"I hope you catch him," Dohner said, standing up and giving his hand to Hemmings.
Then he went outside and got in his car and started the engine and called Police Radio and reported that Fourteen Twenty-Three was back in service.
Mary Elizabeth Flannery looked with frightened eyes at the stranger who had entered the curtained cubicle.
"Miss Flannery, my name is Dick Hemmings, and I'm a detective. How are you doing?"
She did not reply.
"Is there anyone you would like me to call? Your parents, maybe? A friend?"
"No!" Mary Elizabeth Flannery said, as if the idea horrified her.
"I know what you've been going through," Hemmings said.
"No, you don't!"
"But the sooner we can learn something about the man who did this to you, the better," Hemmings went on, gently. "Would it be all right if I asked you a couple of questions?"
She eyed him suspiciously, but didn't reply.
"I need your address, first of all," he said.
"210 Henry Avenue," she said. "Apartment C. They call it the Fernwood."
"That's one of those garden apartments, isn't it?" Hemmings asked, as a mental image of that area of Roxborough came to his mind.
"Yes," she said.
"How do you think this man got into your apartment?" Hemmings asked.
"How do I know?" she snapped.
"Is there a fire escape? Were there open windows?"
"There's a back," she said. "Little patios."
"You live on the ground floor?"
"Yes."
"Did you hear any noises, a window breaking, a door being forced, by any chance?"
"The windows were open," she said. "It's been hot."
She thinks I'm stupid, but at least she's talking.
"When were you first aware that this man was in your apartment?"
"When I saw him," Mary Elizabeth Flannery snapped.
"Where were you, what were you doing, when you first saw him?"
"I was in my living room, watching television."
"And where was he, when you first saw him?"
"Just standing there, in the door to my bedroom." She grimaced.
"Can you describe him?"
"No."
"Not at all?"
"He was wearing black overalls, coveralls, whatever they call them, and a mask. That's all I could see."
"What kind of a mask?"
"A mask, over his eyes."
"I mean, what color was the mask? Did you notice?"
"It was a Lone Ranger mask," she said. "The kind with a flap over the mouth."
"Black?"
"Yes, black," she said.
The Lone Ranger, Hemmings thought, wore a mask that covered his eyes only, not with a flap over his mouth.
"Did he have anything with him?"
"He had a knife," she said, impatiently, as if she expected Hemmings to know all these details.
"What kind of knife?"
"A butcher knife."
"Was it your knife?"
"No, it wasn't my knife."
"Do you remember if the windows in your bedroom were open?" Hemmings asked.
"I told you they were; it was hot."
"How big was the knife?" Hemmings asked, extending his index fingers as he spoke, and then moving his hands apart.
"That big," Mary Elizabeth Flannery said, when she thought his hands were as far apart as the knife had been large.
"And it was a butcher knife, right?"
"I told you that."
"I mean, it couldn't have been a hunting knife, or a bayonet, or some other kind of a knife?"
"I know a butcher knife when I see one."
"Miss Flannery, I'm on your side."
"Why do you let people like that run the streets, then?" she challenged.
"We try not to," Hemmings said, sincerely. "We try to catch them, and then to see that they're put behind bars. But we need help to catch them."
There was no response to this.
"What happened then, Miss Flannery?" Hemmings asked, gently.
"I told the cop what that filthy bastard did to me."
"But I have to know, and in some detail, I'm afraid," Hemmings said.
"He threatened me with his knife, and made me… oh, Jesus!"
"Can you tell me exactly what he said?"
She snorted. "You want to know exactly what he said? I'll tell you exactly what he said, he said'Very nice,' that's what he said."
"What kind of a voice did he have?"
"What do you mean, what kind of a voice?"
"Was it deep, or high pitched? Did he have any kind of an accent?"
"He had a regular voice," she said. "No accent."
"And then what happened?"
"Then… he came over to me, and cut my clothes."
"You were sitting where? In an armchair? On a couch?"
"I was laying down on my couch."
"What part of your clothes did he cut? What were you wearing?"
She flushed and turned her face away from him.
"Jesus!" she said.
"Miss Flannery," Hemmings said. "Sometimes, when it's hot like this, and my air conditioner's not working, and there's nobody around to see me, when I watch television, I do it in my underwear. Was that what happened with you?"
She nodded her head, but still kept her head turned away from him.
"Bra and pants, is that what you were wearing, because it was so damned hot?"
"Just my panties," she said, faintly, after a moment, and then she flared. "You're trying to make it sound like it was my fault."
"No, I'm not, Miss Flannery," Hemmings said, with all the sincerity he could muster.
He probably would have broken in if you had been wearing an anklelength fur coat, but looking through the window and seeing you wearing nothing but your underpants didn't discourage him any, either, Hemmings thought. And was immediately ashamed of himself.
"You say he cut your clothing? You mean your underclothes?"
"He came over to me and put the knife down the front of my panties and jerked it," she said.
"Did he say anything? Or did you?"
"I tried to scream when I first saw him, and couldn't," she said. " And then when he was using the knife, I was too scared to scream."
"Did he say anything?"
"He said, 'Let's see the rest,'" she said, very faintly.
"What was he doing with the knife at this time?" Hemmings asked, gently.
"Oh, my God! Is thisnecessary!"
"Yes, ma'am, I'm afraid it is."
"He was pushing me in the breast with it, with the point."
She turned her face to look at him, then as quickly averted it.
"Then he said, 'Take your panties off,' and I did," she said, quickly, softly. "And then he took me into my bedroom and made me get on the bed, and then he tied me to the bed-"
"What did he use to tie you to the bed?"
"My panty hose," she said. "He went in my dresser and got panty hose and tied me up."
"Up?" Hemmings interrupted. "Or to the bed?"
"To the bed," she said. "I've got a brass bed, and he tied me to the headboard and footboard."
"On your back? Or on your stomach?"
"On my back," she said.
"And then what?"
"Then he started talking dirty," she said.
"Do you remember what he said?"
"What do you think?" she flared.
"Can you tell me exactly what he said?" Hemmings asked.
"Jesus!" she said. "He used words like 'teats' and… and 'pussy' and words like that."
"Anything else?"
"Isn't that enough? Or do you mean what he did to me?"
"Anything and everything you can tell me, Miss Flannery…"