Chapter 3 The first meeting
Thursday night Harmoni woke up, still slightly groggy from the morphine. She looked around trying to think why she was in a hospital bed, slowly sitting up she made her way off the bed and out the door of her white sterile room. Pain struck and it all came flooding back. In a daze, tears were streamed down her face as she let out a soft panicked scream barely audible to the doctors and patients that lined the corridor, looking up from the newspaper he was reading, Ian Hodginkson noticed Harmoni slowly walking his way, he saw her eyes for the first time, it's what he had been wanting to do since he saw that picture of her and her dad, her left eye was a deep and striking blue and her right was a light green almost the colour of the lake. She is so beautiful he thought to himself, she had a perfect face, small and round with a little straight nose, a few freckles dotted on her pale cheeks, she was thin but not too thin and tiny at about only 5 foot 4". Her hair was another striking feature, deep black, and so curly it puffed up around her, almost liked an old fashioned doll, she was 23 but only looked around 18. Remembering his orders, Ian sprang from his chair, rushing over to take Harmoni back to her room; he grabbed hold of her arm and turned her around to slowly walk her back in. Ian felt a great deal of excitement being able to touch her, this girl that he had been guarding in shifts since her attack, instructed to watch her room incase the purp tried to get in to finish what he had started. The town was very fortunate to have a great deal of resources when it came to the police department so sparing a cop on each shift for a few days was no problem, especially in the uneventful winter. Harmoni looked up at him blankly as he guided her to her bed realizing that she probably wanted an explanation, so taking her tiny hands in his as a way to comfort her, Ian reminded Harmoni of what had happened, and let her know that he was hear to look after her. Soon after Doctor Strom came strutting into the room, a chart in her hand and a frown on her overly made-up face.
"Miss Michales I see you're awake finally" she commented while skimming over the chart with her eyes and finger, "No more walking around for at least another day, you might tear your stitches, your lucky to be here" She spoke very formally and rather to the point, talking like a high-class business woman rather than a doctor, "The blade missed your liver by three millimeters, you should be alright to leave tomorrow morning but you will still need more rest at home"
With that she made her way out of the room in her expensive high heals not giving Harmoni any time to reply or ask more questions.
After this Harmoni was obviously still in shock, she lay on her bed almost looking through Ian rather than at him. He could tell she was reliving what she had been through.
Waiting in silence for several minutes he finally added "We are going to have to ask you some questions about what happened, but you just rest for now" he said gently, feeling horrible that he couldn't do more for her. Harmoni snapped back to reality looking at him for a few moments before bursting into a fresh set of tears. The best she could she lent over and hugged him getting a sense of security from this cold and scary place. Ian lent into her stroking her hair gently. "Don't cry, it's ok now. No one is going to hurt you"
The next morning before she left hospital Harmoni gave her account of what had happened to Chief Mike, who was disappointed to hear that the assailant was wearing a mask and cape, making it impossible to get any sort of I.d. She mentioned that he might have been watching her for a while, remembering the rustling coming from her garden that she thought was the neighbors cat.
"The mask looked like one of those ones painted just above the theatre entrance" she offered, "just white, plain with a big smile across it, and his cape was black, it was very long, and the material must have been thick cotton, it looked old too". Harmoni also mentioned that when she hit the man he let out a shriek, he sounded elderly she said, "Like the voice of a middle aged smoker or something".
When Harmoni got home, she found that it had been cleaned up, the broken window replaced and her step-father Shawn waiting for her with a welcome home dinner of lamb shanks and all the trimmings. Shawn was the only family she had left now after her mother died in a car accident while coming home from work. Harmoni was only 17 so she moved back from New York to Greenlake to live with her step-father, as everyone on her mothers side had disowned the poor girl and her mum. When they found out that her mother was pregnant at a young age they just disowned her and never spoke of her again.
"Oh my poor girl, I'm so glad your alright, come here give me a hug" he fussed as soon as Harmoni came through the door. "I was so worried about you, I came to visit you in the hospital yesterday morning but you will still asleep" he said.
"Don't worry I'm fine Dad, but I am pretty hungry, the hospital food was crap" replied Harmoni, happy to see her father, Shawn had been her father ever since he met her mother several years earlier and she couldn't picture life without him at times. She just didn't want him to worry that she was terrifyed to be home. She kept telling herself that she would be alright but Harmoni wasn't so sure it was working.
Shawn stayed with Harmoni all afternoon and until 6pm, he wished that he could stay the rest of the night but he had to get back to his own life and family. Harmoni was unhappy to see her father go, but politely and slightly drunk saw him out to the door as he got into his tan station wagon and left. Being on her own again her mood drastically turned, Harmoni looked around her living room and started sobbing, she went to her once cozy and safe bed with the biggest knife she had in the kitchen put under her pillow for some sort of piece of mind and wept until sleep slowly took her exhausted body and mind away to a more peaceful place.
