Love Cradle

CHAPTER 1

It was a beautiful windy afternoon along the Ten Freeway on a mildly warm May day. A couple in their late fifties drives their beautiful new Chrysler Convertible with the top down. They were headed towards the desert oasis of the Coachella Valley and further out to the vast Colorado River desert area. The husband drives the car fast while the wife reads brochures of the resort that they were going to be staying in.

Slow down, Steve, she says. This is only a 65 mile per hour zone.

Relax, he responds. I’m just testing out the speed of this car. Just want to know how fast she can handle. He was nearly reaching 90 at the odometer. Besides, there’s no cops around for miles.

You know, you sound like you’re in a hurry. Gosh, you seem more anxious about this trip than me. It’s like you’re expecting to meet someone.

There you go again, Barbara. I wonder where you get such a silly suspicion?

It seems like I could never forget that night thirty years ago. We were driving to Las Vegas and you seemed to rush to the front desk before I could. You couldn’t wait to gamble.

I felt that I had a chance at Lady Luck.

You got that right. Remember that cocktail waitress you met?

Look Barb, that was thirty years ago. I learned my lesson. This is our second honeymoon. We’ve been married for thirty-five years now.

Yet I could never figure out what that pacifier was doing in that suitcase of yours.

Out of the blue, a California State Trooper pulls up right behind flashing the sirens loudly. The couple pulls along the side, as does the officer. This officer was a woman. She approaches the vehicle carefully.

License and registration, asks the officer.

One moment, as the man reaches for both pieces of information. So does the wife.

Stephen Charles Lake, says the officer. You were driving nearly 25 miles over the posted speed limit. What’s your rush?

We are on our way to Arthurland, says Mrs. Lake. We’re celebrating our retirement and simply going on a long-needed vacation.

Well, a ticket is no way to start it off now, says the officer while she runs the licenses through their dispatcher.

Please, if I get any more tickets, they will suspend my license! begs Stephen.

You should have thought about that, says the officer as she writes him up for a massive ticket. Have a delightful vacation. Now I suggest you drive, Barbara, if you’re so concerned about your husband speeding.

Have a nice day, says Barbara as she flips the finger at the officer.

I can cite you for that if I wanted to, says the officer as she heads back in her vehicle and drives off.

What a bitch, says Barbara as she switches seats and takes over the wheel.

Don’t worry about it, Barb, says Stephen. I plan to win a large enough jackpot to pay for it.

But our insurance rate’s going to go up now!

Honey, let’s not let this ruin our vacation. We’re going to have a great time once we get to Caliente Springs Casino.

I wonder why you picked that place. I wanted to go back to Laughlin, but oh well, it was your pick.

I just thought we’d give this place a try.

The couple heads on their merry way along the highway, this time going slower.

Forty minutes later, the couple arrive on the Caliente Springs Indian Reservation and to the casino for their well-deserved vacation. They arrive in their room and begin to relax. Suddenly, a text message appears on Stephen’s cell phone. He immediately deletes it.

What was that? asks Barbara.

Nothing. Just a message from Southwest Cellular. I just deleted it. Anyway, are you ready for dinner?

I wanted a spa treatment and a massage. I thought we agreed on that.

Okay. That’s right. Anyway, we’ll have dinner after your spa visit. I’ll just go down to the sports book and place my bet on a few races.

I guess it’s agreed. We will have dinner at eight. It’s about four thirty right now.

Let’s go downstairs.

Stephen seemed very anxious to go out at this point. Yet Barbara loves spas and she herself couldn’t wait to go to the parlor.

Just remember to keep your cell phone on, dear. Barbara had to remind her husband to keep the phone on so that they stay in touch.

Stephen walks Barbara down to the spa parlor where she could have her treatment done. They approach the counter.

That will be three hundred dollars, says the clerk.

Barbara hands him three hundred dollar bills as Stephen walks away.

Remember, I’ll meet you back here at 7:45.

Okay. Don’t waste too much money.

Stephen walks away and pretends to go towards the sports book, but instead walks back to the room where a mysterious looking person follows him. This same person also enters the elevator along with him. The person also happens to be carrying a large bag. But as Stephen approaches the room, so does this mysterious individual.

Admiral A.B.? asks the stranger.

Yes, says Stephen. I believe you are looking for me.

I am Misery Mommie, says the darkly dressed woman. Let’s go inside.

Misery Mommie met Stephen online and the two have arranged to meet for several weeks. Stephen knew the right time when to send Barbara away just for this event.

Please get into your diapers, baby boy! says Misery Mommie.

Goo Goo, says Stephen, regressing suddenly from age fifty-nine to only two and a half.

Just a little teaser for thee, says Misery Mommie as she undresses into a skin tight one-piece outfit. She is not wearing any underwear as she changes from the dark long trenchcoat to the black pants suit. In minutes, Misery is ready while Stephen, also known as Admiral A.B. is suddenly in nothing but his bib and diaper. Suddenly, Misery whips him with a horse whip.

Crawl! she says, holding out the whip. It’s feeding time! In a small bowl, she prepares some actual baby food, mixed with a chocolate laxative substance. She also prepares a little baby formula, mixed with a liquid form of ecstacy.

Eat, my young one.

Stephen eats the mixture of baby food and drinks from the bottle. He manages to fart while being whipped and slapped on his nappied bottom.

C’mon Admiral. Eat until you poop your pants!

Suddenly, Stephen eats until he soils himself. Misery Mommie checks his diapers to see how bad the mess is.

Time for a changing! she says as she is prepared to change his dirty diaper. Stephen lays on the bed and gets ready for a change. But as the Misery Mommie gets ready to change him, she suddenly spreads her legs open and squats over Stephen. Suddenly, a mild stream of golden liquid pours from her and into Stephen’s face. The crotch of her pants suit was purposely cut open, thus allowing her to perform this action. Suddenly, while he was naked and cleaned, Stephen manages to have quite a visible response.

You certainly don’t need any Viagra, says Misery Mommie as she approaches Stephen with her mouth wide open. At this point, the effects of ecstacy kick in as Stephen becomes as vulnerable as a teenage boy who has never been with a woman before is.

Meanwhile, Barbara manages to finish her session early. In fact, about twenty minutes sooner than planned. She calls Stephen on his cell phone. All she got was a voice mail.

How many times to I have to remind him! she says to herself angrily. She walks down to the casino, to the sports book arena. Does not find him anywhere.

Stephen! Stephen! she calls out. Suddenly, she checks the slot machine areas and does not see him. Security guards approach her.

Ma’am, are you looking for somebody? one guard asks.

My husband, says Barbara in response. He is about six feet tall, short gray hair and glasses, was wearing a blue western shirt with a brown vest.

I haven’t seen anyone like that yet, replies the guard.

I guess I better check the room, Barbara suddenly decides as she heads for a courtesy phone. She dials the room and gets no answer after four rings.

Meanwhile, back at the room, Stephen was totally drugged out and soiled in urine. Both from himself and his prostitute babysitter. He suddenly remembered that he was going to meet his wife for dinner.

My wife will be here in fifteen minutes! he panics. You better hurry up!

I’ve got ten minutes to go! says Misery Mommie as she continues to play a bad bondage game with Stephen. But less than a minute later, Barbara suddenly arrives at the door, opening it. She walks into the room and sees her husband like she’s never seen him before.

STEPHEN! she cries out. Why?

Stephen does not respond. Barbara is so shocked she begins screaming. After thirty five years, I have never seen the likes of this. I have never imagined! I mean, I caught you once with another woman in Las Vegas, but this time, this? And you! How dare you turn a sick trick with my husband. Why I ought to …

Barbara attempts to hit the dominatrix with her fist. She tried but failed.

Try that again, sister. You can’t even aim. And that hair of yours. So fake. And those tits of yours don’t convince me one bit! I smell bacon …

Barbara then tries to pull on the mystery woman’s hair and grab her breasts, but before she could reach either one of them, Misery Mommie suddenly places her hand over Barbara’s mouth and strongly chokes her down badly. She hits her and causes her to fall. Suddenly, she strangles Barbara to death with the whip. Stephen, in a total daze, meekly cries out in pain.

You … Barbara..

Suddenly, Stephen passes out. As he passed out, Misery Mommie injects more ecstacy into his veins with a needle. She suddenly takes her clothes off and gets cleaned up. She takes the whip to the bathroom and washes away her fingerprints. She then showers up quickly.

After drying herself up, she grabs the extra unused disposable diaper and wraps it around her crotch and wears it like a pair of panties. She digs into Barbara’s clothing bag and puts on an outfit of hers. She removes her black wig and then wraps her real hair up with a silk scarf that Barbara had in her suitcase. She also manages to put on a pair of Barbara’s pantyhose and shoes on. Suddenly, she takes all of the money from both Barbara’s purse and Stephen’s wallet. She also takes Barbara’s ID as well. Quietly, she walks out the door, unnoticed, through the stairs near the fire escape. Without suspicion, she manages to leave the casino property quietly.

At about 6:05 in the morning, Stephen manages to wake up from his lapse. He appears very stoned, very dirty and slow. He opens his eyes and suddenly sees Barbara lying on the floor dead.

BARBARA! he cries out, suddenly having a heart attack and falling down.

Two hours later, a housekeeper knocks on the door and checks to see if it is ready for a cleaning.

Housekeeping, she calls out. No answer was uttered, and no do not disturb sign was on the door. So she assumes that nobody was in the room. She opens the door with her master key and sees two bodies on the ground. She screams.

CHAPTER 2

Waking up in my truck was sure quite a drag. I had just about no sleep last night. Just about every motel in town was full due to some stupid biker convention going on down near the Colorado River. I sure can’t believe that Lydia, my landlady, would throw me out in the middle of the night, for no reason at all. Why I may never know.

One week ago, I had to take an emergency trip to Miami to attend the funeral of my sister, Dianne. She had apparently taken her life by jumping out of the car while her husband was driving. They apparently had a fight over his issues. I mean, the poor guy, Phillip, was going through an identity crisis. He, from what I was told, was a cross-dresser and Dianne just found out about it. She overreacted, considering how close she was to the church. She was the black sheep in the family, after all. She had such a control over Phil to where it drove him nuts. I heard that he even wanted a divorce.

Dianne doesn’t even understand the way I live my life, for I have not spoken to her in almost three years, since she became a liaison for the Jehovah’s Witness church in that small town of hers. She never approved of her other siblings being cops. Still, I felt sad losing her, knowing how she could have experienced more years in life and eventually coming to grips. Being the youngest, she had a chance. She had to die so young at the age of twenty-eight. The second suicide of our family, for Mother took her own life shortly after Dad’s fatal heart attack.

But what nerve my bitch landlady, Lydia had to just throw my things away while I was gone and change the locks on me. I’ll never forget coming home last night straight from the airport and discovering my clothes, books and TV set placed out front in the driveway. I’m just so glad that Moneypenny, my dog, was in my Aunt’s care and is still with her up in Desert Hot Springs. It’s sad that I paid my rent on time. I spent a fortune on this trip, plus having to pay to bury my sister as Phil had no money of his own.

The night before I left, we had a big quarrel about Moneypenny digging out of the trash and leaving a mess. But that was not what bothered me. What irked me most was the fact that Lydia had to get racist on me and religious as well. I don’t want freak cops like you living in my house! she screams at me.

I lived with her for two months because I could not afford my own apartment, due to massive bills my family has incurred during the past ten years. My brother and I had to pay high property taxes on land in Arizona that we inherited from Dad’s will. The taxes piled up since his death. Plus, an ex-partner who ran my bills up high. I am just so close to paying it off. And having to send my sister in Florida money each month because of her husband not being able to find work. Didn’t Lydia even understand my hell? If you don’t pray like her, you ain’t like her.

Lydia is the daughter of Rev. Walter Patton of the First Fundamental Church in Arthurland. She is this black woman, ultra conservative, doesn’t believe in wearing pants for women, doesn’t believe in watching television and hates rock music. Yet, she’s had three children with three different fathers.

Me? I’m a thirty-five year old police detective working for the Caliente Springs Tribal Police. I used to work for the Desert Hot Springs Police Department, but having conflicts with then-city manager Laurie Ashley, it led to my termination because her husband was the chief at the time. I am my own religion, God to me is nothing more than another word for Mother Nature. By most standards, I’m an atheist.

My only relative in this state is my Aunt Evelyn and my brother, a good man and cop, is a captain with the Arizona Highway Patrol somewhere in Prescott. I could live with my Aunt, but it’s almost an hour drive from work and with today’s gas prices, it will cost me. Well, we’ll see. Anything beats having to sleep in the parking lot of Ryan M. Fedorsic Park.

I don’t have many clothes with me. Just three black coats, some undergarments and a few other things. Plus my laptop computer with a few Led Zeppelin CDs and old Roy Rogers films on DVD. My pocketbook only has a few dollars in it and my necessary items. I don’t get paid until tomorrow. So I guess I’ll grab a donut from Donut Dog and get to work before ten.

Fifteen minutes later, I went to Donut Dog for my breakfast. There, I saw the TV. Fortunately, it was tuned to Channel Nine for the morning news.

Welcome to the GBS 9 Action News Morning Edition. I’m Tom Shook. Christina LaPaz is on assignment. A San Diego couple was murdered last night at the Caliente Springs Hotel and Casino located on the outskirts of the Arthurland City Limits. Fifty-nine year old Christopher Stephen Lake and his wife, fifty-four year old Barbara Anne Lake of San Diego were discovered dead in their room by a housekeeper this morning during a room check. We go live to the scene with Maura Rodriguez, who is here to tell us more details …

Caliente Springs Tribal Police are investigating this grizzly murder of Mr. and Mrs. Lake right now, and so far, it appears that Barbara was strangled to death with some sort of string while Christopher had been strangely covered in his own urine and feces …

I’ve just about heard enough. I better get to work right now and learn all the facts myself. Somehow, I wonder. Another husband kills his wife case? Just what I need. More domestic violence. Gosh, I’ve dealt with too fucking many of those.

Fifteen minutes to nine, I arrived at my station. The other officers were all in the briefing room while Jimmy Jimenez, my friend, was waiting for me to return from my somber time off.

Tracy! Jimmy greets me. Welcome back from Florida. How was it?

Not good, I say to him. It’s sad to have to bury my sister. We never got a chance to make up. She was so set in her ways. Yet my poor brother-in-law is taking it horribly hard. He tried to save her, but he couldn’t. I’m glad the cops aren’t pressing charges and suspecting him of fowl play.

Suicide is a rough one to deal with, says Jimmy. Anyway, we’ve got a heavy one on our hands. The Lake Murder at the hotel. Saw the news?

I’ll tell you more about it later, I say to Jimmy. I don’t want to air my dirty laundry out in front of the whole goddamn department. I saw the news this morning at Donut Dog’s.

Trace, you look like you slept in the street, he says. What happened?

We’ll discuss it in a little while, I say. Gosh, could Jimmy be such a nosy little twerp. Anyway, I’m glad I don’t have to wear a uniform in the detective bureau.

At ten, Lieutenant Herbert Schisler was giving the report to the other officers.

Good morning boys and girls, as he always greets us. Welcome back, Sergeant Rhodes. As we all may have heard on Channel 9 this morning, a couple from San Diego was killed sometime last night and found dead in their room by a housekeeper this morning. We have been busy all morning for the past hour trying to investigate, as it has all been such a pandemonium. Chief Armenta is out talking with the hotel staff as we speak. Other than that, no other reports of major crime other than what we usually deal with. Rhodes, I need you to immediately report to the hotel and begin your work. Jimenez, you are on foot patrol today, so check in with me in a few minutes …

I guess Jimmy will be wrapped up in his foot patrol for today.

Call you for lunch, Jim, I say to him as he disappointingly walks over to Lt. Schisler’s office. Meanwhile, I step outside and take the golf cart over to the hotel.

I went to Room 667 where all of the action was taking place. Two