"Okay, Sweetie — I’ll be along. There might be something up, here. I’ll call Louise, too," Beth advised.
"Great!" Teela replied. "I’m kinda scared, hanging out like this…"
"It’ll be fine, Sweetie. You guys hang back and don’t get seen, okay?"
"Okay."
Beth called Louise, "Fred’s headed for Winton."
"No shit?" Louise’s response indicated her surprise.
"Any idea why he might go that way?" Beth asked.
"Uh uh. Hang on…" Louise went into the living room, where Terence and Damian were watching some movie on TV. "Do you two have any idea why your Pa might go to Winton?" The boys shared a look and shook their heads, and Louise related, "No guess."
"Okay. I’m gonna go back up the kids. I’ll call you when I know something."
"Sounds good, Hon. Be careful!"
"I will." Beth hung up.
Louise headed back toward the kitchen and her court show. Damian eyed Terence. "Winton, huh?" Winton was a lot easier to find hookers in than the town they lived in; the town had sort of a red-light district — strip bars, adult video stores — even visible hookers, if you were in the right place at the right time … Pa was up to no good, it looked like.
Fred wheeled the pickup into the parking lot behind Alonzo’s Adult Emporium and shut it down, looking around at the other cars to see which ones were occupied. There were a couple that still had occupants — one female, probably waiting while her boyfriend rented a video. Fred had seen women in the store before, but it was always the same tale — We’re here to buy some adult gag gifts. Then they would spend twenty minutes looking at vibrators, giggling at one another. More often than not, you could take one look at them and know who they were shopping for; most women only hit the stores when they were truly desperate. Fred couldn’t recall ever having seen a woman brave enough to hit the peeps; on the other hand, he HAD seen — and avoided — a couple of transvestites. They were interesting on screen, but in person, they were kinda scary … Occasionally, you saw a cross-dresser — usually REALLY ugly! A bearded guy in a housedress, a wig, and stockings? Yuck … Fred got out of the truck and ambled inside.
"He went in!" Rick hissed. They had parked in the next parking lot and were using the store for cover while they watched. "Call Beth!"
"He went into Alonzo’s Adult Emporium," Teela related. "It’s on Scale Street."
"Well, you won’t be going in THERE!" Beth laughed. "I’m about ten minutes out. See you soon!"
Meanwhile, Fred spent ten minutes perusing the racks, pretending to be interested in buying a video or a toy. There WERE a couple of toys that might have been vaguely interesting, if he had a place to try them out — but, no. Not at home … He got change for a twenty from the three hundred fifty pound chick at the counter and headed for the peep booths in the back.
Beth wheeled her minivan into the parking lot where Teela and Rick waited. "Has he come out?" she asked.
"No." Rick shook his head.
"These places don’t take THAT long to look over," Beth observed. It was fortunate that she was on backup; Jean, for instance, would never even have thought about going inside — but Roy had gotten a kick out of sending Beth into such places, so she knew no fear. "He’s up to something in there. I’m going in."
"Are you sure?" Teela asked, nervous.
"Oh, yeah," Beth grinned. "It’s not dangerous. And I don’t have to worry about my reputation." She headed toward the door, waving. Teela watched her go, shaking her head.
Fred didn’t have a favorite booth here — he didn’t need one. In the first place, it was Russian Roulette finding one where the videos worked halfway decently — and in the second, nearly every booth had a glory hole, varying in size from something you could only watch through to something you could stick your balls through, too, if you cared to. There were only about a dozen peeps — six on each side — and one VIP booth on the back wall, unused, as usual. There were three guys looking at the boxes for the videos in the system displayed on the wall — or pretending to while they scoped each other … Fred gave the content a cursory glance; it was about 25% straight sex (with variations) 50% gay and 25% other oddities — fetish, fatties, TVs … The emphasis on gay sex made the focus of the area pretty obvious. Fred stuck his head in each of the first four booths on the right before picking one; the others were a mess — toilet paper, dribbles of semen on the plexiglass covering the screen — you name it. Somebody was supposed to clean up this mess periodically, but the same lack of health inspection that allowed glory holes to spring up in the first place fostered laziness in the staff… It’d be nice to find a fuckin place that had holes AND wasn’t a fuckin' mess… ' Fred thought glumly, while he fed a dollar into the machine.
Sound was nonexistent, and you could only change channels in one direction — par for the course. The store just took the money and provided minimal service, recognizing the fact that the videos were more or less a catalyst for what was REALLY going on…
Fred unzipped his fly, extracted his member, and started jacking — and instantly had activity at the glory hole on his right. It wasn’t long before a finger popped through, and Fred fed his length through the hole and into a waiting mouth, sighing in pleasure.
Beth didn’t fool around pretending to be interested in the video or toy selection — she just walked the aisles, looking for Fred — or rather, looking for a big black guy. There weren’t any in the main store, so she turned toward the back.
The woman behind the counter roused herself, "You want some rubbers, Honey? I would, if I was you — I DO, in fact. I’ll give you some for free…"
"No, I’m set," Beth replied, waving her purse. Then she stepped into the dark…
The place was a rat hole — that was obvious. The males present shied away, fearful — a woman here was usually escorted, or she wasn’t REALLY a woman. Besides, most of them were somewhat ashamed of themselves and didn’t want to be recognized. Beth knew from experience that if she entered a booth, though, there would be a dick sticking through the hole in no time. Roy got a kick out of that; he used to give her a case of rubbers and see how long it took her to bring them back, used…
No black guys. There were various other colors, shapes and sizes, but nothing that would match Fred — which meant he was in a booth. And every booth that was occupied had a neighbor that was ALSO occupied. Peeking through doors, Beth ascertained that there was no dearth of glory holes — which meant that, undoubtedly, there was no dearth of cock suckers. She watched an older guy, who shot her a furtive glance before rattling a door across the way — obviously, some of them were pretty brave, too…
Beth had learned everything she was going to, probably — whether Fred was a sucker or a suckee wasn’t really determinable by direct observation. On the other hand, if Fred was just in for service, he would be done fairly soon — she didn’t have to see him doing it to know that he must be waiting on his knees if he was in there for long…
Coming out of the back, she came under the regard of the clerk again. "Looking for someone special, Honey?"
Beth weighed her options, then nodded. "A big, beefy black guy…"
"He yours?" the clerk asked.
"Well, not really. More like I’m thinking about it, but…"
"Looks like you’d have to share," the clerk opined, her smile displaying a couple of gaps in her dental work. "He’s in there — I have to keep an eye on things." She waved at a monitor. "If I wasn’t alone, here, you might’ve had to share with me. That’d probably be better than sharing with them, though." She waved Beth through a gap in the counter. "Want to see what he’s up to?"