I disclaim . . .
Thanks for the replies.
CSICSICSICSICSICSICSI
"Hey," Warrick greeted as he and Nick entered the break room of the Pioche PD. "Didn't expect to see you here."
Sara sipped her freshly made cup of coffee and cringed at it's flavor. "The staff at the clinic wouldn't let me stay," Sara stated. "I didn't want to leave, but there wasn't anything else I could do. Morgan fell asleep pretty quickly after we left the house. She slept through . . . everything," she tried to get over the bitter taste of the coffee with another sip, but it was futile. She pushed it away. "Definitely isn't Greg's blend."
"That bad?" Nick asked as he picked up Sara's discarded coffee and took a sip for himself, and swallowed. "You don't even have to answer that," he shuddered. He opened the small refrigerator. "You wanna a Coke or a water?"
"Water, please," Sara sighed, taking a seat at the table. Warrick grabbed the paper cup of coffee from Nick's hand and poured it down the drain in the sink.
"What about you, Rick?"
"Coke, thanks."
He grabbed the three of them their beverage of choice, handing Warrick the soda can, then sat down next to Sara. He untwisted the lid of the sealed water bottle and handed it to her then did the same with his own.
"Thanks for opening mine, Nick," Warrick jested as he pulled back the tab on the soda can.
Sara smirked and Nick looked down at the floor. He cleared his throat. "What did the SART exam tell you?"
"She wasn't raped," she looked up and saw the relief in Nick's eyes. Warrick released a breath that he hadn't known he was holding. "But, I did find a couple of bruises on her arms and one on her back. They are almost completely faded, though. But nothing fresh."
"Could just be kids play," Nick hoped, though he didn't believe it himself. Not after seeing a childs play room set up in a windowless, dark and cold crawl space.
"The receptionist gave us Mrs. Scott's clothes," Warrick continued. "They gave her some sweats to change into. Nick and I looked them over and it's definitely spatter."
"So she killed her husband," Sara nodded, not even bothering to think anything else.
"Or she was in the room when someone else did," Nick weighed in. "But there was only one set of foot prints in his blood. It led straight to the couch where the Sheriff said they'd found her. So, it's definitely a strong possibility that she is the perp."
"Good, you're all here," the Sheriff said as he entered the break room. "I just spoke with the Officer down in lock up. Said Maggie hasn't said a word all night. We've got her in the interrogation room, waiting."
The three nodded in thanks and slowly stood up, filing out of the room and into the Interrogation area.
Sara was the first to enter, sitting down in the chair closest to the woman, then Nick beside her and Warrick beside him. She never bothered to look at them. It was like she hadn't even heard them enter.
"My name is Nick Stokes," he took the lead. "This is Sara Sidle and Warrick Brown. We are criminalists from Las Vegas. We're here investigating your husbands death."
Still, she said nothing.
"Can you tell us what happened?" Warrick asked. After about a minute of silence, his patience was wearing increasingly thin. "Look, your husband was found dead in your home tonight, you were wearing clothes with his blood that at the very least puts you in the room at the time of his attack. And you're daughter was locked in a crawl space. If you have any interest in ever being allowed near your kid again, or getting out of jail, you'd better start talking."
Sara tilted her head to the side and noticed the vacant, far away look in her eyes. She remembered seeing that look in her own mothers eyes minutes after she'd attacked her father. It was a look of anger, confusion and sadness all in one.
She glanced down at the floor beside Maggie's feet, remembering. Her mother had been angry that she'd allowed her husband to treat her so badly for so long. Angry that in order to get away from his evil ways, she had to fight her way out. To the point of murder. Confusion and sadness because she had killed a man, but that it had brought her happiness because he'd never hurt her, or them, again. That it had to come to that . . .
Nick's fist hit the table with force that caused Sara to jump. Her eyes had seen a flash of skin of Margaret's abdomen as she jumped as well, but didn't have a chance to say anything as Nick's normally calm voice dripped with anger. "Do you understand that you're under suspicion of murder?"
Nick's outburst had gotten her attention as Maggie looked at him with a steeley gaze. But still, she said nothing.
Sara gently reached out and lifted the woman's shirt that she'd been given to change into. "Who did that to you?" she asked.
The woman finally noticed Sara. "There all the same," she said, her jaw set. She looked at Sara's left hand and noticed the absense of a gold band. "Don't ever trust them. All they ever do is hurt you."
"Who? David?" Sara asked quietly.
Again, the silence was deafening.
"We just want to find out what happened," Warrick spoke. "We can help you if you let us."
"Like I would trust you're kind," she spat venomiously. "You're all the same."
"I'll be right back," Sara said, standing up and walking out of the room without a second thought. She came back a few minutes later with Officer Laura Kent. "Can I see you two for a second?"
Warrick and Nick stood up and followed Sara into the hallway.
"She isn't responsive to men," was all she said.
"We've noticed," Warrick sighed. "She just stared at us while you were gone. It's like there's nothing there."
"She's just . . . empty," Nick shrugged, finding it difficult to find better words to describe. "I feel so useless. First Morgan won't let Warrick or I get near her, and now Margaret is stone walling us."
"Morgan had bruises on her, and she was scared of her father. Maggie has some obviously fresh bruises, based on their color. At the very least, I'd bet my life on his abusing her. That's probably why neither of them are particularly comfortable around men." She glanced through the small window in the door and saw a few stray tears trailing down Maggie's cheeks. "Let me talk to her alone."
Nick and Warrick both gave their silent nods of approval.
"If you need us, we'll be in the break room," Warrick finally spoke. Had is not been for the other female officer in the room, he knew that he, nor Nick, wouldn't have agreed to let Sara take the lead with the suspect -- victim or not.
Nick gave one final glance to Sara before he followed Warrick into the room across the hall.
Sara took a second to breathe deeply before she walked back into the room where Maggie and Laura awaited her return.
CSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSI
"OK, Maggie," Sara started calmly as she took her seat at the table. She glanced back at Officer Laura Kent, who was standing in the corner of the room. "Can you tell me what happened?"
"It's over," she shrugged her shoulders as if that said it all. "It doesn't matter anymore."
"Yes, it does matter. The evidence doesn't lie, and right now, it's pointing at you. If you killed David because he was cheating on you, that's one thing. But it's a whole different senario if you were protecting yourself, or your daughter. Which brings me to another question I have. Why was she locked up in an unknown room under the new addition of a dining room?"
"You found her?" she gasped, her eyes meeting Sara's once more. "How is she? Is she OK? Where is she?"
"Morgan is fine, physically. Emotionally . . . " she stopped, struggling to find the right words. "Emotionally, I don't know. She's at the clinic. She was exhausted. I did an exam on her. She hasn't been raped, but I found some bruising that happened not too long ago. The brusing supports my theory of abuse. As does the crawl space playroom. Do you have anything you want to tell me?"
"It was the only way," she broke down, sobs escaping her throat. "It was the only way to keep her safe. I had to keep her away from him, or he'd hurt her."
"Tell me everything," Sara pleaded as she saw the womans walls tumbling down.
"Nothing made sense anymore. I felt trapped, and like I'd never have the life that I always dreamed of. I wanted the house with the white picket fence, the kids, the dogs. I wanted that typical suburban life. Like the one I had growing up. I was living in Reno at the time. I decided that I needed to forget everything for a few days, so I drove to Vegas. I was at the Palms the first night that I was there. Had a couple of drinks. That's when I met David. He was so handsome. And he was paying attention to me. No one had ever chose me over everyone else in the room. But he did." She sniffed, and took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "Over the next couple of days, he really wooed me. Dinner and drinks, shows. Sight seeing. Everything. The works. I guess I was vulnerable because of how I was feeling, and I let myself get caught up in his attention. Before the end of my solo weekend, we were married. It was super tacky. I'll always remember it. The Intergalactic Chapel of Love."
Sara tried to fight the smile that was tugging on her lips at the memory. The minister had said to Nick that she was going to get him. She only wished she had.
"Things were good for a while. Strained because we realized that we didn't know each other like we thought we had. Except, we both agreed to stick it out and try to make it work because we'd both been raised that marriage was for life. At least, that's how I was raised. And he said he'd been raised the same way. But then, it was like someone flipped the switch. The difference was like night and day. All of a sudden, I was married to a monster. He would get drunk, and hit me. Then, he would," she choked on the words, "forced himself on me. You can't imagine how sore you are after someone attacks you like that."
Sara glanced away, clearing her throat. She stood up and grabbed the box of kleenex that was sitting at the side of the room. She offered the tissue to the woman who gratefully accepted.
"I couldn't move. I was so sore. And so scared. And all of a sudden, it was like he'd realize what he'd done. And he'd swear up and down that he'd never do it again. And I wanted to believe him. So, I never left. But soon, he was doing it weekly. Then daily. Sometimes more than once. He swore that if I said anything to anyone, he'd kill me. And my parents. I couldn't let that happen. So, I stayed quiet. Pretended like everything was OK. Morgan wasn't planned for. I didn't even know I was pregnant. If I had found out, I would've run and never told him. But it didn't work that way. We had gotten into a big fight and he pushed me down a flight of stairs in our house. I was knocked unconcious and when I came too, I was in the hospital. The neighbor had heard the yelling and called the cops. They came and found me, then called an ambulance. All of my bruises, all of my injuries - David blamed it on the fall. He didn't have a record, I'd never reported him. There was no reason to think otherwise. Besides that, I had been wearing high heels, and he said that we'd been arguing, like all couples do, and lost my balance. David insisted that he not leave my side because he was so scared for me. Really, he just wanted to make sure that I didn't say anything. No one made him leave. And then the doctor told us that the baby was unharmed, and the pregnancy shouldn't be effected."
"How did David react to the baby?"
"He was thrilled. Genuinely happy. He said that this was our chance for a fresh start. The fact that I was pregnant was my saving grace. He turned back into the man that I had first met. Sure we still had our arguments, but he didn't use his fists. After Morgan was born, my parents stayed with us for a month. He put on an act around them that he was thrilled they were there. But at night, when we were alone . . . he really hated my parents staying so long. And Morgan cried during the night, waking him up. He started forcing me to have sex with him again. After my parents left, he started hitting me. He shook Morgan so bad when she was a baby, that I thought he was going to break her neck. Eventually, she learned to be quiet because it upset Daddy. It's amazing how perceptive small children are. When she started crawling and moving her toys everywhere, he kept getting aggrivated. So, I started putting her and her toys in the crawl space. I would stay with her and watch her. It didn't matter if she made a mess. She was happy. And I was happy watching her. She's brought so much joy to my life. David saw where she was playing and told me that it was the perfect place for her. 'Out of the way.'"
Sara was disgusted. She could sympathize with the woman in front of her.
"When we moved here, the dining room and crawl space were finished really quickly. Only took a couple of days. I'm not sure how he did it, or who he hired to get it done so fast. But he did. Tonight . . . I went out to the store to get some groceries. When I left, Morgan had been napping. I was only going to be gone for ten minutes. Twenty at the most. When I got home, he was in the kitchen. He'd made a sandwich because he was hungry, telling me that I was a bad wife. That its a womans duty to keep her husband satisfied and his stomach full. Then he slapped me because the kitchen was a mess. He made that mess. I was so furious. I asked where Morgan was and he pointed to the crawl space, with the cabinet back against the wall. I had never locked her in there. Not once. When I asked why, he was walking out of the kitchen and he told me because she had been snoring. And it was distracting him from reading the paper. The paper!"
Sara felt like she was going to be sick, and the woman shook violently as the tears streamed down her face. "I didn't know what I was doing. I sort of went into a daze. I remember walking into the office. He stood up and asked me what I thought I was doing. I saw him start to ball up his fist like he was going to beat me again, and I raised my hand. And I just kept going," she moved her hand in a stabbing motion, her fist clutched as if she were still holding the knife. Her chin quivered and she realized what she had done. "I don't remember anything after that. I don't remember the police coming to the house, or how I got here. It's like I was there, with him, and now I'm with you. The whole time in between is just a complete blank."
Sara sighed, not really knowing how to proceed. She glanced back at Officer Laura Kent who was still standing in the corner, slightly in the shadows. The two law enforcement officials looked at each other with great sadness.
"Thank you," Sara finally decided on how to start. "I want to help you. But, I'm going to need a couple of things to do that, OK?"
Maggie was still crying, but managed to nod her head yes.
"I'm going to take some pictures of the bruises that I saw on your abdomen. And any other bruises that might be on your body. And I'm going to do a SART kit - "
"What's that?"
"It's a Sexual Assault and Rape Test," she softly answered. "I can do it, or another woman can do it. I'll make sure that there isn't a man near the exam room. When was the last time your husband forced himself on you?"
Maggie shifted in her chair, and didn't meet Sara's gaze. "Uh, this morning," she admitted.
"OK," Sara said. "That'll help build a case of self defense." She held her hands out for Maggie to take. When she did, she met Sara's gaze. "I promise that I will do everything I can to make sure you and your daughter are safe."
"Thank you," Maggie whispered so softly that Sara almost didn't hear her.
"I also have to check your medical records. I need to get all the information about the fall you had down the stairs, as well as anything else. If this goes to court, it will help exonnerate you. And I need you to write everything that you just told me down on a signed confession." Sara watched as the woman let everything soak in. "You'll also need a psychiatric exam. It will also help your case. And it might explain why you can't remember a part of what happened tonight."
"When will that happen?"
"A town like Pioche just doesn't have the resources for a lot of these things, so you'll have to be transported back to Vegas. I have to take the pictures and do the SART kit tonight though."
Maggie nodded her head in understanding. She watched as Sara stood up. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to get the kit from the clinic. Unfortunately, you can't leave the premises unless you are having a serious medical emergency. I can either do it, with your consent, or I can have one of the nurses come back. It's whatever you need. There will have to be at least one other person in the room though."
"A woman?" Sara nodded in confirmation. Maggie glanced at the officer in the corner, and asked her silently. Laura just nodded her head in the same way that Sara had done. "OK. You can do it."
"I'll be back as soon as I can," Sara said. She opened the door, but stopped when she heard Maggie's voice.
"When will I be able to see my daughter?"
"I'm not sure," she answered truthfully. "But you're parents on their way. I'll make sure that they can take care of her until you can be with her yourself."
Again, more tears fell down Maggie's face. "Thank you, Ms. Sidle."
Sara smiled back at her through her own tears that were threatening to fall.
She closed the door tightly behind her and felt the warm salty tears cascade down her cheeks.
TBC . . . .
