Apparently, she did some switching after she and Derek broke up, trained a while with JohnG, (the guy who liked breath play – remember with the silly dyed blonde tips?) and then she subbed to a newcomer to the community, MasterMikeFromJersey. I can’t find any contact info on him right now and he seems to have left the community. No trace of him and no way to find out who he is so I can interview him to see how Lisa was with him. I expect the detectives involved in the case (McDonald?) will be in touch again soon to get your alibi for those days. Will send you whatever I find out. Don’t be too worried. Most of the time, the cops are on the right track in a case like this and can see Lisa for what she is – a fucked-up woman who was obsessed and couldn’t take no for an answer. Later…
I responded immediately.
To: MistressLara
Reply to: Morgan, Drake MD
Re: Re: The Case
Lara – thanks for all the work you’re doing on my behalf. I truly appreciate it. Ethan is stable now, so we’re at home and Kate will be going to sleep. I’ll be up for a while trying to get a few details of my exit from public life settled. If you want to call, I’ll be up for a while. Too hyped up to sleep. Cheers, Drake.
I sent off the email and waited, wondering if she was up and would call, or whether she had already signed off for the night. Sure enough, my phone rang and I checked the display to see it was Lara.
I answered. “Hey,” I said, glad to her hear voice. “Thanks for calling.”
“No problem, Drake. You know I feel responsible for you. I feel responsible for this whole mess, since it was me who hooked you up with Lisa and Derek in the first place.”
“Don’t feel that way,” I said and rubbed my temples. “I wanted to get some exposure, and you know everyone who is anyone in the community.”
“I didn’t know Lisa well enough,” she said, her voice sounding tired. “I know Derek and he’s pretty solid.”
I frowned, wondering why I hadn’t heard of him leaving New York. “When did he leave for Singapore? I don’t remember hearing about him moving.”
“I have no idea,” Lara said. I heard her flipping through some papers. “Sometime in the past few months. Since the accident, I think.”
“Yeah,” I said, remembering the text I got from him when I first realized Lisa was in the fellowship program. “I got a text from him last year after I started my fellowship at NYU. He didn’t mention anything about it. I emailed him for some info on Lisa but I haven't heard back yet.”
“He's a pretty free spirit,” Lara said. “From what I heard, he put the mansion on the market, and there was a feature article on it in the New York Times real estate section, if I recall correctly. Once it sold, he left for Singapore. Haven’t heard from him since. I called the Ritz but there’s no record of him there so I’m not sure he stayed. Maybe went somewhere else in Malaysia. His former partner said he always wanted to relocate there and focus his business in the Asian market.”
“It sure would help to know what he thought about Lisa’s stability,” I said, leaning back in my chair and exhaling slowly. “I’m going to try to write out a list of all the functions I’ve gone to in the last three years. I have pretty much everything in my planner, so I’ll have something to work on to counter Lisa’s claims that we were seeing each other secretly.”
“That’s a good idea,” Lara said and I could hear hesitation in her voice.
“Lara,” I said, softly, deliberately calmly. “Should I be worried about this?”
There was a pause on her end and that told me everything. “You did nothing wrong, Drake. You weren’t seeing her. You never wrote those letters. There’d be no reason for you to keep it secret from me. I know everything about your past because I arranged it all. You would have told me if you were seeing Lisa.”
“I would have,” I said. “I only met my submissives through you.”
“That’s right. The cops may be on the wrong track for a while, but I’m sure they’ll see the light soon.”
With that, I sighed heavily, feeling like I needed to go for a run to work off some of my excess energy. The fact I hadn’t had sex for months didn’t help matters.
“What’s the sigh about?”
“I need to go for a run,” I said and shifted in my chair. “Hyped up tonight.”
“Kate still not back to normal?” Lara said lightly. I knew what she meant.
“Not yet,” I replied. “She’s starting to feel better physically. I imagine once we know how Ethan’s doing, she might be able to truly relax again. Things will get back to normal. Don’t worry about me.”
“I do worry about you, Drake. You’re like my little brother.”
“Ha!” I said with a laugh. “Some little brother, considering…”
“Yeah, I know. Maybe a stepbrother. Anyway, you have a good run. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Goodbye,” I said and ended the call. I turned back to the screen and closed my email down then went to the bedroom and changed out of my clothes and into my sweats. The water was still running in the bathroom, so Kate was having a nice long shower.