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.
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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.
