Bone in the Skeleton's Closet

"Back in the office," she nodded.

There was kind of a lobby area to my right, that opened to a bar and the strip club. The club doubled as a casual meetup area before the clothing optional party rooms beyond. Offices were to my left. I went left and knocked on Rico's door.

"Come in!" It was Rico's voice. A little older, a little more gravelly, but it was Rico alright. I turned the knob and stepped in.

"Holy Shit! Big Bear? Is that you, Big Bear? C'mere! Let me look at you." He got out of his chair and stepped up to look me over a little closer. "A little older, cleaned up, but still looking like you could fuck a grizzly and come out on top! How the hell you doin' man?"

"Can't complain. How 'bout you, Rico? I woulda thought you'd overdosed on Viagra by now."

"Not me. I got the constitution of a horse, even if you're the one who's got a cock like one. Come to ask for your old job back? Lotta money in that old guy fucks young girl porn. Can ya still get it up?"

"I do alright. Thanks for the offer though. Always nice to know I got something to fall back on." Same old Rico. Possibly the horniest man in the world. Everything in his life revolved around smut. "I like your doorman. That's new."

"Bet you think she's a tranny. But she's not! Daisy's all woman. Checked her out myself."

"I bet you did."

"So what brings ya 'round, Big Bear?"

"Need a favor. Friend of mine's got himself in love, and she's the type that's liable to run through here. She hasn't been home in a few days. Probably just got tired of his shit and hit the road. But I promised him I'd take a look around. Mind if I cruise through?"

"Be my guest. Won't even make ya pay the cover. Here." He handed me a black wristband. "That'll get ya anywhere you want to go."

"Even the Cavern?"

"Even the Cavern. And if you feel like jumpin into the action anywhere, just ask first, then jump right in. The rules ain't changed. That band says you're alright, even if you did quit me without giving two weeks notice." Then Rico gave a kind of cackle, like only an old man can.

"I figure you've re-cut and re-sold every one of my scenes at least 10 times, so it's kind of like I never quit at all."

"Yep. You're still makin' me money!" He laughed, and patted me on the back. "One of the greatest cocks I ever seen, man!"

"Thanks. I guess."

"Go ahead. Look around. I hope you find your girl. But try to be a little discreet will ya, at least as discreet as a 6 foot 6 dude with a twelve-inch cock can possibly be!" He cackled again as he ushered me out the door.

I was feeling like that went pretty well. Maybe Rico had gone a little sentimental in his old age. Maybe soft in the head too. My cock was never 12 inches. Well...maybe in Rico's ad copy it had been. Still, I knew there was only so far I could trust him. If he felt I was any kind of threat, if he thought I was going to cost him money, my head could easily be in a can at the bottom of the river before sunrise tomorrow.

To be fair, I didn't "know" for sure of anyone he'd had killed, but I did know of guys he'd put into real tough situations, and girls that he didn't lift a finger to help, girls he used up and threw away. If he didn't personally pull the trigger, or push the syringe, well he might as well have. Rico. Did. Not. Give. A. Shit. His heart was as black as the wristband he'd given me.

Don't get me wrong. I wasn't down on adult entertainment, per se, or the clientele. Mostly they were just suburban couples looking for a thrill. As long as they stayed in their lane, Rico provided a safe space where they could get their thrill. But I'd spent enough time in Rico's world—too much time—to know some of the people on the fringes. They were part of it too. They supplied the hint of real danger that helped make a place like Rico's thrilling for the normies. For the most part, the fringers would leave the normies pretty much alone. Unless one got separated from the herd. Unless one ventured into the woods alone. If that happened, all bets were off.

Thing is, I figured Angie for a wanderer, and a weak and tempting one at that. I'd wandered away once too, except I'd found my way back out. I didn't figure Angie's odds were quite so good as mine had been.

3:00 p.m. on a Thursday at Rico's was not exactly prime suburban mommy and daddy hour. There were only a handful of people in the bar, and only one dancer working the runways. I tend to have pretty good luck with bartenders so I made her my first stop.

"What's your pleasure?"

"Just need a quick word." I held up my wrist so she could see the black band. "I'm looking for a girl."

"I get a lot of that."

"I bet you do. This one, in particular." I held out a picture of Angie. She took the photo and looked at it.

"What's she to you?"

"Just a friend. Just want to make sure she's safe."

"Might have seen her around here a couple days ago. Hard to be sure. I see a lot of faces."

"Was she with anybody?"

"I think maybe alone, which might be why I remember. We don't get too many younger girls alone." She handed the photo back.

"Anything else? Please. It would mean a lot."

"Sorry. That's all I got. A little spacey. She might have been on something."

"Something you provide?"

"I don't do that. Not too hard to find inside, though."

"You got a name? Someplace I should start?"

"Ask Tom. Little guy. Wispy beard. He's one of the dungeon masters."

"Thanks. You're alright." I pulled one of the hundreds out of my pocket and slipped it to her. She took it and nodded. I figured I could afford to spread it around a little. Rick Dame like Cora oughta be good for more where that hundred came from.

Just off the side of the bar there was a short passageway that led to the Red Room. You had to pass through the Red Room to get to the Dungeon. The Red Room was suburban swinger central, a big room with a large sunken area filled with plentiful cushions on tiered risers and large flat spaces, basically designed for sex in pairs, or threesomes, or groups, or whatever. Orgy central on a good weekend. Red furniture. Red carpet. Red lights.

There was an area around the edge of the room where you could walk without taking your clothes off, if you were just "passing through." You could watch from there too, if voyeurism was your thing, or if you just weren't sure about getting in on the action. Thursday afternoons were a little slow.

As I glanced into the room, a skinny black kid with a cock almost as big as mine was giving it to a middle-aged white woman doggy-style. A sad-eyed bald guy was jerking off and watching them. A couple of reasonably fit women were going at each other 69 a few feet away. A woman with bleach-blonde hair and tattoos was on the other side of the room laying on a kind of raised area while a chunky guy fucked her and she jerked off two guys kneeling to either side of her head. There was another couple just kind of holding each other, off to one side of the room, naked, but watching the others rather than getting into it just then. That's all there was.

Then I saw a younger black woman, alone, naked, with spectacularly large nipples, sitting just on the edge of the party area giving me the eye. My dick couldn't help but tingle a little from being around other people having sex, and the possibilities this girl offered, but I couldn't let myself get distracted, not now anyway. I blew her a kiss and told her, "sorry" with my eyes. She caught the kiss and smiled softly.

Once I got halfway around the Red Room, a stairway led down to the Dungeon. Just for show they had a big, heavy door that creaked as you went in. The decor was fake stone bricks around the outside walls, The furniture was rough, sturdy wood, padded with what looked like grey wrestling mats. The beds, tables, chairs, places around the walls, all were fixed with leather straps and chains for arms and legs and waists. A burly guy wearing a black hood was flogging a man's back, not hard enough to cut, but still marking him red and raising a few welts. A woman was strapped down spread-eagle on a bed while a larger woman with a crew cut penetrated her with a dildo bigger than my cock. A small Asian woman with her feet bound and her hands tied behind her was getting face-fucked by a larger Arab-looking man.

I scanned the room for anyone matching Tom's description. Then I saw him, in a white lab coat sitting on a platform off to the side, like a mad scientist surveying his creations. I walked over toward him, taking a route around the outer edges of the room so as not to intrude on anybody's fun. "Tom," I said, and I raised my arm to show him my wristband.

"Yes?"

"I heard you're the man that can hook me up."

"Where'd you hear that?"

"My friend. Maybe you remember. This is her." I flashed him Angie's picture. "Only I don't remember what she said it was. 'Lust' or something like that."

"It's Lux. Two hundred per."

"I'll take two." I held out $500 for him. "The extra's if you can tell me where to find her. I know she's here."

"She might be in the Cavern. She went down there a couple days ago. Might still be there. This shit is good, but you gotta play it careful, get someone to help you trip safe. Sometimes it takes a while." He dug two small blue envelopes out of his pocket and handed them to me.

"Thanks." Tom took the $500. I kinda wanted to break his face, just for looking like a weasel and for dealing this dangerous shit, but a commotion right now was not going to serve my purpose.

The closet door was in a corner of the room partially obscured by an angle in one of the fake dungeon walls. It may have been years, but it's the kind of thing you don't forget. I went in and closed the door behind me, slid the rack of towels to the side, and a floor plate sprung up to let me down the steep stairs to the tunnel. The door above me closed automatically when I hit the bottom rung. The Cavern was not a high-traffic area.

The tunnel was about 100 feet long, about 3 feet wide, dimly lit, nothing but bare concrete and a single low-watt incandescent bulb every 20 feet or so. At the end was a single black wooden door. Only the worn spots on the handle betrayed the fact that it was not someplace abandoned long ago. I turned the handle then stood in another closet-sized space, with yet another single door in front of me. I waited a full 30 seconds until the top half of the door opened just a crack. I showed my black wristband. The crack closed, then I heard a lock turn and the full door opened to reveal a man with a large piercing through his septum, and two-inch gages in each ear.

"Welcome to the Cavern." This doorman reminded me of an insect.

I held up my two blue envelopes.

"Private room?" he asked.

"Yes, please."

"This way." He walked. I followed. The Cavern was dark. There were hallways and corners and rooms, some bigger, some smaller, one about 40 ft square that was furnished like the Red Room upstairs, only all in black. Outside the rooms and in-between them it was like a labyrinth, easy to get lost in if you didn't know your way. You could see just enough to not bump into walls, and just enough to make out the occasional door. I knew from experience the lights only came on every Sunday from 6pm until midnight, when they swept through, cleared everyone out, and sent in the cleaning crew.

If the cleaning crew found bodies, which wasn't often, but did happen, they dumped them near homeless camps. Rico's crew didn't do autopsies. Most were undoubtedly ODs, but whether that, or something more suspicious, if you were in a room with somebody who ended up dead, you were permanently banned. No appeals. If it looked like maybe a murder, Rico knew guys who enjoyed torture, the real kind, and who got off on it. He'd turn you over to them. I never knew what happened to those people that got turned over. I didn't want to know.

The insect walked me to a room and opened the door.

"Help me inspect. I wanna be sure." He walked into the room with me. I closed the door and turned on the light. The switches in the rooms were on a dimmer. I turned up the brightness.

The room was very basic. If all I wanted was a place to trip, I didn't need more. "Hey," I said to the insect, "I got a friend. I know she's here. I want us to party together." I held out Angie's picture and $200.

The insect didn't want to play along. "You seem like you know the rules. Which means you know I can't tell you." I pulled out three more bills. "Man, I'd like to take your money, but I just can't."

An insect turning down that kind of money, that wasn't normal. But I had a hunch. The doorman's job, besides not letting in anyone who wasn't cleared, was to keep enough of a lid on things to keep everyone alive. "She's already with somebody, is that it?"

"Sorry, man. I just can't say."

"Oh I think you're gonna say. Now why don't you just make it easy?"

The insect could see how this was going down. He knew the rooms were nearly soundproof. He knew I had probably five inches and fifty pounds on him. But he wasn't going to give it up easy, I had to hand him that. I saw it in his eyes first. "Hey man, I don't want no tr..."

The knife must have been up his sleeve because I never saw him reach for it, but after his eyes tipped it I saw the right arm coming up, and the blade. I turned to grab above his elbow with my left hand, then grabbed his wrist with my right, and brought the arm down hard against my left knee coming up. The knife dropped to the ground. Starting to double over from the pain he swung with his left, but my right uppercut connected with his jaw before he got it round. His head snapped back and he fell to the floor in a heap.

I picked up the knife and put it in my pocket as I checked to make sure he was still breathing. I tied his feet together with his belt and his hands behind his back with his bootlaces. Then I sat back and waited.

"Friend, you just lost yourself five hundred bucks," I reminded him as I saw him start to wake up. He struggled a bit at first, then just sat.

"It's not fair, ya fuckin' giant." He spat the words at me.

"You're lucky I didn't break your arm. But I'll break it now if you don't tell me which room she's in."

"Fucker." I watched him think it over, wanting to fight but knowing he was beat.

"Just give me the number. I know you were just doing your job. Rest easy. I don't want to hurt her. I don't even want to hurt him, whoever he is. I just want to take her home."

"You'll never make it out of here, black wristband or not."

"You let me worry about that. Number."

Thinking it over, he made his decision. "Three"

"If you're lying to me, I'll be back."

"It's three."

I took the master key off his belt loop where it was clipped and left him there, locking the door as I left. Room three was around the corner to my right, second door on the left. I used the key and opened it.

Angie was naked and tied spread-eagle to the bed. A wiry little bare-assed shit, who'd clearly just been fucking her, turned to face me as his dick popped out, still hard and very average. "What the fuck? Get out of here!" he screamed at me.

"That's not gonna happen." My voice was low and steady. I pointed to the farthest corner of the room. "Sit there and if you know what's good for you, don't move." It didn't take him long to decide doing what I said was his best option. He moved, and sat.

I went to check Angie. I saw a black eye, a cut lip, bruises around her neck and arms. She was clearly zonked out of her skull and feeling no pain. Her face showed a kind of exhausted bliss. She barely knew I was there, but groggily managed to say "Rick" before closing her eyes and then gasping as her breathing got rapid and she gave a little yelp, then her body seemed to shake slightly until it relaxed. Probably the first time I made a girl cum just by looking at her. That drug, Lux, must be everything they said it was.

The worm in the corner was probably feeding it to her because it was the only way he could make a woman cum.

"Where are her clothes?"

"I don't know. I just met her out in the bullpen and she was cute so I asked her if she wanted to party and she said yes, man. I swear it."

"Stay there."

I went to untie Angie. She was still out after her orgasm, but no telling how long she'd be out, especially under the influence of this drug. The insect had been right about one thing: Out the way I came in was not going to cut it. Luckily, I knew another way. I'd plotted it out back in the days when I'd been down here. But it wasn't going to be easy dragging Angie. Worm over there might come in handy.

"Get dressed. You're coming with us."

"I'd just as soon stay here, if it's all the same to you."

"Get dressed or I'll cut off your balls." I showed him Insect's knife.

"OK, man. You're the boss."

"Give me your shorts, and your coat."

"My what?"

"Your underwear and your coat. I'm not carrying her out of here naked."

"Oh...yeah...ok."

Worm's shorts were too big, but with the elastic, they held just tight enough to stay on, and the coat wrapped around and covered up the rest of her pretty good. I spotted a dog collar and leash hanging on the wall above the bed with a bunch of other "accessories." Perfect.

"Put this on."

"What?"

"Put this on. Around your neck. Don't make me ask again." Worm did as he was told. I pulled the leash tight, and picked up Angie. "Now we're going to walk out of here, but we're going out the back way. It's a tight squeeze in a couple places, and I need you to help me with her. This is to make sure you don't run. When we get out, you're off the leash."

"OK. I won't be a problem, man. I promise."

"That's a good dog." I led the way.

The Cavern was so isolated underground that ventilation was an issue. When Rico had cleared it out and converted the space, he had to put in an HVAC system. For air supply and venting he'd connected to an old tunnel dug years ago for telephone cable, and to the bottom of an elevator shaft in a neighboring parking garage. That was our route. I'd scouted it years ago, just in case.

The phone tunnel ran just above the air handler unit. Right next to where it vented there was a plywood panel in the low ceiling. I reached up and lifted it out of the way. "You first," I said to the dog, and boosted him up and through. Angie was starting to come around a little, but she was still mostly dead weight. The dog helped pull her up, then I followed after.

It was hands and knees in the tunnel crawl space for about 20 yards until we got to the elevator shaft. I drug Angie by the coat while the dog followed behind. The grate into the elevator shaft was easy enough to kick out, and from there we went through a service access panel into the basement of the garage. There was no traffic. We were in the farthest deep corner of the garage.

I set down Angie and turned to face the dog. "Before I let you off the leash, one question: How much Lux did you give her. I want the truth. No bullshit." He was probably relieved I wasn't asking him about the bruises.

The dog looked at me obediently, then spoke. "Three doses, two yesterday, one today."

"I said I'd let you off leash, and I will, but you hurt her. If what I hear about this drug is true, she might never be the same. I can't let that go unpunished." Fear welled up in the dog's eyes. "On your knees." The dog knelt down. "Now beg." The dog brought up his hands and held them together, as if to pray. "Scoot back." Still holding the leash around his neck, I drug the dog's feet back another few inches so they rested on top of a yellow parking stop barrier on the garage floor.

I lifted my leg and stomped down hard on his ankle. The bone snapped. The dog screamed and started to squirm. I pulled the leash tight. Then I stomped on the other ankle, breaking it too. I took the leash off from around his neck. "You're free to go," I said. The dog whimpered as I picked up Angie and carried her over to the stairwell and up onto the main floor of the garage.