”So what? Maybe he wore a raincoat. Or maybe he pulled out, you know? In my country, ten Serbs rape a woman, maybe half of them come in her. Maybe that’s what happened to Kate, you know? Ten guys could have raped her. Why not?“
”Gang rape?“
”Who knows? America’s crazier than Bosnia when it comes to sex. It’s all they think about.“
”What do
A broad grin. ”Business!“
”Is that why you blew five grand on fireworks the other night?“
”Sure! Promotional expense. I’m an entrepreneur, like Bill Gates.“
I stop backing away. I’ve dealt with a lot of criminals, but Marko Bakic is a new experience for me. He’s like a Russian mobster, convinced that he’s in the vanguard of capitalism even as he leaves a trail of carnage behind him. Of course, American capitalism left quite a wake of destruction during its infancy as well. Maybe Marko isn’t completely wrong about himself.
”Will you give me your cell number?“ I ask. ”I may need to reach you.“
He smiles lazily. ”You know better than that, Mr. Cage. You give me yours. Maybe I’ll check in with you before I go.“
”Well, good luck,“ I tell him, backing farther up the hill.
Marko knows how scared I am; he sees it in my face. But I don’t care. Fear is infinitely more powerful than pride, and I have so much to lose. I hope I never see Marko Bakic again.
When I reach the road, I cross it and sprint toward Mia’s car.
”What happened?“ she asks. ”You were gone forever.“
”I talked to Marko. Go! I don’t want him to know you brought me.“
Mia throws the car into reverse, backs onto the road, and guns it for the gate.
”Drive normally,“ I tell her, digging in the glove box for an envelope.
”Fuck that,“ she says. ”I want out of here.“
Very carefully, I slip Marko’s hair into the envelope containing the title to Mia’s car.
”Don’t worry,“ she says. ”Everybody’s too wasted to remember anything.“
Chapter 32
Quentin Avery’s suite is empty. Lucien has apparently gone home, but from the dirty dishes littering the coffee table, he ate a full meal and several desserts before giving up on the Sony flash drive I took from Marko’s apartment. The flash drive itself is sitting on the keyboard in front of the flat-panel monitor on the desk. Though it’s long after midnight, Mia looks wide awake. The rave is forgotten. Her excitement at seeing what Kate kept hidden from the world is plain to see.
”Why are you so excited about seeing what’s on Kate’s drives?“ I ask, taking a seat before the computer and slipping the Sony drive into my pocket.
Mia pulls up a chair and sits beside me. ”I just want to understand where she really was in her head. Maybe then I’ll know why she died.“
When I insert the first Lexar flash drive, Windows offers to open a folder to view the files. ”Thank you, Lucien.“ I click the mouse, and a group of folders and individual files pops up. Some are.jpeg image files, others are WordPerfect documents, and still others appear to be hypertext documents saved from the Worldwide Web.
”What do we look at first?“ Mia asks.
”The pictures, I guess. I have a feeling some of this stuff is going to be explicit.“
She gives me a look that says,
I click a.jpeg file, and a picture of two men having sex fills the screen.
”Whoa,“ I say, feeling my face color.
I try to click the image away, but Mia grabs my hand. ”That’s no big deal,“ she says. ”This isn’t 1980, okay? I’ve seen women doing it with horses on the Internet. Everybody in my class has.“
It’s not her revelation about bestiality that shocks me, but the way she refers to 1980 as if it’s the Dark Ages. I was twenty years old in 1980. For me, 1984 still carries the dread of an Orwellian future; for Mia it’s the name of a bad Van Halen album released two years before she was born.
”It’s just gay sex,“ she says. ”And the guys are hot.“
”Do you think that’s why Kate has this?“
She shrugs. ”I don’t know. Open some more files.“
More images of gay sexual action appear.
”I think Kate was into anal,“ Mia says in a matter-of-fact voice.
”That’s what Drew told me. That’s why they found his semen in her…in…“
”Her butt?“ Mia finishes, looking at me like I’m being ridiculous.
”Yeah. Shad’s going to use that fact to make it look like Drew raped Kate. He’s relying on the jury being unwilling to believe a girl that young would do that voluntarily.“
”He might be right, if the jury’s old enough. But you never know. They might surprise you.“
”I wouldn’t mind being surprised like that.“
Mia is still watching the screen. ”Keep clicking.“
I open some more files, moving quickly down the directory. A few heterosexual images appear, but the collection is still heavily weighted toward gay porn. As the images flash up and vanish, I realize that I’m simply not young enough to judge how normal or abnormal it is for a girl to possess this kind of material today.
”Mia, I don’t want to embarrass you, but I need to know something.“
”What?“
”Do you have stuff like this on your computer? I don’t mean gay porn, but…you know.“
At last Mia blushes. ”Do
”Well…some. But I’m a guy.“
She laughs nervously. ”Yeah, I’ve got a few pictures.“
”I wouldn’t have thought that.“
She gives me a strange smile. ”Am I ruining your perfect image of me?“
”Maybe.“
”Everybody’s human, Penn. Even girls like me.“
”I guess I keep hoping that’s not true.“
She points at the screen. ”Try this folder at the bottom. It has a D and a K in the file name.“
Her instinct is dead-on. When I click the folder she’s pointing to, a host of file icons appears, all coded ”DK“ with a number. And when I click the first icon, an image of Kate and Drew having intercourse fills the screen.
”Jesus,“ I whisper.
Mia whistles softly.
Drew and Kate are in the missionary position, but there’s no hokey mugging for the camera or anything like that. It looks as though someone hiding in the bedroom caught them in the act of tenderly making love. Not many people look good having sex, but Drew seems frozen above Kate like a statue by Michelangelo, his muscles flexed in stark relief. He’s looking down into Kate’s eyes, and she appears awestruck, her mouth partly open, her eyes filled with indescribable emotion. This single image brings home the reality of their relationship in a more visceral way than all Drew’s explanations of it, or even my imagined reality. They don’t look like two porn actors, but two people deeply in love.
”It’s so sad,“ Mia says. ”Isn’t it?“
”Yes.“
