Authors: Marilyn Campbell
Holly always knew how fortunate she had been to have that option. She steeled herself to ask, "Will you tell me who the others were?"
"Of course. One thing you'll discover is that our fearless leader doesn't permit any secrets. Do you, April?"
April's expression was a mixture of concern and mild rebuke. "No one in this group is ever forced or coerced to tell more than they need to."
"Aah, but there's the rub. You always manage to convince us that we need to bare our souls... for our own good." She stopped and massaged her temples. "Sorry. My mouth seems to be on overdrive today." Rising, her body swayed for a second before she found her equilibrium. "If you'll excuse me, I need to wash my hands."
As soon as she had walked into the bedroom and closed the door, Erica Donner sighed aloud.
"Gawd!
If Ah'd known she was drinkin' again, Ah would never have told her we were meetin'."
Her melodious accent so contradicted her continental appearance, Holly wondered if her ears had played a trick on her.
"That's not fair," Bobbi said in a confident, husky voice that was just as wrong for her image. She removed her wire-rimmed glasses and leaned forward. "We've all had to deal with addictions of some sort. What about you, Holly? Any problems with alcohol or drugs?"
Holly was caught off guard by the swift change in Bobbi's demeanor from painfully shy to aggressive. She shook her head. "No, I've never liked the feeling of being out of control."
Bobbi's soft gaze became a narrow-eyed stare that seemed to pin Holly in place for her inspection. "What about food? Or sex?"
The question disturbed her as much as Bobbi's superior attitude. "Food. For a while... it wasn't like I was truly bulimic, but..." She couldn't finish.
"Relax, Holly," April said softly. "You don't have to share until you're ready."
Bobbi replaced her glasses and leaned back into the cushioned chair, resuming her timid pose, but Holly had already gotten a glimpse of the woman beneath the disguise. She took a deep breath to recover her own usual façade of calm. "That must be very effective in getting dishonest taxpayers to come clean."
All three of the women laughed aloud.
"Very astute, Holly," Erica said. "Bobbi is the chameleon of our group. Like Superman, she can slip into a phonebooth in her bookkeeper persona and pop out seconds later as whoever she chooses to be. Bobbi never suffered any addictions in the usual sense. She just developed a few... personality problems."
Bobbi folded her arms and frowned at Erica. Her tone was now higher-pitched and defensive. "If we're going to tell Holly all our little secrets, I think the Black Widow should go next. How many husbands have you killed off now—seven? Eight?"
Erica arched one perfect eyebrow then shrugged indifferently. "The police and insurance files say Ah'm innocent of any wrongdoin' an' those are the only opinions that matter." She looked at Holly and said coolly, "Ah was married three times after college. The first was an addict who
accidentally got hold of a bad batch of heroine, the second committed a very messy suicide in our bathroom rather than face bankruptcy, but the third, George Donner, Ah was truly sorry about. He was the first man Ah'd ever known who could keep up with me mentally and physically. Ah almost miss him at times."
Holly suddenly remembered reading about the millionaire businessman's accidental death during a mountain-climbing vacation with his much younger wife. She hadn't connected Erica's name with the incident until Bobbi called her the Black Widow.
"At any rate," Erica continued, "your question to Rachel was never answered. The names of her other assailants were Kenneth Viello, Ike Brown and Jerry Frampton." She smirked at Holly. "Ah do hope y'all don't play much poker, because your expression is a dead giveaway. Obviously, Jerry Frampton was responsible for whatever happened to you, but don't let it make you feel special. As Rachel said, he was King Stud, so he had every one of our names on his dance card. He just acquired them in different ways. Just so you understand, we all have one or more names overlappin' on our personal hit lists."
* * *
David glanced at his watch, then returned his attention to the express elevator. A brief conversation with Suzanne had confirmed that there was a luncheon for five being served in Mrs. Donner's suite, but the names of her guests were unknown.
David couldn't help but wonder if the odd gathering had something to do with the information Tim Ziegler had given him. Although Donner could very logically be having a business meeting, his reporter's nose told him it was something else. Even without the incentive of having a legitimate reason for meeting that last blonde, his curiosity demanded he find out who the four women were, what sort of relationship they had with Erica Donner and whether that connection extended to Cheryl Wallace.
He tossed out his plan to use the room-service waiter routine and decided to go for a sneak attack through one of her guests. He could always return to the hotel later for another try at Donner. All he had to do was pick a woman and follow her. He smiled to himself. There wasn't much deliberation as to which one he would choose.
* * *
"Hit lists?" Holly asked, looking from one woman to another. She noticed how April stopped Erica from answering with nothing more than a slight twitch of her index finger then spoke for all of them.
"Before we explain that expression, I'd like you to hear about the rest of our experiences and how we got together."
Bobbi's assault was similar to Cheryl's in that she had been extremely inebriated and had knowingly had sex with one of the boys before the others joined them. Though she was a friend of Rachel's and knew about what had happened to her, the fraternity brother she had been dating wasn't involved in Rachel's attack, so Bobbi hadn't thought anything like that could happen to her.
Bobbi had the unique distinction, however, of having been raped by all fifteen of the brothers involved in the dance contest.
Erica's case was more like Rachel's. She had gone to a fraternity party with other girls and was singled out by one of the brothers. She had only had two beers when he suggested they go upstairs. The alcohol had been just enough to blur her usual good sense, but it hadn't been nearly enough to keep her from realizing she had walked into a trap the minute they entered his room and he locked the door.
Two of the four boys who greeted them were Billy O'Day and Jerry Frampton. Like Rachel, her first reaction had been to struggle. Unlike Rachel, she could see there was no hope of escaping what they had planned for her. She had avoided serious injury by lying perfectly still until they wore themselves out.
"You've heard the worst," April said. "Compared to the others, my story sounds like a fairy tale, but nevertheless, I was inducted into the Little Sister Society without my knowledge. Some people would call me promiscuous because I had sexual relations with quite a few boys in my teens. But I only had one partner at a time, always thought I was in love, and considered myself going steady with him before getting intimate. If someone else interested me, I broke up with the one I had been with before going on to the next one.
"So, I didn't think anything was peculiar when, after Tim Ziegler and I had dated a while, he lost interest. At the same time, Adam Frankowicz, another one of his brothers, started flirting with me. Rather than moaning over a broken heart, I moved on. I felt a little funny when it happened again, mainly because the timing and circumstances were so much like the first change of partners."
"Both Tim and Adam had romanced me until I agreed to have sex. The next date was spent making love in their rooms then within a few days, they each drifted away. Jerry Frampton was the one that followed Adam, but he lacked the patience the other two had had. On our first date, he took me to his room and pressured me until I gave in. Immediately after he was done, he went to his closet and opened the louvered door. Standing inside was Adam. He had been watching... and masturbating. Jerry encouraged him to use me to finish himself off, but Adam was so embarrassed at being unexpectedly exposed that he lost his erection.
"Jerry thoroughly enjoyed himself as he told me how he had watched Tim and me, then Adam and me, and since each fornication had been properly witnessed, I was now officially a member of the Little Sister Society. I remember how stunned he was that I wasn't delighted with that news."
Holly had been so caught up in their stories, she had forgotten about Rachel until she came out of the bedroom and headed straight for the bar. All eyes watched her pour an inch of vodka into a tall glass then fill it with Bloody Mary mix and an extra dash of Tabasco. "Did someone die while I was out?" she asked in a hoarse voice as she carried her drink back to the seat she had vacated earlier.
April visibly gathered her patience before speaking. "We've filled Holly in on our personal experiences, and I was about to tell her how we got together."
"Oh, please, Doctor, let me," Rachel begged with a slight slur. "You never give yourself enough credit when you tell this part. See, Holly, April was the one who figured out what had been going on and managed to steal one of the boys' dance cards. She contacted each girl on the card, even tracking down some of those that had left school. She managed to get thirty-five of them to meet to compare notes and talk. Some of them knew of others who had been taken advantage of, and eventually the Little Sister Society boasted over fifty members. We thought it was appropriate to retain the name. By spreading the word around campus, handing out flyers and posting notices in the public restrooms, we put an end to the fraternity's reign of terror."
Erica added, "April was one of those fortunate people who knew what she wanted to be when she grew up and had a natural talent for her goal. The first point we all agreed on was that goin' to the police or college administration was a complete waste of time. The only thing that had accomplished was more humiliation for the victims and only an occasional verbal reprimand for the naughty boys. Some of the girls were helped just by bein' able to talk to someone else about what they'd gone through and how they felt. And then there were those of us who wanted revenge."
Rachel retrieved control of the narration the moment Erica paused for effect. "April weeded out the ones who just needed a hug and some encouraging words to get on with their lives. The rest of us, those who wanted blood, formed the inner circle of the Little Sister Society. Over the years, a number of the women in that circle dropped out, some because they had seen their personal attackers get punished and that was enough for them, others because their careers or families took precedence over their need for revenge. The four of us, Cheryl, and two others who couldn't make it this week, are still active."
Holly had the feeling she should have the whole picture by now, but it was still eluding her. "I'm certainly not a psychiatrist, and I can understand how it might help to talk about a bad experience, but is it really beneficial to keep rehashing it after all these years?"
Rachel laughed aloud. "Well, what do you know! Another blonde with a brain."
"You're right, Holly," April said. "Talking about it only goes so far. We all needed much more. Since the law wasn't interested in punishing any of the fifteen, we decided it was up to us. By our junior year of college, most of the men were gone, but we had a plan. I had already chosen my career, and under the circumstances, it made sense for me to continue along that line, if for no other reason than to keep our members on an even keel."
"Each of the others went into careers that would ultimately grant them certain privileges and powers. Cheryl's money was her contribution. With it, we were able to hire detectives to keep tabs on the fifteen men while we finished our schooling."
"From time to time another victim's name would surface, as yours did, and we would send off the form letter you received. Some responded immediately, others never did. As I mentioned to you, if you decide to join our group, the extent of your participation is up to you."
Holly nodded her understanding though she still didn't know exactly what April was leading up to.
"The goal of the Little Sister Society is simple—retribution. Our primary rule for exacting revenge is that the punishment should be of equal magnitude to the crime. In other words, we attempt to degrade, humiliate and rape the target."
Rachel cut in. "Unfortunately, her usage of the verb 'rape' is in the figurative rather than the literal sense. I still think castration would be a lot more efficient."
With barely a glance at Rachel, April continued. "Since none of the women were permanently disfigured physically, mutilation would be considered excessive."
"The second fundamental rule is that every act we perform must be completely within the law. If our group or its goal ever became public, no one could be legally prosecuted. To ensure that, one of our absent members, Samantha Kingsley, serves as our legal counsel and clears every one of our decisions before any action is performed. Rachel holds a law degree as well, but her network of information through the FBI is much more valuable."
"I'm sure you can guess how an IRS agent could benefit our group," April said, smiling at Bobbi. "And Erica is our resident genius in the business world. Erica, perhaps you'd like to tell Holly about our last success."
Erica's smile reached her eyes this time. "Did y'all know Kenneth Viello?"
Holly shook her head. "Actually, I didn't recognize that many names on the list."