Chapter 26
Much later that afternoon
“ ‘C’mon.”Mr. X pointed at Elaine. She and the girls had been moved to another room, this one with a table and chairs and were permitted to keep on the lights. The fast food served was barely edible to Elaine, but the girls gobbled it as if they were starving, just like Martin.
“What do you want with me?” she asked.
“You’re going to get ready to meet someone,” Mr. X. said. “Someone who’s been waiting to meet you a long time and you need to look your best.”
Big Daddy. He’s taking me to meet Big Daddy. Elaine returned the man’s stare. “What if I don’t want to meet this person?” she asked. “What if I’d rather stay here with the girls?”
“The man gets what he wants,” Mr. X. sneered. “And if you don’t come with me, I’ll make you watch me beat one of these girls. That tall one over there who looks a lot like you. I could start with her.”
“No,” Elaine said quickly. “I’ll go. Just don’t hurt them, please.” In the few hours they’d had together, the girls had poured out their hearts to Elaine, their stories so similar to Martin’s, and all wanting the same thing.
They wanted to go home.
She stood from her place at the table and walked to the door, waiting for Mr. X. He started to put his hand on her arm, but she jerked back. “I can walk to wherever you’re taking me on my own, thank you very much,” she said, channeling Dame Maggie Smith’s dowager countess from Downton Abbey.
“I’m gonna enjoy watching you being taken down, you snooty bitch,” Mr. X. growled. “Move.”
He grabbed her arm again and shoved her into the hall, slamming the door behind them. Once in the elevator, it only rose to the fourth floor and they exited onto a carpeted floor. Still holding her, Mr. X. opened a door across from the elevator and kicked it open.
Along the walls were racks and racks of colorful dresses in dozens of fabrics glittering like a spring rainbow. Another rack held an assortment of shoes. A skinny woman in a chartreuse evening gown cut low enough to show everything God had blessed her with, belted with a thick yellow sash, stood to one side, arms folded. Elaine’s arrival did not seem to improve her sour mood.
“Get her ready, Josie,” Mr. X. ordered. “And if she gives you any trouble, slap her silly. But don’t bruise her face or leave any marks on it. The Boss hates ugly women.”
He left and apprehension tightened Elaine’s muscles into knotted coils. Josie’s examination of her was one of pure hate.
“How can you do this?” Elaine asked her. “Help hurt innocent children and young girls?”
“Pick out a dress,” Josie ordered, ignoring Elaine’s question. “I’ll do your hair and make-up and then you can put on the dress. And take off your underwear. Big Daddy likes things au naturel, know what I mean?”
“I can do my own hair and make-up,” Elaine argued, cringing at the thought of this woman putting her hands on her.
Josie advanced, her gaze trained on Elaine’s face. When she was inches away, she grabbed Elane by the collar and produced a very lethal looking knife from behind her back and placed the blade’s tip at Elaine’s jugular.
“You’ll wish I’d kill you by the time Big Daddy finishes with you,” she snarled. “Now go pick out a dress, a dark purple one, low cut to show your boobs and sheer enough to show everything else. Really high heels too, though you’re tall enough already. And hurry up. I ain’t got all night and Big Daddy will be here soon. He hates waiting.”
She shoved Elaine towards the racks and trying to swallow her fear, Elaine slowly headed toward the shimmering garments as she listened to the sound of a starting rain hit the roof.
An hour later at the safehouse.
“Okay,you have your body armor, courtesy of Brotherhood Protectors and heat seeking devices strapped to your arms, also from BP” Grant Miller spoke to the men and women of the KPD, assembled in the safehouse’s security room, weapons in hand. It had taken awhile for them all to sneak inside and it was now completely dark.
Miller pointed at the building’s enlarged blueprint fixed to the wall. “Five stories, like this one. Five teams. Each team will cover one floor, using the staircase in the back of the building. Lots of rooms on each, but we don’t know how many are occupied or by how many, other than the victims we believe are being held there.”
“Do we know if they’re armed?” One officer asked.
“We don’t know for sure,” Miller admitted. “But since we believe it’s a handful of men and women guarding seven teenage, trafficked girls, we think that they possess minimal weapons at best. On the other hand, ladies and gentlemen, we have every reason to believe that Big Daddy is in that building–”
Gasps, low whistles, and exclamations of triumph sounded but Miller waved them to silence. “I know how you feel,” he said, re-gaining their attention. “No one wants that piece of filth more than I do. Big Daddy is no fool and he’s likely to have bodyguards. So, we’re going to be careful and do everything by the book, got it? Lieutenant Tyler? Do you have anything to say?”
Griff stood and forced his mind to stillness. “Let me say on behalf of the Brotherhood Protectors that I am damn glad you’re with us. Like most of you, Knoxville is my home and taking down Big Daddy and The Cadre–who Sergeant Miller tells me all of you know about–will only make this a better place to live.”
“Amen,” called Sergeant Owen and the word echoed around the room.
“Amen,” Griff repeated. “We know from one of the victims who escaped, that the girls have been next door only since late Thursday night or early Friday morning. I also know from my Aunt Sally, who rented the building to a Mr. Smith–how original is that?–gave him the keys only last Thursday afternoon so there’s a good chance Big Daddy and or The Cadre hasn’t had a lot of time to secure the building completely. I hope. Any questions?”
The rain’s steady tempo on the roof picked up, and in the distance, a low rumble sounded. Otherwise, the room was silent. Patrick Danton stood at the back of the room, arms crossed. He nodded at Griff, gave him the thumbs up, and mouthed the words, Sempre Fi. Always Faithful. Words that Marines live by.
Griff inclined his head for a moment in his own silent prayer. Then grinning, he addressed the waiting assembly. “OK, folks,” he said. “Let’s go take ‘em down.”
“So, we meet at last.”Big Daddy slowly walked around Elaine. “You’re a good-looking woman,” he said. “Even if you are a first-class bitch.”
The room where she now stood contained only a large bed, a cheval mirror next to it, and round, covered table. The windows, she noticed, were uncovered, and in the distance the Sunsphere gleamed like a second moon. Hard to believe it was only eight days ago when the Sunsphere postcard arrived at her office, setting this incredibly crazy week in motion. From somewhere downstairs, she heard recorded music and wondered if The Honeys were being forced to practice.
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?” she asked now. “Me and my dye-job hair?”
“I’ve heard a lot about you, Obidiah Collins,” Elaine taunted. “But you’re not as smart as you think you are. You’ve tried three times to kill me, and you keep screwing up. Why is that?”
His stinging slap across her face was hard. “Oh, I have plans for you, little girl,” he snarled. “Kinda glad you stayed alive ‘cause you made me mad and what I’m going to do to you is gonna be slow and it’s gonna hurt a lot. Count on it.”
“You’re a coward and a thief, Obidiah,” Elaine continued. “And a bully. Only a coward and a bully hits a woman, particularly his own woman.”
He grabbed her and shook her like a ragdoll. “Tell me what you did with Lulu and where I can find her,” he raged. “I might kill you more quickly if you do.” He shoved her away and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“I don’t know,” Elaine admitted, rubbing her arms. They were both going to hurt tomorrow. “I’m only a cog in the wheel. She could be anywhere, but I really don’t know. And I wouldn’t tell you if I did.”
Something flashed outside the window and Big Daddy jerked. “What was that?”
“Gases?” Elaine guessed. “The Northern Lights? Global warming?”
The music seemed to be louder now. His eyes reduced to slits, Big Daddy slowly took a large knife–larger than Josie’s– coming forward and held it up to Elaine’s face. “Do I start by cutting out your eyes?” he snarled. “Nah, I want you to at least look good when I take you. And I want you to watch me while I do it.
His knife cut the dress’s flimsy fabric at the shoulders, and he yanked it off, leaving her in a transparent slip. “OK, Prescott,” he said. “Payback time.”
Outside, lightning crackled and cracked with a deafening cry, turning the sky into to a silver-hued tapestry. Thunder rolled and rumbled its answer in a long, bass moan like a beast in pain.
“NO!” Obadiah ‘Big Daddy’ Collins screamed. Dropping the knife, he ran first to one corner of the room and then another as a flash of lightning lit up the room and the thunder roared. Amazement transfixed Elaine to stillness but only for a minute. She grabbed the knife from the floor just as another ear-shattering lightning crack and thunderclap screamed outside the building. Big Daddy’s scream of terror was even louder.
“Oh, God, oh, God,” he wailed. “I gotta hide. Gotta hide”
Running to the bed, he tried to crawl under it but he was too big and the bed was too low. Then he rushed to a table, but it was far too small for him to cower underneath. Screaming, he ran to another corner and curled himself into a ball, whimpering one minute and wailing the next.
And then, in the sudden silence from the storm, came a furious pounding and a beloved voice outside the door. “Elaine? Are you in there?”
“Griff!” Elaine had to raise her voice over Big Daddy’s wails to be heard. “Yes, it’s me!”
“Stand back!”
Strong pounding, battered against the door again and again until it finally gave way splintering the wood down the middle and fell to the floor. Another lightning flash illuminated the open doorway, cascading Griff in steely light like he was a superhero as Elaine rushed into his arms and a thunderclap was punctuated by a long, high-pitched wail from the corner.
“Are you alright?” he whispered against her hair.
“Yeah. But, I’m not sure about Big Daddy though.”
Griff looked past her at the quivering bulk of one of East Tennessee’s notorious criminals “What the fu–”.
“Language, Marine,” she warned.
“Sorry. What did you do to him?”
“Nothing. He’s terrified of thunderstorms.”
“What the hell?” Grant Miller stood in the doorway with Patrick looking over his shoulder.
“How the mighty have fallen,” Griff intoned. “Sergeant Miller, there’s an early Christmas present for you, courtesy of Mother Nature herself.”
“Man, I have waited for this.” Handing a laughing Patrick his rifle, Miller strode to yank Big Daddy from the floor and handcuff him. “Obidiah Collins, aka, Big Daddy,” he began. “I’m arresting you charges of transporting and plans to transport minor children across state lines for immoral purposes, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit murder on multiple persons…”
He led a still sobbing Big Daddy away and Patrick joined them. “I’ve never seen Miller look so happy,” he said.
“Is everybody safe?” Elaine asked. “Did you find Chelsea and the other girls?”
“We did,” Griff confirmed. “And a whole lot more.”
Hearing the triumph in his voice, Elaine asked, “Whole lot more of what?”
“Missing and trafficked kids,” Griff answered. “Hidden throughout the building. KPD is hauling at least twenty adults downtown. We may need Families United help, Elaine.”
“I’ll see to it,” she said, grateful for the warmth radiating off of Griff’s body onto hers.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Griff asked Patrick. “I’d really like to kiss her and don’t want you watching. Especially due to her lack of clothing.”
“I never saw a thing,” Patrick protested in perfect innocence. “But I can tell when I’m not wanted.”
He ambled towards the door and Elaine called, “Thanks, Patrick. For everything.”
He gave her a cocky smile. “My pleasure, Elaine. Do you know what one Viking says to another one when they part?”
She closed her eyes. “I’m afraid to ask. What?”
“Be-sieging you!”
“Go away!” Griff shouted and laughing again, their friend left them alone.
“Are you really alright?” he asked, searching her face.
“Never better,” she said. “I knew you’d come for me.”
“I always will,” he whispered. “It’s like I told our team before we left the safehouse.”
“What was that?” She palmed his gorgeous face.
“Semper Fi.” And he kissed her.