Chapter 37

On Monday night, her last day of a long Founders Day weekend, Joe said his goodbyes just after 7 o'clock. Their lovemaking had been intense and fulfilling so that losing their last 12 hours originally planned was easier to cope with. Joe always pledged that her school was number one, so when she became worried about her presentation for Doc Stevens, Joe knew where her priorities had to be set.

Dressed in a hooded jogging suit she drove into the dorm parking lot and saw Lucy's car there.

"Damn, I hope she and Jeromy didn't have big plans for the night. I may end up grabbing my stuff and going back home." She thought to herself.

As she climbed the last flight of stairs to the room she heard a ruckus inside their room. Before inserting her key she pressed her ear close and listened.

"Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh." The sound of screwing came from behind the door.

"Shit, Lucy's getting laid to beat the band." She thought. "I'll wait in the common room until I hear it get quiet and then call her and tell her I have to get something and go back to Joe's."

The common room had tables and chairs as well as a sink, a microwave and a stove top. Lots of the girls got together and made their dinners here and ate together. She took a seat where she could see the door if anyone came or went and would wait 10 minutes before checking the door for sounds and calling.

With just her purse and a bag of just washed clothes she was sorry she brought no books to Joe's for the weekend, but that was the idea. As she daydreamed about the days and nights they spent she looked to her watch and saw the minutes had flown by and she got up again to check the door for sounds.

"Get out you fucking animal! If I tell my boyfriend he'll kick your ass all over the campus."

"You'll say nothing because you know you liked it. You never even screamed for the second time I've been here. I don't think you're too convincing."

"With that fucking knife in your hand I had a real choice and nobody's here to hear me any way. Just get to FUCK OUT!"

Selena was confused but heard steps coming near the door and she ran to the common room as the other voice slipped out of the room. From the common room she saw a guy walk out of the room and calmly walk down the stairs. As soon as he was out of sight Selena charged the door and opened it.

There on the bed was Lucy with the sheets pulled over her as she cried.

"LUCY! What happened!" Selena shouted in panic.

"That fucking bastard raped me again and he KNOWS I can't report it. I look so guilty." Lucy blubbered.

"How do YOU look guilty." Selena shouted looking out the window to see the rapist walking casually down the quad.

The sight of him being so nonchalant infuriated Selena.

"He's fucking paying this time Lucy. I can't watch this!!" Selena said as she flew out the door and down the stairs. "Call campus 911" she shouted as she left.

Once out the front door of the dorm she ran down the sidewalk and was quick to catch up to the perpetrator who was casually strolling, almost in defiance of what he did and how safe he felt. She realized that she looked like any student out for a run and flew by him as she saw the pay phone at the end of the quad. Thinking fast she stopped at the pay phone and breathlessly dialed 911, not sure if it was campus 911 or local 911.

When they answered she simply said,

"I've got the rapist in the quad, HELP."

She quickly hung up the phone and began to run back up the quad toward him. She avoided eye contact as she approached him as he walked as if not noticing. Just as she was about to pass him she veered quickly and bent a bit running full speed, head first just below his chin before she drove her head up delivering an unsuspecting knock out punch to the leather coated scum.

"AwwwwwwLLLLLLUGHHHHH!" He shouted in muffled surprise as he bit down on his lip or tongue from the violent blow as he sprawled to the ground.

Selena lay dazed for a moment herself, her head suddenly buzzing from the blow she delivered. She wanted to get up and run, but when she got to her feet she felt dizzy and went down to one knee, looking back at Lucy's assailant. He too was trying to get up, not really knowing what hit him, but one thing was sure, he was bleeding heavily from his mouth and the only movement he made was to roll to his stomach. As Selena got to her feet to walk away dazed, the rapist seemed to be trying to get to all fours to try and get up, but he had no idea of what happened yet, it seemed.

With her head aching and a bit dazed herself, Selena heard Lucy hollering from the window, as well as sirens from both ends of the quad. The first responder saw the blood on the front of Selena's jogging top and the man lying in the quad and radioed for ambulances as well.

Lucy appeared at the front door of the dorm in a robe as a back-up officer ran toward the scene.

"The man in the quad raped me, she stopped him,... she stopped him!" she shouted at him.

Confusion was the most salient feature at the scene. While police tried to sort out exactly what happened a third ambulance was called for Lucy who, as a rape victim, had to be examined. The lead investigator said too many women would "clean up" before going to the hospital for exams and he wanted all evidence intact.

Selena appeared to be OK, except for a tremendous headache. A concussion was a possibility, but she never really thought she blacked out. Her hair and the hood on the jogging top cushioned the blow somewhat for her. The EMT in charge wanted her boarded for the ambulance ride in case she had a disc or neck compression from the incident.

The assailant was, by far, the worst off. He had bitten off part of his tongue, lost a lot of blood, had a hairline fracture on one side of his jaw and had several broken front teeth.

Through all of this Selena begged for a phone to call Joe as EMT's prepared her for her strapped down ride to the hospital. Finally one of personnel told her in a soft voice, as if he were breaking policy or procedure, "I'll help you with that call in the ambulance, now relax."

"Please, one more thing. Make sure that son of a bitch didn't ditch the knife. He held a knife to Lucy this time." Selena pleaded as she wracked her brain for details as she feared Lucy might not want to press charges.

In his coat pocket police would find the knife, plus a "little black book" of his victims. There had been 4 rapes reported on the campus over the last 2 years and each of those victims was listed as well as almost 2 dozen others from the PolyTech campus as well as an all girl school in town. Later when Lucy was examined it was noticed she had tiny dried blood specks on the end of her chin and below her right nipple. He had broken the skin, perhaps accidentally with the tip of the knife. Lucy's blood was found on the tip of the knife as well her DNA in hairs found on the assailant's body.

"Ma'am, we're going to sedate you because we fear your constant movements could be damaging if you have a disc or neck compression. You won't be out of it, I promise, but it's a fair precaution." The medic told her as they wheeled her to the vehicle.

"Please! Let me call my fiance'! I want him with me!" Selena pled.

The EMT looked both ways and took his cell phone from its holster and asked her for the number, which he dialed. Using his body to block him holding the phone to her ear, she heard the ring.

"Hello?"

"Joe, I've done something to get myself in some trouble here. I'm going to the hospital I think I'm OK"

"What! WHAT are you talking about?"

"Lucy was raped and I went after the guy. It's a long story but I'm headed to City General to be examined."

At this point the EMT took the phone back and told Joe that she was headed for the hospital and her injuries didn't appear to be life threatening. She was lucid with no visible injuries but was very excited by the circumstance. She would be lightly sedated soon and he could meet them in the emergency room.

Joe was flipping out until he stopped and thought that she did talk to him and the EMT DID say she appeared OK and was lucid. After calming himself he headed right out to meet the ambulance at City General.

By 11:30 that evening Selena was headed home with Joe. She managed to talk the EMT out of the sedation, assuring him she would calm down after she had spoken with Joe. She was x-rayed and examined thoroughly only to be determined to have a minor contusion on her head, a bruise with a very small bump, and a headache.

Lucy went through the normal embarrassing photographs and tests that a rape victim must go through, but she did have fingertip patterned bruises on the backs of her shoulders with thumb sized bruises on the front. Her left breast was heavily bruised from "man-handling" and semen was found in her vagina. Dried blood was noticed in her nose and she was questioned about being orally raped. Her nose was bloodied from him forcing her head on his penis with his hand on the back of her head. A psychologist on duty for just this circumstance talked with her and assured it was OK to admit what she was forced to do. Jeromy, who had left her around 4 p.m. to go to work, was found and brought to her side. He was warned that she feared rejection by him for being "used goods". Jeromy's love for her was deep and he only wanted to be sure she was fine and everything made no difference to him. At the ER doctors' insistence, she was held overnight as a precaution.

The perpetrator was a different story. Jesse Golok had been arrested on another campus 2 years earlier for stalking. He apparently sized up his victims by a certain profile for persons who would fear reporting what happened. Making things happen as if they "deserved" what happened. He had just started "revisiting" the scenes of his former crimes, confident he could come and go as he pleased. In the matter of a few hours investigators had talked to 12 other girls in his "little black book" and another 6 were ready to press charges at the CSI's urging. The last Joe and Selena had heard upon leaving the hospital, Golok had his jaw wired after invisible stitches mended his tongue. He also had a large contusion on the back of his head with a sizable egg from the back of his head hitting the sidewalk. He was being moved to a secured clinic at the county jail where he would be held until he was charged.

"Joe, bring me to the dorm. I'm really OK and I want to work on my project a bit." Selena asked, expecting an argument.

"Selena Hanson! Can't you relax one minute! Doc Stevens can wait under the circumstances." Joe said as if not wanting to hear her plea.

"Please Joe, you can stay with me and we can cuddle. If I decide I don't feel well we can boot the whole thing, but I've got my mind set on what I wanted to work on earlier and I won't rest if I go home with you. PLEASE?" She said doe-eyed leaning into him in the car.

"I must be an asshole, but I love you so much I can't refuse you. If I think you have one little problem from this tonight we're going HOME. Understood?" Joe said giving in.

"I promise. Maybe you can even critique my work. I just need an hour to get it right and I can still get 6 or 7 hours sleep. My first class isn't until 9:30. I just have to call my parents when we get back, like I promised. If my Dad knew the whole story tonight he would have been at the hospital flipping out. Hopefully the press won't make a big deal out of it. PolyTech is pretty good at keeping these things "on campus"." Selena said relieved that Joe gave in.

"Hmmmmmmmmmmm." Joe said after some deep thought. "I don't think the press can say nor do anything about the victims in a sexual assault case. I believe Lucy is protected and for that matter, you too. Let's not be surprised if he doesn't file an assault complaint against you, even though I don't think the charge would stick."

The dorm parking lots had a little more hustle and bustle than usual for almost midnight. Students were coming home from the long weekend and few had a clue as what happened in one of the girls dorms. Even the ruckus with 3 police cars and 3 ambulances earlier drew only a few onlookers. The locals probably figured it was another "drunken frat party", of which there were actually few but student reputation dictated a different story.

Joe and Selena slipped quietly into her room and locked up. She was in her pajamas propped up with pillows in her bed. She wore a large hat that normally hung on the wall, a souvenir of Jamaica, to keep a cold pack in place on her head.

"Oh my Mahatma, you certainly look stylish." Joe kidded her.

"Thanks a lot, love of my life," she said sarcastically. "Hand me my briefcase and the bed desk."

Joe set her up and in a few minutes she was reading her report for Doc Stevens aloud to Joe making changes in pencil as she read. After 20 minutes Joe shook his head and chuckled.

"What? What's so funny?" She demanded.

"You damn near killed a guy a few hours ago with the top of your head and you're sitting there as if nothing happened." Joe said in wonder.

"You know, I was thinking a couple minutes ago that I really don't have much of a headache. The spot will be sore once I take the ice off, but my headache is all but gone. That Tylenol with codeine is good stuff. I'm sure the 3 or 4 cups of coffee didn't hurt either, caffeine really opens up the capillaries." She mused aloud.

After almost an hour Selena was becoming sleepy as she finished her edit changes.

"I can present this from this if I don't get a chance to do the changes on the laptop in the morning. I'm beginning to fade off. Help me with this stuff so I can go and pee and get to sleep." Selena said as she handed Joe her brief, the bed desk, and her hat and ice pack.

Just as the bathroom door closed the phone rang and Joe answered.

"Joe? It's Lucy. How's Selena doing?"

"She appears to be fine. How about you?"

"I'm just sore in places where you might think I would be. His hands are strong."

"I thought you would be doped up."

"The earlier sedative wore off as I slept and I'm sort of wide awake now and I was hoping she might still be up."

"She is, she's just in the bathroom."

"I didn't want to report it, but she didn't give me a choice. I was mad as hell at first, but now I'm glad it all worked out this way." Lucy admitted to Joe.

"Lucy, she told me he raped you before. What if he hurt or killed someone after you. You might be responsible for not taking him off the streets." Joe tried to reason with her.

"Don't lecture me Joe. I've already had the DA here to read me the riot act. They've been looking for this guy for awhile. They don't approve of what Selena did and that's why it won't end up in the papers, but she was very brave. Actually she was quite pissed off and then got infuriated when I told her he had a knife. She leveled him Joe, like a scene from a movie." Lucy told him as Selena came out of the bathroom.

"Here's Essy now. Goodnight Lucy." Joe said to finish as he handed Selena the phone.

"I know you're pissed off and I'm sorry I took things in my own hands. I know I was stupid to handle it as I did, but I became enraged." Selena said as she took the phone from Joe knowing it was Lucy.

"I'm not mad anymore. I'm glad we did the right thing now. I was selfish and stupid. You were so brave to... (sniff — sniff) defend me like that. I love you Selena. You are the best thing that's ever happened to me. Jeromy's asleep now here in the chair, but he was saying the same thing. You took me under your wing as a friend and I'm flying right now." Lucy said emotionally.

"C'mon Lucy, don't get all sentimental on me. After Joe and after Jeromy, you and I are all each of us has here to look out for each other. Yes, I felt a duty to defend you, even if it was a bit misdirected. (then lowering her voice) You know we have special things to bond us, make us special forever. I love you too." She said as she paced the floor with the distance keeping most of her words out of earshot of Joe.

"I thought about our special hug you gave me just before you left to go home to Joes this weekend. I was a little mad then, but I'm glad now. You are a special friend. Well, I better try and get some sleep. I'm going to try and make my afternoon classes tomorrow. Goodnight my friend and thank you once again." Lucy said, hanging up.

Selena got into her bed and scooted over as far as she could and held the covers open for Joe. He stripped down to his under shorts and crawled in beside her. It was close quarters in the dorm bed but they both wanted to hold each other after the events of the day. Selena's actions showed how risky life can be sometimes, just acting on your instincts. Joe already knew how precious life could be and the thought of living without Selena made him that much more aware. Normally in this situation he would have an erection pressed into her back until they fell asleep. Tonight he held her and thanked God she was safe. He wondered how she would feel in the morning and if she would have any side effects from her thumping of this predator, Jesse Golok.

While he admired the values of this young woman who had totally stolen his heart, now he had more virtue to add to his list; Selena was a treasure.

Tuesday morning Selena woke with little more than a sore spot on her head. It was what she hoped for, but really expected a long term headache from the ordeal. She and Joe rolled out about 8:30 and Joe dressed and made coffee while she showered. Once they had coffee together with a Pop Tart that Lucy must have left around, Joe walked her to her class with she telling him that all was OK. She said she felt fresh and ready to give her report to Doc Stevens. If she was covering up at all, Joe couldn't detect it and gave her a hug and kiss goodbye. He was off to begin his own day with a shower and change of clothes at home. Everything seemed to be back to normal.

Selena fared quite well in her presentation that, as she expected, Professor Stevens found "complete and fascinating, mmmmm, except". He always found little double-blinds in business logic that would make most absolutes not so absolute. Most thought he did it to be a ball-breaker, but in reality he did it to make sure you never sided with logic in the world of business and to keep you alert for anything.

Upon returning to her dorm, where she hoped to hook up with Lucy, assuming she was out of the hospital, two detective types approached her as she unlocked the outer door to the dorm.

"Miss Hanson?", the female part of the duo said as she flashed her ID, "I'm Fran McDermott of City Central unit and this is Fred Meissner, my partner.

"We would like to ask you some questions about the incident yesterday between Jesse Golok and Lucy Bonacre." Meissner said.

"Uhh, sure. OK, come on up." Selena said warily.

Once inside the dorm she had second thoughts.

"Are you going to ask any questions about my participation after the incident? If so, I really want to have a lawyer present. As well, I can't allow a search. Investigators were already here yesterday." Selena said acting defensively.

"Miss Hanson we aren't here to make this any tougher on you or Lucy Bonacre. We would like you to corroborate a few of her statements and help the case against her assailant." McDermott said while Meissner piped in.

"We think of the case is strong enough this guy might turn over and confess and cop a plea and save all of us some time and money not to mention the stress of Miss Bonacre having to testify. Don't think he'll get off easy. He'll be away for a while."

"We want to strengthen our case for the grand jury to get a strong indictment to get him to flip over here." Fran McDermott countered.

"OK, I'll try to help." Selena said.

"When did you first learn of the first rape?"

"About a week after it happened. She told me while we discussed our own little rules here in our dorm. She was sorry she couldn't raise me while it was happening. She felt very guilty over it; I guess a typical "it was all my fault" reaction."

"How did she say it happened?"

"She said it was consensual at first. She had a couple drinks and met this guy and decided to bring him home for a,... er,... uh... tumble. Uh, sorry."

"Was this typical behavior for her?"

"Not at least for the time I've known her, nor do I think that anyone deserves to be raped."

"Did she tell you when it turned into rape?"

"Yes. Apparently he didn't want to finish... errr... reach his climax while... this is very uncomfortable."

"We understand Miss Hanson; just try to be frank and honest. We've heard it all before but if you want Fred to leave the room, he'll understand."

"No, we're all grownups here. He didn't want to finish in the condom. He wanted her to fellate him to climax. She said she didn't want that and he turned violent immediately holding his hand to her throat and then telling her he would punch her in the face. She assumed he would hurt me as well if I were awakened."