Monday, February 23, 2009

B&C III - 31

Brian and Christine
Book Three
Saint Jane's
Part 31


Brian had his coffee and cigarette. With Mrs. Romero’s coaxing, he had some breakfast. His day was spent waiting to hear from Wendy about the raid on Saint Jane’s and the fate of Christy. The charges against Magda were running through his mind and he was asking himself how such a place could exist practically under the noses of the authorities. Some people must have known about it. He wondered how it could have been protected. And who was responsible for shielding it.

But then he realized that since it was discovered and closed down now, all the guilty parties would be found or would disappear.

Still there was the deep concern about Christy. It was courageous of her to blow the whistle like she did. If the judge hadn’t been willing to listen, she might have been sent back to Saint Jane’s to who knows what punishment.

He wasn’t surprised that Christy had the nerve to do what she did. After a long walk together in the freezing and dangerous wilderness, he was well acquainted with her courage. What startled him about yesterday was the extent of the practices that Magda was being charged with.

He booted up his computer and tried to do some writing. But his creative mind was withholding any useable ideas. He just felt a deep sorrow, rage and frustration.

Midafternoon Wendy arrived. When she came in, they hugged and she said “I need a drink.”

When she was finally settled in she said “Okay. Here’s the story. First of all, DA Martinez was very cooperative with Tom and me. We didn’t have to pry much information out of him. He was very forthcoming with it. I get the impression that he has some daughters of his own or there are some in his family. Whatever, he is gong after these people with big guns.

One of the first things he did was to contact the Roman Catholic Archdiocese to find out what they know. Saint Jane’s has no affiliation with the Catholic Church. In fact the priest he spoke to was outraged to think that anyone could pull off such a fraud. In fact Saint Jane’s borrowed the name, or I should say, stole the name from a 17th Century woman who established a home for girls. What further connection there is there he didn’t know.

The raid uncovered so much evidence that there is no doubt about a conviction. The police arrested 4 women and 6 men, one of them a doctor, or so he claims. They found about 25 girls, from very young up to mid teens. All the girls were naked. At first, he said, the police had trouble because the girls thought they were being arrested, and they tried to hide. Some of the older girls were very difficult to bring in. They spit at the cops and struggled against them. But they finally managed to get them all into a bus and taken away.”

“Where are they?”

“I don’t know but, at first, the Catholic Church was going to take them in until some wise person pointed out that if they went there they would be surrounded by nuns and the girls would probably not want to be around any more nuns.

The police also uncovered pornographic photographs and video tapes of the girls posing in erotic positions or performing sexual acts on the men. They found devices, such as ropes and handcuffs, that sort of thing, that seemed to be used. And they found sticks, like electric goads, which would sting and hurt but not cause any marks on the body.

They found records. Books and other records of the girls that were there and the names of customers, clients, when they came and which girl they wanted. That Mad Mother Magda was a good record keeper. Your name was in there with a cancellation notice.

They also arrested a client, from some Middle Eastern nation but they had to let him go. Diplomatic Immunity, you know.”

“And Christy?”


(To be continued.)

4 comments:

Beth said...

Argh, left us hanging again, didn't you?

I hope Brian's appointment, even though he canceled, won't come back to haunt him. Thank goodness he DID cancel...can you imagine if he'd gone there to meet Christy, and found out what was going on? Whew.

B.

Ken Riches said...

Howitzers would not be big enough guns to go after those people.

Leigh/BlueDragonfly said...

Christy is a true hero.

:) Leigh

Big Mark 243 said...

I have heard of radical branches of religon's doing such thing regarding names. That is rare but not at all strange.

Even if the DA only skimmed the top of the client list, that they will punish any of them will be great! Often, in real life, they slink back into shadow.