Authors: Amy Johnson
He was probably with his girlfriend. Or his boyfriend. She closed her eyes and tried to picture Ted with another man. She couldn’t. Ted was too man-like to be gay. She thought of Mickey dressed like Michael. He looked like a manly man too. And yet he was…What was he anyways? She made a mental note to ask him.
She picked up the phone to call Ted’s cell phone. No answer. She tried the office and after four rings she heard Ted’s deep voice on the answering machine. OK
,
she told herself
,
enough of this. She came home prepared to talk to him and he’s was gone. Time to switch to plan B. She’d search the house. She called Josie to come help.
Josie showed up a half an hour later dressed to the nines in a red leather mini skirt that barely covered her butt, a matching red halter that did little to cover her bulging breasts
,
and high heel boots that went up to her knees. Her blonde hair was pulled from her scalp and ratted into a sporadic mess of curls and her eyes were lined black with glitter eye shadow. She looked like Dominatrix Barbie with a bad hair do. Apparently she’d been on a date when she got Megan’s call.
“Hot date?” Megan asked. Josie rolled her eyes and blew out a long sigh.
“I wish.”
“Where’s Mr. Wonderful now?”
“Outside in the car. I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to invite him in.”
“Sure. Go ahead.” What the hell. Josie leaned out the door, stuck two fingers in her mouth and let out an ear splitting whistle. A moment later a figure stepped out of the car and started up the walk. Josie handled the introductions.
“Megan, this is Duff! Duff, Megan.” Duff stood about six foot, and could only be described as scrawny. His hair was ratted, black and dirty
,
and hung to the middle of his back. He wore all black leather and had piercings in every hole visible, and a thick black collar with silver spikes sticking out around his neck. A long chain hung from the collar and dangled around his waist. Dark sunglasses wrapped around his
malno
u
r
ished
face.
“How’s it hangin’
,
babe?”
“Huh? Oh everything is hanging just fine thank you.” She released his hand.
“Want me to kick his ass?”
“Huh?” Megan asked and Josie jumped into the conversation.
“Meg, I apprised Duff of the situation on the way over. He says he cheats on all of his
girlfriends
so he knows where to hide stuff. He can help us search.” Duff smiled, gave a palms up gesture
,
and planted an arm around Josie’s shoulder. Megan blinked several times, wondering if Josie could be as clueless as she seemed.
“Josie, can I speak to you alone for a minute? In the kitchen
?
” Megan asked.
“Sure.” Once in the kitchen Megan spoke in a very low voice.
“Josie, if he cheats on his girlfriends, why are you seeing him? And you do know him right? I mean he looks like he might…oh I don’t know
,
say gag and torture us or something.” Josie placed her hand on Megan’s shoulder and spoke sincerely.
“Meg, I’m not seeing him, we just went to a club. He’s a musician!” Of course he
wa
s. “Anyway, we are just casual you know
,
and he doesn’t commit major crimes. Anymore.”
“Anymore?” Megan should have called Stacy or Ali, they wouldn’t show up with a Gene Simmons wannabe who spen
t
his free time cheating on girlfriends and committing felonies. Of course they probably wouldn’t help her prowl through Ted’s stuff either.
“You know in his younger days he did some things, nothing major, just a little drugs, set a few fires. And there was the weapons charge but he swears he was set up on that.”
“Josie, we really need to talk about your taste in men.”
“Why?” Josie asked innocently. Could anyone be that clueless? Maybe all the blonde hair dye was seeping through to her brain and screwing up her neuro- transmitters.
“Never mind! Let’s just get this over with
,
” Megan muttered pushing her way past Josie back into the living room. Duff was standing there leaning in the doorway looking completely bored.
“So?” he asked. “Want me to kick his ass?”
“Not yet
,
” Megan answered, wondering if this guy could fight his way out of a paper sack.
“So where do we start?” Josie asked excitedly. “This is so cool. Do you have any gloves?” Megan looked at her sideways
.
“You know so we don’t leave fingerprints.”
“It’s my house, Josie. We don’t need gloves.”
“Well they always use them in the movies. You know they snap those latex gloves on and then crouch around in the shadows.”
“You know I just ran out of latex gloves this morning. I used them all up on my last home invasion. I’ll be sure to add them to the grocery list
,
” Megan snapped.
“Well that just sucks! Here I was all excited to get my hands in some latex gloves and….”
“Latex turns you on?” Duff inquired.
“Totally!” Duff reached in his pocket and fished around.
“I got some love gloves. You can try them.”
“Love gloves?” Josie asked, Megan rolled her eyes so far up in her head, she was sure she could see her hair follicles.
“You know condoms, rubbers.” Duff handed them to Josie who snapped them open and began trying to pull them over her hands. Megan looked up and asked God to please take her NOW! Or at least take Josie.
“Well I guess these’ll work. It’s kind of hard to move my fingers but what the hell. It makes it more exciting don’t you think Meg?”
“Sure Josie, whatever you say. You know when this is all done, I’m going to get you some therapy, or maybe a brain scan, you know make sure you still have one.”
Josie laughed, “Of course I have one silly! The gloves were my idea
,
remember?”
Megan contemplated throwing herself down the basement stairs.
“Let’s start in the dark room. Ted knows I never go down there. If he’s hiding something that would be the best place to put it.”
“Oh God! I’m scared of the dark
,
” Josie cried.
“I’ll protect you, my little sex goddess
,
” Duff consoled.
Great! That’s all the world needs is those two contributing to the gene pool. Thank God for Special Ed.
“Josie, we’ll turn the lights on. There are lights down there. It’s just called a dark room because…Oh never mind,” Megan muttered.
They went down to the basement to the section Ted had turned into his dark room. When he’d first started his business he did a lot of work at home. Once he got the studio up and running he did less work in the basement but he did spend the major portion of his time at home down here and sometimes when Megan called him up for dinner he would tell her he was working. So chances were he still spent
some time
in there.
They passed his weights and workout machines. Josie crouched behind every piece hiding from imaginary people, her love gloved hands close to her body.
“He use all this stuff?” Duff asked.
“Obsessively,” Megan answered.
“Remember my offer to kick his ass?”
“Yeah.”
“Forget about it!”
Megan opened the door to the dark room, flipped on the lights and they peered in. There was lots of photo developing equipment covering the counters, vats of water in the sinks, and a shelf full of chemicals in the corner. Strung all the way across the room was a wire with metal clips that held a variety of photos for all to see.
Megan scanned them, seeing the pups, Ted’s parents at their 50th anniversary party, a naked red head with very large breasts, a sunrise. Wait! A naked red head?
“Who’s the babe?” Duff asked unclipping a photo of the mystery woman.
“I don’t know,” Megan answered, feeling her throat grow dry. “Probably a shoot from work.” Yeah right! He shot weddings, birthdays, kids’ sports teams and family portraits. This damn sure wasn’t work. This was play!
“Here’s one of her holding a baseball glove over her…you know,” Josie said.
“Maybe she’s a little league coach. You know he has a contract with the little league association,” Megan growled.
“Ain’t nothing little about those babies,” Duff said pointing to the naked woman’s humongous breasts.
“Let’s look in these drawers,” Megan said wanting to divert her attention anywhere else but at those pictures. There could be a very logical explanation for those pictures. Maybe Ted developed them for one of his friends. What friends
, s
he reminded herself. Ted didn’t have any friends.
“Meg?” Josie called out. “I think I found some pot.”
“What?” Megan asked.
“Pot?” Duff called out. “Let me see.” He took the bag from Josie, opened it, inhaled the familiar scent and smiled. “Yep! That’s pot alright
.
” He examined the green substance more clearly. “This here’s some primo stuff
,
babe. Wanna smoke some?”
“NO!” Megan shouted and snatched the bag away from Duff. “This is a drug free house. I have dogs and a fish upstairs. I have to be a role model.” Megan tucked the bag in her pocket.
“You know Meg
,
a little dope might do that fish some good. He’s too high strung. Maybe you should just sprinkle a little of that in his bowl. Chill him out a little.”
“Josie! I will not get my fish stoned. Are you crazy?” Dumb question she realized even before the words left her lips. “Just keep looking!”
They kept looking around the dark room and Megan grew more and more grim as the search progressed. She was married to a man who had naked pictures strung across the room and
a
stash of pot. She didn’t even know Ted
anymore
and wasn’t sure if she wanted to.
On the filing cabinet by the window was a picture of Megan and Ted right after they got married. They looked so young and happy. What the heck had happened?
Megan felt tears sting her eyes and fought them back. She would not cry. She would be strong and get to the bottom of this. Then she’d cry. She glanced at Ted’s computer and tapped the mouse. The screen lit up and Megan went to Ted’s inbox
,
checking his email. Nothing there. They searched the rest of the dark room and found nothing else that proved Ted was a cheating dirt bag, which for some reason didn’t ease Megan’s mind.
“Let’s go back upstairs. There’s nothing else here,” Megan said. As if she needed to find anything else. Her husband was a pervert pot smoker. Wasn’t that enough?
Josie took her love gloves off and threw them in the kitchen trash. “Wanna search his office?”
“Yeah. I do. Lets…” The sound of the door stopped her dead in her tracks. Ted was home. The bastard! “We’ll have to do it tomorrow night. I’ll call you later,” Megan whispered and ushered Dominatrix Josie and Duff out the back door.
“You gonna share the pot
,
babe?” Duff asked. Megan pursed her lips and shook her head. “Just asking
,
babe. No sense wasting some good bud.” He finished on his way out the door.
Megan stood in the kitchen waiting for Ted to come in so she could talk to him. She heard the door shut, then the familiar sound of his feet pounding down the stairs. A minute later she heard the basement door slam shut. Who in the hell did he think he was? If he thought he could weasel his way out of talking to her he had another thing coming. He had some explaining to do. Like
,
for instance
,
why he had pictures of Miss January hanging in his dark room. And at what point he had become a pot head.
Slowly she made her way to the basement door and tapped lightly. He didn’t answer. She took a deep
breath
and called his name in the sweetest voice she could muster. Again no answer.
“Ted! I know you’re down there. Answer the door. We need to talk.” Still no answer. “Ted!” she yelled. To hell with sweetness. “Open the door now!”
“Go away Meg. I don’t want to talk. I’m busy.”
“Oh really? Doing what? Drooling over Miss Little League?”
After a long pause Ted answered the door. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Meg.”
“Really?” She lifted her chin and arched her eyebrows then pushed her way past him, went down the stairs and picked up an antique camera he’d had for years. She turned it around in her hands like she’d never seen it before. Ted stood there silent
,
his gaze following the camera. She threw the camera in the air and made a show of catching it at the last possible second. Ted lunged to catch it but she pulled it close to her chest, her eyes taunting him the whole time. She took a pitching stance, the camera in her throwing arm. “Know what I’m talking about now, Ted?”