Monsters
By Karen Singer
Chapter 32 – Breaking the Pimp – Part 1 of 2
Janice, Carol, Susan, her father, Vinny, and Sammy sat at the dining room table, but there was no food in sight. It was simply a meeting to decide what to do next.
Susan Wu looked to her father. “Since it appears that Brandy is indeed still alive, then perhaps we should continue operations here for a while more.”
Mr. Wu looked to Janice, who had become his largest source of income in the last few years. Keeping Janice happy was one of his primary interests. “I have no doubt that you will be unwilling to leave anytime soon,” he said.
“Not a chance!” Janice replied. “Not if the love of my daughter’s life can still be found.”
“As I thought,” Mr. Wu replied. He looked to his daughter, Susan. “We will stay…for now.”
“Good!” Carol said. “Thanks. Now how do we find Brandy?”
“The interrogators are still pulling information from Sally,” Susan replied. “But so far, our biggest two leads are Alfonso and the pimp, Bryce. Just knowing their names may be a big clue. We know Alfonso is connected somehow to Vince Beastman who took Brandy. We’ll have our people look into that angle. But I believe our best course of action will be to find her original pimp, Bryce. She gave the interrogators the information on how to find him already so we should have no problem there, but more importantly, Bryce knew how to contact the people that actually took Sally to the breaking house.”
Mr. Wu looked to Janice. “Perhaps this should work like many of the jobs you do for Maria Alverez. We get him alone, take him, give him to you for one night, then release him and no one is the wiser.”
Janice nodded. “Yes, I have no problem at all working over a pimp. In fact, I’d rather enjoy it. I just can’t do anything much with him afterwards since he’ll have to appear normal to everyone else.”
Mr. Wu smiled. “Perhaps we can arrange for you to go back later and…finish the job.”
Janice smiled. “You know already that I’d like that.” Destroying men was her favorite pastime. “One thing I think we should all be aware of though,” she continued. “Since Brandy was taken to that place, when we find her, there’s a very good chance that she’s been brainwashed too. If she’s in one of those cages as Sally described them, then she’s already been living in hell. No telling what that did to her mind.”
“She’s got a very strong mind!” Carol threw out.
“I’m sure she does,” Janice agreed. “But that doesn’t mean that the treatment they’ve been giving her hasn’t taken root. I have no doubt that living the way Sally says she’s been, has already taken quite a toll on her.”
“Then what do we do?” Carol asked, worried.
Janice shrugged. “Let’s find her first. We won’t know anything until then.”
“Okay,” Susan said. “Is that about it?”
Vinny spoke up. “Since there isn’t anything much we can do, Sammy and I are going into Vegas to talk with a few people. Maybe they know something. If we come up with anything, we’ll let you know. If not, we’ll go home until Brandy is found. Just keep me informed.”
“I’ll have a limo ready to take you to the city whenever you’re ready,” Susan told him. “Anything else?” she asked.
“What about Ralphie?” Carol asked.
“Ralphie!” Vinny exclaimed disgustedly. “Where is he now?”
“He stayed last night out in the barn with the rest of the staff,” Susan replied. “I have no problem with him continuing to stay there.”
“And I have no problem putting a bullet in his head and getting rid of him for you,” Sammy told her.
“He’s Brandy’s toy, and she’s very fond of him,” Carol replied. “Besides, he was the one who found Sally. He’s done a lot of good work talking to all the prostitutes and pimps in the city to find information. He deserves some kind of break.”
“That much is true,” Vinny admitted. “I can send him home if you like.”
“No,” Carol said. “If we find Brandy, I have no doubt that she’ll be very interested in having him close.”
“Carol,” Janice said. “Does Brandy love him?”
Carol laughed. “Not…exactly. She simply loves torturing him. She gets her biggest kicks out of finding ways to humiliate him. It’s what she does for fun.”
Janice nodded. “As you said, a toy. But her favorite toy.”
“Yes.”
“For now then,” Janice said, “he can remain out in the barn. I would just prefer that he not come here in the house. You all know I don’t like men around.”
“May I make a suggestion?” Carol said.
“Of course,” Janice replied.
“Brandy never lets him wear anything but dresses. We shouldn’t change that. Maybe we can have him be a maid…to the maids and other staff out in the barn.”
Janice smiled. “That sounds workable.”
“Maybe the maids can teach him something as well.”
Janice nodded. “I’ll instruct the staff. I’ll have them find him a proper uniform too.”
“That should work,” Carol replied.
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“What is it Billy?”
“Colonel Houghton says his extra men have arrived, along with the new equipment.”
“It’s about time! When is he going to put them to work?”
“Tonight.”
“It’s about time!”
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Carol had enjoyed much of the ride from her mother’s mansion into Los Angeles, but now having to put up with the traffic as she approached the city was nothing less than maddening. Still, finally they had a plan of action. The agents that Wu Enterprises had in L.A. had already found out everything they needed to know about the pimp, Bryce, who evidently was more than just a simple pimp anymore. From what information they had sent about him, he had moved up the chain rather quickly recently. Carol got the impression that he was well known to the Wu Enterprise agents there.
Carol’s mother, along with a host of support people were on their way to L.A. now and would arrive…eventually. A place for her mother to work had been secured. All preparations were in the process of being completed. Carol just had to get there to lead the operation. An operation that they decided couldn’t take place until the early hours of the morning, like many of the other jobs Carol had done in the past.
But first, Carol had to get to L.A. And right now, the traffic seemed to be doing nothing at all to help that situation. Maybe if she pulled out a gun and shot a few hundred of the drivers on the road she’d be able to get through. It was a fun thought, but that’s as far as Carol could take that idea. Maybe if everyone rode a motorcycle there wouldn’t be traffic jams like this.
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Night had fallen when Vince Beastman’s cellphone rang. He was still hiding out in a cheap house outside of the city along with three of his most trusted men. He answered his phone. “Yeah?”
“Boss! We’re under attack! And….”
Vince heard what sounded like an explosion. “What was that?” he yelled.
“Fuck!” the voice on the other end replied. “Something exploded. Shit!”
“Exploded!” Beastman yelled.
“Boss! They’re all over the place. They’re…. Damn it! I see one of those RPG rocket things. Shit! They’re aiming it this…. Fuck!”
Vince heard a sound that was cut off quickly as his line went dead. It had sounded like another explosion, only much bigger. Whatever it was, he no longer had any communication with the man he had been talking to.”
Vince had been angry and scared before. It was the reason he was hiding out where he was. Now, he was far more afraid.
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This time, the police had been called in quicky. Rockets and loud explosions insured it. But as fast as the police response had been, they had still been too late. Now it was left to Detective Corbin to pick up the pieces. According to the S.W.A.T. experts, whoever had destroyed the building had used military R.P.Gs. Rocket grenades. Far more powerful than your typical grenade.
Whoever had done it had come through fast and hard. Coordinated. They had come in and gotten out just as fast. And unfortunately, just as invisibly – so far. There was a war going on in the city streets. A war that seemed to be aimed at some of the city’s criminal elements. This was another building owned by a mobster – Vince Beastman. Or rather, it used to be another building owned by him. Now, it wasn’t much more than a bunch of rubble. It might take them days to search for bodies.
He turned to the team of younger detectives working with him. Start knocking on doors. Someone had to see something. No way they couldn’t this time.
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Vince Beastman was angry. Angrier than he had ever been. The word he had gotten from some of his men who had driven past the attacked building, was that it pretty much wasn’t there anymore. As far as his men could tell, they had bombed and killed everyone.
As angry as he was, Vince knew he couldn’t hold out any longer. He turned to his three men. Start calling everyone you can find. Everyone left. Get them out of the city. If that madman hits another of our places there won’t be anything left of us. Send everyone you can back to L.A. Get them out of here as fast as you can. We’ll have to pick up the pieces from there. But I promise you, as soon as we kill that bastard, we’ll be back. I’ve just got to figure out some way to put a bullet in his brain first. Or better still, capture him and take him to the breaking house. That…I would love! Him…and that broad – Death. Both of them have ruined me. I want them both! Put the word out, I still want her…and him now. And I’m going to make them suffer like never before.
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Ralphie ran his hands down the front of his new dress. Even with Brandy gone, it seemed he was still stuck in dresses – with no way out. The only bright spot was his shoes. The most comfortable shoes he could remember wearing. Low-heeled black pumps, just like all the maids wore who worked for that woman – Miss Janice, as the others always referred to her. So now he had another new dress. Two actually, although they were both exactly alike – black with white collars and white cuffs on the short sleeves. Each dress included a white apron that went with the white accents on the dress. It was of course, a maid’s outfit, and it exactly matched all the maid’s outfits that everyone else wore.
He had heard that Vinny and Sammy were gone now, but he had been given strict orders to stay away from the big house. It seemed that Miss Janice didn’t like men – at all. One of the others had rumored that she killed men. Although the word the woman had used was destroyed. After seeing for himself what was left of the men she had worked on recently, all out in the pasture next to the barn, acting like chickens, he believed it. He shuddered at the thought. So yes, he was perfectly happy to stay well away from the big house, and well away from Miss Janice.
It was explained to him in no uncertain terms that until Brandy came back, he was going to have to be the maid to everyone that stayed in the barn, which from what he had seen was a lot of people. Mostly women, but there were a few men who worked downstairs in the barn too. Oddly, all the men were Chinese. A few of the women around were Chinese too. But the maids that worked up in the big house were not Chinese. None of them.
One of those maids, the one he had met before, the one that had taken care of him in past visits to the house, the one called Natalia, was now in charge of him. Now she acted nothing at all like she had with him in the past. Now she seemed to hate him. She yelled and screamed at him for the least little thing. Everything he did had to be perfect. No exceptions. He had to spend all his time cleaning the entire upstairs in the barn. Make all the beds. Pick up everyone’s clothes. Clean the bathrooms. And do everything that Natalia could find that needed to be done for everyone working on everything else.
The biggest problem was, as far as Ralphie could see, everyone who stayed in the barn seemed to be slobs! Consequently, the work never ended.
And now most of the people staying in the barn and the big house were suddenly gone. It was just a few that remained. Unfortunately, one of the ones still there was his new jailer – Natalia. Speaking of which, there she was now.
“Ralphie! What the hell are you doing?” Natalia barked angrily.
“Just making the beds, Miss Natalia,” Ralphie replied, dropping a small curtsey as she had been forcing him to do every time he spoke to her…to anyone.
“You can finish that later. The big house is empty right now. It’s the perfect time for you to scrub all the floors. And you better do a good job of it our you’ll be the next chicken out in the yard!”
Ralphie gulped. If he hadn’t seen those men with his own eyes, he never would have believed it. Natalia’s threat wasn’t an idle one. It was a very real possibility. He dropped another curtsey. “Right away, Miss Natalia.”
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