I've seen Cinderella, which has wonderful camera effects. There's a scene where the pumpkin changes into a carriage. The best one is The Passion Play, which is ten times longer than the average movie. You should try a movie some time.'
'I will,' promised Varney. 'I heard they were coming to St Louis.'
They had run out of entertainment topics to discuss, and silently swallowed the last of their crepes. Fanny touched her napkin to her mouth and murmured, 'Yum, that was good.'
'Very good,' Varney agreed.
'I should thank you for a marvellous meal,' she said. 'I want to thank you.'
She leaned over, across him, her full breasts pressing like twin cushions against his arms, and she planted a delicious kiss on his open lips. Her tongue darted out to find his and then teased against his tongue.
Varney could feel an immediate erection.
Fanny reached down and patted his stomach. 'How does it feel? Have you had all you want?' Before he could reply, her palm slid down his stomach, and reached his crotch and curled around his erection.
Withdrawing her hand slowly, she gave him a seductive smile. 'Or would you like more?'
'More,' he gulped, relieved that he didn't have to ask her to bed. She was plainly asking him. His confidence grew along with the size of his penis, and he added firmly, 'Much more. I want you, Fanny.'
'You have me,' she said simply, taking his hand. 'It's only a short walk.'
They went up the thickly carpeted mahogany staircase, between the potted palms and the statues of nude Grecian goddesses, to the upstairs corridor. There Fanny led Varney along a row of doors until she reached her own.
Opening the door, she turned on a lamp and beckoned Varney inside the boudoir. Its magnificence stopped him in his tracks. What caught his eye first was the Turkish-style headboard of brass, inlaid with marble. Nearby was a window covered from floor to ceiling by red velvet drapes with silk borders. On one wall stood an elaborately carved wooden mantel splashed with gold paint. There were freshly cut roses in two iron urns on the mantel.
This, thought Varney, is paradise.
Fanny was undoing the jet buttons of her blouse. As Varney moved to assist her, she said, 'It would take you too long to undress me, Jack. These buttons, then the hooks and eyes, and after that my blouse and skirt, and the petticoats, ruffles, and whalebone stays, and then my shoes to unbutton, and my stockings to roll down. It would take you half an hour, and by then you'd lose your erection.'
'I wouldn't,' he said adamantly.
'Believe me,' Fanny said. 'But I can go to the bathroom and get unpeeled in five minutes. I know how to do it. So you stay here and take your clothes off. I'll be with you in a jiffy.'
When she was gone, Varney took his clothes off slowly. When he was naked, he could feel that he was losing his erection. He glanced at the bathroom door, imagined what she'd be like, and immediately his penis began to rise.
Moments later she emerged wearing only a filmy pink dressing-gown. She considered his nakedness, nodded approval, and padded straight to the bed. She threw off her dressing-gown, and dropped to the bed on her back. The instant Varney's gaze moved from her blonde hair and beautiful face to the huge mounds of breasts, the sleek pinkish-white abdomen, the great pubic patch, as she lifted her fleshy thighs and spread them apart, Varney's penis hardened fully and stood straight out.
'Come on, young man,' Fanny beckoned. 'Let me enjoy that.'
Varney was on the bed immediately, atop her, and between her legs.
She shut her eyes, squealed with delight, put her arms around him to draw him in tighter.
He began to pump away, and as he did so, she began to undulate her bottom beneath him, until he felt he was going crazy.
Along the way, he had one fleeting thought of his real mission.
So much for the Everleigh Club as a chaste restaurant.
Soon, Mayor Harrison might be as happy with the word as Varney himself was right now with the proof.
Varney went on with her for – he didn't know – maybe ten minutes or so. She was the best, most experienced girl he'd ever coupled with. She pushed all the right buttons, until he was frenzied. When he had his orgasm, she made sounds of a prolonged orgasm too – but when his senses returned he knew it wasn't true. She was a prostitute, a sweet, loose girl, but a prosty nevertheless, and they never came for pay.
When they lay under the blanket, recovering, she was ready to listen to him and to talk herself. No rush job. The Ever-leighs had a class act going.
'You're the best I've ever had,' admitted Varney. 'Whatever you get, you should get more.'
'I think so too,' Fanny agreed ingenuously. 'You'll pay fifty dollars, and I'll get half. Usually, I accept that as fair. But now I'm going to be earning less, because – because for certain reasons – Minna and Aida are screening customers more closely and will be turning more away. I don't like that. It's the first time Minna has been unfair.'
'Why don't you leave the Everleighs?' Varney asked.
'And go where? This is the best-paying house in Chicago. If I had somewhere else to go that paid better, I'd certainly do it right now. That's how I feel.'
Varney had full command of his senses at last. His mind was on his mission. He could now testify that the Everleigh Club was a whorehouse. But Harrison had reminded him that if he could get one of the girls as a witness, their case for a shutdown would be perfect, a cinch.
There was a gamble involved in confessing his mission, Varney realized, but given this girl's mood, it might be safe.
'Maybe I can see that you're better paid,' Varney blurted.
The girl stared at him. 'How? By living with you?'
'No. It's something else. What if I told you I could pay you $3,000 cash if you did something for me?'
'For doing what?' she asked suspiciously.
'For telling the mayor what you just did with me, and then testifying to the same before the chief of police.'
Fanny blinked at him. 'They'd shut down the Club. I'd hate to be responsible. Well, at least not for $3,000.'
With her last sentence, Varney knew that he had her on the hook. He propped himself on an elbow and prepared to negotiate.
Dr Herman Holmes, gripping his black medical bag, was proceeding along the upstairs corridor of the Everleigh Club, about to conclude his first day at work, and was now running late. A pleasurable and sensuous day it had been. He had closely, intimately, and lingeringly, examined fourteen of the healthiest and most breathtaking girls he had ever seen.
It was a bonanza of a job, with the most exciting prospects on earth, and from the easy manner of the girls, there would be none to resist him.
He had one more vagina to examine this evening, the fifteenth. He glanced at his list. This one's name was Fanny. He reached her door. About to knock, he realized that she might have a partner inside and he did not want to disturb her until she was finished. Instead, he tried the doorknob. The door was unlocked, and he opened it a few inches to peek in.
'Yes, $5,000,' he heard a male voice say.
About to shut the door, Dr Holmes heard Fanny speak out. 'Actually $5,000? In cash? You mean that? Just to testify against the Everleighs? Why, even if they shut the Club down, it wouldn't matter to me. With $5,000 I could set up my own dress shop in the Loop and never hustle again. Tell me again, Jack, so I understand for sure.'
Dr Holmes did not shut the door. He left an inch open so that he could hear the rest.
'I told you,' the male voice resumed. 'I work for Mayor Harrison. He guaranteed me that if I had sex with any Everleigh girl I could offer her $5,000 if she would testify that the Club is still a brothel. You were smart enough to take me up on it.'
'What happens next?' Fanny inquired.
'We get dressed. I leave the room first and find Aida and pay up for the evening. Then I'll step outside and find a public telephone and call the mayor's office. I'll say we're coming right in. Then I'll go to the corner and wait
