No one else jumps out, which just goes to show how very comfortable my uncle has made himself. My boots make a thumping sound as I move toward the entertainment room. The loud music covers my entrance, though, and Uncle Jim doesn’t even register my arrival. Birdie’s eyes flare wide when she spots me. What are you doing? her face says.
I give her a half-smile to let her know I have it under control. I don’t, of course. My initial plan was to sneak in and take the files I needed, but Birdie’s presence required a more direct approach. Although…I jerk my head toward the exit. Birdie catches on immediately. She’ll go and get the files while I distract my uncle. I clear my throat. Still, no one pays attention to me. Everyone’s eyes are locked on the gyrating bodies in front of them. Up close, I realize that these men are half of the board. I draw a hand over my mouth when the import of this sets in. I could bring a written confession by Uncle Jim and they wouldn’t vote him out. Not when he’s hosting these kinds of parties. I check out the girls again and that’s when it hits me. They really are girls. Under the caked-on makeup and the glazed eyes, these females are young. Way too young to be doing this shit.
I turn toward the wall controls to put an end to this when I notice a red flashing light in the ceiling. Of course my uncle would be recording this. He’d want to be able to blackmail all these men.
I step back into the hallway and then take off toward the den. I run into Birdie.
“I can’t find your dad’s study. Why is this place so huge? I thought there were only three of you!”
“Everyone needs their own space, little bird.” I brush the hair away from her face. “Look, my uncle’s recording this so forget the files in my dad’s office. All I need is the tape. There’s a server room right there.” I drag Birdie down until we reach a panel.
“Right where? This is a wall.”
“It’s a door.” I push on the latch and the whole panel pops open.
“Wow. This place is fancy.” She ducks inside the dark room. I follow her in and shut the door behind me. “What is all this stuff?”
“Movie projector. Audio system. Internet routers. Typical home entertainment stuff. I set this up for my parents,” I explain as I tap on the computer screen and enter my credentials. “Had to leave a back door for myself in case my old man screwed something up. He was always jacking his electronics, locking himself out of shit. He’d call me at midnight and ask me how to unlock his phone.” My throat grows tight at the memory and I pause in mid-click. Birdie’s hand falls on my shoulder.
“That sucks.”
I huff out a laugh. “Yeah, it does.” I’m not alone anymore, I remind myself. I have Birdie. We’re going to get through this together. It takes me about ten minutes of exploring the house’s network system, but I find the security files of the entertainment room. They aren’t even password protected. Uncle Jim believed he had no one to be afraid of once I left town. “Maybe you should look away,” I suggest before I hit play on one of the videos.
“No. No matter how disgusting it is, it’d be better if I watched it than you.”
“That’s debatable.”
Birdie puts her hand over mine. “No. I’m serious. You’re a man and it would be revictimizing these girls to have a man watch them go through whatever it is that your uncle put them through. Let me do it. I’m only going to watch enough so that we can be sure it’ll put your uncle behind bars.”
I still hesitate, not wanting Birdie to see this shit. She moves the mouse from under my hand. “Trust me,” she says quietly.
I guess this is what it means to have a partner in life. I nod and get out of the chair. Birdie sits down quickly. I hear a click and then stripper music fills the air, much like what is playing down the hall. Birdie’s breathing quickens and I can tell whatever she’s watching isn’t good. I hear another click. “How do you copy this?”
“We’ll take the whole hard drive.” I walk over to the server and unplug the drive from the unit. There are several backups and I take those, too. “Put these in the car.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Shut down that damn party.”
I make sure Birdie gets to the door before returning to the entertainment center. The party is still in high gear with the music blaring. Everyone is still there but there are now drugs being passed around. I take a couple pictures with my phone before cutting the music and firing up all the lights. Everyone stops and for a moment it looks like some weird, adult version of freeze tag. I jerk my head in the direction of the girls to get out. Some of them don’t move right away, but the others that are still conscious take the incapacitated ones by the shoulders and begin to shuffle toward the door. A huffing Birdie appears behind me.