My Day at the Mall

Della's voice came out of the back and said "I knew you'd come sniffin' round here one day. Just could not resist my big ol' chocolate melons hey, Sugar?" That's my Della for you, always thinking with her pussy. I swear she shoulda been born a man!

As soon as she saw me, covered in blood and half carrying Rachel she became all business. "Sugar! What in the hell happened to you? What's goin' on here? You done gone Fruitcake on me sweetie?" Fruitcake was Della's name for the bondage crowd.

I smiled at her and said, "Not hardly, ma'am. This little lady got herself hooked up with an asshole." I gestured with knife towards the ramp outside her door, "I'm gonna have to cut her out of this rig and she ain't got nary a stitch on under it. I need some proper clothes and things for her, and a private place to do this. The cops are on their way and I'd like her to be ready when they get here. Bill me for it and I'll take care of the clothes."

Della looked past me and saw Jerry standing watch over asshole to make sure he stayed put for the cops. "That your handiwork, Sugar? Looks like you did a number on him." As she spoke, she took Rachel by the arm, "Come with me sweetie. We'll get you out of this thing and into something proper." She glanced at me. "Come on big boy. You got the knife." She turned and led Rachel and me back to her office.

She asked Rachel her sizes and then left me to cut her free of the garment. I looked at her before I began, "I'm sorry about this. If you'd rather Della do this I can wait outside..."

"No! Don't leave me!" As she spoke, she grabbed on to me as if I was about to disappear. She started to shake again and I stroked her hair as I cooed nonsense into her ear.

"Shhh... I'm not goin' anywhere Little One. I'll stay as long as you need me to. It's okay." I stroked my hand up and down her back until the tremors subsided. She pulled back and I could see tears in her eyes. I took a thumb and brushed the tears away.

She smiled at me and I swear that I have never seen anything so lovely in my entire life. I was again lost in her beautiful green eyes. Then she dropped the bomb. "Where's Becca? Where's my sister?" I went cold. There was more than one?

I keyed the mike on the radio and said, "S-1 to Security Dispatch. Replay the tape for the East entrance. I want to know which vehicle our perp came in, there maybe another victim inside. Look for a van or large SUV. You can't miss him on the tape."

"Dispatch, copy that boss, I'll have a location momentarily. Dispatch out." Terry Vaughn was our dispatcher and I'd never worked with a better techie in my life. Two minutes later, he came back. "Dispatch to S-1. Vehicle is parked in row K six spaces from the crosswalk. It's the only full-sized van in the row. Black and the windows are tinted. Keys should be in the perps right front pocket."

I started to key the radio again when Terry continued, "S-1 be advised PD and EMTs are diverted to a major multi-car collision with fatalities and chem spill. They will arrive ASAP but it could be a while. Dispatch out."

"Damn it!" I said. I keyed the radio, "S-1 to S1-9, Did you copy Dispatch?"

Jerry came back, "I copied S-1. S-2-6 is en route to the vehicle as we speak. He'll be in touch in a moment." S-2-6 was Ray Tyler's radio designation.

Ray's voice came over the radio "S-2-6 to S-1, the vehicle is empty. Say again, vehicle is empty. Sorry boss."

I replied, "Copy that, RTB (return to base) and contact P-1. Notify him of the situation, S-1-9 collect his I.D and see if we can get an address on this prick, S-1 out." I turned to the small woman, "I'm sorry. Do you know where you were before he brought you here?"

She nodded her head, "Outside Covington at his dad's place. He said his father was in a home somewhere and that no one would hear us scream there."

"S-1-9 to S-1. I have his ID and an address. Name on the ID is Roger Winslow the address is in Covington." Jerry's voice sounded smug. "S-1, my cousin works at the Covington PD. Should I call him."

"That's affirmative! Tell him possible kidnap and torture victim probably on site." I paused and looked at Rachel and asked, "How did he get a hold of you and your sister?"

She shook a little and said, "My sister and I came to see our uncle. He is ill and in Covington Memorial Hospital and asked us to come. We had been here about a week and I wanted to go clubbing. Becca stayed home, she doesn't care for the club scene. She likes going to the cinema instead. One night Becca didn't come home. I was worried but didn't know what to do. The next day, I received a photo of her bound and nude, with whip marks up and down her back. The note said to come alone to this place and it had a map. I went and he invited me in. I demanded to see my sister and he hit me." Her eyes - as she spoke of the beating and then the subsequent rapes - were flat. I could see her dying inside as she remembered it. She told of several days, nearly a week, of abuse and torture. He used her sister to force her obedience and used her the same way against her sister. They were kept in cages on the floor in the basement.

The EMTs arrived as Della brought clothes in for Rachel to wear. She had stood behind the small woman as she spoke. Della whispered to me, "You don't owe me nothin', Sugar. You find her sister and we're even, you hear?" The outrage in her voice left little doubt that she would like some quite time in a room alone with the asshole and a hammer.

I nodded, "I'm going to wait outside here so Della can help you get dressed." At the mention of my leaving her, she began to tremble and cry again.

"Don't go! I'll be good I promise! Please don't go!" She wailed and grabbed me around the waist. She looked as though her mind was on the verge of breaking.

Della knelt in front of her and said in a calm reassuring voice, "Honey, calm down now. Sugar ain't goin' no place. He's gonna stay right here and help ol' Della. Ain't that right Sugar?" She looked at me very pointedly.

I smiled and took Rachel's other hand, "I won't go if you want me to stay. I promise. I'll be right here." She calmed and I realized I had just made a devils bargain. I was now responsible for her mental state; I would be with her as long as she needed me.

The smaller of the two EMTs, a small wiry looking woman, named Sally Kirkland according to her jacket pocket, poked her head in and said, "Your perp will be out for awhile. I understand the woman is a victim and you have a knife wound?" I nodded at her. She came over and inspected the field dressing I had put on my wound and said, "Tight, I'm impressed. I still need you to go to the hospital to get checked for sure but it looks like you'll be fine, Mr. Richards." My head snapped round to look her in the face.

She smiled at me, "I was the first on the scene at your accident. You look better now but you keep finding trouble." I grunted my assent. I raised the blade to begin removing more of the body suit from Rachel when Sally's hand stopped me.

"I want her to take this thing off at the hospital so it can be used as evidence. If we do it here, the scumbag's lawyer will claim tampering and we won't be able to refute it conclusively." Sally's voice held a touch of menace as she spoke. I looked at her, "I've seen it before. If we do it now, that scumbag will walk."

I sighed and told Rachel, "I don't like it but she's right. The hospital is only a block from here. Can you make it another few minutes?" At Rachel's nod, we picked up all of the pieces to the body suit and put them in an evidence bag that Sally had in her kit.

Her partner brought in a gurney and we put Rachel on it. When Sally's partner, Mike, tried to touch Rachel, she began to tremble violently. Seeing it he backed off and motioned Sally to take his place. We draped a blanket from her neck to her knees so that people couldn't see what she was wearing and Della put the stack of clothes in a bag for me to take with her. A second gurney held Winslow and was being loaded into another ambulance.

The ride to the hospital was uneventful and we were shown right into a room. A small man, about five foot-eight with thinning black hair, came in and with obvious disdain in his voice said, "I'm Dr. Branch. I hear we've been playing a little rough today..." The condescension in his voice was choked off as my right hand caught his throat and I lifted him from the ground.

"Get a female doctor in here. She," I nodded at Rachel, "has been tortured and raped for the last week and if you see me again it will be the last thing you see. Am I clear?" The hostility in my voice left no question that I meant what I said.

I sent him sprawling into the hall and watched as he scrambled to his feet and disappeared. A second later Sally and another woman in scrubs came around the end of the curtain. Sally said, "Dr. Branch is talking to the administrator about filing assault charges on you. Did you really grab him by the throat and threaten him?"

I nodded and told her what he had said and what had went on. Her face was a mask of outraged fury. "This is my big sister Maggie. She'll be Rachel's doctor if you don't mind. I'll be right back!" She started to leave and saw me move towards Rachel.

I looked at Rachel and she nodded saying, "That's fine as long as the other one doesn't come back." I helped her sit up and Maggie handed me a scalpel.

Rachel calmed again and began to gingerly tug at the PVC around her neck. I knelt down again to help her peel the tight material off her skin. Sally yelled, "Stop! Don't take anything off I'll be right back." She dashed out of the room. We immediately heard raised voices in the hall followed by a loud female voice shouting for quiet. Sally returned in a moment and brought back her partner with a Sony digital camcorder and the Polaroid from our tram. She began to speak into the camera. "This is Sally Kirkland. I'm employed by the Torrington Fire Department as an EMT. We are at the Torrington Memorial Hospital Emergency Room removing a PVC bondage/torture suit from a victim, Rachel Curtis, who is claiming kidnapping, rape and torture. Okay Mr. Richards please assist Ms. Curtis in removing that thing."

"Hold very still." I picked up a scalpel from the tray next to the gurney. Looking into her eyes I watched as she nodded and then I moved behind her and ran the blade down the center of her back to the left of the actual zipper path. Once I reached her hips, I moved back to her neck and ran the scalpel down her arm to the elbow. I did the other arm and then ran it down each leg so she had some freedom to wiggle herself out of the suit. I stood and whispered in her ear, "Be brave, I'm right here." I stood back and allowed the doctor and Rachel to peel the bodysuit from her.

Sally gasped as the expanse of Rachel's tiny back was revealed. There wasn't a single square inch of her back that wasn't covered in stripes, vivid bruises and patterned abrasions of every kind. The rage I felt before was rekindled and magnified a thousand fold. I was going to kill the bastard who had done this. It was that simple. I would not share space on the planet with someone who would do something like this.

Her arms showed more signs of her torture, as did her legs. When she turned around I nearly lost it. He had branded her. It looked as though he had run a hot metal clothes hanger over her breasts. I closed my eyes so I would not see. If I looked, I would go into the other exam room and commit murder on the spot. I had never committed an act of deliberate murder, outside of war, before but I would gladly do it to this bastard. My rage flowed over me like a wave threatening to destroy my reason.

Maggie grabbed my arm and whispered, "The burns aren't permanent. They won't scar much, if at all. She'll heal, but if you lose it here she may never recover. She needs to see you still care for her despite what that bastard did to her!" She was speaking as though Rachel and I were lovers. Maggie had assumed a relationship that did not exist between Rachel and I and it was only at that point that I realized it. She wasn't wrong, at least about my feelings. My rage vanished in the wake of my surprise.

I was astonished. You just can't fall in love... in less than an hour...? Can you? It's not possible. Love takes time and work and... and... and I saw Rachel watching me. I just could not hurt her this way. I just could not do that to her. I nodded at her and she, for the first time, smiled at me. It was a shy little smile but it lit the room like a lighthouse beacon. I knew at that moment my heart no longer belonged to me; she owned it, and me, completely.

My introspection was interrupted by Jerry on the radio, "S1-9 to S-1. My cousin Mike says the judge in Covington is a "special friend" of our perp and will refuse to grant any warrants no matter what the evidence is. Mike says he will block any attempt at local interference with the man and has done so for years. He also said if we need any help to give him a call. He recommends the Feds for legitimate official help."

Shit! Shit! Shit! Just what I didn't want. I looked at Rachel and just knew my life had just become very complex.