Detective Carlos Vega
The minute I saw her get into her car and drive off in the opposite direction down the street, I was rushing back through the halls like someone had lit a match under my ass in search of my partner.
I couldn't believe my luck. I had been trying to pin that bastard Hale for as long as I could remember but every fucking time, I had even come close, one of three things always seemed to happen. The victims refused to press charges, they simply "disappeared", or the evidence that at one point would have been damming enough to put him behind bars until he was a shriveled old man suddenly became inadmissible in court.
I wasn't going to let it happen again.
After just one brief encounter with Halle King, I knew that she was the woman who was going to help me make that happen.
It was clear from our short conversation that she was as stubborn as she was beautiful. She was petite, barely reaching five foot five, but there was a fire in her eyes that rivaled several of the hardened men I knew here on the force, and I had to admire her for it. If I would've told her that I hadn't believed that she really saw Darrius Hale last night she probably would've told me to kiss her ass and went on until she found someone who did. I could tell that she had a strong sense of right and wrong and she wouldn't let what had happened to Aubrey Green go without punishment.
I was going to make sure it happened.
I found Vince in the break room, a half-eaten donut in one hand and his cell phone in the other. The minute I barged in, the hand holding the donut froze midway on its journey to his mouth.
One look at my face and he was tossing the half-eaten donut on the napkin on the counter before turning to give me his full attention.
"What happened?"
"Darrius Hale."
It was all I had to say.
Twenty minutes later I had finished giving Vince the rundown of what Halle had told me earlier this morning.
"Well, shit." Vince muttered as he ran a hand down his face.
My thoughts exactly. If we played our cards right, we had a real shot at finally nailing the bastard.
"Has anyone been to the hospital to get Aubrey's statement?"
Vince shook his head.
"What the hell are we still doing here then?"
One fifteen-minute drive later, we were standing outside Aubrey's hospital room, the nurse looking at us warily before pushing the door open and letting us in.
"Aubrey?" The nurse called gently and a pair of blue eyes (well, eye given that the other one was completely swollen shut) snapped up to look at us standing in the doorway.
"Detectives Vega and Patterson are here to see you."
I could sense the fear and suspicion coming from her in waves even from where we stood.
"I'll be back in a few. If you need me just press the button" the nurse told Aubrey, giving us one last look before she exited the room, closing the door behind her.
"I already told the officers that brought me here, that I don't have anything to say." she stated as Vince and I made our way further into the room.
"Do you mind if I grab a seat?" I asked gesturing toward one of the chairs used for visitors in the corner of the room.
Aubrey glanced at the chair and then back at me before shrugging her shoulders.
I felt the burn of her apprehensive stare on the side of my face the entire time I was pulling the chair from the corner of the room to the side of her hospital bed. It wasn't until I was seated in front of her that her gaze shifted as she glanced at Vince and then her probing stare was right back on me.
"You want me to talk."
It wasn't a question. Aubrey knew from the moment the nurse had opened the door exactly who we were and what we were here for.
"I'm sorry to waste your time detective, but like I said earlier, I don't have anything to say."
I leaned forward in the chair, resting my elbows on my legs as I steepled my fingers under my chin.
"See, that's where I think you're wrong Aubrey." I stated, purposely using her first name.
"I think you have a lot to say. You're just scared of what it'll mean if you do."
"If that's what you think then why would you come here? You know what'll happen."
I didn't miss the slight tremor in her voice.
"I came here because despite your fears and what you may think, we can offer you protection."
The scoff that that left her mouth was harsh as she shook her head, staring blankly ahead.
"You can't protect me. No one can. Not from him."
"And who is it that you think we can't protect you from?"
The sharp glare she shot my way would have felled a lesser man. "Detective, if you're going to sit there and treat me like some common criminal that you can play mind games with to try and weasel information out of, then do us a both a favor and get the hell out of my room."
I opened my mouth, ready to refute her claim and attempt to try and calm her down because she was obviously getting worked up now, but Vince chose this moment to step forward, refusing to break eye contact with Aubrey as he looked down at her from the foot of her bed.
"Aubrey, you're not the first woman this has happened to, nor will you be the last. If we leave him out there, this will keep happening to other women, only they might not be as lucky as you were last night and get the chance to walk away from it."
Vince's tone, while not harsh, held no room for argument.
This was why we had worked so well together for the last five years. While I tended to try a more "friendlier" approach when talking to people (victims or perps), Vince always dove in headfirst and went straight for the "no nonsense" side of things.
"If you don't say anything, that's the same as protecting him. You'd essentially be helping him continue to hurt more and more women."
The moment the words left his mouth I watched Aubrey's resolve shatter like a broken mirror, her face crumbling.
"You don't understand." She was on the verge of tears now. "Even if I talk, it won't do any good."
"How about you let us decide that?" Vince coaxed, still refusing to break eye contact.
Aubrey's eyes frantically darted between our faces, like a trapped animal looking for an escape route.
I waited, damn near holding my breath as whatever battle she was waging inside her head took place.
One minute turned into two minutes, and two turned into five. Still, neither Vince nor I made a single move. We'd laid our cards out on the table. The ball was in her court now. She was either going to tell us or she wasn't.
We watched her in silence, the steady rhythm of the heart monitor the only sound to pierce the quietness.
And then I watched it happen.
I watched the steely look of determination enter her eyes like a steel door slamming shut on the terrified woman who had sat trembling in her hospital bed only a moment ago.
She was going to do it.
She was going to give him up.
A shuddering exhale was released from her lips and then...
"This wasn't the first time."
I didn't utter a single word, hell I was scared to even blink at this point, nervous that one wrong move, one wrong word would make her put those walls right back up again and she'd refuse to tell us anything.
This was her story to tell, and I was going to let her do it at her own pace.
"I met him for the first time about six months ago. I was out with a few girlfriends celebrating my birthday. One of my friends knew the club owner so we were able to get a booth in VIP and that's where I saw him."
There was a faraway look in her eyes as her mind brought her back to that night.
"He was with a few other men and they all looked shady as hell. Like if I glanced under the table they were seated at I'd find guns and piles of drugs in each of their laps." She gave a sarcastic laugh. "I felt his eyes on me from the moment we sat down and from every moment after that."
A sad smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she silently shook her head. "My friends noticed his stare too and they were all excited thinking I'd caught the attention of one of the richest men in the country. But I-" She closed her eyes briefly before opening them again, the glimmer of tears pooling at the edge of her eyelids, waiting to spill over.
"I hated the way he looked at me. Like I was something of his to possess. It had me on edge the entire night, and it wasn't until I went to the bathroom later that I figured out why."
"I had just walked out of the bathroom when I ran right into him. He had been waiting right outside the door for me. I didn't even have time to scream for help before he pushed me back inside. I can still hear the sound the lock on the bathroom door made as he slid it into place."
The tears finally spilled over.
"He raped me in that bathroom and when he was done and I was nothing more than shivering, crying mess on the floor, he leaned forward and whispered in my ear that if I tried to do anything stupid like going to the police, he'd find me and rape me again."
"Did you? Go to the police I mean?" I asked gently as she finally turned to look at me again, pulling herself from the nightmare she just had to relive.
"I did. I didn't give a damn about his warning to come to find me again, although in hindsight I guess I should have." She gave a bitter laugh. "I wanted him to rot in a jail cell for the rest of his life for what he did to me. So, I ran straight out of the club and took a cab to the nearest police station. I didn't bother saying anything to my friends because I was too embarrassed to let them see what I had let happen to me. I thought about just going home instead but I knew if I did I'd find some way to talk myself out of going to the police."
"And what happened after you reported it?"
The harsh laughter that filled the room was anything but humorous.
"You mean after I told the very officers that were in his back pocket that he had raped me? Not a damn thing." Aubrey shook her head roughly, the disgust turning her face up in a nasty sneer.
"He used a condom so there was no evidence... at least not physically that could prove he had been the one who attacked me. It was just my word against his and of course being as rich and powerful as he was, it didn't take much before my case didn't have a leg to stand on and I was simply dismissed and told there was nothing more that they could do, not like they tried. A night that still gives me nightmares to this day, was wrapped up by the officers in less than an hour."
I fully understood her reluctance to speak with us now. The system had already failed her once.
"I kept myself locked away for months after that. I only went to work and back home, paranoid that he'd keep true to his promise and find me again. I was just a shell of the person I was before. And then six months later, when I finally decided that I'd had enough of letting him and the fear he instilled control my life I decided to hell with him. I went out again and he-"
I watched with a cold sort of fury flowing through my veins as Aubrey bit down on her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood, her eyes fluttering closed as she did her best not to break down from what had been done to her.
From what he had done to her.
"He found me again and kept true to his promise. Or at least he would've if that woman hadn't shown up when she did."
"Halle King." I supplied her name for her, figuring she deserved to know the name of the woman who had ultimately saved her life last night.
Aubrey nodded, seemingly lost in thought before she exhaled deeply and turned her gaze back to me.
"So, please tell me detective, how exactly is this time going to be any different? Tell me how you're going to stop that monster from finding me again because now that I've talked to you, he'll know."
It didn't escape me that throughout her entire story, Aubrey never actually mentioned his name.
"Aubrey, I know you're terrified right now, and I know that the police failed you the first time. I'll be the first to apologize for their fuck up, but I can promise you that we--- I, won't let it happen again. He'll pay for what he did to you, but in order for that to happen I'm going to need a name. Tell me exactly who it was that did this to you."
I knew exactly what she was doing because I'd seen it happen so many times before with other victims. Telling the story without ever mentioning his name was a way for her to disassociate from what had happened. If she said his name, it would make everything real and from the look on her face, she knew it too.
Aubrey eyes danced between me and Vince. I'm not sure what she was looking for exactly, but she apparently found it when she narrowed her eyes.
"You already know who it is, don't you?"
"We have our assumptions." I admitted. "But those mean nothing unless you tell us yourself who it was."
This time when Aubrey turned her head, she didn't bother looking at me or Vince.
She simply stared straight ahead. She sat in silence for so long I was certain she was just going to continue sitting there and nothing else.
I watched as she inhaled deeply, her shoulders rising with the movement and then slowly she opened her mouth.
And for the second time that day, I listened as the name of that bastard floated through the air.