Chapter 9

Barnabas gasped when Julia showed her Peter's back.

"The child has been whipped" she said in a low voice.

Joshua had not believed in sparing the rod, but never had he taken the whip to him and Sarah... To beat up a child this way.

"How could they have done it? Delia and Violet... "

"Violet has a lot unresolved issues as an abused woman. She is finally getting revenge on the son of the man who abused her... twisted, but not unheard of. And Delia... I wonder if I did the right thing."

"Delia was your patient, right?"

"Yes. She was. She sought help to cure her of her SM tendencies. She interrupted therapy, against my advice. Unfortunately, you cannot force a patient to continue treatment unless there is a court order. I wonder if I should have even started. There is a nasty streak in her, and her SM games kept it in bounds. Without those bounds, when they came out, they did it with a vengeance."

"Do you want me to help with him?"

"No, you interrogate Delia and Violet. George is sure that they kidnapped Iris and Tammy. See what information you can get from their minds."

"Why show me Peter then?"

"Because you may be tempted to be easy on them. And we need the information, even if it hurts them to get it."


They were going to search Delia's house, from top to bottom. There was no court order. Instead there was a public health problem. There might be something in there that caused the two women to become raving maniacs, and speed was of the essence in tracking it down.

It might be illegal but the neighbors would to complain, Violet and Delia in Wyncliffe would not, and there would be no criminal charges filed so there would be no lawyers involved...

All scruples that Brant might have evaporated with the memory of Peter's whipped back, and the knowledge that speed was of the essence in finding Iris and Tammy.

He should have acted sooner. Should have listened to Iris... should...

Well, at least he was doing something now.

But if he had reacted like a cop and not a damned ideologue about gay rights whether they applied to the case or not, this would have never happened.

"I know the answers are here" he told Sebastian, who had volunteered his help. "Do your best."

"I will. Thanks, sheriff."

George again wondered what had drawn Sebastian and Angelique together. Love? Need? He wished that he could understand it. And he hoped that this was not a minefield that might go off later on, with plenty of collateral damage.

"There is power here." Sebastian said. "in this room."

George nodded. Sebastian had to do his thing without any hints, which would lead to wrong answers.

"In the bathroom, too." Sebastian added "that's where it happened."

A couple of Hitchcock movies flashed before George's eyes. The bathtub is the best place to stab someone and dismember a body. The blood washes clean and goes down the drain.

"Did they kill them?"

"No."

He moved away, and found the whip. The blood was fresh in it.

"There is power in this whip. Power that calls to power." He took it and used it as a divining rod. It led him to the shelf where the toy ship was.

"It calls to this." he said.

He reached out to pick it up, and the moment he touched it, he collapsed.

George picked the ship up. It did not affect him. But Sebastian had hit pay dirt. He looked at the toy ship. There was a name on it. Peggy Green.

Peggy Green?" it sounded familiar.

Sebastian moaned and he helped him up to a seat. Then he went to the kitchen for a glass of water.. He helped Sebastian drink it, waiting for his agitation to subside. Whatever it was, it had been strong. Sebastian was upset, and he had the same expression on his face as Barnabas when he had come upon some painful memories in the minds he was touching. It was hurting him, the information that he received.

"Take it easy" he said to him. "I know that it is hard. I am lucky that I am deaf and blind to these things, or I could not function as cop. You have it tough. I know how devastating it can be. At least we know that this toy ship was involved. We can take it from here."

"It is a slave ship." Sebastian said. "Belonging to the Collins family."

"This is the model of the ship?"

"No. This is the ship itself. And your missing women are inside."

"How can they fit in here?"

"They are inside. I can feel them."


Roger looked distrustfully at the motel where Quentin was trying to check them in.

"Why here?"

"What's wrong with a motel?"

"I don't like it. You don't know what might happen."

"For God's sake, Roger. This is reality, not a movie. This is not one of the Norman Bates chain of motels. No one is going to stab you in the shower nor anything.

Roger still did not like it.

"For God's sake, get in. We need a place to sleep."


"Megan, we got something. It seems that the whip that Delia had is connected to a model ship. Only Sebastian says it is not a model but the ship itself. I need info on that ship. It was a slave ship belonging to the Collins family."

"Can't you ask Barnabas? No, of course not. Going over the records of his family's slave trading activity might send him round the bed. One more thing to feel guilty about... But if it is a slave ship, that might explain why Tammy. Selling a nigger to get what they want..."

"Will you look into it?"

"Yes. I'll put Joe to help me... Damn it, my best operative for this kind of research is Tammy...well, I can do it. I will do it all night, and early in the morning Joe will take over. "

He hung up, and not too long afterwards there was a call for him. It was Barnabas.

"I interrogated both of them. It was hard, because their minds were not free. They seemed to be caught is some sort of power. But I got something."

"What was it? Did they admit having done it?"

"Delia actually bragged of it. As to where they are, all we got is that we will never find them. When I mentioned that they might starve to death or die from exposure, I got the impression that it was very unlikely to happen. Only that they in a place we cannot get to. No place on Earth."

"Sebastian gave me a lead as to where that might be." No need to mention slave ships. Not yet.

"Tell me, the whip that you found in Delia's. Is it long, black, of braided leather?"

"Yes."

"I know where she got it from. The one I had in Wyncliffe disappeared."

"Do you use whips in Wyncliffe? What kind of place you run there, anyway?"

"It was for a special case. For the original trouble with Zeb. I had to make Julia beat me with it before she could let go and cry."

"And this magic whip drank your blood. Vampire blood. And then Delia used it Derek. Another dose of vampire blood... No wonder it has such power.. Well, I am locking it up and starving it."