Chapter 3

The next morning I called my brother Jim on my cell phone. We did the usual family bit of "How's Dad and Mary," "Sarah and the kids" and "Paul and family?" Finally I said, "Sandy and I have a problem. In fact it's a pretty damn nasty problem. I was drugged so that some of the town's finest citizens could rape Sandy. It was taped and we are being blackmailed. I was wondering if you might have some time to come down and talk it over with us."

Jim said he would be on the road shortly. He was coming into town using the name he wrote under. We decided if we met face-to-face, he wouldn't acknowledge that he knew us. His excuse would be that he was in town to look for settings for a new story he was thinking of writing. Three days later I spotted Jim talking to Tom Monroe as I was coming out of the bank.

Tom stopped me as I started to pass them. "Hey Rob, we have a well-known author in town. Have you ever heard of Jim Wingate? He is going to write a new book set in our town."

Tom was pushing his luck, but his time was coming. I looked him in the eye. "No, I haven't." I kept on moving.

This made Tom mad. "Rob, you come back here." Tom turned to Jim and said, "Rob is new in town. He is kind of unsociable for a man that owns a business. It makes you wonder how long he will stay in business the way he acts." Then Tom stated, "Rob doesn't talk much and I like it that way. His wife doesn't say much either, but I like her better than Rob." Tom was giving me a warning and none too subtle about it either. After a couple of pleasantries, I continued back to the store where I told Sandy that Jim was in town.

It was nearing eleven that night when Sandy opened our back door to let Jim enter. We had anticipated that we would see him tonight. Sandy hugged Jim saying to him, "Boy, you can't believe this town. That Tom is as bad as those bikers you rescued me from years ago."

The three of us set out to make plans to get even. The tape that we had been warned was coming, had arrived yesterday. It had been heavily edited to show Sandy in the worst possible way. All that was on it was Sandy coming on to Jeff, Tom and Bill. All of the scenes of the threats and the abuse that Sandy had to endure, including the blow to the face, were deleted.

We showed Jim that tape first and then ran the one that came from our camera. Sandy got so angry when we viewed them that she wasn't ashamed at all for Jim to see them abuse her. Jim, on the other hand, cringed through it all and ended with tears of sympathy for Sandy. "Sandy, how could you have stood that?"

"I stood it for two reasons. One, to save Rob's life, and two, to get even and make them pay!"

We viewed our tape again and then again, looking for a way to get even. Jim and I came up with one plan and on reflection Sandy went along with it. Jeff appeared to be the one most reluctant to do Sandy harm. He was the chink in their armor, if we could turn him.

It took us days to come together with a plan. First we had to get Jeff working for us. Jim was able to go around and talk to people all over town in his capacity as an author. He talked to the business proprietors and the laborers. The cops and the handymen. He even went down to the trailer park looking for material. The ladies at the country club gave an afternoon tea in honor of Jim Wingate, author.

Jim was a great listener. He could pry facts out of the person he was conversing with and they wouldn't even know he picked their brain. Finally we were ready to act on Jeff. An invitation by phone invited Jeff to meet with a possible client to build a new house on the outskirts of town. The client was passing through and would be at the Shady Rest Motel at eight the next evening. Would Jeff be interested?

Tom was still watching Sandy and I, but not as close as he did right after the rape. We easily eluded him and chose an end room at the motel, where we were able to park our car out of sight. Jeff knocked on the door and I said, "Come in." He entered and I said from the bathroom, "Just a minute, I'm shaving."

Jim came in behind Jeff and was locking the door as Sandy and I came out. Jeff was in shock. His face turned white. "What's this? What are you doing here? I was supposed to meet a client."

Sandy spoke, "Hi Jeff, this is some different than the last time we met isn't it? Do you still think I am a hot one now? Do you want to see my pussy or my ass now? Go ahead, ask. You did before. There's my husband, Rob. He was there that time too. Oh yes, I forgot, you were threatening to kill him weren't you? You've met my brother-in-law. He interviewed you about our nice little town, didn't he? You know what he found out? This little town has some sadists and some rapists in it. What do you have to say in your own defense?"

Jeff looked at the floor and then looked at Sandy. "What can I say?" He paused, "Are you going to kill me? Please don't? I have two kids and they need me."

"How about your wife, Jordan? Does she need you too?" I asked.

"Jordan is a survivor. She doesn't need anybody."

"Are you sorry about what you did to my wife?"

"Yes, I'm very sorry. I've lost a lot of sleep over it too."

"What about the other women you guys have raped? Are you sorry about them?"

Jeff's head snapped up, then he paled and staggered to the bed to sit with his head down. He felt retribution was at hand. We watched him as he got used to the idea in his mind that he was going to die. He squared his shoulders, "Ma'am, I truly am sorry for what I made you do." He sat back and waited his fate.

I went over to the tape player and told Jeff to watch this. I started where Jeff was asking Bill and Tom what the fuck they were doing by almost killing Sandy. We heard him on the tape slamming down the stairs. I let it run to catch the conversation the two had about him being a 'puss' and about Bill holding the loan on his business.

"You're in a bind aren't you? You're here with the evidence of you raping my wife. Your three other buddies are sitting somewhere ready to fuck you over in your business. Also it is pretty certain that your wife is screwing your best buddy. It makes a person wonder if your two kids are even yours. My wife got raped, but she is better off than you for all the abuse she took."

"I am not a rapist!"

"What do you call an unwilling subject held by the threat of killing her husband, making her give you a blowjob?" I could see that he remembered that Sandy had invited him to participate. He wanted to tell me about what Sandy had said when she offered to blow him to get things started. He looked at Sandy who looked away so she wouldn't influence the answer to my question. This was critical to how we would treat him.

He made his decision. "I guess I am as guilty as anyone can be. Do what you have to do." Did he want to save Sandy from having to admit that she egged him on before me? He had taken enough from her. Maybe he wanted to give back a little so she wouldn't look so bad in my eyes. I hoped so.

"Okay, this is what you are going to do. You are going to sit here and write down the names of every victim you guys raped. We have evidence enough here so it won't make it any worse for you. Be truthful. It will pay in the long run."

Jeff took the pad and wrote seven names. Not only that, after four names he gave the reason for the rape. Two of them were for the same reason. The inability to get the back lot in their possession. Sandy's of course we knew and Mr. Henderson's daughter, likewise. "Mr. Gordon, Mrs. Gordon was the first and only one I had any physical contact with. I'm so ashamed of myself. I swore that I wouldn't sink to their level, but I had been warned that night that I had to participate. Tom was getting concerned that I might rat them out if I didn't. I'm sorry, but Mrs. Gordon is beautiful. It made me forget what I had sworn to myself."

"How much is your mortgage at Bill Jones's bank?"

"$83,482.09. I made a payment today, so I know exactly."

"Are the terms satisfactory?"

"Yes and if I can get a fair amount of construction to do, I can easily make the payments. Where are you going with this anyway? I thought you were going to kill me."

"No we were never going to kill you. We need someone on the inside to help us bring these guys down. You're that person. I hope we have your full cooperation."

"You have. Just don't harm my kids."

"What about your wife? Are you going to let Tom have her?"

"If I can figure out how to get shut of her, he can have her. I think she and Bonny are of the same stripe."

"What about Barbara, Tom's wife? I thought everyone called them The Three Sisters?"

"They do, but Barb is a sub. She is as much under Jordan and Bonny's control as she is Tom's."

"It doesn't sound as if you love your wife. Do you want to tell us anything about it?"

"I've known that she and Tom are screwing and have almost since we were married. That's the least of it. Bill and Bonny have a secret room where they play games among themselves. Sometimes they even have out-of-town guests. Barbara told me this. They make her do unspeakable things as a sub. It is too bad, she really is a nice person. Jordan tried to get me interested in some pain games right after we married, but it just turns me off. Jordan is pretty hot, but I'd trade that for someone to love any day."

"What about Vincent? Where does he fit into this?"

"He's queer. What Bill and Tom do disgusts him. He's greedy though and they use him to do the camera work. He is the one that really wants the lot back of your store. They keep promising that they will get it for him, but I am wondering if they are stringing him along. He supplies the medications that Tom and Bill use. He has an effect on the people that Tom and Bill go after. One or two women offered anything if Bill would keep Vincent away from them. He is a real cretin."

"He does all of the camera work. Who does all of the editing? What does he do with the tapes and film when he gets done? Does he store them some place or does Bill or Tom keep them?"

"He keeps it all. There is a room in his basement that he uses to do the editing. I don't think he trusts them anymore than he trusts me. I don't know for sure, but he has a built-in cupboard that is flush with the rest of the room. It has two padlocks on it. One time he went down to get a tape to show us and I heard what sounded like a padlock hitting the floor. He must have fumbled it and it fell."

"Do you think there is more than one copy of his camera work?"

"Not unless it is hidden somewhere else in his house."

"Do you guys go there much to see what has been done to the women that have been raped?"

"I don't, but shortly after a rape happens, Tom and Bill spend a lot of evenings there. I suspect that Bonny and Jordan see the tapes too. The day after we raped Mrs. Gordon, Jordan wasn't home and I called her on my cell. She said she was busy with Bonny and Bill. When she got home she mentioned that Vincent still gave her the creeps. Then she said she guessed I couldn't deny I was one of the gang now."

"It sounds to me as if you are more victim than predator. If we can extricate you from all of this, you would be willing to help us, wouldn't you?"

"Yes of course. I'm worried about my kids though. I don't see how I am going to get them away from Jordan. She knows how much I love them. That is one of the holds she has on me."

"Maybe we can get you evidence for a divorce. That would be a start. In the meantime don't rock the boat by letting on we have talked." I made a quick decision. "How would you like a partner in your business? It would be for the same loan amount and under the same terms. That way you could pay off the bank before Sandy and I tear it and Bill down. We have some facts that even you don't know about."

Jeff couldn't believe his good fortune. We broke up this little party with the agreement that Jeff would come into the store on legitimate business to meet with us one or two days a week.

Jim had done his homework, both day and night, while he was compiling information for the setting of his future book. He, by observation, saw that Vincent often went across his lot to that of his gay lover. If he took a bottle of wine with him he would be out of his house for three hours or more. Being just next door, he never even locked his house. Jim and I were waiting and watching until he followed the pattern. We were in his house and down the stairs to the basement before the two homosexuals had greeted each other. Using the bolt cutters, I had the door open and was looking at two rows of tapes indexed in a tall cabinet.

Packing the tapes in the boxes we had with us, I replaced the padlocks. I guessed he would have bought padlocks off the shelf, maybe even from my own store, so I had four of the most popular sizes and brands with me. I was right. If he didn't need to open the cupboard for awhile, he would think things were just as he had last left them. He would be very surprised when the keys didn't fit.

Nine minutes later Jim and I were crossing the fourteenth fairway behind his house to our car and thirty-five minutes later I was putting the bolt cutters back in my case at the store. We had a lot of incriminating evidence. We didn't know what yet and I shuddered to think what would happen if I was caught with it. Jim took off and I walked down to Vincent's pharmacy where he kept a soda fountain open well into the evening.

Sandy met me and we sauntered in and ordered cherry cokes. While we were waiting for our drinks to be drawn, I told Sandy that Jim and I were successful. We didn't know how successful yet, but we had seen several names on the tapes as we packed them. Ours was the last tape on the bottom row in the cupboard. We speculated how long it would be before Vincent discovered he had been burgled.

Sandy sat sipping her coke when Tom, in full uniform, came in and sat next to her. He started to say something. Sandy picked up our drinks and went over to a little two person table in the corner, waiting for me to pull the chair out. I was hoping that Tom wouldn't follow us to the table because I had seen Sandy in action when she was pissed. There was a point beyond which you couldn't trust Sandy to use common sense. He lucked out by asking for a candy bar and leaving almost immediately.

Sam Henderson had showed me a safe under the floor that no one knew about when he sold the place to me. It was well hidden. While Sandy made sure I wasn't interrupted, I selected and set aside ten of the tapes. The seven that we surmised were of rapes, one of which included Sandy. I also picked three others labeled Jordan and Tom, Bonny and Jordan and one labeled Tom, Jordan, Bill and Bonny. I noticed one more. One that had a different label in a different handwriting. This one was B, B, and J. I decided that this one was worth looking at so I set it with the others.

Jeff came into the store just before closing. I said to him, "Meet us at the same place, same time tonight."

Jim was able to reserve the same room and waited for Sandy and me there. At nearly eight-thirty we figured he wasn't coming. We wanted to see what was on the tapes, but we wanted to have Jeff identify any of the people we didn't know. Finally he came and knocked lightly on the door. His excuse was that Tom had seen him leave his house, so Jeff went to a building sight to throw Tom off. He spent a half hour there before he thought Tom would be on the other end of town.

I started the tape player putting in one of the tapes with the name that Jeff said was one of the seven women raped. Jeff said this was a woman who lived in the trailer park. He wasn't at the scene of the rape though and he didn't know why Tom and Bill picked this poor woman. I've never seen such abject terror on a woman's face before. Sandy cried as they abused and threatened her.

I couldn't watch anymore so I ejected it and installed another. Jeff owned up to being present and Vincent made sure his image was there. This was a woman who belonged to the country club. Her husband had refused to cooperate in some business dealings of Bill's. She thought that Bill was joking when she was brought into a motel room. Before long she was completely cowed and ended up in the same condition as the previous victim. That couple moved from town the next week Jeff said. "God this is terrible. I can't believe that I was a part of this." Remorse for Jeff wasn't going to be enough to dull the memory of what he had seen tonight.

The next four we looked at were of the same stamp and with the same result. They all ended with terror for the victim. That is until the one that Sandy was involved in. I had seen it several times from the angle of our camera. The last scene in this was of a shot of Sandy lying on the bed after being knocked unconscious, and of me drugged and unconscious in the chair.

Jeff identified all of the victims and told us approximately where they lived. He didn't know where the Hendersons were and he didn't know where the woman that was a member of the country club had ended up. The tapes of Bill, Bonny, Jordan and Tom were pure Marquis de Sade. In fact a copy of his writings were displayed prominently in one clip. Jeff had enough evidence against his wife to divorce her and for a court to label her as unfit. He said he just didn't know that his wife was this bad.

The tape that horrified us the most was the one with a different label in a different handwriting. We couldn't figure out who held the camera because there were five people in action. Actually only four, because Barbara was restrained and those around her were abusing her. It didn't matter, for the action was all about Barbara. The tape only lasted fifteen minutes or so, but in that time she had been screwed and sodomized while being whipped repeatedly.

Putting this in context, Barbara endured more than the women that had been raped. This showed how terrible Jordan and Bonny were. Terrible to someone that had gone to school with them and been a part of college life with them. I asked Jeff how he ended up marrying Jordan. Jeff explained how his life in college had been.

"The four of us guys went to school here. Bill and Tom got full scholarship money and I got some. Not enough to go without having to work to supplement my expenses. Vincent was always hanging around so he went up there with us. His old man had plenty of money, well come to think of it, Bill did too. It is like Vincent was in the shadow of Bill and Tom. All of us went to the fraternity parties, me along with the rest of the gang. I guess I was the better athlete so I didn't have any trouble scoring with the women.

"At one of the parties we ran into three girls, Bonny, Jordan and Barbara. Jordan chose me, I guess because I was the star football jock. Bill and Bonny seemed to hit it off which left Barbara for Tom. Barbara, as you've noticed, is the prettiest, so Tom was okay with that. Barbara was a wimpy little thing then, but that suited Tom just fine. He is a control freak and Barbara never objected to him messing around with others.

"Jordan wanted to party a lot, but I had a job to contend with. Hey, I didn't mind her messing around as long as I was getting what I wanted. So we all got married and came home. It took me awhile to get my business going and I've always been in debt. Jordan got pregnant and the day little Connie was born, my life was complete. Jordan has been a fair mother, but she likes to be with Bonny and Bill so I ended up with Connie a lot of evenings.

"I probably should have kept better track of Jordan and then I got sucked into seeing Tom and Bill rape a woman. Jordan said I was a wimp and should join them, but it sickens me. Jordan came up pregnant again. I never sat down to figure the dates but I doubt that Mickey is mine. I don't care, he has my name and I will take care of him. So that is why I've gone along with what the rest do just so no harm comes to my kids. They have to be stopped though. They almost killed Mrs. Gordon and someday they will kill somebody."

We made plans. Sandy wanted her pound of flesh ripped from Bill, Tom and Vincent. Jeff had to extricate himself from his wife and save his kids. First Sandy and I figured out how to get Jeff a check for the loan that Bill wouldn't be able to trace. Using two out of state banks and a series of wire transfers we made it work. I gave Jeff a legitimate check so he could go into Bill's bank to pay off the loan, making sure that the loan was discharged. Bill objected strenuously for this eliminated one hold that he had over Jeff.

In the meantime Sandy contacted all of the local victims that had been raped. They all discreetly gathered in our home for a conference. Relating the ordeal and the severity of her rape, she asked if they all would forgive one member if he would turn against the others. She named Bill Jones. No one would forgive him. They declared that Tom Monroe was the most sadistic and he shouldn't be let off. Vincent had one victim that said maybe he wasn't so bad, but she was finally convinced he should pay the price with the others when they all realized they were drugged from supplies from his pharmacy.

Sandy then brought up the name of Jeff. Only two remembered he had been present and all said he should be excluded from retribution if he would help them get revenge.

One more thing, we had to get Jeff out of Jordan's clutches. Jeff filed for a divorce and she was served. He got what he asked for, only it would take awhile for the divorce to become final. The only thing was he wouldn't be able to see his kids until the custody hearing. He was heartbroken and was halfway blaming Sandy and I for pushing him into the divorce. We said to wait for the custody hearing when he could present the evidence of Jordan being an unfit mother. Nothing was going to be easy, but we were sure things would come out as he hoped.

Jeff called one afternoon and said he was going to have to meet with the three others tonight. I said, "If it's another planned rape get the hell away."