Chapter 1

Jenny Marie Jenkins turned off the sprinkler in the back yard and put away the shears. She piled the cut spirea branches into the big plastic garbage cans spaced along the hedge. With the branches that were sticking out cut off, it would be easier to run the riding mower closer to the hedge. She dusted of the fine white flowers that had gathered on her clothing.

The grey wool hunting socks that were folded over the top of her chocolate colored lumberjack boots were covered with the little critters that had blown off of the plants as she cut them. Her cut-off Levi's had quite a few of the flowers trapped in the folds at the edge of her shorts where they had been turned up. "I need to just cut them and hem them a little shorter." She thought to herself. On the other hand, the length of her cutoffs seemed tied to her attitude for the day. If she was going into the store, she usually left them turned down with the edges just about mid thigh.

When she was working in the garden in her back yard, she turned them up as far as they would go to get more sun. If it was a real nice day, she would take them off and just do work in her bikini bottoms. The same with her top. The thin light cotton shirt with ivory buttons was tucked into her waist band now, but she might also work with the bottom rolled up and tied in front of her, or she might even just work in the bikini top.

In this particular case, nobody seemed around, so she took the cotton top off in order to shake out the flowers in them. Jenny took of her huge straw Stetson and bent over to shake whatever flowers she might have in her hair.

She heard Joe's Wrangler turn into the gravel drive. She could tell what kind of mood he was in before he got into the house. If there was gravel flying, and the door slammed, she knew he had had a bad day. He had been promoted to undercover vice several years ago and had been ecstatic about it at the time. As time went by, he became more and more frustrated at the cases he had been solving. The age of the arrested people stayed the same. He on the other hand was getting older. It was harder and harder for him to strike up a friendship or form a bond with the people he needed to break many of the cases.

"How did it go today, hon?" Jenny asked as she kissed him on the cheek and grabbed his arm as they walked into the house. "Same damned problem." He said in frustration as he threw his keys on the table in the entry and hung up his jacket.

"What's the problem now?" she asked, not really that concerned.

It's that fucker Sam Cromwell. We know he is bringing in quite a bit of stuff from Mexico, but are having trouble tying him into it. He always seems to have somebody else doing the dirty work and he never seems to have any bank accounts or anything that ties him into the stuff we find." Joe put a cold cup of coffee into the microwave and set the timer.

"What would it take to get the information you need?" Jenny asked.

"Well, any kind of undercover cops we need can only last so long. Once they testify in court against somebody, everybody knows who they are. We have had to go farther and farther out into adjoining departments to find somebody else. The best way to gain this guys confidence is with a woman. We have used up all of our decoys. Most of the others who might entertain the thought can't get their husband's or boy friend's permission. Once they are identified, they are in danger.

"I'm sure you will find somebody soon." Jenny said as she handed her husband the hot coffee and kissed him on the top of his head. Joe sat there motionless for a few moments. He turned to look at his wife in her short, short cut-offs.

"Jenny, how would you like to make some good money?" He said like an idea just hit him.

"What do you mean hon?" He was always full of whacky ideas.

"We live in Kansas. The case I am working on is in Missouri, across the border. They would never know you. It might work."

"What are you talking about?"

"We need to get somebody to find out where Sam Cromwell keeps his money, who works for him; how the drugs get here and who he sends them to. He would never suspect you."

"Honey, I am 48 years old. You said so yourself that most of these guys are young. How could I gain his confidence if you can't?"

"Well honey, you could easily pass for a woman way younger than forty eight. You have a side to you that appeals to all men. I don't think it would be a problem."

"What would I have to do?"

"We would have to find a way for you two to meet. If you are around him much, you could overhear who he talks to. Maybe you could slip a GPS into his car or something. We can think of something if you are willing to take the chance."

Jenny was skeptical. "I guess I'll think about it." She said as she pulled the leftover spaghetti and meatballs out of the refrigerator and turned on the timer in the microwave. The rest of the evening melted into small talk of what their grown daughters were doing and the problems they were having.

A couple of days later, Jenny was out in the yard again, moving the paper bags of lawn waste to the edge of the drive for pickup in the morning. Her husband came rolling up the drive on two wheels and showering her with small gravel.

He grabbed her hand and walked into the house with her. He threw his leather briefcase on the table and pulled out several files. "Look what I have so far." He said as he spread several piles of paper on the table.

"There is a Jennie Marie Munson who is the same age as you. She has lived most of her life here in town and moved into the east side of town about four years ago. She was the city librarian until she recently left with a man to get married and go to Seattle. We have continued to pay her rent on her apartment and bought her car. You are going to get her job for the next six months. She kept pretty much to herself, so there aren't a lot of people who know her. What do you think?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"I mean we have a pretty good cover for you. We could come up with some way to meet the guy and see what information you can get from him. What do you think?" Jenny could see that she was not going to get anywhere by resisting. He had already done so much work, she could hardly back out now. Maybe she could slip some kind of GPS in his coffee; he would drink it and they could track him.

"How dangerous is this going to be?" she asked.

"Well, hon, I hope you don't have to see the guy much and maybe you will be out of it soon. On the other hand, it could be dangerous if he ever finds out that we are married or who our daughters are."

Jenny didn't say anything, which to her meant she had not committed herself to anything. To Joe, it meant she had not objected, so everything was good to go.

"I'll come home tomorrow with a better plan." He said. In the meantime, why don't I take you somewhere nice to eat? It's Friday night." Jenny was too wrapped up in the excitement of going out to eat that she didn't realize what her lack of objection meant.

The next day, Joe came home and sat down at the dinner table with her. He was not so giddy now. "O.K. here's the deal as it stands right now. We have tapped his phone enough to know he will be meeting some friends at Guinevere's in the old Garment District at 8:00. We are thinking you can go there with some friends and bump into him somehow. You have to find a way to make contact with him. You may have to take a couple of your friends with you, or we could have a couple of the women officers go with you for company. There are several problems here. If you go with several women, he might pick one of the other women. I'm not sure what you can do."

"I'll take care of it, hon." Jenny replied without actually thinking through what she had just said. Joe gave her some photos out of a folder to show what he looked like. He was a tall black man; about forty years old; athletic build; and well dressed.

Saturday evening, Jenny took the car of the woman she was to pretend to be. Since both of their names were Jenny, her daughters didn't need to know much. They would call her "Mom" anyway.

She had gone over to Marie's house. They had agreed to meet there. Jenny had worn her usual matronly dress that went to the floor. She had a large bag that fit over her shoulder. When she went into her daughter's house, Ginny and Marie were sitting at the raised kitchen counter on bar stools having a couple of drinks. They were having a good time when they saw what their mother was wearing.

"Come on, Mom, were going out to the Garment District. They will all be young couples. You will look out of place" Ginny said as she returned from her room with a bundle of clothes in her arms.

"Take off those clodhoppers and try these shoes on" she said as she handed her mother a pair of dark boots. They were suede and zipped up the sides to just below her knees. The boots didn't show under the long dress.

"Take that dress off Mom." Ginny said as she tossed her a dark silk button front dress. Jenny pulled her dress off over her head and started to put the other one on.

"Oh, God, no Mom. You can't just throw another dress on. Take off the bra. You can't have those straps showing on a dress like this. Your bra straps are going to show. Reluctantly, Jenny unbuttoned the top half of the new dress she had just put on. She lowered her head so she could reach around for the clasp. The nude colored panty hose fabric didn't really hide that much. Her daughters marveled at their mother's build. She didn't need the bra either. Her melon sized breasts had no sag to them after having two children. Her long-stemmed coral nipples seemed to defy gravity as they stuck out obscenely from her alabaster white breasts.

Jenny tried to cover her embarrassment by buttoning the top as quickly as possible. She smoothed it down and turned self-consciously. "How does it look?" she asked tentatively, glancing in the mirror to see if her nipples showed.

"Well first of all, your panty line shows. You need to take off those Mother Hubbard granny panties" the girls both said and then giggled. They couldn't believe they had gotten their mother to go without a bra and were stretching their luck with the panty command.

Jenny turned in the mirror. Yes, she could see the panty line at the top and bottom. She looked at her daughters. They did not have panty lines. She did not realize they were wearing thongs, and figured if they could do it so could she.

Jenny was still apprehensive. Her daughter's dress only hit her about mid thigh. It would pass the catholic school test of being within the edge of her fingertips, so she reluctantly acquiesced to the urging and chiding of her two children.

They walked out and got into Ginny's four-wheel Wrangler. It was summer and her husband had taken the doors and top off of it. Ginny drove and Marie sat in the back. It was not easy for Jenny to get into the high four-wheeler with high heels and a short skirt. It was even more awkward because she knew she had no panties.

The drive from Ginny's nice house to the Garment District was short, but there were lots of stop lights. Jenny had to keep her small clutch purse over the hem of her dress because of the wind. No matter what she did, the wind seemed to flutter the too short dress up enough that other drivers could see quite a ways up her thighs. Jenny was embarrassed but kept telling herself these were strangers who she did not know and would never see again. She had a twinge of excitement at knowing she could still turn heads.

When they got to Guinevere's Jenny was behind her two daughters as they entered. Even though there was a good twenty four-year age difference between them the three women could have passed for triplets. They all had very long reddish brown hair, freckles and a mind-bending tan for redheads. Their identical Dolce and Cabana sunglasses pretty much sealed the deal.

Jenny spotted him. He was sitting near the middle of the room with several other men in business suits. He was much taller, even seated, that the pictures indicated. She had recognized him from the newspapers. He had retired from the local NFL team because of repeating knee surgeries ... He looked like he could still play.

The hostess seated them at a table for four up against the full height glass window wall facing the street. The whole room full of diners had quieted when the three women walked in. the sunglasses seemed to set them apart. It was like sitting in a strip joint. There could be twenty nearly naked dancers walking around, and everybody fixes their attention on the one good-looking clothed girl that comes in with a date.

Jenny and her daughters ordered drinks; then the food; and then desert. Sam was watching but it didn't seem like there was any diplomatically kosher way for one group to approach the other if they could think of it. Jenny knew she had been charged with introducing herself by her husband. A lot was riding on this evening.

After the three women seemed to have been lost by the waitress and could not get another round of drinks, Jenny got up. She walked across the room and just past Sam's table. He was following her the whole way with his eyes. Jenny tried to appear oblivious to the stares of most of the men in the room as she went into the bathroom. She checked her makeup and unbuttoned a couple of buttons at him.

With her knees trembling, she tried to walk nonchalantly to the bar. She raised one leg go get herself up onto the high bar stool. The crowd hushed as her dress parted. Jenny hoisted herself up on the stool and crossed her legs. The dress parted below the open buttons. Most of her bare legs were now showing. It was a shocking but still tasteful display of skin. If her hair had been bleached blond and frizzed out instead of the natural red and woven into a French braid, she would have looked tacky. If she had worn a short red dress instead of the dark one with a couple of unbuttoned eyelets, she might have looked tacky. If she looked like a hooker, at least it was going to be several thousand dollars instead of a twenty five dollar hooker.

Jenny paid for the drinks; tucked the small clutch purse under one arm and picked up the drinks before she tried to dismount. When her left leg met the ground, the stool pivoted and she still had her right leg up on the bar seat as she struggled to get down. For just a millisecond, her thighs were bare high enough that the patrons felt they could see the edge of her tan line before the short dark dress closed like the drapes ending a floor show.

Jenny knew what everybody saw, but was determined to get the attention of Sam Cromwell. As she walked by his table, she stumbled and spilled some of one of the drinks on him.

"I'm so sorry sir. These floor tiles are a little uneven and I caught my heel on the edge of one of them." She said almost in tears.

"That's O.K. miss. It'll clean up." He replied.

Embarrassed, Jenny made her way back to her table and put the drinks down. She took out one of Jenny Marie Munson, Librarian business cards and wrote her cell phone number on it. She got back up and walked over to the group who appeared to be ready to leave. "Please take the clothes to be dry cleaner's. I will pay for it and bring it back to your office." She said as she handed him the card.

Sam looked at it. "Thanks. Miss Munson. I will text you my address. If you are nice enough to bring it to my office, I will pay you back by bringing you back here for dinner. Thanks for the card. I will keep it." He said as they left.

By the time Jenny returned and sat down, her phone beeped. "My name is Sam Cromwell. My address is and phone numbers are..." and he had all the information to return the clothes.

It was late by the time Jenny picked up her car at Ginny's and drove home. She had forgotten to change back before she got home. "Wow! You look fucking fantastic." He said with his eyes like gold fish.

Jenny opened her cell phone and laid it in front of him with the text message open.

"Good fucking job, honey." Joe said as he wrapped his arms around her.

Several days went by before she got another text from the Dry Cleaners. "Mr. Cromwell's suit is ready to be picked up today anytime after noon." Jenny forwarded the text to Sam and added: "I can have the suit at your place anytime you want. I can have dinner anytime you want."

The text came back: If you get here at four O'clock, I can take you on a tour of our office and we can find someplace nice; better than Guinevere's, on one condition. If you wear the same lovely clothes, I will be your slave for life."

Jenny smiled at the ending. She had actually made contact. Her husband was still gone, and she would have to leave before he got back. She was on her own.

Jenny picked up the clothes. It was an expensive dry cleaning bill, but she put it on the credit card that had been given to her as part of her new identity. She drove the Wrangler to Sam's office. It was in the river bottoms. Lots of the old office buildings, warehouses and train loading docks had been rehabbed into contemporary office buildings.

Sam's office was in an old warehouse. It was several stories high. Several of the inner bays had been removed. Instead of a brick building with fourteen feet of head room and huge wooden columns every twenty four feet, the middle fifty feet was a clearstory up to the roof. The offices around the atrium had walkways and doors into individual offices. There was a central receptionist at the main entrance. When Jenny announced herself, she was told where his office was.

The elevator was a glass enclosed cab with a nice view of the entire clearstory. There were lots of flowered and hanging vine plants along the handrails at the edge of the atrium.

Jenny opened the door to Sam's office and walked in. There was another secretary, reception area, private office, large meeting room and a private unisex toilet. The secretary took the dry cleaning and hung it in the coat closet. Jenny stood and shook hands with him as he came out of his office.

"How was your work today?" Sam asked as he offered her a seat in the Mies Van Der Rohe chair. The short dress was O.K. in a dining room chair, but the Swedish seat was very deep from front to back and only about a foot off of the floor. The cold white leather was very comfortable.

"Oh just another day at the office" she smiled and giggled nervously. They talked for a while before Sam guided her up out of her seat. He seemed even bigger now that she was near him than he appeared in the new clippings.

Sam had his arm around her back to steady her as the elevator descended. It is awkward going down the elevator the first time when you can see outside. Her high heel boots were not the steadiest support on an elevator moving down. He had pulled her uncomfortably close to her on the way down. She had no option but to put her arm around his waist for more support as they descended. It was awkward for her and perhaps suggested too much closeness too soon

It was hot and Sam took off his coat and tie. He walked over to the red 1966 Carroll Shelby Cobra that was parked crosswise in three stalls at the corner of a parking lot that was half full. He opened the passenger door to help her in. Jenny was embarrassed at her position. The aluminum racing seats had just a little padding and seemed just inches off the floor.

Jenny tried to sit almost sideways to keep her dress together. Sam kneeled down on his $200.00 slacks. He pulled the shoulder straps together and snapped the clasp shut. He pulled the lap belt across her waist and snapped it shut and pulled it snug. He reached under the seat and pulled out the last belt that fit between her legs and into the clasp on the lap belt. It wouldn't fit with her dress the way it was.

Sam looked into her eyes as he started to unbutton her dress. Since it was pretty short already, there weren't a lot of buttons to open to get the belt to snap. Even so, Jenny was exposed almost to her crotch. She had no way to get the sides back over herself. She sat there with her thin top squeezed down against her body; leaving her proud nipples straining to explode through her dress. There was no hiding what was beneath the garment. Jenny had not counted on this revealing ordeal.

Jenny tried as well as she could to gather the dress around the seat belt strap between her legs. She tried to use her clutch purse over it.

Joe got in and started the engine. It didn't have any mufflers. There were a series of baffles at the end of the four tail pipes. It wasn't unreasonably loud, but had the low clear rumble that sounded like a Harley that had been race tuned. It would hardly run at idle, but ran effortlessly at about 140 mph.

They took the long way through town back to the local dinner theatre. The theatre was noted for having celebrities from Hollywood and New York being the main characters in plays and musicals. Sam had box seats along the side. After the dinner was over, the table was pushed to one side and Sam sat next to Jenny. The program that night was a musical. It was a "play" about the "Buddy Holly Story." There was some beautiful music and Jenny tried to lose herself in it and ignore why she was there and what her husband might be thinking. She didn't dare text or call him for fear of exposing either of them for what they were doing.

During the music, Sam reached over to hold her hand. His hand was huge. His thumb was gargantuan. Pretty soon he moved his chair closer and moved his left arm from holding her hand to being wrapped around her shoulder. He put his right hand on her blatantly exposed thigh. She had forgotten how revealing her dress was when she sat down. During the play, it had ridden up. It had been too dark for anybody else to notice, but Sam wasn't particularly looking.

Without any thoughts of passion, Jenny put her hand over his; more to stop the hand from advancing than to project any acceptance. His left hand pulled her into him. She had no choice but to lay her head against him. "What could she do? She wondered. She did not want to encourage him; but she could not afford to have him feel rejected. She still had to gain his confidence enough to plant some kind of listening or tracking device somewhere. Joe had not told her what to do.

When his right arm pressed onward, she had to make a choice: stop him or accept him. Her mind was racing too fast to know what to do. As a result her reaction was none. She did not stop him. Jenny felt his fingers moving towards her. Then when he couldn't go any farther, she felt another button being undone. She placed her hand over his, hoping that would be enough to discourage him.

Instead, he took her hand and guided it over to his crotch. Jenny stared at the stage, her mind oblivious to who was there or what they were doing. She instinctively started to draw back; caught herself; and made herself turn limp. Jenny's heart was racing. What would her husband want her to do? How far was she supposed to go for this investigation?

Joe looked down at her. Their eyes met. It became clear who was in charge. She had to do it. Her heart thundered as she opened her fingers. She stared at the stage as Sam's hand opened the rest of her buttons to her waist.

Jenny's arms would hardly respond as she reluctantly forced them to open and close around the mountain in his trousers. It didn't really matter to Sam how much they actually did there in the theatre. He had established in his mind that she had accepted him for whatever he wanted to do. He was curious what she saw in him. Why was she caving in so easily? Did she know what he did? He was going to have to look into her background and find out more about her. He was also going to see how far he could push her.

Sam changed positions. He moved his right hand up to her neck and slowly began unbuttoning her dress from the top. Jenny's mind raced for a path of escape. "What could she do to get out of this?" her mind screamed. He hand the top open to the bottom of her breasts. Soon he would have the entire dress open. There were others above them on the opposite side of the small theatre that could see into their box if they would only look up.

She had received more than her share of interest from the other patrons probably because she was a white older woman with a younger black man. When the lights came up, she would be naked with a black man's fingers in her; worse, she had her hand wrapped around the huge tent in his pants. Would he want more? Jenny knew she had to placate him until some future unspecified date when her husband had what he needed.

When his hand pulled the sides of her top apart and wrapped his fingers around her left nipple for close inspection in the dim light, Jenny cupped her hand around his and drew her head against his chest. Her right hand squeezed desperately against his crotch. "Please, Sam I'm afraid somebody might see us. Can't we leave if this is what you want to do?" It was almost a sob. It was a plea of desperation. Sam had seen enough. He knew he could press the issue if he wanted. He decided he had a good thing and not to push it too much. He helped her re-button her dress. They held hands the rest of the evening. Sure enough, it would have been devastating for her to be undressed as much as she had been if the lights had come on. She got plenty more stares as they left; hand in hand.

"Are you going to take me to my car now?" she asked hesitatingly when they were in the car. "I would be insulted if you didn't come up to my place for a last drink. Suppose I drop you off at your car and you follow me back?" Jenny was ready to agree to anything; grateful to have gotten out of the theatre fully clothed before the lights went on.

Once she got in her car, and was following Sam, she dialed her husband on her cell phone. "Sam?" she whispered.

"Where the fucks are you? Do you know what time it is? I was worried. What's going on?" he asked. Jenny explained the bit about the laundry. She explained that she had gone to dinner with him.

"Joe, he wants me to go over to his place for another drink. You know what that probably means. What the hell have you got me into? How can I get out of this?" Jenny was pleading into the phone. There was a long silence. Neither of them said anything. "I guess you need to do whatever you feel you have to do, Jenn, honey. There's a lot riding on whatever decision you make. Come home if you want."

There it was. He should have said "Get the fuck home. You are my wife. Nothing else matters. This job is not that important. We will get through this somehow. I will find another decoy." There was none of that. She was on her own. Of course if she went home, Sam would find somebody else to entertain him. Her husband would probably resent her for not finding some way to plant the GPS or getting other information on him.

Jenny's eyes began to water. It wasn't the wind in her eyes. Still, she tried to convince herself she could handle it. Throughout high school and college, she had been in similar circumstances. In high school as a freshman, she had dated the most popular boy on the football team. He had incessantly crowded her with his increasing pressure to have sex. In college, she had been on the track team and dating some of the boys on that team and again one of the more popular football players. The evening study sessions at the library always ended up the same on the ride home.

Jenny had been pretty good about not letting anybody go any farther than she was willing most of the time. She had given in more than she had intended after the junior and senior proms. She had allowed the boy to undress her and she had fondled him more than she wanted.

She had tried not to think about the dance after the last football game her freshman year in college. Nkwame was a senior. He did not need to graduate. He had been assured by all the pro scouts that he would be taken in the first round. After they had won the Bowl Game, they were both sure he was leaving school. She had been a cheerleader and they were study buddies. They hadn't dated, but this dance was different. He was leaving. He had been unsure of himself too, but she could see that he was clearly going to be disappointed without any sex that night.

He was almost begging to go to a motel. Jenny pulled her old Geo Tracker into a secluded spot in lovers' lane. He had gotten her top, bra and panties off. Jenny was reluctant to stop or go any further. Against her best judgment, she allowed him to guide her hands to his pants. She unzipped him and helped him down with his jeans. This 300 pound lineman was well over six feet eight inches and could hardly fit in the passenger seat.

Once she helped him scoot his seat back and lower the back, she lowered her own seat and sat to the side of him on her knees. She grabbed the soft gathering of loose foreskin just below the crown with her left thumb and forefinger. They talked as she pulled the foreskin out and up away from him. They tried to keep the conversation informal and casual as she worked him into an immense erection. She ran the back of her hands along the sides of him. She leaned over and kissed the tip softly.

"Are you going to miss me when you are gone?" she whispered to him as she held the tip against her left cheek and turned her head so her entire left cheek, her lips and nose grazed the sides of him as she turned her head slowly back and forth. He groaned, unable to intelligently respond. He wasn't evasive. He was powerless to react.