Chapter 19 – Trouble
"I've done nothing wrong, I swear!" Lupe protested in a thin and fearful voice as the security officer pushed her into the tiny interrogation room. They had more or less dragged her to the security station in Adranos Place, with her begging them to at least let her write a note to tell Richard what had happened.
"Yeah, yeah, save it," the security agent dismissively told her as he slammed the door shut behind her.
A dozen confused and half-form thoughts buzzed through Lupe's head, but they remained vague shapes compared to the terror that was ripping through her. She had never been in trouble before, never ever. In school she'd always been a good girl and had never warranted so much as a sharp word from the teacher and back on dry land she had always stayed on the right side of the law.
Persephone! Persephone! The name of Rapture's infamous prison complex rang through her head like a fire station bell. She had heard all the rumors, that people who went there just up and disappeared sometimes. What happened to them was anyone's guess, but for some reason the telephone conversation she overheard in the Medical Pavilion sprung to her mind. It put a fear in her that she had been trying to squash since that night that spurred her to bang on the locked door and yell that they let her out.
That bitch Dorothy! She's set me up! It all made sense – Dorothy had framed her for theft. It would be her word against Lupe's and Lupe would take the bet that the police would believe the rich woman over the maid. No, no Richard will help me, he'll tell them the truth, that Dorothy is jealous and a liar, he won't let me go to that awful place, he'll save me, he has to!
But Lupe wasn't so sure of that. Why would Richard stick his neck out for her? To publicly take her side against his wife's was a bold move and as much as she liked Richard she did have to admit that he was not a bold man. By coming to her defense at the expense of his wife he'd be upsetting the status quo. It would be easier and more coldly practical to let security handle her and let her rot in Persephone.
Lupe's heart began to pound as she stared down her imagined incarnation. I've done nothing! I can't believe that bitch is going to get away with this! She pictured a cold, dark little cell, forever, unchanging, not even a window…she struggled to hold back tears.
She sat down on the small metal stool and bit her lip in an effort to focus herself and think. If, if they can't prove anything, maybe I'll be okay, and there's nothing to prove, after all. All she wanted to do was go home to her own little warm room, with a shower and bed and place for her clothes and good food and soft sheets and her lover down the hall. The prospect of having all that ripped away from her was too much and tears started to leak from her eyes.
"Can the waterworks sister," the agent brusquely said to her when he opened the door. "I ain't got the time for it. We're going to have a nice chat and I don't want to hear no baloney from ya."
Lupe wiped her tears away and looked at the agent. He was a short man in his late middle age with a bristly gray mustache and hard little eyes. "I, I," she started to say. "She's just mad at me, that's all, telling lies about me because her husband prefers me!" Maybe she could sway the agent to her side if she was honest from the get go.
"Who's mad at ya?" the agent prodded and sat down on the stool across from Lupe.
"Mrs. Stone, she's mad that her husband is…sleeping with me, and-"
"No one gives two hoots that you're screwing your boss, half the maids in the town are and the other half are speckled hens. I suggest you start opening your trap and start telling me what it is I want to hear," he rudely said.
Lupe was bewildered. "I don't know what you're talking about," she genuinely pleaded. "I thought that Mrs. Stone-"
"Drop the innocent act and you start telling me about your gal pal plans or you'll be feeling more than just scared!"
Lupe's mouth hung open dumbly. She really only had one friend down here. "Did something happen to Helena?"
"I said drop it, you know damn well what she's done. We've got a witness who says you visited her last week the day before the burglary, I know you two are in cahoots!"
"Burglary?" Lupe repeated dumbly in a small voice. "I…I can't believe she'd do that!"
"Now you listen to me, doll face, either you spill the beans on where she is or things are going to get real ugly for you," the agent threatened with a glint of sadism in his eyes. "We ain't in the states anymore, so you don't have any rights to hide behind. If your tongue doesn't loosen by itself I can find ways of loosening it for you."
The fear Lupe had felt earlier multiplied by a factor of ten. "I don't know anything!" Lupe insisted again, her heart thundering in her chest so hard she feared she may have a heart attack. "I don't! I don't! I didn't know she was going to a burglary! She just told me she was going to get some money soon! Please, please, you have to believe me! Please don't hurt me!"
"Well now we're getting somewhere. Where is she?" The agent stood up and started to pace around the room.
Lupe shook her head. I can't tell on her, if I tell on her they'll be on the lookout for people escaping, they might catch her if she hasn't left and then I'll never get out of this city! "She didn't say!" It was a weak answer and she knew it, but she couldn't think of anything better.
"You want to try that one again? Where is she? Where's the money?!" The agent grabbed Lupe's wrist and yanked her to her feet.
"I don't know!" Lupe loudly insisted. She tried to wiggle her way from his grasp but instead he pulled her closer.
"You better remember. And I think a night in a cell will help jog your memory."
"No!" Lupe squirmed in vain to get away. "Let me go home! I don't know anything, I don't know where Helena is, I don't know a thing about it! All I wanted to talk to her about was how to seduce my boss, she's a prostitute, I wanted to know what sort of thing men like!"
"Shut up about your boss! He ain't coming for you doll face, no one is! You'll sit here and rot until you tell me what it is I want to know! Where's Helena and what did she do with the money?"
"I don't know!" Lupe shouted. I can't stay in a cell, I can't! I'll never get out again. I'll be buried even deeper than I was before! Suddenly the previously oppressive streets of Rapture seemed like a free-wheeling paradise. But they didn't have the sun. Lupe kept silent.
"Alright, have it your way, doll face," the agent flung her arms back and pulled open the door. "Let's go sweet cheeks, get moving!"
Lupe found herself dragged along the hallway and thrown into a tiny cell, even smaller than the interrogation room had been. She was tossed into the cell and before she was able to process her predicament the barred door slammed shut. Lupe grabbed the bars of the cell. "Please! I don't do anything, please let me go!" she pleaded with the agent, but he already had his back to her.
"It gets colder than a well diggers ass in those cells. Oh, and the pipes leak too. If you suddenly remember anything, give me a holler, otherwise get comfortable."
Lupe pressed her lips together and tried so hard to not cry. An hour ago she was fixing up some biscuits and daydreaming about taking a bath with Richard. This isn't real. But the terror was undeniable. It's a dream, I'll wake up in my little bed and it will be almost six and I will have to make breakfast. Wake up now Lupe, wake up now!
She was still wearing her gray uniform and soft shoes. They hadn't even let her put on real shoes or a coat or even take her purse. She shivered and rubbed her hands over her arms. Maybe I should tell them what I know about the smugglers, she briefly considered but then discarded the idea. It wasn't only her and Helena's fate that was tied to her escape. It was Richard and all the other women in the dormitory and everyone else who was miserable down here. Even Dorothy. I can't let them know she was going to bribe smugglers, they'd be on the lookout. I have to keep my secret, even if it means I get sent to Persephone.
There was a low rumbling from above Lupe's head and the pipe suddenly began to dribble a healthy stream of ice-cold water. She stepped backwards to dodge it and bumped against the wall, which was also freezing cold. She shivered again.
No one even knows I'm here, she realized with despair. And despite her best efforts she started to cry again. At least her tears were warm.
Would you kindly imagine a page break here?
Richard spent the entire train ride to Pirithous Court marinating in rage. How dare Van De Graf barge into his home and take his Lupe? His love for her aside, the sheer nerve of that man rankled Richard in a deep way. His home was supposed to be safe from the outside, he had enough problems inside as it was.
Pirithous Court was tightly packed with rickety tenements and small, squalid shops, but they barely registered to him. He hurried past the storefronts and the piles of rotting garbage, his eyes on the block number signs, until he found Street M. A blast of steam from an overheating radiator fogged the street and the screeching agreement between two daytime drunks set the tone for the miserable street.
Richard didn't even bother knocking once he found the address. He nearly ripped the door from the hinges when he pulled it open. "Lupe!" Richard shouted into the dim building. His footfalls landed harshly on the bare wooden floor as hurried down the narrow hallway.
The cheaply wallpapered corridors were dotted with thin doors. Richard wrenched doors open and found all the rooms empty. It would appear that the women were still all at work. He heard sobbing from down the hall and rushed towards the sound.
"Darling, it's alright, we're going home," he called to her and flung open the door.
An unknown woman with a round face and curly brown hair was sitting on the lower bunk of a bunk bed. She looked up at him when he entered. "I don't know you," she said in a sad voice. "I'll leave with you if you want me though."
I haven't got time to fall in love with this one too, Richard thought with annoyance. "I'm sorry, I've mistaken you for someone else."
"Who in the seven hells are you and what do you think you're doing in my establishment?" boomed a voice behind Richard in the hall.
Richard spun around. "You the Van De Graf?"
Van De Graf nodded slowly. "Who's asking?"
"My fist, you son of a bitch," Richard quickly informed him and slammed his right fist into Van De Graf's pudgy face.
Van De Graf stumbled backwards into the wall. "What is your problem?!" he angrily asked as he spat blood from his mouth.
Richard rubbed his right hand. He'd never punched anyone before and he was surprised how much it stung his knuckles, but the pain dissipated fairly quickly. "Where is she?" he demanded, anger contorting his usually gentle features.
The sobbing woman appeared at the door, attracted by the commotion. "Hit him again," she cheered Richard on. "Get him in his greedy gut!"
Van De Graf grunted and rubbed his jaw. "She? I've got a lot of fillies in my stable. You're going to have to be a little more specific."
"Lupe Cervantes," Richard spat at him, ready to slug him again.
"Oh yeah," Van De Graf chuckled and stood up straight. "You're the meatball who gave her the money for the lawyer, aren't you? She must be a real pistol in the sack, huh?"
Richard took a step towards Van De Graf, fist at the ready. "I'm not going to ask again."
"Cool your jets, alright?" Van De Graf touched his lip and grimaced. "I got to say, you hit like a train." He put his hands to his side. "You ever box?"
Richard sighed in irradiation. "No, I've never bo-"
Van De Graf was fast. Richard never saw him pull the switchblade from his pocket. In the blink of an eye Van De Graf sunk the narrow blade into Richard's shoulder. Richard shouted in pain and staggered backwards against the wall.
"You didn't have to punch me, you stupid asshole," Van De Graf hollered at Richard as he writhed in pain against the wall. "You asked for it, you got no right!"
"You utter bastard," Richard wheezed in agony. He grabbed the blade of the weapon and gasped. He's got another thing coming if he thinks this is going to stop me. Richard gritted his teeth and yanked the switchblade out. His hands were wet with blood and the blade nearly slipped out of his fingers.
A flood of vitality and energy flooded Richard's body, a new and unexpected pressure in his blood and cells. It felt like a rippling tingle that carried warmth and volume to his shoulder. The blinding pain in his shoulder ebbed away to nothing.
Regardless of the fact that his nearly instantaneous healing caused by the ADAM slug in stomach was unquestionably a beneficial effect, Richard was still bothered enough by the abnormal nature of it to be momentarily distracted. I shouldn't be like this, no one should be like this. Van De Graf took Richard's pause to mean that he was down for the count, however, and loomed over Richard.
"You're not going to get anything for your pains, either. You're barking up the wrong tree, I haven't seen that bitch since she ran out on me," Van De Graf smugly told him.
Richard shook his head. "Horse shit, you sent a bounty hunter after her and you're expecting me to believe that you just, what, gave up the chase?"
"Yeah, I did, you meatball, cause you had a lawyer cook up some legal hoodoo for her. I don't need that kinda heat."
"Again, horse shit," Richard repeated as he stood up. "I'm supposed to believe that she got dragged outta my house by five men and you've got nothing to do with it?"
"Whoa, you're a tough customer, ain't cha?" Van De Graf said with more than a hint of concern in his voice. "I don't see many men that get stabbed and then get back up."
"Glad I've got your attention." Richard brandished the switchblade that he had just pulled out of his own shoulder at Van De Graf. "Where is she?"
"Now, let's uh, let's not lose our cool here," Van De Graf nervously tried to defuse the situation.
Richard couldn't help give a devilish grin. He could feel his hot blood soaking into his undershirt. It was sticky and moist and he was already starting to itch. I must look a proper fright. "I think we are a little past that point, wouldn't you say? I'm about to lose my cool too."
"Wait wait wait," Van De Grad rushed out, suddenly very eager to help Richard out. "I think I may know who has her, huh? You wouldn't stab a helpful man, would you?"
There was a lot of stuff Richard didn't think he would do, but now that the woman he loved had been abducted he was learning that there wasn't much he wouldn't do to get her back safely. "Start talking."
"Last night a couple of guys from Ryan Security came asking around after here. Told me that they got a witness who says she's real buddy buddy with that trouble-making pal of hers, Helen, she used to work for me too. I says yeah, them broads were two peas in a pod. They want to know where they're hiding out, and have no clue where Helen is, but I did have that nice little letter from your lawyer telling me to very politely go and screw myself to show them. Looks like the gumshoes figured out from there where to get their man, huh?"
"If you're fibbing I'm gonna come back here and really lose my temper," Richard threatened.
"No lies, I can't think that fast when I got a knife on me," Van De Graf assured him.
Richard frowned. He believed Van De Graf but that didn't mean his day had gotten any better. This was an unwelcome turn of events. While he may be able to bully this lowlife he wouldn't be able to intimidate seasoned detectives and security agents. He'd have to take a different tact.
Richard waggled the switchblade. "I'm keeping this," he informed Van De Graf.
"Oh, please do, with my compliments," Van De Graf stumbled out, visibly relieved that the encounter was drawing to an end.
Richard tucked the knife into the breast pocket of his now bloody suit jacket. "Shut up," he mumbled as he walked away.
Richard felt eyes on him on the train back to Adranos Place but that was the least of his problems. He was going to have to rely on a different kind of influence to work his way past Ryan Security. Did I not get named the most promising industrial talent by the Rapture Tribune last year? Do I not make more than all those chumps in the security station combined? I look down on them from my twentieth floor apartment. I am only three floors below the penthouse; they live in a dump like Pirithous Court, Richard tried to pump himself up.
Snobbery wasn't natural to him, he felt uncomfortable whenever he was confronted with the less fortunate and the comparative poverty in which they lived their lives. He'd need a strong sense of self-importance to talk Ryan Security into releasing Lupe. Ideally he'd bring Dorothy and let her blast them with her entitled ego until they relented, but she'd probably try to talk them into having Lupe executed.
As to what, if any, crimes Lupe was guilty of he didn't care. Her and Helena may have cooked something up, but it was immaterial to him if she was a criminal. All that mattered was getting her out and safely back in his home.
He stared at the police station in Adranos Place as he walked home but didn't stop. My poor darling must be simply terrified. Lupe was a spicy-sweet little dove, she wouldn't survive in a cage. She'd beat her little wings against the bars until she hurt herself. He couldn't very well go in like he was now, with bloodied clothing and face. He needed to be presentable – more than presentable, he needed to be impressive. Regal. Rich.
"Please don't be home," he muttered to himself as he opened the door to his apartment. It was only about four in the afternoon and hopefully Dorothy would be out spending his money still, but he really didn't want to discuss with her what was going on.
On that note he picked up the flowers and set them on the dining room table. Looks like my plans for the night have changed. There wasn't much that he'd prefer less to a date with his wife, but sweet-talking security into letting his girlfriend out of prison was one of them.
Richard discarded his bloodstained and slashed clothing on the floor in his bedroom and took a quick shower. Afterwards he evaluated himself in the mirror. He'd been putting off getting a haircut for the past few weeks and as a result his hair was a bit longer than he would have liked. He put a little bit of pomade in his hands and shaped his blond hair until it was stylishly wavy. He shaved, although it wasn't really necessary as he had shaved that morning as he always did.
In the back of his closet were the nice suits that Dorothy had arranged for him to get tailored but he never wore because, well, he was an engineer who up until last week was this side of a shut-in. He picked his crispest white dress shirt and a sapphire blue tie to match his pale blue eyes, which was something Dorothy always told him to do so it was something that he thusly willfully ignored.
The three piece dark gray wool suit he chose still had the tissue paper in the pockets, which he tore out and replaced with his new lucky switchblade. He looked through his drawers until he found the solid gold (but still tasteful) tie clip with his initials engraved on it. It was a fiddly little thing and he had to twist the miniature screw very tightly to secure it to his tie. He then put in the matching cufflinks and gave himself one last check in the mirror.
Yes, that'll do. I look like a right proper prick, the sort of guy who'd complain about the wrong sort of ice in his Old Fashioned. I'll get her out of there in a jiffy.
And if he couldn't talk her out of there? Well, he had a lucky switchblade and was apparently invincible.