Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 72401 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72401 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
“I have to go to the DA’s office. You coming with me or am I driving myself?” I asked.
“Do you need me to come with you? You look capable to me. I was just supposed to be here in case you started talking crazy again,” he said.
“What’s your name?” I finally asked.
I hadn’t yet ascertained his name due to his standoffish attitude. However, if he was going to be my babysitter, there was no reason I shouldn’t know his name since I'd already forgotten it from our first encounter.
“Silas,” he answered immediately.
Well, that wasn’t his full name or anything, but it was a name nonetheless.
“Well, Silas. I do believe I’ll use you. Thanks. I still feel a little weak in the knees,” I answered honestly.
My head was also pounding.
Thank God it was raining.
Otherwise, the sunshine would’ve absolutely killed me.
“You wearing that?” He asked as he stood.
“Yep,” I answered.
He shook his head and started walking to the door.
I could’ve sworn he said, ‘I don’t know what he sees in you’ but I could’ve just been hearing things.
We took his truck again, and I accidentally fell asleep.
“Rise and shine, buttercup. We’re here,” Silas’ voice woke me.
I blinked my eyes open slowly, and groaned.
My body hurt.
“Thanks,” I muttered as I practically fell out of the truck.
He rolled his eyes and started walking knowingly through the front doors, waving to the on scene guard, and then walking forward to a bank of elevators in the very back.
“You’ve been here before?” I wondered.
He looked at me.
His blue eyes piercingly bright and knowing. “Yes.”
It made me wonder, but I wasn’t stupid enough to ask the question that was burning a hole in my brain.
He raised his brows, waiting for the inevitable question, but I’d be damned if I gave him that.
I narrowed my eyes and pressed my lips together, causing him to laugh.
The doors to the elevator opened and we walked in; I leaned against the side, already tired.
“You really do look like shit,” he observed dryly.
“Fuck off,” I grumbled.
He smiled and pressed the button for the third floor.
“So...how about them Saints?” I asked.
He chuckled. “I’m more of a hockey fan.”
Now why didn’t that surprise me?
“Which team?” I asked as the elevator doors opened and emitted us into a stuffy lobby with the walls decorated in off-white and beige.
“Red Wings. I’m from Detroit,” he answered as he led us down a hallway, and straight into the office of the woman I was meeting.
Color me surprised when I saw the DA and the very man I’d met yesterday at the drug store sitting in Dortea’s office.
“Silas? Rue, come sit down,” Dortea ordered.
I sat down into the seat, thankful that I was able to sit before I fell.
“How are you feeling?” Dortea asked.
I noticed Silas out of the corner of my eye move to take up position in the very corner of the room, propping his shoulder on the wall.
“I feel great.”
I’d tried for upbeat, but it came out sounding more like I was high on PCP more than anything, causing the man in the seat next to me, as well as Silas, to laugh.
“Well, okay then. Rue, this is Detective Rector. Rue Loden is the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner who worked on Vanessa White’s case,” Dortea said to the detective.
I looked over at him through watery eyes and held up my hand in a salute to him. “Still sick.”
A smile kicked at the corner of his mouth. “I can see that.”
“Do you two know each other?” Dortea asked.
I shook my head. “I snotted all over his bike yesterday.”
Dortea let that sink in for a few moments before shaking her head slightly and looking back at the papers on her desk. “Noted,” she said as she sat forward in her chair. “Now, let’s get started. Detective, why don’t you tell us what you have, and from there we’ll move on to what Rue found.”
The detective nodded. “Vanessa White was found under the bleachers after a football game. She was the head varsity cheerleader, and she and her boyfriend were set to meet under there once he got changed. He was late, and another man found her under the bleachers where he raped her. Later, we found out that she set up this whole scenario so her boyfriend would catch the man, and they’d both be famous when he saved her. It didn’t work out that way, though, because the boyfriend never came, and when Vanessa realized it was getting too far, she told Brenden Newland ‘no.’ He didn’t stop. Brenden later left her there after he’d finished, and Vanessa took herself to the hospital.”
I remembered this story so well that I could recite each and every word.
What I hadn’t heard was Brendan’s side of the story.
“Brendan was brought in that night where he showed us the numerous emails between the two of them. Brendan said that they’d met on Craigslist. He told us that they planned the entire thing to the very last detail. Even the part where she’d tell him ‘no’ and he was to ignore her, because that was what she’d wanted. She’d never said anything about the boyfriend coming in to ‘save’ her, and they’d even met up the night before at a Starbuck’s to discuss what was going to happen the next night. Brendan is a dominant at a local BDSM club, and had been searching for a woman to do this with. Vanessa showed Brendan her fake ID, so the entire time Brendan assumed Vanessa was twenty one. Their computers records were subpoenaed and the surveillance from Starbuck’s was pulled. Everything Brendan said was true.”
At the time, Vanessa had been so distraught that I hadn’t realized just what was going on. The more Officer Rector explained, the more fucked up the entire thing became.
“What a clusterfuck,” Dortea said. “Either way this goes, they both lose. Rue, how about you tell us what you found.”
I shifted in my seat until I was leaning forward and started my story.
“I was called in on October 3rd to perform a rape kit on Vanessa White. I pulled out samples of hair, fibers, and skin from various parts of her body. She did have evident bruising along her vulva and vagina. The rapist had used a condom, so there were no bodily fluids from him, only a scant amount of blood from her. There was no ripping or tearing along the vaginal canal, and there were no defensive wounds on her body. She’d told me almost verbatim what Detective Rector just said, except she kept saying, ‘This was so not how I planned this’ over and over again. She was visibly distraught, as well as on the verge of non-compliant. She’d said throughout the entire interview that she should go. That maybe she shouldn’t ‘do this.’”