Chapter 7

The next day I was at work and remembered to look into Alisa’s sister’s case files. It wasn’t good. There were three incidents of teachers reporting that Talisha came to school with noticeable bruising. When her mother was investigated she told them that her daughter was visiting friends so there was no way for them to verify the reports. Her grades had been slipping and there had been an increase in absenteeism. The caseworker was concerned but there was only so many hours in a day and there was a huge backlog of cases to be researched.

The batman music started playing in my mind. Not a good sign if I was going to keep a low profile in this. I was not the “batman”, I was just the good guy who could get in a ton of poop if he got caught looking into things he shouldn’t. I made a few calls to friends and connections and my personal/anonymous email was filled with some enlightening information. I collated the information and it showed that Alisa’s mother was assisting her boyfriend keep his drug business going. This made me wonder if Talisha was being drawn into it as well.

I talked to my friends again and hinted to crack the case they might put a watch on the little girl. I filled them in on her case with child protection which they wouldn’t have access to. I got a thanks for the insight and an assurance that they would look into it. I was torn about informing Alisha about it but I knew she was level headed enough, I hoped.

That night I asked Alisa over to talk. I filled her in on what I thought was going on, and what I had done. There was shouting, yelling and then calm. She hated that her sister was being used as a mule, she was pissed that the caseworker wasn’t doing more, and she was slightly pissed that I had put her sister into the center of a police investigation. We talked things over after she had her temper under control.

She admitted that if her sis was to have even a tiny chance of getting out alive this was her best. It was going to be painful to just sit back and wait but that was the best thing we could do. It took over a month before Alisa and Elian were called to come and see her sister. She had been arrested carrying enough drugs to count as a felony. When they caught her she was just leaving the apartment so they talked to her and she indicated that it was her mothers. The cops already had a warrant ready and took the operation down.

With no other close relatives Alisa and her legal guardian were asked to come get her. Talisha and her caseworker were there and after many papers were signed the two sisters were reunited. I hear it was a tearful one at that. Talisha was so glad to finally be able to join her sister after the months of separation. There was a party of sorts when Talisha came home. I was conspicuously not at the party that evening. I knew there would be a watch on the house for at least a week due to the charges and the fact that while Talisha wasn’t the main witness for the prosecution she was connected to the case.

That meant I couldn’t be seen as having any involvement in the case at all. I was still connected in an odd way that my daughter was friends with the other girls in the house so I had to play the disinterested father figure. It also meant that the midnight visitations would have to be held off till things quieted down a lot more.

It was three days later when I was asked to come over by Elian. I went over and she met me at the door. She welcomed me in but with a dire look on her face. We went into her bedroom so we could have some privacy from little ears.

“Dave we are really going to need your help on this one. Talisha is in a bad way and I figured you were the one to call in.” This made me curious and worried. “Ok, so what’s the problem?” Elian sat and tried to figure out how to tell me. “Well the first day was great. Alisa and Talisha were so involved with each other. Anny was quickly adopted by Talisha and vice versa. The next day Alisa came to me and informed me that Talisha had confided something to her that I needed to know.”

Elian sat there wringing her hands. “It seems that after Alisha was thrown out her mother had been slowly given drugs by the boyfriend till she was addicted. Then after that she would do whatever the boyfriend wanted for her high.” Elian grew quiet. I had a feeling I knew where this was going. “Let me see if I know the rest. Soon they were using the little girl as both a mule and a prostitute.” Elian nodded her head. “I knew that with what you faced with Ellen maybe you could help us. I don’t know what to do.”

“Ok, I’m not sure what the problem is. Is she having problems with drug addiction? Is she having nightmares? I don’t know what you need from me.” Elian took a deep breath. “The problem is she won’t keep her hands off of Mike. It seems that the girl was used as a sex doll and liked it.” It was one of the hardest things I had ever done not to laugh at the situation. A closet pedophile having to turn down a wanton little girl so his wife wouldn’t string him up by the balls.

“You can’t understand how hard it is on us. Every time I turn around the girl is cuddling up to him. At first I thought it was cute till I saw her slipping her hands down his pants. She keeps walking in on him when he goes to the bathroom or takes a shower.” I tried to look concerned. “Mike is doing well; especially with his past tendencies.” I don’t think for that to come out because she covered her mouth as soon as it came out.

“Elian I can’t exactly say anything bad about what you just told me. That would be a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.” She giggled a little over that. “When Anny was a baby I discovered he had some taste for little girls. I noticed when she was around eight or so he really took an interest in taking pictures of her all the time but when I looked for them on the computer I found very few.”

She looked at the ceiling and let out a big breath. “I later looked on his laptop and found a file full of pictures of her showing her panties, close ups of her cooch, and such. I told him that I found them and his hobby ceased. But in truth I know he would still watch her with a longing, and when she had her friends over he was always happy to keep an eye on them.”

Well it looked like she hadn’t discovered that he had taken more than a casual interest in her friends or the fact that they had used that taste to their advantage. “Well I am sure he is in just as much conflict as you are over this. The thing is I can’t get near this at all.” Elian was shocked and showed it. “Elian I am already too close to this. I work for social services and they keep a close eye on us. I already found out that they were watching me after you adopted Alisa. Then when Ellen came home I was on the watch list again for a while.”

She looked at me and I could tell she needed me to offer her some kind of help. I took a deep breath and thought hard. “Have you told Alisa about this?” she shook her head. “I was hoping I could deal with this as their adoptive mother. I have never had to deal with a child prostitute before though, I’m lost.” “Is Alisa here? I think we need to bring her in on this.”

Elian went to find the girl and send her to me. When she came in she looked happy but worried. She locked the door and ran over to me. I caught her in my arms and she showered kiss on me. “Oh Dave it’s so great to have Talisha home with me. I had been so worried about her and it looks like you were right about everything.”

“Yeah, I need to talk to you about that. Elian is worried about your sister.” “What’s wrong?” I took a long breath. “Well she told me what you told her about your sister and what happened to her.” “Oh Dave I knew you would be here. I don’t know what exactly happened but I know something must have happened. She won’t tell me much so I am worried about it.”

“Well you don’t have to worry the way you may have been. We have a different problem.” She got scared. “What’s wrong? Did Elian tell you something I don’t know?” I took her hands in mine and got serious. “Have you told her about me, or the relationship we all share?” She shook her head. “Not yet. I thought we should wait till you met her. I was thinking that you could help her get over whatever was done to her.”

“I am glad you kept me out of it. Until things get much quieter she can’t know anything, Ok?” She nodded. “The problem is that it seems Talisha may not be having the problems you think. Now she does have some things that need to be taken care of and I will need your help to do it.” I could feel her hands growing cold.

“Talisha is hiding something from you, something that could rip this family apart if we don’t do this right. It seems Talisha has been trying to get Mike to play with her.” Alisa just closed her eyes. “Elian has caught her sneaking cock grabs, going into the bathroom when he is in there, and stuff like that.” Alisa looked at me and knew it wasn’t over.

“Elian even told me Mike has talked to her about it, and even come clean about how he hasn’t done anything to encourage her. Also she knows about Mike being a bit of a perv with young girl though she doesn’t know about Theresa or the others. She doesn’t know about his actual relationships but she knows it’s hard for him to keep clean.”

“I can’t believe it. She is chasing Mike?” she thought about it for a while. “Yeah, that makes sense. He has been really good since I moved in. I haven’t caught him doing anything more than looking when we were showing. So I really can’t be mad at him.” Her face grew dark. “I really could kill the bitch for turning my sister into this.” She punched the pillows to release her anger. “Now my little sister is chasing Mike. The poor guy must be going crazy if she is turning the fire up on him.”

“She needs you to help her get this under control. I can’t get anywhere near this for a long time. There’s already too many connection to me and you girls. If social services looks too close it could all come crumbling down.” She got a scared look. “I am in the clear for now, but this is too close for me to get involved in. I pushed it to the limit to get her here with you and I love you guys too much to ruin this.” She held my hands and cried. “I love my sister, but all the girls are like my sisters too. How do I help her without hurting them and you?”

I held the young girl who would have to take a woman’s load on her tiny shoulders. “You will have to keep a damn close eye on her. Look for the times she goes after Mike. Catch her when she tries to seduce him. After a few times hit her hard with what you have seen. Talk to her about why she does it, and try to find out what caused her to want this. See if there is anything you can do to get her to stop her actions.” She nodded to everything I said.

“Now remember you aren’t alone in this. You have the support of all of us. I will work with Elian to deal with it in a more oblique way. What you will need to do is to lean on your mom to get this under control.” Alisa shook her head. “I can’t do that. I can’t talk to her about this like that.” I had to break the secret to her. “Alisa, Elian already knows just about everything anyway.” The girl gave me the dog whistle look. “You and Anny haven’t been as discreet as you thought when you were sneaking to my place at night.”

Alisa’s eyes bulged out of her head. “Oh shit, what ... what happened?” “She and I had a very long talk. I told her much of what happened but I kept the whole prostitute thing out of it. I also haven’t told her the finer points. She just knows that you girls are all connected and that I have had sex with some of you so don’t go into any details about us.” She just nodded.

“But this means you have someone you can trust in Elian.” She let out a deep breath. “What you guys will have to do is work on the girl, find out the who, what, and why of what she does. Then we can work on a way to curb this behavior.” She nodded. I think she was still mostly in shock over the truth of our relationship being found out and by whom.

“Alisa, are you paying attention?” “Yeah, I’m just trying to wrap my head around all this. Ok, I get it. I need to keep the relationship quiet from my sister. I need to catch my sister perving, and confront her on it. And then I need to work with Elian on the whole thing.” I was proud of the way her shoulders firmed up as she said this.

“Ok, head out and keep your sister busy and send Elian back in here.” Alisa gave me one more kiss and headed out. “Oh and by the way pass the word to keep clear of me until further notice ok?” she nodded and left.

Elian came back in with a curious look on her face. “I don’t know what you said to Alisa but when she came to get me she gave me a huge hug and told me she loved me for the first time.” I smiled. “I let her know that you knew about me and the girls. I also told her that you and her would be working together to help her sister.” She sat down next to me and looked at her hands.

“So what you told her was that you trusted me enough to share your secret, and that she could trust me with her sister.” She looked at me with tears in her eyes. “How do you keep doing this? I don’t think I know half of what is really going on and I can’t handle what I do know.” I looked her straight in the eyes. “I do it with love. I don’t judge, I just help any way I can.”

She scooted up next to me and I wrapped her in my arms. She leaned into me and let it all out. The poor woman was stressed out and needed to release it all. I held the her and let her get it all out. She looked at me and pulled me into a deep but gentle kiss. This went on for a long time. I didn’t stop her but I also didn’t take advantage of it.

She backed off and then blushed furiously. “I’m sorry Dave I didn’t mean to do that.” I cupped her cheek in my hand. “Well I’m not sorry at all. You needed to get your stress out, and you also needed to know you weren’t alone in all this. I understand Elian and its ok.” She leaned in for another deep kiss and then backed off. “Now I understand why the girls all love you so much.”

She scooted back a bit further. “Ok that should be enough to keep you and my marriage safe.” She looked at me and we went over what she needed to do to help her new daughter and her family safe. Then I gave her a big hug and went home. For a week and a half I didn’t hear from Elian or anyone from next door. Then one afternoon Elian came over for coffee. We sat down and talked about how things worked out. Mike was safe now, and they were able to get the young girl under control. The downside was that Elian had to go to a porn shop and buy out the local store out of double A batteries to do it. We talked about how her marriage was going and how the girls were blending together to form a family.

She also brought me up to date on what was going on with the courts, her mother, and the whole case. Talisha had been seen by court therapists and had related what had happened including the sexual abuse. It was decided that since Alisa had already been adopted by Elian and Mike that they would be allowed to adopt Talisha. In a month Talisha would officially part of their family.

We talked about other minor things and then she headed home after a huge hug and kiss. The silence after she left was great. For the first time in weeks there was no stress, and I also had had a chance to get to be with my own daughters as well. I knew it wouldn’t last long though it never did. Having so many girls looking at you for love it was never quiet for long.

I really hate it when I am right. One month after thing quieted down from Talisha’s entrance into our lives the last member of our little group had her own disaster. I was sitting at home on a Saturday morning enjoying the sounds of the girls talking about the day they had planned when the doorbell rang. When I opened the door there was Emma.

The young girl was standing on my door step holding a bag in her arms and her face was covered in bruises and scratches. I brought her in and called for the girls to get a first aid kit. Em was in shock and just moved as I directed her. Her eyes were vacant and she moved with jerkiness I had seen only in severe abuse cases. As I sat her down Theresa came in with the kit and I started to clean up what I could. I told Ellen to call the police, and what to tell them.

In a few minutes an officer and a paramedic came in the door. The paramedic looked the young girl over while we talked to the officer. He was polite and thorough in his questioning. The problems started when the paramedic tried to walk the girl out of the house. Emma went ballistic when he began leading her towards the door.

She wasn’t actually saying anything she just started thrashing and moaning in fear. Ellen went to her and she calmed down. She guided the girl back to the couch and wrapped her arms around the shaking girl. Em quieted down immediately and the officer just shook his head. “I’ve seen this before. She came here to be safe and she won’t leave without sedation.” He turned to me. “I know. I work for social services. Man I hate to see this shit, but to see one of my daughters friends like this.”

The officer called in for guidance in this situation. The paramedic sat in front of the girl talking soothingly to Em who sat there shaking her head. The officer came back in and said there was a therapist/child advocate coming in a few minutes, and I was glad to hear that. That meant they would try to get things settled here rather than force a transport.

I was mildly surprised to see the same woman who had handled Ellen’s abuse case come walking in. “Nice to see you again, but I really hate the circumstances.” She said as she came in the door and shook my hand. She looked in the front room and saw Ellen holding Em. “It looks like that girl of yours has things under control. Do you know what’s going on?”

I took a deep breath and decided to fill in her in with what I knew. I also told her about the conversation that Em and I had had before. “I have seen this kind of thing before.” (A saying most social work people know all too well.”) She just looked at the floor. “The mother came down on the girl for some minor infraction. The girl speaks up and the nut job of a mother beats her till she “repents” or till she is tired.”

The paramedic came over and reported to the advocate that some of the facial bruising looked days or even weeks old. There was also evidence of her wrists and ankles being bound. He needed to take photo evidence for later. I told him that he needed to get a female to do it as I knew she would never let a man see if there was anything else.

He nodded and a call was made. Soon the front of my house looked like a murder had taken place. Elian came right over as she pulled up from work. I told her what was going on and she went in to see Em. The paramedic came in and he knew Elian and asked if she would assist with the photos. The advocate, Ellen, and Elian took a camera into the bedroom. We men stood around shaking our heads and talked about how much we hated child abuse.

Soon the women came out while Em and Ellen stayed in the bedroom. Both the advocate and Elian came out with dire looks on their faces. Elian came to me and wrapped her arms around me and started crying. I awkwardly held her while looking to the Advocate. “I have seen some twisted shit in my life but this takes the cake.” She asked for an evidence bag and put the photos in them. She turned to me and asked if the girl would be ok to be left here. I told her that it was alright but wouldn’t I need someone official to take care of this?