Author's note: I disclaim ownership of any characters from The Southern Vampire Mysteries Series or True Blood. They are the property of Charlaine Harris and Alan Ball.

Dark Desire – Chapter 2

Katy's mother followed her husband out of her daughter's hospital room. "John, you don't mean that! She's your daughter; you can't believe what Richard said. You just can't!" Helen Dumont was appalled at her husband's attitude.

"Are you telling me I don't know my own daughter, Helen? "Don't be ridiculous!" He arrogantly replied. "She's always been a problem. She was always getting into trouble in high school. Have you forgotten that?"

"Sure, she got into a little trouble and embarrassed you a few times, so what! She did a little drinking with her friends, and once she got stopped for speeding while under the influence. She talked back to you a few times, but she never did anything seriously wrong and you know it!" The usually timid Helen Dumont fiercely defended her daughter, Katy. She could not believe the charges John was making against their daughter.

John Dumont wasn't listening; he turned and walked down the hall with an angry look on his face; for him the matter was closed. James Wakefield, Richard's father, was a good friend of his, and had been since they were in grade school. Wakefield's generous donations to the hospital kept the facility afloat during some very pressing times. Wakefield had done many favors for John Dumont, and he for him. He never doubted his friend when he told him what happened between Richard and Katy.

Katy was stunned after her father walked out of the room. She could hear the conversation going on just outside her doorway, but she didn't believe what she was hearing. As Helen walked back to her daughter's side, Katy cried out, "What's going on, mom? I wasn't cheating on Richard; it was the other way around. I came home and found him in our bed with Tracy Coleman. I thought she was my best friend. I can't believe that I was fooled by her."

Hot tears scalded her face as she remembered the scene in their bedroom. In the last two days, Katy had also discovered something even worse than her husband's infidelity. It was something that she could never talk about to her mother or anyone else.

Yesterday was Richard's birthday,. Katy had planned a surprise birthday party for him last night. Richard was also a physician who worked at St. Claire's in the Oncology Department. Many of their co-workers at the hospital had been invited. It was hard keeping the party a secret from Richard, but Katy thought she had done a pretty good job.

Her friend, Tracy, Coleman was helping her plan the party and maintain secrecy at the same time. She was was in her office getting ready to leave the hospital early to begin preparations when a messenger dropped off a Fed Ex package addressed simply to Dr. Wakefield. Katy didn't recognize the return address, but she opened the package anyway and drew out a DVD and a smaller envelope that held bunch of pictures.

Katy began to go through the pictures, one by one. The first few seemed innocent enough; they were shots taken of Richard, his father and her father on a trip they had taken to Bangkok almost a month ago. The three men were very close and had made at a trip to Thailand every year for the last few years. The photographs showed the men sitting in a restaurant eating dinner with some Asian gentlemen. They all looked like they were having a good time. Katy smiled fondly as she looked at them.

It was the fifth picture that caught her attention, and Katy blanched when she saw it. It was a picture of Richard lying naked on a bed in a hotel room with a naked Asian girl. When she looked closer, Katy could tell the girl was a young teenager, probably no more than thirteen or fourteen years old. Katy felt as if she had been hit in the stomach with a sledge hammer. She dropped the pictures as if they burned her hands. With a curse and a sweep of her hand, she knocked them off her desk on to the floor. For a minute, she just sat there glued to her chair in stunned silence.

Finally, she arose, walked over to her door, shut and locked it behind her. She picked up the pictures, sat back down behind her desk chair and began to look through them. There were about twenty five photographs in all. Except for the first four photos, all of the pictures were candid shots of Richard, his father, James Wakefield, and her own father, John Dumont, in the same hotel room having sex with two innocent looking Asian girls and one Asian boy. Two of the children seemed to be pre-adolescent; the third, a girl, could not have been more than fourteen or fifteen, at most.

The pictures were stomach churning; and extremely graphic, violent and ugly. In several shots, the boy was bound to a bed and gagged while Mr. Wakefield was sodomizing him.. In others, the girls were screaming as they were being forced to have sex. Katy was struck by the fear and horror on their young faces. In less than five minutes, Katy felt her safe, secure world turn upside down. The love she felt for her husband, Richard, for so long, died in less than a heartbeat, leaving only a bitter sense of horror and shame in her heart.

Katy didn't recognize the man in the photographs as the loving husband she had married. She didn't recognize her father or her father-in-law as the two most respected and loved men in Wakefield Cove. As far as she was concerned, all three men were nothing but sick, disgusting perverts. Bile rose into her throat, and she suddenly retched into her waste basket. Taking a swig from a bottle of Poland Spring water that was a staple on her desk, she rinsed her mouth out, spat into the waste basket and rinsed again.

Not wanting to, but knowing she had to, Katy inserted the DVD into her computer and clicked on it. The images on the disc were far worse than the photographs. Some perverted sicko had filmed the three men as they and performed sex acts on their young victims. The children were swapped back and forth like toys. After a few minutes, she couldn't take any more. She ejected the DVD and shut her computer off.

Red hot anger and disgust swamped her, and scalding tears of shame filler her eyes. Her first impulse was to call the police and turn the photos and the DVD over to them. She reached for the phone, but she realized she could not do that. The scandal would destroy two families and probably drive her mentally fragile mother over the brink into insanity. She decided to confront her husband and her father, herself. After placing the pictures and the DVD back into the Fed EX envelope, she grabbed her purse and ran out the door, down the hall to the parking lot exit. She didn't see or hear any of her co-workers wishing her a good time at the party tonight.

Katy was shaking when she got into her car. Her mind was reeling with shock. She wondered how long the three most important men in her life had been engaging in these perverted and disgusting activities. She guessed that it had been going on for a long time.

A sudden thought sickened her; James Wakefield had recently employed three Asian women at his large estate in Wakefield Colve. All three had at least one pre-teenage boy or girl. She wondered if those children were being abused as well. If they were, Katy resolved she was going to stop it somehow, but she didn't know how. Taking a few of the most incriminating photos out of the envelope and placing them in her purse, Katy stopped at her bank; she was going to place the Fed Ex envelope containing the other photographs and the DVD in her safety deposit box.

Before she got out of the car, she decided that wasn't such a good idea. She stopped at a nearby convenience store and bought a box of large plastic storage bags, the kind used to store food in the freezer. Putting the DVD and the envelope containing most of the pictures in one of the plastic bags, Katy tore the Fed Ex envelope into tiny pieces and dropped them into a trash container near her parked car.

Katy sped out of town toward her parents house. She knew no one would be home at that hour, so she didn't bother entering the house. Moving quickly around the back, she continued walking deep into a heavily wooded area about a half mile from her childhood home. There she found what she was looking for: a small cave that she used to play in as a child. The cave was high on a hill overlooking a stream that ran through her parent's large property.

The cave was dry and the entrance was well hidden by overgrown brush; she almost didn't find it. Once inside, Katy found her old bedroll and some blankets, an old flashlight, a kerosene lantern commonly used by campers and some matches in a tin box. The blankets and bedroll were shredded, dirty and moth eaten, but everything else looked in relatively good condition.

She had not been inside the cave since the night she confronted her father about hitting her mother and his infidelities, but she could tell that an animal had taken up residence inside the cave for a time. There was no evidence of that animal now. Katy placed the plastic bag containing the DVD and pictures on a high stone shelf in back of the cave behind some large rocks. Even if someone found the cave, they would not find the pictures.

Katy ran back to her car and drove home. It was ten minutes to five when she let herself into the front door of their large house. She could hear voices and loud music upstairs. She was surprised because no one should have been in the house at that time. The caterers were not expected to arrive for at least another hour, and Tracy wasn't due until then either.

Katy walked quietly up the stairs and opened the two double doors that led into the master bedroom. What she saw shocked her: Richard and Tracy were naked and having sex in their bed. They were too preoccupied to see that her standing in the doorway. Tracy was on top of Richard riding him hard. He yelled out her name as he came.

Katy stood still as her shocked mind registered the scene in front of her. All thoughts of confronting Richard with the photographs in her purse were temporarily forgotten. Her logical mind told her that this was a set up. Tracy knew exactly what time she would be home. Katy had told her, but all Katy's mind could register right now was the tanned perfection of Tracy's naked body and what was going on in the bed. No wonder Richard was so entranced by her best friend.

At twenty eight, Katy was a tall, pretty, gray eyed woman with long, honey blonde hair and a fair, creamy complexion. Some people said she was beautiful, but Katy never thought so. At any rate, she knew her looks could not compare to the smaller, but exotic dark beauty that was Tracy Coleman. Tracy was definitely Richard's type, so Katy always wondered why he fell in love and married her, instead of Tracy.

Katy was five foot eleven and weighed one hundred and forty pounds. Her weight was well proportionbed, but she liked to eat, so she had to diet and exercise constantly to keep from putting on the pounds. She had a small bosom and rounded hips. Her legs were shapely, and long,. Katy had trouble finding clothes that fit her right unless she went to the most expensive boutiques, or had her clothes tailored to fit.

On the other hand, Tracy, her old college friend, had a body that was model perfect. She was almost five nine and naturally slim. She could buy clothes straight off the rack and look great in them. In fact, Tracy Coleman would make a burlap sack look like an expensive designer dress. She could eat anything she wanted and not gain an ounce She didn't have to exercise either; she once told Katy that she didn't like getting so sweaty. That always made Katy a little jealous of her gorgeous friend.

They differed greatly in personality too. Katy was naturally shy, and because of her father's ability to completely fool others, she was suspicious of most people until she got to know them well. She didn't want to be played for a fool like her mother, so it was hard to gain her trust. Once that trust was gained, Katy was a steadfast friend. Her natural reserve often made her seem standoffish to others.

Tracy was an extrovert, open, warm, witty and fun to be with. She always knew what to say; she always had a smart comeback when someone teased her. Her self-assured and confident air attracted the male population to her like bees to honey. She was fully aware of her own sexuality and the affect it had on men, but for some reason, she did not have many female friends.

Tracy dated a lot; college boys constantly filled the dorm room they shared, trying to capture Tracy's heart. Tracy made no bones that she like to date different guys. She spent a lot of time talking to Katy in detail about her sexual experiences. She had many of them; she considered herself a modern, liberated woman.

Katy dated occasionally, but she had no serious boyfriend for months. As a college freshman at UC Berkeley, Katy lost her virginity to a boy from Boston who was in his senior year. Kevin said he wanted to marry her, so she willingly agreed to sleep with him; he was her first lover. When it came to sex, Kevin was a good teacher and Katy was a willing student. She found out she really enjoyed sex, and she was good at it.

Six months later, Katy was heartbroken when Kevin told her he was going back to Boston after graduation and that their relationship was over. Katy felt heartbroken and used. When Kevin told her he was leaving, Katy cried on Tracy's shoulder for a week, then Tracy fixed her up on a blind date. She enjoyed herself a lot more than she thought she would. During the next two years, she dated a several nice guys, but she never let herself fall in love again.

Katy had always known Richard Wakefield; every girl in Wakefield Cove did. He was three years older than her, so she didn't run with his crowd. Like most girls in Wakefield Cove High School, she was had a crush on the handsome, but arrogant, football jock. He never looked at her once. She considered him out of her league.

That all changed during her senior year. In college. Katy was dating more frequently than before, but she was determined to finish medical school before she got serious with any guy. Richard Wakefield transferred from Princeton to the UC Medical School where he met Tracy Coleman. He was immediately captivated by the exotic brunette, and Richard finally convinced her to go out with him. They were inseparable until he took her home to meet his parents at Thanksgiving; shortly afterward they split.

Richard Wakefield had fallen in love with Tracy. He wanted to marry her and told his father so when he brought her home to meet the family. James Wakefield took an immediate disliking to the girl his son brought home; she was from a poor San Francisco family, not the kind of family he wanted his son to associate with.

Over the holiday weekend, Wakefield assigned a private investigator who worked almost exclusively for him to look into Tracy's background. What the P.I. discovered only confirmed his low opinion of the girl. She had been in trouble with the law many times and had been arrested for drug possession, shoplifting and theft. One of her brothers was in prison for armed robbery. The family had all sorts of financial problems and Wakefield thought they were just plain white trash.

Wakefield was furious when his son told him on Sunday night that he wanted to marry Tracy Coleman. "I won't allow you to marry that kind of girl. If you do, I will disown you!" He proceeded to inform Richard what he had found out about Tracy, but his son didn't care. Richard and Tracy stormed out of the house and drove back to Berkeley.

Notwithstanding his father's objections, Richard and Tracy could not stay away from each other. During the next three months, it was Tracy who came up with the idea to set Katy up with Richard. She wanted to throw his father off her scent. She knew that Richard would never love the mousy little blonde she roomed with, and Katy was too trusting and naive to figure out what was going on behind her back.

At first, Richard didn't want to do it, but then he thought about the advantages of such a relationship: Katy was from a good family that lived in his home town. His father and her father were close friends and confidants; they often traveled together. Her parents were wealthy in their own right; and Katy definitely had good breeding. Katy was controllable he thought; she would make a good wife for a prominent doctor. Richard intended to be the most prominent Oncologist in Northern California.

He also agreed with Tracy that Katy was naïve and too trusting when it came to them. He was sure that with just a little attention, he could easily make Katy fall in love with him. He would be able to get his father off his back and still have Tracy too. It was the perfect solution. Richard began to court Katy. He put on a big show of love and affection for the shy woman, and she fell easily into his trap.

Katy was surprised when Richard asked her out because she thought he and Tracy were still in love even though they both started dating other people. Tracy assured her that wasn't the case. She seemed eager for Katy to go out with Richard, so Katy agreed just to satisfy her friend. After the first date, he asked for another, and then another and another. Sometimes Tracy and a boyfriend double dated with Katy and Richard, and the four of them had a lot of fun.

Katy dated Richard for almost two months when she knew she was seriously in love with him. She couldn't resist the steady onslaught of his attentions, and she thought his feelings were real. Just before her graduation, Richard asked her to marry him. She agreed, but they decided to wait until they were both out of medical school and practicing on their own. Tracy, who always wanted to know every detail of their dates, actually seemed thrilled for her.

After graduation, Katy attended medical school while Richard finished his last year. Tracy Coleman seemed to disappear from their lives. A year later, Richard began his internship, then residency at St. Claire's Hospital. He was on staff in the Oncology Department when Katy started her internship at the hospital too. At the age of twenty seven, Katy Dumont married Richard Wakefield. The happy couple had the the biggest wedding ceremony Wakefield Cove ever witnessed.

Through the years, Katy kept in touch with Tracy Coleman who moved back to San Francisco and got a job at a large real estate firm. On the phone one night, she told Katy that she hated that job and wanted to get away from San Francisco.

Six months before Katy and Richard got married, Tracy moved to Wakefield Cove and got a job at a local real estate agency there. She and Tracy resumed their friendship and were as close as they ever were in college. Although she dated frequently, Tracy did not try to cultivate any other female friends besides Katy. That made Katy curious, but not alarmed.

Katy didn't know it, but Richard and Tracy had met several times while she was living in San Francisco. They eagerly continued their relationship when she moved to Wakefield Cove. Her real estate job was perfect for assignations. They trysted frequently in the vacant homes she sold. When Richard traveled on business, Tracy often joined him later at his hotel. There were many people in Wakefield Cove, who either suspected or knew of the relationship between Richard and Tracy, but they kept their mouths shut.

Katy never knew a thing; she was too much in love. When she and Richard were married, Tracy Coleman was her Maid of Honor. A few months after their marriage, Richard was on the fast track to become Assistant Department Head of the Oncology Department. It was a big deal, and Tracy was thrilled for him.

That afternoon, standing at the bedroom door, Katy screamed. "You bastards!" Fury like she had never felt before consumed her. The pair on the bed turned to look at her. Richard was as shocked to see her as she was to see the two of them. Tracy had a cold look of triumph in her eyes.

"Katy, I can explain." Richard cried as he jumped off the bed. He tried to grab her arm. Katy took the photographs out of her purse and threw them at him. "Can you explain these? Can you explain that you have been fucking my best friend, Richard? How long has this been going on?"

Tracy did too. Katy didn't expect an answer, but she got one anyway. "It never stopped, you fool! We've been lovers all a long!" Tracy gave a sarcastic laugh and sneered at the shocked look on Katy's face. Richard bent to pick up the pictures. He blanched when he saw them. "Where did you get these." he demanded. Katy didn't answer him.

"The the pictures, Richard? Can you explain them?" Richard just looked at her with anger and denial in his eyes. For the second time today, Katy felt like she had just been gutted. She ran into the large walk in closet she shared with Richard and grabbed several large suitcases from a top shelf. She started stuffing clothes into them. When she was finished, she started toward the staircase with a suitcase in each hand.

"What are you doing?" Richard demanded. He tried to block her way.

"What does it look like, you perverted bastard? It's bad enough that I find you in bed with that bitch, but sex with kids is just too much! I'm leaving you and filing for divorce!" Katy was angry and she was practically shouting. She had been completely in love with Richard, and she had been a complete fool.

"Stop her, Richard! She'll ruin everything!" Tracy shouted.

"You're not leaving now. A divorce would ruin my chances to become Assistant Department Head. I am not going to let you do that!" Richard snarled as he grabbed the suitcases away from her. He didn't know how Katy had gotten hold of the photographs, but he instinctively knew that Tracy had set him up to be discovered today, but wasn't going to let anything get in his way.

"You're crazy if you think I am staying!" Katy was determined and tried to grab the suitcases away from him. That's when Richard hit her across the face and split her bottom lip. His face was red with fury and his eyes seemed to bulge out of his head. He punched her hard in the side. She could feel a rib crack. "Don't, Richard! Please stop!" Tracy was horrified and was screaming at her lover.

Richard kept punching away at her. He's always had a bad temper, but he hid it well. Now he was out of control and didn't hear a word Tracy said. Blow after blow struck Katy. Her face, arms, back and chest were pummeled hard. Every time Richard hit her, she backed up a little to get away from him, but he kept on coming. She tried to block his blows, but it was no use.

She was at the top of the stairs when his next blow split her lip and sent her tumbling down the long flight of stairs. She hit her head hard against the banister and then hit her back and hips several more times as she went down. The fall seemed to take forever, but when she hit hard against the the Italian marble tile on the foyer floor. Katy felt an excruciating pain shoot through her left leg below the kneecap. She passed out from the pain.

Katy slowly and carefully recounted the story to her mother, but she carefully left out the part about the pictures and the DVD. She didn't think her mother could stand finding out that her husband was a perverted child molester. Helen Dumont was stunned.

"Richard is telling everyone that he found you in bed yesterday with Dan Tolbert. When Dan tried to leave, you tried to stop him. Dan beat you up and pushed you down the stairs before Richard could stop him. He said that Tracy Coleman was there and she saw the whole thing." her mother said grimly. She didn't believe a word of it, but she thought Katy needed to know.

Dan Tolbert owned a bar in town. He was a large, good looking man who owned a bar downtown. His looks and bad boy persona attracted women right and left. Before she married Richard, Dan had asked her out on a date her, but Katy said no that she was engaged. Dan didn't like to be told no by a woman.

"That didn't happen! I never even dated Dan Tolbert. I sure as hell never went to bed with him, and as far as I know, he's never been in our house." Richard owned the house before they were married almost a year ago, so she didn't know if Dan had ever been there before they were married.

Richard and Dan were in the same class at school and the two ran together for a time. Then Richard went to Princeton and Dan, whose parents owned the bar that he now owned, attended a local community college. The two were in different social circles; eventually the friendship simply stopped.

Her mother had a stricken look on her face. "Dan Tolbert confirmed everything that Richard and Tracy said. Sheriff Brown arrested him. There will be a trial and he will probably go to prison for what he did."

"Why would he do that? Why would he say such a thing?" Katy asked, but she knew the answer. Richard or his father, James Wakefield, must have bribed him somehow. Dan Tolbert always needed money; the bar wasn't doing too well. The Wakefields were very wealthy; they could easily afford to pay the man off. Her mother looked miserable, but she had no answer.

In the space of twenty four hours, Katy Wakefield's life had changed. One day she was a respected physician in love with her husband; the next day, she was a cheating spouse and a pariah in the community. That wasn't the worst of it, though: three months later, both of Katy's parents were dead, and she was a woman on the run.