Crazy Seduction(erotica)

“That’s what happened. The building just crumbled and I got out of the room but they fell through the floor.” Stanley said.

“They?” Morris seized on the detail and pressed.

“The small man and two others. I didn’t see their faces as it was dark and dusty from the basement falling in.”

“Then what happened?” Harmon asked.

“I found my bag in the next room so I went upstairs and called a friend to pick me up,” Stanley said and yawned widely as he was quickly fading. It had been a very long and eventful day.

“Why didn’t you call the police?” Harmon asked bluntly.

Stanley glared at the man and let some of his exhaustion into his voice. “I just wanted to go home. My kidnappers were dead or at least badly injured. Punished enough. I didn’t know who they were and at that point I didn’t care.”

“The police have been looking for you ever since the video was released last night. Why didn’t you come forward, contact us?” Morris asked.

Stanley sighed. “I didn’t know about the video and I just found out from Roger a few minutes ago that the police were looking for me. Listen I don’t mean to be rude but I’m exhausted and I’d really just like to go to bed and sleep through the weekend so if you don’t mind.” He looked towards the door.

“We need the location of the building where you were taken last night. As you remarked, people probably died there. We received no reports of that,” Harmon insisted.

Stanley looked at them in surprise as he thought it had been reported. He then frowned as he tried to recall the address. He looked over a Dayshia who was closest to his phone. “Would you please unplug that and hand it to me?”

She did and once it started up he saw he only had a few minutes of power at most. He needed to get a new phone with a better battery. Pushing that thought aside he opened the map application and glanced at the detectives who were watching him curiously. “It’s how I discovered where I was and how to ask my friend to pick me up.” He read out the address and they wrote it down.

“Who were the people gathered outside your door this evening?” Harmon asked.

“What people?” Stanley asked.

Roger spoke up. “There were two separate groups of people trying to get in to see you tonight. Two thin men in matching raincoats. Then three people who couldn’t have looked more different if they tried. An older woman, a tall skinny guy, and a short muscular guy with a red beard in braids. The two groups seemed to know the other. The first two said you had to go with them and the others wanted to talk with you first. They all said they’d be back. Do you know them? Do they work at VRL too?”

Stanley felt a sick dread. The ones wanting him to accompany them had to be Fae. The others he had no idea who they were. He needed to call Camila or Sigrid. Mr. Zhou was supposed to make them leave him alone, wasn’t he?

He couldn’t answer the questions so he just shook his head and shrugged. From the scowls on the detective’s faces he could see they were not satisfied with the answer.

“What do you do at VRL?” Morris asked.

“I’m the CIO.”

“Really?” the detective said skeptically.

“Hey! The guy’s a freaking savant with technology!” Roger boasted and Stanley looked at Roger sharply in surprise. “He fixed my cell phone after looking at it for less than a minute!” Roger continued and Stanley relaxed.

“So you are in charge of computer systems that have access to confidential financial information as Mr. Jensen suggested earlier?” Harmon asserted.

“Yes, but-”

“So these people might have been after the assets of VRL? They might have been preparing you to hack into VRL?” Harmon interrupted.

“I- I guess that could have been their intent,” Stanley allowed. He couldn’t exactly tell the detectives that Leaharin was actually after him. “But VRL can’t be hacked, externally. At least not by currently known methods,” Stanley said wearily.

“Pretty high opinion of your work,” Morris snorted.

“There isn’t a computer network so secure it can’t be hacked,” Harmon insisted.

Stanley just looked at him. He didn’t have to prove anything to the detective. He knew it was secure.

“You telling me you haven’t built in back door access for yourself to get in?” Morris scoffed.

“Why would I do that? That just weakens the integrity of the system. Dumb. Are we done?” Stanley growled. His exhaustion was making him bolder than he naturally would be.

The detectives shared another look. They had an angle to work with.

“If we have any more questions-”

“I’ll be here,” Stanley said with a nod as he sagged back against the cushions. He handed the phone back to Dayshia and she plugged it back in.

Tish walked the detectives out and locked up behind them.

“Stanley, we’re going to go too. Do you need someone to stay to keep an eye on you?” Dayshia asked.

“No, thanks though. I’m just wiped. I need to get some sleep.” He looked at their concerned faces and once more he struggled to contain his emotions. “Really, thanks for looking out for me,” he said with a rough voice.

Sandy pulled him into a hug and he gasped and clung to her as well. When he released her Dayshia had to gently tug her to get Sandy to follow her out. The blond looked back at Stanley as he followed them to the door. “I’m just downstairs if you need me.”

“Thank you!” he said with a nod. “The party is still on tomorrow, right?”

“Yes, if you’re up to it!” Sandy smiled back at him.

“I definitely want some normality back in my life right now. A movie night would be so good!” Stanley sighed.

Sandy and her friends smiled back at him. “Excellent! It’s on!”

He locked up behind them then went immediately to his phone. He had enough juice to make a short call. He dialed Camila.

“Hello?”

“Camila? My phone is almost out of power so I have to make this quick. Two people came to my door tonight to get me to go with them. My friends from the fourth floor made them go away. There were also three other people who wanted to talk to me but they were sent away too. Two detectives stopped by to ask me about the abduction and they may come by VRL. They all said they are coming back. What should I do?”

“I’ll call Mr. Zhou. They shouldn’t have visited tonight. Rest easy. We’ll take car-” Camila said before the phone’s battery died.

Stanley cursed at his phone and plugged it in again.

He did feel better for knowing Camila was aware of the issue and sounded like she would take steps to keep these people away. He hoped he’d be able to have a normal weekend at least. He’d worry about Monday on Monday.

He yawned mightily and made his way into his bathroom to brush his teeth then got undressed. He checked the lock one more time then went into his bedroom and spun the ring. A ring that likely once belonged to a Dragon. Or worse, was made from a piece of a Dragon. With a shudder, he tucked that thought away in the back of his mind, switched off the light and climbed under the covers.

He’d have the weekend to worry about stuff he couldn’t control. Now, he just wanted to sleep.

Unbidden, the image of his parents smiling down at him in his crib came to him. He gasped at the pain of their loss. He knew it happened long ago but he’d never known them and now that he remembered, it felt like a raw wound. Emotionally unprepared, the tears came and he cried until exhaustion took him.

Detective Harmon and Morris stood next to their car with Detective Ken Hillsdale from Newark’s Fifth Precinct watching the construction workers trampling all over their crime scene.

Hillsdale gave the other detectives a confused look. “This is the place?”Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

Harmon scowled and nodded. “This is the address we were given.”

The New Jersey detective shrugged and walked over to the site, the other two following him. He flagged down one of the workers and flashed him his badge. “Who’s in charge here?” The worker pointed to a big man wearing a red and black check jacket looking at blueprints unrolled over the hood of his truck. The three detectives walked over to him.

“You in charge here?” Hillsdale asked as he once more showed his badge.

The bear of a man turned to face them and his bushy eyebrows went up. “Yeah, Site Foreman Reggie Dollard. What’s going on? I got permits!”

“We got a report that this site was used in a kidnapping last night. That at least three people may have died in the collapse of a room in the basement,” Harmon said.

“Last night?!? Did they use explosives?” Reggie asked.

“No. The witness indicated the room just fell apart and the floor fell in.” Harmon replied. “You think it was explosives? Were there signs of an explosion?”

“Just fell apart?” the man snorted and gestured for them to follow. He grabbed three hardhats from the back of the truck. “This is one of the weirdest jobs I’ve ever been called in to do,” he said as he handed out the headgear. “Watch your step.”

He led them inside the building which was brightly lit with lights they’d strung up. They crossed a wide empty space to the entrance to a stairwell. Harmon noted how clean the floor was. They descended to the basement and saw another pristine room. There was an opening in one wall which looked like it might have had a door at one time but it was gone now. Beyond the doorway they could see the floor to the room was mostly missing as was the ceiling.

As for signs of explosives there were none. In fact, the walls were in good condition. No scorch marks, chipping, holes, or cracks that one might expect after an explosion large enough to blow out a ceiling and floor.

“You guys do quick work!” Morris said.

“That’s just it. It was like this when we got here. Someone cleaned this room, the room above, and the main floor leading out. Even the debris down in the pit was hosed down with a power steam washer. It was still a little steamy when I arrived.”

They saw a ladder leading down into the rubble filled pit below the missing floor. In the far corner they saw an opening to a sewer.