Jem…Chapter 127

Chapter 127

*Before…

Brooklyn leaves with Mike and I get hugs all around and I walk Rayne out to the van and she gets in and we kiss over and over a few times before she leaves too and I head back inside and run really hot water and dish soap in the sink and let things cool and soak and then slip through the house gathering laundry and get that on and then I come go and get a coffee and one of the guitars and I stay inside as it’s a little too cold for the step this morning and I’m just playing but not singing just messing around with some tune ideas that I’m still playing around with when Carmen comes downstairs looking showered and serious.

I stop and look at her and she’s taking a drink of her coffee and she’s wiping tears away from her eyes with the back of her hand and she looks at me.
(Sniffle-cough.) “You might want to get something to like record this on…” (Sniffle.)
I get up and set the guitar down and go over and pull her into a hug and she plants her face into my abdomen and I just give her a hug as she’s starting to cry.
“In a bit honey, it’s okay I’ve got you…you’re safe…”
(Sniffle-whine) “Promise…..?” She looks up at me from my wet jersey middle and I saw her with dad and I’m getting teary myself and I hold my own pinky up for her.
(Sniffle.) “Promise.”

*And Now…

It takes a moment before she’s just breathing normally and I move her to switch places with me and I get Carmen sitting on the couch.

I go and I get her a hot coffee and she’s getting up for a smoke when I come back and I walk with her outside and I just sit with her as she has a smoke and another coffee and I look at her and she’s shaking some and she has two smokes and we head inside. She kind of smoke reeks but I ignore it because if this is what I think it is then she’s got every right to be nerved up.

We get back to the living room and I set up not just the recorder but the video camera. I look at her and she nods and I frame her up so she’s in the shot but there’s nothing really to say where she’s at once I move a few things.

I take a sip of coffee that really doesn’t help my dry mouth and she starts. I’m nervous for her and I have had my own experiences of Adam.

“Adam and I started flirting at the country club. I was thirteen at the time and I was like all starstruck and thrilled when he decided to pay attention to me.”

“Mom, mom was always was riding my ass to be like the perfect kid, eat right, dance lessons and poise class…like a poise class really? But it all sort of just went away when I was with Adam.”

“Not even like because of him and me having anything but because mom was thrilled.”

“It was way passed nice. And he like knew it too.”

She takes one of the pillows and she moves it in front of her to hug it.

“Mom was a model back in Brazil and she married dad and moved up here once her career was closing down and everything but she sort of still wanted that kind of life even if it was here in town. She wanted me to have it and all the people at the club were like all well connected and then there was Adam.”

“Adam Marshall the third, around my age sort of him being a couple of years older and he was already like super ambitious with people doing stuff for him all the time and like more than his dad.”

“It’s because he like owns everyone.”

I take a drink of my coffee. “Owns everyone?”

She pulls a face. “With me, with some of the other girls he spoils us, a few dates and some fancy places and him with a driver or now his cool cars but we all kind of fall for it y’know. Prince charming has been shoved down all or throats in so many ways we all want it, that fairy tale.”

I nod.

“He gets busy after that doing stuff but he still really, really tells you he likes you and that you’re so important to him and that he wants to take care of you.”

She makes a face. “That’s when he gives you a credit card…”

“Gold card, a business one and it’s like covered by the business.” She does air quotes.

“Only it’s not it’s just that it’s for his businesses and that card is registered to you, to me and we like sign for it because they need our signature to compare it to every time that we use it.”

“And he lets us go nuts. Teenagers with credit cards, only once you’re really into him for a couple of grand he tells you.”

“Told me.”

“I own you, you little bitch. See you stole this card, it wasn’t ever meant for you to go off on like a shopping spree with it….oh I said? Prove it? See I have what the card is supposed to be used for on the contract you signed and I can use that you know. Theft, grand larceny, credit card fraud…and then I can go after your folks too because I want our money back…and then there’s all that shame.”

She’s hugging the pillow tight and I want to both hug her and throw up.

“And that’s how he gets you, how he got me and if I kept going along with things and did things that he wanted it’d all be cool. Sleep with men, seduce this guy…”

“And he’s right too most of the time, these guys they’re like middle aged and stuff and they see a girl like me and they don’t usually say no.”

Carmen starts to shake and hugs the pillow harder.

“They didn’t say no.”

“And that was after Adam and his friends break you in…broke me in.”

“He gets you drunk and high and you’re still so scared and fucking terrified and that’s what he loves best y’know. The fear, that you are scared and crying and that you hate it.”

“He hates women and the more you hurt and the more that you lose the more he gets off on it.”

I nod, that I know only too well the kids at school that wanted to get in with Adam would do things to me. And they’d keep doing things because when he’d do it and I wouldn’t play along and just shrug it off he’d either get angry that he didn’t get a response from me or he’d get bored.

And maybe find other targets like these girls.

“He tapes it all too.”

Me… “What?”

“He tapes us, tapes us getting broken in, tapes us behaving and saying stuff to like a script and if we don’t do what he wants he’ll send it to our families, send it out online. Who’ll take you in at a college or who will marry a gang bang girl?”

I look at her. “That’s rape Carmen.”

She nods and her voice is cracking with pain. “Yeah, yeah well what are we going to do about it? He owns the cops and I don’t know where he keeps those tapes or whatever!” (Sniffle sob.)

I look at her and lean forward but still stay out of the shot. “You’re doing it now; this will give the RCMP probable cause.”

At least in theory that’s like what they’d use and stuff and I am pretty sure that just this isn’t enough. I look at her. “Are you okay? Can you go on?”

She’s crying and I get her some tissues and I get up while she’s crying and I get a can of pop and pour it out and look at her and pass her the empty can. “Here up this as an ashtray.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, special circumstances.”

Carmen lights up and we both sip at our coffees.

She starts up rubbing at her eyes. “Adam uses us for that, for taping people.”

Okay…this might be better.

“Taping people?”

“He…Adam will tell us to go to an address or meet up with some guy at someplace and we’re hookers…we’re young and we’re teenagers and we’re illegal and we have a whole camera thing in the purses that he gives us and we’re told where to put it and these guys are like all old and middle aged and fat but they’re always something y’know. I mean I think I’ve sucked the cock of at least three of the city council members on his say so.”

That made me feel more than a little grossed out. I actually kind of block that out from my imagination with an ample amount of brain bleach. Nope, nope, nope I don’t really like my own peen I’m not going near someone else’s.

Yeah I know Mike but Mike never happened so Mike doesn’t count.

“Do you know what he does with the footage?”

“Keeps it, uses it like we’re all underage…he blackmails us and them with it I guess.”

“But do you know where he keeps it?”

Carmen shakes her head. “No, honestly he could have it anywhere.”

That’s true; he has hundreds of places that he could hide it. I’ll need to find that out, or narrow it down somehow if we can get the RCMP to move on him.

“Do you know the names of some of the guys that you were with?”

Carmen nods. “I think so, it’s not like there was a whole lot of small talk but yeah I can name some and I know what some of them did even if I only know like a first name too.”

She finishes a smoke and lights another.

I take a drink of my coffee. “Do you think you can get started? Anything you can tell us, looks, tats and scars to go with it will like all give the people that will be going after Adam more evidence and leverage.”

“Leverage?” She looks at me.

“They slept with underage girls, and some of them likely did stuff that would be like rape and sexual assault too. The CP people will likely come at then for that in order to get them to crack and testify.”

Carmen looks at me. “This is all going to fly to hell won’t it?”

I nod. “Some of it will but you doing this, and getting evidence will likely be in some closed court thing since you’re not legal adults. And we can request that too, they should be doing everything that they can do to keep all you girls out of this.”

“How do you know all of this stuff?”

“I looked it up; I figured that I might need to know some stuff like this with things that are going on and all.”

“Oh…thanks?”

She’s sort of blushing and crying both ass we get back into it and while I don’t know the names and the people that she’s talking about ‘being with’ there is three names of people here in town that I do sort of know of and one is Mr. Andrews who runs one of the funeral homes and he has always been creepy, like not just creepy but extra creepy he had always seemed waaay too friendly and the other two are people that I sort of know to be kind of jerks. Fred Wilson who runs a Superior propane business and he’s one of those angry middle aged guys that wouldn’t cut his mother some slack…but he’s got a big business and Mr. Tower from Tower Automotive is a high end car guy and dad never liked him something about his shops having high turnovers and stuff.

But yeah these all seem to be people with cash or resources and other things that I can’t really follow like the Adam web of douchbaggery and extortion. But I think I can like get where he’s going with this.

And as hard as this is there’s a lot of TMI going on as Carmen says things that happened and tells me and the camera things that happened with her and some of the other girls.

Two out of four of them I had no clue were into this, or even with Adam’s crowd I knew they were kind of meanish and they were definitely preppy girls but I had no idea that they were doing that too.

I feel semi-sick with just how many girls could have all those things that I seen them with financed by their “association” with Adam.

Just a short head count then it could be quite a few of them.

And it also makes sense why he’s not going to private school too. Rich kids don’t need his card scheme, they’d also likely know that that money comes with strings and how credit cards work and stuff.

Then she surprises me.

“Donnie Larkin’s dealing drugs in school.”

Donnie’s an asshole and one of Adam’s tertiary friends. “Dealing drugs? Like what?”

“Weed. Pills…lots of pills but recently there’s been some new meth around.”

“You think that Adam’s into it?”

Carmen shrugs. “Maybe I dunno but Justin usually had drugs on him and stuff when we shot those breaking in videos. A lot of us are stoners and worse Angel.”

I look at her. “Are you using?”

“Not right now, I never liked the hard stuff, it messes me up and I can’t do stuff like oxy since I have a reaction to it so it was smoking stuff only it kind of gets old.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

(Sniffle.) “Of probably not but I won’t be like going through like withdrawal and stuff.”

I actually stop myself from questioning her more on this since I want to not be like I’m accusing her of like drug use.

“Good, but we’re here with you okay. You don’t have to do this stuff alone.”

Carmen smiles and she nods. We go over a few more things like people that are in Adam’s crew that she thinks are trouble.

Justin… Adam’s right hand and his shadow. He’s a mean asshole and I’ve been on the receiving end of his fists and feet a half dozen times. The thing is he’s not a really rich kid he’s just well toadying up to Adam like it’s a profession.

Donnie… We’re pretty sure he’s the drug dealer. Donnie’s dad also conveniently owns the biggest lawn care and snow removal company in town and does stuff like all the big places that’s like not on the city lists. That’s a lot of area to hide stuff in.

Chris Birch… His dad owns like half of the Mill and is like an old family in town and one of the crowd that follows Adam because well…Chris is a thug, he’s a big guy and not from muscle alone and he’s kind of well not good looking.

His money has bought his female friends in the past and likely very much so. I’m not sure what role he plays in Adam’s group other than being like able to cause shit for anyone that works under his family.
Greg West… I really don’t like Greg he’s on the hockey team but not running it just like supplying all the cash they need but he’s a weasel he even looks the part too. That skinny sort of rat faced thing that you can just feel.

I don’t like Greg because he’s violent and sadistic. If a bunch of people are beating someone up he’s the one that hits for the balls. He did with me and that’s the guy I think who actually led the charge to rip off my stuff the day I ran into the girls.

I look at her and it took a while as she mentioned stuff those guys did Greg and Chris were big fans of having the girls…they were there with Justin and Adam in some of the breaking in stuff. Actually they were some of the repeaters, wanting it a few times form things she has heard.

It sort of runs dry and do we both with the coffee and Carmen had another two smokes and she has sort of stopped crying and she still looks really hurt, but sort of drained in a good way?

She gets up and she smiles at me. “I’m going to go and shower and you can like do what you like need to…”

I get up and stop recording and go and hug her and she hugs me back and sort of stay like that for a while because she is shaky.

“You sure you’re going to be okay?”

“Nope, I’m likely going to go and cry in the tub and maybe puke too.” Carmen has that gallows humor sort of look and was doing this sort of weak double thumbs ups move too. She passes me the pop can with the butts in it. “Sorry about stinking up the house.”

“Yeah well that’ll air out.”

“I’m going to go and freak out in the bathroom…I don’t think that I want to know how and what you’re going to do with that right now.”

“Okay.”

I kind of want to do more but there’s a line that you kind of want to not cross…do I think that she’s going to do stuff to herself? No honestly I don’t…but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have this huge urge to do something and to try and make it better.

She heads upstairs and I go to the camera and I make copies on flash drives and then I think about it for a bit and I call Mike.

……. “Yellow.”

“Mike, do you have a full day or a half day?”

“All my days are half days when I have classes that is.” Oh yeah he’s doing that weird part time student thing that gives him this schedule.

“You should come over I have a video that you should see and I need a lift to Red Pines.”

“Oh Uncle Bobby?”

“Yeah Uncle Bobby.”

“I’ll be over at lunch.”

“Okay I’ll be ready.”