Cindy started opening the treatment bags and removing needed materials as Kathy and Charley left the room. Miller was shaken as he said, "Kathy I've been in trauma treatment for over five years, as has Cindy. I know you saw her go pale when she saw the girl, and we see some terribly beat-up people. Of course, I suppose the difference is that the others are victims of accidents while this was deliberate." "Charley, there's one consolation. The woman who did that to her is dead." Kathy said, recounting the events in the courtroom. Then she asked, "What do you think, Doctor? Will she be all right?" "I honestly can't say yet, Kathy. Let's go back and take a look." They went back in the room. Cindy was continuing to clean out the cuts while Charley examined the girl carefully. She was beaten and cut, but no wounds were deep enough to require sutures. They were both relieved and amazed to see that the girl was sound asleep. As gently as they could they completed the process by putting an anaesthetic ointment on the cuts. When they finished, Kathy drew the drapes to darken the room, carefully covered the young girl and withdrew. The Millers were waiting for her. Cindy had collapsed in a chair. "Kathy," Cindy said, "I'm getting too old for this. That is a beautiful girl in there, as beautiful as you are. She's a younger identical twin, except there is no such thing. Who would do a thing like that to such a beautiful child? She's very brave, too. I'm sure that some of the things I had to do were agonizing to her, but the most she ever did was wince a little." "Charley, you've had a chance to examine her now. What do you think?" Kathy asked. "I think she may be incredibly lucky. We can't be sure for a while yet, but I don't see anything that will cause lasting scars. I would like to leave some anaesthetic ointment for you to use on her body three times a day. If you give me the name of your pharmacy, I'll call them and order out a supply. With her condition you will need a lot." She gave him the name and he placed the call. When he hung up the phone he said, "They're sending out their entire in-stock supply right now and are reordering from their wholesaler. They expect to deliver more before the end of the day. Between what I'm leaving and what they're sending over you should be okay. I guess that about takes care of it. Could you bring her in to the hospital to see me in a week?" "Of course, Doctor. Now, would you and Cindy care to stay for lunch? I could fix something very quickly." "Thank you, Kathy, but we want to get home. It's our day off and Cindy likes to spend it in bed." Charley grinned while Cindy blushed. "Then can I at least pay you now before you leave? It would save you a lot of time and paperwork." Kathy said. They were genuinely insulted. "Kathy, you're our friend. We don't charge our friends, particularly when our friends are playing Good Samaritan. We're glad we could help. I certainly hope things work out for the poor kid! If there are any developments you don't like the looks of, holler? Promise?" "I promise. And thank you both so very much!" The Millers left and Kathy went into Susan's room. The girl was sleeping soundly as she gently closed the door again. * * * It was evening when Susan's door opened. Kathy was curled up on the sofa with a book as she came into the room. When Kathy looked up, her heart was wrenched by the juxtaposition of the beautiful face on an equally beautiful, but now brutally battered body. Kathy put down her book, went over to the girl, and put out her hand. "Susan, after the events of today, I think we should start over. I am Kathy Stark." The girl smiled tentatively, but took Kathy's hand in a firm grip. Kathy looked down at the girl's hand. It was the same size as her own with the same long slender fingers. It was as if she were shaking hands with herself. Kathy noticed that the girl seemed totally unconcerned about her nakedness, but she asked her anyway, "Susan, would you feel more comfortable wearing something?" The girl smiled and shook her head, but suddenly her face showed concern. "It doesn't bother me a bit, but if I'm embarrassing you..." Kathy grinned and shed her own clothes. She had been wearing jeans and a T- shirt. It was May, and the weather in Tidewater was hot. "Susan, you certainly don't embarrass me. I seldom wear clothes around the apartment. I was only trying not to embarrass *you*!" The girl looked at Kathy's body with its all-over tan. "You're very beautiful, Mrs. Stark." she said matter-of-factly, But what's that?" She was looking at the "Property" stamp across her mound. Kathy explained it, and the girl laughed. Then Kathy heard a digestive growl, "Good heavens! Susan, you must be starving!" "I guess I am a little hungry, Mrs. Stark," she said shyly. "When did you eat last?" "Yesterday, I think, ma'am," was the quiet reply. "What would you like?" asked Kathy as they entered the kitchen, "How about a hamburger?" The girl's face lighted up. "That would be wonderful! Could I?" In no time Kathy had the grill working, and two hamburgers starting to sizzle. Trying to remember her own likes as a teenager, she sliced onions and tomatoes and took out a head of lettuce. Ham burger rolls were soon toasting. Kathy put the plates on the counter and watched as Susan's hamburger evaporated. Before touching her own, she put two more on the grill. By now the deep fryer had reached cooking temperature, and she dropped in potatoes to french fry. Finally, she brought the drink mixer in from the bar and blended a milk shake. The poor girl was famished. She devoured the food and the milk shake, and finally looked up. "That was marvelous, Mrs. Stark! Thank you so much." Kathy wanted to cry hearing the girl's thanks for a couple of hamburgers. Kathy led the girl into the library. She let herself down gingerly on the couch and then relaxed. "Susan, tell me about yourself. Let's start at the courtroom and go backwards, okay? And Susan, please call me Kathy. I'm not *that* much older than you." The girl gave her a warm smile. "Sure, Kathy. Kathy, I live in a whorehouse, but... but... I'm still a virgin. My birthday is coming up next month. I'll be sixteen, and I'm the prize in an auction that Sylvia's running. She made a poster with a picture of me naked. There's a place below for the johns to sign up with a bid. The highest bidder gets to take my virginity. "Things weren't so bad until Sylvia bought the house a few month's ago from old Mrs. Watson. She brought in a lot of new girls, Kathy. A lot of them are younger than I am. It feels kind of strange and terrible to kneel on a bed and watch a girl fourteen taking a huge cock inside her. One little girl gripped my hand as this guy ripped her insides. She was screaming, but he loved it. He wouldn't let me do anything to make his entry any easier for her. He wanted to rip her apart! I guess they're not considered as pretty as me or something. If a John pays extra, I'll kneel on the bed and caress him while he plows the other girl. For even more money, I go down on them and sometimes I take them in my ass. Sylvia is always there, though, to make sure they don't get to my cunt. She will let them carefully feel my hymen, sometimes, so they know it's still intact." The recital was the worst Kathy had heard. Clearly, underage girls were being prostituted. She suspected that many were probably runaways who had been trapped into prostitution. "Susan, would you like a Coke, or something? I can see I'm going to have to change my food-buying habits. Ken and I don't stock many things that appeal to teenagers!" She grinned at the girl and added, "Why don't you help yourself to whatever looks interesting in the kitchen? You haven't had anything to eat in almost thirty minutes!" She smiled as the girl bounded out of the library in the direction of the kitchen. She picked up the phone and called Tony Donetti. He was almost instantly on the line. "I'm sorry about what happened today, Kathy. I had a guy in the courtroom. He never expected that creepy matron would go for her gun. What do you think of the girl, Angel?" "I don't know how to answer that, Tony. She's like my younger twin sister, but there is no such thing. The reason I called, though, is I want to smash Sylvia's little red wagon, and do it for good this time. But I need a little help. Evidently, Sylvia took over a house a few months ago and replaced a lot of the girls with underage talent. I'm going to call Mahoney right now and see if a raid can be staged tonight before Sylvia has a chance to temporarily clean up her act. But I need to have a full house at her place. I assume you know where it is?" "You're on, Angel! She's the kind who gives the trade a very bad name. You want a mob of customers present who may get busted. Kathy, we need to get the timing exactly right. It's one thing to be booked for patronizing a house of prostitution, but a very different thing to be nailed for statutory rape. Guys can be found with the young kids, but not being too friendly, if you know what I mean?" "I understand perfectly!" she said. "I'll get right back to you. What *is* Sylvia's address, by the way? I don't even know." He gave her the address and she called Peter Mahoney at home. "Pete, it's Kathy. I haven't even thanked you for one favor, and I'm going to ask you for another. First, though, I don't know what else to say, except that officer saved my life. Thank you." "It makes good headlines, Kathy. Thank *you*. The police are delighted. One of their own saves Kathy Smith. The guy is a hero on the force. Incidentally, I'm also making points because of you. The women's House of Detention turned out to be a horror show. Frankly, the officer did the state a favor. That matron, Mabel Mason, was a piece of work! With her out of the way, other inmates and matrons came forward. She had them all terrified. However, Stark, as usual, you leave me with all the shit paperwork -- taking statements, preparing for the inquest -- all that garbage!" Kathy could hear the grin in his voice. "You're *so* welcome, Mr. Mahoney!" she replied sweetly. "It's the very least I could do! Trying to keep the work within the very restricted limits of your capabilities, I mean." They both laughed. "Pete, could we really nail Sylvia Black? Raid her place tonight? Could you get that Vice Squad sergeant, Tom Tucker, to run it? Here's what he's going to find." She told him of the underage girls forced into prostitution and the rest of the Sylvia story. She ended with a request. "Pete, there's just one thing. I need to know, as accurately as possible, the time the raid is going down. Can you set it up and then let me know?" "Let me get back to you." Pete said. His voice sounded grim, reflecting his reaction to the story she had just related. As she hung up the phone, Susan returned to the room. She had a Coke and a bag of what had to be very stale potato chips that Kathy didn't even know she had. "Susan! Those are ancient! They're stale and... You shouldn't be eating them! They're all grease!" Susan grinned and continued happily munching. "They're good, Mrs. Stark -- Kathy -- honest!" She eased herself back onto the couch. Kathy decided that teenagers must have cast-iron stomachs lined with copper or glass or some similar indestructible material. "Susan, how long were you in the whorehouse?" The girl looked puzzled. "I really don't know. I mean I've always been there, but... I mean, it's all I remember -- a year or so... It's very vague." Kathy had the eerie feeling of someone walking on her grave. 'My God!' she thought. 'Exactly like me. She has no past beyond the whorehouse.' "Susan, you don't know where you were born, or when. You have no memory of your parents or anything back more than a year or so ago, do you?" The girl was shocked. "How... How do you know?" she asked, bewildered. "But you're right. I don't! I created a story to tell if one of the girls asked, but I really don't know." Kathy smiled at the girl fondly, "Because that's the way it was when I was a prostitute, Susan. I was just there." This time the girl's jaw literally dropped. "You! In a whorehouse! It's impossible. Look at this apartment, at you... It just can't be! Kathy, you're educated. You have fine clothes and a husband, and... It's just impossible!" "I'm sorry, Susan, but it's true. I left the house when I was eighteen, about eight years ago. I'm glad I could get you out earlier, with your virtue more or less still intact." She smiled warmly when she made the last comment. "Then you know what it's like. The johns pawing you, the smells..." "People don't change that much and the smells don't either. I'm pretty sure it's about what I went through. Why did you finally run away?" "I don't know... I *do* know!" The girl's head came up straight and her blue eyes flashed. "I want to go to school! I don't want to be a whore all my life. Is that wrong?" Tears started to flow from the girl's eyes, but she refused to lower them. 'Just like me,' Kathy thought. She couldn't hold back. Taking her in her arms she could feel Susan's shoulders shaking with sobs. Although there was no place Kathy could hold her without touching the vicious lacerations on her body, the girl seemed to need comforting. She didn't flinch in the slightest at the contact. Finally, the girl lifted her head and looked into Kathy's eyes. "Do I have to go back? Can they make me go back to that place?" "I swear to you, Sue, you will *never* go back! If it's the last thing on earth I ever do, you will not go back!" Just then the phone rang and Kathy answered it. It was Pete. The raid was going down at eleven o'clock that night. She thanked him and called Tony again. "Tony, it's all set. The police will hit Sylvia's place at eleven on the dot. Good enough?" "It's perfect, Angel!" Tony laughed softly. "It's a shame we can't film it! I have a feeling we're going to miss some real Academy Award performances. One more thing, Angel. What's going to happen to that lovely girl?" "Ken and I are going to adopt her as our daughter, Tony. You just brought it into focus for me. Now all I need is for her to agree. Thanks, again. I owe you." "You owe *nothing*!" he said, "I owe *you*! It's good for our business to get this shit off the street!" "Fine, Tony! You win again. But one of these days..." He laughed warmly and hung up. Kathy looked up to see Susan's mouth agape. 'Good going, Kathy!' she thought. 'You've done it again! The poor girl hears about her adoption by listening to you tell it to a stranger. Cool move!' "I'm so sorry, Susan! I didn't mean it that way. I was talking to a friend -- a friend to both of us, by the way. He's the one who told me to get down to Family Court in the first place. Anyway, he asked what was going to happen to you and the answer was so simple I just blurted it out without thinking how it would sound to you." She looked at the girl. "Susan, will you consent to my husband, Ken, and me adopting you as our daughter? Will you be the daughter we can never have? Please?" The girl had been slowly shaking her head from side to side as Kathy was speaking. When she finished the girl said, "You can't be serious, Mrs. Stark! You haven't been listening to me! I'm a prostitute! I'm filthy! I'm amazed that you allowed me in your beautiful apartment, let alone in that gorgeous bed. It's so great! It feels so cool, with those luscious sheets on my body. But I'm dirty! I don't belong here! The whole idea is ridiculous." Tears started to flow unchecked from the girl's eyes but she still refused to lower her head. "Susan, I was a prostitute. You weren't. Remember? I think I took as many as thirty johns in a day. I know what life is like there -- the people, the smells -- everything! I think we can cope together better than any other two people because we've both been there. I don't know if you heard, but my maiden name is Smith, too. We're too much alike to be apart, Susan. Please say yes!" While she was talking, Susan had been intently studying her face. The tears had stopped, and a look of tentative joy appeared. "You are serious, aren't you? You really want me... as your daughter!" The girl ran into Kathy's arms and hugged her. "May I kiss you?... And can I even call you Mom?" the girl asked softly, and kissed her warmly on her cheek. Kathy couldn't answer with words. She just hugged the girl close. Her tears were flowing, and her throat was too choked up to speak. They went into Susan's room and Kathy applied more of the antiseptic ointment on her body. Susan was sound asleep before Kathy finished.