Chapter 24
They pulled into Corinne's house around 2:30 in the morning. They had driven straight down from Boston to Stamford, which took around 3 hours since there wasn't really a lot of traffic on the road. She walked to the back for him to open the trunk but he didn't until he was at the back as well so she wouldn't pick up her own bag. If there was one thing his father had taught him, it was never let a lady carry anything.
"Matt, come on. The house is two feet away from the car. I can carry my own stuff."
He just started walking towards the house. "See. That was easy," He said smiling down at her. She was about to argue again, but seeing the adorable proud smile on his face and she just couldn't say anything. She just shook her head and opened the door and reached in to turn on the light, allowing Matt to enter the house first and then closely followed.
"All right, let me go fix up the guest bedroom for you."
"Oh you don't have to do that, I'll just sleep on the couch."
"The couch? Ooh, you don't want to sleep in that couch. It's old, and basically built for umm shall we say non-wrestlers to sleep on."
"Well I want to sleep downstairs just in case."
"Matt, I'm not going to let you sleep downstairs." "Why not?"
"Because..." The phone rang before she could finish her excuse. Without thinking, she reached over to pick up the phone, and noted that the light on her answering machine was blinking quickly and fast almost like the lights in the city at night.
"Hello?"
"You're home."
"Who is this?" Corinne could feel her blood running cold at the quiet voice on the other line. Matt looked over to where Corinne was standing and immediately walked to the front door and made sure it was locked.
"You can tell your little boyfriend to relax. I won't go after you tonight. It's too soon."
"What do you want?"
"Turn on the television and see what'll happen to you ..." He laughed harshly and hung up the phone.
Corinne turned on the television and watched in horror as the news depicted an 18-year-old college student who had been raped and brutally murdered in New Haven.
"The suspect is armed and extremely dangerous. The victim's neighbors who found the rapist just as he jumped from the victim's 2nd story balcony has given the police a very good sketch of the suspect and through it they have been able to identify the suspect as Benjamin Ribiero. Family members of the suspect are aware of the situation and are asking the suspect to turn himself in. If anyone has any information on the whereabouts of Benjamin Ribiero, please call the New Haven Police at 555-0909."
Matt turned off the television. "What'd he say to you?" He asked concernedly.
"He killed that girl Matt! And he said he's gonna do the same thing to me."
"No, he's not. What exactly did he say?" Matt asked, picking up the phone to call the police.
"He said," She sat down on the couch slowly, "That he's not coming after me tonight. It's too obvious."
"That's it, I'm calling the cops."
She just nodded and waited while Matt spoke with the police. "Okay, why don't you go to bed. They're sending a car over here now."
"Thanks Matt." She didn't really know what to say, just walked up the stairs to her bedroom, while Matt paced the living room waiting for the cop to come. Matt quickly walked outside when he saw the police car pull up to the side of the road.
"Hello Officer."
"Are you Matt Hardy?"
"Yes, I was just wondering if..."
"Don't you worry about it sir. We'll have someone posted out here every single hour of every day until this psycho is caught. Can you believe that he's related to a cop?"
"Really?"
"Yeah. Apparently the guy snapped after the cop brother made him spend a night in jail. He apparently flipped out and when he got out, he found out that both of his brothers disowned him. So...this is the girl that he first attacked?"
"Well, yeah. I'm not really sure if she's the first." Matt said slowly.
"Actually, reports say that since she," The cop said nodding up towards the house, "began pressing charges and his name got out, about three other girls have filed charges for rape against him."
"God damn."
"Yeah. It's serious now."
Matt began to walk away from the cop but was stopped again.
"Oh, um excuse me, you're a wrestler right?"
"Yeah."
"Could you sign this for my daughter. She's a big fan." The cop said extending a Dunkin Donuts napkin towards Matt.
"No problem. Good night Officer."
"Good night."
Matt walked back to the house to find Corinne sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee, typing furiously into her laptop.
She looked up as he walked in. "I put clean sheets in the guest room, which is upstairs and to the left and I emptied the..."
"Corinne, what are you doing?"
"Well, it's almost 4 am. I figure if I just stay up until 6:30 then get ready for work, I'd be able to get more work done that if I slept for 2 and a half hours and tried to get up in the morning. You should go to bed."
"Let me see what you're writing first." He said, sitting down on the couch next to her.
She quickly closed the laptop. "You really should go to bed."
"And you should really let me see what you're writing."
"No. It's not turning out the way I want it to be."
"Come on please." He pleaded, pouting his lips.
She laughed. "I swear, I've never seen a grown man pout before."
"Ha!" He said, triumphantly pulling the laptop from her and lifted the top.
I've been watching wrestling since I was six years old. In fact, one of my earliest memories as a child was sneaking downstairs in the middle of the night to watch it, a particular event that stayed in my mind was Elizabeth and Macho Man Randy Savage, getting married in the middle of the ring. It was almost ironic that when I was 8 years old, my family and I moved to Stamford, Ct. I had no idea at the age of 8, how much that move would affect my life. So I continued watching wrestling, of course at the time, or any time for that matter, it wasn't the "cool" think to be watching it especially when you're a girl and you're considered to be one of the "smart" girls, meaning, I was labeled. While I was supposed to be curling up in bed reading Pride and Prejudice (which is a great book by the way and everyone should do that at one time or another in their lives) I was also a closet wrestling fanatic. Never missing a single night of RAW, Smackdown, LiveWire, Superstars, you name it I watched it. No one really bugged me about it (cause no one knew about it), except for my father who believed and I think deep down still does believe, that I will eventually get over this obsession of mine. I believe he once said, "As long as you don't go to one of their shows, I don't care." And then it happened... Senior prom.... the first few hours of the After Prom one of those parent sponsored little shindigs to keep the kids from getting drunk and driving...there was a raffle. And I put every single ticket that I could find in that box that said...WWF Live Show, Sunday July 15th, New Haven Coliseum. Of course weird looks were given to me, but hey...that's where little brothers come in handy. So after a few, "Oh, my little brother loves wrestling," remarks (he hated it by the way, still does), and a few jokes from the friends, who knew about "the obsession", I was in the running well not really, it was kind of a shoe in, I won two tickets to a house show. So, those of you who were in New Haven, July 15th, yeah that was me in the third row, screaming and hollering when the Hardy Boys came out, and yes, cursing out Stacey Keibler and Torrie Wilson. But that's beside the point. After that first house show, I was rehooked on wrestling. This time, those live shows. It was awesome, for an almost life long fan to be able to witness matches that no one else would ever see. There was something about that exclusiveness that appealed to me.... Fast forward four years, I'm out of college and yep you guessed it, back in Stamford working for this fine, billion-dollar company. My father has stopped trying to understand me...guess it's for the best, but he still loves those free shirts I bring home to him, and my brother still hates wrestling.
"How long did it take you to write that?"
"Like 10 minutes. Now I have to bring it full circle and talk about the house shows I just saw this weekend."
"Was that really true? That you won the tickets to a house show?"
"Yeah. That's um, how I met Bobby. Ben's brother."
"Oh."
"So...what'd you think?"
"I think it's really good."
"Honestly?"
"Well..."
"I'm taking too long to get to the point."
"No. I mean, you need to include all of that stuff cause it gives a lot of background to you. It's your first article right? So you need to introduce yourself. I just thought it'd be more effective if you gave them more information on you. What you do now, what you want to do. You know what I mean."
"All right, I'm going upstairs. Um...I'm coming to work with you tomorrow." Matt said turning around from the stairs.
"Why? I'll be fine Matt, do you realize the amount of security that building has?"
"But still..."
"Matt please just go to bed. I know you're exhausted." Corinne said, really not wanting to argue with him anymore.
"Fine, but I'll be up bright and early to go with you to work...agreed?" Matt waited for her to agree to his plan.
"Sure...if you get up." She answered back.
"I will...Night Corinne."
They pulled into Corinne's house around 2:30 in the morning. They had driven straight down from Boston to Stamford, which took around 3 hours since there wasn't really a lot of traffic on the road. She walked to the back for him to open the trunk but he didn't until he was at the back as well so she wouldn't pick up her own bag. If there was one thing his father had taught him, it was never let a lady carry anything.
"Matt, come on. The house is two feet away from the car. I can carry my own stuff."
He just started walking towards the house. "See. That was easy," He said smiling down at her. She was about to argue again, but seeing the adorable proud smile on his face and she just couldn't say anything. She just shook her head and opened the door and reached in to turn on the light, allowing Matt to enter the house first and then closely followed.
"All right, let me go fix up the guest bedroom for you."
"Oh you don't have to do that, I'll just sleep on the couch."
"The couch? Ooh, you don't want to sleep in that couch. It's old, and basically built for umm shall we say non-wrestlers to sleep on."
"Well I want to sleep downstairs just in case."
"Matt, I'm not going to let you sleep downstairs." "Why not?"
"Because..." The phone rang before she could finish her excuse. Without thinking, she reached over to pick up the phone, and noted that the light on her answering machine was blinking quickly and fast almost like the lights in the city at night.
"Hello?"
"You're home."
"Who is this?" Corinne could feel her blood running cold at the quiet voice on the other line. Matt looked over to where Corinne was standing and immediately walked to the front door and made sure it was locked.
"You can tell your little boyfriend to relax. I won't go after you tonight. It's too soon."
"What do you want?"
"Turn on the television and see what'll happen to you ..." He laughed harshly and hung up the phone.
Corinne turned on the television and watched in horror as the news depicted an 18-year-old college student who had been raped and brutally murdered in New Haven.
"The suspect is armed and extremely dangerous. The victim's neighbors who found the rapist just as he jumped from the victim's 2nd story balcony has given the police a very good sketch of the suspect and through it they have been able to identify the suspect as Benjamin Ribiero. Family members of the suspect are aware of the situation and are asking the suspect to turn himself in. If anyone has any information on the whereabouts of Benjamin Ribiero, please call the New Haven Police at 555-0909."
Matt turned off the television. "What'd he say to you?" He asked concernedly.
"He killed that girl Matt! And he said he's gonna do the same thing to me."
"No, he's not. What exactly did he say?" Matt asked, picking up the phone to call the police.
"He said," She sat down on the couch slowly, "That he's not coming after me tonight. It's too obvious."
"That's it, I'm calling the cops."
She just nodded and waited while Matt spoke with the police. "Okay, why don't you go to bed. They're sending a car over here now."
"Thanks Matt." She didn't really know what to say, just walked up the stairs to her bedroom, while Matt paced the living room waiting for the cop to come. Matt quickly walked outside when he saw the police car pull up to the side of the road.
"Hello Officer."
"Are you Matt Hardy?"
"Yes, I was just wondering if..."
"Don't you worry about it sir. We'll have someone posted out here every single hour of every day until this psycho is caught. Can you believe that he's related to a cop?"
"Really?"
"Yeah. Apparently the guy snapped after the cop brother made him spend a night in jail. He apparently flipped out and when he got out, he found out that both of his brothers disowned him. So...this is the girl that he first attacked?"
"Well, yeah. I'm not really sure if she's the first." Matt said slowly.
"Actually, reports say that since she," The cop said nodding up towards the house, "began pressing charges and his name got out, about three other girls have filed charges for rape against him."
"God damn."
"Yeah. It's serious now."
Matt began to walk away from the cop but was stopped again.
"Oh, um excuse me, you're a wrestler right?"
"Yeah."
"Could you sign this for my daughter. She's a big fan." The cop said extending a Dunkin Donuts napkin towards Matt.
"No problem. Good night Officer."
"Good night."
Matt walked back to the house to find Corinne sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee, typing furiously into her laptop.
She looked up as he walked in. "I put clean sheets in the guest room, which is upstairs and to the left and I emptied the..."
"Corinne, what are you doing?"
"Well, it's almost 4 am. I figure if I just stay up until 6:30 then get ready for work, I'd be able to get more work done that if I slept for 2 and a half hours and tried to get up in the morning. You should go to bed."
"Let me see what you're writing first." He said, sitting down on the couch next to her.
She quickly closed the laptop. "You really should go to bed."
"And you should really let me see what you're writing."
"No. It's not turning out the way I want it to be."
"Come on please." He pleaded, pouting his lips.
She laughed. "I swear, I've never seen a grown man pout before."
"Ha!" He said, triumphantly pulling the laptop from her and lifted the top.
I've been watching wrestling since I was six years old. In fact, one of my earliest memories as a child was sneaking downstairs in the middle of the night to watch it, a particular event that stayed in my mind was Elizabeth and Macho Man Randy Savage, getting married in the middle of the ring. It was almost ironic that when I was 8 years old, my family and I moved to Stamford, Ct. I had no idea at the age of 8, how much that move would affect my life. So I continued watching wrestling, of course at the time, or any time for that matter, it wasn't the "cool" think to be watching it especially when you're a girl and you're considered to be one of the "smart" girls, meaning, I was labeled. While I was supposed to be curling up in bed reading Pride and Prejudice (which is a great book by the way and everyone should do that at one time or another in their lives) I was also a closet wrestling fanatic. Never missing a single night of RAW, Smackdown, LiveWire, Superstars, you name it I watched it. No one really bugged me about it (cause no one knew about it), except for my father who believed and I think deep down still does believe, that I will eventually get over this obsession of mine. I believe he once said, "As long as you don't go to one of their shows, I don't care." And then it happened... Senior prom.... the first few hours of the After Prom one of those parent sponsored little shindigs to keep the kids from getting drunk and driving...there was a raffle. And I put every single ticket that I could find in that box that said...WWF Live Show, Sunday July 15th, New Haven Coliseum. Of course weird looks were given to me, but hey...that's where little brothers come in handy. So after a few, "Oh, my little brother loves wrestling," remarks (he hated it by the way, still does), and a few jokes from the friends, who knew about "the obsession", I was in the running well not really, it was kind of a shoe in, I won two tickets to a house show. So, those of you who were in New Haven, July 15th, yeah that was me in the third row, screaming and hollering when the Hardy Boys came out, and yes, cursing out Stacey Keibler and Torrie Wilson. But that's beside the point. After that first house show, I was rehooked on wrestling. This time, those live shows. It was awesome, for an almost life long fan to be able to witness matches that no one else would ever see. There was something about that exclusiveness that appealed to me.... Fast forward four years, I'm out of college and yep you guessed it, back in Stamford working for this fine, billion-dollar company. My father has stopped trying to understand me...guess it's for the best, but he still loves those free shirts I bring home to him, and my brother still hates wrestling.
"How long did it take you to write that?"
"Like 10 minutes. Now I have to bring it full circle and talk about the house shows I just saw this weekend."
"Was that really true? That you won the tickets to a house show?"
"Yeah. That's um, how I met Bobby. Ben's brother."
"Oh."
"So...what'd you think?"
"I think it's really good."
"Honestly?"
"Well..."
"I'm taking too long to get to the point."
"No. I mean, you need to include all of that stuff cause it gives a lot of background to you. It's your first article right? So you need to introduce yourself. I just thought it'd be more effective if you gave them more information on you. What you do now, what you want to do. You know what I mean."
"All right, I'm going upstairs. Um...I'm coming to work with you tomorrow." Matt said turning around from the stairs.
"Why? I'll be fine Matt, do you realize the amount of security that building has?"
"But still..."
"Matt please just go to bed. I know you're exhausted." Corinne said, really not wanting to argue with him anymore.
"Fine, but I'll be up bright and early to go with you to work...agreed?" Matt waited for her to agree to his plan.
"Sure...if you get up." She answered back.
"I will...Night Corinne."