I put my hands on her shoulders. "She's wild but not stupid. We'll find her."
"But – "
I turned to Penny, who was measuring water into the coffee-maker. "We need you."
Her face changed, suddenly all serious and determined. She was still a kid, but now she was a scary-smart kid with a purpose.
"What do you need?"
"The guys on the beach. Remember anything about them?"
Her face got distant.
"Did you see – " Kate began. I silenced her with a scowl. Penny's brain and eyes were a resource, not to be polluted with distractions.
"Five guys, one girl. About…eighteen or nineteen years old. One of them went up to the road to get some beer."
"A car?"
She nodded. "Don't know what kind, but it was a late-model car, one of those compact ones, like an Accura or something."
"So they weren't just out for the day." I nodded. "Too many people for a small car on a day trip."
Penny snapped her fingers and got excited. "One of them said something about going back to the house for some more food and beer."
"How were their tans? Real deep and even and leathery?"
She shook her head. "Two of them had to put their on shirts because they were getting sunburned." She looked at me hopefully. "Do you know who they are?"
I shook my head. "But now I know they're a bunch of college kids who rented a place here for a few days or a couple of weeks." I went to the phone and called Hector, the gardener.
"I was just getting ready for bed. Is everything okay?"
"Pretty much."
"Did Miguel do a good job? He was a little disappointed – "
"I knew he would do a good job, even before I returned. His disappointment is why I am calling." I quickly told him about Dolores's absence and relayed my deduction about the young men.
"I will make some calls and call you back immediately, okay?"
"Thank you, Mister Hector."
"It is a privilege, my neighbor."
The coffee was ready and we brought a mug to Mark. I poured a slug of brandy into it. I knew – from experience – that coffee does nothing to sober a person, but I hoped the association would help clear Mark's head. I needed him at least partially functional by the time we returned.
Kate absented herself for a few minutes. She was just coming back down the stairs when the phone rang. Hector.
"My cousin, Santiago – on the road crew?"
"Yes."
"He said there is a group of eight or nine young men who have rented the Pearson house on Stockbridge Road. Do you know this place?"
Did I ever! Pearson had been totally irresponsible about renting his house for the summer. Two years before, he'd rented it for the season to a bunch of guys in very large brand-new cars equipped with 50kilowatt speakers and cellular phones and beepers. The guys had been equipped with 24-hour sunglasses, Armani clothes and any controlled substance you could ask for. And that had been only the worst in a string of bad tenants. The firestorm that followed the DEA raid – Gee, I can't imagine who tipped them off – had scared the sonuvabitch so badly he hadn't rented at all last year.
This sounded like just a bunch of college kids partying, which was not bad in itself. The fact that they had a – probably – willing 15year-old nymphet to service them wasn't all that shocking either.
"I know the place. I am in your debt."
"My brothers and cousins and I would be pleased to accompany you, if you wish to visit the party."
"Thank you, most sincerely. I am sure it will be a friendly welcome and friendly farewell."
"Nonetheless, I think perhaps we will be watching the Tonight Show, so if you change your mind, you can rescue us from Jay Lenno."
"Thank you."
"Good night."
I looked at Kate. She was still in her jeans, but had a dark pullover top against the cooling summer night.
Penny stepped up to me, handing me the big four-cell utility flashlight. "I don't suppose you're going to let me come along," she said.
"You don't-suppose right. But I wouldn't know where to look without you, Muffin. Watch out for your Dad."
I took the flashlight. "Come on, Kate. See you soon, Mark," I called.
"Wuzzat?"
Penny grimaced. "More coffee."
We were twenty feet from the van when I remembered -
"Yes! YES!" Irene hissed orgasmically.
"What's that?" Kate asked.
I flicked on the flashlight and shone it on the pair. Irene and Bonnie, mostly naked and totally locked in a feverish sixty-nine in the damp grass. We stepped around them. I wondered if they'd noticed us.
Kate blinked as I opened the door for her. "Were they – they – "
I climbed in quickly and slammed the door. "Yes." I gunned the engine and swung out of the drivearound, the headlights coming on just in time to illuminate the two lovely bi-women. In the glare of the highbeams, their heads swiveled up and toward us, their eyes wide. They were as frozen by the headlights as deer on the highway. The image stayed with me as I continued turning the van and pulled out onto the road.
The night mist was already thickening when I swung onto Stockbridge. I killed the engine as I turned into the driveway and cut the headlights to the parking ambers. I'd already unsnapped my seat belt. Without the power steering, I had to manhandle the wheel on the dirt driveway, but that wasn't too much of a problem.
I coasted in next to a Honda Accord, shifted into PARK and thumbed the switch that kept the dome light off as we opened the doors and slipped out of the van. I handed Kate the flashlight. I took the extra tire iron from under the driver's seat and slipped it up the forearm of my shirt. Just in case.
There were no driveway lights, but the glow from the pool and yard lights was more than adequate. When we got closer, we realized there'd been no need for stealth; we wouldn't have been noticed if we'd arrived in a helicopter. We bellied up to the five-foot-high wood stockade fence around the pool and stared.
The party was under way and it was one helluva party.
I counted a dozen young people, two-thirds of them male, around the pool, plus the girl standing in waist-deep water. Some of them still wore some clothes. None was older than twenty and Dolores looked to be the youngest. There were cushions and air mattresses all over the place, not to mention the ripe aroma of marijuana and the heavy, sweet smell of beer…lots of beer.
I glanced at Kate. Her mouth was hanging open. Well, that was understandable. I was a bit stunned at the full-blown orgy, too, and I'd seen some pretty wild shit in my life.
Two guys were slumped, recuperating, on beach loungers. Another one carried a camcorder around, recording the scene for posterity. Three couples were happily going at it variously. A short, astonishingly voluptuous brunette was bouncing happily on one guy's cock while he mauled her huge, firm breasts. A lanky blonde with acne and a seemingly bottomless throat stood nude in the pool, her face buried in the lap of the guy sitting on the edge, bracing himself on his elbows. She had the longest nipples I have ever seen, bar none, and she was determinedly and enthusiastically swallowing the guy's long, skinny prick and sliding it back out again. I was impressed by his length and her depth.
We didn't see Dolores immediately, mostly because she was obscured by the two guys. One was prone on a lounge cushion, with Dolores grinding her hips over his prick. The other was letting her have her way on his dick with her mouth. She was very obviously having a great time. So were they.
It was only when the guy standing at her face moved around behind her that we could see her features, and then only for a moment as she collapsed slowly on the guy beneath her.
The other one kept saying, "Okay? Are you sure? Okay?" as he positioned himself behind her.
"Do me!" Dolores hissed. "Fuck me!"
I could feel Kate's tremor of shock.
But then we were both mesmerized, watching as the one behind slid slowly forward, his athletic bulk concealing Dolores's compact curves from sight. She gasped, a long single breath, as he slid into her. Then both guys began pumping her.
Her fists beat at the cushion as two horny young college men worked their cocks in and out of her cunt and ass. She groaned and cried out as she came and again demanded, "Fuck me! Fuck my ass! Fuck me hard!"
No surprise that neither lasted long. We could see her paramours tense and hear their moans as they emptied their nuts into her. When the sodomizer had separated himself from her, she rolled off the one beneath her and lay, limbs akimbo, on the cushion. Her hands went between her legs and she fingered her streaming snatch. Her hips were still churning.
Kate and I were still frozen by the sight and probably would have remained that way, except the guy with the camcorder called out, "Gangbang! Come on – let's see how many she can take!"
He positioned himself for the best angle as the other partyers roused and interrupted themselves to begin forming a line.
It was time to move. I crouched, grabbed the bottom of the fence and heaved. As I'd expected, cut-the-corners Pearson hadn't bothered paying to have it anchored in concrete and the stakes came out easily. The fence section was only about four feet wide. I set it neatly to one side and stepped into the pool enclosure.
A couple of the guys noticed me and two approached.
"Hey – who are you?"
"That's my niece. My 15-year-old niece."
That slowed them. "Hey, we're not forcing her – "
I nodded. "I can see that."
"She told us she's seventeen!" protested the guy with limpening schlong in hand. He'd been about to start the train.
"Doesn't matter what she said. She lied. She's jailbait. And I smell grass. And I'll bet you let her have some beer. It's time for her to go home."
All of them – except for still-writhing, still-masturbating Dolores – were looking at me. A few of them glanced past me and I knew Kate had stepped into the light.
One of them, a big hulk almost my size, said, "How do we know – "
"You don't – but I'll be glad to wait for you to call the police and verify her identity."
"He's bluffing," called the skinny girl with the bottomless throat. Kate was at Dolores's side, looking grim.
"Mom…?" Dolores moaned, quite audibly.
All over the enclosure, young people began muttering, "Oh, shit…"
Except for one. The guy with the camcorder had put it down and was approaching me, holding an empty quart bottle of Miller by the neck. I dropped my arm to my side and let the tire iron slide out into my hand. The hulk turned to him and said, "Don't even think about it, you asshole."
Not thinking was apparently the future cinematographer's field of expertise. He stopped, turned and walked away.
Dolores was mostly on her feet. Kate had an arm around her waist and was helping her walk back to the new exit. Dolores was kind of halfsobbing, half-groaning. Jism was running out of her snatch and down her thighs.
"Enjoy your party," I said, "and be more careful next time. Stay off that particular beach and we'll forget it. Deal?"
The hulk nodded. "Fair enough. We didn't mean any harm."
"I know that and I understand. But use your brains after this?"
He quirked a half-smile. "Yeah, a novel experience. Cool."
Dolores was sprawled in the backseat, draining all over the upholstery, while Kate wrapped her in a blanket from cargo area. Ah, well. I climbed in, turned on the engine and lights. I glanced in the rearview. Dolores was sitting pretty much the same way she'd been sitting twenty-four hours before – Was it that short a time? – when she'd put on her little masturbation show for me.
I had us back to the house in ten minutes.
I was very proud of myself. There'd been no trouble, no problems, no violence. A misunderstanding solved peacefully. So why were my knees shaking?
Then we were getting Dolores back into the house. I figured the night's experience would solve my problems with her. Hell, maybe it would sober all of them up a bit.
This kind of deductive logic will win a prize good for one free ride on any element of the NYC Transit Authority…provided you bring a token.