Murder in the Nude Ch. 02

This story is a continuation of my most recent attempt at mixing two genres which I like: erotica and mystery. While I hope that this story is entertaining on its own, it is a continuation of my "Murder in the Nude." Some of the characters in this story, most notably my narrator and his partner, were introduced in that story. Consequently, this story is probably easier to follow if you've already read "Murder in the Nude." I also apologize for this story being long by Literotica standards.

Some real places and institutions are mentioned or implied, but they are used fictitiously here. As far as the author knows, no real person affiliated with any of those places or institutions has done anything akin to what is described in this story. Any similarities between any character in this story and any real person are coincidental and unintended.

I encourage comments on this story, both favorable and unfavorable. Thank you for reading.

_____________________________________________________

For several years, Dr. Ezekiel Walsh and his wife, Dr. Madeline Walsh built a successful and lucrative career as pastors of a non-denominational church in Southeastern Ohio and as TV preachers. Ezekiel and Madeline were always vague about where and when they obtained their claimed doctorates. One thing that was clear was that they were both clever and charismatic people.

The Walshes were also physically impressive. Ezekiel bore some resemblance to the actor George Clooney and had the pronounced muscle definition, but not the bulk, of a bodybuilder. Madeline was blonde and had a face that reminded many of the daughter of a former U.S. President. While Madeline never publicly appeared nude, she usually wore outfits which accentuated her Playboy-centerfold-model figure.

Physical beauty played an important role in the Walsh theology. According to that theology, God had created a hierarchy of human beings. Those who were born with or otherwise obtained physical beauty were the people whom God had put at the top of the heap. Just below the physically beautiful in the human hierarchy, God had placed those with great wealth. God did not intend for these two classes of people to live by the same rules that bound lesser humans. What was sinful for everyone else was God's reward for those who had been chosen.

An interesting aspect of the Walsh theology was its rules on sex. Sexual pleasure was a gift from God. Therefore, its enjoyment in all its forms was almost mandatory for the chosen. However, enjoyment of sex was strictly proscribed for everyone else. Lesser humans were to fuck only for procreation and to do so in the quickest, most efficient, least pleasurable way that would produce more workers.

Ezekiel and Madeline left their regular gigs in the pulpit to found the College of the Word (universally referred to as "COW") in rural Foster County, Ohio. COW took a couple hundred students per year. It had no graduate programs and conferred only a "Bachelors of Spirituality," misleadingly described in its promotional materials as a B.S. COW's stated mission was to give "young men and women who have earned it the opportunity to acquire the moral, physical, and intellectual tools they need to assume their rightful place in God's hierarchy of mankind."

COW was expensive for a tiny new college with no reputation. Being located several miles from the nearest town, all COW students lived on campus. The campus was fenced. Everyone was logged in and out. Students needed a reason to leave campus. COW spent lavishly on facilities, especially on computer technology. COW had no sports teams but its sports and physical fitness facilities available to all students were comparable to those for varsity athletes at places like Ohio State University and the University of Michigan.

COW's similarities to the major universities of the Midwest stopped at recreational facilities. COW did not have, and apparently never sought, accreditation. While COW paid its faculty well, it hired few faculty and expected them to teach across disciplines meaning, for example, that a professor might teach courses in both chemistry and the French language.

COW's lack of accreditation became a problem when graduated its first class. Those first recipients of COW's B.S. who applied to graduate or professional schools found that no other institutions of higher learning recognized their degrees. However, that problem was only temporary. Among their accomplishments, Ezekiel and Madeline became very well-connected with politicians in one wing of the party which then dominated our state government. The state passed a statute requiring all state universities in Ohio to recognize degrees granted by COW "as constituting credentials equivalent to those granted by any United States university." According to the state legislature, COW was on par with Harvard, Yale, MIT, and Stanford.

I had, of course, heard of Ezekiel and Madeline Walsh and COW, everyone in the state had. However, being a pretty apolitical criminal investigator, and not being particularly religious, I'd never paid much attention to them. In the months before they became important to me, I and my partner Meredith White were trying to deal with the consequences of her mother Glenda White's murder by State Representative Victor Holcomb and my shooting of Holcomb.

Although Mark Albindizi, the Adrian County Prosecuting Attorney, was compelled to abandon his stated intention of prosecuting me for murder by the conclusions of the Sheriff and State Patrol that I had shot Holcomb in legitimate self-defense, the notion that I had gunned down an innocent and virtuous state leader lived on in cyberspace. Maliciously false though these stories were, they found believers, especially in the more rural parts of the state. I became aware of the extent to which these stories were believed when rural law enforcement agencies and prosecutors began telling the CID Director they would not work with me. My value to my employer was seriously impaired.

Meredith had lost her mother. Meredith seemed to handle that. I flatter myself that I contributed a little to ameliorating her grief. The major problem was that Meredith had inherited Glenda's businesses. The art appraisal business was completely gone because Glenda had been the appraiser. We soon learned that the art gallery had depended on Glenda's expertise and her reputation for identifying young artists destined to become artists whose works would be very valuable.

Meredith and I received a huge assist from Murray and Sarah Weisman. They were art dealers in Chicago and had been friends of Glenda. They understood, better than we did, the impact of Glenda's death on the gallery business. About six months after Glenda's death, they offered to buy the gallery from Meredith. We didn't care whether they offered her a fair price. Meredith was eager to sell and get back to being a writer.

The Weismans also helped me. They introduced me to Nathan Hellman, a close friend of theirs who owned a private investigation agency in Chicago. Hellman had started receiving work from a global company based in Cincinnati and intended to open an office here. He wanted someone familiar with Southwestern Ohio to run the office for him. I drove to Chicago to meet Hellman and we hit it off. Early in the new year, I left the AG's Criminal Investigation Division, got my private license, and moved back to Cincinnati.

For months, I had been driving over 100 miles to Meredith's townhouse every Friday evening and the same distance back to work in Columbus each Monday morning. Meredith sold her townhouse for a very good price. Together, we moved into Glenda's house, which Meredith had also inherited. While Meredith now owned the house, she and I still call it Glenda's house.

Meredith's story about her mother's murder was published in a national magazine the following year, close to two years after Glenda died. While the internet conspiracy theorists had moved on to other outrages, publication of Meredith's story gave new life to the false stories about Victor Holcomb and about who really killed Glenda. Most versions had it that Merdith and I conspired to kill Glenda and frame Victor Holcomb even though we didn't meet until after Glenda's murder. That didn't matter to me now. I had Nate Hellman's full support. Publication of Meredith's story also brought about another totally unexpected consequence.

In July two years after Glenda's murder, Meredith got an e-mail purporting to be from a young woman who said she had a story about Ezekiel and Madeline Walsh and the College of the Word that Meredith might be interested in. The woman said she was in Columbus but wanted to meet Meredith at any place of Meredith's choosing. The woman specifically asked that I come along. That didn't seem too strange since the relationship between Meredith and me had been disclosed as part of Meredith's story. We agreed to a meeting at a barbecue restaurant roughly midway between Columbus and Cincinnati.

Meredith and I were wanting in a booth in a corner of the restaurant at 2:00 p.m. when two women in their early to middle twenties walked in together. One had long black hair and a southern European or North African complexion. The other woman had deep red hair and fair skin. Both were well dressed in outfits that clung to their bodies. Meredith is, in my opinion, the most beautiful woman alive. Meredith's beauty is subtle. You appreciate it more the longer you are around her. There was nothing subtle about these two young women. They were stunning in an in-your-face way.

The women came straight to our booth. "You're Meredith White" the dark-haired woman said to Meredith. Meredith nodded confirmation. "You're Peter Stone," the woman said to me. The woman extended a hand to shake. "I'm Patty Albindizi," the woman said.

I was shaken to hear that name again. "You're not related to...." I started to ask.

"Mark Albindizi's my dad," Patty said. "I expect you don't care for Dad much," she continued. "He's still pissed off he couldn't make a case against you. Victor Holcomb was one of Dad's political mentors. May we sit down?"

Patty and the redhead sat in the booth opposite us. Patty flashed a broad smile of perfect white teeth. "Please don't hold my father against me," she said. "I love my dad, but as a public servant he can be an asshole." Nodding towards the redhead, Patty said, "this is Leah Carney. We went to College of the Word together. What I have to tell you is so bizarre, I thought it might be more credible if I brought someone to corroborate it."

"I'd like to hear what you have to say," Meredith said, "but I'd like to know why you want to tell your story to me."

"I read your story about your mother's murder," Patty replied. "I knew some of it from Dad and what you wrote was consistent with the facts he'd told me before he decided there was more political mileage to be had from supporting the conspiracy theories. I also thought you wrote with a degree of compassion, even towards Holcomb." Patty turned to look at me. "I just wanted to meet you," she said. "I was curious about the man my dad wanted to have executed despite knowing the man is innocent." That didn't make me feel particularly good.

Patty's story, confirmed by Leah, was bizarre. It seemed more horny sophomoric fiction than reality but both women were adamant it was true. "You know about COW's rules, right?" Patty asked. We shook our heads.

"There's a small book of them," Leah said. "You'll get the flavor from the fact that students always wear the same uniform: white button-down shirt and black slacks for the guys; white button-down shirt and a long black skirt for the girls. Dating is not permitted, ever, among students or between students and non-students. If you had a boyfriend or girlfriend when you came to COW, you were supposed to sever all contact."

"The other piece of background you need to understand," Patty said, "is that, from the first day on campus, students are being indoctrinated. The main themes are that whatever Ezekiel Walsh or Madeline Walsh say is the word of God. Whatever they do is the will of God implemented. And, finally, God only likes people who are extremely good-looking, extremely wealthy, or, better yet, both."

"If COW is so weird," Meredith asked, "why did you go there and how long did you stay?"

"We both stayed four years to get our Bachelor of Spirituality degrees," Patty said. "Mom died when her car's brakes failed during my junior year of high school. Dad didn't give me any choice. He was trying to get Ezekiel and Madeline to back him financially to run for statewide office and thought sending me to COW would help persuade them."

"I had been accepted at Miami," Leah said. "Early in my senior year of high school, Mom and Dad were gone for a weekend. I thought I had the house to myself. Mom and Dad came home a lot earlier than I expected and caught me and my boyfriend in bed fucking. They decided I needed the no dating, no sex environment at COW. I didn't know it then, I was devastated, but my parents' reason for making me go to COW was very ironic."

"Ok," Meredith said, "COW was unreasonably restrictive. Many religious colleges are. What's unique about COW?"

"The DOGs," Patty answered. She and Leah both gave short laughs.

"Dogs?" Meredith said in a perplexed tone. What is or are the dogs?"

"DOGs are the Daughters of God," Patty said. "Four senior girls and four junior girls chosen by Ezekiel and Madeline at the end of your sophomore year. Leah and I were both DOGs."

"Please take this as fact rather than boasting," Leah said, "but the DOGs were and undoubtedly still are the eight most physically attractive girls at COW."

"For all the students who are not DOGs," Patty said, "it is very mysterious. DOGs live by themselves in their own residence building. They wear variations of the school uniform. The class A variation is a tight white top and a very short black skirt with heels. Class B is a tight white top with black yoga pants. Class A-1 is the Class A uniform without any underwear. Girls at COW are not allowed to wear make-up but DOGs are. DOGs take most of their classes only with the other DOGs. They rarely have a class with other students."

"What is the point?" Meredith asked.

"For your first two years at COW," Leah said, "you're taught that sex is forbidden by God. The girls who are chosen to be DOGs are taught that their beauty shows they are among God's favorites. Therefore, they are allowed, no required, to enjoy the pleasures of sex, but they must do so in a way that furthers God's work."

"What the hell does that mean?" Meredith asked.

"One thing it means," Leah said, "is having sex with Ezekiel or Madeline or both on their demand. It's called 'being summoned to chapel.' Only DOGs are summoned to chapel at COW."

"Another thing it means," Patty said, "is fucking the people, mostly old men, who are the big donors to COW. That is 'being called to do the Lord's work.' If a DOG is called to do the Lord's work, she is supposed to stop whatever she is doing, take no more than an hour to clean up, fix her hair and make-up, put on her class A-1 uniform, and present herself at the Walshes' official campus residence. Sometimes, several DOGs are called to do the Lord's work at the same time. That means several donors are on campus. The DOGs and donors might go to separate rooms and fuck one-on-one or some or all of them might have group sex in the residence 'family room.'"

"The last role of the DOGs is called 'presenting the Lord's bounty,'" Leah said. "When we were needed to present the Lord's bounty, that meant that Ezekiel and Madeline were hosting a cocktail party or dinner for people they wanted to impress, usually politicians. We were there to serve drinks. We did that naked except for high heels. If one of the bigwigs wanted to fuck a DOG, he, or sometimes she, could ask Ezekiel. Usually, Ezekiel would grant permission and order the DOG chosen to fuck the bigwig. Sometimes, however, Ezekiel would say no, using the promise of future sex with the DOG to leverage more from the bigwig."

"Of course," Patty said, "girls became DOGs at 19 or 20. Most of us didn't know much, if anything, about sex, and we sure didn't know how to serve drinks. If you were chosen to be a DOG at the end of your sophomore year, you had to come back to COW a month before school started. Madeline and the rising senior DOGs trained the new DOGs on how to fuck and suck so the men enjoyed it, and how to serve drinks. That's when you had your first medical exam and started on the pill."

"What did your parents think?" Meredith asked in disbelief.

"Our parents didn't know," Leah said. "No one knew what the DOGs did except the girls who were or had been DOGs, Ezekiel and Madeline, and the donors and politicians. When you became a DOG, you swore not to disclose to anyone what you did as a DOG on pain of temporal suffering and eternal damnation. We didn't know what that meant, but it sounded terrible.

"Our parents were mollified," Patty interjected, "By the fact that DOGs got free tuition and room and board. Basically, we were whores. We fucked Ezekiel and Madeline in return for the tuition and room and board. We fucked the donors and politicians in return for what they gave to or did for COW."

Patty paused. Somewhat less confidently, she added, "the other thing you need to understand is that Ezekiel and Madeline are astute judges of people. There isn't a single girl who was a DOG who didn't enjoy the hell out of it."

"That's the irony," Leah said. "For all the bullshit about teaching the students morality and spirituality, COW turned the DOGs into exhibitionists who love to have pretty much any kind of sex with pretty much anyone. I haven't in any other time of my life had the incredible fun I had those two years."

"What do you want from me?" Meredith asked.

"We want you to make the story of COW's DOGs public," Patty said. Leah nodded in agreement.

"If being a DOG was so much fun," Meredith asked, "why do you want that?"

"Because," Patty said, "there is a very dark side to Ezekiel and Madeline. They've raised millions and millions of dollars to support certain politicians and they have video of what those people did with the DOGs to blackmail them with." Patty lowered her voice and dropped her head a little. "Maybe you'll understand when I tell you that we graduated from COW just before your mother was murdered. While I was a DOG, I fucked Victor Holcomb eight or nine times. He was actually a pretty good fuck."

"This is a fantastic story," Meredith said.

Smelling something bad, I spoke up for the first time. "Why should Meredith believe you?"

Patty and Leah smiled at each other. Their looks said, "we're ready for that one."

"We've got a list of girls who were DOGs with current contact information," Leah said. "We've talked to them. They will talk to you and tell you the same things we have."

"And" Patty said, "the trump card is that I studied computer science at COW, to the extent I studied anything other than sex. I had to do some remedial work, but I have my master's degree now. I know more than they think about COW's systems, which aren't that sophisticated. I can get in and I'm pretty sure I can download and copy the videos Ezekiel and Madeline have. That will be graphic proof of what the COW DOG program is."

"Are you at all concerned about the consequences for yourselves if this goes public and you are identified as the source of the information?" I asked.

"We're not at COW anymore," Leah said. "What could they do to us now?"

"Yes, I understand there is some risk," Patty said. "But I think it is more important to stop Ezekiel and Madeline. They want to run this state."

Meredith and I looked at each other. I didn't know what to think. The women seemed credible, but the story was incredible. Seeing the moisture on Meredith's brow, I realized that I was also sweating.