Peggy Holloway - Judith McCain 02 - Portrait on Wicker (18 page)

He stared off into the
night and thought for a minute. “I must have been about ten or eleven. I started with bugs then graduated to higher animals. I used to like to go out at night and go to the poorer neighborhoods. I would find stray dogs and cats and have fun with them. I never used them sexually though,” he said hurriedly as if he thought I was going to ask that next. The way he denied it so quickly made me believe that he had used them sexually.

“Let’s move on,” he said and continued his story.

As my dad and I moved toward the bed, the bitch turned over and saw us.
She smiled and reached out her hands to us.

“I see you told him, Bill,” she said.

My dad chuckled and said, “I’m just going to watch sweetheart. You wore me out before.”

This seemed to amuse her and she held out her hand to me.
I was enjoying the hell out of this, knowing what was going to happen to her.

My dad took a seat in the soft leather chair by the window and I went to the bed.

I grabbed her roughly and my father said, “Slow it down, son, you’ll enjoy it more.”

“Oh, yes slow it down
,” The bitch said. I wanted to hit her.

My dad complimented me over and over during the night.
I had made it last all night long. She appeared to be worn out by then. Twice I had noticed my father masturbating while he watched us, and I admired his size and hoped one day I would be as big. You know I am now, right Judith?

Anyway, toward the morning I started chocking her and I saw real fear in her eyes, but I let her come a few more times so she would be fooled.
I finally entered her and chocked the life out of her.

As she died
, I had the best orgasm I had ever had before or since, until tonight, hopefully.

I was terrified knowing what he had planned for me, but I tried not to show it. He was studying me, and I thought the time had come, but then he turned back toward the front and continued.

There is unlimited space out there in the bayou. That’s where we dumped her. By now the alligators and crocodiles have eaten her up. My dad told everyone she had run off like all his wives.

He told me that he
always picked wives without a family or anyone to care what happened to them. He’s going to give me hell when he finds out about you. I may let him share you with me. I think he’d like that.

I interrupted him, “I’m not without family and friends, Bill. What are you going to do when all those people, who love me, come looking for me?”

“That’s not your concern.
My dad will fix things. He always does, when I mess up.

He started the car, “I think it’s time you met my father.”

As we pulled out onto the river road I thought I noticed a car behind without headlights on. I tried to look in the side mirror without letting Bill see me but he seemed to be so wrapped up in his thoughts he didn’t seem to notice.

He was mumbling to himself and I realized he was having an imaginary conversation with his father.
He had become the little boy trying so hard to please his dad, and to get his dad to love him.

I was straining to try to hear what he was saying and watch for the car in back when suddenly I noticed we had pulled up in front of Judge Gadsby’s house.
The car behind had coasted to a stop a few houses down.

“Get out,” He yelled. T
o me, at that moment in time, he appeared to be more of a school yard bully than a grown man.

He pulled me out of the car and took off the handcuffs.
Taking my upper arm, he walked me into the house.

Judge Gadsby was coming out of his study and said, “Hey you two!
Good to see you again, Judith, Officer Wheeler. What brings you by, any new developments?”

“I’m sorry, dad,” Bill said. “She recognized me tonight.”

“What are you talking about, Officer Wheeler? What do you mean, she recognized you? Of course she did. She knows who you are. Would you like something to drink?”

“Nothing for me, thank you,” I said.

Bill took my arm again and we followed the judge into a small sitting room.
The judge walked over to a wet bar, on the side of the room, and began pouring drinks. He handed one to me and one to Bill.

He looked at me until I took a small sip,
and then turned to Bill. “What do you want to do?” he asked.

“We h
ave to kill her,” Bill said. “She knows it was me and Mackey who kidnapped her and her sister when she was three.”

“Son, you got us into a mess.
Okay, I agree, we have to kill her, but what do you want to do with her first?”

“I want to finish telling her my story and then we can share her if you want.”

“Why tell her anything? Have you considered she might be wired?”

“Nah, as much as I’ve felt her up I would know.”

His father actually laughed, “All right this show is yours, but we can’t handle it in the usual way when we’re done. We’ve got to make it look like an accident.”

“I agree,” Bill said and continued his story.

CHAPTER 46

After that first
experience with my step-mom, dad and I shared everything. He married a woman his age after changing identities several times. This was after we met Jupiter, wasn’t it dad?

Now I always thought dad was smart but Jupiter must have an IQ
of two thousand. Wait til you meet Jupiter. Oh, I forgot, you won’t be meeting Jupiter. You and the pathetic little nightly group have no idea how widespread this is, or how many powerful people it involves. We have made millions peddling young flesh, both sexes. You were one of the older ones. Some people will pay enormous amounts of money for tiny kid flesh. Your twin is an example, being taken at age three. That Mr. Reynolds was one sick dude. But he had so much money, if he had asked for an infant; we would have gotten it for him.

Jupiter’s operat
ion has been going on for so long you’re wasting your time with penny ante Lessiter and his part or Mr. Reynolds or any of those small people. The FBI arrested a couple of judges and a doctor. They thought they were a big deal, but no one will roll over on Jupiter.

When he started coughing, his dad brought him a glass of wine and asked if I wanted one.
I shook my head. I was so terrified I was afraid to speak.

They sat there staring at me and I cleared my
throat and looked at Bill, “Did you order a hit on Tricia Hunter before you and I got to Virginia Beach?”

He laughed. “Not me, Jupiter.
You really are gullible aren’t you? I can cry at will. When you saw me cry, your pitiful little heart melted. You were so easy to fool. You immediately fell into my arms and my bed.”

He turned to hi
s dad, “She was insatiable, dad. I wish you could have been there. I doubt either one of us could have worn her out.”

Judge Gadsby lo
oked at his watch. “I wish so too, son, but Mrs. Gadsby’s sleeping pill will be wearing off in a few hours. If you want to finish your story, you’d better continue.”

Bill smiled
, like he was glad to please his dad, and continued:

There’s not a whole lot left. Jupiter has recruited so many people in high places, we’re soon going to rule the world. Jupiter will never be caught. People will kill themselves before they will rat out Jupiter, or else Jupiter will order them killed.

Jupiter is the only person alive I’m afraid of.
Even knowing you won’t be around to talk, I will not reveal Jupiter to you.

I was terrified, now that the story was ending. I thought I heard something in the hall, but when I looked at Bill and his dad, they didn’t seem to hear it.

“What do you want to do now, son?
I’m getting horny as a horny toad. Let’s take her into the basement where all the toys are. I can’t wait to get started. She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”

What happened next happened so fast it was like lightning.
The door was flung open. Tracy, John, George, and Sandy, Bill’s partner, rushed in screaming. They had guns pointed at Bill and Judge Gadsby. They were all screaming at once.

“Get down on the floor
! Get down on the floor, now!”

They were on them so fast that Bill, trying to reach for service revolver, didn’t have a chance.
Tracy had kicked his legs out from under him and I could hear bones crack as his nose broke.

The judge had eased himself down on the floor and now said, “What is the meaning of all this?
Officer Wheeler came here asking me to marry him and Judith. We’re sitting her having wine, discussing it…”

“Save it Judge,” Tracy said.
“Get Judith’s shoes, George.”

George eased me down onto the sofa and took off my shoes.
I cringed as he popped the heels off my Prada shoes. He retrieved a tape from one and something else from the other.

At my questioning look John said, “It’s a homing device, Judith.
We were able to keep up with where you were at all times and we got everything on tape.”

“Hand both those things over
,” Sandy said. She had a gun pointed at my head. “Put both on the floor and slowly back away.”

“Get up,” she said to me, and I got up.

George put the tape and the other device on the floor and backed away. They put their guns on the floor also.

Holding the gu
n to my head, she said, “Take the cuffs off these two idiots.”

“Ju…” Bill began and Sandy shot him through the head.

“Now, Judith, we’re going to stoop together and retrieve the tape and tracer and I want you to destroy them.”

As we
began to stoop, she was pushed from behind. Her wrist, that was holding the gun, hit the floor. I heard another loud crack as her wrist broke. The gun went flying and I saw a foot kick it and Tracy retrieved it.

There was suddenly a hand holding
a gun held to Sandy’s head and when my eye followed the arm and shoulder, I saw Mark.

Suddenly s
omeone in back of me put his hands around my waist and I turned my head and saw Ben.

“They told me to wait in the car.
I’m glad I didn’t,” he said.

“I’m glad I didn’t either,
” said Mark as he continued to hold the gun to Sandy’s head. I remembered the loud clink I had heard when he had hung his coat on the back of the chair, in the stockroom at Julia’s art gallery, when we were having lunch that day. He had a strange look in his eyes as he pulled back the hammer on the gun.

“Don’t, Mark, think about Brad,” Tracy said and I saw tears in her eyes.
Mark seemed to come out of his stupor and put the gun away.

I turned to Ben,
“Oh, Ben, I’ve been such a fool. I have some major therapy to do on myself, but would you please give me another chance?”

We held each other and he told me we would work on our issues together.

Sandy began screaming, “I need an ambulance! I’m dying here.”

Tracy said,
“Oh, shut up, bitch! Did you ever notice the bigger the criminal, the more of a pussy they turn out to be? She doesn’t think about all the poor kids she hurt.”

CHAPTER 47

The yard to Judge Gadsby’s house was soon full of police cars, ambulances, medical examiners and the CSI unit. While the official people were doing their thing, I stared down to the basement to see what was down there.

John came up behind me.
“Remember not to touch anything,” he said.

I sat on the stairs about midway down and watched as they gathered up whips, chains, masks and some things I had never seen before
, nor did I want to see again. It made me sick, to think of what could have happened to me down there.

J
ust as the sun was coming up, Tracy, Mark, Ben and I left for our suite at the Hyatt. We slept the rest of the day. Ben held me the whole time, but we didn’t get any more physical than that.

We were all awake at 7:00 p.m. and ordered breakfast from room service.
After eating, we went right back to bed and slept the rest of the night. We were exhausted.

Bright and early the next morning Ben, Mark, and I were invited to go to the county jail where Sandy was being held temporarily.
The three of us sat in a room behind a one-way mirror and watched while Tracy, John and George questioned her.

At first she was cocky until Tracy reminded her that they had her cold on a murder one charge for killing Bill Wheeler and they were going for the death penalty.

Watching her, I couldn’t believe she was the same woman who I had thought was so kind and caring. I had also thought that about Bill. She told Tracy she would give her all the names of the people in the organization in exchange for life in a minimum security facility.