Dark Horse

40

What kind of shape is she in?" Landry asked as he walked into the Palms West Hospital ER. The deputy who had brought Erin Seabright in hustled alongside him.

"Someone beat the hell out of her, but she's conscious and talking."

"Sexual assault?"

"The doc's doing the rape kit now."

"And where did you find her?"

"Me and Reeger were in the Publix lot down the street. She came running out of nowhere." He motioned Landry toward an exam room.

"Did she say how she got there?"

"No. She was pretty hysterical, crying and all."

"Did you see anyone in the vicinity? Any vehicles?"

"No. We've got a couple of cars cruising the area now, looking for anything unusual."

Landry rapped on the door and showed his badge to the nurse who stuck her head out.

"We're almost done," she said.

"How's it look? Anything?"

"Inconclusive, I'd say."

He nodded and stepped away from the room, pulling his phone out of his pocket. Dugan himself had gone to notify the Seabrights. Weiss had yet to show up.

He punched Elena's number into the phone and listened to it ring on the other end. He tried not to picture her in bed. The taste of her mouth still lingered in his memory.

"Hello?" She sounded more wary than weary.

"Estes? Landry. Are you awake?"

"Yes." Still wary.

"Erin Seabright is in the Palms West ER. The kidnappers let her go or she escaped. I don't know which yet."

"Oh, my God. Have you seen her? Have you spoken with her?"

"No. They're doing the rape kit now."

"Thank God she's alive. Has the family been notified?"

"Lieutenant Dugan is with them. I expect they'll be here soon. Look," he said as he spotted Weiss looking lost at the reception desk. "I've gotta go."

"Okay. Landry?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for the heads-up."

"Yeah, well, it was your case first," he said. He ended the call and clipped the phone on his belt, his eyes on Weiss.

"Was that Dugan?" Weiss asked.

"He's with the family."

"You talk to the girl yet?"

Before Landry could answer, the doctor came out of the exam room, looking. Landry showed her his badge.

"Detectives Landry and Weiss," he said. "How's she doing?"

"She's quite shaken, as you might imagine," she said. She was a small Pakistani woman with glasses that magnified her eyes about three times. "She has a great many minor cuts, abrasions, and contusions, though no evidence of broken bones. It looks to me as if she has been struck with something like a wire or a whip of some kind."

"Signs of rape?"

"Some vaginal bruising. Marks on her thighs. No semen."

Like Jill Morone, Landry thought. They would have to hope for some other source of DNA from the attacker, maybe a pubic hair.

"Has she said anything?"

"That she was beaten. That she was frightened. She keeps saying she can't believe he could do such a thing."

"Did she give a name?" Weiss asked.

The doctor shook her head.

"Can we talk to her?"

"She is mildly sedated, but she should be able to answer your questions."

"Thank you, Doctor."

Erin Seabright looked like an escapee from the set of a horror movie. Her hair was a tangled blond mass around her head. Her face was bruised, her lip split. She looked at them with wide, haunted eyes as Landry and Weiss entered the room.

Landry recognized the expression. He'd done a couple of years working Sex Crimes. He had discovered quickly he didn't have the temperament for it. He couldn't keep a lid on his anger dealing with suspects.

"Erin? I'm Detective Landry. This is Detective Weiss," Landry said quietly, pulling up a stool beside the bed. "You're a sight for sore eyes. A lot of people have been working hard to find you."

"Why didn't he just pay them?" she asked, bewildered. She held a plastic bottle of water in her hands, and kept turning it around and around, trying to find some comfort in the repetitive motion. "That was all he had to do. They kept calling and calling him, and they sent him those tapes. Why couldn't he just do what they said?"

"Your stepdad?"

Tears spilled down her cheeks. "He hates me so much!"

"Erin? We need to ask you some questions about what happened to you," Landry said. "Do you think you can do that now? We want to be able to get the people who did this to you. The sooner you tell us about it, the sooner we can do that. Do you understand?"

She didn't answer. She didn't make eye contact. That wasn't unusual. Landry knew she didn't want to be a victim. She didn't want any of this to be real. She didn't want to have to answer questions that would require her to relive what had happened. She felt angry and embarrassed and ashamed. And it was Landry's job to drag it all out of her anyway.

"Can you tell us who did this to you, Erin?" he asked.

She stared straight ahead, her lip quivering. The door to the examination room opened and she started to cry harder.

"He did," she said, glaring at Bruce Seabright. "You did this to me! You son of a bitch!"

She sat up in the bed and flung the bottle at him, water spraying everywhere as Bruce Seabright brought his arms up to deflect the object from his head.

Krystal screamed and rushed toward the bed. "Erin! Oh, God! Baby!"

Landry stood up as the woman tried to fling herself on the bed. Erin pulled herself into a ball at the head of the bed, cringing away from her mother, looking at her with hurt and anger and something like disgust.

"Get away from me!" she shouted. "All you've ever done is side with him. You never cared about me!"

"Baby, that's not true!" Krystal cried.

"It is true! Why didn't you make him help me? Did you even do anything?"

Krystal was sobbing, reaching out to her daughter, but not touching her, as if one or both of them were contained inside a force field. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"Get out!" Erin screamed. "Get out of here! Both of you!"

A hospital security guard came in from the hall. Landry took hold of Krystal by the arms and moved her toward the door.

Weiss rolled his eyes and muttered, "Nothing like a family reunion."