A/N- Okay, so I know I left you all hanging on that last chapter. Ha! I'm great at cliffhangers, aren't I? Oh well, this chapter should help clear a few things up. And you'll all probably get really pissed, but that's okay. It's all good.
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Chapter 10: Boyfriends Must be Poison
"I'm telling you, I didn't hurt Summer!" I shouted. Detective Gamier sighed and paced in front of the one-way mirror. "I love Summer. I'd never hurt her."
"Look," Gamier said. "I believe you. But your word won't hold up in court. We have an eyewitness who saw you coming out of the building at the time she was attacked. I don't see a way out of this. Unless we can find some conclusive evidence . . ."
"I don't even know what happened to her!" I cried, banging my head on the table, but that hurt too much, so I stopped. I couldn't believe this.
"She was having a bath," Gamier said, sitting down opposite me and opening a file folder. "She was raped while in the tub. Then the suspect" — I was immensely gratified that he didn't say you — "tried to drown her but she put up too much of a fight. She was stabbed the in chest with a metal nail file, but it missed her heart completely and sunk into her sternum." He pulled out picture of her and showed them to me. I couldn't look at them. My eyes were burning.
He was watching me, I knew, trying to gauge my reaction, but I couldn't stop the tears from falling. The pictures fell out of my hands. I'd describe them, but they were too gruesome, too horrible. "Oh God . . ." I whispered.
"Look," he said again, patting my arm gently. "All we need is concrete evidence. I'm sure you didn't do this. And I know we can prove it."
"Who was your witness?" I asked, raising my head. "It wasn't . . . It wasn't her, was it?"
He shook his head. "She's in a coma. She was found by her boyfriend when he went to say goodnight to her."
My first thought was of fear. "Will she be alright?" I muttered, not really sure that I wanted to know the answer. He nodded.
"She's stable. I can't tell you the name of the witness — "
The full impact of his previous words hit me then. "You said that Jimmy found her?"
Gamier nodded. He seemed to be doing a lot of head motion. I wondered for a moment if he was getting dizzy, but then dragged my thoughts back to the present. Mainly, Summer being in a coma and Jimmy blaming me for it.
"That bastard!" I yelled, thumping my fist down on the table. That hurt too. Man, I was really weak. "That fucking bastard! I'd bet my life he's the one who did it, just because she came home with me. The guy is poison. He's been hurting her forever!"
That seemed to interest Gamier. "Really?" He said, pulling out a notebook and a pen. "How so?"
"He forces her to stay away from her friends, he orders her around, he doesn't let her drink without his approval, he won't let her hang around with members of the opposite sex though he is constantly cheating on her with sluts . . ." I counted his offenses off on my fingers. "And I have reason to believe that he beats her, too. She's been wearing long-sleeved shirts and baggy clothes all of a sudden, and I noticed she's been wearing heavier makeup than she used to." I was making it up, of course, but even as I said it I realized it was true. How come I hadn't seen it before?
Gamier's pen was going crazy on the paper. It seemed to have a life of its own. "Is there any reason why Jimmy would have a grudge against you?" He asked, not even looking up.
"Oh yeah," I said, nodding even though he wasn't looking at me. "He tried to kill Summer once before. He almost drowned her but I saved her life. He made it seem like an accident but it wasn't." I shook my head. Now I was getting dizzy. "He enjoyed watching her struggle, having her life in his hands . . ." I swore quietly, under my breath. "I took her away from him. We were at a club last night, and I sat with her and bought her a couple of drinks and then I brought her home. I made out with her, but that was all."
The detective looked up suddenly, his eyes lighting up. "What time did you leave Summer's apartment last night?"
I closed my eyes, thinking hard. "It was about 9:30 when I brought her home from the bar, pretty early, but she was drunk. Then I spent about half an hour at her house, then I went home. So I guess I left at about 10:00 last night. Pretty early for me, that's why I remember."
Gamier whooped with pleasure. I opened my eyes in surprise and stared at him. He was grinning at me from across the table and had thrown the file folder with Summer's pictures into the air. "That's it!" he cried. "That's how we can prove it! If you left at 10:00, then the doorman saw you leave, I'd bet, right?"
I nodded yet again. "I said goodnight to him as I left. Why?"
"Because Summer was attacked at 10:30! If you left at 10:00, then you couldn't possibly have done it! And the doorman would be your witness!"
I felt a smile spread across my face. This was perfect. But then I realized something, and my smile froze. "Since the doorman saw me leave, wouldn't he have also seen the attacker come in?"
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"The only people I saw last night were you and Summer, then you, and then her boyfriend, that Jimmy guy," Robert, the doorman, said, leaning against the wall outside of the apartment and lighting a smoke. "You came in with Summer, then about half an hour later you left, right?"
"Yeah," I said, looking over at Detective Gamier, who nodded. The three of us were outside the building where Robert had agreed to come when we asked to question him. I thought it was rather odd that Gamier let me come along, but I guess that's what you get when your parents own the largest company in town.
"And then who came in? Jimmy, right?" Gamier asked. When Robert nodded, he continued. "And what time was that?"
Robert looked heavenward for a moment, then looked back at us. "About quarter after 10," he said. "And then he came rushing down to meet the EMS guys at about quarter to 11. Don't know what he was doing all that time."
Detective Gamier and I looked at each other, and I could tell from the horror in his eyes that he was thinking exactly what I was thinking.
"Hey," Robert said, looking from one of us to the other. "You guys are here about what happened to Summer, right? Terrible thing. The guy who did it ought to be shot." His eyes shone with determination. "That's why I've got a handgun with me for the next time Jimmy shows up here." He looked up at the sky again. "Sweet girl. Always talked to me, she did. You get him, boy," he said to me. "You get the bastard." Then he went inside, leaving us alone.
We walked together back to the police station, neither wanting to voice our fears. Finally, Gamier broke the silence.
"So it was Jimmy." he said, shaking his head. "And we have proof. But Robert's word won't hold up in court. Unless the apartment has video cameras. I'll get a warrant so that we can get the videos."
"I've got an idea," I said, hating myself as I did so. "Let's go to the hospital."
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A/N - There! Isn't that wonderful crosses her fingers and hopes her readers don't hate her
Shouts to:
cxianet, wyverna, i am not a chipmunk, Vampirehelsing, GoldenAngel71, Rock Drummer Chick
You guys make this story worthwhile. Thanks a whole lot for always being here for me while I struggled through my writer's block.
