by J P S Brown
"Why don't Rafa and Jacobo stay with you in this big house?" Kane asked. "You like to be alone here?"
"Oh, I’m not alone. I have them as much as I want. They come every day to bring their dirty clothes and eat. I’m not surprised that Ibrahim and his family didn’t come to see me yesterday. His wife probably made him take her to the resort. She prefers to stay at our beach hotel. She stays there to relax, but never leaves her children with me,"
"Why not?"
"She doesn’t like my influence on them, and she knows I don’t like the company she keeps when she’s here. I don’t like the way she dresses the children, or the religious training she gives them either."
Kane acted interested but did not give a cowboy damn about Fatima’s daughter-in-law problems. As she talked, he herded her out the front door and into the car with Vogel and Beto.
A half hour later, Beto stopped the car in an unlighted alley beside Rafa’s warehouse. The truck full of Montenegro men stopped behind them.
Under glaring lights in an apartment inside the warehouse, and wearing nothing but a g-string that barely covered her nakedness, Luci fought a naked man as he tried to handcuff one of her hands to a bedpost. Two burly Lobos gangsters stood off camera on each side of Luci to keep her on the bed. Her struggles were filmed by two cameras and directed by Rafa Lupino. A crew for camera, light, and sound were in attendance. As assistant director, Güero Rodriguez stood off camera and coached the leading man.
Adolfo, the tired and woebegone naked man, was ready to beg for a break, because he could not handle the girl. Rafa did not have to give Luci any direction at all, because she was not acting. Her well-aimed fists and kicks at Adolfo’s groin really hurt, and she scored more than she missed. Rafa would not allow anyone to help Adolfo subdue her. For Rafa, the more spontaneous the conflict, the better the sequence, and he could see that his leading lady had overtaxed his poor, bareassed leading man.
Luci growled and wept with anger and everybody on the set could see what the camera captured. She actually seemed to crave more conflict, because she was winning. The tall, gangly Adolfo could not keep hold of her and could not stay on camera if he moved out of range of her kicks and fists. She did not even try to get away from him. The heavy handcuffs that he held in one hand handicapped him, because they knocked on his bones when he used the hand to defend himself. To follow Rafa’s direction and stay on camera, he fended away another kick at his groin with his free hand. As he dodged the kick, he threw up the other hand and struck himself on the forehead with the open jaws of the handcuffs. With this new setback, the man stumbled backward off camera, rubbed his sore head, and looked down at himself. The crew followed his gaze and began to laugh. Luci’s ferocity had unmanned her rapist. His thing had gone limp.
Adolfo’s hairdresser had spent an hour on his hairdo and Luci had already snatched it apart like a cobweb. He could not stay on camera and keep his poor, beaten member out of range, but Rafa ordered him to climb onto the bed. He dropped his hands and looked around for help.
"She can’t kick you if you get on top of her, you fool!" Rafa shouted.
"Get those handcuffs on her, because if you can’t handcuff a little girl, you can’t play the part."
Rafa stumbled around the side of the bed.
"Kick him, kick him, Luci," Rafa directed. "Disable him and you go free. You are our brave Luci. Defend your Martinillo honor. Kick him in the eggs."
Adolfo threw his weight on top of the girl’s legs, straddled her, and grabbed her hair with both hands. Luci clamped her jaws on a nipple and hung on. Adolfo howled and pulled her head back, but her jaws held fast and his howl climbed up three octaves.
"Good. Stay on camera, Adolfito," Rafa shouted, laughing. "This is too good to waste. Do anything you have to do, but don’t leave the bed."
Adolfo slapped Luci weakly on the ear. When that did not loosen her, with the very last of his strength, he struck her on the temple with his fist. Luci lost her mouthful of flesh, but scored a bull'seye with a knee to the groin. Adolfo turned 1oose all holds and fell off the bed.
Rafa signaled the Lobos by the bed and they stepped in, grabbed Luci’s arms and legs, and held her down. She stopped resisting, lay still, and rested, and the thugs stepped back off camera again.
Dolly Ann had been stripped, cuffed hand and foot to the wall at the head of the bed, and gagged. She could make almost no sound at all, but she began to weep. Rafa directed the camera to her face, then slowly along her body. When she twisted away to hide her akedness from the camera, Rafa directed it back to Luci.
Luci’s face was composed now. She waited and gathered her strength. Her legs, arms, teeth, and hard little head were her only weapons. She had not been taught any science of self-defense, but she had the temperament of a Mayo warrior.
Dolly Ann stared at Rafa and caught his gaze. He stared back at her, walked up close to her, reached on camera, and tore the tape off the gag. With only his hands on camera, he untied the cloth that had been tied in her mouth so tight it held her jaws apart. He grabbed her by the hair and tried to stroke her cheek with the back of his hand, but she turned her face away.
”Someday, everybody gets what he gives, Rafa." Dolly Ann growled. "You’ll have to kill us before we lie still for you. Your stud can’t rape us, because we’ve got more balls than he does. It’s going to give me great pleasure to watch my Pappy cook you in a stew of pig dung and scatter your parts all over the state of Sonora. After that, he’ll get your grandfather, your brothers, your mother, and all your gangsters."
Rafa ordered, "Cut," then turned to the sound man. "Be sure to delete ’Rafa’ from that line."
"Understood," the sound man said.
’All right, somebody help Adolfo," Güero ordered. "Let’s see if we can recoup our losses. We can’t allow our victim to blunt the edge of our swordsman’s blade any more than she already has, can we?" Rafa and Güero looked at each other and laughed. A pelon helped Adolfo to his feet and the hairdresser and makeup man worked on his looks.
"All right, Adolfito," Rafa said. ’As soon as you’re ready, you will handcuff Luci to the bedposts. The camera will be on your and Luci’s hands and then on her feet. While you handcuff each limb, our stagehands will hold the other three, so she won’t destroy you before we finish filming the movie. All right? Can you handle that?"
"I still think we should save the virginity of these girls awhile longer," Güero said. "Rafa, think of the money."
"What is a virgin?” Rafa shouted. "Prove to me they are virgins. Who is going to know that one is a virgin and one is not? Let’s see how the scene plays out. When we finish here tonight we might still have two whole virgins. If we don’t, who will know? Let’s shoot it. Play it out. Let’s be creative and see what happens. I like the way the scene is going, don’t you?"
"l understand." Güero turned to the crew. "Stand by," he said.
"Action!" Rafa said. Adolfo shackled Luci’s hands and feet to the bedposts one at a time as the cameras rolled. "Aaaand, cut!" Rafa said.
"Print. How you like that? All in one take. Adolfo, stay on your mark."
A crewman brought up a ten-inch, narrow-bladed knife that was curved like a half moon, demonstrated its razor edge by slicing a sheet of paper, and handed it to Adolfo. For the next scene, Rafa instructed him to climb on Luci and draw blood with the knife from a spot on her throat under her ear.
"Be careful, because you have to draw the blood in only one take," Rafa said. "Then, while you hold the knife to her throat, you will enter her. Now, Adolfo, even though the female seems helpless, we must have a struggle. The knife may scare her so bad that it paralyzes her, so you have to animate her. If she does not respond properly by showing fear and does not writhe to avoid your probe, use the point of the knife to make her struggle. Begin by drawing blood from her throat. You’ve heard the expression, ’her throat was cut from ear to ear'? Now you can see what that means. You start to slice just below the ear lobe."
"Isn’t
that spot too vulnerable?" Adolfo asked. "I might cut too deep. This is a very sharp knife. She could bleed to death."
Rafa grinned. "Don’t stall, Adolfo. This isn’t your first movie."
"Don’t worry about it," Güero said. "If it happens, it happens. That’s what we’re here for: to film a real movie. Even if you nick the artery, she won’t bleed fast enough to hurt us. We’ll get the whole scene and still probably have time to stop the bleeding. If you cut the artery, the blood will start to pump out, but whatever you do, continue with the sequence, penetrate, and finish the scene. If she dies before we get another shot, she dies. We’ll go slow with the torture and rape of the other female for the rest of the movie."
Dolly Ann began to cry. Adolfo stood on his mark, but showed no sign that he was ready to start the scene.
"All right, everybody quiet,” Güero announced. "Stand by . . ."
"Action!" Rafa shouted.
"Wait, please," Adolfo said.
"What do you mean?" Rafa demanded.
"I can’t perform yet."
"Well, you will when you get up there and rub on the female, you fool. That’s the first part of the sequence. Do you have to be shown how it’s done?"
Adolfo climbed on top of Luci with the knife in his hand.
"No, no, no, no. Get back on your mark," Rafa screamed.
Suddenly the door banged open and Ibrahim and Jacobo barged into the room with baseball bats. Ibrahim batted aside two Lobos who tried to stand in his way kicked the legs of Rafa’s director’s chair out from under him, bashed the lens of a camera, and knocked down a light stand. Rafa came to his feet in a runner’s crouch, dodged his way through the room, and scurried out the back door.
Jacobo grabbed Güero and made him unlock Dolly Ann’s shackles. He jerked him backward out of the way and hugged Dolly Ann. "You’re safe, girl," he said. "I’m sorry this happened."
Kane and Vogel roared into the room with the Montenegro men and Fatima right behind them. Ibrahim had taken Güero by the front of the shirt and was backing him toward the door. Vogel picked up a chair and brought it down on Güero’s head. He cocked it again to bash Ibrahim, but Ibrahim stepped back and held up his hands. "No, Juan," he shouted. ”Jacobo and I came here to stop this, like you."
Adolfo looked over his shoulder from atop Luci, saw Kane coming at him, screamed at Kane, and brandished the knife over Luci’s head. Kane drew his colmillo and pointed it, blade up, at his butt. Adolfo threw the knife away, fell off the bed, covered his head with his arms, and assumed the fetal position on the floor.
Kane saw Dolly Ann in Jacobo’s grasp and started for him to cut off his head. Dolly Ann shouted, "No, Pappy! Don’t hurt him! He rescued us!"
Kane lowered the knife. Jacobo’s blank, white face stared back at him.
"Jacobo stopped Rafa, Pappy," Dolly Ann said. "Don’t hurt him."
"Where’s Rafa?" Kane said. He looked around and did not see him. He had caught Güero, but he was not being allowed his revenge. Ibrahim and Vogel were watching him. Güero stared up at him from the floor, did not like what he saw, and backed into a corner on the seat of his pants. The Montenegros’ men had bunched the movie crew into a corner and in another corner were methodically using their clubs and boots on five Lobos they had caught.
Kane looked for Fatima and found her smoking a cigarette out by Beto’s car. "Fatima, don’t you want to come back in and see what your son was doing when we arrived? Didn’t you say that this is the place where he concentrates best on his serious work?"
"I already saw all I want to see," she said.
"What do you think I should do to Rafa for kidnapping my girls and using them to film a pornographic movie?"
"I didn’t see Rafa in there."
"Dolly Ann told me Rafa was there, but ran away."
"You only want to punish Rafa? What about my other two sons you caught in there?"
"Your other two are honorable men, Fatima. They had already rescued the girls when we arrived."
"Yes, and do you know how they came to get here on time to put a stop to this awful thing?"
"Tell me."
"I called them when I left you in my kitchen."
"Why did you lie to me about that?"
"I wanted them to beat you to Rafa’s office to warn him so you wouldn’t give him another beating."
"Then you knew he was doing something to deserve a beating."
"No, I didn’t, but I knew you would give him one, regardless of what he was doing. Where is Rafa?"
"You can believe I will find that out."
"Go find him, then. I’ll wait here."
"WiIl you please come in and see to the girls?"
"Yes, I’ll do that."
Fatima followed Kane into the apartment, sat on a bench between Dolly Ann and Luci, and put her arms around their shoulders. Someone had wrapped them in bed sheets. The five Lobos lay flat on the floor. Güero sat in his corner. Adolfo had put on his pants and now stood against the wall by himself between the crew and Güero.
"Has anyone called the police?" Kane asked.
"I called Silverio Garcia’s special police," Vogel said. "But I don’t know what good it will do."
Kane headed toward Güero’s corner. "Fatima, take the girls out to the car," he said. Ibrahim stepped aside to make way for him.
Kane took hold of Güero’s ear to help him to his feet. Güero wailed with such fear that it angered Kane and he sliced half the ear off. Güero collapsed on the floor and covered the bloody remainder of it with both hands. Kane sliced the hair off his head and threw it back in his face, handful by handful. ”You’re a lucky coward, as usual, but you ought to at least look more like your gang," he said. "If Fatima and my girls were not here, I'd cut off your chile and eggs too, then your throat.
Fatima doesn’t deserve the grief you and your brother have caused her. Stand up, before I cut off your other ear." He stood up and Kane cut it off. When Güero shrieked and covered the wound with his hand, Kane grabbed the end of his nose and sliced it off. He stuffed the two halves of the ears in Güero’s shirt pocket. The end of the nose was stuck on his blade, so he wiped it off in the same pocket. "If you hurry, you can probably get somebody to reattach all that," he said. "Just remember who gave it to you as a present. But then, you also still have your life, don’t you, you little bastard?"
Güero did not answer.
"Don’t you?" Kane said.
Güero nodded.
Kane walked away, saw the evil knife Adolfo had thrown away, and picked it up. He examined it and saw that it was like his colmillo in material and workmanship, but thinner and wicked looking. He turned it over and found an inscription in the same lettering as the one on his knife. It said, "I am the gay blade."
FOURTEEN
At 5:00 a.m., Huatabampo chief of police Ramon Guevara was notified at home by his lieutenant that blood had been spilled at a Lupino warehouse. He reached his office in the comamdancia only a few minutes before the five Lobos gangsters, Adolfo, and seven movie crewmen were brought into the station by Manuelito Montenegro and his companions. The lieutenant informed Chief Guevara that Kane and Vogel were on the way to issue a complaint against the actor, the gangsters, and the crew.
Kane, Vogel, and Fatima had stayed awhile at the warehouse so the girls could wash and dress. They left Fatima at her door before they went on to the police station. At the station, Kane and Vogel and the girls headed for the chief’s office to swear out a demanda, a formal complaint against Rafa Lupino and his employees, that could not be ignored. Even if Chief Guevara proved to be crooked, their formal complaint would have to be recognized by the public prosecutor.
Before the partners reached the door to Guevara’s office, he brushed past them, sought out the gangsters and their cohorts, and sat down for an extremely polite and solicitous conversation with them. When he was through with them, he ordered his lieutenant to take written statements from every person who had been bruised or bloodied at the movie set. Not one
of the Montenegro men had been hurt and none were questioned.
After the chief briefly questioned Jacobo and Ibrahim, he called Dolly Ann and Luci into his office. Kane and Vogel went with them. The girls showed every sign that they had just come away from a fight for their lives. They stared as though every image they saw bounced away before it could be understood. Kane had considered taking them straight to Rio Alamos and putting them in the hospital under the care of Oscar Vogel, but he needed them to be with him when he swore out the complaint. He needed to stay on the heels of the culprits before the police allowed them to scatter. The enemy had been stayed, but the war had not been won.
The chief questioned Luci first.
"Your name, child?"
"Lucrecia Martinillo Montenegro."
"Why are you in Huatabampo?"
"Because a man brought us against our will."
"Where is this man?"
"One of your officers took him to the hospital," Kane said. The chief ignored him.
"Were you harmed?" the chief asked Luci.
”Yes."
"Were you beaten?”
"Yes, senor/’
"Raped?"
"No."
"You say that you were brought here against your will?"
"Yes, we were tied and they put sacks over our heads and brought us here from my friend’s ranch in the United States."
"All this way? Do you have wounds or cuts and bruises, proof that you were forced to come here?"
"I was struck on my ear and temple." Luci turned her head so the chief could see where Adolfo had struck her.
The blows had made no mark that showed yet.
The chief turned to Dolly Ann.
"Your name?"
"Dolly Ann Kane."
"Why are you here?"
"I was kidnapped with Luci."
"And brought here against your will?"
”Yes."
"Do you have proof?"
"I’m not a liar."
"Very well. We'll have you examined by a doctor and you can give us a written statement of what happened."
The chief turned to Kane and Vogel and told them that they were in worse trouble than the people against whom they wanted to issue the complaint. He could find no reason to justify the beatings and knifings that he understood had been done to Güero Rodriguez and the others at the Lupino warehouse. He awaited a report on Rodriguez’s condition from the doctors at the hospital.