Chapter 19

I found my Master relaxing poolside, on the large patio between the house proper and the manicured lawn behind it. That would have made me happy any other time as I often thought the man worked himself too hard. Any other time I'd have put on a sexy bikini and tempted him into the water with me, but not on this day. Not after I'd left Purdy and his white abolitionist freinds.

"What's the matter, Dani?"

"Master, I'm sorry," I cried, running across the stones to kneel at his feet. I pressed my wet cheek against his thigh as he sat in his chair.

"What happened?" He strokeded my hair, trying to calm me enough so I could talk.

"I went to that party, the one I told you about and..." I swallowed hard. "There were white people there and..."

"White people?" He narrowed his eyes.

"They were from the North, from Boston, and they were abolitionists."

"Northern Abolitionists?" I stared at me and I nodded, speaking quickly.

"They wanted me to run away, I mean, us. They wanted me and Sarah and Venus, all of us to run away. They said they could get us over the border and Purdy..."

"They wanted you to run away? What did you say?"

"He was ... What? I said no, Master. I told them they were liars and I wasn't gonna do any such thing!" I exclaimed. "I told Sarah we had to go, and Venus too, but they wanted to stay and I couldn't make them leave."

"But you left right away?" He nodded and I nodded with him.

"Yes sir. I left and, um..."

"What? Why are you in trouble, Danielle?" he asked, sensing there was more.

"They made me mad. They were saying stuff and they had pamphlets, little books and such. The one man, he said we were sex slaves, but that was before..." I took a breath. "Master, I called the police and I told them about those people and what they were doing."

"You called the police?" He didn't look happy or sad, but just concerned. "Did they come? Did they talk to you?"

"They told me -- The woman on the phone, she said I was sposed to stay there and tell her my name, but I didn't." I licked my lips. "I was so scared, Master. I thought I was gonna be in trouble too cause I was in there. I had sex with the one man, he fucked me and then I found out, and..."

"Okay, so you called the police, but didn't tell them who you are and then you left."

"Yes sir." I nodded.

"They're going to find out it was you." Mr. Reiser rubbed his jaw. "You should have stayed."

"But I was worried you'd get in trouble for letting me go there." I started crying again. "I'm sorry. Master. I didn't know what to do!"

"Shhh ... Okay. Alright ... It's going to be fine. You did the right thing, Dani," he said, but he didn't sound so sure, and I got scared all over again.

"What are we gonna do?" I asked, wiping my eyes with my fingers and sniffling my nose.

"Let's go in the house, first off. Come on," he said, helping me to my feet. "I'll call my lawyer, see what he says about all this. The police definitely came, huh?"

"Yes sir," I agreed. "I saw the police cars coming when I was leaving."

"Okay." He put an arm around me, walking me into the house. "Mercy? Sit down here..." He put me in a kitchen chair as Mercy entered from the laundry room. "Get this girl settled down. Give her some warm milk or ... something. Some brandy maybe."

"Yes suh." The old woman blinked at me.

"I'll be in my study." Mr. Reiser stroked my hair briefly and left us.

"What you's been up to now?" Mercy wondered, touching my forehead and cheeks like I might have a fever.

I repeated the story while she fixed me some warm milk, just as our Master had suggested.

"Abolitionists? Round heah?" She shook her head. "Lawdy, lawdy ... Gone be some troubles for everbody now."

"Do you think Master's gonna be in trouble?" I wiped my eyes some more. "He let me go, but I didn't know those people were gonna be there!"

"I doan know, child." Mercy hugged me. "You drink some milk now, we's gone find out soon enough."

While I sat in the kitchen with Mercy, Mr. Reiser spoke to his lawyer on the telephone. From what I could gather, his advice had been to call the police and turn me in as the anonymous caller, because once the police started questioning my friends they were going to find out it was me anyway. This way would look better, like we were cooperating, which of course we were. Everybody cooperates with the police, or else you get arrested and that's exactly what nobody wants.

That's how I came to be sitting with my Master a short while later. We were in the front parlor, which was like the living room, except we never really used it for anything. Mostly it was just nice a nice room to walk through, being the most formal room in the house and rather imposing to me, like a museum. I jumped when I heard the doorbell and Delilah answered it. I expected it to be the police, but it turned out to be Mr. Franks, my Master's lawyer. He was a good one too, according to Mr. Reiser, the best one in Memphis, and it would be his job to keep me and my Master out of trouble. Explaining why he'd let me go to a slave party wasn't going to be especially easy. Slaves weren't supposed to have parties and most likely none of the other owners had known anything about it. I'd made my Master look pretty foolish and I really wished I hadn't called the police at all.

"No, don't say that," Mr. Franks told me, and he was a large, portly man sweating in his expensive grey suit. "You did the right thing, believe me. If you hadn't done it and they got caught, just one of them, and the police got your name..."

"I'd be in real trouble," I swallowed hard.

"Real serious trouble and it wouldn't matter if they got your name today, or a year from now, they'd come looking for you," Mr. Franks nodded his big round head. "So this isn't going to be bad, believe me. They're a lot more happy with you than they are angry about you running off, but they aren't going to let that on. They're going to scare you a little, just in case you might be trying to hide something."

"But I ain't hiding anything!" I said, thinking maybe he didn't believe me. I looked at my Master. "I swear! I told you everything, sir!"

"I know you did, Dani." Mr. Reiser smiled at me. "I know."

The police did show up, about fifteen minutes after Mr. Franks arrived. There were two of them, a man and a woman wearing casual two piece suits, a skirt and blazer for the woman, not uniforms at all. That didn't make me feel any better though. They didn't look anything but serious. Mercy had opened the door for them, apparently, and she showed them into the front parlor.

"I'm Detective Barnes. Detective Hearst," the man said, nodding towards the woman next to him.

"Is this the girl? Let me see your arm," the woman said, and they didn't waste any time.

She scanned my slave tattoo first thing, just making sure of who I was. The small, hand-held computer thing pulled the information up that had been filed when Mr. Reiser had bought me. Her partner reached inside his jacket for a notepad and pen.

"You're the girl who called 0-5-5 at two forty-two this afternoon?" Detective Barnes asked me, and I nodded.

"You need to speak up, there's a little microphone right here. It's recording everything we say." He pointed at what looked like a small silver button on his jacket lapel.

"Yes sir," I said.

"You're male?" Detective Hearst asked me. "Daniel Richardson, freeborn, 17 years old and in the proper custody of Mr. H.L. Reiser?"

"Yes ma'am." I nodded with a quick glance at my Master.

"Okay," the woman said slowly, giving her partner a look and he just shrugged. "And you're Mr. Reiser..."

"I am, yes. Danielle belongs to me," my Master said, making it clear that I was a girl so far as he was concerned. "She's one of my house negras."

"I see," the policewoman said, and then looked at our lawyer. "And you are..."

"John Franks. I'm Mr. Reiser's attorney in this matter."

"Why do you need an attorney, Mr. Reiser?" the male detective asked with some feigned pleasant curiousity.

Mr. Franks held up his hand at that, before my Master could answer.

"Everyone needs an attorney, Detective," he said. "Don't take it personally. Mr. Reiser is just exercising his rights."

"Of course," the policeman agreed, but he didn't look exactly happy.

"Alright then, mind if we sit down? Thanks." The detectives pulled some old chairs close and stared at me as I sat on the sofa with my Master.

"Now, just start at the very beginning and tell us everything that happened, Daniel," Detective Barnes said, using my boy name to show how unimpressed he was with my Master's desire to have me as a girl.

"Um ... Today?" I asked slowly. "Or, when I first heard about the party?"

"When you first heard about it, start there. Who told you and where and when, like that, okay?" the detective told me.

"Yes sir." I licked my lips. "Um, I was at school and..."

I told them everything, leaving nothing out at all, and answering all of their questions the best I could when they wanted more details about something. It was kind of a long slow process and after it was done, they had me do it all over again.

"So, Mr. Reiser..." Detective Barnes sat back, looking a little confused. "Why did you give your slave permission to go to this party?"

"Because she asked me," he replied. "I trust her."

"Trust?" Detective Hearst almost smiled.

"She called you, didn't she?" Mr. Reiser asked, demonstrating his valid point.

"And then he ran," Detective Barnes said. "After he was told not to. He fled the scene of a crime."

"No, Dani fled a location to avoid being a part of a criminal activity," Mr. Franks corrected the man. "He reported the activity at his earliest opportunity to proper authority, and being under great emotional duress, the boy returned to his Master for guidance."

"Emotional duress?" Detective Hearst tilted her head.

"Great ... Emotional duress," Mr. Franks stressed. "He was forced to engage in homosexual acts with a white man and then subjected to pressure from that same man, as well as the boy's own friends and peers, to participate in activities contrary to the law and his good conscience."

"Forced to engage in homosexual acts, counselor? Please..." The woman shook her head, clearly believing I'd been more than willing to have sex with Brent and I hadn't denied that at all.

"The suspect you have in custody is a foreign national, correct?" Mr. Franks asked, and the two detectives looked at each other and then she nodded.

"Yes, he's a foreigner," Detective Hearst agreed cautiously.

"Then he's guilty of statutory rape under state law. As the man in question has no legal recourse as a slave owner, he is neither afforded the protection of the boy's slave status. In such circumstances, Daniel is a lawful minor and incapable of giving consent, or being held accountable for his sexual activities as they involve coercion by a legal adult. He was clearly raped."

I looked at Mr. Franks and I was suddenly very glad he was my Master's lawyer.

"That's a good point, sir," Detective Barnes said slowly. That was apparently a point of law the two officers hadn't fully considered before, but they were thinking hard on it now.

"The whole reason for having that so-called party was knowing these young slaves would have to be there illegally," Mr. Franks said, as if he was just working it all out finally. "They wouldn't be able to tell anyone about it, even if they felt as this boy did and wanted to leave. A slave wouldn't turn them in because he'd be in trouble himself for being there. They just didn't expect one of them to get permission from his Master."

"Yes, uh, we were thinking along those lines too." The woman looked at her partner and it seemed to me they probably hadn't been wondering why abolitionists would have a party if they were trying to be as secretive as they needed to be.

"I'd say, and mind you I spent ten years as a special assistant to the Solicitor General, that in addition to their obvious crimes as abolitionist advocating sedition and treachery against the state, what you have here are three sexual predators preying upon the very people they so ardently espouse to liberate from exploitation."

"Uh-huh." The woman was nodding and I was just trying to understand exactly what all those words meant.

"Of course, I'm sure two fine detectives such yourselves have already considered the political aspects of the case." Mr. Franks smiled. "Charging a boy like Daniel with, what is it? Fleeing the scene of a crime? When he so clearly has in his heart only the very best of intentions to obey the spirit of the law and his Benefactor's legal direction, well ... That's a little like poking yourself in the eye with a sharp stick, isn't it?"

"I don't think we're charging Daniel with, uh ... anything." Detective Barnes glanced at his partner. "We just wanted his statement and..."

"Good, good," Mr. Franks nodded and I wondered if he hadn't just threatened those two police officers somehow.

"We'll have to present our findings to the district attorney, you understand," Detective Hearst said slowly. "We're just gathering the evidence and his office will make a final decision."

"The district attorney, right. Good man," Mr. Franks said with a sharp nod. "I played eighteen holes with him just this morning. Six handicap, hell of a golfer."

"Uh, yes sir." Detective Barnes cleared his throat and caught his partner's eye.

"All real politicians are," the lawyer continued with a chuckle. "And he's a good one. He'll know what to do with what you have here and doubtless he'll want to protect the delicate rights that our good citizens enjoy with respect to the boys ... and girls ... in their legal and proper custody."

"I'm sure he will," the female detective said. "I believe we have everything we need."