CHAPTER XIII

18:00

Uncle Victor opened the door to the barricaded basement. A series of complicated turns and loopbacks later and he was at the door to the subbasement. He opened that door as well, went down half a dozen steps and turned on the lights. Rats and roaches scurried away. There were no rats in the chamber in which Ygritte was being kept, though. The entrance to said room was directly underneath the steps leading down. He opened that door as well and saw her kneeling in prayer. The slut needed to pray, after all that foul shit she had been caught doing, all by none other than her husband.

Allegedly.

Still, Victor felt pity for her and had listened to her recounting of how his own son had violated her after she had been slapped unconscious by Chulo. Victor was still debating what to do with this information. He yearned to tell Chulo quickly because the latter had a suspicious nature and a hot temper. That was probably why he hadn't told Ygritte he was already in town yesterday or the day before. Not because he wanted to surprise her but because his subconscious had decided to play a game.

And if Victor waited too long before revealing this, Chulo would suspect him of being in cahoots with his Dennis. Victor had taken the scarf to a friend of his at Montefiore who had tested the semen in the scarf and matched it to a name in the DNA database: Dennis Garcia.

Nut's name was in the DNA database for employment prerequisites with the security company for whom he (and Bolo) worked.

The match was 99.9 percent positive.

Granted, things like this happened throughout the world but it was usually hushed up before being discovered or a scene was made. Ygritte looked over at Victor and smiled wistfully. A thought occurred to Victor: what if Ygritte was his daughter and he found out she had been raped? Raped by her cousin? That put aside the wavering in him. He came inside the room and closed the door so no rats could sneak inside. There was electricity and plumbing down here although what they were building for this far down was a mystery to Victor. He had a rape kit with him and placed it between them as he sat down on the bed. He took out his phone and placed a call.

[Mostly translated from Spanish]: "What's up, Unc?" Chulo answered on the other line.

"Papi Chulo, how's it hanging?" Ygritte's entire attention was on Victor now that she knew he was chatting with Chulo.

"Straight down when soft, to the left when hard." They both shared a genuine and easy laugh. Ygritte was listening attentively, intently. Victor watched her carefully from the corner of his eye. "So what's the news? I know if you the one calling, it gotta be serious."

"Yeah, bro. About that. It's damn serious." Victor and Ygritte could feel Chulo focusing more intently on the conversation.

"Talk about it." Victor gathered his thoughts (and not a bit of his courage).

"Remember when you left Dennis to clean up in the apartment?"

"Of course. It was just yesterday."

"Your wife told-"

"Whose wife?"

"Right. Ok. Well, Ygritte told me-"

"Yeah, that's better. Fuckin' stupid ass bitch ruined everything I worked for. Everything. That's not my fuckin' wife." Chulo's voice was cold and lifeless. Victor sighed, hating to be the bearer of further bad news. He saw Ygritte began crying silently. Holding her limp hand, he continued conversing with Chulo.

"It seems like, uh, well... It seems like, when Dennis was left behind, you remember Ygritte was unconscious, right?"

"Yeah. I had come out my character and slapped her and she fainted."

"Well, Ygritte told me yesterfay that, while she was asleep, Dennis raped her to even when she woke up, and he raped her some more. The silence on the phone was, paradoxically, deafening. Some time passed before Chulo spoke.

"She's lying. She's gotta be lying."

"I really wish I could tell you that was so, but she had proof I was able to verify. It's legit."

"You telling me Nut raped Ygritte?"

"Yeah."

"So... Nut raped your niece?"

"Yeah."

"And Nut is your biological child?"

"Yeah."

"Same mother, same father?"

"Yeah."

"So you're telling me Nut raped his first blood cousin?"

"Yeah."

"Wow!"

"Yeah."

"Nigga, stop fuckin' saying 'yeah'!"

"Well I don't know what the fuck else to say, bro." Another uncomfortable silence ensued.

"DNA?"

"Ninety-nine point nine percent."

"This shit can't be happening, yo," Chulo murmured. "You gave her a rape kit?"

"Ye- I mean, just a little while ago when I came back."

"It's possible the pigs know or suspect something but either way, keep a lid on this, don't tell anybody." Victor waited... "You know I can't allow this to go unanswered, right?"

"I understand, Chulo." Victor's thoughts were moving in slow motion slides and the pictures were all of Dennis. What the fuck was that piece of shit thinking about when he did what he did? At the very least, had the sex been consensual... even that could be overlooked with a spanking because, you know, shit like that happened far more frequently than people admitted, far more frequently than reported. But this rape was terrible. She had been forced, and that was the real problem.

Many sexual assaults, if not most, began in the home. They needed to decapitate and defenestrate such criminals. These were crimes of such moral turpitude, it was baffling that if a suspect was convicted of robbery and another was convicted of rape or sodomy of a minor, the latter would be back on the streets faster than the former. Why was this the case? Why were countries like the United States so apparently lenient on sex crimes, unless there was a public outcry? Baffling was too soft a word.

Ygritte had been married, unconscious and then forced.

"Chulo, if there's any way to go around this, bro, I'm just speaking on behalf of my son... please, if you can spare him, I-"

"No promises, Vic. I'm a standup dude and I never did Nut wrong. He just saw what happened when I caught another nigga with Ygritte. As my right hand, he should've known, Mira, que ta pasando!"

"I know, Chulo, I know, but that's my son-"

"And, at least until the divorce is final, that's my wife, which is why she's still breathing! A violation of her is a violation of me." Chulo's breathing had become slightly ragged in anger. "Expect the worst, Vic. Si no es possible, no es possible!"

"Yo entiendo, manito."

"Bueno. I gotta go prepare for a meeting tomorrow. Hasta mañana."

"Mañana, Mani." Ygritte had felt a bit of pride when Chulo said she was still his wife, well, until divorce, but she shortly became inconsolable. Well, at least Chulo knew what had happened and that was a relief. Victor held onto his niece and consoled her, secretly taking comfort as well.