Chapter 37: Sunday

The elves beat us to the kitchen Sunday morning. We could have beaten them, but someone wanted a long slow screw that took as long as I could make it. By the time we were out of the shower and made it to the kitchen they had Elizabeth sitting at the table while they got breakfast ready. It wasn’t as good as what Alice had been doing, but it was nice for her to be able to just sit down and eat with me.

Our two elves got hugs, but I just nodded to Liz and said “Good morning, Elizabeth”. She didn’t need me picking her up and hugging her. The girls wouldn’t let that slide, though. They insisted that we call our latest guest ‘Liz’ instead of ‘Elizabeth’. Sure, but...

I turned to her. “What do you want me to call you? We’ve got ‘Elizabeth’. We’ve got ‘Liz’. I can call you ‘Sweetness’ or ‘Princess’ if you want. If it’s important to you, I can even call you ‘Butthead’ or ‘Snotface’ if that’s what you want. It should be up to you what we call you, not those two.”

She said “I like ‘Liz’.” She had a soft, sweet voice. She wasn’t what I like in women, she was too young and WAY too skinny, but I could listen to that voice for a long time.

“Sure. ‘Liz’ it is.”

“How long are you going to keep me here? Mel and Shanda said you would let me go when I was ready.”

“That’s your call, too. Alice is here because she wants to be here. Mel is...”

“I’m not here because I want to be here, I’m here because Larry is here and I want to be with Larry. We’ve been talking about moving to a bigger house. This one is too small as it is and we keep taking in stray kittens.”

“Fine. Alice is here for whatever reasons she has. Mel is here because she wants to stay with her mother. Shanda is here because she wants to stay with Mel. You’re just here because we were all tired last night and a good night’s sleep makes thinking easier. Now that we’ve all gotten some sleep, we gotta decide what to do with you.”

I gave her a few seconds, then “Liz, what do you want to do? We can take you home. We can take you to a doctor or the hospital. We can hand you off to the FBI, who would love to take you off our hands so they can take the credit for rescuing you. Or, you can stay here for as long as you want. Alice and Melanie and Shanda and you are all gonna hafta get jobs, though, if you eat as much as they do.”

Melanie turned to Shanda. “Baby, go hit Larry three times. Once for you, once for me, and once for Mom. The three of us together don’t eat as much as Larry does. Maybe four times, for Liz.”

Shanda asked “Is he gonna hit me back?”

I answered for Melanie. “Of course not, Baby. Melanie told you to do it, you have to do it. It’s Melanie that gets punished for stuff like that.”

Melanie said “Okay, so maybe you should just stay there.”

“Maybe she should come give me a hug, so she knows I’m not mad at her for what you make her do.”

Melanie nodded to her, so Shanda got up and ran around the table. I had to slide my chair back so she could climb in my lap.

“Your mean ol’ mistress made you come give me a hug. It’s horrible, isn’t it?”

“I love being here. You make me feel safe. I love you, Larry.”

“Don’t get me in trouble with my wife!”

“I’ll give her a hug next and tell her it wasn’t your fault.” She wiggled around some on my lap, then said “Besides, she gets the benefit.”

Melanie asked “Shanda, are you humping my Daddy?”

Shanda made it even more obvious what she was doing. “No?”

“Baby, you can’t do that until you’re eighteen, or you’ll get us all in trouble. Larry, you can spank her for that. Not me!”

“Okay, I’ll stop.” She slowed down some, so it wasn’t quite as obvious.

“Larry, would you pop that cute little butt that isn’t supposed to be humping on adults?”

I gave Shanda a swat. “You need to go get back on the other side of the table where you’re safe.”

“Mistress is a meanie.”

“You don’t have to tell me that. Or anyone here. I think we all know that.”

She was still humping me, and it was getting uncomfortable. My crank wasn’t in the right position for what it was trying to do. I had to pop her again before she got off. I also had to stand up and move some things around before I could sit down again.

The girls all giggled at that. Alice thanked Shanda for her help. I waited for them to run down, then turned back to Liz.

“So, back before we got sidetracked, I was asking you what you wanted to do. You can simply stay here for a few days and rest, or we can take you to a doctor right now if you want. We can take you to a hospital if you think you need it. We can turn you over to the FBI if you want. Regardless of how you choose I really need to at least show you to the FBI, so they know you’ve been rescued. Or we can take you home if you want. It’s up to you.”

“You don’t mind them knowing I’m here?”

“That’s for my own protection. There are a lot of white law enforcement people who see my skin and they know I’m a criminal. I don’t want those assholes to find out from someone else that I’m holding one of the missing girls. It’s far better if I show you to them myself, so no one can say I’m trying to hide you.”

“Oh. I guess that makes sense. You really are going to let me go?”

“Liz, I’ve tried to get rid of Shanda. But, as Alice says, once you feed a stray kitten the damn thing will never leave.”

Shanda stuck her tongue out at me. So? I stuck my tongue out at her.

Melanie said “Don’t stick those things out if you aren’t going to use them.”

Alice said “Shanda, take your mistress into your bedroom and use your tongue on her until she makes you stop. Larry, please take your devoted slave into your bedroom and use your tongue, or whatever you want, on me until I beg you to stop. Liz, I think breakfast is over, and I’m told you are sixteen. If you want to watch either bedroom, that’s fine. Can you clear the table first? Cold things go back in the fridge, garbage goes in the trashcan, and dishes go in the sink. I’ll handle it from there.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I think that was from all four of us. Mistress had given us our orders.

I had things to do first, though. I called the FBI number again and asked them to pass a message to Sandridge. We’d recovered another one of the missing girls. Right now she was sleeping, and we’d find out if she wanted a doctor or what when she got up. If she was staying with us for a while, I’d try to get them an interview with her on Monday. If nothing else, I’d at least get them some pictures so they’d know which one I’d gotten.

Meanwhile, it would be real nice if they passed it on to the state and local police that I had another one of the girls so nobody did anything stupid when they heard it from the street. Yes, I have her. Yes, I’ll release her but that’ll be when SHE wants to be released, not when someone else wants it.

Yeah, I went back to bed, but we weren’t really doing anything, just holding each other, when the phone rang. Alice and I looked at each other, and I got up and went to answer it.

“Coach Wilkins.”

“Good morning, Coach. This is Lieutenant Davis, the Watch Captain down at the police station.”

I could tell from his voice he was white. What I couldn’t tell was whether he was a “We’re all equals here” liberal or another “We should never have freed the niggers” conservative.

He was still speaking. “We’ve heard that you’re holding one of the missing girls. I’ve got a team ready to go rescue her, but I thought that I should warn you they were coming so maybe you wouldn’t shoot any of my boys today. While they’re at it, they will want to talk to you about a shooting that happened yesterday in your neighborhood. Someone told the investigating officers to talk to you about it, saying that you were there.”

“Oh, come on. I called the FBI a little while ago and told them we had Elizabeth specifically to prevent just this. Yes, I was able to collect another one of the girls last night. I’ve got three of them now. The one we got last night is trying to sleep right now. She doesn’t need more drama. Can’t this wait until Monday? I told them I’d try to bring her in to school, but until then I wanted to let her just rest.”

I had to take a breath. “As far as the shooting goes, yeah I was there. I didn’t actually see it, but I was in a building nearby and I was one of the guys who ran out when we heard the shots so I’m probably the closest you’re going to get to a real witness.”

“Do you know who did it?”

“Well, I saw someone standing over Junk’s body with a gun in his hand. I know that’s just circumstantial evidence, but I’m pretty sure he did it.”

“Who was the shooter?”

“Sir, you’re into law enforcement. That’s good. However, I’m into justice, and that’s not always the same thing. The reason I was there last night was to take Elizabeth off the Gipps hands. They didn’t want her but they didn’t want to deal with you or the FBI, either. The man who got shot thought that they should keep her and got in an argument with someone else. I’m never going to tell you who shot him. A man who wanted to keep Elizabeth and turn her into a sex-slave got what he deserved, and that’s the end of the story as far as I’m concerned.”

“I’m told the victim was a Gipp.”

“Yes, sir, I’m pretty sure he was. I get along with their leader pretty well, and when he told me they knew where one of the girls was, I asked him to get her if they could. I don’t know what they had to do, I don’t think I want to know, but once they had her a lot of the Gipps wanted to keep her instead of turning her over to me. Just between you and me, I knew the guy that got shot and it just couldn’t have happened to a better man, if you know what I mean. Junk wasn’t our best citizen.”

By now I had four women standing around me, listening to my side of the call.

“I understand that you have several of the missing women living with you.”

“Well, they aren’t missing any more, they’re here, but yes. As one of them put it, once you feed a stray kitten, it never leaves. One was great. Two was awesome and wasn’t really a problem, but three is too many and now four is just getting silly. I don’t have room for four women here.”

“Can you let us interview them?”

“Sure. Tomorrow. I’m sure they they will all be willing to answer any of your questions. Well, maybe not Elizabeth, the one we got last night. She may want to see you, she may not. I’m gonna let her make that decision, she’s had enough of men ordering her around for awhile.”

“We can provide a female detective for her.”

“Sure, as long as your female detective doesn’t start giving orders. If she starts telling Elizabeth what to do, Elizabeth will probably consider her an honorary man and clam up. She’s not ready for interrogation.”