By the time all the congratulatory hugs and handshakes were over, Leanne was gone. Wanda looked at Derek. "Are we gonna go get her ass now? I can't wait to see her wearing a collar after all the crap she put me through. I can't tell you what made me more anxious today. Worrying if the court would set me free or what Leanne would do." Wanda took a deep breath. "I can't believe they set me free! TOTALLY free!" she gushed. She could not help the tears as emotions welled over her. She grabbed Derek, hugging him as she cried.
Sarah and Lou began laughing at her but fully understood. "Come on." Lou said. "They have another case to try in here."
"Let's go get Leanne!" Wanda offered with a grin.
"Let's not." Derek said. "First things first. We are going to get that collar off your neck. Leanne is not going anywhere. We need to see the court clerk for whatever paperwork we need. Lou, would you please check on that?"
The little slip of paper in Wanda's hand seemed insignificant compared to what it meant for her. It had a simple reference number the court clerk had scribbled down. He had already entered the necessary order into the computer. Derek told Lou and Sarah that he would take Wanda to get her collar removed and they could get on with whatever business they needed to do.
"Bullshit, Derek." Sarah said, smiling widely. "There is NOTHING on my agenda more important than to go watch Wanda get released. Second on my list is to kick your ass for that boneheaded bet you made with Leanne." Now she glared at him. "Risk having that bitch's name tattooed across your belly? Were you really that confident? Lou and I certainly weren't!" Wanda and Lou both looked at him and agreed, calling him an idiot.
"You want to know the truth or a carefully constructed lie?" Derek asked. The three women spoke in unison, 'the TRUTH". Derek laughed. "She pissed me off. Now I really did think I had a good argument with what I had found. But I was worried because I did not have enough time to actually verify it all. Most of what I presented I didn't find out until yesterday. I was planning to hire a private investigator or go see Kathy Douglas to see if it would be better to let the cops handle the actual investigation. I just ran out of time."
"But when Leanne started going through all her bait and switch antics, offering a little more to her side of the deal, I realized she was manipulating me and it pissed me off. I agreed before I really realized how big a deal a tattoo would be, at least how she had planned to do it. Once I agreed and it was in writing she started to describe what I had really agreed to get. I had been too busy thinking through all the possible variations except a tat. She told me earlier she was going to print her name in black lettering an inch high. She wanted to brand me."
"She'd have changed the color to something else when she found out black is easy to remove compared to others." Sarah said. "I did some research when I had my logo done for our butts. Some colors the laser has a hard time differentiating and are hard to remove. You can bet she would have asked the artist for whatever would last the longest and be hardest to remove."
"Yeah, well like I said. I was not thinking as much about the tattoo although it made me mad." Derek said. I was worried about the slave sale. We could not beat her at the auction."
"Sure we could, you idiot!" Sarah said. "Despite what Lou said about not having that much cash available, I could have got a line of credit by auction time. Of course I'd have hated to give the state that much money for something that should have been ours in the first place! But there was no fuckin' way, I'd let that bitch have our Wanda. She is part of our family."
"That's the thing." Derek said. "You'd have spent that insane amount because Leanne had already planned to bid the price to a ridiculous level and then stop leaving us holding the bid. Then she'd brag all over town how dumb were are. That is unless she could get Wanda for a reasonable amount she could afford and for her that was a half million. Her challenge to me was personal. I've never done anything to her except deny her revenge against Wanda and that got her goat. But anyway that part is over. Let's go get that collar removed."
None of the three had ever been in this part of the slave processing area before. There was a long line of collared slaves awaiting their collar removal. Most looked to be older, gray haired and wrinkled. They had hit their sixty fifth birthday, Derek realized. Serving as a slave for years had taken a toll on most of them. Interspersed among them was a much smaller proportion of younger people. Lou checked in with the receptionist.
"We go to the front of the line." Lou explained when she returned. "Court ordered releases are processed upon arrival. They are that rare." Once inside the larger area, Derek saw three stations each manned by a couple uniformed technicians. They quickly scanned Wanda's collar to confirm her identity.
"Do you have any electronics on your person? Cell phone, smart watch?" the tech asked. Wanda pulled her cell out of her pocket. The tech handed it to Derek. "This machine would have erased all data. He attached a wide band around her neck covering her collar. It had a cord attached. "Stand under this archway." the tech ordered. The arch looked like an airport scanner. "Hold still and let's hope it works without shocking you too bad."
"What?!" Wanda squealed just as the man at the desk laughed and pushed a large red button. Lights glowed.
"Sorry. Couldn't resist teasing." the tech laughed. "Now we can insert the key and unlock the actual mechanism." The collar fell free."See? It didn't even explode!" he grinned. Wanda grinned back this time.
"I noticed some of the slaves going out that way and others going down that other hallway." Derek said.
"Some are going home with their ex-owner or a family member. Some are mandated to a half way house for a while. All felons are not just turned loose to find their way." the tech said. "They have to be trained how to function in society again. And some would have still been incarcerated or rather enslaved but hit the magic age. They are mandated to a half way house for a few years to prove themselves before they can live on their own and be truly free."
