" I'm a grown woman. I've earned my experiences...and my scars. " - Tori Amos
Chapter Three - One Tough Cookie
Jack, Danny, and Viv followed Katie through the same door she had come out of and down the hall to her office, much to Lucy's amusement. She shook her head and tried to hide her grin, although the grin masked her concern for Katie. Frank Runyeon. Lucy practically broke the telephone receiver in her hand as that name came into her head. The name that no one in this building ever dared to utter. The irony of the whole thing was that if there hadn't been a Frank Runyeon, then there would never have been an Avalon. But still, no one uttered his name. Except for that damn F.B.I. agent. Into the receiver Lucy said, "Hey Larry. This is Lucy down at Avalon. I need you to send one of your uniforms over to Mercy Hospital..."
Back in the office area, Jack was the first to catch up to the retreating Katie McNamara. "Ms. McNamara, please. I know how hard this must be for you..."
Katie spun around to face them, the anger flashing in her eyes. "No, Agent Malone. I can almost guarantee that you have no idea how hard this is. For me or for anyone else. So don't you dare patronize me."
Jack hung his head and Vivian quietly took over the reins. Danny, wisely, said nothing at all. "Katie, we knew when we came here that this was not going to be easy for you to hear. And believe me, we dreaded having to do it. But, we do have a job to do. And that job is to find Frank Runyeon."
"He can stay missing for all I care. I can't think of anyone who would want him found." Katie spat out, opening the door to her office. The fact that she didn't slam it again in their faces was a good sign.
"His wife, for one." Vivian said.
"You mean the same woman who refuses to believe that the man she married is a monster?" Katie asked. "I'm waiting for the day when she ends up walking through our doors."
"We know that the last thing you want to do is help us him. You were raped..." Vivian began, but Katie cut her off.
"You know, Agent Johnson, one of the first things I learned was not to say that I was raped, but that a man raped me. Grammatically, this is the difference between the passive and active voice. As I often tell my survivor's group, the active voice is preferred unless you are trying to hide responsibility."
Vivian lowered her head for a moment and looked back to Jack. This was not going anywhere close to plan.
"Do you think he's dead?" Katie surprised them by asking.
"We don't know." Danny figured he'd give the situation a try, starting with being honest with her. "His blood was found at the scene, but there were no fingerprints on the car door."
Katie looked hard at Danny, then moved her eyes back to Jack and Vivian. "So, which one of you has the balls to ask me the question that you really came here to ask me? Who's going to ask me if I killed him?"
The three agents looked at her and Jack was the first to speak. "That's not what we came here to ask you, actually. We don't know if he's..."
"I hope that he's dead." She said flatly, then laughed a dry little laugh that let them know that noting about this situation was funny. "I've never said those words out loud before. I've thought them. More times than I want to admit, but I've never said them out loud." Her voice strengthened as she said, "Frank Runyeon is the bastard that tore my body apart and then got away with the murder of my soul. He stole so much more from me than you can ever imagine. I couldn't leave my bedroom for the first two months after he raped me. To this day, I still look over my shoulder every time I leave my house. If he's missing, then it means my world just got a little bit safer." Jack, Viv, and Danny were all silent as they looked at her. There really were no words to be said. So, Katie continued in a whisper. "He tried to destroy me. Once in that damn bathroom and then again in that courtroom. I've wished him dead so many times. But I didn't kill him. I couldn't." The hot tears forming in her eyes fell onto her cheeks and Katie wiped them away. "I don't have the nerve it would take to kill him. Because he stole that from me, too."
The silence that filled the small office was thick with tension. Katie turned away from them and picked a few files up off her desk. Looking back at them, she said, "My cousin, he's a priest. He kept trying to tell me that what happened to me was all a part of God's plan. You know what Iwas thinking the whole time he was preaching at me? That if there is a God, then he's got a shit load of explaining to do." The tears stung again in her eyes and Katie wiped them away. "Maybe this is His explanation. I'm half Italian, so I know that sometimes payback can be a bitch." Katie moved past them back out into the hallway. Turning back to face them, she asked, "Is there anything else I can do for you? Because if not, I have a job to do too."
"No," Jack said quickly. "That's all. If we need anything else, we know where to find you." And with that, Katie turned and walked back down the hallway.
"Talk about a tough cookie." Vivian finally said.
"Well," Danny remarked, "we handled that well."