“Do you really think I will sit by?” answered Jack tersely. “You know me better than that. We will protect our friend though. We gave him our word.”

“Then what can we do? Any arrest and they’ll know who told. Especially if we wait until they pick up the bag of evidence.”

“I’ve got an idea,” said Jack, coldly, “and it doesn’t involve arresting them.”

“Jack … no, we can’t. I know how you feel. I’d like to kill them, too. But we can’t. They’re still just kids.”

“Kids committing adult crimes,” replied Jack. “You know how things went in court today … and that was with the masks and a pellet pistol. What do you think will happen in court if they’re arrested without the hard evidence of the masks and knife?” Jack paused and when Laura didn’t respond, he said, “I can hear it now. If we get DNA to prove they were there, lawyers will get the kids to say they were enticed to Miss Flowers’s home on the pretext of tutoring them. She used her position to seduce and introduce them to the world of bondage. The kids went along with her, but one kid threatened to tell his buddies about it. They’ll say Miss Flowers threatened to charge them all with rape if that happened. The kid panicked and things got out of hand. They’ll cap it off by saying the kids were actually the victims of an adult. A teacher yet … a person in authority who used her power over them.”

“That’s far-fetched. A jury might not believe that.”

“Yeah, might being the key word. Especially without the masks and the weapons.”

Laura sighed and said, “Okay, okay. Even if you’re right … I don’t even want to think about it. But what do we do? Killing them isn’t an option. Anything else I would go along with.”

The rage Jack felt caused the tendons to go taut in his neck and his eyebrows furrowed, darkening his face. “I’ll tell you what the option is —” He stopped talking and Laura wondered if he was too angry to speak. “Hang on, incoming call,” he snapped, answering his cellphone.

“Jack, it’s Connie. The office said you called. You know what happened?”

“I know,” replied Jack tersely.

“You told me you were moving her to a safe place. How did you let this happen?”

“I don’t know,” replied Jack. His mind continued to cycle every detail in a futile attempt to figure out how he screwed up.

“You better find out, because so far, we got nothing.”

Jack realized he was clenching his jaw and that his fist was gripping his phone like a vice. He relaxed his muscles, but the vengeance he felt was as powerful as ever. “Believe me, we’ll find out,” he replied. “I’ve picked up Laura. How’s Amanda?”

“Her injuries aren’t life-threatening, thank Christ. I only spoke to her briefly. She said she was tied to her bed, repeatedly raped by three guys, and then they slashed her forehead multiple times with a knife. She’ll be badly scarred.”

“Where is she now?”

“She’s laying on a gurney in the holding area. A doctor is working on her face. After that, they’ll get her a private room where, hopefully, if she’s not too sedated, I’ll be able to talk to her in detail.”

“Not life-threatening if the nightmares don’t drive her to suicide,” said Jack, bitterly. “Do you really think she will be up to talking to you?”

“She’s traumatized, but not hysterical. She did say she is good with voices and is positive none of the three were the same guys as before.”

“Good with voices, is she?”

“Yeah, but she didn’t recognize any of them. Maybe they were adults or kids from some other school.”

“Cocktail used juveniles last time to alleviate any jail time if they were caught.”

“Do you have any leads for us?”

“No, we don’t have any leads at all.”

“Oh, man …” murmured Laura in the background.

“Then what are you doing?” asked Connie

“Talking it over with Laura. Trying to figure out who is responsible.”

“Responsible! You know it’s Cocktail! Probably went through Sy again. What’s wrong with you? Have you called your informant?”

“It’s kind of touchy talking to the informant right now,” replied Jack.

“Kind of touchy? I can’t believe this! Don’t you realize what happened?”

“I’m fully aware of what happened,” replied Jack. “We’ll do some digging and get back to you.”

“Yeah, well —”

Jack hung up his phone mid-sentence.

“Do some digging?” asked Laura. “Oh, man,” she muttered again.

“Not the type of digging you’re thinking of,” replied Jack, “but a skirt and high heels isn’t exactly the right thing to be wearing for what I have in mind. You wearing nylons?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Hang on, I’m going to phone Natasha.”

Jack rapidly punched the buttons on his BlackBerry. Laura listened as he asked Natasha if she could convince the hospital to delay moving Amanda to a private room.

“There’s no time to explain,” he said. After a pause, added, “Convince someone that you’re a doctor from another hospital. Say there’s been a multi-vehicle accident and it may be necessary to transfer some patients. Ask them to hold any rooms they can for an hour to give you time to assess the new arrivals.”

Laura saw Ray drive past in his red Camaro, as did Jack.

“Gotta go,” said Jack. “Use a payphone. Hopefully in an hour I’ll get you to call again and say the transfer isn’t necessary.”

“Take ’em off!” he yelled to Laura as he sped through traffic to catch up to the Camaro.

“Take what off?” asked Laura.

“Your nylons. Now!”

Chapter Twenty

Connie Crane looked down at Amanda Flowers as she lay on the gurney and tried to console her. Amanda’s forehead was swathed in bandages to stop the bleeding while they waited for a plastic surgeon to examine her.

“They’re supposed to move you to a private room,” fumed Connie, once more sliding open the white drape and peering out. “They don’t seem that busy.” She caught sight of the doctor who first examined Amanda and said, “Hey! You forget about us? You said we would be moved to a private room in a couple of minutes. That was forty-five minutes ago.”

“Sorry, something came up. A multi-vehicle pileup. Rooms are on hold for the moment until the situation can be assessed. We’re working as fast as we can.”

Connie walked over to the doctor and said, “Sorry, but it’s critical that I get a formal statement from the victim as soon as possible. Under the circumstances, I need to talk to her in private.”

“I’m sorry,” replied the doctor. “I appreciate your situation and have kept the spots on either side of you empty. That’s the most privacy I can offer at the moment and even that could change soon. I’m told we have three more patients being brought in with multiple injuries, so it is about to get busy. You may want to use what time you have now to talk to her.”

Connie grimaced, but nodded in agreement and returned to Amanda and pulled the curtain shut before taking out her notebook.

“Okay, Amanda, you’ve told me some of the details, but I need a full statement. You said you were in your kitchen near the back door when three guys in ski masks kicked the door open. They were brandishing knives and said they would kill you if you screamed. Is that right? So —”

Connie shook her head at the sound of running feet and loud voices as gurneys were slid in on both sides of the curtained enclosure. “This isn’t going to work,” she muttered, sticking her head out once more. She saw two uniformed RCMP officers, with notebooks in hand, about to enter the enclosures beside her. A young man was laying on a gurney out in the open and it was apparent that all of the private enclosures were occupied.

She recognized one of the officers. “What’s going on? An MVA?”

“No, this was no car accident. Some lunatic attacked three kids in a park with either a tire iron or a pipe. They said he was wearing pantyhose over his head.”