CH1
Kate had just finished with her first client and was staggering down the street, barely escaping with her skin mostly intact.
She knew she had bruises, and she also had his blood and skin under her finger tips that she hadn't washed away yet. He had wanted it rough. Not just give it rough but receive it rough, so she had deeply scratched her nails down his back, getting him to scream as he climaxed inside her.
He had rolled over almost immediately and she had put on some of her clothes and gathered up the rest and taken all the money he had on him plus what he had paid her up front.
Now she wanted to forget it had ever happened and she knew just where to go to do that.
Still carrying her clothes and her shoes she was barely making it down the street that was void of most everyone. The few people that did see her avoided her. Which was fine with her, Kate's mind was on what she needed to forget all this. At least for a few hours.
Finally making it to where she wanted to go and knocked. "Keith, … silver." Kate knew the code, she had been careful and had seen people come and go countless times before.
After a minute the door opened to reveal a skinny young man who looked like he had been burned, possibly badly in the past. "I need some Keith." Kate pleaded.
Keith looked her over, she looked like trouble. Not a physical kind of trouble. A talking kind of trouble. She was obviously shaking and wasn't sure he wanted the trouble she might bring. "You should come back later." And started to close the door.
"NO! …. please, …. I can pay." Kate dug into her pockets and pulled out she didn't know how much money and tried shoving it at him.
Keith took the money and left her at the door and returned with what she wanted.
Kate snatched it from his hand. "Now get lost." And Keith slammed the door closed and started packing up to move his business. She was trouble and knew too much.
Kate stumbled down the street to where she could find a taxi. She needed someplace to be and use it.
Kate stopped long enough to put on her shoes and roll up her clothes and tried to run her hands thru her hair. It had gotten long since she didn't ever get around to having it cut. It cost money. Washing it cost money too.
Finally getting a taxi to stop for her, she gave an address. Then paid him and got out falling onto the sidewalk.
It was time to forget today and she had a nice hidey hole under a set of stairs that she had set up for herself. It was in a nicer end of town. A lot less likely to have homeless people messing with her or taking it from her. It held all her worldly possessions.
Kate hurriedly prepared for its use after making sure her door was closed after no one saw her. She scrambled about looking for one of the now many little Bic lighters she had. Then lit one of the many cigarettes she had gotten from Keith and inhaled deeply.
It didn't use to be this way. (Just 2 years ago):
"I'm going out mom." Kate called out as she left her room walking for the front door.
"I wish you wouldn't honey, dinner is almost ready." Johanna stepped out of the kitchen.
"Bye mom." Kate was out the door and jogging for the street before Johanna could even get in a "but."
The next thing she heard was the sound of a loud chopper like bike start up. Making the windows of their home vibrate.
Johanna had just made it to the windows in time to see her daughter with a helmet on her head, on the back end of a bike with those monkey bars and wrap her arms around some guy who promptly took off. Making car alarms in the area go off.
Jim came out of the dining room where he was setting the table for dinner for three. "Was that Katie?"
"I don't understand Jim, she won't listen. Does the exact opposite of what we ask. Even when we try reverse psychology she does it anyway. And the guy she's seeing." Johanna hated everything about this picture.
"It's a phase Jo. You know that. Didn't you have a phase when you were her age?" It's not that Jim didn't care, he did. But didn't know when to fight. It might just make her run even farther away from them.
"Not with guys like this!" Johanna waves her hand at the guy who had just left with her daughter. "And there wasn't the same amount of drugs floating around like there is today." Johanna had fears, just didn't know how to reach a daughter that wasn't interested in listening.
"You think she's using?" Jim actually didn't know and never thought his daughter would. But maybe his wife had a point.
"I don't know Jim." Johanna deflated and even slumped her shoulders. "She's never home long enough to even ask her a single question. Lord knows what she's eating, or if she even is. She's so skinny."
"We need to catch her when she's home next time." Maybe we need answers.
Kate and her guy had soon joined up with a group of others and were headed down a two lane county highway. They were traveling high and tight. It was a tactic used to prevent cars or trucks from breaking into their group.
The biker out in front soon pulled off onto a side road and then drove up someone's driveway.
All the others followed and stopped to get off. "They're on vacation. No one is home."
One of them soon found a side door and broke it in and one by one they went inside.
"I don't know about this Winger." Kate wanted the type of experience this life brought her. Kate had no desire to be some primpy little pink princess that was forever daddy's little girl. But this was something else.
"Relax baby. No one knows where here and we'll be long gone before anyone figures out we were here." Winger (not his real name of course) wrapped an arm around Kate and took her inside.
The guys and two other girls were everywhere. "Hey, they've got beer." One had the refrigerator open.
The refrigerator was soon empty of anything of interest. "There's hamburger, steaks and chicken in the freezer." All of that was soon out and on the kitchen table.
"I've got potatoes and corn on the cob in the pantry." Another yells out.
"See if there's a grill out back, and someone check the garage." Another yells out.
Winger handed Kate one of the beers. "Enjoy baby, we're going to have fun."
Kate started drinking her beer. This was what she was looking for she told herself.
Kate and Winger were soon eating a hamburger on the sofa while watching TV, a hockey game to be precise.
Winger than pulled out a cigarette and after lighting it up took a long drag and handed it to Kate. "Smoke baby, it's good for you. Takes away all the pain."
Kate took a token puff and blew it out almost immediately. "NO, take a drag baby and hold it in. Let yourself feel it." Winger held out his hand and drew it into a fist to emphasize the breathe in heavily part.
Kate then took a very lone hard drag and held it till she was ready to turn blue and needed air. "That's better baby. AGAIN!" So Kate did it again.
Her cigarette was soon gone and Kate wasn't seeing straight anymore. "Feel it baby? That happy feeling that nothing can touch you."
Kate didn't feel it. In fact she didn't feel anything at all. She did see that Winger was doing something on the coffee table. It had a rhythmic sound to it. A kind of chopping sound over and over again.
Then he lifted up and handed her something. "Breath baby. This is the best stuff. Only the best for you."
Kate took the tube he handed her and stared at it. Breathe what? It was hollow, or she thought it was, but it was empty and breathing in this thing was going to hurt.
Then Winger shoved her head down to the coffee table. "Breathe it in baby." And he held her head there.
Kate could barely feel his hands on her neck holding her head down. She didn't know why it didn't hurt. It should, shouldn't it? Then Winger slammed her head into the coffee table. "Breathe it in baby."
Kate took the tube and breathed in the line of white powder into her nose. Winger immediately released his hold on her and allowed her to lean back up against the sofa.
Kate caught glimpses of Winger carrying her upstairs.
Then she could make out that Winger was removing his pants.
Then Kate could make out that he was on her, with all of his weight pressing down on her, and she was naked.
Then Kate could make out that he was on top of her again, however when Kate tried to look it wasn't Winger, it was one of the other men of the group.
Then Kate could make out that he was on top of her again, except it wasn't either of them. It was another guy from the group.
Then Kate could make out that he was on top of her again, except it was still another guy from the group.
Kate woke up and had to struggle to open her eyes. It was light out still or not still. She was in a bedroom, and she was naked.
Trying to remember what happened but it was all a blur. That was when she found that she had a headache. Maybe better make that a migraine. God but her head hurt.
Kate started to get up and that was when she noticed something else hurt, a lot!
Kate reached down to between her legs where the pain was located. She was wet! However she didn't feel horny, in fact sex was the last thing on her mind.
When she brought her hand back up to her face to look at her fingers, they were red. She was bleeding?!
Kate tried to think. Her period was like clockwork and it was on the middle of the month. This was the end of the month, wasn't it? She couldn't think. She had taken her pill right after her period like always, hadn't she?
Kate managed to sit up and swung her legs of the side of the bed. There was blood on the bed cover. Not a lot, but enough. Ok, so not her period. But the pain between her legs was pounding with every heart beat.
That was when she noticed Winger laying in bed next to her, naked. He had even more tattoos than she thought he did. Down his arms, across his chest. There was even one on his, … But it was red and all of the others were not. He had a colored tattoo on his, ….
Panic suddenly hit her. It wasn't a tattoo, it was blood. Her blood! He had raped her last night and this was morning.
"Going somewhere baby?" Winger asked her.
Oh god, he was awake. Kate couldn't think of anything to say, just needed to get out of here, even if it was naked.
Just as she started to stand, Winger grabbed her and shoved her down on the bed. His hands hurt along with all her other pains.
Kate tried to struggle, but she was weak and he had all the muscles. "Skin!" Winger yelled out.
Skin came in the room. "Give her the shot." Winger told him.
Skin pulled out a syringe and held down her arm. Kate went back to trying to struggle but it was feeble in her state. "No don't, please!" Kate decided to beg.
"It's great stuff baby. It'll make the pain go away." Winger tells her.
Kate can feel the pain of the needle in her arm and moments later she can barely feel her own body.
"It's good baby, all good. We're together now, you're mine now baby. All mine." Winger tells her. And all Kate can do is humm.
"Name." The officer at the desk asked Johanna and Jim.
"Katherine Houghton Beckett." Johanna answers, while holding Jim's hand.
The office could tell these two had been crying and they looked scared. Problem was they all cried and they all looked nervous and anxious.
"Age?" The officer was going down his list.
"17, she's only seventeen." Johanna answers starting to cry again.
"Date of birth?" The officer asks, not sounding like he cared.
"November 17." Johanna answers. "1980" Johanna adds suddenly like she only just remembered.
"What was she wearing when you last saw her?" The officer asks still another question.
Johanna is forced to think back three days. "Black boots with 2-inch or 3-inch heels. Blue Jeans, skinny tight legs." Johanna remembered that they helped show off Kate's beautifully long legs. "A red Stanford t-shirt and a black jacket that came down to her waist." Johanna is still trying to picture it. "She probably had a sports bra on underneath." Johanna had searched her drawers to try and figure out what might be missing.
"And you last saw her 3 days ago?" The officer asks her.
"Yes. She ran out the front door not stopping for anything. The next thing I heard was the sound of the bike she was on the back of. It was really loud. I thought it was going to break out all our windows." Johanna tried to remember. "Oh and he set off all the car alarms as they drove off."
"Can you describe the bike?" The officer asks.
"It was black with lots of chrome. He held his hands way up here." Johanna holds her hands up above her head out in front of her. "And Katie was sitting on the rear tire."
"Do you know the name of the guy she was with? Or can you describe him?" The officer asks.
"I don't know him. This was the first time we ever saw him. It was the first time he ever came to the house. …. He had blue jeans, black boots. … With some silver I think. He had a black jacket on and this silver, … thing on his head." Johanna put her hands on her head to try and display the amount of coverage it provided.
"Goggles?" The officer asks.
"No, just that silvery thing." Johanna tells him.
"Did your daughter have a helmet?" The officer asks.
"YES, it was black with a black visor covering her face." Johanna suddenly remembers seeing her putting it on before wrapping her arms around him.
"Did you bring a recent photo of your daughter?" The officer asks.
"Yes." Johanna digs thru her purse. Finally finding it she hands it over. "It was taken about 6 months ago. Her hair is still this color and still this short." Johanna adds.
"We need a list of her friends, what school she attends, names of her latest boyfriends." The officer still had lots of questions.
Johanna and Jim did their best to answer all his questions.
"I think I have everything." The officer tells them, still sounding cold.
"Do you think you can find her?" Johanna asks praying for something positive but knowing that higher crimes got most of their time.
"It sounds like your daughter left of her own free will. Have you considered that she has simply run away." The officer asks, since most were.
"NO, NO, she wouldn't. Not Katie. It's just a phase. She's being a rebellious teen, that's all." Johanna tried to convince him, … and herself. She should have stopped her and gotten her to eat dinner. If only!
"Most biker gangs have known members. Since you didn't see the back of his jacket we don't know which one. Most don't like helmets, let alone the suicide helmets like he was wearing. That alone will help identify the gang.
Unless they are from out of state and only cruising through, or they are new." The officer tells them.
He is soon dismissing them, telling them they will do everything they can. Along with the hundreds of others they get. Most are runaways from broken homes and end up on the street, where if they are lucky vice will find them. Or what's left of them.
Johanna and Jim are back home. "Think they will find her?" Johanna asks her husband.
"I don't know Jo, I don't know. … You know as much as I do. Missing persons are not a top priority. Barely above stolen cars. Unless she robs a bank or kills someone or gets arrested and gets put into the system." Jim hated to see the hard truth.
They were both lawyers. Johanna always fought for the little guy. Her job didn't make that much money. Most of her clients didn't have that much, they just needed someone dedicated like Johanna.
Jim worked in a larger company where he encountered Johanna, dated her finally. Then fell in love with each other forcing both of them to make a choice. One of them quits their job and works somewhere else or they never saw each other again.
Johanna made the choice for both of them and had resigned and started up her own business. She had never regretted it. She loved him, they were quite the pair. All they saw was each other.
They and their friends all kept their eyes open in case any of them caught sight of Katie.