Chapter 63

"WHAT!" Sasha exclaimed.

There was a loud babble in the room as those present tried to understand this shocking news.

I looked down, both Julia and Umber were looking up at me questioningly. I smiled at them and caressed their cheeks.

Holding his hands up, Richard tried to silence his audience. "Please, please let me finish."

Finally he got the silence he needed. "We have proof that Susan killed Varinka. She did this by breaking her neck. I believe that the blow was struck so suddenly, and with such force, that Varinka never knew what happened."

Richard adjusted his notes and pressed a mouse button. The picture changed to an x-ray of a neck, one of the vertebrae was quite clearly broken, twisted and displaced. "With damage such as this, death must have been instantaneous." He shook his head, "How Susan managed to inflict so much damage I do not know, but she did."

The picture changed again, this time close-ups of both Susan and Varinka's mouths. "I took these with UV lighting and some special filters, the bruising shows up quite well."

We looked and it became clear to us what Richard was showing us. Varinka had a bruise on and around her lips. Susan had a mirror image bruise; they'd been kissing when Susan broke Varinka's neck.

The picture changed again, this time two more x-rays, one showing the upper teeth of one of the girls, the second an enhanced blown-up image of the area where it was obvious that three teeth were missing. There was surprisingly little damage around the sockets.

"I know some dentists who wish they could extract teeth with so little damage to the surrounding bone and tissue." Richard seemed almost impressed at Susan's skill. He looked at us, "How are we so sure that Susan did it?" the picture changed to a close up of Varinka's scalp. Neatly incised were the words, 'I did this - Su'.

The picture changed again, this time some of the audience turned away, close-ups of either side of Susan's neck were shown. A neat slit had been driven deep into the neck, severing the carotid artery on both sides.

"This is how Susan committed suicide. She used one of Varinka's incisors to open the artery. Two quick blows and she would have bled to death in only a few minutes.

"And now the question you're all wanting to ask, why!" The picture changed again, another close up of Varinka's scalp with the words, 'old woman drug us'. "Now let me pass you over to Wendy, she has a story to tell you." Richard sat and Wendy came to the lectern.

Wendy looked at me, "With your permission, Master." I nodded. "On Tuesday morning Susan and Varinka went into the village, Pont du Martinè. They went into the lace workshop with Karen and stayed, talking and looking at the clothes being made, for nearly ten minutes. Then they left and continued on along the main street towards the home of Madam Reinard. She was the villager that Varinka had found who could speak Russian. And it was she who Lynne had humiliated during her first visit to the village. Madam Reinard had a reputation for harbouring grudges." She looked around, Cecy and Harold were nodding. "Well, Madam Reinard was approached by this man," a poor image of a man in quarter profile, obviously part of the background to another picture, was shown. "He's a Parisian reporter, a freelance. We know who he is but not where he is."

Wendy looked at the Inspector who shook his head.

"The two girls went to Madam Reinard's cottage where they were given glasses of homemade lemonade. These drinks were drugged and the girls succumbed quite quickly." Now Wendy looked a little uncomfortable. "Now I am surmising what happened."

She looked at me and I smiled at her, encouraging her to continue.

"The girls were dragged down into the basement and locked into an empty storeroom. There they came round from the drugs, probably about twelve or one o'clock that night." Wendy sighed, "I think that Madam Reinard stood outside the door and tormented the girls with threats of what was going to be done to them when ... well, someone, arrived. It was then that Susan took Varinka's life and then her own."

Wendy took a sip of water and picked up her notes again. "When they arrived the girls were already dead. They took out their anger on the girls' bodies."

Wendy and I shuddered as we remembered the sight of Susan and Varinka's broken bodies.

Wendy continued, "Then they took their anger out on Madam Reinard. She, though, was alive, when they started anyway."

Wendy turned away, I stood and took her in my arms, led her to my seat and she sat on my lap and cried.

The inspector stood, "Mademoiselle Masterton is right to be shocked. The things that they did to your girls, Baron, do not compare to the torments endured by Madam Reinard."

Richard stood again, "You were right when you said that there wasn't enough blood Paul. That was because all of the," he paused for a moment to find the right word, "the injuries were inflicted post mortem. Susan had cheated her assailants out of their real objective, which we," he gestured to the Inspector and Wendy, "believe was to film the girls being tortured to death and, most probably, send you a copy. They had a digital camcorder, lights tripod, everything they needed. They used it on Madam Reinard instead."

"Thank you Inspector, Richard, Wendy. Now do you know who actually inflicted these ... injuries?" I asked. They all shook their heads.

"No Baron, we don't, nor do we yet have any clues," answered the Inspector.

"This reporter," I started.

"Luc Belvior," interrupted Wendy.

"Luc Belvior, I want him. I want to know as soon as he reappears. I know that he will, I want to know when he does." I had plans for Luc, he was going to be the first to find out what I'm really like when I'm angry.

"Wendy, I want you to continue looking for the people who did this. I want them found. If you need any help just tell us. We all want to see justice." I didn't just want justice, I wanted retribution. I wanted to send a clear message, 'Fuck with me and you suffer for the rest of your very short life'.

The meeting broke up then. Wendy and the Inspector left for the village again, Richard to his room. Sasha, my ladies and I went out to the pool. I wanted to think and I found that swimming relaxed me and helped me think. And now I really needed to think clearly and precisely.

I dove into the water and started my laps.

Karolina, Ela and Lynne came into our lounge looking tired but very, very happy.

"Hi Boss," said Ela as she leant forward for a kiss.

I happily kissed her and kissed Karolina and Lynne too.

"We've had more success than we had any right to hope for," Ela continued.

"Can you tell me?" I inquired.

"Not yet Boss, but I think that you're gonna piss yourself laughing when we do."

This intrigued me. I wouldn't pursue the matter though. I knew that there was a real reason that I was being kept ignorant of what these three were up to. I knew that Sasha had known something of what they'd planned, but each of my girls had given Sasha ten pounds as a retainer and any information Sasha had was now 'privileged' and in law she couldn't be forced to divulge anything that she knew.

I looked at Ela, her skin looked a little pale and flabby.

"Girl!" I called.

"Master," replied Umber who was already at my side.

"I want Em and the inspection table. And someone ask Sasha if she could come in too."

"Yes Master!" Umber called as she ran off.

Moments later Julia and Alison came in carrying the low, wide table we used for inspecting the slaves. They placed this in the centre of the room's free space. We would have plenty of room around the table. I looked and saw that two tapes had already been placed a yard apart. The girls feet had to be outside of these tapes when she was inspected.

Em hurried in and came to kneel beside me. Moments later Sasha strolled through the door. Her nonchalance might have been more convincing were she not breathing heavily and flushed from her exertions.

"Hi precious. You needn't have hurried, I was going to wait for you." I said as I leaned forward to kiss her.

"Who said I hurried?" she asked.

Umber, at my feet, sniggered.

"Errr..." I procrastinated.

"OK, so I did hurry," she pouted, a real pout too, I was impressed, "but only a little," she continued.

This caused both Em and Umber to bow their heads as they desperately tried to suppress snorts of disbelief.

Sasha glared down at both of them.

"Shall we inspect the girls?" I asked, trying to get out of a sticky situation.

"Ela," I gestured toward the table.

"Boss, I'm an employee not a slave," Ela retorted.

"Get your fucking arse on that table, feet over the tapes!" I understood now why Ela smiled when she yelled and cursed at people, it's a great stress reliever.

"OK, OK, keep your knickers on." Ela mumbled something about tyrannical employers and downtrodden wage slaves needing to join a union as she slipped her clothes off and stepped onto the table.

"Em," I gestured for Em to join me as Sasha and I examined Ela.

Ela had lost about six or seven pounds. Her skin tone was poor and her personal grooming, head and pubic hair especially, was also poor. I ran my hands over her thighs. Her muscles didn't have that toned firm feeling that I was used to. I reached up and ran my hand over Ela's arm, it too had lost tone.

"You've lost weight and muscle tone Ela," I said.

"I know Boss, but what we did was important, very important," she replied.

I gave her bum a not-too-gentle slap. "Get down, I've got real slaves to look at."

"Ain't life a bitch Boss," said Ela, smirking as she stepped off the table.

I gave her bum another smack, she just turned a bit and, laughing, offered me the other cheek.

"Karolina, on the table," I ordered.

Karolina just stepped up and positioned herself correctly.

Karolina had also lost weight and muscle tone. Though her pubic mound was completely hairless, her scalp showed signs of neglect. Even her collar hung loosely on her neck.

"Oh Karolina darling, what have you done to yourself?" I asked.

"Not did nothing me Master. Just sat eated burger 'n' noodle pot 'n' arse get fatter." She answered.

Karolina got her bum smacked too. She smirked too. One day these girls are going to tremble in fear at my righteous wrath.

Maybe.

I looked round at the happy smiling faces of my girls and Sasha.

There again, maybe not.

I gestured to Karolina for her to get down. She stepped down and stood next to her friend Ela. While Karolina was acknowledged as my favourite, she and I did have a special relationship, I knew that she loved Ela and that love was returned. I was going to try to let them have their relationship together. It would break my heart to lose Karolina, but I loved her far too much to stand in the way of her happiness.

Without a word Lynne stood on the table, feet over the tapes waiting, with a guilty expression, for my judgement.

If anything Lynne was in a worse condition than the other two. Her weight loss was more pronounced and her hair showed obvious signs of neglect both on her pubic region and head.

"Oh Lynne dearest, what have you been doing?" I asked, almost in shock. I had seen Lynne the other day when all of the girls renewed their commitment to me, but I hadn't really looked at her, not to see the weight loss, the sagging breasts and loose skin that she now had. My heart cried out for her. While none of my girls were classic beauties, they all had an inner glow of happiness. When they smiled they could light up your heart with their joy. They were all fit and toned, eating properly and exercising daily.

I felt guilty for their weight loss, while I had checked on the food being delivered to their small offices; I hadn't thought to check what was being left on the plates and trays. I should have been checking on them more often, made sure that they were alright.

Sasha touched my arm, "This isn't your fault. These girls were doing a very important job, one that they had to do and one that needed all three of them to do it properly. You told Lynne to look after them, well she's become part of their project. All three of them were working all the time for over three weeks, I'm actually surprised that they look so well, not that they look so bad."

She kissed me tenderly, "I know that you're blaming yourself for the way they look, but remember the smiles they had when they came in here. They're proud of what they're doing and happy with the results so far, reward them as you were going to do, and let them rest for a while."

I returned her kiss, "You're right of course," I said, looking at the three girls in front of me.

"You three are treasures. You are to be praised not punished, thanked not scolded, loved not looked on with distain." I went to Ela and hugged her, "Ela, dearest lady, forgive me."

"Boss, there ain't anything to forgive. You were worried about us, no need for forgiveness for trying to look after us, is there?" she said, smiling and caressing my cheek. "Besides I got a quick groping and that was OK."

I slid my hand down her back and made sure that this groping was more than just OK.

Breaking free of Ela I turned to Karolina, "My dearest girl, how can I beg forg..."

She placed her finger on my lips, "Me Master, worry 'bout slave girl. That good. Master not needs to sorry to girl. Girl know me have good Master. That enough for this girl."

I leant in and we kissed tenderly, she rested her body against mine and surrendered herself to my attentions. When we broke apart her eyes were bright and she licked her lips lustfully. Her hard nipples showed the level of her desire.

Lynne looked at me and I saw a tear fall. "This girl failed her Master and is ready for her punishment." She stood tall and proud, "This girl accepts whatever her Master decides is to be her fate."

I knew that from some masters that could easily be a messy pain filled death.

"And this Master is proud of his girl Lynne and the way that his girl is carrying out the terrible job he asked her to do." Now it was my turn to caress her cheek. She leant into my palm and kissed it. "This Master didn't know of the full difficulties that his girl would face doing the task he set her and he is proud of the way that his girl has fulfilled her tasks."