Chapter 39

Since I needed to know more, I kept my options open. I went out for pizza which I brought back for my dinner. I ate alone in my room, and refrigerated the half of the pizza that was left. With dinner completed, I went to the lounge for my walk through. I also stopped for my one beer. I sat looking around while I drank it...

Since I didn't see Monk, I asked Sarah, "Do you know where Monk is."

"No honey, I have no idea," she said.

"Someone said he had kids," I said.

"Yeah, somewhere down east, I think," she said.

Well he is a big boy, I thought. He was just going to have to take care of himself. I went home to watch tv and check out the computer. I decided to buy the videos from the website. I didn't think it would make a difference, even if Mary Ellen found out. I was pretty sure that Paul the camera man had called her anyway.

The phone rang an hour after I began to research her site. I recognized it as her number. "Hello Mary Ellen, what can I do for you tonight?" I asked.

"You can tell me, who the hell you think you are? How dare you investigating me." she said.

"Sounds like you already know what I'm doing," I said calmly, There was nothing to be gained by going all copper on her.

"Well you better stop it or I am going to call the Sheriff," she said.

"And what do you think I'm going to do. No don't guess let me tell you. I am going to tell him that you are making porno movies, and that we can get a big gold star if we call the SBI and I testify against you. There you are blackmailing these poor women into doing them. And finally I'm going to introduce him to my equal rights attorney. Since nobody ever tested the morals clause on a strictly morals grounds they are looking for a case like mine. Since I was hired under a mandate of the equal rights commission. Then to there is my stellar record here, Hell I might get a promotion,"

"So you do your damnedest or you cooperate. In which case maybe we can come to an arrangement. After all sin is good business." I said.

"This is my business, you don't need to know anything else," she said.

"Wrong in order to assess the risk to myself, I have to know the potential weaknesses." I explained.

"What are you talking about," she asked.

"I need to know who the others acting your films are," I said.

"Why," she asked.

"Why do you think? If they decide to roll over, I need to know they aren't taking me with them. I need to know there is nothing being done that is blatantly illegal. Being out of a job is one things, being in a prison cell is something else entirely.

"And what did you learn," she asked.

"So far I know that your actresses were shoppers of your dress shop. My guess is you set them up with a date, like you set me up. You found out a little about them, then used it to pick the right men. Then you arranged the meetings. Once you had your hooks into them it was easy to convince them to play along." I said it then I got quiet.

"That's what I know now," I finally went on. "But that's now all I will know tomorrow. I think you are not the one in charge of this. I think you are recruiting and procuring actresses. So I will be looking for the boss man." I said.

"Trust me on t his," Mary Ellen began. "You need to drop this for both our sakes."

"Then you answer my questions and I may not have any need to dig deeper. As you can tell I enjoyed the evening and I wouldn't object to doing it again. Like I said before, I just want to assess the risk to me."

"What is it you want to know?" she asked.

"Who is running this thing?" I asked,

"I can't answer that, so ask something else," she demanded.

"Where are the guys coming from?" I asked. I figured I'd come back to the real boss later.

"Once I decide what I want, I just go out and prowl for the guys. Finding men to be in porn is easy. Finding the right men takes a little doing. Actually I could use you for that." she said.

"I'll bet you could," I said. I didn't want to lose my leverage by getting too involved too soon. She might tie me to the illegal actions somehow."

"I really could. But to be more specific. I usually take Angel to one clubs. She picks out a likely candidate and talks to him. Then she offers him a hundred bucks to be in the movie. He usually does just fine. Sometimes she has to have sex with her to prove that it is a legitimate offer or to see if he can do it."

"I get the picture. There is no need to be more specific," I said.

"Who set up the website?" I asked.

"Angel did that. She is pretty good at that kind of thing. The boys make all the images for us. It really isn't hard to do."

"Now for the big one, who bank rolled you?" I asked.

"There wasn't all that much bankrolling to it. We just needed a studio all the rest I could afford myself," she said.

"You are shooting in a double wide mobile home that isn't much either. You might not need much money, but you need some muscle. Just in case it goes bad, so who is it." I asked.

"You don't need to know that, It isn't the mafia or anything. We are just making a few porno movies nothing else." she said.

"Then give me his name," I said. "There is no reason not to give it up."