Leopard's Baby

Olivia’s cell buzzed. She didn’t recognize the caller ID, but not that many people knew her number. She’d been sitting behind Congresswoman Desiree Martinez while Martinez met with a group of her constituents in her conference room. Olivia stood, walked to the back of the room, and, speaking quietly, said, “Olivia Selinson.”

“This is special agent Craig Sanders of the FBI. Rita Callahan asked me to give you a call.”

“Thank you for getting back to me, Special Agent,” Olivia said while thinking, It’s about time. It’s been three days. I was beginning to think Callahan blew me off. “I’m in a meeting right now. May I call you back in about fifteen minutes at this number?”

“That’ll be fine. This is my cell. I’m in my office right now catching up on paperwork. I’ve been away for almost a week. I’ll be here all morning.”

Five minutes later Martinez stood, walked to the door, and shook hands with each of her visitors as they filed out. Martinez’s chief-of-staff stepped into the room with documents for Martinez to review before her next appointment.

“I have an important call I have to make, Desiree,” Olivia said. “It shouldn’t take more than fifteen or twenty minutes.”

“Go ahead, Liv,” Martinez said. She held up the sheaf of papers just handed to her. “I have to use the bathroom and look these over before my next meeting. It’ll take at least a half hour.”

Olivia found a quiet spot and returned Sanders’s call. “I understand you want to know about Manny Sebaro,” he said. “My area is Italian mobs. Sebaro does work for them, among others, but he’s not actually part of any specific family.”

“You do know about him, though.”

“Yes.”

“I understand he doesn’t do things himself,” Olivia said. She wanted Sanders to be aware of what she already knew. “He arranges for others to do the work. Specifically, I’d like to know who he’s most likely to use for document forgery. Forgery that would fool an FBI fingerprint and handwriting expert.”

“That wouldn’t be easy,” Sanders claimed. Olivia could sense defensiveness in his voice. “Do you know who this so-called ‘expert’ is?”

“Stanley Moore.”

“Oh! Him.”

“Do you know him?” Olivia asked. She didn’t want to ask the next question, but felt she had to. “Could he, ah, be on the take?”

“Absolutely not!” Sanders declared. “I don’t know him personally, but I’ve heard of him. His integrity is not in question. He’s been around a while and doesn’t always use the most modern techniques. Nevertheless, he’d be very difficult to fool.”

“But not impossible.”

“No, not impossible. For someone who was good enough.”

“Who would Sebaro use that you feel could do the job?”

“Let me check some things. I’ll get back to you within ten minutes.”

Olivia went to Martinez’s office. The congresswoman was still reading documents when Sanders called back fifteen minutes later. He gave Olivia two names. She thanked him for the information and his time.

***

Buying a used car using the name Judy Felson proved more difficult than Megan thought it would. Although she disguised herself by wearing a blond wig, clothes that hid her figure, and glasses, she still preferred not to be caught on CCTV cameras. That meant going to smaller, possibly disreputable dealers. The first dealer wouldn’t let her take the car to an independent mechanic. The second asked her not to test drive it on an expressway, giving a complicated reason as to why. It sounded like doubletalk to her, so she immediately drove it onto the Eisenhower Expressway, ignoring the dealer’s protests. As soon as she reached fifty miles-per-hour the car started to vibrate like a jackhammer. The third dealer started hitting on her as soon as she walked into the place. Finally she found a dealer who sold her a nine-year-old ford fusion for just under $8,000. The mechanic said it was in good shape. She bought four new tires for the car and purchased a rebuilt laptop computer for Tammy’s use.

***

Tammy stuck to back roads and hitchhiked relatively short distances, heading generally westward. She figured she averaged about a hundred and fifty to two hundred miles a day. She fed herself by going into forested areas, changing, and hunting as a leopard. She wondered if she would cause a panic should people see her paw prints. Cougars were not usually found in this part of the country, but they’d be the only cat native to North America large enough to leave comparable prints.

She estimated she was about a hundred miles west of Toledo. It was growing dark. She was tired and hungry and was about to call it a night when a car stopped for her. The driver was a man in his thirties. There was something about him that sent the wrong kind of vibes, but she was anxious for this part of her journey to end, so she accepted a ride.

“I’m Bart,” he said. “What’s your name?”

“Maggie.”

“Where you headed?”

“The west coast. I want to see a part of the country I’ve never been to.”

“It’s going to take you a while on these types of roads. Could make better time on the interstates.”

“Cars don’t stop on the interstates. Some states don’t allow hitching there anyway. If I wait at interchanges I could be there all day. This way I at least make some progress. I’m not in a hurry.”

“Afraid the cops might roust you?” he asked as he glanced at her. His lips were pulled back in a caricature of a grin that didn’t reach his eyes.

“Not really,” she said with a growing sense of wariness. “But it’s always better not to have to explain myself.”

They drove in silence for a time. Then he increased speed and asked, “Do you want to have some fun, Maggie?”

“What do you mean? Listen, I don’t want trouble. Let me out here and we’ll both be on our way.”

“I can’t let a girl like you out in this desolate area by herself. If something happened to you, I’d never forgive myself.”

“I’ll be fine. Stop the car!”

“Yeah, you want to have fun” Bart said. He pushed a button locking all the doors and pointed a small handgun at her. “I can tell. Just relax. We’ll have a good time. Don’t try anything or you’ll regret it. This isn’t my first rodeo. If you unbuckle your seatbelt, I’ll shoot.”

Ten minutes later, just after passing a sign to interstate 90, Bart turned onto a smaller road and drove into a heavily wooded area. The road deteriorated. It had become gravel when they came to a turnoff which led to a cabin. He continued to point the gun at her as he unbuckled his seatbelt, slid out of the car, went around to the passenger side, and opened her door.

“Move slow,” he ordered. “Try anything and I’ll shoot.”

He stayed far enough away so Tammy was not sure she could disarm him, even with her leopard speed, without getting shot. She followed his orders and went into the cabin ahead of him. When he ordered her to take her clothes off, she had to suppress a grin. If she had to change, she’d be ready. She complied.

“Shit!” he exclaimed when he saw her naked. “You’re fucking super hot! Why the fuck do you wear clothes that make you look fat? You’d get more rides looking like you do now. Well I guess it’s my good luck you didn’t.”

In a fearful voice she told him she’d do whatever he wanted if he didn’t hurt her. He took several pictures of her naked, ordering her into various lewd poses. He transferred the pictures to a laptop he took from a desk. Then he ordered her to get on her knees in front of him and give him a blowjob. When she was in position, he pressed the gun against her head and unzipped his fly. He was fully erect.

Moving faster than the eye could follow, she pushed the gun away from her head, jumped to her feet, and twisted it out of his hand. She placed the gun on a table. He lunged for it. She caught him before he could reach it, grasped the front of his shirt with her right hand, lifted him so his feet were off the ground, and slapped him twice, once on each cheek, with her left hand. She let him drop to the floor and kicked him in the groin. He lay on the floor moaning in pain, clutching his genitals. His penis was no longer erect. He didn’t resist when she took off his pants. She tore them into strips and used the strips to bind him.

“I was just having some fun,” Bart whined. “You would’ve liked it too. If you don’t let me go I swear I’ll hunt you down.”

You’ll have to get in line, Tammy thought, while Bart went on in that vain, alternating between pleading and threatening. Tammy ignored him. She got dressed and deleted the pictures he’d taken of her from his phone and his laptop. She searched the phone and found several other pictures of naked girls, some of whom were clearly underage. On the computer she found a video of him committing a sex act with a girl who looked as if she had not yet reached puberty.

“You’ve been a very naughty boy, Bart,” Tammy said, waggling her left forefinger at him. “I’m afraid I have to put a stop to it.”

“What are you going to do?” he asked in a shaky voice.

“You’ll see.”

Tammy searched the cabin. The only food she could find was junk-food and beer. She was hungry so she ate enough of the junk-food to take the edge off. She wouldn’t have time to hunt tonight. She wiped the cabin down to remove all her fingerprints. Then she called 9-1-1 and gave the operator the GPS coordinates of where a pedophile could be found along with the evidence.

Leaving the phone behind, she took the keys to Bart’s car and retraced the route they’d taken until she reached the sign pointing to interstate 90. She headed west. She was careful to stay within the speed limit. A little over two hours later she entered Chicago. She parked the car in an unsavory part of town.

She took care to wipe her fingerprints from all parts of the car she could recall touching. She left the keys in the car and headed toward Megan’s apartment. At one point a man started toward her. She bared her teeth and growled. He took off at a run. Nobody else bothered her. After about an hour and a half she arrived.

Tammy entered the vestibule and pushed the button marked “Wolfe” several times. At last a sleepy voice said, “Who the fuck is this? Do you know what time it is?”

“Actually I don’t,” Tammy said. “That’s why I rang your bell. I wanted the precise time.”

“Are you out of your… Holy shit! It’s you! Apartment 3B.”

A buzzer sounded. Tammy entered, took the stairs to the third floor, and was about to knock on the door of 3B, when it opened and Megan threw herself into Tammy’s arms, hugging and kissing her and crying at the same time.

“Perhaps we should take this inside,” a male voice said.

They entered the apartment. A small cat, standing with her back arched and her teeth bared, hissed loudly and raced into an interior room.

“Is Clarabelle going to react like that anytime she sees a member of your family?” the man asked.

“Pretty much,” Megan said. “At least with Olivia and her kids. Where are my manners? Tammy this is my husband, Nathan. Nate this my sister, Tammy.”

“I’m glad to meet the man who could finally get Megan to settle down,” Tammy said. She hugged Nathan and kissed him.

“Glad to meet you Tammy,” Nathan said. “I’ve heard a lot about you. You looked like you’re been through the mill. Can we give you anything? A drink? Food?”

“We’ve got some leftover beef from dinner,” Megan said, going to the refrigerator. We were going to have it for lunch tomorrow, but you can have it. We can always get something else.”

“I don’t want to…” Tammy started to say.

“Bullshit!” Megan said. She put the meat on the kitchen table along with a knife and fork. “Take it. I can see you eyeing it. I insist you eat it.”

“Thanks,” Tammy said, as she sat down. “I appreciate the food. You’re right. I’m famished and exhausted. I’ve been running on fumes. After I eat I want to crash, but first I’d like to use your shower if you don’t mind. I haven’t had one since I left a hotel in Philly over a week ago. I must smell like a bear.”

“How about something to drink?” Nathan offered again. “Beer? Something harder? Or softer?”

“Water would be fine,” Tammy said around a mouthful.

“I’m anxious to hear about your adventures,” Megan said, getting a bottle of water from the refrigerator. “I can see how tired you are, so it can wait until tomorrow. It’s Saturday and I’m off. Nathan has rounds in the afternoon.”

Tammy finished her meal, showered, performed her bathroom ablutions, and fell into a deep, dreamless slumber in the spare room of the apartment. It was the first time since leaving Jeremy’s house she’d slept in a comfortable bed. The bed in the seedy hotel in Philadelphia had left a lot to be desired.

***

It was after noon when Tammy awakened. Nathan had left for the hospital. During lunch Tammy described how she escaped from the hospital.

“Oh, man,” Megan said with a broad grin. “I wish I had a video of that. How did you wind up here?”

Tammy gave a condensed version of the events leading to her arrival at Megan’s place. Megan laughed long and hard when she heard about Tammy’s encounter with the teenaged boys.

After they ate, Tammy took another shower and dressed in clothes Olivia left. Megan helped her dye her hair a dirty blond. With the disguise tools which Olivia also left, Tammy attached a mole to her right cheek, a realistic-looking scar from the right-hand corner of her mouth down to her chin, and contact lenses that turned her eye color from blue to brown. She placed padded inserts into her mouth to make her face look wider, and switched to wire-rimmed glasses.

“Won’t that scar call attention to your face?” Megan asked.

“If they focus on the scar they won’t take in the entire face,” Tammy replied. “It’ll be more difficult for them to identify me from a picture. At least that’s the general idea.”

“I have to say that if I didn’t know you so well I’d have a tough time recognizing you,” Megan said.

As she prepared to leave, Tammy said, “I’ll take my old clothes with me and throw them out in another city. Too many people have seen me in them.”

“You still look tired, Tam,” Megan said. “Why don’t you stay for a couple of days to rest up and get your strength back?”

“I’d like to, I really would, but it’s not a good idea. The police are going to search Bart’s cabin. Even though I wiped away my prints, it’s possible I missed some. Or they may get my DNA from a hair or something. If they do, it won’t take them long to figure out I’m headed west and my stepsister lives along the way. They’ll come calling. Besides, Brendan is almost eighteen months old. I haven’t seen him since he was a tiny baby. I can’t bear to be away from him any longer than necessary.”

“You’re not going to try to barge in take him are you? That’s a good way to get yourself shot.”

“I won’t do anything rash. I’ll have some help, but before we can plan anything, I’ll need to look over the territory.”

“Nathan is going to want to know why our cat went nuts when Olivia showed up and again when you arrived. Do I tell him about the leopard thing?”

“Not a good idea, Meg,” Tammy said. She picked up a backpack with her belongings and hugged Megan. “It’s not that I don’t trust your husband. It’s that the more people who know, the more likely it is to slip out, and that would put everyone in danger.”

“Take care, Tam,” Megan called as Tammy left the apartment. “If there’s anything we can do, give a holler. We still have the burner phones. I’ll use one to call Olivia and give her an update.”

***

“She’s on the way, Liv,” Megan said. She’d driven for two hours to get well away from Chicago when she made the call. Even though she was using one of the burner phones, and the risk of being overheard was small, they were taking no chances.

“How did she look?” Olivia asked. She was unable to keep a tremor out of her voice.

“Tired. Too thin. Nathan said the same thing to me after she was asleep. I urged her to take a couple of days to get her strength back, but she was really anxious to get going. Plus she felt she had to leave because she was afraid her run-in with the creep who tried to rape her might lead the authorities to me.” Megan gave Olivia brief accounting of Tammy’s encounter with Bart.

“She might be right about that,” Olivia said. “I trust her judgment. Nevertheless I’m concerned. She’s been to hell and back over the last two and a half years. She tends to be headstrong. I hope she doesn’t do anything reckless. She needs to be at full strength when she makes her move.”

“Is she going to have any help?”

“We have a contingency plan. Pardon me if I don’t share the details.”

“I understand. Anything else to report?”

“Tiffany had her first change,” Olivia said with a chuckle. “She’s lobbying hard to be included in whatever our operation might be.”

“I know she’s only thirteen, but another… you know what, could be an asset.”

“That’s what she says,” Olivia said, sounding resigned to the situation. “At the very least, I’m going to have to speed up her training.”

“One thing for sure. She doesn’t have the self-image problems that plague many girls in their early teens.”

“You got that right,” Olivia said with a laugh.