Sure Fire Ch. 16

Chapter 16: Beginning at The End

"I'm glad that you waited," said Trepan. Mi-Sun had opened her door when she heard him entering his room next to hers. Trepan thought he never had seen her smile as she did now.

"I'm glad you called and asked me to wait. I would have waited anyway, but it would have been harder—to put myself out there that way."

Trepan wanted to kiss here, right now, but over her shoulder he glimpsed dark hair, one dark eye. When Delehanty and he had left Elizabeth at the hospital and were getting into the patrol car, Delehanty had asked, "What now?"

Trepan said: "One loose end—one important one—but even before that I'm accompanying Wendall Smith's body to Virginia. Tomorrow morning. His folks live outside Richmond."

Delehanty nodded. "What important loose end?"

"Carrie Kane."

"Dan-Dan? Not loose anymore."

Trepan turned to him, fearful, braced for another blow. "Tell me."

"She's with her mother at the hotel. I won't say 'fine,' she had an ordeal, but she was taking a walk with Mrs. Kane."

"You found her?"

"Her mother did. That apartment on Beacon. They had held here there for days, mostly tied up." He turned to Trepan. "I don't know much, but I have to bring them both in for questioning."

"God, when did you find out?"

"Just before you called from Weybright's. A patrolman watching the hotel radioed in. He saw Mrs. Kane and a girl. He stopped them and Kane told him. He radioed in because Dan-Dan was a missing person and a person of interest in this case." He added apologetically, "I didn't get to tell you..."

But Trepan hadn't gotten to the hotel, that night, until 2:00. He left the next morning at 6:00 for the flight from LaGuardia that would carry Wendall's remains. He had not seen Mi-Sun before he left, but he called from Virginia that evening, and, when she answered, said: "If I wasn't so sad, I'd be happy. But I am happy for you, Mi-Sun, and every time I think of you, I get happier. Will you be there when I get back tomorrow night?"

"Do you want me to be?"

"I practically insist."

"Have I broken the law?"

"Probably, but that isn't why I insist. I insist because now this is over you can see Boston, the way you always wanted. With me."

"Then I'll be here." She paused. "I'm so sorry. I heard about Wendall Smith and I thought to myself: he was trying to prevent exactly what happened to Dan-Dan—and those three guys on Beacon Street."

"Yes. That's how he thought of it, too."

"I think we will be talking about this for a very long time, Martin."

Now, she smiled at him again and said, "Come in, why don't you." When he did, she turned and said, "Mr. Trepan, I would like to present my daughter, Carrie."

The girl came forward and her smile was like Mi-Sun's. She was taller, her body and face fuller. Not surprising; her father had been a Marine and she grew up on the diet that kept producing bigger and bigger American girls. She took his hand, the lovely eyes assessing him, but the smile was wide and arrestingly pretty.

She said, "I'm just learning how much I owe you, Mr. Trepan. Mom says you were our champion all through this."

"Your mother seems to have solved one of the first, toughest mysteries we had: where you had gone."

"I didn't know till later, but I was three hours away from dying, probably burning, when she showed up."

"I'll need to talk with you about everything that happened. My job is to analyze all variations on why and how bombs keep going off."

"I'll tell you everything. I was fool enough to fall for some heroes who...weren't... But I didn't buy the violence—none of it, not even a little."

"Let's sit," said Mi-Sun and waved at the room's only easy chair. Trepan sat down; Mi-Sun sat on the bed, Dan-Dan on the floor not far from Trepan.

"Just one thing, now," said Trepan. "How did they grab you?"

Dan-Dan nodded. "I went to Joy Street. A guy stopped coming to discussion group. I didn't see him in class. I wanted to find him. I liked him, he seemed idealistic. Three guys were there, mostly stoned. That's not for me, but I did stay awhile, and before I knew it our usual discussion of philosophy and politics had moved on to black powder and how bombs could 'bring the war home.'

"At first, I thought it was more talk. But one guy seemed to know about chemistry and talked about how he had built a bomb that had worked—past tense. It was as though they assumed I was 'in.'

"When I realized that, I got up and said to my boyfriend, 'If you're serious, I'm out of here and we're done.' I picked up my pocketbook.

"The weird guy who kept talking chemistry said, 'She isn't going anywhere. I thought you said she was with us?'

"I said, 'Actually, I am going—right now.' I started for the door and this guy grabbed my leg. I called him an 'asshole,' and tried to kick him.

"End of story. Three guys against me. My boyfriend kept trying to say I was 'okay,' and all that, but he wouldn't fight the others.

"They talked and decided to take me to the Beacon Street apartment. They waited till real late—actually early in the morning. Someone brought around a car and they dragged me into it. They didn't let me take my pocketbook. The weird guy said, 'Hey, we need that—and she doesn't.' That kind of scared the shit out of me.

"Anyway, they got me to the Beacon place. I fought pretty hard when they took me out of the car; I was afraid if they got me into that apartment I wouldn't get out alive. They had to hit me before they could get me in. They punched me in the belly over and over until I couldn't do anything but try to breathe."

As though to illustrate, she took a deep breath and sighed. She said, "When they got me up there, they decided to tie me to the bed. I was still fighting. It was the weird guy who talked them into completely stripping me. And tying my legs apart, too."

She shrugged. "I don't know what they discussed about me, but in a few hours my boyfriend apparently agreed I was property of the commune."

She looked down. "After that I was their chief recreation." She was shaking her head. "I don't know how many times. In all the combinations."

Mi-Sun said quietly, "Do you have to say so much, Dan-Dan?"

"Was that too much detail, Mom?" said Dan-Dan, an edge of exasperation in her voice. "Maybe I got carried away. I was gang-raped for a week, you know. It tends to stay with you."

"I'm sorry," said Mi-Sun softly. "I thought that Mr. Trepan..."

"It's all right," said Trepan. "But I don't know what to say. I'm so sorry, Dan-Dan—and that doesn't mean much."

"Yes it does, Mr. Trepan. And I'll tell you all you want to know. My God, I heard what happened to Prof. Lisk. No one deserves that! No one!"

"He didn't deserve anything that happened to him. He was a man spouting ideas, completely within his rights. I'm here to fight for him."

"Good," she said.

"I called Esther Lisk," said Trepan.

"Oh, no..." Mi-Sun murmured. She closed her eyes.

"She had heard. The police didn't tell her the details, at first. But she insisted on seeing the body and they talked her out of that by telling her. She's very strong, but now her life will be about living with that." He added, almost absent-mindedly, "Her husband had good life insurance."

"I should tell you..." said Dan-Dan. "While I was there people came three times to talk about getting the explosives."

Trepan straightened up. "We'll have to talk about that,"

"One girl who came walked into the bedroom and just stared down at me lying naked. Then, she said, 'Why is she here?'

"And the weird guy said, 'She told us she would turn us in.' The girl said, 'Then you shouldn't be fucking her, you should just kill her,' and she walked out of the room."

Dan-Dan stood up. "Well, I take about five showers a day and keep wanting another one. Then I think I'll take a nap." She turned to Mi-Sun with a smile.

"Okay," said Trepan, "I'm going. Almost cocktail hour, Mi-Sun. We could raid my mini-bar."

"Let's go out and buy a bottle of wine and bring it back to your room. It's cheaper."

"Okay, I could walk. Maybe we'll see a nice bar." Dan-Dan was watching them, smiling, and he said to her, "A few things. Capt. Delehanty will call; he needs to hear everything. This is a big case, and you're both right in the middle of it."

"I have to talk to you about that, Martin," said Mi-Sun.

He nodded. "To tell me what you did to get Sybil Weybright to talk."

"Oh."

"You left there before you said you would and went straight to Beacon Street. She wasn't exactly a gusher of information at that point."

"I beat her up. I ripped her nightie and told her I'd do to her breasts what North Korea's interrogators did to women they captured."

Trepan nodded.

"You aren't surprised?"

"Mom!" said Dan-Dan. "Jeez, that's..." She paused. "Of course, I'd be dead, now..."

"Well, you won't tell that to Delehanty. If Sybil goes to the police, you'll need a lawyer. Did you use a weapon?"

"A super-sharp nail file tucked in my bra. If I got attacked, in a real fight, I'd go for the eyes or the nostrils."

"Oh, my God," said Dan-Dan.

"Well, Sybil has said nothing. She's going to have her own problems with the police for a long time. She lied to them, concealed evidence, gave the bombers money..."

"But look, two more things. The media aren't onto what happened to Dan-Dan. I'll talk to Delehanty; he can't reveal the name of a rape victim. But it the reporters do get the story, you'll have months of media circus: beautiful co-ed held captive, naked, by student bombers. They would go into a feeding frenzy."

Dan-Dan smiled the dazzling smile and said, "I could write a book. Then, there might be a movie."

"Okay, my next point," said Trepan. "What you feel now is huge relief, triumph at escaping, excitement talking about the adventure. That's stage one, Dan-Dan. You were beaten, kidnapped, gang-raped, and spent a week thinking you would be killed. That will hit you. It will hit you hard. It doesn't feel like it, now, but it will. You've heard of post-traumatic stress disorder: now it's about you. It will come."

She nodded, turned to Mi-Sun. "I should see someone, now, before that starts."

"If you do, you're smarter than most people," said Trepan. He added, "I think you are."

"Are you ready?" asked Mi-Sun. "Cocktail hour is upon us."

"Coming," said Trepan, but he asked, "Dan-Dan, what will do you next? Go home?"

She shook her head, "I think I finish the semester here, at least. Maybe the year. Just pick up where I left off."

Mi-Sun was shaking her head. "This crazy place, with all that's happened..."

"I can't run home and hide, Mom. This is the world."

"Somehow, we missed that walk and the wine," said Trepan. Lying beside her, he leaned over and his fingers traced the outline of each nipple; they had stiffened at his touch and as he continued the skin of the dark aureoles crinkled. Mi-Sun's eyes were closed. She sighed. "I could do it again, right now."

Her hand moved down to his belly, her fingers combing through the hair, and then she said, "Does this mean it's ready? Remember, I don't know anything."

But then she pressed her lips together, shaking her head. Trepan saw and said, "And now you just thought of Dan-Dan."

She nodded. "Yes, when I said I've have almost no experience in bed."

"Had she..."

"Oh, yes, I think so. Before it happened? I'm not absolutely sure. I don't think when she left for college last year, but that summer, before she left, she was bursting with her own sexuality. I saw it in everything. I talked with her about not getting pregnant. Then, when she came home last summer, I felt she wasn't a virgin."

"What will happen now?"

"She knows to watch for signs. Not just pregnancy. Who knows what those guys were carrying. She's pretty open about it."

Trepan rolled to the side of the bed and sat up. "I guess it's time for that walk to get the wine."

She grabbed his arm. "Oh, I'm sorry, Martin! Does this happen often?"

He frowned. "What?"

"Well, you had me in heaven playing with my tits and I was thinking I wanted to try... I never took a man in my mouth, Martin. And then, suddenly we were talking about the kid or something and it's all gone."

Trepan laughed. "Oh, that! In my limited experience, it happens about as often as fucking happens!"

"Oh! You never used that word with me. Are you annoyed because I spoiled the mood?"

Trepan let himself fall back onto the bed. "What did you say you wanted to try?"

The end