Penitence 2

Melissa felt as if she was recovering from a bender when she heard the knock at her door. It took her a few seconds to realize where she was, and she shouted »Un momento!« whilst staggering into the bathroom. Was »Un momento« even Portuguese? Well, whoever was ripping her from her sleep, he would have to wait.

She washed her face, her image in the mirror telling her that she had seen better days. Her makeup bag was still in her unpacked bag, and Melissa decided that she would confront the visitor with her ugliness.

»At least, he saved me from my dreams!«

In her sleep, Melissa had reived her captivity, being naked, bound and gagged, with the two men spanking her breasts with their martinets, whilst the woman had-

She shuddered and took a few deep breaths before she opened the door. Her eyes fell on a woman with her black curls in a bun, slightly smaller than her. She sported a blue uniform blouse, and she showed a broad smile.

»Olá! I am Constable Gabriela Mineiros! You are Melissa Bauer?«

Melissa nodded and stepped back, allowing the woman to enter.

»The Department sent me to take care of you!«, she explained, and Melissa noticed she spoke German, fluent, but with a noticeable accent. She forced herself to pull herself together.

»So, will you just take my report, or will there also be a confrontation?«

She tried to prepare herself for seeing her captors again, especially Karim whom she had considered a friend. The man who had massaged her, and who-

Gabriela rose an eyebrow.

»According to the Sergente, we are busy in categorizing the evidence we already have, and there will be an official meeting with the judge by tomorrow! Today, I shall just help you accommodate! If you like, I can show you the highlights of Porto!«

Melissa focussed the Portuguese Policewoman.

»There was a case of White Slavery, with one of the victims still missing, and one of the suspects still on the run – and you want me to do some sightseeing?«

She had raised her voice a little, and now, she could literally see the little cogs in Gabriela’s brain rotating.

»The Commissioner thinks you might need some time to – settle down!«

»Does he think I am hysteric?«, Melissa snapped, and Gabriela chuckled.

»50 years ago, Portugal overcame being a dictatorship, but we are still far away from being a feminist Utopia!«

Melissa, who knew a thing or two about such superiors, also smiled.

»So, instead of participating in the investigation, you are assigned to hold my hands and show me the Cathedral and the shopping mall!«

»They said that because I speak German, I would be best for taking care of you! Tourist guide, babysitter, you name it«

Gabriela showed her bitterness for getting a nanny’s job, and Melissa’s smile turned sardonic as she focussed Gabriela:

»Well, Officer Gaby, you could start your valuable work by getting me to a place where they serve an excellent coffee!«

She seemed to have found the right words, for Gabriela giggled before she mockingly stood straight and saluted.

»Your wish is my order, Officer Melissa!«

***

The questioning of her skills was short and casual, though it didn’t help much in raising Johanna’s value. Tiago asked whether she could play any instruments, adding a marble to the negative side when she denied. He then came to her dancing skills and played some Waltz and Foxtrot tunes, ordering her to dance to the melody. Johanna, being stark naked and embarrassed, failed in showing that actually, she was a capable dancer, reducing her price for another 10.000.

»How about cooking?«

It sounded as if he wanted to see if she had at least one skill. He asked for some dishes, and Johanna could more or less tell him how they were made, causing Tiago to mark »neutral«. As if to cheer her up, he then said:

»Let’s get to Sports! If you like, you may put on the panties!«

Said panties had been worn by Yema before she had been gagged with them, and Johanna wasn’t thrilled to wear them. However, when she saw Joao place a camera on a tripod, she hurried to slide them up her legs. The cotton was still damp, and since the Chinese had been very petite, they were too tight and barely covered her thatch of pubic hair. Between her buttocks, they felt like a thong. Yet, even those were better than being stark naked.

Joao positioned himself behind the camera, and Tiago ordered:

»Let’s start with a warm-up! I think, a few Jumping Jacks, followed by some stretching, will get you ready for the jumping rope!«

***

The borrowed jacket hiding his dirty clothes, Sato had been able to enter a cheap department store where he bought three sets of clothes and underwear, a gym bag and some toiletries. He changed in a public bathroom and decided to leave both the little moped and the jacket behind; perhaps, the thugs would be lucky and find them.

At a café, he put his SIM card into the phone he had taken from the third gangster, and whilst he added a charging cable to his to-buy-list, he checked the news about the kidnapping that had reached the news so far. There was nothing but a short notice, but at least, it seemed they were not looking after him.

He checked his business mail account, finding a new message from Mr. Conradi:

»Ataru, to get you from the search list, I had to tell them the truth! So, you are not facing arrest, but the Police knows you are in town and what you have in mind! Good luck, nevertheless! At least, your bank account hasn’t been blocked!«

Sato checked his account, seeing that since he had last been there the day before, a plus of 50.000 Euros had appeared on it. In his mind, he bowed to his superior. Then, he looked outside, seeing a Police car not too far away.

»All right, I am still a free man, and I have money! So, all I have to do is finding a point to start from – and not getting caught in the progress!«

***

The café had small seating niches, allowing some privacy, and once the waitress had withdrawn after bringing their coffee, Gabriela bent forward and whispered:

»There’s already a development in our case!«

Obviously, them both being considered too weak to be real Policewomen by her superior helped her to bond with Melissa.

»The man on the run, this Andreas-«

»Holm«, Melissa finished. Gabriela reported that said man had been found by two workers in the early morning, staggering around beside a warehouse. The had called an ambulance, and he had been brought to a hospital where an Officer was now guarding his room.

»The doctors say he has got a concussion from a heavy blow to the head – seems as if his ›business partners‹ ripped him off!«

The energy running through Melissa’s veins wasn’t from the coffee. She was haunted by the memories of what the kidnappers had done to her – but first of all, she was haunted by the fact she hadn’t been able to rescue Johanna, too. And here, she saw a straw she could grab!

»Where’s this hospital?«

Gabriela frowned.

»What do you have in mind?«

Melissa grabbed her arm, and her eyes sparkled.

»What do you prefer – showing the famous places to a poor victim – or doing some real investigation, together with a fellow Policewoman?«

***

Johanna wheezed, and when Tiago offered her another bottle of water, she greedily drank. She felt exhausted, nit only from the physical strain, but also from embarrassment.

The exercises had been picked quite randomly by Tiago, and they all had only one thing in common: to force Johanna to present her boobs and to juggle them in front of the camera. After some hopping and stretching, she had been told to jump the line, and Johanna would have paid a fortune for a sports bra, not only for covering, but for support.

The trampoline had been equally bad, as had the Hula hoop. Now, covered with sweat and obsessed with the urge to hide inside a deep cave, Johanna heard Tiago say:

»Stand up straight!«

She squealed as he emphasized his words with a slap to her thigh, and she obeyed.

»Now, place your hands under your boobs and lift them a bit!«

Though he had seen her in the nude for quite some time now, Johanna reddened when she did as she was told. Tiago grinned:

»You really should thank these two! Your general fitness is, well, less than impressive – but the way your boobies bounced raised your value up to 150 Grand again!«

Johanna sank to the ground, burying her face in her hands. Tiago patted her head, and almost friendly, he said:

»Come on, the last task is less straining! Though it is about sex, you just will have to talk about it! Joao, Vasco and I will not fuck you – unless we don’t find a buyer!«

If this was meant as a solace, it didn’t feel that way to Johanna.

»All you have to do is look at the camera, show your prettiest smile, and to describe what’s your favourite position – and what you will do to please a man! Just go a bit into details and be – descriptive!«

He grinned lewdly. Johanna came to her feet, her expression suddenly determined. She brushed the sand from her body, put on her glasses and faced the camera.

»Let’s get this done!«

Focussing the lens, she folded her arms in front of her chest.

»My name is Johanna Müller, aka Joanne von Gröbern! I have been kidnapped by three men I only know as Tiago, Joao and-«

Joao stopped the filming, and Tiago slowly shook his head.

»Still defiant, hm?«

Johanna looked at him, and though her lips trembled, she managed to sound steady:

»I may have the body of a weak woman – but my heart is stronger!«

She even smiled when she added:

»It sounded better when Queen Elisabeth I. said it, but I am meaning the same!«

Tiago also smiled.

»Queen Elisabeth I., hm? Seems Your Highness needs a throne!«

He added a command in Portuguese, and Joao came forward. Each grabbed one of Johanna’s arms, and she was led into the middle of the yard where a strange contraption was waiting: two vertical poles, some four yards away from each other. Between them, two wooden bars were nailed, one about two feet in height, the other some two feet above.

Johanna was forced to sit on the lower bar and to shuffle back, until the backs of her knees touched the wood. Then, the men bent her arms over the upper bar. Joao fixed a padded cuff around Johanna’s right wrist and pulled it down, at the same time grabbing her left ankle, raising it from the ground. He cuffed that, too, before the process was repeated to her right ankle and left wrist. Johanna was now tied in a sitting hogtie, forced to either hang from her strained shoulders, or to crouch in a way that made her thrust out her boobs like a ship’s figurehead. The position felt inconvenient immediately, and soon, it would become painful.

Johanna gasped when the pressure on her armpits ceased; it was because Joao had grabbed the waistband of her panties and was pulling them upwards. The gasp turned into a painful groan when the fabric was pulled between her legs and her weight rested on the taut piece of cotton trying to bisect her. Then, the seams tore, and Johanna sank back – only to whimper again when the bar pressed against her armpits.

Joao stuffed the torn panties deep into her mouth, and Johanna retched, as her doing sports whilst wearing them hadn’t improved their taste. The gag was secured with a leather pad that also cupped her chin and was buckled at her nape.

»When this place was still used as a prison, prisoners sometimes had to stay like this for 24 hours, exposed to the elements!«, Tiago explained. He grabbed Johanna’s scalp. Forcing her to look at his grinning face.

»Of course, we are not that uncivilized! So, each hour, we will ask you whether you will do as we told you and give us the interview! And we will even take care you don’t get a sunburn!«

Joao presented her a large bottle of sun oil, and then, the two men gleefully began to cream her entire body.

***

Though he wasn’t actually wanted, Sato decided it would be best for him to stay below the radar and to blend in. Since he had some difficulties in disguising as a Portuguese, he chose the opposite way and did the cliché Japanese: with his new riches, he bought a brightly coloured shirt and a cloth hat, together with a large old-fashioned camera that made him look like anyone imagined a Japanese tourist.

Now, he had to make his first steps in finding Johanna’s kidnappers. He knew no one in Porto, and whilst he was fluent in Japanese, English and German, he only spoke five words in Portuguese: »Hello«, »Please«, »Thank You« and »Yes« and »No«. He considered these words as sufficient for a short time visitor, and so, he usually only learned these whenever he visited a country whose language he didn’t speak. However, they were not sufficient for trying to get in contact with the local criminals, to find out about the bigger fishes.

»Anyway, I need a place where I can stay for a few nights!«

Seeing no point in being picky, he went into the next hotel that didn’t look too expensive. The clerk spoke good English; he was, however, sorry to tell Sato that the hotel was full. For a moment, he considered offering the man 1.000 a night, but that would have made him suspicious. Instead, Sato started lamenting in Japanese and pretended he only spoke little English. He hoped that the man would be so annoyed he would find him a room, and indeed, another clerk finally intervened and told him that they had one room left. Sato guessed that they were ripping him, but the price still was moderate, and though the room was small, looked at a brick wall and had a defunct air condition, it would be okay for one or two nights.

Sato quickly stowed his new clothes, took a shower and left. In the stuffy room, he had difficulties in thinking, and he had to work out a stratagem. So, he withdrew into a corner of the lobby that at least offered a fan. Then, he frowned. Quickly, he grabbed a magazine to hide behind it.

In the lobby stood Babette Martens  – Mr. Conradi’s secretary who had betrayed her boss by spying on him. After he had caught her in the act, thins had gotten messed up, and in his search for Johanna, he had completely forgotten about her.

Obviously, she had gotten out of the affair quite well, for she not only looked good, but she also seemed to have enough money to check in. To her, the clerk who looked at her ample cleavage was much friendlier, and though he also overcharged her, he immediately offered her a nice room on the second floor, showing to the harbour.

Sato balled his fist. Not only had Babette betrayed Mr. Conradi, she had also been the reason he had not been with Johanna when she had been abducted. So, in a way, she also was guilty of what had happened!

He tried to oppress the thought, as it distracted him from his plans of what to do next, but somehow, the two thoughts got entangled more and more.

***

Gabriela saw her reflexion in the glass door, and she still felt a little awkward about the effect a few little changes had made. She still wore her uniform, but she had tightened her belt and opened the las two buttons of her blouse, allowing a glimpse at the lacy straps of her bra. In addition, Gabriela now wore her hair open, and she had refreshed her makeup, using a little more lipstick than usual.

»You look beautiful!«, Melissa had assured her. Gabriela was a bit shy, but that wasn’t the main reason she flet awkward. Her heart bumped because she was assisting in something that was in the grey area between legal and illegal, and maybe rather on the darker side. At least, she would be reprimanded if the Commissioner found out.

She took a deep breath and attended the corridor where Andreas Holm had his room. In the corridor, a uniformed man sat on a chair and was doing a crossword or Sudoku. Gabriela knew him from seeing, and she forced a smile on her lips.

»Oh, Olá, Francisco!«

The Policeman looked up, smiled when he recognized her – and then let his eyes wander over her.

»Olá! Is it you, Gaby, or has an angel come down to Earth?«

She smiled and blushed slightly. Gabriela knew she was pretty, and some of her colleagues flirted with her, though none ever went too far. She looked over the man’s shoulder; from behind, she could see Melissa approach, wearing a nurse’s frock. So, she had managed to get a disguise.

»Now, have you finally decided to accept my invitation to go to the new club, Gaby?«

»Actually, I thought that Cristiano was here!«

Francisco scoffed. Cristiano was Gabriela’s Grand-Cousin, a colleague of the two of them. Gabriela saw Melissa stand beside the door of the patient’s room, and she bent forward, knowing that now, Francisco would get more than just a glimpse of her bra. She pointed at the crossword.

»That word is wrong!«

»Where?«

As she had hoped, Francisco bent over the magazine, too. In the corner of her eye, Gabriela saw Melissa slip into the room.

»Eight horizontal, the European capital! It can’t be ›Vienna‹, for it is spelled with a double n!«

Melissa closed the door behind her and let out a fluttering breath. It hadn’t been too difficult to sneak at the corridor, and stealing an abandoned nurse’s outfit had also not been a problem. However, since she had taken it and walked towards Andreas’ room, she had always feared that someone would ask her who she was, exposing her cover.

Inside the bed, Andreas looked barely recognizable, with the thick bandage around his head. He was obviously sleeping, and she hoped that they hadn’t given him too many painkillers. On the other hand, it was necessary for her plan that he was still a bit dizzy.

She put the COVID mask over her face and stepped beside the bed.

»Andreas«, she purred, »Andreas, are you awake?«

The man blinked and turned his head a little, grunting something unintelligible. Melissa spoke in the same soothing tone:

»Andreas, how are you feeling now?«

»My – my skull-«

»You will soon be better! Dr. Ronaldo is a luminary!«

She had quickly improvised with the first Portuguese name that came to her mind, but Andreas didn’t seem to notice – nor the fact that she was speaking German.

»These ba-bastards!«

His hand slipped from under the sheet. The last time she had seen it, it had held a Martinet, and he had whipped her naked breast. Now, with an infusion needle, it looked less vicious. Melissa forced herself to pat the hand.

»When the Police gets these bastards, they will end up behind bars for a long time! Could you see who did this to you?«

Andreas squeezed his eyes shut.

»Ka-Karim!«, he spat, and Melissa rolled her eyes.

»Karim is in jail!«, she informed him, trying to still sound calm. Andreas opened his eyes and tried to sit up, but sank back onto his mattress, panting from the effort. Staring at the ceiling, he stammered:

»Karim said – okay! Partners! Ti-Tiago and Joao! Ba-Bastards!«

»Tiago and Joao? Are these their names?«

However, Andreas had closed his eyes again, and Melissa decided she had overstayed her welcome as well. So, she stepped onto the corridor. The Policeman stared at her, obviously wondering how she had managed to get inside. Before he could say something, Melissa put her index finger on her lips and whispered, hoping that her low voice would conceal her accent:

»Shh! The patient’s sleeping!«

She left before the man could ask any more questions. Behind the corner, she slipped into a toilet and locked the door before she sat down on the seat.

»Joao and Tiago! That’s not much, but it is a start! Let’s hope that these names ring a bell in Gaby’s mind!«

***

Babette felt the urge to shower after the prolonged chat with her superior at the Financial Department. She had sadly reported that she had not been able to find evidence of irregularities in Martin Conradi’s business and therefore had withdrawn from the operation, as there was no need to further waste time and money on her doing a cruise ship tour.

»I will stay in Porto for one or two days, and then, I will return! Sorry, I did my best, but the worst I can tell is that he really is after his employees!«

»As long as he didn’t cross any red lines, we can’t nail him for that! Well, thanks for your work, Miss Martens! Have a nice time in Porto!«

Her superior had been friendly, because her expenses had been paid by her salary she had received from Conradi. Babette stared at the now black screen.

Conradi had not put his hands on her, but he had crossed other lines. The problem was that one of these lines was blackmailing, and once she spilled the beans about him, he would publish the pictures of her in the nude. She would have loved to see Conradi behind bars, but as he had promised, no matter how the process would end, he would take her down with him. And Babette was not willing to go that far.

She stripped and watched herself in the bathroom mirror. Except for a few vanishing rope marks, her adventure had left no physical traces. No sign of her getting bound and gagged three times, once even tortured by Conradi’s wife. No sign of what she and John had done.

Babette stepped into the shower and turned on the water. John! She had believed that he had been on her side, had ended in bed with him – and in the end, he had also betrayed her. Despite the hot water pouring down on her, she shivered from the memory when John had slept with her the last time – how he had removed her silk blindfold when she had been in the throes of passion, only for her to see that Davenport had been in the room, too.

»You are not dumb, just a little naïve, Babsi!«, had been his last words to her, and Babette had to agree he had been right. Partially, it was her fault that now, both Davenport and Conradi would stay unmolested by the Police.

»Now«, she decided after her shower, »let’s find out whether I am also too naïve to have a little fun and to forget about this whole mess, at least until tomorrow at noon!«

***

In the toilet, Melissa had taken off the nurse’s frock and luckily reached the street unseen. At the parking lot, she could see Gabriela, her hair in a bun again, and her blouse buttons closed. She seemed nervous, and she was smoking a cigarette. Feeling a little full of beans, Melissa silently approached her from behind.

»Does your mother know you are smoking, Missy?«

Gabriela shrieked and kicked out the cigarette. Then, she spun around and seemed uncertain whether she should be angry or amused.

»If you continue like that, I don’t need nicotine to get a heart attack!«

She giggled and shook her head over her own nervosity.

»I hope you found out something! Francisco now knows my bra better than I do, and he asked me for a date twice!«

»I could only see the back of his head, but he looks quite handsome!«

Gabriela rolled her eyes.

»He’s a Benfica-fan!«

Melissa knew little about Portuguese football teams, but obviously, this was a dealbreaker for Gabriela. So, she reported to her the two names Andreas had spilled. The young Portuguese frowned:

»That doesn’t really narrow it down! Both Tiago and Joao are very common names! Just in my class alone was one Joao and two Tiagos!«

Melissa couldn’t hide her disappointment, and Gabriela patted her arm.

»However, not all Joaos and Tiagos are living in Porto, and even less are in our Police computer! Let’s go!«

To Melissa’s slight disappointment, Gabriela dropped her at her hotel instead of taking her with her on her way to the Police Department. On the way, she explained:

»Officially, we haven’t heard these names at all! However, if I return to the Department and tell them that you were no longer interested in sightseeing, no one can forbid me to rummage through our files of suspects! There will be dozens of Tiagos and Joaos, if not hundreds – but maybe, I am lucky and find something! How about dinner at nine?«

Melissa had to remember that 9pm was even a bit early for a Portuguese dinner, and she agreed, though she feared she would count the minutes until she would hear whether Gabriela had found something.

In her car, Gabriela let out a deep sigh. It wasn’t the fact she had been involved in what could be called an illegal interrogation – after all, it had all gone well. However, the two names had rung a bell in her head.

She had told the truth about the names being common – but human trafficking wasn’t petty crime, and whilst there were maybe hundreds of Joaos or Tiagos convicted of cracking cigarette automats or stealing wallets, there was one Tiago in particular she had heard of once too often.

The problem was that she had heard of him in combination with a Joao she knew not just from hearing, but whom she had also seen and spoken to before!

***

Bent forward, Johanna rather hung from the upper bar than she was sitting on the lower one. She was looking at the sand in front of her, where sweat from her forehead and drool from her gagged mouth had darkened the ground, though the sun prevented the liquids from forming a puddle.

She knew that she was suffering for just an hour now, for Tiago had just approached her, asking her whether she was now willing to do the »interview«. Johanna had been able to shake her head, but she was not sure whether her reaction would be the same after another 60 minutes on this torture rack from hell.

Her shoulders and armpits hurt, and her butt felt sore from sitting on the inconvenient bar. Despite the sun oil, she felt the sun burn down on her naked skin, and she knew she would soon be dehydrated just from sweating so profusely. Also, the position made breathing a bit difficult: not much, but it reminded Johanna of a documentation over crucifixions she had once seen, and the indistinct panic made her breath accelerate.

»Why am I doing this? They have seen me naked already, they have touched me everywhere, and once they have sold me, whoever pays will do much worse!«

She was determined to defend this last remnant of dignity, but she knew that she was fighting a lost cause. Johanna raised her head and blinked to the shadow where Joao was leaning against the wall, sipping from a Coke. He caught her view and toasted mockingly. Johanna lowered her head, unable to reply something, except for some muffled grunts.

Tiago was somewhere where she couldn’t see him, but then, she suddenly heard steps from behind. The man approached Joao and she could hear them talk in Portuguese. After a while, Joao ascended the tower, most likely to tell the man Tiago had referred to as Vasco about what they had just discussed. Tiago fished another Coke can from the ice box and approached Johanna. She groaned when he held the cold can against her heated temple.

»Whilst you were sunbathing, I did some work and offered the pictures of you on a special site! And it seems that you already drew some attention! We will of course not accept the first bid – but maybe, you won’t have to spend too much time with us in the future!«

***