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“Then what Olivia?” Teri asked feeling like finding the man and killing him herself.
“He shoves me off the bed…naked, bruised…beaten, onto the floor and makes me sleep there and I can’t do it anymore. Half the time…I don’t know if I want to kill him or want him to kill me so it’ll all stop. I hate him…hate that everyone just believes he’s such a good guy,” she added, the tears falling, feeling just how utterly hopeless it all was.
“Olivia,” Teri said walking over to her on the couch. She sat down beside her and gently reached out not knowing how she’d respond to being touched, but unable to stop herself. “You have to find a way to tell the police the truth; is there anywhere you can go? Anyone you can stay with?”
“No, if I run he’ll go to Jess and he’ll hurt her to hurt me. He’ll kill them, I know he will.”
“What can I do? How can I help?” Teri asked confused. Most women who came to her knew they had to get out and were prepared for it but this time she didn’t know what Olivia wanted.
“You can’t, no one can. I just couldn’t pretend anymore; I had to say it.”
“And I’ll listen anytime you need me to,” Teri stated, her arm around Olivia’s shoulder, gently holding her as she cried and talked as Teri tried to figure out what to do. How she could help. She couldn’t stand to see Olivia so scared, so…despondent, broken but not beaten down despite everything she’d been through, endured.
She let Olivia leave then called a friend from the department and headed out to meet them at a diner across town.
“Teri I haven’t heard from you in a bit…what’s going on?” Jake asked.
“I need some help, very quiet help Jake.”
“Alright what’s wrong?” he said as she leaned closer to him.
“I have a patient whose husband is extremely abusive; in ways I’ve never encountered,” Teri admitted, a sense of second-hand terror flowing through her after everything Olivia had told her.
“And you need help getting her out of town?” he guessed.
“She won’t come forward and she won’t leave town. This guy has her terrified. He’s threatened to kill her brother, her parents, her boss if she so much as says a word but what has her most worried is his threats to go after her sister. She can’t do anything except wait for him to kill her and it’s going to happen Jake.”
“I can see that,” he stated, noting the look on Teri’s face, “but what can I do if she won’t make the accusation, press charges?”
“I’m certain she would if it was possible to guarantee that there was no way for him to get out.”
“We can do our best, the DA can do their best, but it’s ultimately up to a judge to decide that,” he warned, and Teri nodded in understanding.
“Which is why she won’t come forward, she knows if she says anything she’s dead or else everyone she cares about will be before he finally gets to her.”
“Then it sounds like we’re at an impasse, who is this guy? A politician…one of the rich yahoos on Park Roe…” he guessed, and she shook her head no.
“A detective with the force,” she told him, watching the shock flow across his face.
“You’re saying one of ours is…no way…”
“I’m deathly serious, Jake. It’s why she won’t step up. She knows that if she made a domestic abuse report he’ll find out from the others on the force.”
“And he’ll come after her. She turns him in and as a cop he has easy access to guns, ammo, taser, nightsticks…”
Teri nodded seeing the thoughts pass across Jake’s face. “She’s in hell and she wants out so badly; she’s screaming for it to stop inside but she has no way out.”
“And even if she were to run he’d probably find her, so what can I do to help?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know her last name or her husband’s name, all I know is that he was shot in the arm going after a suspect three months ago and he works in homicide.”
“Holy shit,” Jake said thinking back over the guys in the precincts. When one of them got shot it made the rounds, but he couldn’t believe it would be possible. “Do you know the wife’s real name?”
“I know her first name, but I can’t tell you Jake.”
“I can guess though, can’t I? You don’t even have to confirm or deny,” he said holding his finger up as he said confirm and lowered it for deny. “It’s Olivia, isn’t it?”
Teri lifted her finger slightly and he shook his head.
