Susan and Jack had come up to town as soon as they had the frantic telephone call from Tina's land-lady. They persuaded her not to report the matter to the police, not yet at any rate, they wanted to keep the disappearance of the girl from the knowledge of her mother and father. If they could not trace her or find her by the end of that week, then the police would have to be informed. Until then, they would try and get a clue as to where she might have gone. The description the woman gave of the foreign men with Tina gave Susan and Jack the idea that they must have been Orientals, and when on going through some of the discarded papers and rubbish in Tina's room they found a torn card on which had been scribbled 'The Ling-Tan Theatrical Agency' with its address, the young couple thought they might have a lead.
Young Tina had always had a hankering after a life of glamour, a life of the bright lights that show-business might have to offer a young pretty girl. If she had gotten into the wrong type of Agency, if she had been fool enough to fall for a lot of wild promises that some of the vile men who lure young girls put to them… well… this Ling-Tan Agency might be the right lead…
Reluctant as he was to let his wife go to the office of this Agency on her own, Jack knew this was by far the best way of finding out what sort of organization was run by this Ling-Tan firm. If it was the sort of company that looked for lone girls, it would be quite useless for a man to try to get any information from them. The only way was for Susan to go along to the office, just on the off chance, as it might appear, to see if they had any suggestions for her, as she wanted to go on the stage. From that point of introduction she would have to see which way the cat jumped. They tried taking off her wedding ring, so that she could make out she was a single girl without friends in London. They wanted to make it easy for the Agency to lure her if they were that sort of organization. If this approach led nowhere, then plainly it was not through this Ling-Tan setup that they were going to trace the missing Tina. If, on the other hand, they showed great interest in Susan despite her lack of dramatic or theatrical experience, then this might prove as likely as not an invaluable clue that could lead them to Susan.
The wedding ring had to be put on again. It left a deep impression on the finger when it was removed. This might well be suspicious to an alert-eyed Oriental.
"Better say you are a widow, dear," Jack told his wife. "They won't be very interested in you if they know you have a husband near at hand."
"No, darling, I just can't say that. I won't think of anything as horrible as losing you, dear," insisted Susan. "I will say you are abroad on business and you won't be back for at least a year. That will help to make a real reason why I am alone in London and why I want to join a theatrical group, to meet friends and fill up my time while you're away. That sounds feasible, doesn't it? It will make them think I'm going to be an easy haul for them, won't it? That, is, of course, if they're the sort of people we think they are."
Tse Ling looked at the young woman seated on the sofa in his private office at the back of the Agency. His Manageress had been quite right to have this young woman shown in to his own room. She was possibly of the type they needed. She looked about twenty-two, she was married, he noticed, but after a brief glance down at the sheet of particulars his Manageress had provided for him about this applicant to join their Agency, he saw her husband was abroad. He would be away from her for at least another twelve months. The little Oriental suppressed a smile at this. Just the set-up he liked. A young wife, alone and depressed, bored and lovely. No wonder she wanted to go find new friends and if possible earn some money for herself by part-time acting.
He scanned down the paper. Not very experienced in acting. Strange in a way she should want to take it up now. He looked at her more closely. She was very attractive, very physically desirable. "Why had she come to his Agency?" he asked her. She explained that she had been to many others first, but they had not been very interested, as she did not have enough experience to suit them. That was understandable. He put his fears to rest on that score. They had all turned her down, eh? It was a good thing Susan Bowing had been prepared for the question. Jack had told her to say she had been to other agencies. He had given her a few names to mention if necessary. Tse Ling was satisfied with her reply, and did not ask for any names. He handed her a cigarette, it was a long thin affair, and she did not like it much, but she obliged him by slowly smoking it while he asked her more questions. She knew he was making up his mind about her… she did not want to offend him or appear aloof by refusing his long cigarettes. It was one of his Eastern brands, she supposed. It was sweetly sickly but probably would not do her any harm if she could get over the strange taste.
Tse Ling studied her through his slit-slant eyes, narrowed to almost being fully closed. She was very attractive, she had lovely high breasts, well spaced on her lush figure, and those hips, they were perfect, luscious and desirable to grip; she sat so that he could see her shapely legs. Her tight-fitting skirt hid her thighs, but he knew they were broad and delightful, the lower parts of her limbs curved perfectly to her calves and down to trim ankles. He knew it was a body that would attract any man… what a fool her husband must be to leave his pretty wife alone in London! Well, she had come to the right place to be taken care of… but perhaps not in the way she expected…
She was lonely, the report said, she wanted to meet friends and thought perhaps a semi-pro theatrical group might be the answer. Tse Ling would see she met friends, plenty of them… but her performances with them might not come under any particular dramatic art, as seen on the stage at least. The little Oriental smiled to himself at his thoughts.
For the fourth time, Jack Bowing got out of his car and put another coin into the parking meter. He had parked a couple of streets away from where the Ling-Tan Agency had its office. Susan was to come round here as soon as the initial interview was over. It was running into the fourth hour since she had kissed him good-bye and waved as she trotted up the road. He had expected her to be about half an hour. Surely they would only want to take brief notes at this first introduction. They hoped to be able to form some opinion about the Ling-Tan Agency from this first visit perhaps, after all, it was a legitimate organization, perhaps Susan could not leave so easily without arousing their suspicion, and she was given some sort of audition.
Jack got back into the car. He smiled. Funny if after all it was a straight firm, and if they were giving Susan some sort of an audition when all she wanted to find out was if they were the sort of firm which would stoop to procuring young lonely girls and women. Jack Bowing might not have settled back quite so placidly in his car had he known the stage at which his pretty wife's 'audition' had reached.
After the first cigarette the Chinaman had invited her to join him in smoking what he described as a really pleasant dreamy leaf, and had taken her through into a small cubicle of a room at the back of his private office, that was furnished only with a sort of wooden bunk affair. The moment the old Oriental settled down beside her on the mattressed bunk, and she began to inhale the long thin weed he had lit for her, she knew this was a much more potently strong reefer than the one she had forced herself to smoke in his office. Susan inhaled deeply. She did not know what else to do. She appreciated she was in a tight corner. She had already formed the opinion that this Agency might well be the lead that would give them a clue to Tina. If she had been brought to this little smoking den with the old man just like this… well, who was to know what was to follow. Susan Bowing knew she would just have to wait and find out. By the time she had sucked less than half the long thin weed, she was experiencing a familiar desiring ache deep in her cunt. With every long drag at this sickly weed, she was literally feeling herself relaxing and caring less and less about her cares and worries. She didn't feel like the same person, she was not anxious and worried about her missing sister any more… she was not in the least concerned about anything… or anybody…