The Loverboy

by Miel Vermeulen

  Her eye fell on an ad for a ten year old black Honda Civic.

  It was an automatic and had a whole bunch of upgrades that

  indicated it have been owned by some kid that was a wannabe

  street racer. However amongst all the upgrades that she thought

  were ridiculous, like decals, a special exhaust and under car

  neon lights, was a very useful option; dark tinted windows. This

  would keep her unnoticed even though it risked drawing attention

  from the police but she would have to risk that. She called the

  number and was informed that they were having someone come to

  look at it at one pm but if they didn"t buy it then she could

  come look at it. She left her cell number and waited. Annie came home at one and Kim told her about her car hunting. She

  explained she was waiting for a call back on a Honda Civic.

  “Have you considered a Hybrid?” Annie asked.

  “No, I have never seen any of those on our street. If you

  can afford one of those you probably live somewhere else” Kim

  explained.

  The girls laughed and then the cell phone rang. Kim

  answered and the man on the other end of the line informed her

  that the car was still available and if she wanted they could

  come take a look at it. Kim told him they would be right over.

  She took six thousand, which had been the asking price, from the

  lining of the backpack and they headed out. The car was located

  in a suburb, New Berlin, and it took them twenty minutes to find

  the place. The Honda was in the driveway and clearly had seen

  better days. It was black with quite a bit of rust and red flame

  decals on the side. They walked around it and almost immediately

  a man walked out of the house and approached them.

  The man was in his late forties and clearly not happy about

  having to get rid of the car. It couldn"t be because he was

  attached to the thing. At one time it might have been a nice

  little car. Then the man"s son got his hands on it with great

  intentions to make it the hottest custom in the area. He had clearly failed miserably. Now the son was in college and needed

  money so he asked his dad to sell the car for six thousand. The

  man clearly did not think the car was worth it and had listed it

  in the paper and had showed it to several people whom were not

  interested. Most wouldn"t have wanted it for free. Annie took

  Kim aside and told her they should go look for something

  different.

  Kim shook her head. “This is perfect” she said to Annie who

  gave her a look of bewilderment.

  The girls walked back toward the man and the car and the

  man was already apologizing about the condition of the car and

  he felt bad about making them come all this way for nothing.

  “I"m going to tell my son he needs to sell it himself or

  take it to the junkyard” he vowed.

  “I"ll take it” Kim said.

  The man"s jaw just about hit the floor.

  “Are you serious?” he asked in disbelief. Kim nodded and

  pulled the six thousand dollars from her pocket and handed it to

  the man. He still looked in shock.

  “H…H…Here is the title” he stammered handing her a piece of

  paper. “Thank you” she said with a smile, “Do you mind if we leave

  the other car here for a little bit?”

  The man shook his head looking at the money in his hand

  still dazed from the shock. They left in the Honda with Annie

  driving and headed for an abandoned parking lot. There Annie

  showed Kim how to drive. It was a good thing she bought an

  automatic Kim thought. They practiced the whole afternoon and by

  dusk Kim was getting pretty good. The first hour they had stayed

  in the parking lot, then they had gone on the road. At one point

  they passed a police car and both of them stopped breathing for

  a minute and started laughing when they noticed the police car

  wasn"t coming after them.

  They picked Annie"s car up and drove to Kim"s old apartment

  and parked the Honda there. Then they went back to Annie"s and

  had dinner. After dinner Kim put on her hooded sweatshirt and

  put the gun in its pocket. Then she left. Annie told her to be

  careful and said that maybe Matt should go with. Kim declined.

  This was her fight and she didn"t want anyone else getting hurt.

  She went to the Honda and got inside. The windows were not

  tinted that darkly but with the darkness of the night it was

  impossible to see inside the car.

  She sat there for an hour when a white BMW pulled up and

  parked around the corner. A minute later Ally"s boyfriend came from around the corner and entered the apartment. He was there

  for almost two hours, then he left. Luckily he was alone Kim

  thought. Fifteen minutes later her mom came home and Kim just

  stared at her. How she wished she could hug her but that had to

  wait. Nobody could know she was there if she wanted to save

  Ally. She sat in the car for another twenty minutes crying. Then

  she parked the car a little further away thinking that moving it

  would keep it from being noticed. She went back to Annie"s and

  went straight to sleep.

  The next few days were uneventful. Every day she staked out

  the apartment and every day she moved the car. Some days Ally"s

  boyfriend came over when her mom was gone and sometimes they

  went out. Kim would follow at a safe distance praying she

  wouldn"t be pulled over. Friday was pretty similar with the

  exception that the white BMW was already there when Kim arrived

  at six pm. It was quiet and nothing happened for another two and

  half hours. Finally the door opened and Ally came out wearing a

  short skirt and tank top. Kim stopped breathing for a moment and

  waited for Ally"s boyfriend to follow her, he didn"t.

  Kim got out of the car and pulled the hood over her head.

  She followed Ally more than a block away. Ally was heading for

  the grocery store just like Kim had been and Kim felt her

  emotions take over with the strange sense of all the memories coming back. She fought it off, “not now” she thought. Half way

  to the store some men hollered at Ally and Kim clenched the

  handle of the gun in the pouch of her sweater. The men that had

  been hollering at Ally backed off and let Ally pass. Kim had

  expected this; everything was going just like it had with her

  but she was still nervous that things would happen differently

  and she wouldn"t be ready.

  Kim hid behind a van and considered calling the police for

  a minute. She could call about a crime in progress and they

  would come out but it had to be precise. Too early and they

  would be gone before things went down. Too late and…she couldn"t

  think about that. She looked out from behind the van and noticed

  that the guys had positioned themselves by the alley after Ally

  passed by. They were waiting there and hiding in the alley. Kim

  quickly ran around the block and entered the alley from the

  other side. Now all the guys were hiding behind containers in

  the alley except for the main guy. She recognized some of them

  as having taken part in her rape and she shivered. It was hardr />
  to keep her emotions in check especially here in this alley with

  these men.

  Ten minutes later one of the guys stepped out of the alley

  and she noticed that he had stepped right in front of Ally. Ally

  stepped around him and tried to ignore him but not two seconds later the second man stepped behind Ally and grabbed her and the

  rest joined them and dragged Ally into the alley. Ally fought

  hard but they surrounded and overpowered her. There were too

  many and Kim leapt up and ran toward them. They were so focused

  on Ally that they didn"t notice her.

  She pointed the gun at them and yelled “Stop, give me your

  wallets!!!!”

  As soon as she had said it she realized how lame it

  sounded. She wanted to make it look like a robbery. She didn"t

  want anyone to know it was her and why she was doing it so a

  robbery was the next best thing. The men looked at her in

  surprise and paused for a moment.

  “Wallets!!! Hurry up!!!” she yelled again.

  Most of then let go of Ally while the others loosened their

  grip on her as they focused their attention on the hooded

  robber. Ally immediately used the opportunity and ripped herself

  free and ran off.

  Two of the men moved to chase her but Kim yelled “Let her

  go!!!” and the men froze in their tracks.

  Clearly the men were trying to size her up. She was smaller

  than them and they were probably wondering if she could back up any threat. Before anyone could reach for their wallets the main

  guy stepped forward.

  He challenged her and said “I don"t think you will shoot”

  as he stepped forward.

  She aimed the gun for his head and he stopped for a second.

  Then he moved in again and she was torn about what to do. She

  could try and run but they would surely catch her. She figured

  she didn"t have a choice and squeezed the trigger and noticed

  herself saying a little prayer while firing. The gun went off

  and to Kim"s relief it didn"t backfire. A loud bang was followed

  by a scream and the main guy went down. He was clutching his

  knee which was bleeding heavily. He swore and Kim lifted the gun

  and aimed at the next guy.

  “Wallets!!!” she yelled again and the men produced their

  wallets and threw them on the ground in front of her.

  She picked them up not taking her eyes from the men and

  keeping the gun aimed in their direction. After she picked them

  up she said a quick thank you and ran out the alley. The men

  were thinking of pursuing but thought better of it after looking at their friend squirming in pain on the ground.

  Chapter 35:

  Kim returned to the apartment and after ten minutes Ally"s

  boyfriend came out, alone to her relief. He left and it was

  clear that he was not in a good mood. Kim considered going in

  and being there for her sister but she knew she couldn"t help

  the situation. Ally needed her mom and not the return of a long

  lost sister stealing her mom"s attention. Instead she followed

  the white BMW to see where it was going.

  His driving was erratic and clearly the driving of someone

  who was upset. Kim had a hard time keeping up and was terrified

  she would hit someone or something. She didn"t and to her relief

  the white BMW stopped at a house not too far from the apartment.

  In front of the house was a silver Porsche convertible and it

  reminded her of Jake"s old car, but this one was newer. Then

  again it had been over three years so he could have gotten a new

  one. As soon as Ally"s boyfriend pulled up to the house, the

  door opened and out came a man. It was no surprise that it was

  Jake. She hadn"t seen him since Mexico and he still looked the

  same, just a little older. She guessed he looked too old now to recruit girls so he had Ally"s boyfriend do that for him. Jake

  jogged over to the white BMW and got in and the BMW peeled out

  of there. She waited a few minutes and then drove back to the

  apartment and parked the Honda. From there she walked back to

  Annie"s.

  It was still early and Annie and Matt were still up. Kim

  told the whole story and Annie and Matt were excited that she

  had been successful in preventing the rape but Kim was not.

  “What"s wrong?” Annie asked.

  “They will try again. They have too much invested in her

  and they want her to pay off. They won"t just let her go because

  of one setback. It"ll be fine for a few days. Maybe even a week

  but then they will try again and maybe next time, I"m not there”

  Kim said almost sounding defeated.

  She looked at Matt and said “I have an idea but I need your

  help.”

  “Anything” Matt said.

  Kim looked at the laptop and asked “Can you program that

  thing to make a large number of transactions?”

  “Sure” Matt said, “The only risk is that when you do the

  transactions they can be traced to an IP address and internet provider. I can make the money disappear by moving it around a

  couple of hundred times and fragment it into many different

  accounts before bringing all the small accounts back together

  but the first few transactions will be traceable and dangerous.”

  “Perfect” Kim said, “What about bank accounts? Can you

  create those in someone else"s name?”

  Matt nodded “Easy, I would need an existing account or some

  ID though.”

  Kim dropped the wallets on the table and said “I need you

  to set it up so I am going to have to enter an account number.

  Then I want you to create a fake account in the name of Jake

  Juliano and transfer thirty million dollars into it. Then you

  need to transfer five million dollars from the new account into

  the account that was entered into the computer. After that you

  need to transfer one million dollars from the new account into

  five new fake accounts that belong to the people whose driver"s

  licenses are in those wallets, you will have to create those

  account too. Finally, I want you to make the rest of the money

  disappear. It needs to become untraceable. Spend as much as you

  think is necessary but make sure it cannot be traced. And I want

  all of that to happen within 5 minutes after I enter Jake"s

  account number and it all needs to happen from this laptop. Finally it needs to remove any evidence of the automated

  sequence from this computer”

  “What are you planning?” Annie asked.

  Kim gave her a serious look and said “I have to stop this

  and not just for Ally. They will destroy many lives and I need

  to stop them. I don"t want you involved anymore than you already

  are.”

  “I can have it ready by the day after tomorrow” Matt said.

  “Thanks” Kim said and started packing her bag.

  “What are you doing?” Annie asked.

  “I"m leaving, this could get ugly and I appreciate all the

  help but I couldn"t bear if anything would happen to either of

  you” Kim responded with determination.

  She hugged them both and tried to hold back the tears. Why

  couldn"t anything just be easy? Why did it all have to be this

  hard?


  “Do you want me to drop you off anywhere?” Annie asked.

  Kim shook and said “No thank you, I can find my way. I"ve

  been getting good at that” They smiled at each other and Kim turned and left into the

  night.

  At the end of the path she yelled back “I"ll see you in two

  days” then she walked around the corner not looking back.

  “I love you” she whispered wishing she would be able to say

  it aloud.

  She thought about getting the Honda but was not comfortable

  with driving around and didn"t want to unless she had to. Also

  she couldn"t afford to get pulled over or be in an accident. She

  walked towards a worse neighborhood and found a hotel that

  looked like it wasn"t too particular about identification and

  rented a room. They asked for a form of ID and she just

  responded she would pay two weeks in advance. This seemed to

  make an ID totally unnecessary. She paid cash and went to her

  room. On her way to the room she passed a few couples all

  seeming to be in a good mood even though the girls were clearly

  faking it to keep the men happy. Kim recognized it immediately

  and couldn"t help but wonder how many of these girls were doing

  it because they had chosen to and how many had been tricked into

  this life?

  She got to her room and immediately locked the door and put

  the chain on it. The room was anything but pleasant but it would do. The bed was made but Kim elected to sleep on the couch. She

  turned on an episode of Law and Order on the TV to drown out the

  noises coming from the other rooms but it didn"t help much. She

  was tired though and still shaken up from the events of the

  night. She had been happy to prevent Ally from getting raped but

  it had torn open some very deep wounds that she had tried hard

  to forget about. Finally she didn"t have to hold it back and she

  cried herself to sleep.

  The next morning she didn"t wake up until almost noon. She

  showered and got dressed then went out for something to eat.

  When she came back she asked for a phone book and the hotel

  manager produced one with a thick layer of dust on it. The hotel

  was quiet now. There was nothing going on and it was clear that

  the time from eight pm until three am was the busy time. She

  thanked the manager and took the phone book which he insisted on

  being brought back as soon as possible as if it was a vital tool