Chapter 10: Murder

I STARTED TEASING Leslie about being next on Ronda’s lunch list. She didn’t seem to be all that weirded out by the idea.

“I’ve actually never done a girl, but I’ve thought about it,” she said when we walked over to the studio together on Thursday.

We weren’t really planning anything, but I thought I’d print a few of the pictures of Ruth and Leslie wanted to see what I had. When we walked through the store, Lucy caught my attention at the cash register and told me I had some slides back. I’d almost forgotten the slides I took of the construction in Stratford. And a few of Kathleen.

“Well, if it’s any comfort, three of my four girlfriends were absolutely straight when they joined the family and two of them aren’t quite so straight anymore,” I laughed.

I had a light table in the studio I used when I was examining negatives, so I spread the new batch of slides out on it.

“This is the new studio space?” Leslie asked. “It looks pretty small compared to this.”

“These pictures don’t show the store,” I said. “The whole front of the space is filled with antiques and collectible junk. Over there on the wall is a picture of Patricia and Toni in the shop.”

“Very cool. Okay. I’ll come.”

“Do you need any help?” I asked.

“I ... Oh for Pete’s sake. I meant I’ll come to visit this summer. And if it happens to be a girl who slips between my legs instead of your hard cock, I’ll handle it. Her. God! I can’t believe I’m even considering actually doing it with a girl. And yes. I’d love to have your help when I come. Aren’t we doing some photo processing?”

“Yeah. I’ve got the negatives processed, but I haven’t printed anything yet. Let’s take a look.”

Leslie and I spent the afternoon in the darkroom and we did almost as much fooling around as we did photo printing. We didn’t actually screw, but we did help each other come.

I’d signed and mailed all my tax forms and the checks I had to write to pay them, but I hadn’t really gone over the forms. Anna insisted that we all sit down and go over our family finances that weekend. I could only thank God Anna was managing our finances. We’d all made a bundle in 1969. Being in Las Vegas at $500 a day gave the girls all a base income of $10,000. Fortunately, Photosensitive Productions had deducted income tax and Anna had the records of everything else Ronda, Patricia, and she made.

My taxes were a different animal completely. The thousand a day I made in Las Vegas was enough to provide for a family of four for two years or more. I was pretty sure my parents weren’t making more than ten grand a year combined. I’d be surprised if it was that. The business was paid $38,000. $27,000 was the two checks we received from the patron in Las Vegas. But that still meant that we’d made another $11,000 from sales and patronage. The large format camera and materials, lights, enlarger adapters, and developing trays that Sylvia bought me accounted for $2,500 of that amount.

Anna’s father had done most of the real work before the end of the year. Nate Hart Enterprises was incorporated. It had three wholly owned subsidiaries: Attic Allure, Attic Allure CA, and The Family Attic in Stratford. That had meant considerable adjustments to our purchase in Canada in terms of who owed how much.

When we made the purchase, I thought everyone was going to have a share in our enterprise, but Mr. Marx explained that we would all end up paying heavy tax penalties if we tried to do that. It ended up that I owned Nate Hart Enterprises as a sole proprietorship. Nate Hart Enterprises owned the other three businesses. So, $5,000 of my original down payment was deemed to be from the parent company to buy the antique business. Then I funded the business with a thousand dollars so we could pay Melinda over the winter.

Just prior to the end of the year, I funded Attic Allure CA with enough money to buy several thousand dollars of equipment and get architectural drawings of the remodeling that we had to do for the studio. Paying for the actual construction, of course, was done in 1970. I was going to have income and expenses this year, too.

Finally, the loan on the property was to me from Jordan. From that loan, I ‘disbursed funds’ to each of my girlfriends for their share of the property. I ended up owing Jordan around $16,000. Beth owed her share directly to her father. By loaning Patricia, Anna, and Ronda the money from what I received from Jordan, the repayment was not counted as income. It wasn’t much during 1969, but would be significant during 1970.

Then there were the corporate taxes, both US and Canadian. Once again, since we only owned the property for three months in 1969, Canadian taxes were minimal. 1970 would be different since we’d be operating both businesses in Stratford full time during the summer.

I kissed Anna soundly and took her to bed. I was so thankful that she’d come back to me after our breakup as juniors in high school. I’m sure she didn’t plan to be one of four girlfriends back then, but ... Well, she probably didn’t plan on having sex with me at every opportunity, or on having sex with two of her three sister girlfriends. I guess life changes us.

Leslie and I were taking off fairly early on Saturday the twenty-fifth. It looked like a clear day, but I wasn’t sure when the light would be best over Lake Michigan. I picked her up at the studio and we loaded all the various equipment we’d need for the day. This was a lot different than when I took pictures in Las Vegas. Once, we just moved everything outside quickly, took half a dozen shots, and rushed back inside. The other time, we’d gone by bus to the Valley of Fire and had taken only a couple of shots on the Linhof. Neither of them was really great. The pictures I took with the Hasselblad were what made that venture worthwhile. That and my naked model Gloria painted up like a tiger and acting like one in the bus on the way back.

The thing was, I was getting pretty good at staging and taking my time with a photo in the studio on the Linhof, but field work was a different beast. I’d found out that I needed a cover cloth in order to adequately see the image in the back glass. I’d squinted and used my hand as a shield for my previous two outdoors scenes.

Leslie and I would be using our 35s as well as the Linhof. I’d even acquired a couple of rolls of 120 Kodachrome for the Hasselblad, so I’d try a few photos with it. We carefully loaded four film carriers with 4x5 Ektachrome. Once they were processed, that represented about $80 worth of film. Then we’d see about Cibachrome prints from them.

“The forecast says it will be in the 70s by mid-morning,” Leslie said, shoving the newspaper over the seat into the back. “We might have to battle some clouds later on, though.”

“Well, we’re just going to take our time and get the shots we want,” I said. “We can’t rush this any more out here than in the studio. Remember what Doc said about shooting large format.”

“One 4x5 equals thirty-six 35mm,” Leslie quoted our color photography professor. “I don’t know if I have the patience for it.”

“I think you do. You’ll be using this kind of equipment all the time in fashion photography.”

“Fashion magazines are almost all requiring 35mm slides now,” she said. “I really hope the industry is still alive when I enter the workforce. Maybe I will end up taking catalog pictures for Marshall-Field.”

“Don’t start limiting your potential yet. You’ve got a good eye.”

“All I can say is thank you for letting me use your equipment to practice with.”

“It’s really lots more fun doing this with someone else who is interested in the process and not just the product, you know?” I said. “I mean, we could probably get any of a dozen models to come out with us and pose for us to take pictures, but they wouldn’t be interested in what we were doing to correct exposures or compose images. They’d just want to see beautiful pictures when we got back.”

“And they wouldn’t reward us with a nice round of sex when we were done,” Leslie laughed.

“Well, there is always that possibility,” I agreed. Hmm. I wondered if the air mattress was in the back of the microbus. We hadn’t used it since last summer.

We got up to the Dunes Park and, as I expected, it was pretty much deserted. It might get into the seventies, but the water was closer to fifty and the wind was gusty. Another advantage of working with another photographer as my model—she understood and would tolerate a lot of inconvenience for the shoot so we could get things right.

Our array of cameras looked like a whole flock of photographers were going to be taking pictures. We had tripods for each of the four cameras and were ready to switch from one to another. We flipped a coin and I lost, meaning Leslie was going to be photographer first and I’d be out there baring my ass for the world and her photographic eye.

We started clothed, of course. It would be a long process. I estimated that it would be an hour to an hour and a half before she was even ready to shoot on the Linhof. She was still learning some of the ins and outs of the Hasselblad. I did grab my Nikon and took a couple of pictures of her looking through the back of the Linhof. She immediately covered her head with the dark cloth.

After shooting a couple of Polaroids in the custom back for the camera, she decided she was ready to get down to business. That meant it was time for me to strip. I glanced up and down the beach and saw no one, so I obliged and got out of my clothes. Leslie got me positioned where she wanted me, seated on a rock overlooking the lake.

The damn rock was cold! My butt was going to be stuck to it. Leslie kindly made sure my cock wasn’t lying on the ground and put a rag under it to protect it. “For later,” she said. My cock wasn’t visible in the photo, I knew, but I still felt damned exposed out there. It would be obvious that I was naked.

She took several pictures with her Leica and with the Hasselblad, then got serious with the Linhof.

“This is it,” she called. “Toss your hair back a little. That’s it. Sexy man.”

She took the slide and switched her film carrier to the other side. Then she returned to me to change my position.

“How are you doing? Can we keep going without freezing your testicles off? Does it help if I hold them or are my hands too cold? Do your girlfriends keep posing you around the house so they can look at you? I love the way your hair is catching the wind. With the exposure time we’re using out here, I hope it doesn’t blur too much. A little blur would be okay.”

She leaned me back and made sure I was able to comfortably support myself on an elbow. All the while she was stroking my torso, touching my legs, smoothing my hair, and reaching in to stroke my cock a little. I’m sure it would have been stiffer if it wasn’t so cold, but it was responding pretty well as it was. She moved in with the Leica and snapped pictures from several different angles, instructing me on where to look and how much to smile.

Working as a model for Leslie was good for me. It gave me a good feeling for how my models must feel as I seduce them into the poses I want, and touch them until they’re aroused and I can see the fire light up their eyes. I knew Leslie was getting exactly what she wanted. And I was enjoying her touches and instructions a lot.

She got back to the Linhof for her last exposure and then quickly returned to me. She reached between my legs and repositioned my cock, then she adjusted the position of my leg.

“I love seeing this and touching it, but someone would raise Cain if it was in the photo. Can’t have it peeking out.”

“It’s not really fair, is it?” I said as she got back to focusing the camera. “I can take pictures that show your pussy and no one cares.”

“What’s to see?” she asked. “Wait. Right there. Just a little more smile looking off in the distance. Got it!”

I jumped off the rock and grabbed my sweatshirt first, then started pulling on my jeans. Leslie stopped me with her hand between my legs.

“You were so good, you deserve a little reward,” she said as she stroked me to full hardness. “Before you tuck this away, let me ease its load.”

She dropped to her knees and started sucking on me with intent. I’d had blowjobs from Leslie before, but having one out here on the beach in the middle of the day was pretty spectacular.

“Come for me, Nate. You’ve done everything else I asked you to. Come for me.” She went back to sucking and stroking my dick in her hand. I obeyed and filled her mouth with come.

I pulled her to her feet and kissed her deeply to let her know how much I appreciated her actions. She grinned at me.

“I’m going to be a really good model for you and do anything you say,” she said.

“Well, I’m not going to make you go naked in this wind any longer than you have to,” I said. “But I’m definitely going to enjoy getting you naked. First, let’s get a few positioning shots. How did you find the Hasselblad behaved out here?”

“That camera is such a dream, I can’t imagine anything going wrong. I think it’s a good thing, though, that you have cable releases for all the cameras. I was fine when I was handholding my Leica, but I know I would have knocked the Hasselblad and the Linhof all over if I didn’t have the cable.”

“I’ve gotten to the point of using the cable whenever the camera is on the tripod. It’s just too easy to ruin a shot if you are pressing the button. Let me see a kind of Statue of Liberty pose up there.” She gave me several poses and I snapped a few shots with my Nikon and a couple with the Hasselblad. I was really looking for the light and the background. We had a few ragged clouds on the horizon.

“I need to go pee,” she said, hopping down from the rock. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Take your time. I’m going to have a cup of coffee.”

She took off for the restrooms and was back in five minutes. In that time, she’d changed. She had on a pair of ultra-short cutoffs and a windbreaker. She kicked off her shoes and headed back toward the rock.

“This is nice,” I said. “Not too cold?”

“No. Girls are used to running around with bare legs. We do it all winter.”

I held her steady as she mounted the rock, then ran my hand up under her jacket.

“With bare breasts, too?” I asked as I squeezed them and thumbed her nipples.

“Only on special occasions,” she giggled.

I grabbed the Nikon and took a couple of pictures as she took different poses. Then I unzipped her jacket and grabbed the Hasselblad. She was still mostly covered, but I got some great shots, including one where I hopped up on the rock with her and pointed the camera down at her.

I flipped her jacket open so her breasts were exposed and headed for the Linhof. I used a Polaroid back to get an initial shot and took it to her to show her and talk about the dynamics of the shot. She looked a little foreshortened. That happens a lot when you are lower than the subject. I’d been sitting on the rock and Leslie’s shots had been at an almost horizontal level. I had her standing, so I was really trying to shoot her against the sky and not the beach or water.

A feature of the Linhof I hadn’t experimented with much was the rise, fall, and tilt of the front standard. By manipulating the position of the lens in this way, I could supposedly correct for the foreshortening caused by shooting up at an angle.

I popped up on the rock with her and pushed the windbreaker off her shoulders and down her arms. Leslie looked superb with no top on. I spent a few moments caressing those little tits.

“You don’t even need to play with my nipples to get them hard,” she giggled. “They’re already stiff in the wind. You don’t have to stop, though.”

I gave each little point a loving kiss as Leslie held my head to her chest. In the meantime, I was unzipping her cutoffs.

“You want me completely naked?” she asked as she started to shift to get the shorts off.

“No. Not quite. I just want to reach in and feel your pussy.”

“Oh, yeah,” she moaned as I slid a hand inside to rub at her clit.

I moved behind her and she leaned her head back against me. I repositioned her hands so she was pushing into her shorts instead of me. I supported her back until I thought I had exactly the right position and she could hold it. Then I jumped down off the rock, ran to the camera, and checked the focus and composition through the ground glass.

“This is it,” I said. “Head back, look at the sky. Finger on your clit. Think of me licking it!”

“Oh, yeah!” she cried.

I took the picture and flipped the film carrier. Then I changed the tilt of the lens slightly and called for the next shot. I took it and ran back to Leslie to give her a hug and thank her for the perfect shot. She kissed me emphatically, while pushing her shorts down off her hips to fall to the rock.

“Do me now,” she said. “I know you’re hard. I can feel you. Get it in me!”

“We could go to the bus and make up the bed,” I suggested.

“Later. I want it now, on this rock, overlooking the beach and the water.”

She had my jeans unzipped and my cock out. I reached in a pocket for a condom and got behind her smooth round bottom. She leaned forward a little and I supported her as I notched my cock into her tight little pussy.

I hadn’t imagined us screwing while standing up on the rock overlooking Lake Michigan, but I sure wasn’t complaining. I wished I could trigger the camera remotely. I couldn’t really reach around to manipulate her clit in this position, but I held her by the hips as she strummed her clit and I pounded into her from behind. It didn’t take long for us to throw our orgasms at the waves.

“We should probably not have any more photo sessions for a while,” she said as we finally pulled away from the beach in the bus. We’d cleared and packed all our equipment before Leslie got dressed. I was going to make up the air mattress in the back, but she vetoed it. Instead, I just sat on the seat with my flagpole out and she settled onto it with her head sticking out the sunroof.

It was a good position and I could make up for not paying attention to her nips and clit on the beach as she rose and fell on my cock. We stayed connected as long as possible as we kissed and fondled.

“We only have three more weeks in the semester. Are we having a problem?” I asked.

“Well, maybe we could have one more session before school’s out,” she said. “I’m getting too attached to you, Nate. I should be out finding a bunch of strong male models who will fuck me after a shoot. I should be preparing for my career and not thinking about when I’ll get to work with you again.”

“Do you want to come home and meet the others? That might calm things down a little.”

“No! I mean, I’ve met them all at different times. It’s not like we’re a secret. But I really can’t get any more involved with you. Oh, God. Living with you would drive me crazy! You are constantly feeling up your models and getting your rocks off with a slut from the Whore Corps. I mean, the idea of sharing a boyfriend with another girlfriend in a stable relationship has some appeal, but knowing you’d be fucking your assistant in the studio, or your mistress in LA, or some rich patron who wants you to tie her up would just be too much.”

“I didn’t fuck the rich patron,” I said somewhat petulantly. “This time.”

“Mmmhmm. You should try to figure out exactly who you want in your life. Your girlfriends aren’t going to put up with it forever. And, you don’t really see me in the same light as them. I know from seeing the photos of me you’ve taken that I’ve got a pretty good body, though my face is a little funny. I know you like sticking your cock in my pussy as much as I like having it there. But that’s really all we’ve got that isn’t on celluloid. I don’t want to become more attached to it than I am.”

“I am trying to not feel like we’re breaking up since we’ve never been going together,” I said. “It’s not true that I don’t have any feelings for you, Leslie. But I guess you nailed it otherwise. We should keep our relationship more professional. I want to be your colleague far more than I want to be your lover.”

“That’s a good way to put it,” she said. “And we’re going to print some of these slides. We’ll be backed up against each other in the darkroom and anything might happen there. But then it’s summer. You’re going to Canada and I’m going to do some travel. I’ve got a ticket to Paris for the runway shows. I won’t have any official capacity, but I have permission to take pictures. Then, maybe toward the end of summer, I’ll visit you in Canada and tell you what it was like. Until then, I’ll be giving my pussy a chance to cool off so my head can think better.”

After all the declarations, nothing really changed. When we got back to the studio and got all the equipment put away, we spent another half an hour making out before we took our film over to Pro-Color. Well, we didn’t fuck again. That was a difference.

I realized that the whole concept of never having sex in the studio—which I’d found half a dozen ways to circumvent—was really conceived for situations like working with Leslie. We’d reached the point where when we worked together, we expected to fuck. I could see the possibility down the road of turning down opportunities to work together because one or the other didn’t want to have sex that day. A model shouldn’t expect that if she takes her clothes off in the studio, it means she’s going to get fucked. Or even felt up.