AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Probably not.”
“Then there’s no conflict. You should call her. She’d want to know about this.”
I felt like I was about to betray Candy Van Dyke. Like I was not on her side. But I was on her side. I wanted to see Stu Whatley pay for what he’d done. I was a little concerned that Lydia might not be concerned about that.
As I took my cellular phone out of my pocket, my boyfriend said, “Uh-huh. There’s a bank of payphones just as you come into the ER. Night rates are better, but they’re still crazy. There’s no reason to spend money if you don’t have to.”
I said okay and walked away. I tried not to be pissed. I hated being told what to do. More than that, I hated being told what to do and how to do it. Ronnie did that a lot. I ignored it. Given who his mother was I was lucky he was not a whole lot more messed up.
“Lydia?” I said into the gray receiver which was probably an inch thick with germs. “It’s Dom.”
“It’s so early. Something going on?”
“Just after midnight, Candy Van Dyke was raped by Stu Whatley.”
There was an ominous silence on the other end of the line.
“He seems to be under the impression no one will prosecute him because of the previous misidentification.”
“Is he going to be arrested?”
“I don’t know. Candy is with a policeman right now, but I don’t think she wants to pursue this. She’s concerned she won’t be believed.”
“I can’t talk about this. Not until I get to Stu and make it clear that I only represent him for his wrongful conviction and that our relationship goes no further than that. How did you get involved in this?”
“Candy called me.”
“Why did she call you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I have kind eyes.”
“You don’t. She must have thought you’d believe her though.”’
“I do believe her.”
“All right. We’ll talk about it at the office.”
I went back into the ER, no one tried to stop me. Corporal Todd stood outside the curtain with John and Ronnie. When he saw me coming, he said, “You’re Dom Reilly?”
“I am.”
“She’s not willing to make a statement. I gave her my card. She said you brought her here.”
“I did.”
After a long look in which he took the measure of me, he held out his card to me. “I’d appreciate if you’d take this. In the event she changes her mind. I’ve had victims so sure they don’t want to report that they destroyed the card. A week later they don’t know where to call.”
“Sure. I’ll hold onto it.”
“She didn’t say much, but what she did say makes me think this guy will do it again.”
That’s what I was afraid of.
***
The day had already begun when Ronnie and I got home. After Candy was released, we took her (in Ronnie’s black Mercedes 190E) to the twenty-four hour pharmacy at the CVC on the traffic circle. She walked out with a large bag of antibiotics, AZT and half a dozen pregnancy tests. The pharmacist had obviously done this before because I overheard her say, “You’ll need several tests. You can take the first one in about a week, then test once a week until you have a period. Test once after your period just to be certain.”
Candy said, “Thank you.”
