Chapter 17: " ... Eugene got involved with a crowd that felt nudity was evil..."

When Harold left, Lisa went back to the full-length mirror and regarded herself. It was impossible to see the GPS locator. And the voice recorder did look innocuous. But she didn't feel very good about all the cloak and dagger stuff. Dr. Sutton or Crenshaw seemed genuine on the phone and had promised to pay her bail. The tape recorder didn't seem right somehow.

A few minutes later, a car pulled at Meredith's place. A stocky, but attractive woman got out of the car. She was well dressed, but wore nothing ostentatious. She knocked on the door.

"Hello, I'm Venera Crenshaw," she said confidently. "Are you Lisa Cummings?"

"Yes, I am."

"Ms. Cummings, it's nice to meet you at last. Shall we go?"

"Sure, where are you taking me," she said nervously.

"I was thinking somewhere close to campus. How about Louisa's?" she asked, referring to an upscale restaurant near the university.

"Sounds great."

With that, they left in Venera's car. Once they got there, they were seated in a private booth as Venera had a reservation. They ordered their drinks and food.

"Thank you for meeting with me, Ms. Cummings. And also for trusting me."

"I must say that I came here with a few trepidations, given that you're related to someone who hates my guts. Oh, and please call me Lisa."

"You must be referring to my brother. He is quite the troublemaker, isn't he? I'm sorry he's caused you so many headaches."

"Thanks," said Lisa confused.

"So you've obviously read my paper. What did you think about it?"

Lisa paused, choosing her words wisely, "It was very convincing. It went along with all the other studies that I found on the subject; that nudity between parents and children and other positive role models have a positive effect."

"That's true, but my research took it a bit further."

"Yes, linking nudism to academic success is groundbreaking."

"Truly, In every instance children who were frequently in a clothes-free environment ranked in the upper 5% on standardized tests, grades and intelligence tests as opposed to the clothed ones."

"Yes, it was quite impressive. Tell me what your brother thinks about your research?"

"Let me tell you a little about my brother Eugene," said Venera as she took out her laptop computer. "We grew up not too far from where we live now. We were both raised by a loving mother and father in what I would describe as a traditional household at the time. My father worked as an accountant and mom was a stay-at-home mother. We went to school, Dad mowed the lawn, went to church on Sundays, nothing out of the ordinary. Except that inside our home, we embraced nudism."