Acapulco Anniversary

"I can't go back to them."
"Why not? Don't they still love you?"
"That's a long story, Bobby and I don't want to tell it standing here in the airport."
"Call me Bob or Robert, but don't call me Bobby, that's the cocksucker name he gave me. Where are you staying tonight?"
"Right here in airport I guess. I don't even have bus fare to get out of here. They dropped me off at the airport with only the plane ticket and what I am wearing."

I took her home with me and we didn't talk much in the car. My mind was filled with the thoughts of how much my life had just changed. My wife didn't love me any more and she had changed so much I wasn't even sure I wanted her back. She had exhibited such an infatuation for Steve and had goaded me into doing things I never would have done on my own. I didn't even know if I could ever live with her again. When we got home I scraped together some dinner for us and as we sat with our coffee I said,
"Can you tell me your story now? Maybe it will help me understand what happened to me."
"I think it will help you understand but I don't think it will help you do anything about it."
"Tell me anyway."
"I was married seven years ago to Joe Mantegna, I have known him all of my life. Our families are in the family business together. We have two children who are now three and five years old. I miss them very much, I haven't seen them or spoken to them in almost two years. I don't even know if I have been divorced for desertion, maybe I am still married. Joe wanted no part of our family's business and when he graduated from college, where he took ROTC, he accepted a commission in the army. Army pay is not all that great and when he was posted to Germany I went back to live with my mother in New Jersey so she could help me with the kids. I left them with her when I went to visit Joe for two weeks. It was nice and we renewed our love for each other. As a gift he gave me an upgrade to first class for the return trip.

As it turned out, I was seated next to Steven and before we took off the cabin attendant offered us complimentary champagne. He must have distracted me and slipped in that drug he used on you in your Margaritas. I don't remember anything about the flight across the Atlantic except that when we landed in New York he said to me,
"Wouldn't you like to continue on to Chicago with me," and I replied,
"Sure Steven, I would love to." With that reply I abandoned my family, my husband, my children, and every one I held dear to me. I don't know if they have any idea what happened to me. He suggested that I have no contact with them and of course I haven't and cannot even now. He has a hold on me, you, and Lynne, that cannot be broken as long as he is alive. I know because I helped him ensnare another woman but she didn't last long. It is the drug that made us so receptive, but what he has done to our minds with hypnosis is what gives him control of us. I know if he walked through that door now I would offer my body to him just as you would sink to your knees and suck his cock. He is evil and for us, irresistible. We just looked at each other, helpless and hopeless.

She was quietly crying when she finished her tale and I pulled her to her feet and took her into my arms, more to comfort her than anything else, but when she looked up at me I kissed her. We had been so intimate that previous weekend in Chicago that it was natural for us to fall into bed and make love. I don't know if we were consoling each other, mourning our lost spouses, or just seeking unforced sex but we did make love and we both felt better for it. When I woke in the morning our limbs were still entwined, I said,
"I am sorry. I didn't mean to take advantage of you."
"Believe me you didn't. I wanted it just as much as you. When you had me in Chicago it was because Steven wanted me to do it. last night I wanted you."
"You really are a wonderful woman Maria."
"Thank you for the compliment but after my recent history I don't know if I deserve it.
"You do deserve it, you have made me feel better already. Stay here with me and help me heal some more. Look, you have no money, not even a change of clothes, maybe we can help each other get over this nightmare."
She agreed to stay for 'just a while' and that turned into almost two years. They were happy ones for both of us and we became very fond of one another. Our past unpleasant memories were behind us and then suddenly, out of the blue, when least expected, that's when I got the phone call. It was from Lynne.
"Robert, I need your help."
Her voice was subdued and she was contrite.
"Why come to me, let Steve help you."
"He threw me out almost year ago and won't take my calls."
I signaled to Myra to pick up the extension.
"I still don't understand why you are asking me for help."
"I am sick and I think I am dying. I have no money to get medical aid I don't even have my passport to get back into the country. I left it at home with you when I went to Steven."
She started coughing and couldn't speak for a moment.
"You are the only one who knows what happened to me and could understand.
"Where are you?"
"I am in Tijuana."
"What the hell are you doing there?'
"I am too ashamed to tell you."
I looked at Myra and she nodded her head.
"Alright, give me an address I will be there tomorrow."
After I hung up I turned to Myra and asked,
"Why did you OK my going to rescue her?"
"First, Bob, what happened to her could have happened to me. I was lucky he sent me to you. God knows where he sent her.
Second, you heard her coughing, it sounded genuine to me. If she is really that sick and you didn't help her it would be on your conscience for the rest of your life and if she died, because you didn't help her, it would destroy you. I have grown to love you and know you and I know you couldn't live with yourself. You haven't even divorced her yet."
"The only reason I haven't divorced her is because I wanted no contact with Steve. Who knows what he would have made either one of us do. I love you Maria, I have no feelings for her anymore."
"Yes you do, and even though I know you love me you had twenty five good years with her. She still is the mother of your children. Go help her and then come back to me."

I found Lynne in a flop house in Tijuana. She was a wreck. She must have lost twenty pounds and looked like death warmed over. I wondered how this could have happened to the beautiful woman I had once loved. Her cough was racking her body. I got her dressed and into my car and the first stop was a drug store. I got her something for the cough and that seemed to help. Then I made her wear surgical masks until we got back to Minnesota. Our first stop there was the Mayo Clinic. They diagnosed her with TB, the incurable and virulent kind and told me that she didn't have more than a few months to live. Her condition had gone on too long without treatment and that her lungs were virtually destroyed. All they could do was put her in a hospice to live out her days as comfortably as possible. It was there that I got her story.

He had turned her into a whore just as he had done to Maria. She fucked every one he told her to. He sent her out on 'dates' and she came back with the envelopes of money for him. He used her indiscriminately and unprotected and she sometimes came back injured and abused. He had her pierced and tattooed and marked as his property just as he told me he would and when she came down with TB he threw her out. He told her she was a whore and she should go work in a Mexican whore house and because that was what he told her to do, that is what she did. She told me she still loved him and would go back to him if he would take her back. That son of a bitch never would set her free just as he never freed Myra or me. I was with her when she died. It wasn't pleasant watching her coughing blood and tissue and I vowed that Steve would pay no matter what is cost me. When I got back to Myra I told her the whole sad story and she asked,
"What are you going to do now?"
"I am free now, legally and emotionally and I want to marry you."
" You can't, I don't know if I am married or not."
"Then we have to go to your husband and find out how you stand."
"I can't. Steven told me I cannot contact them ever."
"He never told me that I couldn't. Tell me more about your husband so I know what I have to deal with."
"Well you know he is in the army. He was in Germany when I left him and I don't know where he is now but my mother would know."
"Good, What else, you told me once that he didn't want to go into the family business, why not?"
She looked at me and said,
"You know, the Family."
Then it dawned on me, he was connected.
"You mean the Mantegna Family?"
"Yes."
"How can I get in touch with your mother?"

I was on a plane to Newark the next morning , and by afternoon I was facing Mrs. Santini.
"My name is Robert Swenson and I have a message from your daughter Maria." She almost fainted,
"What? Maria, my daughter? She is alive? Thank God. Where is she? Why isn't she here? What have you done with her? Tell me please."
"She is alive and well and hopes to see you as soon as possible."
"How do I know you are telling me the truth and not some con man trying to fleece me."
"She gave me this ring to give to you to show that I come from her. She hopes that when you see her you will give it back to her. The only thing I ask of you is that you tell me where I can find her husband, I gave a message for him also."
She tried to get more information from me and finally told me that Joe was back in the States and where I could find him. I told her to call him and set up a meeting and the next day I was sitting with him in the officer's club at Fort Dix. He wasn't happy to see me and he questioned me.
"I put her on a plane to go home to our kids and then she disappeared. I loved her and she loved me and then nothing. What did you do to her? Where is she? What happened to her? Why isn't she here?"
"Whoa, one question at a time. She is safe and well but she won't let me tell what happened to her for the first year after she left you. She is too ashamed of what she did and what was done to her even though it was not her fault or yours. What I am going to tell you, is what happened to my wife and I and you can draw your own conclusions. I told him all that had happened to me and how Lynne had ended up dead. Maria was lucky that he sent her to me because she had no money and couldn't come home and face him. She knew if she went home she would have to tell you what she had become and you would not have believed or accepted what had been done to her."
"You're right, once I found out that she was a whore I would have thrown her ass out. Besides I met a woman in Germany and we are going to get married as soon as I can find Maria to serve her with the divorce papers."
"Maria doesn't want anything from you except the right to visit her children. Give me the papers and I will overnight them back to you as soon as I get home."
"She can have the children. I have been away from them for so long that they hardly know me and Trudy doesn't want to raise another woman's kids anyway. Are you and Maria going to be married?"
"Yes, as soon as she is free to marry me."
"A good pair, a whore and a cocksucker."
"She doesn't deserve your contempt and as far as I am concerned, I couldn't care less. But the monster who did this to us, who destroyed my marriage and yours, is still free to do more damage. God knows how many other women and their husbands he has contaminated. I would like to strangle him with my bare hands but I know if I came in contact with him again, I couldn't help myself, and I would be on my knees in front of him in a minute. On this paper is his name and address and mine too, just to show my good faith and where to find Maria." He said,
"I'll call my mother in law and tell her to give you the kids to take back with you."
He took the paper from me, looked at me again with unconcealed scorn, then turned and walked away. We never shook hands.

I got a subscription to the Chicago Tribune and watched it for a month before I saw the article. Essentially it read,

Steven Sandler's body was found floating in the Chicago River. He had been manually strangled after being tortured. His body was covered with numerous bruises and burns and his genitals were missing. The police are asking the public for help in solving his murder.