Chapter 3

A pain in my arm woke me; I was sitting at a table, feeling slightly disorientated, I went to look around my mind was fuzzy. Where the blazes was I? And where was Melody? I saw a group of people sitting on my right side, a large table to my left which was unoccupied and a group of people behind me.

The sound of a gavel hitting wood brought my attention back to the front; a woman in black was walking to a dais in front of me.

The sound of people sanding brought me to my feet as well, although slightly unsteady. The Judge, which I assumed she was, sat down, I heard everyone else sitting and so I went to do so as well, but a steadying hand on my arm kept me standing, I looked at the person, no woman! Who was holding me; she wore a deputy's outfit, which really fitted her well. A flash on her arm read 'Ropeville" I couldn't read the rest.

"This court is convened. The state verses Mr. ****. You are accused of Kidnapping and Murder of Melody Jones, also murder of Michael Williams and Rachael Smith, also of bodily harm to Victor Jones. Prisoner how do you plead?" the voice of the Judge boomed out.

I took a deep breath, but before I could speak a woman on the other side of me rose up.

"Your honour, I'm representing Mr. ****. My client has not yet had the chance to brief me on his case. I request a recess to confer with my client" she said.

The Judge looked coldly at this woman, "Miss Jenkins," she said, "I'm well aware of your client's case. And I don't believe you need any time to confer, we know the evidence, and this is merely a formality!"

Miss Jenkins started to protest, so I interrupted her by saying, "Not guilty on all charges!" then I added "Where is Melody? Is she okay?"

The Judge looked down at her notes, "Mr. ****, Why are you asking about this child? When you know that you've already killed her! Don't try to hoodwink us! We know exactly the type of person you are!"

The defending council jumped to her feet, "I object, I would formally request a mistrial on the grounds that you are prejudices to my client!"

The judge banged the gavel, "Objection overruled! Council will note that none of the judiciary here has any pity for your client! His profession involves the abduction and rape of children; he's committed uncountable number of crimes, so he's guilty no matter what he tries to say!"

I stood up. "Well since this court has admitted it's a farce I'd like to say, for the record. Yes I abduct, molest, imprison and enslave children, mostly girls, I will say that I now try to ensure that once I have broken the children and rebuilt them to accept and enjoy their new role in life which I try to make as happy a time as possible, my contracts has, as a standard clause, the right to reclaim any child being deliberately harmed, by this I mean mutilation or deliberate bodily harm. I have had to do this on two occasions, with both the persons involved passed onto others to deal with. Yes I do mistreat the children I have, but the slaves I've trained get the best attention they could wish for."

The judge banged the gavel, "Be that as it may, you are here to answer specific charges, that of murder!"

I shook my head, "I have never killed innocent people! I will not kill anyone whilst kidnapping, they are trying to protect the child. I will render unconscious, and my drugs, although not to the standard of Ropeville's, which I must commend your council on it chemicals, they are almost as good. Now I ask again where is Melody? And is she safe?"

The Judge brought the gavel down again.

"You are wasting our time here! The state has evidence that you have killed these people." She started

"Fabricated by Victor Jones in order to further his stake in his bothers' companies," I interrupted her. "He was the one who contracted for Melody's kidnapping, he said he wanted a compliant slave to attend to his needs, my agent thought I'd be the best one to do this."

The Judge looked down her nose at me, "You expect this court to believe you, what proof do you have that Victor Jones did this?"

I smiled at her, "I have photographic evidence and audio proof that he hired me, before I was taken from home I asked for some disks to be brought with me, I hope your people did pick those up?"

The judge looked through her notes, "I don't see any record of evidence here, so basically we have just your word against that of Mr. Jones, who is an upstanding member of the community in his state"

I knew I was beaten these people would decide I was guilty, what had they done to Melody? - that was a strange thought for me to have, I mean I was going to turn her into a willing slave, and now I'm concerned for her, from predator to protector in easy steps! What was I becoming?

I raised my hands in defeat, "Very well you honour, as you've already decided I'm guilty, so sentence me! But before you do please tell me - Is Melody okay, are your people looking after her, if not can I suggest that Elizabeth be assigned to take control of her until the truth is known."

The Judge just stared at me, as if she didn't' believe my words, "You stand there accused of murder, and demand that we take care of the very person you're supposed to have murdered! Does this sound rational to you?"

I couldn't answer, it wasn't rational - I knew that Melody was alive, if these people wanted to kill me then okay, I was responsible for Melody I had kidnapped her, if I couldn't maintain control over her then I wanted to know that she would be well looked after, from her story, and Elizabeth's reaction to the girl I knew that she would be the best person to continue with Melody's life. I shook my head.

A telephone rang on the Judge's desk, I didn't know that they had phones in courts, the judge turned off her microphone and answered the call, we couldn't hear what was being said, finally the call was finished, and the judge banged the gavel.

"The jury is dismissed; you have the thanks of the court." The people to the right of me got up and filed out of their seats

The Judge banged the gavel again. "Prisoner, you have been found guilty of kidnapping of Melody Jones, But not guilty on the charge of murder either of Miss Jones or the two others, in fact this court, after reading the testimony of several persons, agree with your argument, however it is the decision of this court that you be detained at the pleasure of the Town Council, until such time that they decide to release you from their charge!"

This to me was a fanciful way of saying life imprisonment! I sat down, my attorney shook my hand, "Well Mr. ****, that was a better sentence than I thought you'd get, I'm sorry I couldn't do more."

"That's okay Miss Jenkins," I said, "I was prepared for hardships when I agreed to come here, and I suppose life imprisonment is better than death!"

The judge walked over to me, "No. Mr. ****, not life imprisonment. Just slavery to our town; a subject that is completely different, as you are well aware. I've been told that Melody is in the hospital being watched by Elizabeth, the evidence you brought with you, yes it did arrive, was being examined by our experts to ensure that it hadn't been tampered with, but I was under orders to find out exactly how you would react to the charges.

"You realise that these are the charges that would be brought against you in an outside court, you were still affected by the anaesthetic so that it acted as a type of truth drug relaxing your conscious mind allowing your true feelings to show," she continued.

"So," I said, "This wasn't a court of law then?" I had to ask the question.

The Judge nodded and said, "Yes, in Ropeville this is a court of law, although we follow the statues as set by Washington, we have our own laws which in some cases supersede those 'normal' laws, the owning of slaves is one aspect, but the care and well being of those slaves is part of the code of law. So any sentence passed here is legally binding as long as you remain in Ropeville."

At this the deputy came up and held my arm, "Which is why I'm here," She explained, "To ensure that you remain in the County."

The judge then looked at me, "You trained one of mine, Rachael; do you remember her?"

I had to think for a few minutes, Rachael was eight when I took her, a blond, blue eyed girl, if I remembered right her parents were abusive to her and she had run away, into my arms, she didn't need training as her father had beaten her since she was six, in fact her main part of the training process was ensuring she ate a good meal every day that I kept her, I didn't need to teach her anything - I managed to pass her parents name onto the child welfare people, I didn't realise that she had a sister who was also being treated the same way until the papers showed them all, the parents being led away in cuffs, and the 4 year-old being carried in a blanket.

I nodded and the judge continued, "She keeps talking about you as the man who saved her and her sister, she still thinks kindly of you even if you did sell her off. When I heard you were here I asked to take your case, just to see how you would react, I must admit I was impressed, even in your confused state you remained focused on Melody!"

I couldn't reply to that, but I did ask the question I had to ask, "Can I see Melody? Please."

The Judge nodded and then said, "I think we'll all go to see Melody"

I turned to the deputy and held out my wrists to be handcuffed, she smiled, "I don't think you need to wear them, the duty you're going to do ain't that bad." She said.

We left the courthouse and emerged onto a typical town square, directly opposite the courthouse was an expanse of green with a bubbling fountain, further away was a monument, Lucy, the deputy, pointed it out,

"That's the war memorial, many of our men and quite a few women lost their lives during WW2, most of them undercover in the resistance movements, Mum always talks of her mother as one of those, of course she came back, but many didn't!" She said this with a fierce pride audible in her voice.

Beyond the war memorial was another large building, Fiona, the Judge said, "That's where we'll be going after you've seen Melody, it's City Hall, you'll learn what we're going to ask you to do, think of it as the price of getting out of a murder conviction!"

"Just as long as I stay here!" I said, "Exiled from the country is just as bad."

The Judge laughed, "Oh I think you'd get used to it!" she said.

I kept silent, just watching as we walked along the street, I notice that there was quite a lot of uniformed officers patrolling, more than would be found in a 'normal' town, the other fact was that they were all female. I looked at Lucy.

"I've heard of equal opportunities hiring, but didn't they go a bit too far in the Sheriff's department?" She seemed puzzled at this, but then followed my gaze to the officers.

"Oh don'tcha worry, they're all well trained, in all forms of the work, hell you should see our swat team, except they're away at the moment!"

"Training?" I asked curiously

"You might say that." She said flatly, it seemed an odd answer, but her mood showed that I shouldn't keep on that track.

The rest of the trip was carried out in silence, we entered the hospital building, and it looked as if it had been built at the turn of the century, but was modern inside. There were security guards, female again, at the desk that looked up and nodded to the Judge and Lucy as we passed them.

In the lift Lucy pressed for the third floor, which surprised me as the building only seemed to have 2 — the lift descended!

Lucy smiled at my amazed look, "You forgot we're not just your normal town, this is Ropeville!" she said as if it explained it all. Which in a way it did!

We approached a door, which opened before we got to it, Sue-Li walked out of it, she saw me and smiled at me, then passed down the corridor intent on some errand.

Lucy knocked on the door; I heard Elizabeth's voice say "Come in?" Lucy turned the handle and we walked in.

Elizabeth was seated by a bed, the small form in the bed was sobbing away quietly, I spoke to Elizabeth,

"So how is she?" but before Elizabeth could answer I was hit by a small missile.

"Mr. Purple you're here, I was so frightened without you." Melody was wrapping her arms around my legs; I gently pulled her away from me, lifted her up and placed her back on the bed.

"Melody, you've been here before, you know Elizabeth here, so there was no need to be frighten was there?" she nodded her head.

"Yes there was, you weren't here, you said you'd never leave me. You said you'd look after me, then when I woke up you weren't here." She had an accusing look on her face.

I knelt down by the bed and looked into her eyes, "I did mean to be with you, but I had to talk to these people, now you need to rest some more, I think you'd better listen to Elizabeth, okay?"

She yawned, "Okay Mr. Purple, will I see you soon?" I looked at the Judge and Judy they both nodded.

"Of course you will," I told her and then added, "But I might have to do some work while we're here."

"'Kay Mr. Purple, goenight." And she fell asleep as we watched.

We moved away from the bed, Elizabeth shook her head,

"I've spent the last couple of hours trying to get her to go to sleep naturally, you're here for a couple of minutes and she's away. How do you do it?" she asked me.

I shook my head, "I don't know, normally after the first few days they're scared of me, but Melody was already co-operating, I think it was all due to the time she spent here, you've shown her that sometimes a kidnapping is just fun and games, and that's how she reacted — she was acting the part of a kidnap victim, even when she was really kidnapped!"

The judge looked at me, disbelief on her face, "You don't know what you're saying!" she said

But Elizabeth spoke just before I did, "But he's right, when she was here on the Princess scenario she told me that she just did what the princesses did in the films, she managed to wrap herself up into that role, she's really a submissive at heart, who likes to play-act."

"If her uncle hadn't framed me I would have delivered Melody to him, fully trained and not thought anything about it, but he's done more than that, he's killed three people and blamed me for their deaths, and that make me angry!" I said.

The judge looked at me, "No there was only Michael and Rachel who where killed."

I shook my head, "No, there was also the young girl identified as Melody, he had her killed as well, what I don't understand is why they police relied on his identification, why not the schoolteachers as well?"