transferred. I’ll bet you anything that, by the time we get back to the lab, we’re going to hear the other sounds Roxy reported hearing when she was awake after her phone broke her out of her reverie.”

“You’re probably right,” said James.

“The only real question,” said Paul, “is whether we’ll be able to get enough evidence to get these seminars to stop, before they have too many more.”

The lawyer spoke, “What do I tell my client about future attendance? I don’t want her going there any more than necessary, but at the same time, I don’t want anyone to get suspicious if she doesn’t go.”

“That makes sense,” answered Paul. “As much as I hate to say it, but for your client, I’d say she’s got to continue with things in a business as usual manner until we can shut this whole thing down.”

James looked at Sally, who shrugged. “He’s probably right.”

James broke the ensuing uncomfortable silence by remarking, “This is really good coffee. Where do you get it?”

“The supermarket,” said Paul.

Sally leaned in conspiratorially. “The trick is to put a pinch of salt in the grounds before you run the pot.”

“I’ll have to remember that,” said James. After everything they had just encountered, he started to laugh.

His laughter was contagious: soon the break room was filled with laughter.

Paul looked at Sally. “What do you think we should do next? I’m thinking subpoenas, personally.”

“I agree. We need to subpoena financial records. Start with the records of the guy Roxy’s with, but also the records of Patti Sims. We should also look for employment records for Patti. Maybe try to find out where she went to school. Maybe somewhere in there, we’ll get a sense of who that man is.”

Paul paused and said, “What was the name of the plastic surgeon?”

James ruffled his brow. “Roxy never told me, but she said the name tonight. What was it? Crespo or something.”

“We can confirm that when we play back the recording. Do you think we should pay the good doctor a visit?” asked Sally.

“Not quite yet,” said Paul.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” James asked.

“Just keep your client’s mind at ease, as much as possible while we proceed with our investigation.”

“Fair enough.”

Paul scowled at his partner. “It’d be too dangerous for you or any of the women on the force to try and go in undercover. Do you think that maybe we should send a man in undercover and see if he can find out what he can, about getting in on some of the action?”

“Might not be a bad idea. We could always put up a front of opening up an account with the firm.”

The three of them finished their cups of coffee and slowly walked back to the lab.

The following morning, Roxy arrived at James’s law office to get her SIM card replaced in her phone. She had taken a seat in a chair in the waiting area, and was huddled over. If the weather hadn’t been so mild, any passerby would have thought she was cold.

He strode casually over to where she sat and, without saying a word, placed a hand on her shoulder. He bit his lip as he suppressed the urge to touch her somewhere else.

She turned her head towards him, but didn’t look up.

He knelt down and spoke in a quiet voice, slightly more audible than a whisper. “Would you like to come back to my office?”

“S-sure.”

Roxy stood up and followed the lawyer back to his office.

“Would you like me to draw the blinds?”

“Um...” She craned her head to see the city outside of the windows and recognized how high up off the ground they were. “I, uh... I guess you don’t need to.”

Without saying another word, she placed her phone down on the table.

He smiled as he placed the bag that contained her SIM card next to her phone. “This’ll just take a sec.”

“Thank you.”

As he was replacing the card in her phone, he said, “I think the cops got some good information from you, and they’ve got a couple of good leads now. Unfortunately, now it’s a waiting game.”

“Did ... anything happen last night?”

“Do you really want me to tell you?”

“I... I’m pretty sure it did. Just because of how much time I lost last night and how horny I felt when the seminar was over. If you told me, you wouldn’t do anything more than confirming what I already know.”

“Well...” James paused for a moment before deciding that she had come this far. “Yes. Something happened last night. And we got a good lead, too. Please don’t ask anything else about what we heard, since that’s a part of an ongoing investigation, OK?”

“All right. I guess I can’t ask what Paul and Sally are going to do next, can I?”

“You can ask. But I can’t tell you. That’s all we wouldn’t need, is to have Patti somehow learning that you’re cooperating with the police. And if she can get that far into your mind, who knows what else she can do. As it is, I’m worried about what she might be able to find out if she had any reason to suspect you.”

“Are you saying that, um... Do you mean I, have to ... keep ...” Her voice cracked. “I have to keep going to those seminars?”

James’s face turned somber and he nodded curtly.

Detective Baxter sat down on his partner’s desk and looked at her. “I figure it’ll probably be another three or four days before we can get the financials. What’ve you gotten?”

Sally scowled. “Got some info on Don Nettles. He’s a middle aged guy. Divorced, father of two. Divorce was friendly. Ex-wife has primary custody of the kids, but he gets to see them at least two or three times a week as his own availability warrants. Makes a decent living but lives alone. As far as I can tell, he hasn’t dated anyone seriously since the divorce, although he has tried. Seems kind of sad, actually.”

“D’you think we should go out and talk to him?”

“Not a bad idea. Tomorrow, then?”

“Sure. Who should we call next?”

“I think a call to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is in order. See what we can find out about the registered representatives of Bain Webster in their Chrystal Heights branch. Might as well ask about them all, since it’s public record.”

“Then I’ll see what I can do about Bain Webster employment records.”

The following day, Sally and Paul drove out to the home of Don Nettles.

Paul kept his eyes on the road as he told his partner, “I called Bain Webster again this morning. They should have it for us by the beginning or middle of next week.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s just... I ... I really don’t want Roxy going to any more of those so-called seminars, ya know? She’s probably going to really hate us the longer this takes. I know I would. Hate us, that is.”

“And that’s exactly why we’re not sending you in to Bain Webster as a prospective client.”

Sally sighed. “D’you think you will?”

“I think that’s a question we’ll answer after we’ve met with this Nettles person.”

“You want to know if he’s been entranced, too?”

“Pretty much.” He looked at the different houses on this street and then glanced at the fact sheet they had been able to glean about this person. “That must be his house over .... there!”

Paul pulled the car over to the side of the road and stopped it directly in front of the house he had pointed to.

Sally took off her seatbelt. “Let’s go in.”

“Let’s.”

As they walked towards Don’s door, Sally looked over at her partner. “Assuming he wasn’t under Patti Sims’s mind control, he’s either going to ask for a lawyer the minute he sees us, or he’ll break down and tell us everything. Whaddaya think this guy’s gonna do?”

“We’ll find out in a minute.”

Once they reached the door, Paul leaned forward and rang the doorbell.

Both of them reached for their wallets and waited for Don to answer the door.

They could hear footsteps moving towards the other side of the door.

Don swung the door open wide as a look of curiosity moved across his face. “Can I help you?”

They displayed their badges. “Good afternoon, Mr. Nettles. I’m Detective Paul Baxter and this is my partner, Detective Sally Winfield. We’d like to ask you a few questions about an incident that took place about a week ago at the Bain Webster Securities branch office in Chrystal Heights. Do you have a few minutes?”

Don’s eyes widened. “Y-y-yes, um, I, sure.... W-w-won’t you, uh... Please... come in.”

As he gestured for the two of them to sit down on a sofa in his living room, Paul whispered to Sally, “Looks like he’s going to talk...”

Before either detective could say a word, Paul sighed. “I—I—I can’t b-believe... I mean... He swore to m-me... They’d ... nobody’d ever be able to ... I... I can’t believe this is happening.” He buried his face in his hands and made whimpering noises.

Sally leaned forward. “Mr. Nettles. Please. Relax. We believe you might have some information we need in an ongoing investigation into some improprieties that have taken place at that office. You aren’t under arrest, but we really need to talk to you.”

Don looked up and wiped a tear out of his eyes.

“Now... You said that someone swore to you about something. What’s that about?”

“You said you don’t want to arrest me?”

“No, we don’t.” Sally looked at her partner, who nodded. Looking back at Don, she said, “We already know that you bought some, shall we say, non-financial services at Bain Webster. You’re not the person we want in this investigation. I want to know what you know about anyone else you might have dealt with, how you ended up there in the first place. And if you cooperate with us, you’ll have nothing to worry about. Other than potentially testifying at a trial.”

“Um. I... I don’t know...”

Paul interrupted him. “Mr. Nettles, if we wanted to, we could’ve already arrested you, but we would prefer not to, if you know what I mean.”

Don sighed. “I don’t suppose I could get some kind of assurance that I won’t get in trouble.”

Sally smiled. “We can do that.”

“All right.”

“Excellent. Now, Don. Someone swore something to you about what took place at Bain Webster. Who was that someone?”

“M-m-my, uh, my broker. Patrick Simonds. He said that he ran a little service on the side... You know, for, um... Lonely people. And I, um... I’ve been pretty, uh... Lonely lately. And, well... You know... They organize these special nights where guys like me, well... Um, do I need to go into the details?”

Paul shook his head. “That’s not necessary. Is there a fee for this service?”

Don nodded.

“How much is this fee?”

“It’s $350.”

“You said that nobody’d be able to do something. What’s that?”

“Patrick told me that it couldn’t be traced back to me.”

“I don’t know, Don,” said Paul, sincerely. “Let’s say you were one of twenty people at the office that night. If each of them paid three hundred fifty bucks, that’s seven thousand dollars trading hands. How did you think that it wouldn’t be traceable?”

“I.. I, uh, didn’t really understand this all the way, but the only money you’d see moving out of my account with Bain Webster, would be a simple brokerage fee of about twenty bucks or so. The rest of the money comes off of the top of the daily share prices on my investments.”

“What?”

“Patrick explained it to me like this. Let’s say that one share of a stock that I own closes at a price of fifty bucks. If I call to find out my account value today, they’d tell me that the value of that share is forty nine fifty. The other fifty cents are taken off of the top of the daily share values maintained in my account as an administrative expense. It’s kind of confusing but it was laid out in the prospectus they gave me when I first opened my account. According to Patrick, this is how life insurance, annuities, and some mutual funds all work.”

“So... The money was taken off the top of your account value every day and wouldn’t be something we’d see on any account transaction registers, would it?”

“Nope. The only amount taken out that would show up on an account transaction statement was, uh, twenty one bucks and change. The rest was a part of those expense fees I told you about.”

“Interesting. What can you tell us about the night of June 15?”

“Well, I was nervous. You know, my first time and all. I’d never thought that, you know, I’d ever want to do one of these things. I felt kind of ashamed and did everything I could to hide my steps that got me that far. I even hired a cab to bring me to Bain Webster and back, and I picked it up a few blocks away from my house. I thought I’d done a good job until you showed up on my doorstep.”

Paul shuffled in his seat.

“I, um, I’m sorry about that, I didn’t mean—”

“Just continue. Tell me about what happened when you got there.”

“Well, I was in a room with about twenty five or thirty other guys. They told us to wait and our girls would come to us. They said that there’d be a bell when it was time to finish up, but before that bell rang, it was an anything goes type deal.

“Me? I didn’t really want anything special. I just ... I just wanted a little relief from the frustrations of my day-to-day life. The girl I got... She was perfect. Sweet and innocent, but at the same time sensual and wild. She’s the kind of girl you wish you’d met under other circumstances, ya know? Where the pretense of all of the money and everything else just isn’t there and you can just... You know, just be with her.”

“What was her name?”

“Roxy. A name I’ll never forget. Um... She’s not going to get in trouble for what I’ve told you, is she?”

Sally laughed. “Of course not. The way we see it, she’s as much a victim here as you are.”

“Good. The last thing I’d want to see is someone as sweet and kind as Roxy, getting into any trouble as a result of this. You know, because of me.”

Paul looked up. “Did you know any of the other guys there that night?”

“No. I didn’t see my broker, either, which actually kind of surprised me. I thought I heard his voice at one point but I never saw him.”

“When did you think you heard his voice?”

“About five minutes or so before Roxy came in and introduced herself to me.”

Sally and Paul exchanged glances on this comment.

Paul looked down over his notes. “Well, Mr. Nettles. I think ...”

“Wait!” Sally said. “How long ago did you open your account?”

“About six months ago.”

“And this was the first one you’d gone to?”

“Yes.”

“Could you have gone to any earlier lonely person’s nights?”

“Yes. But it was the first one that wasn’t a conflict for me.”

“How long before you’ll be able to go to another one?”

“I’m guessing about two months or so now.”

Sally nodded. “That’s good.”

Paul glanced at Sally and then at Don. “As I was saying, thank you for your time and your willingness to speak to us. Here’s my card in case you have any additional information. If we need you, may we ask you to testify in a court of law?”

“Um... I, uh... I might want to talk to my lawyer about that.”

“Very well. We’ll be in touch. Thank you.”

Don led the two detectives to his front door and watched them as they got into their car and drove away. He walked to a picture of his ex-wife which hung on the wall and said, “Somehow, Linda, I don’t think I’m going to be going to another one of those nights. Shame.”

The following day, Paul drove alone to the branch office of Bain Webster in Chrystal Heights. His clothes gave the appearance of someone more “geeky” than he really was.

He walked with an air of caution and uncertainty into the office and made a point of brushing up against, and nearly knocking over, a large potted plant near the entrance.

After he righted the plant, a pleasant-sounding woman behind a desk asked, “May I help you?”

He turned to face her and stammered, “Y-yes. I, um... I’m looking for Patrick Simonds. Is he, uh... Is he available?” He pushed his glasses up his nose.

“I’ll see what I can do. May I ask your name?”

“Yes... M-my my name is ... Corey Goldblatt. My uncle told me about Mr. Simonds and recommended that I come here for help with my personal, uh, financial situation.”

The secretary picked up her phone and pushed a few buttons. “Mr. Simonds. There’s a gentleman named Corey Goldblatt here to see you. He says that his uncle’s a client of yours.”

After a short pause, the secretary hung up the phone, looked at the detective, and said, “He’ll be here in a few minutes. Why don’t you have a seat while you’re waiting? Can I get you something to drink? Coffee?”

“Do you have some water?”

“Yes, of course.”

The secretary got up and walked away down a corridor.

Paul couldn’t help but stare at her as she walked away, the way she swayed her hips when she walked. He couldn’t help but wonder if she was put to other uses within this office, especially on nights when Patti Sims gave her so-called seminars.

A moment later, the secretary returned with a bottle of water.

Paul tried not to seem too obvious that he was looking at the secretary’s breasts, but the more he watched her, the more it seemed fairly obvious that she had implants. They were too perfect, too symmetrical, too... Too something.

She giggled as she sat back down at her desk.

The detective walked around the waiting room, thumbing through pamphlets that advertised various investment products that he, presumably, would be reviewing with Patrick Simonds. He discreetly pocketed a copy of each of the different pamphlets, making a note to review them all later in greater detail. It was highly unlikely that any of these pamphlets would prove useful as evidence in and of themselves, but any misstep on the part of the broker or the firm itself would only help to bolster their case.

After a few minutes, Patrick appeared near the entrance to the waiting room. “Mr. Goldblatt?”

“Please. Call me Corey,” Paul said, as he pushed his glasses up his nose again. The two men walked down the hall towards Patrick’s office.

“All right, then, Corey,” answered Patrick. “I’m Patrick Simonds and I’m a financial advisor here in this office. May I ask what brings you here?”

“Well, I just moved to this area a couple of months ago and, well, I don’t know too many people around here. When I moved here I got a nice raise and now I find that I can actually, you know, save some money for the first time in my life. My uncle—who’s the only real family I have around here—told me about this office and how you can help someone like me. Is that true?”

“I do try to help people, yes. May I ask who your uncle is?”

“Oh, sorry. I mean my Uncle Don. I guess you’d know him as Donald Nettles.”

“Don! He’s a great guy! He didn’t tell me that he’d been talking to anyone about me.”

“Well, I only just saw him a couple of days ago. And I was the one who mentioned that I was looking to find a good way of saving money, so...”

“All right. You said that Don is your only family around here. I take it you’re not married?”

“No. I’m, uh... I’m not even seeing anyone right now.” Paul lowered his head.

Patrick smiled broadly. “You know, I think I might be able to help you there, too?”

“Really?” Paul hoped his response came off as an attempt to restrain his enthusiasm. Once again, he pushed his glasses up his nose.

Patrick opened his desk drawer and pulled out a booklet that was about a hundred pages long, printed on newsprint. Sliding it across his desk to Paul, he said, “This is the prospectus for one of our most popular products. It’s called the Single Savers Investment Strategy. For a nominal fee, you will be invited to as many as four gatherings per year here in this office, where you will have the opportunity to meet people with similar investment and retirement goals. We’ve been doing this for about a year now and it’s been a resounding success, if I do say so myself.”

“I’m not sure I understand...”

Patrick smiled and turned to a page in the middle of the prospectus. “Do you know what an investment expense charge is?”

Paul shook his head.

Patrick proceeded to use the same example that was used by Don when Paul and his partner had visited him. “Of course, we’ll never take that much off the share price of your investments in any given day, but it does illustrate how it works. The actual daily and annual rates are outlined on in this grid here...” He pointed to a page in the middle of the prospectus.

“Gee. I don’t know.”

“That’s all right, Corey. Tell you what. I don’t want to pressure you into doing anything, so why don’t you take the prospectus home, look it over. I’ll call you in a week and we can go over your options from there.”

“Seems fair,” Paul said. “I guess you need me to give you my number, huh?”

“Just write it down on this contact form if you don’t mind.”

Patrick slid him a form and a pen.

Paul was prepared for this and filled in his fake contact information, provided by the police department. The phone number was for a cell phone that the department provided to him to facilitate his undercover investigation. As he put the pen down, he stood up and smiled. “I, uh... I guess I’ll hear from you in about a week, huh?”

“Yes. Here. Let me help you out.”

The two men walked back to the entrance of the office and shook hands. Paul pushed his glasses up his nose and walked out the door.

Patrick leaned over the desk of his secretary. “Remind me to give Don Nettles a special reward if his nephew opens up an account with us.”

The secretary looked at him and smiled. “Of course sir.”

Patrick pressed a button on his keyring. The secretary sat upright, eyes wide, and gazing blankly into nothingness. “In the meantime, I could really use a blowjob right about now.”

“Of course sir.” She stood up, walked around towards the front of her desk, knelt down, and unzipped her boss’s fly.

When Paul returned to the precinct, he noticed that Sally was wearing her headset and that her phone receiver was off the hook. “You on hold?” he whispered?

She nodded her head yes.

“Who you talkin’ to?” he mouthed.

She pointed at the paper on her desk with her pen.

He bent over and read the name. Dr. Maurice Crespo. Paul scowled. “That the plastic surgeon?”

Sally nodded her head, but almost immediately stopped moving. “Yes!” She said into the phone. “I, um... I’m considering getting my, uh, I’d like to see about getting bigger boobs and, well, I saw your ad in the phone book and your line about special financing and I thought I’d ask about it.”

Paul quickly shuffled away from Sally to allow her to finish her call.

“Really?” Sally said into her phone. “How does that work?”

There was a long pause.

“So, um... Should I work with you guys first or should I go there?”

There was a shorter pause.

“All right, um... Is there anyone I should ask for? How do I let them know I want to work with you?”

After a brief pause, Sally asked, “I’m sorry. What was that name again? Thins? Is that right? ... Oh, Sims! Got it!” Sally giggled. “Well, let me see if I can find this Maddie Sims ... What? Oh, you said, Patti! All right. Now I got it.” She giggled again. “Great! I’ll be in touch.”

After she hung up the phone, Sally walked over to Paul’s desk. “Whatcha readin’?”

“The prospectus that Simonds gave me when I went out there.”

“Anything good?”

“They’re actually quite up front about the way they bring in escorts to special events they host. This ought to make for good evidence. What’d you get in that call?”

“It’s really interesting. It looks almost like the plastic surgeon’s office and the Bain Webster office have some kind of mutual agreement. The plastic surgeon sends clients over to Bain Webster to help with the financing of the implants and the procedure. And, if the way Roxy said she started thinking she wanted bigger breasts are any indication, then it looks like Bain Webster clients also will go to the plastic surgeon.”

“So we’ve got a kind of a chicken-slash-egg situation, huh?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m going to guess that Dr. Crespo knew Patti Sims from somewhere before their current relationship, and they ended up agreeing to help each other out with business. I guess the only real question is whether Crespo sought out Sims, or the other way around...”

“Does it make a difference?”

“Not really. I think we’re ready to go for an indictment. It’s just an open question about whether we ought to pursue Crespo, too. Either way, now that two people are involved, I think we’ve got racketeering and conspiracy under our belts as well.”

“Weren’t there already two people? Simonds and Sims?”

Paul flashed a mischievous smile at his partner and walked away without saying a word.

Nine months later, Roxy squealed with glee as she and her attorney watched the evening news in his office.

“Earlier today, Patrick Simonds of Chrystal Heights was sentenced to 250 years in prison for numerous counts of racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering, slavery, sexual coercion, securities fraud and other lesser charges,” a female reporter stated. “After his conviction last month, several people heaved a deep sigh of relief following a sensational trial involving allegations of mind control, prostitution, and, in one of the most bizarre aspects of the trial, the revelation that Mr. Simonds dressed as a woman named Patti Sims, in order to gain the confidence of his female clientele.”

The reporter looked off to one side and smiled. “Look! There’s Roxanne Pierce, the woman whose evidence really broke this case wide open. Miss Pierce! May I have a word?”

Roxy looked away from the television as she and James stepped into the screen.

“Miss Pierce! How do you feel knowing that Mr. Simonds—or as you probably knew him when the investigation first started, Miss Sims —is going to be locked away for good?”

James answered for her. “My client is just thankful that this sordid affair is over and that she can now put this whole ugly time behind her.”

In the office, Roxy looked at James. “We don’t need to watch this.”

James picked up a remote control and turned the TV off.

She heaved a deep sigh and said, “I guess it’s true what Shakespeare said, huh? What a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive.”

“And it’s a lot of work for the cops to untangle it, but, he was right. Wasn’t he?”

Roxy laughed. “One thing nobody ever answered for me. That first night, when I watched the video. What happened while I was first put under?”

“I think only one person knows the answer to that question, and Patrick Simonds isn’t talking. If you want an educated guess, that’s when your brain was conditioned to respond to the start and end noises.”

Roxy scowled. “And my sticky underwear?”

“As much as I hate to say it, Patrick probably took advantage of you that night.”

Roxy let out a deep sigh. “I guess I can’t be too surprised. So...” She paused for a moment. “What, uh... What happens next?”

“Well, the FBI, the FTC, and the SEC are all looking into Bain Webster securities. And Dr. Crespo probably won’t get through this whole thing without some prison time. Plus there’s always the civil lawsuits, too. If you don’t mind, I’d like to represent you and your sister and any other women who might have been hoodwinked by these guys. There’s probably a lot of money to be made with that.”

“Thank you, James. I appreciate all of the faith you’ve shown in me this whole time.”

“I’m just sorry we had to put you through as much as we did to get to this point.” This was an understatement, but James never felt comfortable telling her how he really felt towards her, for numerous reasons.

“But you said it best on that TV. I’d like to move forward from here. Is there any way I can thank you?” She spoke with a muted seductiveness.

James reached into his desk and pulled out a small portable digital audio recorder. “Actually, there is.”

She looked confused for a moment, but as he pressed a button and a noise that sounded like a combination of an old-fashioned alarm clock, and the siren of an ambulance reverberated out of the device. This was the same sound that was used to trigger her trance-like state during the so-called seminars. Her face lost all expression as she said, “What do you need me to do?”

“Oh, just take off your clothes and lay down on my desk.”

“Whatever you desire, master...”

He smiled as she did what he had requested. Maybe, eventually, he’d be able to get her to do this without the assistance of Patrick Simonds’ conditioning technology, but for now, he figured he would reap some of the fringe benefits of his involvement in the investigation without worrying about how she really felt.