Author's note:
Thanks so much for reading Chapter 4.
In Chapters 1 through 3 we've gotten to know second year law student Miki Lenz, some of her interests, frustrations, and potential. Her best friend since childhood, Gwen, has gone missing under suspicious circumstances, and Miki has spent the better part of the first three chapters trying to gain access to The Dollhouse, a brothel and escort agency where she discovers Gwen was working up until she fell off the radar.
In this chapter, Miki takes the bull by the horns, so to speak, and makes her first foray directly into The Dollhouse, so this chapter includes some dubious consent. Miki makes her own choices, but she's being dealt a very challenging hand, and must do things well out of her comfort zone, things she wouldn't otherwise agree to, or she won't be able to make any headway finding her missing friend. If that bothers you, please reconsider reading this installment.
All characters are 18+ years of age, and bear no resemblance to any real persons, living or deceased.
This work is 100%
fiction
and
sexual fantasy
.
~~~~~~~
It had been over two weeks, and Gwen was still missing.
No calls, no texts, no sightings. Having made only a little progress with James' 'interrogations' of two Dollhouse escorts over the last two days, Miki was at a crossroads. Take the next step, crazy as it truly was, or leave Gwen's fate in the hands of the police. All she needed to back out of her self-admittedly insane plan to go undercover as an escort at The Dollhouse, was a shred of hope, and that's exactly what she was looking for at Lt. Thompson's office. With any luck he'd found some kind of tangible lead and Gwen would be back home soon.
Miki couldn't decide if he was bored or tired, his expression was impassive as he motioned for her to sit, his undersize and overaged chair squeaking like fingernails on a chalkboard with every little motion he made. "I've been through my notes, Ms. Lenz," he began, fingers tapping on his desk. "Your friend Gwen is quite a piece of work. She'd been on the Dollhouse website for about a month, and then poof, her profile is pulled." He paused, looked Miki in the eye, and took a deep breath in something of an effort to punctuate what he was about to reveal. "She was taking money for sex."
A sick feeling settled in Miki's stomach as she processed the information. "That seems a little obvious now, doesn't it? All I care about is finding her. Are you any closer to that? Or are we getting to the part where she's 'just a sex worker' and we can sweep this whole thing under the bureaucratic carpet?"
Lieutenant Thompson shrugged. "It tells us where and how much she was at risk. And we're still hopeful. But no, we're not any closer." He sounded more tired than bored, like he was trying, but couldn't quite muster the energy to sound sympathetic to Miki.
Miki exhaled. She wanted to scream, but what she really needed were results. Instead, she gazed coyly down at her hands. "Don't you have any undercover officers? Could they go in?"
Thompson leaned back in his chair. "For a missing persons case? I'm sorry, Ms. Lenz, but that's not how it works."
"But like there
are
undercover officers, right? If you did have one how would you go about it?"
Thompson rolled his eyes. Miki backpedaled. "Purely an academic inquiry. Help me understand, as a law student, how you would build a case, say for future prosecution, against The Dollhouse and its operators?"
Fucking lawyers. Always thought they knew more than cops. He was going to play along to get rid of her, but he didn't have to love it. "Ok... first it would have to be a criminal case. Murder, drugs, kidnapping, something like that. We'd choose an officer, build a backstory. In this case it's tricky, because we can't ask our officers to enter a situation like this where they'll have to... you know."
"Yes Lieutenant, I can only imagine the H-R nightmare trying to sign off on a city employee selling her... self." Miki raised her eyebrows and smirked.
Thompson continued, unironically, "...exactly. So we'd have to use a contractor or an informant. Informants are best, but I've confirmed we don't have any there at this time. So one of our officers would 'run' a contractor, getting regular reports back, so forth, until we either gathered sufficient information to make arrests, or deemed the case non-viable."
"So they're just like going to do this for the money and thrills? And what happens if the undercover person is in danger?" This was the actual point of Miki's question.
"We attempt to exfiltrate them. Usually they just get out before the poopoo hits the fan too hard, but you never really know, and getting sufficient evidence to put a case together can mean taking serious risks."
"Sounds dangerous. Why on earth would anyone choose to do that?"
"People get into this for all kinds of reasons. Some do it for justice, some for kicks, who the hell knows."
She stayed silent, her chest tight with questions she couldn't ask about all the unknowns that lay ahead.
Lieutenant Thompson rose from his chair, signaling the end of their meeting. "Miss Lenz, all I can tell you is we'll keep looking."
~~~~~~~
Back at home, Miki studied the card that Misty had given James last night. Once she made the call she was committed. There was no point in backing out, unless Gwen miraculously showed up, and that was looking less likely with each passing day. No, she accepted that she was going to have to jump down this rabbit hole. But first she needed to calm the fuck down. She poured herself a glass of cheap red wine and downed it, then another, until the last butterfly in her warming gut sputtered and drowned. Then she dialed.
"Hello, you've reached The Dollhouse, how may we be of service?" It was the same sultry voice as when Miki dialed the number she'd found on Gwen's closet floor.
"Hi. My name is M... Niki. I'm looking for Serena Lane, please." She held the phone away from her face and exhaled her terror.
"This is Serena, how can I help you Niki?"
"Oh, hello Ms. Lane. The reason I'm calling is... I'm looking for... um... work."
