"It's done."
"Yeah? You think she bought it?"
"Oh yeah, she bought it. Listen: 'Please. I want to taste your come. Fuck me, but don't come in me. Come in my mouth.' She is one great piece of ass, John. Where did you find her?"
He listened in shock to Diane's voice begging to be fucked. How did Steve do it? "You always amaze me, man. What do women see in you?"
"Whatever, John. She was so fuckin' hot, I could have said anything and she was ready to drop trou for me."
"And...?"
"Oh, that? Piece of cake. Highschool stuff. How much you want to know?"
Everything. Nothing. The phones weren't secure. "Give me a broadbrush idea."
"eBay is a great source of stuff. Nothing too fancy, but powerful enough. You say the word."
"I can only assume it's somewhere...accessible?"
He grunted.
"Okay. Let's give it 'til Monday. No way he'll find it before...?"
"Unless they decide this is the weekend to do Spring cleaning, but I suspect that was months ago."
Now it was John's turn to grunt.
"Anyway, we're even, right? I mean, the one thing...that's you and me together, but the girl...I would've done that for free. We're straight now, yeah?"
"You're all paid up, bud. But the deal is, you're done. You can't see her again, and you can't mention a thing about this." He hoped the price he'd paid was sufficient to buy Steve's silence. They went way back; Steve was like a big brother to him. When he'd fucked up and John was his only alibi, John had stood up for him. Kept him out of jail and kept it off his record. He wouldn't have been a detective today if it had gone down any other way. John was pretty sure he could count on the detective to keep his end of the bargain, but it was yet another loose end.
"Shit, buddy, tearing up that chit to do the deed? I definitely got the better end of that deal. Hey, if you hear she's got a friend, let me know, yeah? Okay - I'm outta here. Next time you're upstate, give me a call. Oh, what should I do with this envelope?"
"Burn it. That's for real. Don't keep it, don't shred it. Burn it."
"I'm doing it even as we speak, bro. Monday."
He hung up and breathed a sigh of relief. He considered his next moves to clean up this mess he'd made and wondered when she was going to call him.
As if the universe was listening, his phone rang.
"Johnno," she was sobbing. "Please. Please come over right now!"
He sucked in his breath and swore silently. "What's up, Di??" He was concerned, sincerely concerned.
"I can't...just come over...please? Before my mother gets here!"
He was there in less than ten minutes, the streets a blur. He knew what this was about, but could he admit it was him that set it up? "No fucking way," he swore under his breath. "No. Fucking. Way."
She opened the door before he even knocked, her face puffy with tears. She looked down the driveway to see if anyone else was coming.
Inside, he just hugged her to him, holding her as she cried.
"I..." She caught her breath. "I did something really stupid...so stupid!!" She sobbed into his shoulder.
"Shhhh...I'm sure it'll be okay...Shhhh." He stroked her back, trying to calm her, all the while feeling like a shit. "C'mon - let's sit down...are you okay?"
"No...no...I'm not okay." She wiped her tears with her sleeve. "I just...oh fuck, Johnno, can I trust you?" She looked at him, her eyes brimming.
He nodded, feeling even more like a shit.
"I just," her voice lowered to a whisper, "let a complete stranger strip me, fuck me and...fuck..." She didn't finish her sentence.
"What?" He asked it quietly, without judgment, breathing slowly to hide his own feelings of guilt.
"He...he was a detective. He had
pictures
! Of me! Of a lot of other girls! And...I don't know what happened, but he threatened to tell my
parents
, and I don't know, I just...I just oh shit!" She burst into tears again, holding on to him. "I let him...fuck me...Johnno! I let him fuck me!!"
He calmed her again, shh-shhing her and rubbing her back. "Can I get you anything? A glass of water?" He didn't know how to get her to calm down. "Maybe you could start at the beginning?"
She pulled back and looked at him, nodding. "Yeah...okay." Taking a breath. "He asked me some questions about Harrison and some other girls." Her fingers moved to his cheek. "You didn't have to do it, Johnno. I know you sent those girls those pictures, but why'd you take that risk?! Of course you were right, Johnno. Harrison was a fucking bastard. This guy showed me pictures of Harrison with a whole bunch of girls. He was fucking them practically the same day as me!"
He stared at her, nodding and letting her get it out. "What did he want? Does this detective have a name?"
She paused and giggled. "Dick." She laughed. "He said his name was 'Dick.' A dick Dick who dicked me." She stopped and the tears welled up again. "He said the other girls had contacted his office and he was following up with any of the girls in the photographs. He wanted to know if any of the pictures were of me and if I had had sex with Harrison while I was still a minor. I was so scared. I wasn't wearing very much - he had surprised me, and he was wearing a gun, and I just imagined what he could do to me, and I...I.."
"What happened, Di? Did you tell him? Did he have pictures of you?"
"I might have fucked up a little. I don't know what came over me. I..."
"What, Diane, what happened?" He knew she needed to tell someone; to get it off her chest.
"He threatened to come back and discuss it with my mom...and dad. And that's when I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't pretend it wasn't me. And he was big, Johnno, and I realized he could rape me right here!" Her eyes grew wide, tears pooling at the corners.
"Go on..." He held her hands.
"He just started stripping me, and told me he would forget I was in the pictures if I let him fuck me...so...I," she looked at him, searching for any disgust or disapproval. "I...asked him to...he asked me to ask him...so I did." She fell forward onto his shoulder and sobbed.
"It's okay, Di! You did what you had to do! You got his name. We can contact the police and let them know..."
"NO!! He has a recording of me! He's got me
asking
him to fuck me..." She stopped, looking up at him, wondering if she could trust him with the worst of it. "He told me I couldn't even mention he had been there. He left the pictures he had of me...but...why did he have any pictures of me? Johnno? You did send those pictures to the girls, didn't you?" She stopped, suddenly confused.
"Yeah," he sucked in a breath. "I never meant for you to be hurt by it! Fuck! It was probably stupid of me, but I was so angry. I'm still so angry. Harrison's a fucking asshole and he should be thrown in jail. I had to send pictures of everyone to as many of the girls as I could. So they'd see what a fucker he was. But...I made sure I send any of you...I mean, that showed you doing anything with Harrison. How...why...what made you think 'Dick' had anything on you?"
She looked down, ashamed. "I blew it. He tricked me. He was showing me these other girls, all of them being hammered just like he hammered me...in the same spots! I can't figure out how he had the time! Some of them were weeks before we started dating and some were on the same day!" She inhaled and looked up at him. "So he pops one of me...the one where I'm on my stomach, and you can't see my face? And then he shows me the one of my face and I just lost it. I knew he knew and I just reacted stupidly."
"Is there something else?" He could tell she wanted to tell him.