I am Baaack! Part 13

As Joan, Robbie, and Dainie were ascending the stairs inside the Whip and Cuff, Edwina Porter and Louise Edwards were approaching the back door, having gotten off a bus on Michigan Avenue and Touhy and made their way through back alleys. Barbara, in the cab in front of the club's Fargo Street entrance, was not aware of their presence.

After their kidnapping, they had been taken to the sub-basement of Vaingirls and locked in. The next day, under the watchful eyes of G.A., they had made statements to the Chicago Fire Department officials and signed the necessary paperwork required by the City of Chicago from victims of a fire. They had then been taken back to Vaingirls and locked back in the sub-basement.

They managed to get free the next day by the oldest trick in the book; Ed had stripped and used her clothes to pad her bunk so that it looked as if she was lying under the covers; then she stood out of sight of anyone looking through the small rectangular window in the door. Lou, cradling her injured wrist, making it look as though she were in more pain than she actually was, sat on the bed. In point of fact, so good had Barbara's aim been with the throwing knife, that despite the fact that it had passed entirely through Lou's wrist, it had done almost no damage, and she had almost the full use of her hand and arm back already. They patiently waited for someone to open the door and give them a chance to escape. Their experience with Rose had convinced both of them that making an escape attempt, however much a long shot it turned out to be, was most likely the lesser of two evils compared to what she had planned for them. Fate, for the moment, was on their side.

Only Bethany, Elizabeth, and Jessica were at Vaingirls that afternoon. Adain and Robbie were, of course, occupied with Joan, Barbara was in the cab in front of the Whip and Cuff, and Rose, with Joyce, G.A., Steve, and Salielah, was in Karen's minivan parked on Halsted, about two blocks south of the club; Karen, although not officially a part of The Group, as G.