“He wasn’t quite so neat this time,” Harry said, wincing in disgust.
That was when Sarah noticed a similar stain in the detective’s hair. The whole side of his head was caked with blood. His gray hair was almost completely red on one side. His neck and shirt were stained red-brown as well. Harry was right. Dale had been messy this time.
“What happened?”
“You must have fainted.”
“No. I mean what the hell happened? How did he get in? You were supposed to protect us.”
“I don’t know. I must have fallen asleep. But don’t worry. He really fucked up this time. We’ve got more than enough to arrest him now and this time we can make it stick. We’ve got him for breaking and entering, felony stalking, trespassing, attacking a police officer, and whatever else the DA can come up with.”
“But you can’t find him. Can you? You don’t know where he is, do you?”
“We’ll find him. In the meantime we’re going to move you into protective custody.”
“What if you never find him?”
“We will. I promise you we’re using every resource at our disposal.”
“But you still can’t promise me he won’t get away, can you? You still can’t promise me I won’t be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life, that I won’t wake up one night and see that sick fuck standing over me. You can’t promise me there won’t be any more bloody sheets in my laundry or bleach spots on the carpet, can you? He did it again, with a detective sitting right in my living room! Even with all of us armed with guns he just walked right in here and raped me again!”
“Sarah, I am sorry. I don’t know how it happened. I must have fallen asleep and he got in the house somehow and hit me with something.”
“No.” Josh spoke up. “He didn’t get in the house. He was already here. He was in here hiding somewhere, somewhere we didn’t look.”
“We looked everywhere, Josh. He wasn’t in here.”
“He had to have been. We must have missed something. Harry was sitting right here on the couch. Look how far that front door is from here. If someone had walked in that door Harry would have had plenty of time to react. And even if he somehow overpowered Harry, which I can’t really see happening, we would have at least heard the struggle upstairs.”
“So, he must have ambushed me somehow,” Harry agreed.
“He might have still come in through a window. You have vinyl window frames. They don’t make a lot of noise when you open them and they’re notoriously easy to break into. He could have popped open a window and crept into the house without anyone knowing he was here. He used a hammer in that video. If he caught Harry from behind with the hammer there wouldn’t have been much of a struggle,” Detective Lassiter said.
“I don’t know. It just doesn’t feel right.”
“Well, we’ll make sure the boys from CSU are thorough when they go over the place. We’ll have them dust everything for prints. We’re going to have to do another rape kit on you…and you too, Mr. Lincoln.” Detective Lassiter looked over at Harry. “Maybe even you too.”
“Awww, fuck. Are you kidding me?”
“You saw the tape. You saw what he did to them. We have to be thorough about this.”
“So, you don’t think we faked the tape?”
“I never did. I just couldn’t explain it any other way.”
“And now? Did Harry tell you about the case he worked on like ours?”
“He told me. It still doesn’t make sense to me. I mean, I believe in God. I even believe in the supernatural. But I just can’t believe that God would let someone like that have that kind of power. I’m sure if we thought about it long enough we could figure out how he’s doing it. There’s got to be a reason that doesn’t involve mystical powers.”
Harry shook his head and snorted in disgust.
“How is this any different than the power a parent has over their children? How many times have we seen parents abuse that power, neglect, beat, torture, and molest their own kids? Crackheads, junkies, and meth addicts have kids. Those young, innocent lives in the hands of people who would trade them for a dime bag. God gives immense power to really fucked-up people all the time. This really isn’t any different.”
Detective Lassiter held up her hand and turned her head away. She closed her eyes like she was trying to compose herself but her eyebrows furrowed and her nostrils flared.
“Harry, I’ve told you about this before. I’m not going to stand for you bashing my faith. You’re free to think what you want, just keep it to yourself because I don’t want to hear that shit.”
“You asked a question.”
“I’m serious, Harry. Back off.”
Harry waved his hands in surrender.
“You did ask.”
“So what are we going to do?” Sarah asked. “Where will we go? What about Josh’s job?”
“He’s going to have to miss a few days.”
“He’s extra-board. He’s not technically a full-time employee even though they work him harder than anybody. He can’t miss days. He doesn’t get any sick time or anything like that. They’ll fire him.”
“Well, does Dale know where you work?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. I can’t remember if we told him when we introduced ourselves or not.”
“Because if he does, he can follow you back to Sarah.”
Everyone turned to look at Sarah again. She felt more like a victim now than she had in days. Everyone had to look out for poor, poor Sarah. They had to make sure the boogeyman didn’t get her.
“Well, I have to work or we’ll lose our house.”
“Let the damn bank have it,” Sarah said. “I can’t stand to look at that bedroom anymore. And that smell. I’ll probably smell that for the rest of my life as it is. The house is worth half of what we paid for it now anyway. We’ll never get that equity back. We’ll just go back to being renters. This neighborhood is turning into a ghost town anyway.”
The two detectives stood beside Sarah’s husband, looking at the stain in the ceiling.
“I don’t know if I’d cry too much about losing this place now if I was you. No offense but it would creep me the hell out to live here,” Harry said, turning his back on the room and buttoning his sports jacket.
“That’s real sensitive, Harry.”
“No. He’s right. Fuck this house. Just give us some time to pack our things.”
“You can’t lose your job though. We can’t even get an apartment without a job and this isn’t like it was a few years ago when you could just walk right out and get another job. People are being laid off left and right. You need this job.”
Sarah was standing between her husband and the two detectives with her arms folded across her chest. She pointed at Josh’s chest as she spoke. Her fingernails had been bitten almost down to the cuticles. Josh withered. His entire body appeared to wilt in front of her.
“She’s right. I can’t get fired right now. I’m going to have to go to work.”
“Okay. Well, you’re just going to have to be careful. Watch to see if anyone is following you. Once we decide on what hotel we’re going to put you up in you’re going to want to make sure you drive past it a few times before you park just to see if anyone is following you. I’ll drive you home the first night just to show you what I mean.”
“Thanks, Detective. I don’t mean to put you out. We just really can’t afford for me to lose my job.”
“I’ll take him. Neither one of you can drive worth a damn.”
Detective Mike Torres stood in the doorway eating a bag of spicy Doritos and licking his fingers. He walked into the room swaggering like a B-movie matinee idol. Sarah couldn’t hold back her laughter. He looked like such an asshole. Even his melodramatic entrance was overdone and evidence of a massive unchecked ego. Detective Lassiter rolled her eyes.
“So, does that mean you believe us now?” Sarah asked.
