Sinitta walked slowly along the road, always looking down, now.

Her daughter, Shani, had vanished without a trace over five years ago, and she still felt the pain of her loss as if it was yesterday. She still held out hope that she was alive and happy somewhere. She didn’t know it, but she was half right…

She saw a bag of clothes, dumped by the side of the road by someone casually clearing out and fly tipping. A brightly coloured Sari caught her eye…

It was her daughters! She was sure of it! She pulled it free from the bundle, examining it. Yes, there was the stain that they’d never been able to get out after her daughter’s eighteenth birthday party. There was the split where her daughter had dropped a glass, and the pieces had cut her clothes…

Frantically, she pulled out her phone.

“Hello, Police? It’s Sinitta Douglas. I’ve just found a new item relating to my daughter’s disappearance. Can you come?”

The WPC at the other end asked for a location, said she’d be there as soon as she could, then hung up. Even after all this time they were still taking Shani’s disappearance seriously, as she had been a minor celebrity in the town.

Shortly, a police car turned up, and WPC Marielle Davis got out and met Sinitta, who showed her the Sari. The pair then spent a while investigating the bag of clothes. One item still had a receipt in a pocket. The receipt had a partial credit card number on it.

Marielle promised she’d keep Sinitta advised, got back in her car and quickly headed back to the station. Enquiries made to both the shop and the card company then located the address of the purchaser. Then she made an almost fatal mistake…

Eager to get a promotion for finding Shani, as well as derail an ongoing investigation into her conduct, she didn’t tell anyone where she was going…

She entered the block of flats, ironically just up the road from the bundle of clothes and knocked on a door. A man answered.

“Timothy Evans?”, she asked. “WPC Davis. Were you shopping recently down the road, and bought a couple of cartons of Oat Milk?”

“Yes, why?”, he asked.

“A receipt was found in a pair of jeans in a bag”, she said.

“Is this about the clothes that got pinched from my car?”, he asked. Marielle’s face fell. Damn, another dead end…

Tim invited her in for coffee, seeing she was feeling down. She sat with him for a minute, drinking, feeling relaxed. It was only as she was struggling to stay awake that she realised she’d been drugged.

“I really go for women in uniform; let’s get you dressed in the right one, shall we?”, Tim whispered in her ear…

Marielle slowly came back to consciousness and immediately started to struggle. She was gagged, collared and chained up; she was also wearing a stylised black and white French maid’s dress, in latex, and fishnets. She could also tell by the draft between her legs that she wasn’t wearing any knickers…

Looking around the room, she saw another woman lying on a cot, dressed the same as her except her outfit was in pink. The other woman also stirred and looked at her. It was Shani!

The two terrified women embraced each other as best as they could, despite the chains.

Marielle had to assume her hood was the same as Shani’s but in black; there was no mirror in the room. The hood covered her entire head, leaving only her eyes and nose visible, with a stylised white heart printed where her mouth would have been and a white bow on top of her head. She could see by the bulge that Shani was also firmly gagged.

Suddenly Tim came into the room.

“You’re lucky, Shani”, he said. “Marielle has volunteered to take over your duties for you, so I don’t need you anymore. I’ve found you a nice new home, you’ll really like it! Your new owner has just arrived to pick you up; however, he values his privacy very much, so he wants you fitted with a privacy mask before he takes you.”

Shani, terrified, tried to back away. Tim just pressed a button on his phone.

Both women jerked with pain.

“Shani, behave, or you’ll both suffer”, he said. He then pressed the mask to Shani’s face; it clamped on to the white line on the hood around Shani’s nose and eyes. There was two small holes in the mask allowing her to breathe, otherwise her head was a featureless mass of pink.

A leash was then attached to her collar. Shani was led out of the door. Marielle tried to stop them, but she hadn’t noticed she was chained to the bed; she was pulled up short, struggling.

A few minutes later, Tim came back into the room alone.

“I’m glad you got chance to say goodbye”, he said. “After all, if I didn’t have you, she’d still be working here. Anyway, I’d better start your training today. You’re worth a lot more trained than untrained…”

Marielle screamed into her gag as Tim walked out…

At the police station, Sinitta was asking about Shani’s investigation.

“I’m sorry, but the Officer working on your case has resigned, health reasons”, the sergeant said.

“What? WPC Davis assured me she’d help!”, Sinitta cried. “Especially after we found the Sari, and where it had come from.”

“That’s typically her”, the sergeant replied. “She’s a bit of a loose cannon, to tell you the truth. Always doing things off her own back. She was going to be investigated because of it, that’s why she resigned. And, as she hasn’t left any notes, we’re at a dead end again regarding your case. I’m very sorry.”

Sadly, Sinitta left…

Marielle, when semi-conscious as the drugs had been taking effect, had been really open to suggestion, and happily handed over all her email passwords, as well as telling her captor about the investigation into her conduct. The resignation email had practically written itself…

Marielle herself was going through the first few days of training in her ‘new job’. Shortly, another mother would be wondering why her daughter wasn’t coming home…