Caught with Consequences Ch. 02

"I have a Confidential security clearance," Amanda answered.

Weldon picked up a sheet off his desk.

"A Confidential clearance is hierarchically the first security clearance a military member gets, typically requiring a few weeks to a few months of investigation and must be renewed every 15 years. Is that correct?" Weldon read from the paper he was holding.

"That is correct, but I fail to see the relevance of it," Amanda snapped back.

Adele shook her head. She wished Amanda would remain on script.

"I'll get to that now. What is the overall classification of the AIM-260 project?" Weldon asked.

"The project is classified Top Secret and a Compartmented clearance is required for access to most of the classified material. But as you pointed out counsellor, my job as comptroller does not require me to have access to classified material," Amanda said with a self-satisfied grin.

"But you told the court that Mister Randal often kept the blinds closed and the door locked when you were in his office because he was working on Top Secret material. Wouldn't he be breaching security?" Weldon asked.

The grin left Amanda's face.

"He probably turned off his computer screen or put the classified files away when I entered. I don't know; you will have to ask him," Amanda's reply was gritty.

"Oh I'm going to ask him Commander; but you told the court that Mister Randal asked you to lock the door. Wouldn't you be suspicious of him asking you to do that?" Weldon asked.

Amanda didn't answer straight away so Weldon continued.

"Are you suggesting that the CEO of a company with a billion dollar Defense contract would risk throwing all that way by committing a security breach? I know for a fact that every log-in and log-out of the Defense security network is recorded, as is access to the Dynamic Aerospace Solutions computer system. Why would he risk his job just to review some expense reports?" Weldon asked.

"I don't know. Maybe he got lazy?" Amanda snapped back.

"Ok. So moving along. You said in your testimony that you and Mister Randal worked closely together and implied that you met often. Is it not a fact that you had only one scheduled weekly appointment to review the administrative operating accounts, that the millions of dollars in research and development funds were handled by the company and that as the naval representative you only handled the administrative expenses?" Weldon asked.

Adele once again considered objecting but remained seated.

"I had a scheduled weekly meeting with him. What I meant by working closely was that we worked closely together during those meetings. As I said, he did seem to turn up at the same social gatherings as I did and he did harass me," Amanda replied.

"I'm going to move onto the alleged assault and I'll try to be as delicate as possible but I will have to ask you some personal questions. First off, can you please examine these exhibits?" Weldon nodded to one of clerks who handed Amanda the sealed evidence bags containing her underwear and skirt.

Amanda handled the exhibits like they carried a virus, reluctant to touch them. She handed them back to the clerk.

"These are the pantyhose and panties you were wearing when the alleged assault took place; is that correct?" Weldon pointed to the items now located on the evidence table.

"Yes," Amanda nodded.

"And you were wearing them before, during and after incident?" Weldon pointed to the table.

"Yes, of course," Amanda was becoming riled.

"You didn't wear some other lingerie to the office and then change into the pantyhose and regulation uniform panties after the alleged assault?" Weldon asked.

"Objection," Adele drawled.

"Withdrawn. Can you explain then how semen was found on your skirt, in and around your sex parts, and on your thighs but not on the pantyhose or panties you were wearing?"

"Objection. The witness is not a crime scene investigator or forensics expert," Adele was quick to respond.

"Sustained," the judge said gruffly.

"Ok moving on. How much do you currently earn Commander Palmer?" Once again Weldon had a sheaf of reference material in his hands.

"I earn around seventy thousand dollars a year plus some allowances," Amanda seemed relieved that they had moved on from questions about the assault.

"Allowances such as rent for the condo in which you lived at the time, paid for by DAS?" Weldon looked up from his notes.

"With allowances and per diem I was earning around one hundred thousand dollars year when I worked at DAS, if that's what you are asking Mister Jennings," Amanda was becoming anxious again.

"And you are currently on administrative leave pending acceptance of your resignation from the United Sates Navy?" Weldon consulted his notes.

"Yes. My career has been effectively ruined and I'm no longer comfortable serving in the military," Amanda began to tear up.

"And have you applied for civilian employment? Your degree from Annapolis and your distinguished military career would surely make you a prime candidate for a highly paid position," Weldon said sarcastically but didn't look up from his notes.

"Objection," Adele grumbled, fully expecting it to be sustained, as did Weldon.

"I'll allow the question," the judge said.

Amanda looked shocked. She had not been prepared for the question. Adele looked equally shocked.

"I err... I've been too busy with my lawyers and too traumatised to look for outside employment," Amanda stuttered.

Weldon frantically flipped through his notes.

"But your discharge is effective at the end of this month and you will have no military pension. How do you intend to support yourself?" Weldon asked.

Amanda Palmer was speechless and looked for Adele for help.

Weldon seized the moment.

"Isn't it true Miz Palmer that you expect the lucrative damages to be awarded to you from this law suit to finance your lifestyle? Is it not also true that you recently purchased the latest model BMW Hommage and have lodged an application with a prominent Los Angeles realtor to find you a condominium with a price cap of two million dollars?" Weldon said angrily.

The judge rapped his gavel repeatedly through the question, banging in faster and louder until Weldon stopped speaking.

"No further questions your honour," Weldon stalked back to his seat.

Amanda Palmer stormed out of the witness chair and made her way back to where Adele Edwards and Sandra Cochran were standing at the plaintiff's table screaming objections at the judge.

"Counsel! Chambers! Now!!" Judge James Duncan Payton Chatsworth III was ropeable.

*****

Judge Chatsworth took off his robes and indicated two chairs in front of his large oak desk. Adele had left Sandra Cochran to try to calm down Amanda Palmer; she took the proffered chair and glared at Weldon Jennings who sat down in the other chair as and smiled at her innocently.

The judge poured three large tumblers of scotch and handed them out without asking who wanted one. He sat behind his desk and took a long pull on his drink.

"I knew this case was going to get messy but you crossed the line in there Weldon," the judge glared at Weldon Jennings.

"Crossed the line! The jury needs to be instructed to ignore any implication that my client is here solely for the money," Adele snapped.

"Really Adele? Isn't that why she's here?" Weldon studied the golden liquor in the crystal glass.

"Judge, you don't have to be a Rhode's Scholar to see that our defence is based on the plaintiff being a self-aggrandising gold-digger who seduced my client with the intent to milk his company of millions in a settlement after she made her false claims. She has now been caught with the consequences of her actions," Weldon Jennings stated.

Judge Chatsworth put out his hand to stop the two counsellors talking.

"We are not here to try this case in chambers. I wanted this case settled before it got anywhere near my court and I still don't understand why you don't just settle Mister Jennings. The recompense that the plaintiff is asking for is a rounding error in your client's capital worth," the judge took a long pull on his drink and then topped it up.

"Judge, my client can't settle at any price. The United States Department of Defense has suffered from bad publicity and been vilified in congress and in the press regarding its record regarding their handling of sexual assault. The Military is working hard to clean up its act and now has strict policies that are punitive to those found guilty of sexually related offences. These policies also apply to Defense contractors," Weldon explained.

"If my client settles, the settlement will be construed as an admission of guilt and his company will lose their Defense contracts, in particular the AIM-260 project. The only recourse would be for my client to resign his position as CEO and leave the company he built from the ground up. That ain't happening judge," Weldon drained his drink and slammed his glass down on the desk with some finality.

"Well it looks like we are going back in the courtroom; how many witnesses do you have left Adele?" Judge Chatsworth asked.

"I'm about done Judge; I'll likely rest my case when we return to the court," Adele had had time to cool down.

"And you are ready to proceed Mister Jennings?" the judge was still angry at Weldon who nodded the affirmative.

"Then we will go back in there for the plaintiff to rest and then reconvene tomorrow to hear from the defence and hopefully have a verdict before the weekend," the judge stood and started to put his robe back on.

*****

When Adele went into her office it was late. She, Sandra Cochran and Amanda Palmer had spent hours in the firm's conference room reviewing Amanda's testimony, trying to evaluate the damage that Weldon Jennings had done to their case when he cross-examined Amanda. They reviewed the defence's witness list and pointedly asked Amanda if she knew what each of the witnesses would say. Adele saw the case slipping away and they needed to crush the defence witnesses during their testimony, particularly Oliver Randal.

She was worried about Kimberly and Alisha, but as instructed by the abductors, she had tried to remain focussed on the case. She had continually speculated how the Palmer case could be tied to her daughter's abduction. She couldn't see a connection.

She poured herself a drink and then suddenly the computer screen on her desk burst into life. On the screen Kimberly and Alisha were once again chained against a wall. They were wearing clean clothes and makeup. They had obviously been allowed to change out of their sports attire and into the clothes that were going to wear to work on the day of the kidnapping. Adele took cold comfort in the fact that the kidnappers seemed to be looking after the two girls.

But Adele was angry. She'd had a bad day in court and stupidly took out her acrimony on the kidnappers.

The two abductors were once again wearing their nondescript tracksuits and ski masks.

'Hello Adele. Good day in court?' the man typed.

'How do I know what I'm seeing here is real? It could all be staged or pre-recorded,' Adele typed into the text box.

The man walked over to the laptop and fiddled with it a little and suddenly the speakers on Adele's computer burst into life.

"There we go; I've turned on the audio function. You can hear me now, right?" the man said.

"Yes I can hear you," Adele replied.

The man's voice coming from her computer speakers had been altered electronically but she could understand him plainly.

"You think this is smoke and mirrors? Electronic mumbo jumbo? Maybe we should send you something organic to prove we are real?" the man turned to the camera and gave an evil grin.

"It's ok. I believe you." Adele gasped feverously, she realised she'd made a huge tactical blunder.

"No you're right. You need tangible proof... something you can hold in your hand," the man mused, stroking his chin.

"A finger?"

"I can cut off Kimberly's ring finger and you can see that the emerald ring on it is the one you bought her for her eighteenth birthday and of course you could try to check the fingerprint somehow without alerting the police. We know you have friends in the LAPD and in the Prosecutors office."

"No! No! No! That's not necessary I believe you." Adele was crying.

It was Adele's insistence that had bought about this situation and now she was regretting it.

On the screen the man was wielding a knife, waving it under Kimberly's eyes but her daughter remained unmoved. In that instant she loved her daughter more than ever.

"Ok you don't want me to chop-chop so how about this..."

"Do not turn off your computer Adele. I'll know if you do and worse will happen. Part of your punishment for not believing us is to watch what happens."

"We promised not to sexually assault your daughter and we won't...yet! But I'm going to give you something from her and something from me to prove this is real. Watch, you're going to enjoy this. Well you won't but I will," the man chuckled.

The other man took the camera off the tripod and closed in on Kimberly, first focussing on her pretty face as the other man caressed her cheek and then following the man's hand as it strayed down her body. The man stopped at the hem of her skirt and then lifted the hem up and tucked it the waistband of her skirt and Kimberly began to struggle and cry out.

"Stop it bitch!" the man put the knife to Kimberly's neck and she stopped struggling.

"Good," the man dropped the knife and his accomplice trained the camera on him as he lowered his tracksuit pants.

The man was fully erect and had an impressive penis.

"No! No! No! Don't" Adele screamed

"Shut up and watch!" the man replied.

The camera focussed on Kimberly's pink nylon panties. They were full-cut and had a cute red bow at the front.

"Ok here we go," the man grunted and his accomplice had to move away to find a better camera angle.

When the camera focussed again Adele was horrified to see that the man was rubbing his erect penis on her daughter's panties, pressing it into her pubic mound.

"Stay silent and watch, otherwise things will get worse for Kimberly," the man grunted as he thrust his cock against her.

It was torture for Adele to watch the man rutting up against her daughter, made all the worse by the man with the camera constantly changing the field of view to show the man pressing his body against Kimberly and alternately showing a close up of the man's cock pressed into the folds of her daughter's labia shrouded in the flimsy pick nylon panties.

The man was obviously close to extremis as he pushed harder and faster against Kimberly's panty-clad cunt she could hear him grunting. The camera remained locked on his cock and on Kimberly's mound.

Then the unthinkable happened. At first Adele thought it was her imagination but then she saw an almost imperceptible movement as her daughter pressed back against the man as he ground himself against her. Kimberly gyrated her groin almost indiscernibly but she was definitely doing it.

During a court case Adele had convinced the jury that a person could be coerced, manipulated and downright compelled to experience pleasure during a sexual assault. She had gone as far as to put an expert witness on the stand to prove it. She herself had orgasmed during her college rape and again multiple times when she was abused in the shotgun shack in the woods.

The man abusing her daughter pressed himself hard against Kimberly, holding her daughter by the shoulders. The cameraman shifted the camera's field of view and focussed on Alisha chained to the wall beside her best friend, watching Kimberly being sexually maltreated by one of their captors. Alisha looked to be in a state of shock but she was unable to look away.

The camera moved back to Kimberly's face which appeared to be both alarmed and confused. Adele understood that her daughter didn't understand why her body was betraying her. Kimberly suddenly gasped and bit her lip and then she closed her eyes. Adele guessed that Kimberly had probably just orgasmed and she felt pity for her.

The camera scanned down Kimberly's body, past her heaving chest pressed against her abductor, down past her skirt which was hiked up and tucked into the waistband of her skirt and down to her groin where the man was rutting against her sex. There was no mistaking that Kimberly was thrusting back against him, pressing her panty-clad mound against the man's pulsing cock which suddenly erupted, spattering the front of Kimberly's pretty pink nylon panties with glutinous gobbets of hot semen.

Adele whimpered and sobbed; her sorrow almost inconsolable. She wiped away the tears and snot from her face with a tissue and stifled her sobs. She was determined not to break down.

The man in the tracksuit stepped away from Kimberly and hitched up his pants.

"Whooee! That was good!" the man faced the camera.

"We'll have your daughter's pretty pink panties express delivered to you and just to prove we aren't pulling a switcheroo watch this," the man grinned into the camera.

He took a sharpie from his pocket and grunting with exertion as he turned Kimberly around which was difficult with her wrists chained to the wall and the spreader bar between her feet.

"Here we go," the camera zoomed in for a close-up as the man removed the cap from the sharpie and began to write on the back of Kimberly's panties.

'I'm a spoiled little slut' he wrote across the back panel of her panties.

"There you go. You're welcome to my DNA by the way; I've never been arrested and it's not on file anywhere but I'm sure you'll find that out if you get it tested. Just remember, if you tell any of your law enforcement buddies about us holding the girls for ransom we'll spend some time having fun with them and then get rid of them. Be careful Adele. See you soon," the man grinned into the camera and then the screen went blank.

Once again her computer shut down of its own accord and began to reboot.

To be continued