Chapter 38: Monday Morning

I ended up fixing most of breakfast, with Alice making sure I didn’t screw it up. The three girls were still in the bathroom when I had to leave for school. We decided that Alice would come with me so that she could have my car if she needed it. That left Mel with Alice’s car if the girls needed to go anywhere. I stressed -through the closed bathroom door- that while we were gone Mel was responsible for two little sisters now, and I’d back her up no matter who she had to shoot. NOBODY comes in the house unless they are with me or Alice! Not the Reds, not the Gipps, not any of the other gangs, not the PPD. We hadn’t gone to all the trouble we’d gone to, just to lose them again.

I got some pretty rude comments when I pointed out that I was gonna have a lot of trouble finding a buyer for them, as they were all too skinny for a real man to want.

When we got to my office the circus gave me shit for claiming to have rescued another one of the missing girls without any proof. Well, I’d really just forgotten to take pictures of Elizabeth but I told them that we were out of film and I didn’t know where to buy more on a Sunday. That gave Alice an errand to run, if we decided she needed to get out of there.

The PPD had brought in a female officer to talk to the girls, so I told Alice to “keep her company and try to keep me out of jail, if you can” and stuck them in the corner as out of the way as they could be. Some people were trying to work here, you know. I did hear some parts of their conversation. It was mostly Alice, as the officer knew how to talk low and Alice had no reason to keep what she was saying private.

“You’re not getting it. Let me tell you how easy it would be to get my freedom if I wanted it. Larry’s already told me to get some more film for the camera the next time I go out. I could tell him we need some groceries anyway and I’m getting sick of this place, so I’m going to go get that as well as the film, then check on the girls and put the food away.”

“I’ll be driving Larry’s car, right? All I would have to do is go to Larry’s house and tell the girls to get in the car. Or even for Melanie to drive my car and take the girls with her. My husband was wealthy and I have credit cards. We could go anywhere. I could tell you things that would get Larry locked up for a long time. He’d never find us.”

“I don’t WANT to do that. I don’t want to live alone, and I don’t want to live with a man who only thinks of me as a convenient pussy. I want to live with a man who loves me so much he’ll risk his life to protect me and my daughter. I’m never going to leave Larry, and if it makes him happy when I call him Master then I’ll call him Master twenty times a day.”

I also heard some answers about how I got her.

“Well, I’ve heard him say some things about buying the two of us. Yes, from a whorehouse. I don’t know, he hasn’t said. Besides, he’s half-owner of the whorehouse we were in, so it may just be an accounting thing, he took us as his share of the profits this month or something. His sister, Lucy Wilkins. Now, I could tell you all SORTS of things that Lucy should be in jail for. Larry! Master, do you want to get rid of your sister? We could put her in jail for, well, lots of things.”

I had to answer that one. “Honey, what would Lucy do, if the police told her that they’d let her go if she rolled over on me? She’d sing like Aretha Franklin. Now, they wouldn’t be able to hold me forever, not on just her word, but it would cause us a lot of trouble. And it would give them an excuse to start digging. Right now the police think I’m a good guy. Let’s not do that.”

I turned back to Sandridge, who I’d been trying to question about the Reds. “Of course you know I’m a good man. I would never cross the street without looking both ways and helping at least two little old ladies cross with me.”

He did give me a smile at that. “Yes, yes of course, Coach. You’re one of the good guys. Believe me, if we ever get enough dirt to bury you, you’ll be one of the first to know.”

“You’re not making me feel good. Anyway, how are the others doing?”

The Reds had realized that, eventually, the police would storm their headquarters and they’d gotten ready to make it hurt for everyone. They were going down, sure, but so would a lot of the police.

The New York State Police had one dead and one wounded trooper, themselves. They had borrowed an entry team from the New York City Troop. Those guys had a lot more experience in house-to-house combat than any of the other troops. The FBI had two men still in the hospital but they would live. The PPD had one dead and two in the hospital and one of those might not make it. The Clinton County Sheriffs had people on the scene but none of them had needed medical care afterwards.

On the other side, the Troopers had shields and armor, and they’d stopped trying to capture criminals once the bullets started flying. The Reds had more than 25 dead, maybe close to 30 before it was all done. Several more were in the hospital, and another 13 were in Altona pending arraignment. They’d probably all end up in Dannemora before long.

They had also pulled out six women and two female bodies that had been dead long enough to have died before the raid started. All six living females were in the hospital recovering from long-term abuse. They were of varying age.

They were trying to keep it out of the news that all eight women were white, as that would just make the racial problems worse. I suggested that, if I could get my gaggle to come in at lunchtime, they might be able to identify some of them if the feebies could come up with pictures. After all, the FBI had more money to waste on stuff like that than I did.

I got to go teach my second period history class, but halfway through it we got interrupted by a whole squad of the Plattsburgh police. There’d been a shooting at my house, and the people inside refused to come out until I got there. Well, me or Alice and Alice was still in my office refusing to go without me.

“Who got shot?”

“A heavyset black woman, not yet identified. Apparently she shot the door up until it opened, and then she was shot while entering.”

“One of you go to the office and let them know I have to leave my classroom. One of you stay here and try to teach these boys and girls some history. Ladies and gentlemen, I must go save the world again. I apologize.”

While I was walking back to the office almost surrounded by police, I said “It has to be my sister. There’s no one else who would care about who or what’s in my house.”

“Why would your sister care?”

I shook my head. “Let’s hold off on that until I see Alice.”

As soon as I was in the door Alice was on me. While I was holding her I asked “What do we know?”

We knew that Mel was okay and was acting as spokesman for the gang of desperados holed up in my house. She had said that she, Shanda, and Elizabeth were all okay, and yes Shanda had positively identified the body as my sister Lucy. Mel had told the police that Lucy had come by for Shanda. She’d told Lucy to go away. Lucy had shot the door a couple of times and then kicked it open.

When she stepped in, still holding her gun in front of her, Mel had shot her twice. Lucy had fallen in the doorway, and nobody had touched her since. The house was surrounded by police, but no one had tried to enter after Mel said she’d shoot anyone who did.

I asked if I could call the house. They all agreed that would be best. I called and Shanda answered “Wilkins residence”.

“Shanda, this is Larry. Are you okay?”

“Larry! Lucy tried to come get me and Mel shot her and...”

“SHANDA! SHANDA!”

“What?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, but Lucy...”

“SHANDA!”

“What?”

“Is Melanie okay?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Is Elizabeth okay?”

“Yes.”

“Good. You three are okay. That is far more important than what happened. Now, can Melanie come to the phone?”

“She’s right here.”

“Larry?”

“Baby, you did good. You did exactly what you were supposed to do. You know Lucy would have killed Shanda for leaving her. Or for twenty other stupid reasons, but she would have killed Shanda. You killed a crazy bitch who would have shot you and Elizabeth, then drug Shanda back to her apartment and killed her. Yes, you killed someone, but you saved three lives and frankly I’d rather have you alive than my sister. Any ONE of you three are worth more than her.”

“Thank you, Larry. Do I let the police in?”

“HELL no! They’ll take over the house and steal everything they can get their hands on, calling it evidence. The Army was a lot more honest; they called it ‘opportunistic pillaging’. If you’ve got a favorite teddy bear, you’ll never see it again because the police will claim it as evidence for something. No, you still shoot anyone who tries to enter. I’ll try to get me and your mom ... your mom and I, there as soon as we can. We’re probably going to have to move to your house while the police destroy mine looking for evidence for, well, I dunno. Maybe you were the man on the grassy knoll who shot Kennedy.”

Was Melanie even alive back then? Let’s see ... That was in ‘64, so it was 24 years ago. Nope, Alice was probably still in elementary school back then.

“Okay. Come soon, Larry. I need a hug. I need a lot more than a hug.”

“I’ll try. Okay, I gotta go. Love you!”

“Love you, Larry!”

Of course all the police were listening in to my side and knew everything I’d said.

“Okay, the rest of the story, that I was really trying to keep you pigs out of. My sister Lucy has been a whore since she was in high school, and that does something to your brain. She just doesn’t see anyone as human beings. Everyone in the whole world is just a whore, a user, or a sucker. She ain’t been right for a long time. Then, she got into drugs and she’s crazy half the time. That woman who was torturing Shanda to death? That was my sister. I didn’t want to tell you guys that, but yeah that was Lucy. I was hoping that just getting Shanda away from her would be enough and I could keep her out of jail, but I guess someone told her that I was keeping her personal bitch in my house, and she came by while I was gone to get her back.”

I took a deep breath and looked at all the PPD people crammed into the office. “I’d given Melanie, that’s Alice’s daughter, a gun because she’s eighteen and pretty level-headed, and told her that any time we were out she was to shoot anyone who tried to come in the house. If I’m home, I’ll shoot the bastard, but if I’m gone then she needs to protect herself and Shanda from all the people who want to hurt them. I’m still not sure that she’d shoot someone just to protect herself, but Shanda’s like her little sister now. She’ll shoot anyone who threatens Shanda. You pigs just tell your people to leave the house alone until we get there. And bring pictures of all the girls you found at the Reds’ place.”

I’d tried to protect Lucy, but if she had gotten herself killed then there was no point in it any more. I could blame EVERYTHING on her! I looked at Sandridge “My sister was behind most of this. And, she was the source of most of my info on the girls. I mean, late Saturday night after that riot I heard that she had a bunch of women and she’d sent some to the Crib. I went to her apartment and told her that she owed me a couple of white bitches. She called the Crib and told them to get two of them ready to travel, she’d already sold them, and that I was going to deliver them to their new owner.”

I shook my head. “I got to the crib, and they had Alice there and her daughter Melanie all tied up and ready to go. They were still naked, though, so I made them find some clothes and put them on and I drove off with two tied-up white women in my car. Alice, how long did you stay tied up after I got you out of there?”

“I don’t know, maybe ten or fifteen minutes. You had to convince us to not panic before you could untie us. Gentlemen, getting ‘sold’ to Larry was the absolute best thing that could happen to us. I’d rather we were at our house than his, but wherever Larry is sleeping is where I’m sleeping, for the rest of my life. He says he’ll marry me once we find my husband and I get a divorce, and Melanie is mad at me because I got there first so she can’t marry him.”