Sisters

“You let us in,” she said as she hurried down a hall. He acted as though Tammy and Sabrina didn't exist, as Chris watched him closely, and he started to run after Marlene. It was too late. She had opened the door to the bedroom, guessing accurately where it was, and found Candy unconscious, with tape over her mouth, and her arms and legs tied to a four-poster bed with rope. She looked dead. And Marcello looked totally panicked as the others followed Marlene into the room. Candy was naked and unconscious, and parts of her body were severely bruised, her legs spread wide. Both of her sisters screamed, and Chris grabbed Marcello and slammed him up against the wall.

“You sonofabitch,” he said through clenched teeth, shoving him hard. “I swear if you killed her, I'll kill you.” Sabrina was sobbing as she helped Marlene untie her. Candy showed no sign of regaining consciousness, as Tammy dialed 911 with shaking hands and tried to describe what they'd found. She could hardly breathe. Marlene had checked the pulse in Candy's neck, and she was alive. Her head dropped down on her chest as they untied her and covered her with a sheet. The ambulance said they'd be there in five minutes.

“Call the cops,” Chris said to Tammy, as he held Marcello in a death-grip against the wall.

“They're coming with the ambulance,” Tammy said in a choked voice. Candy still looked dead, and Marlene said softly that Candy had been drugged. He might have killed her eventually, but he hadn't yet.

As though to reassure them, but it didn't, Marlene said, “The last one looked worse than this. He beat her up.” They could hear sirens by then, and a moment later police and paramedics were in the room. They checked Candy, started an IV, put an oxygen mask on her, put her on a gurney, and left the room with her sisters hard on their heels, while the police put handcuffs on Marcello, and Marlene and Chris described the scene they'd found. They left the apartment, with Marlene and Chris bringing up the rear. He said in a subdued voice that he had had no idea they would find this. She hoped they wouldn't but was afraid they might.

The girls had already left in the ambulance, as Marcello was put in a squad car and driven away. They had taken her to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, and Marlene and Chris hailed a cab to join the others there.

The scene at the hospital was grim—gunshot wounds, two stabbings, a man who had just died from a heart attack. They rushed Candy into the trauma unit, while the others waited. After what they'd been through that summer with their mother and Annie, this was a painful déjà vu for Tammy and Sabrina.

But this time when the doctor came out to talk to them, the news was better than they'd feared, although it wasn't good. As they could well imagine, she had been raped. Her bruises were superficial, nothing was broken, and she had been heavily drugged. They said it would take another twenty-four hours for her to come around, and then they could take her home. They had taken photographs of all her bruises for the police files. But they said there would be no lasting physical damage, only the emotional trauma she had sustained, which was undoubtedly considerable. The only good news was that the doctor assumed she had been unconscious for most of what had been done to her, so she would have no memory of it, which was a mercy.

Both of her sisters were in tears as they listened, as was Marlene, and Chris looked murderous. He wanted to kill Marcello for doing something like this to a nice kid like Candy.

“You have no idea how many models this happens to,” Marlene said grimly. “Usually it's the really young ones who don't know how to protect themselves.”

“Candy thought he was a great guy,” Tammy said, wiping her eyes. The police had told her they would talk to all of them in the morning. Tammy volunteered to stay with her, so Chris and Sabrina could go home to Annie, and Marlene wanted to be there too. Tammy said it wasn't necessary, but the older woman insisted, and they sat on either side of Candy's bedside all night, talking softly of the evils of the world as Candy slept.

It was ten the next morning before Candy stirred. She had no idea where she was or what had happened. All she knew was that every inch of her hurt, especially “down there,” as she said. “Where's Marcello?” she asked as she looked around. The last thing she remembered was having dinner with him in his apartment, before they were supposed to go to the party. He had put whatever he'd given her in her food.

“In jail, where he belongs,” Marlene answered, and then gently stroked her hair. She left the hospital a few minutes later, looking tired and depressed, but relieved that Candy was okay.