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At the voice, Aggie began to tremble in his arms, while he froze. This could all fall apart if the wrong cop was assigned to Aggie’s case. The name Dion wasn't familiar, but he’d know for sure once he turned around. Always one who preferred to get things over and done with, Nick gently sat Aggie up and turned slowly, resisting the urge to sigh in relief when he confirmed the woman before him was a stranger.
“I already told the officers at the parking lot what happened.” Aggie used her good hand to draw the blankets up to her chin. Her face had paled alarmingly, now virtually the same color as the white bandage taped over the graze on her cheek.
“I know you did, but I need to go over it again, I'm sorry.” Detective Dion took the room’s only chair and pulled it right up to the bed. “Can you tell me what happened tonight?”
Aggie hesitated, it was clear she didn’t want to, but she stretched out her hand and grasped his, he squeezed back and that seemed to give her strength. “My friend, Summer Height, and I were having dinner at our favorite French restaurant. We go there once a week. I always park in that same lot, and I always walk to my car alone, I've never had any problems before. But tonight, tonight I could hear footsteps. I thought I was being crazy, but …” She hesitated.
“But what, Ms. Candella?”
“All day I had felt like someone was watching me,” she confessed.
Nick barely managed to conceal his reaction. He and Millerhadbeen watching her earlier today, they were good at following people unobtrusively. At least he’dthoughtthey were good at following people unobtrusively, but apparently, they weren’t.
The detective looked pleased by this admission of Aggie’s. “Do you know of anyone who might want to hurt you?”
She shook her head. “No one.”
“You're a social worker, right?”
“Yes.”
“Could it be related to a case? Maybe a parent of a child who was recently removed from the home who blames you and wants revenge?”
“No, there’s no one I can think of who’s threatened me recently.”
“Did you get a good look at the person stalking you?”
“No. I wasn't even sure someonewasstalking me. It was just a feeling. But I did get a look at the man who attacked me. He was an Asian man in his early forties, and he was big.”
Nick hoped she couldn’t give a detailed description to a sketch artist, that was going to make what he had to do a whole lot harder.
“I caught him off guard at first, almost got away,” Aggie continued. “But once he had me pinned there was no way I could have fought him off. He had a knife. At first, I thought he was going to rape me, but then I thought he was just going to kill me.”
That Aggie had thought she would be sexually assaulted had his guilt spiking.
“If Nick hadn’t shown up when he had then he would have killed me. I didn’t stand a chance.”
“Did he say anything to you?” Detective Dion asked.
“Just that I hurt him when I kneed him in the groin. Then he wrapped a hand around my throat and started squeezing. I didn’t know if he was going to strangle me or stab me. And then Nick was there.”
She retold her story so precisely that if she hadn’t been nearly crushing his hand Nick would have thought that she was largely unaffected by her ordeal. Agape Candella was a lot tougher than he’d given her credit for.
Turning to him, the detective asked, “Mr. Sleigh, what did you see?”
“I was heading back to my car after dinner when I saw what looked like a man holding a woman down. When I got closer, I saw it was and I just ran at him. I think I got him in the jaw. We scuffled a little and then he ran off. I thought about going after him, but I didn’t know how badly the woman was hurt, and I thought it best not to leave her alone. I didn’t really get a good look at the man, but I agree with Aggie, her attacker was Asian, and a big guy, bigger than me.” It was better to confirm Aggie’s description of her attacker, to contradict her when she seemed so positive about it might make him look suspicious.
“Did you two know each other before tonight?”
“No,” Nick answered, and Aggie shook her head.
“You should be able to identify the man through the knife. He wasn't wearing gloves so it should have his prints on it,” Aggie spoke up.
“The knife?” the detective asked, clearly confused.
“He dropped it when Nick hit him. I remember it clattering to the ground beside me,” Aggie explained.
“We didn’t find a knife at the scene,” Detective Dion informed her.
