Chapter 5

“Too bad we have to tell them anything at all,” I said to Louise.

The Judge and Alison had made it over to Eve’s family home. Alison started the group interview with her time line. “We know that Eve had a Christian boyfriend named Joey. Did any of you know that.” There was a few seconds of silence.

After Alison said to Eve’s sister, “Are you sure you have nothing to say?”

“I don’t know anyone named Joey,” she said.

“That may or may not be true, but you did know about Joey. Is Joey the reason you organized the beating of your sister with those wooden rods?” she was asked by Alison.

“Did you beat your sister,” the father asked horrified. one day her just decides to beat “No I didn’t. She is lying,” the sister said.

“The other two girls have already confessed to beating your sister. They named you as the leader. Are you going to continue denying you were the person who suggested it, and supplied the wooden rods?” Alison asked. Her twenty plus years as a teacher were on display in that interview.

“Did you beat your sister,” Eve’s mother asked through her tears.

“It wasn’t my idea. Ferjal told me to do it. He said that back home she would have been beaten until she died. I only did it to prevent her from being beaten worse,” she said through her own tears. Her tears didn’t gain her any favor with Alison.

“Did you come back and kill you sister?” Alison asked.

“No, I had nothing to do with her death. I just didn’t want her beaten til she bled,” the sister admitted. It was obvious that Alison didn’t quite believe her.

“You do know that we have to tell the police all we know. We can’t withhold this kind of evidence from a police investigation,” The Judge said.

“What was Ferjal’s relationship with your sister?” The Judge asked.

“He wanted to take her for his wife,” the sister said.

“Did he still want that at the time you arranged the beating,” The Judge asked in a strong voice.

“I don’t know. He never said anything else, so yes I thought so,” she said.

“So even though he knew your sister was no longer a virgin, he was still willing to marry her,” Allison got back into the act.

“Did he even know how far Joey and your sister had gone?” The Judge asked.

“How would he know that,” Alison asked.

“You told him didn’t you,” The Judge accused.

“Yes, but I didn’t want her to be harmed. I just did it to keep her from being beaten to death,” she said. “Ferjal said, that back home a woman who was not a virgin on her wedding night could be beaten to death.”

Alison nodded to The Judge who walked from the room. When he arrived outside the house he called to play the digital recorder tape of the meeting to me. “So what should we do now?” he asked.

“Go back in there and tell them to take their daughter down to the police station and ask for Detective Ray Brown. I’ll call him right now and have him meet with her. They won’t be able to ignore this,” I said over the phone.

Just as soon as I hung up I called Ray’s cell phone. “Listen Ray I know you are going to be pissed, but the family of your murdered girl are on the way to the police station. The sister wants to confess to the beating of her sister. She also wants to give you some information about the Ferjal man. It looks like he had a motive to kill her. You know the old jealousy thing.”

“And how did you find out about it,” he asked.

“It just fell into my lap. You don’t have to mention to anyone where you got your information,” I said. I sure as hell hoped that Ray would forget where he got the information.

I didn’t want to explain how we got the information to anyone outside of The Haven. My plan was to allow sleeping dogs to snore away.

Back at the house The Judge called Alison aside to tell her the new plan.

“So we are turning it over to the local police?” she asked.

“Yes we are,” The Judge said.

“So you don’t plan to chase down the adult entertainment angle,” she asked. “Even if they use minors.”

“What is the real world definition of a minor, not the legal definition, the real world one. Is the fifteen year old girl who seduces her neighbor into robbing a convenience store and running away with her, a minor?” he asked.

“I don’t think she should be allowed to walk away, but she is still a minor,” Alison said.

“Are you sure that isn’t an out of date definition,” I suggested. “How about Eve’s sister taking a wooden stick to her sister and convincing two other girls to help.”

“Okay it’s too complicated an issue for us,” she said. “So we are going to lie for the Arab pimp.”

“You do what you want, I am not going to volunteer anything, nor am I going to lie. One other thing you might want to remember. We were using a sort of pimp, to chase a killer. Where is that line in the sand?” he asked.

“Okay I get it, but I don’t have to like it,” Alison said. “I just have to go back inside and load them into cars and shepherd them to the police.”

“Well do what you want, we have already given the sister up. She is the one who will give Ferjal up.” The Judge predicted. “We still don’t know he did it. Do you want the sarge to meet us at the station?”

“It would be better if they allowed us to handle it,” Alison suggested. “We can keep the family dynamics out of it.

Then I called to give Louise the news. She took it a lot better than Alison had. At least on the adult entertainment question.

“Would it be in poor taste to have you bring the DVD down? I’d kind of like to see what kind of star she was,” Louise said.

“If you promise not to tell Alison, I’ll bring it down,” I said.

“Give me ten minutes, and I’ll pop some corn,” Louise suggested.

This is sick and disgusting, I said to myself. Even so it didn’t stop me from showing up at Louise’s apartment a half hour later. It was a lot like the school bus wreck. You know it makes you less of a human, but you watch it anyway.

I was completely detached in a sense. It was like when a movie star does something that is complete impossible. They expected us to suspend belief, and we do. It was sorta like that. The girl on Louise’s TV wasn’t really Eve. Hell maybe not learning her name made it easier to watch her doing the things she did.

The problem I had with her was not her willingness to do those things on screen. The problem was that she was physically able to do them so easily. Her body should not have been able to do them without a lot more pain than she showed. She seemed to be having some discomfort, but it should have been impossible for the male star to do some of the thing he did to her.

It just seemed far too easy for her to manage some of the things she did in that video. She just didn’t seem to be intimidated as much as she should have been. I didn’t comment until the show was over.

“So how did you like the movie?” Louise asked.

“There were just too many emotions to enjoy the show. That guy was hung like a pony, but she just didn’t show any emotion,” I explained. “She looked like she was drugged.”

“If she was drugged, it was before she showed up for the shoot. Martin is very strict about drugs on the set. He just has a fit if anyone, even the camera men, are fucked up,” Louise said defending Martin.

Then explain to me why she didn’t have a harder time with the rapist’s prick,” I asked. “She is a teenage girl. She should be screaming in pain.”

“Unless she is was used to taking it at an early age,” Louise said.

“Who would have been doing that?” I asked.

“Father, uncle, brother, Joey,” she guessed.

“How long would it have taken for her to be that comfortable on screen,” I asked.

“I have no idea Ed,” she replied. “This isn’t over is it?”

“I don’t think so,” I guessed. “We need to meet with the others to discuss where we go from here.”

I would prefer, we not do that just yet.” Louise said. “I would like a chance to talk to Martin alone. I am sure there is a reasonable explanation, which won’t require us to blacken Eve’s name.”

“Do it in person. It will give us a chance to test fire the recorder. We can meet tomorrow. So give me a call when you wake up,” I suggested.

I tried to call Alison, but her phone was off. I left her a message to call, if she could before ten. At ten I went to bed without hearing from her.

It was 6:35 when I woke. I heated two average sized glasses of day old coffee in the microwave. I had to wear a sock, over my hand, as I poured the coffee into a stainless steel coffee thermos. One of the good things about my coffee is no one ever asks me to bring them coffee for the hike. We stopped along the way everyday for Alison to buy coffee. Each of our routes had a store of some kind that sold coffee.

As we walked Alison explained that Detective Brown had interviewed Eve’s sister for hours. He decided to charge her, and the two other girls with simple assault. The DA could reduce the charges, if she wished to do so after the paperwork reached her desk.

“Ray promised us he would bring in Feral Cat for questioning today,” Alison said. “So I guess this is winding down.”

“It would appear so. Of course that depends on what the cat has to say,” I suggested. I had a feeling that we just didn’t know enough. We would be hanging on a string until the Cat gave his statement. We completed our walk in relative silence,

“You know, I feel kind of bad for Eve’s sister. She is confused, but I don’t think she is evil,” Alison said.

“I’m sure Ted Bundy’s mother felt that way,” I suggested. “Be careful, not to allow yourself to be taken in by a gifted liar. She beat her sister with a stick for no good reason, at least not one I can understand.”

“Just because you don’t understand the reason, it doesn’t mean she didn’t have one,” Alison replied.

“That is true, but I’m not sure anyone understood the Son of Sam’s reasoning either,” I replied

Let’s just agree to disagree,” she said.

“Fair enough, so are you so disappointed in me that you want to skip breakfast?” I suggested.

“Hell no, it’s my turn to buy,” she said. “I take my responsibility seriously.”

“Alright then, I’ll knock on your door at 9:30,” I declared.

Once in my apartment I called Thia. It was after eight, so I expected her to answer in her wide awake voice. I did not expect her ‘half asleep voice’. “what the hell Dad it’s 8AM, I just got to bed.”

“I’m sorry, were you scheduled to work last night,” I asked.

“No, but I went in to work an extra shift,” she said. “If you had called last night, you would have known.”

“Yeah, I was involved with the Eve investigation until bedtime,” I said.

“I know Ray called me and told me you made some progress. He was mad as hell. He asked what I knew about it. I told him I knew nothing, so you better confirm that,” she said.

“So tell me what his next step is.” I demanded.

“Watch your attitude Daddy,” Thia said getting even with me.

“Okay, do you happen to know what his plan for today happens to be,” I asked.

“He is going to interview the man you call Feral,” she said. “He isn’t sure that he had anything to do with Eve’s injuries.”

“What an idiot, he thinks that from out of nowhere, one day she just decides to beat her sister with rods from the Muslim center. She recruits her two Muslim friends to help her beat Eve. The fucker for sure has something to do with it.” I said.

“Maybe,” she replied.

“I didn’t question the Cat, so that Ray could steal all the headlines. What an asshole,” I said.

“Stop it daddy. I am not going to listen to this,” she said.

My answer was to hang up the phone. I stomped around the place with a cup of coffee waiting until time for my breakfast with Alison. I filled the stainless steel cup with my own brand of coffee, so that Alison wouldn’t have to pay an exorbitant price for bad coffee.

“He said that,” Alison said after I reran Thia’s phone message.

“It seems like it,” I suggested. “He hasn’t even talked to The Cat, and he is looking for a way to let him off the hook.”

“Are you sure he isn’t a closet Muslim?” Alison asked.

“I sure as hell didn’t think so before,” I replied.

Where we parked that morning I could see the boat launch ramps. We got a view of a fisherman launching a fancy Bassboat. Yes Bassboat was the brand name of the boat. I stared at it while my mind ran a mile a minute.

“You know there is no place in this country for that in kind of Muslim. The peaceful, tolerant Muslims sure, but that radical hard-line Muslim, no.”

Yes I knew how it sounded, and I just didn’t care. Let them play the victim card, hell everyone else did. If the Feral Cat convinced Eve’s sister to beat her, then he still should at least be deported. Doing some serious time first would be good as well.

The cops and Medical Examiner called it torture on day one. I expected them to call it a religious act at any moment. I was pretty certain that liberals were going to jump on board to champion his cause. If Louise’s talk with Abrams got out, it would only help their cause. That is if Abrams told the story, I feared he would.

I stayed home for a couple of hours worrying about Louise and Abrams. She might have already called to warn him. I sure hoped not, but there was nothing I could do if she had. My plan at that moment was to go through with testing our homemade wire.

Louise called at 1PM. I hadn’t heard a word from Ray. I needed to talk to him while I waited for Louise, but I didn’t plan to call him.

“We should take my car to the Car Wash Club,” she suggested. “They know it there and won’t panic if it sits in the parking lot a while.”

“I can’t imagine anyone is paying any attention to the parking lot,” I suggested.