Taken by Tuesday

Judy shrugged. “I didn’t have a lot of money in it anyway.”

The nurse stepped back in the room, paused at the door. “Are you about done? The doctor wants to clean her up.”

“We are. I’ll go get the camera.”

“Your brother and sister-in-law are in the lobby.”

“I don’t want Zach to see me like this. He’ll freak.”

“It’s OK, Judy, we’ll keep him out until you’re ready,” Kim said.

“I’ll go tell them you’re all right,” Rick said.

He stepped out of the room and Officer Spear followed him.

Officer Greenwood stepped closer to the bed and lowered her voice. “Now that your boyfriend is gone, I have one more question.”

“OK?”

“Judy, there is no evidence to prove this man left the moment you lost consciousness. You were at his mercy for a long time and completely oblivious of his actions. I know the initial exam didn’t show evidence of a sexual assault. Are you sure he didn’t . . .”

Judy started to shake. “I don’t think so. My whole body hurts.”

“But you’re not sure.”

Judy looked at the nurse, her gaze met that of sympathy.

Kim sat beside the bed. “A rape exam consists of a pelvic exam, much like a pap only with more swabs, hair samples. Anything that could capture DNA. If you want your boyfriend—”

“We just started dating. We haven’t . . .”

“Fine. We can keep him out. This is your decision, Judy. If not knowing if this man sexually assaulted you is going to keep you up at night, then it might be better to take a closer look. If you’ve been sexually active in the past couple of days it might be difficult to tell.”

“I haven’t had sex in nearly a year.”

Kim sighed. “Then it will be easier to determine if something did happen while you were knocked out. It’s up to you.”

Officer Greenwood offered a different kind of advice. “DNA evidence is what puts most of these predators behind bars.”

Judy’s skin crawled. The thought of anyone spreading her open, scraping for answers, left her cold. But how could she move forward with the ugly question in her own head? The memory of the man’s hand on her thigh reminded her of the fear of him doing exactly what these women were worried about.

“My sister-in-law, Karen, is in the lobby. Can you ask her to come back during the exam?”

“Of course. I’ll tell the doctor of your decision.”

Alone in the room, Judy realized that her tears had completely dried up.

Chapter Twelve

He took it back . . . the first fifteen minutes in the lobby held nothing on the last forty-five. Rick had barely made it into the crowded waiting room to talk with Zach and Karen before the nurse followed him out to retrieve Karen. In hushed tones, Kim told them Judy agreed to a sexual assault exam because of the time she had been unconscious.

By the time Neil arrived in the ER, Zach and Rick were doing their best caged-animal impressions. They finally moved to the outside where they couldn’t scare the small children.

“I don’t think the media has wind of this yet,” Neil told them. “The garage is swarming with police. Once word got to them about whose sister Judy was, the team doubled.”

“Are there any cameras in the garage?”

“Only by the exit and the elevators.”

“Will we be able to view the tapes?”

Neil stood taller. “Remember Dean Brown? He worked on Eliza’s case.” Dean was a detective and connected to Gwen, Eliza, and Samantha. If strings could be pulled, he’d be the one to do it. “Dean’s working with the locals. Being a pseudo-father to the first lady of the state had its advantages. We should have something to look at in the next few hours.”

Zach reached for his phone. “I should call Mike and my parents.”

“Hey.”

They all turned around and found Karen, ghost white and stoic, standing in the automatic doors of the emergency room lobby.

Rick approached her first.

Karen shook her head. “She wasn’t. He didn’t.”

Rick held on to the wall beside him to stay standing. Thank God.

Zach slid a hand around his wife’s waist to hold her up. “Can we go in?”

“Yeah, but just for a few minutes. The stitches took longer than the doctor thought they would. This bastard carved into her arm.”

Rick remembered the bandage on her arm, but assumed it was scrapes from the garage floor.

“What?”

Karen turned her wrist up and made an X over the underside of her arm. “Could be a letter or just slash marks. One cut rather deep and it started to bleed a lot when the doctor started cleaning it.”

Rick turned to Neil. “I want this bastard.”

Neil clasped his shoulder. “We’ll get him.”

It was a promise, one Rick would hold his friend to.

Nightmares plagued her sleep. Memories, images, and the feeling of a stranger’s hands on her body threatened to rob her sanity. The first time she woke, Karen was at her side, the next her mother was there holding back her hair when the food they’d given her the night before emptied into a basin.

Much later, the pasty film in her mouth had her lips sticking together when she uttered the word water. Somewhere in the night, she’d been transferred into a larger room with more monitors and more IVs going into her.

Meg scrambled to her feet when Judy woke.

“Hey . . . here.” Her best friend looked like she’d slept in a chair. Meg offered her a pale orange cup with a straw. “Just a sip.”

It only took a sip to make her stomach reject the fluid. The passing of time was evident, yet she didn’t remember any of it.

“You’re not in New York.”

Meg tilted her head. “You know who I am?”

Judy’s swollen right eye made her wince when she smiled. “Of course. That’s a stupid question.”

“You didn’t yesterday. Oh, Judy. We’ve been so worried.”

“What? I remember leaving the ER, then I fell asleep.”

Meg held one of Judy’s hands in both of hers. “You fell asleep and didn’t want to wake up. They did a second CAT scan and found a little swelling.” She patted the side of her head. “The doctors brought you up here and said we just needed to wait.”

“Up here?” She looked around the room.

“ICU.”

That explained the amount of medical equipment, the glass doors. “Is my mom here? I remember her being here.”