From the corner of his eye Jeffrey could see Reva walking into the hospital. It looked like she was storming towards him.
"You! You had something to do with this, didn't you?" Reva could not believe the man had the gall to still be here. "I told you to stay away from Sandy! My son doesn't need your type of friendship!"
A friendship? Is that all she thought they had? For someone who was supposedly psychic, Reva sure had a bad habit of missing things. Jeffrey got up to say something, but once again, he couldn't form the words. He knew that she was right. If he had stayed away from Sandy, none of this would have ever happened.
"You're not even denying it, are you O'Neil? Tell me what my son ever did to deserve this!"
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"Did you run it through the database?" Frank asked the CSI who was working Sandy's case.
"The semen you found inside the victim didn't match anyone in the criminal database… But when I ran it through the government database I got a match." He clicked his mouse and a picture of Jeffrey O'Neil, FBI agent, came up on the screen.
"O'Neil?" Frank was completely floored (Jeffrey was FBI? And a rapist?), but within a few minutes he had managed to compose himself. "This is enough to make an arrest…" he mumbled.
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"My son is in surgery right now, fighting for his life because of you!"
Frank walked up behind Jeffrey and grabbed his arm. "Jeffrey O'Neil…" he said, snapping the cuffs onto Jeffrey's wrists. "You are under arrest for the rape and attempted murder of Sandy Foster. You have the right to remain silent. If you choose to give up that right, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you free of charge. Do you understand these rights as I have read them to you?"
"You… Did this... Yourself…" Reva could barely speak. She knew that Jeffrey was bad, but she never would have thought… Did Frank just say rape? "I will KILL you Jeffrey O'Neil!" She lunged towards him to make a grab for his throat, her eyes blazing with pure, unadulterated hate.
Frank pushed her away. "It's all right Reva. We're going to put him away for a long time."
"I didn't do this!" Jeffrey yelled.
Frank pulled on his cuffed wrists and growled. "Well we have evidence that suggests otherwise."
Evidence? What the hell? Oh. No… "No!" Jeffrey fought to pull away from him. "I didn't do this! You don't understand!"
"Save it for the interrogation room O'Neil!" And with that Frank hauled him out to the squad car.
Reva slumped into her chair and started to sob, holding her head in her hands. How could this have happened? She'd barely gotten to know her son and now she could lose him. Worst of all, she'd never been able to tell him the truth.
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"Are you going to call a lawyer, O'Neil, or do you wanna confess and try to cop a deal for yourself?"
Jeffrey looked up from his seat in the interrogation room to see Gus standing in front of him. "You're a private detective, Aiturro… not a cop. Do you want to tell me what you're doing here?"
"Well, you haven't been convicted yet, so you're technically still DA. Highest up at this police station… Interrogating the boss would pose as a conflict of interest, wouldn't you say?"
"Yeah, well, technically Aiturro, as long as you're in my investigation, I'm your boss too."
"Maybe… but the cops don't know that yet…"
"What, you mean they're not listening in right now?"
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Ed wrapped an arm around Reva. "You can go sit with him now. He's on a respirator. I don't know when he'll be waking up…"
Reva wiped her eyes and looked up at Ed. "Is he going to make it?"
"Reva… I think it's too early to say definitively whether…"
"Is he going to make it? Ed, just tell me!"
"I… think so."
"You think so?"
"Yes. But like I said I can't say definitively. Now come on, I'll show you to his room."
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"Come on O'Neil just confess and get it over with."
"I didn't rape Sandy!"
"That's bullshit and you know it!"
"I didn't rape Sandy!"
"I heard you the first time. You wanna try for the truth now?"
"I didn't rape Sandy!"
This guy was hopeless. "Do you wanna tell me where you were when this happened?"
"Well… nobody gave me a timeline…"
"Then how did you just happen to be on the docks in the middle of the night? How did you just happen to find him there?"
Jeffrey sighed. Momentarily considering the truth.
"You wanna do this the hard way, O'Neil? You wanna spend the night in lockup and try this again in the morning?"
"Well… according to you they're going to lock me up whether I cooperate or not…"
Frank opened the door, motioning to Gus. They mumbled something outside the doorway and Jeffrey tried to decipher it, but he could only make out a few words. "Murder… Sandy… Respirator…" Gus walked back into the room, shutting the door behind him.
"What was that about?" Jeffrey asked.
"Nothing you need to concern yourself with…" Gus answered.
"How is he?"
"How is who?"
"SANDY!"
"What makes you think that was about Sandy?"
"Is he alive? What was that about? I heard his name…"
"What's wrong? Worried your charges are going to be upgraded to murder?"
"I need to get out of here." Jeffrey said. "I need to see him."
"I will tell you how he is doing if you tell me how you came across him."
Jeffrey swallowed nervously, contemplating… He moved his hand to pull something out of his front pocket and set it down on the table, slowly unfolding it.
"What is this?" Gus asked, examining the small piece of paper before him.
"It's… how I found him…"
Gus noticed the smudges of blood. "Who gave this to you? Where did you get this?"
"I was asleep…" Jeffrey said. "I woke up to hear somebody pounding on my door. By the time I got outside, they were gone. But they'd taped this to it…"
"I can't believe that you would actually fabricate evidence to get away with…"
"Fabricate evidence? I'm telling you this is what happened! Why won't you believe me?"
"Because… your story is bullshit!"
"How can you be so sure?"
"There's still another piece of evidence. That's how! Something that you can't just explain away!"
"Try me Aiturro!"
"I can see you're… Formulating the lie already…"
"What do you want me to explain!?!"
"If you're so damn innocent than how did your semen get into the victim? Huh? Explain that one away why don't you!"
"I didn't rape Sandy!"
"That's not an explanation! You can't give me an explanation because you don't have one! You raped Sandy Foster and you're going to rot in prison for doing it you sick sadistic pervert!"
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"
"What's wrong O'Neil? Can't handle the truth?"
"I can explain…"
"I'm waiting…"
"It was there from before…"
"Before?"
"Yesterday night… I… we…"
"Oh no… Don't even say it O'Neil… Don't even try that one on me…"
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