Sadie looked at him, and then her face crumpled. She hastily put up her hands and began to cry.
Jay said, “Take it easy. You’re safe now. Tell me. It’s true, isn’t it?”
She nodded without speaking.
“Now listen, Mrs. Perminger. It’s goin’ to be all right. You’ve got to take me into your confidence. I can guess something of what happened to you but I want the full story. You saw the guy who killed Mendetta, didn’t you?”
She sat up, terrified. “Who told you?” she gasped.
“I guessed that’s how they tricked you to leave your apartment, wasn’t it? That would explain the note you left.”
Sadie nodded. “I saw him coming out of the room. Then a policeman came and made me go away with that man you were fighting with. They took me to a house and kept me there. There was a negress who beat me. I tried and tried to stick it out, but I couldn’t. She beat me every hour of the day. I had to give in.” She sat up and beat her knees with her fists. Her face was twisted with fear and rage. “Do you understand? I wouldn’t do what she wanted me to do. So she kept on and on and on. Every day they tied me to the bed. There was a nigger who stripped me… Do you understand that? She let him put his filthy hands on me. He stood and laughed at me when she beat me. I tried… but I couldn’t stand it any more.” She sobbed again. “What was I to do? There are other girls, decent girls like me. They were brought to the house and men were sent into their rooms. I can still hear their screams. Beasts of men used to pay moneylots of moneyto assault them. They liked them to fight and screamthey paid more and more money if they really fought. It was horrible.”
Jay tapped off the ash from his cigarette. This made him feel bad.
“Then this man Cruise came one day. He inspected all the girls. He took them all away. I don’t know what happened to them. He treated them as if they were cattle. He took me. He brought me here. I was to be his slave. Well, I was crazy. I refused. I told him to get out. So what do you think he did?” Her sobbing was so violent he could hardly hear what she was saying. “He tied me to the bed and hehe poured turpentine over me.
Do you know what that means? He left me lying there all night. I was gagged. I couldn’t move, and it burnt….