Maddy's a Baddy

by David J. Wighton

  At one point in the afternoon, she saw a copter and hid under some bushes. It was the big copter and it was circling over the place that she had just left.

  Twice more Maddy would hide from the copter. That night, she hid under a bush, put on all of her clothes to keep warm, and ate more of her food. Bainbridge Island was further away than she had thought.

  # # # # # # # #

  The Wilizy started interviewing the Blacks that same Monday. The format was the same with Winnie there to assess the truth. This time they assigned two Wilizy interrogators to each Black to ensure confessions. By the end of the day, they had achieved a 100% success rate. Tomorrow they'd work on the key figures in the city hall crimes – the mayor, deputy mayor, business controller, police commissioner, police chief, and deputy policy chief. To date, nobody had come forward with incriminating information on the judge or the head prosecutor.

  The cellblock in the basement was now full, so they moved the people who had already confessed back to the Gardens, and the remaining suspects into the cellblock. The head prosecutor showed surprise that such a facility could have existed undetected in the basement for so long.

  Brigadier-General MacLatchie had a visitor that morning – or at least almost a visitor. Stu was once again delegated to meet with her. He reported to Jock five minutes later that the visitor wouldn't talk with him. "A woman is here to give information about the judge. She says that it's about a crime he committed. She'll only talk to another woman."

  "Did she give any information about the crime or herself?"

  "No. She's young, perhaps in her 30s. East Indian. Confined to a wheelchair. That's all I know."

  "Ask Yolanda to speak with her. Use the Visitors dressing room again."

  # # # # # # # #

  "My name is Yolanda," Yolanda began. "May I ask your name?"

  "Madhuri Lee. Prosecutor Dennis Lee is my husband. He was my husband, I suppose. I left him."

  "Madhuri is a pretty name. Does it have a special meaning?"

  "It means Sweetness in Sanskrit."

  "Would you tell me where you live in case we have to reach you?"

  "No."

  "Would you give me contact information of any kind?"

  "No."

  "That's alright. I'd like to hear what you have to tell me."

  The young woman talked in a monotone voice, eyes down. She said that she and her husband had had a social relationship of sorts with the judge. One night, her husband had arranged to leave her and her daughter alone in the judge's mansion. She described how the judge had coerced her into having sex with him by threatening to bathe with her daughter.

  "I bathed with him. To save my daughter. It was rape."

  "Yes, it was."

  "You'd do the same. Any mother would."

  "My youngest daughter is almost 9. I would have done the same thing.” (On this, Yolanda was probably lying. She'd have killed the judge and made his body disappear. But few women have Yolanda's background or access to disappearance weaponry.)

  "I knew he wouldn't stop with just the one time and I had nobody I could tell. My husband had turned me into a sex toy. My rapist was a judge; nobody would believe me. I packed everything up, took as much money as I could find, grabbed my daughter, and tried to escape in my husband's copter. I didn't get very far before a bomb blew it up."

  "That's why you're in the wheelchair?"

  "Yes. We had landed in Barrie and I was on the way to a restroom, so the blast partially missed me."

  "Your daughter?"

  "She had run ahead of me. She needed to go more than I did. She's fine."

  "Does she know what happened?"

  "About the judge? No. About her father? No. She only knows that we've had marital problems and are getting divorced. About the bomb that had been planted to kill us? No. She's too young. I'll tell her when she's old enough to understand."

  "What did you do after the bomb destroyed your copter and left you injured?"

  "I contacted a friend in Toronto who came and helped me. We couldn't go to Toronto for medical care, so we went to Winnipeg where I had family. We stayed with them until I could travel. Fortunately, I had been carrying the suitcase with all my money and it wasn't lost. It's been spent now. I'm living off an advance that my friend has given me for a book that I'm writing and her firm is publishing. My daughter doesn't know that I'm broke."

  "Are you safe now?"

  "Yes. We live a long way from Toronto. The copter was completely demolished. The judge probably thinks that we're dead."

  "What do you want from us?"

  "Put the judge and my husband in jail for a very long time."

  "Can you give us any incriminating evidence on your husband?"

  "It wouldn't count. I can't give testimony against him."

  "But perhaps we might be able to charge him without calling you as a witness."

  "That wouldn't make any difference. I know nothing about his work. I thought that I could read criminals but he completely fooled me."

  "How so?"

  "It doesn't matter."

  "Is there anything about the judge's body that is unique?"

  "You mean, is there anything about his body that only a person having sex with him would know? The answer is No. Besides, he'd deny that he had raped me. He'd say that I agreed. My husband would probably tell everybody that I was promiscuous."

  "What can we charge your husband with?"

  "I don't know."

  "Why did you come?"

  "My friend insisted. She came to my house and brought me and my daughter to Toronto after she heard you were looking for information on the judge. She's paying all of our expenses. She said I'd feel better after I told people what had happened to me."

  "Do you?"

  It was only at this point that Madhuri Lee actually looked up. "I'm sure you're very nice Yolanda, but no, I don't feel better. I don't like it that you know what happened to me. I don't like it that the judge and my husband are going to get away with this. The judge has already escaped. I just want to go home."

  "Mrs. Lee, Judge Lewis has not escaped. He's in a copter right now that is taking him to a jail cell. Perhaps what you've told me will help us put him on trial. Would you give evidence at the judge's trial?"

  "No. I can't prove anything I've said, so what would be the point?"

  "Will you at least wait in Toronto until we can collect more evidence? We're still hopeful that we can convict both of them. You could watch the trial."

  "How long would I have to wait?"

  "No longer than a week."

  "OK. I'll stay in Toronto, but no longer than a week. My daughter is missing her boyfriend. She's nagging me all the time to take her home."

  "Do you have a place where we can reach you?"

  "You don't need to know that. Make a public announcement about the trial. I'll be there."

  # # # # # # # #

  Dr. Sandman met Marie and Doc at the front door of an imposing mansion with a view of the expanse of Lake Ontario. "Eldreadth is in the sun room and is expecting guests," Dr. Sandman said. "I said you wanted to talk to her about Foster, but nothing more than that. I'm surprised that she's letting you in."

  He led them through an empty foyer past a grand staircase and into an empty living room. Then, an empty dining room. From there, they walked into a kitchen that at least had a stove, fridge, and sink. The walls were bare as were the counters. "She eats very simply," Doctor Sandman said. "Soup and sandwiches. I don't know if that's by choice or if she simply doesn't know how to cook. I invite her to go out for meals with me and my wife, but she always refuses. I don't believe that she's left the house in years. I arrange for groceries to be delivered. The sunroom is through those doors."

  "Is the entire house just empty space?" Doc asked.

  "Pretty much. She has a basic bedroom with a comfortable bed. The closet and bureaus are only half full. She keeps herself clean and wears fresh clothes daily. She does her own laundry, but ref
uses to go shopping for anything new. Most of the other bedrooms are completely empty. The judge has a bedroom for when he sleeps over."

  "What does she do with herself every day?"

  "She paints. This is a hobby that I've encouraged. In the beginning, her work was full of angry slashes and dark reds and blacks. When she's depressed, the canvasses will be empty spaces with a few dots scattered here and there. Right now she's in a good space, so you'll see some light colours."

  "Landscapes?" Doc asked.

  "I have no idea what she's painting. Abstract art of some kind, I guess. I can read the emotions but nothing else."

  "What does she do with the paintings when she's finished?"

  "She stores them in the basement. There must be hundreds of them. All are in frames and hanging properly. Foster does the framing for her. I haven't seen what she's working on this week. She's very reluctant to let anybody look at her work. If you're able to take a peek, look for reds. Those are bad signs. This is the sunroom."

  The room was aptly named. South facing, it was full of sunlight. Long windows were opened right now letting in a gentle breeze. The furniture consisted mainly of a wooden rocking chair and a lounge chair that was opened to provide a possible bed for napping. Three kitchen chairs were arranged in a semi circle around an easel. They provided an excellent view of the back of whatever Eldreadth was working on. She was standing in front of the easel, a paintbrush in her hand. Doc noticed that she worked in acrylics; they'd dry reasonably quickly. That was about all he knew about art and only because Melissa had told him about the time that she had painted to avoid having to think about Zzyk who had imprisoned her at the time.

  "Eldreadth, these are your visitors."

  "Everybody calls me Doc," Doc said. "I used to be a doctor but I'm retired now and spend my time whittling."

  "My name is Marie," Marie said. Before anybody could stop her, she stood next to Eldreadth and looked at the painting. Eldreadth stepped back from the intrusion in fear, perhaps. "This black splotch here. That's Forest, right?"

  Eldreadth nodded.

  Doc and Sandman angled slightly to the side where they could also see the painting.

  "You've captured him perfectly. He is an ass. Are these your sisters?"

  Eldreadth nodded.

  "You shouldn't blame them. Blame Foster instead." Marie sat down on one of the chairs and saw Doc staring at her. What? You can't see it?

  You can see Foster and his sisters in that painting?

  Nah. I was teasing you. But you gotta know that's what all of her paintings are about. Right? That's all she can think about. I had slave sisters like her. They'd work in the fields, but their minds were always focused on the one thing that haunted them. In their case, it was having their babies snatched away.

  # # # # # # # #

  Doc was into his introduction. Eldreadth had looked at him when he had started, but now she was painting and ignoring him. I'll do this, Marie sent.

  "Eldreadth, we're not here to talk with you about what happened in the past. We know what happened to you and your sisters. We know the kind of life you had growing up and how your brother has controlled you and your sisters since. We know the bad things that you paint about. We don't want you to tell us about those. But for all the terrible things that have happened to you, other women have had a worse life. Let me tell you what happened to me."

  Marie described life on the slave plantation and Eldreadth looked and listened – her paintbrush forgotten, but still in her hand.

  "Talk is cheap," she said when Marie finished. "How do I know that you're not just making those things up?"

  "Marie stood up and lifted her dress up to her chin. Both doctors averted their eyes. But they did see Eldreadth's reaction.

  "Eldreadth, you live a comfortable life here in your prison," Marie continued after letting her dress fall back into place and taking a seat again. "But the only person keeping you in your prison is you. We slaves had an electronic device that would kill us if we tried to escape. The slave owners would leave our bodies on the prairies for coyotes to eat."

  "Yes, you've had a terrible life; but others have had something far worse. You are never too cold and never too hot. You have all the clothes you want. We had only two dresses. We had no underwear – those reduced the slave owners' profits. We wore both of our dresses to bed in the winter and cuddled together under a thin blanket; otherwise, we would have frozen. In the summer time, we worked in the sweltering sun for twelve hours at a time. They only gave us sun hats because too many women were dying of sunstroke."

  "You can eat whatever food you want. We were given food that was not fit for animals. There were times that we'd sneak into the pens holding the hogs and steal their food. You were raped. We were raped and whipped. You lost your child. We lost our children too. But you have a grandson. No slave ever had the chance of having grandchildren. So, stop wallowing like a hog in your misery, get over it, and move on with your life. You're a woman, not a sow."

  "He won't let me see him."

  "See who?"

  "My grandson."

  "We can change that."

  Eldreadth didn't react, so Marie continued.

  "When I was a slave, instead of focusing on what had happened to me, I thought about what I would do the slave owners who had done such terrible things to me. I planned and I planned. Would you like to know what I'm planning to do, Eldreadth?"

  She nodded.

  "I'm going to kill them."

  "Really? How?"

  "Eldreadth, I will chew them into little bits and swallow the bits."

  Here, Eldreadth figured that Marie was using a figure of speech that didn't actually involving chewing and swallowing. The intent was clear. She was planning to kill them. But Marie was speaking literally. She actually was going to take the living bodies of her tormentors, take bites of flesh off them, chew the flesh, and swallow. Hopefully, the slave owners would live through much of her alligator's enjoyment of its appetizer, entree, and dessert.

  Eldreadth looked uncertain.

  "I will kill them, Eldreadth." Marie didn't mention that she'd be dying in the process as she didn't want Eldreadth thinking along those lines.

  "I couldn't kill Foster. He's my brother."

  "How about we make a deal? We'll take care of Foster; you help us. Tell us what you know. Not about your past. We know that already. Tell us what Foster has been doing here since he moved you into this prison."

  "There's not much to say."

  "Tell us whatever you can."

  "What's my grandson like?"

  Doctor Sandman took over. "He's big for his age. He enjoys his life, but Foster keeps him isolated. Nobody shows him any love. He needs somebody to care for him. Somebody like you."

  # # # # # # # #

  Eldreadth talked a lot about her life with Foster that afternoon. He hadn't touched her since giving her the mansion. He'd come by on a semi-regular basis, but only to brag about the person he had just killed. He told her what the person had done, how long he had taken to die, and whether he had won the bet or not. Afterwards, Foster would go up to his bedroom. He'd stay there for a while, even overnight. He'd frame and hang her paintings. He never spoke to Eldreadth again on that visit. She never went into his bedroom. It was always locked. There was much more detail; but that was the gist of the information Doc and Marie would report to the group that evening.

  When Eldreadth had talked herself dry, Marie asked a last question. "When I was planning how to kill my owners, I put a curse on them first. Would you like me to put a curse on your brother?"

  "A curse like, May you rot in Hell?"

  "No, that's too tame. I know a good one." Marie turned to the two doctors. "Guys, you might want to leave. This curse involves some body parts that you might feel protective about."

  ...

  The two doctors stood on the sidewalk, waiting for Marie to finish.

  "Is she for real?"

  "100% genuine." />
  "Is she going to kill the slave owners? Will you let her?"

  "Would you like to be the one standing in her way?"

  At that point, they heard a long chortle echoing out of the empty mansion. It was followed by a higher, softer sound.

  "The first sound was from Marie," Doc said. "I know because the hairs on my arms stood up."

  "I've never heard Eldreadth laugh before," Dr. Sandman admitted.

  Back to the Table of Contents

  Chapter 40

  Monday evening, the full Wilizy family met in the Battle Command Center in the hold of the Wilizy/Asia. Wolf was present, but not Mac. Yollie was taking care of her and little Emily at the home compound. All the other adults, as well as Reese and Winnie were present. Hank and Stu had made it a priority meeting – they were trying to find a way to legally deal with the judge and the prosecutor.

  Stu gave them an update on the interviews. "We finished all of the Blacks today. All have confessed. We have no reason to delay, so they'll be going in front of the Supreme Court justices tomorrow along with the Browns. One justice per trial. They should be finished by the end of the day. I've made it possible for the justices to legally send them into B.C.'s prisons."

  "Only the prosecutor and the judge remain to be processed. Hank and I see no reason to interrogate them. We know they're guilty. We'll put them into a military trial when we've collected enough incriminating evidence. Jock, General Cameron, and Hank will be the presiding judges. We chose to try them in a military court because these two men are experts in Ontario's laws. They won't be familiar with the proceedings of a military court. This will give us an advantage which we may need if our case against the two remains as weak as it is right now. No Black or Brown gave us anything that we could use."

  "I have also created the legal documents that will allow both men to be tried for crimes that they committed before martial law was imposed. All we need to do is find a way to prove that they committed those crimes. Yolanda had an interview this morning with somebody that wants to see both men imprisoned for a long time."

  Yolanda stood up so that people could see her better. "This is the woman that Jock told you about earlier when I was back home. She told me how the judge coerced her into having sex with him – the threat being that he'd assault the daughter if she didn't agree. She told me what had happened and I believed her entirely. I read her as an honest, caring mom. She doesn't see how she can help us. There is no proof that she can offer. She refuses to testify because she sees her evidence as worthless and she would suffer great humiliation by giving it. I agree that she cannot help us. We'd harm her further if we tried to use her incident to attack the judge. I managed to convince her to stay in Toronto until the trial. I'm hoping that we can give her some good news; perhaps give her some treatment for what she has undergone."