Dilemma Continued Ch. 05

This chapter does not stand alone, and should not be read without reading the preceding chapters. In keeping with the original story, there is no sex, it just deals with the wrong done to Lorelei and Chris.

Part 5: The Investigation

I went to the U of T Police office where I met Peter and a local Justice. I was sworn in as a temporary university police officer. Then Peter said, "The first step will be to interview Ms Sagayo. She retired under pressure a couple of years ago, and still lives in Austin though not on the campus so let's get going." We walked out and got into the car and drove to a quiet tree lined street, about 10 minutes away from the main campus, stopping in the parking lot of a small apartment building. We went into the building and along the ground floor to apartment 105. Beside the door there was a wooden sign, with the name M Sagayo, and the words Computer Training, Tutoring. Data Processing.

Pete rang the bell, and after a moment Ms Sagayo opened the door. She looked years older and much more down at heel than I had ever seen her. Pete said to her, "Ms Sagayo, you know me from U of T, but I think you will also remember Chris Duncan, he was the husband of Lorelei Duncan, the woman who started the wheels turning against Professor King. He is assisting us while we look into more serious charges that we feel were swept under the rug by the then powers that be. We would like to interview you regarding your association with Professor King and anything you might have done at his request".

She looked at me and said "Hello Chris, I haven't seen you since that day I ran that extra class. I knew then that eventually you and Lorelei were going to be trouble. I told King that. I wanted him to leave Lorelei strictly alone but no he wouldn't listen he was so eager to get into her pants that nothing was going to stop him."

I thought I was going to miss the worst of the fallout, as nobody bothered with me but then my ex blindsided me by calling in a PI and getting the evidence for a divorce citing and proving adultery. That finished me at the school and now I guess the second shoe is going to fall. Well I'm so tired of the whole business, I just want to get it all over and done with. You can ask any questions that you want and if I have the answers, I'll tell you".

Pete said to her, "I appreciate your candor but I have to warn you that if further offences are revealed, and you had any hand in them you could also be charged. If you want to have a lawyer present during the interview you may do so".

She replied "No, there is no need for one, it's about time I faced the music and if I have to face any charges, it won't hurt if you can say that I collaborated in the investigation."

Pete said that he would make representations to the District Attorney on her behalf provided any information was accurate and given willingly. He took out his tape recorder and after dating the tape and stating who was present, he asked Ms Sagoya to give us a statement as to the events leading up to the attack on Lorelei Duncan by Professor King. To my amazement, she told us the following.

Statement of Ms Minuko Sagoya.

"I was a computer instructor at the University of Texas at Austin, my husband was running his own business in high end Asian Art and had three galleries, in Austin, Dallas and Houston, he was commuting between them most of the time, so I didn't see a great deal of him other than weekends. Sometimes I didn't even get that as he would be jetting off somewhere to auctions or shows. I used to get together with many of the other teachers, some of them single, just to avoiding sitting home alone. My husband didn't want children so I didn't even have children to occupy my time, just the garden, and how much of that can a person take.

Some of the parties got pretty hot and heavy and at one of them about two years before the incident involving Lorelei I drank a little heavier than I should have done. I ended up having sex with an art teacher named Gary Bradford who was hosting the party at his place. I didn't remember a whole lot about it, but as I woke up in bed with him and felt that I had been pretty well used that was what I immediately thought.

My first thought was that I had been doped. I was going to make an official complaint and told Gary that. He told me that I couldn't prove that the sex wasn't consensual, lots of people saw me with him, hanging all over him as he put it, and that my husband would likely divorce me at the first opportunity and my quest for tenure would likely end right there . Thinking about it, I could see that happening, so I decided to say nothing more about it.

I did my best to forget the deal and the whole weekend, but about a week later, I got a call from Jake King who had also been at the party. He asked me to go to his office which I did. He had a TV set and VCR there, and asked me to sit down and view a tape that I might find interesting. He turned everything on and ran the tape. To my absolute horror I saw that the nude woman making passionate love with a man who was facing away from the camera was none other than me. Of course it had sound as well and what I was saying would never have indicated that I had not consented.

He held the tape over my head for the rest of the time he was at the university. He insisted that I had sex with him, that I went to lots of parties with faculty, so much so that in the end I had become so used to the parties and conduct that I no longer cared about the tape. The conduct had become part of my life and a lot of it I enjoyed and make no secret of that.

Anyway back to Lorelei. About two weeks before the weekend of the game, Jake came to me and told me he needed my help. He said Chris was in my class and that he needed to separate him from his wife on the trip to Dallas. He told me to find a way to delay him so that he could take Lorelei. That was when I decided on the extra class, then on the morning of the class I looked at Chris's face and saw the anxiety there I couldn't carry on the fiction any longer, that's when I told them all to leave. I hoped that he would make it to Dallas in time to ruin King's plans but obviously he didn't.

After the weekend I saw Jake in my office and asked him how he did, he said he had sex with Lorelei but that everything had blown up in his face, and he was scared that Chris was going to go after him, he had already drive a knife through King's door. It's ironic that he didn't realize that the one he had to fear was not Chris, but Lorelei herself but then of course he never had a high opinion of women and didn't recognize the steel that was present in her. The female students were just toys to amuse him. I asked him," How did you get her to go to bed with you."

He told me, "I slipped a drug into her drink in the bar before we went upstairs, then I angled for her sympathy talking about my daughter then she started crying about her father and from there it was easy. I got the drug from Sammy James before we left for Dallas."

Minuko Sagoya

Pete said that her statement really helped, but of course it would be her word against his. She replied, "No it isn't, Jake and I always met in my office and just as a matter of course, anything that took place in that office was surreptitiously taped, it didn't matter whether it involved students or faculty. I don't care if it is legal or not but it was the only protection I had." She went to a locked cabinet, unlocked it and we saw banks of tapes. She looked at the dates on two of them, gave them to Pete, and said "That should do a lot for your case!"

Pete asked if they had been in her possession all the time, she said they had Pete thanked her, signed a receipt for the tapes and we left. We went back to the office and listened to the tapes. Pete said "The second tape, admitting using the drug is evidence of rape. Consent while under the effect of drugs is not a true consent so it is Rape. The first tape gives direct evidence that the whole thing was planned and deliberate. Of course they can always be challenged, so we have to discover evidence to support them other than the word of Ms Sagoya.

I asked, "what about Sammy James, he was in the same year as I was, and on the same soccer team. While I don't think he ever used drugs himself, he was sort of the upper class supplier. Those who wanted the milder party drugs all ordered through him. No heavy stuff like Heroin or Cocaine but lots of Marijuana, Hash, LSD etc."

Pete asked "what about the party and date rape drugs. Did he handle those?"

I replied "I don't know for sure as I stayed out of that scene, but if we know where he is, I'm sure I can ask him as he was pretty close at the time." Pete said he would look his information up and see what he could find out.

A couple of days later Pete called me in to his office again, "We are going to take a little trip just out to the suburbs." He drove, and eventually we pulled up outside a large one story building close to a shopping mall and a hotel, The building had a big sign on the front, The Prairie Oasis.

"What's this place?" I asked Pete.

He replied. "Well Sammy put the drug money to good use, it's what you would call a Gentlemen's Club, a strip club plus. It's a good restaurant and bar. Entertainment and dance facilities if you want them and a private banquet hall. I was told that Sammy runs this place absolutely by the book. He doesn't allow any nonsense."

We went in and asked for Sammy and were shown through to his office and told that he would be with us in a couple of minutes. The office was well furnished, desk, comfortable chairs, and no couch. One wall was covered by monitors snowing what appeared to be the entire club. As I looked at them I heard a voice behind me. "Yes I can see everything that goes on except the washrooms and they are covered by staff members. Nothing happens in this place that can cause any trouble that we can't see and take action to stop it."

I turned and there was my old buddy Sammy, still the same slim body, but now dressed in a way I had never seen before, the gray suit had to be worth at least a grand and the shirt and tie came up to the same standard. He grinned and said "Chris: how on earth are you doing. I haven't seen you since that day in Dallas that you stuck the knife in Prof King's door, I always wondered why you did that?." "It's really good to see you again even if you did do me a good turn by leaving, I got to shine on the soccer field instead of you. Anyway take a seat and tell me what brings you guys over here. It can't be problems, because I don't let them happen."

I introduced Pete and outlined to Sammy what had happened on that day in Dallas, what we were doing and why. His answer was "how can I help, you know I thought the world of you and Lorelei. And my wife has asked what happened to the two of you. You remember Virginia, I was with her then and when we graduated we got married. Now we have three kids, and she is the enforcer. I might be tempted to let things get wild once in a while but she can walk in here at any time day or night, and things better be done right.

" As she says, she isn't cut out for waiting for me to finish a jail sentence so I better not do anything to start one. She made me quit dealing and go respectable. I made a deal with the feds and gave them a few heads on platters so they gave me a clear sheet after I gave evidence.

'We opened this place and do I mean we, she is the ideas person. What goes on here is entertainment only. She doesn't give a damn what the girls do after their shift, but here they follow a strict standard and get well paid for doing it. If they want to make dates for after hours they can go ahead, but the club has no part in it!"

I told Sammy that we were looking for any connection between King and any date rape drugs. He answered "hang on a few minutes, let's see what I have in the old records" He opened a file cabinet and took out several thick file folders. He said, "you probably won't believe that a dealer would keep a paper record, but these papers are my guarantees. Anyone I dealt with knew that I kept the info on them, and that if I went down, a lot of others would go down with me."

King was the leader of a group of professors, about six of them who really liked the girls, Gary Bradford was another one. The two of them did most of the buying, I don't know where the stuff went from there. Or who they gave it to. I'll give you copies of the lists for King and Bradford. They will give you when, what, who and how much and maybe you can relate them to the stuff that you are investigating." He copied some of the papers, and turned them over to Pete with the words' "I will give you the names of the rest of the group as well as I can remember them and see where you go from there".

After he gave us all the information, he gave us a tour of the club and showed us that it really lived up to it's reputation. The dining and banquet facilities were excellent, and the bar was pretty much in two sections, an area with tables and a dance floor, and an area with stages several of which had a number of dancers, in various stages of undress, moving to the same music. There were signs saying no illicit contact between dancers and patrons, and a number of well built bouncers to enforce it. There was a partially walled off area in one corner where lap dances were allowed but no private rooms. All in all a pretty genteel set up. Not the usual down at heel place and the women looked to be in their prime. Some of the clients seemed to be couples but who knows.

Pete took the information back to his office to correlate with the dates of the reported assaults that he had, and he called me a couple of days later. His words were "Chris, we have the smoking gun that we have been looking for. To my mind it is serious enough that it has gone beyond the scope of the university Police so I have turned everything over to a good friend of mine on the Austin police Sex Crimes squad, Lieutenant Sheila Fellows."

" Actually Sheila is the good friend that I am getting married to in two months and she is an ace detective. I will be working with her, but we don't think that the courts will accept your further involvement. If as it looks any charges are made that involve what happened to Lorelei you will be a witness. Your assistance has helped us break this apart and the University can't thank you enough. The powers that be have offered you a special dispensation to complete your degree at no cost. All you have to do is register!"

I told him I would think on it, and thanked him for the privilege of following the case as it had really raised a lot of issues that I had never thought of before.

I called Lorelei to tell her that she may be contacted by the Austin Sex Crimes Unit who were going over everything that had been found, just as a heads up. I also called Lou and told him that I was at his disposal once again, and also about the offer by the university regarding my degree. He was adamant to go for it, as he put it "my best consultant on computer security in Texas doesn't have a degree, get one and you can open up our new office in Austin so you are closer to your children. Do it part time if you want, just do it"

To be continued...