Chapter 25: Thursday Evening

Agent Sandridge called back before too long a wait, asking what I needed. I told him that I had a lead on where two more girls had gone, and I didn’t want to wait until the morning.

He offered to come by the house, but I vetoed that. I didn’t want any gray areas in the girls’ minds about who was allowed in the house. It was the two of them, Alice, and me. No one else. I offered to meet the agent in the school parking lot, if he wanted. I could be there in ten minutes.

He accepted that, so I told everyone that I had to go out. All three of them wanted to go with me. Alice made sense. She wanted to be with me, wherever I was. The two elves just wanted to get out of the house, I’m sure. That was fine. We all loaded up into my car and took off.

Meeting the agent didn’t take long at all. I parked close to a light pole so we could see what we were doing, and we all got out to stretch and look around. After ten or fifteen minutes a standard black government K-car showed up and parked a little way away from us and two men got out.

The driver stayed at the car where he could watch our surroundings. The passenger was Sandridge, the FBI agent I’d been talking to. He walked over to us and I handed him the envelope and the two pictures. He looked at the pictures while I explained what little we knew. It wasn’t much, but maybe the FBI could track down where that phone was and who owned it.

Looking at the ad, Sandridge said that it was a Kentucky area code, so the girls were probably already where they were going. They could make it from upstate New York in one day, and it had been just short of five days now since the riot. Still, if the FBI could track that number they would get a warrant and search the entire property the phone was installed at.

Who the fuck memorizes all the area codes? There are hundreds of them!

Anyway, I told him that I had not handled the actual magazine; I had the guy who brought it to me take the pictures and then put it in the envelope for me. Still, any fingerprints they found wouldn’t be involved in any crimes they were investigating. The people who’d handled it were troublemakers, there was no denying that, but they weren’t the people who had bought and taken the girls. The magazine was just a convenient way of showing the FBI where the contact number for Premier Studios had come from.

I was still glad that I hadn’t handled it. No matter what happened, nothing involved with that sale could be tied to me. My part of recovering those two girls was done. I still wanted to get a subscription, though. In Tom’s name, of course.

After he’d looked in the envelope and verified that the contents were what I’d said, he wanted to know who was in the car with me. When I asked them to introduce themselves, Alice came over and gave me a hug first.

“We met before. You know me as Alice O’Donald, but Larry has given me permission to use the name Mrs. Alice Wilkins instead. As soon as we find my husband and I get a divorce, we’ll make it official.”

Melanie said “I’m Melanie O’Donald. I think I’d like to have Larry for myself, but I’m not gonna win that fight. I’d give Larry a hug, too, but I’m not strong enough to pull Mom off of him. Sooner or later I’ll get a man of my own and move out, but until then I’m staying with Mom and Larry.”

Shanda was a lot quieter, and she hugged Melanie before she spoke. “I’m Shanda Larkin. I don’t think I want Larry, but if he wants me I’ll do whatever he wants. He rescued me from a horrible place. I don’t think I would have lived much longer if he hadn’t gotten me out of there. I’m happy staying with Larry and Alice and Melanie.”

Sandridge asked “Can we tell your parents that you’ve been rescued and you’re safe, but you need to recover some before you go home?”

I interrupted him. “Shanda, that’s what I told these guys. I told them that you weren’t up to seeing anyone else yet, and I wasn’t going to let anyone bother you until you were ready for it. I figure that you wanted to come out with us tonight, you must be ready to see people, but it’s up to you. We can go home now if you want or we can go run errands if you want. Or, you can go with the FBI if you want.”

She held onto Melanie a lot harder. “I want to stay with Melanie. Maybe when she gets a boyfriend we can share him.”

“I guess we should take you home, then. You don’t need any more excitement today.”

Sandridge asked “Can we take some pictures of you, so we can prove that you are all okay and free to do what you want?”

I shrugged and said “Sure”.

Alice asked “Isn’t it too dark?”

Melanie said “I don’t care.”

Shanda said “Okay.”

Sandridge said “We’ll have to move under the light, but it should work. Agent Timmons is a photographer and he can make it work.”

So, we all moved under the light and lined up to let them take a few family portraits. The Feebie was right, meeting with them out in the open like this and letting them take pictures of the two girls would go a long way towards answering questions about their status. They had been found or rescued, they were physically fine, alert, and answering questions, and they chose of their own free will to stay with me instead of leaving with the Feebs.

After they were done, I asked Shanda “Do you want to see your parents? They will probably want to take you home with them.”

“I want to see them, but I’m not leaving Melanie. And, I don’t think she’s leaving you, so I’m staying with you.”

I turned to Sandridge. “How do we get them together without a big circus?”

He smiled. “We could have you meet at the Burger King. The local police know to not arrest you if you show up there.”

I had to laugh at that. “Yeah, but there’s gonna be a big scene if they want their baby to come home and Shanda wants to stay with us. Maybe somewhere more private would be better.”

“I’ve been thinking about that. Anywhere that law enforcement controls, you wouldn’t want to stick your heads into. You wouldn’t want us sticking our heads into your home or your whorehouse, either. It has to be someplace neutral like this parking lot.”

Shanda had something to say. “Mr. FBI man? I told my parents about Coach Piper several times. They told me that it couldn’t be as bad as I was saying; she’d never get away with what I was accusing her of. They told me to be glad I was able to play for such a good coach and to stop making things up to cause trouble. I don’t think I want to see them right now. I’d rather just go home with Melanie and Alice and Larry.”

Sandridge said “Shit. Okay, I have a legal problem here. Ma’am, I’m told you are 14. Is that true?”

“Yes, I won’t be 15 for another couple of months. Why?”

“Well, I’m a government law enforcement agent going to meet a confidential informant, and the courts won’t simply take my word for what was said. So, I am wearing a tape recorder that is recording this whole conversation. If I’m willing to swear that I haven’t tampered with the recording, and Timmons is willing to swear that this recording was made tonight at this meeting, it can be used as evidence in a criminal trial. With me so far?”

Motherfuckers!

Shanda said “I think so.”

“So, I have this recording of you saying you told your parents about an ongoing case of a known pedophile, an adult in a position of authority who was sexually abusing children -sorry, but that’s your legal description, you’re a child- and them telling you that you’re lying and to stop making it up. We already have enough evidence to bury Coach Piper, we know that THAT part of your story is true, so the only question is if you actually told your parents like you are saying. Either your parents have so little trust in you that you can report a crime to them and get ignored, or they were already aware of the crime and chose to ignore it. Either way, you’re better off without them, if you can find a good home. However, I don’t think that the foster care system is better for anyone, those people are always overloaded.”

“Your statement is good enough for us to expand this investigation. However, as a minor your testimony cannot be used in court without the permission of your parents or guardians. I seriously doubt if your parents would authorize a statement that will get them charged with aiding and abetting statutory rape, but if you will ... Timmons! Get up here, I need a witness! ... If you will look me in the eyes and tell me that you consider your family to be broken and will accept Larry Wilkins and Alice O’Donald as your temporary guardians until something more permanent can be arranged, then your guardians can, if they wish, authorize us to use this recording as evidence in a criminal investigation.”

Da fuq? What the fuck is he saying? Sandridge is trying to get me to KEEP these girls!

Shanda turned to me and almost whispered “What do you want me to say?”

I just looked at her for a minute. “Shanda, are you sure? Alice and I aren’t married. We can’t get married because she can’t even get divorced until we find her husband. I don’t think the courts will let you stay with us.”

“Larry, I’d be dead by now if you hadn’t rescued me. I’m not leaving you and Alice and Melanie ever, unless you kick me out. I’m not going to be any trouble. I’m going to help around the house and do my chores and be a good girl. Someday, when I’m old enough, I’ll sleep in your bed and I’ll do whatever you want me to do. Until then, I’ll keep Melanie happy so she doesn’t get you in trouble, either.”

I looked at Alice. She nodded.