“What’s going on? Are you all right?”
“The detectives are here. I’m fine. He was in the house again. While we were both sleeping. He broke in and he raped me again. It’s all on tape.”
There was a pause.
“Have the detectives seen the tape?”
She knew that he was looking for some sort of corroboration. He wanted them to verify her story for him.
“Yes. They’ve seen it. Josh?”
“Yes?”
“He did things to you too.”
She hadn’t intended on saying anything. She didn’t want him thinking about it as he drove home. She didn’t want him to be distracted and drive too fast and get into an accident. She didn’t want him playing scenes over in his head, each one more terrible than the previous one, trying to imagine what “things” Dale had done to him. But she didn’t want him discovering what had happened for the first time surrounded by cops, watching him getting raped by that fucking emaciated geek.
Josh’s voice sounded weak and unnaturally soft and timid.
“What things? How could he have done anything to me without waking me up? How could he have done anything to either of us? Did he drug us like we thought.”
“No. We were both awake.”
“Awake? How is that possible.”
“You need to see the tape. He killed us. Both of us. And then he…I don’t know what he did. He brought us back somehow.”
“Brought us back?”
“Just meet us at the station. I’m headed there with the detectives right now. They’re going to need a statement from both of us.”
“Let me speak to the detectives.”
Sarah handed the phone to Detective Lassiter.
“Hello, Mr. Lincoln.”
“What the hell is going on?”
“I have no clue. All I know is that I have a tape showing a multiple rape and murder and I am going across the street to arrest your neighbor and I need you to come down to the station to give a report.”
“Did you say multiple rape?”
“Mr. Lincoln, just meet us down at the station. There’s really nothing I can tell you right now. You’re going to have to see it for yourself. None of this makes sense to me.”
Detective Torres was on the radio calling for backup while Detective Lassiter was talking to the assistant DA trying to get a warrant for Dale’s arrest.
“I’m going to arrest him on probable cause but it would be nice to have a warrant to back me up. We’ve got him on tape committing two rapes along with two counts of attempted murder.”
Sarah was barely listening to the detective’s heated exchange with the assistant district attorney. She was too busy trying to imagine what must be going through Josh’s mind. She tried to imagine how he would react to seeing what Dale had done to him. All she could think about was Josh beating the hell out of those two guys in the parking garage and then him storming out of the bedroom with the nine-millimeter in his hands.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Sarah watched Dale through the twoway mirror. He looked so small as he sat at the metal table across from Detective Torres. The detective didn’t say a word to him, he just sat there staring at him. Dale had asked for his lawyer immediately after being arrested so they couldn’t talk to him until his lawyer arrived. What they could do is make him as uncomfortable as possible.
Detective Torres scowled at him and shook his head. Then he hissed and looked Dale over from head to toe, sneering in disapproval. He stood up and walked around the table glaring down at Dale, then stood behind him and lit a cigarette.
Dale’s discomfort was written all over his face. He was twitching and fidgeting, clearly anxious to speak to the detective and explain himself or flee from the man’s presence. He kept looking over his shoulder to try to catch sight of Torres as if he was afraid the man was preparing to attack him. When his lawyer stormed into the room, he let out a huge sigh of relief.
“Look at that piece of shit,” Detective Lassiter said as she stood beside Sarah, watching through the two-way mirror as Dale began to smirk and grin. “Don’t worry, we’re going to break him.”
Sarah nodded, still staring at Dale as he began to look more and more arrogant and confident now that his lawyer was present. Sarah wasn’t so sure that Dale was the type to break easy. There was something about him that appeared so deeply twisted and disturbed that it made it feel as if her skin were trying to crawl off her.
Dale’s attorney was a portly Italian man in his midfifties with hair plugs, a dye job, and an expensive Italian suit that looked like Armani. The man looked like a mafioso, gold pinkie ring and all. His eyes were hard and aloof. He walked past Detective Torres and plopped down in the chair the detective had previously occupied and slammed his briefcase down on the table. He looked expensive. Sarah wondered how in the hell Dale could afford him.
“I’d better get in there. Are you going to be okay by yourself for a minute? You can wait at my desk.”
“I-I want to see. Do you mind if I stay here? Until Josh gets here?”
The detective looked at her, then looked back into the room where Dale was leaning back in the metal chair, smiling confidently.
“Okay, but be quiet and don’t leave this room. The assistant DA will be here soon.”
She left Sarah and walked into the room to join Detective Torres. She walked over to Dale’s lawyer and stuck out her hand.
“I’m Detective Lassiter.”
“Raul Severino. So, what are we here for?”
“Your client here is being charged with rape and attempted murder. We’ve got him on tape assaulting the couple who lives across the street from him. He broke into their home, knocked them both unconscious with a hammer, raped the wife and sodomized her husband, then slit his throat and stabbed her in the chest.”
Sarah watched the attorney’s face for a reaction. He raised his eyebrow slightly and grimaced but that was it.
“You say you have all of this on tape?”
“All of it.”
“So, let’s see the tape.”
Detective Lassiter turned to her partner, who left the room, then came back minutes later pushing a TV and VCR on a cart. He plugged them both into the wall directly across from the mirror and turned them on. Then he popped in the tape. Just as the tape began to play, Josh walked into the room with Sarah followed by a young Asian woman in a tan suit who Sarah guessed was the assistant DA. Josh looked miserable. He had obviously been thinking about what Sarah had told him was on that tape during his entire drive to the station.
“What’s going on, Sarah?”
“They’re about to play the tape.”
“I’m Assistant District Attorney Patricia Yu.”
“Hello, Ms. Yu.” Sarah shook the woman’s hand and then turned back to watch the TV in the other room.
Once again, Sarah watched as Dale struck her over the head with a hammer and then attacked her husband, clubbing him repeatedly with the hammer and cracking Josh’s skull. She turned to look at Josh as the tape played. It was obvious that he was having a hard time watching it.
“How? How can I not remember this?”
Sarah took his hand.
“Just watch. It gets worse. Much worse.”
Josh met Sarah’s eyes and it was obvious he didn’t want to look away from her, didn’t want to see the rest of
