Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Jack told Laura what he had been told while driving to intercept Ray.

“We can’t let them get away with this,” cried Laura. “Informant or no informant. We can’t sit by.”

“Do you really think I will sit by?” answered Jack tersely. “You know me better than that. We will protect our friend though. We gave him our word.”

“Then what can we do? Any arrest and they’ll know who told. Especially if we wait until they pick up the bag of evidence.”

“I’ve got an idea,” said Jack, coldly, “and it doesn’t involve arresting them.”

“Jack … no, we can’t. I know how you feel. I’d like to kill them, too. But we can’t. They’re still just kids.”

“Kids committing adult crimes,” replied Jack. “You know how things went in court today … and that was with the masks and a pellet pistol. What do you think will happen in court if they’re arrested without the hard evidence of the masks and knife?” Jack paused and when Laura didn’t respond, he said, “I can hear it now. If we get DNA to prove they were there, lawyers will get the kids to say they were enticed to Miss Flowers’s home on the pretext of tutoring them. She used her position to seduce and introduce them to the world of bondage. The kids went along with her, but one kid threatened to tell his buddies about it. They’ll say Miss Flowers threatened to charge them all with rape if that happened. The kid panicked and things got out of hand. They’ll cap it off by saying the kids were actually the victims of an adult. A teacher yet … a person in authority who used her power over them.”

“That’s far-fetched. A jury might not believe that.”

“Yeah, might being the key word. Especially without the masks and the weapons.”

Laura sighed and said, “Okay, okay. Even if you’re right … I don’t even want to think about it. But what do we do? Killing them isn’t an option. Anything else I would go along with.”

The rage Jack felt caused the tendons to go taut in his neck and his eyebrows furrowed, darkening his face. “I’ll tell you what the option is —” He stopped talking and Laura wondered if he was too angry to speak. “Hang on, incoming call,” he snapped, answering his cellphone.

“Jack, it’s Connie. The office said you called. You know what happened?”

“I know,” replied Jack tersely.

“You told me you were moving her to a safe place. How did you let this happen?”

“I don’t know,” replied Jack. His mind continued to cycle every detail in a futile attempt to figure out how he screwed up.

“You better find out, because so far, we got nothing.”

Jack realized he was clenching his jaw and that his fist was gripping his phone like a vice. He relaxed his muscles, but the vengeance he felt was as powerful as ever. “Believe me, we’ll find out,” he replied. “I’ve picked up Laura. How’s Amanda?”

“Her injuries aren’t life-threatening, thank Christ. I only spoke to her briefly. She said she was tied to her bed, repeatedly raped by three guys, and then they slashed her forehead multiple times with a knife. She’ll be badly scarred.”

“Where is she now?”

“She’s laying on a gurney in the holding area. A doctor is working on her face. After that, they’ll get her a private room where, hopefully, if she’s not too sedated, I’ll be able to talk to her in detail.”

“Not life-threatening if the nightmares don’t drive her to suicide,” said Jack, bitterly. “Do you really think she will be up to talking to you?”

“She’s traumatized, but not hysterical. She did say she is good with voices and is positive none of the three were the same guys as before.”

“Good with voices, is she?”

“Yeah, but she didn’t recognize any of them. Maybe they were adults or kids from some other school.”

“Cocktail used juveniles last time to alleviate any jail time if they were caught.”

“Do you have any leads for us?”

“No, we don’t have any leads at all.”

“Oh, man …” murmured Laura in the background.

“Then what are you doing?” asked Connie

“Talking it over with Laura. Trying to figure out who is responsible.”

“Responsible! You know it’s Cocktail! Probably went through Sy again. What’s wrong with you? Have you called your informant?”

“It’s kind of touchy talking to the informant right now,” replied Jack.

“Kind of touchy? I can’t believe this! Don’t you realize what happened?”

“I’m fully aware of what happened,” replied Jack. “We’ll do some digging and get back to you.”

“Yeah, well —”

Jack hung up his phone mid-sentence.

“Do some digging?” asked Laura. “Oh, man,” she muttered again.

“Not the type of digging you’re thinking of,” replied Jack, “but a skirt and high heels isn’t exactly the right thing to be wearing for what I have in mind. You wearing nylons?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Hang on, I’m going to phone Natasha.”

Jack rapidly punched the buttons on his BlackBerry. Laura listened as he asked Natasha if she could convince the hospital to delay moving Amanda to a private room.

“There’s no time to explain,” he said. After a pause, added, “Convince someone that you’re a doctor from another hospital. Say there’s been a multi-vehicle accident and it may be necessary to transfer some patients. Ask them to hold any rooms they can for an hour to give you time to assess the new arrivals.”

Laura saw Ray drive past in his red Camaro, as did Jack.

“Gotta go,” said Jack. “Use a payphone. Hopefully in an hour I’ll get you to call again and say the transfer isn’t necessary.”

“Take ’em off!” he yelled to Laura as he sped through traffic to catch up to the Camaro.

“Take what off?” asked Laura.

“Your nylons. Now!”