"You've got to try!" Brad said, grabbing the lawyer's suit with weakened fingers. His eyes searched the lawyer's face, then lighted on his parents. He could feel himself breaking down. "Please, you've got to try."
"We'll try," Billy said, taking Brad's hands and squeezing them tight. "We'll do everything we can.'
Brad could do nothing else but stand in the parking lot of the Ventura County Courthouse in the clothes he had worn for the past three days, not even aware of his body odor as his mother took him in his arms, not even aware of his own warm tears coursing down his cheeks.
Eleven
Noon.
Lisa tried to ignore the stench of vomit, piss, excrement, and blood that now permeated the room, but with the window boarded up and the cabin now locked up good and tight, that was hard to do.
She sat cross-legged on the floor just outside the bedroom, still in shackles. Aside from yesterday, Caleb Smith-a.k.a. Tim Murray-had only been in one other time since Saturday morning, and that was later that afternoon to deliver another series of chains and a pulley to truss up Debbie Martinez in a like fashion. Wouldn't want Debbie to shit her pants now, would we? he had said grimly as he worked. Debbie had been reduced to a quivering thing that could only moan as Mr. Smith came near her. She had burst into tears the minute he entered the room. "Please let me go… pl eeaaassseee!'
Lisa had told Debbie what happened to her and Brad, starting with the road rage incident and ending Saturday morning when Mr. SmithiTim Murray had shown up to truss her up more securely. Debbie's eyes had grown wide at the mention of the snuff film and Tim's involvement. "1 don't believe this… this is some kind of sick joke…
"I'm afraid not," Lisa had said matter-of-factly.
Debbie couldn't believe that Tim Murray was capable of what Lisa was telling her. She couldn't believe that somebody so sweet-so normaNooking-was a bona fide weirdo. She had still been puzzling over the revelation when Tim returned to truss her up more securely, and that was when the implication hit her-why else would Tim be keeping her prisoner like this? 'That's when she had begun to plead for her life. It fell on deaf ears.
When Tim finally left for the night, Lisa set about to find a way out. She tested the length of chain she was tied to and found she could only exit about four feet out of the bedroom before the chain pulled tight. There was a small closet in the bedroom, which yielded nothing. Aside from the single bed in the middle of the room, there was a small dresser and a nightstand. The bathroom was bare bones, too; just a bar of soap, a couple of towels, and a dusty medicine cabinet. Lisa flipped on the light switch; the bedroom light came on.
Debbie had sat on the lumpy mattress and watched as Lisa stormed around the perimeter of their prison, trying to find a way out. Debbie was just as pretty nude as she had been fully clothed. Lisa's first impressions of the woman were that she could have passed as a model. With her flat tummy, her full, perfect breasts, and her long legs, she looked like she could pose for a Playboy centerfold. Lisa scowled as she searched frantically for a way out, casting glances back at Debbie, who sat on the bed still in shock. "Bambi" better get her head out of her ass if she wants to stay alive, she thought. Then she silently chastised herself. Stop it. She's a victim as much as you are. She doesn't deserve this any more than you; she's just handling it differently. She's not as tough. You've got to help her toughen up. If you can help her find the strength she needs, she'll be an incredible asset.
For a while, Lisa thought that's exactly what would happen. They had talked, and after a while Debbie began to relax. Sometime later that night, Debbie became a different person. She was still scared, but now she was angry as well. She told Lisa that her husband Neal was probably worrying about her right this minute. "1 thought I could hear my phone ringing a while back," she had said. "Sound can sometimes carry pretty well out here."
Did that mean that if they screamed loud enough somebody else might hear them? Debbie shook her head. "Nobody up here now except us. The closest cabin is the Hamptons' about two and a half miles east of here, and they might not even be at their place this time of year."
It was a start. They grew tired as the night wore on, and after eating a sandwich and some chips they went to sleep, both of them lying together on the narrow bed. Lisa had never slept with another woman before, and sleeping with Debbie wasn't sexual for her in any way, but it was comforting. The feel of the other woman lying beside her, feeling her breathe next to her, feeling her skin touch hers, was comforting. Having somebody with her helped make the night more bearable.
They had inspected their room further the following morning, Sunday. Lisa emptied out the drawers of the nightstand and removed them, moving them and the nightstand to the blind side of the door. When Tim-or the Animal-came through this door, she or Debbie could conk him on the head, get the keys to the handcuffs, and free themselves.
It was a good plan if you weren't pregnant.
Lisa couldn't bring herself to go through with it. What if something happened and the baby was hurt? Then she would just be killed anyway.
They were arguing about this, trying to come up with a feasible plan, when they heard a vehicle pull up outside the cabin.
There was a pause, low voices outside, more than one person. Then slow footsteps mounted the porch, and then a key was fumbled into the lock and the door opened. "Yoo-hoo?" a voice called out, and the minute she heard that voice a shiver of ice went down Lisa's spine. Anybody home?" He chuckled, and then the footsteps grew closer.
Tim Murray stood in the living room looking into the bedroom. Flanking him were two other men, one in his early forties with thinning, dirty-blond hair, bearing lighting and video-recording equipment. The second man was tall, wearing black leather pants, and a black leather vest over his bare chest.
His head was completely covered with a black bondage mask, holes cut over the eyes, nostrils, and mouth.
For a moment they stared at each other. -Mat one's the one I picked up outside Ventura," Tim Murray told the man with the camera. He pointed to Debbie. And that's the one that brought her nosy ass in yesterday, the one I told you about last night."
The guy with the thinning blond hair nodded. `What do you think, Animal?"
Animal stood there and stared at them. His breathing was harsh and heavy. He was staring at Debbie; he raised a finger and pointed. "Debbie," he said.
Debbie screamed.
It was done quickly. Tim grabbed Lisa and gagged her quickly, trussing her up even tighter and throwing her in the corner. Lisa watched with numb fear as Debbie was overpowered by Animal and the blond guy. The blond guy gave her some kind of injection in her arm and Debbie quieted down, her eyes growing droopy. Lisa's heart beat a mile a minute; it was beating so hard it felt like it was going to burst out of her rib cage.
After that it was simple. The mattress was moved aside so Tim could lay down some plastic tarp on the floor. The blond guy joined him in nailing the tarp up along the walls, and then the bed was moved back into place. Tim helped the blond man with two sets of lights, got them setup, and then they went to work.
She tried not to watch, tried to drown out the sounds of what was going on, but she felt drawn to the scene as it was being filmed. It was strangely mesmerizing and soul-destroying.
The blond man filmed Debbie Martinez being raped by the man in the black bondage hood as he held a knife to her throat. Lisa would realize later that the reason Debbie didn't cry out louder was that she was doped up with something that left her conscious but incapacitated.