Leather & chains.

The girls crowded around Anita as she withdrew a pair of heavy bronze bracelets connected by a chain, and dropped them on the table.

"Was that really what it sounded like?" Jo asked incredulously.

"Genuine 19th-century bondage gear, it looks like," Sam said excitedly. "Is that all?"

Anita pulled a second set of cuffs from the bag, and what looked like a leather corset. Eric grabbed that one immediately.

"Careful, it's probably a hundred years old!" Cathy warned.

"It's still soft," Eric said wonderingly. "Sealed in this basement all this time, and with the moist air, it's never dried out."

"Looks like it would fit you," Sam teased.

"Look at this!" Anita pulled out another leather item, a long lash of braided black that split into five tails at its end. When she held it at chest level, it barely brushed the ground.

"Someone was into some kinky shit," Allison observed.

"There's more," Anita said. She passed the whip to Cathy, who seemed to enjoy holding it (and might have cast a speculative glace at Suki). Anita proceeded to pull out a pair of high-heeled boots that matched the corset, a set of fishnet silk stockings with garter belt (leather), a silk corset with a matching scarf ("A blindfold," Sam guessed) and finally, a large leather-bound book.

"What's in there?" Cathy wondered.

Anita lay the book on a clear spot on the table, and opened it carefully. "My God," she whispered.

Cathy was the first to take a look. "Holy shit," she breathed. "It's a photo album!"

"I think we can definitely confirm that this place was a brothel," Sam said as she got a look.

"For women, by women," Eric added.

"What is it?" Jo asked. "Someone tell me, the suspense is killing me!"

"Well," said Eric, "the first page of this book has a very revealing picture of a woman chained to what looks like that wall over there, wearing this silk corset and blindfold -"

"With another woman posing next to her holding Cathy's whip and wearing Eric's leather corset and these boots," Sam finished.

"By the looks of it, this picture is at least a hundred years old," said Anita. "Maybe more."

She turned the page carefully, and saw another woman chained to the table, the same one in leather standing over her. The next picture showed the leather-clad dominatrix caressing the breasts of yet a third submissive partner. Each picture was described to Jo in detail as the girls flipped through the album.

"This is incredible," Anita said.

"But... what are they all for?" Suki asked timidly. "Why would any woman want her picture taken in such a way?"

"Mementos," Cathy guessed. "Probably the customers got a print to take home as a souvenir, while this book kept another copy, maybe as security. You know, so no one would spill the beans about the place."

"It's so damn erotic, when you think about it," Eric said, holding the leather corset in front of her and admiring her reflection in a dusty oval mirror in the corner of the room. "I mean, just imagine how many women got off while wearing this stuff. Hundreds, maybe."