Joe B. Trade

Lewis nods in the affirmative, but little does he know. The subsequent questioning is watered down, to underpin what had already occurred, and to keep the jury's focus far away from the prosecution's first witness.

Lester Wilkins has other ideas, upon cross-examination.

"Mrs. Lafata, if you will, please tell the court your opinion of your son-in-law, Joseph Trade, as a father - just from what you've observed."

Sophia appeared to think for a moment. What she was really doing, was playing her testimony over again in her mind. She wanted to kill Joe, or have him killed, but she knew there was a time and a place for everything. Today she needed to stay on script, for her family's sake.

"Joe is wonderful father - and husband, I add." Sophia smiled her best fraudulent smile for the jury.

Joe was very nervous. Their plan had many holes in it, and there'd been no way, given the time frame, to build in contingencies. Sophia moved fast. Joe had never considered that she'd simply send Becky across the state line into Washington, where abortion was legal. The best news so far, for Joe, was that Ricardo himself was escorting her to her 'appointment.' Joe and his friends could possibly kill two birds with one stone.

Getting the medical tools had been the toughest. Ironically, it was only thanks to various other kinds of deviants out there in the world that Mikey had been able to procure them online. Joe had paid through the nose to get them shipped next day air to Burt's house. There was no way Mikey wanted his wife to see those evil devices.

Burt and Mikey had just walked into the clinic. Joe was to walk in just about thirty seconds behind them, and get any other staff out of there. Since Sophia had arranged an after- hours appointment, that would be the easy part.

Joe looked at his phone and counted with the numbers...twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine.

A young woman had just finished locking up and moved to her vehicle. Joe waited a few seconds longer, until the woman put her car in gear and began to drive away. Joe put on his gloves and gave the front door a jerky pull. As it popped open, he reached up to the top of the door, removing the shims and bubble gum that had kept it from closing properly or locking.

After locking the door from the inside, he pushed it to make sure it was really secure. He walked around the lobby quickly, ensuring that all other exits were indeed locked. Then he made his way back to the exam rooms, listening for voices.

Joe found an irate female doctor arguing vehemently with Mikey - that was, until Mikey back-handed her hard - and she flew to the floor. Veering his eyes over to the exam table, Joe saw Becky already feeling the effects of the sedative. In a chair directly across from where Becky laid, Ricardo sat, his fingers intertwined on top of his head as Burt held an S&W to the back of his noggin.

Since both friends had pulled their weapons, Joe took in the scene and decided it might be an ideal time to play 'good cop'. He left his 9mm Glock holstered. Mikey had previously seen two tours in Afghanistan. Other than being avid hunters, Joe and Burt were both in uncharted territory.

Joe bent down to address the doctor. "What's your name, doc?" he asked as calmly as he could under the circumstances.

"Hel...Helen," she stuttered. "Helen Meacham." It was clear she feared for her life.

"Nobody's going to hurt you, Doctor Meacham. It's not what you think. I'm your patient's husband, and I can assure you, we've both had a change of heart regarding the abortion."

Helen clearly didn't believe that, so Joe quickly continued. "What kind of training do you have, Helen?"

The stunned doctor was trying to find her voice. Finally, she answered, "I'm a doctor. Female reproductive medicine."

Joe held out his hand. Helen recoiled slightly, but then allowed Joe to help her to her feet.

"Okay, Helen, Here's the deal. Becky, there, no longer needs your services. She needs to remain sedated for a bit though."

Doctor Helen started to interrupt, but Joe talked right over her. "Your patient today is that man over there." He motioned to Ricardo, and remained silent to let it sink in.

"Wh...what, are you talking about? I perform female procedures." Helen wasn't following any of this.

Joe got impatient. "Doc, that man over there needs your help. Have you ever performed a penectomy?"

Helen's eyes went wide. "No! What are you talking about? Why are you here?" She was starting to regain her senses.

"Doctor Meacham - can I call you Helen? It would make things more comfortable. We're here to ensure that man undergoes a full penectomy, and you are going to perform the surgery. I've got all the proper tools right here."

Before the doctor could answer, Ricardo panicked and started to get to his feet. Both Mikey and Joe turned and drew on him. He slowly sat back down.

"I...I can't," Helen said. "That's only for gender reassignment or gender..." she faded out.

"Nullification, I believe is the term, doctor." Joe finished her sentence.

"Yes, I mean, no. The patient has to want that, there are forms and a psych eval." Helen was beside herself with fear and confusion.

With a heavy sigh, Joe looked Helen directly in the eye. "You misunderstand, doc. I want it, not him. That man is my wife's cousin. He's already impregnated my wife, and then the two of them, along with Becky's mother, passed the child off as mine. They came here today to abort MY baby so that he can go ahead and impregnate her again."

Helen seemed to weigh her options. Time was running short for the three friends.

"Helen, I'm not asking. His dick is coming off. You can help me and live, or you can bleed out on the floor while I do it myself. The clock is ticking, so hurry up and decide. It would be such a shame for that pretty young girl who just left to show up tomorrow to a horrific mess."

"You'll go to prison for this! What you're doing is against his will, and illegal in this state."

Joe broke out in a sadistic laugh. "That's rich, doc, considering your area of expertise. I hope someday you see the irony in your statement. That's my child over there, inside my wife, and I never gave anyone permission. Now let's go get a gurney." Joe just knew if Helen was allowed to spout something about the mother's right to choose, he would lose it.

Twenty minutes later, a once-screaming and combative Ricardo was dozing off. It had taken a gun inside his mouth, a roll of duct tape, and several smacks about the face and head with the butt of Mikey's gun to settle him down. Joe extracted the plastic bag from down the front of his pants and handed the instruments to Doctor Helen.

Her last attempt at playing stupid occurred when she pretended not to understand the use of the Elastrator. That earned her a very hard slap. Joe loaded the bands into the device and wiggled it down to the base of Ricardo's cock as Helen held it up and away from his body. He wasn't completely unconscious; a female hand on his genitals helped get him semi-hard.

Two bands at the very base, and the last one about 1/4" above the other two, leaving a clear space for the scalpel to do its work, and they were set. Helen double-checked their handiwork to ensure poor Ricardo wouldn't bleed to death. She handed the surgeon's knife to Joe.

"It's your show," she said sarcastically.

"Helen, the next time you mouth off, you're gonna eat a bullet," Joe said loudly. "Do I look like someone who has anything to lose here?"

The truth was, Joe had plenty to lose, and he was already regretting this decision. Many nights, as Joe thought about losing Anna B, he'd dreamt about this moment: turning Ricardo into a eunuch. Becky stirred, and Joe directed Helen to give her another dose in the IV.

"That's not good for her," Helen remarked but she did as she'd been told.

Mikey leaned in to Joe's ear. "We need to move. Cut that fucker off or make her do it, but we need to be out the door in ten."

Ricardo was in and out of consciousness as Joe pushed the catheter deep down into his pee hole. Joe was in the zone, no longer caring, and he started sawing with the scalpel. A few times Ricardo's eyes flew open wide as his head came up, but then he would go limp and shut down.

Helen, meanwhile, berated him. "That's a surgical instrument, not a tree saw. Just pull it towards you while applying pressure. The hardest will be getting through the skin and thick outer membrane."

Joe did as instructed, and within a minute or two, all present could see the clear plastic catheter through the incision. Then Helen seemed to feel sorry for Ricardo and the butcher job he was enduring. She grabbed the surgeon's knife, and, with practiced skill, she cut the remaining area around the tube. Then she pulled Ricardo's cock off, holding the catheter with her other hand, like she was removing a piece of chicken from a skewer.

After some alcohol clean-up and a few sutures, Ricardo was ready to travel. Helen started cleaning up and Joe said, "Make sure it's as clean as normal." Mikey was already out the hazardous waste door, where the fetuses are picked up, moving his truck close to it. He'd taken out the surveillance cameras when he'd first arrived.

It took two of the men to get Ricardo up and moving. Then it took all three to load him into Mikey's vehicle. Doctor Helen started to look worried.

"Can I go now?" she asked softly, almost as if she already knew the answer.

"We're gonna need you to look after him for a while." Joe stated flatly, pointing at her male patient.

Helen went for her purse, hoping against hope to be able to grab her phone and hit speed dial. Joe got to her in plenty of time. "Now, now Doctor. Behave and everything will be alright. I'd hate to see you do something stupid...something we all regret later."

Joe took her purse, and then walked around the building to retrieve his car. The purse went into the trunk. Joe slowly drove around to the back of the building by Mikey's vehicle. They placed Helen in the back seat of the cab, with Ricardo half leaning on her.

Before grabbing Becky, the three men huddled just out of Helen's earshot.

"Joe, you do realize that this has not gone to plan?" Mikey said, more than asked, in a panic. "I'm all about helping you out, Joe, but with all the loose ends here, well, we're all looking at serious prison time."

Joe nodded. "Well then, lets tie up the loose ends, or at least make sure any that are left flow straight back to me. I don't want either of you getting screwed over on this deal."

Burt was the most nervous. "Fuck you guys, there's no way we don't go down for this. Fuck! We didn't think this through at all."

Mikey soothed him. "Easy, Burt. We're going to tie this off, and then go home. We're going to the border cabin."

"And then what?" Burt's anxiety-ridden voice was getting louder, so Mikey put his hand over his friend's face.

"Shhh," Mikey whispered. "You know what we have to do, so you might as well take the drive time to prepare yourself, okay?"

"Fucking kill them? That's what you mean!" He looked to his longtime friend, Joe. "I didn't sign up for this. I...I'm not going to prison."

Joe put both hands on Burt's shoulders. "No, Burt. You're going to babysit them. Then you're going to go home and forget the whole thing." Mikey told Burt to hop in the truck, and Joe went back inside to get his wife.

Becky was still asleep that following morning at nine-thirty, probably due to the excessive amount of sedative she'd received the previous afternoon. Joe was going through everything in his head, when in walked Sophia, like she owned the place.

"Buongiorno," Sophia announced, as she had always done. Joe had become particularly sensitive to her arrogance, and her pompous, flippant attitude. That morning, however, was different. Sophia looked a bit worried.

"Hello, Sophia," Joe said with zero emotion.

"Where is my daughter? Sleeping late today?" Sophia headed for the hallway leading back to the bedroom without waiting for an answer.

Joe couldn't help but smile. He'd been waiting for this for a long time.

Five minutes later, Sophia reappeared and sat down at the table opposite Joe. "Coffee, Sophia?" Joe asked blandly, hoping she'd decline.

"Espresso, if you have." She wouldn't even say 'please.'

"I don't," Joe replied.

Sophia sighed. "Ricardo e stato qui?" Sophia expelled the words like she'd wanted to say them the minute she arrived.

English, you evil bitch, Joe thought. "I don't speak Italian, Sophia; you know that."

"Has he been here? Did he drop Rebecca home last night?"

"No, I haven't seen him. Was he supposed to be here? Beck was home when I got in late last night, so maybe he did. You want me to ask her when she wakes up?"

Joe looked up at her then. Something in both pairs of eyes told a complete story in a mere moment. Sophia's face shriveled, while the corners of Joe's mouth turned up in the beginnings of a diabolical grin.

"Bastardo!" she yelled through gritted teeth. "Dov'e, Ricardo?"

Joe only smiled. "Honestly, I have no idea where your nephew is. I do, however, think you're being incredibly rude."

Sophia went into a blind rage. "Listen, you, you...you pay big for this! You take me to Ricardo now..."

Joe calmly interrupted. "I don't think so, Sophia. You're no longer calling the shots, at least with me. Not with Becky either. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go catch up playing online solitaire."

Sophia began with her Italian profanities, and Joe leapt to his feet, his chair flying back against the kitchen counter and tumbling to the floor.

"Get the fuck out of my house, Sophia, now!" Joe spat with a hatred she'd never seen in the man.

Sophia decided she needed to fall back and regroup. She was no match for a young man in a fit of rage. "This no over, this no over," she declared.

"That's where you're wrong, bitch." Joe slammed the door in her face. At that moment Joe had no plan to deal with Sophia. Hopefully, one would present itself.

The next morning brought more bad news for Joe. Mikey called him on the disposable phone he'd paid cash for as part of their initial plan - a plan that was unraveling quickly.

"Joe, yeah, Mikey. Fuck, Joe. Bad news." The line was quiet.

"Go ahead," Joe said blandly.

"We're fucked. The prick is dead."

"How?"

"He wouldn't shut up. I kept telling him to shut the fuck up, but he was going on and on about how we were all dead men. Didn't we know who we were dealing with and all that shit. Finally, I came unglued, wrapped his mouth with duct tape, and tied him to a post outside.

"I shouldn't have...I know, but fuck that's one arrogant prick. You know how cold it still gets up here in early April. We went outside this morning and he was already almost frozen solid. It got down to around thirty degrees last night." Mikey was in a real panic.

"It's called rigor mortis." Joe said. "Where is he now?"

"I drove him up to the ridge and dumped him. You know...where we saw that bear last year. There's bobcat up there too. It was all I could think of to get rid of the evidence."

"Where's the doctor?"

"Burt took her back to town. We put a bag over her head, so she wouldn't see the asshole dead, and so she wouldn't be able to lead anyone back here. He dropped her at the clinic. We told her all the things that would happen to her and her loved-ones, if she spoke a word to anyone." Mikey was now hyperventilating.

"Mikey, listen. Calm down. You're the calm one, remember. Take a breath. Stay there until your truck is totally cleaned. Use bleach, sanitizer...whatever you need to do. Is there any blood in the back seat?" Joe was afraid, but trying to stay in the zone. He'd walked outside just in case, so Becky couldn't hear.

"I don't see any blood. He still had that band on him when we brought him up and the doc stitched him up pretty decent." Mikey's voice had stopped trembling.

"That's good. Clean that fucking truck, top to bottom. You hear, Mikey? Call Burt and tell him to take his car over to the car wash on Fifth Street. They don't have any security cameras there. Tell him to pay cash for a complete detail. Oh...wait, make sure his car still has those dealer plates we swiped, just to be safe. Mikey...the asshole is gone. Good riddance. The doc, well, if she can't prove where we took her, and there's no evidence that she was in our vehicles, then it'll just be her word against ours. Relax."

Joe sat in the visitor's area, waiting. His wrists and ankles were shackled to the chair. Doctor Meacham had ignored their warnings, and decided to do the right thing. Joe, Burt and Mikey had been arrested just twenty four hours after Becky had returned from the clinic.

On the third day following the botched abortion attempt, Becky had apparently succumbed to the stress of her ordeal - the few things she'd seen at the clinic and at the loss of her cousin-lover. The extra sedatives had played a role too; Becky had miscarried. Joe had mixed feelings about that. The entire point of the plan had been to force Becky not to destroy his offspring, and to punish Ricardo. Things had gotten out of hand - or 'evolved,' as Joe kept telling his friends.

One small bit of good news was that Lester Wilkins was representing all three men.

"Joe, promise me," The attorney begged. "Don't say shit, without me being present. You got it?"

"I've talked to the others," he'd continued. "I'm most worried about Burt. He's lost his cool, but I think I have him under control for now. I'll be back in the morning for arrangement. Oh, and you may have a visitor later. He's your uncle, on your mom's side, if you're asked. Get some sleep."

Joe sat there; the shackles making his bare wrists itch. Then the door opened. The imposing man walked over to Joe, and reached out his hand. Ivan Rigorsky was something to behold. The Russian was a good 6' 4", with muscles bursting out of his expensive suit jacket.

He took a seat opposite Joe. "We talk quiet now," he almost whispered in a heavy Russian accent. "You have beeg problems, yes?"

Joe just sat quietly, as Lester had instructed him to do. Ivan watched the man for nearly a full minute, before bursting into laughter. Leaning forward, he asked, "So, you really cut yaichkis off?" Ivan held his hands up, rolling them as if juggling balls.

Joe didn't say anything again. Ivan raised his eyebrow.

"No, I cut his dick off," Joe said.

This brought more laughter from the large man. Then he became serious. "You vant help? I give you." He seemed amused, while Joe was anything but.

"How can you possibly help me?" Joe asked quietly. "The doctor probably has us dead to rights."

"You forget doctor. I make your problem go way. Vee know how fix this things." Ivan was now staring holes through Joe, making him squirm. "Maybe, some day, we need you help, okay?"

"Mrs. Trade," Attorney Wilkins said. "Can you please tell the jury in your own words, what transpired that evening at the clinic?"

Becky takes a deep breath before beginning. "Well first, I want to say on the record, I'm truly sorry to my loving husband and his family and friends, for all the trouble, and the...heartache I've caused.

"I allowed Ricardo Versaci to get into my head, and I'm ashamed to admit that I went along. Yes, I let him impregnate me, and yes, our daughter, Annabelle, is his biological child. But Annabelle loves her true father, and that's Joe. I know he loves her too."

"Objection, Your Honor," Mr. Lewis said as he stood. "Is there supposed to be an answer to the question in there?"

Wilkins was quick to reply. "I'll rephrase the question, Your Honor."

He turned to the witness stand. "Mrs. Trade, please tell the jury about the events that led to you going to that clinic, in as much detail as you can remember."