Cara Loft - Crypt Detective

Chapter One - End Of An Era

Cara looked down at the papers her solicitor had pushed across the old, worn oak of his desk, an expensive pen resting impatiently on top of them.

"I know Cara... I wish I could do more, but it's for the best." Reginald said, a small glimpse of sympathy momentarily crossing his weathered face before it returned to its usual stern look.

She let out a sigh before picking up the pen between her rough fingers and starting to sign the dozens of places the little yellow stickies indicated.

It had never occurred to her that all of her good work could be undone by something as simple as a lawsuit. Perhaps if she'd paid more attention to the family business...

No, she admonished herself, she'd left it in good hands as she had more important things to do. The Guild was a blight on the planet and she was determined to stop them, though with this set back she was no longer certain how she might accomplish that.

She had been fighting them since the day she had emerged from the jungle, the plane she and her parents had been in crashed when she was only 14. Her parents had died instantly upon impact, her own survival a fluke of luck as her mother had held her tightly and lessened the impact upon her.

It had taken her the almost a year to fight her way out of the jungle and it had taught her the skills that she'd used for the better part of a decade to track down and defeat The Guild every time she could.

Of course, the media had had a field day with the story, "Lady Loft fights her way out of Jungle!", "Lady Loft, Jungle Warrior!" and so on and so on.

She'd become a celebrity overnight, well more so that she already was having grown up as the only daughter of the Lord Loft, the Duke of Norfolk. He had taken the crumbling title of his father and re-created it as a high-tech dynasty in the making.

She'd taken over the company, at least legally, when she'd turned 18, but her mind wasn't on the family business. Instead, she was focused on the mystery around the plane crash that had claimed her parents' lives. By the time she was twenty, she'd tracked the clues back to The Guild, a shadowy group that moved in the background, seemingly directing every major event in global commerce over the last 100 years.

Her research had taken her across the globe, to the darkest, deepest parts where no one went willingly. The papers had followed along, dubbing her "Cara Loft, Crypt Detective", because of a single mishap in a graveyard. But she paid it little attention, she had accomplished what she needed to at the time and thwarted yet another plot by The Guild to send the countries economy into a downward spiral.

Finishing off the last of the signatures she brushed a stray strand of her dark brown hair back around her ear and leaned back in the thickly padded chair and let herself slouch there as she pushed the documents back to Reginald.

"Thank you Reginald, I don't know what I would do without you."

"My pleasure Lady Loft, I am always at your service."

She smiled and pulled herself upright, her taught muscles showing through the skin-tight fabric of her riding jersey. He had been there for as long as she could remember for her family, working with her father in her youth and then he had been there for her when she came back from the dead. She felt a small pang of loss at the idea she wouldn't be seeing him as much anymore.

As the primary shareholder and the chairwoman of the board, the lawsuit had bankrupted her company as well as herself. Gone was her mansion and her homes across the globe, as well as the support staff she used to help track down The Guild, as she could no longer afford to pay them.

All that was left was a small condo that she had used when she was going to university as well as just enough money to live off of. She hadn't even had enough to pay Richard, her trusty sidekick for the last several years, his final paycheck let alone provide him with any kind of golden parachute. At least Carson, her family's loyal butler for many years, had the trust that had been set up by her father before the plane crash. Cara regretted not doing something for Richard before it was too late, but she had never thought it would come to this.

The lawsuit had the markings of The Guild all over it, but no matter how much she investigated it, she could find nothing to link them to it. Instead, all she found was a series of incompetent staff, managers and executives that had lead to a cascade of failures in the safety testing. When the product was finally released, and became a worldwide success, those failures finally caught up to the company and while no one had died, there had been several injuries as the product caught fire.

The recall had nearly been the death of the company, to begin with, but the civil class action lawsuit had done them under. Even if it hadn't the fines the government was sure to levy against them would have finished the job one way or the other. The only option had been to file for bankruptcy and liquidate the company to pay off it's debt.

And now, with the paperwork finalized, she had nothing left of her parents' legacy but her family title.

Chapter 2 - Working It Out

Cara looked out over the skyline of London as she rode the stationary bike in the condo's exercise room, her lean legs pushing down on the peddles with determination. She'd always been a scrawny child before the crash, but after the jungle had sculpted her into a lean ball of muscle, she'd found it easy to maintain it over the years.

It had served her well in her fight against The Guild, though now she wondered if it was worth it. The Guild seemed like a distant memory now that she no longer had the resources to go after them. She hoped that someone else would take up the fight until she could regain what she had lost, though she had no idea how she might do that.

Instead, she'd spent the last couple of weeks after signing the paperwork trying to figure out what to do with her life.

It had been amazing how quickly her old "friends" had stopped returning her calls after the debacle. Apparently, it was bad form to associate with a failure like her, now that she was basically broke as far as they were concerned.

Even the media no longer came around once the paperwork was filed and the last remnants of her company had been sold off like scrap.

She let out a sigh as she slowed her pace and came to a rest, wiping her brow with a towel, she slipped off the stationary bike and headed for the shower.

Just as she was walking in to the change room she bumped into another woman as she came around the corner, "Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" the blonde said as Cara took a step back and smiled.

"Oh, it was my fault I'm sure." Cara said politely as she took a quick scan of the woman standing in front of her.

Cara had developed a keen sense of people with only a quick glance at them over the years of chasing The Guild around the globe and this woman screamed out "Trophy Wife" to Cara.

"Oh don't be silly, I'm Suzi by the way!" the blonde said and extended a hand to Cara.

"Cara." she replied and smiled. The woman's name only confirming what she already knew from the trim physique, dyed blonde hair and obvious implants in Suzi's chest.

"Nice to meet you Cara, I haven't seen you around before?"

"Just moved in a couple of weeks ago. Well moved back in I guess is more accurate, I lived here when I went to university as well."

"Well welcome back then! What floor are you on?" Suzi asked, her bubbly personality showing through the heavy makeup she wore for some reason to the gym.

"I'm on the 20th floor, 2002." Cara replied, not having to give out her unit number but seeing no harm in it.

"That's so amazing! Me too! I'm in 2004, we're neighbours!" Suzi almost squealed and Cara could swear she was almost bouncing up and down. Cara resisted the urge to roll her eyes and instead managed a smile.

"Well it was nice to meet you Suzi, I've got to get to the shower though."

"Oh, of course, I've got to get my workout in too. Maybe we can work out together some time?"

"Sure, sounds great." Cara said and managed to slip by Suzi and enter the showers as she heard the other woman head out to the workout room.

A few minutes later Cara felt the warm water run down her body as the spray hit the back of her neck and she let the steam envelope her. Her hands worked the soap over her body until they arrived at her small breasts and she looked down at them.

She'd never really thought much about them before, but after seeing Suzi's large implants, were hers too small?

No, she shook her head and continued lathering until all of the sweat was gone from her body. She was proud of her body, she didn't need to change it just because someone else had changed theirs.

She finished off her shower, towelling down and heading back up to her condo to make herself some lunch. She had a nice juicy steak that had been thawing all morning she was going to toss on the BBQ along with a baked potato. She'd wear it off with the weights in the workout room tomorrow like she did every day.

* * *

Cara was about to close the door to her condo as she turned to the elevator, pausing for an instant as she saw Suzi walking down the hallway in her workout clothes towards the elevator.

Indecision suddenly gripped her, should she call out to her or go back into her condo?

It lasted longer than it should have, but in the end, she let the door close, "Hey Suzi!" she called out and waved as the blonde turned and smiled at Cara.

For some reason that smile made Cara feel good and then a wave of guilt rolled over her as she thought back to just a moment ago when she'd almost snubbed Suzi and gone back inside.

"Hi Cara! Are you heading to the gym too?"

"Uh, yeah." Cara replied as she caught up to Suzi and the two of them headed to the elevator. It had been almost a week since they had "bumped" into each other in the gym and this was the first time Cara had seen Suzi since.

"That's great! We can work out together and gossip at the same time." Suzi said and slipped her arm through Cara's as the approached the elevator and then Suzi hit the down button.

"Sounds... great." Cara replied a little confused about the arm that was looped through hers, but not doing anything about it.

Suzi never seemed to run out of things to talk about; fashion, the weather, makeup, shopping, shoes, pop culture and the list went on and on. Cara hardly needed to get a word in edgewise for Suzi to take the conversation over.

But it did make the workout go faster than usual as Cara listened to Suzi ramble on and on.

The only thing that seemed to get under Cara's skin about the whole event was that each time she'd gone to the weights or rowing machine, Suzi had sidetracked her to something else. Stretching, yoga, dance aerobics and other workouts that didn't build muscle per se seemed to be more Suzi's thing.

Though to be honest, that made sense. Cara's original assessment had been spot on as Suzi had gleefully told her all about how she was "on the hunt" for a rich husband so that she could adorn his arm at all of the high society events she constantly talked about.

When they had finished, they both headed to the showers and Suzi continued to talk as they washed themselves down. Cara had tried to avoid looking over at Suzi, but eventually caught a glimpse of her naked body when Suzi had finally stopped talking for just a second and asked a question. On pure instinct, Cara had turned towards Suzi and was confronted by the blonde's nakedness.

Cara had suspected that under the baggy workout clothes Suzi would have an impressive figure, but even she had to admit she was a little jealous of what she saw. Whatever surgeon had done the breasts implants had left no visible scars behind, they were perfect and if they hadn't sat so high on her chest, or been so round, they probably would have passed as real.

But Cara had known that much about Suzi, it was the rest of her body that was just as impressive. Her long lean legs seemed to go on forever until they ended in a perfectly round butt, only to be pinched into a tight waist. She was the model of femininity that Cara had never been.

Cara shook her head, where had that thought come from? She'd never been concerned about her body or how other women looked, why did Suzi's looks matter?

Before Cara could answer, Suzi just barreled on and Cara was left with the strange thought bouncing around in her head.

* * *

Cara bent over at the waist, Suzi doing the same in front of her, as the music played in the workout room. They both reached down and held the large workout ball in their hands as they bounced up and down in time with the music.

Cara had a perfect view of Suzi's perfect ass and let out a sigh... why couldn't her ass be that perfect?

Those kinds of thoughts had crept into Cara's head a lot over the last few months that she'd been working out with Suzi. She'd been confused by them at first, tried to fight them off, but eventually, she'd had to admit that Suzi's body was better than hers.

Of course, Suzi had been understanding when Cara had finally gotten up the courage to talk to her about it. After all, Suzi was quite proud of how much work she put into having a great body, so why shouldn't Cara be jealous of it?

That had seemed so strange to Cara at first, but Suzi had said it so confidently and naturally, that Cara had no response other than to nod her head in agreement.

After that Suzi had offered to help Cara and ever since Suzi had been in charge of their workout schedule and routine. Cara looked over at the weights that she hadn't touched in months and smiled. Gone was the sense of guilt that she'd felt at first for not using them, replaced with a sense of pride that she'd come so far.

Suzi had helped her reshape her body, making her softer and smoother, just like Suzi was. It had been weird at first, but she had to admit that it felt so much better now that she wondered why she had ever wanted her old bulging muscles in the first place.

Suzi rose up and Cara did as well as her friend turned around and smiled at her, "Ok Cara, that's enough for today, let's hit the showers!"

Cara beamed back a smile and nodded as the two of them walked towards the change room, Cara just a few paces behind Suzi as the blonde prattled on about, well about a dozen different topics that all seemed to relate to men somehow.

Cara was enthralled with every word of it and she listened intently as they stripped down and headed into the showers. Cara watched Suzi's perfect ass wiggle from side to side as it did right up until Suzi turned to face the shower and Cara took in the rest of her perfect body.

It was a few minutes later, as Cara lathered up her body, that Suzi interrupted her nonstop chatter with something else, "Oh darn it!" she exclaimed and turned to Cara, who looked over at her friend.

"What's wrong?" Cara asked.

"I'm out of soap, can I borrow some of yours?" Suzi asked.

"Of course, here." Cara said and held out the bar of soap in her hand. Instead of taking the soap from Cara, Suzi wrapped her own hand around Cara's and pulled it to her chest, rubbing the bar of soap between her large round globes.

For a moment Cara stood there shocked, letting Suzi rub the soap into Suzi's body with Cara's hand but then she started to do it for herself and Suzi lifted her hand from Cara's.

"Thanks Cara!" Suzi said and Cara continued to lather up her friend's body, starting with her breasts, then moving on to her abdomen, then her buttocks and finally her long lean legs.

By the time Cara was done, she was on her knees, rubbing the soap into Suzi's feet. Cara looked up at Suzi smiling down at her, "Oh that's just perfect Cara! Thank you!"

Cara nodded in reply and stood back up, finishing her own lathering as she stared at Suzi's naked body as she rinsed off.

Chapter 3 - Girls Night Out

Cara tossed and turned in her sleep as dreams of lathering Suzi's body raced through her mind. She shot bolt upright in her bed as the sounds of sex came murmuring through her bedroom wall.

She was soaking wet, both from sweat as well as from the heat in her pussy and she collapsed back down before rolling over to a dry area of her bed.

But the sounds coming from Suzi's bedroom only made it worse, and this wasn't the first time she heard them. It had been two weeks ago, on a Friday night, Cara had been reading a fashion magazine in bed when she'd heard Suzi's excited voice slam the door to her condo and a few minutes later the passionate sounds of Suzi making love to someone.

Perhaps love wasn't the right word, it was more sex. Raw, hard pounding, sex. Cara was pretty sure she could hear each thrust he made into Suzi and the subsequent gasp that Suzi let out. It seemed to go on forever until Suzi literally screamed out at the top of her lungs in what Cara could only assume was pure pleasure.

Cara might have gone over to complain about the noise, if she hadn't found herself masturbating to it before it was over. It had been so strange, the feelings that the sounds instilled in her and before she knew it, she too was cumming. Though she'd done Suzi the favour of muffling her own cries into her pillow.

The next day she'd mentioned in passing that there had been a lot of "noise" coming from Suzi's condo and Suzi just couldn't hold it in and let out every last detail of the night before. How she'd meet him at a bar, how he was some high flying stockbroker, how he made her pussy come alive with every stroke, how he'd cum inside of her and sent a rocking orgasm through her.

Cara wanted to tell her to stop, but for some reason, she just nodded her head and listened intently to every word. When she was finished their workout and shower, to which Suzi seemed to never bring any soap too, not that Cara complained. They'd headed back up to Suzi's condo and Cara noticed it was a mirror image of Cara's, realizing that their bedrooms were right next to each other, which explained why Cara could hear Suzi's escapades so well.

But tonight Cara's fingers had already made their way to her pussy, slowly rubbing her own clit in time with the sounds Suzi was making, until Cara could tell Suzi was close and Cara stepped up her efforts.

She was rewarded with an orgasm just as she heard Suzi cry out as well.

Cara tossed her sheets off and headed to the bathroom where she turned on the shower, full blast on cold, and stepped in.

* * *

"Come on Cara, why don't you come out with me this week. I mean, you really need to get laid right?" Suzi said sitting across from Cara at the restaurant.

"Well, I don't know. I mean clubs aren't really my thing..." he replied, biting her lower lip not wanting to acknowledge the fact that she did need to get laid or that Suzi's constant flow of men into her condo had almost driven her to the edge of barging in and joining them.

"Oh come on girl, we'll go shopping and get you something to wear! It will be so much fun!"

Cara cast her gaze downward and nodded slightly, unable to form the words to either agree or disagree with Suzi in the moment.

"That's great! Come on, let's go!" Suzi said, tossing some money down on the table and grabbing Cara's hand, pulling her up and dragging her out of the restaurant.

It was true that Cara didn't have anything to wear to a club, of course, she'd spent her adult life running around the seediest places in the world, and that hadn't called for clubwear.

Suzi, on the other hand, seemed to only have outfits that were appropriate for a club. Even today, in contrast to Cara's simple blue top and khaki pants, Suzi was decked out in a tight-fitting dress that seemed to shimmer in the sunlight, showed off her cleavage and barely come down below her panty line. Though Cara suspected she wasn't wearing any panties, just in case it rode up and they might show.