(No connection with persons or firms, living or dead, is intended. This is purely a work of fiction.)
*
As I woke up I immediately knew that something was wrong. I was in severe pain, and I felt like you do when you come out from under a general anesthetic. I was nude, lying on the back seat of my car, and there were blood stains all over the place. My clothes were on the rear floor of the car. I didn't want to move around too much because I hurt all over, and beside that I didn't want to do any more damage than had already been done. I had no idea how I had gotten back into my car. The last thing I remember was going to a sorority house to pick up the niece of one of my co-workers. Shortly after that point I have no memory of anything. However, I did have a nightmare while I was out. I couldn't remember the details, but I know it was a bad nightmare..
I gently reached down to my clothes on the car floor and fished my cell phone from my pants pocket. I called the private number of an old friend from college.
"Dave, this is Jim. I think I am in deep medical trouble here. I need help. I'm in the back seat of my car. My car looks like it's parked in my parking place at work. Please help me and bring some good injectable pain killers with you."
"What's going on Jim?"
"I wish I could tell you, I'm in pain, sick to my stomach, and woke up with blood all around me. Please come soon."
"I can be there in about ten minutes! In the mean time, do not move from where you are. If something bad has happened you don't want to make it worse. Hang on Jim!"
Dave had been doing extra study before taking his internal medicine board exams while I had been finishing my Ph.D. in theoretical physics. We tried to help each other during that trying period.
The next ten minutes were agonizing. Then, I heard my car door open and Dave was there.
I could see the color draining from Dave's face. He suddenly looked very concerned.
"What made you go pale, Dave"
"I don't want to tell you yet. However, I am going to give you a shot of fentanol. You will drift off into a very deep sleep. I will take care of what needs to be done. Now, here comes the shot."
There was a prick from a needle in my arm and moments later I felt nothing and everything suddenly turned black
Dave took out his cell phone and made two calls. One was to an ambulance and the other was to detective Burns of the State Police.
When I awoke I found myself in a hospital bed with a morphine drip line running into my left arm. I saw that I was in a private room and had two guests. I immediately knew that Dave was there, but I didn't know the other man.
"Jim, are you awake enough to talk with us?"
"I'm not sure Dave, but I'll try."
"My friend here is Chuck Burns,with the state police. He is an excellent detective, and a good friend of mine. You can tell him anything you would tell me. He can be trusted."
I must have had a confused look on my face because Chuck spoke to me in soothing tones: "You have been the victim of a serious crime Jim. Five other men have been attacked in the same way that you have been. One of them didn't live. From what Dave has told me you will pull through this as well as can be expected. I need to have you tell me all that you can remember from yesterday afternoon until you woke up this morning."
I thought for a moment or too, it is hard to organize your thoughts with morphine running through your system.
"Yesterday morning, when I got to work there was a typed note sitting on my desk. It was from my friend John, from work, who had gone out of town and forgotten that he had promised to take his niece on a brief tour of the town and to dinner. The note said that the niece was staying with sorority sisters at a sorority named Phi-Upsilon-Sigma. There were directions to the location. I arrived at the time that John had indicated that I was expected. When I knocked on the door, a girl came to the door and asked me in and told me that John's sister wasn't quite ready yet. She led me into the living room and asked me if I wanted a drink while waiting. I told her that I would be driving so I would be happy to have a Pepsi. Moments later I was given a frosty glass of Pepsi with a twist of lemon in it. I drank the Pepsi and moments later felt a bit funny. Then, I don't remember anything."
As I was saying this Chuck and Dave were exchanging knowing glances with each other.
Dave spoke up. "I have to ask you some very personal questions, Jim. I'm sure that I already know the answers, but for legal reasons I must ask you three things. One, you don't have a girlfriend who uses a strapon when you are engaged in sex play, do you?"
"No, I've never had a girlfriend who was into that."
"Good, now a harder question: "have you ever had homosexual relations with anyone?"
"Hell no, Dave. You know that."
The next question was a bit weird. Jim, you don't use any sex play that involves putting anything in your rectum, do you?"
"Hell no Dave, these are outrageous questions. What is going on."
"Jim, I'm gong to have to tell you some things that will be hard to hear. I know that you are a man of faith and great emotional strength. You are going to need both of those right now. You have been severely sexually assaulted. Whoever did this is a butcher at heart. I'll start with the least damning crime first. Someone used a strapon on your ass and used little or no lubrication. In fact it almost looks like they wrapped the strapon with sixty grit sand paper. They have torn mucous membranes and blood vessels in your rectum and badly punctured your colon. We fixed the colon problem by removing a foot length of the lower colon a couple of hours ago. These same people did another thing to you that is much more serious. Jim, they violently castrated you."
He was silent for a moment while the horrible truth sank into my fuzzy brain.
"Dave, are you serious?"
"Dead serious, Jim."
Chuck, the detective, spoke up again. "Jim, you are the sixth man to face this terrible problem in the last twelve weeks. We need to find some clues that will lead us to these monsters. Can you tell us exactly where the sorority was located?"
"From my place of work you take Main St. going north until you hit Maple. Hang a right at Maple, go three blocks to Decatur St. and turn left. It is the third house on the right hand side."
"Do you remember anything about the house?"
"The only things that stuck in my mind were that the odd green color of the front door didn't seem to match the character of the house, and the entryway inside the house had a fancy set of stairs on the left as you walked in and the living room was on the right. It had old, but very nice furniture in it as well as a fireplace. I'm sorry I can't tell you more."
"You've remembered more than most of the other men who have been attacked. When you are healed enough, I want you to go with me to a good forensic hypnotist. I suspect that you may well have some critical details just below the surface in you mind. Will you do that?"
"If you think it's needed to get these monsters, I'm game!"
"Dave, what is the earliest time that we dare take him over to Doc Jonse's place?"
"I think it had better three weeks, or so. .We need to let that colon heal well before he goes anywhere. He doesn't need to strain those stitches. I wish I could say sooner, but I don't want to have to fight a major infection."
"Three weeks it is, Dave. Thanks!"
Dave spoke up, "Try to get some rest, Jim, you need it."
I grinned, and closed my eyes. I didn't really hear them leave the room. Morphine really helps you not completely care what has happened. It's dangerous stuff!"
***************
Chuck Burns went directly to the office that Jim worked at to gather evidence. He asked management to go to Jim's office. He had told them that Jim was in the hospital after an assault, but he didn't go into any detail. He also told them that there might still be a clue as to who assaulted him in the office.
When he arrived at Jim's office he saw yellow notes stuck to various surfaces. He immediately noted that there was an orange note sitting on the desk pad. Without touching it, he leaned over and read it.
Jim, I had to quickly go out of town to visit the accelerator at CERN. I had forgotten that my niece would be coming to town and that I had promised her I'd show her the town and take her to dinner. Please, as a favor to me, take her out like I was supposed to. She can be found at ..........
The note carried the name Mark Smith.
Detective Burns then took a pair of tweezers from his pocket, lifted up the note and dropped it into a small manila envelope, and sealed the envelope. Then he wrote the time, location, case number, and his signature on it before putting the envelope back into his pocket.
Detective Burns asked the person who had led him to Jim's office to please lead him to Mark Smith. He was informed that Mark was still out of town and would be until the following week.
"Can you give me a telephone number where I will be able to reach him?"
The number was quickly written down on a piece of paper.