The Ghost

by H. Berkeley Rourke

  "C'mon honey, we need to get you cleaned up and in some different clothes and get you to the campus police to report this bastard, or maybe to the hospital. The hospital would be best I think." Neither of them thought to look at her vaginal area to see if there was any residue of the guy's ejaculate left there. Since he had used a condom it was a small failure without consequence.

  Marilyn didn't fight with Sherry about anything. She meekly showered and let Sherry clean her up and put make-up on her and dress her in a pair of slacks and a blouse that looked nice over her clean underwear. Sherry suggested that Marilyn use a tampon to help with the blood flowing from her vagina. She was still bleeding slowly when they left the dorm to go to the Campus Police Office.

  Sherry decided the Campus Police was the place they needed to go right away. She drove Marilyn to the office of the Campus Police and they went to the front door. They saw a policeman standing behind a counter and knocked on the door. A buzzer went off and they went in. The man behind the counter had sergeant's stripes on his sleeves and seemed important but was less than cordial when he looked up from some paperwork he was reviewing. He looked both of them up and down, and said, "What can I do for you girls today?"

  There was something in the guy's attitude, something about the sneer on his face, something in the abrupt and condescending way he spoke to the girls that renewed Marilyn's fears, her developing hatred of men, her desire to hide away from everything and have peace. She began to cry again, softly at first, only just leaking tears. Sherry didn't notice but the guy behind the counter did. He asked pointedly, "What the hell is wrong with her?" That made Marilyn cry more, her body began to rack with the pain of being close enough to a man to feel his presence in her area. She began to heave with spasms of pain and sobbing mixed together. The cop said "Get her under control or get her the hell out of here," to Sherry.

  Sherry reacted with anger. She said, "This girl was raped last night you idiot. Why are you acting like this? She needs your help."

  Marilyn screamed when the guy remarked, "Hell it doesn't look like she's been raped to me, it looks to me like she's on something and if you don't get her under control I will." After Marilyn screamed he stepped out from behind the counter, saying "This is bullshit," and grabbed Marilyn by the arms and swung her around and handcuffed her very tightly. He immediately took her to a holding cell with Sherry screaming at him the whole time and roughly threw her into the cell. He turned to Sherry and said "You better calm down as well young lady or you will be the next one in a cell."

  While Sherry was arguing with the sergeant, he called for backup and a patrol supervisor. As he was using the radio Marilyn was screaming at him at the top of her lungs in between sobs and the difficulty of screaming. Her chest heaved in the constrictions of her sobs, "You son of a bitch, why are you doing this to me. I was raped last night; I didn't do anything wrong you bastard. God damn you, you son of a bitch, I didn't do anything wrong you fucking asshole MAN!"

  Both the supervisor and the backup patrol officer heard part of her screams and protests on the radio. Since the campus police radio net was tied to the Phoenix City Police radio net and its 911 system, one of the dispatchers in Phoenix P.D. who parenthetically was a rape victim herself, also heard the screaming and cussing. Her name was Nan Germanne.

  Nan called a very close friend, a detective with the Phoenix Police Department who was a very caring woman and a cop who had dealt with many rape cases.Nan wanted the detective to go to the Scalian Campus and take over the investigation and see to it the rape victim, Marilyn, was treated properly. By the time Nan got hold of her friend the backup officer and the patrol supervisor for the Campus Police had arrived at the station on campus. Also by then Sherry was laying on the floor bleeding from the nose and the mouth. She had been punched and kneed when the sergeant grabbed her, threw her to the floor, knee dropped her and handcuffed her. He was finishing cuffing her when the backup officer arrived.

  Sherry was having difficulty breathing because of a heavy flow of blood from both her cheeks and her gums and from her nose which was broken when punched by the sergeant. Marilyn had seen the sergeant take Sherry down and was now screaming, as the patrol supervisor and backup officer walked in the door "You abusive son of a bitch. You dirty bastard. You will not get away with this you fucking asshole. Every student on this campus will know what you have done here today, you son of a bitch." By the time the patrol supervisor walked in the sergeant had already sprayed Marilyn in the face with mace as well. As the supervisor walked in the door the sergeant was spraying Sherry in the face with mace. It was an amazing scene of abuse and angry response to abuse.

  As the supervisor told the backup officer to take the girls into the bathroom and see to it their faces and eyes were washed off and cleared of mace, Marilyn was still sobbing and screaming, "You bastard man, I didn't do a damned thing wrong here today. I am going to make sure this goes viral on line and everywhere you son of a bitch." She was screaming and crying at the same time. "You beat up my friend for no reason."

  The supervisor, who was completely without a clue what had gone on earlier, except he had heard screaming and crying on the radio, said to the sergeant, "What the hell has happened here Sergeant. Who the hell are these two girls and why are they cuffed and battered?"

  The sergeant immediately grew defensive and said, "I am not talking to you about this situation until I have my union representative present if you are going to have an attitude with me, sir. I have done nothing wrong here today."

  The supervisor grew red faced and said in a very angry tone, "Listen to me Sergeant. You sit down and write a report concerning the events of this morning right now. Your shift is relieved but you are still on duty until I tell you to leave. Do I make myself clear to you?"

  "Yes sir. But I will not talk to you without my union rep here sir."

  "Fine, you call him after you have written the report and signed it. It better have good time hacks about everything which happened here as well as complete reasons for a girl to be in cuffs in a holding cell and one to be bleeding profusely from the nose and mouth as well as being maced at least once of which I am aware."

  "Yes sir. And I prefer to leave."

  "Then you will leave without your badge and gun and you will face immediate dismissal for insubordination. Are you also quite clear as to the consequences of leaving?"

  "Yes sir. I am leaving. Here is my gun and my shield," he said, throwing them on the floor in front of the supervisor."I am not going to be railroaded for a couple of little rich bitches from this school that claim one of them has been raped last night. She sure as hell does not look like she has been raped to me. Her friend’s attitude is what started them assaulting me verbally. Goodbye Mister. I would not work for your stupid ass ever again under any circumstance."

  The supervisor stood, looking at the sergeant, aghast, wondering what the fuck he should do next. He was really angry as well and said, "No you won't work for me and I can see to it you will never work in law enforcement anywhere again," as the sergeant went out the door.

  The backup officer, named Jason Montague, brought Sherry out of the bathroom about the time the sergeant walked out and slammed the door as hard as he could. "What in the world," Jason started to say, and then thought better of it as he could see the supervisor, a lieutenant in the department, was highly pissed.

  Jason said to the lieutenant, "This girl has some cuts in her mouth that are bleeding quite a bit, sir. It also appears she has a broken nose. I should take her to the hospital." The supervisor motioned to him and the cop brought Sherry close where they both took a look and saw that Sherry's gums and cheeks were bleeding quite a bit. There were several cuts which appeared too wide to close by themselves.

  Sherry who had been relatively quiet since being hit with the mace, spoke up loudly. She said to both men, "Don't you dare take me to the hospital without my friend. She was raped last night. We came to you bastards for help, so we could get her to the hospital
and get whatever needed to be done there accomplished. She is bleeding internally but you bastards wouldn't know she is injured because we put a tampon in her and a pad on her to keep the blood off her clothes. You dirty sons of bitches. Is this how you treat all women who have been raped you bastards?"

  Marilyn, who had been keening silently in the cell now began to wail again and cuss the officers out, calling them all manner of hateful names and using language which was not complimentary of their ancestry. The lieutenant, Jim Whalen, asked Sherry, "How do you know she has been raped, girl and what the hell is your name? If you are going to cuss me out at least I have the right to know that much about you."

  "Know this," Sherry fired back, "when this is all said and done I am going to sue the shit out of you and anyone who is responsible for your actions and those of your people you dirty bastard." Having yelled at him she spat a mouthful of blood in his direction. The blood missed him but landed on the floor in front of him in a large pool.

  "Jesus Christ," Whalen exclaimed, "get these two out of here and take them to the infirmary. I will radio and see if there is a doc there who can see them. If not, I am going to send you into town to St. Thomas's Hospital. Take off now," he said as he brought Marilyn out of the cell and handed her off to Jason. As Jason put Marilyn in front of him he could see that the back of her pants were bloody. Jim Whalen saw the same thing. When he saw the blood on her pants, he said to Jason, "Shit just take both these kids to the St. Thomas's Hospital. They have a great trauma center there. They will know what to do."

  The drive to the hospital was quiet for the most part. Marilyn seemed to calm down. Sherry was in the back seat of the police cruiser. She spat blood on the floor several times as they drove. She began to groan occasionally as a result of the pain her broken nose was causing. She seemed to be over her angry moments but when Jason tried to talk with her she cussed him out. He stopped trying. He took both girls to the emergency entrance of the hospital and simply dropped them there with the desk nurse. He drove away as soon as he could.

  Chapter 1-

  Part 2

  The Administration Becomes Involved

  As Jason was taking the girls out the door Jim thought he should warn the administration about the situation. There had been a lot of rapes on campus in recent months. None of them had been reported in the press of Phoenix. The information, once in the hands of the administration, had simply been stored. It was put in a private place and everyone, including those who had been raped, and their roommates, if any, had been warned not to talk to anyone about the topic.

  The university did not want, and its administration was adamant in this regard, untoward publicity about the "sexual conduct" of its students. The students thought the administration, comprised of older men, no women, all of the men married for many years, was stodgy and ultra conservative. The students were right in more ways than one. The proctors of the school, all in their sixties and seventies, had never seen a place where campus rapes were as prevalent as there at Scalian. From the president, Jefferson Wells, to the heads of each of the faculty departments, they did not want any publicity about rapes occurring at Scalian. Especially this was true of President Jefferson. He had been on another campus where multiple rapes resulted in terrible negative publicity. Up to the rape of Marilyn Cummings he had made sure no publicity took place about "his" school.

  Any kind of criminal conduct arising on the campus was taken care of by the campus police. They almost never referred anything to the city police. The orders of the officer in charge to keep all crime in-house came directly from President Wells. If fights occurred and got out of hand the campus was closed. When the campus was closed the students were forced into their dorm rooms. Some were forced into the few frat houses located close by to the campus. No shenanigans were permitted in the frat houses on pain of the frat being thrown off the campus. The policy meant no large parties, and specifically no large parties with women and alcohol involved. Any breach of the rules about parties would cause a frat's accreditation on campus to end.

  As Jason was escorting Sherry, who was by then holding a towel to her mouth to collect the blood that was still flowing, and Marilyn who was stumbling and nearly falling with every step and who was praying loudly in between the sobs, he could not help but be sympathetic. He asked Sherry why Marilyn was praying. She responded "Because she has been beaten nearly to death and raped tonight by a man, you dumb ass. She thinks because you are a man you are going to kill her as the rapist threatened to do. You men are such dumb fucks about anything. You don't have a fucking clue."

  Jason shook his head and said, "It is not necessary for you to cuss me out. I am not the enemy here."

  "Oh," said Marilyn at that point, "then why are we in handcuffs, why are you taking us somewhere to kill us, why are you treating us like we have done something wrong? Sherry is right. You men are all dumb asses. It's you that are causing the problems you dumb ass." After saying those words Marilyn went back to crying and praying. But she had made Jason think and at least he made a positive response as he un-cuffed Sherry and put her into the back seat of his patrol car. But he left Marilyn in cuffs because he put her in the front seat. He could not see the obvious indications she was bleeding heavily.

  The time Jason drove the two girls dragged on for an eternity. Sherry was trying to calm Marilyn from behind the cage protecting the front seat. Marilyn was crying, praying and cussing Jason out the entire time. It was twenty-five miles or so to get to the hospital but it seemed longer. For Sherry it was a time when she was becoming more and more concerned for Marilyn. For Marilyn it was a time of seeming to become calmer. She was beginning to shiver and become very cold. She was going into shock as a result of the blood loss she had suffered. She was bleeding both externally and internally.

  The handcuffs Marilyn was wearing had been put on very roughly, were very tight and were behind her back. They restricted her from holding her ribs, three of which were broken and bleeding inside her. One of the broken ribs had impacted a small artery. The flow of blood from the artery was not yet catastrophic because the rib was acting as a compress against the tiny wound in the artery.

  The blood she was losing internally was pooling in her pleural space and around the front and side of her left lung in a way that was creating the beginnings of a tamponade on her heart. Jason had no idea she was so badly injured. Sherry wondered what was going on with Marilyn because there was not as much crying and keening The flow of condemnation for the cops and the men who had injured Marilyn dropped off.

  Just before the police car arrived at the hospital emergency room doorway Marilyn slumped over against the doorway as she passed out from loss of blood. She was in extremis. Jason could see she had passed out. He was grateful she was not cussing him out any longer and then wondered. He called ahead to the hospital and said he had one on board who might have critical injuries.

  But it was too late for Marilyn. Her blood loss by the time they arrived at the hospital was massive. Within minutes after arrival at the hospital she was receiving fluids but within fifteen minutes after coming to the hospital, when the x-rays and MRI's were just beginning, she died as a result of a heart tamponade. The tamponade was created from bleeding inside her body. The first rape, the abuse of Marilyn Cummings, was complete.

  But the forcible mind fuck of Sherry, brought about by her being beaten by a cop for no reason at all, by being maced, and then by standing by and being able to do nothing to stop her friend and her roommate from dying, continued. She was taken to the emergency ward and sedated. The cuts inside her mouth required closing. That was done. She was taken from there to a dental surgeon who removed several of her teeth while she was still sedated. A rape kit was done on her over her protests immediately after she awakened.

  She kept telling them, "I am not the one who was raped. My roommate Marilyn, my friend is the one who was raped." Nonetheless a rape kit was done on Sherry, which was stored in the campus police facilities along with a lar
ge number of other such kits. None of the stored rape kits had ever been tested. There were stored kits dating back to the very start of the administration of Jefferson Wells.

  Within a few moments after having the rape kit ignominiously performed on her Sherry overheard one of the E.R. nurses say a little too loudly her friend Marilyn had died. The nurse thought they better do a rape kit on the dead girl anyway. Sherry went off again, screaming at the top of her lungs, "What the fuck are you people doing here? My friend is dead, my friend is dead, my friend is dead . . ." She kept screaming those words over and over again, almost hysterically, until the sedative injected into the drip in her arm put her out again.

  Sherry awakened again to see a woman sitting next to her bed, a woman in plain clothing, one who did not look like a cop but who had a badge on a lanyard around her neck. The woman was from Phoenix Police Department. Her name was Jeanne de Leon. She was a detective with Phoenix Homicide Bureau. She had been waiting for a while for Sherry to wake up. When Sherry was fully awake and had remembered the reason she had gone off before, Sherry started crying. Jeanne said to her "Sherry, I need your help. Time is not in our favor here. Please get control of yourself. I need your help."

  Sherry was almost beside herself with anguish at that point. She fairly screamed back at the detective, "How can I help you and the rest of your kind you bitch? I am going to sue the shit out of every cop I ever fucking heard of, do you hear me? You sons of bitches caused my friend to die when all she and I wanted to do was to report she had been raped and get her some help. You dirty bastards I hate every fucking one of you. I am going to sue the shit out of you."

  Jeanne waited patiently while Sherry railed on. She nodded at each point Sherry made which only seemed to increase the anger being shown. She smiled at Sherry when it was over and Sherry was drawing a breath, maybe to start again, and said, "I know, Sherry, I know how angry you must be. My own sister was killed by a rapist as well. I need your help to catch this guy. Please help me."