April 12, 2014 | Day 2
"Obviously crime
pays, or there'd be no crime." ~ G. Gordon Liddy
3
SATURDAY | MIDNIGHT
Sheriff
Barnes rang the Gibson’s doorbell and James was at the door in a matter of
seconds. Despite the time, the sheriff was in his typical full on-duty uniform
as was Deputy White who stood directly behind him. In his early forties,
Sheriff Barnes stood six-foot-four and filled the doorway. The look on his face
told James that he was ready for anything. He took off his issued brown ball
cap and stroked his thick brown mustache a couple of times while glancing
beyond James into the house. It was obvious that the two men were ready for
anything as they had both unfastened the straps on their gun holsters.
“Thanks for coming, Sheriff,” James
said and offered his hand while motioning for the men to come inside. The
sheriff took it and then entered the house. James shook Deputy White’s hand, as
well. The much younger deputy tipped his hat to James and entered the house
directly behind his boss. Despite the time, his eyes were alert and his
demeanor all business.
“What have you got, James?” Sheriff
Barnes asked while putting his ball cap back on his balding head. Both men
stood at attention in the living room while James closed the door behind them.
“In the kitchen. This way,” James
said. He walked ahead of them through the living room, past the tiny study and
through the swinging door to the kitchen. Both men followed.
“Dr. Tanner is on his way, as well,”
Sheriff Barnes offered. “He just texted me and said he’s about five minutes
away.”
“Great, we’re going to really need
him,” James said over his shoulder.
Once in the kitchen, James announced
that Sheriff Barnes and Deputy White had arrived. Introductions were made since
neither the sheriff nor deputy had ever officially met James’ children.
Victoria knew both men well and had actually gone to high school with the
sheriff. She was one of the few in town that ever called him by his first name
of Matthew. The woman still sat at the kitchen table. Amy was with her now and
showing her some of her colorful rubber band bracelets that she had made for
friends. Victoria pulled both men over and filled them in on what had happened
so far leaving out none of the details. Deputy White wrote notes as Victoria
talked. Sheriff Barnes had dealt with trauma many times in his life and knew
that sometimes it was best if the police were the last to speak with the
victim. He wasn’t really sure what they were dealing with yet and had not ruled
out drugs or alcohol abuse. With the situation under control at the moment, he
opted to wait for the doctor before speaking with the young woman.
“Deputy White and I are going to
take a look out back if you don’t mind. In fact, let’s keep everyone in the
house until we give you guys the all clear,” Sheriff Barnes said in a hushed
tone. “Dr. Tanner should be here any minute. We’ve also got Deputy Gill out
patrolling your area as well as putting alerts out in other towns in the
vicinity. It’s the best we can do since we don’t have much to go on at this
point. If your girl here starts talking, let us know so we can see if we can
try to get a description out of her and put out a BOLO on the boyfriend.”
“What’s a BOLO?” Tommy asked. He had
come up quietly and was standing next to his mom.
Deputy White leaned down and spoke
gently to him. “It’s a fancy way to say be on the lookout for someone.”
Tommy smiled and nodded his
understanding.
The doorbell sounded again. Victoria
nodded her agreement to Sheriff Barnes’ not wanting them to leave the house.
She watched as he and Deputy White went out the back kitchen door.
“I bet that’s Dr. Tanner,” James
said as he left the kitchen and headed for the front door.
Victoria whispered in Amy’s ear to
go on to bed and help get Tommy settled, as well. Amy gathered up her colorful
rubber band bracelets and did as she was told with Tommy right behind her. She
started to leave the kitchen, turned back around and ran to their strange
visitor. She hugged her and the woman hugged her back. Victoria smiled as her
heart was warmed by the simple interaction and the sweetness of her daughter’s
heart.
James returned to the kitchen with a
short balding man wearing wire-rimmed glasses, khaki pants and a blue
button-down dress shirt while carrying a black backpack. Dr. Tanner was a fit
man in his early fifties who ran three to five miles a day and was careful
about what he ate. As the small town doctor for many years, he had seen his
fair share of cases and was always ready to openly adapt to any situation. It
helped that his wife was just as flexible and even helped pack his bag. Dr.
Tanner slowly came onto the scene, surveyed the situation with his own trained
eyes and set his backpack upon an open space on the counter top. Following him
was a woman in her late thirties with short black hair wearing jeans and a pink
blouse. She stayed close to Dr. Tanner. Victoria filled them in on the
situation while James gave their guest more coffee and offered her a banana,
which again she sniffed and studied closely before partaking.
“Victoria, thanks for all you’ve
done so far,” Dr. Tanner said softly with a genuine smile. “I realize this is
difficult for everyone and we’re not sure what we have yet. If she is as
attached to you as you’ve indicated, then I’m going to need you to stay by her
where she feels safe. She’s obviously been traumatized by some event. It could
take some time and patience to learn what happened to this young lady. After
that, we will need to transport her to the county hospital for the night so we
can help her recover. I’ve already called ahead. Oh, this is Janice Parker.”
“No problem, Dr. Tanner. Nice to
meet you, Janice,” Victoria said and took the woman’s hand in hers.
“Nice to meet you, as well,” Janice
said with a smile.
“Janice is one of the nurses we use
periodically and has some psychiatric background,” Dr. Tanner explained. “I
brought her along just as a second opinion and to help communicate. Just follow
our lead and I’ll help us all through this.”
The three of them approached the
table. Dr. Tanner motioned for Janice to stay back a little from the woman. He
motioned for Victoria to go ahead. James stepped back and stood by the coffee
pot.
“Why don’t you introduce us and we
will all sit together,” Dr. Tanner suggested. “It will all be on her terms. Has
she given you her name?”
“Not yet,” James whispered. “We’ve
been kind of calling her Priceless since she has a tattoo of the word on her
back shoulder.”
“Priceless it is, then,” Dr. Tanner
said.
Victoria sat down at the table. She
gently took Priceless’ hand in hers and smiled warmly. “Sweetie, I have a
couple of friends that I would like you to meet. These friends are very nice
people and they are here to help you. One of them is a doctor and the other one
is a nurse. Can they sit with us?”
Priceless looked from Victoria to
Dr. Tanner and then Janice. Even though they had been in the kitchen for a
while, Priceless looked at them as if she had not noticed them there before.
She looked back at Victoria and nodded her head.
Dr. Tanner sat on the right of
Priceless and Janice sat across from her. They put their hands on the table
where Priceless could see them and moved in deliberate slow movements.
Priceless seemed indifferent to them being there and sipped at her coffee. She
kept a tight grip on Victoria with her other hand. James brought coffee for Dr.
Tanner and Janice. They both smiled their appreciation.
“This is Dr. Tanner, Priceless,”
Victoria said with a smile. “And this is his friend, Janice.”
“Hello, Priceless,” Dr. Tanner said.
“Are you able to tell us how you got here?”
Priceless sat and thought for a
moment. She looked up at the ceiling and then at her coffee mug. She looked
back at the doctor and shook her head.
“Priceless, that’s okay. We are
going to try a little game. Do you like games?” Dr. Tanner asked.
Priceless nodded her head and a
little smile spread across her lips. It was as if she had reverted into a
little girl.
“Good, good,” Dr. Tanner said with a
smile. “Okay, Janice is going to give you some note cards and a pen. We want
you to try and draw what you remember. Anything at all. Whatever comes to you.”
Janice produced some large index
cards from under the table along with a black ink pen. “This is not a test,
Priceless. Just draw what you can remember about tonight or anything in your
past.”
Priceless stared at the index cards
in front of her. She looked up at Victoria with widened eyes that showed
uncertainty and fear. Victoria leaned in closer to her and held the frightened
woman’s hand tighter.
“Priceless, you can do this,” she
said, soothingly. “You are safe now. Nobody can hurt you here. We all want to
help you. Please tell us what happened.”
Priceless let go of Victoria’s hand.
She sat up straight in the chair and set her coffee mug down. She picked up the
pen and took one of the index cards. She started to write. Four words appeared
on the card in block handwriting but very legible. Dr. Tanner slowly read them
out loud.
“Boyfriend…Insane…Out…There.”
Priceless put the pen down and closed
her eyes. Tears streamed down her cheeks and her lip trembled. Victoria stood
up, moved closer to Priceless and held her. Dr. Tanner leaned in closer to
Priceless.
“Priceless, as a licensed doctor of
the state of Texas, I have been trained to practice medicine. Do you understand
that?”
With her eyes still closed and her
face half buried in Victoria’s robe, Priceless nodded her head. For a moment,
Dr. Tanner felt as though he were looking at a frightened and fragile little
girl.
“Okay, so knowing that and knowing
that you have been through something horrible, something that nobody should
ever have to go through, I have to check you to make sure you are not hurt
anywhere else on your body. Nurse Janice is going to help me and I promise it
will only take a short time. Do you think you can do that?”
Priceless opened her eyes and
nodded. Then she pointed to Victoria and held her closer. Victoria soothed her
and helped the young woman to her feet, the large men’s robe hanging from her
body. Dr. Tanner turned and grabbed his backpack, in which he had packed most
of his essential supplies including a rape kit with DNA collection items. If
necessary, he could use this kit and quickly send the samples to a forensics
laboratory.
“We can use my master bedroom,” Victoria
offered. “We’ll have privacy and access to a bathroom if we need it.”
They all followed Victoria down the
dimly lit hallway to her bedroom which sat toward the back of the tiny house.
The kids’ bedroom doors were closed as they walked by. Victoria prayed that
they were sound asleep by now and wished that she were under her covers as
well. Priceless never let go of Victoria’s hand as they walked and seemed to
sense when Victoria was going to stop. Dr. Tanner watched Priceless walk,
looking for any limp or change in gait. She displayed none, which surprised him
a bit due to her trek across the Gibson’s raw land of cactus and brush in bare
feet. The mystery continued to thicken and more questions left unanswered.
The small group stopped at the
darkened doorway to the master bedroom and Victoria flipped on the light switch
illuminating the room. The poster bed sat in the middle of the room with the
floral printed bedspread and powder blue sheets still ruffled from when they
jumped up earlier. Victoria started to clean up a little when she noticed
James’ socks and a pair of shorts on the floor. Priceless would not let go of
her hand, though, so she just left them.
Dr. Tanner set his backpack down on
Victoria’s antique dresser. Janice took over and started emptying the sterile
contents. She laid them out so that Dr. Tanner could easily get to them when
needed. Victoria stood with Priceless and unconsciously rubbed her back and
continued to soothe her. Priceless seemed very calm and just watched Dr.
Tanner.
“Priceless, I’m going to give you a
gown to put on,” Janice said with a gentle and trusting smile. “You can put it
on in place of the robe. Once you do that, we will get started.”
“We are going to need to ask you
some tough questions, examine you entirely and take a few samples,” Dr. Tanner
said in a serious tone. He wanted to make sure Priceless understood that she
was giving consent. “Do you agree for us to do that with Victoria and Janice as
your witnesses?”
Priceless glanced at Victoria who
nodded her approval. She let the robe fall to the ground, closed her eyes and
nodded her agreement.
