The Pact Ch. 03

"Oh, I can't reveal sources." I said. "But don't worry, I found out in a benign way." Indeed, Jeanine Burke's law partner Virginia Madison had told Todd, who told Teresa, who did not keep important information like that from her boss. "So were you going to admit Mrs. Clarkston into your club?"

"This is the part that I told Mrs. James we needed to tell you, on account of your investigation of the home invasion." said Laura.

"And I agree, if reluctantly." said Myrtle L. James. "A few of us had talked to her about her potential membership not very long ago. One of our older members is in failing health, and we anticipate a vacancy in the next few months, maybe even weeks. Our membership was not keen on admitting Mrs. Clarkston, as many of our members do not like her husband very much. However, she suggested that that might not be a problem for very much longer, especially after her daughter Tiffany graduates and goes to college."

"Couple of years out for that." I said.

"We also have some other information for you, Commander." said Mrs. James. "A number of our members have learned through what Laura calls 'gossip' that the Press in this Town is going to attack you by revealing what they call 'dirty secrets' about you. They are going to do this in conjunction with that odious man Robert Mullen accusing you of crimes you have not committed."

"Any idea what those dirty secrets are?" I asked. "Besides the secret that I have the most beautiful wife in the County?" Laura smiled at that, and Mrs. James chuckled.

"No, we don't know exactly what it is." said Mrs. James. "I can assure you that whatever dislike of Richard Clarkston the members of the Ladies Auxiliary have, their disgust with Mr. Mullen is far worse. We were all very happy when he resigned from our Inspector General's office."

"Especially Judge McGill, I would bet." I replied.

"And you'd win that bet." Laura said with something resembling a sigh.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Daddy!" My favorite sound occurred as I came through the front door of the Mountain Nest at 6:30pm, and it was followed by my daughter running up to greet me. I knelt down to let her give me a hug, as picking her up was starting to be a strain on my back. Kneeling also allowed me to hug Jim, who ran up behind his big sister, and then to pet two outstanding dogs that were in attendance.

"We'll have supper in half an hour." my mom Phyllis said. "I got a phone call from one of the Community Center ladies, telling me to watch the KSTD broadcast at the end."

"Okay." I said, hugging my mom and kissing her on the cheek. Then Laura came out of the 'Puter Room', as Carole called it, and I kissed her full on the lips, which made Carole giggle.

I poured a Scotch and Soda, not too strong, and took the dogs out. I sat on the metal mesh seat on the back porch and watched the dogs sniffing around the place, finally doing their business and then sauntering back. I was thinking about the cases, straining to see the clues I knew I was missing...

Going back inside some minutes later, we settled down to watch the KSTD broadcast. They always had Sports last, teasing it throughout the hour to keep most people watching through the whole broadcast. This time, though, they had an 'editorial comment' from Editor-In-Chief Dan Walther.

"I am coming to you today," Walther said, "to apologize for an unacceptable error in judgement. We previously revealed the name of a rape victim. Doing so was needless, and served no valuable purpose. We apologize to the family for the humiliation they have suffered as a result of this mistake."

"I have always been honored to be a journalist, and to bring you the news as quickly and as fairly and as openly as we possibly could." said Walther. "I tended to my duties with the same values I learned as a part of the United States Marines. But I have not upheld those values in allowing that erroneous reporting, and also in keeping John Hardwood on our Staff when it should've been clear to me that his mind was warped by hatred, leading to his unforgivable actions on Christmas Eve, which put a little girl and a Police Officer in mortal danger."

"Therefore," finished Walther, "I have announced to the KSTD Staff that I am retiring, effective this Friday, June 8th. There will be fundamental changes at KSTD, and I am assured, and will assure you, that their reporting going forward will meet the high standards I've always expected of them. I appreciate your support and viewership for the last several years. Goodnight, and 'peace'."

"Wow." I said as the broadcast ended.

"It is all over Town that you reamed Priya for broadcasting Mrs. Clarkston's name." said my mother. Fortunately the kids were not in the room to hear that potty-mouth language. "Do you think that is why he's leaving?"

"I don't know." I said. "Cindy talked to Priya after I left the room, and Cindy told me that Priya was badly shaken up after I'd finished with her. Walther takes great pride in having been a U.S. Marine, as well. But to retire over that? That's... a 'strangeness'."

The 'strangeness' did not prevent me from catching Carole trying to feed Bowser her stringbeans at dinner. Her next trick was to put her stringbeans on Jim's plate when I went to get second helpings of everything. Jim ate the stringbeans, but Carole still went to timeout... mostly so that she would fully understand that she was not dealing with an Agency of the Weak-Minded...

Part 17 - Third Time's The Charm

Tuesday, June 5th, 9:30pm. Kate Kane disconnected her cellphone. "That was your dad." she said to her daughter, Nikki Kane. "He's staying in Washington until Friday." Michael Kaine officially worked for the University's Institute for Political Policy, but he was a rabid Democrat and was in Washington for consultations with other Democrat 'backbenchers'... people who worked behind the scenes on behalf of Democrat politicians.

Kate had raven black hair and a shapely body that she kept fit through exercise. Her daughter Nikki was a rising Sophomore at Eastern State. She was a beautiful young woman, also black-haired, with a saucy body and great legs. She had no problem getting a lot of cock, and often attended Frat parties just to pull a train and fuck as many men a night as she could.

Her brother Tom Kane had been the County High School football quarterback the previous Fall, and was attending the University this Fall. Tom and Nikki despised each other; Tom was an arrogant, mean-spirited young man that had no problem treating women like sex objects and using them, and he surprised himself sometimes how many girls tolerated the abuse to be with the Big Man on (the County High) Campus. He had no problem getting a lot of pussy. Nikki saw Tom for what he was, and took every cheap shot at him she could.

Tom's father, a former football coach and personal trainer, kept him in line when Tom needed it, but otherwise didn't say much to either of his kids when the went out late and partied. He did tell them that drinking and driving was not tolerated, nor were drugs at all, but he didn't seem to notice if Tom or Nikki came home drunk.

"Make sure to set the alarm." said Nikki as she read her magazine, bored to tears with being at home. She wanted to be at a party, or hanging out with Tom's well-hung friends like Sven Radcliffe or Dave Clarkston, but they'd blown her off. And then the news had come out about Dave's mother Marcia.

"I will, as soon as Tom gets home." said Kate. "He said he'd be home by ten."

"He's a lying piece of crap." said Nikki.

"Nikki!" Kate exclaimed, more at her daughter's potty-mouth language than her disdain for Tom.

Just then the door to the garage opened, and Tom came in. "Hi Mom, I'm back."

"See, Nikki?" Kate said. "He's even early tonight."

"Too bad." muttered Nikki. "I'll be upstairs, Mom." She got up and left the room.

"It's boring as hell out there." said Tom as he came up and kissed his mother's cheek, then sitting down on the sofa next to her. "Nobody's partying at all. Everyone's at home, scared to death of those home invaders."

"That reminds me," said Kate. "Go set the alarm."

"Don't bother."

The gravelly voice came from behind them. Tom and Kate whirled to see two lean, tall men behind them, with black Spider-Man masks, black spandex suits, gloves... and two bright, shiny revolvers pointed at their heads...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

3:30am, Wednesday, the Sixth of June. I came into the Kane home, which was on the western edge of the Heritage Cloisters. The golf course generally ran north-south through the subdivision. Teresa and Todd's home was near the front (south side) of the subdivision. The Clarkston's home had been not far away but more easterly, and the Radcliffe home was further north.

"Whaddya got, Washington?" I asked, seeing Theo talking with Captain Perlman in the main room. "I'd ask your Captain here, but she's just going to tell me what you're going to tell me." Tanya chuckled.

"Detective Davis is upstairs, sir." said Theo. "He and I were on call tonight. Looks like our Ninja Spider-Men have struck again. But there's some differences this time. We've got the son Tom in the den, getting his statement----"

"Sir," said Tanya, "why don't you go upstairs and look for yourself first." I took that advice and went into the master bedroom upstairs. The floor plan was not like the other two homes, and this bedroom was relatively small.

"What's going on, Davis?" I asked.

"Sir, Mrs. Kate Kane and her daughter Nikki were taken to the hospital. Mr. Michael Kane is not at home; he's in Washington, D.C. on a business trip. He works at the University. Tom Kane, Mrs. Kane's son and Nikki's brother, is downstairs in the den; you might have seen him already.

"No, I didn't." I said. "So, give me the timeline."

"According to all three Kanes," said Jerome, "the two perps came into the house about 9:40pm. Tom had just gotten home. They forced Mrs. Kane and Tom upstairs to her bedroom, then one of them went and got Nikki from her bedroom. They were all forced to strip naked and were then duck-taped, the women's hands behind them and Tom's in front of him."

"No cuffs this time?" I asked. I was looking at the bed. The headboard was a solid piece of wood from the floor up, and there was no footboard at all.

"They may have brought some, sir," said Jerome, "but as you can see, there's not too many places they can be cuffed to."

"Well that's an assumption," I said sourly, "and one I don't agree with. But go ahead. What happened?"

"They forced the mother, Kate, to lie down on the bed on her back, then the forced Nikki to perform oral sex on her." said Jerome. "Then they forced Tom to get behind his sister and penetrate her. Before he came, they forced him to pull out and then have intercourse with his mother, which he did until he climaxed."

"After that, they forced him to sit down in the back corner there, and they raped the two women repeatedly." continued Jerome. "The girl was on her shoulders and knees and was taken from behind, while the mother was on her back. One difference from the previous incidents was that both women's mouths were duct-taped shut. The criminals used condoms, just like previous times, as well."

"Any identifying marks that could be seen?" I asked.

"One of them was described as pale-skinned, the other a bit more tanned." said Jerome. "Captain Perlman asked about marks or moles, and neither woman remember seeing anything obvious, other than that both perps were well-endowed, though not as large as Tom. Captain Perlman described him as 'hung like a horse'."

"She does strive to make accurate descriptions." I said acerbically. "Anything else?"

"Only that the perps took a lot longer than the previous times. They both raped the mother at least twice, and one of them anally penetrated the daughter. Then they forced Tom to have intercourse with his sister again, and according to the mother, they were really calling Tom and Nikki nasty names, yelling in his ear and her ear a lot. "

"And one final thing." concluded Jerome. "In the previous incidents, the son got free of his bonds pretty quickly. But this time, they made all three go into the bathroom and sit in the hot tub in the dark, then damaged the door handle so the door couldn't be easily opened. Took them a good long while to get free."

I nodded. "Okay, I'm going back downstairs." I did so, and talked to Captain Perlman, who told me what she'd been told by the woman about their assailants' features, such as they were.

"By the way," she said, "no signs of forced entry at all; any door, any window. Captain Croyle is at Headquarters. She's already gotten the tapes from the front guard shack, and she's reviewing our patrols's movements. No one reported seeing anything, and she wants to know how these bastards got by us this time."

"Yes, they are remarkably able to move about undetected, aren't they?" I said. "Excuse me a moment." I went into the back den, where Tom was sitting on the sofa, a sullen look on his face, being attended to by Patrolmen Culver and Hicks.

"Tom?" I said, making him look up at me. "I'm Commander Don Troy. I've already heard the story, and I just want to ask some follow-up questions. Any idea at all how the perps got into the house?"

"No sir." said Tom sullenly. "I was talking to my mom, and suddenly they were right behind us, guns pointed at our heads. I didn't hear a thing beforehand."

"You seem angry." I said. "More angry than shocked."

"Yeah, I'm pissed off." said Tom. "I should've figured out a way to stop them, or prevented this from happening."

"You didn't go to the Hospital?" I asked.

"No sir, your Officers made me stay here." Tom said. I nodded.

"They didn't physically beat you up?" I asked.

"Naw." said Tom. "They slapped my sister's ass a lot until it turned red, but other than that they just yelled a lot."

Part 18 - Birthdays and Insights

Wednesday, June 6th, 7:30am. I went home to the Mountain Nest to change into my Uniform. I could've done that at work, but today was my son Jim's fourth birthday. My goodness! he was growing up so fast!

Everyone was just sitting down to breakfast when I arrived. We brought out a cupcake for Jim with a candle that he blew out as we sang 'Happy Birthday' to him. We were going to have a bigger party for him later that evening, so we gave him just one present: a big huge container of Legos. He was excited to see these objects that he could use to build things, and I admonished him not to try to eat the Legos.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

At 9:00am we gathered in Classroom 'E'. Mary Milton was there, having come in and begun the computer work hours before, coming in herself to get it done faster. Mary is very fast with computers and data acquisition.

"Michael Kane works for the University's Institute for Political Policy." said Mary. "Dunno if this is important, but he's heavily involved in Democrat causes behind the scenes. No money issues, but he expensed a lot of things to either the Institute or various political PACs that favor Democrats.

"Kate Kane was something of a hostess for her husband's social functions, and sometimes helped University President Wellman's wife with University social events." continued Mary. "Their son Tom was County High's football quarterback, and thus the Big Boy on Campus, and his sister Nikki, one year older than him, attends Eastern State. She has, and has had, a reputation as a very 'easy' girl. She was picked up at a Frat party and charged with prostitution, but her dad got her a good lawyer and they forced the charges to be dropped."

"I, er... 'peeked' into the School records." said Mary. "Nothing on Nikki, except that her grades were bad. Looks to me like she was socially promoted, failing grades changed to barely passing ones. Her daddy and Jack Lewis might've helped a lot to get her into Eastern State."

More Mary: "Tom has been in trouble for bullying other kids for several years. He has a bad reputation, but his dad was a coach and a personal trainer, and he kept his son in line. Tom was scared of him, but really no one else... except maybe Dave Clarkston. A teacher put a note in Tom's file that Tom groped Dave's sister Tiffany, tore open her shirt and fondled her breasts, and Dave beat Tom down and forced him to apologize. Tom has left Tiffany alone since."

"And nothing done about that by the school, other than a note?" Cindy said with disgust.

"No ma'am." said Mary. "Can't have the star quarterback in trouble, dontcha know."

"Dave did the right thing, protected his sister." I said. "Good on him."

"Like many bullies who get beat down, Tom and Dave hung out together some." said Mary. "Seems the teachers were really watching Tom, and made notes of who his friends were."

"Wow, he must've really been a bad seed to be on the watch list." Joanne said. "Kind of like the Ridley's kid Zack." Everyone murmured agreement.

"It's early days, but any forensics?" I asked.

"No sir." said Tanya. "Rape kits done, sheets collected, all that. It'll be a while, maybe two days. Since the last two incidents yielded nothing, I'm not holding out much hope for this one giving us anything, but we'll see what comes up."

"Hope never dies." I said. "Okay, so this one was a bit different than the other two home invasions, though there were similarities. This time, the father, who I understand is a bruiser enough to keep his son in line, was not at home. This time the daughter was at home, and she was sexually assaulted, perhaps even worse than the mother. The son was forced to have sex with them, but for the most part he was forced to sit on the floor while the perps repeatedly defiled the two women, switching out several times, climaxing into the condoms several times. Instead of a couple of hours, they stayed three and a half to four hours. And they tied them all up very securely and trapped them in the bathroom afterwards."

"Sir," said Theo, "there were no handcuffs used in this incident, just duct tape. We've gone around to all the hardware stores to see who has bought duct tape as well as plastic handcuffs. No joy on it, at least not in this County."

"It was a try, anyway." I said. "No handcuffs... no handcuffs..."

Seeing as I was getting introspective, Captain Croyle spoke up. "Sir," she said, "I've reviewed the tapes and the duty logs of the patrols. It was a weeknight, so traffic in and out was pretty low, especially after 9:00pm. No one but residents came in or out, not even any late delivery trucks. First Precinct patrols have been keying on that area, and nothing amiss was seen."

"And here's a little secret none of you should ever let get out of here." said Teresa. "There are hidden cameras set up all over the place. Most are concealed in the streetlights. The security people and the Police usually don't have them turned on, but since the first assault a week and a half ago, we've been monitoring them. There have been no strangers walking around during the hours from just before the incidents to after them. Nothing. Just residents walking their dogs. It's like these perps are frickin' ghosts."

"That's gotta mean something." said Tanya. "Sir, I'm thinking it may be an inside job... someone that lives in the subdivision."

"Yeah, I thought of that, too." I said. "But they're still getting inside the houses themselves. How are they doing that?"

"Sneaking in while the doors are unlocked, hiding somewhere, then coming out and taking the families hostage." said Joanne.

"And then not a trace of them after they leave." I said. "The Police are going through the houses and clearing them, making sure nobody stayed behind, are they not?"

"Yes sir." said Teresa. "I did it myself, with Culver, at the Clarkstons. We even pulled down the attic door and looked up there. Hot as hell; perps would not want to hide out there for hours. And Irwin said a couple of guys went through the Radcliffe home, opened all the closet doors and such, looking for dropped condoms or duct tape rolls, stuff like that." I nodded.