Murder at Roissy

by John Warren

Genres: Suspense

Synopsis

The classic BDSM crime thriller, available in a new e-book format

Exclusive BDSM lifestyle vacation hideaway, Roissy, is rocked by the murder of one its regular clients, Ruth "Mistress Raven" Park, strangled with bondage rope in the dungeon playroom. All the guests at Roissy had a reason to want her dead, but which of them is responsible? As Sheriff John Clarke hunts the killer, he finds himself in a world where pain and pleasure are inextricably linked . . .

Release date: March 15, 2012

Publisher: Headline

Print pages: 166

Sample

Chapter One - Saturday



‘How much longer until we get there, sir?’ Sue asked in her “little girl” voice.

Tom heaved an exaggerated sigh and said, ‘Fifteen minutes ago, it was half an hour. Unless you have managed to repeal the laws of the universe and of mathematics, we should be there in another 15 minutes.

Sue Burger twisted in her seatbelt and playfully began hitting her husband on his shoulder with both of her petite fists. ‘Now, now, now, I want to be there now,’ she chanted.

Tom looked over at her with a mixture of loving care and paternal frustration, but was careful to keep one eye on the road. Even on an arrow-straight, plumb-level Arizona highway, things happened fast at 80 miles an hour.

She met his eye, gave him one of her blinding smiles, then stuck her thumb in her mouth and crossed her eyes.

Tom laughed and turned back to the road. He reached over and ran his fingers through her long, silky hair and then rubbed the back of her neck until she was making urgent mewing noise.

‘You’re not making the waiting any easier, darling,’ she gasped. ‘Unless, of course, you are interested in pulling over to the side of the road and satisfying your horny wife right here and now.’

Tom pretended to study their surroundings. Then he shook his head. ‘It must be at least 100 degrees out there, and every rock is a scorpion hotel. We can wait until we get to Roissy. Besides, I’d get a sunburn.’

‘I wouldn’t,’ Sue said, thrusting a shapely, olive-skinned forearm into her husband’s view and slowly rotating it so he could admire the flawless skin.

‘I would,’ he countered.

Ten minutes later, they arrived at an unremarkable side road that led off into a range of low hills. The mailbox at the road junction said simply “Roissy Resort, M. Flame, proprietress”. The road in was unpaved but smooth, and they made good time for the two miles it took to arrive at cluster of adobe buildings inside a thick wall. The gate was open, and several cars were parked against the back wall. Tom parked next to them. The instant the engine was shut off, and the air conditioner with it, the temperature in the car started to climb precipitously.

Tom unfastened his seatbelt and gave Sue a peck on the cheek which turned into a full-fledged kiss when she grabbed him by the hair and pulled him close. Soon, they were both gasping and pawing at each other, oblivious that the car was rapidly turning into an oven.

A discreet tap on the driver’s side window brought them both shooting upright. Tom spun around and gasped. The face in the window was something unearthly, black and shiny. Sue’s fingernails digging into his arm told him that she was seeing the same thing. Then he relaxed and gave a quiet laugh when he realised that he was looking at a leather bondage mask. 

Brown eyes looked out from behind the mask which was fastened to the face with a series of leather straps secured with tiny silver locks. There seemed to be an opening for the mouth but it was covered by a sheet of leather with several perforations to allow breathing. Tom lowered the window, letting in a blast of heat. The voice from behind the mask was masculine but subservient.

‘Mr and Mrs Burger? I’m Scum, the house slave; may I take your things to your room?’

Tom threw a switch on the dashboard that opened the trunk. Scum stood up and walked toward the back of the car. He was taller than he had seemed kneeling by the window and dressed only in a leather posing strap. Weightlifter’s muscles moved smoothly under a deeply tanned skin.

‘Buy me that for Christmas, Daddy,’ Sue said dreamily.

‘Well, I guess we are really here,’ Tom said. Then he caught sight of a short, voluptuous woman in a red silk dress and riding boots coming toward them. She had a riding crop in one hand, and as she passed the heavily laden Scum, she gave him a playful whack on the backside.

She opened his door and extended her hand. ‘You must be the Burgers. I’m Mistress Flame; I own this place.’ She gestured with her left hand as she shook Tom’s. ‘Let’s get inside. In this country, even the lizards keep undercover until the sun goes down.’

Sue opened her door and climbed out. Flame gave her a smile and herded both of them through a nearby door. The blast of air conditioning made them both shiver but was a welcome relief from the torrid outside air.

The room looked more like a doctor’s or accountant’s office than the reception area for a resort. The unadorned adobe walls were set off by massive beams and a double-glazed window looked out into the courtyard. Behind a Swedish Modern desk, a massive cubist painting hung over a computer centre. Flame led them to a conversational grouping around a glass and steel coffee table. She sat down in a leather-covered recliner and Tom and Sue sat on the comfortable, leather-covered sofa.

‘I hope you had a nice ride from Phoenix,’ Flame said.

Tom nodded, but Sue seemed to be too busy looking around to respond.

‘I’m sure you will enjoy it here. I know you have my brochures and we’ve talked on the phone a few times, but I’d like to go over a few things just to make sure. I try to allow as much freedom as possible, but I’ve found that I need a few rules for things to run smoothly.

‘Breakfast is served in the dining room from 8 to 11. Lunch is served from 11 to 2. Generally, we have a sit-down dinner at 7. Dress is optional, and I mean that seriously. You can eat or wander around in anything from a tux to your skin.

‘We’re on a first name or scene name basis here. You don’t have to identify yourself any more than that. Do you have scene names or will Tom and Sue do?’

Tom said, ‘Those are the names we use in the New York scene. They’ll do here.’

‘There are only two other guests here, but we are expecting a few more soon. You may mix with the other guests as much or as little as you want. The basic rule is that everyone must consent. There are two dungeons. They have locks on the door. If you want to play by yourself, lock the door. If you don’t lock it, anyone can assume you will not object to observers or to them using the equipment that you are not using. However, if someone is playing in an unlocked dungeon and you would like to become part of their scene, wait for them to invite you. Asking during the scene is bad manners and can break up the rhythm.

‘Your rooms also have some basic equipment and I’ll be glad to supply stuff like cuffs and rope if you haven’t brought some of your own. Just ask me; don’t take it out of the dungeon. I have extras.

‘There isn’t any bar here, and while I don’t tell guests that they cannot drink or use drugs, I do have the option of barring anyone I consider unsafe from the dungeons, and if the situation persists, asking him or her to leave.

‘Scum is the house slave; he is available for scenes but not for sex. Check with me if you would like to use him. We’ll talk over the scene you want to do and I’ll be present during it.’

‘I’ve been thinking of switching,’ Sue said quietly. Tom gave her a good-natured “shut-up” glare.

As if on cue, Scum entered through an inside door. He walked over to Flame and knelt at her feet, pressing his forehead against her right boot; she idly ran her fingernails over the leather top of the mask.

Flame rose and gestured for Tom and Sue to follow her. Scum remained in his abject position. They went through the doorway he had come out of.

One side of the hallway thick, ceiling-to-waist-high tinted windows provided spectacular views of the surrounding countryside. The other side had doors at regular intervals. Flame opened the first such door. Inside, about a foot away, was another door that opened into a dungeon room.

‘Completely soundproof,’ Flame said. ‘We want you to be able to get your sleep even if someone is playing.’

The inside of the room was painted completely black except for a blood-red carpet. Flame flipped a series of switches against the door; red and white accent lights came on in the ceiling.

With a proud, proprietary air, Flame walked around the room. ‘I’m sure you are familiar with most of this. If you need help, feel free to ask me or Scum. We have a set of stocks –’ she ran her hand over the polished wood ‘  a frame for standing bondage or suspension, a spanking bench, and even  ’ she smiled, running her hand over the long shelf and its winch ‘  a rack.’

Sue fairly flew to the bondage frame and, grabbing a hanging chain in each hand, assumed the position of a woman about to be whipped. Looking back over her shoulder and wiggling her generous hips, she giggled and said, ‘I was soooo bad. Are you going to punish me, sir? Are you going to punish me real hard?’

Tom walked over and gave her a quick swat on the behind. Whereupon she whirled and pulled his head down for a passionate kiss.

Flame waited patiently until they “came up for air” and pointed at a polished wood plate with several keys hanging from brass cup hooks. ‘Every lock in this place has a spare key. The dot of colour on the key corresponds with a dot of colour on the lock.’ She picked up a length of chain with a padlock through it and indicated a coloured dot near the keyhole. She removed the key from the padlock, took the corresponding key from the plate, and demonstrated by locking and unlocking the padlock. Then she returned the key to the plate and replaced the first key in the padlock. ‘Leave the keys in the locks when you are finished with them, but if one gets lost you can still unlock your submissive with the spare key.

‘You can use your personal safewords if you wish, but the house safeword is “Red Light”. If you use that, Missy  ’ she impaled Sue with her gaze ‘  and he doesn’t stop, everyone who hears it will come to help.’ Sue folded her hands in front of her and looked at the other woman. ‘So you just better damn well mean it.’

Leading them out into the corridor, she said, ‘This hallway runs around three sides of the building. There is a second dungeon just like this on the other end. In the crossover hallway, there is a common room and a dining room.

‘Your room is here.’ She indicated a door several rooms away from the dungeon. Unlocking it, she handed the keys to Tom. It was a large, airy room with a small window looking out into the courtyard. Over the bed, a large mirror looked down from the ceiling. Sue spotted it and dived on to the bed. Rolling around in mock passion, she called out, ‘Don’t blindfold me, sir. I want to watch.’

Flame showed Tom the eye bolts in the overhead beams and around the base of the bed and how to adjust the very versatile chair that doubled as a bondage table. Finally, she showed him a small library of bondage and D/s videos on the bookshelf. ‘We don’t get good television reception out here, and in any case, most of our guests aren’t interested in watching the networks so each TV has a VCR, and we have a fairly extensive selection of videos in the main office. If you’d like to make a record of yourselves, you can check out a video camera. We’ve got three, and they are available on a first-come-first-serve basis.’

Tom was paying polite attention to her, but his gaze kept straying to Sue, who was continuing to admire herself in the overhead mirror.

Flame glanced between the two of them, smiled, and slipped out the door with a polite nod to Tom. She hadn’t reached the door to her office before she heard the snap of the night lock in their door.

Scum was still kneeling by the chair in which she had been sitting, but instead of returning to it, Flame took her place behind the desk. ‘Front!’ she said in a pre-emptory tone. Scum leapt to his feet, dashed over to the carpet in front of the desk, then dropped to his knees.

‘Mr and Mrs Park will be coming in later this afternoon. Make sure that Room Seven is ready for them. Mrs Park is particularly fond of roses; make sure there is a fresh bunch in the room every day. Also, as usual, she will be bringing along a bunch of computer equipment; move an extra desk into the room. Put it near a plug.

‘Shawn and Kevin will be here late tonight. Wait up and show them to their room. Wake me after you’ve settled them and I’ll tuck you in.



Later, Sue was lying next to Tom, touching only with the tips of the fingers of Tom’s right hand against the tips of the fingers of Sue’s left hand, as the gentle breeze from the ceiling fan evaporated the thin film of sweat that covered both of them.

‘You’re magnificent …’ Sue said, meeting his eyes in the mirror overhead. ‘A great, hairy animal.’ She gave a dramatic sigh. ‘What a shame the rest of the world has to put up with ordinary lovers whil. . .