Zeke (20 page)

Will shook his head. “Who knows
about people? Maybe they hadn’t planned on robbing you until the opportunity
arose. When did you discover they had gone?”

“Later on in the morning. They were
the only ones to pull up stakes; gotta be them who did it.”

“Care if I question your other
guests?”

“Wouldn’t bother me, but it won’t
do any good. I already talked to them; nobody saw a thing.”

“What about your security cameras?”
Will rubbed his eyes.

“Don’t have any, but I’m ready to
invest in some. This is just a small place, Will, geared toward families. We
don’t usually have any kind of trouble. Our guests have been pretty trustworthy
up until now. Still, we’re living in a changing world. I guess all good things
disappear eventually.”

“Ain’t that the truth?” Will sighed
deeply, his disappointment evident.

“I can tell you this, for what it’s
worth; Earl said it looked like...”

“Earl?” Will interrupted.

“Oh, sorry. That’s the sheriff.”
Jeff chuckled. “Anyway, he said it looked like the machines had been pried open
with a knife, a big one. Like a hunting knife.”

“Fingerprints?” Will made notes.

“Hell, I don’t know. I don’t think
so, though. Earl never said. But I can give you his number, if you want.”

“Please.”

“Sorry I couldn’t be of more help
to you. Say, what are these folks wanted for?”

“They’re not wanted exactly. The
girl’s parents are just worried about her; want to make sure she’s alright.”

“Ah, run off, did she?” Jeff asked
with a knowing tone.

“Something like that.” Will thanked
him and turned to go, but stopped. “You said you had a story to tell me about
them.”

“Yeah. Some of the other folks
camped near them said they made a lot of loud noises.”

“Noises?” Will raised his eyebrows.

Jeff cleared his throat
self-consciously. “Sexual noises. One guy said they were ‘bumping uglies’ so
loud they sounded like cats in heat.”

To that, Will had no reply and simply
shook his head. With a friendly wave, he left the premises and returned to his
car where he made a quick call to the sheriff. All he learned was that some
fingerprints had been found but weren’t in the system. He promised to email
copies of the prints to Will’s office. After delivering the email info to Earl,
Will checked his map, slid on his sunglasses, and pulled back onto the highway.

At Knifepoint

They had spent the night in the van
again, shivering against each other under the blankets. Sue awoke stiff, sore,
and cranky. She tried to control her bad mood as they pulled onto the road
again. About half an hour later, Zeke rolled to a stop next to a little
restroom in a small town park. “Let’s see if we can wash up in here,” he
suggested.

Sue stretched her tired limbs as
she stepped to the ground. She was sick of sitting and relished walking around
a bit. She definitely wanted to wash up. She grabbed her bag of toiletries and
a couple of towels, and headed for the women’s room. From the corner of her
eye, she saw Zeke approach a couple of guys sitting in a truck, probably
skipping school. Sue shook her head; she never knew when Zeke would be
sociable. Most of the time, he was an introvert.

She pushed through the door and was
relieved to discover the bathroom heated, lending unexpected warmth to what she
had feared was going to be miserable. At least it wasn’t freezing and for that,
she was thankful.

Inside, Sue discovered a tiny sink
and two stalls with no doors. Scanning the room she noticed a spigot low on one
wall with a hose attached and coiled in the corner. They must just wash the
place down to clean it, she thought, noticing the metal covered toilet paper
and paper towel dispensers. She assumed the water would be cold but decided she
needed to be clean more than she needed to be comfortable.

Sue placed all her clean clothes in
the sink near the door, stripped from her dirty clothes, and wadded them up
into the other sink, laying her toiletries on top. She turned the handle and
water ran clear and cold from the end of the hose. Sue quickly wet herself down
from head to toe, squealing a little when the freezing water hit her skin.
Shivering, she lathered up, washed her hair, and rinsed quickly, before
toweling dry. If she hadn’t been so cold, she would have shaved. She dressed in
clean clothes and then finger-combed her spiky red hair. After brushing her
teeth, Sue felt like a new woman. She was smiling as she left the restroom.

Outside, Zeke was nowhere to be
seen. Sue glanced at the pickup truck where he had stopped to chat, but it was
empty. She placed her bags in the van and then went to the men’s room door and
hollered at Zeke, “You almost done?”

Zeke’s voice sounded muffled when
he answered. “Sue! You need to come in here. Quick.”

Sue sighed heavily, wondering what
Zeke had in mind now. He most likely had something up his sleeve. She stepped
through the door to find Zeke, naked, being held against the wall by one of the
two young men from the truck. Sue turned to run but the second guy grabbed her
and pulled her all the way inside. The door banged shut behind her with a
metallic boom.

“Not so fast, little girl.” Her
assailant was tall, wiry, and skinny, his face red with acne. Sue figured him
for maybe eighteen, not much younger than herself. He easily held her arms down
at her sides and shuffled her toward the center of the room while she stared
with wild eyes at Zeke.

The other man, shorter and chubby,
giggled with excitement and held a knife under Zeke’s chin. “Got your boyfriend
here,” he said.

“Sue, you need to do what these
guys tell you, or they’re gonna cut me,” Zeke whimpered.

Sue blanched.

“Come on, Billy,” the guy with the
knife said. “Get her naked.”

Billy released Sue’s arms. “Strip!”

“No,” Sue cried out.

“Do it, Susie. Don’t let them hurt
me.” Zeke choked back a sob.

The sound tore at Sue; she’d never
seen him frightened before. She looked from the knife at Zeke’s throat to his
panicked eyes.

“Where’s Big Ben?” she asked,
imploring him to defend himself, get them out of this.

“In the van.” He looked shamefully
at the floor.

“Who the hell is Big Ben?” Tim
growled, tension entering his arm.

“Our dog,” Zeke said. “Just our
dog.”

Tim relaxed, but kept the blade at
Zeke’s throat.

Sue would do anything to get out of
this alive. She slowly took off her newly donned clothes, baring herself to
these drooling boys.

Billy stared at her body as if he’d
never seen a nude woman before. “I’m first, Tim.”

Zeke had a strange look in his
eyes. She waited, fearful, to see what would happen next.

Billy seemed unsure of how to
proceed. He began by putting his hands all over her. Sue stood frozen in place,
trembling from cold and fear.

Tim reached for his zipper with his
free hand. “Get on with it so I can get some.”

“Get down on your knees,” Billy
said, freeing himself from his pants.

Sue started to back away but Zeke
cried out, “Do it! You have to, Sue.”

She dropped to her knees and opened
her mouth, fighting the urge to choke. Billy moaned after a few uncertain
thrusts and pulled back. He pushed her to the floor, knelt between her legs,
and took her. Sue shivered, her bare back pressed against the cold cement
floor. She looked up at Zeke, mortified. As bad as she felt, she knew Zeke felt
worse, having to watch his woman violated and being unable to stop it.

“My turn,” Tim said and started to
move away from Zeke, the knife in his hand forgotten.

Zeke hissed at him, but Sue didn’t
catch his words. Tim turned back. “Oh shit. I almost forgot. Get up here and
watch this guy,” he told Billy.

A glimmer of suspicion wedged
itself in her chest like a shard of ice. What just happened? Sue wondered.
Why
didn’t Zeke try to save me when he had the chance?

The two assailants changed places,
passing the knife between them. Billy pushed up against Zeke, brandishing the
blade, and turned his glazed eyes toward his buddy. Her confusion was crowded
from her mind as Tim swaggered over to where Sue lay, fiddling with the opening
of his jeans.

“My turn, baby,” he whispered as he
dropped on top of her.

Tears rolled from her eyes and her
chest heaved with sobs. She barely heard Zeke speak over the torment she was
enduring.

“Just pretend it’s me, honey,” Zeke
said, his features contorted with what she hoped was helpless fury over their
nightmarish situation but looked suspiciously like lust. “It’ll be over with
soon. Just pretend it’s me and do a good job so these gentlemen will let us
go.”

Sue couldn’t do as he said,
couldn’t stifle her tears and pretend to enjoy the experience, even though her
rapist was surprisingly gentle with her. Sue was supine, unmoving. Let it be
over, she prayed.

“You’re so beautiful,” Tim panted
in her ear. “So beautiful.”

She felt his warm breath on her
skin and shrank away as much as possible, pinned as she was beneath him. Tim took
more time than Billy, and Sue wished he would hurry.

A part of her mind kept nudging her
with uncomfortable questions. What was wrong with this scene? Why didn’t Zeke
look more frightened? Was he just trying to put on a brave face to steel her
through these despicable acts?

Tim behaved as if this were an
assignation rather than an assault. Is this how rapists act, she wondered.
What
the hell is going on here?

She descended into a surreal
miasma. Her mind recorded her perceptions: Tim’s moist breath in her ear, the
press of her bare flesh against the cold floor, the faint scent of human waste
from the urinals, the indefinable look on Zeke’s face. It was horrible, but she
suffered the humiliation to save not only her own life, but that of the man she
loved.

“It’s okay, honey,” Zeke said, his
eyes shining with a strange light. “It’s not your fault. You can’t help it.”

She closed her eyes and groaned.
Then it was over.

When Sue opened her eyes, she was
infuriated to see Zeke and Billy grinning at each other, the knife no longer in
sight. No one was holding a blade to Zeke’s throat and Zeke wasn’t trying to
rescue her. The truth settled hard in her gut like a heavy stone. She’d been
set up.

Tim crawled off her and stood,
tucking his shirt in and zipping up his jeans. He ran a hand over his forehead,
wiping away the perspiration.

“Thanks, dude.” He slapped Zeke on
the back. “That rocked!” He looked down at Sue, and tipped an imaginary hat to
her. “And thank you too, Miss. You were awesome.”

Billy nodded before following his
buddy outside.

“What...what...what is this?” Sue
cried as she gathered her clothes to her body and stood. “What just happened?
Zeke? You were never in any danger, were you? You let those boys attack me!”

“That’s right! Wasn’t it a trip? I wish
I could’ve filmed it. I just didn’t see any way to pull out the camera and
still carry on the ruse.”

“Oh god, you planned this whole
thing!” Sue pulled her clothes on with jerky movements. “You enjoyed it!” She
sat on the dirty floor to pull on her socks, hands shaking so badly she could
barely accomplish the task.

“Now, Susie.” Zeke shook his head
sadly. “Don’t be that way. You know you liked it. Hell, you came like old
faithful.”

“I didn’t! I was scared out of my
mind! How could you put me through that?” Sue put on her shoes and stood, hands
clenched at her side. “You jerk! YOU ASSHOLE! I hate you!”

“No you don’t. You wanted that as
much as I did. Come on, baby, admit it. You enjoyed it. Especially that big
boy. He was hung, wasn’t he? I almost wanted to do him myself,” he chuckled,
stroking himself.

“You’re disgusting! And what you
did was cruel.” Sue pulled her coat on and wrapped her arms around her belly to
keep from slapping him. “What if they would have hurt me? Did you ever think
about that?”

“They didn’t hurt you, and they
wouldn’t have either. I had the situation under control.” Zeke’s face grew
cold. “Don’t whine like a baby, Sue. It’s a real turn-off. I arranged this to
help you, to set you free of some of those damned hang-ups you have. Besides,
these guys are ready to graduate and they’d never been laid. Think about it,
Sue. You were their first. It’s actually an honor.”

“Bullshit!” Sue screamed at Zeke,
hands shaking. “You used me. You did it for yourself.”

“I did it for both of us.” He flung
his hair away from his forehead, his features relaxing into a look of pleasure.
“And you can lie to yourself if you want to, but I know you liked it. It’s okay
to like it, Sue. That was the whole idea.” He reached out to caress her face,
but she pulled back. His voice took on a patient tone, as if he were explaining
something to a child. “Look, if you want to play all innocent to salve your
ego, go ahead; you’re only fooling yourself. I know you, Sue. I know you
intimately
.
You got off on what happened here.”

Sue was speechless, her thoughts a
jumble. She huddled in her coat, shaking with rage.

“We need to get moving,” Zeke said
suddenly, as he pulled on his clothes. “I didn’t get any breakfast yet, and I’m
starved. I could eat a horse.”

Sue stared at him in disbelief.

“Come on, honey, let’s go. We can
talk about this in the van.” Zeke strolled to the door and held it open for
her.

Sue walked toward him stiffly,
still in a state of shock. He put his arm over her shoulders, kissed her
lightly on the temple, and led her to the van. They crawled inside, and
continued down the road. Zeke wanted to hash out the details of what happened,
relive it verbally. But Sue refused to talk about the incident, withdrawing
into herself to worry about her own mental state. She was still angry with
Zeke. But she was angrier with herself. Some part of her had suspected the
whole thing was a trick, yet she’d ignored her instincts. She hadn’t even tried
to resist. She continued to brood as the tires ate up the Pennsylvania blacktop,
carrying her further from the security of home.