It was awful. Michelle had known Mike and Louise for years, they had been to each others house-parties many times. Now it had turned out that they had a second life, where they had been to wild show-business events and now the first time that they'd joined them at such an event Mike had died.
Mike and Louise had stayed on at the party after Derek and Michelle had left. At some point during the night, Mike had been found naked and very dead in the pool and no-one had any idea how it had happened.
A few hours later a Police Officer turned up at Michelle's house, demanding to know everything about the evening. Times, names, places, what, when, why, where, who, how. There was no end to questions that she couldn't answer.
She wasn't even sure where the place was, never mind everyone who had been there. She couldn't recall exactly when she had last seen Mike, and where Louise had been at that time.
The whole thing was hugely embarrassing given that she had spent most of the evening dressed only in scanty panties. The middle-aged rather stout detective was sympathetic and didn't even spend too much time checking out her chest but her head was whirling and she was concerned about Louise. She hadn't heard from her friend, who could be an annoying show-off at times but was fun and must now be devastated.
And she still didn't know what had happened. Did the Police send detectives if someone had had a heart attack? If someone had drowned? Did it mean that he had been murdered? She had the impression that the officer didn't even know himself what had occurred.
The officer wrote everything down and she signed his notes; and that was that. No, he didn't want her red panties as some weird evidence, he just left.
Within a day some details came out, of course. It was all over the press - lurid accounts of sex, drugs, rock & roll. Mike had been murdered, stabbed in some confrontation and had ended up bleeding in the pool. Tabloid journalists were trying to photograph everyone known to Bernie and Anastasia, tapping phones and waving large amounts of cash to anyone they thought could have anything to say.
* * *
Some months went by without anyone being arrested, the story faded from the front pages and then from the middle ones as well.
Then one day out of the blue Michelle received a request to meet detectives at a local police station.
When she arrived for her appointment she was ushered into a bleak office furnished with only a table and some chairs. She was looking forward to seeing a transparent incident board with lots of photographs, arrows and scribbled names like she had seen on TV dramas but none were to be seen.
Worn thin carpet was on the floor, old Health & Safety posters and faded missives to 'Police With a Purpose' were stuck with tape onto scuffed painted walls. Some wag had altered the last word to 'Porpoise' and drawn in a police officer carrying a fish.
A Detective Inspector Hamilton was waiting to speak to her and initially repeated the same questions that she didn't know the answers to before.
No, she had never been to the house previously. No, she had never met any of the guests or staff apart from Mike and Louise. No, to lots of things.
Then the Inspector told her some background; officers had been conducting an investigation at the property for some time and he had an amazing proposition, he wanted her to go back and meet everyone at another party and report back to him.
He apparently had an undercover officer already on the staff but needed a person to see things from the point of view of the guests and to listen for any chat about the murder. As she had been there before, the others would not be as suspicious as they might of a stranger and she would be perfect.
She found herself agreeing to this, whereupon she was told that Derek had already been approached and agreed. Then she was introduced to the undercover officer, who entered the room - whom she recognised.
It was the nude waiter with the enormous penis.
* * *
Detective Constable Andy Mills had just the same recognisable mop of dark curly hair but as her memory was of him standing naked being masturbated by Anastasia, Michelle was disconcerted to see him in this environment.
He smiled "I know, you didn't recognise me with my clothes on."
"Well, sort of. You're different, certainly."
"Pardon me", he replied "I know that you were a guest but there were many people there and I'm not sure if I remember you either."
Michelle paused. "I was wearing a yellow dress. With red shoes."
He showed no recognition so she continued, "And red panties and shoes."
"Oh yes" he grinned. "The red thong lady. Red hair to match the panties."
The detective explained that it had been his first night at the house. He had managed to be accepted as a waiter in order to infiltrate the organisation and observe the goings-on. "I didn't realise that I was going to be chosen to get naked, neither did the girl. It was her first time as well, which was probably why we were voted for. Everyone else had already been chosen several times.
"It turns out that the girl's a journalist, also undercover doing a freelance investigative piece. I didn't know of course, neither did she of me. I had an entry to the job by the owner of the agency that supplies the staff for the parties, she had to apply like everyone else, it took her months to get a place, typical luck that we both ended up there that night. She was doing a story on the wild sex parties, I'm investigating drugs importation."
"But I never saw any drugs."
"Didn't you notice the table in the corner with bowls of white powder? What about the girl lying down with people queuing up to sniff from her boobs?"
Michelle sat quietly; she had no knowledge of such things, she didn't even smoke tobacco.
Inspector Hamilton spoke, "Right, are we okay on things then? There's an event next weekend, we'll need you both there. Just report back afterwards on what you saw. Don't worry, we've got you invitations already and we've spoken to Derek."
He was holding an invitation for two. She examined the card; at the bottom was the line: 'Party Theme and Dress Code - The Court of Queen Nefertiti'.
"If Derek thinks it's fine, I'll help."