Abby rifled through the stack, reading every one intently. Suddenly, she stopped dead, her eyes as big as saucers. Fulbrock, in bold print across the fold caused both of their blood to run cold.
“Steph, will there be one in there with your name on it?”
“No, thank God. They tried! The fucker’s tried! But they didn’t get me. I’m so, so, sorry, Abby.”
“Abby, check for anything with Kay McMillan’s name on it, too. According to that deviant fuck, she’s been down here more than once. There may be more.”
Abby went back through the rest of the pile, then started flinging the rest of the cabinet doors open. Sadly, in the final drawer, she found another thick folder stuffed with even more disgusting photos of Kay.
“Those sick motherfuckers,” Steph yelled, pounding her fists against the stone floor in a rage.
Chase rewrapped the tablecloth around Abby gently, rubbing her shoulders as she stuffed both folders inside her makeshift covering.
“Where are your clothes, Girls?”
“Torn to shreds, Chase,” Steph moaned. “They tied us up dressed, then ripped and cut our clothes off.” Both Steph and Abby began to cry again. “It was the most humiliating experience of my fucking life!” Steph was pounding the floor again.
“They brought Abby and me in together. They grabbed me when I got out of my car at the library. I got a text to meet Kay there. They must have used her phone when they kidnapped her. They held a hand over my mouth and manhandled me into a van and bound and gagged me with duct tape. I laid there, trying my damndest to get free, but it was impossible.”
“About ten minutes later they tossed Abby in, kicking and screaming. It took two of them to tie that feisty little shit up,” Steph laughed, then slowly rose, holding the tablecloth tightly to her chest, stepping gingerly around the room to make sure in her own mind that the three hell hounds weren’t moving.
“If I could have gotten a clear shot with my foot at the big one’s balls, I’d have gotten away,” Abby growled. Her panic was turning to anger.
Steph knelt beside the big behemoth in the back, then jumped up, staggering back toward Chase, a look of sheer terror on her face.
“Chase, take us to the clinic! Don’t let them take us to the hospital!”
“Why, Steph?”
“Please, Chase! Just trust me! And don’t say anything about it to the police when they get here. Make up some excuse to bring us to the clinic. Please!”
“I trust you, Steph. Just relax, ok?”
He eased her back down to the floor. She was in tears. He slowly knelt beside her, not wanting to make any fast moves and startle the shocky women. He held her to his chest, rubbing her back soothingly. He was afraid she was going into shock, too.
“Oh my God! Chase, look at your balls!” Steph’s hands rushed to her face in horror.
Chase looked down. His balls were the size of grapefruits, throbbing painfully in his black and blue scrotum. He’d been so wrapped up in freeing the girls and tending to their wounds that he’d forgotten that he was naked.
“Oh boy,” Chase moaned. That’s going to hurt tomorrow.”
He was trying to make light of what he knew could be a very serious injury, but he didn’t want to scare the girls any more than they already were. He quickly changed the subject.
“Abby, would you get my clothes back there in the booth, please?”
“Oh, Honey. And your poor head, too. Sit down, Baby. I’ll get your clothes.” She kissed Chase’s damaged, bloody, cheek and forehead and brought his clothes back to him, helping him get his jogging shorts and tee shirt on.
Now he could barely move. Knowing the girls were going to be ok, all the adrenaline had finally and completely deserted him. He laid back in extreme pain and just started to breathe deeply, fighting his demons to get control of the debilitating pain.
The city police, along with Mac and Chad, arrived in unison, lights and sirens signaling their arrival.
Six cops rushed into the twisted circus, guns drawn, and checked all the corners and alcoves before moving cautiously to the four victims laying battered and bruised on the cold floor.
A few of the city cops immediately went to the three bodies, ensuring they were incapacitated and unarmed, while the one who appeared to be the leader, along with Mac and Chad, knelt beside Chase and Abby, ensuring they were ok.
Chase, Abby and Stephanie were questioned intensely by both departments. Kay was in and out of it but, thank God, she appeared to be coming around.
Chase gave the police the condensed version, without all the gory details, all the while watching Kay like a hawk. Even the cops were utterly appalled and shocked with what they saw in the unholy masochist’s lair.
Restaurant style tables with expensive red velvet table coverings and glass candle holders, most laying on their sides after Chase’s rush to thwart the ringleader, were set up outside all the deviant stages for onlookers to sit and eat, drink and watch the disgusting Bacchanalias. Just the thought of it turned everyone’s stomach. These were some very sick individuals. Chase just couldn’t wrap his head around what sort of diseased, festering mind it took to take any pleasure from watching and participating in something so inhumanly vile.
Chase got himself upright. It took every bit of remaining strength he had. He limped painfully over to the lead cop who was scoping out the various stages: appalled. The cop was as white as snow and was starting to turn green around the gills.
“Officer, these ladies need medical attention. I’m the medical director at the campus clinic. Can I please take them there and deal with their injuries? We can answer any other questions you have for us tomorrow. None of us are up for this tonight.”
“Are you sure you don’t need to go to the ER, Doc? That one lady passed out over there looks like she might need some serious treatment.”
“I’m sure. I’m going to give her a little something to keep her from waking up in a panic, but she’ll be fine after a good night’s sleep.” Chase wasn’t going to elaborate.
“If you’re sure, Doc. Listen, Buddy. I don’t know what someone says in a situation like this, to people who have gone through something so horrendous. All I can say is how sorry I am. I’m so repulsed, I just can’t process any of this. I can’t fathom what you poor folks had to deal with during this disgusting nightmare. I’m so sorry.”
“Listen, we’ve got our forensics team on the way. They’ll get in here and start digging into this. I’m personally making finding these disgusting perverts a quest.”
“Well I think you’ll find evidence of all their victims back there in the filing cabinets in that makeshift office. And I’m sure you’ll be disgusted when you see what shows up with a little Luminol and a black light; the sick fucks.”
“We’ll give you a ride to the clinic, Doc,” Mac offered. He’d been shaking his head in shock since he first arrived.
Abby and Chase made quick work of grabbing more tablecloths and wrapping Steph and Kay up to keep them warm as they moved them out into the damp chill of the rainy night. Chase gently rolled Kay to her side, shielding her modesty from the roaming cops, and slid a needle into her hip, giving the slowly awakening woman a mild dose of a sedative to keep her from waking up in a full blown panic.
Mac and Chad helped Chase get the ladies out to their van, laying Kay across the bench seat. All the city cops were deeply engrossed in their investigation and barely noticed the bedraggled victims being helped out.
Abby leaned on Chase as he gently rubbed Kay’s thigh, hoping to sooth her. Abby was still shaking, holding the folders of wretched pictures tight to her chest inside her wrapping. Chase wrapped his free arm around her. He wasn’t letting her get more than an inch from his side ever again.
Steph, surprisingly, appeared to be holding up pretty well considering the nightmare she’d just experienced. She lay on one hip against the back, reinforced window silently watching Chase tend to Kay.
“Take us around to the back entrance to my house please, Mac. We don’t want to have to answer a bunch of the duty staff’s questions right now.”
Mac and Chad helped Chase get the ladies inside his office. Mac tenderly laid Kay on the exam table with a tear in his eye. Kay was one of the faculty that Mac knew and liked. Seeing her like that, with just a mere inkling of what she’d been through, broke the big, burly man’s heart.
Steph was barely able to walk, wrapped tightly under Chad’s arm with Abby holding on to Chase’s side for dear life. Chase asked Chad to ease Steph on the couch on her stomach.
Chase went through and locked his outer and inner offices, then walked Mac and Chad out the back, thanking them profusely for all their help.
“We never had a clue, Doc. I swear. We knew they had some wild parties over there, but there’s no law against that unless they disturb the peace. We never got any complaints or I swear we’d have put an end to it post haste. If we’d only known!” Mac was obviously beating himself up.
“I know, Mac. It’s not your fault.” Chase smiled a weak smile, patting Mac’s massive shoulder. “Just keep this to yourself for now, ok?”
“You know we will, Doc. We’ll get those sickos-every god damned one of them. You have my word! And if you need anything at all, you call me, day or night. And Doc, you’d better get that face of yours looked at. You look like you went ten rounds with your hands tied behind your back.”
“I will, Mac. Thanks. We’ll talk to you later.”
When they were gone, Chase locked the back door.
Abby was laid back in Chase’s office chair. She was trying her hardest to breathe deeply and calm herself, her legs splayed out under the desk to ease her sore groin. She still looked shocky, but she was faring pretty well considering. Chase almost smiled at what a little trooper she truly was. Sadly, nothing they’d been through that horrid night warranted a smile.
He leaned in to hug Abby when he heard Steph moaning on the couch.
“Abby, the new scrubs came in today. They’re in the back hall. I’ll dig yours out, and you can put them on for now. I’ll check you over once we have Kay and Steph taken care of.”
Chase helped Abby dress, kissed her softly and moved on to Steph.
“How are you holding up, Steph?” He was rubbing her back, speaking gently to her. Not surprisingly, she’d gone from seemingly calm to tormented. Chase could see the change in her body language. But for some reason, she felt it was necessary to put on a brave face. He rubbed her back soothingly, whispering softly to her.
“I’ll be ok, Chase. I may not sit too well for a while, though. I can feel the blood oozing out of my ass. How sick and perverted do you have to be to do something so disgustingly twisted?!” Her bottom lip was quivering. “And to kidnap people and drug them to get your sick, warped pleasures!”
“You don’t have to be a tough guy, Steph. You’re safe here. Thankfully it wasn’t any worse than it was. If you’re ok with it, I want to check your tush again. I don’t think there was any serious damage, but we weren’t exactly in the best conditions for an exam in that torture chamber. I can probably pull that wadding out now.”
“Shall we go back to the barn?” she chuckled, still trying to maintain her fading bravado.
“I like the ambiance here much better.”
“Me, too. Do what you have to, Chase. You’ve become my hero. I’d trust you with my life.” She leaned up on her elbow and unwrapped the table cloth from underneath her with the other hand.
Chase got what he’d need from his cabinet and rolled the exam lamp over from beside his exam table. “Why were you so adamant about not going to the ER, Steph.” He directed the light on her damaged backside and pulled on a pair of exam gloves, trying to keep her talking and keep her mind off the fact that he was easing a well lubricated anoscope inside her as he gently eased the bloody hemostatic gauze from inside her. He could see Zeigler’s fading tooth marks and the bruising starting to surface around it on Steph’s perky ass cheek.
“I’ve heard rumors, Chase. Up until tonight, I didn’t really believe them. But that Godzilla that hit you? He’s the doctor that you replaced. I knew I’d seen him before. And I’ve seen him on campus before. And in Zeigler’s office. He works at the hospital now. I saw him there when I had to go in with a broken wrist back in the fall. Who knows how far their tangled web goes? That source I told you about said there were more than just faculty and alumni involved in that nightmare. Some of our more illustrious townspeople were in on it, too. Given what took place tonight, and knowing the depths of depravity they’ll go to, they may have cohorts at the hospital that could have made us all disappear right out of the ER without a trace.”
“Holy Jesus. This thing is growing like kudzu. It’s sprouting out of everywhere.”
“What the hell is kudzu?” she half-laughed.
“I forgot. You’re a Yankee. It’s a southern thing,” he laughed.
Chase thoroughly examined Steph’s backside, having her rise up on her knees to open her for a better look. After a thorough exam, he felt better about his initial diagnosis. Thankfully, the bleeding had stopped. And, as expected, she had a slight tear that would heal on its’ own.
He cleaned her up gently with some Betadine, slipped in a suppository to ease the pain and handed her a packet of them to take home. Then he cleaned, bonded and dressed the whip lashes on her back and buttocks. They were pretty deep, but would hold together well enough with Dermabond. Abby’s, however, he knew were going to require some sutures.
“Steph, are you allergic to anything?”
“Not that I know of.”
“I’m going to give you a seven day course of amoxicillin to take just to make sure none of these wounds become infected.”
“Whatever you say, Chase. Thank you so much for saving us and taking care of us, Sweetheart.”
“Stephanie, I brought you a set of Ann’s scrubs. These should fit you.”
“Thank you, Abby.” She reached for Abby’s hand, squeezing it in a knowing way. Both ladies looked to each other and nodded, their compassion and caring for each other after their mutual nightmare radiated from them both.
“Stephanie, would you like to stay here with us tonight? Abby was back in control as she carefully helped Steph into the scrubs. “I can’t imagine being alone after what we just went through.”
“I’d rather go home, Abby. I don’t think we’ll have to worry about any of them ever again; thanks to our hero here,” she smiled, rubbing Chase’s shoulder.
“I want to just soak in a bathtub with a bottle of Jack and just wash tonight away. If tonight can ever be washed away.” The expression of utter dread and sorrow on Stephanie’s tormented face broke Chase’s heart.
“Give her a good going over, Abby. Check her wrists and ankles and clean that dried blood off of the back of her legs. All that flipping on those racks had to put some strain on all of your wrists and ankles and Steph broke her wrist once before. Check her range of motion, and make sure she’s completely alert and doesn’t have a head injury. And if she’s still shaky, give her one of clonazepam. The keys to my drug cabinet are on the ring in my backpack. I need to see if we can’t get Kay back among us. Her in and out is really concerning me.” Chase was trying his best to keep Abby busy and keep her mind off what she’d just endured.
Chase moved to the lightly sedated Kay. He was hoping she’d come around completely soon. If not, he’d have to get her to the hospital-cohorts or not. If she was in deep emotional shock, she’d need long term treatment that Chase couldn’t give her there.
“Would you help me here please, Abby.”
They got the wrapping off of Kay, and Chase elevated the foot of the exam table, then rechecked her eyes, ears, nose and throat. She was responding to his voice and starting to come around. All three breathed a sigh of relief.
Chase looked down along her tortured body. They’d obviously done a number on her before they got Abby and Steph into their version of hell. She was one big bruise pretty much from head to toe.
Chase gently shook Kay’s shoulder and her eyes opened, a look of utter terror on her otherwise beautiful face.
“Atta girl, Kay!” Steph sidled up and held Kay’s hand, rubbing it briskly.
Abby left Chase to deal with Kay and gave Steph a good going over.
When she finished, Steph called her sister and asked her to come and pick her up. How she broke the story to her, if she broke the story to her, was between them. As much as they all wanted this whole nightmare to just go away, he knew deep down that it wouldn’t. The whole twisted event, with all its’ dark, vile secrets, would certainly be on the front pages of all the morning papers. The news vultures were massing outside of the infernal Faculty Club as they were leaving.
Sadly, Chase knew deep down, that none of them would ever completely forget what they’d just gone through.
Abby walked Steph to the door when her sister arrived, then came back and sat beside Kay, holding her hand, speaking softly to her while Chase limped to his medicine cabinet and swallowed a couple of Toradol tablets dry. He didn’t know what hurt worse, his head or his screaming testicles.
“Chase!” Kay was screaming.
Chase hobbled to her side in a painful rush, the nasty trail of offal left from taking the tablet dry was causing Chase to gag.
Kay’s first conscious reaction was to spring up and attempt to run away. She almost trampled Abby in her frenzied, panicked attempt to flee. Abby gently eased her back, speaking softly to her, her hand rubbing Kay’s bruised cheek comfortingly.
“Easy, Sweetheart. We’re all ok?”
“How?! How did we get out of there?! Oh my God! Are we badly hurt?!”
“Ninja Chase there got us out of there, Kay. It was a sight to behold.” Abby was shaking her head, rubbing Kay’s shoulder, trying to soothe her.
“Where’s Steph?” Her head snapped from side to side, panicked.
“Her sister just came and picked her up. She’s going to be just fine. Just a little sore and obviously pretty shaken up. She’s gone home to get some rest.”
“Am I damaged down there, Chase?”
“We didn’t examine you yet, Kay. Other than to make sure you weren’t hemorrhaging. Thankfully, you’re not. I can imagine you’re sore, Sweetie. Abby will check you out when you’re a little more alert.”
“Oh, Chase! You poor baby! Look at that handsome face! Are you ok, Sweetheart?” She gently ran her trembling fingers over his bruised and badly swollen face. The sad, disparaging look on her haunted face was breaking his heart.
“I’ll be fine, Kay. Let’s take care of you.”
“Please tell me this is finally over, Chase?”
“I think so, Kay. At least I hope so.”
“It has to be, Kay,” Abby sighed. “I’m pretty sure Chase killed all three of them. The jig must be up. I’m sure any others are headed for the hills by now. The cops and the news crews were all over that house of horrors when we left. There were police cars, ambulances and forensic trucks flashing their lights all around that viper’s den and reporters with video cameras everywhere.”
“Thank God! I hope they get that sonofabitch I was married to and cut his tiny little cock off!”
“Easy Girl. Now. Your blood pressure and respirations are good. You gave us quite a scare there. Do you think you can walk, or would you rather I get a gurney?”
“Just help me up, Chase. I can walk. I’m just shaking so bad.”
“Good. We’re going to get you out in the clinic the back way and have Abby examine you to make sure you’re not hurt internally, ok?”
“Thank you, Chase. I’ll never be able to thank you enough for getting us out of that nightmare.”
“Has he told you about what happened to me, Abby?”
“No, Kay. But I suspected you were the other person, as he referred to you. I know you were there the same night I was…you know.”
“I know, Sweetheart. Unfortunately, they left me with a parting gift. What was it you found, Chase?”
“PID. I’m sure exacerbated by an STD.”
“I’m such a coward, Abby. He tried to get me to come back here to the clinic to examine me when I told him my symptoms, but I was petrified about being seen with him. He examined me in a horse barn down at the old polo grounds of all places. Did he tell you what we found down there?”
“No. I have a funny feeling that this wonderful man has been keeping certain things from me for fear of my getting dragged into this.”
“That didn’t work out too well for us, did it,” Kay sighed.
“I’m just thankful it didn’t turn out any worse than it did. Things could have turned out a whole lot differently.” Chase just wanted to change the subject. They were all alive and their wounds would heal. The physical wounds anyway.
“Amen, Brother.” Kay was awash with tears as she took Chase’s hand in a death grip, pulled him down roughly to her and kissed him, wrapping her shaking arms around his neck and nearly squeezing the breath out of him.
“Just breathe, Kay. Relax, Sweetheart. You’re safe now. They’re not going to hurt you ever again.” He ran his hands up and down her back soothingly.
Abby and Chase got Kay up gently and slowly walked her down the back hall to an exam room.”
“I’m going to go out in the hall and call Jess while Abby examines you, Kay. What’s did he prescribe for you?”
“Klonopin. One milligram twice a day.” She was still trembling. “Please don’t leave, Chase. I feel safer with you in the room. Who knows who, or what, is still out there?”
“Sure. If you’re more comfortable, Kay. But I believe we’re safe. Especially here. Has the Klonopin been working for you?” He stood beside her, holding her hand, staring into her tormented face as Abby got her positioned in the stirrups.
“Yes. I was feeling much, much better. At least until tonight. Holy shit!” Another shiver ran along her lithe body. “Three of them with masks over their faces just burst into my house and snatched me out of my living room!”
This time the shudder was followed by a hail of tears. Chase just held her hand, broken hearted, and let her get it all out.
“Thankfully everything looks fine, Kay. You’re just a little raw, Sweetie.” Relief was written all over Abby’s face as she snapped off the gloves and tossed them and the speculum in the can.
“Kay, I want to keep you here overnight. I’m going to give you something for the pain, and something to relax you and help you sleep. Sleep is just what you need right now. Things will look a whole lot brighter in the morning, Sweetheart.”
“Thank you both. I don’t want to go back to my house tonight.”
The intercom buzzed, causing the three of them to jump. “Chase? Are you in the clinic?”
“I’m here, Carol.”
“Chase, Ms. McMillan, the vice chancellor’s daughter is here. She said her mother’s here, but Ms. McMillan isn’t a patient here?”
“Cathy. She must be a mess.” Kay was crying. “Steph must have called her.”
“Do you want to see her, Kay?” Abby asked.
“Oh yes! Please!”
“Ms. McMillian is in the minor procedure room with me, Carol. Give us a few minutes and bring her daughter to the infirmary please. We’ll be bringing her mom in there in a few minutes.”
“Come on, Kay. Let’s get you into the infirmary and get you comfortable. She can stay with you overnight if you’d like.”
“Yes, please.”
Abby slid an exam gown onto Kay as they got her comfortable in one of the freshly painted infirmary rooms. Both waited with her, holding her hands until her daughter arrived.
Kay introduced them all. It broke Chase’s heart knowing the horrendous story Kay was about to relate to her step daughter that, sadly, she’d heard bits and pieces of through the grapevine, as Kay called it, from Kay’s last tragic experience in the Hotel Hell.
“Nice meeting you, Cathy. Kay, if you need anything at all, press the buzzer and someone will be right in. You’re our VIP patient,” Chase smiled, winking with his good eye at the improving Kay. Having her daughter there, holding her hand, was the best medicine she could get. “I’ll have Trish come in and give you something to help you sleep.”
“Thank you so much, Chase. You saved our lives.”
“I’ll leave the orders for Kay’s meds, Chase. You sit. Two of clonazepam?”
“Yeah. And eight hundred of ibuprofen. Thanks, Sweetheart. I’m not getting around too well.”
Chase gingerly eased down into a chair in the hallway, his legs splayed wide to temper the agonizing pain, and closed his one open eye. He was trying his best to erase the unfathomable nightmare he’d just witnessed. Seeing tiny little Abby, bound and gagged like some animal, then abused in such a heinous way was breaking his heart. He felt the anguish rising again, but quickly squelched it-along with the tears that were threatening to overpower him. Tears would serve no purpose now. He only wished he’d gotten free of his bonds before the girls were so savagely violated.
Abby went to the counter to give Trish the order for Kay’s night meds and instructions to wake them if she had any troubles at all during the night.
Chase was fighting the ungodly pain and dizziness. The adrenaline rush was long gone. He felt like he’d pass out at any minute.
“Ok, My Hero. Your turn. Let’s get you into Xray and check out that noggin. Let me take care of you, Honey.”
“I’m entirely in your hands, Sweetheart. I’m not sure how capable I am tonight.”
“How capable you are? How can you even say that, Chase? My God! You’re a hero. You saved the four of us from a certain, excruciating fate worse than death.”
“I’m no hero, Abby. But thank God things weren’t any more dire than they were. I just can’t wrap my head around something so nefarious going on right under everyone’s noses without someone getting wise to it.”
“You’ll always be my hero, Superman,” she smiled, helping him get settled on the table. Abby gently cleaned the massive splotches of dried blood covering most of his badly swollen face, kissing every inch, and eased him onto his back on the Xray table, lovingly cradling his pounding head.
She made quick work of getting the head shots. Thankfully his concussion was minor. The Xrays just showed some swelling, but nothing permanent and his skull was intact. They both breathed a deep sigh of relief as they carefully perused the images on the monitor.
“I’m going to clean up that gash a little better and put some Dermabond on it, Sweetheart.”
He could feel her hands shaking as she cleaned the wound and applied the adhesive. She was trembling so badly she almost bandaged his eye trying to place the liquid dressing over the gash.
“Abby. Relax, Sweetheart. It’s over, Baby. Come here.” He pulled her up on the table beside him and held her, kissing her sweet cheeks and rubbing his hand gently over her back when he felt the sticky blood on the back of her scrub bottoms adhering the new scrubs to her wounds. She’d bled through his quickly placed bandage.
“Oh boy. Abby, slide out of those scrubs carefully so you don’t disturb any clots and let me get a look at you.”
“Oh my God, Chase. I almost had a heart attack. I couldn’t see what that monster was doing to Kay and Stephanie, but hearing their screams coming through those disgusting gags…” Tears ran down her cheeks as she undressed.
“We’re going to need to stitch one of those gashes on your cute little butt, Munchkin.” He was trying to calm her, gently fondling her undamaged glut. He’d seen her in one panic attack. He never, ever, wanted her to ever have to endure another.
“I just thank God that’s all that needs to be repaired.” A visible shudder ran along her tiny, beautiful body again.
“Any bleeding from your vagina, Honey? That fucking animal!” Chase was mad all over again.
Abby settled on the table beside him and laid back, resting her feet on is thighs for him to look. She was red and bruised, but there was no blood and everything appeared to be in tact. He let out a long breath, relieved.
Chase took her hand and pulled her to him, wrapping her in his arms, kissing her forehead, her cheeks and her sweet lips over and over again. He was so overwhelmed by the emotional storm going on in his head. He just held her tight, never ever wanting to let her out of his sight again. Relief that she was ok, physically anyway, washed through him in waves. It brought tears of intense relief to his eyes.
Abby broke their hug, wiping her eyes, then Chase’s eye; smiling that angelic Abby smile. “Ok, He Man. Let me get dressed and we’ll get the rest of you taken care of. I showed you mine, now show me yours. Drop um, Buster.”
“I can’t move, Abby. Help me get them down.”
Abby gasped when she saw his bruised and swollen testicles in the stark light of the room. “Oh, Honey, this isn’t good. I’m afraid this is going to hurt. I’ll be as gentle as I can.”
“Do what you have to, Abby. Everything already hurts.”
“I’m not surprised. You were like a ninja in there.”
“Ouch!”
“Sorry, Sweetie. I have to palpate them. Poor things.” She leaned down and kissed them softly.
“Let me get an ultrasound just to be on the safe side.”
“You’re the doctor.”
“No. You’re the doctor. I’m just one of the blessed women you just saved from hell itself.”
“Down, Girl. You were pretty tough yourself tonight.”
“I was a basket case and you know it. I thank God I didn’t see what he was doing to Stephanie and Kay. I was petrified, waiting for him to turn his attention to me. Then, out of nowhere, that devil was jamming things into me.” Her full lips quivered for a second, then stopped.
“Thankfully you’re just badly bruised, Chase. No torsion or permanent damage,” Abby smiled, securing the ultrasound machine. “But I have a feeling our love life will be curtailed for a while.”
“Not while I still have a tongue!” He was sticking out his long tongue, wagging it at her. Anything to lighten their moods. That had them both laughing.
“Let’s get your shorts back up and get you back in the house. We need to ice those big, beautiful balls down.”
“Oh joy!”
Abby had her arm wrapped around Chase’s waist, helping him as he stumbled from the Xray room, limping toward his house. The entire clinic took on a different look through one eye.
As the night wore on, and knowing that the girls were all safe now, the pain enveloped him. The more his heart rate slowed, and adrenaline no longer raged through his veins, the more achy and mentally exhausted he became.
“Oh my God! Chase! What happened!?”
“You’ll read all about it in the papers tomorrow, Trish. It would take all night to unravel this ghastly tale. Our hero here needs to be laying down, submersed in ice.” Abby was rubbing his back as they walked.
“Do you need anything, Abby? Can I help?”
“Thanks Trish, but he just needs some rest.”
“Chase, at shift change Carol told me that you want Ms. McMillan to have two of clonazepam and eight hundred of ibuprofen, but she asked me to bring her meds a little later. She’s in some deep discussion with her daughter. She seems to be doing ok, and her daughter’s staying with her tonight, the poor woman. She was beaten pretty badly. Is it ok to wait on her meds?”
“Sure. Just make sure she gets them before it gets too late, Trish. She’s had enough nightmares for one night.”
“Ok. I’ll be here all night. Call me if you need me. Get some rest. You look like you were hit by a train.”
“Thanks, Trish. I will. Call me on the intercom if she has any problems whatsoever.”
“Eileen’s here, Chase. You just rest.”
“Call me anyway, Carol. She’s our VIP patient.”
“Thank God Carol and Trish didn’t hear what happened to Kay, Chase. She thinks she was beaten.”
“Sadly, she was. Among other sick, disgusting things. They beat her up pretty badly before you two got dragged in. They were probably trying to get information from her that she didn’t even have. That poor, poor woman.”
Abby turned into Mother Hen in the wink of an eye. She got Chase undressed and propped up in bed to watch him for complications from the concussion, then placed ice packs on the egg on his head, and another under his aching balls. It was torture.
“You, Young Lady, get those scrubs off. Let’s see about taking care of that tush.”
While Steph and Kay got the thong of the whip across their backs and butts-which was bad enough-Abby was at the end of the bestial rack and got the popper. The lacerations in her backside were deep and just looked angry.
“Before you suture this, Chase, can I please take a shower. I have to wash his filthy, disgusting hands off of me. I just feel so…dirty! The thought that his claws were all over me is making me physically sick.”
“Sure, Honey. Just leave the door open. And if you start feeling like a panic attack is coming on, or if you get dizzy or anything, call me.”
“I will, Sweetheart. Thank you.” She kissed him and went off to shower. It broke his heart.
When she came out after her forty minute, scalding hot shower she looked a little more in control. The shower did her a world of good.”
“Feel better?”
“Much. I really needed to wash tonight off of me.”
“I understand, Abby.” He held her again, kissing her softly.
Chase reached over and hit the intercom beside his bed.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Trish answered, giggling.
“Trish, would you bring in a four-oh Prolene suture tray and all the associated paraphernalia, please?”
“Coming right up.”
“It’s so numb back there I didn’t even feel that it was flayed until the soap hit it in the shower.” She was wrapped in a towel looking so tiny and forlorn. His breath caught in his throat as he fought back the tears for what that beautiful little woman was just subjected to.
“I felt it. Seeing you like that, being hurt like that and being unable to get to you… I was going out of my mind.”
The knock at the door caused both of their heads to snap toward it. “It’s Trish, Chase!”
Abby pulled the sheet over Chase’s package and answered it.
“Who’s getting stitched?”
“Abby is. Look at her tush.” Abby turned and dropped the towel.
“Oh my God! OK! You guys need to tell me what the hell is going on here.”
“Sit down, Trish. I’ll fill you in while my hero here sews me up.”
Abby started right in telling Trish everything that happened, the user friendly version, after she swore her to secrecy. They both knew Trish was as trustworthy as the day is long. In reality, Chase, Abby, Trish, Tony and Carol had become very close, going out for beers every so often and just enjoying each other’s company. Walt, Cynthia and Ann joined them on occasion. The comradery and opportunities for laughter and pranks in the clinic were making for a jovial and enjoyable work environment for the entire staff and the patients alike.
Chase injected the area around her wounds with lidocaine and listened to Abby tell the tale, omitting names, while they waited for the anesthetic to take effect.
Abby never missed a vowel as Chase slowly sewed, trying his best to not leave an appreciable scar while sewing one eyed.
Trish was horrified. The look on her pretty face was one of sheer disgust and revolt. By the time Chase finished, so had Abby.
“I just can’t believe what I’m hearing? Oh my God! You poor, poor babies! Here on campus? How many people were involved?”
“It’ll be a while before they figure all that out, Trish. The seating in that den of iniquity definitely suggests that their membership was extensive. I have a feeling a great many heads will roll when everything comes to light.” Chase was just shaking his head as he spoke. The shockwaves still rumbled violently just under the surface of his consciousness.
“And sadly, yes. That nightmare was going on here on campus. And I have a feeling that once the initial shock and awe wears off, our favorite doctor here is going to be a little shocky, too. He was just a flash of arms and legs. He took the three of them out like a whirling dervish.”
“I doubt that, Abby. As soon as they did what they did to you and our other companions, any remorse I might have felt went out the window. Lord only knows what they would have done if we weren’t able to put a stop to it. You saw the barbaric things they had on that table. Truth be told, I wish I’d had the opportunity to tie them to those barbarous racks and give them what they intended on giving us. My conscience is totally clear.”
“If you hadn’t put a stop to it. We were lambs to the slaughter,” Abby sighed, wrapping her arms around Chase’s thigh in a loving hug as he finished dressing her wounds.
“My God! I just can’t believe what I’m hearing. Thank God you all got out ok. This is going to cause an atomic blast on campus.” Trish was in a state of utter disbelief, shaking her head sadly.
“I’m sure one of those perverts will crack and give up names. Scumbags like these are all rats. They’re cowardly. That’s why they wear those Halloween masks. They’ll do anything to save their own necks. If the prosecutor offers one of them a plea deal, they’ll sing like a canary.”
“I have a feeling the faculty is going to change drastically very soon. And a lot of the supposedly upstanding alumni won’t be envied and revered as such model citizens any more. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them weren’t tarred and feathered before they’re carted off to prison. They may even have to shut the school down for a semester until the smoke clears.” Chase was shaking his head, still in an angered state of disbelief.
“What’s with the crotch there, Chase?”
“It was so awful, Trish. When a crack with a baseball bat to his forehead, and a sickening punch in the mouth didn’t get him to talk, this huge, gorilla looking bastard hauled back and slammed him in the balls with his boot; poor guy.”
Without a by your leave or a may I, Abby pulled the sheet back. Chase’s balls, resting on a huge ice bag, looked like two rotten grapefruits. Trish’s hands rushed to her face in shock.
“Oh, you poor, poor baby! How awful! Not that big, beautiful, wiener. That’s gorgeous,” Trish laughed. “But your poor testicles. They’re not damaged, are they?”
Abby, thankfully, covered him back up. “No torsion or anything, and they weren’t crushed-thank God. In that respect, and only that respect, he was very lucky.”
“You both need some rest. I’m gonna go and let you get some sleep. If you guys need anything at all, call me. I’d better get back out there. Linda, I’m sure, is ready for a break. It’s been pretty busy tonight.”
“Thanks, Trish.” She rubbed Chase and Abby’s shoulders in turn, a broken hearted look on her pretty face, and picked up the remains of the suture tray and left.
Abby looked at Chase, laughing. “Hey, you sewed my ass in front of her. Fair is fair.”
“You’re both girls,” Chase laughed.
“I couldn’t tell whether it was the sight of your damaged balls that had her turning red, or the sight of that huge trouser monster of yours,” Abby giggled.
She crawled up next to Chase and snuggled into him. “And that work of art is all mine,” she cooed.
“Remember me telling you how safe you make me feel, Chase?”
“I seem to remember something along those lines; yes.”
“Multiply that by infinity now. I was so petrified, Chase. But somehow I just knew, deep down inside, even with the horrible, horrible situation we were in that you’d save the day. And you did!” Abby burst out in another round of body-convulsing tears.
“Hey, hey, hey. Easy, Sweetheart. It’s over.” He wrapped her in a hug, holding her tight.
“Talk to me, Sweetheart. Tell me how you’re feeling?”
“Better now, here in your arms, Chase. I mean, we were brutally kidnapped, unceremoniously stripped naked, tied to a rack and violated. Were it not for you laying here holding me, I don’t think I’d be able to handle this. It’s just so disgustingly surreal. But I keep telling myself that as horrible as it was, it could have been a whole lot worse. That thought, and these strong arms of yours are helping me hold it together.”
“More importantly, Chase, how are you feeling?”
“The beating I can deal with. I’ve taken worse. But seeing you up there, so tiny and so scared, being abused like that, it…it…”
It hit him all at once. For the first time since his mother passed away, Chase broke out in a sorrowful wash of tears. The appalling images of those poor women tied to those racks was more than he could take.
“Hey, hey, hey. Shush, shush, shush, Baby,” Abby soothed, wrapping him in a loving embrace. “We’re going to be ok, Chase. All four of us. And thanks to you, they’ll never be able to ever do those unspeakable things to another living soul.” She leaned up, kissing away his tears with soft, tender, butterfly kisses. She, too, was crying.
He got hold of himself, wiping the tears from his badly bruised face.
And you better cover up, Beautiful, because this hardon on top of these aching balls is killing me,” he laughed, fighting to drive the images from their nightmare away.
“Not that I’m happy that you’re in pain, but I am happy that I have that effect on you.”
“You’ll be giving me stiffies until age and nature take over and make stiffies a fond memory,” he smiled, kissing her forehead.
“What makes you think I’d want to keep you around for that long?” she giggled.
“Remember my saying they’d have to pry you from my cold, dead hands? And the whole stalking, restraining order thing,” he laughed.
“Oh yes,” she smiled, snuggling into his chest. “Just thinking about you saying those words makes my heart fill with sheer joy.”
“You make my heart happy, Abby. With the exception of tonight, every day with you has been sheer bliss.”
The stress and the horror of the night caught Abby like she’d run full speed into a brick wall. She was purring on his chest before the end of his last sentence left his lips. It was a common reaction to such a horrendous shock. Sleep was exactly what she needed.
He just held her close, kissing her forehead over and over again. The revolting thoughts of what could have happened to her were tearing him up inside; eating at his very soul. He couldn’t stop thinking about it. Seeing them tied up like that, so helpless; so disgustingly exposed broke his heart. He thanked God over and over again that she and the girls were ok before he finally fell into a troubled, exhausted sleep himself.
*******************************
The intercom woke him. When he looked to the bed beside him, Abby was gone.
“What’s up, Trish?”
“There’s two detectives out here that want to speak with you, Chase.”
“Ask them to wait in my office, please, Trish. I’ll be out in a minute.”
Chase rose like an eighty year old man. Every bone, muscle and joint in his body was screaming out in rebellion. He was about to attempt to dress when Abby came in carrying breakfast.
“Oh no you don’t, Mister! You need to stay in bed, Honey. It’s only seven o’clock.”
“There’s two detectives out there that want to talk to me.”
“Do you want me to bring them in here?”
“No. But would you help me get some clean running shorts and a tee shirt on, please? I can’t bend.
“Oh, Honey. I’m so sorry. I just released Kay. She’s feeling much better. She said she’d call us later today.”
Abby went down to her knees, resting her hands on his thighs.
“Once they leave, I’m going to take care of you and nurse my man back to health. What’s the package look this morning?” She examined him closely, then gently kissed the throbbing plums.
“The swelling’s gone down quite a bit, but you’re still very badly bruised. We’ll go out and talk to them, then I’m going to take care of you and spoil you rotten when you’re done.”
“Thank you, Sweetie. I appreciate it,” he groaned, rising with Abby’s help.
Abby had her arm around his waist, walking him slowly down the hall to his office. The swelling may have gone down, but the pain only got worse. He had to walk bowlegged just to keep the pain at bay.
The two detectives were sitting in the guest chairs in front of his desk.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Guys. I’m a little stiff this morning.”
“No need to apologize, Doctor Brandt. We’re sorry to bother you. We won’t keep you long. We just have a few more questions.”
“Shoot,” he smiled. Abby helped him down into the chair. He grumbled and moaned all the way down.
“I hate to be the one to tell you this, Doctor Brandt, but you look like shit,” one cop; Detective Quinn, the one they’d talked with the night before laughed sympathetically. Chase’s swollen face looked like raw meat, and his balls were threatening to abandon ship.
“And I feel even worse than I look,” Chase laughed.
“We come bearing some good news If any news regarding this nightmare could be considered good, that is.”
“So far, we’ve rounded up twelve of the faculty and six alumni from a tip we got from one of those perverts. And some of their spouses, too. Apparently that band of sodomites were equal opportunity psychos. Thankfully you managed to handle all the hard work for us, Tough Guy. You saved the state a fortune in trials and appeals.”
“From what we’ve gathered so far, they called themselves the Disciples of Dionysus. All kinds of statues and symbolism down in that little Sodom and Gomorrah of theirs. He was, from what we’ve learned, a Greek god attributed with wine, orgies, lust, the whole shebang.”
“And insanity,” Chase chuckled. “They sure picked a real piece of work to worship,” Chase sighed, shaking his head.
“The brother and sister team were apparently the ringleaders. And the founders. Actually, from what we’ve gathered so far, they were living as man and wife; if you can believe that. We haven’t gotten an entire membership list yet, but we will. Some of those feeble old bastards will sell their souls and rat the whole membership out to be disassociated from the hellfire this nightmare is going to bring about.”
“Fortunately, while the DA may go a little lighter on a few of the lesser players, none of them will get away unscathed after this all comes to light.”
Everyone we’ve spoken with: the staff, faculty and people living close to the club who weren’t associated with that deviant insanity are in shock. A, and I use these terms loosely, prestigious university chancellor, distinguished faculty and supposedly esteemed alumni holding orgies and committing rape and every foul debauchery under the sun on non-consenting victims right in our midst. For lack of a better term, it’s utterly appalling! It makes me physically sick. The whole town is reeling over this. It was the top news story this morning on all the local stations.”
“Anyway, you and Ms. Carmody’s suspicions were spot on. They were siphoning money out of this clinic and from the general maintenance accounts to support their sick fantasies; as well as pad their own bank accounts. The chancellor’s bank account looked like he was a close relative of the Rockefeller s. Our people are still digging into all of their finances.”
“We’ve frozen all of their assets, of course, and confiscated their passports-although I doubt any of them will be granted bail. One of our teams is working to determine the identities of those poor women in the pictures you found. They’re going out to speak with them now.”
“I hope they’re bringing some grief counselors with them.” Chase was immediately concerned.
“Absolutely. And we have clergy on call in case they’d prefer to speak to their religious leaders. Thank God we’ve never had to deal with anything of this magnitude before, and I pray we never do again. It’s all just so damn twisted!”
“Anyway, the big guy whose neck you broke used to run this clinic. He was working as an orderly in the ER at the hospital. Real beauty, that one. He had a record a mile long. Come to find out, he was never a licensed MD. He was a veterinarian for Christ sake. And his veterinary license was revoked over a year before he left here for supposedly treating and prescribing for humans. He was under investigation long before that. How that went undetected by the university; and how he slipped past the hospital’s screening practices still has us baffled. Obviously, his master, Zeigler, alias Dionysus, was covering up his indiscretions and the actual facts of his credentials. We have a feeling their twisted little sewing circle may have some connections there at the hospital, too. We’re looking into that.”
“Steph Carmody was afraid there might be a connection there. She was adamant about me taking care of them here and not taking them to the hospital.” Chase was starting to put two and two together.
“Was it just the doctor’s connection to the hospital that tipped her off, or did she have some other information?”
“I’m assuming it was just the hospital connection, but I can’t say for certain.”
“Once we got back here, she said she recognized him as the mysterious ghost doctor that used to run this clinic. Everyone told me he ran things over the phone. Seeing him here must have been a fluke. Some of our staff have been here for years and never once met the guy.”
“Steph had to go to the ER for a broken wrist back in the fall and saw him there transporting patients. She was afraid that if we went there, we wouldn’t get out alive. Frankly I think that would be kind of hard to do in a level one trauma center but, as you can imagine, we were all so distraught that I didn’t want to do anything to upset anyone any further.”
“I’ll speak with her again later this afternoon. Understandably, as you said, she was a bit of a basket case when I was questioning her last night.”
“Anyway, the chancellor is going to pull through. You messed him up pretty bad, but they, sadly, got him going again at the hospital after six hours in surgery. His face and throat are a mess, he’s got some flailed ribs, both of his eye orbits are broken and his throat will have to be reconstructed once he’s well enough to withstand another surgery. But rest assured, he’ll be recuperating in the prison infirmary. The irony is that he may need that electronic voice box they dug out of his neck permanently. His vocal cords were badly damaged.”
“He’s denying everything, of course. He was writing all his answers down when we questioned him because he can’t speak. According to him, he was just an unwitting pawn in the whole thing. He said this whack job veterinarian Lindstrom was the brains of the operation. Quite a few of the other sodomites tell us differently.”
“By the way, and this is off the record, but did you extract your pound of flesh from Lindstrom post mortem? Kinda give him a little of his own medicine,” Quinn laughed. “The ER doc said the guys nuts were almost driven up into his abdomen.”
Chase let out a sly chuckle. “Who? Me? Nah.” Now they were all laughing.
“But I had a feeling you’d find quite a few singing canaries in that bunch.” Chase tsked-tsked, disgusted, then grimaced from a pain, shaking his head.
“So tell me. How did you get wise to this whole fiasco, Doctor Brandt?”
“When I took over the clinic, it was a cesspool. It was very obvious that the budget they’d allocated for running this place definitely wasn’t being used for the clinic. How this place escaped the health department inspections boggles my mind. There had to be payoffs involved. It was a veritable petri dish of filth. Supplies were all but non-existent, the place was a shambles and it was being run by the now deceased nurse who had the entire staff ready to head for the hills.”
“I’ll say,” Abby added. “I was on the verge of handing in my resume and submitting it anywhere else to get out of this hell hole. And any time any of us complained about the way things were run around here, we suffered the consequences for tattling, but nothing was ever done.”
“We got that same story from all the staff we’ve questioned here. It boggles my mind that someone didn’t raise hell. President Billings said that he was only recently made aware of the disgusting conditions here in the clinic, and he was working on putting a stop to it. He said that’s the reason Lindstrom was fired and you were hired, Doctor Brandt.”
“I just wish he’d caught on a little sooner. I’m sure a whole lot of these kids went untreated, or went to that walk-in clinic outside the stadium gate when they needed to see a doctor. The fact that they chose to skim off the top of such a necessary function truly infuriates me.” Chase was getting mad all over again.
“Finish your story, Doctor.”
“Anyway, I was on Zeigler’s radar from the start. He wanted me out. When I met with him, he was all but insisting that I let an outside accounting firm handle the clinic budget. That didn’t sit right with me. His request was highly irregular. Part of my job description is to manage the spending to keep this place afloat.”
“As soon as I got back here to my office after meeting with him, I started digging through the files and the budget sheets from the prior year. The inconsistencies were astounding. Tens of thousands of dollars for drugs we don’t even stock in our pharmacy, almost two hundred thousand dollars for an Xray machine we didn’t have. The list goes on and on.”
“I brought what I found to the attention of Kay McMillian, the vice chancellor, who brought our suspicions to Stephanie Carmody. Steph’s the accounting department manager. As you know, they were the other two unlucky souls with us last night.”
“After we gave my findings to Stephanie, she started digging deeper, adding it all up. In the meantime, all traces of the original budget disappeared from the clinic’s server. Thankfully I’d printed it out because I didn’t have VPN access to the server until my second week here. We were working off of the printouts.”
“They broke in here a month or two ago and tore the place up looking for them, but I had them well hidden. I’m assuming they didn’t think I had them because it got quiet for a while after that and, as I mentioned, the tainted budget disappeared from the server. I came in a week earlier than I was expected to. I think I caught them off guard. They’d neglected to take the evidence of their budgetary discrepancies off the clinic server. It was probably overlooked, or on their to do list for later that week.”
“Anyway. Somehow they found out that Stephanie was digging for dirt from the accounting department. I’m guessing they put two and two together when they found out Steph and I had a meeting scheduled with the school president this morning.”
“When they couldn’t find what they were looking for, they kidnapped Kay first, thinking she knew something. She didn’t, of course. We’d taken her out of the loop for her own safety once we made the connection to that bunch of psychos.”
“Yeah. She told us about her earlier run in with the Disciples of Dionysus. We have her ex in custody along with the rest of them.”
“They won’t make any of the victim’s names public, will they?”
“Of course not, Ms. Fulbrock. That’s confidential information. And I’m sure that when the victims testify in court, it’ll be a closed hearing. You and the rest of those poor people have been victimized and abused far beyond already. The names will be kept in the strictest confidence.”
“Thank God for that,” Chase and Abby replied in unison.
“So then what, Doctor?”
“Call me Chase, Detective. You can’t swing a dead cat around here without hitting a doctor,” Chase smiled.
“Well, after they’d beaten Kay and couldn’t get any answers from her, they apparently used Kay’s phone to text Stephanie, asking her to meet Kay at the library. When she got there, they snatched her getting out of her car and tossed her in a van.”
“Apparently, they’d been keeping tabs on our comings and goings. Abby, my girlfriend here, was already at the library tutoring some nursing students. She does that religiously every Tuesday and Thursday,” He took Abby’s hand and kissed it softly.
“They grabbed her and tossed her in the van with Stephanie and took them to that unholy basement.”
“I was out for a jog when that gorilla jumped out from behind a tree and cracked me in the head with a baseball bat. My mother always said I was hard headed. Apparently she was right.”
“When I woke up, I was tied to some kind of dentist’s chair in that dark, soundproof booth back in that alcove, bound and gagged, and Abby, Kay and Stephanie were tied to that archaic swirling frame you saw.”
“We tore into that demented dentist’s office. I don’t even want to tell you what they used that for, but they soundproofed it for a reason. It still gives me chills just thinking about it. So, go on.
“When beating me, and almost changing my gender didn’t get me to give up the papers, they started on the girls. I managed to get my hands and legs free and took them out before they could do any more dastardly things to the girls. Seeing those vile toys; toys, Zeigler called them,” he growled “they intended to use on the girls on that disgusting table will haunt my dreams for the rest of my life.”
“You took them out alright,” he laughed, obviously trying to change the subject. “Go on, Chase.”
“In my defense, I didn’t know the third one was a woman. She was the chancellor’s sister who used to be a, and I use this term loosely, nurse here. She sure swung that whip like a man. I fired her my second day here. They were all completely anonymous in those robes and masks; and that psycho Zeigler was the one doing all the talking-and he was using that voice disguising device-so I couldn’t recognize his raspy little girl’s voice.”
“Hey. You don’t need any defense. That was some very impressive self-defense. You and your friends were in fear for your lives. It was definitely a life or death situation. You have no reason to defend your actions.”
“Have you had time to check out the clinic in the old horse barn yet?” Chase, too, wanted to get on to less tumultuous subjects. “A veterinarian setting up shop in a horse barn. Wow!”
“Not yet. The campus police have it sealed off for the time being. And all of the perverts we have in custody swear they know nothing about it. Do you have any theories, Chase?”
“Just a rough guess, but given the equipment back there, I’d guess an illegal abortion clinic. And I suspect that after Lindstrom got fired, that became his home as well as his, for lack of a better term, side business.”
“From what I’ve gathered from my digging, when Lindstrom was fired there were some very serious allegations and a whole lot of shame on his performance record. And your’ telling me that his vet’s license was revoked just adds more credence to that theory. That would explain his working as an orderly. They do a whole lot less background digging on an orderly than they do for a doctor; as I’m sure you can imagine.”
“But why an illegal clinic? Abortion’s legal, isn’t it?”
The knock on the door caused all their heads to snap toward it. “Come,” Chase called.
“Doc, Detective Quinn, I’ve got more news. Hi, Abby.” Mac was anxious to share his news.
“One of the senior students came in to see me this morning. She asked to be left out of it, but she saw it all on the news this morning. She admitted that she had an abortion here in Doc’s house in her sophomore year. The really sketchy part is that she swore up and down that she was a virgin when she found out she was pregnant.”
“That poor kid. Wait? Here in this house? Where? There’s a living room, a kitchen, two bedrooms and two baths,” Chase said, scratching his head. “When I started, it was nothing but a haunted house. It took them three weeks of twenty-four-seven just to make it livable.”
“Did you check out the house when you got here, Chase?” Quinn asked.
“Just to peek into the living room. I was told it was unsafe. They put me up at the Regal when I got here. They told me before I accepted the position that the house was a nightmare; and that it would take a while to get it whipped into shape.”
“Mind if we take a look?”
“Not at all. Knock yourselves out.”
Chase took a slow, grimacing, limping lead. The two detectives, with Mac close behind, started down the hallway looking high and low. As the silent detective started thumping a wall that looked newer than the rest, he immediately noticed a hollow sound in the wall between the house and Chase’s back entrance door into the minor procedure room.
“Can I call a crew in here to knock this wall out, Chase.”
“Screw that. I want to see what’s back there.” Chase tapped the wall and, finding a very hollow echo, pushed his fist through the sheet rock. Abby anxiously helped him pull the chunks of fresh sheet rock away. Sure enough. A sealed off room Chase had never seen before came into view. The only hint that it had once been an exam room was the dingy surgical light left hanging from the ceiling.
“It’s all coming together now,” Chase exhaled. “Zeigler told me that he lit a fire under the maintenance chief to get the house done. He was trying to appease me in our first meeting after he learned that the university president was a fan of the clinic. It appears what he meant was to get the maintenance crew to cover up the sins of the past.”
“What are you talking about, Chase?” Quinn asked.
“They were doing the abortions here. In this room. It was obviously Lindstrom’s private exam room. It doesn’t look like there’s any access other than from this hallway here in the house. Don’t you see? When Lindstrom got fired, he needed a place to continue his nefarious little business. The house was no longer his. Hence the barn clinic. And Zeigler needed to make sure he got this covered up before I stumbled up on it. Although, simply leaving it alone would have been far less conspicuous. There’s nothing strange about a procedure room in a clinic. A buried exam room, however, leads to all sorts of questions.”
“Holy shit!”
“Mac, this girl. Will she give a statement?”
“I don’t know, Quinn. She was pretty torn up.”
“Maybe one of the counselors should talk to her,” Chase stated. “She doesn’t need to deal with this alone.”
“I’m starting to follow your thinking, Chase, but I’m still not understanding the need for illegal abortions?”
“That girl Mac just mentioned is perfect proof. Swearing she was a virgin? If her declaration is true, and it wasn’t an immaculate conception, she has no recollection of having sex. Obviously it happened with her unaware. See the correlation?”
“If some of the willing participants in the Disciples of Dionysus became pregnant, or one of the unwilling victims did, and these whack-jobs wanted to keep it quiet, Lindstrom may have been there to keep things under wraps. We know Kay was taken down there more than once without any memory of what happened. If word got out that one of their victims was pregnant, they could have kidnapped her again, drugged her, and taken her here: or, after Lindstrom was fired, back to that barn. I have a feeling others in that coven know a whole lot more about it than they’re saying. Being tied to something like that would add even more despicable charges to their already endless lists. And given that he was in reality a veterinarian working on a suspended license, he certainly couldn’t have worked in any legal medical or veterinary facility. Of course, this is all just supposition: but it makes sense. I can’t think of any other reason for having such a well stocked clinic in an all but forgotten barn. And someone was living there, too. Probably Lindstrom. Orderlies don’t make much and rents around here are pretty steep.”
“We’ll delve into this a little deeper once we finish dismantling that hell hole basement. Thanks for the added nightmares, Chase!” Quinn chuckled, but there was no joy in it.
“Well we just wanted to clear a few things up, Chase, and I believe we did. We won’t keep you any longer. Get some rest. And I hope you’re both feeling better very soon.”
“Thank you. And please keep us in the loop.” They all shook hands. Abby saw them out of the office and helped Chase back to bed.
“Ok, Hotshot. I don’t care if the President of these United States himself comes to see you: you’re not going to be disturbed again today. Now let’s get you undressed and iced down again.”
“My own personal bulldog. I like that!”
For the first time since the morning before, Chase was chuckling heartily as Abby undressed him. Abby looked at him oddly for a moment, then just joined in the yuck fest. Be it relief, joy, whatever they were experiencing, they were soon holding each other, laughing like lunatics. Their lighthearted giggle fest seemed to last for hours. Every time one of them looked at the other, they just laughed harder.
When they’d regained some semblance of calm, Chase was in excruciating pain again.
“Would you get me a couple Toradol from the pharmacy, Honey? I need to knock this pain down a little.”
“Are you sure you don’t want something stronger?”
“No. Toradol’s fine.”
She was back in a flash with the tablets and a glass of water. “And I brought a bed urinal in with me. You’re not getting out of that bed, Mister.”
“Yes, Dear. How are your nether regions today?”
“Throbbing like a bitch. But I’ll live. As inappropriate as this may sound, after experiencing that massive growth between your legs, I was better prepared to deal with last night’s disgusting intrusion.
“Abby!” Chase was laughing as Abby blushed.
“Well it’s true, Tripod! Now. Let me heat up our breakfast. I’m sure you’re hungry.”
“Starving. Thank you.”
She made quick work of reheating breakfast and sat the tray down on the bed.
“Ah, ah, ah! If I have to lay here naked, so do you.”
“But you said it made your wee-wee hurt,” she chuckled.
“Being granted the privilege of seeing that breathtaking sight that is your amazing body is worth any pain I may experience,” he smiled.
“You old flatterer, you.”
Abby quickly undressed and sat down to eat. When they finished, she cleaned up the mess and came back into the room with that nefarious folder in her hands.
“Chase. I want…I need…to see these pictures; but I want you to see them with me.”
“Are you sure, Abby? Wouldn’t you rather just toss them in the fireplace and forget about them?”
“No. I need to see them. And I need to see the look on your face when you see them.”
“The look on my face, I’m sure, will be one of utter revulsion, Abby. But not for you. I hope you know that.”
“I know that, Chase. After what you saved us from last night, I doubt anything could shock you now. But it’s just something we have to do. And we have to do this together. I hope you understand.”
He sadly did. “If you’re sure, Abby?”
He was patting the bed beside him. She snuggled into him, trembling. He wrapped his arm around her as she opened the envelope with shaking hands.
The gasp that escaped her lips and the look of utter dismay and devastation on her beautiful face was heartbreaking. Abby had been used in that twisted operating room stage in the most disgusting of ways. The pictures were hideous. Revolting. Every inch of her tiny little body was grossly violated.
As she rifled through the repulsive prints, her hands shook more and more. Heartbreaking tears and sobs of utter despair were flowing from her beautiful eyes. Hearing her sobbing broke his heart.
“Abby. Honey.” He took the pictures from her locked hand and tossed them aside. “No more, ok? Let’s just burn those and try to forget that hell on earth ever existed.”
“I should have known! That…sick…” she could barely get the words through her trembling lips “twisted fuck! I knew he had a medical fetish!! I knew it!! He was always digging in my bag, playing with the stethoscope and things, asking me to let him listen to my chest and my abdomen! I…never realized! This is hardly innocent medical play!! Oh my God!”
Chase just held her closer, kissing her forehead lovingly. “Let’s just burn the pictures, Baby. You need them out of your sight. You need to try to forget this ever happened.”
“No, Chase.” She wiped her tears away and sat on the edge of the bed. It took her a moment for her sobbing to subside before she spoke. Her tiny shoulders quivered, then stilled. Her voice sounded as if it was coming from somewhere far off.
“We went through this nightmare with two other women last night, Chase. And given the size of that massive pile of envelopes we found in that room, there had to be dozens more. I want to stand with them.”
“Are you sure, Abby. This could get very personal.”
“Will you stand by me?”
“Of course I will. You know I will.”
“Then, yes. I’m sure. We were violated in the most revolting, dehumanizing ways, Chase. Our very sense of personal peace, privacy and safety was stolen from us last night. And for Kay and me and many others I’m sure as far back as a year ago or longer, too. And the only way we’re ever going to really get past this is to stand up and face those fucking monsters in court and watch them squirm as the judge passes judgement on the sick bastards.”
“Wow! You’re one brave little lady. I couldn’t be more proud of you if I tried.”
“I’m not brave, Chase. I’m a coward, really. If I were brave, I’d have brought this to light when I realized what happened to me. It could have saved a whole lot of other women a whole lot of pain and suffering.”
“You can’t take the blame for that, Abby. Without the proof we have now it would have been your word against theirs. One tiny little nurse practitioner against a prestigious university’s faculty and alumni? They’d have discredited you in every way imaginable and ruined you: personally and professionally. It’s obvious they’d have gone to any length to keep their disgusting secrets secret.”
“Still.”
“None of the other woman came forward, Abby. And I’d bet it’s for just that very reason.”
“I just hope none of those animals ever see the light of day again.”
“Can I tell you something, Abby?”
“Of course you can. You can tell me anything, My Hero.”
“I’m truly, madly, deeply in love with you. We’re talking head over heels here,” he smiled, leaning down to kiss her sweet lips.
“Oh, Chase!”
She fell into him in a hail of tears. “How I’ve prayed we were on the same page in that department. I fell in love with you that very first night at Gas Light! I knew immediately that there was something wild and wonderful about you. Everything about you just sends me into orbit. You’ve become my everything!”
“I still can’t even begin to process what you did for us last night. You were amazing, Honey. You were on the brink of unconsciousness after the horrible things they did to you, yet you overcame that to save us. And you did! You saved our lives!” Her tiny shoulders were shaking all over again as she squeezed him in a hail of tears, holding him tightly, kissing his chest over and over again. “I love you so much, Chase!”
****************
The morning papers were rife with the story; each with its’ own twist. Reporters and news crews stormed the campus. Thankfully the campus police were keeping the throng away from the clinic. They were in no shape for interviews.
The incoming relief staff told everyone that Faculty Row was like a battle zone with flashing lights, news crews, and police vehicles lining the street on both sides. Many of the perverts were snatched from their beds in the middle of the night. Others hightailed it out of town before they could be captured. Alumni businesses, including a certain accounting firm, were shuttered; their owners unreachable.
Chase’s personal physician kept him in bed and hovered over him like a mother hen, letting the staff in to visit occasionally; but only in small groups. And she got down right dictatorial at running them out if Chase so much as blinked a pained eye. It made him laugh.
He and Abby lay in bed reading the papers, many of the write ups highly embellished, when Carol knocked on the door. Abby let her in.”
Chase! Did you see this write up in the campus paper? Listen. Ninja Doc Saves Damsels in Distress from Certain Death in Satanic Campus Sex Dungeon!”
Abby was rolling on the bed, laughing. “No wonder your head hurts. It must be the size of Texas. You’re being heralded as the hero you truly are in all these stories no matter what twist they put on it.”
“You can laugh now, but I’m still having nightmares about seeing you up there.” His whole body trembled again at the thought. She kissed him tenderly. “Thank you for making me break protocol and examine you, Adonis.”
“Thank you for doing it, Yah Lil Hottie.”
“Oh, shit! I almost forgot why I’m here!” Carol chuckled. “Chase, President and Missus Billings and a Stephanie Carmody from accounting are in the waiting room. They’d like to see you.”
Abby and Chase looked to each other. Shocked.
“Let me get dressed, Carol. Ask them to wait in my office, please.”
“He said to tell you to stay in bed. They’ll come down to see you. He said he knows you’re having a hard time getting around.”
“Well then, send them down please, Carol.”
Abby covered Chase up with the bedspread, an ice bag over his eye and his scrotum resting on a fresh ice bag.
“Hello, Doctor Billings. Missus Billings.” He shook their hands.
Steph sat beside Chase on the bed, wrapped him in a huge hug and kissed his undamaged cheek while Abby pulled up chairs for the Billings’ and crawled up on Chase’s other side.
“Please, Doctor Brandt. It’s Harry.”
“And call me Chase, Harry.”
“I’m sorry you’re under the weather, Chase. I just thank God above you’re all ok! Stephanie gave us the whole story this morning. And of course the police were knocking at our door before the sun came up. My God! I must be blind. All that going on under my nose and I didn’t even have a clue.”
“You can’t blame yourself, Harry. This is a big university. You have a staff that’s supposed to be taking care of those things for you. A staff you’re supposed to be able to count on. This campus is massive. You can’t be everywhere at once.”
“I knew that weasel bastard Zeigler was bad news on wheels from the moment I first laid eyes on him. Unfortunately, every time I tried to get rid of him I had a faculty and alumni uprising. I almost had to call in the National Guard when I had that slimy Lindstrom fired. I guess we know why, now.”
“We’re still in shock. This is the kind of thing you read about in supermarket tabloids!” Missus Billings was shaking his head sadly, wiping tears from her eyes.
“Unfortunately, this tabloid story is actually true to life,” Chase sighed.
“What happened to you four, and anyone else those animals violated, is breaking my heart. I think it’s time I listened to my wife and bowed out gracefully. I’ve been past retirement age for five years now. Given the deplorable scandal that just took place, I can’t expect people to respect and support me knowing this. This abomination happened on my watch.”
“Harry! You have to stop blaming yourself for this. I just wish Chase and I had gotten to you with all the evidence sooner. Somehow that slime bag Zeigler found out that I’d cleared your calendar for us to see you at nine this morning to bring all of this to you. I’m just so sorry it took us so long to get the full picture. We had to do a lot of covert digging to bring it all to the surface.”
“And the four of you were abused in a most heinous way: and almost killed, because of it. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever believed some of the faculty and alumni they’re holding in that jail, and the ones they’re still searching for, were capable of anything so ungodly despicable. These are academics for Christ sake. Intelligent people.”
“No one would have imagined it, Harry. I mean, the kink and orgies among consenting adults doesn’t surprise me. That’s factually very common in academic circles. But this? This total disregard for humanity and personal privacy is the kind of thing you hear about going on in some third world country: or in ghost stories. No one could have seen this coming.”
“But you need to hang in there, Harry. Ensure this can never happen again. Vet the incoming faculty replacements yourself. Hire the kind of good, quality people you want teaching here. The alumni who weren’t involved will come back once the scandal dies down. Another big news story, or football season, will come along and all this will all be forgotten before you know it.” Chase was sincere.
“I’m planning on appointing Kay McMillian as chancellor. In reality, she’s been doing his job for years anyway.”
“Now you’re talking, Harry!” Stephanie laughed. “Not only would she be perfect for the job, but hiring a woman will make you look like the great guy you are. No more stuffy good old boy’s club up in the ivory towers. She’ll have you all toeing the line.”
“Harry, if you hire Kay, I won’t nag you about retiring for another couple of years,” Missus Billings laughed.
“Let’s face it. I know you love me, and we have plans for our retirement, but you love this job. You’d be a basket case just ambling around that big old house. What would you do? Collect stamps? Besides, Kay will do the job that sick little pervert was supposed to be doing and take a lot of the load off of you.”
“Yeah, Harry! Hire Kay and stick it to the establishment,” Steph laughed. “Bring this school into the twenty-first century.”
“Kinda nostalgic, really. “Give um hell, Harry!” Now they were all laughing.
“Kay’s promotion is a sure thing; if she’ll accept it. Whether it’s my parting act, or the beginning of a new age will depend on how bad the fallout from this nightmare is. I’m sure we’ll be sued by all those poor victims.”
“Don’t be so quick to come to conclusions, Harry. Hopefully, they’ll go after the sick bastards involved in this. They’re the guilty ones.” Steph had an oddly cheerful look on her face.
“For the record, Faculty Row isn’t, officially, on campus. Clay Sparkman told me that when I talked to him this morning. He’s been on this like a pit bull on a ham bone since Kay pulled her disappearing act. How’s that for a southernism, Chase?” Stephanie laughed.
“I’ll have you craving grits and red eye gravy before you know it, Steph,” Chase laughed.
“Anyway, Harry, the Faculty Club wasn’t a school sanctioned entity. Zeigler, Lindstrom and Sandler just sort of took over what was once just a faculty hangout and commandeered the basement. With a little expert legal work, those involved will go to jail as paupers and the school will hopefully be left unscathed.”
“We’ll have to wait and see what Clay and the rest of the legal department can determine. But the summer semester is about to start. Thankfully, it’s our least attended semester. I guess I’d better promote Kay quickly so she can do some damage control over the summer and have things back on track by the fall term.”
“Oh, no! You mean I’ll have to beg Kay for funding now,” Chase laughed.
“I have a feeling she’ll give you a blank check wrapped in gold, Chase,” Stephanie laughed.
“I took her and Cathy home this morning. She’s doing much better knowing this is all behind us. She was singing your praises from the rooftops, Chase. And Cathy’s going to stay with her for as long as she’s needed.”
“Thank God. She really had me worried last night.”
“What you did was nothing shy of amazing, Chase.”
“It was a sheer, primal, adrenaline fueled reaction, Harry. I don’t want to even think about my ability to reach a place that dark; but I pray I never hit that level of utter rage and desperation ever again.”
“I’ve got some pondering to do,” Harry said, offhandedly. “We just wanted to stop by and make sure you two were healing, and you were both ok, Chase and Abby.”
“Well, Harry, I hope you decide to stick it out. You’ll have my full support.”
“The Mayo will probably be hunting you up when the story goes national, Chase,” he laughed.
“I rather doubt that, Harry. Besides; I find I’m rather happy right here,” Chase smiled, wrapping his hand around Abby’s tiny waist.
“So you’ll stay?”
“Sure. I have no desire to leave here. We finally have things running smoothly. The students are coming back in droves. The staff is happy. Why would I want to leave?”
“Fantastic! Well, I guess if you’re staying, I’m staying. I can add this impressive new clinic to the plus column in my defense. Seeing it consciously, and not teetering on the brink, I was amazed at how clean and inviting it looks.”
“I don’t think you’ll need any defense, Harry. You’re an innocent in this nightmare,” Steph smiled, taking his hand. “And a hell of a good guy. The non-twisted faculty and staff would raise hell if you stepped down. We all love you, you old fart.”
“I still haven’t figured out why I keep you around, Carmody,” Harry laughed.
“I’m the second best thing that ever happened to you and you know it,” Steph chuckled.
“I just want you all to get well. I pray that you can find some way to put this nightmare behind you,” Harry said, standing and shaking hands.
“They tried to put it behind us last night,” Steph guffawed. “Speaking of which, Chase, are you feeling up to checking me out? I found a new parting gift this morning.”
“Sure, Steph.”
“Well we’d better be going, Harry,” Missus Billings said, rising. “I think we should go over to Kay’s and give her the news.”
“Yes. And Stephanie, I can assure you you’re in good hands,” Harry said, shaking Chase’s hand. “Thank you for all you’ve done, Chase. For me, the clinic, for the school and for the poor women who were subjected to that nightmare.”
“Thank you, Harry. I’ll see you soon. Once I’m up and around. And thanks for coming by.”
“It was our pleasure,” Missus Billings smiled, hugging Chase and Abby. “Take care of yourselves.
Abby walked them to the door while Steph and Chase talked.
As soon as they were out of the room, Stephanie broke down. “I was so stupid, Chase.” Tears filled her eyes. “Ron’s in jail. He was part of all this. I don’t know to what degree, but his preliminary hearing was this morning, and he wasn’t granted bail. I can’t believe I was with that monster and didn’t even have a clue of how depraved he is.”
“You can’t blame yourself, Steph. Kay and Abby were married to men, and I use that term very loosely, who subjected their own wives to that debauchery. It’s not like they have I’m a sick fuck tattooed on their foreheads.”
“It just has my stomach in knots, Chase. I mean, I trusted him.”
“It was probably him that told me no one gave him the order to lock me out of the system while they wiped out all traces of the old budget folders, Steph. And he was probably the idiot that forgot to delete the old budgets from the system before I got here. When I called IT back that Monday, a woman answered and said she’d seen some activity on my account, but she couldn’t make out what it was. You said he was a geek. He probably covered his tracks after he locked me out.”
“Damn! You said you were with him at the horse barn six months ago, right? He may have been the one to give them the idea to set Lindstrom up back there.”
“God I hope not. Just the thought of his hands on me sickens me.”
“So. What new development have you been experiencing. Nothing serious, I hope.”
“Are you ok, Steph,” Abby asked, concerned, as she returned.
“I was thankfully unconscious for a lot of what was done to me last night. I remember him cramming that thing in my butt, but did he stick anything in my va-jay jay? I’m bleeding and I’m not due for my period for another two weeks.”
“Sadly, he did, Steph. And he was pretty rough. We’d better check you out.”
“I’m due for my annual exam anyway. Would you mind, Chase? I’m just kind of leery about anyone else touching me right now.”
“Of course I don’t mind, Steph. And believe me, I understand.”
“Me, too,” Abby said. “If it weren’t for Chase, I’d be a basket case today.”
“I was pretty shaky when I woke up this morning. My sister said I was screaming in my sleep.”
“I wish you’d stayed here with us last night, Steph. I could have given you something to help you sleep. Kay, thankfully, got a good night’s sleep.”
“Here, Chase. I got you a jock strap out of the supply room. If you’re going to get up, put this on.” Abby had a sad look on her face as she handed the box to Chase.
“I hope you got the jumbo size,” Steph chuckled, wrapping her arm over Abby’s shoulder. Abby laughed along with her.
“I’m sorry, Chase. I know there’s nothing funny about it, but when I saw that anaconda last night I just wanted to stand up and salute it.” Now both Steph and Abby were in hysterics.
“You guys are a laugh riot,” Chase smiled. Now help me on with it, Chuckles.”
“Let’s each take a side, Abby. I won’t touch, I promise.”
“Oh, Baby!” Stephanie was teasing, whistling, as she and Abby animatedly slid the jock strap painfully slowly up Chase’s long legs.
“Oh, Honey. I didn’t see these bruises on your calves and thighs last night. Did they beat your legs, too?”
“No. That’s from squeezing the life out of that cocksucker.”
“Remind me to never piss you off,” Steph smiled.
Once they reached the top, both ladies offered Chase a hand to help him stand up so they could finish their comical task.
“Now I can truly say I’ve seen greatness,” Steph chuckled, pushing Chase’s arm.
“As long as it’s viewing only,” Abby laughed. “That gift from above is all mine.”
“No worries there, Abby. I may be a low scrupled nympho, but I’d never mess with another woman’s man.”
“I wasn’t worried about that in the least, Steph. I trust him implicitly.”
“Well if you two are through admiring the goods, can you hand me my shorts and tee shirt, please,” he laughed.
“You’ve got a killer ass, too,” Steph laughed, cracking Chase lightly on his tush.
“He does, doesn’t he?” Abby laughed. She gave him a goose.
“I’m glad you two are getting such pleasure out of my suffering,” Chase laughed.
“Oh no, Baby. We’re just worshiping that awesome bod. It’s great for our morale.”
“Well never let it be said that I stood in the way of anything that boosts morale.”
“Come on down to my office, Steph. Let’s see what’s going on with you.”
“I’ll get her ready, Chase. You’ll probably get there at about the time she’s settled,” Abby laughed, leading Steph down to the office.
*************************************
Sure enough. By the time Chase used the restroom and shuffled down to his office, Steph was in a gown, sitting on the table. Abby was checking her blood pressure.
“Did you lock the doors, Sweetie. This place has been like a beehive all day.”
“Sure did, Sir. She’s got a slightly elevated temp, Chase. Her BP is one ten over seventy. Five-six, one hundred and twenty pounds.”
“Wow! It did take me a long time to get down here, didn’t it.”
“What’s her temp, Abby?”
“One oh one point six.”
“If you would please, Sweetie, draw CBC, CMP, chem seven, lipids, THS and get a clean catch urinalysis.”
“Jesus! Do I have that much blood in me,” Steph laughed.
“Don’t bitch, Steph. A physical like this would cost you six hundred dollars at any doctor’s office,” Abby laughed.
“Oh, I’m not bitching, believe me. I’m thankful. Our insurance, as you know, Abby, sucks.”
“Ours just got a whole lot better, Steph. And if you keep it to yourself, I’m sure we could convince Chase to include you. Given last night, I’m sure you’d be more comfortable seeing Chase. Doctor Wonderful over there, in league with Walt and Cynthia, has decided to offer us in house medical care.”
Steph turned to Chase. “I’m not asking for handouts, Chase, but as I said last night, I trust you with my life. And honestly, I don’t know whether I’m going to be comfortable being this vulnerable in front of anyone else for a long time to come.”
“Not a problem, Steph. I’ve already accepted Kay as a patient. I’d be happy to see you, too.”
“Thank you so much, Chase! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.”
“Think nothing of it, Steph. Go ahead and get a complete history too, Abby.
Abby drew the numerous vials of blood and took them out to the lab.
“Steph, I can certainly understand your’ not wanting to be touched; and it’s definitely warranted right now, but if you ever get to feeling like it’s going to become a permanent affliction, come and talk to me right away, ok?”
“I will, Chase. And I’m sure I’ll get past this. In case you haven’t noticed, I have a very strong personality,” she laughed.
“You?! Nah! I’d have never guessed,” Chase laughed.
“Don’t misunderstand me, Chase. I love Kay like a sister. But Kay’s controlled by her heart. She loves and trusts everyone. That’s why she’s no good in a pinch. Thankfully, your friend Jess is working miracles with her. Hopefully he’ll bring her out of her shell and toughen her up a little. It’s going to take me a while to trust again, but I will.”
“I know you will, Steph. Just keep in mind that Abby and I are always here if you ever need to talk or anything.”
“I know. And I love you both for it.”
“This part you may not like very much, Steph,” Abby said, coming in with the urine collection bag.
“What’s this?”
“The doctor ordered a clean catch urine sample. That means straight from the bladder. I’ll need to cath you.”
“Are you sure I can’t just pee in a cup?” Steph laughed.
“I know you bathed and everything since last night, Steph, but there’s no telling what kind of residual whatnot that animal may have left on you. I don’t want to disgust you, but I don’t think they cleaned their toys between uses. And if you have an infection, we need to know for certain that it’s actually a bladder or kidney infection and not something swept up in your urine stream.”
“You’re the doctor.”
“Just lay back, Sweetie. It’s not as bad as it seems,” Abby smiled, helping Steph lay back. Chase went to his desk to gather his instruments.
“There. All done,” Abby smiled. “I’ll take this to the lab.”
“That wasn’t bad at all.”
“Abby’s got the touch,” Chase smiled. “Sit up for me, Steph. I like to do a thorough initial exam so I don’t get any surprises further down the road.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Chase left no stone unturned as he carefully examined Steph. Abby even asked him a few questions about some of the procedures he used.
“Ok, Steph. Everything else looks good. Let’s get your feet up and see if we can see what’s causing that elevated temperature.
Abby held Steph’s hand as Chase gently guided her into the stirrups.
“Little discomfort here, Steph,” Chase smiled, gently inserting the spec. He used the swab and the brush gently and handed the samples to Abby. “Have Gina run those right away please, Abby.”
“Will do. Be right back.”
“I think I see the cause of the problem, Steph. I believe the blood work and urinalysis will show an elevated white count, but it’s not an STD. You have a little tear on the inside of your labia minora that looks infected. Otherwise, everything looks fine. And your anus looks like it’ll heal well. Just make sure you take all of those antibiotics I gave you last night. I’m just going to clean this up and apply a little antiseptic.”
“Here’s the blood work and PAP results, Chase. Everything but the white count looks good.” Abby had a happy smile on her face. Chase let out a sigh of relief.
He read through the results thoroughly. “Everything else looks hunky dory, Steph. You’re in pretty good shape for the shape you’re in,” Chase laughed. “Go ahead and get dressed and we’ll have a chat.”
Abby helped Steph off the table while Chase washed his hands. He sat at his desk writing notes in Steph’s chart when the ladies took up the seats in front of his desk.
“Any issues with sleeping or anything like that, Steph, you let me know right away. And if the pain in your va-jay-jay,” he laughed “or your backside gets any worse, or if it gets hot or doesn’t feel right, let me know. And, for obvious reasons, no sexual relations for a couple of weeks.”
“No worries there. I think I’ll remain celibate for a while.”
Abby took Steph’s hands in hers.
**********************
“Ok, Slack. You’ve been in that bed for three days now. I think that laptop has become adhered to your thighs.”
“I got up for a little while this morning, Warden. I’m feeling better today. I just had some things I wanted to get taken care of and I like the ambiance in here much better than my office,” he chuckled.
“As your personal practitioner, I’ll be the judge of that,” she giggled. She wrenched his laptop from his lap and tore back the bedspread.
“God that’s a beautiful thing,” she chuckled, leaning down and kissing his healing cock. It instantly responded to her gentle kiss.
“Hm? I think it’s about time we gave that monster the full road test. You know. Rev it up, kick the tires, that kind of thing. Strictly medicinal, of course. We need to make sure you’re still capable of completing the mission,” she winked, giggling.
“But of course,” Chase laughed.
That crooked, mischievous smile appeared in spades as she bit at her lip and started into one of the most drool-inspiring striptease dances he’d ever witnessed. She stared at him seductively as she slowly pranced around the bed, taking her sweet time as her clothes slowly fell to the floor. All systems were definitely responding. Chase just leaned back against the headboard, thoroughly entranced.
“God I love you, Munchkin.” The smile on his face said it all.
**************************
Six months passed before the whole twisted nightmare was sorted out enough to finally bring it before a jury. The details were exhausting in their complexities.
As it unfolded, a deeply tangled web of embezzlement, hidden shell corporations, off shore bank accounts and despicable debauchery came to light.
As it turned out, Clay was right. The Faculty Club wasn’t, officially, part of the campus. It was on a parcel of land that had been donated to the school almost a century before, but never officially annexed. Given that fact, and a few others that came to light in the investigation, the media looked favorably on the university itself and the backlash was minimal. All the angry eyes were on the publicly destroyed faculty, alumni and all others even remotely involved with the Disciples of Dionysus.”
The Faculty Club was boarded up immediately afterward and remained closed until Faculty Row could be officially incorporated into the campus and repurposed for a much kinder, gentler function.
Abby never went back to her apartment except to pack her things and cancel her lease. She stayed and nursed Chase back to health: his own personal mother hen and the cause of his newfound glee and lighthearted outlook on life.
A week after their nightmare, when he was upwardly mobile again, he asked her to stay. She happily accepted.
Kay, Stephanie, Abby and Chase became the best of friends and were joyfully accepted into what had come to be known as the clinic loonies. They were always together.
Chase’s friend Jess worked miracles with Kay. Between her therapy, and her new position as the official chancellor she was her old, silly self again after a few months.
On an unexpected note, on one of Kay’s appointment visits with Jess she’d brought Steph along. They had plans to go to a movie after Kay’s appointment. Steph and Jess took an immediate shine to each other and were currently seeing each other exclusively. Chase laughed when he wondered whether she’d made Jess the same enticing offer she’d made him that night in the bushes across from the Faculty Club. Decorum prevented him from asking Jess that question.
The clinic was almost on autopilot as far as the administrative aspects were concerned. Chase hired Ann as his very capable personal assistant who took a great deal of the day to day off of him. He spent most of his days happily seeing patients. Their patient load had gotten to a point where Chase had to hire another NP and two more nurses. The funds for both salaries were happily approved by Chancellor McMillan.
As the months passed, the days and nights with Abby just got better and better. Living together, something Chase thought he’d never do, turned out to be the best decision he’d ever made. She was just awesome in every way. His love for her grew by leaps and bounds.
The day after their horrific experience, before the Faculty Club nightmare hit the national news, Abby was forced to discuss it with her parents. She didn’t want them hearing about it on the national news and gave them the condensed version without all the gory details.
Frank and Linda Fulbrock retired two years before and moved to Arizona. She gave them a brief explanation during their weekly phone call, ensuring them that she was doing fine, but to no avail. When they insisted on seeing her for themselves, she invited them for a visit.
Chase quickly realized how Abby got to be the amazing little woman she was. Chase took an instant liking to the Fulbrocks’. Once the shock and sadness over Abby’s ordeal ebbed they had a wonderful time. Chase was actually sorry to see them leave and made them promise to visit often.
*****************
“Are you sure you’re ready for this, Honey?” They were dressing for their first court appearance.
“As long as I’m on your arm, Chase, I’m ready for anything,” she smiled, pulling him down for a kiss.
“Keep that up and we’re going to be late for court,” he laughed, gently cracking that beautiful ass as she stepped out of the shower.
“Keep your motor running, Champ. Once this is over, I’m planning on rocking your world.”
“You’ve been rocking my world since the first time I laid eyes on you.”
“Are you happy, Chase? Really, truly, happy? Because I know I’ve never been this happy in my whole life.”
“Ecstatic, elated and downright giddy,” Chase smiled. He had a little surprise in store for Abby once they were done at the courthouse.
“I made a casserole for when we get back, Sweetie. Are you covering night clinic again tonight?”
“No, Ma’am. I’ve taken the night off. And you’ve already got the night off. And you can put that casserole in the frig until tomorrow. I’m taking you out to dinner after our court appearance.”
“Oh, my! What’s the occasion?”
“Does a fella need a special occasion to be seen around town with a little hottie on his arm,” he smiled, burying his face in her soft neck as she applied her make-up.
“Stop that! You’re getting me all squishy,” she giggled. She reached up and rubbed his face. “I’m so in love with you, Mister.”
“That’s quite mutual, Beautiful. Are you nervous?”
“A little I guess. It’s not every day you have to get up in front of a room full of strangers and tell them how you were sexually abused.”
“You’re very brave, Abby. I’m so proud of you.”
“I won’t be alone. From what Steph told me, they’ve identified twenty victims and eighteen of us will be testifying. It just seems so unnecessary. They have them dead to rights. With all the evidence they’ve uncovered, they shouldn’t even need our testimonies.”
“Even those animals have the right to due process. Besides, from a psychological perspective, I think the solidarity you ladies have built up, and the chance to finally get it off your chest, knowing there will be consequences for your abusers will do you all a world of good.”
“Have I been ok, Chase? Mentally, I mean?”
“I still see you having nightmares, and the occasional bouts of anxiety, Abby, but on the whole I’d say you’re doing amazing.”
“That’s all you, Sweetheart. If I didn’t have you, I know I’d be a babbling idiot, probably wearing one of those stylish coats that tie in the back.”
“You’re a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for, Abby. The three of you are. I’m very proud of all of you. And Kay has asked Jess to come on campus and give a series of talks to the students about date rape and dealing with situations like that.”
“I hope all the students attend. I wouldn’t wish anything like that on another living soul.”
*****************
Court dragged on and on. Abby was right. The redundancy was evident. Every victim told the same, sordid story of being drugged, then waking up the next morning feeling like they’d been hit by a train. Even having lived a part of it, their heart wrenching stories triggered a deep sadness and sympathy from everyone present.
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your take, because they were responsible for bringing the whole nightmare to light, Abby, Kay and Steph were the first three called to the stand. All three were stoic, intelligent and to the point regardless of the slimeball defense attorney’s attempts to trip them up. The accused degenerates hired some hotshot from one of the most prestigious law firms in the state to defend them, but it appeared even he knew he was fighting a losing battle from the get go. The evidence against them was rock solid and undeniable. Chase had to take his hat off to both the local police and the campus police. They’d worked together tirelessly to bring all the facts to light.
Chase’s hunch about the barn clinic being Lindstrom’s secret vile clinic proved true. The monster kept a log book of all the unwitting victims he’d performed abortions on. It was found in a hollowed out book hidden under a wallboard in his sleeping area in the barn. Dozens of the unaware victims and quite a few of the willing participants were treated by the sick, demented, veterinarian Doctor Lindstrom. Sadly, Kay was one of them. Had Lindstrom lived, he’d have been sentenced to spend eternity behind bars and probably murdered in his cell.
Chase was called next. The hot shot tried to paint Chase as a violent instigator, and even threatened to bring him up on charges of murder and attempted murder. Chase actually laughed on the stand. Clay and their legal team warned him that might happen, and made certain they lined up a slew of impeccable objections, references and corroborating stories to prove the defense attorney was digging a dry well. Every time the slime bag for the defense opened his mouth, Clay objected vehemently. The judge shut the high-priced shyster down in no time.
The whole time Chase was on the stand, he was staring down menacingly at Zeigler sitting there like a zombie in a wheelchair. The stoma hole in his throat was some consolation. Try as he may, Chase couldn’t help but wish the lights would go out in the courtroom for just long enough to finish the job on that demon he should have finished in that basement.
Realizing he was pissing up a rope, the defense attorney gave up on Chase. The judge dismissed him.
The four stayed to hear the testimony of all the victims. Thankfully, the judge cleared the courtroom when the disgusting pictures of the poor women were shown to the jury. Their repulsed gasps of utter disgust echoed off the walls of the massive courtroom. Two of the jurors became violently ill and another actually fainted. The judge had to call a recess just to allow them time to compose themselves.
All in all, twenty six faculty and alumni were found guilty of a whole host of nefarious crimes ranging from kidnapping, aggravated rape, money laundering, racketeering, drug trafficking…the judge needed to stop for a drink of water as he read off the mammoth list. Dozens of others were charged with lesser, yet no less heinous, crimes. They were participants and, as such, were just as guilty as the rest.
The jury was only out for fifteen minutes when they came back with a solid guilty verdict on all counts. Sentencing was scheduled for three months later. None but a few of the very minor players were granted bail-and their bail amounts were steep. The entire case got so much play in the media that anything less would have brought about a riot.
“Will we have to testify again, Chase?” Abby asked, truly shaken as they left the courthouse.
“I think we’re done, Honey. They’ll be hearing the lesser charges against the minor players, but I don’t think they’ll need us for that. We’ll see what Clay says, but I think the only thing we have left to do is be there for the sentencing phase. I’m sure some of them will try to appeal, but I’d say their chances are slim to none.”
“Let’s not think about it any more tonight, ok? I just want to have a nice, quiet dinner with the man I love and try to forget about what just happened.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Chase smiled, leaning down for a kiss.
“Perfect! I’m in just the mood for a steak!” Abby was smiling as Chase turned into the parking lot at the Gaslight. So many fond memories here, Chase. Our first night out together was here.”
“Yes it was. That’s why we’re here.”
“Reliving fond memories, Sweetheart?” she asked, as Chase opened her door and helped her out of the truck.
“Nope. Hopefully making new ones. Abigale Kristen Fulbrock, you’d make me the happiest man alive if you’d agree to marry me,” Chase smiled, dropping to his knee as he pulled the ring from his pocket. I love you, Abby. With all my heart. Will you marry me?”
“Oh, Chase!!!” Abby went to pieces. She couldn’t speak. She stood there, tears running down her soft cheeks, her hands shaking, fanning her beautiful face. She just nodded enthusiastically in the positive.
He reached up, took her hand, kissed it and slid the ring on her finger. Chase caught her as her knees buckled, picked her up in his arms, laughing, and sat her back down on the truck seat.
“It’s so beautiful, Baby,” she stuttered out, her beautiful, tearful eyes locked on the stunning ring.
“Just like you, Abby.”
“I’m speechless, Chase! I’ve dreamed of this day, but I didn’t dare hope too much.”
“I don’t know why, Sweetheart. I mean, this wonderful whirlwind we’ve been riding since I met you just gets better and better every day. The next logical step is to make it permanent before you realize what you got yourself into and run screaming for the hills.”
“Ha! You’re so full of shit,” she laughed. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, Adonis. Every day with you is a party.”
“Oh my God! So much to do! Oh! Oh! I’d better call my parents. They’ll be bowled over.”
“Easy there, Roadrunner. Take a breath,” Chase laughed.
“Chase, I’m not so hungry any more. And those big, beautiful balls of yours are healed. You’ve proven that amazingly over the last few months. Let’s go home, get completely naked and just do anything your naughtiest dreams can conjure up.”
“Now that, Beautiful, sounds like heaven. And a definite for later this evening. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but there are a few people in there waiting for us,” Chase smiled.
“You didn’t!” The tears started flowing all over again.
“Let’s just say you won’t need to call your folks,” he laughed.
“They’re here!”
“They got in this morning. I picked them up at the airport. I talked them out of going to the hearing. I didn’t think you’d want them hearing all that, but they’re in there with the rest of our friends now.”
“You’re the most wonderful, loving, caring man ever born!” She jumped into his arms again, kissing his whole face.
“Wait just a minute there, Mister. How did you know I’d say yes?”
Chase just laughed. “I can see it in your big, gorgeous eyes every time I look at you. Besides, Steph can’t keep a secret to save her ass. I usually get most of the details of your girl talk shortly after.”
“She’s such a blabbermouth,” Abby laughed. “That’s why I told her I wanted to marry you more than anything in the world!” Abby was hopping on the seat, fanning her face as she stared, stunned, at the new symbol now occupying her tiny finger.
“Can anyone see us, Chase?”
“Not that I can see,” he smiled, scoping out the area.
“Slip your hand under my skirt,” she giggled, blushing.
He happily complied. Abby was wearing those thigh highs that always drove him wild, along with a pair of very frilly, very sexy, panties that he’d actually had naughty dreams about.
“Why you little shit,” Chase growled, stroking her dampening pussy through the silky material.
“Ah, ah, ah! Later. I just wanted to give you a preview of coming attractions. And keep in mind that I wore these for you before you made me the happiest woman alive with the promise attached to this ginormous rock,” she giggled, kissing him again. “Now let’s get inside so I can be seen on the arm of the most handsome, wonderful fiance’ in the world and show off this ginormous rock.”