She wouldn't. She never wanted to see his face. If she did she would be dreaming of it every night for the rest of her life.
“Don’t tell anyone,” he growled at her. “Or I will find you again and I will lay the whammo on you.”
“I won’t,” she whimpered.
He gave her a shove in the back of the head to reinforce his warning. She took it with a small cry. Then she lay still, breathing in the humid, earthy smell of the damp soil and pine needles.
What is Roger going to say?
When she was sure he was gone, she fumbled with her clothing, lifting them from the damp earth. Numbly, she pulled her panties and sweats over her running shoes. Then she rose on wobbly legs and stumbled home to call the police.
1314 hours
“Adam-254?” Janice Koslowski’s dispatch voice was pleasantly female.
Officer Anthony Giovanni reached for the mike. “Go ahead. I’m at Wellesley and Division.”
“Deaconess Hospital for a rape report. Contact Charge Nurse for victim info. Deaconess for a rape report.”
Gio keyed the mike. “Copy.” Then he muttered, “Thanks a lot, Janice.”
A rape report. That meant a long interview, a long report and then he had to put the rape kit on property. The rape kit was a real pain in the ass, too, requiring some swabs to be placed in the drying room, some blood vials in the refrigerator and some property in the property bins. Gio looked at his watch. It was 1314 hours. This would definitely take him into overtime.
He drove past Franklin Park, wondering for a moment why a south side unit hadn’t been dispatched. Deaconess Hospital was clear on the other side of downtown. The answer came to him almost immediately, though. The rape must have happened on the north side, so a north side unit got sent.
As he dropped down the Division Hill and headed downtown, he did a little bit of quick figuring. Even with the rape kit, he should be done with the call before it got to be too late. Besides, the girl he was seeing that afternoon didn’t get off until three or so. That’d leave him plenty of time to get home, shower and change, rape report or not. And if he didn’t, he figured the girl would wait.
The girl, he thought. Melanie. Or Mallory. Whatever it was. She’d wait.
Six minutes later, he pulled into Deaconess, parking in a slot marked for emergency vehicles only. Before exiting the patrol car, he gathered up his face sheet for the report and a steno pad from his bag. Rape reports needed to be detailed and details were easier to write in a steno pad than the small pocket notepad all officers carried in their breast pocket.
The white-shirted security guard gave him a professional nod as he walked through the sliding doors to the emergency room. Gio nodded back with a small grin, ignoring the metal detector that loomed over fully half the entryway. He could hear the creak of his leather equipment as he walked up to the front desk.
“Charge nurse?” he asked the frumpy, gray-haired R.N. that sat behind the admissions desk doing paperwork. When she looked up, he gave her his best Giovanni hello smile.
The R.N. was unmoved. “No, I’m the Admissions nurse,” she said in a clipped tone. “Are you here for the rape victim?”
Gio nodded.
The R.N. pointed at an open door with a number three hanging above it. “She just finished the exam. Should be about thirty or forty minutes before they have the kit ready for you.”
“Thanks,” Gio said, still smiling.
The nurse gave him a curt nod and returned to her paperwork.
Gio walked to the room. Past the open door was a drawn curtain, providing privacy to the patient in the bed. He paused just inside the entryway. “Uh, ma’am?”
“Yes?” Her voice sounded small.
“Police officer, ma’am. Are you dressed?”
“Yes.”
Gio pushed the light curtain aside and stepped in. He saw a woman about thirty seated on the small bed. Her sandy brown hair was tousled and she wore a pale blue hospital gown. She watched Gio with a hint of shame in her expression.
He felt a flash of guilt for his earlier reaction to getting this call. Yeah, he might be a little late for a date that he wasn’t even going remember a month from now, but that was nothing compared to what this woman had just gone through.
“I’m Officer Giovanni, ma’am.”
She gave him a shaky nod.
Gio smiled softly. “If you want, you can call me Gio.”
The woman took a wavering breath. “Okay. Gio.” She said the word tentatively, as if she were trying it out. “Gio.”
“Can I get your name, ma’am?”
“I’m Patricia,” she answered, her voice still soft. “Patricia Reno.”
Gio noticed the tremor in her voice despite its soft tone. He moved slowly towards the bedside, then stopped. “Do you mind if I stand next to you?” he asked her.
Patricia looked at him for a moment, then nodded. “That’d be fine.”
“Thanks,” Gio said. He moved next to her bedside. Aware that a rape victim had experienced the ultimate loss of control during the assault, he always tried to find ways to restore some measure of control to their lives as quickly as possible. “Do you like to be called Patricia?” he asked. “Or Pat? Or is Mrs. Reno best?”
“Patricia,” she answered. “I go by Patricia.”
Gio still made no effort to open his steno pad. “Is it all right if I call you that?”
“Sure,” she said. “Of course.”
“Thank you,” Gio said. After a short pause, he continued. “Ma’am, I understand you were assaulted.”
Patricia nodded slowly, looking away. Her lip quivered. “He… I was raped.”
“Do you know who did this?”
She shook her head.
“When did this happen?”
“About forty minutes before I came up here, I guess.”
Gio opened his pad and noted the time frame.
“Where did this happen, ma’am?”
She let out a long, wavering sigh. “In a park, about five blocks from my house. I don’t know the name.”
“That’s all right. Where do you live?”
She told him her address. Gio wrote it down.
“Was it possibly Corbin Park?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “I know that one. It’s a little park. With some trees…”
Gio nodded. He knew which park she meant. It was about three blocks north of Corbin, just below the hill. He’d have to look up the name on his map.
“That’s good. That will help a lot,” Gio said in an encouraging voice. “Now, do you remember where in the park this happened?”
She took another wavering breath. “There’s a spot on the trail where there’s a break in the bushes. About in the middle of the park. I was running towards my house. It happened there.”
“Okay.” Gio smiled warmly. “Patricia, I am going to call the detectives and send them down there to see if they can find any evidence. Then I’ll be right back to talk with you about the rest of what happened. Will it be all right with you if I take some notes?”
“That’s fine. Could I call my husband, though?”
Gio nodded. “Of course. Or I can call him for you, if you like.”
She thought about it for a moment, then nodded her head. “Yes. That would be better.” She gave Gio the phone number.
“All right,” he said. “I’m going to call the detective, then your husband, then I will be back in about five minutes. Do you need anything? Would you like me to get the nurse?”
She shook her head. “No, I’ll… be okay.”
Gio turned to go.
“Officer?”
He stopped and faced her again. “Yes, Patricia?”
She swallowed nervously and gave him a plaintive look. “Tell me honestly. Is there any chance of catching this man?”
Gio returned her questioning stare with a frank, even gaze. “At this point, I don’t know yet, Patricia. I really don’t. But we are going to try. I promise you that.”
Patricia’s eyes teared up. “It’s just that…he said he’d come back and find me…”
“The most important thing,” Gio said, “is that you’re safe now. You’re here and you’re safe.”