Doctor Lucas came back in the room with Michelle. She was carrying a rape kit. “Tony, will you excuse us for a moment,” Doctor Lucas said.
Tony kissed my cheek. I squeezed his hand that I was still holding on to. I didn’t want him to leave, but he had to.
“It’s okay, sweetie, I’ll be right outside the door. When they finish, I’ll be right back in,” he said, letting go of my hand.
Doctor Lucas performed the rape test. It hurt, but I knew it had to be done. I had stood in on several when I first started working for County in the emergency room. It wasn’t a pleasant thing to watch either. Doctor Lucas finished getting what he needed. Tony came back in the room as Doctor Lucas and Michelle were leaving. I smiled inside, knowing he was right here. I closed my eye.
Chapter Seven
Doctor Lucas called the police station to report the rape. Detective Cooke answered the call.
“Mayville Police Department, Detective Cooke. May I help you?”
“This is Doctor Lucas at County. I’m calling to report Jessica Pearl was raped. I performed a rape test on her a few minutes ago. Could you send someone over to pick it up for the lab?”
“I’ll be there shortly to get it. Thanks, Doctor,” he said, and hung up.
The lab for County Hospital was in Portland. Everything pertaining to the lab was sent by mail or taken by courier, which was faster, resulting in the results taking as little as four hours.
“Where is Doctor Lucas’s office?” Detective Cooke asked, the receptionist.
“He’s on the fifth floor.”
“Thanks,” he said, and went to the elevator.
Detective Cooke is a very impatient with the elevator and could have taken the stairs faster if his knees allowed. When the doors finally opened, he went straight to the nurse’s desk asking for Doctor Lucas. Michelle paged the Doctor the second she saw the Detective getting off the elevator. Meeting Doctor Lucas in the middle of the hallway they exchanged hellos and shook hands.
“Is Jessica able to talk?” Detective Cooke asked.
“Her mouth is considerably swollen, but amazingly she can whisper. We didn’t find out until this morning that she was raped.”
“Will I be able to talk to her today?”
“She still needs lots of rest. My advice is to limit your questions. She’ll talk when she’s ready.”
“I’ll see for myself,” Detective Cooke said. “Which room is hers?”
Doctor Lucas pointed to the room I was in. “I have rounds to make so I’ll leave the rape kit here with Michelle.”
“Thanks,” Detective Cooke said and headed to my room. Opening the door, he saw Tony in the recliner sleeping. Quietly walking over to the side of my bed he gasped. This was the worst beating of anyone he had ever seen. MaryAnn’s beating was nothing compared to this. He had several questions that he wanted to ask, but he changed his mind. “Hi Jess, it‘s Detective Cooke. I came by to see how you’re doing.”
Opening the slit in my eye, I looked at Detective Cooke. “Hi,” I whispered. My back was starting to hurt so I moved to get more comfortable, forgetting about my ribs when a sharp pain raced across my chest causing me to groan, and Tony was up out of the recliner and beside the bed pushing the button for Michelle.
“Can I help you?” Michelle asked over the speaker.
“Jess is in pain,” he said.
“I’ll be in to give her pain medication in a minute,” Michelle said.
Tony put his hand on my arm and squeezed it lightly. I smiled at him, but he couldn’t tell it was a smile. I wiggled my finger for him to bring his ear to my mouth so I could talk to him. He leaned down to my ear. “Rape,” I said, real low.
Tony gently tucked my hair behind my ear. “He knows that, Jess. Is there anything else you want to tell Detective Cooke?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Michelle came in with the morphine administering it in my IV, which didn’t take long to hit me. My eyes started closing, but I worked hard to keep them open to let Detective Cooke know it was Max, but the morphine won. I closed my eyes and slept.
“Was Jessica trying to tell me something?” he asked Tony. “If she was, would you happen to know what it could be?”
“I haven’t any idea. Today is the first day she’s tried to talk at all.”
“Well, if she happens to tell you anything helpful for the investigation, be sure to give us a call.”
“I’ll do that, Detective.”
Detective Cooke left the room, stopping at the nurses’ station to pick up the rape kit. Instead of waiting for weeks for the results he drove them to Portland. Before entering the Lab, he wrote ‘ASAP’ on the outside of the package. The lab tech reassured him he’d have the results no later than seven. Detective Cooke found a café around the corner from the lab and waited for the results drinking coffee.
Seven on the dot the lab called with the results. Detective Cooke picked them up and headed back to Mayville. Curious about them, he pulled to the side of the road, turned on his overhead light, took the results from the manila envelope and read: White Male between the ages of 19 and 21. Only two boys matched that description. Putting the results in the envelope, he headed back to Mayville. In the morning he would pay Max a visit at the Gas-n-Go.
Bright and early in the morning, Detective Cooke headed to the Gas-n-Go. Max wasn’t due to be on duty for thirty more minutes so Detective Cooke took a seat in the booth by the window, waiting for him to arrive and sure enough Max walked in to start his shift.
Mr. Snowfield called Max to his office. “Max, Detective Cooke is here to visit with you. Is there something going on that I should know about?”
Inside Max started shaking. “No, sir there isn’t. I don’t know why he’d want to see me,” putting his hands in his pocket. When Max gets nervous his hands shake uncontrollably.
“Well, go see what he wants, and then get back to work,” Mr. Snowfield snapped. Lately Max’s job performance was sloppy. The store wasn’t clean, and the cooler wasn’t stocked. One reason he cut Max’s hours was to try and get him motivated, which wasn’t working.
“Yes, sir,” Max said, leaving the office. Max walked up to where Detective Cooke sat. “Detective, you wanted to see me?” he asked.
“Have a seat. I need to ask you some questions regarding your whereabouts two nights ago.”
Taking his hands out of his pocket, Max sat down putting them in his lap and wrung his hands nervously under the table, then began to bounce his leg up and down. “I was with Megan Pierce. She’ll confirm that.”
Detective Cooke looked Max’s face over for any sign of stress. “Why do you see Megan? Are you boyfriend and girlfriend or just friends?”
“We’re boyfriend and girlfriend.”
“How long have you been seeing her?”
“Megan and I have been seeing each other for three months. Why?”
“Max, I have to ask the questions, just routine. Now, were you with Megan the night Jessica Pearl was attacked?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“What time were you with her?”
“Megan and I were together from eleven to two in the morning.”
“What did both of you do during that time?”
Max really nervous about this question knowing he wasn’t with Megan, but with Jessica. Knowing he had to come up with a good answer and quick he said, “We were hanging out in the barn.” Remembering what he was doing to Jessica made him smile inside.
“This barn would be?”
“My parents place. I live with my parents.”
“I believe that’s about it then. Thank you for your time, Max.”
“Sure,” he answered, quickly. Max started to relax, glad this was over. Making his way to the counter he watched Detective Cooke leave the store. Mr. Snowfield was watching Max from his office. Playing it cool, he smiled because no one knew he was the burglar.
Detective Cooke went to the Cox’s home on Brier Road. Pulling in the driveway, he saw
Johnny sitting on the porch with his father. Getting out of his patrol car, he looked around the place.
“What brings you out here, Detective Cooke?” Mr. Cox asked.
“I need to ask Johnny a few questions about his whereabouts the other night.”
“Sure Detective, what’s going on?” Johnny asked, surprised.
“It’s about Jessica Pearl. Do you happen to know her?”
“Who?” he asked thinking for a minute. “I don’t know a Jessica Pearl.”
“I need to ask you, just routine.”
“What do you want to know?” Johnny asked.
“Where were you between the hours of ten and six in the morning two nights ago?”
“I was here with my parents. My dad and I finished getting the hay in the barn around two and then went to bed,” Johnny said, sounding like it was a big task.
“Hard to keep the hay good in between rain storms,” Mr. Cox said, scratching his head.
“Do you mind if I look in the barn?”
“No, not at all,” Mr. Cox said.
Johnny, Mr. Cox, and Detective Cooke went to the barn. Sure enough, it was loaded with fresh hay. The hay smell made his allergies kick in. Detective Cooke backed out of the barn and started sneezing. “Well, I’ve seen all I need to see,” he said, turning to head back to the house. “Thank you for your time, Johnny.”
“No problem, Detective.”
Detective Cooke went to see Megan Pierce. No one was home so he headed back to the station, stumped and nowhere closer to figuring out who had done this to Jessica.
Getting the case file from the filing cabinet, he sat down at his desk and went over the evidence again. No suspects and no new leads. He was back to square one. Sighing, he put the file back in the cabinet and headed to lunch.
Waking up from a long nap, I looked over at the recliner. Tony looked to be resting better and my left eye was open all the way, while my right eye was open a little. “Tony?” I called. My voice was clear, and it didn’t hurt to talk. Moving my arms didn’t hurt either. Feeling my mouth, the swelling had gone down. Opening my mouth to see how wide it would open, I smiled. Surprisingly my mouth opened as far as my lips would let it. “Tony?” I said, louder.
Tony opened his eyes, looked at me and a smiled appeared. “You’re looking better,” he said, getting up and coming to the side of the bed. He leaned down and kissed my cheek. “I’d like to see how I look. There’s a mirror in my purse.”
“Your purse is at the house, I could go get it if you’d like.”
“I don’t want you to leave. Could you ask Monique if she has one?” I asked looking at the clock to make sure I knew who would be on duty.
“Sure, sweetie, be right back.”
Turning my head to look out the window, I sighed because I had no clue how long I had been here. It felt like a day, but I knew it was longer. The clouds were rolling in again and lightning struck in the distance, and thunder was soon to follow. Tony came back in with a mirror.
“Are you sure you want to see?” he asked, holding the mirror.
“I’m sure.”
Tony hesitantly handed me the mirror. Looking in the mirror, I couldn’t believe how black my eyes were. A Band-Aid covered my right eyebrow. No wonder I couldn’t see out of my eye until now. It was blacker than the left one. My nose was swollen, but not broken. My lips showed a trace of swelling, but at least I could open my mouth. “How long have I been here?” I asked, putting the mirror down.
“Four days. You took quite a beating.” Tony chocked out. “I’m so sorry I left.”
“Tony, you had to get your stuff to move here. Nobody knew he was going to do this, not even you. You can’t blame yourself for something that you had no control over. It’s not your fault,” I said, reaching over to take his hand. “Can you see if Officer Sean will come up? I have some information that will be useful to the investigation.”
“Sure, I’ll go see if he’s available. Be right back, sweetie,” he said, taking the mirror from my hand. “Are you sure you’re up to talking about what happened?”
Grabbing his hand as he took the mirror I told him. “I need a kiss.” He leaned down to kiss my cheek, but I moved my head toward him so his lips would meet mine. When his lips connected, I reached up with my hand and held his head to me. “I need to tell Officer Sean what happened. The sooner this guy is caught, the sooner the town will get back to normal.”
Tony left the room, and I looked back out the window. Rain started to come down, and then thunder cracked. I jumped when it did and then felt silly for jumping. Must be my nerves on edge.
Tony came back in the room and I didn’t hear the door when it opened. The minute he touched me, I jumped again. I winced as the pain in my chest disagreed with my movement.
“Sorry, sweetie, I didn’t mean to frighten you,” he said, putting his hand to my face. “I’ll let you know I’m here before I approach next time.”
“That’s okay. I must be jumpy from the attack.”
“Officer Sean is on his way. Are you sure you want to talk about it?”
“Tony, I have to tell him,” was all I said. Laying my head back down on the pillow I turned back to the window. The rain was coming down harder now. Tony was going to hear some things he didn’t want to hear. “Tony?”
“I’m right here. What do you need?” he asked.
“Nothing, I just want to know if you’ll be able to handle me telling Officer Sean. You might not want to hear any of it.” I said, sadly.
“Jess, I won’t like it, but I’ll do my best to handle it, okay?”
“Okay.” I pulled Tony toward me and kissed him passionately. I heard the door open, and someone cleared their throat.
“I didn’t interrupt anything, did I?” Officer Sean asked, standing in the door.
Tony straightened himself up and went to sit in the recliner. I kept my eyes on him, watching to see if he was going to be okay with this. He sat down and looked at me. I smiled, and he smiled back.
Officer Sean came over to the side of my bed.
Not taking my eyes off of Tony, I said, “I saw the person who raped me.”
Tony stiffened in the chair and looked away from me.
“You saw the person?” Officer Sean asked, unbelieving.
“He took a shower after he raped me several times leaving the bathroom door standing wide open. My left eye had a slit that I could see out of. It was Max. That kid that works at the Gas-n-Go.”
“Are you sure it was him?” he asked, in shock.
“Yes, I’m sure,” I said insulted. “When he dried off with my bath towel, he came back over to the bed. He rolled me over onto my back. I saw him lift his arm into the air and make a fist. His hand was coming toward my face. Then I blacked out.” I looked over at Tony who was still looking away from me. His hands were in balls now and his knuckles white as snow from squeezing his hands so tight. Officer Sean wrote down every word I said. I didn’t go into the details of the assault, but I would have to later, I was sure of it. It was something I didn’t want Tony to hear.
“This is a statement of what you just told me. Would you mind signing it?”
“Where’s the pen?” I asked.
Officer Sean handed me his pen. I signed the statement, and then he left.
“Come here, Tony. It’s going to be fine. He won’t hurt anyone else again.”
Tony got up slowly out of the recliner, walked to the side of my bed, leaned down to hug me the best he could without hurting me. I didn’t care how much I hurt; I hugged him back with all my strength.
He looked at me, and I looked back at him. I don’t know what he saw in my eyes, but in his eyes I saw a man that loved me and would do anything for me.
Doctor Lucas came into the room to give me the results of the pregnancy test. Apparently they had performed one when I was out of it. “Good news, Jess. You’re not pregnant,” he said, smiling. “I thought you would like to know.”
“Thank you, Doctor
Lucas. I appreciate it.”
I heard Tony breathe a sigh of relief.
Doctor Lucas was leaving the room. I heard Tony say “Thank God,” but I wasn’t sure. I was thinking it, so maybe I was just hearing my own thoughts.
“Tony, I didn’t want you to hear who did this to me. I feel bad that you’re sad.”
“Jess, you have no idea how much I want to go and rip this kids head off right now,” he said, with anger.
“Tony, listen to me for a minute. What he did is done. There’s no taking it back, but we need to move on, together.”
Tony gripped the rails on the bed and turned his knuckles white again. Anger was building up inside him that I had never seen before. He pushed away from the bed, pacing up and down the room. He balled his hands into fists and muttered, “I’ll kill him.”
Knowing I’d waste my breath saying anything to him, I turned back toward the window, closed my eyes and saw Max standing in my shower. Tears started flowing again, and this time I didn’t hold them back. I cried until I fell asleep.
I dreamt about Max again and woke up screaming. Tony rushed over to the side of the bed. “Sweetie, are you okay?” he asked.
I looked at him, seeing Max until my eyes adjusted. “I’m fine. It was just a nightmare.”
Tony leaned down hugged me and kissed the top of my head. Putting my arms around him, I squeezed him tight. Searching for his lips, I kissed his neck. “Careful now,” he said. We found each other’s lips and kissed passionately.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.
“No, not really,” I said, releasing my arms from around him.”
Tony reached for the controls and turned on the television. Flipping through the channels, he found a program about inventions. Letting the controls dangle from the side of the bed, he looked back over at me. I was turning to look at him. “Jess, if I could take the nightmares away, I would.”
“I’m just glad you’re here.”
Driving to Wedgewood was at least five miles from the main part of town. The town annexed that part of land a couple of years ago. The town council decided to expand the city limits hoping for growth. No signs of growing were apparent. The town was exactly the same from when I was a little girl.
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