Part 4
Red and Clarice didn't go to bed that night. After so many years by her side,
Red understood her better than she understood herself in many ways. There was NO
way Clarice was going to lose a student without at least trying to get her to
agree to come back later to finish the curriculum. Clarice might thoroughly
enjoy being the queen bitch when circumstances warranted, or teasing the hell
out of the women or awarding a particularly kinky, sexy punishment-sentence for
some exaggerated offence, but she *believed* in what they did here. Like the
fellow on that hair club commercial, Clarice wasn't only the head mistress, she
was also a customer - a very satisfied customer.
So they were both seated in their little kitchen when the phone rang. Clarice
answered it, said a few words, and then looked at Red. "Shalonda wants to see me
right away, down in the cafeteria."
"You want me to come?" he asked.
"No. She asked to meet with me alone." She stretched, trying to relieve the
steadily increasing tension. "I never thought she'd be one who had to be
convinced to stay."
"I'll be here when you get back, sweetheart." Red promised softly, as he pulled
her into his arms for a comforting hug.
It would have taken a stronger woman than Clarice not to cling to that strength,
if only for a moment, but it *was* only for a moment. Then, she swept from the
room, ready to deal with whatever Shalonda had on her mind.
~-----------~
"That wasn't a story tonight? Her husband is using pictures of what you folks do
here to blackmail her?" Shalonda asked, stirring honey into her tea.
Clarice regarded the beautiful black amazon for several moments. She'd donned
one of the loose fitting, brightly colored, vividly patterned Afro-ethnic pants
outfits complete with matching headgear. If she had looked like a queen in the
nude, she looked imperial at that moment. "I believe it is true, or I would
never have taken the unprecedented step of offering to set you all free."
Shalonda paused to consider that, her smooth forehead furrowed in concentration.
Finally, she looked up. "Clarice. I must speak with Penelope. I have to know the
truth before I can do anything, but it is very important that I speak with her."
"Now, wait a minute, Shalonda. I am not sure that is such a good idea."
"Look, I have to speak with her. I may be able to help you, but ONLY if I can
resolve my questions and she is the only one who may know the answers."
The sincerity in the younger woman's voice and eyes finally swayed Clarice. "I
will ask her."
"Clarice?" Shalonda said as Clarice started to rise. "Alone? At least for a few
minutes? At the beginning, anyway?"
Again, Clarice was primed to refuse outright, but stopped herself. What was the
difference at this point? "I will ask. It is up to her. If she says no, the
answer is and will remain no. Period. Now, you wait here and let me make a call
to her rooms."
~------------~
Fifteen minutes later, Clarice was regretting her concession. She'd been
standing outside the door of Guest Suite 1 for ten of those minutes. *Damn door
doesn't even have a keyhole suitable for eavesdropping,* she fumed quietly.
She was nearly ready to scream when the door opened to reveal Penelope, who
silently motioned Clarice into the main sitting room. She walked inside and
found Shalonda seated in one of the easy chairs. What seemed to be a very forced
smile was etched on the lovely black features.
Suddenly, Shalonda flipped something at Clarice. Instincts developed pleasing a
husband who loved softball took hold and Clarice neatly snatched the small
package out of the air. When she looked at it, her brows knitted in confusion.
The object was a small, silver tube, about the size of a roll of dimes but much
lighter, with the ends founded off into half spheres instead of being sharp
cornered. A thin, almost clear film of something slippery covered the tube, and
a string, similar to those used with tampons hung from one end of the tube.
Confused, she looked up to Shalonda who held up her hands in front of her as if
she was holding the tube length wise and made a twisting motion. Clarice
mimicked the movement and the tube twisted open. A small object fell out onto
the floor. Clarice picked it up and immediately recognized it - a camera of the
type used by covert surveillance types and spies.
"You are the spy." she said coldly. It was not a question.
Shalonda nodded sadly. "Yes, I am, but I wasn't a party to what Marshall pulled
on Penelope here. At least, not willingly."
"I think you had better tell me the entire story." Clarice ordered firmly.
"Why don't you get Red up here, first, Clarice?" Shalonda asked quietly. "There
will be legal ramifications to what I am about to tell you, and he should hear
it all from me."
~--------------~
"I am a private special security agent. I got my training from the government
doing things I would rather not talk about even if it was legal for me to do so.
Marshall D_ approached my boss about three months ago, wanting a female
operative to accompany Penelope into this class," Shalonda began quietly.
Clarice thought she could actually see a change in the woman from the admittedly
sexy but somehow soft-seeming female into a tough, clear-thinking professional.
*How ever did we miss her background?* "What did Mr. D_ hire you to do, and why
you?"
"According to my contract, I had two primary missions. First, I was to protect
Mrs. D_ if, in my professional judgement, your staff went too far with their
little games and she truly became distressed or if I evaluated her to be in real
danger. One reason I was chosen is that I am a highly degreed practitioner in
three martial arts."
"I see," Clarice murmured. "And if you thought someone, say Tina was hurting
your . . your. . .subject?"
"We call them principals, Clarice, but if I thought that? I would have taken
Tina down in a heartbeat and would have had Penelope out of her within the
hour."
"Tina is a trained military police officer." Clarice noted with some challenge.
"Does she carry a weapon? Is she authorized the use of deadly force?" At
Clarice's shocked look, Shalonda allowed herself a slight smile. "Of course not.
She is here to intimidate, not to injure. Whatever skills she may have had have
atrophied over time, Clarice. She'd never have seen it coming. Trust me on
this."
Clarice cleared her throat, nervous for the first time. "You said there was a
second primary mission."
"I was to gather both photographic and eye witness evidence that could be used
against you if, again in my professional judgement, your treatment of Mrs. D_
warranted civil and/or criminal justice proceedings."
The light weight of the tiny camera seemed to gain mass at that moment. "How did
you manage to keep this?" she asked holding the device up.
That brought a husky chuckle. "Clarice, with all the things you people shove
into a woman, you ought to know that there are always places something that
small and smooth can be hidden. You'll recall I was supposedly menstruating that
first day? Behind that fake tampon. After that, I hid it in the place I knew
wouldn't be exercised that day."
"You *knew* what our schedule was?" Now Clarice was shocked. Did she still have
a . . . a. .traitor on her staff?
"Of course I knew. First rule of covert insertion is good intelligence. Don't
let me burst your bubble, dear, but not all your graduates are true believers
and happy customers. We found several who were more than willing to trade
memories of their time here for cold hard cash. I even know that you change
rooms for some of your exercises so that the senior class doesn't expect the
freshmen to show up - like with that nipple clip game of yours. Anyway, even if
I needed both orifices clear, there is a longer string inside the tube. It is
small enough to swallow and the tub itself is acid and waterproof."
Relief flooded through Clarice. "So, none of my staff was involved in this?"
"Your staff? HA! Might as well try to convert the Pope to Communism as to
subvert any of your folks. No, they are clean. Your only security problem is
that you count too heavily on the discretion of your graduates."
"Now wait just a moment, Shalonda," Red interjected. "You can't make me believe
that no one noticed you going through the gyrations necessary to get that out of
your bottom or vagina. I don't care how much our staff like watching, those kind
of movements would be pretty obvious."
A wide grin spread across Shalonda's face. "If that is how I did it, you'd be
right." She turned back to Clarice. "Could I have that back for a moment?"
Clarice passed the two inch long, half inch square bit of plastic to Shalonda
who took it in her right hand. She proceeded to examine it carefully, shifting
it from hand to hand, before, with an idle brush of her hand through her hair,
she reached across with her right hand to return the camera to Clarice.
Clarice held out her own hand, palm up to receive the offering and came up. . .
"Empty??" Clarice said amazed, snatching at Shalonda's retreating hand and
turning it up to examine the empty palm. "But. . .But I saw you . . you had it.
. ."
Red chuckled softly. "Sleight of hand one of your hobbies, too, Shalonda?"
"Just something I learned at the Farm as a CIA trainee, Red." Shalonda said with
a chuckle.
"Okay," Clarice said disgusted. "But you were nude during class, and there was
no nice furniture for you to hide the thing in."
"Okay, I will tell you the secret. Remember, I had a very good idea of what your
program schedule was, so I had a fairly good idea of what days a "Kodak moment"
might occur." Again, she gave that nonchalant brushing of her hair, and then
suddenly snapped a shot off at a stunned Clarice. "So I put my little toy in a
hidden pocket in my 'do."
Shalonda flipped the camera back to Clarice. "Too bad there's no film in it now.
That look on your face was priceless."
"You hid it in your hair?"
"Once I was sure you weren't going to pull me aside for grooming training."
Another mischievous grin split Shalonda's face. "You don't think I wear this
mass of hair because I *like* it, do you? Hell, Clarice, even Roberta Flack gave
up on these huge Afro's years ago. I could hide a small arsenal in there so the
small woven holster for that camera is nothing."
"I see. Then how did you get the film to Penelope's husband?"
Shalonda nodded at Penelope. "In her purse when she went home for the weekend. I
slipped it into her purse when I hugged her goodbye. She was supposed to bring
back a replacement cartridge the same way, but when I checked her purse, there
wasn't any film there."
Penelope spoke for the first time. "He probably didn't need anymore evidence
given what he showed me Sunday night."
"And there was a lot more than the ones Penelope showed me," Shalonda added.
"She . . . umm. . .came during initial strength testing. She is very photogenic
when she climaxes and I got several full body shots of her squatting over the PC
muscle strength test box with the probe up her pussy."
"I still can't believe you were able to do that, Shalonda." Clarice sighed.
"Your people are good and they are loyal, but they are also just a bit
voyeuristic, Clarice. Why watch one naked woman apparently doing nothing when
there is so many more interesting things to watch. Besides, there were never
more than two of your people in the room with us at any time when I took the
pictures - the teacher and maybe a security guard. I am very good at counter
surveillance. I just picked my spots when I knew their attention was elsewhere,
and as you have just seen, I am also very good at playing "hide the thimble."
"Amazing. I would have thought that there would be no way anyone could have done
what you did in our classes," Clarice said quietly.
"Some decent surveillance cameras would help. My boss could give you a really
good deal on that project."
"I will consider it," Clarice almost growled. "I guess I have just one more
question. Why? Why come forward now? You could have left and never returned. We
would never have known what would have happened. Why confess?"
Shalonda went very quiet, and Clarice watched as a myriad of emotions played
across the lovely face so she knew the precise moment that Shalonda decided to
tell her the truth. "First, you do good work here, Clarice, and this debacle has
the potential to shatter the trust shared among you and your other staff folks.
I figure that the loss of that trust would basically destroy your school. I
don't want to be responsible for that."
"You said that was the first thing." Clarice prompted gently when the other
women suddenly went very quiet again.
Tears began to cut shimmering ebony tracks down her high cheeks. "Because I am
pissed off, okay?" she finally sobbed out. "That sonuvabitch *used* me to hurt
*her*, and I can't deal with that, all right? I had to do *something*. I would
NEVER hurt Penelope, Clarice. Not knowingly, anyway.
Before Clarice could say anything more, Penelope suddenly rose and moved over to
sit on the arm of the now-openly crying woman's chair. "Why not, Shalonda?" She
asked, parroting the question foremost in Clarice's own mind.
"Hell, because I have fallen in love with you, dammit, and I feel SICK at having
been used by that sonuvabitch to hurt you."
If that pronouncement shocked Clarice, that feeling was dwarfed by what she felt
when the two women fell into a tight embrace, each crying and trying to console
the other.
Eventually, the tide of emotion waned, and the pair shyly parted, Penelope
moving back to her original seat. Clarice passed a nearby tissue box over to the
pair.
"Clarice?" Shalonda finally got out. "Is there anything we can do? I mean, he
already has the evidence. Right now I'd lie under oath if I thought it would
help, but those pictures are going to be pretty damning."
"I don't know, Shalonda. Red is working on it. He thinks it is fairly unlikely
that any of this will ever come to court because those pictures are much more
valuable to him as a blackmail tool to keep Penelope under control so that she
doesn't buck him in the boardroom or as a tool to gain control of the company in
spite of her controlling interest. If it does go to court, Red thinks we have
enough circumstantial evidence to smear him badly if we are willing to "out" the
school and to sacrifice Penelope in the process. What Mr. D_ doesn't know is
that he has thoroughly pissed me off and I will out the school to get at him if
I have to. The only thing I won't do is hurt Penelope anymore than she already
has been."
"I will do whatever it takes to get to Marshall, Clarice. Even a pyrrhic victory
sounds good to me right now, but what will you do about the school?"
"Move it, I guess. If I am going to become the second coming of Lisa the
Perfectionist from Anne Rice's "Exit to Eden", we might as well buy ourselves a
small Carribean island of our own outside the territorial limits of the States."
She paused for a moment, realizing she would miss this old convent, but put that
away for later when she had more time to grieve. Now, she had other things, more
important things to do. "So, what can I tell the other students? If we could, I
would like to restore their trust in my staff."
"I will tell them everything if that will help," Shalonda offered. "My
obligation to that bastard ended when I found out he lied to me from the
beginning."
Clarice rose. "Tomorrow after breakfast? Full school assembly?"
Nodding, Shalonda also rose, but Penelope reached over to grab her hand. "Could
you stay? At least for a little while?" Clarice saw the surprise and fearful
hope in Shalonda's eyes. "Please?"
"I will have breakfast sent up for both of you tomorrow." she said as she moved
to the door leaving a stunned Shalonda staring down at the petite woman whose
hand held hers so tightly. "Good night," she said with a smile, but she wasn't
too surprised when she had not gotten a response before the suite door clicked
shut.
