Detour: Postscript

The three of us stayed at the hotel for almost two weeks, recuperating and being debriefed by agents as to our experiences. That was longer than our period of captivity. But anyone who goes through that kind of thing is going to have a lot of issues to work out. You cannot be the same again. The three of us would always share a bond that no one else could understand.

Kathy and I grew closer. She apparently decided that she needed a loving relationship in her life. And not everyone was just out to "use" her. I had always wanted to be with her. We decided to rekindle our relationship. It moved at warp speed and became very passionate, very quickly. Six months after our ordeal, we were married. Brooke was her maid of honor and caught the bouquet after the ceremony. (Personally, I thought that the last part was rigged.)

Brooke was also in for some personal changes. One of the agents that had met her at "The Doll House" was especially taken with her. He had also been assigned to debrief her at the hotel after our rescue. I later heard that he specifically requested that assignment. They fell in love and were married a few months after me and Kathy. Kathy served as her maid of honor. (But she did not get the bouquet.)

The story of our rescue was a national sensation. We were in great demand for interviews and all of us received offers for book deals. Our story was actually somewhat similar to another cause celebre that had occurred a few years earlier.

A mother and daughter had been kidnapped while on vacation in Mexico. They had been held at the fortified estate of a major drug lord. The mother had been blackmailed into becoming his sex slave. She had been told that she would not be forced to do anything. But if she ever refused him, he would take her daughter in her place. They had been rescued in an operation by U.S. special forces that freed them and captured the head of the drug cartel. He was returned to the U.S. for trial.

Just as for Brooke, the mother there had fallen in love with one of the agents who had assisted in her rescue. He actually proposed to her in one of the television interviews they gave. That also caused a sensation. The same thing happened here. News producers knew a good story when they saw one. Brooke's new love asked her to marry him during a joint television appearance.

The mother in the earlier case, Maggie Kirkpatrick, ended up working with a national news channel as an "expert analyst" on stories that involved hostage situations or kidnapping. She personally interviewed me when I appeared there. It was one of the few times in which I publicly related my story that I felt truly understood. I could tell her of the hopelessness that I felt and the shame at some of the things I was made to do (especially being forced to rape my now wife in front of a crowd of onlookers), and I knew that I was talking to one of the few people on earth who could actually empathize with what I had gone through. She had been there herself.

All three of us quickly soured on the public attention. We just wanted to get on with our lives. Fortunately for us, with the twenty-four hour news cycle, our story soon faded from the headlines. We were left to live our lives in peace. We all returned to work together at my consulting firm. We were destined to be together for many years. With one brief interlude. A little over a year after our return, Brooke took time off from work to give birth to her son.

Finally,, Brooke did exactly as she told me she would do in our first meeting at the hotel after we were rescued. When she returned home to Seattle, the first thing that she did was change her hair color back to what it had been before. I have to confess that I was just a little disappointed. I thought that the platinum blonde appearance looked good on her.

The investigation of the criminal enterprises that was triggered by our rescue proved to be like peeling the layers from an onion. Each new operation that was uncovered led to something else. Jack Mason was discovered to be a major methamphetamine dealer, producing it at numerous remote labs in the region. His distribution network extended as far as the east coast. For him, this time the authorities could make the charges stick. He would not see the light of day for a long time.

Brooke's master was found to be a co-conspirator of pretty rough characters, including some linked to a Russian mafia. Some of the girls working in his clubs had been recruited from Russia and Eastern Europe with promises of good jobs in America. But when they got here, they learned that the story was different. But by then, they were trapped.

Shortly after being charged, he turned up dead. Officially ruled a suicide, the media speculated that it was otherwise. For example, he was shot on the left side of the head. But he was right handed. Nevertheless, it was hard for Brooke to work up much sympathy for her former master.

My mistress was initially charged with running an international prostitution ring. But there were complications. Her "black book" of client names included very prominent politicians and business leaders. It was decided that prosecuting her would open a can of worms that was best left closed.

Annette had no such luck. With no important people to protect her, she was charged as an accomplice. I had to testify at her trial. I had to relate, in open court, the story of being subjected to the penis pump, of having her "milk" me, and of having my cock clamped and flogged. By this point, I had regained my capability to be humiliated. But I got through it.

Don, who had purchased Kathy, was a lawyer who handled legal matters for all the activities of the syndicate. By following the flow of financial transactions, the authorities were able to demonstrate that he was involved in money laundering. His case was complicated, but the jury convicted him.

As an aside, Margaret divorced him.

Randy dropped out of college. Kathy never heard anything else about him. And it was just as well. She really did not care to know.