Chapter 4

I went home and used the rest of the afternoon trying to open the hidden compartment in the roll-top desk. While I was doing that the doorbell rang, so I stopped my search and went to the door to find my favorite detective standing there looking all handsome and official and stuff.

“Hello Detective, please come in.”

He entered the house, stopping in the living room.

“Deb, I have some news, and this is going to knock your socks off.”

“What news, Detective?” I touched his arm gently.

“My friends tell me that the paper is a document that tells Aztec priests how to use the power of Xolotl to fight their enemies. That power is channeled from the god to the priest and through the bracelet.”

“Wait! Are you saying that Mick is an Aztec priest of some sort?”

“No, I don’t think that’s the case, but then again it doesn’t take much to be a priest.”

He placed his hand on the hand I had on his arm.

“The people I’ve talked to,” he continued, “are scared to death. The power of the bracelet in the wrong hands could literally destroy the world.”

That shook me a bit and I went back to looking at the desk.

“Then we need to find that bracelet. It has to be in the desk, I know where the area is in the desk, but I can’t figure out how to access it. Look here.”

I led Detective Paulo Ocelotl to Mick’s office and showed him the portion of the desk that sounded hollow. I showed him everywhere I’d looked, and he scanned them as well. As we looked, I asked questions.

“Have you figured out how this power works?”

“Yeah. The wearer touches the bracelet and rubs it while thinking of the living thing he wishes to attack. It has no effect on inanimate objects. Then there is the proximity thing. If the person to be attacked is far away the most the power can do is cramp them up and give them enough pain to double them over.”

“So, the closer to the bracelet, the more deadly the effect?”

“Yup. It seems that the ultimate damage comes when the attacker is within a foot away, in that case the attacker will burst into flames. When Mick kept himself eight feet away, he thought about the person and the portion of their body he wished to attack, and “Pop” Bill and Brian lose their heads. He could have just as well exploded their hearts or their lungs. If he wanted to be subtle, he could have destroyed their appendix and they would have died in a few days or weeks from sepsis.”

“Can the power be used without the bracelet?” I asked, my mind now spinning.

“Yes, the actual possession of the Xolotl icon will have the same effect as having the bracelet. However, that icon is in a museum in Mexico City.”

I kept feeling around the edges of the desk for a catch while we spoke.

“I’ve been working on an idea, Deb. The friend who read the paper gave me a copy of the bracelet. If we can find the original, we can swap it out and get the original to a safe location then if Mick goes to use it again, nothing will happen.”

That gave me a glimmer of hope for my situation as Paulo looked at his watch.

“I have to go. Keep looking for the opening and if you find the bracelet swap it with this one and bring the original to my office.”

The detective handed me the silver bracelet and as we touched, we locked eyes. He gripped my hand and squeezed it gently.

“Deb when this is over, you will be able to free yourself from Mick. If you make that choice, I would like to see you and maybe we can have a relationship.”

“Paulo, what’s to stop whoever gets this bracelet from using it? We could be trading one murderer for another.”

“Well, the people I know have other items in their possession that are reputed to be as powerful. They keep them under lock and key, religiously, you might say.”

“So no worries about someone worse.”

“No worries. I have to go, Deb. Keep looking and please be careful.” Then he actually leaned into me and kissed me on the cheek. It felt like I blushed bright red.

After I let him out, I went back to my search and was about to give up when it occurred to me that I had only looked on the outside of the desk. I began a closer examination of the inside of the roll-top, finding nothing. Then I opened the drawers and inside the top of the bottom drawer I found a raised knob. Pressing it caused the side panel to pop out of place.

I placed my hand on the panel and was able to slide it open, revealing a small velvet box. There it was. I examined the box and found a small catch. I released the catch and the box popped open and there was the bracelet. I touched it and felt nothing special. Just when I was about to take it and swap it out, I changed my mind.

If Mick discovered the switch before I had the chance to get the original to Paulo, I would be in all kinds of trouble. No. I closed the box and put it back in its place and slid the wooden panel back in place, listening to hear if there was the sound of it locking. There was, so I closed the drawers and got everything back to normal.

Checking the time, I still had time to make a good dinner for Mick and keep him from being rough with me again. I took the bracelet and hid it where I knew Mick would never look. I put it in my box of tampons in the bathroom.

When Mick got home he walked up to me and kissed me on the cheek and asked if I did the tattoo. I turned around and lifted my shirt to show him the temporary tattoo.

“Mick, I wasn’t sure of the best style. The artist and I went through a whole lot of fonts and art designs and I picked out my favorite three. This was number three. It’s temporary. I’ll get the other two over the next few days and then we can pick the one we like the best. Did I do OK?”

Mick looked at me and made a face of some sort. Then he traced his fingers around the artwork. When he was done examining it, he let his finger wander down between my butt cheeks and pressed his dry finger into my anus. I winced and flinched a little.

“Mick, that hurts. I’m sorry. I only wanted the best artwork for you.”

“You should have gotten the best one first. Now I’ll have to wait to see which one you thought was the best.”

He pulled out his finger and pushed his hard cock into my ass. He barely made it past my sphincter when the pain was so great I screamed out loud and fell forward sobbing, screaming some more, and crying.

“Well I can see that you aren’t going to be any fun tonight.” With those words he yanked his cock out and wiped what I later saw was shit and blood all over my ass cheeks. “What’s for dinner?”

He asked like I didn’t matter. He couldn’t do one thing so he was looking for another. I suppose I should be happy tat he didn’t stick his shit and blood covered cock in my dry pussy. I pulled on a pair of panties to stop any blood from dropping on the floor and went to the kitchen and made his dinner.

While we ate I swore to myself that I was going to get even someday. That night, in bed, Mick fucked me. It was not loving but it wasn’t rape this time. We fell asleep on opposite sides of the bed.

In the morning, I got up and made breakfast for Mick and sent him off to his day with a blow job. I had made up my mind as to a course of action and I called Paulo. I thought of him as Paulo now and not Detective Ocelotl. He was going to be my ticket away from Mick, so I thought I’d better treat him right. I told him that I hadn’t yet found the catch to open the panel, but I thought I was getting close.

“Detective ... um ... Paulo ... after this is all over, would it be alright if I saw you? I mean like if we dated and stuff?”

The line went quiet for a bit, “Deb, I’m a cop. I have horrible hours, I’m always dealing with the dregs of the world, and I find it hard to trust people. I’m not exactly a prime catch.”

“Well, Paulo, I won’t know that for sure until I try. So let’s set a date. Two weeks after this all comes to ahead and is over, you will take me to dinner. We’ll chat and get to know each other and then see where it goes. But I warn you, in spite of my past, once I’m free of Mick, I won’t be having sex with anyone until I’m engaged to them. I’m not really a slut. I was just using sex to get away from Mick and it didn’t work out.”

He was quiet for the longest time. Then he spoke, “OK Deb. Two weeks after this whole thing is over. But I warn you, I’m not an easy guy to get to know.”

We said our farewells and I went to the desk and switched out the bracelets. I placed the real one on my wrist and took a walk in the park with a purse and a book. I also wore a light-weight long-sleeved hoodie. The sleeves were long enough to cover the bracelet. I found an empty bench and sat down and opened my book.