Chapter 49: Payback is a Bitch

Late-August-Early Sept., 1986

William Monte POV:

Thanks to Charlie’s friend, Capt Tom Gregory of the St. Charles Police Department, we were able to cop a ride to interrogate our prisoners. One thing that sucks about teleporting is that you end up places where you are then in need of a car.

Not that I can teleport mind you, and not that I’m complaining that my sweetheart, Maggie, can teleport and I can’t, but I’m just saying. I guess I’m going to have to talk to my friend Charlie and see what he can do to maybe fix that!

It’s also moderately frustrating that I can hear my lady, Maggie, giggling in my head! I know Sarah warned me before she gave her that ability, to always be in my head, so again, I shouldn’t complain.

A giggling Maggie said, “I could just ask Mary to give you the ability to teleport, you know!”

“I know, it’s just that I feel like I’d be circumventing the chain of command. Charlie, and I guess little CJ, gave me what I have now and like I said, I’m not complaining, it’s just that, from a manly point of view, it sucks when my girlfriend has to take me by the hand to go someplace!”

I must’ve been using what they call ‘broadcast mode’ as now Jeremy was chuckling in my head, “Monte, I wasn’t aware that you couldn’t teleport. I’m sure Charlie wouldn’t have a problem if I gave you that ability. I can’t have you feeling like a second-class citizen!”

Great! Now I’m blushing like a schoolboy.

I smirked at Jeremy, “It’s a good damn thing nobody can hear what we’re thinking about, for this would be truly embarrassing. As soon as we get done interrogating these four assholes maybe you and I can sneak off somewhere and you can bestow upon me that ability. Oh yeah, and would it be asking too much if we included Bruce in on this deal?”

Now Jeremy was chuckling, “No problem buddy. Just don’t tell Charlie, not because he would mind, but only because he would be embarrassed that he didn’t give you that gift yet.”

With all our laughing and chuckling and not really say anything out loud our driver, Tom Gregory, asked, “I take it all of you guys can communicate telepathically?”

Jeremy said, “Hasn’t Charlie given that ability to you?”

Tom chuckled, “I had it for a while and then one-day last summer, when they were on their trip out West, I suddenly lost it. I used to be able to communicate with the whole family. I don’t know if you know it or not, but his wife, Mary, used to work for me as my assistant.”

Jeremy chuckled, “You must still be under his secrecy agreement, otherwise I would have one hell of a stomachache right now.”

“Charlie knows I would never divulge his secret to anyone. I really miss having Mary working with me, she’s a very special lady.”

Now all three of us were grinning and nodding, Maggie said, “That she is, Tom. We all love her and Sarah and all the rest of the girls very much.”

Just then, we pulled up to the police station, got out and headed in.

“Would you guys mind if I watched your interrogation from the other side of the one-way mirror?” Tom asked somewhat unsurely.

Jeremy said, “No problem Tom, just make sure nothing gets recorded.”

Tom’s eyebrows furled, “You’re not going to need that for their trial?”

“There’s most likely not going to be a trial, Tom. This is all part of a major high-powered crime ring that we’re trying to bring down. Charlie can explain later, but for now, you just have to trust us.”

“I guess I understand. So, who do you want first?”

Jeremy never hesitated, “Bring all four of them in at once, if you would please.”

Tom chuckled, “This must be some new kind of interrogation technique. Normally we’d interview them one at a time, so they can’t collaborate on their stories.”

Maggie giggled, “You’ll have to watch and see, Tom. We do have some special techniques all right, trust me, there’s no chance that they’re going to lie to us!”

“I can’t wait to see this then, go ahead, make yourselves comfortable and I’ll bring all four of them in.”

I have to say, this was one of the most motley crews I’d ever seen. Imagine the Three Stooges along with Shemp, with Larry being very effeminate ... but with the same hairdo.

The three of us were struggling mightily to keep from laughing out loud at the four ‘stooges’ sitting in front of us. We were also holding a very intense mental conversation about just how we were going to go about questioning these pud-knockers.

I know I’m getting off-topic, but you have to know just how incredible it is when three people, who are working together, are also in each other’s heads and discussing things. Conversations that could easily take half an hour or more are accomplished in mere seconds. Best of all, even when there are differences of opinion, it eliminates angst when you also instantly understand where each of them are coming from! In many ways telepathy like this is probably one of the most incredibly useful if not intimate abilities anyone could ever have.

Think about that for a second.

How many times have you had a major argument with someone you cared a lot about, only to discover, after much shouting and posturing, that you were both trying to make the same point!?

That’s usually caused by the fact that your brain and your mouth aren’t always hardwired together. Not to mention that the other party’s ears and their brains completely misinterpret one or two words that you say! Now imagine having a third or even fourth party involved in that discussion ... With telepathy, especially with three people that have really gotten to know each other, that never happens. That’s because they’re not hearing your words with their ears, but they’re completely in tune with your thoughts. That’s how it is right now between Jeremy, Maggie and myself. It’s still amazing to me the information we can exchange with each other and in the end, nobody’s quite sure exactly whose idea something may have been to start with!

Since many of the things we were mentally ‘discussing’ were sometimes very funny I should also mention, that it is nearly impossible not to laugh or giggle out loud! Hence, our four ‘stooges’ were looking at the three of us intently, trying to figure out what was so funny since they couldn’t hear us saying a single word! With my enhanced hearing I even heard Tom, behind the glass, also laughing.

While we all agreed it would be faster to just have Jeremy ‘push’ them into telling the truth. That being said, we knew we had a little time and decided to have some fun.

We decided to play ‘good cop – bad cop’ with me being the bad cop. We were laughing again when Maggie flashed, “Don’t get upset if I sometimes switch sides. I’ve got a little something I want to try if the situation presents itself.”

Jeremy replied, “I wouldn’t think of it! If these four assholes don’t cooperate, they may find that they have three bad cops and the only good cop is behind that glass.” He was pointing at the one-way glass that Tom was standing behind.

About that time the ‘stooge’ that looked the most like Moe yelled, “Just what the hell’s so funny, God dammit!?”

I decided to start, “The four of you! Has anyone ever told you that y’all look like the Three Stooges and Shemp? The resemblance is uncanny.”

The ‘Larry’ stooge squeaked, in a very high-pitched voice, “I’m a lady, you assholes! None of the stooges has ever been female, just for your information.” She hesitated for a few seconds then snickered, “I do have to admit though, that Mario does look a lot like Moe. And, I kind of see where Enrico here could be mistaken for Curly. But I don’t see any way that Stefano resembles Shemp. Stefano isn’t nearly good-looking enough!” She said with a giggle.

Moe, or Mario threw his hands up, “God dammit Lolita, will you shut the fuck up? You just told them our names!”

Of course with that, Maggie started giggling uncontrollably, “Lolita? Really!? I’ll bet when you were born the doctor slapped your mother!”

“What the FUCK do you mean by that, BITCH!”

The next thing that happened scared even me. Suddenly my sweet Maggie stood up and appeared to be over 7½ feet tall, and was the spitting image of the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz! Complete with the gnarliest long, crooked fingers and ghastly long, blackened fingernails I’ve ever seen.

The three male stooges promptly passed out cold.

Lolita’s eyes grew wide as saucers and she began trembling, “HOLY SHIT, HOLY FUCK, WHAT THE HELL ... Where did SHE come from!?”

Maggie screeched, “From your worst nightmares, my pretty.”

“But, but, but, that’s not possible ... Go away! Please, go away, I beg you!”

Lolita was so obviously terrified that I immediately knew Maggie must’ve reached into her head and discovered that the witch in the Wizard of Oz had terrified her as a young child.

Maggie made some noises that I didn’t think the human voice was capable of making, then pointed her gnarly finger right at Lolita, “OKAY, my pretty ... I’ll go as soon as you answer all of my friends’ questions. And you better convince your Three Stooges to cooperate or I’ll turn all four of you into tiny, winged monkeys! AHHH HAHAHAHA.”

“Okay, okay ... I’ll tell you anything you want to know just please, have mercy on me. If Mario, Stefano and Enrico ever wake up I’ll tell you if they are lying or not, I promise!”

Lolita began lightly slapping the three of them on their cheeks trying to wake them up. After a couple false starts, the three of them managed to maintain consciousness while looking wide-eyed at Maggie.

I decided to start the interrogation, “Which one of you planted the bomb that killed that lady, Sally?”

I knew Jeremy and Maggie had already crawled into their heads. Maggie, still in disguise, shrieked, “Lolita, you little skank, you’re the one that made and planted the bomb?”

While the Three Stooges were nodding their heads, Lolita cried out, “But I didn’t kill her! Mario hit her over the head with a pipe and killed her when she wouldn’t let us into her house. The bomb was just to make her death look like an accident, I swear!”

Mario gasped, “You bitch! You didn’t have to tell them that. When will you learn to keep your damn mouth shut?”

I couldn’t help myself and reached across the table, grabbing Mario by the throat, and hoisting him up as far as I could. It wasn’t very far since his hands were handcuffed to a steel bar across the 6-foot steel table they were sitting behind. Next thing I knew, a bolt of lightning or something shot from the end of Maggie’s finger, burning a hole clean through Mario’s crotch. His bloodcurdling screams started out as a deep base and ended up as an ultra-soprano!

“That’s for Sally, you bastard. Now, who the fuck are you working for and where the hell can we find him?”

I set Mario back down, though he was very hesitant to actually sit down! He was still screaming like a banshee as his cohorts were frozen in fear.

I flashed Maggie, wondering if we shouldn’t possibly get him some medical attention. Maggie replied that the place where his ‘beans and frank’ use to be had been immediately cauterized, therefore he wouldn’t bleed to death.

I had a feeling my promise to Charlie, of making Sally’s killer suffer, had just been thoroughly fulfilled by my sweet Maggie. I could also hear Tom moaning in the background, no doubt feeling sympathetic pains.

The rest of our interrogation went without incident. Between Jeremy subconsciously pushing them to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help them Jonah and Maggie’s transformation we had all four of them chattering incessantly.

Some of the things we discovered were going to need to be dealt with sooner rather than later. I’ll get to that in a minute, but for now I’ll give you a rundown in order of what we discovered.

Our four stooges were actually Vincent Normistronzo’s kids. Vincent’s position in the family business was that of low-level to medium level enforcers. We got the impression that Vincent or Vinny wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. Hence, his main job was basically just to do E Normistronzo’s dirty work.

The family also had another brother, Guido, and two sisters Lola and Marcella. Our Lolita was actually named after her aunt Lola. Guido’s part of the business was the protection racket, delivering bribes and/or extending extortion demands to the crooked cops and politicians that were on the family payroll. His motto was, ‘Once we buy a politician, he stays bought’! We know he housed quite a garrison of high level enforcers, contract killers and snipers, most of whom were ex-military with bad conduct discharges.

He was a very bad dude.

Marcella or Marcy, as our stooges referred to her, had two sons before her husband, Arnold, disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Since then, her job has been running the high-end brothels while her two sons were responsible for recruiting street-level drug dealers and keeping them supplied with merchandise. Our stooges were fairly certain their uncle ‘E’, kept Marcy’s kids well supplied with dope and other illegal narcotics. Marcy also worked with Guido using her high-end call girls and a video camera to help extort politicians and high level law enforcement officials. Her motto was, ‘Why pay for something when we can get the dumb, cheating bastards to do it for free!?

This broad was another real piece of work.

We did discover a rather amusing fact. The ‘E’ in E Normistronzo stood for Elmer!

We were told, in no uncertain terms, that Elmer absolutely hated that name since from the time he was a young kid, many called him Elmer Fudd! He actually had his name legally changed when he was 21 to just ‘E’ because he hated it so much. Since Charlie, Bob and the gang were still waiting on ‘Elmers’ appearance, they were listening in and I had the feeling that they were all rolling on the floor with laughter.

Charlie even flashed, “Thanks big Bill, that little tidbit of information is going to come in very handy, shortly!”

That brings me to the stooges last auntie, Lola.

I rarely use this word, but, Lola is a sadistic, despicable cunt!

We discovered she is in charge of the family’s sex slave operation. She has two daughters, Precious and Cecelia who are so evil that all four of the ‘stooges’ are deathly afraid of them both. It’s the daughters’ job to run roughshod over Lola’s stable of 10 to 15-year-old kids! Both boys and girls, whose bodies are sold to very wealthy scumbags for their sick, carnal pleasures. Stefano assured us that Lola and her daughters ‘owned’ nearly 100 of these kids! They were spread all over the city, hidden in prison-like cells while waiting for the families’ next clients. Lolita guessed that nearly half of them had been ‘bought’ from various branches of the Chicagoland DCFS.

This was the situation that I was referring to that was going to have to be dealt with sooner rather than later. The reason I say that is that no sooner had Stefano and Lolita told us everything than Maggie must’ve flashed Diane, Sheila, Joni, and Mary all of the sordid details. It goes without saying, but they were all up in arms demanding that Jeremy and I immediately start trying to find them. I tried to explain that we were going to need to round up Lola, Precious and Cecelia first, then force them to tell us where all their hiding places were. While the rage was fully understandable, they weren’t recognizing the fact that it wasn’t something we were probably going to be able to do tonight. Thank God Elmer hadn’t shown up yet, because it took everything Charlie, Rex, Bob and I could do to try and slow their roll.

We had to promise them, unconditionally, that as soon as we got Elmer, and the rest of his scumbag family up to Ibera’s we would let nothing deter us from finding all those kids.

In the meantime, Jeremy, who’d bestowed ‘teleporting’ upon me, helped Maggie and me take our four ‘stooges’ up to Ibera’s.

Then we went after Vincent.

We figured by doing this we could expedite rescuing the kids.

One big question I had was ... just what were we going to do with them when we found them?

Charlie POV:

I had the funniest feeling that TJ, Rex, Jeremy and big Willie were now desperately going to need Bob and I to help them out. Even Bruce, who was currently in DC relaying our proceedings to the three ‘Chiefs’ was going to be needed.

Dad was hooking up with Janet at FBI Headquarters in case Janet had to summon more agents. Even Brock and Fred Callas were there to assist as necessary.

Bill had been pacing nervously for the last 15 minutes, waiting for E or should I say, Elmer, to arrive.

I decided to get in Jeremy’s head to keep track of our friends’ progress and couldn’t believe what Maggie did. I thought Sheila picked up her gifts very quickly but it appears that Maggie has her beat hands down. It was also very weird being in another catalyst’s head ... it was a bit different than simply looking through his eyes and listening through his ears. He invited me in and didn’t restrict my access to even his innermost thoughts.

That’s a type of intimacy almost never shared between heterosexual men. That’s also why I kept my snooping to an absolute minimum.

When we heard the whole deal about those kids being kept as sex slaves we both could feel all the ladies freaking out.

Not that I wasn’t! In fact, that only fueled the rage that I was still in over Sally’s death. TJ kept telling me not to act irrationally, but I was struggling mightily and immediately jumped up when Bill announced that Elmer, his goons and his accountant were heading toward his office.

Knowing that his goons were probably armed, TJ had Rex, Bob and I get ready to take care of that little matter. We all went invisible so as not to get Elmer’s goons trigger-happy right away.

I flashed Bill to try and look as ‘un-nervous’ as possible because he was nearly shaking. I assured him that I’d stay in his head to support him about what to say and do.

Elmer and company entered Bill’s office like they owned the place. Elmer looked intensely at Bill, “Choo gots alla my documents ready?”

Bill stammered nervously, “Y y yes! They just need your account numbers and passwords and you should be all set.”

He pointed at a stack of papers sitting neatly on the center of his desk.

“Hiram, choo help mees ter Davis maka sure alla da numbers go in da right places. We filla in dee passwords later.”

Hiram, a short, nervous-looking, nerdy guy sporting granny glasses opened his briefcase and pulled out a large black ledger. Just as he sat down opposite Bill, Elmer’s cellphone rang.

He had one of the newer ‘brick’ type Motorola phones that came with a belt holster. (For those of you under 30, we didn’t have cellphones in 1986 that would fit in your pocket!)

He pressed the button, “Hello, who dis?” (They also DIDN’T have caller ID, although this particular phone did have a ‘last number received’ callback feature, the predecessor of caller ID!)

We were all flashing, wondering who might be calling him. We could only hear his side of the conversation.

“Ohhh, what choo means dis is a trap!?” Elmer walked to the window and pulled down on a couple of the blinds and was anxiously looking around the deserted parking lot. “Are you sure about dat? There nobody here but my finance guy ... WHAT CHOO MEANS JOHNSON ARRESTA VINNY’S GUYS!? WHY YOU NO WARN ME AHEAD OF TIME?”

With that Elmer pointed at his goons and the one in front of Bob started drawing what looked like a revolver from under his jacket. Quick as a flash, Bob jerked his hand and pistol and smacked the guy next to him in the head so hard he was out instantly. Rex pulled the back of the last goon’s jacket down, trapping both arms, then Bob used the first guys pistol hand and cracked him in the head. Bob then relieved the goon of his pistol and knocked his guy out with it.

By now Elmer was gasping, “What are you idiots doing!?” He began frantically looking around then yelled at the bookkeeper, “Run Hiram! We canna let the Feds get that book!”

At that moment we all materialized.

Elmer then totally freaked out, “Johnson! You bastardo! This is entrapment, you NO get away with these.”

Just as old Hiram tried to run, Bob chuckled, while psychokinetically picking him up, “Not so fast, bub! We aren’t through with you yet!”

TJ grinned threateningly at Elmer, then beat me to the punchline, “Elmer Normistronzo! Fancy meeting YOU here!”

Then Bob got a shot in, “Ehhh, What’s up Doc?”