INTRODUCTION
Cloudless Resort on the edge of the Morebba Desert in Mitters County is acknowledged as one of the top fifty vacation centers of the world. It has been crowned National Resort of the Year three times. Its distinctive logo comprises an undressed woman on her back, the far knee raised, in a grove of palm trees beside a swimming pool.
Behind the glitz, locals oblivious of the resort's PR spin, openly talk about the time ex-prostitute Mae French, born in 1938 and who'd taken early retirement, arrived with a suitcase of folding money with the simply expectation of slowly sunbathing and boozing her life away.
She lasted nine days and then, bored mindless, dressed and locked away her booze and cast around for something to do. But the town of Pinchgut was in the bottom tier of socio-economics. Jobs were so scarce that there was even a line-up of people waiting to pay money for the privilege to work at something. The only people profitably employed were those hired by the authorities.
Despondent, Mae caught the once-a-day bus out to cross the county line to get her hair done. She returned on the once-a-day return bus that afternoon, rejuvenated and ready for action, knowing if there was to be any action she'd had to fire it creatively. She called on Fred Butt, consulting engineer, who last received a commission five years ago. She said, "Design for me Fred. I want to establish a brothel to attract people from throughout the country."
"Guys you mean," Fred said.
Mae corrected him and said women also patronized brothels.
Fred scratched his head and said she was probably right so how much did she wish to spend.
As they say, the rest is history.
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CHAPTER 1
Widower Fred Butt watched his buxom client use her lace handkerchief to dab perspiration from her cleavage, already figuring with engineering expertise that the structures were too close together for comfort in this warm climate. He would recommend breast reduction but didn't know her well enough to suggest that. Later perhaps.
Clearing his throat, Fred said, "Ma'am to say you are prepared to pay a couple of million bucks on Stage One here in a wilderness sounds a mite extravagant but my potential commission on such largess cautions me to avoid suggesting that. Your more immediate problem is brothels are prohibited in this county."
"So I'm thwarted?"
"Oh, you're thirsty? I'll fetch water."
"No, I apologize for my slight lisp. Does that edict of authority stymie me?"
Fred wiped sweat off the end of his nose. "On the contrary, there's no law preventing you using another name."
"Resort?"
"Excellent, most other brothel operators use that appellation."
"All this fancy talk is making me dry Fred. Grab us a couple of whiskies and let the consultation commence."
"Yes ma'am."
"I only drink proper Scotch."
"I have some left over from my last Christmas party in the year of my last commission."
"Fine. Please call me Mae."
"Sweet name, great for a Madam."
Stage One was rushed through the territorial authority because it was the first time in three years the council had received a commercial project for approval, meaning such fees would allow it to pay-down bank loans and add a statistic to its annual report, almost due, to the vacant column for commercial building permit approvals. By then Fred had cut fees payable by Mae by 30% in return for her allowing her neglected pussy to be exercised by him at the drop of a hat. He wore a hat after that special arrangement.
The citizens of Pinchgut called at public meeting at which Mae was elected to fill the vacancy of Mayor in recognition for reviving the economy of the town. Her facility provided employment for 70 out-of-work citizens and the resultant trade lengthened the opening hours of businesses from one hour to five hours a day.
A month before the opening Mae had advertised for kitchen staff, cleaners and 'hostesses' with the proviso that hostesses must be between the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight. Half the town's population of women applied for the position of hostess, many with gray hair, no teeth and even in wheelchairs. Mae found it necessary to pay Fred to select each of the short-listed applicants by personal trial and that really slowed him down.
Finally, with everything including marketing and advance bookings in place, Mae officially opened her new facility and next day at the medical center fell pregnant. Yes, she fell to the floor in a faint when Doc Rowe confirmed her pregnancy test. Inexplicably Fred was offended by the news and took off, never to see his daughter. Mae decided to call Billie after the guy who took Mae's virginity so far back that Mae couldn't remember the occasion but Billie had left his card and five bucks.
Mae took Fred's disappearance on the chin and also took up with her resort manager Ireland, cleverly figuring that should ensure no unexpected pregnancy. Ireland was in some kind of trouble with the law so she was content to lay low and laid often with Mae.
Ireland had worked in a major advertising agency with branches in twenty-three cities when she left suddenly, coincidentally at the time a warrant was issued for her arrest. At issue was $6,000,000 missing from the multi-media company's head office treasury.
Before arriving at Pinchgut, Ireland Cork had been called Peggy Blundell. Two years later when she died from a drug overdose, leaving her estate to Mae, the connection between Peggy Blundell and a person named Ireland Cork was never made. Being in an isolated community without an incumbent sheriff, there was no inquest, just rapid burial.
Mae promptly retired from sex permanently and began spending her inheritance, the best part of $6,000,000, on developing of the vacation brothel... er resort.
And so, that was the environment into which Billie French was born. She grew up to be sexy with a great brain and body and romped through school as a top student and sportswoman. In the year she graduated Billie went on to be runner-up in the state's beauty pageant and from there went to college, enjoyed lots of sex and graduated with a masters in business administration and a post-graduate degree in international marketing. She then joined an acclaimed resort chain as an administrator.
A year on, with those qualifications and experience under her bikini string, Billie returned home to mom who was missing her.
* * *
At its half-yearly meeting in Hong Kong the board of Global Travel and Resort Standards Federation (GTRSF), representing national travel associations in eight-eight countries, discussed a disturbing finding. Latest polling showed that 'brothel activity' was within an ace of entering the revered list of highly publicized top ten reasons why people chose to go to the 2320 'adult only' premier resorts.
International president Marcel Fourneyron (France) made a grand speech that basically said, "This will not do. Revelation to the public at large that holiday/vacation resorts are a front for brothels could decimate our industry internationally."
A working party was set up and two days later it recommended to the board that twelve resorts be selected in different countries and twelve executives of the federation's international directorate in Geneva each be charged with inspecting and reporting on one of those sample resorts, acting incognito. The purpose of the random inspections was to identify similarities in operations and how the principals of such operations believed the lid could be kept on brothel activity. The board adopted those recommendations.
* * *
The federation's senior advertising standards monitoring executive, Edward (Eddie) Lawson was handed travel instructions and ticketing and told to go to the United States and visit Cloudless Resort. Before he left his comfortable office in Geneva he was fully briefed about his mission and told to keep it secret.
"Use the brothel facilities moderately and you'll pass for just another compulsive male visitor of vaginas," said the head of marketing, Mrs Lana O'Brien. "If you visit vaginas excessively for recreational purposes you must not claim those payments as legitimate expenses."
"How will you verify my claims as to which visits were excessive?"
"I'm female, I'll know."
Eddie who was twenty-five thought it would be astonishing if she knew anything about sex at her age. She was at least fifty.
