Desirae's life settled into a routine after Sam died. There was no one she saw regularly. The property Roger and she had purchased was wanted by the large corporation next door, just as Roger had anticipated. They finally sold it to them for ten times what they had paid for it. Desirae repaid the original half million back to their other company. She used the rest to purchase a small office building into which they moved all their businesses except Anna's. They rented out the lower floors to other companies. The combination of all the revenue generated by their businesses was sufficient. Desirae no longer needed the original business. She had a dozen young women with nearly one hundred clients. There was no way she could get rid of it.
Desirae asked Savannah to come by to see her. Savannah was now a partner in a downtown LA law firm.
"I need to find a way to insulate myself from my original business. How can I do this without pissing off all these clients and girls?"
Savannah looked at her and shook her head. "I'm afraid you either must give it away or shut it down. Either way, you would still be liable if anyone of the people involved needed to make a deal." Desirae sat and wondered how she could have cornered herself like this. Of course, there is no free lunch. You always pay the piper, sooner or later.
Savannah moved closer to her, and said, "Let's take a walk." Desirae looked into her eyes and nodded. They went into the Southern California sunshine and walked to a park that was nearby. They sat on a park bench.
"What I am going to say next, I didn't say. We never had this conversation." Desirae had a cold shiver run through her as she nodded. "You will need protection from nosey cops. Not mob protection, political protection. You will need to get a high-ranking politician either on the payroll or compromised somehow. It will then be his job to keep your private business private."
Politics was something Desirae hated. Every one of them had HUGE egos, and she always felt the work needed to keep them satisfied wasn't worth the trouble. Now, she knew Savannah was correct. She either needed to seduce a high-ranking politician or get something on one of them. They went their separate ways, and Desirae went back to her office.
Her opportunity came a short time later from an unexpected event. She hadn't seen Roger in a while, and when he called to ask her to go to a political fund raiser, she almost begged off until she remembered what she needed. She finally agreed to go with him.
The event was for an up-and-coming U.S. Congressman from the LA area. He was comfortable in his safe seat. He was married to a rich man's daughter from LA. Everything looked perfect.
Roger picked her up early for the black-tie dinner. "I wanted to talk to you before we go into this thing. I have an ulterior motive for going to this thing. I hate politics as much as you do. However, Congressman Smothers needs a little help. His top aide has asked me to meet with him before the event. I think this is something you can help with. I'm not going to lie to you, this could be dangerous. If you want to drop out, I will understand."
Desirae looked him in the eye and shook her head. "What have you gotten yourself into this time?"
"No, I haven't done anything yet. I will let him tell you. It is about someone blackmailing him. I may be able to help because I know who it is, even though the Congressman doesn't. I have a couple of ideas about how to handle this person. I just might need some female help, that is all."
Desirae knew this could be bad, but it also could be the solution to her problem. A congressman would wield enough power to keep the police off her, and she might like having someone in Washington that owed her something. "Ok, Roger. I'm in."
"That's a good thing, because the person responsible is one of your employees." The shock almost knocked Desirae to her knees. None of the people in her companies would do that. None of them even knew anyone around the congressman.
"I can't believe that. None of my people have anything to do with a politician."
"It's someone from your newest company. Tina."
Tina. Well, Desirae said she was a snake. "How could she know something?"
"The same way she sells houses. She sleeps around and gathers information. She knows a lot about a lot of people in LA. She is usually smart enough to never "threaten" anyone, just point out what "might" happen. This time, she has film of herself with the congressman, and they weren't discussing policy. It was on one of his campaign swings through here. His wife was in Washington, and he was stupid enough to go to a hotel room that she had selected. Enough said."
"And you want me to, what, threaten her?"
"Something like that. But first, let's meet the congressman to see what he wants." She agreed and they headed to the event's location. They arrived early enough to call his private cell phone and he met them in the kitchen of the hotel.
"Thank you, Roger, for meeting me like this, and who is this?" He pointed at Desirae.
"She's the woman that is going to solve your problem. Meet Desirae Dubenai."
"Nice to meet you. I would still rather just talk to Roger if you don't mind."
"Fine, I don't mind, I can leave."
"Please, I'm not trying to be rude. It's just that I've been compromised by one unknown woman."
She'd had enough. "It seems to me the only one who caused this is you. If you don't want my help, fine." She turned to leave.
Roger looked at Smothers. "I think I'm going with her."
"Ok, ok. I guess it doesn't really matter any long, anyway."
Roger started. "Did she give you a copy of the file?" Smothers took it out of his pocket and handed it to Roger. "Fine. What exactly is she asking for?"
"She wants to be on my LA staff. She told me she would give me the original after she had worked there for six months."
"Did she ask for money, or anything else?" He shook his head. "Ok, we will work on this. How long until you must give her an answer? Did she say what would happen if you did not do what she asked?"
"I have one more week. She said if anything happened to her, the file would be delivered to the LA Times. Whatever you can do will not be forgotten." He turned and left.
Now that they didn't have to go to the actual event, they left to go to his house and talk about this.
Desirae started the conversation. "I'm sure this isn't the first time she has done this. She must have a safe place to keep this information. She also must have someone to deliver the goods if she has an accident."
"Yes, the storage place is certain. The other part might be an idle threat. I don't know if she has anyone she would trust enough to risk delivering this stuff to the papers if she turned up dead." What Roger said made sense.
"You can be sure she isn't going anywhere near that stuff now. The only thing that might be keeping her alive is that cache of incriminating documents."
Desirae had an idea. "I may know of the one person who she might have told where it might be found. I'll check and let you know tomorrow." She thought Anna might have something from Tina that would be a clue.
The next morning, she called Anna and asked her to come to her office. "We have a problem. I now know how Tina has been so successful at this business. She has been filming a few prominent people in town in compromising situations with her, and she blackmails them for whatever will help her."
Anna was shocked and sickened. To think she had started her in this business, and now to learn Anna has been profiting from that kind of business. "What do we do?"
"Information first. Is there any private place in your offices she might stash this stuff? Has she said anything to you about what you should do if she had an accident?"
Anna thought for a while. "No, there are no places in our building anyone would feel secure enough to put anything important."
"Okay, don't say anything to anyone. If you remember anything, please tell me quickly. I only have a week before I must confront her. I will not allow this to continue. She is playing a dangerous game and it could involve us if we don't put an end to it."
Desirae was sure she had as safety deposit box somewhere. Finding it would be impossible without a clue. She decided they would have to confront her before the week went by.
Anna called Desirae the next day. She was excited, and said she was coming over. When she arrived, she had one of the office girls in tow. "Desirae, this is Wilhelmina. We all call her Willie. OK Willie, tell us what you know."
"I don't want to get into any trouble. Please don't make me do this. Tina will kill me if I say anything."
Desirae sat down beside Willie. "I know you are afraid. However, Tina has gotten herself into something that is going to get her killed. If you know something about it, they will kill you too, if they think you know something. The safest thing for you to do is tell me. I can deal with Tina if I know what she has done. If you don't, she can't let you live to testify about what you know."
Willie started crying. They let her cry until she finally had cried out. "You will deal with her? I don't have to?"
"Yes, Willie. If you tell me what you know, I can deal with her. Please, a lot of innocent people will be hurt if we don't do something about it."
"She made me memorize something and gave me a key to hide for her. I have it here on my keychain. She pays me every month to stay quiet. Not a lot, just a few hundred. It helps a little bit."
"What did she ask you to memorize?"
"American Savings Bank, box 712. I was to take the key there and do what the paper in the box said. That was it, except, there was supposed to be a lot of money in the box. She told me I could keep all the money and do what the paper said with the rest of the contents."