by Dynah Zale
“I don’t know,” Olivia responded.
“If this was a setup, I promise that I will get to the bottom of it, but I have to be honest with you.” Olivia braced herself for the worst, “Bryant has got a huge lead ahead of us. He’s probably been gone since the night you were arrested. He could be anywhere in the country. The longer he’s gone with the child, the harder it’s going to be for us to find him.”
Olivia’s eyes turned sad.
“As soon as I get back to the station I’m going to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited children. I’m going to transmit all of Bryce’s information and hopefully they can help. They have a whole lot of resources that we don’t have. So if Bryant left the state, at least we can alert other police agencies throughout the country.”
“Detective Collins, do you think you’re going to find my baby?”
“I’m not sure, but I sure hope so.” He handed her a card. “Here is the name of a guy who has had a lot of success in finding missing children. A lot of parents invest in hiring private detectives because it’s good to have someone looking for your child who can devote their full undivided attention.
Don’t think I’m going to stop looking for Bryce, but the Philadelphia Police Department can’t put its full manpower on one case.”
“Thanks, Detective.”
Olivia stared at the card. It read “Desmond Murray, Private Investigator.”
Payce sat inside his car and stared at First Nazareth Church. He knew he couldn’t sit in the car all morning long, Tressie was expecting him. He promised her that he’d attend Sunday services with her this week, but he wasn’t ready to face Reverend Kane.
After seeing Reverend Kane at The Dollhouse, he would never be able to look at her again without being reminded of that night. The woman whose curves nicely filled out that black, leather, cat-woman outfit was not the same woman he met wearing a pastor’s robe a few weeks ago. If she approached him, he wouldn’t know what to say. He wished he had never gone out with Darshon that night.
Payce got out of the car and walked up the church steps. He placed his hand on the doorknob and quickly let go before opening the door. The courage he had built up inside of him a few minutes before quickly deflated out of him like air from a flat tire.
He stood outside the church wishing he could turn around and go back home, but he couldn’t. For three weeks straight he had made up excuses why he couldn’t attend services with Tressie. Once he ran out of excuses, he had no choice but to go. He looked at his watch. It was getting late.
He opened the church doors and stepped inside the vestibule. The ushers immediately opened the doors and allowed him to enter. Inside the sanctuary Reverend Simms prayed over a woman. He held his hand over her head. “Lord, fill the emptiness left in Sister Monroe’s heart from the loss of her husband,” he shouted.
Payce looked around and found Tressie sitting in the last pew. He slid into the seat next to her and gently caressed her hand. As Pastor Simms prayed, Payce looked around the church for Reverend Kane. She wasn’t in the pulpit. Perhaps she missed service today, he thought. A moment later, Reverend Kane rose from out of one of the pews. Payce watched her walk over to Pastor Simms and also laid hands on Sister Monroe’s head. Suddenly Reverend Kane’s eyes darted in Payce’s direction and he quickly bowed his head. I hope she didn’t see me. After prayer concluded, Payce hoped that the remainder of the service would go quickly.
“Hey, sweetheart,” Tressie greeted Payce after church services ended. “I’m glad you made it.” She kissed him lightly on the lips.
“So am I.” He grabbed his coat in a hurry to leave. “I’m going outside to heat up the car. I’ll wait for you out there.”
“Payce, I know you’re ready to go, but I need to speak with Danyelle about the Sunday school class she’s going to teach for me. Can you wait for me? I won’t be long.” She quickly walked away.
Payce sat quietly, trying to make himself invisible to everyone around him.
Minutes later, he heard her voice behind him. “Hello, Payce.”
He turned around in the pew. “Hey, Reverend Kane.” He turned back around.
“How are you doing?” she asked.
“Good,” he replied, hoping that his one-word answers would be a subtle hint that he didn’t want to be bothered.
She sat down next to Payce in the pew. “Payce, I need to talk with you about what you saw a few weeks ago.”
“Reverend Kane, I would like to pretend that didn’t even happen,” he whispered. “What you do is your business. You won’t have to worry about me saying anything to anybody because my lips are sealed.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that, but I figured you wouldn’t say anything to anyone about where you saw me because then you would have to explain what you were doing there. But that is not the only thing I want to speak to you about. How about we meet for lunch tomorrow?”
“Reverend Kane, I’m awfully busy. I have a new job and I’m trying to stay focused. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it,” Payce explained.
“Payce, I just want to talk. I have an offer that might be of interest to you. I just want to run it by you.”
“I doubt I’ll be interested.”
“Payce.” She grabbed his hand lovingly. “Please, can you just come to hear me out? It’s not going to hurt to hear what I have to offer.”
Her sincere and loving tone changed his mind, “Where do you want to meet?”
“There’s a place called Caribou Café on Walnut Street. I’ll be waiting for you at noon.”
Someone called her name from across the room. “See you then,” she said and strolled away.
“Payce, I’m ready,” Tressie announced from behind him.
A minute too late, Payce thought to himself.
The following day Payce walked into the lunch eatery prepared to cut his meeting with the reverend short.
“Hi,” Payce said to the hostess, “I’m looking for a woman in her early thirties. She might have a reservation under . . .”
“Reverend Kane?” she asked.
“Yeah, that’s her,” he replied.
“She’s waiting for you. Follow me, please.”
Payce trailed the hostess to a booth in the corner of the restaurant. She placed two menus on the table. “A waitress will be over shortly to take your order,” she informed them and walked away.
“Glad to see you could make it,” Reverend Kane remarked.
Payce removed his coat and took a seat. “Reverend, what’s up? You wanted me here. Now I’m here. What do you want to talk about?”
“First, I want to thank you for not telling your father about my extra-curricular activities. I think that if my secret ever got out it could do nothing but hurt the church.”
“Then why do you do it?” he asked.
“It’s not my choice to be gay. I’m naturally attracted to women just like you are.”
“I don’t care that you’re gay. I want to know why you work at The Dollhouse.”
“I started going there because it was a discreet place to meet other people like myself. It allows me to hide my real identity. When I work at The Dollhouse, Sandy Kane emerges and Reverend Kane suppresses herself.” She pointed to herself. “After I started working there, a few customers began asking for me by name. I brought in a lot of revenue, so the owner asked if I would be interested in working full time. Being a minister, I saw a conflict of interest and I confessed to her about who I actually was. That’s how we came up with the idea of me wearing a mask to keep my identity concealed just in case someone came in who knew me. Plus, she thought I could act out some of the women’s fantasies of making love to Catwoman.”
“But you took the mask off.”
“I know. That was the first time I’ve ever done that. It instinctively felt right to expose my identity at that moment.”
“Maybe you should think about revealing yourself to more than your customers.”
“Maybe you�
��re right,” she replied.
A waitress came over and placed a glass of water in front of each of them. “Are you ready to order?” she asked.
“Yes,” the reverend replied. “I’ll have the chicken salad. What about you, Payce?”
“Nothing for me,” he replied.
The waitress retrieved both menus and walked away.
“Payce, the reason I asked you here is because I’m aware of your past. And I’ve experienced firsthand how hard it is for someone who is just getting out of jail to get a job.”
“You’ve been locked up?” he asked.
“No, but I had a nephew who did time in New Jersey. He was locked up in Trenton State for ten years. When he got out he had a hard time finding a decent job. That is why I wanted to make you a job offer.”
“Thanks, but I have a job.”
“I heard you got a job parking cars down at the Westin Hotel, but is that enough to support yourself, not to mention your girlfriend? Wouldn’t you like to take her out and buy her nice things? Trust me; working at The Dollhouse would eliminate a lot of financial problems.”
“The Dollhouse!” he shouted. “That lesbian joint!”
“Would you keep your voice down?”
He looked around to see if anyone was looking. “What am I supposed to do at a lesbian spa? Watch y’all eat each other out?”
“Would you listen to me?” she whispered. “That place is making thousands of dollars every night. There has not been a night that I haven’t left there with at least two thousand dollars.”
“What does that have to do with me?” he asked.
“The place is making so much money that now they’re thinking about expanding.”
“I’m not giving no man a massage,” Payce thundered.
“And I wouldn’t ask you to. Have you ever heard of the term ‘swing couples’?”
Payce shook his head no.
“It’s when married couples or anyone in a committed relationship has sex with someone outside their relationship. You have sex with their partner while the spouse or mate watches.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“Well, the owner of The Dollhouse has had lots of requests from customers who are interested in it. She is recruiting men to come and participate in the swinging.”
Payce started laughing. “You want me to be a male prostitute?”
“No, it’s not prostitution.”
“Yes, it is. I’m getting paid for having sex with strangers.”
“No, you’re getting paid for helping a couple live out their fantasies.”
“Reverend Kane, you’re sicker than I thought.” He got up to leave.
“Payce, they’re willing to start you off at fifteen hundred tax-free dollars a night.”
Payce froze in his tracks.
“That is just to start. If you do a good job and couples return to see you, they will pay you more.”
He sat back down in his seat.
“If you don’t like it, you can quit, but I’m telling you it’s easy money.”
Fifteen hundred dollars, he thought.
“What about Tressie?” he asked.
“Tressie doesn’t have to know. I’m not going to say anything to her.”
Payce thought about having fifteen hundred dollars cash in his pocket. He hadn’t seen that much money since he was hustling on the corner. Reverend Kane waited for Payce to accept her offer.
“Let me think about it and I’ll give you a call,” he told her.
“Don’t make me wait long,” she replied.
Chapter 8
LATE FEBRUARY 2004
Miles’s facial expression said “I’m sorry.” This was another failed attempt by Elise to resuscitate her husband’s limp rod back to life. She held his manhood in her hand and wished for a miracle. She prayed that he would have a positive reaction to her touch, but her efforts were unsuccessful. She got up and moved to her side of the bed.
The doctor had prescribed Miles medication to assist with his treatment, but so far they saw no improvements.
They lay in silence and stared at the ceiling. Thoughts of Sheridan drifted through Elise’s mind. She wondered how an innocent cup of coffee could turn into nights of hot and heavy sex.
A part of her was ashamed. She was a Christian woman who was responsible for pointing out the sins of others. Now she was the one committing sin. This was an unfamiliar place for her in life, a place she had never thought she would be. An extra-marital affair had been inconceivable, but Sheridan’s touch electrified her body. The worst part was that she didn’t want it to end. She had fallen in love with him.
It started with Sheridan coming into the gym on Wednesday evenings. He would act as her personal trainer by assisting her with the weight machines and demonstrating different techniques to get the most out of her workouts. Those techniques often required that he touch intimate parts of her body. The feel of his hands made her nervous. She knew that their relationship was getting more personal, but she didn’t stop it. She enjoyed the attention he showered on her. Then came the night when their relationship took a dramatic turn.
It was a typical Wednesday night, and Elise was expecting Sheridan to walk into the gym at any second, but he never showed. She thought that he might have been running late, but by the end of her workout there was still no sign of him. Disappointed that he was a no-show, she hated the thought of having to wait another full week before she saw him again.
In no rush to go home, Elise chose to sit in the sauna for a while. The warmth from the sauna wrapped itself around her skin. She sat against the far wall, leaned her head back and closed her eyes and enjoyed the quiet, serene atmosphere. She was alone for a while before someone came in, interrupting her solitude. She kept her eyes closed and tried to block out the presence of someone else in the small-boxed room.
“Is this seat taken?” the stranger asked abruptly.
Elise was startled and wasn’t aware that her uninvited guest was so close. She looked up. The steam slowly cleared away from her eyes.
“Sheridan?” she called out.
“Yeah, it’s me. I hope I didn’t scare you.”
“Yes, you did scare me, but how did you know I was in here?”
“I asked the receptionist if she had seen you and she told me that you were in here. I’m sorry I was late. I had to go out of town to Miami unexpectedly and my flight was delayed.”
“Miami? That must have been a nice trip. Was it business or pleasure?”
“Business, unfortunately.” He sat down next to her. “There’s this kid who goes to school down there and he is withdrawing from school early to enter the NFL. My firm is eager to represent him. So they asked me to fly down there to give a quick presentation. He’s a good kid, comes from a stable home, and has parents who care. The father is the one who actually contacted us. He wants the kid to be represented by a black sports agency, but I got the impression that the kid had his sights on some of the larger agencies.”
“What does the father have to do with anything? Isn’t it the kid’s decision?”
“Ultimately, yes, it is the kid’s decision, but his father played in the pros and has had a lot of regrets for putting his trust in a lot of people who would never understand what it’s like to be a black man playing in the NFL. He’s just a father who wants to help lead his son in the right direction.”
“Well, I hope you get the account,” Elise replied.
“So do I.” They sat in silence for a moment. She felt uncomfortable sitting next to him with nothing on but a towel. At least when they were at the coffeehouse she did have clothes on. She looked down at the towel wrapped around Sheridan’s waist. What do I do if he touches me or worse, kisses me? Calm down, Elise, the man has made no indication that he would ever hit on you. Every time he’s been alone with me he has been a perfect gentleman.
Another five minutes of silence passed before a throbbing feeling began pulsating between her legs. She glanced over at him.
He seemed unaware of what she was thinking. Elise couldn’t hold back the desire that burned deep inside her. Lust had taken over her body and she was at its mercy. Throwing all caution to the wind, she quickly climbed on top of Sheridan and ferociously kissed his lips. Sheridan responded to Elise’s advances by removing her towel.
The heat from the sauna created tears of sweat on their bodies. The sex was invigorating for both of them. He grabbed her tighter and tighter. He tried not to release his seed inside of her, but he couldn’t withstand the feeling. He finally burst like a dam.
Elise leaned her head against his. The realization of what she had just done hit her like a ton of bricks. She had broken her wedding vows and deceived her husband. She got up and sat next to Sheridan. She held her head down and placed her hands on her head. Her remorse filled the room. He could sense her guilt.
“I know you regret what just happened,” Sheridan said. “If you say you don’t want to see me again, I’ll understand.”
Elise didn’t say a word, nor did she look his way. Sheridan wrapped his towel back around himself and got up to leave.
“Sheridan!” Elise stopped him. She walked over and hugged him. “I’m scared of what’s happening to me. I’ve never done this kind of thing before. I don’t know what came over me,” she whimpered from the embrace of his arms.
They continued to meet, not only on Wednesday evenings, but also on Monday and Friday evenings. She stopped going to the gym and began having her workouts in Sheridan’s bedroom. Fortunately, Miles was not suspicious of her sudden appreciation for going to the gym. He encouraged her increased workouts and wished that he could go with her, but Elise intentionally scheduled her time at the gym during his therapy sessions with Dr. Johnson.
Elise glanced over at her husband. He is such a good man. She felt guilty for having thoughts of another man while her husband lay next to her, but there was no way she could stop it. All thoughts started and stopped with Sheridan. She and Sheridan had made plans to get together on Tuesday night before he went out of town on business. It would be their last night together for two whole weeks, and Elise couldn’t wait to see him. When she spoke with him on the phone, he hinted that he had a surprise for her.
