‘She lives here?’
‘Well, I think so. Some of the places she’s been to are highly recognisable from her descriptions. If you take a look, I think you’ll agree.’
‘What makes you think there’s something dodgy about it? Sex blogs get taken down all the time. People move on in their lives, or the web host deletes them because of complaints. All kinds of reasons.’
‘Her last post was about a trip she was making to some kind of training school for submissives. She was excited about it, and couldn’t wait to update us about what happened. Then she left and never came back. There’s just something…off about it. Why would she do that?’
‘You think something happened to her there?’
‘Perhaps. I don’t think Mia was the type who would just leave us hanging like that. She really enjoyed sharing all these new experiences with her readers. It was like…it was part of the thrill for her.’
‘A bit of an exhibitionist, maybe?’
‘Maybe. It was such a big part of her life. I can’t believe she’d willingly end it like this.’
‘And did she have a Dom?’
‘Yes.’
‘What do we know about him?’
‘Not much. Refers to him as “J” and says he works in some kind of respected profession.’
‘Not a journalist, then?’ said Tom, with a twinkle. ‘I guess…doctor, lawyer…oh! University lecturer?’
‘They hooked up through some kind of private chat group, I think.’
‘OK, well, that’s what we’ll try to do, then.’
‘What? You have a plan?’
‘Follow in their footsteps,’ he said briskly. ‘Get on to some of these sites and make profiles and meet some other local kinksters. What? Don’t you think so?’
I was staring at him, I realised. I blinked and looked back at the screen.
‘You want to do this?’ I said, referring both to the investigation of Mia’s disappearance and to the continuation of our mutual interest in her kink.
‘Why not? We’re ideally placed, aren’t we? If anyone can find her, it’s us.’
I shook my head. ‘I’m not a detective,’ I said.
‘No, but I think we’d make a good team,’ he said. ‘You’ve got the attention to detail and I’ve got the understanding of people. You’re good at research and I’m good at persuasion. Come on. This could work.’
‘I don’t have the understanding of people?’
He laughed.
‘No, Foxy, you don’t. You never picked up on Tilda and Miles? Seriously?’
I bit my lip. Perhaps he was right. I tended to take people at face value and found it difficult to see anything beyond that. If you gave me something written down, though, I could read it every which way there was.
‘But you think we could work as a detective duo?’
‘Sure, why not?’ he said. ‘Holmes and Watson. Jeeves and Wooster.’
‘Jeeves and Wooster aren’t detectives.’
He clapped his hands. ‘Like I said! Attention to detail. Flanagan and Allen. Porgy and Bess. The Master and Margarita.’