The Evidence is In

I’ve got to get out of here. These people are insane. Or worse.

3:30 a.m.

I don’t know where to start. I’ve got to send this info to Tom. It has to come from Peg. Will he respond?

I decided to watch TV last night. It was the first time I’d actually turned on the big screen with everything else going on. So it was the first time I’d noticed what a rats nest of power cables there was plugged into the power strip that runs from the only outlet in the room. These houses weren’t designed for all the modern conveniences. I’m surprised she didn’t blow circuits all the time with all the stuff she was running. And not even a surge protector on the power strip. Well, the stupid TV was unplugged from the back and I got to messing around with it. That’s when I discovered the TIVO. Well, with the crap on the schedule for the night, I thought maybe she would have recorded something that would be decent to watch.

Should have known.

Once I got everything hooked back up, I turned it on and began a search for programming. All the programs on TIVO were marked VIDEO IN with the date. There wasn’t a program name. I flicked on the first one and discovered that it was more footage of Georgia, but this time it was just her sitting with guests in the living room. She had Susan over and they drank tea or something and ate while they talked about the weather and the same kinds of things that Susan kept trying to engage me in. But this went further.

About half way through, Georgia started talking about how if Susan just followed instructions and did as she was told, everything would be fine. Susan asked about her reward.

“Suz, I am a woman of my word. I’ll put this in a safe place for you,” Georgia said in the recording. She opened the collar of her shirt slightly and showed Susan the Amethyst necklace. “I have all I want or will ever need, and if you help me get rid of Rick and Deonn, I will give you the necklace. I know how you’ve admired it and I told you the story. It’s probably worth a quarter of a million dollars. And really, Suz. You are so far in now that you don’t want Rick to find out about it unless we bring him down. He still doesn’t know you opened a private bank account, does he? You’ve been planning to run for months.”

“Don’t tell, Georgia. Please.”

“We want the same thing, Suz. We’ve done our time on our backs, and every other position, and it’s time to reap our rewards. But Rick and Deonn aren’t going to just let us all quit. They like this life. But the games are getting too rough. We’ve got to protect ourselves and put them away.”

“You’re sure it will work?”

“Positive. I have everything we need.”

That one ended pretty soon after that. I got down on my hands and knees and looked under the ledge of the TV stand. Sure enough, there was a video camera I’d missed before. I didn’t even realize you could plug a video camera directly into one of those recorders.

I started going through all of the recordings. Georgia had met with all the women. They were all plotting to overthrow the empire. Somehow Georgia had them convinced that she had a plan that would put Deonn and Rick safely out of the way, permanently. Everything seemed staged to come to a head on Christmas morning.

And that’s when I got to the last recording.

The house in the video was nothing like it was when I first walked in. It wasn’t just that the police had been there and disturbed things looking for evidence. The house was decorated for Christmas. That didn’t fit with what the police put in their report. I watched as everyone gathered with champagne to toast the holiday. It looked like any group of friends, but Georgia was planning something when she stepped up to toast the group.

“We’ve had a good run,” she said. “It’s time to pack our tents and steal away into the night.”

“What are you talking about?” Deonn asked.

“We’re quitting,” Georgia said. “I’ve turned all the cameras off. We’re not doing the orgy broadcast today. In fact, we’re not ever doing it again.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Rick said. “We’ve got a good thing going here. No one can touch us. There’s no reason to quit.”

“Remember the old TV show ‘The Untouchables?’ Al Capone couldn’t be brought down. It was foolproof. Except for one little thing. He didn’t pay his income taxes,” Georgia said. “Do you know how much unreported income you’ve had in the past four years, Rick? I do. To the penny. All the information is available to me whenever I want it and it’s enough for the Feds to put you away for 5 to life. Add enslavement, kidnapping, drug dealing, and money laundering and they’ll throw away the keys. You can take what you’ve got and spend it on a desert island somewhere, or lose it all and spend your life in prison.”

“You filthy little whore!” Rick swore. “I really didn’t think you had the balls to do this.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Deonn said. His voice was as smooth and persuasive as I remembered. “I want to hear what she thinks she’s got on me. I’m clean.”

“Aside from being a convicted felon who lied in order to get a private investigator license and carries a gun without a permit?” Georgia asked. “Well, that would only get you six months to two years, and I don’t ever want to see you again. But you out-clevered yourself. All that stuff you wanted me to cosign for, the house you bought with my money? I’m pulling the plug on it. No revenue, no car, no house, no TV. I’ve already transferred title to myself exclusively. On everything except the car. Here’s your key. There’s a hundred grand in the glovebox. Just get in and drive away, or kiss it all goodbye.” I thought that last one was a little weak, but Georgia obviously had Deonn’s hot button. But wait a minute. How did I get the key to the Mercedes out of the safe deposit box if she gave the key to Deonn? It didn’t make much difference, though. The action was developing more quickly than I could keep up with it.

The gun Georgia mention was suddenly in Deonn’s hand. Rick was laughing and the women were all applauding. Georgia looked startled and uncertain for the first time.

“Did you really think I’d let you blackmail my husband?” Susan asked. “Did you think that we all were just going to roll over and quit because you wanted out? Or because we wanted a little bauble, or were worried you’d tell a husband we were getting paid for having sex and broadcasting it on the Internet? You’re pathetic.” Susan reached for Georgia’s blouse and tore the top button off as she opened it. “Where is the little bauble?” she demanded. “You were going to double-cross me anyway, weren’t you?”

“Of course not,” Georgia said. “I’m good as my word. But I wasn’t going to just dish out treats here at the party. It’s safe for you.”

“Where?”

“Where I can get it when it’s time.”

“We’re going to have another little show,” Rick said. He reached into a bag nearby and pulled out a laptop and a webcam. “The orgy goes on, and someplace in the middle of it, Georgia tells us all where she’s hidden the info on us. Then, if she’s a good little girl, she gets to quit and go back to Savannah and her precious daddy. If she isn’t, then we’ll be sending every tape she ever made to the old man and see how long it takes before he kicks the bucket masturbating to his little girl sucking cock.”

“Everybody undressed,” Deonn said waving the gun around. I couldn’t tell if the ladies were all in on the double-cross or not. It looked to me like they followed the shift of power. Georgia didn’t move until Deonn came up to her and pressed the gun against her head. She had guts, I’ll say that for her. But she didn’t fight him. She grinned like she knew what was happening all along.

“It’s the only reason we have Christmas, isn’t it?” she said. From that point, there was a lot of movement and general groping. Two cocks and six pussies, I couldn’t keep score past that. Someplace along the line, however, the mood shifted again. While there was a lot of activity, it became obvious that they were keeping Georgia in the middle and she wasn’t being allowed to move away. I could hear the non-stop questioning she was undergoing. Where is the pendant? Where are the papers? Where are the photos? Where are the DVDs? Georgia was defiant saying “I’ll give them to you. You need to be more careful. I hope you learned your lesson.” But the one thing she wasn’t doing was telling them anything.

Then it happened. It was a slick move, like they’d rehearsed it. Georgia was on her hands and knees acting like a horse and Deonn was sitting on her back with a rope around her neck yelling “Yeehaw!” I saw the other end of the rope in his hand as he looped it up over the ceiling fan. Susan hit the switch and the fan began twisting the rope. When it tightened through his hands and around her neck, Deonn slipped off and moved quickly away. The rope twisted tighter with every revolution of the fan and Georgia couldn’t get purchase with her fingers to pull it away from her neck. It was already too tight.

“Last chance to tell us, Peaches,” Deonn said. Georgia looked frantically around. She tried to reach the wall switch for the fan, but it was too far away. She tried spinning with the fan, but couldn’t spin as fast as it was going. She collapsed on top of her clothes. I could see her grasp something in her clothes and then saw her fling something at Deonn. She missed and there was a splash in a glass of champagne on the shelf. She couldn’t have planned that. In fact, she looked horrified that they landed where they did and tried to speak, but the rope was too tight now. She ran first at one person and then another, but they were all too far away.

Georgia dropped to the floor her face turned purple and her tongue was sticking out of her mouth. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she dropped to the floor. The exact position the police chalk had outlined. Susan hit the switch on the fan to turn it off.

“Okay, get her loose and give her oxygen so we can find out where things are,” Susan said.  The ladies moved toward Georgia.

“Back off!” Deonn barked. He waved the gun around. “Anyone who touches her gets the same treatment. We clean and we search. We don’t leave any fingerprints on anything. Start gathering up the dishes. Dump the clothes she was wearing in the washing machine. Dump all the party food in plastic bags and cart it out of here. Forget washing dishes. Toss the champagne glasses in the the plastic bag, too.” Rick looked up from packing up the laptop and webcam.

“And don’t forget, I have recorded the whole thing. Every person here was part of killing Georgia ‘Peaches’ McFearin. Nobody will cut a deal for anybody in the room who watched her die,” Rick said. I could see the fear in all the women’s eyes. None of them planned on actually killing Georgia. Two were crying quietly as they went about the clean-up process.

“You take the bedroom,” Deonn said to Rick. “I’ll take the office. Remember, don’t damage anything. It has to look like it was just the way she lived.”

After the party decorations, food, and clothes were cleared from around the living room, no one came back in until the final inspection. The only other notable thing was that according to their angry voices, no one found anything, and of course the key to the Mercedes no longer worked.

“Okay. Everybody go over to our house and drink a lot and eat a lot. Tomorrow we’ll call in our deep concern that our friend didn’t show up for the party,” Rick said. Everyone left by way of the kitchen.