“I cannot afford to lose my job; none of us can. The new town manager is on a power trip and is on a power grab,” Herb replied.“Are they under a...rest?” I asked.“No, if they were I would take them to the detention center - at least for the night,” Herb replied.“Can you release the girls to me?” I asked.“As long as they are out of town and do not come back here. I guess we can,” Herb replied.Herb motioned for the other three officers to bring their charges. When they were all there, I said “You. " Dee Dee shivered again. "remember all of those TV shows where they caught Internet predators? Child molesters..."The woman eyed her. "You're not a child -- or you wouldn't be here. So what if the guy picks you because you're young? Honey, I don't know if you realize it, but the way we have been doing things in this century has been unusual -- for centuries, parents have bartered off their daughters to old, rich guys for a bride price... It wasn't really any less a sale than this is -- and in. That year a new show started: Perry Mason.If it was a Saturday night Steph would always make sure I took a bath. Usually I bathed three or four times a week, depending on my activities and the time of year. Saturday was always bath night, though, since we went to church on Sunday morning. She would read or watch TV while I took my bath.She started getting bizarre one night when I was about halfway through my bath. She knocked at the half open door. "Danny? Can I come in?" she called. I had. She heard, faintly, the turn of a key in the front door, and then, as the door opened, a gust of wind ruffled the curtains by the open patio doors and swept across the room. The air in the den turned cooler and smelled faintly of rain.“Is that you, Bill?” she called out without looking up.“Naw, Carmen, it’s just me,” her stepson Jeremy answered from the front of the house.She glanced toward the young man coming through the kitchen. He paused at the counter separating the kitchen from the den to.