Chapter 2

Shayne Roberts sat on the couch with her music blasting around her. She didn't care if it was too loud. No one was around, except Egypt to hear it. She wore her usual makeup, dark eye, even in the day. Her hair was wet from her shower and curly, but she didn't care. she didn't feel like straightening it just yet. She was shaking, which was a feeling she hadn't felt for years. But it felt new just the same. Her stomach was in knots and it almost stung to breathe. She took a deep breath and accepted a cup of coffee with a smile at Egypt. "Oh, god, I hate my life right now," she muttered with her strong, German accent.

Egypt smiled at her best friend, flopping down on the couch. "You have work today?" she asked thoughtfully, already knowing the answer. Even for a girl of seventeen, Shayne was obsessed with work. Not for the money either. She just loved working. Perhaps it was because both her parents were always away and she had nothing to do outside of school.

Shayne nodded, which was what Egypt expected. "Yeah, I've got a shoot at, uh... at five tonight," she answered quietly.

"Can't you cancel?"

"And stay in this hell on earth?" Shayne inquired, glancing around her house. "No. Never. I'm going to work."

Egypt smiled and shrugged. "Okay. What's the shoot of?"

"I'm not sure yet actually. I haven't looked at my schedule. Just don't care really anymore. It's all fun."

Egypt didn't reply because there was a knock on the door. She guessed it was either Shayne's "mom" Anna, boyfriend Nick, or Olivia and Elliot. But whoever it was, she jumped up to answer it. It was the detectives. "Hi, Shayne, they're here. Come on in."

Shayne stood up and smiled. Elliot noticed that for someone who had just been raped she looked unusually calm. Her shaking was visible and her eyes were swollen, but she didn't look afraid or angry or really show any emotion at all. "Hey," she said and Elliot immediately noticed her accent, as strong as it was. "Um... Please, sit down."

Good manners from a rape victim? It just wasn't normal in his experience. Not so soon afterwards at least. But once Elliot and Olivia were seated, Shayne offered them coffee before she flopped down on the couch again. "So..." she said, sounding slightly hesitant.

"How old are you?" Elliot asked.

"I'm seventeen. Why?"

"We need parental consent to talk to you then and we also need to talk to them. Do you know when they're going to be home?"

"Um... Well, my dad's girlfriend, who I call Mom, she'll be home any minute. But my dad's out of town right now."

"Where? Have you told him?"

"He's in Orlando right now. I haven't talked to him, no." She saw Elliot's surprised look and shook her head. "My dad's a pro wrestler. He has a championship match tonight. I can't ruin that for him. He's got enough on his mind with me here alone right now, okay? I didn't want to worry him, so I called Mom instead. She's on her way from the airport right now."

"The airport? Where was she when it happened?"

"She was in Boston. She's a designer. She had a show there."

"Okay. All right. Well, let's just start where we can until we get parental consent. Where were you in the time leading up to the attack?"

Shayne rubbed her hands together nervously. "I had a party to go to. My boyfriend, Nick, um... he, uh, he had a party and I went there. I was there all night until around, uh, four in the morning. That's when I came back home."

"Alone?" Olivia inquired. "At that time of night?"

"We're in a pretty good neighborhood. There's mostly just robberies around here and there's nothing they could really steal from me. I didn't have any money and my car has a tracking piece in it. All I would have to do is call the police. They'd have it back within hours. Nick drove me home, and he waited outside until he got our signal, and then he left."

"Your signal?" Elliot repeated.

"Yeah, when he drives me home late at night, he waits outside until I get inside. We arrange a different signal every time. That time, it was me flashing my bathroom lights three times. But this man was waiting for me in my room. And he knew our signal somehow... And he made it."

"Do you ever make a signal to tell him you're not okay?"

"Sort of. If I don't make the signal in three minutes, he calls me and if I don't answer, he calls the police."

"Has that ever happened before?"

"No. Like I said, we're in a pretty nice area."

"Did you see anyone following you or anything?"

"Kinda hard to tell when you're making out with your boyfriend," Shayne muttered. "Sorry. I wasn't paying any attention to whatever was around us. We hadn't been alone all night, and all." She stood when the door was knocked on again. This time, it was Anna. They hugged for a moment, rocking back and forth.

"You okay? Did you call your dad?" Anna asked.

"No. Not yet. I'll call him later, like I always do and I may or may not tell him."

"Shayne, you know how angry he gets when you hide things from him, and he can always tell."

"Well, he won't this time, Mom. He'll be telling me about his match and I probably won't even get a word in, all right? Stop worrying. The detectives wanted to talk to you anyway."

Anna kissed Shayne's forehead. Olivia stood and walked out with her. This left Elliot and Shayne alone. Shayne jumped over the back of the couch to settle herself in the same position. "Did you recognize the man?" Elliot asked.

"Um... Well, sort of. His eyes, I think I saw them before, but it was dark. And lots of people have the same eyes."

Elliot nodded. "Can you describe him?"

"Tall..."

"How tall?"

"Well, I'm five foot ten. He was a few inches taller than me. Six foot-ish, maybe a little over that. Muscular, very muscular, maybe 200 pounds. Uh... He had a tattoo on his neck, but I don't know what it as of. It looked like some kind of writing, but I don't know for sure."

"Okay. How high on his neck?"

"Base of his neck, on the back."

Elliot nodded. "Was it in a special kind of writing or a specific color?"

"It was red and I don't know what kind of writing it was, but it looked like there was blood coming down from the letters."

Elliot nodded again. "Can you describe what he did?"

Shayne looked down at her hands nervously. "Well, I walked into my room and he was waiting for me. He, uh... He pushed me down onto the bed, told me not to move. He made the signal and waited a few minutes in the bathroom. Then he came back and he wasn't wearing any clothes. He just started talking. He knew everything about me. My name, my age, my birthday, where I came from, why I came here, how I met Dad. He knew my dog's name and my license plate, my social security number, everything. And then he pulled me onto the bed and he raped me." She paused for a moment. And for the first time, she looked completely exhausted, depressed, and furious. "When he finished, he stood up and he kissed me, like he was my boyfriend. And he said, 'That's how Nick does it, right?'"

"Did he use a condom?"

Shayne nodded quietly. "Yeah. He did part of the time. But he took it off after a while... I don't know why."

"Okay. We need to take you to the hospital to get a rape kit done, check for fluids, hairs. We also need to look around your room, see how he might've gotten in, all that. All right?"

"I don't want a rape kit done," Shayne said defiantly.

"We need to look for fluids that will help us build a case against him."

"Take the sheets and the carpet and everything in my room if you want, but I'm not having a rape kit done. Okay? I don't want one done, and it's not going to be done. Period."

Elliot nodded again, frowning. Why she was refusing a rape kit, he had no idea. But it wasn't his job to question such things. She gave a way to give them the exact same DNA, so he decided to leave it there. And it would have to work. If not, they would have to move onto the other evidence.