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THE STARLET SLAVE 23
joypaine
23. A New Beginning
Ellen regained consciousness just as the squad car was approaching the door of
that dreadful house. She cowered in the back seat, helpless, while the cop rang
the doorbell, spoke to the man who answered. He disappeared for a moment, then
returned with Larry.
"I think I have a mental case that escaped from your custody," the cop began.
"I'd suggest that you be more careful with her in the future. Oh, by the way,
please don't think of rewarding my honesty by disposing of me. I assure you that
I mean you no harm. And I must further advise you that I taped her whole life
story, and have it all on tape, with names, dates, places -- the whole schtick."
Larry's face lost all of its unctuous charm, leaving a mask of pure rage. "Don't
think you can scare me, punk," he growled. "I can fix any charge that you punk
cops can bring against me."
"Of course," grinned the cop. "You've proved that time and again. No, I wasn't
thinking of running this through channels. I've arranged for the tape to go
directly to your boss in the Mob, if anything happens to me."
"Why, you bastard," Larry blustered. "Try to blackmail me, will you?"
"Heaven forbid! I mean nothing of the sort. I know far better than that. I'm
holding the tape only for protection. I assure you that it is perfectly safe, as
long as you're willing to live and let live."
"So what's the deal? I know you want something, or you wouldn't be standing here
like this."
"Actually," said the cop, "I'd like to work for you."
"And what do you think that you can do for me? Don't you know that half of the
top brass in your department is on my payroll?"
"Yes, I'm not surprised", the cop replied. "But I can offer you two things that
you will find very useful. First, although you have connections at the top, you
may find it useful once in a while to have ears at the foot soldier level. And
then there's one other service you might find useful."
"Which is . . .?"
"One of my duties is to keep an eye on runaway girls who come in every day on
the interurban buses. Usually I turn them in to one of the various shelters that
are run by churches and other social agencies. But those shelters are woefully
overworked, and I'm sure that if you were to organize a shelter for your own
purposes . . . It'd be quite easy, really, to set up a shelter that would
satisfy me. Just a bit of paper work, that's all."
Larry's eyes lighted up. "Now that sounds like a proposition that might do me
some good. OK, so how much do you expect to be paid for looking out for the
girls' future so carefully?"
The cop grinned. "Well, if I suddenly began earning an extra salary of any
sizable proportions, it would be pretty hard to account for the money. How about
letting me have free access to your Boss's stable of girls -- with the extra
proviso that I can play a leading part in the training sessions of any girls I
recruit or" (leering at Ellen) "in the disciplining of any runaways that I bring
back."
"And what sort of training routine do you have in mind?"
"Well, I have some ideas, of course, but I expect that I'll get even better ones
after I have a look at your facilities. As for little Ellen, let's start out by
viewing that film that made such an impression on her earlier tonight. After
all, she's already dressed for the part."
(The END)
