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The silence lasted minutes, with the girl staring at a large mirror on the far wall. Cheryl Beth could hear the old building breathing and settling, as if every brick and piece of wainscoting wanted to tell a story, every one tragic or worse. When Jill began to speak, her voice breaking the quiet startled Cheryl Beth.
“It was last fall. October. I like to ride my bike, and when I can do the hill, I like to go to Mount Echo Park. It’s got the best views of the river and the city, even if all the loaded people over in Hyde Park have never been there. I like it that way. It’s peaceful. I always thought of it as my park…”
She looked at Cheryl Beth, who gave her best reassuring smile.
“It was Saturday afternoon and starting to get dark. The days were getting shorter, and I was in the park later than I thought. Nobody else was around. I’d stopped for one last look at the skyline, when somebody tackled me. Knocked me off my bike, knocked the air out of me. I was mostly surprised at first, and then scared. He started dragging me by my hair. I screamed but no one was around. He picked me up and held me by the throat, and he had a knife in his other hand. I’d never been so scared in my life.
“He said he’d kill me if I made another sound. He was going to rape me, he said, and if I went along, I’d live…”
The room was warm, but she wrapped her arms around herself.
“So I went along. He pulled me into the trees and made me take off my clothes. He was really picky. Wanted me to fold them. Then he made me turn away from him, and he pulled my hands back behind…” Her voice faltered.
“Take your time,” Will said.
“He handcuffed me. And I started to panic, but he held the knife to my throat and said if I wanted to live, I’d better settle down. He said the handcuffs turned him on, and he wouldn’t hurt me.”
“What happened next?”
“He raped me. He pushed my face into the dirt, pulled my legs apart, and did it from behind. It went on a long time…God, forever. He was calling me every awful name: cunt, whore, little bitch. Said that I was asking for it, riding out there by myself. When he stopped, he made me stay that way, bent over, on my knees. I couldn’t hold out my hands. It hurt. It all hurt. Then he was back for more. ‘You got lube?’ he asked. I didn’t even know what he meant at first. Of course, I didn’t have any. ‘Too bad for you,’ he said and laughed.”
She shuddered. “Then he raped me that way.”
Cheryl Beth resisted the urge to gather the young woman in her arms. She stopped herself from clawing at the worn fabric of the sofa arm. She rearranged her purse to the middle of her lap, anything for something to occupy her hands.
“When he was done,” Jill said, “he made me get dressed. My knees were scraped. The side of my face was bruised from being shoved down on the ground, and I felt blood from my behind. Then he handcuffed me again. He said he was going to drop me off, away from the park.”
She took deep breaths, her complexion ghostlike. “So he pushes and pulls me to his truck. It’s a brand new black Dodge Ram. He opens the driver’s door and shoves me in ahead of him. I’m really hurting and scared shitless, and then he tells me that he’s changed his mind. That he’s going to kill me. He starts talking crazy. I remember he said the word ‘deathscape.’ That I was going to model for him. I don’t understand…”
Her voice trailed off into exhaustion. Cheryl Beth put a hand on her arm and Jill didn’t push it away. Her face looked as if tears were coming out of her capillaries.
Will said, “But he didn’t kill you.”
“No.”
“And you’re not pregnant, are you, Jill?”
“No, sir. I lied to you about that. I can’t have babies. I had cysts on my ovaries.”
“What about the ten thousand dollars from Kenneth Buchanan? Was that a lie, too?”
“No.” The word was said neither adamantly nor softly; one dead syllable. “He promised to pay me ten thousand a month cash for a year if I didn’t go to the police. He was real nice at first, but then he started that lawyer shit and said if I claimed rape nobody would believe me, that he’d make me out as a whore in court and take everything I owned. At that moment, I was so glad to be alive and so scattered in my head. I really needed money, too. They sent my job to China and I was getting by waiting tables. I went along with it. He’s a rich, powerful man and I’m nobody in Lower Price Hill. I know how this city works.”
Waves of horror and rage washed over Cheryl Beth. She had heard many dreadful stories, but she was usually going Mach Five in the hospital, doing something to make it better. Here she could do nothing.
Jill continued “He found out where I lived, said he had a private detective watching me. And every month he’d drive over and give me an envelope of cash and ask how I was doing. What I was doing was saving every cent so I could get away from this! Honestly, I didn’t even know his real name until you said it to me the first time, detective.”
“How did you know his son’s real name?” Will asked.
“He called it out when he ran over and pulled me out of that pickup truck. He saved my life.”
Will took a long pause, idly turning the shaft of his cane. “Why would he do that?”
The girl bit her lip. “He said Mike was mentally ill and off his meds that day. They had a terrible fight at home and Mike said he was going to find someone to kill. So Mister Buchanan followed him. Not close enough I guess. Thank God he found me when he did.”
“And you never thought about going to the police?”
“I thought about it, but you heard what I said. I wouldn’t have stood a chance with those fancy lawyers downtown. Mister Buchanan said Mike was his only son, and he promised to get him treatment, get him in a hospital so he wouldn’t hurt anyone ever again. He told me his wife was very sick, and if she knew this had happened, it might kill her. Anyway, Mister Buchanan was real good with words, real good. But there was always something behind them that didn’t take a college degree to understand.”
