by Derek Murphy
“Good. We’ll be able to get to her without the cops badgering us about what we want with her. That’ll make things easier.”
As they both moved to the door, he noticed that Julie was flushed a little and wondered if watching the porn footage had affected her the way it had him. He hurriedly put the thought out of his mind and closed the door behind them.
Chapter Twelve
The drive to Glenville was uneventful and Carl could feel a sort of tension in the confines of the pickup as they drove. Julie was quiet and pensive, but kept wiggling in her seat, shifting her weight from side to side and crossing and re-crossing her legs. As they came within sight of a convenience store in the sleepy, little bedroom town, he looked at her.
“Do you need to find a bathroom?”
Rather short, she said, “No. Let’s find this bitch.”
Believing she was building up anger toward the girl in the video, he drove down the main road into the town until he came to the girl’s street and turned down it. Driving slowly, he watched for the sign that should be out in front of the apartment complex. When it came into view, Julie pointed across the pickup at it and he turned into the drive. A short circuit around the complex put them at the back, where it seemed very quiet and he saw that the complex was landscaped with arbors and gardens up close to the units themselves, putting everything in shade. The effect was one of tranquility and peace but he knew that the owner of the complex was the same guy who shot the porn videos and that the effect was a lie. How many young women had been drugged and raped during the filming of the videos? He was prepared to be as ruthless in his questioning as he needed to be to get the information they needed.
Parking the truck, they moved toward the girl’s unit and walked under an arbor filled with some kind of flowering vine. An exterior hot-tub sat under yet another arbor no more than twenty feet from the girl’s door and Carl wondered if they used the scene for their videos. Approaching the door, he stood to one side and let Julie knock on it, waiting a few seconds until they heard the door creak slightly as someone leaned against it from the inside. After a couple of seconds, the door was opened and the girl stood there before them, dark circles under her eyes but with a catlike smile on her lips. She didn’t see Carl at first and uttered a surprised squawk as he moved forward, his hand going to cover her mouth when he pushed her back into the unit.
The girl tried to turn away from him and he kept one hand on her mouth while the other went around her, pinioning her arms at her sides. She pushed back against him, trying to push her way back to the door, but he leaned backward, lifting her feet from the floor as he walked further into the room. She was wearing a silky kaftan and he could tell that she was unencumbered by a bra. The girl had probably been relaxing after being arrested and spending hours at the police station with nothing but an orange jumpsuit to cover up with.
As he held her in the middle of the room, he felt Julie’s hands between them and heard the rasp of handcuffs as she secured the girl’s hands. He told himself that what they were doing was illegal, but at this point, he didn’t care. This girl had been party to numerous attacks on other women besides Julie and been at least partially responsible for Mrs. Webster’s death. He felt that whatever they got from the girl could be put to good use to solve the case, and they were close.
Julie said, “Okay! You can turn her loose, Carl!”
He let the girl’s weight drop to the floor, the kaftan sliding up her legs as she tried to push herself up without the use of her hands. When she made it to her knees, she opened her mouth to scream and Julie darted forward, slapping her to shock her into silence. Pushing the girl backwards, she moved forward and sat on the girl’s stomach, driving the air from her lungs.
As the girl gasped for air, Julie tangled the fingers of one hand in the girl’s short hair and bounced her head, un-gently, on the carpeted floor.
“Didn’t think you’d see me again, did you?”
Still gasping, the girl shook her head and whined, “There was…no harm done!”
Viciously, Julie slapped her again and leaned forward, breathing her hate into the girl’s face.
“Do you think I couldn’t feel what you and your friends did to me? I could tell! And you’ve done it to other women, too! When we turn the videos we’ve got over to the police, you’ll spend years in prison! You’re not big enough, or tough enough, to avoid becoming some big, ol’ dyke’s plaything, Missy!”
Still close to the girl’s face, she almost spat her hate at her, drops of spittle peppering the girl’s face.
“We’ve even got the video you shot of Sophie Webster! When the cops see that, you might even get the needle! She killed herself over what you and your friend did to her!”
A stunned expression came to the girl’s face for a moment before it changed to a grin and she began laughing. Still unable to breathe comfortably, she gasped a little to get enough breath to speak.
“Nattie? You mean Nattie Pappageorgean? She was a freak! She enjoyed what we did to her! What made her kill herself was when we threatened to show her darling hubby the footage we had of her. Not just that little bit, but all of it!” Jerking her head toward a shelf filled with DVD cases, she said, “I’ve got copies of it! See for yourself! She was into all sorts of things! We just didn’t know she was in love with him. She wasn’t supposed to do that! She was supposed to divorce him and take him for everything she could get! She’d still be alive if she hadn’t done that! If she had just stuck with the plan, everything would have turned out okay!”
Carl knelt beside the two women and asked, “How did Nelson’s mother get him and his wife to agree to the plan?”
Puzzled for a moment, Missy finally saw what he was getting at and shook her head, laughing again.
“They’re not part of it! Nattie was going to split everything with me and Ginny! Ginny’s kid and his wife were going to take the fall if anything went wrong!”
Carl asked, “Why are you calling Mrs. Webster ‘Nattie’? Did she change her name? Was Sophie an alias?”
Chuckling, Missy said, “That’s her name! Natalia Sophia Pappageorgean! Her brother was Ginny’s friend and Ginny helped to raise her! When she was a teenager, Ginny…introduced her to all kinds of sex games when her brother wasn’t around. After he died, she was still in high school and moved in with Ginny. Her husband and son didn’t have any idea what was going on right under their noses!”
Julie’s repulsion showed on her face but she tapped the girl’s head on the carpet again and asked, “How do you know all this?”
Wincing, the girl said, “I worked for Ginny as a maid when I was in high school, okay? I found them out at the pool when I came to work early one day and Ginny agreed to pay my way through college if I’d keep my mouth shut! I took Nattie’s place after she married Webster.”
Julie looked up at Carl for a moment and turned her attention back to the girl.
“If Ginny likes girls so much, how come she got married and had a kid? For that matter, how come Sophie agreed to marry Webster if she liked girls?”
The girl almost spat, “Money! It was all for money! Ginny likes to have nice things and knew she wouldn’t have them if she didn’t marry a rich man. Her old man was trying to get more money for her when he lost the company and she had to fend for herself. She spent some of what she had left on this apartment complex and used a ‘shell’ company to put it in Milo’s name. She and Milo split the money from the rent and the videos with me to keep me quiet.”
Realizing that this game went a lot deeper than they originally thought, Carl moved to a nearby couch and sat down, thinking. The girl wriggled under Julie, trying to make herself more comfortable. Her eyes shot daggers at Carl.
“Tying me up with those guys was a bad thing, Mister! I hurt all over from what they did to me!”
Spitefully, Julie asked, “Are we supposed to believe you were a virgin? That’s a laugh!”
Suddenly angry, the girl narrowed her eyes and said, “Y
ou weren’t either! Remember, I spent the night with you before I brought the crew in! You enjoyed everything we did to you!”
Julie held the girl’s head against the floor by the hair and doubling up a fist, brought it crashing down against the girl’s jaw. As she drew her arm back for another crushing blow, Carl leaned forward from the couch and snaked an arm around his friend, pulling her back against him. She struggled for a few seconds, trying to get back on top of the girl, but subsided as she realized Missy was unconscious. When Carl decided she would be quiet and not attack her again, he released her and was surprised when she continued to lie back against him for a few moments.
He was very aware of her body against him and as she slowly slid from his lap, her jeans rasped against him, also making him aware of an involuntary erection. Mentally cursing, he adjusted his position, raising a leg to cross over the other to hide his condition. He wondered if she had felt it before she moved. God, he hoped not! The last thing they needed right now was to confuse and complicate the situation between them any more than it already was.
Julie slid to the floor, half-crawling to the girl’s limp body. Her hand went to the girl’s face and Carl prepared himself to jerk her back again. He relaxed when she simply grasped the girl by the cheeks and rocked her head back and forth, finding her unconscious. She turned her head to look at him, grudging thanks in her eyes.
“I appreciate you doing that, Carl.”
“It would look bad if we turned her over to the cops all beat up. They’d still believe what we told them, but if it looked like we beat a confession out of her, they wouldn’t like it.”
She sighed and said, “I guess we’re in for a few hours of interviews with Steve and Harry.”
Removing the digital recorder from his pocket, Carl said, “I wouldn’t worry about that. We should only have to tell them what happened and give them this. They can go from there.”
Taking it from him, she pushed the button, turning it off and handed it back to him. “They’re going to wonder about what she said to me.”
“Let them. It’s not a part of the case. When they understand that it was at that point that you hit her, they’ll know we didn’t beat a confession out of her.”
Her hand found the cell phone in her pocket and she dialed Harry’s number, saying, “I’ll call this one in. Then we’ll get something to eat. I’m hungry.”
Twilight had been closing in when they arrived and as his eyes sought the windows, he saw that it was very nearly full-dark now. It was gloomy in the apartment and he rose to flick the light switch, bringing illumination to the room. Roaming about the apartment while Julie talked to Harry, reporting what they had learned, he stepped into the bedroom, flipped the light switch in there and immediately stepped back out. The girl had posters of herself and several other women, making love, plastered over most of the wall-space. Sex-toys, both large and small were ranged about the room on pedestals and stands, like trophies she had won. He was sure the cops would have a field day in here, finding all sorts of evidence attesting to her involvement in numerous blackmail schemes. He was sure that if Ginny and Missy had planned to blackmail Mrs. Webster so far back, there had to have been others. It stood to reason that if the girl kept such trophies around her in her bedroom, there was bound to be DVDs, pictures and other incriminating evidence nearby. They had the girl’s own words about other victims and the two women’s involvement with the film-maker, Milo.
His mind went to what Missy had said about the apartment complex and the porn videos; now he knew where Ginny got her money. The single patent she owned was one thing, but it wasn’t enough to allow her to live the luxurious life she led. He idly wondered how she laundered the money she got for the videos and where the rest of the money came from.
Stepping back into the living room, he saw Julie snap her cell phone closed, hanging up on the call. She smiled back at him.
“They arrested the Nelsons and raided the mother’s place. They missed getting her but found a lot of evidence they can use when they get her to trial. Harry wasn’t very happy about having to let the Nelsons go, but that can’t be helped. It’s plain now that his mother planned on using them as scapegoats.”
She cocked her head to one side. “How can a mother use her own son like that? It’s bad enough that she twisted and warped Mrs. Webster as a girl, but to plan on pinning her crimes on her son; it’s beyond me.”
Carl shrugged. “I suspect that everything she told me about wanting her daughter-in-law to drop the investigation was a sham. I think she was probably egging the girl on and only came to the office to test my resolve in following the leads. She wasn’t as clever as she thought she was though. She didn’t think that I would be able to get into the files on her son’s laptop.”
Julie frowned a little and rose, going into the kitchen for a moment, returning with a glass of water and a storage bag full of ice. Settling beside the unconscious girl, she began dipping her fingers in the water and flicking drops of it into the girl’s face. When that did no good, she stuck her fingers in the bag of ice, bringing out several cubes and began massaging and rubbing them into the girl’s neck. Slowly, Missy began to come around. When she opened her eyes, she winced and closed them again upon seeing Julie’s face.
She moaned, “Oh-h, you bitch…”
Julie shook the girl a little. “Tell me about Ginny and the yacht. What was she doing there?”
Stubbornly, Missy clamped her lips shut and turned her head away from Julie.
Julie’s eyes narrowed a little and she moved to sit on the girl’s legs, surprising her enough that the girl tried to sit up, being pushed back just as she came upright. Lifting herself a little, Julie pulled the girl’s kaftan up past her hips, revealing that the girl wore no underwear and Carl saw that the girl had either shaved or depilated her pubic hair. With her slight build, it gave her the appearance of a little girl. Except for the tattoo of the stylized woman used on public restrooms with the words ‘For Ladies Only’ just above it.
The girl saw what Julie intended when Julie dipped her hand into the bag of ice and came out with a large, oblong bit. Before the girl could try to buck her off, her hands darted forward and she inserted the ice into the girl’s sex. Carl almost moved to stop her, but knew that the girl had reached a point where she wasn’t going to give them anymore information. Disquieted, he settled back into the couch and listened to the girl’s agonized squeals and screams.
Julie put her hand over the girl’s mouth to quiet her and shook her head back and forth. When the girl quieted a little, her screams being muffled, Julie asked her again.
“Tell me what she was doing on the yacht.”
The girl’s eyes grew big but she still shook her head.
Pulling the kaftan up to bare the girl’s breasts, Julie grabbed a double-handful of the ice and clapped them over the girl’s nipples, eliciting another round of screams and squeals.
Gasping the girl said, “Okay! Okay, I’ll tell you! Just get that ice out!”
“Tell me first!”
Squealing and squawking, the girl said, “She was setting her son up! To make it look like he was behind it all! Oh, God! Get it out!”
Pushing the melting ice off the girl’s chest, Julie inserted a finger, probing gently but with a puzzled expression coming to her face. Sitting back on her heels, she shook her head.
“It melted, Missy. You’ll have to put up with the sensation until your body warms up again. Now, tell me who engineered the stuff she used in Webster’s house.”
Shivering, the girl said, “She did! She’s some kind of engineering whiz!”
At Julie’s doubtful look, she added, “She knew all the secret passages and shit in the house and just where to put the things.”
“And the attack on our partner in the attic? Who did that?”
“Ginny did that! She wanted that treasure more than anything and wasn’t about to let any of you keep her from it!”
Narrowing her eyes, Julie ask
ed, “Who used the stun gun on me? Was it you?”
Shaking her head, Missy seemed to clam up, but her eyes grew round and she began babbling when Julie dipped her hand back into the bag of ice.
“It was Ginny did that! She was angry because of what your friend did to me, putting me in the van with those guys! I was supposed to get film of you performing with them and use it to blackmail you to throw your investigation off!” Her eyes looked hatred at Carl and she almost yelled, “But you messed everything up!”
Julie rose, pulling the kaftan back down over the girl. Once Missy felt her weight leave her, she rolled to her side, gasping and sobbing as she brought her knees up to her chest, still shivering. Carl and Julie moved to the door, waiting for the police to arrive. Since this was a bedroom community, there was a question of jurisdiction to be gotten around before Thomas and Michaelson could come get the girl.
Carl said, “You went farther with that than I would have.”
Shrugging, she replied, “We needed answers. That was nothing compared to what she and Ginny did to Webster’s wife. You saw what they did. Missy’s a wimp, or she would have held out longer.”
“I don’t think Harry and Steve will give us any trouble about it, but her lawyer could be something else.”
Shrugging again, she said, “We’ll worry about that when it happens, Carl. Besides, I owed her something for what she and her friends did to me.”
Carl shook his head. “I tried to keep that part from you.”
Suddenly leaning against the doorframe, she said, “What I said about feeling what they did to me was true, Carl. I don’t have to see what they filmed to know what they did. They didn’t use enough lubricant.”
At a loss for words, he simply said, “Sorry I didn’t get there in time, Julie.”
Shrugging yet again, she said, “It wasn’t the first time.”
She turned to gaze out the window, waiting for the police to arrive and Carl suddenly wanted to hold her and tell her that everything would be alright.
* * *