Chapter 6

John's a bit naïve and doesn't have a ruthless molecule in his body - a good mate for me, Kelly thought. I'm a ruthless bitch with a lot of guile and little naiveté. She sighed. But, I am naïve about some things, frequently make assumptions without enough facts, and in the past generally went through life along the path of least resistance. No more. I have something to fight for now. I've found my man and will protect my position with him regardless of obstacles looming up in the path. I'll let Mom and Janice take their shot at Daddy, but if they fail, I'll bring him around. I know a few things about him they don't.

The waitress interrupted her thoughts, and Kelly placed her breakfast order.

She smiled at her man. "Tell me about your meeting with your attorney, John. By the way, did you need to let him see the video with me in the starring role?"

John blushed. "Yeah. He refused to pursue the matter without viewing the tapes. I left them with him. Sorry."

"That's okay." Surprisingly, Kelly wasn't as upset as she thought she would be. "Will he be able to help us?"

"Maybe. He says he has a potential legal attack with record keeping requirements, model information and model release forms. Every performer in any video depicting explicit sexual content on the Internet or otherwise must provide a release to the video's producer; in your case, the producer was probably Jim. Bob doesn't believe the adult web site offering your video for view would buy the film or even offer it to viewers without such a release; so in all likelihood, Jim forged your signature. Did you ever sign anything Jim shoved in front of you without knowing what it was?"

"No, I don't think so, but he handled our finances and other matters like that and asked me to sign papers from time to time. I might have signed a release without reading the document if he presented it to me in the guise of something else. If I did, or if Jim forged a release, does that mean we can't get the video removed from the Internet?"

"Bob wouldn't commit. He did say he could threaten the owners of the web site with a lawsuit. Under such a threat, they might pull it, which brings me to the second problem. Bob's research indicates the site is owned by the mob."

"Dagnabit! Is it wise to take on the mob, John?"

He chuckled. "Not really, though they tend to kill each other more than outsiders."

"Okay, what's our next step?"

"Instruct Bob to make the threat. If the web site ignores us or tells us to go piss up a rope, Bob has no other suggestion except to sue your ex-husband."

"No. I don't want to sue him. A civil suit will take years and cost a bundle, and Jim's a wily son of a female dog. Suing him isn't an option. I just want to get that video off the Internet, and then get even with the scum sucking shithead, and more. As I said, I don't want to get even with the fucker; I want to get ahead. You mentioned you had an idea."

"Yeah. I'll lay it out for you when I have more of the pieces in place. In the meantime, I've told Bob to hold off on the threat. I don't want Jim to know we're on to him before we lower the boom. Then I'll sic Bob on the web site."

"Good enough. I'm happy you're helping me with this. I get so angry when I think of what the low-life, miserable, scab-picking, belly-crawling snake did to me, I see red, which isn't the proper frame of mind to attack the problem. Clear thinking is required; something your organized mind is better suited for. God, I love you." She took his hand in hers.

John laughed. "I'll make some calls when we return to your house, and move my plan along a little. I might need your help, or Janice's to pull it off."

"Now you've piqued my curiosity. I think you'd better lay it out for me."

"Okay, but I don't have all the pieces in place for my plan, even in my head, so it could change dramatically. Remember, I mentioned we could use Jim's perversion against him. Well, I..."

Jim spoke for about fifteen minutes. Their meals arrived, interrupting him momentarily. He finished eating about the time he finished laying out his plan. Leaning back in his chair, he smiled. "What do you think?"

"I love it!" Kelly also decided she needed to dramatically alter her opinion that her lover didn't have a ruthless molecule in his body. "I'll help. I have a few ideas along the same lines we can explore."

"One other thing. We need to decide whether to approach Mary or not. The more I've thought about it, the more I believe she was drugged during the taping episode. Regardless, contacting her is risky."

"Let's approach her anonymously."

John's expression looked inward. "That'll work. Any suggestions?"

"Let's use Mom. I don't' want you involved at all. You'll be too exposed by other elements of your plan to take the risk."

John grinned. "Good idea! She needs to know about our problem anyway."

For more reasons than you think, Lover, Kelly thought.

"So what do you think, Mom?" Kelly asked. John and Kelly had just informed their mother about the video featuring her oldest daughter on the Internet. The three of them sat in Kelly's living room. Janice was expected momentarily.

"I think your ex should be strung up my his balls."

Kelly giggled. "We have more drastic measures in mind. We plan to do to him what he did to me, but in spades."

"Mom, we need someone to feel Mary out, the gal in the other video we told you about," John said. "We think she was drugged, probably with a date-rape drug like GHB or Rohypnol."

"How do you know about such drugs, Son? You haven't used them, have you?" his mother asked, her serious expression defying him to lie to her.

He chuckled. "No, of course not. I did some research on the Internet. GHB and Rohypnol are sedatives, popularly known as date-rape drugs. Victims can be drugged by spiking their drinks, and the next day they wake up not knowing how they got where they are or what happened the night before. They're street drugs. Anyway, if Jim and Peter spiked her drink with one of these drugs, she won't remember the taping incident. If this is the case, we'll have her meet with us. If she remembers the incident, she was either blackmailed or joined the men willingly. Under those circumstances, we won't meet with her. Kelly can't feel her out. It has to be someone she doesn't know. Will you make the call for us? Anonymously, of course."

"Certainly. What's her number?"

Kelly handed her a slip of paper, and John handed her a cell phone with a suction cup attached to the receiver and a wire leading to a tape recorder. "Use this cell phone, Mom. It can't be traced to any of us, and we'll tape the conversation." He reached and handed her a piece of paper. "This is a tentative script. Take a gander and then put it into your own words."

"Why the cloak and dagger?" she asked as she glanced over the script.

"This is the first salvo in our plan for revenge. Nothing can come back to Kelly or me and any of the players in our plan. We're merely being careful."

The doorbell rang, and Kelly let Janice in. John noticed Kelly locked the door and set the alarm. Good for her, he thought. Security might become an issue soon. Kelly quickly outlined for Janice why mother was here and what was happening.

Mother dialed. Everyone listened to her end of the conversation.

"Mary Carrington, please," Mother said. "Mary, you don't know me. I called to inform you that you've been recognized as a participant in a pornographic video available for viewing at an adult web site... I can assure you it's true... no, I haven't viewed it myself, but my informant is very reliable... No, Mary, I called to ask if you were aware of this video... I see. Do you remember a time you woke up and didn't remember what happened the day before?... Mary, calm down. You aren't the only woman misused in this fashion. The other woman is my informant. Do you want to meet with her?... Fine. I will inform her of this conversation, and she will call you within the hour but only if you promise to tell no one about this conversation or that you are in a porn film on the Internet before you meet with her. Do you agree to this condition?... Fine. Expect her call. Goodbye."

Everyone started talking, but John asked for silence. "Let's listen to the conversation before we discuss anything." He pressed the play button on the recorder, and Mary's side of the conversation joined his mother's.

"Well, what do you think, Mom?" John asked when the recording ended. "Was she honestly unaware of the video?"

"Yes."

"Kelly?" John asked.

"Yes."

"I agree," John said. "Give her a call, Kelly, and ask her to meet you for a drink at Maxim's at five o'clock. Don't use your name; remain anonymous, if possible. Use the cell phone, and record the conversation. Mom, Janice, would you join me in the kitchen, and I'll tell you what Kelly and I have planned for Jim."

"Won't you be breaking a few laws?" Janice asked, concerned after John had outlined his plan.

"No more than Jim," Mother said. "Go for it, Son. The perverted, pusillanimous prick deserves what you've got in store for him, and more."

"Okay. Remember a crucial element in the plan is a lure to get Jim to the place where we'll drug him and make our video. The lure must be a beautiful, sexy woman. Any suggestions?"

"Do I qualify," Janice asked with a glint in her eyes.

"You exceed the beauty and sexiness requirement by a long shot, and I have no doubts you could achieve our purposes, but Jim would come after you later. No, the woman must be someone Jim doesn't know. I don't want to minimize the potential danger the woman will be exposed to after we post the video to the Internet. Jim will look for her with blood in his eyes. My preference for the lure is someone who doesn't live here, someone from another city, if possible, thereby minimizing the likelihood Jim could discover her identity and attack her. I've got to be honest, I can't think of anyone we can use as our lure. Kelly can't either."

"I know some women who qualify and might be persuaded to help us, but they all live in the Phoenix area," Janice said.

"Do you know Mary's age?" Mother asked.

"From the video she looked about Kelly's age, maybe a little older."

"Would a woman thirty years old suffice, especially if she looks younger?" Mom asked.

"Probably. Age isn't as big an issue as beauty. She needs to be drop-dead gorgeous. I want Jim panting, willing to do anything she suggests."

"Well, my best friend when I was a teenager lives in Albuquerque now, and her daughter just went through a messy divorce and is living with her mother for a while. Coincidentally, I talked with Jennifer, that's my friend's daughter, on the phone this morning and invited her for a visit to Phoenix. We made tentative plans for next week. I think we can persuade Jennifer to help us, and she certainly qualifies as drop-dead gorgeous, at least she qualified the last time I saw her, which was about four years ago at her wedding. While married, she lived on the East coast, so it was difficult for us to get together."

John hesitated. He remembered Jennifer. She had visited their house frequently in his youth but moved away when she was twelve or thirteen. She was a pretty girl then. Yes, he thought, Jennifer will make a good lure. "Next week is too late," he said. "I'd like to talk with her to find out if she'll act as our lure before next week. I want every detail of the plan setup by the weekend. Will she fly out early if you ask?"

Mother shrugged. "I don't know. I'll call and ask her."

"If she can't and you really think she'll help us, I could fly to Albuquerque to meet with her. By the way, what makes you think she'll help us? Why will she put herself at risk for some strangers?"

"Well, she knows me. I'm certainly no stranger. I'm her Godmother. Also, one of the reasons she divorced her husband relates to Kelly's problem. He wasn't as vile as Jim. He didn't make a video of her and post it to the Internet, but the man took photos of her - dirty pictures, Jennifer called them. They were private, just for him, he told her, but then he showed them to his buddies, even made copies and gave a few away. I guess this was the straw that broke the camel's back, and she filed for divorce. To top it off, he used the photos as evidence during divorce proceedings, along with some lies about her committing adultery, when he was the one who couldn't keep his petrified penis put away in his pants."

"Do you have her phone number with you?" John asked. Mom's into alliteration today, he thought.

His mother rummaged in her purse and pulled out an address book. She smiled. "Yep. Shall I call her now?"

John nodded. "Thanks, Mom. You're a gem."

"No need for thanks. I want that no-good, lower-than-life bottom feeder Kelly married in a weak moment to get his comeuppance just as much as you and Kelly. I want to help."

John realized for the first time where Kelly had learned to cuss. Kelly had inherited the talent from her mother and had merely taken it to a new level of expertise. His mother made the call and hung up just as Kelly stepped into the kitchen.

"She'll be here tomorrow afternoon," Mother announced with a grin. "I didn't go into any details, merely told her I needed her here to do me a favor." The diminutive woman chuckled, crinkling the laugh lines at her eyes. "I think I surprised her. I've never asked her for a favor before."

"Mom, I don't want Jennifer to do this merely to please you. Remember, she'll be placing herself at risk."

"I know, but I also know Jennifer."

"I know Jennifer, too," Kelly added as she stepped into the room. "What a great idea, Mom. She'll make the perfect lure. I don't know why I didn't think of her."

"Has Jim ever met her or seen a picture of her?"

"Yep," Kelly said, but continued to smile. "I have a picture of Jennifer and me in one of my albums. She was ten years old at the time. I was four. Jim won't recognize her, John."

"Okay. She won't be using her real name, and afterwards she'll return to Albuquerque, so she's an excellent candidate if she'll play the role," John said. He smiled. "Our plan is starting to gel. Will Mary meet with us at five, Kelly?"

"Yes. She wanted to meet earlier - now, in fact - but I put her off."

"Excellent. Did she recognize your voice?"

"I don't know. If she did, she said nothing. Frankly, she was so distraught, I could have announced my name and it might not have registered."

"Okay. I need to be at Maxim's by 4:30 to make sure Mary arrives alone, and I have a meeting with my man in a half-hour. You're scheduled to arrive at 5:00, Kelly." John rose. "Lock the door behind me and set the alarm," he said to Kelly and kissed her. She turned the kiss into a toe-curling, attention-grabbing embrace, and he groaned with disappointment when she finally released him with a partial erection. He hurried to the door. If they had been alone he would have taken her to the bedroom to reinforce how much he loved her.

About ten minutes after John left, Janice had to leave as well. Alone with her mother, Kelly asked, "Mom, I know you're willing to share Dad with Janice so he'll accept the incest going on between John, Janice and me, but I think there's another reason, one you haven't mentioned, a quid pro quo, if you will. If I'm wrong, fine. But..."

"You've always been too smart for your own good," Mother said. "Yes, I have another reason, but I won't discuss it with you. Not yet, anyway."

She wants John, Kelly thought, and if Daddy fucks Janice, to be fair he would give her the green light to hop in bed with my man. The question is do I want to share John with her. I've already brought Janice into our bed, which isn't too troublesome because I can control Janice. When she wanted to join us again tonight and I told her no, she accepted my decision without question or rancor. If Mother joins us, too, will she be as accommodating? I think I'll push the issue.

"Does your reason involve you and John?" Kelly asked.