Page 34 of Hidden Falls

The girls didn’t want to let go of the bedding to put their hands up, but Marcella, as well as Jenkins, had lived to know about weapons concealed in beds and brought out against law enforcement with deadly results.

“Do what the detective says,” she told the two girls. “If you haven’t done anything, you’ll be fine.”

“We don’t have any clothes on,” one of the girls quavered. A pretty blonde, she couldn’t be more than fifteen years old.

These kids weren’t armed. Marcella would bet her life on it, literally.

She grabbed a couple of terry cloth robes off of the back of the closet door and tossed them to the girls as Jenkins held his weapon ready.

The kids finally let go of the satin sheets, slipped on the robes, and climbed out of the waterbed, putting their hands on top of their heads. The brunette, who appeared even younger, sniffled. “My parents are going to freak.”

“Where is Gary Paulson?” Jenkins barked.

The girls glanced at each other. “I don’t know.” The blonde seemed to be the spokesperson of the two. “We all went to bed together. Alicia and I just woke up when we heard the pounding on the front door.”

“Watch them and I’ll check the rest of the house,” Jenkins told Marcella.

Marcella gestured with her weapon. “Let’s go into the front room. Keep your hands on your heads and sit down on the couch facing the pool.”

The brunette named Alicia began to cry. The blonde put an arm around her in a comforting gesture as they walked to the front room.

Marcella allowed it. She cursed Dr. Gary Paulson mentally with every filthy word she could think of as the two girls seated themselves on the couch facing the pool.

The brunette drew her knees up underneath her robe and wrapped her arms around herself as the blonde pushed her hair back out of her eyes and glared at Marcella defiantly. “Are you gonna call our parents?”

“We need to know where Paulson is first,” Marcella said. “If he’s not in the house, where would he be?”

“He could’ve driven out in one of his cars. But he probably flew out in the chopper,” the blonde said.

Jenkins returned just in time to hear that.

“The house is clear,” he told Marcella. The front door opened with a bang as their backup arrived. Jenkins hurried to brief them.

Marcella turned to the girls. “How old are you?”

“I’m sixteen, she’s fourteen,” the blonde said.

Her heart squeezed as she gazed at the teenagers.

That predator Paulson had been careful with his choices. Fourteen was the age of consent for sex in Hawaii, but a good prosecutor could probably still convict him of statutory rape because of the age difference between him and his victims if they set the case up carefully.

Marcella got the girls’ names and was noting them down when Jenkins returned with a couple of officers. “I think we should have a rape kit done on these girls,” Marcella said to Jenkins, with a meaningful glance.

“We weren’t raped,” the blonde, whose name was Michelle, stated. “He asked us what we had to trade for pills, and . . .” she shrugged. She clearly didn’t want to feel like a victim.

Jenkins picked up where Marcella was going with the situation. “You girls just sit right here. I’ve got a few calls to make, and one of them is for an ambulance to take you to Maui Memorial Hospital to get checked out.”

* * *

Marcella took a deep, restorative breath when she got outside of the building, following Jenkins. “I hate this guy,” she said.

“Me too. Good thing he’s not around or my finger might slip on my weapon and nail him in the kneecaps,” Jenkins said. “I haven’t seen anyone older than sixteen working for him.”

“He’s the worst. Getting all these kids hooked on prescription drugs. Using them for sex and likely to distribute his product in the schools.”

“Yep.” Jenkins glanced behind a hedge. “Check this out.”

Marcella followed.

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