She patted the edge of the sterile blanket covering the bed, and Greg sat next to her. She held his hand. “I’m okay. A hundred percent. You understand?”
Her husband nodded, and some of the tension fell from his face.
“A dark-green Bronco pulled in, not a truck-driving kind of truck, you know, but a regular Bronco, so he could maneuver better in the lot. Wayne was watching me just fine, but I wound up at the passenger side instead of the driver’s. I made the deal.”
“What’s up, sweet thang?” Just looking for a date. “How much will that run me?” Twenty for a suck. Forty for straight sex. Fifty gets you half-and-half. I’m worth every penny. “Well, all right, then. That last one should get us started.” Just pull around back and I’ll meet you; sometimes the cops watch from the road.
“So I told him to drive around back. It happened fast, but he pulled me into the car. He took me to a house out by Nine Mile Road, not far from the highway. He… he assaulted me, Greg, but I got away. I arrested him. Wayne came out and made sure the guy got processed just right. No technicalities for the courts.”
“What do you mean, he assaulted you? You mean he – ”
She looked him straight in the eye. Not one tear. Not even a quiver. “It was a sexual assault.” He raped me, Greg. And despite that look on your face, it was far worse than what you’re imagining. So bad, I got to figure out a way for you never to know the details.
Greg stood, leaving Jenny on her own in the bed. “I don’t understand. How could they let this happen to you? How’d he get you out of that parking lot?”
“He sped right on out to the road. By the time Wayne got to his car, I guess a truck pulled in. The other guys were around back. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. It happened real fast, Greg.” No, it didn’t. “I’m all right.”
“Where was your gun?”
“I can’t carry when I’m a decoy.” Underneath the tight outfits she wore undercover, the bulge of Jenny’s Glock was as prominent as a road sign. “I guess we’ll have to rethink the clothing in the future.”
“You think that’s funny?”
“I’ll take humor anywhere I can find it right now.”
“You couldn’t fight him off? You’re a cop. I’ve seen how strong you are.”
“He was the one with the gun. I was lucky to get it away from him when I did, but the point was to come out alive.” I got my chance when he reached for the Vaseline on his dresser. He told me he needed it to get his fist where it would hurt me most. He kept his left hand on me while he reached with his gun hand. That’s how he lost his balance. “All I was focused on was getting out alive and getting back to you.”
Greg’s face was angry and injured at once. He worked his hands into claws while he paced the small room. “Baby, I’m sorry this happened to you. I can work more hours at the mill – ”
“You work plenty.” Jenny took her husband’s hand and smiled up at him, hoping he’d see her face past the bruises that were starting to color. “How many times have you heard me say I’d keep working even if we hit the lotto?”
Greg helped Jenny change into the fresh clothes he’d been told to bring to the hospital. He even thought to take along his fleece-lined corduroy rancher’s jacket for her, the one she loved to wear. When the nurse insisted she be wheeled to the exit, he did the honors. He even kept her mind busy in the truck on the way home to Lolo, making the antics down at the pulp mill sound like slapstick, the way he always did.
In their bed at home, though, with the lights off and with his back to her, he asked the question she knew he’d been thinking all along: “Why didn’t you kill him, Jenny? When you got the gun from him, why didn’t you do it?”
She gave him the answer she’d been working on since the hospital. “It wouldn’t have been right. And I would’ve known it. And so I wouldn’t have been the same person ever again. All the rest of it, I can get past.”
Greg didn’t speak to her again that night. If he ever turned to face her, Jenny didn’t notice. Instead, she slept clenching Sushi, the stuffed purple goldfish that Greg won for her throwing rings at their first county fair together, the summer before they got married. I told you I’d never let you down. That’s what he said when he won Sushi for her.
THE NEXT DAY, Greg called in sick so he could stay with Jenny. Everything might have been different if he’d gone to the mill. The phone rang around three in the afternoon. Jenny answered. It was Anne Lawson, one of the deputy county prosecutors. Jenny knew her pretty well from testifying in a few of her cases. She was tough but fair and always treated people with respect, even the defendants she imprisoned.
“You feeling a little better today, Jenny?”
“A hundred percent. Thanks.” Greg walked past her and patted her arm. It was the first time she’d felt his skin against hers since he helped her from the truck last night.
“You did real good getting out of there alive. And it’s a good case. We’re gonna get him. No plea bargaining either. I’ll carry the file myself through to trial.”
“Thanks, Anne.”
“Hey, you got a second?”
“Sure.”
“We had the arraignment this morning in front of Judge Parker. And the bail hearing.”
“Oh, yeah?” Greg was watching her now, concerned. She shouldn’t have let the tone of her voice say so much.
“Yeah. He’s got Rick Deaver representing him.” Jenny knew him too. He was a decent public defender, a straight shooter as far as those guys went. “Anyway, we went for a no-bail hold. We thought we had a good shot.”
“Did Judge Parker know it was me?” Jenny testified in his courtroom last year against a man who locked his wife in a closet for two days after she forgot to buy barbecue potato chips at the market. Parker said she did a good job getting the wife to cooperate with the Sheriff’s Department. Jenny found out later that Parker told the prosecuting attorney the woman should have killed the SOB and called it a day.
“He said afterward to tell you he’s sorry about what happened. But he also said there was more threat of witness intimidation with civilians. I pushed really hard, Jenny. I said your being a cop obviously didn’t stop him from-”
“What’d it get set at?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
“Does he own that place out near Nine Mile?”
“He inherited it from his aunt about eight years ago. It’s not much to look at, but with all that land, and the way prices have gone up – ”
“How long’s something like that take? If he puts up the house?”
“He doesn’t even have to use a bank. A bail bondsman will have him out in a few hours. I’m real sorry, Jenny.”
“Not your fault. I appreciate the call.”
The sound of glass shattering against the kitchen tile broke the silence that filled Jenny’s head as she hung up the phone. She looked up to see Greg’s juice glass scattered on the floor across the room, red V8 oozing into the grouted cracks.
“Am I supposed to clean that up?”
“Of course not.” Greg began plucking at the shards of glass.
“Be careful with that.” Jenny kneeled to help, but Greg pushed her hand away. “What exactly did I do wrong here? Why are you so angry at me?”
“I’m not angry at you,” Greg insisted. “I’m angry at him. I’m angry at everything else. I’m angry because I’m a human being. What I can’t figure out is you. How can you be so damn calm about all this?”
“You think I’m calm inside? You think my mind is peaceful today? You have no idea. It’s because of what’s inside me that I don’t have the energy for outbursts. I don’t have the luxury of a temper tantrum. What you’re going through is natural, but it’s not about me.”
“Damn it, Jenny. Don’t you see what’s going on here? He’s getting away with it. He did this to you, and nothing’s happening. He’s winning.”