Monica Stevens had never been to the mall where the old man's shop was located. However, she had visited his online store at compuslave.com.
The site had promised her that she could where the dresses the mannequins at Macy's wore. She was desperately overweight, and figured what did she have to lose, but some cash and few pounds. She'd already tried the Atkins, Pritikin, and a half dozen other diets, so she clicked on the link in the spam email she'd received.
She clicked on her selection and vanished. A new svelte mannequinn arrived at Macy's from compuslave.com, the window dresser didn't know how they made them so lifelike for so little money, but she didn't care. Monica had been upset initially to find herself crated and immobile, but she liked all the people walking by and staring up at her in her size 2 bikini as you stood in the center front of Macy's main entrance window.
Stan Barker had been a detective for ten years, his rookie partner had carried a gold shield for all of two weeks. Roger "Buck" Buckley insisted that it was more than a coincidence that Bessy Caufield, Ken Bullock, Victoria Wayans, Alex Oxford, and now Monica Stevens had all vanished from locked rooms while apparently visiting the same websites. Well the addresses were different, but they were all owned by the same holding company: Compuslavedotcom Inc.
Barker didn't really by the internet linkage, but something about that company's name and the type of sites it hosted didn't set well with him. Besides what better way for a rookie to learn than to bang his head against the wall a few times. He sat in the surveillance car while Roger went into the mall wearing a wire.
A bell tinkled.
"May I help you?" asked the shopkeeper, "Perhaps a parlour game, a transformation spell, or did you have something else in mind, sir?"
"You can call me Buck, mister. I'm doing a story of the Computer News on new successful web businesses, and according to internic and the SEC, this is the world headquarters for compuslavedotcom inc.," he said incredulously looking around the musty old shop.
"Yes, it is," the shopkeeper's eyes gleamed free publicity, and it would soon be deer season he could visualize an 8 or 10 point rack on the buff young man standing in front of him, maybe after the story comes out,"I know it doesn't look like much, but that's why Forbes named us one of the fastest growing internet companies. Low overhead. The servers are in the back room, and I control everything from this desktop. Would you like a demonstration?"
"Sure."
Barker took a swig from his flask. He wasn't supposed to drink on duty, but hey he was alone in his car. Who would know?