The only thing that Sophie Creighton related to her husband's disappearance when she called me in to try to track him down was his recent obsession with an online dating service. She didn't suspect foul play or anything. He had packed a suitcase and, she said, had been withdrawn and acting strangely for some time. She said she primarily wanted to know where he was so that she could have divorce papers served on him.
He hadn't taken his desktop computer and she'd spent time breaking into his private areas before she'd called me in. She'd found that he'd been playing around on a local dating site called QuadDating, which had a stiff six-month membership fee that gave you access to the member profiles, and where, for an additional fee, you could make four appointments for hookups on a single day at the service's facility with those whose profiles attracted you. The appointments were for four-hours at QuadDating's facility, an old downtown hotel converted for the purpose. The four hours was broken into four separate appointments for forty-five minutes each in a hotel room, to do whatever the two (or more) of you wanted to do. The sessions were separated by fifteen minutes. You could sign up for fewer sessions, but you paid for all four. And the hookups were all by mutual consent.
Sophie had found not only Don Creighton's personal profile on the dating site Internet page but also evidence of his last session signup. For the first sessions, he'd made an appointment for a young woman named Cindy—for two consecutive sessions. But, though the record indicated he's made two other appointments, he'd managed to blank out the names of who they'd been set with.
Sophie said she wanted me to track this Cindy down and find out if Don was with her. She flattered me by saying she'd picked me, on recommendation, because she didn't think I'd have any trouble making an appointment with this Cindy. Sophie gave me a check to cover not only my expenses for three days work but also the relatively high cost to sign up with QuadDating and to pay for information. Saying yes to her proposal wasn't difficult as I had no other work pressing, and I wouldn't mind trying out one or two of those sessions she was paying for. I wasn't exactly celibate.
* * * *
I was gratified to find that Sophie had assessed my chances in the QuadDating profiles correctly. It wasn't long after I put in my profile that the interested private messages started pinging, and within several hours I not only had appointments for the next day with Cindy but also with three other prime candidates of my choice. What was surprising to me was that good research on the QuadDating Web site revealed that several of the profiles were for listed staff members of the site. As these were some of the more attractive profiles, it struck me that QuadDating wasn't just running a referral and enabling dating-cum-sex service, but it also was running some form of a brothel—and one where amateurs could play on the same level as the professionals. Only the member setting up the appointments was charged for the service, so my guess was that some of the honeys with the best profiles on the site had just discovered a clever way to avoid walking the streets.
The pros undoubtedly got a cut of the fees, but everything a session with an amateur brought in most likely went directly to the house. This was a new concept for a brothel to me, and one that seemed to be clever. Undoubtedly connections with the amateurs could be made outside the service, but I was willing to bet the pros made their hookups keep contact within the confines of QuadDating's expense structure.
It didn't matter to me whether I signed up for pros or amateurs as long as they were arousing and helped lead to where I wanted to go. Beyond Cindy, who was quite a looker, if you liked that type, I signed up for the best I could find. It actually worked to the benefit of what I was tasked to do to have hookups with service staff members, so that maybe I could learn something about the operation that would permit me to track down the wandering Don Creighton. And whoever I hooked up with would earn their way.
Cindy was a bit surprised when all I wanted to do in my first QuadDating hookup, beyond some light kissing and groping, was talk. She seemed a bit disappointed and said so, saying she'd been looking forward to the hookup, but when I started flashing the wad of money Sophie Creighton had given me to loosen lips, she was willing not only to talk but also to go out to the reception area and pump her friend in reception for information on Don Creighton. Before she went she said he'd fucked her but almost seemed reluctant to do so.
"He was a hunk—like you," she said. "But he didn't really want to do any more than you have. He was nervous the whole time he was with me—like he couldn't wait to get on to the next session. I felt like I had to seduce him. And I'd had such hopes for him."
"Hopes for him?" I asked.
"I checked up on him. The man's loaded and is a real good looker. A beautiful body—just like you, hon. I had visions of more than just a hookup."
"More than a hookup? The man's married you know." But when she gave me that "so what?" look, I realized that Cindy was using the service to land a sugar daddy. Beyond that, of course, Don hadn't put anything about is marriage in his profile. It was sort of a tossup on whether to do that or not. To some, cheating on a spouse would be part of the arousal.
One thing was clear about Don, though. It was increasingly looking like whoever he ran off with was as a result of hookups with this dating service, using QuadDating as a stepping stone much as Cindy was.
When Cindy came back from reception, she had the most peculiar look on her face.
"Well, no wonder," she muttered. "But why did he even bother to book me?"
"What do you mean by that?" I asked.
"I asked the receptionist to check the records three times. The two appointments he had after me the other day were with men."
"Men?" I asked.
"Yes. And one of them is Rick—a really great-looking guy. He works here. I knew there was nothing going with him, though. He's gay. And, being staff here, he obviously isn't what I'm looking for anyway. He's here today, though, if you want to ask him about that guy."
