"With what?" Brad asked. "There's no physical evidence to connect Derby with Anna's rape. Sure, we can all say that we saw him with her. So what? Any dumb public defender can point out how circumstantial that evidence is. The cops and doctors already hinted that they had nothing. No semen, no fingerprints, no DNA, no evidence. Even if Anna says she thinks it was Derby who raped her, they can say she was drugged by someone else, and it's only because she herself got so drunk before she got drugged that she doesn't remember any other guy. Hair samples? Clothing fibers? So what? They were together. One of the guys even saw them kissing in the back yard. There's no case. But, we know what happened, and we're going to take care of it."
Joel, who had been listening quietly, spoke up. "The little fuck has a nasty temper. You saw the way he came at me."
Brad said, "Well, you were out of line."
"You made that clear last night," Joel said dryly. "Shit, I was fucked up. I apologized. But with the way he blew up on me about Anna, are you sure they hadn't been seeing each other before?"
Karen said, "Anna told me she met him the for the first time the other day when she was moving in. He helped her with some of her stuff. Then he called her out of the blue last night and offered to walk her over to my house. I invited them both here. Oh, God, this is my fault!"
Brad hugged her. "Baby, don't say that. How could you have known he was like that? If he hadn't gotten to Anna, he probably would have gone for someone else. That certainly wouldn't have been your fault, would it? No, he's a predator."
"That's just what I was thinking," Joel said. "Did you ever see one of those nature shows when predators fight over their kill? That's what that douchebag was like. Some rogue killer animal fighting over his prey."
"So, how do you catch a predator?" Mountain asked. "Bait a trap?"
"I bet I could get one of my sorority sisters to serve as bait," Karen said.
"Pretty risky," said Brad. "Besides, they're all sophomores and up. This kid's a freshman. I remember when I was a freshman. I would never have dreamed of chasing an upperclassman chick. They were out of my league."
"Wait a minute," said Joel, "one of your sorority sisters, Maribeth, teaches a martial arts and self defense class. I took it last year. That little blond is a foot shorter and probably eighty pounds lighter than me, and she routinely kicked my ass. Maybe she could do a rape-prevention crash course type of thing for the freshman girls."
"Good idea," Karen said, "but we need to do something even more proactive. I know, my house can host a welcome party for the new girls. We have money in the treasury. When I explain to them the issue, I'm sure it will be a rubber stamp to appropriate the funds. We can have a bikini car wash later to replenish the money."
"I'll direct traffic," Mountain said, pulling himself up to his full height. "I'm sure I can persuade a lot of people that their cars need to be washed."
Drake, who had wandered in during the conversation, said, "I'll hit up my girl over at the Delta house. I bet if some of you girls get together, you can get all the sororities to chip in. That way, no one will think you're trying to get a jump on rush week, and you'll be able to reach more of the freshman girls. I'll go talk to the guys in the other frat houses. I'm sure some of them will help with the work. We can set up stands around campus, hand out invitations, that sort of thing. Make it into some kind of festival, but with a real serious purpose."
"Yeah," Mountain said, "if we attract enough people, maybe this asshole will show up, too. He can think it's an opportunity to stalk new prey, but there will be some safety in the sheer numbers. And if we spot him, I can have the fun of breaking him in half."
Brad said, "I like everything about this except the breaking him in half part. We have to do something to him that won't get us in trouble, but that will make sure that he's finished as a rapist. All right. Do we all know what to do? Let's go!"
In a matter of a few hours of phone calls and text messages, making plans, creating and printing materials, and general running around, every fraternity and sorority house had become involved in preparation for an entire weekend of activities. The events were to start the following evening, Friday. Different sororities would be hosting events at their houses all day on Saturday, and the fraternity houses would play host to still more activities on Sunday. A steering committee consisting of the presidents of all the houses had been formed to coordinate and manage all the separate events, and these people had created groups within their own houses to run events, whether the event was run by a single house or by the joint effort of several houses.
There were to be student speakers on date safety, date rape, responsible and safe sex, sexual predators, and self-defense. There would be "dry" parties, cook-outs, mingle sessions, and games. Signs and banners were made and hung all over the campus, fliers were distributed, announcements were made on the campus radio stations, and mass e-mails were sent to all students, with special invitations being sent to all freshman girls.
There were two purposes to these events. The publicized reason was to raise awareness of the potential for sexual predator activity and generally inappropriate or threatening sexual behavior, stressing the importance of the individuals' responsibility for their own dating and sexual safety, while giving the freshmen a social event where they could meet. The other motive was discussed on a need-to-know basis with a select few people working in the background: finding and dealing with Derby.
Surprisingly few people on campus seemed to know what had happened the previous night to Anna, which, in a way, was good. The point was not to spook Derby, but rather to catch him and punish him. Most of the people who had heard rumors about Anna's situation knew nothing of the suspect. It became clear that the police had no idea of Derby's identity. The college administration seemed only dimly aware of the whole situation.
Mountain had contacted some of his Trekkie-type clients, hoping to attract all the young men who fit the stereotype that matched Derby's description of his roommate. Karen had organized a squad of decoys consisting of a few young-looking girls from her sorority, each of whom would be closely watched by at least two men hand-picked from a few of the fraternities. Every one of these "operatives" had been thoroughly briefed by Karen and Brad about Derby's description and known methods. A few of the guys from Brad's fraternity had organized themselves into a team which would be responsible for tracking down any leads on Derby, and for apprehending him.
The response from the student body was almost overwhelming. Fraternity row was so mobbed by students that the campus police had to be enlisted to help with traffic and crowd control. Donation stands were hastily set up, and it soon appeared that the costs incurred for the weekend's events would easily be met. It was decided in a conference call by the steering committee that excess funds would be used to pay Anna's medical expenses, including on-going rape counseling, and any leftover money would be given to the school to use for additional campus security patrols.
Some of the kids came for the free food and the mixer/party activities, but a surprising number seemed interested in learning about personal safety.
By 11 o'clock on Friday evening, the first real information about Derby came to light. After one of the seminars, a young girl stayed to talk to a few of the sorority sisters. She told them of a frightening encounter she had had with a tall, good-looking freshman boy named Derby. As soon as she mentioned his name, Karen and Brad were called in to talk to her.
It quickly became apparent that Derby's outburst when she had refused to kiss him had occurred about a half an hour before Derby picked up Anna at the student union. The informant, Josie, was unable to tell them anything they didn't already know, but she did confirm one thing. Derby's attack on Anna was not the only encounter he had had with a freshman girl. Karen and Brad let Josie think that her dealings with Derby were an isolated incident, and they reassured her that she had done nothing wrong. They also advised her to stay away from him,
A female escort was provided to take Josie back to her dorm, and frat brothers were recruited to watch over her surreptitiously until Derby was caught. Karen and Brad hoped that Josie would never find out how close she had come to having been Derby's sexual victim.
