7

Little Toy Bikers and a Woman on the Run

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Chapter 402 Envelope/Broken Phone

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While Jax was at TM working until it was time to take her to her physio appointment, Sack was helping her at her store. She left him a list of things to do while she was gone for the rest of the day. She'd given him a set of keys a few days ago since he was doing so much work for her and she trusted him because he feared Jax.

Scarlett was still feeling the afterglow from the talk she and Jax had had last night during the afternoon drive to her physio appointment. She was relieved she didn't have to worry about Tara drawing Jax into doing something that could destroy his life. He had carefully and tenderly wrapped her in his arms and held her until her sleeping meds kicked in. She'd fallen asleep feeling warm, safe and loved. It had been such a heavenly feeling.

Calling him for comfort had been a big step for her and he hadn't let her down. It was time to move their relationship along. Given his reputation, she was surprised that he'd been so patient with her, never pushing her for sex. She still didn't feel ready for sex. It scared the hell out of her, but that would be a talk they would have to have soon. The idea of telling him made her sick to her stomach, but she needed to tell him.

Scarlett wanted to get a little closer physically to him though. Over the course of her physio appointments she had built a good rapport with her therapist Judy. While Judy was lifting her legs and working on helping Scarlett rebuild the strength in her legs, Scarlett asked her about having a more physical relationship with her boyfriend without damaging her back. Asking her wasn't easy and Scarlett's face turned bright red, but she'd done it. It helped that she was wearing a disguise and she was pretending she was someone else.

When they kissed, he only had part of his upper body on her, but each time he shifted his weight even a little, it sent her spine into adjustment mode causing her pain as her spine adapted to the shifts in weight. Her therapist knew her physical condition and understood her injury. Judy told her she had some ideas and would put some information together while she was doing the electrical stimulation part of her treatment.

Judy put the electrodes on her low back and cranked the electricity to the maximum and left her alone in the treatment room. Scarlett had a high tolerance for electrical pain. She was proud that she was the only person who had ever maxed out the machines at the physiotherapy treatment center.

After Judy removed the electrodes, she took Scarlett out to the gym and worked with her on her exercise program. Scarlett continued her program on her own. She knew the machines to use and to keep the weights and reps low until she knew how her back was going to react. Judy didn't want her to injure herself.

As Scarlett was leaving, Judy rushed up to her handing her a large manila envelope. They spoke briefly with Scarlett blushing the whole time.

Jax watched, curious at this exchange.

"What's in the envelope?" he asked as they took the elevator to the parking garage.

"Exercises," she replied, her face turning pink.

"Uh-huh," Jax said skeptically.

Scarlett folded the envelope and quickly stuffed it in her shoulder bag. Jax was just a little too observant sometimes. It was almost as if he knew what Judy had given her.

They changed their appearance, switched cars and returned to her condo. Jax left on his bike. That evening, they were going out for pizza with Opie, Donna and their kids, Ellie and Kenny.

Scarlett drove to the police station in the van. She rarely drove the Corvette since her father had given her the van. It was just too hard getting in and out of it. She needed to sell it, but it wasn't a priority.

She was a little nervous about talking to David. It was the normal amount of nervousness when talking to law enforcement, no more than that. She wasn't worried about her story. She'd run it past Jax and she was telling the truth. She was just leaving out a part.

While she waited in an interview room for David Hale, she read news articles on her phone. She wasn't about to let him play cop games with her by leaving her in this room for an extended period of time to make her nervous. She'd seen lots of TV and this was the kind of thing the cops did to gain an advantage. It surprised her that David would resort to this type of tactic. He'd seemed like a nice, decent guy, but sometimes putting on a police uniform turned nice guys into assholes.

"Thanks for coming down, Scarlett," David said as he entered the room. "It's been crazy around here today. Sorry to keep you waiting."

She relaxed. She might be overreacting and there might be a lot to do around a police station even in Charming.

"It's OK. I just really want to get this over with."

"I'm going to record this if you don't mind," David said.

"I don't mind," Scarlett said.

He let her through what happened the night before and Scarlett went through the events.

"Did Tara tell you that Kohn planned on kidnapping her and holding her for two weeks?"

Scarlett thought through the question trying to remember if she'd told her that. She decided to just answer the question honestly and not give him an answer because it would help Tara's story.

She shook her head. "I don't remember her mentioning that to me. It's possible that she said something and I just don't remember. I was more focused on getting her out of the room and calling police. It doesn't surprise me. He was crazy."

She didn't know if David had been trying to set a little trap or if Tara had told him that Kohn was planning to kidnap, keep and probably kill her.

With that last question, he concluded the interview and turned off the recorder.

"Have you talked to Tara since last night?"

"No, you asked me not to."

"I wasn't trying to trick you," David said with a small smile. "I was just wondering how she was doing. She didn't take the news very well when I called her this morning."

"What news?" Scarlett asked her heart sinking. Maybe Tara had lost her nerve and blown the interview with David.

"I talked to Chief Unser this morning and we are going to have the San Joa county sheriff's investigate Kohn's death."

"Why? It's a clear issue of self-defense. What was she supposed to have done, let him rape her and then get some sort of male justice later? What is a fair price for rape these days? Maybe no punishment since they used to date," Scarlett said angrily.

This wasn't about Tara. It was about the on-going sexual war on women and how the justice system still had a long way to go to give women anywhere near the justice they deserved.

Even in a modern nation like Spain, if a woman didn't fight a rapist or, as it was becoming increasingly common there, a gang of men, it wasn't rape. If a woman was drugged into unconsciousness and then sexually assaulted, it wasn't rape because there had to be threats and violence to be rape in Spain. The justice system was as rotten as the rapists it protected. This was the real face of toxic masculinity.

"Hey," David said gently reaching out to pat Scarlett's hand. "This isn't what this is about. Tara protected herself and Kohn got exactly what he deserved. I am not unbiased enough to lead this death investigation. Unser and I both know Tara. If we clear her, it may look to some that it was a done deal and not a fair investigation. Getting the sheriffs to do the investigation protects Tara's reputation."

Scarlett thought that through and it made sense. She wasn't thrilled at this development, but this would end with Tara's name cleared. No one would ever be able to say that she got off because she knew the police chief and the deputy police chief.

"OK," Scarlett said with a nod. "I get it. Tara hasn't done anything wrong and if the sheriffs clear her, there won't be a cloud over her head. Sorry, I kind of jumped on you."

"It's OK," Hale said with a smile. "Thanks again for coming in. I'll give the interview to the sheriffs. They may call and want to conduct another interview."

"You've got all my contact info."

As Scarlett was leaving, a blonde female police officer handed a clear plastic bag to Hale containing a battered cell phone.

"We found Louise's phone smashed and thrown into a farmer's field."

Scarlett left shrugging off this exchange. It sounded like someone lost her phone in a field and it had gotten smashed probably by farm equipment.

That night, Ellie and Kenny quickly ate their pizza and rushed off to play games in the video arcade at the back of John's Pizza Place. Donna had asked her about Josh Kohn's murder. This was big news in small town Charming. Scarlett gave her story, the same one she'd given Jax and David Hale.

"Poor Tara," Donna said.

Jax and Scarlett exchanged looks.

"It was traumatic," Scarlett said.

"It's about time Tara handle a problem in her life that doesn't involve someone else rescuing her," Jax said.

"Amen to that, brother," Opie said.

That night, Jax noticed that Scarlett had left the mysterious envelope on her nightstand while she was in the shower. He couldn't resist. It wasn't a trust issue. It was a curiosity issue. What could be in the envelope that made Scars blush like that?

Jax carefully unfastened the envelope and side four pieces of paper out of it. It was sexual positions for back injures. He grinned. This looked very promising. He put the papers back in the envelope and returned it to the nightstand.

Scarlett emerged from the shower wearing black leggings and a white T-shirt with a big black and white abstract design on it.

"Anything you want to tell me?" he asked from his position lounging on her bed.

Her eyes automatically went to the envelope. The envelope wasn't back in its original position. Close but not in the same place. She knew he'd take the bait.

"

Author's Note: I normally do each chapter as a scene like a TV show, but this one went on longer because I know readers like longer scenes so I try to throw in a long chapter here and there.

There may be a lot of short chapters coming up and I may post a cluster of chapters at once.