Chapter 43: Aftermath

Naked scared and upset, and with tears streaming down her face Vikki was running flat out in the direction of Justin's house. She was hoping against hope that the thought of her bringing help would make them leave Justin alone, prevent them from doing him some real harm.

She was only a matter of a hundred yards down the pathway when she ran full tilt into the arms of two middle aged men and a woman all of whom seemed to be about to have the sort of evening she had been planning with Justin.

"They came from nowhere, they're gonna kill him, he... he tackled... he grabbed t-t-two of th-them. I got away after they did..." she indicated herself. "after they did this to me..." Vikki grabbed and shook one of the men. "Help... You've got to help. Killing him... They..." She couldn't finish as she began to crumple to the ground.

"Sshhh, sshhh..." One of the men held her up and pulled her to him in a fatherly fashion while he indicated for his friend to call the police. "We'll help." He indicated back behind her. "Where... ?"

Vikki pulled away from the man and the woman who had joined him in holding her and attempting to calm her and turned to face back the way she had come. She stammered out that he was about a hundred yards away and round the next bend.

"Well I reckon they'll be gone by now," said the man who rung for the police and an ambulance. He turned to Vikki. "Is there somewhere close by you can go, Andrea here will keep you company while her husband Jim and I go and check out your brave young friend and wait for the police and ambulance." When she nodded her head he continued. "Okay you go there, find some clothes and maybe bring someone back with you." He looked Vikki in the eye ignoring her nudity and gently smiled. "And don't worry, I'm sure he'll be all right."

Vikki was a little calmer now though she was still a bit of a basket case as she thought about how people she knew had been responsible. And then a thought occurred to her and she was anxious to get back to Justin's place. She turned to the woman Andrea. "Justin, that's his name, Justin's parents place is down in Cotton Way," she grabbed her hand and started running pulling the woman after her. "They were still up and well... you know..." she tried to laugh but she choked up and began to cry anew.

"Don't matter," said the woman between deep breaths as they ran at full stretch until they reached the exit onto Cotton Way, "we wuz looking for a quiet, intimate place when you... er... bumped in to us."

Vikki ran full tilt down the hill and into Justin's place followed a pace or two behind by the woman Andrea.

"THE FUCKING BASTARDS ARE TRYING TO KILL HIM!" screamed Vikki as she burst into the house expecting to see the fucking still happening but seeing instead seven people dressed and enjoying coffee.

She tried to scream out what had happened not caring about standing there naked, but it came out in a jumbled, garbled mess.

The woman put her arm around Vikki's shoulder and tried to calm her as Justin's father stepped forward.

"I'm Louis Robertson," he said sounding very concerned but remaining calm even as Justin's mother Mary started her own form of panic, "I'm the father of the young man she's talking about." He then quickly introduced everybody to the woman who introduced herself as Andrea Crossley before he turned to Stuart McLelland as his wife became more hysterical and indicated in her direction. He watched Stuart and his wife Jill comfort her, saw that she was calming down and turned back to the woman. "Maybe you could... ?"

"Of course. But first--" she turned to Vikki "--maybe you should put some clothes on and freshen up a little while I tell them what happened."

"I'll help," said Madeleine as she led Vikki out the door and towards the stairs.

"First I should explain that my husband Jim and a close friend of ours, Henry Williamson, have already called for the police and the ambulance and should be at the scene by now, though I suspect that, knowing the young lady was on her way to get help, they would have been long gone by now." She looked to each of them in turn. "And she was naked when she quite literally ran into us." She turned to each of Justin's parents in turn. "Your son apparently did enough to prevent those thugs from doing more than taking her clothes off her, he was the reason she was able to escape."

"Sounds just like our son. Anyway, I reckon it's time we went to the park don't you?" said Louis Robertson as he turned and saw Vikki standing in the doorway. He held out his arms and she ran into them and tried to hug the life out of him, then he turned to the woman. "Lead the way."

Andrea Crossley led them out of the house towards the park with Justin's parents being brave as they tried to keep a very distraught Vikki Thompson calm.

"I know them," said Vikki finally as they reached roughly the halfway point to where they had been attacked.

"Thank heaven for small mercies," said Louis Robertson vehemently. "And do I presume that there is a reason for what the bastards did?"

"Oh yes." She turned to Justin's father as they neared the scene of the crime, "you remember the attack on Sunday night?"

"How could I forget," said Louis, and then it clicked. "You mean the others that tried to help Mason?" Vikki nodded. "FUCK!" He took Vikki's hand. "In that case then the police should be able to get a hold of them shouldn't they?"

For the first time since the attack Vikki managed a smile. "Oh I think so, I can even give them names. And I'm pretty sure that they have police records so you're right, I doubt the police will have too much trouble finding them."

"Sounds to me like they didn't exactly use their brains," said Andrea Crossley as looked back over her shoulder.

"Un-fucking-likely," said Vikki matter-of-factly. "Their brains are in their dicks!"

By this stage they had arrived at the scene, and were just in time to see an unconscious Justin being loaded into the ambulance. The smile quickly disappeared from Vikki's face to be replaced by tears again as she ran to the ambulance only to be stopped by a policewoman.

"I'm sorry miss you can't..."

"This is the young girl I was telling you about constable."

Vikki recognised the voice of one of the men who had come to her aid. She turned and saw him standing off to one side. Then she turned back to the policewoman. "How is he... ? Is it bad... ? Is he... ?"

One of the ambulance officers came out of the back of the ambulance after they had settled him in and started him on some kind of a drip. "He's unconscious and has been since the attack. He looks like he'll remain that way for a while, but he is stable which is something. He has a broken right arm, an ankle that is sprained but not broken and some damaged ribs. We don't know whether the ribs are bruised, cracked or broken. Of course they'll have to do some tests not only for the ribs but also for the head trauma. Are you... ?"

"Justin's girlfriend," said Vikki proudly. She indicated Justin's parents as they moved alongside her. "And these are his parents Louis and Mary Robertson."

The ambulance officer looked at Justin's parents. "Would one of you like to go in the ambulance, the hospital will need some details?"

Vikki began to say that she would but the policewoman cut her off. "I'm sorry miss but you'll have to stay we'd like you to tell us what happened."

"I'll go," said Justin's mother.

Justin's father turned to his wife. "I'll stay with Vikki and bring her with me to the hospital." After he saw his wife step into the back of the ambulance he turned to the two men and the woman who were now standing together. "How can I thank you for all you've done?"

"You don't have to," said the woman. She moved to Vikki. "Just look after this sweet young thing, her and her boyfriend don't deserve this." She turned to a plain clothes officer who had turned up. "Is it all right if we go?"

When the man nodded his head, and after they had given their best wishes to Vikki and Justin's father and after they had said their goodbyes the plainclothes man turned to Vikki. "It's obviously going to be a while until we can talk to the young man, so perhaps you can tell us a little about what exactly happened here."

At first she didn't say anything, and then it came out in a jumbled rush. And then finally she started to collapse again until she was caught and held up by the policewoman and Justin's father.

They led her to the open back door of a nearby police car and sat her down on the seat and facing out the door. Then while they allowed her to sit for five minutes with the policewoman there for support the plain clothed officer turned to Justin's father.

"Maybe you could shed a little light on what happened?"

"Not really, except that Vikki, she's our sons girlfriend, came running into our place naked and screaming at the top of her voice that they were trying to kill him, referring to my son."

Just then the policewoman called over. "She's ready sir."

As the detective went to move to the car, Louis took his arm. Do you mind if I sit in the car with her and comfort her while you ask your questions?"

He shook his head and they went to the car. Louis to get in on the other side and cuddled her to his big barrel chest while the officer knelt in front of Vikki.

He smiled at her. "Now, suppose you tell me, in your own words and in your own time what you know about the events here tonight."

Vikki waited for what seemed like forever but was only about twenty seconds as she looked around, first at the car she was sitting in and then at the other car near where a policeman and policewoman were standing. Then she looked at the officer in front of her before turning to Justin's father and smiling as she rested her head on his shoulder as she felt his arm go around her.

After another several seconds she finally looked in the direction of the park bench they had been sitting on. "We were sitting on that bench." She hesitantly pointed. "I guess we were going to make out."

The officer looked past her to Louis Robertson then back to her. "You mean you didn't have nowhere to... ?"

"Oh yes she did officer," said Justin's father interrupting, "we're not Philistines you know. It's just that we had a little party of our own going on and I think they wanted a little privacy." He leaned forward and around and kissed Vikki on the cheek. "I just wish that we'd..."

The officer didn't let him finish. "If wishes were dollars sir then we'd all be rich.

"Now," he turned back to Vikki, "you were on that park bench," he said prompting her. "What happened next?"

"Well I was sitting on his lap... on Justin's lap... and we were sort of cuddling." For the first time in what seemed like forever Vikki was embarrassed. "I guess we... I guess we couldn't, you know, sort of do anything because, you know, it seemed like we'd been doing it all afternoon and then we were on stage at the 'Sins' concert tonight." The grin she'd tried was forced and looked more like a grimace.

The officer couldn't help but smile at the thought of what they must have been doing at that concert, but then he wiped away his smile, fought back the obvious questions and asked, "What happened then?"

"Then suddenly Justin got hit, sounded like it was the back of his head." She looked questioningly at the officer who nodded that it was. "Next thing I knew I was on the ground and in the arms of one guy while another one stripped my clothes off. They were friends of a guy who used to be my boyfriend, a guy by the name of Rick Mason."

The officer's eyes lit up. "I know Rick Mason, or at least I did because I haven't seen him around for a while. And I also know something about the guys he used to hang with. Mason was careful but his friends weren't anywhere near as clever and have been sent down a couple of times for small crimes." He stopped for a second and looked at her. "I don't suppose you got a good look at the other guy?"

"Ian Taylor. I guess you could call him Mason's best friend."

Justin's father looked past Vikki and into the eyes of the officer. There's a good reason why you haven't seen Mason around."

A stern expression suddenly appeared on his face. "You didn't take the law... ?"

Louis didn't give him a chance to finish. "No he didn't come to any harm he just decided to travel to Queensland while sharing quarters with some cows on a cattle truck. I guess as a mafia godfather would say 'we made him an offer he couldn't refuse', and we haven't seen him since."

"So you're saying that Ian Taylor, who by the way is one of the three I know of, has a reason to be pissed at Justin and Vikki here?"

Now it was Vikki's turn. "I guess you could say that Mason got the pussy and they shared in the spoils, it was all they ever cared about. I guess it made them do some stupid things sometimes."

"So you're saying that they are upset because there's no Mason to gift-wrap girls for them?"

"Absolutely, but that's just the way they are. I doubt it would even occur to the silly bastards that I'd be able to finger them and so would..." She stopped suddenly as she realised the enormity of what she was about to say, took a deep breath and folded her arms across her stomach before continuing. "I was at Mason's place last Thursday night and while he was fucking some blond bitch..." She suddenly held a finger to her lips. "Ooh, I hope I'm not..."

The officer smiled. "No you're not. I said in your own words and I meant it."

Somewhat relieved Vikki continued. "Well there were two guys there, one was Ian Taylor and the other was Robbie Woodford. Is he one of the ones... ?"