Revenge Inc. Maria Lopez

"Yes, there are three sisters available. Oldest just 18, youngest just barely 16, they do not speak English. They can be delivered this afternoon at three PM."

"Excellent, I am sure my husband will find them quite amusing. Too rough, John-Paul. Easy there. They are virgins, are they not?"

"Yes, they are, I made sure of that."

"Good, I do not want them, ... nice, John-Paul, do that again, ... delivered to my home in the Shores. Can we arrange for, ... right there, good, good, ... an inspection and delivery somewhere else? Somewhere, aaaaaaaahhhhhhh, where there are no people. OOO yes. I have no desire to be recognized. How about Stony Creek Metropark? Thank you, John-Paul, that will be all for today. Tomorrow same time."

"Mrs. Patterson, there is a question of payment."

"Will $150,000 cover the expenses? If the girls are truly virgin, there will be an additional bonus."

"Yes, that will do nicely."

The meeting, the time and the location was set. She called Carlos with the information.

Harold needed to get to his house and prepare for the meeting with Mr. Precots. Terry offered to drop him there and with a quick kiss from Judith, they were on the way. It was a quiet trip. Judith needed the Mercedes.

Home, shower, shave, and call the Chicago House and then call Precots.

"Hello," a male voice.

"Mr. Precots, this is Harold Givens."

"What can I do for you, Mr. Givens?" Right man, but a bit of anger in the voice.

"You have something I want. A girl, Mexican, Maria Lopez. I need her now."

"I know of no such girl."

"I do not have a lot of time. I need to know where she is. She is worth a lot of money to me. We should meet as soon as possible."

"How much money?"

"Not over the phone. Meet me at the Chicago House in Dearborn for lunch at 1:00."

"How much money?"

"A hell of a lot more than you paid for her. Lunch or not?"

"Lunch."

Harold could not do big and tough; he could do conniving very well. He relaxed until 11:45 and dressed. The microphone was his tie clip; the rage was good enough to leave the laptop in the car under the seat. The suit was expensive, one of several complete outfits he had purchased at a re-sale shop in Redford. The Caddy arrived from Enterprise; he dropped the clerk off, signed the papers and pulled into the lot five minutes early. He started the laptop.

Precots was waiting for him. He was escorted to the table by a very young and very attractive woman. She looked 14 or 15 but she had to be 18 to work and serve alcohol. The apparel was too tight, too short, and showed too much, but Harold would leave her a gracious tip. Funny, even partly clothed, she did not give him the erection that Judith seemed to do. Harold shook his head. Was he falling in love with Judith?

"Hello, Mr. Precots, I am Harold Givens. Shall we order first or begin the talk first."

"Talk. I may not stay for the lunch."

"You employ an illegal Mexican woman named Maria Lopez. She is pregnant and I want the baby. I have adopting parents waiting for babies. All I need is the mother and the father to sign off. Since she is an illegal and the father is a citizen, I would guess that the father could get all the money and the woman be returned to Mexico."

"How much money?"

"For a healthy baby, Hispanic, $75,000 if male, $50,000 if female."

"Let's order the lunch."

They ordered and drank and ate. There were several drinks delivered for the two men. They both seemed a bit woozy. One was, one was not.

Harold was ready to deal, "Do you know who the father is?"

"Yes, me."

"She is a worker in your house and you are the baby's father. My records show her as a non-English speaker and 17 when she became pregnant."

"She didn't have to talk English. I showed her what I had and she jumped on it. We were doing it every night when my wife was out of the house." There was a definite slur in Precots voice.

"Your wife was the Spanish speaker?"

"Yeah, she talks that shit."

"Weren't you afraid that your wife would find out?"

"Nah, that little cunt was scared to tell my wife. I made it plain what would happen to her." Precots had trouble pronouncing words.

"Then she was not so willing after all?"

"All she wanted was my cock in her cunt, well, now and then her ass."

"Tight, eh?"

"Tight, hell, a fucking virgin. Boy, did she scream when I slammed the meat to her the first time. I thought she would never stop fucking bleeding."

Two more drinks arrived.

"Wish I could get a virgin. They all seem to lose that in high school or earlier. How did you get her to say yes?"

"I asked her." Harold hoped the record was clear as he was having trouble understanding what Precots was saying.

"But she did not understand English. How did you convince her?"

"I caught her in the shower. She was naked. I was naked and I made her do it the first time standing up. She tried to stop me from fucking her, but a few slaps convinced her to spread the old legs. God, was she tight."

The next five minutes were graphic descriptions of several rapes. Harold had his confession. He also had a very drunk Mr. Precots. The waiter called a cab for the drunk; he could pick up his car tomorrow.

Harold was half way finished with Mr. Precots. What he needed now was a sober man to verify what the drunken man had said. The next act with Precots would wait until Monday afternoon.

Harold headed for the office. His part of the day's activities was over. He hoped that Judith's part went as well. He waited rather impatiently for her call.

There was a large envelope in the office drop box labeled 'transcribed tape. He read them and scanned the pages he needed.

He transcribed the recording from the Chicago House, some he had to use his memory to fill in incoherent passages. A little work with the word processor and he had everything he needed for the next meeting. Including a check for $50,000 on a bank in the islands. This done he headed home hoping that Judith would drop by on her way home.

*****

Judith was in the right place at Stony Creek Metropark. The van pulled up beside her at the prescribed time. Two men got out and approached her car. Judith opened her door and stood, waiting.

"Where is the money?"

"Where are my virgins?"

One of the men opened the back of the van, exposing three very frightened girls. Judith shut her car door and went to inspect the girls. She was looking very closely at the girls when she heard the sound of a rifle bolt jacking a round in the receiver. Even though she knew it would happen, the sound was like the keening of a death bell.

"Freeze. Do not move. Hands up and clear." The command was repeated in Spanish.

Giving a signal of universal quiet to the three girls (one finger perpendicular over the lips), she looked around. Three men in jeans and khaki shirts with hoods with hole for eyes and mouth had sub-machine guns made first by the Israelis, now copied all over the world. There were two men gagged and bound with them.

Judith signaled to the girls to follow and soon was headed for Carlos' convent. Insuring that the new arrivals would receive the same care as Maria and leaving a donation for the continued operation of the convent, she was free for the remainder of the day.

Judith stopped by Harold's house on her way home.

"Harold, it went like clockwork."

"My part too. Tomorrow I finish with Precots"

"Good, Helen should have a report by Tuesday."

"Judith, it is still early and Terry is still at your house. Will you please, stay and just talk with me?"

Judith saw the glow in his eyes but she was just not ready to alone with him in his house. She decided that a short talk to tell him how she felt was needed.

"For a short time, yes, but I will not stay the night. I have some things to tell you."

This was not what Harold had hoped for, "That will be fine. Would you like a drink? I have a small supply of alcohol."

"No alcohol, Harold. Tea or coffee will be fine."

They headed for Harold's tiny kitchen. The coffee was the same brand as in the office. His was black, her's with cream and sugar.

They sat at the table and Judith stared, "I was a nobody in high school. I did nothing to call attention to myself. My parents lived in a very small town named Baldwin just off the Pere Marquette River. College was the same. All I ever wanted was a man to love me and marry me and have children with me, but no one was interested. The tower at Eastern Michigan University is still standing, so the legend of it falling when a virgin graduates from EMU is patently false. I did meet my husband but we never did anything while I was in school."

"When we graduated, he asked me to marry him. We were married in a small ceremony. He believed that he was going to conquer the world in four years. He was a football player who thought he would be drafted into the National Football League. He wasn't. He went to every open camp there was. He was too slow. He spent our entire marriage trying to find a way to get faster. Our life together was never good and got worse. He wanted to be a football hero; I wanted a man who put me first. He had several other women. That hurt me very badly. After four years, I asked him for a divorce. It was over in six months. My ex-husband coached football at a high school on the eastside of Detroit. He does not do much of anything else. His team was in the State playoff last year. I hope he is happy."

"I was in my late twenties and wondered if I would ever be a mother. The Boss called me and offered me a position, well, he called it a position. Since joining Revenge Inc., my life has changed. I still want that husband and children. However, I am busy. I help people. I have put some very deserving people in jail, some for a very long time. I have, on occasion, done things that I did not want to do. The Boss is happy with my work."

"There is more but that is a brief update on how I am doing here. Harold, I like you. I like you a lot. I am unsure of just how deeply this liking you a lot goes. I want to take it slow and easy. I have no idea when we will make love, but I know we will. Just be patient and let things take their natural course. I think I should go now. See you in the office tomorrow."

There was a lot more that she could tell Harold but that was enough for now. He was real, he was shy, had a small pot belly and he would be bald in five years. He even wore bifocals. He was real.

Harold sat and watched Judith as she picked up her purse and left.

She liked him. A lot. He was nothing like her ex. She was going to make love with him. She wanted children. The Boss was happy with her work? The Boss never said that to him. What things had she done that she had not wanted to do? Harold had never done anything he did not want to do. Was Judith better than he was? Did it matter?

No, it did not matter, because she liked him a lot. She would make love with him.

Harold went to bed early and had wonderful dreams. In his dreams, he did not have thinning hair and would not be bald in 5 years. His potbelly vanished; he was not sad eyed. His eyes were prefect, no bifocals. He was 6 foot tall, not five eight. And Judith was his, totally and completely his.

Harold Stasson was the first one in the office; he liked the peace and quiet of the early morning. He made the coffee and had the bagels on the tray each one on a small napkin. Hers, plain, his cinnamon raisin. When he heard her buzz, he buzzed back and poured the coffee, black for him and cream and sugar for her. There were the usual morning pleasantries. Nothing was said about what Judith had told him the night before.

The bagel eaten, the coffee drank; they headed for their offices and started the day.

Harold decided to wait until after lunch to finish up with the Precots fellow. He knew that both of them would claim a hangover, but only one would be correct. He spent the morning filling out his expense report for the month. It totaled a tidy sum. He really needed a company credit card. Harold decided to send an email to the Boss about credit cards for himself and Judith. It took him an hour to get the wording right. He sent both emails to the Boss.

Judith had gone out of the office so he lunched alone. Just after twelve, he reached for the phone.

"Hello." There was pain in the voice.

"They sent me home in a cab. How did you get home? I will have to pick up my car this afternoon."

"Yeah, me too." A lot of pain in that voice. Good.

"I have the paperwork for the adoption of the baby and a check for 50 G's. If it is a boy, there will be another 25 after the birth. Remember the baby must be healthy. God, my head hurts."

"What time?"

"Make it easy on yourself."

"Three o'clock and no drinks."

'Amen to that. Same place."

Harold arrived 20 minutes early. It would not do to be seen driving when he said he had to pick up his car. He was sitting at the same booth when Precots arrived, five minutes early.

"I do not feel good. My stomach is queasy. Water okay with you?" Harold wanted this over with as quickly as possible.

'Damn, I do not remember much about yesterday afternoon. Yeah, ice water."

The same girl appeared, vanished and returned with two glasses of water with ice in one. The men drank.

"I need to go home and sleep. Here are the adoption papers. I need your signature and two witnesses. Then I am the hell out of here. Oh, I got a check for $50,000 payable to you on birth of a healthy girl baby." Harold was going to finish this quickly before the drug took effect. He watched his opponent carefully to judge for the right timing.

Harold laid the papers on the table and looked around, "Hey, you two, come here."

Two of the partially clad young women approached the booth. Neither one was the one who served the water.

"We need you two people to witness this signature. Show them you're ID."

The ID was shown, two copies of the papers were signed, each paged was initialed, the witnesses signed. Precots was looking sicker with each passing minute.

He asked Precots which one he wanted. The papers, not the partially clad women.

Precots looked ill, "I have to go. I'm gonna be sick."

He grabbed one the stacks of papers and the check. He jumped up and hurried to the john.

Perfect timing.

"Thank you, I will be ready to accept delivery upon delivery." Harold called to the swiftly moving man.

Harold returned to the office, whistling all the way. When Precots read what he had signed, there was going to be one very scared man in Bloomfield, Michigan.

Judith was also busy. Carlos and the habit wearers taped stories of the three virgins. According to all three, they were virgins, but Judith had no interest in that part of the conversation. The trip from Mexico was very interesting. Unfortunately, Carlos spoke Spanish and she did not. She would take the tapes and have Mildred translate and transcribe them.

Now she needed to hear from Helen.

Tuesday morning was nice, the sun was bright and there was just enough breeze to drive to work with the windows down. Both Harold and Judith were edgy; both were waiting for something to happen. While Harold knew that Precots could not find him, he was worried for Judith.

They had lunch in the break room together.

Judith's phone rang at one PM.

"Hello, how may I help you?"

"This is Helen, dearie. Thank you for the gift. It does a dying woman good to have men to play with again. My Spanish is very rusty, but I got a nice story. All four agreed that it was the same as Gospel. They have had an interesting life. All signed the necessary papers in the presence of witnesses. There are no marks on them. Do you want them back or may I finish the ritual?"

"They need to report to the INS and Hector Razzas. They will do that, won't they? I will have Carlos deliver them back to you when they vanish after the necessary hearings."

"Dearie, they will do anything I tell them to do. How soon should they appear at the INS?"

"Is Wednesday morning too early?"

"No, dearie, another night is just what they need. They will be parked e in their van waiting for the doors to open. Their lives will be an open book."

"Thank you, Helen."

No, dearie, thank you. It was the best gift I ever got. I will remember you."

Judith never asked how Helen got information so fast. Without a clue and in no more than 48 hours, Helen could get anyone to talk without leaving a mark. Somehow, Judith knew that she did not want to know. If men came back from Helen's, they were just different.

A call to Hector and her day was done. She decided to stop by the Victoria's Secret at Laurel Park Place. She would need at least two changes in case Harold ever asked her to make love.

Wednesday was a busy day. The illegal Mexican Maria Lopez was granted refuge. She would have citizenship when she completed the classes. The four men had confessed and named names and places. The chain, once broken, made picking up the links easy. Ms. Precots was the leader here. There were several sources in Mexico for young women who wanted a better life or who wanted to help their families by working in the States.

The fact that they all seemed to end up as prostitutes never made the trip south. Fifty-five females, most of them under 18, were collected. Starting with the Precots, 12 people were charged with holding women in slavery. There were several rapes charges as the women began to tell of their lives in the United States of America, the land of the free and home of the brave.

Mr. Reginald Precots was seized by Captain Ferguson. There was a confession signed and witnessed by the young ladies who appeared in court to testify. Harold was not there, but Judith told him the women were fully and conservatively dressed. Precots was sentenced to Jacktown for 15 years. Somehow, he was placed in a section where 80% of the prisoners were Hispanic. They all enjoyed their new toy. All requests for a transfer to other prisons were denied. Ms. Precots got 10 years for the slavery charge in federal court plus five years for immigration violations. The four coyotes vanished before they could be deported. The girls that were collected were given a chance to stay in the United States. Suitable sponsors were found. Fifty accepted. All are in community colleges or high schools learning English as fast as they could with scholarships from an anonymous donor. Most were staying at Carlos' convent.

There was, however, no sign of a fee until a letter arrived for Judith.

"Thank you, dearie, they died screaming my name. The doctor says it is just days now. Goodbye, Helen."

There was a cashier's check for Judith Padley for $400,000 dollars. There was a cashier's check for Maria Lopez for $400,000. There were four tapes for Maria that Judith did not play. She did not want to know.

*****

Jacktown = Jackson State Prison at Jackson, Michigan, a hard place to do hard time.

The second in a series. I will post this on at least two sites. Readers, let me know how it goes. Should I have told of Helen's methods or will your imaginations suffice? I am not into torture. Especially torture that leaves no marks.

Lay on Macduff, and damn'd him that first cries "Hold, enough!" MacBeth act V scene VIII (thanks anonymous in England)

i am The H20wader