Chapter 2

I slept late on Monday morning since there was nothing else for me to do. I got showered and dress with barely enough time left to have breakfast. Breakfast was a bagel bought the night before and coffee made that morning by boiling coffee grounds in a pot on the stove. After the boiling I poured the liquid grounds and all into a auto store funnel, but only after first lining it with a paper towel. Almost all the grounds wound up on the paper towel, so it made a passable yet strong cut of coffee.

After the coffee and bagel I went looking for the Lawyer's office. It wasn't hard to find. The De Angelo and Associates sign hung over what had once been a retail store of some kind. It sat directly across the street from the courthouse square. The county had managed to maintain the small grassy area in front of the courthouse. It would be about half a city block back home. I imagined that the land in the small town was worth considerably less than it would have been in the larger town where I resided at that time.

I checked in with the teenager at the front desk. "I'm sorry Mr. Holiday things are a little crazy around here this morning. I'm sure you understand."

"Yes, and I'm sure you understand that I am here under a court order. It requires that I make myself available to Ms. De Angelo this morning at 9 A.M. I have done that. It does not require me to wait until it is convenient for her to take my statement. So unless you can convince me somehow that there is a real reason for me to wait, I will be moving along."

She didn't even bother to answer instead she simply picked up the phone, pushed a button and began to speak urgently. "Mr. Holiday is here but refuses to wait. He said he is going to leave and Ms. De Angelo is not here." She paused a long moment while I presumed that she listened to whoever she had called.

"Mr. Holiday someone will be with you momentarily."

"Let me warn you that momentarily better be within three minutes." I made a big deal of looking at my watch.

"Wouldn't you like to take a seat?" the young woman asked.

"No thanks, I'm not planning to stay out here that long." It was clear to her that I was dead serious.

It was just about two minutes later than a woman of about thirty stepped into the waiting area. "Mr. Holiday, I'm Nell De Angelo."

"Another daughter?" I asked it without a lot of humor in my voice.

"No Younger sister, daddy was a lawyer. He pushed us all to law school. That way until he retired he had lots of cheap labor." She smiled.

"So did big sister continue the tradition?"

"You mean is Jill a lawyer?"

"No, I meant the cheap labor."

"I'm not an employee. Sal and I are partners. This was our fathers firm originally."

"Oh I was given the impression that it was your sister's firm."

"Sal is the one who does the litigation, and makes all the speeches, so I'm sure that it seems that way to the people around here."

"So are you going to take my statement, or hold my hand till your sister arrives?"

"Why don't we do the statement? I am sure there is a place where we can find you later."

"True, I'm not a gypsy. I do have a life, one which you are keeping me from at this moment."

"Yes, I will try to make this brief."

"Let me make it even briefer. Turn on your tape machine and let's get to it." We had reached the conference room by that time. She sat down at the head of the table and I sat on her right. Another teenager, a male, sat across from me with a pad.

She began, "This is the statement of one Michael Holiday aka Doc Holiday. Present at this statement are the following employees of the firm De Angelo and De Angelo, Penelope De Angelo, and Robert Fisher. Mr. Holiday is not represented by counsel.

Mr. Holiday would you like to delay this statement until you have time to secure counsel."

"Let's see how it goes, if it gets any nastier than just you trying to make me sound like a criminal, I most likely will. Let's start by cleaning up the record. The aka is not a criminal name. It is a nickname given me by my fellow students at the Georgia Police Academy. I would prefer this statement reflect the complete truth not some half assed lawyer version of the truth."

"So noted," I'll give her this Nell De Angelo was cool. She never batted an eye.

"In your own words could you relate the events of September 6th"

"Do you want to know about the whole day, or just as they relate to the incident in question."

"Whatever you feel pertinent. We can go back to clarify any discrepancies."

"I'm not sure I like your choice of words. However there isn't much to tell, so there won't be any discrepancies in my version it will simply be what happened."

"I set up my camper at the park that afternoon before I went to check out the festival site. I spent about two hours looking over my space and doing a little shopping. I even had time for a bit of site seeing. Thought there isn't a heck of a lot to see here.

After I returned to the camper I had dinner. After dinner I went outside to enjoy the night air. It gets a little stuffy in my camper since it isn't air conditioned. I was drinking iced tea at the time I think.

The first indication I had that something was amiss was in the voices. I heard loud voices coming from my rear. I actually listened a moment trying to determine where they were coming from, but I was unable to do so. After that one failed attempt to determine what the voices meant, I turned up my radio. I listened to country music until the woman came stumbling down my drive way. I wasn't sure what was going on but since I didn't feel threatened I just waited for her.

The woman who I had never seen before was injured. Mostly superficial I decided by her actions and the look of them. She was bloody but the cuts didn't appear to be life threatening.

At about the same time the couple from the campsite beside mine showed up. I don't have a cell phone so I suggested they call the ranger."

I anticipated what would be coming later so at that point I interjected, "Since I didn't know if it were an accident, or something worse I suggested the ranger. The ranger would be a damn site closer and could arrive sooner. A five minute or so delay didn't appear to be a medical problem, but I am not a doctor either."

Once the ranger arrived, my involvement ended. That is all I can tell you about the event." At that point I did what all good suspects should do I shut up. Most people when you get them started talking can't shut up. I was the exception.

"Mr. Holiday I have just a few questions for you." She didn't even try to smile. "So, you are the one who decided not to seek immediate medical help for my client?"

"I am the one who suggested that my camper neighbor call the park ranger to get assistance for your niece, yes. I did not make a decision to not get her medical help. Frankly she didn't look as though she were in a life threatening situation. After all she had managed to walk to my space without assistance."

"However as you said, you are not a doctor."

"That is absolutely correct, I am not. Nor was the lady next to me who called the ranger, rather than 911. She also noted your niece's physical condition and she had the phone."

"But she is not the one who had the experience handling rape victims."

My blood boiled. She obviously knew that it would. "First of all councilor," I made it sound just as slimy as I felt that the word deserved. "I am not a cop. I was under no obligation to do any more than I did, "I was acting not in any capacity except that of concerned citizen. I did what I thought was best at the time. Would I do it differently today, I doubt it. Your niece seemed to be traumatized but not in any real physical danger."

"She had just been raped, how could you think she was not in any danger at that moment?"

"She had allegedly been raped councilor, and she was no longer under the control of anyone. She was in the presence of people who were trying to help her, not harm her."

"A woman shows up at your campsite beaten and bloody and you doubt that she was raped."

"When she showed up at my site, she did not say to me, 'I have just been raped'. She said, "Help me," and I did. Now you twist that any damn way you want, but it is a fact that can not be denied. No one closed their door, or went back to watching their TVs. We all helped her as best we could. None of us were doctors or even cops. We were just people on a camping trip."

"In your case that may not fly Mr. Holiday, you sir did know better."

"Well Ms De Angelo, that is up to you. You just feel free to do what you need to do for your niece. Unless you have more substantive questions for me, I will be going?" Fortunately for us both she didn't try to stop me.

I was mad as hell and all I wanted to do was get out of town. My first thought was to go back to the campground and just leave. The De Angelo sisters were slick as hell, but I had no idea that they could make any hay from my statement. I had told her my involvement then pleaded ignorance to everything else.

I stopped for coffee on the way to the campground. When I reached into my pocket for the cash to pay, I found the note given my by my neighbor. Call Jill De Angelo before you leave, it directed me.

The drive through didn't have a pay phone, but the service station next door did. I left the coffee cup on the hood of my car while I phoned the battered De Angelo girl. While the phone rang I had a shocking thought. I might finally have too many women in my life. At least way too many De Angelo women.

"Hello," the voice said.

"Hello, this is Mike Holiday is Jill De Angelo in?"

"Just a moment, I'll see." What I had just been told by an employee was that she would see if Jill wanted to talk to me. She was obviously at home.

"Mr. Holiday, I'm glad you called. This is Jill."

"You left word for me to call. This is the first chance I've had."

"Have you talked to mother yet?"

"I gave a statement to your aunt this morning. As a matter of fact I'm on my way to hook up the trailer and head home." Even though I was still pissed at her aunt, I was trying not to take it out on Jill. As far as I was concerned she was the victim. The one that nobody seemed to remember. It looked as though everybody saw it as an opportunity to sue someone. It could even be me they planned to sue. That would be an interesting turn of event.

"Oh, I had hoped to speak to you first."

"I'm sorry it wouldn't have made any difference. I told what happened and I would have told the same no matter what we had discussed."

"No I meant to prepare you for my family. They don't seem to realize that you helped me. They are all full of righteous indignation at the moment."

"It did seem that they were packing a load for someone. I'm just not sure who."

"Me either, but someone will be sued there is no doubt."

"They probably should give some thought to catching the guy who did it."

"I think they are expecting the police to do that."

"Well I don't know what happened so I can't comment. I also don't need to know."

"I agree. Since I didn't catch you in time, have a good trip and don't worry. People down here will calm down eventually."

"I certainly hope so. Are you going to be okay?"

"I have an appointment with a rape counselor. I should be fine after a while." She sounded a little too upbeat for my taste but everyone copes with tragedy differently. I suppose she cold be faking the upbeat attitude. Then again she almost certainly was no virgin so maybe it wasn't all that big a deal to her.

That kind of thinking would likely get me in a world of hurt with certain women's groups and definitely with the De Angelo family. I wiped that from my mind.

I found an older man in a park ranger uniform waiting for me. I figured it was to collect for the trailer space which I had used the night before. I knew that getting by without paying had been too good to be true.

"Howdy," I said as I stepped down from the truck.

"Hello there, you Mike Holiday?"

"Sure am, what can I do for you?"

"You weren't planning to leave right now were you?"

"As a matter of fact I still am. Any reason I shouldn't go?"

"Well the parks superintendent is on the way down here to talk to you. Could you hold off a while?"

"I could but I have been talking to everyone in the world. Why don't you talk to the folks who were beside me that night? They know everything I know."

"Well they have moved on to Myrtle Beach and we can't find them."

"Well they will be going home eventually."

"I know but the super wants to talk to someone now. It shouldn't take too long."

"Against my better judgement, I agreed to wait a few more minutes before leaving. I spent the time hooking up the trailer and rethinking the conversation with Jill De Angelo. She had obviously been trying to say more than just Mom and Auntie are pains in the ass. It took me a while because I kept thinking I had nothing worth the effort of a law suit.

It came to me about two minutes before the park superintendent arrived. I was the first person in their daisy chain. If I was negligent then everyone after me could have been as well. There was no way they could win such a suit. The Good Samaritan laws protected all of us from criminal charges. However Jill had reminded me that anyone could be sued. The publicity and lost time that the suits cost the defendants accounted for as many settlements as quilt.

I wasn't sure what it meant or what could be done abut it, but there it was. Sally De Angelo most likely meant to name me in a law suit just to get at the park. The person who committed the crime was secondary to her. To give the devil her due, litigation was all she probably understood. It was most likely the only thing she knew to do, and as the victims mother, she felt she had to do something. When I thought of it that way, it almost made sense. However who can get into the mind of a mother in pain, or a lawyer overcome with greed. Either or both could be her motive.

I was pretty deep in thought when they drove up. I probably would have paid no attention to the superintendent under normal circumstances. He was a very unimpressive kind of guy. Just your average height, average weight, brown hair brown eyed white male about fifty years old, nothing special about him at all.

"So you're Holiday," he said it shoving his very average hand in my face.

"I seem to be getting my name mentioned more today than I have in years." I shook the hand.

"I hate to meet new people under these kinds of conditions."

"Yeah, I know, nobody likes being threatened."

"I meant the girl's rape, but yes the other is also true. I'm Bob Libby, by the way."

"Well Bob, that was a terrible thing to have happen anytime, but right now I'm more concerned by her mother's actions. I mean this is the first time I ever heard of a witness being deposed by the victim's mother within 72 hours of the crime. It really seems odd."

"It seems odd to me to. Frankly when the ranger told me about it, I was surprised and a little shocked. What is the woman thinking?"

"In order to know what she is thinking, I would have to either be her, or know what she knows. Fortunately neither is the case."

"True, nobody knows what is going on in her head. So what are you planning to do about it?"

"I'm planning to go home and go back to work. What are you planning to do?"

"That woman is going to have us both in and out of courtrooms for the next ten years. It's going to get very expensive, even if she loses."

"That is true enough, I guess. So what do you have in mind?"

"The best defense is a good offense."

"That's true in football at least. So, how does it apply here?"

"I propose that you and I investigate the incident ourselves. Find out what we can and then go to court showing the efforts we made to bring this all to an end. It can't help but impress a jury."

"You know the odds are a million to one that we could do more than the police?"

"I don't expect us to be able to make any headway. I just propose that we put forth a good faith effort. It will go a long way to make us more human to the jury. I won't appear like a fat assed bureaucrat and you won't look like a callous ex-cop."

"So I don't really have to do anything?"

"Just go through the motions for a few days, by that time the police should have the rapist."

"You know the cops aren't going to like me butting into their investigation."

"Technically at least part of the crime took place here, so we have joint jurisdiction.

"Okay, what are you suggesting? That you hire me to look into this, so that you can spin it to your own advantage?"

"Something like that, but I'm not going to hire you. I can't justify that I would get in all kinds of trouble. The perception of misuse of government funds to cover my own ass, you understand.

"So you think I will do this to cover my own ass? Frankly Bob, I don't have anything worth protecting from a judgment."

"I thought you might feel that way, so I'm going to leave it to you. If you want come back down here to sit in on a lawsuit naming all of us, I guess I can't stop you. I would think you might have better things to do with your two or three months."

"But what you are saying is that there will be a suit regardless, and that you are just setting spin for the jury. I don't need the spin. Now if we can stop this, or get me off the list of defendants, then we can talk turkey."

"I'm not sure that can in good faith promise that. I promise you this, Sally De Angel is not interested in spending that much of her own time in court to lose. If she can't get us to settle, and if we look as though we are going to have the jury on our side, she will drop it. So the spin is to your advantage as well."

"I don't know it sounds pretty vague to me. Besides if I don't have a badge there is nothing I can do."

"I thought about that, so I think we can get around it by making you an unpaid consultant. Let one of our people do the actual work. You will be pulling the strings of course. Remember we need a show more than a real investigation. A nice high profile would be to our advantage."

"So who is gonna' be the puppet?"

"The only ranger we have with any previous police experience is Janet Meyers. I'm going to assign her to look into this." He thought a second then went on. "She is the one who happened to be on duty the night of the rape, she is going to have a vested interest in finding the rapist. Let's keep the base reason for this investigation just between us. Let Janet think it is for real."

I nodded. I didn't bother to tell him that I considered it for real. Might as well do all I could, if I was going to get involved. The truth probably was that the law suit had less to do with my decision, than the guilt I still carried like a hundred pound pack on my back.

"So send her over when you are ready for me to start."

"Well, I can't pay you but I can make this mess a little easier to take. Park the trailer in the parking lot by the office. When you do, you can pick up the keys to one of the cabins. We wont be needing all of them this week, and there is nothing planned for the weekend. I doubt that anyone will notice one being occupied off the books." I nodded my agreement. I had a feeling that I wasn't the first to occupy a cabin as a ghost.

I managed to get all my things into the large one room cabin before the middle-aged and far less than gorgeous Janet arrived. I saw her clunk her way along the walk and thought, if this was a movie or book she would be young and beautiful. I also thought that if I were ever to write and account of it, she would be much younger and much blonder.

"I'm really glad to have you along on this Mr. Holiday. I don't really know where to begin."

I almost told her that I wasn't along with her she was along with me, but I thought better of it since she had the badge. "Well I'll tell you what, rather than nice each other to death why don't we just do what I always did. You just tell me if I get out of line." I watched to see what her reaction would be. It was as I expected, she was confused but not angry.

"Okay, so what should we do first?"

"Well we can either talk to Jill or get a copy of her police statements. I vote for copies since her mom has her sights set for me. I don't think we need to confront anyone just yet. Does that sound right to you?" I asked it trying to stay in the puppy dogs follower role.

"It sounds just fine to me. How do we get it?"

"First you make a nice request of the police chief or the detective whoever will talk to you. Then when they refuse, you have your boss ask. If they still refuse keep going up your chain of command." I didn't figure there was any sense in getting the superintendent involved at that point. Save the juice till we needed it was my plan.

It turned out that nobody wanted to be accused of non cooperation or turf battling with Sal De Angelo watching. The report got faxed to the park office within twenty minutes. I sent Janet for it. I didn't exactly send her. I suggested that I couldn't get it since I had no official standing.

The report was the first time I had heard Jill's version. I got bits and pieces while she told it to Janet and then the deputy sheriff. So I was curious to read what Jill said to the deputies.

"You read this first," I suggested. "Look for anything that is different from what she told you. Anything that is contradictory or embellished too much." While Janet did that, I fixed myself a coke.

While she read, I drank my coke and watched Janet. She wasn't beautiful by any means, but she did have a nice look for a woman lugging around twenty five extra pounds. The extra weight was spread evenly enough that she looked soft not chunky. Even sitting while reading, I could tell she wasn't especially graceful, which was just fine. I wasn't exactly a ballroom dancer myself.

With my white hair I most likely looked as old as Janet. We might be able to pass as a couple, at least to anyone who didn't know her. I didn't want to arouse too much suspicion with the town's other residents. In other words I had no desire to be the visiting pro.

Janet had unfortunately worn her uniform. It would have been a good choice, if I had been forced to go to the police station for the report. As things turned out it was likely to be an inconvenience.

When she finally looked up I began. "Bring the report and let's go to an office supply house." She drove since the antique ambulance would be hard to maneuver through the parking lots of an Office Depot. At the Office Depot I bought three of those yellow legal pads and a couple of thick markers. Our next stop was a restaurant for coffee. It was late enough in the day that we missed the lunch crowd. Other than our waitress, none of the staff seemed to notice us at all. I found that to be a good sign.

I handed Janet one of the pads and a marker. "Make a list of what we know. You write while I try to figure it out."

"Jill was raped?" she suggested.

"Do we know that?" I asked it since I hadn't seen the police report.

"Good point the incident report states that she claims that she had forced sex with a man she didn't recognize. I guess we only have her word for that. I can't imagine why she would lie."

"I can't either but it happens. On your list we want only what we know for sure. For instance Jill is a single white female." Janet wrote it. "Do you know her age?"

"Twenty two according to the police report."

"Does she have a boyfriend?"

"No, she is unattached."

"Does she live alone?"

"Yes, she has a downtown apartment. She lives above a gift shop."

"Surely the daughter of a successful lawyer could do better?" I asked.

"You don't know the downtown apartments. Those things are yuppieville. You know the type, big windows overlooking Main Street, the whole yuppie thing. It's like living in the middle of a crowd. Those places are very desirable and of course expensive.

"Okay so she isn't living in a downtown place like mine."

"You live in one of those?" Janet looked interested something she had done often since we first met.

"Yes I rent a run down building with a crummy old apartment over it."

"Well in this town that would be a showplace by the end of the month. There is big money in tourists here. We are one of those quaint little historic places. Lots of Yankee's move here for the weather and they have lots of friends who visit."

I nodded then said, "Back to Jill. So she lives alone in a nice neighborhood. So where and why did she get singled out?"

"She's reasonably attractive," Janet suggested.

"I couldn't tell she was a mess when I saw her."

"I've seen her before, everyone has I expect. She's attractive enough alright, not especially gorgeous but well taken care of." She saw the curious look I gave her. "You know good hair, good skin, teeth that had braces and caps, that kind of taken care of."

"So where was our yuppie princess when she got herself grabbed up?"

"According to her statement, she was in the parking lot behind her apartment building."

"Coming or going?"

"Why is that important?"

"I don't have any idea that it is, but you never know."

"She says she was on her way to her mom's house for Friday night dinner."

"So what time did she get netted?"

"Nine, according to this," Janet said.

"What time did you get the call from my place?"

"Shortly after ten," She said. I saw the light go on in her head. "That isn't much time is it?"

"No, it could work but it doesn't seem just right. I'm sure the cops know it to."

"So she gets abducted at nine, raped and beaten, then driven to the park where she escapes, all in just over an hour." Janet looked as skeptical as the rest of us likely were.

"Write this on a new page. Have the cops placed her in her apartment for sure just before nine? Did she get the time wrong or did it all happen that quickly. Why the park release? What is Jill's social life like?"

"Did she know the guy or give the cops a description of him?"

"She said that he must have been a tourist in town for the festival." Janet again looked skeptical. "Doesn't seem like the kind of thing that a serial rapist would do.

"Actually there is some logic to it. There would be lots of strangers around, and each festival is in a different jurisdiction. We can't disregard the possibility. It is very logical. Write on our list of things we need to know. Have there been other festival rapes?"

I gave it a little thought then asked, "Do you know any cops who will tell you if they have had the NCIC data base check results."

Janet smiled sweetly, then removed her cell phone from its tiny holster. She made a call while I got the waitress's attention in order to motion for more coffee.

"No other similar rapes in the south. There might have been one or two several years apart and in different parts of the country."

"It's still a possibility and something that is going to hard to nail down." I suggested. "Back to what we know, somebody beat hell out of her for some reason. If she was resisting the rape, then it fits except he beat her more than just into submission. The beating was either part of the whole fantasy thing or she was beaten for a different reason."

I gave it some more thought, then said, "We need the results of her medical exam from that night."

Janet at least was a quick study. She had the cell phone out almost before I finished the sentence. Whoever she called agreed to make her a copy but insisted that she pick it up personally. Someone had reamed their ass for faxing the police report. Yes they faxed reports all the time, but not that particular report. That, in and of itself, was interesting. Of course faxing any report might have been a bad idea but still it hadn't gone to a newspaper. It went to a more or less law enforcement agency. Those people are supposed to share information all the time, at least that's what they claimed to do.

I convinced Janet to stop by home and change her clothes. I had a feeling a park ranger suit wouldn't impress any really bad guys we met. No sense drawing unwanted attention to ourselves. I wanted that medical report before we started going over the details in Jill's statement. If there were any inconsistencies, I wanted them to be reconciled in my mental picture of the event.

I was sitting in Janet's small but tastefully decorated living room when I heard her call to me from what was presumably her bedroom. "Should I carry the weapon?" It was an excellent question.

"Not unless you can find a comfortable place to put it on your body." A pistol in a handbag is pretty useless. Not to mention something you have to constantly lug around with you. Most people these days don't carry a purse while hanging out. It was better to back off and call a real cop anyway.