AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“God, I needed that.” She breathed out the smoke as she talked and looked like a dragon. “Fucking hate that you can’t smoke inside anymore. Treat us smokers like lepers.” She took another huge drag. The red flare lit up her face in an eerie glow.
“Well,” Michiko said, deadpan, “those things will kill you, after all.”
Rachel took an exaggerated pull and glared at her through the smoke.
“Yeah, I know,” she told her crossly. “But when you try to do it all at once, they tend to lock you away for it. This takes longer but at least they leave you alone.” Then she took another deep puff and flicked off the ash.
That one statement told Michiko more about this woman’s motives than months of research would have. If she was so far gone and had such disregard for her own life, it was no wonder she had zero regard for others’.
“You said you’re a therapist?” Michiko couldn’t help but prod. How was the woman possibly going to recover from this?
Rachel froze with her cig halfway to her shriveled lips. “Oops, sorry.” She faced Michiko with regret plain in her expression. “I shouldn’t have shared that with you.” She stomped out her butt and spread her thin arms wide. “See, I’m human, though. That’s what’s so fascinating about the psyche. There is so much going on in the brain. Good and bad. We’re never all there all the time. We all have intrusive thoughts and things we wish we could block out. That’s why I was so drawn to you. Why I wanted to talk to you so bad. You intrigue me. See, I used to be hard as nails too. Didn’t want no man touching me. Therapy helped. Schooling helped even more. Finding out why our minds work the way they do and realizing how similar we all are underneath the surface. Yeah, it fascinates me. You fascinate me.” She pulled a card from the sagging cup of her too-large corset and handed it over. “I have an office in town. Give me a call and set up an appointment. The first session is on the house. I’d love to talk to you. What do you say?”
Michiko had to give it to her—it was a nice save. If she didn’t know what she knew about this woman, she might have fallen for it.
“Sure,” she told her, and took the card with what she hoped was a shy smile. “Why not?”
And Rachel smiled like they were new best friends.
When Michiko walkedinto Rachel Bradshaw’s office two days later, she was so surprised at what she saw she nearly lost her composure. The woman was clearly frazzled. Dressed for work in jeans that were soaked with filth up to the ankles and topped with a Harley Davidson tank top that had been washed about a hundred times too many, she looked about as professional as a corner store attendant. Rachel’s hair was somehow greasy and frizzy at the same time, and she’d foregone washing off the previous night’s makeup. There was a fat glob of mascara in each corner of her eyes. The most unsettling thing of all was the fact that she was wearing flip flops and her feet were gross. Her nails were long and cracked with tiny flecks from a paint job that looked months gone—there were lines of black under each one and embedded between each toe. There were chunks of calluses on her heels and along the outside edges too.
As she sat in her chair and waited for Michiko to get settled, she swung one flipper in the air, completely oblivious to the repugnancy of her crusty paw... Each swish flashed a black patch on the heel of her foot. Michiko had no problem with bare feet—she preferred them in fact. She had abigproblem with filthy bare feet though.
“I’m so glad you came to see me, Meech.” Rachel smiled sweetly and used a motherly tone.
“I am, too,” Michiko replied and inwardly crossed her eyes at the nickname. “Really, I am. You got me curious at the club the other night. I’ve never thought about a therapist who specializes in sex. And, to be honest, you surprised me when you admitted that you had suicidal thoughts. Not a lot of people would have the balls to admit that.”
Rachel nodded, looked vindicated and proud. “See,” she said and jabbed a finger at Michiko. “See? I knew we clicked. I knew you and I had a connection. I knew that I could reach you because you could see into me. You see that I mean you no harm.”
Ahh, there you are, you bitch.Was this how she lured them in? Was it this easy for her to convince vulnerable women to give over everything? Their very lives?
With what the FBI had on her so far, the woman was going away with accessory but only on very thin and shaky ties. The lawyers on the case were holding off and hoping to get more; this bitch was just as responsible for what was happening to those women as the men who were doing the abusing, and damned if anyone on the case was going to see her walk away with a lesser charge. That’s why Michiko was here today—she was going to get this dragon to incriminate herself if it was the last thing she did.
“Yeah,” Michiko told her, trying her best to look sincere. “I can see that.”
“I think she’s unraveling,”Michiko told the room at large during the debriefing the next morning. They were in Cas’ overstuffed office again. Michiko wondered how the man found anything in this mess. He’d had to shuffle folders off chairs again so they could all sit down.
“Grungy’s still not saying a word about where he’s from or who he is either,” Cas told them. With no prints on record and the ID he had on him false, the FBI had a ghost on their hands. So far, they’d had no luck finding anything on the man who’d taken the five women. Three were still missing and he wasn’t giving up their whereabouts or his partners.
“Piece of shit,” Dean said in disgust. “Let Sammy and me have another go at him, Cas. We’ll get him to talk.”
Cas considered for a minute. “What makes you think you can get any more out of him than you did last time?”
Michiko noticed the way the sunlight caught in his thick dark curls as he frowned at Dean like a harassed father. She found the man unexpectedly charming and had to remind herself that she was at work.
“Because we have to,” Sam said. “We have to break him, so we will.”
“Well,” Cas said after a moment’s contemplation, “let me think about it. For now, how’s it going on getting Kimberly out of the scene?”
Michiko took a deep breath and looked at the men.
“Well,” Sam began, “that kinda backfired.”
“Whaddya mean?” Cas demanded.
“See, Michiko did great,” Dean picked up. “Sam did a helluva scene with her and she brushed him off as planned right after. Then, when I was gonna swoop in and pick her up, Bradshaw was there. So, it would’ve looked suspicious if I tried to snake in. So, I did the natural thing and joined Sam and Kimberly.”
“In a way, things are perfect,” Sam said. “Michiko has established herself as a free-standing submissive now—she doesn’t need us like we’d planned. Now, we can continue to come with Kimberly, do our scenes with her and keep an eye on Michiko from a distance. It’s brilliant.”
