Dorothea Pt. 01

"If Dorothea is in New Zealand, she would almost certainly call on her mother, but I am hesitant to contact her though. She has had multiple strokes and is now suffering dementia. I wouldn't want to wind her up unless I was certain."

"Have you contacted Suzie, her friend she used to flat with in Sydney?"

"No, I have met Suzie a few times, she seems very nice, in fact she was Dorothea's maid-of-honour. I have never really had any kind of conversation with her, but I know Dorothea meets up with her quite regularly."

"She would probably know if she went to Sydney."

"I know that Dorothea had a boyfriend up there before we were married. Perhaps she has gone back to him, or he has something to do with it."

"Anything is possible, I suppose. Do you think she has been cheating on you?"

"I don't know anything. I am discovering that she had this secret work life I knew nothing about. I am now thinking I have no idea what her boundaries are. She made one odd comment that got me thinking before she went."

"What was that."

"She was rabbiting on about a Himba tribe in Namibia where they are polyamorous."

"Yeah, I have heard of them, they sound weird but when you think about it that there are many around Melbourne that would not be far off behaving in that way."

"Do you know people who behave like that here?"

"Probably one or two at Chapmans, I wouldn't be surprised. Even Carol and I have been known to partake in a bit of swinging in our time."

"You?" Michael was genuinely surprised.

"Well, it's not really our thing. You know when you are young you experiment a little."

"Was Dorothea ever involved in that stuff?"

"Are you thinking she is up to something like that?"

"Oh, maybe in New Zealand or with this old boyfriend or one or both of these Americans. Maybe she was having an affair with Grant, and he cast her off."

"Fucking hell, Michael. I would get this shit out of your mind. Dorothea is on about you all the time. She doesn't flirt. I don't think she knows how to and if anyone comes on to her, she shuts them right down. Dorothea is straight down the line. OK she has kept this work thing secret, but she has really had no choice and I am thinking it was all for your safety. Nup! Cheater, I don't think so. Go ask Suzie she would verify that anyway."

"My biggest fear is that she has topped herself or somebody has kidnapped or killed her."

"You can't stew on it. Have you gone to the police?"

"I'll go see Suzie first."

"Sounds like a plan. She has a business called 'Lactos.' Be prepared for a surprise if you haven't been there. The address will be on-line."

"I knew she had a business near where we live but I don't know anything about it."

"Oh, one last thing. I think Grant might be compromised in this situation so beware of him. That may be why he pulled her off the job. It suited him to have her on the job while he felt safe, but those Americans might have spooked him. My feeling is that he has always sailed close to the wind even before Dorothea arrived. Anyway, keep me in the loop, I might be able to help. Well, I have to go. Best of luck Michael and I mean it."

"Cheers, George."

*****

Suzie's business was retail. It was situated in Brunswick not far Dorothea and Michael's house, a short way down a lane way. It was an old two storied brick edifice which once been a warehouse. The retail entrance was a large glazed double door off the side of the building facing a carpark. There was little to indicate what the business was except a large powder blue and pink Lactos sign beside the door.

Michael parked the car and headed into the retail area. In front of him was a large counter.

The stock seemed to be an array of pregnancy and baby paraphernalia. Michael, not being interested, went straight to the counter where a rather bored looking plain woman wearing glasses stood. There were one or two people wandering around but obviously custom was light at that time of day.

Michael asked for Suzie and the woman disappeared out the back arriving back with Suzie who beckoned Michael to follow her to her office. To get to it they passed through a large room that seemed part store and part laboratory, At the end there seemed to be a lounge and by the hubbub there seemed to be a few women there, but Michael could not make out through the obscured glazing what they were doing.

Suzie's looks were quite 'ying and yang' in comparison with Dorothea. Although both were about the same height and build Suzie was dark and Mediterranean against Dorothea's Albino features. Suzie was slightly curvier and more buxom, and she had a mane of black thick wavy hair.

They settled into Suzie's office. Suzie offered coffee which Michael passed getting directly to the issue. "Do you have any idea where Dorothea is? She seems to have disappeared."

Suzie raised her eyebrows in surprise. "When did she disappear? I rang her today and it went to voicemail, I haven't heard from her for a month."

Michael explained the last few days then they both sat in silence until Michael asked about Suzie's history with Dorothea.

"I don't know how much you know about Dorothea's past but if she hasn't told you some of it might come as a bit of a shock."

Michael filled her in on what he knew, "I don't know a lot of detail. I know she was married in New Zealand and was abused by her husband. The marriage didn't end well when her twin sister committed suicide. It was then she transferred to Sydney. She gets very emotional if we start talking about that so I just figure she will tell me when she is ready. I know she had a boyfriend in Sydney, but I have never seen a photo of him or anything. It's never been entirely clear why she moved to Melbourne, but I do know she came with you."

"I'll tell you what I know which might contain a few clues to what she has kept quiet about and where she may be."

Michael settled back into his chair, folding his arms for the story.

Suzie continued," You may not know but I used to be on the game at one time. I worked out of a club in Sydney. I was primarily a cocktail waitress and entertainer, you might say, but I did a few tricks generally to order. The entertainer bit was a bit of soft BDSM and occasional Femdom. Dorothea came in one day with a colleague from her office to see the boss. Despite the industry he was in, he tried to run a straight ship. He didn't like drugs and he wasn't into funny money. He must have been thinking someone was trying to shaft him or something. Anyhoo, there was Dorothea in her power suit. The boss directed me to give her assistance. At that stage I was doing some accountancy papers by correspondence, and I used to give the boss a hand.

I got to know Dorothea and she used to quiz me about the club and the work I did. One day she came to me with an idea that she joins the club, undercover like. She had an idea for a show.

She wouldn't tell me why exactly except it was to do with her work. We used to get a few kiwi businessmen in, and she seemed particularly interested in them.

She didn't say much about her husband except he was abusive. I got the feeling he may have had a hand in whatever caused her sister, Estelle, to commit suicide.

Dorothea loved burlesque and she had thought through this interactive pantomime thing where we all dressed up in steam punk clothing and did an act. The femdom thing I did included having girls dressed as hucows. We had hubulls as well. We used to get them to wear cow heads and we would humiliate them and milk them. At private shows anyone who volunteered as a hubull and suffered some pegging got to fuck a Hucow."

"Michael cut in," Was Dorothea doing tricks as well?"

"No way. Dorothea would never do that. The only thing she ever did was bare her tits. However, she and I used to wear big strap-ons. Occasionally we used that to pegs guys to discipline them and occasionally the girls. I suppose you would call that sex, but I don't think Dorothea ever got off on it, it was all an act. She drew a big heavy line under that. You would know what she is like. She runs to consistent rules and has boundaries she keeps to."

"Tell me about it." Michael recognized the Dorothea he knew, "from my perspective though she crossed the line, I mean, she had sex with a dildo and got paid for it."

"Nooo, she never got paid for these performances. She never got a cent. " Suzie continued," Dorothea met her boyfriend Van at the club. He used to be our unofficial bodyguard. He was a male stripper. The boss used to run a male strip routine on the side. They usually did private shows, hen nights and stuff. Occasionally they did a show at the club for a girl's night out event. Anyway, we drafted him into the act. We had great costumes and great routines. The show became a cult hit.

There was a gang that used to act as security at the club. I think it was more protection, but their members did wear a security uniform while working. Their leader was a guy known as 'Copperhead' and was a really nasty character. Although he didn't work at the club, he used to demand free access and free girls; he got obsessed with Dorothea. We all thought he had plans for her as he had a hand in another brothel. He got really into the steam punk stuff as well. His gang started pimping their bikes like steam punk contraptions and they wore the gear. His gang became known as the 'Hounds of Hell.'

Dorothea would not have him touch her and the Boss protected her. Things came to a head one night. A bunch of kiwi guys came in for a private show. They were entertaining some Spanish speaking guys. Now I'm bloody sure these were the guys Dorothea was after. She was acting very strangely. Dorothea, Van and I all wore masks as part of our costume so nobody would have recognized us. Dorothea was insistent on that. We did it every show. During this show something seemed to go wrong, and Dorothea got really angry. Then at some point she singled a guy out and got him dressed as a hubull. The party he was with thought it a hoot and they were all catcalling.

He thought he was going to get a free fuck of a hucow. We put him through a humiliation routine, it was all very dramatic, in our costumes. To cut a long story short a hucow was on all fours and naturally he got his dick in but then without any preparation Dorothea pegged him and pegged him good with her very large strap on. It was savage.

I didn't know why she was doing it and Dorothea would never tell me. The guy was screaming and made a mess. The crowd then started to move on us. I thought we would get killed but Copperhead was there with the hounds, and he just took to them. There was a huge brawl. Dorothea, Van and I took off out the back and fled in Van's car still in our costumes. One thing was weird, somebody must have known something ahead of time because the police had been called and were arriving as we were further down the road. It turned out the guy she pegged was her ex.

The boss called us later that night and told us not to come in and to leave town. That's when we came to Melbourne. She broke up with Van then. He wanted to marry her and come with us to Melbourne, but she wouldn't let him. Not long after that somebody pinged him for pieds and he was deported back to New Zealand."

"What's Pieds?"

"Oh, he had possession of illegal performance enhancing drugs."

"So, he is back in New Zealand somewhere? You don't know where?"

"No, I wouldn't know. He was never in Australia for long. He must have family there somewhere. His name was Van Kerr. He had a brother named Vince somewhere down south, I believe. He may have gone there. Now this is strange, the cops got copperhead for virtually the same thing. Copperhead was born in New Zealand as well; he had come to Aussie when he was six but never got citizenship. They had never been able to nail him, but they got him for simply being a member of a motorcycle gang and deported him."

"So, Copperhead is in New Zealand as well."

"Yeah, I pity the poor buggers over there. I'm told he is still doing the steampunk thing and has even stepped it up."

"So, you guys came to Melbourne. How did you get into this business?"

"When we were doing the hucow thing we were using milking machines and it got me interested in the field. We expanded to a wide range of baby and pregnancy products. We kind of specialize in lactation products. We even have human milk ice cream to aid the kid's nutrition."

"Is that legal?"

"It's all kosher. Did you know it was Dorothea who set me up?"

"I didn't know. I know she likedto dabble in business interests in a small way from money she received from her father after he split from her Mum. Have you met her father?"

"No. he is in Brisbane, isn't he? I will be forever grateful for what she has done. She did it as a reward for my helping her."

Michael and Suzie continued to chat. Suzie described her impression of Dorothea. "I think she thought herself superior to all of us mere mortals. I mean that in the nicest possible way. It didn't worry me, I thought she actually was.

She was very, very vain. Everything had to be just so. It shocked me the way she pegged her ex. I never knew she could be that vicious. One day she asked me if I was dark inside like her or an angel like her sister Estelle. She never mentioned her sister normally and I thought her comment strange. I laughed it off, saying I was an angel. I said it as a joke, but she agreed with me in a very earnest way. I don't know why but my answer to that question seemed to make us closer. She would often refer to it."

Michael thought about this. He couldn't imagine what was going through Dorothea's mind. It sounded as though she thought she was evil. If she was evil, then what was she capable of. Then there was her thing about steam punk; "tell me Suzie, where did this steam punk thing come from. Is there a fashion revival going on?"

"Oh, its never really gone away. It is a cult thing. I don't know why she was into it. She never really told me. She was very knowledgeable about it all. I would have thought you would know."

"If she was into it, she never said a thing about it to me. This is all news to me." This left Michael confused, another missing part of the Dorothea's life puzzle.

Rounding up, Michael gave his thanks for the info and promised to keep her updated. Suzie in turn said she would call if she thought of or heard anything. She told him to be very, very careful as there were dangerous people involved. Her advice was to leave it to the police.

*****

Michael reported Dorothea's disappearance to the police, but they did not seem very enthusiastic about it. He felt that they had made up their minds there and then that she had just run off with someone. He tried to explain that she was working on a dangerous assignment, and she may have gone to New Zealand. They took that on board but asked him to ring everyone he knew to see if he could find out anything. They also asked about her mental health and took an interest in her sister's suicide. They suggested he ring around the hospitals.

The cops did ring Grant about this dangerous assignment in New Zealand, and he had put them off, even telling them he thought she had run off with someone. A couple of days later Michael checked in on the police and they mentioned speaking to Grant. They told Michael Grant confirmed what they thought and unless he could come across some further evidence, they would treat her as a missing person and not put any extra resource to it.

Michael had spent the days ringing around but hit a brick wall. No one knew anything. He went back to George and Suzie but there was nothing more. When the police told him that they were not actively pursuing it he was devastated. He went into I kind of stunned shock. He stood in front of them mouth open. They virtually had to push him out the door. He was exhausted and could not find it within himself to object. He made it home and there began a slow of decline.

He was not ordinarily a drinking man, but he found himself seated on his veranda drinking from a bottle of vodka. As his mind became more addled, he went round and round what she could have done.

The police had put into his mind that she had run off with someone. Apart from Grant, they never said how they knew, and he ran through his head the possibilities. The first that came to mind was Van. Michael had been through her things. She had taken her phone, laptop and passport so going to New Zealand seemed likely. Maybe it was Van's brother Vince. Then there was Copperhead. Maybe she had succumbed to him or that he had kidnapped her.

Then there was her ex. He had never met her ex. Not even seen a photograph. She seemed to have erased his memory. No; surely, she would not have gone back to him.

Then there was the two Americans. He convinced himself it was them. It all added up. That shit about the Himba, and her suspicious behaviour at the airport. At this point his emotions welled up into a fit of rage and screaming he smashed his vodka bottle.

Across the road window blind slid sideways and he could see Darnia peering out. He threw the glass and it smashed against a low brick wall which formed her fence.

"Fuck off you fucking, nosy Karen." He yelled; then burst into sobs. It seemed that all the stress of the past few days had got to this point. He calmed down and eventually went inside to get some food. He couldn't find anything except a bottle of red wine and reappeared outside again drinking from the bottle. He looked at the label. It was an expensive bottle. It was the first bottle that he and Dorothea had bought to build their wine cellar.

He slumped back in the chair. His thought turned to this crowd she was apparently investigating. What was her behaviour at the club all about and what's with the Spanish speaking guys that Suzie mentioned? Was it a South American cartel or something? What about this so-called coup that George talked about? Did her investigation have something to do with this shit? Couldn't she have left it to those FBI buggars. Maybe she has gone undercover again. Gone to ground or something. Maybe someone has kidnapped her or, shit no, killed her. Is she in jail under an assumed name? Fuck the list was endless. He thought of going to New Zealand, but everyone was saying that's too dangerous. It was back to the police, but they were not doing anything.

He thought about their past, retracing their lives step by step. There seemed nothing he could point to. Maybe he was simply blind to any clues, trusting her implicitly. It seemed extraordinary how she kept this huge private world secret from him. 'Well, they do say love is blind,' he thought. She did not seem like someone who did dangerous things.

He thought about their love life. She enjoyed romance. When they met up again, he showed he was serious by buying her flowers the first night they went out to dinner.

With Dorothea it was never sex, it was making love and making love with her was like making love to a delicate flower.

He remembered her body, from her flawless alabaster skin, her deliciously pointed tits capped with her protruding pink nipples. Then it was down the light roles of her torso and onto the grey, white soft downy mound of her pussy. Her glistening pink petals would open easily with his touch. It was never rough sex with her.

She had to have the romantic foreplay. That special dinner maybe, the soft light of anticipation. She liked to dress for sex with an array of lingerie.

Blooming as she spread, her pink petals tasted sweet and sour. With the right gentle moves of tongue and finger he could never fail to make her willing, swallowing up his man's pride into her pink inviting slippery depths. They seemed to be able to bring each other to orgasm at will and with patience. Their marriage was still in its romantic prime and their attraction never waned. Home from travel or work, there was always time for the needs of their bodies to reconnect.