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“No one did. Mace and I have kept that secret for fifteen years. It would have stayed that way, but someone found out.”
“No,” Janet gasped. “No, Imogen. Please don’t tell me you’re going to prison.”
Imogen shook her head and wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. “It might come to that if you can’t help me. After all the hate you threw at me, I’m still here because I need you. I need what you might have.”
“Anything,” Janet cried. “Just tell me what you need.”
Imogen swiped her tear-stained cheek and grabbed a tissue from the box on the table. “When you took me to the hospital when I first got here, they did a rape kit.”
“Yes,” Janet nodded. “I didn’t want to put you through that, but a part of me needed to know if you were telling the truth or if you were just trying to find a way to get away from your mother.”
She shrugged. “Wasn’t lying.”
Jesus. Janet really did have a lot of hate for Imogen’s mom if she hadn’t believed Imogen. “What happened to it? I know you didn’t turn it over to the police, so where did it go?” I asked.
“Oh, uh, well, I don’t remember. I know I kept it, but I hid it in all of my papers. I don’t even know if I still have it.” Janet chewed on her fingernail. “I could have gotten into a lot of trouble if the hospital ever found out I took it. When I saw the proof, I was going to report it, but Imogen was adamant that she didn’t want anyone to know. Told me it wouldn’t matter because it wouldn’t take it away.”
Of course, that would be the one-time Janet listened to Imogen.
“What papers did you hide it with?” I asked. “If we can’t find it, Imogen and I are going to be in a load of trouble.”
“You?” Janet asked. “It happened years ago. How are you going to get into trouble for it now?” she demanded.
I nodded. “Right now the police are only coming after me because they found evidence that puts me at the crime scene. I’m not going to deny that I was there, but we need proof that Kent raped Imogen, and she killed him in self-defense.”
“You were there when it happened?” Janet gasped.
“No, no,” Imogen moaned. “Mace found me after it happened. He cleaned up, and somehow one of his fingerprints was at the scene. The police are saying he’s the one who killed Kent.”
“Oh my goodness,” Janet moaned. “This is all a mess.”
“You are not wrong, Janet.” I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees. “You and Imogen have a whole lot of things you need to work through if she wants, but right now, we just need to get that rape kit from you.”
“I don’t know where it is,” she sighed. “I don’t remember throwing it away, but I did have a fire at my place before I moved here. A lot of the things I saved were burned up.”
“Oh god,” Imogen groaned. She flopped onto the couch beside me and buried her face in her hands. “We are screwed once again.”
“It’s all gone?” I asked.
“Well, no. The home has storage in the basement. What I couldn’t fit in here, they put in storage.” She looked at Imogen. “It could be down there.”
“Can we look? Tell whomever you need to that we can go down there?” I pleaded. As the days went by, the more real it became that I could go to prison. Janet was our last hope.
“Yes, yes,” she insisted. “You can search everything down there. I don’t know if you’ll be able to do it today, though. We can try, but if anything tomorrow morning you can get in there.” She stood gingerly and shuffled into the kitchen. “Let me call the gals up front and see what I can do.”
“Don’t tell them why we’re looking,” Imogen called. “We’re trying not to broadcast what happened to me.” She glanced at me and frowned. “At least not yet.”
“No, no, child. They are my things. I don’t need to give them a reason why I want to look at them.” She grabbed the phone and pushed a couple of buttons.
“Mace,” Imogen hissed.
“Yeah, babe?”
“I don’t know if she’s actually calling to help us or if she’s calling the cops on us.” Her eyes bugged out, and she tipped her head toward Janet. “I have never seen her cry before, let alone tell me she loved me.”
I squeezed her hand. “She’s going to help us, babe. It’s fucked up what she did in the past, but I really think she will try to help you now.”
“Thirty years later the woman decides to have a heart and not just think about herself,” Imogen grumbled.
