I am Baaack! Part 13

As they reached the door to the sub-basement cell, both ladies were in the process of agreeing that the look in "her" eyes when she had been allowed to see herself for the first time, a look they had seen many times, indicated that "Caitlin" was not going to just go away after today, and that the mother may have started something she had not bargained for.

Thus, Bethany was not paying very close attention when she looked through the small rectangular window and was completely taken in by Lou and Ed's ruse. Bethany unlocked the door, opened it inward, and stepped in, followed closely by Elizabeth with the lunch tray. Ed, from behind the edge of the door, pushed Bethany as hard as she could toward Lou, still sitting on the edge of her cot. She then grabbed Elizabeth's tray and used it to pull her all the way into the cell, jerked the tray out of Elizabeth's hands, and hit her on the head with it as hard as she could. Elizabeth went down, out cold. Lou grabbed Bethany by the shoulders and pulled her down; using Bethany's own momentum, she guided her head into the wall, and she rebounded onto the floor. The two bad girls high-fived. "Whip and Cuff?" Ed asked. Elizabeth heard, and saw Lou nod just before unconsciousness claimed her.

While Lou checked Bethany and took her keys, Ed checked Elizabeth. Both women were breathing and neither was bleeding. Leaving the two in the cell, they locked the door behind them and hurried up the stairs into Vaingirls' salon area. A quick check yielded them little in the way of weapons, but each grabbed a pair of scissors and Lou snatched the twenty-five dollar tip that "Caitlin's" mother had left. Ed grabbed a compact, a lipstick, and a hairbrush. They exited through the back door, made their way a few blocks east to Michigan Avenue, and caught the CTA bus up to Rogers Park; with only twenty-five dollars, a cab was out of the question.

Unknown to anyone in the group, Lou and Ed were no strangers to the Whip and Cuff Club. Indeed, they were such frequent visitors that they maintained an apartment above the club on the 16th floor of the once-upon-a-time hotel. There were clothes, food, and foremost in their thoughts as they made their way northward, weapons in that apartment.