Innocence Betrayed

By Charles S. Hoff

The most satisfyingly erotic murder mystery in
years, Innocence Betrayed introduces Chick Bern and his young sweetheart
Aubrey Klein, both innocents. Brutal and
shocking events shatter this innocence. In high school Aubrey already knew Chick was the one
she wanted to marry, but she also wanted him right then in every way
imaginable. Chick felt that since they were not married and both virgins, that
he did not have the right to take her innocence. JEEZUZ!!! With Chick away in
the Army for two years, Aubrey's innate lust led her to torrid sexual liaisons,
and ultimately to extreme danger. Upon his return, Chick was forced to deal
with brutal death, his capacity to exact violent revenge, and his potential to
retain his lifelong core sensitivities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 15, 2004
• ISBN: 9781414005225

Charles S. Hoff

Charles Hoff had a career designing spy satellites, hoping to help prevent wars. Then he had a career as a defense attorney practicing law in courtrooms to help widows and orphans (mostly). Then he had a career writing Letters To The Editor enumerating the malfeasances of the George Bush presidency. In between these letters, Mr. Hoff has written two books, of which Innocence Betrayed is the second and his first novel. Being a voracious reader and writer, Mr. Hoff has received many accolades for his formal writings, which have been published internationally in business, technical, and legal journals and proceedings. Of all his writings to date, the author favors (after his Letters To The Editor) his novel Innocence Betrayed, which is an erotic, poignant, sometimes funny mystery-murder-adventure which betrays far too much about the Author's private life. Mr. Hoff currently lives in Southern California, where he is working on a sequel to Innocence Betrayed, developing new tv series, traveling to exotic places researching future projects, and still finding spare moments to write Letters To The Editors.   

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

PROLOGUE

INFANT INNOCENCE

The Grizzly Bear is huge and wild;

He has devoured the infant child.

The infant child is not aware

It has been eaten by the bear.

A. E. Housman

Such sweet innocence and so brutally betrayed.

Can the enormous pain of such a loss lead to the

destruction of still other innocence?

C. S. Hoff

CHAPTER

ONE

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Goddamn that felt good! Her soft mouth and sharp teeth were working up and down on him, making him feel enormously enormous. But he was very nervous that someone would come in and discover them at it. Upon reflection, he realized that the combination of this often-fantasized sex act and the imminent danger of discovery made for ex-cru-ci-a-ting pleasure.

They were in the linen closet of the classy restaurant at the Kimbal hotel in downtown Springfield Massachusetts where he had the jazz gig. This was the best hotel and best jazz gig in the town of Springfield Mass where he grew up, and to which he had returned after his Army service.

Faster, faster, but take your time, Chic Bern said. They might come in and find us.

Why should they do that, the Groupie said out of the corner of here wonderfully salacious mouth, without missing a beat.

Because the tablecloths and napkins for the restaurant are stored in the closet we’re in, he replied.

Amazingly, Chick was having large philosophical thoughts while his heartbeat was getting faster and faster. Bill Clinton has his affair with Monica right in the middle of everything and everybody in the White House. Why ever? Was he stupid? Well of course, since he could have had her anywhere in private? Voila! The prospect of discovery-that enormous danger-made the sex so very, very much better. Clinton had possibly done the same thing in that hotel when he was Governor with all the State Troopers and everyone else all around him with that woman who was unknown and sued him to protect her name and reputation.

What if it gets all over my tux? Chick asked. How am I going to finish the next set up on the stage, looking like that?

Don’t worry, I won’t miss a drop, she replied, again without missing a beat. How did she do that?

*     *     *

Later that night, in the last set which usually ended about midnight, Chick had one of his best work nights in a long time. Chick Bern was well built and slender, standing 5’11 tall. He had a bronze, olive-toned complexion, and sable brown hair, according to a male barber who Chick thought was sweet" on him. Chick’s eyelashes were the long, camel-like kind that women drooled over with envy.

Chick started the last set with a slow version of You Forgot To Remember, and his clarinet virtuosity sounded much like Benny Goodman on the same number years ago. Chick showed his clarity of tone over several registers, emphasizing that warm timbre that he could always project, and other reed players could only marvel over. The couples on the dance floor just stood there listening, watching, and swaying lovingly to the music.

For the upbeat number, Chick played Frenesi out of the Artie Shaw repertoire, and produced artfully rapid phrases which really made the place hop. He traded riffs with Joe the trumpeter, sort of echoing phrases one to the other, and the crowd really got into it, both watching and wildly dancing and having a good time.

Chick felt really good about himself after this night’s gig because he knew he had played up to his potential, and what else could a musician ask?

But Chick had only recently returned to Springfield from the Army, and was very uneasy and troubled with thoughts about Aubrey Klein. This was one of the reasons why he only played to his potential on occasion. When Chick had returned to town three months ago, the first thing he did was to look up Aubrey Klein.

Chick and Aubrey had gone together for the last two years Chick was in high school. Aubrey, to Chick, was sweet and beautiful. She was tall, yet curvaceous, and had the longest, best looking legs that Chick had ever seen. Chick saw a lot of those legs in summer when the long, hot days were spent around the clay tennis courts in Forest park, and Aubrey wore short shorts and tight halters. Aubrey had honey blond hair, which she wore long, and which partly curled over one eye in a very sexy way. She had an aquiline nose and a complexion of peaches and cream.

But upon his return to Springfield, Aubrey’s parents (whom he had liked a lot) had left town for places unknown to anyone, and Aubrey was dead. DEAD! How the hell could that be! Was it terminal sickness, cancer? What? From asking around, he learned that Aubrey had been killed! Jesus Christ! Aubrey! And nobody seemed to know details about how it happened or who did it. What people told him was that Aubrey was found dead, but that it was an unsolved crime, and no resolution of the facts was ever obtained.

As he lay in bed wide awake after the gig, Chick kept thinking about Aubrey. Knowledge of her death had left him desolate. He only now realized how much he had always loved her. But of course he had always felt that he had nothing to offer her, and had made no commitments upon his departure for the Army. Yet Aubrey and Chick both knew that they would get together when he got back; and Chick could possibly plan a career and think about a more serious relationship. But now that could never-ever be, and Chick was totally torn up inside.

Chick just lay there and felt the tears on his cheeks and the pain of his sadness was bottomless; but also, he realized, so was his anger. How the hell could Aubrey be dead, and how in hell could her death be unavenged?

CHAPTER

TWO

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Back in high school Aubrey Klein wanted Chick Bern. She already knew that he was the one she wanted to marry, but she also wanted him right now in every way imaginable. She thought Chick was so sweet, so handsome, and so innocent. That last was the problem. She had been trying during the final two years of high school to get Chick to make it with her, but to no avail. Damn, did she have to take off his clothes and put it in for him? But-she knew he was sensitive, caring, and kind of proper, and she was afraid of totally scaring him off.

Aubrey would participate in the summer all-day tennis outings that Chick liked. A few tennis players would hang out on the hot clay courts for essentially the entire day, playing and talking, and occasionally going across to the malt shop for a cold drink.

Aubrey knew that she looked really good in her short tennis shorts and tight halter tops she wore for tennis. And she knew that Chick like to look at her and appreciate her long legs, curves, and great skin.

In their Senior year at high school, Chick had access to one of his Dad’s cars. He and Aubrey liked to go out on parking dates in remote areas in that car. Sometimes Chick would park in the East-end cemetery, commenting that his dates there were really dead. Once parked, Aubrey and Chick would start petting and it would get very intense. She got him to kiss her passionately and encouraged his hands to possess here everywhere. Chick was always kind of reluctant to go too far. He would put his hand between her legs and all the way up, and just kind of rub her with his entire hand. Aubrey would get really hot and wet and encouraging, but Chick never would go all the way. It was really frustrating. Chick was even somewhat reluctant in touching her breasts, being pretty careful not to really rub them hard.

Aubrey really liked Chick, and felt that he would make a perfect husband. She could certainly tell that he got really hot during those necking sessions, so she knew that performance and desire were not his problem. She felt that he had a sense of what was proper between two young people, and it was driving her nuts!

Finally one night, Aubrey asked Chick why he didn’t go all the way with her. He replied that since they were not married and that they were both virgins, he did not feel it right to take away her innocence. He simply did not feel that a guy had the right to do that. JEEZUZ!!!

Aubrey thought:true, I’m a virgin. But I’m not so completely innocent. When I masturbate, I fantasize about Chick. I feel his wonderful prick in me, hard and pushing all the way back. In the car, I want him to put that beautiful dick in me, or his finger, or three fingers, or anything. When I’m alone, thinking about Chick, I can almost feel his sweet mouth going down on me; his innocent tongue inserted in me, and licking me. I’ m quite mature in my desires for sex; but I also know I want this boy for the rest of my life and I dare not make him feel I’m a slut and scare him off forever. I sense that too much forwardness would do just that.

CHAPTER

THREE

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During high school, Chick led a band which played around Springfield and neighboring towns. It was a swing band, and pretty good size, including rhythm: piano, drums, and bass or guitar; brass: two trombones and three trumpets; and reeds: three saxes, some of which doubled on clarinet (like Chick). They were pretty good, and played all the popular charts used by the top bands like Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, and Tommy Dorsey etc. Also, for the most part, the musicians were clean-cut, nice guys. They mostly stayed away from drugs, except for stuff to keep them awake on long gigs out of town with a late and long snow-laden drive in station wagons back to town.

Really only one guy in the band was kind of scuzzy; Louie Benton, the drummer. Chick would often have to really get on Louie. They’d be playing a slow dance, and all of a sudden the beat would get much faster. This would be because Louie would have a shot glass of whiskey setting on his snare drum, and start to get a little high an speed up the beat. Chick would really get mad about that.

Chick found that playing around on the road was very difficult, even in high school when it seemed great fun to do a gig out of town. Often, the dances were held in school gyms, which had pianos that were grossly out of tune. Since Chick played clarinet and alto sax, he found that it was often impossible to tune down to an old piano that was really flat. He developed a technique of using a tube of paper or cardboard to extend his mouthpiece from the instrument, so as to lower the pitch of his horns. He had never known anyone who had done such a thing, but he knew that the longer the waveform of the air passage, the lower the pitch, so he had come up with this innovation. And it worked; all the reed players did the same thing. The other instruments seemed to have less trouble in lowing the pitch of their horns than did the reeds, so it worked out OK. But often these pianos also made some horrible sounds, making high quality music difficult to provide to the audience. Chick liked to do the very best that he could for the paying customers. He worked hard, expected the others to do the same, and strove for good performances.

It was during these dance band gigs that Chick learned about what later became known as Groupies; young (mostly) women who often showed up to hang around the bandstand and try to makeout with the musicians. Sometimes, Chick or other band members would sit-out during a number and dance with one of these women. They were very appreciative.

Chick was well aware of the Sinatra phenomenon, when in the Paramount Theater in New York City, the group of Groupies in bobby sox stood up from their seats in the very first row and screamed OH Frankie at every opportunity. Chick was aware that this was a paid, not a naturally occurring event. But it was extremely effective, and contagious, helping to start a groundswell of support for the thin man with the even thinner voice which Frank had at the start of his career.

Of course, the Groupie or Bobby sox syndrome recurred from thereafter with practically everybody in show business. How about screams for Liberace? They didn’t even know his gender for sure when they were getting sexy feelings over him.

And it became well known that the camp followers (who had greater numbers in their Camp than the Beetles?) would track their idols from town to town and do anything and that means anything for their idols.

But Chick himself was unwilling to undertake a relationship with any of these admiring females, just as he had refrained in his long relationship with Aubrey Klein. This was an inbred characteristic, and although from time to time in his life, Chick would undertake to enjoy sex outside the state of love or marriage, he would never be the first to defile a maiden unless and until he was married to her.

CHAPTER

FOUR

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Soon after Chick finished high school, he was drafted into the Army. Chick did not like the Army. First he was sent to Ft. Banks Army Base" in the center of downtown Boston. New draftees from Massachusetts were automatically dumped here, while awaiting assignment to Basic Training. He was only there about a week, but during that time he was given no clean clothes, little soap, and nothing to do. There seemed to be a great deal of nothing to do in the Army, and he was without his musical instruments or anything to entertain himself. He didn’t