James Conway - In Cold Blonde

She hurried back to the living room; Alice was where she left her. “You want to tell me what happened here?”

Alice stared at Syd in stony silence.

“Look, Alice,” Syd said. “I know what Adam, Colin and Blake did to you. I just came from your parents. I know what they did to you. I understand what you’ve been through. Why you’ve done what you’ve done. And I’d like to help you. But I can’t help you unless you help me help you. So please, tell me what happened tonight.”

Alice could hear the honesty in Syd’s words. She sensed she could trust her. “I could tell you, or you could watch it yourself.”

“What’re you talking about?”

“Blake Hunter wanted to make a documentary. He knocked me out, handcuffed me and was videotaping me when I tried to escape. It’s all on a tape, in my purse.”

Syd grabbed Alice’s purse, pulled out the tape. Then her eyes settled on the DVD case. She took it out, turned it over and saw the handwritten title, High School Pool Party.“Is this what I think it is?”

Alice nodded.

“He was videotaping you watching yourself get raped?” Syd ask, astounded.

“That’s right.”

“Motherfucker.”

“You should watch the rape, too. But start with the other one.”

Alice showed Syd where the camera was in the office. Syd loaded the digital tape.

“You’ll have to watch it on the camera’s monitor,” Alice said.

Syd flipped open the monitor, it was a small screen, maybe six inches wide, certainly big enough to watch the video.

“It’s cued up,” Alice said. “Just hit Play.”

Syd did.

The angle is over Blake’s shoulder to a handcuffed and bound Alice. She says, “Fuck you.”

“That’s more like it,” Blake says then walks towards her on his way to the door. Alice suddenly kicks Blake in the back of the knee, he falls down.

“Bitch,” he says as he tries to get to his feet. But the Lady in Red has dragged her feet toward his head and she kicks him in the head. His head hits the wall with a crack.

“Cunt,” he says as she kicks him again and again. Finally his body has gone limp and she stops kicking.

The Lady in Red crawls over him, flips onto her back and fishes the handcuff keys out of his pocket. She unlocks the handcuffs and tosses them away, then quickly unties her feet and hustles out of the room.

“I ran into the living room to get my gun out of my purse.”

Blake stirs, leaps up and dashes into the kitchen.

“But Blake had obviously found it earlier and hid it so I took the only weapon I had, the scalpel.”

The kitchen is visible through the office doorway. Blake re-enters frame, pulls open a drawer, takes out a gun, aims and fires.

“He hit me in the shoulder, but I went down like he’d killed me and played dead,” Alice said.

Blake stands there a moment, trying to decide what to do. He aims off screen, seems about to pull the trigger then reconsiders and walks out of frame.

“Fuck,” Alice said. “He was about to shoot me from the kitchen.”

“Thank God he changed his mind,” Syd said, completely wrapped up in the video.

Syd’s sympathy caught Alice by surprise. Just who the hell was this cop?

There’s a scream from off camera and three quick shots, a loud THUD and the gun slid into the right side of the frame.

“When he got close to me, I slashed his ankle with my scalpel. I cut him and he went down. I jumped on him slashing his face, but he shoved me off.”

A bloody Blake pulls himself into frame and reaches for the gun. Alice suddenly appears and jabs the scalpel through the back of Blake’s hand. He screams in agony as she picks up the gun.

He looked at her, terrified. “Don’t shoot. I know people. I can help you get away, out of the country with a new identity and plenty of money. Just please, don’t shoot.”

Alice slowly lowers the gun, Blake looks surprised, pleased; then she quickly raises the gun and fires.

Blake Hunter’s head jerks once then drops to the floor.

Syd hit the stop button, looked at Alice. “You’re lucky to be alive.”

“I’d be luckier if you weren’t here.”

Syd turned off the video camera. Her eyes fell on the DVD. She picked it up. “You sure you don’t mind if I watch this?”

Alice was surprised by the compassion in Syd’s voice. She really didn’t want to see it herself again, but she wanted this cop, this woman, to understand exactly what happened to her. “I don’t mind,” she said. “In fact, you need to see it.”

Alice pointed out the DVD player, Syd loaded the disk.

“You know,” Alice said. “Every time I watch this DVD I’m in handcuffs. Kind of ironic, don’t you think?”

Syd smiled cheerlessly. “Yeah.” Syd picked up the remote control and hit Play.

A hand held camera sweeps across Colin Wood’s game room and comes to rest on an unconscious Alice Waterman. Adam and Colin kneel next to her. “Fuck, that shit works fast,” Colin says. “Help me get her on the pool table, Adam.”

They pick her off the floor and lay her on the pool table. Colin holds her neck but he lets go too soon and her head thuds on the table.

“Careful,” Adam says, looking very uncomfortable. He looks directly into the lens. “You sure taping this is a good idea, Blake?”

“It’s a brilliant idea, bro. When we’re old and gray and snorting Viagra, we’re going to cherish the chance to relive our glory days.”

And that’s when Syd’s phone rang. She hit Pause.

“You going to get that?” Alice asked.

“No,” Syd said after fishing out her cell phone and checking the Caller ID. “He can leave a message.” Syd turned off her phone and looked back at the screen. She hit Play.

“Get her clothes off,” Blake says from behind the camera. Colin pulls off her sandals as Adam peels off her tank top.

“How convenient,” Blake says, zooming into a close up of Alice’s bra. “It unhooks from the front. She was making things easy for you, Adam. She wanted you to suck her titties.”

Blake zooms out as Adam says, “Shut up.” He unhooks the bra then lifts her back up a bit and slips it off.

“Nice,” Colin says cradling her breasts in his hands. He sucks on her left nipple. “Hey, she put some perfume on her tits.” Colin looks at Adam. “She went all porn star for you, buddy.”

Adam leans down, sniffs her right breast. “Wow,” he says surprised. Then he looks at her face. Blake follows his look with the camera and zooms in on Alice’s face. Her eyes are at half-mast and her mouth gaps open. She looks drunk.

“She looks bad, man,” Blake says. “Maybe we should stick her head in a bag,” Blake says. He zooms out, pans to Adam.

“You are such an asshole,” Adam says, but he’s smiling as he says it.

“Bet she doused her pussy, too,” Blake says. “Colin, get her panties off.”

Blake pans to Colin as he unzips her jeans and pulls them off revealing black boyshort panties. Blake zooms in, black curly pubic hairs stick out from the sides of the panties. Colin peels off the panties revealing a thick black patch of hair trimmed into a triangle. Colin leans down and smells it. “Yep, perfumed for your dining pleasure.” He takes another sniff. “I think its ode de lick-my-clit.”

“Dive in,” Blake says.

Colin spreads her legs and nestles his face between Alice’s legs. His hands massage her breasts as he gives her head.

Alice stirs beneath him. Moans. Blake zooms in on her face as she mutters, “Oh, Adam…”

“She’s got it bad for you, Adam,” Blake says. “Least you could you do is kiss her.”

Blake pans to Adam who was staring into the lens. He looks unhappy. “Fuck you, Blake,” Adam says.