Trailer Park Noir (22 page)

He turned and left the living room.

Sherry stretched out on the couch and turned on the TV. She watched an old movie without comprehending it. She wallowed in how good she felt until she drifted off on a cloud.

Eighteen

The next morning, Kendra ate her breakfast while Mommy hurried around getting ready for work. Mommy had gotten up early enough to fix her a delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast. Dexter sat beside her chair staring up at her with big, pleading eyes.

“Here, Dex,” Kendra said, breaking off a piece of bacon. She held it down for the dog and he plucked it from her fingers with his teeth and chomped it down quickly.

“Don’t get him into the habit of eating at the table,” Mommy said as she hurried by on her way back to the bathroom.

“We won’t tell, Dexter,” Kendra whispered as she gave him another piece of bacon.

When she was finally ready, Mommy stood before her and said, “How do I look?”

She wore a grey-and-black suit and black shoes with heels.

“You look very nice, Mommy,” Kendra said.

“You sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I’d tell you if something was wrong.”

“Okay.”

“Breakfast was real good, too, Mommy.”

“Good, I’m glad.”

“Aren’t you gonna eat?”

“I’m too nervous to eat. In fact, I’m sick to my stomach.”

“You should take a lunch with you.”

“I’m going to. I’ll do that next.”

She quickly made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and cut up some celery sticks, put them in plastic baggies, then put them in a small brown paper bag.

“Well, it’s about time for me to leave,” Mommy said. She turned to Kendra and looked serious. “Now, you’re going to be good today, right?”

“Yes, Mommy.”

“You can go get the mail if you want, but that’s all. I don’t want you wandering around all day. And do
not
go down by the river, don’t even
think
about it. Okay? And keep your clothes on, little girl, I’m
serious
.”

“Okay.”

“I’ve put the number of my office on the refrigerator door, but only for emergencies, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Now, stand up and give me a hug and kiss.”

Kendra stood and hugged her, then Mommy gave her a wet kiss on the cheek.

“I’ll see you later this afternoon, okay?” Mommy said.

“Okay. Have a good day.”

“I’ll try.”

And then she was gone.

Kendra sat at the table and listened as Mommy started the car, then backed it out and drove it away.

She went on eating her breakfast, planning her day. She felt a tingle of excitement as she thought about what she was going to do later in the morning. She was going to go over to unit five and take some more pictures. And this time she wasn’t going to chicken out. She was going to do whatever Mr. Regent wanted her to do.

She smiled as she ate her eggs.

* * * *

Mo Carey showed up at a few minutes before eleven and seated himself before Reznick’s desk.

“Mr. Carey,” Reznick said.

“Call me Mo.”

“Okay, Mo. Look, Mo, I hate to be the bearer of such bad news.”

Carey frowned and leaned forward in the chair. “What bad news?”

“I’m getting to that. I followed your wife last night. She went to a friend’s apartment to pick her up, and together, they went to a house in a Redding subdivision. There, they met with two men. I got some pictures.” Reznick opened the folder in front of him on the desk. “Like I said, I hate to give you bad news, but that’s the job.” He handed over the pictures he’d taken through the window.

Carey slowly looked through them. His face collapsed gradually as he examined the pictures.

“What ... what is this?” Carey said. He turned his head back and forth very slowly. “I don’t understand.”

“Apparently, Mo, your wife has been meeting with these two men and posing nude for their cameras and having sex with them in front of those cameras.” He took from the folder more pictures, these from the website. “And those pictures and videos have been posted on a website called MILFParade.com.”

“MILF? What ... this can’t ... “ He squinted at Reznick, mouth open, head tilted to one side. “I don’t understand. This ... this don’t even
look
like Alicia. I mean ... I mean,
look
at her, she’s
smilin’
and
laughin’
. She don’t even
like
sex.”

“Your wife is in her thirties, correct?”

Carey nodded.

“MILF stands for Moms I’d Like to Fuck,” Reznick said. “She took a friend with her last night, someone about the same age as your wife, and she, too, posed for pictures and videos and had sex with one of the men.”

As he went through the pictures, Carey’s face gradually changed. The squint slowly went away. He set his jaw and his eyebrows came together above the bridge of his nose. His eyes slowly widened, and he finally lifted them from the pictures and met Reznick’s. “Who are these men?” he said through his teeth.

“I don’t know yet. They run something called Burning Lizard Amusements, a company based in Redding. I’m going to look into it further. They run some other websites, too. Apparently, your wife has been working with them for a while because they have a
lot
of pictures and videos of her on MILFParade.com.”

“MILFParade.com – is that a pay site?”

“Oh, yeah. Not cheap, either. It’s thirty-nine bucks a month. I had to buy a membership to check it out, which will go on your bill, by the way. I can give you the password I used, if you’d like, and you can take over the membership. Might as well, since you paid for it.”

“Will you find out who those men are for me?”

“Look, I don’t want you to do anything that’s going to land you in jail. If you’re angry, you should focus that anger on your wife. I’m not saying you should beat her up, for crying out loud, but you’ve got plenty of reason to be angry with
her
. Confront her with these pictures.”

The pictures in his hand trembled because his hand was trembling. He stared at them for a long moment. “These pictures ... I can’t believe ‘em. She looks so ...
happy
. Like she’s havin’ the time of her life. She never looked like that with me, not once. Not even before we were married. What ... what
is
it? I don’t get it.”

“Maybe your wife is an exhibitionist,” Reznick said. “Maybe she can’t really get off unless she knows people are watching, or are
going
to be watching. When she’s with these men, she knows her pictures and videos are going to be seen by a lot of men on this website.”

Carey lowered the pictures, closed his eyes, and tipped his head back. “They must be payin’ her. That’s how she’s able to buy stuff.”

“They are paying her,” Reznick said. “But I don’t think it’s much. I read her bio on the website. She’s one of the site’s most popular models. She has a lot of fans, and they send her gifts regularly.”

Carey slowly pulled his head back down and looked at Reznick with a flat expression. “Gifts. From fans.”

Reznick nodded. “That’s right.”

Carey’s shoulders lifted as he inhaled and he moved his head back and forth as he sighed.

“What do you want me to do now, Mo?”

“Find out who those guys are.”

“You’re sure you don’t want me to just close this case? You’ve got more than enough to confront your wife. What good will it do you to know who these guys are?”

“Because I’m gonna – “ He stopped abruptly and ground his teeth together noisily.

“No. I’m not going to do it. You’re going to get yourself in trouble. If I tell you who these guys are, you’ll go after them, and I can’t have that on my conscience. You’ll end up in jail. You might even end up hurt.”

“If anybody gets hurt, it won’t be me.”

“See? That’s what I’m talking about. You’ll go after them. I won’t find out who they are, Mo. I won’t do it. You’ll have to find somebody else to do it, because I won’t.”

“Fine, then. Maybe I will.”

Reznick nodded once. “Fine.”

“How much do I owe you?”

Reznick took the bill from the folder and handed it across the desk to him.

Carey produced a checkbook and wrote a check. He ripped it from the book and put it on the desk.

“Can I keep these pictures?” Carey said.

“They’re all yours. The whole file is yours. Here.” Reznick picked up a pen and on the bottom of the manila folder, he wrote the password he’d used to get into MILFParade.com. “That’s the password you can use to get into the website.”

“Thank you.”

Carey took the folder and stood. “Burning Lizard Amusements, you say?”

“That’s right. It’s in the file.”

“Okay. Thanks for your help.”

“Not at all. You paid for it.”

Carey left the office.

Reznick sighed. Another job done.

He sat back in his chair and locked his hands together behind his head. He was tempted to go home, and it wasn’t even noon yet. He remembered that Kendra was home alone all day. Home alone, all by herself.

In case you haven’t noticed, Kendra has a crush on you,
Anna had said with a smile.
I hope you’d never consider taking advantage of that, understand? Because if you did, I’d kill you. And you wouldn’t even see it coming.

Reznick chuckled a little. But it wasn’t funny. He knew she’d meant it.

But when he thought of Kendra in those short shorts and that bikini bra ... all that bare creamy flesh ... that sultry face and all that luxurious blonde hair ...
 

He started getting an erection just
thinking
about her while sitting there in his office.

He decided not to go home. Not just yet.

He took out a book and started reading, hoping the door would open again soon and another client would come in with another case.

* * * *

Steven Regent was fixing himself a sandwich in the luxurious cool of the air conditioner when someone knocked at his door. When he opened it, he looked down at Kendra and returned her big smile. She wore a baggy white T-shirt with the Three Stooges on the front, a pair of black shorts, and flip-flops on her feet. The T-shirt could not conceal her generous breasts.

“Well, hello there,” Regent said.

“Hi, Mr. Regent.”

“I thought I told you to call me Steven.”

“Did you?”

“I think I did. Didn’t I?”

“Well, I will if you want me to.”

“Good. Come on in.”

He opened the screen door and she climbed the steps and came inside.

“I was just fixing myself some lunch,” he said. “You hungry?”

“No. I thought maybe you’d like to take more pictures.”

“Oh. Okay. Sure. Lunch can wait. I’m not that hungry, anyway.” Regent put the mayonnaise and mustard away, then picked up the plate with the unfinished sandwich on it and put it in the refrigerator. “Come on back to the studio.”

Regent wore a grey UCLA T-shirt and a pair of blue shorts, with sandals on his feet. “Where did we end up last time?”

“Well, you were about to take some pictures of me in my panties, but I chickened out,” she said.

“That’s right. You feeling braver today? You feeling
naughtier
?”

She giggled. “Yeah, I am. I’m feelin’ real naughty.”

“That’s my girl.”

In the bedroom studio, he turned on a couple lights, picked up his camera, and when he turned around, she already had her flip-flops and T-shirt off. He sucked in a little gasp of air at the sight of those glorious breasts. She dropped the black shorts and wore lavender panties underneath.

“How’s this?” she said.

He swallowed – it was more of a gulp – and nodded. “That’s ... just ... fine. You want to get on the bed and pose for me?”

“Sure. You want me to pose like the ladies in the magazines again?”

“Yeah, that would be good.”

She began to pose and he took pictures. As she moved around on the bed, her breasts swaying from side to side, Regent stiffened in those blue shorts.

Suddenly, Kendra sat up.

“You’re hard again,” she said, staring at the bulge in his shorts.

“Uh, yeah,” he said with a smile. “You don’t mind, do you? I mean, I can’t help it. You do it to me every time. And you’re gonna do it to every man who looks at your pictures.”

“Can I see it?” she said.

“Whuh ... what?”

“Your hard penis. Can I see it? I’ve never seen one before.”